25th Nov

CR IP TI ON BS SU 150 FILS

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

www.kuwaittimes.net

MOHARRAM 11, 1434 AH

40 PAGES

NO: 15638

Morsi faces judicial revolt over decree Crisis over president’s powers exposes Egypt divisions

Boxing great Camacho dies SAN JUAN: Puerto Rican boxing great Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho, shot in the head last week, was declared dead yesterday after being removed from a respirator, a doctor said. His death brings a tragic end to a career that saw Camacho triumph in three weight classes but struggle with drugs and alcohol.

Camacho, who was 50, suffered a heart attack overnight Friday and doctors later disconnected him from life support equipment, said Dr. Ernesto Torres, director of Centro Medico de Rio Piedras, where the boxer was admitted after being shot Tuesday. “There was nothing else we could do for Hector Camacho him,” Torres said.

Camacho had been declared brain dead on Thursday.

His relatives were informed as soon as he was taken off life support yesterday, the doctor said. Camacho’s mother, Maria Matias, said Friday she accepted the doctors’ opinion that the three-time world champion could not recover. The ex-fighter was shot on Tuesday while in a car in San Juan outside a liquor store. The boxer’s driver, Alberto Mojica Moreno, 49, was killed in the shooting. It is not known if they were deliberately targeted or simply caught up in a random act of violence. — AFP (See Page 18)

Emails offer details on bin Laden burial WASHINGTON: Internal emails among which were translated into Arabic by a US military officers indicate that no native speaker. After the words were sailors watched Osama bin Laden’s bur- complete, the body was placed on a preial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and pared flat board, tipped up, whereupon traditional Islamic procedures were fol- the deceased’s body slid into the sea.” lowed during the ceremony. The emails, The email also included a cryptic refobtained by AP through the Freedom of erence to the intense secrecy surroundInformation Act, are heavily blacked out, ing the mission. “The paucity of docubut are the first public disclosure of gov- mentary evidence in our possession is a ernment information about reflection of the emphasis the Al-Qaeda leader’s death. placed on operational secuThe emails were released rity during the execution of Wednesday by the Defense this phase of the operation,” Department. Bin Laden was Gaouette’s message reads. killed on May 1, 2011, by a Recipients of the email Navy SEAL team that included Adm. Mike Mullen, assaulted his compound in then the chairman of the Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Joint Chiefs of Staff, and One email stamped Gen James Mattis, the top secret and sent on May 2 by officer at US Central a senior Navy officer briefly Command. Mullen retired describes how bin Laden’s from the military in Sept Osama bin Laden body was washed, wrapped 2011. in a white sheet, and then placed in a Earlier, Gaouette, then the deputy weighted bag. According to another commander of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, message from the Vinson’s public affairs and another officer used code words to officer, only a small group of the ship’s discuss whether the helicopters carrying leadership was informed of the burial. the SEALs and bin Laden’s body had “Traditional procedures for Islamic burial arrived on the Vinson. “Any news on the was followed,” the May 2 email from Rear package for us?” he asked Rear Adm Adm. Charles Gaouette reads. “ The Samuel Perez, commander of the carrier deceased’s body was washed (ablution) strike group that included the Vinson. then placed in a white sheet. The body “FEDEX delivered the package,” Perez was placed in a weighted bag. A military responded. “Both trucks are safely officer read prepared religious remarks, enroute home base.” — AP

CAIRO: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (center right) waves to supporters outside the Presidential Palace on Friday. (Inset) Newly appointed prosecutor general Talaat Abdallah sits at his desk on his first day in office yesterday after being appointed by Morsi. — AP

Max 23º Min 14º High Tide 09:42 & 21:24 Low Tide 03:42 & 14:47

CAIRO: Defiant Egyptian judges hit back at President Mohamed Morsi yesterday, demanding he reverse a decree giving himself sweeping powers that put him beyond judicial oversight, after more clashes between police and protesters. Egypt’s Judges Club held emergency talks in Cairo to mull their response to Morsi’s “ferocious attack on Egyptian justice”, Club chief Ahmed AlZind told the club’s general assembly, as furious judges chanted “The people want the downfall of the regime.”

Protesters tried to storm the High Court where the judges were meeting but were dispersed when police fired tear gas. The dismissed prosecutor general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, was given a hero’s welcome by the several thousand judges who attended the session of Egypt’s Judges’ Club yesterday. Zind introduced Mahmoud by his old title, in open defiance of Morsi’s decree.

Earlier, anti-riot police fired tear gas to disperse antiMorsi protesters camped out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square as Western governments voiced growing concern over the political crisis. The Supreme Judicial Council denounced Morsi’s constitutional declaration as “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings”, while the Judges Club of Alexandria announced “the suspension of work in all courts and prosecution administrations in the provinces of Alexandria and Beheira”. And they “will accept nothing less than the cancellation of (Morsi’s decree),” which violates the principle of separation of powers, club chief Mohammed Ezzat Al-Agwa said.

The president already held both and executive and legislative powers, and his Thursday decree puts him beyond judicial oversight until a new constitution has been ratified in a referendum. The measures are valid only until the new constitution now being drafted is adopted, and supporters argue they will hasten what has been a turbulent and seemingly endless transition to democracy.

Continued on Page 13

Qatar hosts major climate talks DUBAI: When the tiny desert nation of Qatar was chosen to host the latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations, environmentalists were stunned. Talks were already in trouble, and now the high-level discussions were moving to a member of OPEC that had shown little interest in climate change and appointed a former oil minister to lead the negotiations, which start today. The country’s economic boom, driven by vast oil and gas reserves, has led to free electricity for citizens and an abundance of gas-guzzling SUVs in the capital, Doha. It has also made Qatar the world’s highest per capita carbon dioxide emitter.

“Nongovernment organizations had mixed feelings about it,” said Wael Hmaidan, a Lebanese activist who is director of the Climate Action Network. “Some were very concerned and found it a threat knowing that Qatar has not DOHA: Conference flags are displayed ahead been engaged in the climate change negotia- this Nov 20, 2012 photo. — AP tions, while others found it an opportunity to Nations Climate Change secretariat. “We are get the climate debate higher on the political very grateful. Qatar not only offered, but literally fought for the opportunity and privilege of hostagenda of the region.”

Activists complain Qatar has shown little ing. We have been impressed with work of the leadership so far and been much less transpar- Qatar team and how they have brought thement than previous hosts of the annual climate selves very quickly up to speed with the comconference. Among the most vocal has been plexity of the issues,” she said.

Hosting the conference is part of the tiny Gulf advocacy group Avaaz, which asserts that “having one of the OPEC leaders in charge of climate nation’s campaign to project itself as a powertalks is like asking Dracula to look after a blood house on the world stage, after winning the bid bank.” It also criticized Qatari leaders for attend- to host the 2022 World Cup and backing rebeling a big oil conference just ahead of the talks, a lions in Libya and Syria. It also offers the ruling family an opportunity to change perceptions sign its priorities may misplaced.

But publicly, delegates have been careful to about a region that in the past has seemed conavoid criticizing the emirate. The top United cerned only with protecting its vast oil and gas Nations climate official said preparations are on reserves from the impact of any climate agreetrack. “I’m not concerned,” said Christiana ment.

Qatar and its Gulf neighbors insist that porFigueres, the executive secretary of the United

of the Doha Climate Change Conference in trayal is outdated. The United Arab Emirates has, for example, endorsed the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, which limits the greenhouse emissions of industrialized countries. It was also the first Gulf nation to sign on to the Copenhagen Accord supporting a long-term deal to reign in emissions. Even Saudi Arabia, which in the past led opposition to a global agreement capping greenhouse gas emissions, has moderated its position and shaken up its negotiating team.

Leaders in the Gulf also are more vocally acknowledging the impact of climate change, endorsing the science that shows emissions are on rise and recognizing they are not immune to the impact of global warming. They also are promising to do their part to combat it.

Continued on Page 13

in the

news

Hijab first in UK parliament LONDON: A 16-year-old girl is thought to have become the first person to speak from the House of Commons despatch box in the British parliament while wearing a hijab, The Times newspaper reported yesterday.

Sumaiya Karim a biology, chemistry, history and maths student, was speaking as the Youth Parliament held its annual session in the lower house’s chamber, where Britain’s MPs gather. Karim, from Wokingham, west of London, said: “Wearing the hijab was my own choice.”

The Muslim hijab scarf covers the head and neck but leaves the face exposed. British ministers and opposition shadow ministers stand at the despatch boxes when they address the Commons. The democratically elected Youth Parliament members, aged 11 to 18, are MANAMA: A Bahraini Shiite man mourns the killing of elected to represent the views of young people in their Imam Hussein on the eve of Ashoura late Friday area to government. evening. — AP

‘Gangnam’ YouTube’s most watched video SEOUL: South Korean pop sensation Psy’s “Gangnam Style” yesterday became YouTube’s most-watched video of all time, registering more than 803 million views to overtake “Baby” by Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber. The 34-year-old rapper has rocketed to fame since his “Gangnam Style” video in which he performs his now famous horse-riding dance - became a worldwide hit following its release in July. Earlier this month the song ousted Jennifer Lopez’s dance hit “On the Floor” from second place on YouTube, and yesterday it overtook Bieber’s hit.

In the evening, it had racked up 803,761,928 views against 803,658,345 for “Baby”. Psy’s song, which is a tribute to an upmarket neighbourhood in Seoul, has topped charts from Britain to Australia and has been namechecked by global notables including US President Barack Obama and UN chief Ban Ki-moon. (See Page 39)

Dubai plans new ‘city’, largest mall DUBAI: Dubai, famed for its mega-projects before it was hit by the global financial crisis, yesterday announced a new development to open the world’s biggest mall and a park larger than London’s Hyde Park. The ruler of the Gulf desert city state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid AlMaktoum, announced the plan for a “new city within Dubai”, according to an official statement, naming it after himself. No cost was stated for “Mohammed bin Rashid City”, to be carried out by his Dubai Holding and the publicly-listed Emaar Properties, which developed many of Dubai’s prestigious projects, including Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower. The plan also features new residential areas, although the emirate continues to have a surplus of units built during a five-year bubble which burst in 2009. (See Page 21)

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

LOCAL

Opposition divided on election eve procession Govt unlikely to issue license KUWAIT: With preparations currently on for a procession to be taken out on the eve of next Saturday’s parliamentary elections, the opposition seems still undecided on whether to fully support it in the wake of the government declaring it illegal, with voices emerging from within the “advocates of escalation” calling for calm. In fact, top oppositionist figure and former parliament speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun was among those who called for calm as a “temporary option that is necessary given the current circumstances with hope of opening other windows of opportunity in the near future,” according to reliable sources.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, quoted Al-Saadoun expressing such a view during meetings held by the opposition last week to finalise their next steps to convince the people to boycott the December 1 elections.

Youth groups affiliated to the opposition plan to organize a procession on the afternoon of Friday, Nov 30, but authorities are unlikely to issue the license required for the gathering. Unauthorized marches are banned under Kuwait’s law. The event is titled ‘Karamat Watan (dignity of a nation) III’, and follows two similar processions held in late October and earlier this month which witnessed use of force by the police to disperse the participants in the unauthorized rally that left many injured.

In this regard, the sources indicated that certain members in the opposition are refusing to backtrack after having paid a heavy cost. Such an approach is met

on the other hand by efforts led by Al-Saadoun and former Deputy Speaker Khalid Al-Sultan Khalid Al-Sultan to come up with “a new formula for political expression” through which the opposition can resort to a calmer approach in order to avoid the risk of losing public support.

Al-Saadoun did not take part in the first two processions “out of his commitment to avoid breaking the law,” according to the sources. However, Al-Saadoun had stated last Thursday that processions held at daytime do not require a license, according to the constitution.

Separately, several oppositionists commented on a report hinting that the cabinet put on hold regulations which include financial privileges to citizens until the new parliament is elected, saying that it was “a desperate attempt to improve the popularity” of the upcoming parliament.

In other news, a number of oppositionists and other political groups boycotting the elections criticized the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs for calling citizens to participate in the elections during ‘Khutba’ speeches at the Friday Prayer. Statements containing such criticism were released by former MPs Al-Saadoun, AlSultan, Saleh Al-Mulla and Adel Al-Damkhy, while acting minister of Awqaf Hani Husain defended the decision by saying that “mosques’ podiums should not be separated from the society,” and that the speech urging citizens to vote for the best candidate was “in order to serve the common cause.”

Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh, NBK General Manager, Consumer Students participating in the competitions.

Banking Group delivers a prize to the winner.

NBK organizes dinner banquet for Kuwaiti students in US KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) organized a dinner banquet for the participants in the 29th annual conference of the National Union of Kuwaiti Students-USA. More than 2500 students attended the dinner.

Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh, NBK General Manager, Consumer Banking Group participated in this feast. NBK PR team has arranged a program of competitions for all the attendees and has given out valuable prizes. The conference was held in Washington D.C under the auspices of His

Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak AlHamad Al-Sabah. NBK’s participation in this event is geared towards contributing to the enhancement of NUKS cultural, syndicate, sports and patriotic awareness-raising activities.

NBK’s sponsorship and support to NUKS-USA annual conference over the years come in line with the bank’s customary and ongoing spirit of corporate citizenship as well as the vital role it plays in supporting all students, youths and educational issues.

Kuwait-Britain ties ‘baptized with blood of liberation martyrs’ KUWAIT: Kuwait and the United Kingdom are geographically far apart and peoples of the two countries differ in many aspects, such as traditions, customs and language, however despite the wide gulf, the two states established distinctive ties that have lasted for centuries.

These close relations, dating back to the late times of the 18th century, have covered economic, political, military and tourist dimensions.

First action for this friendly relationship dates back to the era of the late Amir, Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah, who, sensing expansionist schemes of the expanding Ottoman empire, prompted him to sign a protectorate treaty with Great Britain.

The accord was signed in January 1899, thus Kuwait became under umbrella of Britain’s protection. The Britons pledged to protect the Gulf country against any external threats or dangers and gave the ruler all decisionmaking powers on domestic affairs.

These warm ties were maintained during eras of Sheikh Salem Al-Mubarak and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber, when they markedly prospered due to the oil discoveries. The ties remained within the framework of the treaty till June 19, 1961, when the late Amir, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, pro-

claimed the Independence of Kuwait, thus abrogating the 1899 accord with Britain, which expressed understanding of the Kuwaitis’ desire for independence, as well their ability to protect their homeland. However, a term in the independence treaty stipulated that London would support Kuwait against any external threat if it requests so.

Soon after the Independence Proclamation, the late president of neighboring Iraq, Abdel Karim Qassem, declared plans to annex Kuwait to Iraq, claiming that it was part of the Iraqi territories. Hastily, Britain dispatched military forces to Kuwait and declared they would stay there till the local government would request their pullout. This historic British stance was among the main reasons that had prompted the Arab League to accept Kuwait’s request for membership as an independent and sovereign Arab state. An Arab military force was formed to replace the British troops that withdrew from the country on October 19, 1961.

This particular experience vis a vis the Iraqi threats at the time paved way for deep relations between the two friendly countries, resulting in closer ties and cooperation at military, political and economic levels. These relations had remained close and warm for 29 years after the Independence till 1990, when

the same threat loomed again against the sanctity of the country.— KUNA After forces of the ousted Iraqi regime of the executed dictator, Saddam Hussein, invaded and plundered Kuwait, Britain, along with the other allies, spearheaded an international campaign to drive the occupiers out of the country.

Within hours after the Iraqi invasion on August 2, 1990, the former premier of Britain, Margaret Tatcher, declared outright and emphatic rejection of the occupation and called for rapid and non-conditional withdrawal of the occupation forces.

Tatcher, following a meeting with the former US president, George Bush (senior), called for firm confrontation of the Iraqi occupation.

Britain, in its policy of support for Kuwait, with words and action, took part in the US-led military campaign with more than 45,000 troops and 69 warplanes. London suffered in the Desert Storm operation up to 47th deaths among its military ranks.

Blood of the British liberators mingled with the blood of the national martyrs who had fallen for Kuwait’s liberation in 1991, when the natives witnessed freedom again, greatly, thanks to the distinctive ties bounding the two states. —-KUNA

20 injured in road accidents

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A car accident in Amghara at the Scrap Bridge left three Egyptian expats badly injured, including a 26year-old man who suffered a head injury and fractured his left leg. He, along with the other two, was rushed to the Jahra Hospital. While the expat with the head injury was admitted to the intensive care unit, of the other two, a 25-year-old was left with fractures in his hand and left leg, while the third, a 30-year-old, suffered multiple injuries.

A car accident on Jamal Abdul Nasser Street opposite research round about left a 38-year-old Bedouin (stateless) man with pain in the stomach. A 26-year-old Kuwaiti man also complained of dizziness after the accident. Both were taken to the Al Sabah Hospital.

A car accident on Gulf Street opposite Al Shaab Park left two Kuwaiti men, 18 and 21 years of age, with multiple injuries. Both were taken to the Amiri Hospital.

A car accident on Kabd road near the second roundabout resulted in a fractured hand and a broken right thigh for a 33-year-old Kuwaiti man. He was taken to the Farwaniya Hospital.

A car accident on the 4th Ring Road opposite the National Guards Cooperative Society resulted in a head injury for a 40-year-old Asian expat who was rushed to the Al Sabah Hospital and admitted to its intensive care unit. A car accident at the 7th Ring Road near Sabhan

Bridge left a six-year-old Kuwaiti boy with a head injury, apart from a fractured thigh and left leg. He was taken to the Farwaniya Hospital and admitted to its intensive care unit. A 40-year-old Kuwaiti man also suffered a sprained neck while an infant, a one-year-old Kuwaiti boy, also received some injuries. A 40-year-old Sri Lankan man was also injured in the head. All three of them were taken to the Farwaniya Hospital.

A car accident near Al Sabbiya police station left four Kuwaiti men injured, who were rushed to the Jahra Hospital where two of them were admitted to the intensive care unit. The two injured, aged 22 and 18, suffered head injuries, while the 22-year-old also got a fracture in the left thigh. The other two injured men were both 18-year-olds, with one of them suffering a head injury and the other multiple injuries.

A 22-year-old Kuwaiti man was injured in the head and also suffered a spine injury in a car accident at Umm Safaq near kilo 18. He was rushed to the Adan Hospital.

Two Kuwaiti youth were hurt, including a 20-year-old who suffered a head injury, in a car accident at Al Reqqie, opposite National Guard. The other, a 15-yearold, suffered multiple injuries. Both were rushed to the Sabah Hospital.

A car accident on Saleel Al Jahra Road left a 34-yearold Kuwaiti man with a spine injury. He was taken to the Jahra Hospital.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

local Reform not a choice, but a necessity: Al-Fuzai KUWAIT: Third constituency candidate Muna AlFuzai believes that political reform is no longer just a matter of choice, but it has rather become a necessity that Kuwait must achieve through cooperation among all political movements after the Dec 1 elections.

“I am confident that we can no longer say with certainty which is the right path to take even as we support HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah and respect his decision to exercise his constitutional rights. We still do fear the unknown future,” Al-Fuzai said in a statement made yesterday to the Kuwait Times.

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Fire Department, in cooperation with the KOC, carried out an awareness drive regarding the spring camps at Julaia area, educating prospective camping aficionados about fire hazards in the camps and how to guard against them. Fire department staff explained to the camp owners the various kinds of fire extinguishers and imparted training about how to use these in case of an emergency. They also distributed fire extinguishers, and leaflets containing information on how to avoid fire accidents. —- Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun

279 candidates left in the fray as withdrawal window shuts 13 women among hopefuls Muna Al-Fuzai Recognizing the need to avoid conflicts among political groups that can be exploited by “antiKuwait parties to foment social disintegration,” AlFuzai questioned whether political groups were ready to shoulder their responsibilities and face the consequences of their actions. “It appears from 50 years of parliamentary experience that political groups which dominated the scene failed to realize their own responsibilities and duties towards the citizens,” the regular Kuwait Times columnist said, adding at the same time that the government’s tolerance of the violations and the ease with which it let these happen worsened the problem.

“What do we want now?” Al-Fuzai asked, before explaining that the issue at hand is much larger than just being an issue about a single vote system, based on which the upcoming elections are being held. “I believe that the greater issue is the responsibility that members of the next parliament are going to share with the Kuwaiti society in achieving political stability,” she said, adding that this requires “cooperation among all political groups, regardless of whether we agree with each other’s points of view or not.”

KUWAIT: Eleven candidates withdrew on Friday, the final day of withdrawals, leaving 279 hopefuls to contest for the 50 seats in the Dec 1 disputed elections. The candidates include 13 women hopefuls, with the largest number of females coming from the third constituency with seven, three from the first while only one woman candidate registered in each of the second, fourth and fifth constituencies.

As many as 15 former MPs are running, the lowest number of former lawmakers bidding for re-election in any general polls mainly due to the total boycott by opposition figures, most of whom are former MPs. But the number could rise by as many as seven former MPs if the adminsitrative court accepts petitions filed by the former lawmakers who were disqualified by the National Election Commission for failing to maintain a good reputation.

The former politicians were questioned last year by the public prosecution over allegations they had illegally received tens of millions of dinars into their bank account, which was described as bribes by the opposition.

The prosecution however decided in September to shelve investigation into the cases citing insufficient legislation to press charges against the former lawmakers who after that registered to run in the election.

Among the candidates are seven members of the scrapped 2012 assembly but the number could increase by four more if their petitions against disqualification were accepted.

Forty-seven candidates are running from the first and second constituencies each, 55 from the third, 59 in the fourth while the fifth has the laregst number with 71.

Prominent among the candidates are former MPs

Adnan Abdulsamad, Hussein Al-Qallaf, Faisal Al-Duwaisan and Maasouma Al-Mubarak from the first constituency, in addition to newcomers Kamel Al-Awadhi, a former head of the immigration department, Jenan Bushehri, a member of the municipal council and Khaled Al-Shatti, a Shiite activist and lawyer.

In the second constituency, former MP and minister Ali Al-Rashed is in a strong position to win re-election. But former lawmakers Ahmad Lari, Adnan Al-Mutawa, Salwa AlJassar are expected to be in the lead along with Adel AlKhorafi.

Former MP and minister Ahmad Al-Mulaifi and former Islamist MP Ali Al-Omair are the main frontrunners, while Shiite candidates Faraj Al-Khudari and Khalil Abdullah and woman activist Safa Al-Hashem also have a great chance.

Most of the candidates in the fourth and fifth constituencies are newcomers and relatively unknown. But former MPs Khudair Al-Enezi, Nasser Al-Duwailah and Saad Al-Khanfour are seen in the lead.

Former candidate Nasser Al-Merri is perhaps the best known candidate in the fifth constituency where the popular boycott is expected to be huge.

Voters agree to elect ‘best’ to benefit Kuwait KUWAIT: Kuwaitis are in agreement to elect the best and most competent in Dec 1 National Assembly elections, for the interest of the country.

Female and male voters said in separate interviews with KUNA that Kuwait has practiced democracy for more than 50 years, and voters are qualified to select the most suitable candidate for the elections.

Ahmad Dashti, a Kuwaiti worker in the private sector, said the candidates must specialize in a particular area to serve Kuwait, especially in the private sector, particularly now, amid ramifications of the global financial crisis.

“None of the candidates is qualified to deal with serious challenges in this sector,” the citizen opined.

Marian Al-Yassin, a university student, said it is vital to give an opportunity for new candidates, particularly young people with new ideas, to choose the most qualified for legislation under the dome of Abdullah AlSalem Hall (the Parliament building), as well as selecting females to serve in the assembly.

Su’ad Al-Haddad feels “lost,” due to the huge number of candidates, that would make her put her faith in her family’s choice of nominees-indicating her confusion as to choosing a candidate for her ballot.

Adel Al-Enezi, a retired doctor, said it is important to select the most efficient and suitable and disregard sectarianism and tribal considerations, when choosing the new members of the parliament. — KUNA

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

LOCAL kuwait digest

kuwait digest

A disreputable candidate?!

