24 Mar 2012

IO N IPT SC R SU B

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

JUMADI ALAWAAL 1, 1433 AH

No: 15397

Kuwait National & Liberation Days

150 Fils

Police break up ‘stateless’ demo

Max 27º Min 13º

Bedoons demand citizenship, social rights in the

news

‘Hijab’ policewomen cause stir in Lebanon BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities are weighing up what action to take after a group of newly recruited policewomen showed up for training wearing the hijab, a security official said yesterday. The policewomen, numbering nearly 40 and all reportedly Shiite Muslims, were among hundreds who sat for an exam to join the Internal Security Forces earlier this year. But when they turned up for their first training exercise this week, they wore the hijab, an Islamic headscarf, which goes against the military’s code of conduct, the security official said. A government official said several of the policewomen had agreed to remove the garment, but about 20 refused and did not take part in the training session.

Saudi eases shopping ban RIYADH: Single men in Riyadh will be able to visit shopping malls during peak hours after a Saudi prince eased restrictions aimed at stopping harassment of women, media reports said yesterday. Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz, Riyadh’s governor, has decided “not to prevent any single men from visiting malls” in the capital on evenings and weekends, when malls are most crowded, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported. The decision was made by a committee made up of local officials and representatives from the feared religious police, said the daily. Shopping malls are a favorite leisure destination for young men and women in the ultra-conservative kingdom, where cinemas and theatres are banned. Previously, single men were only allowed into shopping centers at lunch time on weekdays, a move the authorities said was intended to prevent women being harassed during peak hours.

Headaches tied to suicide NEW YORK: People with severe headaches, whether migraines or not, may be more likely to attempt suicide, according to a US study of more than a thousand people.

A number of studies over the years have found that people with migraines tend to have a higher suicide rate than those without, but it has not been clear if this is related specifically to the “biology of migraines,” said Naomi Breslau of Michigan State University at East Lansing, who led the study. “We haven’t known if it was the migraines or the pain more generally,” Breslau told Reuters Health, though her findings, published in the journal Headache, don’t prove that headaches caused the suicide attempts.

The study followed nearly 1,200 Detroit, Michigan-area adults. About 500 of them were migraine sufferers, while 151 had severe headaches that were not migraines.

KUWAIT: Photo shows some bedoon protesters in Taima yesterday. (Inset) A stateless resident is arrested by Kuwait special task forces. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat KUWAIT: Special task forces dispersed a peaceful demonstration staged by bedoons (Stateless people) yesterday in Taima. Some protesters were briefly detained, a news report stated. Dozens of stateless residents gathered at Taima’s main square following the weekly Friday prayers. Protesters were asked to leave despite several attempts made by a team from the Kuwait Human Rights Society (KHRS) to allow demonstrations to take place for a set period.

The Ministry of Interior’s Assistant Undersecretary for Security Affairs Major General Mahmoud Al-Dousary, Major General Ibrahim Al-Tarrah, General Director of Jahra Security Department led police’s side of negotiations. According to a report published by Al-Aan news

website, special task forces went in pursuit of protesters after they were asked to disperse when demonstrators refused to cooperate. Some bedoon residents were arrested but were eventually released without facing charges.

Yesterday’s demonstration comes after weeks of stability which followed demonstrations held on a weekly basis late last year. These events saw dozens of bedoons being arrested and made to appear before the court for demonstrating illegally. Stateless residents who live in Taima and the nearby Sulaibiya districts of Al-Jahra, demand citizenship as well as civil and social rights they have been deprived of, given their illegal residence status. The government argues that a part of them are Arabs who delib-

erately disposed of their original passports after coming to Kuwait to seek citizenship in the oil-rich country.

The government established a central agency for illegal residents a couple of years ago with the goal of sorting out stateless residents’ issues and naturalizing those who meet the conditions, including residents whose forefathers failed to register for citizenship. Last year, the agency adopted measures to grant bedoons several rights including obtaining marriage, birth and death certificates. The agency was given a fiveyear ultimatum to resolve the decadelong issue. The word ‘bedoon’ is Arabic means ‘without,’ and is used to refer to the fact that stateless residents live without nationality. — Agencies

LOCAL

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Police break up bedoon protests

KUWAIT: Stateless residents gather at Taima’s main square following the weekly Friday prayers yesterday. Police, who were deployed since the morning, refused to allow the demonstration to take place.

— Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

CSC to accept applications from bedoons KUWAIT: The Civil Services Commission(CSC) has begun accepting applications from bedoons to fill job vacancies in the event of non-availability of qualified citizens, announced Ahmed Khlaifa Al-Abdul Jaleel, Assistant Undersecretary for Data Systems at the Civil Services Commission (CSC). They should hold documents from the 1965 census, diplomas, Bachelor’s or PhD degree and have a clean criminal record.

He added that CSC will accept applications on Monday, urging interested bedoons to check with the Illegal Residents’ Central Apparatus in order to ensure that their information has been saved in the database.

Furthermore, Al-Abdul Jaleel said that interested applicants could visit www.csc.net.kw to check the vacancies list published as per ministry and government regulations. — Al-Watan

Iraqi fishing boat stopped

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for Border Security Maj General Sheikh Mohammad AlSabah recently patrolled the coastal areas and islands and halted an Iraqi fishing boat that trawled in Kuwaiti territorial waters. There were seven sailors on board, all of whom were referred to the Marine Security Department for further action.

Illegal relationship Jahra police arrested a citizen and an Asian woman who were caught in a compromising position in the citizen’s car.

LOCAL SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Ministry bans youth forum event, faces flak KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior(MoI) was heavily criticized on Thursday over its decision to ban a youth forum, based on some Islamist MPs’ recommendations. The event was to take place at the Safir Hotel in Al-Fintas last night, before the ban was issued. The Kuwait Graduates Society announced that they would host the event at their premises in Bnaid Al-Gar. Liberal MP Mohammad Al-Saqr termed the Ministry of Interior’s ban a clear violation of freedom of expression and opinion in Kuwait, adding that the decision “paves the way for a new reality in which ideological freedoms will be placed under security control.”

According to sources, the ban was made to ‘prevent a clash’ with Islamist lawmakers who were heavily criticized

MANILA: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is being greeted by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III (right) upon his arrival yesterday at the Malacanang palace in Manila, Philippines. HH the Amir is on a four-day state visit in the country. —AP

Cabinet ‘escapes’ pay revision quandary Oil must hit $109.5 to meet state expenditure: Official KUWAIT: Oil prices should touch $109.5 per barrel so that Kuwait can pay public sector salaries during the 2012-2013 fiscal year as per current expenditure rates, remarked a senior cabinet official during a parliament session held on Thursday.

News reports suggested that the Cabinet managed to ‘escape’ Thursday’s session without revising salary scales further, other than the 25 percent general pay rise approved for the public sector last week. Yet, the Cabinet is obligated, through a draft bill, to commit to promises they made to Customs and Kuwait Airways employees. The same bill also includes a stipulation to form a joint committee between the parliament’s financial and legislative panels to study recommendations received about salary increases.

The session opened with a statement from Nayef Al-Hajraf Minister of Education and Acting Minister of Finance who called for efforts to be made to avoid taking ‘huge risks’ with the state’s economy caused by rising expenditure. “The rapid growth in salaries, the huge increase in current expenditure compared to investments made, as well as the lack of diversified source of income highlight the flaws present in the 2012-2013 state budget,” Al-Hajraf explained, adding that Kuwait will have to produce three million barrels of oil a

day, at the rate of $213.5 per barrel oil price so to be able to keep up with spending growth by 2029-2030.

Tensions began earlier when minister Al-Hajraf used the term ‘chaos’ to describe the strike organized by labor unions in the Customs General Department and Kuwait Airways Corporation.

“What is chaotic is the government’s actions when ministers fail to live up to promises they make to public sector employees,” said MP Dr Jamaan AlHarbash said during the session.

Customs and KAC personnel agreed to suspend their strike last Tuesday after the Cabinet insisted that negotiations will not be held under pressure. The protestors went on strike to demand financial privileges they say the government previously promised them with, but was never fulfilled. It was speculated before Thursday’s session that the labor unions agreed to suspend their strikes so that lawmakers will be given the opportunity to negotiate with the Cabinet on increasing salaries.

“The government never adopted a fair pay raise policy which created a feeling of injustice among many citizens in the public sector,” said MP Marzouq Al-Ghanim during Thursday’s session. — Al-Rai

for allowing an event to be held in Kuwait featuring personalities that are considered controversial in Saudi Arabia.

The event named ‘Al-Nahdhah (Awakening) Youth Forum’, has civil society as its main theme. “The forum shuns extremism and respects people of all ideologies”, said forum member Saad AlAjmi. Liberal political groups also commented on the subject as Khalid AlKhalid, Secretary General of the National Democratic Alliance called the ministry’s decision “a violation of law and constitutional principles to protect freedom of expression.” Meanwhile, former MP Abdullah Al-Naibari, Secretary General of Democratic Form said that the government’s procedures are “arbitrary and happened in compliance with ideologies harbored by fundamentalists.” — Al-Qabas

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LOCAL

Years

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Palestinians still face apathy 20 years on, impact of ‘supporting’ Saddam simmers

KUWAIT: Dr Mai Al-Nakib (inset), Professor of English Language at Kuwait University, delivers a lecture at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) on Wednesday night. —Photos by Joseph Shagra

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: More than 20 years after Kuwait’s Liberation, Palestinians are still reeling under the effect of their country’s apparent support for the Iraqi Invasion in 1990, says Dr Mai Al-Nakib, Professor of English Language at Kuwait University.

In a lecture delivered at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) on Wednesday night, Al-Nakib detailed the situation of the Palestinian community in Kuwait prior to and following the Gulf war, especially the decline in its population - from almost 400,000 to 45,000 now - Palestinians were expelled from Kuwait after Liberation. She said there are segments of Kuwaiti society who harbor ill-feelings towards them, despite the normalization of relationship between Kuwait and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Al-Nakib expressed hope that Kuwaiti society will finally overcome the event of 1990 and acknowledge the contribution made by Palestinians in Kuwait.

“Kuwaitis choose to ignore the past because they continue to feel threatened and under siege,” she told the audience of mostly students and academics.

While very few Palestinians conspired with invaders, Kuwait reacted negatively and indiscriminately after its liberation, she noted. “The Kuwaiti response after the invasion was disproportionate and arguably inhumane.” According to AlNakib, documents by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch

Middle East prove that widespread human rights abuses took place against Palestinians right after liberation in 1991.

“Abuse ranges from arbitrary arrest, unfair trials, torture, detention, beatings, kidnappings, murder and mass expulsion. The brutality of the initial Kuwaiti reaction subsided by June 1991. However, social, political and economic pressures faced by those remained in Kuwait made it impossible for them to reside in the country,” she noted.

“At that time, Palestinian students were banned from government schools and Kuwait University. Palestinians were also severely restricted from working in the government and private sectors. Rent, electricity and water bills during the period of occupation was levied on Palestinians, while such bills were canceled to all citizens.”

Despite these unfortunate circumstances, many Kuwaitis today still do not express regret or sorrow over the post-liberation events. “Many Kuwaitis are ignorant or are indifferent about the issue.

Worse still, they continue to hold a grudge against Palestinians,” she said.

The Kuwaiti government normalized its relationship with the Palestinian Authority in 2004. Kuwait announced that it no longer sought an apology from the PLO, and that the Palestinians were forgiven.

Also, according to Al-Nakib, Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas apologized to Kuwait and to the Kuwaiti people for the Palestinians’ and PLO’s stance at that time.

“A number of visits by Palestinian leaders and officers had already expressed their support to Palestine. In August 2008, the government of Kuwait donated a billion dollars to the World Bank to support PLO’s reform and development program. During the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2008, Kuwait’s National Assembly strongly condemned the ‘genocide’ of unarmed civilians. The Amir of Kuwait described the attack as a ‘war crime and crime against humanity’. Public sympathy was openly expressed for Gazans in Kuwait’s newspapers.

However, anti-Palestinian sentiments continues. One evidence she cited was a column published in December 2008, two days after the Israeli attack in Gaza. Fouad Al-Hashem of Al-Watan newspaper in his daily column was quoted as saying, “I ask the Palestinians one question, how would the residents of Gaza and the West Bank feel if they saw the entire Kuwait population out demonstrating and shouting with chemicals from Ramallah to Gaza or nuclear weapons from Jenin to Raffah, if they have forgotten the slogan with chemical Saddam from Kuwait to Dammam; we have not,” [During the invasion Palestinians went on to march in support of Iraq especially after Saddam Hussein proclaimed on the national television that the invasion was part of his plan to launch a war against Israel to free Palestine. The fact that some Palestinians suggested that chemical weapons be used from Kuwait to Damman deeply offended

Kuwait]. “Al-Hashem’s reaction constitutes an extreme, the general lack of objection to his anti-Palestinian event suggests that most either agree with him or simply do not care. Readers of his comment suggest that only a few support him,” she said.

Palestinians’ expulsion has had a negative effect on Kuwait - from economy to politics to its development. Palestinians spent most of their income in Kuwait, unlike South Asian workers employed here. She added that the expulsion of Palestinians did nothing to reduce Kuwait’s demographic imbalance. “If Kuwait considered naturalizing most of these productive and loyal population which built this country from the scratch, it might not have been a problem demographically.”

The decision to naturalize bedoons, mostly from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries over Palestinians was taken because they were believed to be more loyal to the government. Between 1965 to 1981, about 220,000 people were naturalized, according to Al-Nakib. “Most of them were bedoons, the rate of naturalization continued until the invasion in 1990, but reduced after 1991,” she said.

She also expressed dismay over what she believes is a lack of awareness among new generations on the contributions made by Palestinians to Kuwait.

“Just before the invasion, Palestinians in Kuwait had been playing a special role in almost all areas of Kuwait’s development.”

LOCAL

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Qatari hit and run accused remanded in custody KUWAIT: In a follow-up report on the case in which a Qatari national has been accused of deliberately running over a citizen during the national day celebrations, sources said that Mina Abdullah police have confirmed the charges. The Public Prosecution Department continues to hear testimonies from eyewitnesses. Notably, the Qatari suspect has been remanded in custody pending investigations.

Girl escapes rape attempt A Kuwaiti girl escaped rape attempt. Two suspects kidnapped her in Rumaithiya and made their way to the desert in order to rape her there, said security sources.

Sources explained that the girl managed to hide her mobile phone and use it to inform police without being noticed by her kidnappers. The girl informed police on important landmarks that the vehicle had passed

by , eventually leading them to trace them, arrest the kidnappers and free the victim.

Explosives found The head of the Sabah Al-Salem University construction site, Mohammed Boodai reported that his workers found a few tank shells, ammunitions and weapons while excavating at the site. Security sources said that a special bomb squad was

deployed to defuse the explosives.

Juvenile delinquents held Sulaibikhat police recently arrested two Kuwaiti juvenile delinquents for stealing vehicles that were parked outside grocery stores with their engines running, said security sources.

Initial investigations revealed that the two young criminals used to drive away with the vehicles to Shuwaikh industrial area.

Egyptian teenager dies in street fight Runaway housemaids in sex racket

KUWAIT: An Egyptian youngster was killed on Thursday while fighting with a Kuwaiti teenager in front of a Hawally building. The 19year-old accused was reportedly defending his family that occupied the second floor of the building, after the victim allegedly offended them with an obscene gesture. The two engaged in a vicious fight, minutes after his family sought help. During the fight, the killer picked up a glass bottle from the street and smashed it on the victim’s head. The victim fell to the ground, bleeding heavily from a head injury. He was pronounced dead on the scene by paramedics who arrived shortly after the incident was reported. The 19-year-old was taken into custody to Al-Nugra police station where investigations are being held. - Al-Watan Prostitution ring busted Ahmadi police arrested two suspects who ran a prostitution network in Kuwait involving runaway housemaids. Efforts have been ongoing to arrest suspects ever since police were tipped off about incidents where housemaids were coaxed into leaving their work places and engage in prostitution with a guaranteed higher pay. Investigators identified two Pakistani men as prime suspects and arrested them in Jaber Al-Ali. During investigations, the duo admitted to sending runaway maids to brothels after persuading them to leave their sponsors. The two remain in custody pending further investigations. - Al-Rai Rapists at large A search is ongoing for three male suspects who have been accused of kidnapping and rap-

ing a Kuwaiti woman in a camp at Al-Ahmadi desert. In statements made to Al-Ahmadi police, the victim said that a Bedoon (stateless) man she is romantically involved with fooled her into taking an outing with him, only to lead her to a camp where other assailants were waiting. She added that she was repeatedly raped by the three suspects before they left her at the camp and escaped. A case was filed at Al-Ahmadi police station. - Al-Rai Stabbed drunk man A drunk citizen was hospitalized on Thursday after paramedics found him bleeding profusely in Al-Surra from a stab wound.

Police too arrived at the location after receiving a report about a bleeding man.

Paramedics realized that the victim was drunk as they put him in an ambulance which admitted him to Al-Amiri Hospital. A case was filed at the area’s police station for investigations. - Al-Rai Shooting Security officers reached a location near the King Fahad Highway near Al-Riqqa on Thursday in response to a report about heavy shooting that took place in the area. Upon arriving, Ahmadi police saw a teenager with possession of a hunting rifle he used to illegally hunt down birds. The suspect was arrested outside his home in Al-Riqqa. He fled from the scene upon sighting police who asked him to hand over his weapon. Police identified the suspect as a 17-year-old citizen.

He was eventually caught and whisked away to the nearest police station. — Al-Qabas.

KUWAIT: Director Major General Hameed Al-Sammak presided over a training course on how to handle and deal with juveniles at the interior ministry’s training directorate. 19 participants from various MOI departments participated in the course.

MEW celebrates World Water Day

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Kuwait’s annual per capita share of natural resources like water stands at 70 cubic meters, said , Dr Meshan Al-Otaibi Assistant Undersecretary of Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) for Planning and Training.

Speaking during a special ceremony held by MEW in collaboration with the Scientific Center on the occasion of World Water Day, Al-Otaibi stressed that fresh water production in Kuwait tripled over the past 20 years to reach a daily production of 498 million imperial gallons.

“Within four years, Al-Zour northern water plant will join service, adding an

extra 102 million imperial gallons, in addition to 30 million gallons produced at AlZour southern plant,” explained Al-Otaibi, noting that new plants adapt to the reverse osmosis system in fresh water production.

He also noted that MEW was mainly concerned with water quality to make sure that it matches with international standards and specifications by collecting water samples regularly. “Water desalination is becoming a burden and is costing over KD one billion a year in operational costs,” he said, urging everybody to conserve water consumption rates. “To help do this, MEW distributed one million watersaving pipe fittings to consumers,” he added.

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD) yesterday conducted a mock drill on firefighting at Al-Danah Kindergarten in Sabah Al-Salem. Practical sessions covered fire tackling, rescuing victims and conducting evacuation operations upon hearing a fire alarm.

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Mali rebels advance as mutineers seek president

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New president vows to steel Germany against extremism

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French govt under fire after Toulouse killings

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AMMAN: Syrian women chant anti-Bashar Assad slogans at a protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman, Jordan, yesterday. The sign reads in Arabic, “who is left from the people of Homs calling for who still have conscience.” In his first public appearance since fleeing to Jordan two months ago, blind Syrian cleric Ahmad al-Sayasneh preached 1,000 Syrian anti-Assad protesters yesterday to “remain steadfast until our tyrant leadership is ousted.” — AP

EU rains sanctions on Assad’s family Mortars plough into Homs; 32 killed BEIRUT: The European Union slapped sanctions on President Bashar Al-Assad’s powerful mother and wife yesterday, targeting his inner circle in an effort to force Syria to end its repression of a year-long uprising. The EU’s latest round of sanctions hit 10 other prominent personalities, including Assad’s sister and sister-in-law, banning them from visiting the 27-nation bloc, freezing their assets and stopping them from shopping with European firms.

“With this new listing we are striking at the heart of the Assad clan, sending out a loud and clear message to Mr Assad: he should step down,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal after fellow ministers backed the move at a meeting in Brussels. The decision came on a day of renewed violence across Syria, with the army raining mortar rounds into the rebellious city of Homs, killing up to 11 civilians, opposition supporters said.

Live television feeds from around Syria showed a slew of anti-Assad rallies, including in the Damascus district of Barzeh, in the northwestern city of Hama, in Qamishli in the Kurdish east, and in the southern province of Deraa.

“Damascus here we come,” read several placards held up by the relatively small crowds. Activists said eight people were wounded after demonstrations near five Damascus mosques were broken up by security forces.

On the diplomatic front, the UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who is leading international efforts to stop the relentless mayhem, planned to travel to Moscow and Beijing this weekend for talks on the crisis, his spokesman said. Russia and China have resisted Western and Arab demands that Assad stand down and have vetoed two UN resolutions highly critical of Damascus.

However, they supported a Security Council statement this week backing Annan’s peace initiative, in a move seen as a sign they were toughening their stance on Syria. Nevertheless, both Russia and China voted against a call by the UN Human Rights Council yesterday to extend a probe into abuses by Syrian forces, arguing it was too one-sided. The motion passed regardless, with 41 of the forum’s 47 members voting in favor of the text, which said the perpetrators of the brutality had to be

bought to justice. More than 8,000 people have died in the rebellion, according to UN figures, but Western powers have ruled out military intervention in such a sensitive part of the world, putting the emphasis instead on economic sanctions and diplomacy. The new EU sanctions build on 12 previous rounds of sanctions aimed at isolating Assad, including an arms embargo and a ban on importing Syrian oil to the European Union. At first sight they appear largely symbolic, but show the West is ready to broaden its net in its effort to isolate Assad.

A former investment banker, Assad’s wife Asma cultivated the image of a glamorous yet serious-minded woman with Western values who was meant to humanize the isolated Assad family. But that image has crumbled over the past year, and she has stood resolutely by her husband’s side, describing herself as “the real dictator” in an email published by Britain’s Guardian newspaper last week. Assad’s mother, Anisa Makhlouf, has a lower profile than the Asma but opposition figures say she wields greater influence within the dynasty which has ruled Syria for four decades. Asma’s ancestral

home is Homs, now a symbol of the revolt which has been subjected to particularly fierce army attack. Video from the city yesterday showed plumes of smoke rising from residential areas after being hit by apparent mortar fire. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain and has a network of contacts in Syria, said the army clashed with defectors in the north-eastern town of Azaz, on the border with Turkey.

Three soldiers and one defector were killed as the army fired heavy machineguns and mortar rounds, it said. It said three had died in clashes in Deraa, close to Jordan. Other activists working for the Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported 32 deaths yesterday around the country. They also said rebels had captured 17 members of the security forces in the northwestern Idlib province. It is impossible to verify reports from Syria because authorities have denied access to independent journalists.

Syria has said 3,000 members of the security forces have died in the uprising, which Damascus blames on terrorist gangs and foreign interference. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Summit lockdown frustrates Baghdad residents BAGHDAD: Hosting an Arab summit may be Iraq’s way of opening up after years of conflict, but Baghdad’s residents have been left smarting as swathes of the city have been largely shut down for it to do so. The Iraqi capital’s already gnarling traffic has all but ground to a halt, and the government has declared a week of holidays on the days surrounding the March 27-29 summit to encourage people to stay at home.

Prices at markets, where people have flocked to buy supplies to avoid having to venture too far from home, have shot up as shortterm demand has soared and the time required to bring in new goods has lengthened because of tighter checkpoint searches and longer traffic queues.

“Prices have doubled because of the transport crisis,” said Mehdi Jassim, who was shopping at a greengrocer’s shop in Baghdad’s central commercial district of Karrada. Blaming authorities for going ahead with plans to host the summit, the first Arab League meeting to be held in Iraq since now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Jassim continued: “Politicians are just looking after their own interests, not the people’s.”

Muhanad Ali, 30, chimed in, complaining the price of his regular food purchases had as much as

tripled. “The expenses for this summit would have been better spent on improving public services,” the labourer said, alluding to Baghdad’s frequent power cuts, patchy main

world. But insurgent groups have nevertheless been able to mount massive attacks, including a wave of shootings and bombings, claimed by Al-Qaeda, that left 50

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi family passes Iraqi security forces standing guard in central Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. The Iraqi government has tightened its security measures as al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq claimed Wednesday it was behind a wave of attacks to how weak the nation’s security is heading into next week’s Arab League summit in Baghdad. —AP water supply and poor sewerage.

Officials have trumpeted their hosting of the summit as evidence of the country’s relative stability after decades of conflict and sanctions, a sign that Iraq is ready to play a leadership role in the Arab

Crisis-hit Gaza gets 450,000 litres of fuel GAZA CITY: Some 450,000 litres of fuel were delivered to the crisis-hit Gaza Strip early yesterday through Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

An Israeli military official confirmed that the Kerem Shalom terminal had opened at 7:30am (0530 GMT), to allow 450,000 litres of fuel to be transferred into the Hamas-run territory.

“450,000 litres of fuel are being delivered to Gaza today,” said Guy Inbar, a spokesman for COGAT, the military division in charge of coordinating access to and from Gaza. And a source within Gaza’s government said that 13 tankers, “each with a capacity of 45,000 litres,” were at the border crossing.

The delivery was made just hours after Egyptian officials reached an agreement with Israel to permit the transfer of fuel to enable Gaza’s sole power plant to function. “Thanks to efforts by Egypt, in coordination with Hamas, prime minister Salam Fayyad and due to a decision by president Mahmud Abbas, an agreement was reached to resume the supply of diesel, via Israel, to Gaza’s power plant through the Kerem Shalom terminal,” a senior Egyptian official told AFP overnight.

The agreement with Israel was to involve the delivery of 900,000 litres of fuel, he said. It was not immediately clear when the second delivery would be made. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Islamist movement had been informed by Egypt about the impending delivery, and was “”pursuing efforts to find a permanent solution to this crisis.”

He did not mention Israel’s involvement.

Last week, Gaza’s energy authority said it had paid Egypt $2 million towards fuel for its crippled power station, but had yet to receive anything in return. Gaza is experiencing a major electricity crisis because of a shortage of fuel for the power plant.

The facility, which supplies nearly a third of Gaza’s electricity, stopped generating power on March 10, for the third time in four weeks, causing power cuts of up to 18 hours per day, according to the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA. “Since 10 March, the majority of the Gaza population has been experiencing power cuts of up to 18 hours per day after the Gaza power plant was forced to shut down due to a lack of fuel,” OCHA said in its weekly report. —AFP

dead nationwide on Tuesday.

Among the attacks was a car bomb that went off in a car park directly opposite the foreign ministry.

In response, security forces have closed off several key roads and

most of the bridges that traverse the Tigris River, and drafted in thousands of extra policemen and soldiers to bolster security in the capital.

As a result, the time taken for trips around the city, already famed for its gridlock, has increased substantially, with residents reporting trips to work now taking several hours, where they previously took less than one. “I spent five hours going from Dora (in the south of the city) to central Baghdad,” Abu Mohammed, a 44-year-old taxi driver, lamented. “I usually only need half an hour to travel this distance.

“My petrol tank is already practically empty,” he complained, as his car sat stationary in traffic in midmorning. Prices of fruit and vegetables at markets across the city have shot up-where bananas were previously priced at 1,000 Iraqi dinars (85 cents) per kilogramme (2.2 pounds), for example, they now sell for twice as much.

Tomatoes or aubergines now cost 2,000 dinars per kilogramme, up from 500 dinars just days ago at one vegetable store in Hurriyah, north Baghdad. “The difficulty of moving around, and the increased transport costs, have forced me to raise my prices substantially,” said the shop’s owner Abu Hassan, who sported a dishdasha, the traditional Arab robe. And daily tasks

are not the only ones that have suffered as a result of the tougher security, with Iraq’s football federation suspending league fixtures until April 3.

“These security measures make transport difficult for the teams, and they cannot reach stadiums in Baghdad,” Tariq Ahmed, acting general secretary of the Iraqi Football Association, told AFP. Road closures are likely to worsen before they improve in the coming days. Although officials insist Iraq’s forces are capable of maintaining security for the summit, they may need to effectively shut down Baghdad.

Security forces have mooted the possibility of imposing a city-wide curfew on the final day of the meeting, which was originally scheduled for a year ago but was postponed as a result of regional turmoil resulting from the Arab spring uprisings as well as concerns over Iraq’s ability to secure the summit.

Back in Karrada, 60-year-old Munir Hashim was dismissive of Iraqi leaders’ backing of plans to host the summit.

“What is the benefit to the Iraqi citizen,” the pensioner asked. “The people are looking for something that serves them,” he said, adding: “What is going to be accomplished if Arab presidents do come?” —AFP

Mali rebels advance as mutineers seek president MNLA rebels confirm taking Anefis BAMAKO: Tuareg rebels in northern Mali pushed south to occupy positions abandoned by government forces, sources said, as mutinous soldiers in the distant capital Bamako sought to complete a coup by hunting down the president.

The MNLA rebels were approaching towns in the desert north, taking advantage of the confusion created by the attempted coup in Bamako by low-ranking soldiers, a military source told Reuters.

Mutinous soldiers, angered by what they saw as the government’s poor handling of the northern rebellion, roamed the streets of the capital after over-running the presiden-

tial palace and taking control of state television. The head of a body set up by the mutineers, speaking to journalists, suggested soldiers were trying to arrest President Amadou Toumani Toure. The president’s whereabouts were unknown, though there were unconfirmed reports he was being protected by loyalist troops in the city.

Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the capital in the early hours of the morning on Friday, a Reuters reporter said.

Mali, which was flooded with men and weapons after Libya’s civil war, was already facing the Tuareg-led rebellion, a growing Islamist threat and a food crisis when the

BAMAKO: People line up to get gasoline at a petrol station yesterday in Bamako, as mutinous soldiers faced a global backlash for staging a coup over the government’s handling of the insurrection. The coup in Bamako opened the way for Tuareg rebels to deepen their hold on the north. —AFP

coup broke out after soldiers mutinied Wednesday. A Malian officer in the northern town of Kidal said rebels had occupied the military camp in Anefis, 100 km (60 miles) to the southwest, after government forces withdrew.

“The army has pulled back to Gao,” a source in Timbuktu, another main town in the north, told Reuters, asking not to be named. “There is no longer any military leadership. (The rebels) will take the towns in the north,” he said.

The MNLA said on it website that it had taken town on the Gao-Kidal highway after Malian troops abandoned their positions and withdrew to Gao. The MNLA rebels, whose numbers have been swollen by Malian Tuareg returning from the ranks of Libya’s army, have been fighting since midJanuary for an independent north. They have pushed government soldiers out of remote towns but had not yet threatened the regional capitals of Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao. Rebels pledged on Thursday to take advantage of the chaos as senior civilian and military officials in northern regions were arrested by mutinous soldiers.

Diplomats and officials said they believed Toure was being protected by a pocket of loyalist soldiers.Mutinous soldiers said they would launch an attack on the parachute regiment they believe is protecting the president, who has overseen a decade of relative stability. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Tough times in Italy, but Monti keeps on winning ROME: Mario Monti may have to battle unions and bickering political parties in his attempts to galvanize Italy through austerity measures and reforms, but he remains popular with ordinary Italians.

A poll by the Demos & Pi research institute this week found that the popularity rating for Monti-who took over from the billionaire media magnate Silvio Berlusconi in November-is a strong 62 percent.