They seek dominance

By Dr. Hamad Al-Usaidan

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

he decision made by the National Higher Elections Committee last week to disqualify a number of candidates came with much surprise, not for the decision per se, but for two other reasons. First, it was the large number of candidates disqualified, and second was the quality of the candidates whose nomination was made ineligible on the pretext of ‘failing to meet reputability conditions’.

The committee disqualified 37 candidates which is an unprecedented large number regardless of the fact that the number of candidates registered was unprecedentedly large as well.

Meanwhile, we can find that the majority of disqualified candidates are well-known figures who were former members of the parliament, among whom are also those whose names are connected with the multimillion-dinar deposits case. This has renewed debate regarding the case as many question the eligibility of these former MPs to run for elections in the first place; something seen by others as a way for these former lawmakers to improve their records.

And while some of the disqualified candidates appealed the decision, the fallouts of the decision will continue to hunt them even if they were reinstated by the administrative court. The government’s defense during last week’s hearings added fuel to the fire when they insisted on the disqualification decision, mentioning examples such as “how can a residency trader become a parliament member?” to support their argument.

The list of disqualified candidates also include individuals known for their animosity towards the Islamic movement and seeking to achieve gains through that approach. The list also includes a controversial personality that contributed recently in damaging the unity of the Kuwaiti society by attacking a significant category of it. I hope that they’ve learned their lesson and try to adopt a more moderate approach that strengthens national unity.

What I find also interesting about the case is the fact that the disqualification came to serve the groups boycotting the elections, as the decision somewhat supports their argument about how national figures refused to run for parliament in protest against the altered voting mechanism.

The disqualification decision serves as a rich subject that the boycotters could use to support their calls. The list for candidates running for the December 1 elections contains people with high academic and political qualifications which entitle them to play an important role in the upcoming parliament.

But will their political vision become a reality in light of a wide scale boycotting from well-known personalities? Only time will tell. — Al-Rai

H the Amir’s pledge to honor the Constitutional Court’s verdict must be appreciated by all those who seriously seek to serve the nation. Anyone who truly believes that the upcoming elections are constitutional must honor the court’s verdict even if one believed it should have ruled differently.

Some people argue that if the change in the voting mechanism was to be accepted this time, then it would pave the way for the government to amend the electoral law whenever it felt that the outcome from a poll would not be favourable. This is not only nonsense, but also an act of disrespect to the state.

We live in a country that is run by law and which has robust institutions. We are suffering today because of an unjustifiable disunity that is deep, grave and sometimes irritating, despite the fact that all constitutional procedures were followed with a sense of urgency.

What should have been the reaction if the government were to actually get into a habit of changing the electoral law as those boycotting the elections claim?

The people who claim that they are boycotting the elections as a protest against the emergency decree which altered the voting mechanism are liars. And I am not going to apologize for calling them that.

Anyone who believes for certain or even suspects that the emergency decree is unconstitutional would have gone to the Constitutional Court by now, or as soon as the law was passed by the parliament. But they know that the decree is constitutional, and that HH the Amir would not take the risk of putting the country at risk of chaos again if the decree is annulled.

As for those who decided to boycott the elections because the electoral law was amended by the executive authority, I have to say that while I do respect and agree with this point of view, I believe that boycotting elections was not a solution. Instead, they should have taken part in the amendment process in order to come out with a formula agreeable to all.

However, those who are objecting want to return to the old system in order to control the elections, and ultimately adopt an amendment for a single constituency and election by list system that allows them to ensure eternal dominance over the parliament so that they can simply negate opinions that they do not agree with. — Al-Qabas

T

H

kuwait digest

I read and the tree lives

By Fahad Al-Handal s it worth taking down a tree in the world to make a book that is either poorly written or does not find readers?” It is a very good question once put to me by an author and comes to my mind as Kuwait inaugurates its annual book fair at a rather unusual time marked with a political agitation going on for months now. These conflicts happened after a wave of ‘Arab Springs’ which many tried to ride in the hope of achieving certain goals without realizing that once this wave goes down, it will take them down with it.

The book fair arrives this year, reviving the same questions, articles, activities and movements that try to find an answer for two subjects: the need for censoring publications in a society where techsavvy younger generation has proven it to be ineffective, as well as the need for publications at a time when blogging in the virtual world is the dominant trend and you can speak to thousands of people from different cultures and beliefs, leaving a huge impact with a statement written in 140 characters or less.

Let us make a distinction between freedom of

“I

expression and search for the valuable truth on one hand and irresponsible behavior of those who attack others in the name of freedom, on the other. When we made demands in the past to eliminate prior censorship on books - which by the way was enforced by legislators who today claim to be defending freedoms - we wanted to create a wise generation capable of telling the difference between good writings and ideas, and bad ones.

A generation capable of leading itself after having the chance to experience a thousand flowers blooming, instead of only one kind.

But what we have been warning about since that time has probably become a reality now as we have a generation with individuals who are hardheaded, unpredictable and incapable of bearing their main responsibilities. If we had multiple options to choose from, we could have picked many alternatives or methods to resolve our decades-old intellectual stalemates. This is one of the main reasons behind the call for multiculturalism which has become a distant dream now, or the last leaf which falls before the last tree is cut down. — Al-Rai

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

LOCAL

A blind with one string, makes all fall into one Vijayalakshmi helps people see their inner music

By Sunil Cherian KUWAIT: For many people among the audience, it took some time to understand the horizontally positioned instrument the tiny lady on the stage was playing. The curiosity grew into wonder as melodic modes emanated from the one-stringed instrument the 31-year old ar tist, Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, was playing by plucking the string with her right hand and moving a piece of thermoplastic across the string with her left hand. The wonder was raised into admiration when the audience learnt that the artist is blind. The visiting artist with her musician father on her left on the stage, surrounded by local instrumentalists took the audience of Arpan Swaralaya program last Thursday at Indian Community School, Salmiya by a very pleasant surprise.

“No, I don’t regret being born blind,” Viji, as she is affectionately called by her parents and friends, said. “Perhaps that’s why I developed a keen interest to learn by listening. I can recognize a familiar person by the sound of his or her gait.” Viji is grateful to God for being blessed with a musical ear.

“Otherwise, life would have been very boring.”

The only daughter of Muraleedharan and Vimala, Viji not only ended any trace of boredom from her parents’ life, but also disproved the taboo associated with being parents of a blind girl. “In school, I was the top student in classical music,” a contented

Viji said. “I learnt music first by listening to radio, the best company I had in my childhood.”

When Viji was four-and-a-half-year-old, her father recalled, she got a chance to get an appointment to see the singing legend Yesudas when he came to their native place

Vaikom Vijayalakshmi for a live concert. The popular singer who initially spared a few moments for the little girl, as it is still customary to receive blessings from renowned personalities in the field, was left spell bound by the 4-yearold’s singing talent. The star then introduced the talented blind girl to the audience. “That was a moment of being in the limelight for her,” the father, who till then

was running an unsuccessful concer t troupe, said. His ‘success’ came after Viji got busy with stage programs.

Life has been revolving around music for this family. The parents accompanied Vijayalakshmi wherever she performed 6,000 stage shows so far - with her onestringed instrument, played in the Hawaiian guitar model, a gift her father gave her after she made music from a fiber thread tied on to an empty bottle when she was 15.

Meanwhile she won prizes in vocal and instrumental music throughout her student life. Currently, she is pursuing her masters in music. Her dream is to do a doctoral project on making music from recycled waste.

Viji is also into playback singing. A folksong was recently recorded for Celluloid, a Malayalam movie. Music director M Jayachandran called her for her unique voice to sing a folk number. But between name and fame, Viji’s father is worried about his daughter’s eyesight which is blocked due to optic atrophy. “Viji’s eyes and brain are normal. My dream is to get rich enough to gather money for bionic eyes,” he said.

In the program last Thursday evening, Viji and her team - Hari (mridangam), Ragesh (ghatam), Iqbal (tabla), Manoj (mukharsanq) and Balamurali (violin) - per formed to everyone’s joy. As Viji smiled after the oneand-a-half hour rendering of joyous music, it left many wiping away tears of sheer ecstasy.

Blind girl Vaikom Vijayalakshmi performs accompanied by her faather.

Burgan Bank offers discounts for Youth Account holders KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced yesterday the new Youth discount program where Youth account holders can enjoy an exclusive range of discounts across selective outlets in Kuwait.

Burgan’s Youth discount program extends great offers and benefits from its selected partners, amongst the food & beverage merchandisers are Wagamama, La Cava, BreadTalk, Second Cup,

Humbah, Coffee Republic, The Dragon, and Great Steak. , Fashion, lifestyle, and general merchandisers include Eclipse Gaming, Carbon Fiber, Cozmo, Sparkle Nails, Nails & Co., Nike, TAF, Crocs, and Gulf Net. To get advantage of these discounts, Youth account holders have to present their branded Youth debit card to avail instant discounts from the selected partners.

NA election step forward to more democracy BRUSSELS: A top Belgian parliamentarian and politician has praised the process of democratisation in Kuwait and reforms introduced by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah.

“I think Kuwait is the most advanced democracy in the Gulf area and it is therefore very important for Kuwait to strengthen its democratic institutions, “ Francois-Xavier de Donnea, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Belgian

Parliament, said.

“I think the forthcoming elections should be a step forward to fuller democratic institutions,” said De Donnea, a former Belgian defence minister and an ex-mayor of Brussels.

“I think the reforms that have been introduced on the request of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah go into the right direction,” he stated.

He said Belgium must increase its relationship with Kuwait and also with the other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council

(GCC). “With Kuwait we always had close relationship,” said De Donnea, who is also Chairman of the Committee on the Middle East at the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

He recalled that a GCC parliamentary delegation, some weeks ago, visited the Belgian Parliament and it was agreed to organize some events in Brussels to promote closer ties between the GCC and Belgium.

Referring to the situation in Gaza, the Belgian politician said

the position of his country was very clear that violence had to stop from both sides and added that “we are very happy that a ceasefire was established.”

He noted that Belgium is in favour of a two-state solution and stressed that the peace process must start very quickly so as to reach a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israel. “ This means of course that Israel should do nothing to prevent or make more difficult a two state solution,” he added. —KUNA

KUWAIT: KIPCO - the Kuwait Projects Company participated in the Job Fair organized on the sidelines of the 29th Conference of the National Union of Kuwaiti Students - USA Branch. Representatives of KIPCO and Burgan Bank were present to answer questions from the students about the range of potential career opportunities within the KIPCO Group for graduates. Picture shows Kuwaiti Ambassador Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah and former MP, Mr Marzouq Al Ghanim with representatives of KIPCO and Burgan Bank at the Job Fair.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

local

Positive atmosphere in Iraq-Kuwait relationship Missing Kuwaitis on UN chief’s agenda

By A. Saleh

KUWAIT: Dr Jeetendra Adhia’s workshop on mind training in progress.

A life changing day with a mind-trainer

By Lenin Polineni KUWAIT: “Events happen first in the mind before they happen in the external world.”

When I read these words for the first time, I immediately got interested in attending the workshop on mind training, titled “The power of sub conscious mind,” conducted by Dr Jeetendra Adhia, the internationally acclaimed mind-trainer. The event which was held over the weekend was the first of its kind in Kuwait.

Dr Jeetendra Adhia is a medical doctor with an MD in preventive and social medicine from Mumbai University under his belt and 30 years of experience as a doctor. Dr Adhia has to his credit several books on topics related to mind, with ‘Spring of Inspiration’ ranked an all-time best seller. He has also produced many audio CDs, DVDs, audio books, charts, and posters on the same topics.

The seminar and workshop by Dr Adhia’s mind training Institute was held on Nov 16 and 17 at Live Theatre, Discovery Mall, Soor Street, Kuwait city and was organized by indiansinkuwait.com.

What is The Mind Power?

In Dr Adhia words, God has given everybody the same amount of mind power. It is something distributed equally, be a beggar on the street or the President of the United States.

What makes one person succeed is the extent to which he or she utilizes this power. A survey says that even the most successful people have never utilized more than 10 percent of their mind power.

While many of us do work hard to achieve our goals, but not everyone succeeds to the same degree. The reason is that not everyone uses the mind power in a sharp way as it ought to be employed. What can help sharpen our mind are qualities like a positive attitude, inspirational reading, relaxation and self-development training.

Our mind can roughly be seen as having two divisions, namely the conscious and the sub-conscious.