Support for the grey-haired technical leader has remained strong in his first four months of power despite tax hikes, spending cuts, pension reforms, liberalisation packages and now a contentious plan to overhaul labour laws.

“Even if a majority of the population are against changes (to the labour law), it is not enough to substantially alter opinions on the “technocrat” government,” Italian sociologist Ilvo Diamanti from Demos & Pi said.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper said

Monti is “gaining points by showing that he is carrying out reforms demanded by European institutions.” After years of embarrassment on the international stage under gaffe-prone Berlusconi, Italians relish the softly spoken Monti’s diplomatic skills and credit him with saving the country from following Greece into financial meltdown.

According to Demos & Pi, 60 percent of Italians find the former eurocrat and his team of technical ministers better at running the country than politicians. Monti’s persistent popularity is due to the fact that “voters disappointed with Berlusconi see how the premier is addressing promises which were not kept by the magnate,” political analyst Marc Lazar told AFP. Italians were also attracted by “his learning and his truthful speeches” in which, unlike Berlusconi, he has laid bare the dire state of Italy’s finances.

Confidence in political parties, meanwhile, has dropped to a historic low of 4.0 per-

cent. According to Renato Mannheimer, a specialist in polls, “there is little desire for elections because one Italian in two does not know who to vote for.”

A string of recent scandals in the political sphere-with media reports of widespread corruption and illegal party funding-has done little to help. In Rome, the former treasurer of the centralist Margherita party is accused of having filched 25 million euros ($32 million) from the party’s coffers to fund luxury holidays in the Bahamas.

The left-wing mayor of Bari in southern Italy pleaded for forgiveness after accepting oysters and exotic hairy clams from a construction firm-so many that his wife had to stash them on ice in the bath. Italy is “seeing a breakdown in the political system following a rupture between traditional alliances on both the left and right, and internal troubles in the Democratic Party (PD) and People of Freedom party (PDL),” said Lazar.

The PDL-founded by Berlusconi-is suffering from identity issues after its leader’s fall from grace.

Within the Democratic Party meanwhile, there are growing divisions over labour reform. The party also lacks a charismatic leader for the next elections, due in 2013. Local elections in May will provide an early snapshot of the health of Italian politics. The candidate list-which boasts sport celebrities and porn starsalready implies a move away from traditional politics.

In the meantime, seven out of 10 Italians, according to Demos & Pi, want Monti to extend his reforms beyond the economy to the justice system, the electoral system and RAI public television service. Considering the widespread outcry against technocrats in government when Monti came to power, it is perhaps even more surprising that 27 percent of ordinary Italians hope the former eurocrat will run in the 2013 elections. — AFP

New president vows to steel Germany against extremism Gauck opposed by fellow East German Merkel

KAZAN: People who call themselves police abuse sufferers or the sufferers’ relatives crowd outside the headquarters of the Investigative Committee’s local department in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, as they try to lodge a complaint to investigators from Moscow. — AFP

EU slaps sanctions on Belarus targets BRUSSELS: EU governments will impose sanctions on a further 12 people, including businessmen and their companies, diplomats said yesterday, to punish President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on civil liberties.

The measures widen the target of sanctions beyond police officers, judges and government officials, around 200 of whom the EU has already banned from travelling to the EU or from accessing any assets they hold there.

The new measures will ratchet up tensions between the two that have already escalated into tit-for-tat expulsions of ambassadors and a public slanging match between Lukashenko and Germany’s foreign minister.

“I am extremely concerned about what is happening with the civil society,” said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “We have been extremely clear about the regime in Belarus that they release political prisoners. We would like to engage with them when they comply with what we have asked them to do.”

The bloc has threatened more sanctions unless Minsk starts freeing political detainees. Since Lukashenko came to power in 1994, he has broken up public protests and jailed opposition leaders. His re-election for a fourth term in December 2010 sparked mass street protests in the country of 10 million people, leading to the arrest of several opposition candidates who ran against him.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels are expected to condemn Belarus as the last European country to employ the death penalty, following the execution of two men earlier this month for the bombing of Minsk’s metro system last year. The foreign ministers also agreed to ban 29 Belarus businesses from operating in the EU, diplomats said. A round of measures against companies had been postponed in February after Slovenia blocked the inclusion on the list of one businessman, Yuri Chizh, who has commercial interests in the country. —Reuters

BERLIN: Joachim Gauck, a Protestant pastor and anti-Communist activist from former East Germany, was sworn in yesterday as Germany’s 11th postwar president, promising to use his experience of tyranny to stand up to the far-right and other extremists.

The election of 72-year-old Gauck last Sunday has raised hopes that a charismatic figure of such ethical stature c an revive faith in a post which is largely ceremonial but symbolically important for Germany following his predecessor’s ignominious exit.

“I would like to ask you all for a gift: your trust,” Gauck said in a moving speech to the Reichstag, the German parliament which was set on fire on 1933 and bombed in World War II. Chancellor Angela Merkel and lawmakers from across the political divide warmly applauded the president’s maiden speech. Despite their shared history - Merkel is the daughter of an East German pastor and grew up under communism - she opposed his first candidacy in 2010 in favour of her conservative colleague Christian Wulff. Wulff quit last month in disgrace over a probe into his personal finances and favours from business contacts.

This time Merkel had to accept Gauck, who is not affiliated to any party but was put forward by the opposition centre left and supported by even the chancellor’s own Liberal allies.

Gauck poses no threat to Merkel’s domination of national politics, but his moral authority, independence of mind and lack of party affiliation could make him an awkward partner for her government as it struggles to overcome Europe’s economic crisis.

“Your election as head of state

BERLIN: German new president Joachim Gauck (R) delivers a speech, next to German chancellor Angela Merkel and Phillipp Roesler during his swearing-in ceremony at the Reichstag building hosting an extraordinary session of Parliament Bundestag and Bundesrat yesterday in Berlin. — AFP

writes a new chapter in the history of German unity,” said Norbert Lammert, speaker of the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), who took Gauck’s oath. Cutting a presidential figure with his thick silver hair, determined jaw line and the eloquence of a seasoned preacher, Gauck hailed West Germany’s post-war economic miracle and democratic vocation - but also alluded to failings such as “the suppression of guilt and lack of empathy with the victims of the Nazi regime”.

Identifying himself with the young people of 1968 who drew a line under the “hubris” of their parents’ generation, who “waged murder and war on their neighbours within and without”, Gauck said the reunification of the two Germanys in 1990 created “one

people”, who now had to defend democracy with determination.

The neo-Nazi threat is back in the headlines after police stumbled across a far-right cell that killed nine immigrants last year, while German experience of Islamic extremism includes being the unwitting host to leaders of the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States. “Especially to the rightwing extremists who hate democracy we say clearly: your hatred is our motivation not to abandon our country.

We will not present you a gift of our fear,” he said.

Germany would also stand up to “extremists of other political persuasions and those who, under the guise of religion, bring fanaticism and terror to our country”. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Ex-Irish PM Ahern lied about bank deposits DUBLIN: Ireland’s former prime minister Bertie Ahern lied about bank deposits which led to his resignation, a landmark 15-year corruption probe concluded on Thursday.

The Mahon Tribunal’s investigation of the payments dating from the early 1990s prompted Ahern to quit office in May 2008 because he said the “incessant publicity” surrounding the probe made it impossible to do his job.

The report, from the longest and most expensive public inquiry in Irish history, concluded that key aspects of Ahern’s evidence were “untrue”, although it did not accuse him of corruption. “Much of the explanation

provided by Mr Ahern as to the source of substantial funds identified and inquired into in the course of the tribunal’s public hearings were deemed by the tribunal to have been untrue,” it said in its 3,270-page report.

Michael Martin, leader of Ahern’s Fianna Fail party, said later Thursday he will propose a motion to expel the former prime minister at a special meeting of the party’s national executive being called for next Friday. Martin expressed “profound personal and professional regret” at the report’s findings, and accused Ahern of “betraying the trust placed in him” by the Irish people.

Ahern, who came to power in 1997 and a year later helped seal the Good Friday agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland, has always denied there was anything improper about the series of cash payments. The deposits were made when he was finance minister and came at a time when he was separating from his wife.

Ahern maintained the payments were from friends and associates in Ireland and England and said at the time he had “never received a corrupt payment and I have never done anything to dishonour any office I have held”.

The former leader vehemently

denied the tribunal’s conclusion that he had failed to “truthfully account” for deposits totalling 165,000 Irish pounds, equivalent to 210,000 euros ($275,000).

“That statement is unfair and inaccurate,” he said in a statement published in the Irish Times. “It is one that I cannot and I will never accept and I will continue to examine ways in which to vindicate my name.” Because Ahern failed to give a true account about the source of the cash, the tribunal said it was unable to “establish or exclude” a connection between them and a property developer “either directly or indirectly”. — AFP

French govt under fire after Toulouse killings Sarkozy may expect a bump in polls

MOGADISHU: In this photo released by the African Union-United Nations Information Support Team (AU-UN IST) yesterday, four suspected members of al Shabaab, the Somali Al-Qaeda-linked militant group, walk within the grounds of Mogadishu Stadium, after being captured during a joint security operation conducted by soldiers of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali security services in the Torfiq and Yaaqshiid areas of the capital Mogadishu. —AP

Magna Carta to get modern makeover for 800th birthday LONDON: The Magna Carta, the English medieval document considered a cornerstone of modern democracy, is to get an overhaul and be brought back into the public spotlight in time for its 800th anniversary, academics said yesterday. A three-year research project will also attempt to discover whether King John, the monarch who signed the document in 1215, really was the villainous monster made popular by portrayals in the Robin Hood legend. “We’re hoping to gather together all of the evidence for this iconic document that hasn’t previously been assembled,” Professor Nicholas Vincent, the historian leading the project, told Reuters.

“Everyone’s assumed that all the work on this thing had been done because it’s so famous, it’s so well known, somebody must have done it. But in fact since 1804 there has been no proper attempt to do that.”

The Magna Carta, which translates from the Latin as “Great Charter”, was signed by King John of England at Runnymede to the west of London following an uprising by his barons, establishing certain rights of the English people and curbing the powers of the monarch.

Not only does it form the bedrock of Britain’s constitutional freedoms, it was the basis for both the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Auction house Sotheby’s described it as “the most important document in the world” when it sold an original copy from 1297 five years ago in New York for more than $21 million. — Reuters

PARIS: France’s prime minister yesterday rejected accusations his government could have prevented the multiple murders by an Islamic militant who was supposedly being watched by intelligence services.

Francois Fillon said security officials knew Mohamed Merah, who died in a hail of police bullets, was a radical Islamist who had visited Afghanistan but insisted there was no reason to suspect he was planning an atrocity.

The intelligence services “did their job perfectly well. They identified Mohamed Merah when he made his trips,” he told French radio.

Intelligence agents “watched him long enough to come to the conclusion that there was no element, no indication, that this was a dangerous man who would one day pass from words to acts,” said Fillon.

The prime minister’s comments came as investigators were trying to establish whether Merah had worked alone or with accomplices before he carried out the murders of three Jewish children, a trainee rabbi and three soldiers.

The killings shocked France, which is home to western Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, and brought the issues of security and integration to the heart of the country’s presidential election campaign.

Police yeserday prolonged the detention of the mother and brother of the self-proclaimed Al-Qaeda member who said he carried out his crimes to avenge Palestinian children and punish France for sending troops to Afghanistan. The girlfriend of Merah’s brother was also kept in detention, a legal source said. All three were detained as police on Wednesday surrounded 23-year-old Merah in his apartment in the southwestern city of Toulouse. Police and prosecution officials have said that Merah’s brother, Abdelkader Merah, is himself a radical Islamist, and that traces of what could

be an explosive material were found in his car.

Prosecutors said the first murder in Merah’s spree was committed after he contacted his victim, a 30-year-old army officer, using his mother’s computer. A US intelligence official told AFP that Merah, a French citizen of Algerian origin, had been on America’s “no-fly” list that banned him from boarding flights to or from the country.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is seeking re-election in May, was under growing pressure yesterday from the media and opposition politicians to explain why Merah had not been prevented from carrying out his grisly murders. One veteran police officer also questioned why the gunman was not taken alive during Thursday’s siege and final assault in Toulouse.

“How come the police’s best unit did not manage to arrest a man all alone?” demanded Christian

Prouteau, who founded the GIGNanother of France’s elite units, drawn from the national police’s rivals in the gendarmerie.

Officers from the RAID unit moved in Thursday morning after a 32-hour siege, killing Merah as he tried to shoot his way out of his apartment.

Merah’s killings had interrupted the campaign for France’s presidential vote, but Sarkozy has resumed his reelection bid hoping his reputation as a crime fighter will carry the day.

He has been trailing his Socialist rival Francois Hollande in opinion polls for months, but the shocking murders and the killer’s violent end have stirred up the campaign just as he was narrowing the gap. Polls carried out before the crisis showed French voters trust Sarkozy more on security and international affairs, while Hollande gets their vote if they care more about jobs, household incomes or social provision. — AFP

TOULOUSE: A mother and her daughter pay tribute in front of bunches of flowers laid on the ground at the “Ozar Hatorah” Jewish school yesterday in Toulouse, southwestern France, where four people (three of them children), were killed and one seriously wounded by self-proclaimed Islamic extremist Mohamed Merah, shot dead by RAID special forces unit. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

New rules expand US intelligence access to data WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s administration has adopted new guidelines that allow US counterterrorism agents to keep information acquired from other federal agencies for up to five years.

The new guidelines were adopted in part in response to intelligence lapses ahead of the 2009 Fort Hood military base shooting and the foiled underwear bomb plot to blow up a plane on Christmas Day 2009, the government said.

They will allow the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to hold onto a trove of information from other federal agencies-includ-

ing on Americans not suspected of terrorism-for five years as opposed to 180 days.

The NCTC said the new guidelines will allow it to “retain certain datasets that are likely to contain significant terrorism information and are already in the lawful custody and control of other federal agencies for up to five years.”The NCTC said the new process-announced Thursdaywould be under “robust oversight” and would not compromise civil liberties or privacy rights. But Michael German, of the American Civil Liberties Union, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that the

purpose of such safeguards is to ensure that the “robust tools that we give the military and intelligence community to protect Americans from foreign threats aren’t directed back against Americans.”

“Watering down those rules raises significant concerns that US persons are being targeted or swept up in these collection programs and can be harmed by continuing investigations for as long as these agencies hold the data.” US intelligence agencies have spent much of the last decade working to improve the sharing of information after bureaucratic feuding was identified as a major

factor in failing to prevent the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“Following the failed terrorist attack in December 2009, representatives of the counterterrorism community concluded it is vital for NCTC to be provided with a variety of datasets from various agencies that contain terrorism information,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said.

“The ability to search against these datasets for up to five years on a continuing basis as these updated guidelines permit will enable NCTC to accomplish its mission more practically and effectively.” — AFP

Police chief in ‘Stand Your Ground’ killing steps down Protesters demand arrest of shooter Zimmerman

LEON: Municipal police officers check people’s bags as they enter the main square in Leon, Mexico, Thursday.

Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Mexico today, a decade after his predecessor’s last visit, to a very different country and a church that has suffered debilitating setbacks amidst sex abuse scandals and a lower percentage of Mexicans who call themselves Catholic today, compared to a decade ago. — AP

Pope decries drug violence in Mexico LEON: Pope Benedict XVI headed off on his first trip to Mexico yesterday, using a cane as he boarded the plane for a trip that a representative says will help him build his own bonds with a nation that had a passionate adoration of his predecessor.

Pope John Paul II was greeted with ecstatic scenes on each of his five trips to Mexico, and love for the late pontiff was so strong that millions turned out to honor him even after death when a glass case containing his blood was brought to the country.

He was a vigorous 58-year-old when he first arrived.

Benedict is now 85, his age emphasized by the black cane he carried as he set out on his own pilgrimage yesterday.

Papal aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pope started using the cane about two months ago in private because it makes him feel more secure, and not for any medical problem.

So far Mexicans have shown restrained excitement about the pope’s arrival in Guanajuato, a deeply conservative state in sun-baked central Mexico. Dedicated campgrounds with a capacity for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were virtually empty. Carlos Aguiar, president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, said he expected the faithful to begin arriving yesterday.

The papal envoy, Christophe Pierre, said Benedict’s visit would allow Mexicans to “discover the pope” and “his ability to communicate, to speak deeply, but simply.” There were some stirrings of enthusiasm about Benedict’s first trip to Mexico as locals tidied up the city in preparation.

About 60 people burned brush to create a neater vista along a section of the pope’s route from the airport to the Catholic school where he will spend his three nights in Mexico. — AP

SANFORD: A local police chief and a Florida state prosecutor overseeing the case of an unarmed black teenager shot dead by a neighborhood watch captain stepped aside on Thursday following withering criticism and national outrage that police have declined to arrest the shooter.

Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee’s resignation - which he called “temporary” failed to appease civil rights and community leaders who are calling for the arrest of watch captain George Zimmerman, 28, who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and claimed selfdefense.

Lee was under mounting pressure for days and suffered a a “no confidence” vote from the city commission on Wednesday. The shakeup at the state level was more surprising as Gov Rick Scott replaced Tallahassee’s lead investigator and formed a task force to review Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law. Police have said this law, which allows people to use deadly force when they perceive danger in any public place, prevented them from arresting Zimmerman, a white Hispanic who has disappeared from public view.

Zimmerman’s father has said his son has been unfairly vilified. He called him a friend of minorities whose true nature was being distorted by national calls for his arrest and allegations that he pursued Martin just because he was black. Coupled with at least two prior cases that stoked black anger toward the police, the response to the Martin episode had grown so intense Lee said he had no option but to step aside as “my involvement in the matter is overshadowing the process.” Similarly, State Attorney Norman Wolfinger said he was stepping down “with the intent of toning down the rhetoric.”

Criticism of the investigation came on top of a history of racial tension in Sanford, a town of about 50,000 just north of Orlando. In 2011, a previous Sanford police chief was forced out of

the job after a white police officer’s son was captured on video suckerpunching a black homeless man outside a bar. Sanford police did not immediately arrest the officer’s son, Justin Collison. But after video of the attack surfaced on local TV and the Internet and provoked an outcry from Sanford civil rights leaders, Collison was charged weeks later with aggravated battery and disorderly conduct.

He eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. The incident came five years after two white private security guards with ties to the police department shot and killed a black teenager.

The guards - one the son of a Sanford police officer and the other a department volunteer - said they opened fire in self-defense, claiming the teenager attempted to run them over. Evidence showed the teenager died from a gunshot in the back. The cases were eventually dismissed due to lack of evidence. The Martin case generated mostly local interest in the days following the Feb. 26 shooting but has steadily drawn the national

spotlight, which has only grown in recent days since the state of Florida and US Justice Department announced their own investigations and the city commission voted 3-2 in favor of a “no confidence” motion against Lee on Wednesday night.

A mostly black crowd that city officials estimated at 10,000 gathered in a Sanford park to protest against the handling of the Martin case and what black leaders have called a pattern of racial discrimination in Sanford and elsewhere in a country that nonetheless has elected a black president.

New York-based civil rights leader Al Sharpton, whose TV show on MSNBC raised the profile of the Sanford shooting, headlined a series of speakers calling for justice.

Cathey Law, 46, a human-resource manager in the crowd, said the shooting had resonated in her family. “I have a young adult son. In our black community, we have to have that conversation about driving while black and walking while black,” Law said. “I hope his (Martin’s) murder is not in vain and things change.” — Reuters

SANFORD: Protesters demonstrate at a rally for slain teenager Trayvon Martin on Thursday in Sanford, Florida. Sanford Police Department Chief Bill Lee announced today he will temporarily step down following the killing of the black unarmed teenager by a white and Hispanic neighborhood watch captain. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Bali island shuts down for Hindu new year DENPASAR: Shops were shuttered yesterday and many tourists stayed inside their hotels as the Indonesian holiday island of Bali closed down for a day to mark the Hindu new year.

More than 2,500 police dressed in traditional black-and-white batik sarongs guarded the island to ensure there was no activity in the streets on the day of reflection, known as Nyepi.

Bali’s international airport in Denpasar was also shut, with almost 300 flights cancelled over a 24-hour period. Around 35,000 passen-

gers normally fly into Denpasar each day, airport officials said. Vehicles were not allowed on the streets, and TV and radio were cut off.

“Other than police, there is no one outside, nothing at all to do,” said Nyoman Sumaya, a receptionist at the beachfront Oberoi Hotel in the busy tourist district of Seminyak.

“We informed all our guests that they could not leave the hotel or even sit on the beach out front.”

Although Balinese Hindus make up only a small minority of Indonesia’s 240 million pop-

ulation, the vast majority of whom are Muslims, Nyepi is a public holiday across the archipelago. However, only Bali shuts down in this way. The majority of Bali’s nearly 4 million population practice a local version of Hinduism, although there is also a small Muslim population on the island.

The holiday coincided with Islamic Friday prayers, which are typically projected through the streets over loudspeakers from mosques.

Police in the provincial capital Denpasar allowed the prayers to continue.

“But we call on worshippers performing Friday prayers to just attend the nearest mosque, so there is not too much activity in the streets,” said Bali police spokesman Hariadi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

On Thursday night, locals paraded effigies of demons known as ogoh-ogoh, before setting them alight to symbolise renewal and purification, but on Nyepi night, the island blacks out as lights must stay switched off. —AFP

Japan prepares defences against N Korean rocket S Korea, Japan nuclear envoys hold talks

YANGON: Phyu Phyu Thin, center, an HIV activist and a candidate of National League for Democracy party, is greeted by a supporter during her election campaign in a township yesterday in Yangon, Myanmar. —AP

Myanmar postpones voting in north YANGON: Myanmar has postponed voting in its conflict-hit far north in closely watched by-elections to be held next month because of security concerns, official media reported yesterday.

Fierce fighting between government troops and armed rebels in parts of the mountainous Kachin state near the Chinese border since June last year has displaced tens of thousands of people.

“Because of security reasons there are no conditions to hold free and fair elections,” state television said as it announced the decision to delay the polls in three constituencies in the state until an unspecified date.

While the new quasi-civilian government which took power last year has signed peace deals with other insurgent groups, several rounds of talks with the political wing of the Kachin rebels have failed to bear fruit.

“The fighting is still happening in some areas in Kachin state almost every day,” said Yup Zaw Hkaung, a prominent Kachin businessmen who is acting as a mediator between the government and the rebels.

“There was no improvement yet since both sides met in early March,” he told AFP. Next month’s vote, which will see Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stand for a seat in parliament for the first time in a constituency near Yangon, is viewed as a key test of the government’s commitment to budding reforms.

Civil war has gripped parts of Myanmar since independence in 1948. An end to the conflicts and alleged rights abuses involving government troops is a key demand of Western nations which have imposed sanctions on the regime.

During a recent visit to Myanmar, US special envoy Derek Mitchell said the violence in Kachin was inconsistent with the government’s reformist bent.

“The immediate concern that we have is on the issue of internally displaced persons, who by any definition are innocents caught in the crossfire of conflict,” he said, urging the government to enable aid to reach the victims.

Despite the security concerns, Suu Kyi visited two of the Kachin constituencies last month as part of her campaigning. The delay means voting will now be held in April in 45 constituencies elsewhere in the country.

A 2010 election which swept the army’s political allies to power was marred by complaints of cheating and intimidation, as well as the exclusion of Suu Kyi and some Kachin politicians.

Since then the new government has surprised observers with a series of reforms, including welcoming Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party back into mainstream politics and releasing hundreds of political prisoners. —AFP

TOKYO: Japan yesterday readied its missile defence systems to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens the country, as the UN chief warned that next month’s launch could jeopardise food aid.

“I have ordered officials to prepare to deploy the PAC-3 and Aegis warships,” Japan’s Defence Minister Naoki Tanaka told reporters, referring to surface-to-air missiles and destroyers carrying missiles.

The nuclear-armed North has announced it will launch a rocket in mid-April to put a satellite into orbit, a move that the United States, South Korea and other nations see as a pretext for a long-range missile test banned by the UN. The move by North Korea’s new leadership has set off alarm bells across the region. The Philippines is calling for help from the United States to monitor the rocket, part of which is expected to land off the archipelago. The preparations by Japan, regularly the target of North Korean barbs, come as world leaders including US President Barack Obama prepare to meet in Seoul for a summit officially focused on nuclear terrorism.

The North’s atomic programme is expected to be the subject of discussion at the talks on Monday and Tuesday, which are also to be attended by the leaders of China, Japan and Russia.

Leading North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun yesterday again blasted the upcoming summit as a “burlesque” and part of a South Korean smear campaign. It said Seoul’s rulers hope to use the event to escalate the “nuclear racket” against the North and moves for a war against it.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who plans to raise the rocket launch at the Seoul summit, said any launch could discourage international aid donors and

worsen North Korea’s already dire humanitarian situation.

“Such an act would undermine recent positive diplomatic progress and, in its effect on international donors, would likely worsen the humanitarian situation inside the country,” he said in a speech in

South Korea. The second stage is expected to splash down just 190 kilometres (118 miles) east of the northern Philippines.

North Korea insists it has the right to conduct what it calls a peaceful satellite launch. But Ban, a South Korean, said the rocket flight would be a “clear violation” of

SEOUL: South Korean nuclear envoy at six-party talks, Lim Sung-nam (R), shakes hands with his Japanese counterpart Shinsuke Sugiyama (L) before their meeting at Lim’s office at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul yesterday. —AFP Singapore. Japan’s surface-to-air interceptors would reportedly be deployed on the southern island chain of Okinawa, over which Tokyo believes the projectile may pass.

In a notice to the UN’s International Maritime Organisation, North Korea has said the first stage of the rocket will fall in international waters between China and

UN Security Council resolutions and warned that the North already has a “serious humanitarian crisis” on its hands.

The United States voiced doubt last week over whether it could provide its own food aid to Pyongyang if it followed through on the launch, after an apparent breakthrough deal with North Korea last month. —AFP

Australian rescued after three-day croc ordeal SYDNEY: An Australian man has been rescued after a three-day ordeal trapped at a remote flooded fishing hut where he was stalked by fourmetre crocodiles, a report said yesterday. Terry Donovan, 65, was at the Staaten River Fishing and Wilderness Lodge in crocodile-infested northern Queensland when he became isolated this week, the Cairns Post said.

He told the newspaper he saw huge saltwater crocs lurking in the

waters, with one lunging at a wallaby sheltering on the hut’s back deck.

Donovan said he was afraid that if the water rose much higher, one of the beasts could swim in and attack him.

“The first one I saw was sitting out the back on the veranda in about a foot of water, maybe a bit more,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘Well, there’s a warning, there’s a crocodile there.

Where there’s one, there’s probably two or three or more’.” Donovan said a

second crocodile placed itself underneath the house, after he spotted it through a window.

The report said he positioned himself in the highest place he could find, taking refuge on a billiard table which he packed with supplies. “(The water) just kept going up and up and up, and it was just an inch or so above the nets where the balls are collected by the billiard table,” he said. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Pakistan PM, US president to meet at Seoul summit ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani will meet with US President Barack Obama on March 27 on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in Seoul, the prime minister’s office said yesterday.

Relations between the two uneasy allies have been frayed after the discovery and killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani military town in May 2011 just two hours from Islamabad. Pakistan called that a violation of its sovereignty.

Ties plunged to a new low in November when NATO aircraft mistakenly attacked two Pakistani border posts and killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Details on the agenda for

the Seoul talks were sketchy, but spokesman Akram Shaheedi said they would touch on issues of importance to both sides.

The Seoul summit will focus on measures to protect nuclear materials and facilities from militants and to prevent their illicit trafficking. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and their security are likely to be discussed.

Pakistan’s is the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world, with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimating that it could number between 150-200 warheads in a decade, making its arsenal larger than Britain’s.

The unstable south Asian country has

been the lone hold-out on starting talks leading to a treaty that would prevent the further production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. It cites concerns that it would be left at a disadvantage against traditional rival India, which has its own nuclear arsenal.

Pakistan has fought and lost three wars and several major skirmishes with India since partition in 1947. While the United States has publicly expressed confidence in Pakistan’s ability to safeguard its weapons and fissile material from militant groups such as al Qaeda, officials have privately voiced concern. Those concerns were especially heightened after an

assault on a naval base near Karachi by al Qaeda-backed fighters shortly after the bin Laden raid.

Analysts said at the time that the assault showed that militants were developing the capability to penetrate highlysecure areas and hold their ground for several hours.

Next week’s meeting would be the highest-level meeting between the two uneasy allies since the bin Laden raid. A proposed meeting between Gilani and Obama in New York at the United Nations in September was called off at the last minute after Obama reportedly refused to meet with him. —Reuters

Suicide attack kills five at Pakistan mosque Militants kill over 4,900 across Pakistan since 2007

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan vendor arranges newspapers in Colombo yesterday. Sri Lanka’s media reacted angrily to a US-led resolution demanding a war crimes probe and said the island had done well to go down fighting at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. —AFP

Sri Lanka call for boycott of US goods COLOMBO: Nationalist Sri Lankan groups called yesterday for a boycott of American goods to punish the US for backing a UN resolution urging the South Asian nation to investigate possible war crimes during the final months of its civil war.

But human rights groups and ethnic Tamil politicians praised the move as an opportunity for the country to build peace after a quarter-century of horrific violence. On Thursday, the UNHuman Rights Council in Geneva passed a resolution urging Sri Lanka to probe allegations of summary executions, kidnappings and other abuses its troops were accused of as they defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a 25-year civil war.

Foreign Minister Gamini Peiris said the vote set a precedent for powerful nations to interfere in the internal affairs of others. “Might overrules right,” read a front-page headline in yesterday’s state-run Daily News. The paper accused sections of the international community of trying to undermine Sri Lanka. Government officials, who had organized weeks of furious protests against the vote, said external pressure would disturb the peace and asked that the country be given time and space to rebuild strained relations between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil ethnic communities.

Outside the railway station in the capital, Colombo, protesters handed out stickers yesterday urging the public to say “No to Coca-Cola, wheat flour, Pepsi - Let’s boycott American goods for the country.” “Although the Americans may not feel this boycott, we must show our protest. That way, we can establish an anti-American sentiment among the people,” said protest organizer Gunadasa Amarasekara, leader of the National Patriotic Front party.

A UN report released in 2010 said there were credible allegations that government troops had deliberately shelled Tamil civilians and hospitals and blocked food and medicine to civilians in the war zone in the final months of the war. The rebels, known for their widespread use of suicide bombers and child soldiers, were accused of holding civilians as human shields and killing people who tried to flee their control. —AP

PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque yesterday, killing five people in Pakistan’s Taleban and Al-Qaeda infested tribal badlands on the Afghan border, officials said. Three loyalists of local militant group Lashkar-i-Islam and two civilians were killed in Akakhel town in the Tirah valley of Khyber district, local administration official Bakhtiar Khan told AFP. “A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Lashkar-i-Islam mosque. Three members of Lashkar-i-Islam and two passers by have been killed in the attack. Nine people have been wounded in the incident,” Khan told AFP. The attack came exactly three weeks after a similar suicide bombing at another Lashkari-Islam mosque in Tirah killed 22 people and wounded another 20 after Friday prayers.

Khyber is a haven for militants linked to the Pakistani Taleban and has been the scene of fighting between the army and rebels, prompting at least 18,000 people to flee their homes in October last year.