Conscious component of the mind is

only ten percent, 90 percent of the mind is sub-conscious. While ten percent conscious mind works like a boss, the 90 percent sub-conscious behaves like servant. If boss gives the right directions and commands, the servant has to oblige and carry these out. Dr Adhia says the sub-conscious mind works 24 hours a day, even when a person slips into a coma.

Our sub-conscious mind accepts our thoughts, beliefs and commands without any logic or argument and makes it happen in the external world.

Explaining how the sub-conscious component of the mind works, Dr. Adhia said somewhere between our state of being conscious and falling asleep lies a very important state of mind called the alpha state. This is the stage where the sub-conscious is in an activated state. During this alpha state, our sub-conscious is ready to accept our commands and start to work on these.

Our conscious mind can give positive commands and right directions, and the sub-conscious will oblige accordingly. That is called the mind power.

How to use sub-conscious mind power and achieve goals Any thought that is repeated over and over again will get imprinted within the sub-conscious, which cannot distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. This is why visualizations, affirmations and repeated images can have such a powerful effect in our life.

In this mind theory, Dr Adhia develops a program which includes listening to the sub-conscious mind, relaxation, the effect of the sub-conscious mind on the body, thinking and beliefs, breath management, power of suggestion, sleep management, using the mental clock, concentration techniques, goal setting and achieving, dream management and divine planning and creating opportunities.

In this program, goal setting and visualization plays a key role. Dr. Adhia says the first step has to be mind cleaning. Through relaxation and breath management, one can achieve

the alpha state and apply the forgiveness statement. That means that if you forgive your enemies, your mind will emerge clean. Dr. Adhia suggested that everyone should try to become a positive thinker for at least one month.

The second step is goal fixing. Make a wish and set the goal high. Then, draw up a chart to achieve that goal and conjure up a vision board. This can be like having a dream home, professional goal, dream car, monthly income, dream office, bank balance etc. Keep this chart where you can see it. It will gradually get imprinted onto your sub-conscious mind.

During the workshop, Dr. Adhiya taught many practical exercises to help achieve the peace of mind.

Participants were taken to what he calls alpha state of mind, and their goals imprinted in their sub-conscious mind. He also teaches techniques that help in problem solving, spiritual healing, removing phobias, confidence building and other life changing skills.

Speaking about himself, Dr. Aadhia said, “I am not a guru. I am a scientist. I will show you the way. If you realize your own power, there is no need to go anywhere. I am a trainer, not a healer.”

This life changing workshop was a unique event and turned out to be an eye-opener in understanding our own mind. This first ever seminar and workshop in Kuwait by Dr. Adhia was organized by IndiansinKuwait.com.

My experiences Knowingly or unknowingly, everyone at the workshop experienced the sub-conscious mind through visualisation techniques. When Dr Adhia explained how to use the visualisation technique and see your own mind screen, I remembered some of my personal experiences also. I would like to share these.

I was a journalist in India more than 10 years back, writing in my native language Telugu. Due to various personal reasons, I decided to come to Kuwait. I researched about conditions in Kuwait on the web and then came across the newspaper Kuwait Times. After I sent my resume from India, the idea about a job in Kuwait Times got fixated in my mind. After two months, I reached Kuwait and five days later, I got a call for a job interview at the Kuwait Times.

That very day, I joined the team.

Another thing that happened recently was my determination to lose weight.

I was very thin seven years ago.

Over the last six years, I gained a lot of weight, and grew potbellied. I was nearly 20kgs overweight. Six months ago, my wife decided to hang a photograph from our marriage in our bedroom. As I looked at that photograph day after day, I made a determination to lose weight. I started with a diet plan and in just two months, I lost the extra 20kgs. I was not familiar with mind techniques but it seems they do work.

After the inspirational seminar, I have decided to follow the relaxation and mind training techniques.

KUWAIT: Iraq is committed to continue cooperating with Kuwait and the United Nations in order to resolve the issue pertaining to missing Kuwaiti people during the 1990/91 Iraqi Invasion, a top Iraqi government official has said.

Iraq’s Minister of Human Rights Mohammad Al-Sudani indicated yesterday that the upcoming visit for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Baghdad as well as “the positive atmosphere in the Iraq-Kuwait relationships” provide a good opportunity to end this issue and lead Iraq closer to extricate itself from sanctions imposed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General’s high-level coordinator, Ambassador Gennady Tarasov, applauded the “great efforts exerted by the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry” in operations to search for the missing Kuwaiti people in Iraq. He further promised to mention “Iraq’s commitment to continue cooperating” regarding the issue in his report that will be presented to members of the Security Council.

Al-Zalzalah gives priority to “women, family demands” With less than a week separating Kuwait from the second parliamentary elections, candidates continue to make statements and host seminars as part of their campaign to convince the public into voting.

In this regard, first constituency candidate, former MP and minister Yousuf Al-Zalzalah, announced plans to run

for the women and family committee in the parliament if elected, explaining that “female citizens’ demands are a top priority” in his agenda.

“I am convinced that the women’s role and family’s demands must always be a priority if we want to achieve actual development,” Al-Zalzalah said, stressing the need to pass the women’s civil and social rights law. He said he will make it his top priority if elected. The former lawmaker also announced plans to run for membership in the parliament’s financial committee.

Meanwhile, fourth constituency candidate and former MP Saad Al-Khanfour accused the government of having no honest intention to end Kuwait’s housing crisis. “There is a clear problem when it comes to legislating regulations that can help end the housing problem as soon as possible,” Al-Khanfour said, referring to the government’s inability to meet the housing demand despite the country’s wealth. Al-Khanfour also asserted the right for divorced and widowed female citizens for housing welfare as per the constitution.

In the meantime, fifth constituency candidate Khalid AlAdwah released a statement criticizing the parliament that was elected in last February and annulled four months later. He said that parliament “brought nothing but personalism” into Kuwaiti politics. Meanwhile, third constituency candidate and former MP Saadoun Al-Otaibi urged the opposition to “leave it to the citizens to exercise their right to elect who they believe is suitable to represent them in the parliament, freely and democratically.”

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Tensions flare; Protesters urge Thai PM to quit

Saudi-backed interreligious centre stirs up controversy

Page 12

Page 9

KHORRAMABAD: Iranian women light candles as they cover their faces, in a mourning ceremony in the city of Khorramabad, southwest of the capital Tehran yesterday for Ashoura, marking death anniversary of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and one of Shiite Islam’s most beloved saints, who was killed in a 7th century battle at Karbala, present-day Iraq.—AP

Iran accuses US of ‘illegal’ acts in Gulf News

in brief

Tibetan self-immolates BEIJING: A Tibetan villager has died after setting himself on fire, Chinese state media said yesterday-the latest death in a wave of protests against Beijing’s rule. China’s official Xinhua news agency said the herdsman set himself alight late on Friday in the northwest province of Qinghai. It quoted local authorities as saying that the 26-year-old, identified as Dazheng, set himself ablaze in the village of Dageri in Zekog County. Xinhua earlier reported that another Tibetan died on Thursday, also in Qinghai. It identified the man as Libong Tsering, 19, who died in the Dowa township of Tongren county. Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture, as the country’s majority Han ethnic group increasingly moves into historically Tibetan areas. China rejects this, saying Tibetans enjoy religious freedom. Beijing points to huge ongoing investment it says has brought modernization and a better standard of living to Tibet.

Bus crash kills 16 PESHAWAR: At least 16 people were killed and 22 others injured yesterday when a passenger bus collided with a lorry in a mountainous area of northwestern Pakistan, officials said. The accident happened as the bus travelled from the port city of Karachi to the northwestern town of Swabi in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The driver lost control as he was overtaking a lorry on a sharp bend when another bus appeared from the opposite direction, local administration chief Sajjad Khan told AFP by telephone. “The driver tried to avert a collision with the bus and smashed into the lorry which he had been overtaking,” Khan said quoting wounded passengers. “At least 16 people were killed and 22 wounded, including women and children.” He said Ispeena in the Karak district, where the accident took place, was very dangerous with drivers going too fast.

18 Chinese miners die BEIJING: A coal mine accident in China’s southwest killed 18 workers and trapped five more yesterday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. There were 28 workers working in the state-owned Xiangshui coalmine in Guizhou province when the coal-and-gas explosion happened about 11 am, and five of those were rescued, Xinhua said. No other details were immediately available. China has the world’s deadliest coal mine industry, with 1,973 miners killed in accidents last year. Safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years, but regulations are often ignored and accidents are still common.

Clown collapses and dies NEW YORK: A clown suffered a fatal collapse in front of spectators at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan. Sixty-seven-year-old Robert Blasetti went into cardiac arrest as he made balloon animals at Sixth Avenue and West 39th Street on Thursday. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Spokesman Orlando Veras said Macy’s was “saddened to report” that a parade marcher had suffered a medical emergency. He declined to say whether the man was a Macy’s employee.

Tehran blasts Turkey over Patriots UNITED NATIONS: Iran is accusing the US Navy of carrying out “illegal and provocative acts” in the Arabian Gulf and Sea of Oman. In identical letters to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, Iran’s UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said the Navy repeatedly violated the country’s airspace. He cited flights over the coastal areas of Bushehr on seven occasions in October and most recently a US drone flight on Nov 1 which disregarded all radio warnings and penetrated Iranian airspace. The letters, circulated Friday, urged Ban to warn the US “against the continuation of acts in violation of international law and of the adverse consequences of any provocative and dangerous acts for which the United States government would be held responsible.”

Meanwhile, the US Navy temporarily will have one aircraft carrier in the Gulf region instead of two because one of its ships has

to undergo repairs, officials said yesterday.

The announcement reflected the strain on the Navy’s fleet since President Barack Obama decided to maintain two aircraft carrier groups at all times in the Gulf, a policy driven by concerns over tensions with Iran. The carrier USS Nimitz was supposed to replace the USS Dwight Eisenhower “early next year” but mechanical problems with the Nimitz delayed its scheduled deployment and forced a change in plans, officials said. Instead, the Eisenhower will return sooner than scheduled for two months and then head back to the Middle East, in what the Navy acknowledged was “an unusual move.”

During the two-month break at the Eisenhower ’s homepor t of Nor folk, Virginia, the Navy “will resurface the ship’s flight deck and make it available to return and remain in the Middle East region for

several more months,” the Navy said in a statement issued this week.

While the Eisenhower’s crew gets a break after a nearly 10-month deployment, the aircraft carrier USS Stennis will remain in the Gulf along with other American warships, including a Marine contingent led by the amphibious assault ship, the USS Peleliu. The year-round two carrier presence was reduced to one in December 2010. The United States has bolstered its presence in the strategic Gulf over the past year after Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz if Western countries boycotted Iranian oil exports.

About one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passes through the vital waterway. In another development, Iran lashed out at Turkey for requesting that NATO supply it with Patriot sur face -to-air missiles to deploy along the border with Syria,

‘Girl-in-green’ revisits Ashura massacre site KABUL: In a brave gesture of defiance against suicide bombers, Afghanistan’s “girl-in-green” yesterday revisited the scene of a Shiite Muslim holy-day massacre that made her image world famous. Tarana Akbari, now 13, was pictured screaming in horror among piles of bodies moments after a suicide bomber killed 80 people at last year’s Ashura day ceremonies at a Shiite shrine in Kabul. The image, taken by AFP photographer Massoud Hossaini, was splashed on front pages worldwide and won the Pulitzer prize this year.

Yesterday, dressed in an identical green satin tunic which she made herself after discarding the bloodstained one she wore last year, Tarana attended Ashura day ceremonies at the same shrine. The day before, police announced that they had arrested two Taleban insurgents with suicide vests who planned to attack the Shiite worshippers. “I’m not scared,” Tarana said as she sat with her sisters in their spartan home in Old Kabul ahead of the ceremony. “I know there will be danger but I will go back there anyway. “After the shrine I will go to the graveyard to pray for my brother who died and other members of the family.”

Tarana’s only brother-aged nine-was among many of her relatives killed in last year’s blast, and Tarana and her two sisters were wounded. She was the only one of the children who went back.

Despite her brave words, Tarana wrung her hands anxiously and the mood in her home was more one of preparing to go into battle than attend a religious ceremony. But her spirits lifted and her

KABUL: Thirteen year old Afghan girl Tarana Akbari (left) walks with her father, Ahmad Shah as they prepare to pray in the day of Ashura in Kabul. — AFP shy smile returned with the excitement of dressing up in her new clothes before she set out hand-in-hand with her father, Ahmad Shah, for the 10-minute walk to the shrine.

It is a place that haunts her nightmares. “I go back to that place in my dreams. I see my brother and the man (the bomber). I always repeat that scene in my dreams,” Tarana said. Security was tight, with many streets blocked off and heavily armed police on rooftops and along the approach roads, and even Tarana was frisked before being allowed into the ceremonies. Once among the throng of worshippers, including young men whipping their bare backs into a bloody mess in a traditional mourning ritual, Tarana’s step faltered and she and

her father stopped in a small sheltered spot. A plastic chair was found and she sat quietly, tension showing in her face and her brown eyes growing increasingly sad with each passing minute. After half an hour, she and her father, having shown their refusal to be cowed by suicide bombers, left to visit the graves of her brother and other relatives on a bare and bleak hillside overlooking the city.

When the Sunni Muslim Taleban ruled in the 1990s before being ousted by a USled invasion in 2001, minority Shiites suffered brutal persecution, but sectarian violence has been rare in recent years.

Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of the Afghan population, were effectively banned from marking Ashura in public under the Taleban.— AFP

denouncing the step by Ankara as counterproductive. Iranian parliamentar y speaker Ali Larijani made the remarks after a visit to Damascus, a show of support by Tehran to its increasingly diplomatically isolated ally. “The internal crisis in Syria cannot be solved through the deployment of such weapons,” Larijani, who is close to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, said at a news conference in Beirut where he went after leaving Syria. Turkey’s request earlier this week follows several incidents in which violence has spilled across the border from the civil war in Syria, frequently mortar rounds falling a short distance inside. Patriots would be useful in intercepting ballistic missiles - a much more serious but still hypothetical threat. NATO said Wednesday it will consider the request “without delay.” The Syrian Foreign Ministry also criticized the Turkish move, calling it “a new provocative step.”—Agencies

Shiites mix Ashura rituals with politics KARBALA: Shiite Muslims marching during Ashura rituals in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala yesterday mixed mourning the death of Imam Hussein over 1,300 years ago with chants condemning modern politicians. Hundreds of black-clad Shiites walked toward the mausoleum of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed in 680 AD by the armies of the caliph Yazid, ritually beating their chests as a sign of mourning for the slain imam. But they also chanted about the current politics of Iraq, an unusual occurrence in commemorations that mainly focus on the past. In one chant, the marchers lamented that Iraq’s prime minister, parliament speaker and president are all “chasing after positions, and the people’s share is only troubles,” concluding: “O Hussein, we are with you until death, until death with you.”

In another, they said that “the effect of financial corruption is the same as terrorism,” and that “our leaders are corrupt from the top.” “You took everything, and you want to take my vote; I won’t let you, even on my death,” they shouted. Iraq has vast oil wealth, but basic services such as clean water and consistent electricity are still lacking, and corruption is rampant. And while security has improved significantly, bombings and shootings remain a constant threat. Staff Lieutenant General Othman AlGhanimi said that 30,000 security forces personnel were deployed at the northern, southern and eastern entrances of Karbala to protect the pilgrims.

Mass-casualty attacks on pilgrims that have blighted Ashura commemorations in the past have been absent so far this year. Tradition holds that Hussein was decapitated and his body mutilated in a formative event in Shiite Islam. Millions of people flood Karbala for the peak of the Ashura rituals, which comes on Sunday this year. Karbala provincial governor Amal Al-Din Al-Har said that there were about two million pilgrims currently in the city, among them 200,000 from abroad. He added that the number could reach three million on Sunday.—AFP

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

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

Saudi-backed interreligious centre stirs up controversy Critics say KAICIID could be used to spread Wahhabism

ALGIERS: Head of THE Algerian Workers’ Party Louisa Hanoune, speaks to supporters prior to upcoming local elections in Algiers. — AFP

Algeria scandals mask high level power struggle ALGIERS: Nearly a week from regional elections, Algerians are less interested in the public vote than an intensifying behind-the-scenes power struggle - one that is playing out through a flurry of corruption probes. Though ostensibly a democracy, Algeria is really ruled by a powerful president and a shadowy collection of military generals and intelligence chiefs, making figuring out who has real power a constant preoccupation.

Thursday’s local elections, like last May’s legislative ones, mean little to people who know that real power lies with officials that have been appointed, not elected.

Aging President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has said he will retire in April 2014 after three terms and 15 years in power, setting the stage for a wide open presidential contest for the first time in the country’s history. Voters expect to have little direct say in the outcome. Like the rest of Nor th Africa, Algeria was shaken by protests calling for reform in the wake of Tunisia’s dramatic overthrow of its longruling dictator in January 2011. But in this North African country of 35 million, the protests never truly caught fire and were crushed by a combination of ruthless security forces and public sector salary increases, as well as lingering fears of instability after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s that claimed more than 200,000 lives.

The stakes are high for the presidential elections for not only this oil-rich nation, but for the region as a whole: Algeria has the strongest military in North Africa and neighbors unstable Libya and even more fragile Mali, where Al-Qaeda appears to control much of the north. When a new daily newspaper began printing stories last week about three prominent politicians with close ties to Bouteflika taking bribes, it was widely taken as an opening salvo ahead of the presidential polls.

“These revelations are directly related to current politics and the upcoming 2014 presidential elections,” said Rachid Tlemcani, a politics professor at Algiers University. “Corruption has reached grotesque proportions in Algeria, but rather than being fought with the law, it is unfortunately used as a weapon by the different clans in the system fighting among themselves since the war for succession to Bouteflika has opened.” That fight involves control over billions of dollars. Algeria is awash in oil and natural gas money and has foreign reserves of almost $200 billion. It has embarked on a string high profile infrastructure projects - and accusations are rife that foreign companies have been paying massive bribes to secure contracts. That has all contributed to Algeria’s ranking of 112 out of 183 countries on Transparency International’s 2011 corruption index. The head of the ruling par ty, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, the minister of public works, Amar Ghoul, and well as the minister of industry, Cherif Rahmani, have all been accused by Algerie News of taking bribes to influence bids for the $12 billion EastWest highway project (won by a ChineseJapanese consortium), the Algiers metro and an extension of the tramway.

Belkhaddem and Ghoul are both close to the 75-year-old Bouteflika and are seen as possible candidates for the 2014 elections. While Ghoul, for his par t, has denied the allegations, the other two have remained silent - as has the Ministry of Justice.

Noureddine Benissad, the president of the Algerian League to Defend Human Rights, expressed outrage over the ministry’s lack of action. “The Ministry of Justice should order a judicial investigation,” he said, lamenting the lack of independence of the ministry from the executive. After his appointment in September, Bouteflika’s new Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, like many Algerian leaders before him, promised to lead the fight against corruption. Yet just last week the daily El Watan also published a four page expose over the misuse of public funds, including fancy cars for ministers and the construction of new seaside villas for them from public money.

Algerie News has said it has confidential files in its possession and more corruption revelations are expected - suggesting it is being fed by the feared “Research and Security Department” or DRS, as the intelligence service is known.

The military and security services are meanwhile reportedly backing Ahmed Ouyahia for the presidency, a former prime minister and head of the other main par ty in the ruling coalition.

Ouyahia coexisted uneasily with Bouteflika for years, but after May’s elections and the overwhelming victory of the president’s National Liberation Front, he was not asked back as prime minister.

Members of his own party, the National Democratic Rally, have even criticized Ouyahia for using the party to further his presidential ambitions.

According to political exper t Mohammed Said, the fact that the revelations involve two politicians close to the president could also be the military’s way of warning Bouteflika against harboring any ideas of staying in power. “It is a likely a warning shot to discourage him from running for a fourth term,” he said. The president, who is rumored to be ailing, had already said that he would not run again and just a week before the May parliamentary elections, he made a landmark speech in which he said that the mission of his generation, the generation that fought the war of independence from France in 1962 and had ruled the country ever since, was over.

He also announced a series of reforms and promised to rewrite the constitution during the start of 2013. On Tuesday, however, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said that the constitution reform process had been postponed - indefinitely. Columnist Ihsane el-Kadi has suggested that the reform and talk of other candidates is all a smoke screen for Bouteflika’s own continuing presidential ambitions.

“For several months, he’s been pushing the idea that if there is no agreement on his successor, it should be him,” he said in the online news site Maghreb Emergent. “I sincerely doubt he ever thought it wouldn’t be him.” Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco.— AP

VIENNA: A new interreligious dialogue centre backed by Saudi Arabia is stirring up controversy in Vienna and abroad even before its official inauguration. The King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue-in short KAICIID-will officially open its doors on Monday. But critics say that the centre-entirely financed by Saudi Arabia and named after its king, who initiated the ideacould be used by Riyadh to spread the radical brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, and divert attention from human rights violations and lack of religious freedom at home. Monday’s glitzy inauguration at Vienna’s Hofburg Palace will be attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and top representatives of the world’s leading religions.

Ahead of the event, the centre has gone on a media offensive to convince observers of its impartiality. Set up jointly by Saudia Arabia, Spain and Austria, the KAICIID will have the status of an international organization. That will bring it the privileges and tax breaks afforded to the likes of the United Nations, OPEC and the Organization of Security of Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). “One of the main reasons why it was thought of as an international organization is that through a founding document, we can rule out that one member state or one religious community dominates the centre,” Austria’s foreign ministry said.

Despite Riyadh stepping in to finance the centre for the first three years, there will be “zero

politics, zero influence in the centre,” KAICIID secretary-general Faisal bin Abdulrahman bin Muaammar, a former Saudi deputy education minister, told journalists. The centre’s decisionmaking body, a nine-member board of directors including leading representatives of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, will make sure of that, he said. The KAICIID’s stated mission is to act “as a hub, facilitating interreligious and intercultural dialogue and understanding, to enhance cooperation, respect for diversity, justice and peace.”

Asked if the centre would comment on current issues such as the recent anti-Islam video that sparked deadly protests in the Muslim world or the earlier Mohammed caricatures, Muaammar said it would not be political. “We are not going to follow every incident... we don’t want to just react like a political body,” he said.

“The problems in the last few years have been handled by politicians. Now let us use the wisdom of religious people.” A statement from the Vatican on Friday said it had accepted an invitation to participate as a “founding observer” and a high-level delegation will attend the centre’s inauguration.

CENTRE FOR DIALOGUE Annual conferences entitled “The Image of The Other” will look at stereotypes and misconceptions in education, the media and the Internet. A fellowship program will bring together applicants from different religions to work

and learn from each other. A yearly budget of 10-15 million euros ($12.9-19.3 million) will cover these programs as well as a staff of 25 at the Vienna centre.

Critics remain unconvinced however. Liberal Muslim Initiative in Austria (ILMOe) said it believed that “this dubious Wahhabist centre in Vienna” will “only serve Saudi Arabia’s political and religious interests abroad, under the guise of dialogue” and that its sole aim was to make Riyadh “respectable.” Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, the Orthodox Church’s representative on the KAICIID board, also highlighted Riyadh’s poor human rights record in an interview with Austria’s Catholic news agency Kathpress. The next three years will be “a trial period” for the centre, he said. After that, the KAICIID will look for other sources of funding and it could also diversify further by bringing in new member states on top of the founding three, officials insist. Some observers hope the centre might eventually help Saudi Arabia implement reforms at home. The ultra-conservative kingdom currently bans any form of worship other than Islam. It has also come under fire for its application of Islamic sharia law, which includes executing by the sword people convicted of murder, apostasy or armed robbery. “We are facing some criticism here, we are facing some criticism in Saudi Arabia... but dialogue is the answer for this,” said Muaammar. “The centre is open for all the critics. I invite them to come and see how the centre runs.”— AFP

Bahrain under fire over rights record DUBAI: UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay is sending a team of experts to Bahrain next week to discuss how the Gulf state can improve its rights record amid concerns over Manama’s decision to revoke the nationality of 31 people and ban public protests.