A spokesman for Lashkar-i-Islam, which is run by warlord Mangal Bagh and which has links to Islamist militants and criminal gangs, blamed Pakistan’s main umbrella Taleban faction for the attack. Akakhel is a restive town where the rival Lashkar-i-Islam, Tehreek-eTaliban and other local Islamist militiamen are known to compete for influence.

“Tehreek-e-Taleban sent this suicide bomber to attack our mosque but our guards identified him and opened fire at him,” Lashkar-i-Islam spokesman, Hazrat

Omer, told AFP by telephone. “At that point he blew himself up and killed five people.

The dead included three of our members.

Seven people have been injured of which six are our colleagues,” he added. The scene of yesterday’s attack is 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the site of the March 2

stood to use rear bases in Pakistan to plot attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan. The mountainous region lies outside direct government control and US drone strikes on militant commanders in the region are a key plank in the US strategy to defeat AlQaeda and reverse the insurgency in

LAHORE: Activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa shout slogans against the reopening of the route for NATO supplies to Afghanistan during a protest in Lahore yesterday. —AFP bombing, in which most of the dead were from Lashkar-i-Islam. Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border are rife with homegrown insurgents, Al-Qaeda operatives and Taleban, who are under-

Afghanistan.

Islamist militants have killed more than 4,900 people across Pakistan since government troops raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in July 2007. —AFP

Bales to be charged in Afghan killings WASHINGTON: Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is expected to be told that he faces 17 counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, along with other charges, in connection with a shooting rampage in two southern Afghanistan villages that shocked Americans back home and further roiled US-Afghan relations.

The charges come almost two weeks after the massacre in which Bales allegedly left his base in the early morning hours and shot Afghans, including women and nine children, while they slept in their beds, then burned some of the bodies.

Bales will be read the charges oyesterday at the military prison at Fort

Leavenworth, Kansas, where he has been held since being flown from Afghanistan last week, a US official said. Bales’ civilian attorney, John Henry Browne, said yesterday that he believes the government will have a hard time proving its case and that his client’s mental state will be an important issue.

In addition to murder and attempted murder, the charges will include six counts of aggravated assault as well as a number of other violations of military law, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the charges before they were announced.

The 38-year-old soldier and father of

two, who lives in the state of Washington, has been held faces trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but it could be months before any public hearing.

The attorney said Friday on CBS’ “This Morning” that he spent 11 hours this week with Bales at Leavenworth and found him to be shocked by the accusations against him.

“He has some memories about what happened before the alleged events and some memories after the alleged events and some windows here and there into things, but he really doesn’t have any memory,” Browne said. “My meetings with him clearly indicate to me that he’s got memory problems that go back long before that.” —AP

Global stocks slip on growth worries

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Electric cars losing green sheen in Japan

Business

16

Indian minister denies coal ‘scam’

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Obama taps Jim Yong Kim for World Bank

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SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

MADRID: Industrial sector workers march yesterday during an anti-austerity demonstration which is seen as a test of support for a general strike called for March 29. — AFP

Iran oil exports fall over sanctions Iran tension adding $20-30 to oil prices: Obama LONDON: Iranian oil exports have fallen significantly in March, industry sources said yesterday, as some buyers stop or scale back purchases to abide by Western sanctions aimed at slowing Tehran’s nuclear programme. Crude exports from Iran appear to have fallen this month by around 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 14 percent, according to estimates from industry consultant Petrologistics and a large European oil company. It is the first sizeable drop in oil shipments from the OPEC producer since the European Union announced in January plans to embargo Iran’s crude from July and Washington and Brussels sanctioned Iran’s central bank.

Oil prices rose on the news, with Brent jumping more $2.45 to $125.59 a barrel.

“This is fundamentally very bullish,” said Mike Wittner, head of commodities research at Societe Generale in the United States. “I think Iranian exports are going to go down much more, as the sanctions bite. It’s a logi-

cal reaction for the market to go up on this.”

European buyers of Iranian crude including France’s Total have already stopped buying the oil, which is subject to European Union sanctions from July 1. Royal Dutch Shell is scaling back.

“We are taking less and less - very few barrels,” said an official with a European oil company, until earlier this year one of the larger EU buyers of Iranian crude. According to Petrologistics, a Geneva-based oil industry consultant, Iranian exports may amount to 1.9 million bpd in March, down from about 2.2 million bpd in February. A source at an oil company, which still deals in Iranian crude, said the evidence pointed to an overall drop in shipments in March, seeing a decline of at least 300,000 bpd mainly because European customers are taking less.

Petrologistics is one of a number of companies which estimates oil output by tracking tanker shipments, because Iran, like many big oil exporters, does not routinely

disclose how much it is supplying on a timely basis. Iran’s oil exports are difficult to track and, like those of other countries, they can fluctuate week by week. With a week to go in March, it is possible the picture may change.

“We are struggling to get the numbers nailed down,” said an industry official. Oil prices have climbed to just $20 short of their all-time high of 2008, as the tighter Western sanctions on Iran threaten to choke off its exports.

Meanwhile, tension with Iran and “uncertainty” in the region is adding a $20 or $30 premium to oil prices, pushing up gas prices for vehicle owners in the United States, President Barack Obama said.

“The key thing that is driving higher gas prices is actually the world’s oil markets and uncertainty about what’s going on in Iran and the Middle East, and that’s adding a $20 or $30 premium to oil prices,” Obama said in an interview with the American Automobile Association (AAA) published yesterday.

Obama also said increasing demand for oil in China and India was driving prices. “As more and more people around the world see their standards of living rising, they purchase cars, they have demand for oil, that creates a greater demand worldwide and that raises the price,” Obama told AAA. Pump prices are hovering near record highs as markets worry about tensions in the Middle East, with Obama moving to clamp down on criticism of his administration on the issue in an election year. Amid a fourstate tour to defend his energy plans this week, Obama stressed that his administration has approved “dozens” of new oil and gas pipelines, but new drilling was insufficient to lower rising gas prices. The United States this week pushed for a tough new set of sanctions on Iran aimed at pressing the state over its nuclear program, penalizing foreign financial institutions over transactions with Tehran’s central bank which handles the country’s oil sales, its key export. — Agencies

business

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Electric cars losing green sheen in Japan TOKYO: Electric car owners who prided themselves on being green now find themselves in a bind as Japan’s government maneuvers to restart dozens of nuclear power plants idled after last year’s meltdowns. For decades, nuclear generation has been a crucial source of power here, but the tsunami-triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have spurred a debate over how to supply Japan’s electricity in the future. Long touted as a clean, zeroemission alternative to vehicles powered by dirty fossil fuels, electric cars are now at risk of being tainted by their association with nuclear.

If, as is possible, nuclear remains a key source of power, “then the green image of the electric car will get bashed to bits, maybe to the extent it will be irreparable,” said Ryuichi Kino, who has written books on nuclear power and hybrid technology. “I have the feeling it’s quite possible that might happen.”

Not long after the tsunami swept

through the plant on March 11 last year, the government backed away from plans to lift nuclear power from supplying a third of Japan’s electricity needs to half.

But Japan isn’t abandoning nuclear power altogether. Despite the Fukushima crisis underscoring its risks, the government wants to restart some of the nation’s 54 reactors after safety checks are completed. Critics say the checks aren’t good enough, and the damage from the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl looms large, with the 20-kilometer (12-mile) no-go zone around Fukushima, as well as surrounding areas, likely to be contaminated by radiation for decades.

Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, a longtime opponent of nuclear power, acknowledged he gets bashed as hypocritical by people on Twitter about appearing in advertising for Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf electric car. Many are not aware that, because he lives in New

York, he can get his electricity from a company that relies solely on wind power - a kind of business that doesn’t exist yet in Japan, where utility regulations remain rigid and closed.

“How we make electricity is going to diversify, with fossil fuel and nuclear power declining,” said Sakamoto.

People should be able to choose the kind of electricity they want to use, he said. Electric cars were proving a hard sell even before the Fukushima disaster. And their green image has a weakness since generating electricity, unless it’s from solar, wind or other clean forms, emits polluting gases.

Nissan, an electric-car leader, has sold just 25,000 Leaf cars around the world since late 2010, including 12,000 in Japan. It is targeting global sales of 1.5 million electric vehicles by 2015 in conjunction with alliance partner Renault SA of France.

Corporate Vice President Hideaki Watanabe, who oversees Nissan’s zero-

emission business, insists sales are on target and haven’t dropped after the March disaster. The nuclear crisis has highlighted that the Leaf can be a backup storage for electricity in emergency blackouts, he said. What’s holding Leaf sales back instead are the lack of charging stations on roads and its relatively high price.

The Leaf starts at about 3 million yen ($36,000) in Japan, after the 780,000 yen ($9,400) green subsidy. In the US, the Leaf sells for about $25,000 after applying a $7,500 federal tax credit. Nissan says prices will come down with sales volume but infrastructure changes are slow in coming: “There is no magic formula,” Watanabe said of boosting sales. Although the Leaf is now a front-runner among electric vehicles, Nissan faces competition from rivals that already offer them such as US luxury maker Tesla Motors Inc. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Japan with the i-MiEV mini car. — AP

Global stocks slip on growth worries Asian shares hit over manufacturing fears

TORONTO: Air Canada baggage handlers hold a wildcat strike at Toronto Pearson International Airport early yesterday. — AP

Disruptive Air Canada strikes come to end TORONTO: Wildcat strikes that resulted in dozens of Air Canada flight delays and cancellations have ended, the union representing ground crew workers at airports in Toronto and Montreal said yesterday.

The strikes, which were sparked after ground crew were suspended by the airline for deriding Canada’s Labour Minister, came to an end after a morning arbitration meeting between the union and the country’s largest air carrier returned workers to the job without penalty. “The wildcat strike is ending,” said International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers s pokesman Bill Trbovich.

“Our disciplined workers are going back to work without penalty, that would indicate to me that the wildcat strike would be over because that’s why the guys were staying out.”

The return to work comes after the government warned that police could be called in to deal with what it called an illegal work stoppage. In a brief statement on its website, Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, said an “illegal work action” by ground staff led to disruptions at both Toronto’s Pearson International and Montreal’s Trudeau International airports.

The strike began in Toronto late Thursday night and spread to Montreal early yesterday morning, according to local media reports. Pearson’s website said yesterday morning that 63 of the 689 flights scheduled for departure at the airport had been cancelled. The strike began after three ground workers were suspended by the airline for clapping derisively at federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt as she came through Pearson Thursday evening. The union said that 37 workers who were fired by Air Canada for walking off the job have also been reinstated without penalty. Air Canada has been locked in disputes with unions representing its pilots and ground workers. — Reuters

LONDON: Fears of an intensifying global economic slowdown pushed markets lower yesterday, when new surveys showed a contraction in the manufacturing sector in China, a bellwether for world demand as it produces and exports a huge amount of consumer goods. An index compiled by HSBC of manufacturing activity in the world’s second-largest economy fell to 48.1 points in March from 49.6 in February.

Figures below 50 indicate that manufacturing is shrinking. That data comes on top of trade figures showing both Chinese and global demand falling.

“The market is disappointed that China’s manufacturing sector is shrinking, so we are seeing the start of a major correction,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong. The lack of bold reaction from China’s government is causing investor unease, analysts said.The government has indicated it favours a pro-growth policy but so far has not aggressively reduced reserve requirements for banks on a national scale or lowered interest rates.

After losses across Asia, Germany’s DAX was down 0.7 percent at 6,935.06 while France’s CAC-40 lost 0.8 percent to 3,444.19. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.5 percent to 5,816.38. The euro rose 0.5 percent to $1.3266 while bond yields for Spain, one of Europe’s weakest economies, briefly rose above 5.50 percent as worries resurfaced it might eventually need a bailout.

Wall Street opened slightly lower, with the Dow Jones industrial average shedding 0.1 percent to 13,035.55 and the S&P 500 down by the same rate at 1,391.15. US housing data failed to lift investors moods. The Commerce Department said new-home sales fell 1.6 percent last month, meaning sales have

fallen nearly 7 percent since December.However, prices surged to their highest level in eight months, suggesting that builders anticipate more demand in the months ahead.

The housing market has been dragging on the economic recovery as an oversupply of homes has weakened construction and other trades in many parts of the country. Later yesterday, investors will eye comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who will be delivering brief opening remarks at a conference on central banking in Washington.

Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.1 percent to close at 10,011.47 as the country’s formidable export sector faded amid fears of slow-

ing overseas demand. The dollar rose to 82.70 yen from 82.59 yen late Thursday in New York. Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.1 percent to 20,668.80 while South Korea’s Kospi edged up marginally to 2,026.83. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell nearly 0.1 percent to 4,270.40 as the country’s mining and resource shares took a pounding over worries of reduced demand from China, the world’s biggest consumer of raw materials.

Oil prices continued to rise, with the benchmark crude contract for May delivery up $1.31 at $106.66 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.92 to finish at $105.35 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday. — AP

TOKYO: Tokyo Stock Exchange employees work at the computer terminal yesterday. — AP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Obama taps Jim Yong Kim for World Bank Kim prominent in health, development circle

PRETORIA: Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (left) talks yesterday with her South African counterpart Pravin Gordhan during a meeting yesterday. — AFP

Nigeria finance minister to run for World Bank top job PRETORIA: Nigeria’s finance minister yesterday joined the race for the top World Bank job, backed by Africa’s leading economies in a push for greater influence at global financial bodies dominated by rich nations. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, flanked by counterparts from South Africa and Angola, unveiled her candidacy at a press conference in Pretoria, putting the weight of Africa’s biggest economy and its two biggest oil producers behind her bid.

“I consider the World Bank a very important institution for the world and particularly for developing countries deserving of the best leadership,” she said. “So I look forward to a contest of very strong candidates, and am I confident? Absolutely.” The African powerhouses unveiled their bid hours before the deadline for nominations to succeed current president Robert Zoellick, who is stepping down at the end of his term on June 30.

The surprise announcement came just two days after her spokesman denied that she was angling for the job, which has been held by an American since it was founded nearly 70 years ago. Former Colombian finance minister and central bank chief, Jose Antonio Ocampo, announced his candidacy Wednesday.

Washington has yet to announce its own candidate.

Okonjo-Iweala is a respected former World Bank managing director who joined Nigeria’s government as finance minister in August. “I have long experience in the World Bank, in government and in diplomacy and I look forward to giving you my vision at the appropriate time,” she said. “I share the World Bank vision of fighting poverty with passion. The issue is in what direction one must take this to make this the most beneficial,” she said. The World Bank has 187 member nations and focuses its activities on development loans. Under a tacit agreement since the World Bank and its sister institution the International Monetary Fund were founded, the United States always selects an American as World Bank president and Europe puts a European at the IMF helm. That traditional arrangement has triggered outrage from developing and emerging economies seeking greater representation to reflect their rising contributions to the global economy. The US Treasury in February declared “the United States continues its leadership role in the World Bank,” as the largest shareholder, and would announce its candidate “in the coming weeks.” Since then, the Treasury has declined to comment on the nomination process. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has long been among the most circulated names rumoured to be under consideration by President Barack Obama, along with UN ambassador Susan Rice, Democratic Senator John Kerry and former Treasury secretary Larry Summers.

Clinton has insisted that she is not interested in the job. —AFP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama nominated Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank, a surprise pick for the international financial institution’s top job, senior administration officials said. The Korean-born Kim is a physician by training and a prominent figure in global health and development circles. Officials believe his experience will help counter criticism from developing countries that have grown weary of the US stranglehold on the World Bank presidency.

Obama took a strong personal interest in filling the World Bank vacancy after current president Robert Zoellick announced in February he was stepping down. Obama and his advisers considered more than a dozen candidates, including well-known figures in the administration. But in the end, officials said, Obama pushed for a nominee with broad development experience and was particularly drawn to Kim’s innovative work fighting the spread of AIDS and tuberculosis. The 187-nation World Bank focuses on fighting poverty and promoting development. It is a leading source of development loans for countries seeking financing to build dams, roads and other infrastructure projects.

Obama announced Kim’s nomination yesterday during a White House Rose Garden event. The president was to be joined by Kim as well as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a Dartmouth alumnus, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who officials said was the first to recommend Kim for the job.

The officials requested anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president’s announcement. Former President Bill Clinton also weighed in with support for Kim during Obama’s deliberations. In a statement, the former president applauded Kim’s nomination. “Jim Kim is an inspired and outstanding choice to lead the World Bank based on his years of commitment and leadership to development and particularly health care and AIDS treatment across the world,” he said. Since its founding in 1944, the

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama (right) shakes hands with newly announced nominee for president of the World Bank, Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Ki yesterday. — AFP World Bank always has been headed by an American. Developing countries have long sought to gain more power in the World Bank as well as its sister lending organization, the International Monetary Fund, which always has been headed by a European. While US and European officials have voiced support for those efforts, the status quo remains, with France’s Christine Lagarde holding the top spot at the IMF and Kim’s candidacy for World Bank president all but certain to prevail.

The actual selection will be made next month by the World Bank’s 25-member executive board. The United States, as the world’s largest economy, has the largest percentage of the votes.

Developing nations are expected to put forward as many as three candidates, including Jose Antonio Ocampo, a Columbia University professor who had been finance minister for Colombia, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s finance minister.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs, the director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute,

has openly campaigned for the World Bank post, saying the position should be filled by an expert in development issues.

Obama administration officials said the pick was already being well-received in the developing world. After learning of Kim’s nomination, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said the physician was “a true friend of Africa” and “a leader who knows what it takes to address poverty.”

Kim is expected to travel around the world on a listening tour to rally support for his nomination ahead of the World Bank vote.

The World Bank opening put Obama in the awkward position of choosing between his desire to be seen as a supporter of rising economic powers and the pressures of a political year in which support for a non-US candidate could have opened him to criticism. “If the administration had pushed a non-American for the job, this could have been attacked as Obama fostering the decline of American influence in the world,” said former IMF official Eswar Prasad, now an economics professor at Cornell University. —AP

Lukoil, Samsung in deal to increase Iraq output BAGHDAD: Lukoil signed a $1 billion deal with South Korea’s Samsung Engineering to develop Iraq’s second-biggest oil field, in which the Russian energy giant has a majority stake. The agreement is part of efforts to increase to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) crude output at the West Qurna-2 field in the south of the country, which has known reserves of 12.876 billion barrels.

“The contract is worth $998 million,” said oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad, after a signing ceremony attended by Oil Minister Abdelkarim Al-Luaybi, Samsung Engineering president and chief executive Park KiSeok and Lukoil Mid-East Ltd’s Iskander Nasyrov. Among requirements in the contract, Samsung must build five well pads with 67 development wells, infrastructure to extract and treat oil, and water intake equipment over the course of 29 months, according to Lukoil. Lukoil has also signed a 27-month contract with Turkey’s ENKA Insaat to build a gas turbine power plant and a 22-month deal with a Franco-Jordanian consortium

to expand storage capacity at the Tuba oil export terminal.

A consortium led by Lukoil won a contract in December 2009 to increase oil production at West Qurna-2. Under the 20year deal, extendable by five years, that was signed in early 2010, the companies receive fees of $1.15 per barrel extracted.

Lukoil currently holds a 56.25 percent stake in the group, while Norway’s Statoil holds 18.75 percent and Iraq’s state oil company the remaining 25 percent.

Earlier this month, however, Statoil said it is in the process of ceding its stake in the project to the Russian firm, a move that has been approved by authorities in Baghdad. Iraq, which relies on oil exports for the lion’s share of government income, currently produces around three million bpd. It aims to ramp up its production capacity to 12 million bpd by 2017, but analysts say that figure is too ambitious.The country holds the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world, according to the BP Statistical Energy Review. — AFP

business SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Greece seeks 8.1bn euros Greece needs stable politics: ECB’s Draghi ATHENS: Greece sought yesterday to include debt of about 8.1 billion euros ($10.7 billion) in the final phase of a historic bond swap which has already erased nearly a third of its debt mountain. Holders of Greek debt issued under foreign law have until 2000 GMT to join the so-called Private Sector Involvement (PSI) which was hammered out in February after months of negotiations with global banks and eurozone states. The first phase of the swap, involving bonds issued under Greek law, was completed on March 12, cancelling more than 94.8 billion euros in near and mid-term debt in return for cash incentives and longer-term maturities.

Out of around 27.2 billion euros’ worth of bonds and state utility loans guaranteed

by Greece under foreign law, holders of 19.2 billion euros opted to join the initiative in the first round of the exchange. Debt holders received new bonds with a face value equivalent to 31.5 percent of the face amount of the debt exchanged, plus 24month notes from the European Financial Stability Facility, the eurozone’s current rescue fund. Holders also received detachable securities linked to Greek output with a notional amount equal to the face amount of the new bonds.

After yesterday’s expression of interest ends, the bonds will be exchanged on April 11. The Greek bond swap is intended to help Greece meet a wave of debt repayment deadlines this year, and is a key part of a eurozone-IMF rescue to enable the country to rebuild its economy. Collective action clauses recently included into Greek law enabled Athens to force compliance on additional bondholders, pushing the overall

participation rate to 95.7 percent. Greece has a total public debt of over 350 billion euros. Payouts from insurance policies on Greek bonds, known as credit default swaps, reached $2.5 billion (1.9 billion euros) on March 19 after a key derivatives group branded the deal a “credit event”.

In another development, debt-laden Greece can pull out of its downward spiral but needs a “stable” political situation to overcome the crisis, the head of the European Central Bank has said. Greece is expected to hold general elections in late April or early May after negotiating a massive deal for additional rescue loans from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund and a debt restructuring with private bond holders.

“The Greeks have passed very many important reforms in Parliament,” ECB President Mario Draghi told Germany’s Bild daily in an interview published yesterday. “If they also implement these, the country has a chance to get itself out of the current downward spiral.” In exchange for additional support, Greece agreed to impose harsh austerity measures, slashing the minimum wage, pensions and benefits - including deep cuts in the health service. Amid widespread discontent, it is unclear what might emerge from the elections.

Draghi said that “to overcome the crisis, Greece needs a stable political situation.” He didn’t specify what exactly that would entail. He dismissed the idea of Greece leaving the 17-nation euro, saying that apart from anything else, “as a matter of principle, the ECB does not give any thought to a country leaving the euro area.”

“Leaving the euro area and having the

possibility to devalue their own currency would not improve anything,” Draghi said.

“It would not remove the need for reform,” he added. “In fact, the consequences of leaving the euro area would be high inflation and instability - and, for the foreseeable future, nobody would lend Greece the money it needed.”

Draghi said it wasn’t possible to say whether there was a limit to support for Greece. “We will have to see how things develop in the country,” he said. “Generally speaking, the fact remains that if we want to protect taxpayers’ money, the euro area cannot be turned into a transfer union, where one or two countries provide the money, the rest spend, and the whole thing is financed by joint eurobonds. That cannot happen.”

That was a nod to the German government’s fierce resistance to jointly issued government bonds, which could lower struggling countries’ borrowing costs but increase those of Germany. Instead, Berlin has pushed hard for a new European budget-discipline pact. “A community must be founded on trust - trust that shared rules will be adhered to, for example, with regard to budgetary discipline,” Draghi told Bild.

“That is why the new fiscal pact among euro area states is the right thing and why eurobonds would be premature.” In the interview, which was conducted Monday and published in two parts starting Thursday, Draghi said of the wider eurozone crisis that “the worst is over, but there are also still risks.” “It is now up to the governments,” he said. “They must make the euro area crisis-proof in a sustainable manner.” —Agencies

UK to cut top tax rate to 45% LONDON: Britain’s finance minister has cut the rate of income tax for the country’s wealthiest citizens but imposed a raft of measures to prevent tax avoidance and a hefty new charge on expensive property sales in an attempt to spread the burden of austerity across the UK’s taxpayers. In his annual budget statement, George Osborne said he was cutting the top rate from 50 percent to 45 percent by April next year on incomes over 150,000 pounds ($239,000) a year. He argued that the original higher rate did not yield as much as expected, partly because the rich were able to avoid the tax. Osborne sought to deflect criticism that the coalition government was being soft on the wealthy by announcing a big hike in the level at which Britons start paying tax, to 9,205 pounds ($14,500). There are doubts, however, whether the poorest will reap the full reward, given they may lose some benefits.

One group that appears disappointed by changes announced Wednesday were retired people. Age UK, the country’s leading lobby group for pensioners, criticized Osborne’s plan to scrap the age-related tax allowance, saying it would “affect those with modest pensions and savings for their retirement.”

Documents published alongside the budget indicate that the Treasury may reap a windfall of around 3.3 billion pounds from the changes to the tax allowances to pensioners.

The 50 percent tax rate was introduced by the previous Labour government as part of austerity measures introduced in the wake of the banking crisis that led to the country’s

deepest recession since World War II. “Together, the British people will share in the effort and share the rewards,” Osborne said.

“This country borrowed its way into trouble, now we’re going to earn our way out.” The leader of the Labour opposition Ed Miliband pounced on Osborne’s decision to cut the top rate of tax, mocking him for his oft-repeated

ESSEN: A man looks at a Mercedes 300 SL Roadster from 1952 at the 24th Techno Classica world show for vintage, classic and prestige automobiles yesterday. —AP

mantra that “we’re all in this together.” “After today’s budget, millions will be paying more while millionaires pay less,” Miliband said.

Osborne insisted that the rich should pay a bigger proportion of their income than the poor and said he was offsetting the cut in the top rate by other taxes on wealth, including a new 7 percent charge on the sale of houses valued over 2 million pounds ($3.2 million), up from 5 percent. Most of those residences are located in London - a city that has become a second home of choice for many of the world’s super-rich who have driven up the cost of homes to levels that are unaffordable to the vast majority of Londoners.

Tony Ryland, a senior tax partner at London Chartered Accountants Blick Rothenberg, said the changes will have “a major effect on the London housing market, potentially driving away overseas buyers.”

Overall, the budget measures were broadly neutral. Osborne has little room for maneuver, given the government’s primary plan to dramatically reduce borrowing and recent warnings from credit ratings agencies that they could cut the country’s cherished tripleA rating if public finances don’t improve.

The government’s debt-reduction program has been rewarded in the money markets to an extent, even though the economy has flatlined and unemployment stands at a near 17-year high. Unlike other big borrowers in Europe, Britain - the biggest European economy that does not use the euro - has enjoyed super-low borrowing rates, making the deficit easy to finance. —Reuters

OHIO: In this photo, newly-constructed homes are seen for sale with a new price. The Commerce Department says new-home sales fell 1.6 percent last month. Sales have fallen nearly 7 percent since December. —AP

UK housing market seen fragile for next 2 yrs

LONDON: Britain’s housing market will remain fragile over the next couple of years, with prices likely to fall a little by the end of this year before picking up modestly in 2013, a quarterly Reuters poll of economists showed yesterday. As has been the case over the last few UK housing market polls, views varied widely among the 20 analysts surveyed in the last week, largely before the government’s budget on Wednesday. British house prices will end 2012 having fallen around 2.0 percent, according to the median consensus of economists, slightly gloomier than the 1.7 percent decline predicted in the last poll from December. Forecasts ranged from a fall of 5.5 percent to a rise of 3.0 percent.

Nationwide’s house price index, the preferred index of most of the poll’s respondents, suggested house prices increased 0.6 percent in February. The building society attributed this to signs Britain’s economy might not be as weak as feared. But there was a sense of pessimism among most economists that this would mark any sort of trend for the year.

“There are indications that demand has picked up recently, although it remains to be seen whether this is due to the endmonth expiry of the stamp duty holiday for first time buyers,” said Peter Dixon, economist at Commerzbank. The government decided not to extend its exemption for first-time buyers paying stamp duty, a land transaction tax, on any house valued up to 250,000 pounds ($395,000), in this week’s 20122013 budget. “With banks raising their standard variable rates recently and the extra squeeze from the budget, households are likely to be less adventurous when it comes to the property market, which is likely to hit house prices,” said Azad Zangana, economist at Schroders Investment.

A tad overvalued Twelve economists thought UK house prices would fall from here, while six said they would not. The poll again suggested UK house prices are still a little overvalued in comparison to economic fundamentals, assigning them “6” on a 10point scale where “1” is very undervalued, and “10” extremely overvalued. Britain’s economy seems to faring a little better than its euro zone peers by avoiding recession, according to business surveys over the last few months, but ultimately its fortunes are linked strongly to major euro economies like Germany and France.

Economists polled earlier this month think Britain’s economy will expand 0.6 percent this year - a historically weak level and a prediction subject to all sorts of downside risks, like booming oil prices and a worsening of the euro zone’s debt crisis. Rising unemployment represents one of the biggest housing market depressants. The British jobless rate held at a 16-year high in the three months to January, at 8.4 percent.

“Unemployment is likely to rise further and wage growth looks set to remain muted so the overall environment will still be very tough for households,” said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.

He said the squeeze on consumers’ purchasing power should ease as inflation recedes, which might help house prices stabilise late in the year and in early 2013. The poll showed house prices could rise 1.9 percent next year although that median view was again formed from a vast range of responses, from a 4.0 percent fall to a 5.0 percent rise in 2013. —Reuters

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Short breather for India in ‘$211bn’ coal scandal Indian minister denies ‘scam’

BEIJING: China’s President Hu Jintao (right) gestures to Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People yesterday. — AFP

China, Indonesia ink deals worth $17bn BEIJING: China and Indonesia signed deals worth at least $17 billion yesterday in fields such as hydroelectricity and mining during a visit to Beijing by the Southeast Asian nation’s leader, state media said. The agreements come as the two countries, both highly dependent on exports, seek to make up for sagging demand in Europe’s debt-hit economies and a US economy still struggling to recover from the 2008 housing mortgage crisis.

They cover a wide range of industries including hydroelectric generation, mining, and steel making, and were signed by businessmen from the two countries during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s three-day visit to China. “Indonesia welcomes Chinese enterprises to expand their investment in Indonesia and to participate in major infrastructure projects,” Yudhoyono said, according to a statement posted on the Chinese foreign ministry website.

Trade between the two Asian nations has steadily increased in recent years, reaching $60.5 billion last year compared with just $2.9 billion in 2000, according to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The two countries aim to increase bilateral trade further to $80 billion by 2015, and Yudhoyono said he was confident this previously-announced target would be met. Chinese President Hu Jintao, meanwhile, told Yudhoyono Beijing wanted to increase cooperation with Jakarta “in the fields of oil and gas, minerals, electricity, and clean and sustainable energy.” “In these times of a complex and ever-changing international situation, this visit by the President will strengthen strategic communication between our two countries and expand practical cooperation,” Hu said in talks with Yudhoyono. —AFP

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has doused a row over up to $211 billion in lost revenue from underpriced coal sales but the opposition will pile on the pressure when a report on the matter reaches parliament. The Times of India newspaper published on Thursday a leaked draft report by a government auditor, saying faulty policies on selling coalfields to private and state companies may have cost the exchequer billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The report caused uproar in parliament and sent markets down on fear this could balloon into the latest in a series of corruption scandals to hit Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his second term, derailing economic reforms at a time of slowing growth. But the leaked draft was swiftly denounced as “exceedingly misleading” by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which argued that the leak did not present the body’s final view. The prime minister also weighed in to criticise the leak.