Bahrain’s government invited the four experts to assess the kingdom’s need to improve its track record on the issue, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement late on Friday. They will focus on the judicial system as well as on accountability for present and past human rights violations and follow up on a preliminary mission that took place last December, it said. A staunch US ally, Bahrain has come under increasing Western pressure to implement the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) for police, judicial and education reform after last year’s government crackdown on pro-democracy protests by majority Shiite Muslims. US officials last week voiced concern that Bahrain’s failure to implement key reforms suggested by the BICI report was making political dialogue more difficult and widening divisions in society in a way that might benefit Iran.

“The High Commissioner regretted the decision taken by Bahraini authorities on 7 November to revoke the nationality of 31 citizens for ‘having undermined state security’,” the OHCHR said. The decision violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which prohibits states from arbitrarily depriving people of their nationality, it said. The men include London-based dis-

MANAMA: A Bahraini human right activist holds pictures of Bahraini jailed political leaders that reads beneath it “Freedom to our leaders” in Manama, while commemorating the holy month of Muharram, when Shiites mourn the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam’s 7th-century founding Prophet Muhammad (PBOH). Bahrain has been rocked by nearly two years of unrest, which remains strongest in Shiite areas. — AP

sidents Saeed Al-Shehabi and Ali Mushaima, the son of jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima, as well as clerics, human rights lawyers and activists, according to Mohammed Al-Mascati, head of the Bahrain Youth Centre for Human Rights. The OHCHR said it was also “deeply concerned about the restrictions on public demonstrations and other public gatherings” declared on Oct 30. Bahrain had said the ban was a temporary step to ensure public safety and prevent violence. The ruling Al Khalifa family used martial law and help from Gulf neighbors to put down an uprising against alleged discrimination in March last year, but unrest has since resumed and Shiite protesters and police clash almost daily. Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based as a bulwark against Iran, accuses Tehran of encouraging the unrest and has promised a tough response as talks with the opposition have stalled. Iran has denied meddling in Bahrain’s affairs.— Reuters

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

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

Mounting frustration in Morocco Disappointment growing at slow pace of reform RABAT: Morocco’s moderate Islamist Party of Justice and Development swept to power in historic elections last year in the wake of Arab Spring protests that brought hopes of change. But a year on, analysts say disappointment is growing at the slow pace of reform, compounded by doubts about how much power the palace has devolved and looming economic woes, with unemployed youths marching daily in the capital.

The PJD’s triumph in the November 25 2011 poll followed constitutional changes introduced

by King Mohammed VI to curb his near-absolute powers, and campaign pledges to tackle widespread poverty, endemic corruption and a lop-sided economy.

Those steps succeeded in hollowing out support for the February 20 protest movement, prompting party officials to hail a “third way” that delivered Morocco from polit-

ical chaos and proved it was an “exception” in the region.

But scores of demonstrators have been jailed this year, amid international concerns about their confessions being obtained through torture, and police often employ violent tactics to scatter the protests by jobless graduates.

Diplomats say the democratic provisions of the new constitution have led to meaningful institutional changes. “Parliament is stronger and livelier, and has amended controversial legislation, while the National Human Rights Council is starting to deliver,” said one Western diplomat in Rabat. “But there are large swathes of government business that are still influenced by the palace, and that continues to cause a lot of frustration among those who would like reform to move faster.”

Abdelilah Benkirane, the Islamist leader of the coalition government formed in January, insist-

ed last month that democracy in Morocco was advancing slowly but surely. The king, he said, “is the head of state and... therefore my boss.” All the signs suggest the king remains popular among Moroccans. But the frustrations of the reformist camp, including over the pervasive interests in the economy of the monarch and his inner circle, the makhzen, are palpable.

So too is the determination of the authorities to suppress any criticism of what has long been a taboo subject. Security forces aggressively dispersed a protest outside parliament last Sunday against the king’s proposed spending budget for 2013, of nearly 2.6 billion dirhams (234 million euros/$301 million), deemed extravagant by the demonstrators amid worsening economic hardship. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, rising in the third quarter from 9.1 to 9.4 percent year-on-year, official figures

showed, although the World Bank says the proportion of youths out of work is far worse at around 30 percent.

Prominent PJD sympathizers have started to raise their voices in criticism of the party, with politically active businessman Karim Tazi saying the electoral slogan of the PJD “All against corruption and absolutism” rings hollow today.

But despite these perceived failings, the Islamists appear to have retained much of their grass-roots support, winning legislative byelections in Tangiers and Marrakesh in early October.

Political scientist Mohammed Madani believes the party’s lasting popularity is due to its clear desire to help ordinary Moroccans, many of whom accept that it is very limited in what it can do, and to the lack of viable alternatives. “I think people continue to support the PJD because they know the government doesn’t have a free hand,”

The Foreign Minister of Morocco, Saad Eddine El Othmani he said. PJD officials claim the steps taken to battle corruption as a key achievement, notably the lists it has published of those benefiting from privilege, through the awarding of public contracts, and the mechanisms set up to scrutinize accounts and prosecute

offenders. Communications Minister Mustapha Khalfi also proudly refers to the numerous spending projects targeting the marginalized sectors of society and mentions the plans to reform to Morocco’s compensation fund.— AFP

US Rice battles critics as abrasive style takes toll Rice chances of replacing Clinton damaged by Benghazi

MEXICO CITY: Juan Chiu Trujillo, a Chinese Mexican weeps as he recounts his life story during an interview in Mexico City. — AP

Chinese-Mexicans mark ‘repatriation to Mexico’ MEXICO CITY: Juan Chiu Trujillo was 5 years old when he left his native Mexico for a visit to his father’s hometown in southern China. He was 35 when he returned. As Chiu vacationed with his parents, brother and two sisters in Guangdong province, Mexico erupted into xenophobia fueled by the economic turmoil of the Great Depression and aimed at its small, relatively prosperous Chinese minority. Authorities backed by mobs rounded up Chinese citizens, pressured them to sell their businesses and forced many to cross into the United States.

Unable to return to their home, hotel and restaurant in the southern border city of Tapachula, the Chius stayed in China and began a new life.

Chiu’s father took a job at a relative’s bakery and his children began learning Chinese. But their life was soon turned upside down as China was invaded by the Japanese, endured World War II and then suffered a civil war that led to a victory by communist forces that persecuted religious people. In 1941, the family fled to Macau, then a Portuguese colony. They never stopped dreaming of Mexico, and Juan Chiu Trujillo returned in November 1960. He came back with his pregnant wife and four children and with 300 other Chinese-Mexicans after President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, trying to improve Mexico’s global image, paid for their travel expenses and decreed that they would be legally allowed to live in Mexico. They were eventually granted Mexican citizenship.

Dozens of those Chinese-Mexicans and their descendants planned a gathering Saturday at a Chinese restaurant in Mexico City to celebrate for the first time the anniversary of their return, share memories and pay tribute to the late Lopez Mateos, who was being represented by his daughter. For many, the commemoration has brought reflection on their status as

Chinese-Mexicans. It’s a group that feels deeply Mexican but also has been scarred by persecution by their countrymen and still faces ethnic prejudice, despite growing acceptance.

“I thought: ‘My children need to know this history. They need to know where we come from, and they need to know how much hard work it has taken for us to be here,’” said Chiu’s youngest son, Ignacio Chiu Chan, a 46-year-old lawyer. Chiu Chan began a Facebook page to share photographs of the repatriation that he found in his father’s photo albums and to collect the stories of other Chinese-Mexicans who were brought back by Lopez Mateos. So far, more than 260 people have joined his page, sharing images and recounting family stories. Chiu Chan, who is married to a Mexican woman of Spanish and Indian descent and has four children, said he struggled with his identity while growing up because of bullying and got into several fights because of name calling. He was a young bachelor when a group of elders invited him to lunch at a restaurant in Mexico City’s tiny Chinatown. Three young women were at the table and he was asked to say which one he would like to marry. “I thought, ‘What are these dudes talking about?’” he recalled. “For the first time I felt Mexican and thought, ‘I don’t belong to this.’” Large numbers of Chinese began arriving in northern Mexico in the late 1800s, drawn by jobs in railroad construction and cotton. The country represented a haven from the United States, which had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, an 1882 law that banned Chinese immigration. But from the moment they began to arrive, they faced racism, which was exacerbated during the 1910-17 Mexican Revolution and its aftermath, when the country was trying to build a national identity that celebrated the mixture of Indian and Spanish cultures. —AP

Chambliss - latest Republican to break with anti-tax lobbyist WASHINGTON: US Senator Saxby Chambliss this week became the latest Republican lawmaker to loosen his ties to Grover Norquist, the anti-tax lobbyist famous for getting elected officials to sign a “taxpayer protection pledge.” The rebellion, albeit a modest one, comes as Republicans prepare to negotiate with Democrats and President Barack Obama on a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff some $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to start jolting the economy at the beginning of 2013.

“I care more about this country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” Chambliss told Georgia television station WMAZ on Thursday.

“If we do it his way, then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.” Chambliss, who represents Georgia, is a member of the so-called Gang of Eight group of senators, a bipartisan alliance working for deficit reduction, formed last year when the country was on the verge of default thanks to a partisan battle over raising the country’s borrowing limit. A vast majority of elected Republicans have signed the pledge Norquist created in 1986, which commits them to voting against tax increases, and it became a type of litmus test among US conservatives. But its influence, and that of Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax

Reform, may be waning following Republican losses in this month’s elections and acknowledgments from Republican leaders that revenue must be raised to pare deficits topping $1 trillion. “Grover Norquist has no plan to pay this debt down. His plan says you continue to add to the debt. I just have a fundamental disagreement with him about that,” Chambliss said. Norquist, in response, noted that Chambliss was an author of an open letter to him last year from three Republicans promising support for revenue generation from the “pro-growth effects” of lower tax rates. “Senator Chambliss promised the people of Georgia he would go to Washington and reform government rather than raise taxes to pay for bigger government,” Norquist said. Some Republicans contend they are only open to raising revenue through economic growth, an impact hard to quantify and which Democrats and many economists say is not nearly enough. Republican aides on Capitol Hill have been grumbling privately about the attention Norquist gets, worrying that it weakens their ability to negotiate across the aisle. Representative Scott Rigell, a Virginia Republican who won re-election despite disavowing the pledge, expressed similar sentiments publicly in a Nov 17 interview on CNN.—Reuters

UNITED NATIONS: Susan Rice has had a series of diplomatic triumphs as US ambassador to the United Nations. President Barack Obama, an old friend, showed he has her back when last week he publicly challenged her Republican critics over the Benghazi controversy to “go after me” rather than her. She knew former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from the age of 4. And yet Rice is now fighting for her political future.

Her chances of becoming the next secretary of state - replacing Hillary Clinton - have been significantly damaged.

Senior Republicans, such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have said they will oppose her getting the job, signaling a confirmation battle if Obama decides to nominate her.

Some critics in the US media, such as Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, have said she is unsuitable for the position. The immediate source of a lot of the criticism is her appearances on Sunday morning television shows in September five days after the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans had been killed in Benghazi.

Her critics bitterly complain that she misled the American public by suggesting that the assault was the result of a spontaneous protest rather than an organized assault by affiliates of Al-Qaeda. During the US presidential campaign, supporters of Republican candidate Mitt Romney seized on the issue to attack Obama.

The antipathy in Washington and elsewhere, though, is based on more than a series of TV interviews. While UN diplomats and US officials who have dealt with Rice praise the intellect of the 48-year-old former Rhodes scholar and graduate of Stanford and Oxford, they say she has won few popularity contests during her meteoric rise.

Diplomats on the 15-nation UN Security Council privately complain of Rice’s aggressive negotiating tactics, describing her with terms like “undiplomatic” and “sometimes rather rude.”

They attributed some blunt language to Rice “this is crap,” “let’s kill this” or “this is bullshit.”

“She’s got a sort of a cowboy-ish attitude,” one Western diplomat said. “She has a tendency to treat other countries as mere (US) subsidiaries.”

Two other diplomats - all three were male - supported this view. “She’s not easy,” said David Rothkopf, the top manager and editor-at-large of Foreign Policy magazine. “I’m not sure I’d want to take her on a picnic with my family, but if the president wants her to be secretary of state, she’ll work hard.”