After the initial outcry, the opposition agreed to allow parliament to function until both houses have voted on the federal budget next week. A spokesman for the auditor said yesterday the final report would likely be ready in time for the second part of the parliamentary session in April. “The report on the performance audit of coal block allocations is under the process of finalisation and is likely to be sent to the government for tabling in the second leg of the ongoing budget session,” B.S. Chauhan, spokesman for the Comptroller and Auditor General told Reuters.

The government and the CAG have had tense relations since the auditor reported estimated losses of up to $36 billion from the underpriced sale of telecom licenses.

Opposition parties, including the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are likely to pounce on the final report as further evidence of corruption in the allocation of national resources under Singh’s government.

“The government may present the coal report towards the end of the budget session. We can’t really comment on the report until it is in parliament. But, we have been raising the issue of improper allocation of coal

GAUHATI: An Indian labourer helps another load a tub filled with coal on his head to transport onto a truck at a coal depot yesterday. — AP fields for the past three years,” a BJP leader, Prakash Javadekar, told Reuters.

Singh has lurched from crisis to crisis since graft in the sale of telecoms spectrum surfaced two years ago, culminating in the quashing of licenses. The telecoms sale may have cost the government up to $36 billion.

Uncertainty over the coal contracts is likely to add to investor confusion about doing business in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. In the leaked draft the government auditor criticised the allocation of 155 coalfields to about 100 private and some state-run firms between 2004 and 2009, questioning why they were not auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Any suggestion of lost revenues also underlines the weakening state of the central government’s finances. The budget deficit is expected to blow out to 5.9 percent of gross domestic product this fiscal year from a goal of 4.6 percent, leaving the government stretched for the upcoming year and ahead of elections due by 2014.

Meanwhile, India’s coal minister yesterday denied charges that the government had lost $210 billion in revenues by giving away coal deposits instead of

selling them through auction. “There has been no scam. It is all a figment of the media’s imagination,” Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters in New Delhi. Jaiswal’s comments came a day after The Times of India newspaper quoted a draft report by the national auditor as saying the government extended “undue benefits” to coal companies by awarding 155 coalfields without auction. The auditor is preparing a report on the allocation of coalfields, but denied that it had finished the study and said the final conclusions could be very different from those detailed in the media. “If there is no report, not even an interim report, how can there be a scam? Even the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) is saying wrong statements are being made,” he said.

The office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released a letter from the auditor on Thursday which expressed “great embarrassment” and “very deep anguish” over the leak. Last year, the auditor said that the mis-selling of mobile phone licences to favour some firms in 2008 cost the treasury up to $39 billion-causing a huge scandal from which the government is still reeling. — Agencies

India bans airlines from paying EU carbon tax NEW DELHI: India has barred its airlines from complying with the European Union carbon tax scheme, joining China in resistance to plans that have caused a backlash among the EU’s trade partners.

The European Union imposed a carbon levy on air travel with effect from January 1, but no airline will face a bill until 2013 after this year’s carbon emissions have been tallied.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told parliament on Thursday that “the imposition of carbon tax does not arise” because Indian airlines would simply refuse to hand over their emissions data.

“Though the European Union has directed Indian carriers to submit emission

details of their aircraft by March 31, 2012, no Indian carrier is submitting them in view of the position of the government,” he said.

India’s resolution to boycott the scheme follows China’s decision last month to prevent its airlines from complying with the EU directive. The two Asian giants have attacked the EU scheme, calling it a unilateral trade levy disguised as an attempt to fight climate change.

According to a so-called Moscow declaration adopted last month by countries opposed to the tax, governments have decided on a list of retaliatory measures to be taken if necessary,

including banning their airlines from participating. It also allows governments to take tough retaliatory measures against EU carriers and aviation companies and impose their own taxes on EU airlines. The 27-nation EU has said the carbon tax will help it achieve its goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and that it will not back down on the plan.

It claims that the cost for the airlines is manageable, estimating that the scheme could prompt them to add between 4.0 euros ($5.50) and 24 euros to the price of a long-haul round-trip.

Industry insiders have expressed concern that the scheme could spark a trade

war between the EU and the countries opposed to the tax.The chief executive of European plane manufacturer Airbus, Thomas Enders, called for a “freeze” on the EU plan Thursday, saying that it would otherwise cost the sector thousands of jobs.

“Delay it, freeze it for one or two years,” he said according to Dow Jones Newswires, arguing that the scheme “will do nothing but induce strife... retaliation and counter-retaliation.” Earlier this month the head of the Airbus parent company EADS said Beijing had already begun to block purchases of Airbus planes by Chinese companies in reaction to the dispute. — AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Gas lines tied to fracking oversight SAN FRANCISCO: Government auditors say federal officials know nothing about thousands of miles of pipelines that carry natural gas released through the drilling method known as fracking, and need to step up oversight to make sure they are running safely. Amid the gasdrilling boom, private companies have put in hundreds of small gathering pipelines in recent years to collect new fuel supplies released through the high-pressure drilling technique.

Nationwide, about 240,000 miles of gathering pipelines ferry the gas and oil to processing facilities and larger pipelines in the major energy-producing states.

Many of these pipelines course through densely populated areas, including neighborhoods in Fort Worth, Texas. The Government Accountability Office said in its report issued Thursday that most of those miles are not regulated by the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which means they are not regularly inspected for leaks or corrosion. In some states, officials don’t know where the lines are. Emily Krafjack, who lives in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania, said many local residents have no idea that the pipelines near their homes are not overseen by federal regulators. Gathering lines that run in the rural northeastern corner of the state receive no federal oversight if there are fewer than 10 homes within 220 yards of the pipeline.

“Who would ever think that they could run something like this next to your home and it wouldn’t have any regulations attached to it?,” said Krafjack, a former community liaison for Wyoming County, Pa., on gas issues. Nationwide, there are about 200,000 miles of gas gathering lines and up to 40,000 miles of hazardous liquid gathering lines in rural and urban areas alike, ranging in diameter from about 2 to 12 inches. But only about 24,000 of those miles are regulated, according to the report. The industry is not required to report pipelinerelated fatality, injury or property damage information

about the unregulated lines. PHMSA only collects information about accidents on the small subset of gathering lines that the agency regulates, but that data was not immediately available Thursday. The pipeline agency is considering collecting more data on the unregulated gas gathering lines, but the plans are still preliminary and have met with some resistance from the natural gas industry. Agency officials are reviewing more than 100 public comments received about their proposal for gas lines, and also plan to propose a rule that will cover hazardous liquid gathering pipelines by the fall, said Jeannie Layson, a spokeswoman for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

PHMSA delegates some enforcement of its rules to state-level pipeline safety authorities, who the Government Accountability Office surveyed to understand the array of risks associated with gathering lines.

Those state-level agencies told the auditors that construction quality, maintenance practices, unknown locations, and limited or no information on current pipeline integrity all posed safety risks for federally unregulated gathering pipelines.

The expansion of hydraulic fracturing, which involves shattering rock thousands of feet underground with a combination of water, sand and chemicals, promises staggering yields, and drilling also comes with promises of job creation and economic opportunities. But in Fort Worth, where dozens of new gathering lines have been laid in recent years to capture supplies from hundreds of new wells, some residents say there aren’t enough protections from leaks and ruptures due to corrosion.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Jerry Lobdill, a retired chemical engineer who lives in a Fort Worth neighbourhood near several new gas wells and has several lines running near his home. “The gathering lines are unregulated, the city doesn’t know where they are, and they’re buried so you can’t see them.” The recent surge in drilling also has led California lawmakers to write new laws to increase over-

Toxic pay focus shifts beyond mere bank bosses LONDON: The chief executive squeezed along the row to a cramped economyclass window seat on an aging 737 flown by one of Italy’s less popular airlines. He spent the previous hour scanning emails on his BlackBerry in an airport cafe where all the food came wrapped in cellophane.

The regional airport’s budget doesn’t stretch to the hospitality lounges usually associated with executive travel. “People think the life of a chief executive, the international travel, is glamorous. It’s not,” he told the Reuters reporter sharing the flight, adding that the perpetual globetrotting often kept him from his wife and children for weeks on end.

“Something has to give in this job, and it’s usually the family,” he said. “People need to be compensated for that.” In Europe, headlines about “fat cats” no longer refer only to bankers, as popular disdain for bountiful bonuses spreads to other industries. CEO’s are increasingly feeling the heat from a public resistant to the argument that big companies need to pay big salaries if they wish to generate big profits. A sign of the frustration CEOs feel is their increasing tendency, when quizzed on the subject, to refer to personal sacrifice rather than economic argument.

“I work every day ... seven days a week,” oil company BP’s boss Bob Dudley said, a little plaintively, when asked if it was fair that CEOs’ pay should rise much faster than average wages. He made no

mention of BP’s financial performance.

Both CEOs earned over $6 million last year, modest by US standards but contentious in a continent uneasy with yawning gaps between rich and poor.

The tone of the pay debate has grown so poisonous, corporate leaders say, it is tarnishing Europe’s image as a place to do business. “The initial, and in some cases justified, attack on bank bonuses is now infecting the public perception of big business,” Roger Carr, president of lobby group the Confederation of British Industry, wrote in a recent newspaper editorial. “Damaged businesses run by demoralised managers are not a firm foundation for encouraging vital inward investment,” he added.

Bosses vs workers European bosses still earn much less than their US peers. Thomson Reuters ASSET4 data shows median pay for companies’ highest earners, usually the CEO, was $2.5 million in Europe in 2010, against $9.8 million in the US and Canada.

But eight and even nine-figure pay deals, driven by share awards that are a multiple of base salary, are becoming more common in Europe, and raising public hackles.

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, said last week it had paid its boss, Martin Winterkorn, 17 million euros ($22 million) last year, prompting headlines such as “Yet more millions for the bosses” in German newspapers. —Reuters

sight of the industry. Assemblyman Bill Wieckowski, DFremont, is sponsoring a bill now pending before a state Senate committee that would require gas and oil producers to disclose what chemicals they are using when they engage in hydraulic fracturing. “If we’re on this cusp of a boom then maybe we at the very least need to know where these lines are,” Wieckowski said. — AP

WASHINGTON: In this file photo, Range Resources workers stand near the rig that drills into the shale at a well site. — AP

Credit Suisse CEO’s pay halved to $6.35m Dougan pipped as top earner by Shafir

ZURICH: Credit Suisse Group AG chief Brady Dougan took a more than 50 percent pay cut last year as the bank’s earnings slumped 62 percent and its stock tumbled 41 percent, the bank said yesterday. Yet Dougan still drew criticism for banking 5.8 million francs ($6.3 million) in salary and share-based bonuses, which the Swiss lender said recognised his contribution to long-term strategy.

Dougan, paid 12.8 million Swiss francs in 2010, did not comment. Through a host of past share-based bonus programmes, he holds Credit Suisse stock worth more 22.6 million francs and another 5.1 million worth of shares yet to vest.

Dougan was not Credit Suisse’s top earner for 2011 - that honour went to Robert Shafir, who earned 8.5 million francs for running the asset management arm which posted a 10 percent rise in pretax profit.

Shafir’s pay for 2010 was not disclosed. Credit Suisse said Shafir had successfully repositioned the asset management unit and cut costs, focused on more stable fee-based revenue, and managed risk proactively and with discipline.

Both pay disclosures are likely to spark investor ire, particularly in Switzerland where calls for Credit Suisse to trim its costly investment bank have grown louder. “The compensation is too high in proportion to the drop in the bank’s financial results,” Roby Tschopp of Swiss shareholder activist group Actares told Reuters. Specifically, Actares criticized Dougan’s award of a bigger share-based bonus than fixed salary.

At the end of 2011, Shafir held awards based on Credit Suisse shares out of past bonus programs worth nearly 8.6 million Swiss francs, plus vested

shares worth nearly 5 million francs at current market value.

Bonus programs Credit Suisse said it hasn’t paid top executives any cash awards for the last four years, in favour of various stockbased schemes which are linked to the bank’s share price.

The bank has increasingly turned to long-dated stockbased instruments to reward its top executives, and has also begun pooling riskier assets into bonus programs for investment bankers three years ago. In January, the bank unveiled a new instrument dubbed PAF2, which will link bonuses for 5,500 managing directors and directors to some $5 billion in illiquid assets that tumbled in value in the credit crisis. Dougan’s pay is slightly less than that of UBS AG’s Sergio Ermotti, who earned nearly 6.4 million francs for 2011, including more than 4 million in various immediate and deferred cash and share-based bonuses.

Ermotti was named CEO of UBS in September, after former head Oswald Gruebel quit following a $2 billion trading scandal. German rival Deutsche Bank AG paid CEO Josef Ackermann, who will step down in May, 9.35 million euros ($12.34 million) last year, up from 8.98 million euros in 2010, while Asia-focused Standard Chartered Plc said yesterday it paid its investment bank chief Mike Rees $13.4 million in salary, bonus, benefits and long-term share awards. The Swiss banker pay is in sharp contrast to the 17 million pounds ($26.9 million) that Barclays Plc paid boss Bob Diamond last year, with past awards that had been deferred swelling his payout. Diamond was paid 1.35 million pounds salary and 2.7 million in bonus (in deferred shares) for 2011. He also received benefits worth 474,000 pounds, covering things like medical insurance, a chauffeur and tax advice, and shares worth 12.6 million pounds from past awards. — Reuters

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Drowning killed Houston, but drugs took high toll Page 24

Madonna’s ‘MDNA’ sends pop lesson to young guard Page 25

Kim Kardashian arrives at the “True Reflection” Fragrance Launch at The London West Hollywood on March 22, 2012 in West Hollywood, California. —AFP

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Kourtney angry with person who flour bombed her sister Kim

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he 31-year-old star was on the red carpet at The London Hotel in West Hollywood when the incident happened, and pregnant sister Kourtney has suggested they would not have done the same to her. She wrote on twitter: “Classy to flour bomb my sister at her charity event helping women. I wonder if they would have dared thrown the flour at my hormonal and pregnant self! (sic)” Despite Kourtney’s claims it was a “charity event”, their mother Kris Jenner - who was also at the event - revealed it was actually to promote her new fragrance. Before the flour bombing,

she wrote: “So excited for @KimKardashian True Reflection fragrance launch tonite!! Congrats Kimmy I’m so proud of you!! AND you smell amazing LOL!!! (sic)” Kim was ushered into a room where she removed her flour covered jacket and the assailant - a woman was arrested. Speaking afterwards, Kim said: “That probably is the craziest, unexpected, weird thing that ever happened to me. “Like I said to my make-up artist, I wanted more powder and that’s a whole lot of translucent powder right there!”

Kravitz used to watch Jermaine Jackson, Diana Ross play poker

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he ‘Let Love Rule’ singer went to school with the son of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, and said visiting the house of the label boss was an incredible and star-studded experience. He said: “It was the first time I saw that high-end glamour and wealth. “I couldn’t even fathom that people lived like that long driveway, a hangout room with every pinball machine, every videogame imaginable.

“And the house went on for days, suites here and rooms off rooms. They’d be playing poker at night, Jermaine Jackson, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, so I was just blown away.” Lenny - who is of mixed race - was glad to see black people achieving success and treated as equals in society, and said he was further given self confidence to be who he was by his mother. The 47-year-old musician added to The Guardian newspaper: “She wanted me to know exactly who I was, because the reality is that you’re not any more this than that when the split is 50-50.

“She said, be proud of both sides, honour them both, but make sure you know that society will never let you be anything but black. It was a good lesson, though I don’t know how much of it I understood at the age of six.”

Amanda

Seyfried is still ‘getting over’ playing Linda Lovelace

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he 26-year-old actress portrays the troubled porn star in forthcoming biopic ‘Lovelace’ and admits she found it “daunting” taking on the role of a real person. She said: “It was a really challenging role and I don’t know how it’s going to go for me. It’s the first time I’ve had to play a real-life character and I took the experience home with me every night. It’s a really troubled story and I’m still getting over it. “It’s a huge responsibility to be the voice of someone else and it was very difficult because what she had to go through was so dark. She was physically, verbally and sexually abused and it made for a very

strange dynamic between her and her husband, who was also her captor. Her life was ruined by what happened to her.

“There was so much material available to me, which made it less daunting, but it’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.” Amanda also discussed the demise of her two-year relationship with Dominic Cooper in 2010, admitting the split changed her forever. She added in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I got my heart broken pretty hard. It changes you a little bit every time you break someone’s heart or get your heart broken.”

Ray J had no idea Houston was taking drugs

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he singer is furious after his on/off girlfriend’s former sister-in-law Leolah Brown suggested he was to blame for the singer’s death in February, as he was in San Diego when she passed away in her hotel room in Beverly Hills. Ray J’s spokesperson insisted to website TMZ that the star had “no knowledge” Whitney - whose official cause of death was accidental drowning due to the effects of heart disease and cocaine use - had started taking drugs again. Los Angeles

County Coroner released the official cause of Whitney’s death, and revealed as well as cocaine, traces of marijuana, Xanax, Flexeril and Benadryl were found in her system, although they did not contribute to her tragic passing. A source connected to the investigation told TMZ.com, it is “very possible” Whitney had a heart attack that caused her to lose consciousness and drown. The heart attack may have been triggered by hardening of the arteries as a result of cocaine use. The

coroner also noted that neither foul play nor trauma factored into her demise. A final report is expected to be ready for release within two weeks. Whitney was found dead in the bathtub and several pills were found on the scene including Xanax, Ibuprofen, and Midol.

However, investigators found no evidence of cocaine in the hotel room. Whitney - who had an 18-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, with ex-husband Bobby Brown - had a long-running history with drink and drug abuse.

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The man who

Lohan

allegedly struck with her car demanding $100,000

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exercising after baby Harper Seven

Victoria became obsessed with

awyer Mark Geragos - working for his client Thaer Kamal has reportedly contacted the ‘Mean Girls’ actress’ legal representative Shawn Holley claiming to have video evidence of Lindsay striking Thaer before getting out of the driver’s side of the car, wobbling and getting into the passenger seat, where the passenger then takes over the wheel. However, sources who were at the scene at the time have told TMZ.com it did not happen. His lawyer has made it clear he has not yet gone to police and had an interview, and gave Lindsay’s camp until Thursday to

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he fashion designer - who has four kids, Brooklyn, 12, Romeo, nine, Cruz, six, and eight-month-old Harper with husband David Beckham - began an intense fitness regime that included running six days a week to get back into shape so quickly after giving birth to the couple’s daughter last July. She said: “I worked out a lot. I ran a lot. I did it six days a week. I become quite obsessive when I get into something.” The 37-year-old beauty also revealed she and her soccer player spouse like to “cuddle up like little peas in a pod” with their kids, and the couple both juggle their hectic schedules to find quality time to spend with their brood. Victoria explained: “I’ll work early in the morning and then I’ll work late at night but once England and New York go to bed, I have a little bit of time here. David and I make sure our schedules revolve around the kids. Because we are really focused on what we do workwise it allows us to be balanced.”

Victoria admits it took a “long time” before she found something she was good at after her singing career with the Spice Girls ended, but she now relishes creating clothing designs. The brunette - who was known as Posh Spice in the girl group - added to America’s Vogue magazine: “I worked very hard, but it took a long time for me to find something to say, ‘Oh, I’m not bad at this.’ And I’ve found that with what I’m doing now. “I’ve never been a six-foot-tall, skinny model, so therefore I wanted to create an illusion. People think I’m taller than I am - not because of the shoes I wear but because of the way I dress.

It’s all relatively streamlined.”

pay - it is not known if she has.

Thaer also reportedly told people at the scene he was not injured but changed his mind when he heard the troubled star was the one behind the wheel. Lindsay hit out at the accusation she had “scraped” someone with her car last week on twitter. She said: “Scrape? This is all a complete lie.

I’ve been at community service.

Last night, I attempted to wish a friend happy birthday, which I didn’t even get to do because I was freaked out by all of the paparazzi.

These false accusations are absurd.”

Lady Gaga preparing for new tour with gruelling workouts

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he ‘Edge of Glory’ hitmaker has been preparing for her ‘Born This Way Ball’ world tour - which kicks off in Seoul, South Korea, on April 27 - and has been pushing herself in rehearsals. She tweeted: “Hot yoga time, post rehearsal. Though my a** is kicked from dancing I may succumb to the heat and focus on conditioning. No pain, no fear.” Gaga, 25, recently tweeted that she misses her “Monsters” - the name she gives to her fans - and can’t wait for the huge run of shows to start. Gaga has previously revealed her plans and stage sets for the ‘Born This Way Ball’, which include decorating the stage as a gothic medieval castle, and having semicircular a ramp which extends into the crowd

and creates a ‘Monster Pit’ close to the stage.

She previously tweeted: “The new show is easily the most fun I’ve had on stage in ages + YOU’RE not even there yet! IM GONNA DIE OF EXCITEMENT. Throw ice if i do. (sic)” Gaga has always enjoyed having elaborate stage sets and giving daring and extreme performances, even from her earliest days of performing.

Her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, said: “When Gaga started emerging, when she was in her bikini performing ‘Lady Starlight’ and decided that night to actually light hairspray on fire.

“And some people left when that happened a lot of people stayed and thought it was cool. But her father and I were like, honestly, he said, ‘I think she has a screw loose’.”

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

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rugs took many things from Whitney Houston - her pristine voice, clean image and her career - and coroner’s officials have revealed that cocaine also played a role in the Grammy winner’s death in the bathtub of a luxury hotel nearly six weeks ago. Houston drowned accidentally at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Feb 11, and autopsy results released Thursday revealed heart disease and her recent and chronic cocaine use were contributing factors.

The results ended weeks of speculation about what killed the singer-actress at age 48 on the eve of the Grammy Awards and a planned comeback. Instead, Houston now joins the long list of entertainers who have died early with drugs at least partly to blame. Coroner’s officials did not reveal how much cocaine was found in Houston’s system, but said there were signs of recent and chronic use. It was unclear whether she suffered a heart attack before drowning, Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said.

“We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure,” Patricia Houston, the singer’s sister-in-law and manager, said in a statement. Houston’s death the night before the Grammys altered the awards ceremony and brought back immediate memories of the singer in her better days, belting out hits and starring in the feature films such as “The Bodyguard” and “Waiting to Exhale.” Years later, Houston’s drug use had robbed her of her ability to hit high notes and left her once clean image tarnished.

“The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy,” Houston told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 television interview with then-husband Bobby Brown by her side.

In 2009, after she had divorced Brown, she told Oprah Winfrey that her cocaine and marijuana use took over her life. Both drugs were found in Houston’s system after she died, though the marijuana and several other prescription drugs played no role in her death, coroner’s officials said.

“I had so much money and so much access to what I wanted,” Houston told Winfrey. “I didn’t think about the singing part any-

more. I was looking for my young womanhood.” Houston’s planned comeback after that interview didn’t pan out, but she was taking another shot this year with her appearance in a remake of the film “Sparkle.” She stars as the mother of a family of girls who form a singing group and struggle with fame and addiction. She also sang for the film, delivering a soulful rendition of the gospel hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”

It is unclear what impact, if any, the autopsy results will have on the film, although untimely death has not been an impediment to the posthumous releases of other actors and entertainers. Heath Ledger’s performance in “The Dark Knight” helped propel the film to blockbuster status and earned the actor a posthumous Oscar. He died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January 2008, months before the film’s release.

More recently, Amy Winehouse’s duet “Body and Soul” with Tony Bennett earned them a Grammy Award, months after the singer died unexpectedly in London. An inquest determined she died from an accidental alcohol overdose. A spokesman for Sony Pictures did not return an email message Thursday seeking comment on whether Houston’s autopsy results would alter marketing of “Sparkle.”

It will be a couple weeks before the exact amount of cocaine in Houston’s system is released, officials said. The drug has been known to cause damage to the heart and could have cause Houston’s death, said Dr. Michael Fishbein, professor of pathology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He had no role in the investigation. He said a likely scenario was that Houston’s cocaine use interfered with the normal function of her heart. “There’s no reason to drown in a bathtub unless you’re incapacitated,” Fishbein said.

Houston’s friend and collaborators said after her death that they didn’t believe she was still abusing drugs, and she described as being a complete professional on the “Sparkle” set. Houston, a sensation from her first, eponymous album in 1985, was one of the world’s best-selling artists from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, turning out such hits as “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” “How Will I Know,” “The Greatest Love of All” and “I Will Always Love You.” She was buried last month in a New Jersey cemetery next to her father after an emotional four-hour funeral service that was attended by friends, family and superstars such as Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson and Roberta Flack. — AP

A file photo taken on November 22, 2009 shows US singer Whitney Houston gesturing before accepting an award at the 2009 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles.— AFP

This Jan 17, 2009 file photo shows singer Whitney Houston at the BET Honors in the Warner Theatre in Washington.

Coroner’s officials said Thursday that Houston drowned, but her death was also caused by heart disease and cocaine use that suggested she was chronically using the drug. Houston died Feb. 11, in California at the age of 48. —AP

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Madonna’s ‘MDNA’ sends pop lesson to young guard

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ostling for space with younger rivals like Lady Gaga, Madonna brings a grown woman’s voice to her new album “MDNA”, out on Monday, on which the 53-year-old Queen of Pop evokes the pain of her divorce. Since her last album, the danceflavored “Hard Candy” in 2008, new faces have crowded into the space long ruled by the Material Girl: Rihanna for sexiness, Lana Del Rey for edgy glamour, and the ever-theatrical Lada Gaga.

So when Madonna announced she was working on a new album, the music world raised a skeptical eyebrow: put frankly, can a woman in her 50s still set the pace in a youth-driven pop world? The first track from the album, “Give Me All Your Luvin”, which Madonna performed at the Superbowl last month, failed to win over the music press.

But critics have since given a thumbs up to Madonna’s 12th studio album, which leaked on the Internet this week ahead of its release. “Madonna is still very much the Queen of Pop,” wrote the US magazine Billboard. “Nearly 30 years after first hitting the Billboard charts with her debut single ‘Everybody’, Madonna is still showing the world how it’s done.” Likewise, Britain’s Daily Mirror wrote that “Madonna’s new album shows the young pretenders she is still a force to be reckoned with.” Madonna teamed up with a host of carefully chosen collaborators for “MDNA”, most notably M.I.A, the British hip-hop star who set tongues wagging at the Superbowl with a brief flip of the middle finger to the cameras.

Production side, she signed up the French DJ Martin Solveig and Italian duo Alle and Benny Benassi, masters of the dance floor hit. The album-whose title is a play on the nightclub drug MDMAis peppered with hedonistic dance tracks, but they share space with highly personal pieces in which Madonna alludes to her 2008 divorce from British director Guy Ritchie. Several tracks-both gentle ballads and harder hip-hop-flavored pieces are odes to her failed marriage, like “I Don’t Give A” where she sings that “I tried to be your wife/I diminished myself”.

And “Gang Bang”, a hard-electro that could be the soundtrack to a Quentin Tarantino movie, rings like a revenge fantasy, as she sings ominously of shooting a lover in the head. “There is something remarkable about Madonna’s decision to share her suffering the way she has once shared her pleasure,” wrote the Chicago Tribune. “Her music has always been about liberation and oppression but for the first time the oppression is internal: loss and sadness.” Hot on the heels of a record-setting Super Bowl halftime show last month, Madonna is set to hopscotch around the globe in support of her new album, in most ambitious world tour ever.

The tour-Madonna’s first since her wildly successful “Sticky and Sweet” outing in 2008 and 2009 — kicks off on May 29 in Tel Aviv.

She will go on to perform in Abu Dhabi and Istanbul, before a 22city swing through Europe starting in June and a 26-city North American leg beginning in August.— AFP

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US singer Katy Perry performs during the German music award Echo ceremony in Berlin Thursday. —AP

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umanitarians trying to organize an unprecedented US visit

by North Korea’s national orchestra hope to strike a chord of reconciliation between the two enemy nations, but they still face plenty of hurdles before a single note is played on American soil. Global Resource Services, an Atlanta-based humanitarian group, is working to bring the North Korean National Symphony Orchestra to the US this spring for an 18-day visit that would kick off in Atlanta and end in a rousing finale in New York.

The group has brought 40 delegations from North Korea to the US over the last 15 years but none have faced as many diplomatic, security or logistical roadblocks as this proposal. It involves flying 164 North Korean musicians, journalists and officials here for a series of concerts, training sessions and public appearances, all captured by a behind-the-scenes documentary.

The plans are far from complete. Organizers are still working to raise $3 million to pay for the trip and to get clearance from both governments for the journey. They also must secure visas from the US State Department. Officials there declined to comment about the effort Still, the nonprofit’s leaders are optimistic the full orchestra could touch down in the US this spring.

“We’re still working on our plans,” said Robert Springs, the group’s president. “And we’re trying to leave the door open and to work as closely as possible with authorities so we’re ready when the time is right.” Springs has plenty of experience with navigating the challenges involving the two nations, which remain enemy states after a three-year war that ended in a truce in 1953. His group has sent three musical groups to North Korea, including the Christian rock group Casting Crowns. It is also preparing to send a 150-member Georgia-based chorus and orchestra to North Korea in a few weeks.

Springs first started working to bring the national orchestra to the US in 2010. He was finalizing preparations for a February visit when it was put on hold after the death of North Korea leader Kim Jong Il in December. He said cultural exchanges are an important part of humanitarian work that also includes delivering food, digging new freshwater wells and training physicians.—AP

rika Van Pelt, who transformed herself by chopping off her blonde locks and dying them dark, was the first Top 10 contestant to be kicked off popular TV singing show “American Idol” on Thursday.

Van Pelt, who found herself in the bottom three with fellow contestants DeAndre Brackensick and Heejun Han, appeared emotional as she was shown a montage of her “American Idol” journey.

Van Pelt, 26, who has been lauded by judges for her voice, has experienced a number of close calls during her time on “Idol.” Though mentor Jimmy Iovine said that Van Pelt “deserves to be in the top of the batch,” she was criticized by judges for “oversinging” Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” on Wednesday’s performance show of songs made famous by Joel.

Judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson declined to use their once per season “save” to keep her in the competition. Van Pelt’s ouster leaves nine aspiring singers to compete in the TV singing contest. Thursday’s show featured performances by hipster pop princess Lana Del Ray, and “Idol” second runner-up from 2011 Haley Reinhart, singing her new single “Free.” “American Idol”, which first aired on Fox in 2002, has launched the careers of pop superstars Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Jennifer Hudson.

Now in its eleventh season, the once dominant TV show is getting stiff competition this year from rival contest “The Voice” on NBC. This season’s winner will be decided by public votes in May, and will take home a recording contract. — Reuters

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oung US movie fans flocked to midnight screenings of teen cinema phenomenon “The Hunger Games” early yesterday, as the movie vies to set a US box office record this weekend. The post-apocalyptic film was already in the top three for advance sales, according to online retailer Fandango, which was selling 10 tickets for the movie every second, with 2,500 screenings already sold out before it opened. “A lot of people came for the premiere and this is only the first movie, so the next ones are going to be bigger and bigger,” said 18-year-old high school student Natasha McClellan, before a midnight screening in Los Angeles. Teacher Daniela Perry, 32, added: “I’m expecting to cry in this movie. There’s some really emotional parts, some kids die. In the book they describe it in such a beautiful way, so I’m expecting to see that.