Indeed, along with a “no-nonsense” style, Rice has the most important ingredient for a successful secretary of state - a close relationship with the US president, Rothkopf said. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, himself not known for mincing words, publicly admonished Rice after she said Russian calls for an investigation into civilian deaths in Libya caused by NATO were a “bogus” ploy.

“Really this Stanford dictionary of expletives must be replaced by something more Victorian, because certainly this is not the language in which we intend to discuss matters with our partners in the Security Council,” said Churkin, mocking Rice’s education at Stanford. More immediately at the United Nations, she faces criticism from human rights activists and some diplomats because of US opposition to public criticism of Rwanda for its role in the worsening conflict in the Congo.

BREAKING HER SILENCE Rice, who declined to comment for this article, broke her silence on the Benghazi controversy on Wednesday, defending her September statements about the attack. But she did so on Thanksgiving eve when many Americans were traveling and when her comments were likely to be overshadowed by news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. “I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community,” Rice told reporters at the United Nations. “I made clear that the information provided to me was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers.”

While Rice said some statements about her

by McCain were “unfounded,” she may have been trying to mend fences when she added: “I look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him.”

People who know Rice say she is finding it hard to keep up her spirits during a long autumn of criticism. “It’s not easy being attacked publicly by people who have their facts wrong day after day,” one US official said.

Rice’s defenders say that a lot of the attacks smacked of sexism as the same tough manner she can display has been seen as an asset in some legendary male American foreign affairs officials. Rothkopf, who was an official in President Bill Clinton’s administration, cited James Baker and Henry Kissinger as exemplary secretaries of state. They were “tough infighters who broke a few eggs and made some enemies.

They are admired for their toughness, and (Rice) is attacked for her abrasiveness,” he said.

SOME SAY EMINENTLY QUALIFIED Certainly, Rice has won some accolades for pushing the UN Security Council to adopt new Iran and North Korea sanctions, helping secure the toughest UN measures to date against those two countries over their nuclear programs. Rice also played a key role in negotiating last year’s

Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations war resolution on Libya. Current and former US officials aligned with the Obama administration say Rice is eminently qualified for the post of secretary of state.

They say the attacks on her during the presidential campaign were part of Republican efforts to frame the Benghazi assault as a terrorist attack, possibly linked to al Qaeda, on Obama’s watch. “ The president has a great record in fighting Al-Qaeda, so (Republicans) try to find a way of attacking his record on AlQaeda,” said Richard Clarke, who was Rice’s boss when she worked at the US National Security Council during Bill Clinton’s first term. Rice became an official in the Clinton administration in the 1990s, at the National Security Council and State. Then, under Obama, she became the youngest woman and the first black female to become US ambassador to the UN. She grew up close to the levers of power. She is the daughter of the late Emmett Rice, who was a Cornell University economics professor and member of the Federal Reserve Board of governors. Albright, who is a family friend, recommended Rice to become assistant secretary of state. “We often traveled together and I took her advice very seriously,” said Albright, who served as UN ambassador from 1993 to 1997 and secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. “I think she is one of the smartest people I know in national security issues.”

REPAIRED TIES While some Republicans have accused her of sacrificing US interests in her effort to woo UN diplomats and also complain that she is too often absent during UN Security Council votes, neither criticism is given much credibility by other diplomats in New York. They say Rice, whose husband and children live in Washington and who is a member of Obama’s Cabinet, has an advantage as a UN negotiator because other nations’ delegations know that when she takes a position on an issue, the president is almost cer-

tainly behind her.

A UN official said that when Rice took office in 2009 as Obama’s UN envoy, she repaired much damage done to the US image at the United Nations, an organization often criticized by the administration of former President George W Bush. “We have paid the price of stiffarming the UN and spurning our international partners,” Rice told an audience in 2009.

Washington quickly paid up billions of dollars in dues and said it would work with the United Nations whenever possible. In late 2009 and 2010, Rice led negotiations on a fourth UN sanctions resolution against Iran over a nuclear program that Tehran insists is for peaceful electricity generation but Western powers and their allies suspect is for weapons.

Britain and France, which had drafted the three previous UN sanctions resolutions on Iran, were reluctant to allow Rice to be the “pen holder” for a fourth, UN envoys said, mostly out of fear the Obama administration would offer a weak draft because of its determination to boost engagement with Tehran. They were wrong.

Rice’s draft was far tougher than expected. The Security Council passed it in June 2010 and European diplomats who worked on it acknowledge that it created one of the toughest sanctions regimes in UN history.

DUMBSTRUCK Then came the battle for control of Libya in early 2011. After weeks of discussions within the divided US administration, Obama decided that Washington could support a UN Security Council mandate for outside military forces to use “all necessary measures” short of an occupation to protect Libyan civilians from leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. The British and French were dumbstruck. Their initial reaction when Rice presented US demands for a Libya resolution was that it was a ploy to get the Russians to veto it.

But then they realized she was serious.

Within 36 hours of the resolution passing on March 17, 2011, “the French were bombing Gaddafi’s forces as they prepared to attack Benghazi,” said one senior Western diplomat involved in the negotiations. “The Americans pushed the process well beyond what we thought we could achieve in the council, and it succeeded.” Still, it is far from smooth sailing for Rice. Security Council diplomats and human rights activists have more recently criticized her over Rwanda.

Her involvement with the East African nation began in the 1990s, when she was a National Security Council official responsible for international organizations and peacekeeping. Still reeling from its 1993 failure in Somalia, the United States under Clinton did virtually nothing to stop the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Nearly two decades later, council diplomats and rights groups accuse Rice of protecting Rwanda and President Paul Kagame, a charge that Rice’s defenders say is baseless.

UN experts who monitor compliance with sanctions on Congo have accused Kagame’s Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion in eastern Congo. M23, which is suspected of mass killings, rape and other atrocities, on Tuesday captured the city of Goma. Rwanda denies supporting M23 but council diplomats and UN officials say those denials are hardly credible. In June the experts sent a report on the allegations to the Security Council’s Congo sanctions committee, where council diplomats said Rice blocked its publication for weeks. US officials denied blocking it and said Washington only wanted Kigali to have a chance to respond.

Just on Monday, diplomats told Reuters, the US delegation again insisted that Rwanda not be named in a resolution - which was passed by the council on Tuesday - criticizing M23 rebels’ seizure of Goma. Rice’s defenders say she is following instructions from Washington, and the US assessment is that singling out Rwanda for backing M23 would not be constructive. They also deny that she is trying to protect Rwanda or Kagame, calling instead for negotiations between Kigali and Kinshasa. That doesn’t wash with some human rights activists. “Despite its influence on Rwanda, in public the US government has been inexplicably silent,” said Philippe Bolopion, UN director for Human Rights Watch.—Reuters

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

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

Russia frees scientist jailed for spying KRASNOYARSK: A Russian scientist freed yesterday after nearly a decade in jail for selling secrets to China accused Vladimir Putin’s “court” of turning the Kremlin leader into a tsar and of using the legal system to punish opponents.

Valentin Danilov, 66, looked pale and thin as he was released on parole from a prison colony on the edge of the industrial Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk after serving eight years of a 14-year sentence. But he was defiant over a case which human rights activists say was politically motivated and part of an attempt by Putin to intimidate academics with ties to other countries during his first term as president.

“I would really appreciate it if somebody finally told me what state secret I sold,” Danilov told reporters after he emerged from the prison colony’s high corrugated walls and travelled by car through the snow-dusted streets of

Krasnoyarsk to his daughter’s apartment. He declined to comment directly on President Putin but criticized Russia’s political and judicial system nearly 13 years after the former KGB spy first rose to power and more than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union. “As for President Putin, I guess everybody would be the same as him in his place. The court makes the tsar. In many cases it’s the people around him that are guilty rather than him himself,” said Danilov.

“The problem is not one of law but of how the judging is done ... We have three branches of power - the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. It’s a fight between the legislative and executive with the court in between.

They should pull in different directions so that the court works well, but if they all pull in only one direction, then what?” Human rights activists see

Portugal withdraws its troops from East Timor DILI: Portugal withdrew the bulk of its police officers from East Timor yesterday as international forces wind up a 13-year mission in Asia’s youngest nation, where thousands have died in political bloodshed. Seventy-five of the officers boarded a Lisbon-bound plane in the former Portuguese colony, among the last of 1,200 UN peacekeepers to return home before the official end of their mission on December 31. Only around three dozen UN Police remain in the country, including several from Portugal, Australia, Malaysia and Pakistan. Most of them will leave next week and all will have to withdraw by December 31. International forces began pulling out in earnest last month with Canberra this week saying it was sending home hundreds of troops from the Australian-led International Stabilization Force (ISF), ending a six-year operation.

At the UN’s terminal in Dili’s Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport, officers in Portugal’s black police uniforms and UN blue berets bade a tearful farewell to Portuguese expatriates who had come to see them off. Captain Jorge Barradas, commander of the Portuguese police contingent, said he had mixed feelings about leaving a country where he has served on and off since 2001. “It is kind of a sad feeling for us to leave East Timor. But on the other hand, leaving means that East Timor has

developed and is secure so it’s also a pleasure to leave,” he said.

The UN entered the territory, officially known as Timor-Leste, after violence broke out in 1999 following the resounding “yes” vote for independence from neighboring Indonesia. The referendum was organized by the UN after Indonesia announced it would end a brutal, 24-year occupation in which around 183,000 people, or a quarter of the population, died from fighting, disease and starvation. The nation conducted peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections this year, and UN peacekeepers last month handed full responsibility for policing back to the nation, which celebrated a decade of formal independence in May. Portugal, which controlled East Timor for more than 300 years before Indonesia invaded, is among 44 nations that have served in the current UN Police mission dispatched after a second wave of violence hit in 2006. It has made one of the biggest contributions to the force, sending 2,000 officers since 2006, when unrest ahead of elections left 37 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The only major violence in the impoverished half-island nation of 1.1 million people since 2006 has been a failed assassination attempt against then-president Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in 2008. — AFP

S Leone President Koroma re-elected FREETOWN: Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma was sworn in for a second term on Friday after winning elections, promising to boost foreign investment and crack down on corruption in the warscarred nation. Koroma took 58.7 percent of the ballots in a Nov 17 poll, just above the 55 percent he needed to avoid a runoff, election officials announced. His main rival, Julius Maada Bio, a 48-year-old retired army brigadier, took 37.4 percent.

“We will continue to attract investment, we will continue to fight corruption,” Koroma said in a speech to cheering supporters in the ramshackle capital Freetown. “I will make sure that the fruits of ... prosperity are equally distributed in every district and every region. The work starts today.”

The election was the third national vote since the end of a 1991-2002 civil war that made Sierra Leone notorious as a “blood diamonds” battleground for rebels and child soldiers. After Koroma’s win was announced, groups of youths shouted and cheered under a cotton tree in the centre of Freetown, a landmark where slaves were once bought and sold. “I’m pleased, very happy (...) He brings joy in Sierra Leone. Ernest brings joy in the heart of the people,” said Abdul Deen, 41, who runs a decorating business. At stake in the vote was the opportunity to oversee billions of dollars of investment in the aid-dependent country’s resources that include gold and diamonds, oil and iron ore. Iron-ore shipments by British companies African

Minerals and London Mining are expected to buoy the economy to 20 percent growth this year - below original forecasts of more than 50 percent, but still one of the highest growth rates on the planet.

Election officials and observers reported a large and enthusiastic turnout in the polls, and observers called the process free and fair. Koroma and his ruling All People’s Congress (APC) faced a determined challenge from Bio, a former junta leader who represents the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).

Koroma wrested the presidency from the SLPP in a hotly disputed 2007 vote and was considered the narrow favorite above Bio, who was involved in two military takeovers in the turbulent 1990s. Bio supporters were dismayed by the outcome, many claiming the results were fraudulent.

“As for me, the election does not go down well with us,” said Frank Mattia, a 28-yearold student. “Ernest Bai Koroma has rigged the election which is not free and fair to us, the people of this country.” The electoral commission said there were some polling stations where votes exceeded registered voters, but said those results were thrown out and were too few to have an impact on the election’s outcome. An SLPP official declined comment, saying an official statement would be issued over the weekend.