“I cried during the book,” she told AFP. “The Hunger Games” is based on the thriller of the same name by US novelist Suzanne Collins, part of a trilogy that has sold 30 million copies worldwide, the latest teen publishing phenomenon in the wake of the “Twilight” saga. Set in Panem, a fictional land born of the ashes of a ruined North America, the film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a young girl forced to fight for her life in a Roman circus-style televised blood sport-known as “The Hunger Games.” Hyped by marketers as a potential new “Twilight” or “Harry Potter,” the movie hit screens in France and across much of Europe on Wednesday, followed by a global release on Thursday and yesterday.

By Thursday afternoon, the movie was Fandango’s third all-time biggest advance ticket seller, behind 2009’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” and last year’s seriesending “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” The film represented an overwhelming 96 percent of Fandango’s

ticket sales on Thursday, it said, adding that 62 percent of ticket-buyers plan to see the film more than once on the big screen.

Some 89 percent of fans polled by Fandango said they plan to see the movie on its opening weekend-fueling specula-

followed by “The Dark Knight” with $158 million, according to figures released by Box Office Mojo. Early yesterday in Los Angeles, 27-year-old interior designer Heather Hewitt at a midnight screening with five girl friends-said she had read all

Fans line up to see the midnight shows of “The Hunger Games,” dressed as characters from the movie at the 34th Street Loews AMC Theatre, Thursday in New York. —AP tion the movie could vie for a US box office record. Industry observers have predicted it could well exceed past contenders for best opening weekend of a March release, passing the $116.1 million that “Alice in Wonderland,” starring Johnny Depp, sold over its first three days in 2010.

The two biggest-grossing openers were both summer releases: the last Harry Potter film took $169 million in its first weekend,

three of the books. “I read the first one in one night and then the second one was good, but it took me a normal time to read it. And the third one was really good. So I’m really excited to see this first one,” she said.— AFP

Movie goers wait in line for the opening of “The Hunger Games” Thursday at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. The science fiction action-drama film is based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. —AFP

US, Canada 2011 box office slumps, global sales up

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icket sales at US and Canadian theaters suffered a 4 percent slump in 2011 to $10.2 billion despite a slew of big studio-funded hits that helped boost the global box office, a Hollywood industry group said on Thursday. The US and Canada film box office fell from 2010’s $10.6 billion in revenue, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents major US film studios.

US and Canadian theaters sold 1.3 billion tickets in 2011, its lowest level in a decade and its second consecutive year of declines, a troubling statistic for both the theaters and Hollywood studios, which have traditionally relied on theatrical showings to promote their movies for later sales on DVDs and through digital outlets. John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, called the slump “disappointing to our US operators.”

Despite a year in which studios released big-budget crowd pleasers such as “Harry Potter” and “Twilight,” Fithian said “a few more good movies” were needed for the box office to recover in the aftermath of 2010’s first-quarter box office hits “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Offsetting the dour domestic numbers, the global box office increased by 3 percent from 2010, raking in $32.6 billion during 2011, strengthened by ongoing growth of theaters in international markets.

China’s box office alone grew by 35 percent in 2011, as the nation stepped up construction of 3D and large-screen Imax theaters. Last year’s five top-earning films in the US and Canadian market was led by the final installment in the “Harry Potter” franchise, followed by “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1,” “The Hangover 2” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” with box office revenues ranging from $241 million to $381 million each.

Sales of movie tickets for 3D films fell by $400 million in 2011 from $2.2 billion in 2010, which was spurred by the success of “Avatar.”

Frequent theater-goers, who represent only 10 percent of the US and Canadian population but purchased half of all cinema tickets in 2011, were led by the 25-39 age demographic compared to the 18-24 demographic leading 2010.

The foreign box office’s $22.4 billion market was led by Japan with $2.3 billion in sales, ahead of China and France with $2 billion each. Currently, China is building eight cinema screens a day and has plans for 175 Imax theaters this year, said former US Senator Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the MPAA. Fithian said global box office growth was the result of three factorsgreater access in important places like China, building modern cinemas in emerging markets, and a diverse mix of films overseas. “When you have more diverse movies to offer, combined with good cinemas, you continue to drive growth,” he said.

—Reuters

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

In this image released by Disney Junior, the character Doc McStuffins is shown with her stuffed animal friends, from left, Chilly, Stuff, Lambie and Hallie in a scene from Disney Junior’s animated series “Doc McStuffins.” The show, about a six-year-old girl who runs and operates a clinic for broken toys and worn out stuffed animals out of the playhouse in her backyard, was aired yesterday, on the new 24-hour Disney Junior channel. —AP

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ate on a Monday evening in the AMC offices across from Madison Square Garden, staffers were still high-fiving each other after learning their flagship network had again broken cable network viewing records with an improbable show about zombies. ‘The Walking Dead’ snagged 9 million viewers in its season finale on Sunday night, surpassing anything on cable before.

It’s the latest hit for AMC Networks Chief Executive Josh Sapan, and Wall Street will no doubt be wondering how he will follow it up. All eyes now turn to the fifth season of AMC’s multiple award-winning 1960s advertising drama ‘Mad Men’, which goes to air in the United States on Sunday night. Anticipation is running high after a 17-month hiatus following a widely reported contract dispute with creator and producer Matthew Weiner.

AMC says the delay was due to a “strategic scheduling decision” to get the show on air at the best possible time. Sapan, 61, has led AMC Networks (formerly Rainbow Media) for almost a quarter of a century, developing four networks - AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and WEtv and studio business IFC Films, under the auspices of the Dolan family, who control the firm.

“What’s next? More capability and, somewhat more hopefully, rational investment in original content,” said Sapan.

He won plenty of praise for taking a big gamble on ‘Mad Men’ five years ago after HBO passed. He’s built a “new” network around it with other critically acclaimed hits, notably ‘Breaking Bad’. —Reuters

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ne of Walt Disney’s oldest drawings is seeing the light of day after being locked away for nearly 40 years. A rough 1928 image of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the wacky predecessor to Mickey Mouse, was brought out of the The Walt Disney Co. archive this week and showcased at an event unveiling “Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two,” an upcoming action-adventure game for Nintendo’s Wii, Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 that allows players to control both Mickey and Oswald.

The mischievous Oswald was co-created by Disney before Mickey, but he was lost in a 1928 contract dispute with Universal Studios. Oswald hopped back to Disney in 2006 when CEO Bob Iger brokered a deal that sent sportscaster Al Michaels to Universal-NBC. Oswald’s first appearance since his return came in 2010’s “Epic Mickey” as the ruler of a forgotten realm.

“We’ve always known about the character and loved him and wished that we could do things with him, but he wasn’t a character that belonged to us,” said Walt Disney Co. archive director Becky Cline. “In 2006, we were over the moon when Bob Iger made (the deal).”

Cline noted that most of the drawings from Disney’s early Oswald cartoons were destroyed, likely because there was a lack of storage when his studio moved to a new facility in Burbank, Calif., in 1939. She said the image of Oswald comes from a box of drawings that was found in the 1970s and has been preserved in the Disney archives for the past 40 years.

The image, drawn on paper in graphite, comes from the 1928 animated short film “Sky Scrappers.” It shows Oswald shielding himself from falling bricks with an umbrella. Warren Spector, the creative director at “Epic Mickey 2” developer Junction Point Studios in Austin, Texas, said he’s aiming to include the image of Oswald somewhere within the sequel.

“It’s amazing,” said Spector. “Everybody at Disney is so proud that he’s back. I’m no different. It’s just so

exciting to be a part of bringing that character back into the world and to see people respond so affectionately toward him. Now, to have Mickey and Oswald brothers united to save the world, it’s unbelievable. I feel really privileged.”— AP

In this animation drawing released by Disney, an image from the 1928 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short, “Sky Scrappers,” is shown. The film was the 22nd Oswald short cartoon produced, and was part of Walt Disney’s early career success. —AP

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SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Maharashtrian marked in Mumbai New Year

Bollywood actress Manjari Phadnis celebrates ‘Gudi Padwa’ or the Maharashtrian New Year in Mumbai yesterday. — AFP

Indian people dressed in traditional attire dance during a procession to mark “Gudi Padwa,” or Maharashtrian New Year, in Mumbai yesterday. —AP

A young girl dressed in traditional attire performs during a procession to mark “Gudi Padwa,” or Maharashtrian New Year, in Mumbai, India, yesterday.

People dressed in traditional attire dance during a procession to mark “Gudi Padwa,” or Maharashtrian New Year, in Mumbai yesterday.—AP

An Indian man dressed as demon Ravan takes part in a procession to mark “Gudi Padwa,” or Maharashtrian New Year in Mumbai. The placards, from left to right, read “drought,” Malnutrition,” “Traitor,” “Inflation,” “corruption,” and “Female foeticide.” —AP

Indian women take part in a procession celebrating ‘Gudi Padwa’ or the Maharashtrian New Year in Mumbai yesterday.

Gudi Padwa is the Hindu new year for the people of India’s state of Maharashtra and marks the end of a harvest and the beginning of a new one, which for an agricultural community signifies the beginning of a new year. —AFP

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SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Devotees participate in a chariot procession during the Pachare festival, at Ason in Katmandu, Nepal yesterday. The festival is celebrated by the Newari community and mainly marked as a day of getting together with family. —AP

Budapest Spring Festival bets on Malkovich, Vengerov Review brings back music of vanished era

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hen money runs low, it sometimes pays to gamble, and that’s what the Budapest Spring Festival did this year lining up Hollywood star John Malkovich to portray a serial killer, and Russian virtuoso Maxim Vengerov to play his violin. Vengerov, who cancelled two Budapest performances after he was sidelined in 2008 by a shoulder injury, but began playing regularly again in public last year, showed up last Saturday for a sold-out concert in Budapest’s Palace of Arts concert hall.

There has been even greater suspense about Malkovich and whether he would appear for two performances of “The Infernal Comedy”, based on the autobiography of Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger, in a one-man show interspersed with opera arias and music, but festival director Zsofia Vitezy is confident. “There are always some risks in a festival like this, we call them the risky performances,” Vitezy told Reuters in an interview this week.

“But we are through with Vengerov and the contract is signed with Malkovich so I hope nothing bad will happen...I’m sure he’s going to show up.” It helps that Vitezy has “the show must go on” spirit, because these are gloomy times in Hungary, which took a bailout from the European Union and the IMF in 2008, and is in the process of seeking more loans to keep its economy afloat. Vitezy said the budget for the festival, marking its 32nd year and supported largely by the national and local governments, was cut by a third, forcing a scramble to put on a good show while saving money. The overall budget, including funds from sponsors, is 425

million forints ($1.91 million).

Inevitably, there were casualties. Vitezy scrapped one big concert, which she declined to describe further, and pared back other events, for example by cancelling, because of the high travel costs, the participation of a Mexican percussion group. She also reduced the festival to 11 days from 17, which might be bad for tourism but helped maintain artistic integrity. The festival ends on March 26. “We had to decide whether to have a two-week festival with weaker programs, or 11 days with stronger ones, and people say it was a good decision,” she said.

LOCAL FLAVOUR Cutbacks aside, the festival has branched out from what used to be a fairly strict diet of classical music and opera, with the occasional jazz concert or ballet thrown in. There is now a greater variety of international and locally produced content. One of the most ambitious new productions was a review of what the festival program calls “European salon music in the first half of the 20th century”, mounted in the charming bijou Festival Theatre of the Palace of Arts by a high-spirited and handsome troupe of six Hungarians, including locally well-known actors and actresses. The idea was to show the interactions of pre-war, music hall songs in European capitals, from the Iberian peninsula to the Balkans, but “Musica, Musique, Musik” also succeeded in capturing the flavour of a time that, for director Reka Pelsoczy, can never return.

“In these songs, you can sense that death is in them,” Pelsoczy, who is an actress and direc-

tor at the Jozsef Katona Theatre in Budapest, told Reuters. “These are old songs and I know what happened afterwards, something happened that meant the world could never be the same again.”

The songs, many sung in German but others in so many languages it was hard to keep track, were cleverly acted out so it was a rare ditty that did not come through, even if listeners did not know a word of the Yiddish, Polish or Greek

being sung. Had it been an opera, the audience would have been within its rights to demand subtitles, but Gergely Zoldi, who wrote the script, said polyglot performances were the rule in pre-war music halls. “So this is a show that you can take anywhere and it will be understood as little as it is here,” he joked. —Reuters

Visitors to Indonesian Hot Air Balloon festival get inside a balloon in Sentul on the outskirt of Jakarta, Indonesia yesterday. —AP

technology SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Google opens Amazon wilds to armchair explorers SAN FRANCISCO: Google’s free online map service began letting people explore portions of the Amazon Basin from the comfort of their homes. Pictures taken along the Rio Negro in Brazil last year using camera-mounted three wheeled bicycles have been woven into Google Maps, allowing users to virtually venture on waterways and trails and in even villages.

“Take a virtual boat ride down the main section of the Rio Negro, and float up into the smaller tributaries where the forest is flooded,” Google Street View Amazon project lead Karin Tuxen-Bettman said in a blog post.

“Enjoy a hike along an Amazon forest trail and see where Brazil nuts are harvested,” she continued. “You can even see a forest critter if you look hard enough.” Map images included scenes from Tumbira, the largest community in the Rio Negro Reserve, and other communities along the river.

“We hope this Street View collection provides access to this special corner of the planet

that many of us otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to experience,” Tuxen-Bettman said.

“We’re thrilled to help everyone from researchers and scientists to armchair explorers around the world learn more about the Amazon and better understand how local communities there are working to preserve this unique environment for future generations.”

“Trikes,” the camera-mounted three wheelers typically used to capture street scenes for Google online maps, were launched in August from Tumbira in a first-ever project to let Internet users virtually explore the world’s largest river, its wildlife and its communities.

The project was the brainchild of Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) which went to Google Earth with an ambitious vision of turning “Street View” into a river view in the lush and precious Amazon Basin.

“It is incredible,” FAS project leader Gabriel Ribenboim told AFP as trikes went into action, one atop a boat and another pedaled on land.

“It is very important to show the world not only the environment and the way of life of the traditional population, but to sensitize the world to the challenges of climate change, deforestation and combating poverty.”

Trikes have cameras that continuously snap images in every direction. The pictures are woven into Google Maps and Earth services so people can virtually peer about as if they were there.

Satellite positioning equipment on trikes pinpoints where images are gathered.

Members of a Google team taught FAS members and local residents how to use the trikes and a special tripod-mounted camera tailored for capturing inside of schools, community centers, and other public spaces.

The camera, with a fish-eye lens to take panoramic sky-to-ground images, was used to recreate walks along rain-forest trails.

“We want the world to see that the Amazon is not a place only with plants and animals,” said FAS chief executive Virgilio Viana.

FCC, Internet providers pledge anti-botnet effort Experts say steps are good but more needed WASHINGTON: US Internet service providers told communications regulators that they will do more to alert customers whose computers have been taken over by criminal hackers’ robot networks, or botnets, and help them get rid of the malicious software.

Comcast Corp, CenturyLink and some small Internet service providers, or ISPs, already contact customers whose computers have software surreptitiously installed so they are roped into botnets, a collection of affected computers.

A single hacker can remotely control thousands of machines, using them to send spam aimed at stealing personal or financial data. Policymakers are eager to get industry more involved in policing botnets and preventing security problems from slowing the growth of the

Internet market, worth about $8 trillion a year.

But most ISPs do not warn customers whose computers are in botnets because the effort is expensive and some customers may regard the monitoring as a violation of their privacy. Following a firm push from the Federal Communications Commission, eight large ISPs in an industry working group told the FCC on Thursday that they would not only work to detect botnets on their networks, but would also help affected customers find resources to clean up their computers.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the working group had identified “smart, practical, voluntary solutions that are consistent with these principles, will materially improve our cybersecurity.”

The companies announced two other

MONACO: A man demonstrates the recharging of an electric car battery as he plugs in a Kangoo Renault electric car at a charging point at the EVER exhibition (Ecologic Vehicles and Renewable Energies international exhibition), in Monaco. —AP

steps on Thursday.

They also said they would implement a more secure version of the website naming system, called DNSSEC, to prevent thieves from posing as a bank, for example, by using a similar domain name to steal money from its customers.

They also pledged to take steps to ensure that Web traffic goes through the shortest and most reliable routes. The goal would be to prevent a repeat of a 2010 incident in which some 15 percent of Internet traffic was diverted through Chinese servers for about 18 minutes.

The reason for the diversion, whether an innocent mistake or cyber espionage, has never been established. The companies which have already implemented the three steps or will implement them are AT&T, Comcast, CenturyLink, Cox , Sprint Nextel Corp, Time Warner Cable, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Communications.

Genachowski estimated that these companies served 80 percent of US Internet users. James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the ISPs’ commitment was “a big deal against botnets.”

“Right now the US is one of the biggest source of botnets in the world. I always tell foreigners it’s not because we’re malicious; it’s because we’re incompetent,” Lewis said. But experts also pressed for efforts to stop the more sophisticated hacks, like the attacks on defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp, Web search leader Google Inc , Citigroup bank and exchange operator Nasdaq OMX. And Dmitri Alperovitch, a cybersecurity expert, said he worries that other nations’ wholesale theft of business secrets, intellectual property and classified data will not stop because of the steps announced on Thursday.

“It doesn’t mean that it’s bad. You just have to realize that against the nation-state threat, those things will fail,” he said. —Reuters

“It is also a place with people, and people who are not completely at odds with the current thinking of global sustainability.” FAS hopes that the Google project will not only entice people to experience the wonder of the Amazon in real life, but show that people can thrive in harmony with the rain forest.

“Deforestation is not the result of stupidity,” Viana told AFP at the outset of the Google project. “It is an economic decision; so we have to make people earn money with the forest standing.”

The goal of the project was to capture a 50kilometer (30-mile) stretch of the Rio Negro, and along the way train a local team that will keep the imaging gear to broaden the mission.

“We want to create a digital mirror of the world, and this is an important place on the planet,” Tuxen-Bettman told AFP as a trike made its maiden run. “Eventually, maybe we will have the whole basin mapped,” she said hopefully. —AFP

Review

New iPad screen is eye-opening upgrade NEW YORK: Beware the new iPad, not because it’s an inferior product, but because it’s a superior one. Using one is like living the life of a millionaire for a day, then getting dumped back in your regular life. Your eyes are now opened to how miserable your existence is.

The big culprit here is its stunner screen. It has four times the resolution of the previous models. That’s a big, big jump, which makes text and high-resolution images look amazingly sharp and clear. High-definition movies look amazingly detailed. At first, I wasn’t that excited about the prospect of a high-resolution screen. For the past year and a half, I’ve read scores of books and more newspaper articles than I can count on the original iPad and the iPad 2. I’ve never felt that the screen wasn’t sharp enough. But after only a few hours with the third version, which went on sale last week and is known only as “the new iPad,” it’s like my eyes got really, really picky.

Suddenly, I saw how clumsy and blurry text looked on the older models and how straight lines sawtoothed their way across the screen.

Color reproduction is also improved greatly over the previous models. I’ve never been unhappy with the way the iPad 2 displayed colors, but you can tell at a glance that the colors are more vibrant and nuanced on the new screen. On the old iPad, the Facebook icon looks blue; on the new one, you can see that it’s more of a purple tone. Useful? Maybe not. But once you’ve used it, you won’t want to go back to a less-colorful screen.

The new iPad’s “Retina” screen, with its resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels, is far better than the competition can muster, and I have no doubt it will set a new standard for portable devices. In fact, I wonder why we haven’t had screens this good before. Why don’t we have laptops like that? How about desktop monitors? We deserve better! Now, the improved screen does come with a significant drawback: It draws a lot more power. One reason is that the graphics chip now has four times as many pixels to handle. When a chip has more work to do, it draws more power. Another reason: Smaller pixels let through less light, so even though there are more of them, the imageforming layer is darker than on a standard screen, sort of the way a denser mesh screen blocks more light. To counter this effect, Apple boosted the number of light-emitting diodes that shine through the screen from 36 to 84, according to research firm IHS iSuppli, which took a unit apart. More LEDs mean the screen’s brightness ends up being the same, at the cost of higher power consumption.

Still, Apple has managed to keep battery life nearly the same. The company rates it at 10 hours of use, the same as the iPad 2, and my testing indicates that the figure holds up. But it did so by making the battery a lot bigger. That means the new iPad is heavier and thicker than the iPad 2. In each case, the increase is less than 10 percent - noticeable, but hardly a deal breaker. —AP

technology SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Web address controversy deepens after US warning Brands rush to apply for own Web domains

TOKYO: A model poses as Japanese electronics giant Sony introduces a new line of the company’s “Bravia” television sets in Tokyo yesterday. The new Bravia series, from 22 to 55-inch models, improves the picture quality with high contrast LCD panels and connectivity with cloud-based movie or music services. — AFP

Google charts a careful course through Asia’s maps NEW YORK: Google rushed out its panoramic Street.

View maps in Thailand yesterday as part of the country’s efforts to show tourist hot spots have recovered from last year’s floods.

But it also marked something of a change of fortunes for Google itself, which has weathered several storms in Asia over its mapping products. Google rolled out 360-degree images of the streets of Bangkok, the resort island of Phuket and the northern city of Chiang Mai. Street View allows users to click through a seamless view of streets via the company’s Google Maps website. Google plans to use a tricycle-mounted camera to photograph places that can’t be reached by car, such as parks and monuments. The Tourism Authority of Thailand will launch a poll to choose which sites to photograph first.

“We really want to show that Thailand isn’t still underwater,” said David Marx, Google’s Tokyo-based communications manager. “People should see Thailand for what it is.” Pongrit Abhijatapong, marketing information technology officer at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said it was less about showing that Thailand was back to normal. “Rather, we hope tourists can see with their own eyes what Thailand is like. Street View will help their decision-making process in a positive way in regards to visiting Thailand.”

Google has not always been able to count on such enthusiasm elsewhere in Asia, illustrating the challenges the company has faced besides high-profile spats with China over privacy and India over removing offensive content.

While Google has faced issues globally - most recently over its changes to its user privacy policy Google’s efforts to map and photograph streets across Asia have encountered cultural, political and security obstacles. In Japan, for example, Google was required to reshoot its street level photos in 12 cities in 2009 after complaints the 360-degree camera, set atop a vehicle plying Japan’s narrow streets, was photographing the insides of people’s homes.

And in South Korea its Seoul offices were raided in 2010 after police discovered that the Street View vehicle was not just taking photos but also capturing data over Wi-Fi networks.

In India, Google’s plans to capture street-level images of Bangalore were blocked by Indian police in 2011. Google says it is in discussions with the Indian government “on ways to move forward.”

Marx pointed out that Street View had been rolled out without problems elsewhere in Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, and is about to begin photographing Malaysia.

The cases in Japan and Korea have been resolved, Marx said, and Street View was now live and popular in both countries. — Reuters

LONDON: A controversial attempt to expand Internet addresses far beyond the likes of .com, .org or .net has provoked a rare threat from the US government to withdraw a key licence from the body that runs the Internet’s core functions.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) depends on its U.S. government contract to coordinate the unique addresses that tell computers where to find each other, without which the global Internet could not function.

But this month the government warned that the non-profit body’s rules against conflicts of interest were not strong enough and only temporarily extended ICANN’s contract which it has held since its formation in 1998 - instead of renewing it as many in the industry had expected.

A failure to secure the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) contract would severely damage ICANN’s ability to implement its address expansion programme, the most radical move in the organisation’s history.

The conflict of interest concerns arise from the fact that some past and present board members stand to benefit financially from the liberalisation of Web addresses through ties to organisations that make money from registering new domain names or consulting on the expansion.

Currently, organisations are restricted to a couple of dozen so-

called top-level domains, such as .com, .org or .net, or country code domains such as .co.uk. ICANN wants to enable brands, cities or firms seeking to build new Internet businesses to apply to own and run their own domains, for example .apple, .nyc or .gay, giving them more control over their Web presence and a greater choice of names.

“Not to award ICANN the IANA contract would be to completely knock it off its foundations,” said Philip Corwin, who is legal counsel for the Internet Commerce Association, an organisation for domain name investors and developers.

“ICANN needs that contract to have the authority they need to really make this programme work.” The contract has been renewed until September. A whole industry has already sprung up to take advantage of ICANN’s initiative. One of those is Top Level Domain Holdings , a London-listed firm set up to acquire and operate the new domains, whose chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush, was chairman of ICANN when it approved the change.

TLDH has already put in 40 applications and intends to submit more for domains including .miami and .music.

Many critics are sceptical as to whether ICANN will achieve its stated aim of boosting competition and innovation, pointing to previous experiments with the likes of .aero, .travel and .museum, which have gone largely unused.

But convinced or not, hundreds of

consumer brands feel forced to apply for their own domains - a costly and complex process that comes with obligations to actively operate the domain - fearing they will lose out to rivals if they do not.

A three-month window will close on April 12, likely for years and possibly for ever.

A recent survey by Internet registry services company Afilias, which is applying for about 150 new domains on behalf of clients and already provides key infrastructure for .org, .info and .mobi, found considerable uncertainty about the process.

Of 200 major consumer brands it surveyed in the United States and Britain, 53 percent were either not aware that they could participate in the process at all or did not know that the application window was open and when it would close.

Of those who were aware, however, 54 percent of brands were in the process of applying, and only 6 percent said they definitely would not.

“There’s a buzz about this now,” said non-executive Afilias director Jonathan Robinson.

Others with less of a stake in the process call such behaviour outright defensive.

“Of the people that I’m talking to, the vast majority of those that are moving ahead to apply don’t have a concrete business initiative in mind for how they will use the registry,” said Jeff Ernst of technology analysis firm Forrester. —Reuters

NEW YORK: In this artist’s rendering provided by Friends of the High Line on Monday, examples of the “Peel-UP” design tables, benches and even a see-saw that will be part of the latest phase of the High Line are shown. With variants already in use in the open sections of the park, the technology will be adapted into the landscape design of the new section. The final phase of the former freight rail line to be converted to a city park is expected to open to the public in Spring 2014. — AP

TV listings SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

00:50 Pit Bulls And Parolees 01:45 Untamed & Uncut 02:40 After The Attack 03:35 Sharkman 04:30 Human Prey 05:25 Wild France 06:20 Gorilla School 06:45 Xtremely Wild 07:10 Wild Africa Rescue 07:35 Wild Africa Rescue 08:00 Monkey Life 08:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 09:15 Crocodile Hunter 10:10 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 10:35 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 11:05 The Really Wild Show 11:30 The Really Wild Show 12:00 Gorilla School 12:25 Project Puppy 12:55 Corwin’s Quest 13:50 Wildlife SOS 14:15 Wildlife SOS 14:45 Animal Planet’s Most Outrageous 15:40 Wild Animal Orphans 16:05 Wild Animal Orphans 16:35 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 17:30 Big Five Challenge 18:25 Untamed China With Nigel Marven 19:20 Wild France 20:15 Wild France 21:10 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 22:05 Austin Stevens: Most Dangerous...

23:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 23:25 Deep Into The Wild With Nick Baker 23:55 Animal Planet’s Most Outrageous

00:20 Doctor Who Confidential 00:40 My Family 01:10 Doctors 01:40 Jekyll 02:30 Taking the Flak 03:00 The Cup 03:30 My Family 04:00 Fimbles 04:20 Charlie and Lola 04:30 Jackanory Junior 04:45 Boogie Beebies 05:00 Buzz & Tell 05:05 Tikkabilla 05:35 The Large Family 05:45 The Adventures of Spot 05:50 Fimbles 06:10 Charlie and Lola 06:20 Jackanory Junior 06:35 Boogie Beebies 06:50 Buzz & Tell 06:55 Tikkabilla 07:20 The Large Family 07:35 Last of the Summer Wine 08:05 Keeping Up Appearances 08:35 The Weakest Link 09:20 Doctor Who 10:05 Doctor Who Confidential 10:20 Eastenders 10:50 Eastenders 11:20 Eastenders 11:50 Eastenders 12:20 The Weakest Link 13:05 Last of the Summer Wine 13:35 Born and Bred 14:30 Doctor Who 15:15 Keeping Up Appearances 15:45 The Weakest Link 16:30 Holby City 17:20 Holby City 18:15 Doctor Who 19:00 The Black Adder 19:35 Him & Her 20:05 Lee Evans XL Tour 21:00 Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive 21:30 Beautiful People 22:00 Doctor Who 22:45 The Weakest Link 23:30 The Black Adder

00:15 Antiques Roadshow 01:05 Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets 01:35 Glamour Puds 02:45 Glamour Puds 03:05 10 Years Younger 03:55 Fantasy Homes By The Sea

00:00 The Best Of Backstory 00:30 World Sport 01:00 The Situation Room 02:00 World Report 03:00 Anderson Cooper 360 04:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 05:00 Quest Means Business 05:45 CNN Marketplace Africa 06:00 Erin Burnett Outfront 07:00 World Sport 07:30 Road To Durban: A Green City Journey 08:00 World Report 08:15 CNN Marketplace Africa 08:30 The Best Of Backstory 09:00 World Report 09:15 CNN Marketplace Middle East 09:30 I Report For CNN 10:00 World Sport 10:30 Aiming For Gold 11:00 The Best Of The Situation Room 12:00 World Report 12:30 The Best Of Backstory 13:00 The Brief 13:30 Inside Africa 14:00 World Report 14:30 The Gateway 14:45 Future Cities 15:00 Talk Asia 15:30 The CNN Freedom Project 16:00 News Special 16:30 The Best Of Backstory 17:00 International Desk 17:30 African Voices 18:00 CNN Marketplace Europe 18:15 CNN Marketplace Africa 18:30 World Report This Week 19:00 World Sport 19:30 Open Court 20:00 International Desk 20:30 Inside Africa 21:00 International Desk 21:30 Road To Durban: A Green City Journey 22:00 The Best Of The Situation Room 23:00 World Report 23:30 News Special

TAXI ON OSN ACTION HD 04:45 Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets 05:10 Glamour Puds 06:20 Glamour Puds 06:45 Antiques Roadshow 07:35 Cash In The Attic USA 08:00 MasterChef Australia 13:50 MasterChef Australia 14:15 Cash In The Attic USA 16:25 Cash In The Attic USA 16:50 Bargain Hunt 19:05 Bargain Hunt 19:50 Antiques Roadshow 23:15 Antiques Roadshow

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 01:40 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:10 03:30 04:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:00 11:10 11:30 12:00

BBC World News America World Football Focus BBC World News Sport Today Weekend World BBC World News America Newsnight BBC World News Weekend World The Bottom Line BBC World News BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News When Parkinson Met Mandela BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News Click BBC World News Weekend World The Bottom Line BBC World News World Football Focus BBC World News BBC World News

12:10 13:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:10 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:10 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:10 21:30 22:00 22:15 22:30 23:00 23:10 23:30

This Is Sport Relief BBC World News World Features Newsnight BBC World News Our World BBC World News Weekend World Equestrian World BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News World Features BBC World News BBC World News Click BBC World News Final Score BBC World News World Features When Parkinson Met Mandela BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News World Features Equestrian World

00:00 00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:40 04:00

Wacky Races Dastardly And Muttley New Yogi Bear Show Duck Dodgers The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Jetsons Puppy In My Pocket Popeye Tom & Jerry

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

Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Droopy: Master Detective Wacky Races The Flintstones A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Popeye Classics Wacky Races Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm The Garfield Show The Looney Tunes Show Scooby Doo Where Are You! Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry The Looney Tunes Show Scooby Cinema Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The Garfield Show Duck Dodgers The Flintstones Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Popeye Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo

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

Destroyed In Seconds Surviving Disaster Dirty Jobs Overhaulin’ Ultimate Survival Mythbusters How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Dirty Jobs How Do They Do It? Really Big Things Huge Moves Extreme Engineering Mighty Ships Man, Woman, Wild Dual Survival Ultimate Survival Ultimate Survival Oil, Sweat And Rigs Swamp Loggers Swords: Life On The Line Gold Rush Storm Chasers 2010 Baboons With Bill Bailey South Africa Walks Extreme Fishing Freddie Flintoff vs The World Scrappers Carfellas An Idiot Abroad

00:40 Mighty Ships 01:35 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 02:25 The Tech Show 02:50 Tech Toys 360 03:15 Tech Toys 360 03:40 Ways To Save The Planet 04:35 How Does That Work?

05:00 How Stuff’s Made 05:25 The Future Of...

06:20 Thunder Races 07:10 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 08:00 Future Weapons 08:55 Head Rush 08:58 Sci-Fi Science 09:25 Weird Connections 09:55 Tech Toys 360 10:20 Tech Toys 360 10:45 Ways To Save The Planet 11:35 What’s That About?

14:55 15:45 15:48 16:15 16:45 17:10 18:00 18:50 19:15 19:40 20:30 21:20 22:10 22:35 23:00 23:50

What’s That About?

Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections The Tech Show Future Weapons Meteorite Men Tech Toys 360 Tech Toys 360 Smash Lab Catch It Keep It Weird Or What?

Bang Goes The Theory Bang Goes The Theory Smash Lab Catch It Keep It

00:15 Fairly Odd Parents 00:40 Fairly Odd Parents 01:05 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 01:30 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 01:55 Replacements 02:20 Replacements 02:45 Emperor’s New School 03:10 Emperor’s New School 03:35 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 04:00 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 04:25 Replacements 04:50 Replacements 05:15 Fairly Odd Parents 05:35 Fairly Odd Parents 06:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 06:25 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 06:40 The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody 07:05 So Random 07:30 Fish Hooks S2 Splits 07:41 Fish Hooks S2 Splits 07:55 Timon And Pumbaa 08:20 Good Luck Charlie 08:45 Wizards Of Waverly Place 09:10 Jessie 09:35 Shake It Up 10:00 Shake It Up 10:25 Good Luck Charlie: The Road Trip Movie 11:43 Phineas And Ferb 12:05 Fish Hooks 12:25 Have A Laugh 12:30 Phineas And Ferb 12:55 Phineas And Ferb 13:20 Sonny With A Chance 13:45 Sonny With A Chance 14:10 Timon And Pumbaa 14:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place 15:00 So Random 15:25 Phineas And Ferb 15:50 Shake It Up 16:12 Shake It Up 16:40 Jessie 17:05 A.N.T. Farm 17:30 Read It And Weep 18:49 A.N.T. Farm 19:10 So Random 19:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place 20:00 Jessie 20:25 Good Luck Charlie 20:50 Shake It Up 21:15 Good Luck Charlie: The Road Trip Movie 22:33 Phineas And Ferb 22:55 Fish Hooks 23:20 The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody 23:45 Sonny With A Chance

00:20 00:35 00:50 01:15 01:40 01:55 02:10 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:05 04:20 04:40 04:55 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:50 07:15 07:30 07:45 08:00 08:15 08:40

Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Lazytown Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Lazytown Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Lazytown Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Lazytown Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jungle Junction

TV listings SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012 08:55 Little Einsteins 09:20 The Hive 09:30 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 09:45 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 10:00 Handy Manny 10:15 Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 10:20 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 10:45 Cars Toons 10:50 Handy Manny Great Garage Rescue 11:40 Cars Toons 11:45 Art Attack 12:10 Imagination Movers 12:30 The Hive 12:40 Lazytown 13:05 The Hive 13:15 Mouk 13:30 Mouk 13:45 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 14:00 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 14:15 The Hive 14:25 Timmy Time 14:35 Special Agent Oso 14:50 Handy Manny 15:05 The Hive 15:15 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 15:40 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 16:05 Mouk 16:20 Cars Toons 16:25 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 16:50 Handy Manny Great Garage Rescue 17:35 Cars Toons 17:40 Cars Toons 17:45 Art Attack 18:10 Imagination Movers 18:35 Little Einsteins 19:00 Cars Toons 19:05 Handy Manny Great Garage Rescue 19:50 The Hive 20:00 Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 20:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 20:25 101 Dalmatians 20:50 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 21:05 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 21:20 The Hive 21:30 Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 21:35 A Poem Is...

21:40 Animated Stories 21:45 Mouk 22:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 22:25 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 22:40 Special Agent Oso 22:55 Little Einsteins 23:20 Timmy Time 23:30 Jungle Junction 23:45 Handy Manny 23:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

06:15 07:10 08:00 08:50 09:40 10:25 11:10 11:55 Jones 12:40 13:25 14:15 15:00 15:25 15:50 Jones 16:35 17:20 18:10 19:00 19:45 20:10 20:55 21:20 Jones 22:10 23:00 23:50

Psychic Witness Mystery Diagnosis FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Mall Cops – Mall Of America True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Mall Cops – Mall Of America True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Mall Cops – Mall Of America True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared The Haunted Ghost Lab

00:00 Ultimate Traveller 01:00 Geo Sessions 01:30 Making Tracks 02:00 Travel Madness 02:30 Travel Madness 03:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 04:00 Word of Mouth 04:30 Word of Mouth 05:00 City Chase Marrakech 06:00 Ultimate Traveller 07:00 Geo Sessions 07:30 Making Tracks 08:00 Travel Madness 08:30 Travel Madness

09:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 10:00 Word of Mouth 10:30 Word of Mouth 11:00 City Chase Marrakech 12:00 Ultimate Traveller 13:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 13:30 Madventures 14:00 Departures 15:00 Nomads 16:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 17:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 18:00 Departures 19:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 19:30 Madventures 20:00 Departures 21:00 Nomads 22:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 23:00 Don’t Tell My Mother

00:00 Quarantine 2: Terminal-PG15 02:00 A Perfect Getaway-18 04:00 The Resident-18 06:00 In The Line Of Fire-PG15 08:15 The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course-PG15 10:00 Altitude-PG15 12:00 Madso’s War-18 14:00 The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course-PG15 16:00 The Devil’s Teardrop-PG15 18:00 Madso’s War-18 20:00 Mirrors 2-18 22:00 Taxi-PG15

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 12:45 14:30

The Gray Man-PG15 True Grit-PG15 Ramona And Beezus-PG 50 First Dates-PG15 Just Wright-PG15 Unanswered Prayers-PG15 Make It Happen-PG15 Justice For Natalee Holloway-

PG15 16:15 18:15 21:00 23:00

Date Night-PG15 2012-PG15 A Little Help-18 Let Me In-R

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Neighbors From Hell 02:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:30 Family Guy 03:00 New Girl 03:30 Happy Endings 04:00 Dharma And Greg 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 The Simpsons 06:30 Yes Dear 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Dharma And Greg 08:30 New Girl 09:00 The Simpsons 09:30 30 Rock 10:00 Perfect Couples 10:30 Yes Dear 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 10 Items Or Less 13:00 The Simpsons 13:30 Yes Dear 14:00 Happy Endings 14:30 Perfect Couples 15:00 30 Rock 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Parks And Recreation 18:30 2 Broke Girls 19:00 The Office 19:30 Man Up! 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Extreme Forensics Ghost Lab Psychic Witness I Was Murdered I Was Murdered I Escaped Death Extreme Forensics Ghost Lab

The Colbert Report Saturday Night Live The Cleveland Show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

American Idol Drop Dead Diva Survivor: One World Glee Justified The View Live Good Morning America C.S.I. Law & Order: Los Angeles The Ellen DeGeneres Show Downsize Me The View American Idol Glee Drop Dead Diva Live Good Morning America C.S.I. The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Warehouse 13 Criminal Minds Sons Of Anarchy Top Gear (UK) Justified

00:00 01:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 23:30

White Collar Survivor: One World Drop Dead Diva Drop Dead Diva White Collar Law & Order: Los Angeles Terriers Drop Dead Diva Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Terriers White Collar Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Terriers Warehouse 13 Criminal Minds Sons Of Anarchy Top Gear (UK) In Treatment In Treatment

01:00 Reykjavik: Whale Watching Massacre-18 03:00 The Nun-18 05:00 Quarantine 2: Terminal-PG15 07:00 True Justice: Deadly CrossingPG15 09:00 Rocky v-PG15 11:00 Shinjuku Incident-PG15 13:00 The Next Karate Kid-PG 15:00 Rocky v-PG15 17:00 X2-PG 19:15 Legion-18 21:00 Taxi-PG15 23:00 Storm Warning-18

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:20 THS 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Bridalplasty 10:15 Bridalplasty 11:10 THS 12:05 E! News 13:05 Khloe And Lamar 13:35 Khloe And Lamar 14:05 Dirty Soap 15:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:30 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:55 Style Star 17:25 Style Star 17:55 E! News 18:55 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 19:55 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 20:55 Khloe And Lamar 21:25 Fashion Police 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

00:40 01:30 02:15 03:05 03:30 03:50 04:40 05:25

21:30 22:00 23:00 23:30

00:00 Elevator Girl-PG15 02:00 Bad News Bears-PG 04:00 Little Secrets-PG 06:00 Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star-PG15 08:00 Straight Talk-PG15 10:00 Revenge Of The BridesmaidsPG15 12:00 102 Dalmatians-PG 14:00 Frank McKlusky, C.I.-PG15 16:00 Elevator Girl-PG15 18:00 Not The Messiah: He’s A Very Naughty Boy-PG15 20:00 Coldblooded-PG15 22:00 Alfie-18

RAMONA AND BEEZUZ ON OSN CINEMA

01:30 03:15 05:45 07:30 09:00 10:45 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Asylum-18 L’armee Du Crime-18 Garden State-18 The Wronged Man-PG15 The Nutty Professor-FAM The China Syndrome-PG Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale-PG15 The Thomas Crown Affair-PG15 Good Hair-PG15 Light It Up-PG15 I Capture The Castle-18 Arlington Road-PG15

01:00 Love And Other Drugs-R 03:00 The Lion King 1 1/2-FAM 04:45 Iron Man 2-PG15 07:00 Life As We Know It-PG15 09:00 Tangled-FAM 11:00 Did You Hear About The Morgans?-PG15 13:00 The Tempest-PG15 15:00 Invictus-PG15 17:15 Tangled-FAM 19:00 The LXD: Secrets Of The RaPG15 21:00 Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son-PG15 23:00 Kick-Ass-18

00:15 Tom And Jerry & The Wizard Of Oz-FAM 01:45 Christmas In New York-PG 04:00 Pocahontas & The Spider Woman-PG 06:00 The Lion King 1 1/2-FAM 08:00 Mia And Migou-PG 10:00 Despicable Me-FAM 12:00 Mars Needs Moms-PG 14:00 Pocahontas & The Spider Woman-PG 16:00 The Swan Princess-FAM 18:00 Mia And Migou-PG 20:00 Mars Needs Moms-PG 22:00 The Swan Princess-FAM

01:00 04:30 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 09:30 11:30 13:30 14:30 16:30 17:30 18:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

European PGA Tour Futbol Mundial UFC Unleashed UFC The Ultimate Fighter Volvo Ocean Race Highlights Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby WWE Vintage Collection WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line Futbol Mundial Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby UFC The Ultimate Fighter Super Rugby

01:00 01:30 03:30 07:00 10:30 11:15 14:30 15:30 16:00 20:00 20:30 22:45

Total Rugby Pro 12 Celtic League Premier League Darts European PGA Tour ICC Cricket World Live AFL Premiership Trans World Sport European Tour Weekly Live European PGA Tour Futbol Mundial Live Super League European PGA Tour

00:00 01:30 03:30 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 09:00 09:30 11:30 13:30 15:30 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:15 22:45

ICC Cricket World Super League Top 14 ICC Cricket World European Tour Weekly Total Rugby Pro 12 Celtic League NRL Full Time Live NRL Premiership Live NRL Premiership Live NRL Premiership Total Rugby Super Rugby Live Top 14 Scottish Premier League Total Rugby Live Pro 12 Celtic League

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 13:00 17:00 18:00 20:00 21:00

UFC Unleashed WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed Live Rugby Sevens Live Asian Tour Golf WWE Vintage Collection Live Scottish Premier League UFC The Ultimate Fighter Prizefighter

what’s on

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF BRAZIL The Embassy of Brazil requests all Brazilian citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the website www.brazil.org.kw (Contact Us Form / Fale Conosco) 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 Brazilian Government to contact and assist Brazilians living abroad in case of any emergency. nnnnnnn

Welcome

K

MCC office-bearers receive Indian Union Muslim League leaders Bashir Ali Shihab Thangal and P A Ibrahim Haji on their arrival at the Kuwait International Airport.

Future Eye Theatre to stage ‘Waiting for Godot’

F

uture Eye Theatre, Kuwait will stage the Malayalam version of Samuel Beckett’s most celebrated play ‘Waiting for Godot,’ on April 13 at the Indian Central School, Abbassiya.

The play is scripted by Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan and directed by Future Eye Theatre Vice President Shemej Kumar.

Manjulan, a well-known film and theatre personality from Kerala, will be the chief guest of this year’s celebration, whose path-breaking solo drama ‘Koonan’ has broken all records in Malayalam theatre. Manjulan’s solo drama ‘Koonan’ will be a major attraction of

the anniversary celebration and will certainly be a treat for theatre lovers in Kuwait. Manjulan, a first rank holder

from the School of Drama, Trichur and a post-graduate in Classical Indian Theatre, has acted in several Malayalam

films including ‘December’, ‘Vadhakramam’, ‘Aparachithan’ ‘Prajapathi’ etc and in many TV serials.

Future Eye Theatre members will showcase a variety of theatre productions during the celebration entitled ‘Kaliyarangu.’

A theatre sketch in English based on Bertolt Brecht’s popular play ‘Threepenny Opera’ will also be staged on the occasion. The sketch is directed

by Prof John Mathews. Wataniya Telecom, Kuwait is the platinum sponsor of the event. All theatre lovers are welcome. For details: 99483940/ 97106957/65018302/66726427.

Upcoming events Writers forum launched Malayalam Kuwait, the platform for readers and writers among the Keralites in Kuwait was launched during a meeting held at United Indian School, Abbassiya. Sharing of reading and writing, debates and discussions, literary symposia and reinforcement of budding writing talents are the goals of the group. Bergman Thomas, John Mathew, Kaippattoor Thankachan, Sam Painummood, John Mathews, sathar Kunnil, Lissy Kuryakkose, Swapna Jacob, Bessy Kadavil, Unnimaya Nampoothiri, Shibu Philip, Dharmaraj Madappally, Uthaman Valathukadu, Rafeeq Thayath, Tiju Thankachan, Sunil K Cherian and Harikrishnan participated in the first ever meeting of Malayalam Kuwait. The group will hold its monthly discussion every last Friday at various locations, informed the group’s convener Bergman Thomas.

Malayalam members will gather on Friday, March 30 at Successline, Abbassiya to dis-

cuss Bergman’s award winning novel, Puramkatal, recently serialized in Kalakaumudi Weekly. Anyone interested to join the group, please contact: 66556867 Earth Hour In Kuwait March 31, 2012 @ 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm.

Where: Kuwait Sahara Resort (6th Ring Road) Contact: KT4GW.org TES 2012 Spring Carnival March 30, 2012 @ 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Where: TES-The English School (Salmiya, Block 12, Mousaed Al-Azmi Street) The much awaited Spring Carnival at The English School (TES) is coming up soon! Bring your family and friends and enjoy an afternoon of shopping and fun activities. Over 80 amazing stalls selling beautiful handicrafts and knick knacks! Bouncy castles, face painting, magic show and a large array of carnival games and activities for the kids. A fun day for all!

See you there!

Chaine des Rotisseurs celebrates 30th ’versary

T

he members of Chaine des Rotisseurs of Kuwait celebrate 30th anniversary today. Special Gala dinner and the induction ceremony of new members will take place at Marriott hotel, Arraya ballroom.

Kuwait Chaine des Rotisseurs was founded on April 25, 1982. Chaine des Rotisseurs, an international gastronomic society established in France since 1248, brings together professional and amateurs in celebration of the pleasure of the table.

Its objective is to preserve the culture of fine dining and the art of good manners at the table and beyond - in spirit of camaraderie and friendship.

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 A.M until 12:00 P.M on Sunday through Wednesday. Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad.

This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home.

The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services 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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CYPRUS The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus requests Cypriot citizens living in Kuwait to register with the Embassy has moved. This registration service is provided so that the Embassy can update its contact list and assist Cypriot citizens in cases of emergencies. Registration information can be emailed to cyprusembassykwt@gmail.com or faxed to 22253227 or given by phone to 65906048 (Mrs Christine). nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF KOREA The Embassy of the Republic of Korea wishes to inform that it has moved to Mishref. New Address: Embassy of the Republic of Korea Mishref, Block 7A, Diplomatic Area 2, Plot 6 The Embassy also wishes to inform that it will be opened to the public on the following office hours: Saturdays to Thursday Morning: 8:00 am to 12:30 pm Lunch Break: 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm Afternoon: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm nnnnnnn

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, email:myankuwait11@gmai1.com

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

what’s on

HEALTH SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

AIDS orphanage revives Swazi ghost town BULEMBU, Swaziland: Lost in the mountains of Swaziland, Bulembu became a ghost town when the local mine closed, cutting off its lifeblood.

Now the town is coming back, centered on an orphanage taking in children whose parents have often died of AIDS. “The babies are abandoned, maybe put in a plastic bag on the side of the road, maybe in the pit latrines,” said Zanele Maseko, head of the nursery for

the smallest orphans. “What the police told us, they found a baby who was buried alive. She is a big girl now.”

Swaziland has the world’s highest rate of HIV infection, with at least one in four adults carrying the virus. A crushing financial crisis has left the tiny monarchy struggling to pay for medicines and for orphans’ education. About 120,000 children have been orphaned in this landlocked nation in southern Africa, com-

BULEMBU: About 120,000 children have been orphaned in Swaziland in southern Africa, comprising more than 10 percent of the total population. Bulembu became a ghost town when the local mine closed cutting off its lifeblood. Now the town is coming back, centered on an orphanage taking in children whose parents have often died of AIDS. — AFP

prising more than 10 percent of the total population.

Those startling statistics inspired Canadian entrepreneur Volker Wagner to buy the entire town of Bulembu in 2006, five years after it was abandoned, and entrust it to a Canadian evangelical ministry which actually runs the place.

They have created a private community, a sort of “Christian kolkhoz”, which is developing around the orphanage that now houses 303 children, aged from two weeks to 21 years.

“At present financial projections, we believe that Bulembu can be sustainable by 2020 with 1,000 children in our care,” said Andrew Le Roux, executive director Bulembu Ministries Swaziland, which manages the project for Wagner.

“But this is a minimum, and as we strive to grow the businesses, this number will increase. We believe 2,000 is the maximum number of children that the infrastructure can sustain.”

The idea is to make Bulembu completely self-sufficient. Its leaders, mainly white South Africans, aim to train Swazis to take over the project. Bulembu currently sells wood, milk, bread, honey, mineral water and souvenirs to outsiders. Those businesses employ several hundred people and the revenues fund 45 percent of the town’s operations.

The rest comes from private donations, mainly collected in Canada, which

also fund new investments. A museum is in the works, along with a guesthouse for visitors and benefactors who come from around the world to volunteer. The old mining staff quarters have been fixed up to house the children, their caregivers, and the employees.

Many old buildings have been gutted and will need major work, but there’s still plenty of room for expansion. Bulembu houses about 1,400 people, against 10,000 when its asbestos mine was in full swing. The mine’s hospital has been turned into a high school, after there were too many students for the original school. A training centre has opened to prepare the youth for jobs in tourism, and the Swazi government has proposed building a small technical college.

The schools revolve around a merit system, from nursery school up. The orphans have no money, but can “buy” little things with merits they earn for good grades or keeping a tidy desk.

“We want every child to excel in what they are doing,” said Dennis Neville, head of education. “Our goal is giving them a future and a hope,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is prepare these children to become good Swazi citizens, to become children who can step into leadership roles. We want the children to be Swazi leaders.” AFP was not allowed to speak to the orphans. — AFP

Obama healthcare law faces US court hearing Ruling likely to reverberate in November election WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul faces its biggest court test next week, capping a legal battle that could reshape the powers of the US government, redefine medical care for most Americans and transform the 2012 election campaign.

The justices on the US Supreme Court will pepper lawyers with questions, possibly signaling how they might rule, during a modern-day record six hours of oral arguments from Monday through Wednesday.

The justices, five of whom were appointed

by Republican presidents and four by Democratic ones, promise a ruling by late June on the 2010 law passed by Congress that already has begun to revamp a $2.6 trillion healthcare industry representing nearly 18 percent of the US economy.

While it will likely be impossible to predict with certainty how the court will rule on Democrat Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, the questions and comments from the bench might offer clues about the justices’ eventual decision. It may be the court’s most significant ruling with political impact since its decision in 2000 to halt the Florida vote recount, clearing the way for Republican George W. Bush to become president over Democrat Al Gore.

Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former adviser to four presidents, said a case like healthcare occurred once in a generation or maybe even longer, unique both legally and politically. “A victory for the president would be very substan-

tial. A defeat for the president means that in a sense we politically reopen the situation,” Hess said.

Despite their importance, the hearings will be seen by only 400 people each day. Supreme Court hearings have never been broadcast live or recorded on video. The court will release audio recordings and transcripts in the afternoon each day.

The ruling is likely to reverberate in the runup to congressional and presidential elections on Nov. 6 when Obama will seek another fouryear term in the White House. The arguments will turn largely on whether Congress exceeded its powers under the US Constitution by requiring Americans to obtain insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty. Two years ago to the day, on March 23, 2010, Obama signed the legislation into law. It seeks to provide health insurance to more than 30 million previously uninsured Americans and to slow down soaring healthcare costs.

The main Republican presidential hopefuls vehemently oppose the law, depicting it as an evil of big government, and vow to repeal it.

Opinion polls show Americans deeply divided, and more than half the 50 states - 26 - have joined together to bring the challenge to the highest US court.

Top US lawyers view it as precedent-setting.

Tom Goldstein, a lawyer who argues before the court and is a founder of SCOTUSblog, a website that follows the court, said the ruling would be historic, deciding a fundamental question about a critical part of the Constitution - the

definition of Congress’ powers. “However the court rules, its decision is going to be cited for the next 250 years. Nothing in modern American history compares,” he said.

The 26 states, represented by lawyer Paul Clement, solicitor general during George W Bush’s presidency, argue that if individuals can be required to buy insurance, Congress can next mandate purchases of American cars or any other product, whether people want them or not.

“This is an unprecedented use of congressional power,” Clement said in an interview, insisting the government’s assertion of authority on health insurance opened the door to extraordinary control over other areas.

“This is an awfully attractive approach. Why did Congress not use it at all for 220 years?” asked Clement, an argument he likely will make before the court in urging that the healthcare law be struck down in its entirety.

Administration attorneys have urged the Supreme Court to uphold the law as constitutional.

They argued in written briefs that Congress has broad authority to regulate interstate commerce and that the insurance purchase requirement known as the individual mandate is part of a comprehensive effort to address a national healthcare crisis. The administration has compared the healthcare law with other landmark laws such as the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act that faced similar legal challenges, but were upheld in court. —Reuters

KIGALI: A Rwandan woman holds her child who recovers from a cleft palate surgery performed during a mission by South Africa based Operation Smile in Kigali. Operation Smile is a global non-profit, volunteer medical services organization that provides free reconstructive surgery to children and adults with cleft lips and cleft palates in over 60 countries worldwide. — AFP

HEALTH SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

CLASSIFIEDS SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

ACCOMMODATION

112 Hospitals 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

Clinics Rabiya

4732263

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

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

Sharing accommodation two bedroom flat in Abbassiya, two bachelors accommodation from April 1st. Rent KD 40. Contact: 99162583.

(C 3917) Accommodation in Farwaniya near Gulf Mart, big room for bachelor or couple, Filipino only, available April 21. Contact: 94418396.

20-3-2012

FOR SALE Household goods for sale, includes furniture, electronics, kitchen equipments, books, curtains, and other miscellaneous items. All at throw-away prices. Call 99510519 or 66210509.

(C 3919) 21-3-2012 Toyota Yaris model 2011 car, 4 cylinder strong engine km done 35000, registration March 2014, grey color, excellent condition, installment possible, cash price KD 2880, negotiable. Tel: 99105286.

(C 3916) 17-3-2012

SITUATION WANTED Female 26 years post graduate 4 years experience in HR executive, seeking suitable jobs. Mob: 60473639. Email: soumyakt.4u@gmail.com (C 3918) 20-3-2012 25 years experienced Indian seeking part time or full time assignment in finance management/ development analysis, or internal auditing or any other senior position any big company. Contact: 65802853. (C 3910) 18-3-2012

SITUATION VACANT Housemaid wanted for a small family in Farwaniya.

Mob: 97514390 21-3-2012 Manager (Asian) in Maidan Hawally looking for a maid.

Part time. Good salary. Call 97263962 for details.

(C 3915) 17-3-2012

TUITION Math teacher for secondary stage, language schools, bilingual schools and intermediate stage: Algebra, Gmath, Geometry, Statistics for arts

and science branches. Tel: 66974020.

English language teacher specialized in starting elementary and intermediate, 10th and 11th experienced in starting functions, grammar, set book, vocabulary, notes and model exams available. Tel: 65791555.

Arabic language teacher, masters in methods of teaching for secondary and intermediate students. Tel: 50644685.

Senior Arabic language teacher, elementary and intermediate, long experience in Kuwait curricula, explaining grammar rules and starting those weak in reading and writing. Tel: 99262948.

Senior chemistry and physics teacher. Long experience for 10th, 11th and 12th stages. Intermediate science and applied institutions.

Highly competent. Tel: 99542922.

Mathematics and statistics female teacher for female students in the secondary, intermediate, university and applied institutions female students. Tel: 99410370.

Female Syrian Arabic language teacher for elementary and intermediate, and starting the weak using Halaby method in her house located in Abdallah AlMubarak area. Tel: 50513699.

Senior biology and science teacher for 12th, 11th and 10th grades, and science for all intermediate classes, religious institutes, nursing, educational experience, simple explanation for fast understanding.

Tel: 66543474.

Senior Arabic language and

No: 15397

Islamic studies teacher to help weak and slow learning students in a short time. 20 years experience, teaching all elementary subjects excep E. Arabic and Islamic studies for elementary and intermediate. Tel: 66896088.

Senior mathematics and statistics teacher. Long experience in Kuwait curricula to teach secondary students both science and arts branches, and university admission exams. Tel: 97975096.

Senior chemistry teacher for secondary students and science for intermediate. All reviews and exams, and university qualification chemistry. Tel: 99560268.

Female senior mathematics teacher, 35 years experience in Kuwait for secondary, intermediate and elementary stages, applied, initial university, communications and navigation and special courses. Tel: 97926737.

Elementary stage teacher, 12 years experience, ready to give remedial lessons for all topics in the elementary stage in a simple method.

Tel: 66594901.

English teacher specialized in elementary and intermediate, experienced in grammar, book questions and synonyms. Highly experienced in Kuwait curricula. Tel: 97373301.

French language teacher, specialized in 11th and 12th grades, languages schools, Pakistani and Indian schools.

Long experience in Kuwait curricula.

Senior philosophy and logic teacher for the 12th stage, psychology for 11th grade, with notes and exams solutions. Tel: 99835421.

FOR RENT Flat in South Surra, 3 bedrooms, 2 of which are master + living room + kitchen + maid room, new, super deluxe. Tel: 97864628.

For rent, commercial flat in Hawally, can be used as workshop, large area. No middle men. Parking. Tel: 66043961.

Flat in Bneid Al-Gar, 2 rooms + 2 bathrooms + living room + kitchen + Gym + swimming pool overlooking the sea, central satellite + internet. For families, no middle men. Tel: 66043961.

Flat in Salmiya 3 bedroom + 2 bathrooms + living room + kitchen + central satellite + internet. 4x4 rooms, 4x8 living room for expatriates only. Rent KD 330. No middle men. Tel: 66043961.

Flat in Salmiya 2 rooms + 2 bathrooms + living room + kitchen + central satellite + internet. Families only, no middle men. Tel: 66043961.

A commercial floor in Salmiya. Close to Blajat. Car parking. No middle men. Tel: 66043961.

First floor in Shuhada, 4 rooms + living room + 5 bathrooms + maid room + balcony. Must be small family. Tel: 60308586.

Flat in Zahra, 2 rooms + living room + kitchen + 3 bathrooms + laundry room + maid room. Tel: 60308586.

A floor in Zahra, 4 rooms + living room + kitchen + 3 bathrooms, second floor, elevator. Must be small family.

Tel: 99719887.

information SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines QTR JZR KLM JZR ETH THY PIA UAE OMA QTR DHX MSR FDB ETD GFA THY DHX FCX JZR JZR KAC BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD FDB BAB GFA RKM JZR RBG MSR UAL KAC GFA MSR FDB MSR GRF QTR SVA RJA KAC KAC JZR QTR KNE JZR ETD JZR UAE KAC GFA SVA KNE ABY JZR KAC ALK JZR

Arrival Flights on Saturday 24/3/2012 Flt Route 138 DOHA 185 DUBAI 447 AMSTERDAM 539 CAIRO 620 ADDIS ABABA 772 ISTANBUL 239 SIALKOT 853 DUBAI 641 MUSCAT 148 DOHA 370 BAHRAIN 612 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 211 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 201 DUBAI 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 416 JAKARTA 157 LONDON 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 301 ABU DHABI 55 DUBAI 436 BAHRAIN 213 BAHRAIN 310 RAS ALKHAIMAH 165 DUBAI 3553 ALEXANDRIA 610 CAIRO 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 672 DUBAI 219 BAHRAIN 621 ASSIUT 57 DUBAI 606 LUXOR 93 KANDAHAR 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 562 AMMAN 786 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 134 DOHA 839 MEDINAH 535 CAIRO 303 ABU DHABI 357 MASHAD 857 DUBAI 118 NEW YORK 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 745 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 777 JEDDAH 550 SOHAG 227 COLOMBO 177 DUBAI

Time 0:20 0:20 0:30 0:50 1:45 2:15 2:20 2:35 2:50 2:55 2:55 3:00 3:05 3:10 3:15 4:50 5:15 5:30 5:55 6:00 6:25 6:40 6:45 7:40 7:45 7:50 7:50 7:55 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:05 9:15 9:20 9:40 9:55 10:40 11:20 11:35 12:55 13:05 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:50 13:55 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:40 14:45 14:50 15:00 15:25 16:15 16:25 16:50 16:50 16:55 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:40 17:45 18:00 18:10 18:15

RBG BAB FDB KAC KAC QTR JZR KAC KAC IRA KAC KAC KAC KAC SYR JAI OMA AIC AXB MSR DHX KAC KNE MEA GFA QTR UAE JZR UAL KLM KAC KNE FDB JZR BBC DLH

3563 438 63 502 542 6130 125 178 618 607 674 104 774 790 341 572 647 975 393 618 372 788 789 402 217 136 859 135 981 445 614 843 61 239 43 636

ASSIUT BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA BAHRAIN GENEVA DOHA MASHAD DUBAI LONDON RIYADH MEDINAH DAMASCUS MUMBAI MUSCAT CHENNAI KOZHIKODE ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN JEDDAH JEDDAH BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM BAHRAIN JEDDAH DUBAI AMMAN DHAKA FRANKFURT

Airlines PIA AIC DLH KLM ETH THY PIA FDB UAE OMA DHX MSR ETD QTR QTR THY JZR GFA FDB BAW KAC JZR JZR KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY ETD KAC FDB QTR BAB

Departure Flights on Saturday 24/3/2012 Flt Route 216 KARACHI 976 GOA 637 FRANKFURT 447 AMSTERDAM 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL-ATATURK 240 SIALKOT 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 642 MUSCAT 371 BAHRAIN 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL-ATATURK 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 54 DUBAI 156 LONDON 671 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 534 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 785 JEDDAH 101 LONDON 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 302 ABU DHABI 549 SOHAG 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 437 BAHRAIN

18:25 18:40 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:00 19:00 19:10 19:15 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:40 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:40 20:45 21:00 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:25 21:35 21:40 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:05 22:10 22:15 22:45 23:45 23:50

Time 0:30 0:50 1:20 1:45 2:45 3:15 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 3:55 4:00 4:00 4:40 5:40 5:50 6:55 7:00 8:25 8:40 9:00 9:00 9:15 9:20 9:25 9:35 9:40 9:45 10:00 10:00 10:05 10:10 10:25

GFA JZR RKM KAC KAC JZR RBG KAC JZR MSR GFA UAL MSR FDB MSR KAC KAC RJA KAC JZR SVA KAC KAC QTR KAC KNE JZR QTR ETD JZR GRF UAE GFA KNE ABY SVA JZR KAC JZR RBG ALK FDB BAB JZR KAC IRA QTR SYR DHX KAC KAC JAI OMA MSR KNE KAC DHX KAC MEA GFA FCX KAC QTR KAC JZR UAE KAC KNE KLM FDB JZR UAL KAC

214 356 311 165 541 776 3564 501 176 611 220 982 622 58 607 673 789 641 617 124 505 787 773 141 153 840 238 135 304 538 82 858 216 746 128 511 266 613 134 3554 228 64 439 184 283 616 6131 342 171 331 351 571 648 619 790 543 373 675 403 218 102 381 137 301 554 860 205 844 445 62 528 981 411

BAHRAIN MASHHAD RAS ALKHAIMAH ROME CAIRO JEDDAH ASSIUT BEIRUT DUBAI CAIRO BAHRAIN BAHRAIN ASSIUT DUBAI LUXOR DUBAI MADINAH AMMAN DOHA BAHRAIN JEDDAH JEDDAH RIYADH DOHA ISTANBUL-ATATURK JEDDAH AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO BAGHDAD DUBAI BAHRAIN JEDDAH SHARJAH RIYADH BEIRUT BAHRAIN BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI DHAKA AHWAZ DOHA DAMASCUS BAHRAIN TRIVANDRUM KOCHI MUMBAI MUSCAT ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DELHI DOHA MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA DUBAI ISLAMABAD JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI ASSIUT WASHINGTON DC BANGKOK

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

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C R O S S W O R D

6 2 6

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS One of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof.

5. Follower of Rastafarianism.

10. A health resort near a spring or at the seaside.

13. On or toward the lee.

14. Realistic Norwegian author who wrote plays on social and political themes (18281906).

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

17. A musical notation written on a staff indicating the pitch of the notes following it.

19. An ache localized in the middle or inner ear.

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

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

23. Adult female chicken.

26. Type genus of the family Arcidae.

29. An independent ruler or chieftain (especially in Africa or Arabia).

32. (Babylonian) A demigod or first man.

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

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

38. Moth having nonfunctional mouthparts as adults.

39. Made agreeably cold (especially by ice).

41. English economist noted for his studies of international trade and finance (born in 1907).

42. An uproarious party.

43. (Greek mythology) The rarified fluid said to flow in the veins of the Gods.

45. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 10 liters.

47. A silvery soft waxy metallic element of the alkali metal group.

48. A small cake leavened with yeast.

51. (of persons) Highest in rank or authority or office.

55. Round object that is hit or thrown or kicked in games.

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

61. (Greek mythology) Goddess of the earth and mother of Cronus and the Titans in ancient mythology.

62. A serve that strikes the net before falling into the receiver's court.

63. Remote city of Kazakhstan that (ostensibly for security reasons) was made the capital in 1998.

65. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

66. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

67. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

68. One of the strands twisted together to make yarn or rope or thread.

DOWN 1. Serving as or forming a base.

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

3. British artist and writer of nonsense verse (1812-1888).

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

5. Evergreen trees or shrubs of mountains of Australia and Tasmania.

6. (usually followed by `to') Having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something.

7. The compass point midway between south and southeast.

8. An African grass economically important as a cereal grass (yielding white flower of good quality) as well as for forage and hay.

9. An associate degree in nursing.

10. A deep bow.

11. A person who is of equal standing with another in a group.

12. The highest level or degree attainable.

18. A language group of the Hokan family.

21. Small tropical American tree bearing edible plumlike fruit.

24. At or constituting a border or edge.

25. Kamarupan languages spoken in northeastern India and western Burma.

27. A sudden short attack.

28. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters.

30. The United Nations agency concerned with civil aviation.

31. A tributary of the Rhine.

33. A genus of Ploceidae.

34. A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography).

36. (Norse mythology) Ruler of the Aesir.

40. A gonadotropic hormone that is secreted by the anterior pituitary.

44. Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and improve the blood supply to the heart.

46. The sacred city of Lamaism.

47. A chronic inflammatory collagen disease affecting connective tissue (skin or joints).

49. In bed.

50. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

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

52. (prefix) Outside or outer.

53. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

54. (Irish) Mother of the Tuatha De Danann.

56. An association of people to promote the welfare of senior citizens.

57. (archaic or Scottish) Faithful and true.

58. A polite name for any woman.

60. A light touch or stroke.

61. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

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

Yesterday始s Solution

SPORTS

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

China’s Sui, Han look to come of age in Nice BEIJING: Three-time world junior pairs champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are China’s great medal hope at next week’s world figure skating championships. Sui, 16, and Han, 19, are in scintillating form, having recently won their first title at the senior level at the prestigious Four Continents Championships held in the United States last month.

They landed a personal best overall

score of 201.83 points on their way to victory after earning their highest ever points in both the short and free skating programs.

Three weeks after winning in the United States, they went on to win their third world junior title when the competition was held earlier in Minsk, Belarus. “We’re excited by this chance,” Han said ahead of the championships, which will be held in

the southern French city of Nice from March 26 to April 1. Veteran Chinese pair Pang Qing and Tong Jian, who are former world champions and Olympic silver medallists, will also be at the forefront of the Asian sporting giant’s campaign at the tournament.

The pair, both 31, have been training hard for the championships and are out to prove they are still a

Asada and Takahashi bid to regain crowns TOKYO: Japanese figure skating stars Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi are aiming to regain the women’s and men’s crowns at the world championships starting in Nice, France on Monday to boost their bids for Olympic medals of better colors. Vancouver Olympic silver medallist Asada, the 2008 and 2010 world champion, is getting back the grip on her trademark triple axel, a technically demanding 3.5-revolution jump with which she has struggled for a few seasons.

Takahashi-who grabbed the men’s bronze in Vancouver and lifted the world title in the absence of Olympic gold and silver medalists Evan Lysacek and Yevgeny Plushenko in 2010 - is improving his quadruple jump to catch up with reigning world champion Patrick Chan of Canada. “For me, the greatest thing was that I could attempt the triple axel,” the 21-year-old Asada said after finishing runner-up to US national champion Ashley Wagner at the Four Continents championships last month.

Although judges ruled Asada under-rotated the triple axel in both the short program and free skating, she was content that she could try it in competition for the first time in the 2011-2012 season. “I feel like I am climbing up the staircase, step by step, toward the world championships,” said Asada, who made history by nailing three triple axels overall at the 2010 Olympics. “I will definitely try to be steady with my jumps.” The only female skater who regularly attempts the triple axel in competition at present, Asada finished sixth at last year’s world championships where she botched the jump in the short and long programs.

She had avoided the jump this season until the Four Continents at Colorado Springs while she finished second in the NHK Trophy and won the Cup of Russia in the Grand Prix series. Asada had to withdraw from the Grand Prix final in December to fly home as her mother was in critical condition. Despite her mother’s death, she won her fifth national title, her first in two years. “She (Asada) has overall skating skills. So, if she lands the (triple) axel clean, she can’t be easily beaten,” Nobuhiko Yoshioka, technical director of figure skating at the Japan Skating Federation, told AFP. In the absence of Olympic gold medalist Kim YuNa of South Korea and Japan’s 2007 and 2011 world champion Miki Ando, Wagner and European champion Carolina Kostner of Italy may be Asada’s main rivals in Nice.

Another Japanese Akiko Suzuki, who beat Asada to win the NHK Trophy and finished runner-up to Kostner at the Grand Prix final, also has a medal chance, Yoshioka said. At last year’s worlds, Takahashi finished fifth in the men’s contest as he singled an opening quadruple in free skating when a blade was unscrewed from his shoe. He made a series of mistakes after the problem was fixed. He finished second behind Chan at the Grand Prix final and the Four Continents as the Canadian has continued to dazzle with textbook four-revolution jumps while American Lysacek stayed out of competition.

Russian Plushenko won a seventh European championship in January in his comeback from a break since Vancouver but will skip the worlds following knee surgery.

He has set his sights on the 2014 Olympics at home in

Sochi. “I have an issue with the quadruple jump. I cannot win without including it from the short program,” the 26year-old Takahashi said. He has struggled to remaster quads since knee surgery sidelined him during the 2008-09 season. His teammate Takahiko Kozuka, who took the silver last year, may have a medal chance. “I am hungry to win,” Takahashi said. “I will see how much I can go into title contention by narrowing the gap.” — AFP

Mao Asada

force to reckon with despite the meteoric rise of compatriots Sui and Han. “The training went well and (we) are looking forward to the world championships,” Tong posted on his microblog. Tong and Pang got engaged last year, but have deferred their marriage plans in order to focus on their training for the major tournaments including the world championships. — AFP

Gachinski eyes gold for Russia MOSCOW: Teenager Artur Gachinski will be carrying 2014 Winter Olympics hosts’ Russia’s hopes of gold at next week’s world figure skating championships in the absence of star Yevgeny Plushenko. Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic champion, claimed a seventh European title this season but will not bid for a fourth world title in Nice, France next week because he has to undergo further knee surgery.

Despite the maestro’s absence Russia’s federation chief Alexander Gorshkov said he was expecting a confident performance from 18-year-old Gachinski, who won the silver medal in the European championships in Sheffield. Gachinski returned Russia to the men’s podium last year after a six-year absence with his world bronze, behind Patrick Chan of Canada and Japan’s Takahiko Kozuka. “Artur (Gachinski) is our main hope in men’s skating in the absence of Plushenko,” Gorshkov said.

“Last year he finished third at the world championships in Moscow and confirmed his class with a solid performance at Sheffield. “I believe he is capable of getting serious results at the upcoming world championships also.”

In the women’s event Russia will be looking to climb back onto the podium again with an eye towards towards the Sochi Games having failed to medal at every worlds since 2005. Former world junior champion Alena Leonova is Russia’s leading hope, despite the 21-year-old finishing just seventh in Europeans.

“I want to perform a bit better in Nice than I did at the last year’s world championships, when I finished fourth,” Leonova said. Japan’s Miki Ando won the world title last year in Moscow ahead of Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na and Italy’s Carolina Kostner.

“I’ve been working really hard to come to the event in top form. And I’m happy the event will take place at Nice,” said Leonova. “I love this city and the skating rink there is a lucky arena for me. I hope to perform at my best there to clinch a classy result.”

In pairs, Tamara Moskvina, coach of Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, said the two-time bronze medalists, who missed the European championships because Smirnov was unable to compete after undergoing appendectomy, were completely fit and ready.

“We did plenty of home work ahead of the world championships,” Moskvina said. “And we all hope we will be able to amaze the fans and experts with our performance. I believe it will be a pleasant surprise.”

Another skating pair Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who won this year’s European championships, are also ready for a tough challenge at Nice. “We always try not to sit back on what has been achieved,” Trankov said. “We deservedly won the gold medal in Sheffield but we are ready to continue fighting to win against the world’s strongest pairs.

I believe the upcoming championships will be very interesting.” Russian hopes of a return to the ice dancing podium lie with Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, runners-up at Europeans ahead of teammates Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov. — AFP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Wi, Dufner take joint control at Bay Hill Woods 3 shots back after 3-under 69

ORLANDO: South Korea’s Charlie Wi and American Jason Dufner shared the lead after the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Thursday after shooting six-underpar rounds of 66 at Bay Hill. Wi mixed seven birdies with a bogey on the par-four eighth while the highlight of Dufner’s round was an eagle on the par-five 16th thanks to a fine 208-yard approach shot with his four iron to 18 feet for the eagle putt.

For Wi, it was the perfect response to a nightmare final round at the Transitions Championship on Sunday where he took 13 strokes on a par-five hole. “I didn’t really think about that really, that was just a blip on the radar screen,” Wi said after his round on Thursday. Dufner has now held at least a share of the lead during each of the last three events on the Florida swing and the runner-up in last year’s PGA Championship is positioning himself as a fascinating dark-horse for the April 5-8 Masters.

The Cleveland-born Dufner went to school in Fort Lauderdale and clearly feels at home on Floridian courses. “I have played a lot of good golf throughout my career in South Florida, so I feel comfortable here. I’m playing some really nice golf, I am just looking to close a little better on the weekend,” said Dufner, who will be 35 on Saturday and has yet to win on the PGA Tour. “I have to try to close one of these tournaments out and try to get a win.” Nick Watney (68) was two shots back of the leaders after recovering from bogeys on the second and fourth holes thanks to some smart putting - five of his six birdies were from between eight and 15 feet.

The top six ranked players in the world opted to skip the event but former world number one Tiger Woods and England’s in-form Justin Rose were among a pack of seven golfers sitting three shots back of Wi after posting scores of 69. “I didn’t really do anything great today. I was

Serena wins opening match at Key Biscayne KEY BISCAYNE: Serena Williams looked right at home, and not just because her purple dress matched the color of the court. Playing in her backyard tournament for the first time since 2009, the five-time champion beat wild card Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday at the Sony Ericsson Open. The victory marked Williams’ return to tournament tennis after a two-month absence. It was her first match at Key Biscayne since she lost to Victoria Azarenka in the final three years ago.

“I was really nervous out there,” Williams said. “I haven’t played here for so long, and I wanted to do well.

My worst fear actually was as long as I don’t hit a ball in the stands, I’ll be good. I didn’t do that today, so it worked out well for me.” Williams lives two hours up Interstate 95 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla, with sister Venus, who won Wednesday playing her first singles match since August.

American Ryan Harrison, a wild card entry, rallied past Polito Starace 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4 and will next face twotime champion Roger Federer.

The second-round match will be a gauge of progress for the 19-year-old Harrison, who is ranked 73rd but has yet to beat a top-10 player. “He’s very talented,” Federer said, “and I’m sure he’s going to be making his move up the rankings very easily this year and in the coming years. He has a big game.” No 2-seeded Maria Sharapova overcame 12 doublefaults and erased 10 break points to rally past Shahar Peer 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Two-time champion Kim Clijsters won for the second day in a row, beating No 14-seeded Julia Goerges 6-2, 7-5. No 13 Jelena Jankovic lost her opening match to Mona Barthel 6-0, 6-3. Reigning US Open champion Samantha Stosur beat qualifier Valeria Savinykh 6-4, 6-0.

Health issues prevented Williams from playing at Key Biscayne in 2010 and 2011, and a left ankle injury has slowed her this year. Aside from two Fed Cup victories in February, she was playing for the first time since she lost in the fourth round at the

Australian Open. Williams, who received a first-round bye because she’s seeded 10th, looked fit but rusty and endured some sloppy moments. At one point she froze in a pose behind the baseline, hands on her hips as she fumed after making a flurry of mistakes. “I got a little frustrated,” she said. “My frustration is more like a motivation frustration, so it helps me.” While her returns were erratic, she served six aces and lost only seven of 34 points on her first serve.

Williams said she found her older sister’s first-round victory inspiring.

Venus was diagnosed last summer with a fatigue-causing autoimmune disease, and Serena has tried to help her sister adjust to a restricted diet by keeping unhealthy food out of the kitchen. Best friends since childhood, the sisters continue to share a home as celebrity millionaire adults, and Serena laughed when asked about the arrangement. “Yeah, we probably should have moved out a long time ago,” she said. —AP

FLORIDA: Serena Williams serves to Zhang Shuai of China, during the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament on Thursday, March 22, 2012, in Key Biscayne, Fla. — AP

just solid all day,” said Woods. “I drove the ball well, hit my irons decent and putted alright. I had two three-putts but also made a couple of bombs out there.” Anthony Kim (69), who started on the back nine, had one of the more eventful opening rounds at Bay Hill as his scorecard featured five birdies, a hole-in-one on the 200-yard parthree 17th and four bogeys. Defending champion Martin Laird was six shots off the pace and in a share of 27th place after mixing four birdies with four bogeys for an even-par 72. Phil Mickelson, aiming to find his form in time to push for a fourth Masters triumph, shot a oneover 73 with double-bogeys on the third and 18th holes.

“It wasn’t the greatest round. I had a middle stretch there of four holes where I played five-over. So I fought back hard to get back to one over,” Mickelson told reporters.

“But if I can come out tomorrow and get a hot round, I can get right back in it for the weekend.”— Reuters

Pakistan cricket fans miss India’s revenge ISLAMABAD: Still disappointed at missing a final against archrival India, Pakistan fans had nothing but praise for Bangladesh’s performance in a thrilling Asia Cup cricket final. While most still wished the victory came against India, they were filled with admiration for the Bangladesh team that came agonizingly close to winning the title. Fast bowler Aizaz Cheema conceded six runs in a tense last over as Bangladesh fell just three runs short of its 237-run target, finishing at 234-8.

India defeated Pakistan by six wickets in a high-scoring league match, but Bangladesh qualified for the final after beating both India and Sri Lanka. “I was praying for an IndiaPakistan rematch, but Bangladesh played like a real contender for the title,” said Juzer Mustafa, a university student. “I missed India a lot in the final because it would have given us a chance to beat the current world champions.” Despite India’s absence from the final, people in Pakistan especially youngsters - had made special arrangements to watch the final on big screens. The fans were tense when Bangladesh made a late charge through Mashrafe Mortaza and Mamudullah as the target was reduced to nine runs in the last over.

The moment Cheema bowled the last delivery, the silence broke into jubilation with fans waving national flags while riding their motorbikes and cars on the main streets of the cities. “Until the last over we were thinking Bangladesh can win the match, but thanks God Pakistan won,” said Sonia Abbasi, a student who came to watch the match with her friends on a giant screen in a food street in Karachi. The Bangladesh players couldn’t hide their emotions after losing a tense final as captain Mushfiqur Rahim and former skipper Shakibul Hasan were seen to burst into tears on the field during the trophy presentation.

Pakistan last won the Asia Cup in Bangladesh 12 years ago - the same

year when Bangladesh was awarded test status.

Bangladesh was never rated close to the other three Asian teams India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - before this year’s tournament. But Bangladesh proved that it won’t be just making up the numbers in the tournament after fighting back from an opening 21-run loss to Pakistan.

“Bangladesh deserved to win yesterday because they played really well not only in the final but also against India and Sri Lanka in the league matches,” said Naseer Ahmad, computer operator. “I would have enjoyed more had we defeated India in the final.”

Opening batsman Tamim Iqbal posted four successive half centuries in the tournament to prove his own cricket board wrong when he was first omitted from the squad before being re-included when the country’s chief selector resigned in protest.

Middle order batsman Nasir Hossain, allrounder Hasan and Rahim formed the nucleus of the batting in two successful run chases against India and Sri Lanka which booked their berth in the final. Pakistan’s strong bowling attack was shredded by India’s Virat Kohli when he made 183 as India chased down 330-run target in their league match.

But India’s hopes of a final against Pakistan were shut down by Bangladesh when the hosts crafted a clinical five-wicket win against Sri Lanka in a rain-reduced final league match. Bangladesh had ticked all the boxes in the final until that last over of Shahadat Hossain, when Pakistan accumulated 19 runs that lifted its total to 236-8. “Bangladesh is like a younger brother to us, they played well throughout the tournament and I would not have mind had Pakistan lost the final yesterday,” said Saifullah Khan, who works as a driver. “I don’t like Pakistan losing to India, and after they defeated us in the league match, I had hoped we would take revenge from them in the final.”— AP

A

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Years

SPORTS

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Duaij Al-Otaibi (center) pictured with the winning teams

Erzouqi, Kuwait shine at Shooting Grand Prix

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: The Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Annual International Grand Prix witnessed yet another achievement by Kuwait’s 10m Air Rifle Shooter Mariam Erzouqi as she won the gold medal with a total score of 398 points, followed by Serbia’s Andrea Arsovic (scoring 397) and El-Selvador’s Melissa Mike third (397).

Mariam continued her winning streak as she took the 10th Arab Shooting Championship 10m Air Rifle with a score of 499.5, followed by Bahiyaa Al-Hamad from Qatar (495.7) and Qatar’s Mahbuba Akhlaqi. In the 10m Air Rifle women team - (Mariam Erzouqi, Munira Al-Anjari and Fatemah Abdulmalek), Kuwait took the first position with a score of 1170. Second place went to Qatar team (Bahiyah Al-Hamah, Mahbuba Akhlaqi and Sheikha AlMohammad) with 1164. Third place went to Syria (Rayah Zein Aldeen, Jehan Al-Moghrabi and Weam Suleiman) with a score of 1146.

In the Arab Championship 10m Air Rifle women Junior Individual Event, Aisha Al-Suwaidi took the first position, followed

by Kuwait’s Heba Erzouqi. UAE’s Yasmeen Tahlak took the third

position. In The Amir GP 50m Rifle Prone Men (individual) Event, Slovenia’s Rajmond Debevec grabbed the lead, scoring 596 points, followed by Kazah’s Alexander Yermakov with a score of 595, and India’s Sanjeev Rajput with a score of 595. In the 10th Arab Championship 50m Prone Men Junior individuals event, Qatar’s Hamad Abu Taimah won with 576 points followed by

Bahrain’s Abdullah Al-Kawari with 573 and Qatar’s Hamad AlMubarak was third with 568.

Shooter Khalid Al-Mudhaf was very outstanding during the trap competition and won the gold medal after hitting 122 targets out of 125. Talal Al-Rashidi grabbed the second position with 121, while Oman’s Khalid Al-Nasiri took third with a score of 120.

Kuwait won 4 gold medals and three bronze on Thursday raising its total wins to 8 gold medals, 6 bronze and one bronze. Saudi Arabia won 3 gold and 2 silver while Qatar got 2 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze. Morocco won 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze; Oman- 2 gold and 3 bronze; Lebanon-1 gold and one bronze; Bahrain -2 silver and 3 bronze; UAE - 1 silver and 3 bronze and Syria- 1 bronze medal.

Kuwait won the 10th Arab Championship Trap Men team’s event with a score of 277, while Morocco (2nd) scored 268 points.

Third place went to UAE with a total score of 265. In the Trap Juniors event, Morocco took the first position with 229 points, while Kuwait took second position with a score of 225. The Championship will continue today with the 10m Air Pistol, 50m Rifle 3 position for women and women Juniors, while men will continue the skeet events shooting at 75 targets.

Penguins clinch playoff berth PITTSBURGH: Evgeni Malkin scored twice and James Neal had four assists as the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched a playoff spot with a 5-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday. Chris Kunitz, Matt Cooke and Pascal Dupuis also scored to help Pittsburgh pull within a point of the New York Rangers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference with nine games remaining. Marc-Andre Fluery made 29 saves for his NHL-leading 40th victory.

Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby was held without a goal for the 12th straight game and failed to score a point, but it hardly stopped the Penguins from winning their ninth straight home game. Nashville’s Alexander Radulov scored in his return to the NHL after four years in Russia, but the Penguins picked apart Predators goalie Pekka Rinne. The league saves leader allowed two goals in the first 5 minutes.

FLYERS 2, CAPITALS 1, SO At Philadelphia, Matt Read and Wayne Simmonds scored shootout goals to lift Philadelphia past Washington. Claude Giroux scored his 27th goal for the Flyers, and Alex Ovechkin had his 33rd for the Capitals. Read scored on the first shot of the shootout against Braden Holtby, and Matt Hendricks beat Ilya Bryzgalov on Washington’s first attempt. Giroux and Ovechkin were both denied and another round came up

empty for both teams. Simmonds scored, and Bryzgalov stuffed Troy Brouwer to preserve the win.

KINGS 1, BLUES 0, SO At LOs Angeles, Jonathan Quick held his own in a brilliant goaltending duel with Brian Elliott, posting his franchise record-tying eighth shutout of the season for Los Angeles, and Jeff Carter had the deciding goal in the fourth round of a shootout against St. Louis. The Kings took over first place in the Pacific Division with their season-high sixth straight victory, though they are tied in points with Phoenix. Quick matched Rogie Vachon’s shutout mark from 1976-77 and pushed his career total to 23.

COYOTES 3, AVALANCHE 2 At Glendale, Arizona, Mike Smith made 39 saves for his 100th NHL victory, and Daymond Langkow, Kyle Chipchura and Raffi Torres scored to help Phoenix beat Colorado. Langkow and Chipchura scored in the first period and Torres made it 3-0 late in the second. Ryan O’Reilly spoiled Smith’s shutout bid 4:28 into the third, and Paul Stastny added his 20th of the season with 5:39 left. The Coyotes played without captain Shane Doan, suspended for three games for elbowing Dallas’ Jamie Benn on Tuesday night. Doan also will forfeit $166,000 in salary.

SHARKS 2, BRUINS 1 At San Jose, California, Daniel Winnik scored his first goal with San Jose to give the Sharks’ playoff hopes a needed boost with a victory over defending Stanley Cup champion Boston. Joe Pavelski scored early in the first period to let San Jose play from ahead and Winnik added insurance early in the third when he ended his 43-game drought without a goal. Antti Niemi made 16 saves. The Bruins, coming off an 8-0 win Monday night against Toronto, didn’t get on the board until Zdeno Chara scored with 4:15 remaining to cut the deficit to 2-1.

They couldn’t get any more and dropped their fourth straight road game - their longest skid since December 2009. Boston remained three points ahead of idle Ottawa for the Northeast Division lead with one game in hand.

WILD 3, FLAMES 2, SO At St Paul, Minnesota, Devin Setoguchi scored in the fourth round of a shootout in Minnesota’s comeback victory over Calgary. Dany Heatley and Darroll Powe scored in regulation for the Wild. Josh Harding stopped 27 shots and all four Calgary shots in the shootout to hand the Flames their fourth straight loss Lee Stempniak and Anton Babchuk scored for Calgary, which failed to gain ground in the race for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Setoguchi beat Miikka Kipprusoff with

a wrist shot on the stick side, and Harding stopped Blake Comeau to seal the victory.

LIGHTNING 3, OILERS 2, SO At Tampa, Florida, Teddy Purcell scored in the sixth round of a shootout, and Tom Pyatt had two goals in regulation as Tampa Bay edged Edmonton.

Steven Stamkos and Martin St Louis also scored in the extra session. Ladislav Smid pulled Edmonton even at 2 with 3:47 left in regulation with his first goal in 38 games. Linus Omark also scored for the Oilers. It was the first time that Edmonton’s Nikolai Khabibulin, who stopped 19 shots, played in Tampa since Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, when he helped the Lightning beat Calgary 2-1 to win the team’s only NHL championship.

CANUCKS 2, STARS 1 At Dallas, Cory Schneider stopped Mike Ribeiro’s penalty shot and finished with 25 saves, and Mason Raymond and Kevin Bieksa scored in Vancouver’s victory over Dallas. The Canucks were without Daniel Sedin, the team leader with 30 goals, sidelined indefinitely because of a head injury. Sedin is back in Vancouver after taking an elbow to the head from Chicago’s Duncan Keith in the first period of the Blackhawks’ 2-1 overtime win over the Canucks on Wednesday night. Vernon Fiddler scored for Dallas. — AP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Hornets down Clippers 97-90 Pacers overpower Wizards NEW ORLEANS: Chris Kaman scored 20 points as the Hornets rallied for a 97-90 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday, spoiling Chris Paul’s return to New Orleans. The Clippers were held to 11 points in the fourth quarter as they shot 4 for 23 from the field.

Los Angeles also missed its last 19 3-point attempts.

After trailing throughout the first three quarters, the Hornets went ahead with an 11-2 run at the start of the fourth and led the rest of the way. Jarrett Jack and Jason Smith each scored 17 as New Orleans snapped a five-game home losing streak. Blake Griffin had 21 points for Los Angeles, and Paul, who forced a trade from New Orleans before the season, added 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting.

Rugby WCup heads down Mexico way

CELTICS 100, BUCKS 91 At Milwaukee, Paul Pierce scored 25 points to help Boston snap Milwaukee’s six-game winning streak.

Kevin Garnett had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Mickael Pietrus scored 13 points for the Celtics, who were playing their seventh game on an eight-game road trip. With Thursday’s win, the Celtics improved to 4-3 on the trip. Brandon Jennings had 19 points for Milwaukee. It was the Bucks home debut for Monta Ellis, who was acquired along with forward Ekpe Udoh in a trade with the Golden State Warriors last week.

Ellis went first in pregame introductions and received a loud ovation. Ellis scored 13 points on 6-for-18 shooting.

ROCKETS 109, WARRIORS 83 At Houston, Goran Dragic had 17 points and nine assists, and rookie Chandler Parsons had 20 points and a career-high 11 rebounds to lead Houston. Luis Scola scored 18 and Samuel Dalembert added 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who dominated the Warriors inside, outrebounding Golden State 48-31 and scoring 58 points in the paint. Richard Jefferson scored 14 points and David Lee added 12 for the Warriors, who’ve lost five of their last six games.

PACERS 85, WIZARDS 83 At Washington, David West grabbed three offensive rebounds in the final 70 seconds, Darren Collison made a key steal of an inbounds pass, and Paul George’s 3-pointer with 1:01 to play gave Indiana its their first lead of the game, completing a 22-point comeback. Roy Hibbert scored 19 points, Danny Granger had 16, and West and George finished with 13 apiece for the Pacers, who recovered from an abysmal first half.

TRAIL BLAZERS 97, GRIZZLIES 93 At Portland, Oregon, Nicolas Batum had 24 points and new-look Portland held off Memphis. Jamal Crawford had 17 points, including four clutch free throws in the final seconds for the Blazers, who snapped a two-game skid to even to 2-2 under interim head coach Kaleb Canales. Marc Gasol’s layup narrowed it to 91-88 with 2:15 to go. Neither side could get a shot to fall as time wound down, but Wesley Matthews made free throws for Portland before Mike Conley’s 3-pointer kept the Grizzlies close at 93-91.

Rudy Gay missed a 3 at the buzzer for Memphis.

JAZZ 103, KINGS 102 At Sacramento, California, Al Jefferson’s putback with 0.9 seconds remaining lifted Utah past Sacramento. The Jazz went almost 9 minutes without a basket in the fourth quarter and blew a 14-point second-half lead before Jefferson bailed them out with the game-winner to silence the crowd. Jefferson finished with 26 points and seven rebounds, Derrick Favors added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Gordon Hayward scored 18 points for Utah, which remained one-half game behind Houston for eighth place in the Western Conference. Tyreke Evans scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter for the Kings. Marcus Thornton added 22 points and 18 rebounds, but shot an airball on his 3-point attempt at the buzzer.— AP

CALIFORNIA: Sacramento Kings guard Marcus Thornton (23) drives to the basket against Utah Jazz defender DeMarre Carroll during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Sacramento, Calif. — AP

NBA results/standings Indiana 85, Washington 83; Boston 100, Milwaukee 91; New Orleans 97, LA Clippers 90; Houston 109, Golden State 83; Portland 97, Memphis 93; Utah 103, Sacramento 102.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT Philadelphia 26 21 .553 Boston 25 21 .543 NY Knicks 23 24 .489 Toronto 15 32 .319 New Jersey 15 33 .313 Central Division Chicago 39 10 .796 Indiana 27 18 .600 Milwaukee 21 25 .457 Cleveland 17 27 .386 Detroit 16 30 .348 Southeast Division Miami 34 11 .756 Orlando 30 18 .625 Atlanta 27 20 .574 Washington 11 35 .239 Charlotte 7 37 .159

GB 0.5 3 11 11.5 10 16.5 19.5 21.5 5.5 8 23.5 26.5

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma City 35 12 .745 Denver 26 21 .553 Utah 25 22 .532 Minnesota 23 25 .479 Portland 22 25 .468 Pacific Division LA Lakers 29 18 .617 LA Clippers 26 21 .553 Phoenix 23 24 .489 Golden State 19 26 .422 Sacramento 17 30 .362 Southwest Division San Antonio 30 14 .682 Dallas 27 21 .563 Memphis 25 20 .556 Houston 26 22 .542 New Orleans 12 35 .255

9 10 12.5 13 3 6 9 12 5 5.5 6 19.5

LONDON: The road to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England will start not in one of the sport’s heartlands but in the unlikely setting of Mexico City today. There Mexico, best known in sporting terms for football, will face Jamaica, the Caribbean island that has produced a succession of gifted West Indies cricketers, in the first of 184 matches that will yield just eight qualifiers to play alongside rugby’s ‘big boys’ in three years’ time.

Today’s match may be far removed from the sight of New Zealand beating France in last year’s World Cup final on home soil in Auckland, but the games do have some things in common-they will both be refereed by South Africa’s Craig Joubert and the Webb Ellis Trophy will be in attendance as well. And, unlike last year’s final, both Mexico and Jamaica will have their match shirts presented to them on Friday by a World Cup winner in Lawrence Dallaglio, a member of England’s victorious 2003 team.

But while playing at Dallaglio’s old stamping ground of Twickenham in 2015 may be a goal beyond both this weekend’s teams, for Mexico, who only became a full member of the International Rugby Board in 2006, the qualification campaign is part of a wider plan for developing the game in the Central American nation. “This year the plan is to try and to get to the final of NACRA (North America Caribbean Rugby Association),” explained Simon Pierre, Mexico’s New Zealand-born coach, who also plays at No 8, in an IRB statement. “Of course we would love to win (that) competition but it’s a process that always takes time,” added Pierre, who arrived in Mexico in 2008 aiming to stay for just six months before moving to Europe but who is now, after stints coaching the Under-19s and Sevens national sides, in charge of the senior team.

“We’re now into the second year of the process. It’s just a case of getting the skill levels up.” Tom Jones, the IRB’s regional general manager for North America and the Caribbean believes that in years to come Mexico, like Argentina, could become a significant rugby force. “It is going to be one of the bigger unions because of what they’re doing and the potential size of it,” he said.

“Mexico are favorites for this first game, but I think it will be close. Mexico have only started to grow the way the IRB wants it to-we call it a major market investment-very recently. “Five years ago, there were only half a dozen clubs playing in Mexico City.

Now, they have 100 clubs around the country. “But it still takes a long time to build a national team, and there are a lot of challenges to it that USA and Canada have been dealing with for 100 years. “Mexico will emerge as the strongest union in the region eventually, but nothing happens all that quickly.” Attempts to gain local publicity for this weekend’s match are set to be hampered by an unfortunate clash of events, with Pope Benedict XVI starting his first trip to Spanishspeaking Latin America in Mexico. Trying to tempt some fans away from football is one thing, rivaling the vast open air-masses the pontiff is set to attract in the Catholic country quite something else.— AFP

sports

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Spanish League Preview

Fear of failure drives on Real

MADRID: Real Madrid insist they have not been paralyzed by stagefright despite seeing their 10-point lead in La Liga slashed to six by bitter rivals Barcelona. Jose Mourinho’s side, who tackle Real Sociedad today, have dropped four points in the past week after two 1-1 draws at home to Malaga and away to Villarreal, where they also had two players sent off.

Defending champions Barcelona, meanwhile, go to in-form Mallorca,

and assistant Rui Farias were sent from the bench in a sign that nerves may be creeping in as Madrid get closer to breaking Barca’s dominance of the last three La Liga titles. After the game Mourinho refused to speak to the press or allow anyone else from his camp to discuss the match.

Having lost only once in 22 league games - 2-1 at home to Barcelona in December-it was a major shock for ‘Los blancos’ to drop points twice in a

VILLARREAL: Real Madrid’s goalkeeper Iker Casillas (center) is unable to save a goal against Villarreal during their La Liga soccer match at Madrigal stadium in Villarreal on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. —AP unbeaten in four games. Madrid were surprised by a last minute leveller from a free-kick by Malaga’s Santi Cazorla last Sunday, before losing Sergio Ramos and Mesut Ozil to red cards against Villarreal on Wednesday after Marcos Senna had equalized with another late free-kick. Mourinho

matter of days. But Madrid president Florentino Perez sent out a message of defiance in the wake of Wednesday’s setback. “Madrid and their fans never give up,” he said at the presentation of a Real Madrid theme park set to open in the United Arab Emirates in 2015. Real Sociedad

lost 3-1 at home to Levante in midweek, having to play the second-half with 10 men after midfielder Gorka Elustondo was sent off. Centre-half Mikel Gonzalez believes the feeling of injustice will spur them on in the Santiago Bernabeu.

“There is no point in complaining about referee decisions, both teams have a lot at stake today but if we can survive to the last period of the game alive, we have a chance of getting something from Madrid,” he said.

Barcelona will go to Mallorca in good spirits. Lionel Messi will be in celebratory mood after becoming the club’s all time leading goalscorer on Tuesday with a hat-trick in the 5-3 win over Granada, taking his tally to 234 career goals.

The little Argentinean will also be defending his position for the prize of ‘Pichichi’ at the top of La Liga’s goalscoring charts, where he now leads Cristiano Ronaldo by one with 34 league strikes.

Third-placed Valencia go to Getafe with coach Unai Emery under pressure despite their league position and good form in the Europa League. The 2-1 defeat at home to bottom club Zaragoza on Wednesday means the gap to city neighbour Levante in fourth position has been reduced to three points. Levante entertain sixth placed Osasuna tomorrow. Also in the race for European football next season are Malaga in fifth who go to eighth-placed Espanyol. Atletico Madrid, currently in seventh, go to rejuvenated basement side Zaragoza who are finally in touching distancewithin two points-of Racing Santander and Sporting Gijon after being stranded at the bottom for the last 14 rounds of games. —AFP

French League Preview

Deschamps desperate to end Marseille losing streak PARIS: The future of Didier Deschamps as Marseille coach is set to come under more intense scrutiny this weekend when the stricken French league giants bid to end an unprecedented series of defeats. And the 1998 World Cup winner expects his players to help get their dire domestic season back on the right path. While league leaders and arch-rivals Paris Saint-Germain continue the business of winning a first league title since 1994, the plight of 2010 champions Marseille is sure to dominate today’s league program. Marseille’s hopes of playing in next season’s Champions League were virtually ended last week by a fifth consecutive league defeat, to relegation-haunted Dijon. Another humiliation came Tuesday in the shape of a French Cup quarter-final defeat to part-timers Quevilly, prompting a stark overall appraisal from former World Cup winner Deschamps. “We’re in a hole.

Either we stay there, or we get our heads

together and get out,” Deschamps said Thursday. “All defeats are horrible, but this one was particularly hard to swallow.” So far, Deschamps has been spared the kind of intense speculation that brings down managers in other top leagues, with club president Vincent Labrune calling on the players to pull their socks up. “Everyone has to face up to his responsibilities,” warned Labrune, who has already lamented the loss of cash Marseille could have potentially earned from inclusion in next season’s Champions League. But the facts speak for themselves: Marseille have never been defeated seven times in succession, according to L’Equipe which highlighted their previous worse spells in 1962-63 and 1979-80 when, each time, they lost six times on the trot. An eighth consecutive defeat in all competitions, according to French media, could dilute Labrune’s faith in Deschamps’ ability to do the job. Compounding Deschamps’

task today is the possible absence of striker Loic Remy, who scored twice in the 3-2 extra time defeat to Quevilly but has since complained of a thigh niggle, which prevented him from training Thursday.

From Nice, who are battling to get out of the drop zone, there is little sympathy.

“I’m not going to be a hypocrite,” Nice defender Renato Civelli, formerly of Marseille, told L’Equipe. “I would much rather play a team that’s going through tough times than a team that’s flying.” PSG, who hold a two-point lead on Montpellier, also exited the French Cup after a 3-1 home reverse at the hands of Lyon but that setback is seen as a blessing in disguise for the Parisians’ sporting director Leonardo. “PSG have not won the title in a long time, and we’re not forgetting that,” Leonardo said after the Lyon defeat, their first of 2012 and the first under coach Carlo Ancelotti. “Our focus is now fully on the league. —AFP

German League Preview

Cup finalists Dortmund and Bayern resume league fight BERLIN: Having both secured their places in the German Cup final in midweek, Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund resume their battle for the league title this weekend. With a five-point lead at the top of the table, Dortmund are at Cologne tomorrow while second-placed Bayern host Hanover today in a rich vein of form having scored 13 goals in their last two league games.

Bayern are hunting a treble of titles this season and face Marseille in the Champions League quarter-finals. With eight points separating Dortmund and third-placed Moenchengladbach, Bayern are realistically the only team who can catch the leaders with eight games to go. The league title race could well be decided on April 11 when Munich face Borussia at Dortmund and the teams will also contest the German Cup final a month later on May 12 at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

Just as he did last season, Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp has discouraged his team from talking about the title, but captain Sebastian Kehl has said false modesty will do them no favors. “If we say now we aren’t serious title contenders then we are just making ourselves look ridiculous,” he said.

“With all modesty, we have 59 points. We are confident at the top and that is where we want to stay, of course.”

Dortmund won a close game at Cologne 2-1 on their last visit there in October 2010 and Klopp expects another battle royal with the hosts, who are 15th, and are just three points above the relegation places.

“After playing 120 minutes of tough football, the guys still have the game in their bones,” said Klopp, after their extratime Cup win at Greuther Fuerth in midweek. “We have had some spectacular games with them in recent years and we can expect another tough match.” Bayern have plenty to distract them as they attempt to catch Dortmund and take on Marseille both home and away before their away match at Borussia. “We have quite a few distractions to deal with in the coming weeks,” admitted Bayern midfielder Toni Kroos.

Munich are on a roll in the league having blasted Hertha Berlin 6-0 in the capital last Saturday after hammering Hoffenheim 7-1 at the Allianz Arena a fortnight ago.

Third-placed Gladbach host Hoffenheim today and can expect to welcome back play maker Patrick Herrmann, who has just returned after breaking his collarbone. At the other end of the table, there promises to be a relegation battle royal when Freiburg host bottom side Kaiserslautern, who sacked Coach Marco Kurz on Tuesday and he has been replaced by Bulgarian coach Krasimir Balakov. Freiburg are in 16th, the final relegation place, but are on the rise and are undefeated in their last three games, while Kaiserslautern are winless in their last 17 matches including 16 German league games. —AFP

Ahly return to action after Port Said tragedy JOHANNESBURG: African football giants Al Ahly of Egypt play at Coffee of Ethiopia tomorrow in their first competitive fixture since 74 people died last month after a domestic game involving the Cairo club. Record six-time African champions Ahly lost 3-1 in Port Said to Al Masry on February 1 and most of the post-match riot victims were crushed or stabbed to death with another 1,000 injured. Egyptian authorities cancelled the national championship and plans for an alternate Martyrs Cup tournament have been scrapped amid security concerns in the volatile north African state after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

Nervous officials would not even allow Ahly to play friendlies ahead of a CAF Champions League second round, first leg qualifier with Coffee 2,400 metres above sea level at the national stadium in Addis Ababa. The ring-rusty ‘Red Devils’, whose last African title came in 2008, had to settle for a threegame tour of the United Arab Emirates, where they won once and lost twice. Adding to the concerns of four-time CAF Champions League-winning coach Manuel Jose from Portugal are injury worries with two veterans of many an African battle-defender Wael Gomaa and striker Emad Moteab-likely absentees. —AFP

sports

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Liverpool seek end to Premier League slump LIVERPOOL: Liverpool head into their Premier League match against relegationthreatened Wigan at Anfield today with supporters still wondering what to make of Kenny Dalglish’s squad. Dalglish has delivered a first trophy since 2006 with the victory over Cardiff in the League Cup final and the Reds will face either Everton or Sunderland in the FA Cup semi-finals next

the month, but they have only managed five wins and Norwich, Swansea, Blackburn and Stoke are among eight teams to have left Anfield with a draw. It all adds up to them being 28 points off Premier League leaders and bitter rivals Manchester United and just 19 ahead of third bottom Bolton. Having spent around £110 million ($174 million) since he returned to Anfield in January last

LONDON: Liverpool’s Sebastian Coates ( right) jumps for the ball to score against Queens Park Rangers during their English Premier League soccer match at Loftus Road Stadium on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. —AP month. But Liverpool’s Premier League form has been a cause for concern all season and their 3-2 loss at QPR-where they led 2-0 — in midweek was a ninth defeat in 29 league games. They have lost eight of their 15 away matches and their record in front of their own fans has also been a source of frustration.

Dalglish’s team have only been beaten once, in a 2-1 defeat by Arsenal at the start of

year, Dalglish will have expected a much greater return for his investment. After the QPR match, the Liverpool manager was left to rue his team’s familiar inability to take their chances.

“We need to find answers and make sure we’re going to learn from it,” he said. “For most of the game we were dominant. “We were really creative, thoughtful and professional, but they (QPR) have walked away

with three points.” Dalglish continues to enjoy the adulation of Liverpool supporters due to his standing as one of the Merseyside club’s greatest players and his previous stint as Reds manager. But if the miserable Anfield form continues against Wigan, could well face the frustration of the fans. Charlie Adam sustained a knee problem at Loftus Road and Daniel Agger, Craig Bellamy and Glen Johnson are all likely to miss out against Wigan today.

Meanwhile Wigan manager Roberto Martinez believes his side can still escape relegation despite a tough run-in. Three points from safety with nine games remaining, Wigan still have to face Chelsea (away), Manchester United (home) and Arsenal (away) after Liverpool. Wigan have won just once in 14 top-flight games and have suffered a serious shortage of goals. But Martinez insisted: “We have produced a positive level of performances in our last few games. “For one reason or another we haven’t been able to take our chances,” the Spaniard added. “The next nine games are crucial for us. Our target is to be consistent over those games. “It’s simple. You have to score goals to win games and we know what we have to do.”

On Liverpool’s defeat at Wigan’s relegation rivals Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday, Martinez added: “I always expected QPR to win. “The only surprise as far as I was concerned is that Liverpool lost after taking a 2-0 lead. “I saw Liverpool play Stoke in the FA Cup at Anfield last week and they are a strong group. They’re capable of producing a piece of magic at any moment.

“We know we’re going to have to be perfect if we’re going to get a positive result.” Hugo Rodallega is in a race against time to be fit for the game. Wigan’s Colombian striker has not trained since missing last week’s 1-1 draw with West Brom with a knee injury and his chances of playing today are rated as fifty-fifty by Martinez. —AFP

Italian League Preview

Milan in striker crisis ahead of Roma clash ROME: Serie A leaders AC Milan face a potential striking crisis this weekend ahead of their clash with Roma. The champions face the possibility of having only two fit strikers after a succession of injuries struck down their regular forwards. Antonio Cassano is still out with a long-term heart problem, Brazilian Pato is due to head to the United States on Monday to try to find a solution to his thigh injury while compatriot Robinho has hurt his ankle.

Added to that veteran Filippo Inzaghi has just been ruled out for up to three weeks with a pulled hamstring and top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic was forced off at half-time of Tuesday’s Italian Cup exit at Juventus due to a recurring back problem.

Ibrahimovic may be fit enough to play but with Barcelona the visitors to the San Siro on Wednesday in the Champions League quarter-final, first leg, Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri may be unwilling to risk the big Swede

against Roma today’s night. It means Maxi Lopez, who scored a stunning individual goal in the 2-2 draw at Juventus-which still saw Milan eliminated 4-3 on aggregate-will likely lead the line alongside youngster Stephan El Shaarawy. Despite Maxi Lopez’s goal, it still rankles Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani that he failed to sign Carlos Tevez from Manchester City in January, settling for Maxi Lopez instead.

“I saw Carlitos (play against Chelsea) and after six months of not playing he came on with his usual nastiness and changed the game which could be the reawakening of Manchester City,” said Galliani. “It makes me mad. I was in love with Tevez but this is what destiny decided and we’re more than happy with Maxi Lopez.” Milan face a tricky match against inconsistent Roma but they will be looking for a helping hand from their city rivals Inter Milan, who head

to second-placed Juventus. Juve may have denied Milan a Cup final place but they trail the rossoneri by four points in the league. The Old Lady of Turin are unbeaten this season in all competitions but have paid for too many draws in the league.

A look at current form would suggest this is more like a relegation battle than a clash between two of the country’s giants. Juve have just two wins in their last eight in the league while Inter are on a run of one win in nine in Serie A. Juve need to exploit the feel-good factor from reaching the Cup final to keep the pressure on Milan. It may be a great time to face Inter but the last time Claudio Ranieri’s men really performed well was against Milan: the last time they played a fellow giant. They also received a boost in midweek with Napoli qualifying for the Cup final meaning that sixth place will now earn a Europa League spot. —AFP

Scottish Premier League Preview

Rangers determined to derail Celtic title party GLASGOW: David Healy says his Rangers team-mates are determined to delay Celtic’s Scottish Premier League title celebrations by winning tomorrow’s Old Firm derby at Ibrox. The Hoops could clinch their first title in four years if they can defeat Rangers and third-placed Motherwell drop points to Kilmarnock. It is a situation the Scottish football authorities will be keen to avoid after referee Hugh Dallas was left bleeding on the pitch in 1999 during a match where Dick Advocaat’s Rangers won the league at Celtic Park. At one stage in November the Gers held a 15point lead over their Old Firm rivals. But things have gone from bad to worse for the Ibrox club, who have lost their last three games at Ibrox since being docked 10 points for entering administration in February, and now trail Celtic by 21 points with eight games remaining.

The Ibrox club have never lost four games in a row at Ibrox but can take heart from Celtic’s defeat to Kilmarnock, which ended their 26 game unbeaten run. And Healy hopes the return of several key players to Ally McCoist’s squad such as Carlos Bocanegra, Dorin Goian, Steven Whittaker and possibly Kyle Lafferty, can give Rangers a boost ahead of another massive derby clash. “It’s going to be a tough challenge and it’s always a big game the Old Firm. I know everybody here is looking forward to it and Celtic will be looking to bounce back after their disappointment in the Cup final,” said the Northern Ireland striker.

“So both sides will be looking to get a little bit of credit from the past week. “We lost at Dundee United and Celtic lost in the Cup final so we’ll both want to bounce back and there’s everything that goes with the Old Firm in terms of the passion and Celtic might have the chance to win the league. “But we know we beat them earlier in the season which was an incredible game and performance. “The atmosphere that day was electric so I know there is going to be a huge, passionate support for both sides tomorrow and everybody is going to be looking forward to it.

“The manager will be getting us all prepared in terms of what way we are going to play, who is possibly going to play and the dangers we will face against Celtic. “They have got a good squad and good players, players that can hurt you. But come tomorrow hopefully we will have done enough during the week to know how we can go out and get the right result.” He added: “It’s not been an easy time, especially for the supporters, because results have gone against us for whatever reason. “It’s time for the players on the pitch to go out and give the supporters, who have back us 100 per cent, something to cheer about.”

Despite all hopes of retaining their title gone Rangers manager McCoist says pride is still at stake for his side. “It’s everything, really. It’s bragging rights until you play each other again. It’s putting one over on your biggest rivals. It’s all that,” McCoist said: “These are the biggest days in the footballing calendar.” Meanwhile, Celtic midfielder Victor Wanyama has revealed he hopes to use the game at Ibrox to make up for the pain of losing last week’s League Cup final to Kilmarnock. The defeat cost Neil Lennon’s side a shot at clinching a domestic treble but the Kenyan international hopes to make amends to the fans by winning the league title at the home of their Glasgow rivals.

“I’ve learned a lot from the loss to Kilmarnock. It was a very big game and a chance for me to win something. It was very important to me before the game and I was very disappointed at full-time when we lost,” Wanyama said. “I don’t want to feel like this again so I hope we will move on from this. “This meant a lot to me personally. Every player wants to win trophies and I was very excited about the thought of possibly doing that. “We have to step up now and concentrate on our next game. Hopefully we will be back to our best and can continue our run in the league.” Celtic should have a full squad to pick from apart from long-term injuries Daniel Majstorovic and Beram Kayal. —AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Chelsea, Hotspur set for champion derby LONDON: Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur meet at Stamford Bridge yesterday in a match that will go a long way towards determining which of the London rivals participates in next season’s Champions League. Tottenham possess a five-point advantage over their hosts but have just been demoted to fourth place in the Premier League table by Arsenal, who were 10 points adrift of their local rivals just a few weeks ago. Chelsea, in fifth, are the only English club still in this season’s Champions League but will travel to Portugal to face Benfica in the quarterfinals on Tuesday having won just two domestic league fixtures since January 14.

Tottenham are in a similarly poor run of form, having taken just nine

points from a possible 27 since being within touching distance of then-leaders Manchester City on January 11. But they also know an away win on a ground where Tottenham have not tasted victory since 1990 would put Chelsea at a severe disadvantage in the chase for the final Champions League qualification place. Chelsea lost 2-1 at Manchester City on Wednesday despite having taken the lead but Gary Cahill, the Blues’ goal-scorer, was confident of derby success.

“Arsenal are having decent form and Spurs have been hit the last few games,” Cahill said. “It is hard to keep that momentum going throughout the season. “Spurs have been absolutely fantastic but it is tough to keep it going every single game, week in, week out,”

the defender added. “You will always have a blip in the season and maybe theirs has come now. “We are at home, where we have some confidence now, and we are looking to get the positive result we need.” Roberto di Matteo, Chelsea’s caretaker manager, will hope to have Captain John Terry available after the centre-back missed the City defeat because of a knee injury.

Spurs have also been beaten at City as well as United, Arsenal, and Everton.

They did record wins over Wigan and Newcastle, the latter by five goals, but Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw at home to Stoke, which required a stoppagetime equaliser from Rafael van der Vaart, was another missed opportunity.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has been busy insisting his installation

as the favourite for the vacant England job had nothing to do with his side’s loss of form.

And he was saying the same thing after the Stoke game about the effect of the abandonment of the previous Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final with Bolton Wanderers, which was called off when Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton midfielder, suffered a cardia arrest on the pitch. Brad Friedel, Tottenham’s experienced United States international goalkeeper, was adamant the squad were not wilting under the pressure of expectation. “We want to play well, we want to win but we all saw here last Saturday what pressure was,” he said.

“I’ve got three kids and raising them is far more pressure than a football match. — AFP

Furious Ferguson fires a warning shot at City MANCHESTER: Sir Alex Ferguson fired a warning shot at Manchester City as the Manchester United manager claimed he has “plenty of ammunition” if Roberto Mancini’s men want to play mind games. Ferguson has been infuriated by comments from Patrick Vieira, City’s football development executive, who this week said the United boss’s decision to bring Paul Scholes out of retirement was a sign of desperation.

Former City and Arsenal midfielder Vieira was shocked that Ferguson turned to Scholes to bolster his midfield in January after the 37-year-old spent several months in retirement. — AFP

Matches on TV (Local Timings)

LONDON: Members of the Tottenham Hotspur team line up wearing get well Fabrice T-shirts prior to playing against Stoke City during their English Premier League soccer match at Tottenham’s on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. — AP

Bolton try to get back on track without Muamba BOLTON: Bolton Wanderers face local rivals Blackburn Rovers today in their first match since Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest, with Owen Coyle claiming all his squad want to play. Bolton’s FA Cup quarter-final at Tottenham was abandoned last Saturday after midfielder Muamba, 23, collapsed on the pitch. Doctors have revealed the former Arsenal player was “in effect dead” for 78 minutes after the incident at White Hart Lane.

Although Muamba remains in intensive care in hospital in London, his condition has improved steadily throughout the week. Bolton’s Premier League match at Aston Villa, scheduled for Tuesday, was quickly postponed but as Muamba started to show positive signs, the club decided the Rovers fixture at the Reebok Stadium should go ahead.

The Trotters dropped into the relegation zone following QPR’s 3-2 victory over Liverpool in midweek and they also face a re-arranged FA Cup quarter-final at Tottenham on Tuesday. Bolton manager Coyle acknowledged his players must have been affected by the events of the past week but insisted his team must battle

hard going into this crucial relegation match to honor Muamba. “I spoke to the group on Wednesday because what we have to understand is that we all have different personalities and different natures,” he said. “Some people are affected in different ways than others. “I told them that, with regards to today’s game, if there was anyone who wasn’t up to going out and playing 90 minutes on a football pitch, they wouldn’t play. I wouldn’t ask anyone to play in these circumstances if they weren’t in a position to do so. “It will be a difficult game of football because all of our thoughts will remain with Fabrice. The players love Fabrice and whoever takes the field at the weekend will be doing all they can for him and for Bolton.” Bolton and Iceland defender Gretar Steinsson added: “All the players are pleased with the progress Fabrice is making with his recovery but we know it is still very serious and he is intensive care so our thoughts are with him and his family.

“We need to focus on the next game today but Fabrice will always be in the back of our minds. “We need to go on with our business because that’s what Fab will want

us to do and we want to play the game for Fab.” Right-back Tyrone Mears is out with a knee problem, while midfielders Stuart Holden and Chung-Yong Lee are long-term absentees. Blackburn have had a week to remember after recording successive victories for the first time since Steve Kean replaced Sam Allardyce as manager at the end of 2010. Wins over Wolves and Sunderland, both by a 2-0 scoreline, also saw Rovers collect their first clean sheets of the season.

Kean and unpopular owners Venky’s, an India-based poultry firm, have faced protests throughout the season but Kean’s men are now five points clear of the bottom three and avoiding defeat, or even securing another win, would give them significant breathing space. The Blackburn manager feels the form of attacking duo Junior Hoilett and Yakubu will have a major say in his team’s push to avoid dropping into the Championship. He said: “The partnership of Yakubu and Junior is starting to show signs of causing all sorts of problems for central defenders. “We’ve got back to back wins and back to back clean sheets which is fantastic really.” — AFP

English Premier League Chelsea v Spurs Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Arsenal v Aston Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Bolton v Blackburn Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Liverpoolv Wigan Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Norwich v Wolves Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Sunderland v QPR Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Swansea v Everton Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Stoke v Man City Abu Dhabi Sports HD

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Spanish League Mallorca v Barcelona Aljazeera Sport +2 Madrid v Real Sociedad Aljazeera Sport +2

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Tomorrow Getafe v Valencia Aljazeera Sport +4

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Italian League AC Milan v AS Roma Aljazeera Sport +1

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Palermo v Udinese Aljazeera Sport +1

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SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012

Sports

Serena wins opening match at Key Biscayne

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KUWAIT: Kuwaiti shooter Mariam Erzouqi competes during the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Annual International Grand Prix event yesterday.(See Page 43)

Malaga hunt top 4 in La Liga Fourth win in five-game unbeaten streak

BARCELONA: Malaga came from behind to beat Rayo Vallecano 4-2 through Jose Rondon’s double to stay in the hunt for a top-four finish in the Spanish league on Thursday. Diego Costa stroked in a spot kick to give Rayo the lead five minutes in after Malaga defender Jesus Gamez fouled Emiliano Armenteros in the area. But Malaga dominated the rest of the way at La Rosaleda Stadium. Rondon headed home Eliseu Pereira’s cross to equalize in the 35th. The Venezuela striker then netted again in the 58th when he took Eliseu’s pass, held off his marker, and shot under the goalkeeper for his ninth goal of the season.

Substitute Enzo Maresca put the result beyond doubt for the hosts with a header in the 70th. Roberto Trashorras scored Rayo’s second

with a penalty in the 84th after goalkeeper Willy Caballero brought Diego Costa down in the box, but two minutes later Malaga substitute Sergio “Duda” Barbosa hit from long range. Malaga’s fourth win in a five-game unbeaten streak lifted it even on points with fourth-place Levante, the team currently holding Spain’s last Champions League spot.

“More than good results, we are looking to perfect our playing style,” Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini said. “If the team continues in this dynamic we can aspire to the highest possible positions. We have never lacked ambition.”

Earlier, Sevilla revived hope of a late-season surge by beating Racing Santander 3-0 thanks to Manu del Moral’s brace, while Walter Pandiani’s stoppage-time goal earned Espanyol

a 1-1 draw at Real Betis. Spain winger Jesus Navas volleyed in Sevilla’s 34th-minute opener.

Manu extended the lead by firing under the goalkeeper in the 52nd and capped the win in added time. Racing played the last 10 minutes a man down after Papakouly Diop was sent off with a direct red card for a hard tackle. “This was a great game for Sevilla,” said Sevilla coach Michel Gonzalez. “But you also have to consider the low morale of the team we were facing. That played in our favor.” Sevilla’s first win in four games left it four points from sixth place and Spain’s Europa League positions with 10 games to go. Racing is four points from safety after its 10th straight match without a victory.

In Seville, Betis looked set to make good on Ruben Castro’s 10th goal of the season until

Pandiani rifled a shot from outside the area just under the bar to split the points. “I felt that the game was unfairly slipping away from us, but (Pandiani) scored because we never gave up,” said Espanyol coach Mauricio Pochettino. On Wednesday, Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho, assistant Rui Faria, and two players were all sent off during its 1-1 draw at Villarreal. The league leader’s second straight draw reduced its advantage to six points over Barcelona. Lionel Messi became Barcelona’s all-time leading scorer with 234 goals by hitting a hat trick in Tuesday’s 5-3 win over Granada. Also in round 28, it was: Osasuna 0, Getafe 0; Real Sociedad 1, Levante 3; Valencia 1, Zaragoza 2; Atletico Madrid 2, Athletic Bilbao 1; and Sporting Gijon 2, Mallorca 3. — AP