The election in the former British colony was one of the most closely observed in Africa this year by monitors from the European Union, the Commonwealth and the African Union. — Reuters

FREETOWN: Supporters of the ruling All People’s Congress party celebrate after incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma was pronounced the winner of last week’s presidential election in Freetown. — AP

Danilov’s case as an example of the Kremlin using the courts against its opponents though Putin, who was president from 2000 until 2008 and began a third term in May, has denied influencing the judiciary. Critics say Putin is using similar tactics today too by pushing laws through parliament that could be used to crack down on what have been the biggest protests against him since the start of his 13year domination of Russia.

Danilov, a researcher at Krasnoyarsk State University, was first arrested in 2001. He admitted selling information about satellite technology to a Chinese company but said the information had already been available from public sources. An initial decision to acquit him was overturned and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a second trial in 2004. A Krasnoyarsk court granted him parole earlier this month.

Krasnoyarsk was once part of the Gulag prison camp system where Soviet dictator Josef Stalin sent many of his political opponents.

POLITICAL PRISONER Danilov smiled, joked and laughed with reporters as he took frequent calls from well-wishers, although at times he seemed nervous. Asked about his health, the physicist said: “I’m fine.

Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.” He said he had been treated well by other prisoners and thanked human rights organizations for providing him with books, praising the messages of support he had received from US physicists. He said he had received no such support from Russia’s own Academy of Sciences. Asked if he considered himself a political prisoner, he said: “Absolutely ... No money can compensate for 10 years of your life.” Explaining

how he was accused of espionage, he said he had been the head of a scientists’ exchange program with China under which Beijing had made the first payment.

The charges against him, he said, were “fantasy” but he had no regrets.

Dressed formally in a red tie and grey jacket, Danilov declined to go into details about his life in prison except to complain that he had not been allowed access to the Internet. He said he had no immediate plans to take on a public role and would spend time with family and friends. He hoped to return to science but said he would avoid space, the area in which he was accused of spying. Under the terms of his parole, he must check in with police once a month, and plans to live with his wife in their home in Novosibirsk, also in Siberia. “Russia is my fate. How could I go anywhere else,” he said. — Reuters

Pontiff appoints 6 new cardinals Appointments chip away European domination VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict made six nonEuropean prelates Roman Catholic cardinals yesterday, chipping away at the old continent’s domination of the elite group that will one day elect his successor. The new cardinals, ranging in age from 53 to 72, are from the United States, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Lebanon and Colombia, and the decision to choose no Italians or Europeans looked like an attempt to counter criticism that he has in the past neglected the needs of the developing world.

Elevating the new “princes” in a solemn ceremony known as a consistory in St Peter’s Basilica, Benedict said his appointments reflected “that the Church is the Church of all peoples”. “She speaks in the various cultures of the different continents ... amid the polyphony of the various voices, she raises a single harmonious song to the living God,” he said in his sermon.

The new cardinals are American Archbishop James Michael Harvey, Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, a major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara rite in India, Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota, Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Beatitude Bechara Boutros Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church in Lebanon, and Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja. All six are “cardinal electors,” those under 80 years old and therefore eligible to enter a conclave that will one day choose Benedict’s successor.

Benedict gave the new cardinals their ring and traditional red “biretta,” or hat. He reminded them that they wear red vestments because they must be ready to defend the faith “even to the shedding of your blood”.

The pope is a conservative on matters of faith and sexual morals such as birth control, homosexuality and the ban on women priests. Each time he names cardinals he chooses men who share his views and can shape the Church’s future. Cardinals are the pope’s closest aides in the Vatican, where they run its key departments, and around the world, where they head dioceses to administer the 1.2 billion members of the Roman Catholic Church.

NO ITALIANS, EUROPEANS Benedict was criticized in some Church circles last February when, in choosing his previous batch of cardinals, he elevated many from the Vatican’s central bureaucracy. He was

VATICAN: Newly elected Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal of India (at center wearing a black suit) is greeted by cardinals during a consistory inside the St Peter’s Basilica yesterday. — AP accused of neglecting the needs of the developing world. But significantly, this time, there were no Europeans or Italians, groups who loomed large in past consistories. With 62 cardinals electors, Europeans still have a slight majority in the 120-member group, but their numbers have shrunk to be about even with the rest of the world. There are now 58 non-European electors and of them, 14 are from North America, 21 are from Latin America, Africa and Asia have 11 each and Australia has one. Two of the new cardinals, Boutros Rai, 72, of Lebanon, and Onaiyekan, 68, of Nigeria, are from countries with significant Muslim populations.

The pope’s decision to raise the two to the highest rank in the Church short of the papacy indicates his concern for relations between Christianity and Islam. The pope visited predominantly Muslim Lebanon last September and called on members of both faiths to work together to build peace in the Middle East and beyond.

In Nigeria, which is about 50 percent Muslim, the Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people in attacks since launching an uprising in 2009. Many of the attacks have been on Christians and churches. Thottunkal, 53, the Indian, is on the front line of inter-religious dialogue with Hinduism.

The other two, Gomez, 70, of Bogota,

Nigeria offers $1.8m for Boko Haram info MAIDUGURI: Nigeria’s army has offered 290 million naira ($1.8 million) for information leading to the capture of 19 leading members of Islamist sect Boko Haram, whose insurgency has killed hundreds this year.

Boko Haram wants to impose strict sharia - or Islamic law - in the country of 160 million, split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims, and the group has become the biggest security threat to Africa’s largest oil producer.

The military Joint Task Force (JTF) in northeast Borno state, the sect’s home territory and the focus of its attacks, offered a reward of 50 million naira for the sect’s self-proclaimed leader Abubakar Shekau. It offered 25 million naira for each of the men said by the JTF to be his main commanders: Habibu Yusuk, Khalis Albarnawai, Momodu Bama and Mohammed Zangina, and 10 million naira for 14 other senior members.

“They are wanted in connection with terrorist activities particularly in the north east zone,” a statement by the JTF in Maiduguri, Borno’s capital, said yesterday. “(This) led to the killings, bombings and assassination of civilians, religious leaders, traditional rulers, businessmen, politicians, civil servants and security personnel.” Boko Haram’s core group, believed to be led by Shekau, still focuses its attacks in its northeast base but the group is split into different factions spread across the north of Africa’s most populous nation.

It has carried out several attacks in the capital Abuja, including a suicide car bombing on the United Nations headquarters last year that killed at least 24 people. Britain last week banned a Nigerian Islamist group known as Ansaru it said was aligned with AlQaeda and was probably responsible for the killing of a Briton and an Italian kidnapped in northern Nigeria last year. — Reuters

Colombia, and Tagle, 55, of Manila, come from predominantly Catholic countries. Benedict has now named 67, or more than half, of the cardinals who will elect his successor from among their own ranks.

The other 53 were named by Pope John Paul.

The pope’s health appears to be good but he has been looking frail recently and has started using a cane. Popes usually reign for life but in a book in 2010, Benedict said he would not hesitate to become the first pontiff to resign in more than 700 years if he felt no longer able “physically, psychologically and spiritually” to run the Catholic Church.

Harvey, the 63-year-old American, was the prefect of the Pontifical Household. He arranged the pope’s schedule, including private and public audiences, and looked after world leaders visiting the Vatican.

He is now becoming the archpriest of the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome. In his previous post, Harvey was in charge of the pope’s former butler Paolo Gabriele, who was convicted last month of stealing papal documents and leaking them to the media. When the names of the new cardinals were announced last month, a spokesman denied that the promotion of Harvey was a means of removing him because of the scandal. — Reuters

Africa’s first woman bishop admits ‘world is watching’ MBABANE: While the Church of England wrings its hands over the appointment of women bishops, Africa’s first woman Anglican bishop is determined to get on with the job without being hung up on the gender debate. “All leaders are ordained by God,” said 61-year-old Swazi primate Ellinah Wamukoya, skimming over the very topic that has brought her worldwide attention. “It is not like any other post where you apply. Here God calls you and you respond to that call. If you do respond, your mind should be focused on what God says to the position to which He has called you,” she said. “I have responded to the call of God.” But the timing of that call could hardly have been more dramatic, or contentious.

Her enthronement as Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Swaziland last Saturday came in the very week the Anglicans’ mother church, the Church of England, very publicly voted not to allow women bishops. The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams described opposition to the move as “wilfully blind.”

Wamukoya’s immediate task will be to oversee 42 reverends of the Church both spiritually and in financial managementno mean feat amid speculation that the Swazi Church is in a financial quagmire.

But Wamukoya is aware that her role has far wider implications. Failure is certain to be leapt upon as evidence of

women’s unsuitability for the post. “I know that the whole world is looking up to me to see if I will deliver,” she said. She hopes her experience of running a political office as chief executive officer of the Manzini Municipality-Swaziland’s financial hub-will hold her in good stead. But she must also tread a moral tightrope. Despite her appointment, the Anglican Church in Africa remains highly conservative. Many Church norms exclude women from decision-making. Even if the Church of England is not inspired by her appointment, Gender Links Swaziland director Ncane Maziya hopes that women in the small kingdom will be.

Wamukoya’s appointment could provide inspiration to women who need to tap into leadership positions, Maziya said.

On a host of other issues she may face strong orthodoxy.

Tip-toeing out onto that moral tightrope, Wamukoya somewhat diplomatically describes the Church’s stance on same-sex marriage as “discerning.” While the Swazi Church does not officiate gay marriage ceremonies and same-sex marriage is illegal under Swaziland’s basic laws, Wamukoya maintained that the Church cannot attempt to enforce policy on the issue. “The state is one thing, but as children of God, apart from the laws of the state, we go by what God says to us,” she said. — AFP

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

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

Indonesia child jockeys brave danger for cash and glory BIMA: Bareback jockey Herman Sarifudin guides his horse into the starting box for a race on Indonesia’s Sumbawa island. The gate springs open and the horse bolts with Sarifudin clinging on for dear life. Sarifudin is eight years old. He’s one of dozens of children taking part in the races. The horses are small, often standing just 1.20 meters tall. But even so, fathers have to help their children clamber on to them. Sarifudin competed this week in a race against five other children around a dusty, oval track of 1,400 meters near Bima town. His reward, if he wins, is a handful of cash for his fam-

ily, and the glory for him.

He was nervous before the race but once it got going, he and the other barefoot riders looked in control, urging their horses forward with a flick of a switch to the flanks. In the end, Sarifudin came in third. He said he felt drained. Mohammad Amin is a district government official who keeps horses as a hobby. He has 12 of them. The children are light, that’s why they’re the jockeys, he explains. “Children learn to ride horses from the age of five,” he said. About 2,000 cheering spectators crowded around the track and no one let laws against gambling spoil the fun.

Hami, a grandfather, was desperate to sell off his nearly new Nokia mobile telephone phone so he could put some money down.

TWO COWS Hajji Sukri, 45, chairman of the race organizing team scoffed at the danger.

The children were all skilful riders and none had been killed, and none seriously hurt, he said. One child toppled off on to the dusty track at a recent race. His father quickly picked him up and carried him off, in tears. “It’s OK to fall off a horse,” said taxi driver Irwansyah. “My concern is that they

should be in school, not racing horses.

They can miss school for 10 days for just one event.”

The races have been held at the end of the rice-harvesting season ever since anyone can remember. Horses are used throughout Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands that straddles the equator, more often for pulling carts and buggies than for riding. This year, the races near Bima lasted for 11 days and attracted nearly 600 horses, many from the nearby islands of Sumba, Bali, Lombok and Flores.

The grand prize was one million rupiah ($100). Those who win their

groups get two cows. One of the young stars this year was 11-year-old Mohammad Endiansyah, known as Endi, who has taken a two-month break from school for the racing season. The punters say he’s a great rider, an expert at handling the horses. His father, Asikin, said he earned 15 million rupiah ($1,500) in the last two months from different races. “A horse is like a friend,” Endi said. “I’ve fallen, been sick and cried but no horse has ever stepped on me”. Endhi said he wanted to be a policeman when he grows up. “But I’d also like to be a professional jockey,” he said. — Reuters

India counters China map claims in tit-for-tat move India stamps its map on visas given to Chinese visitors

BANGKOK: Thai anti-government protesters scuffle with riot policemen during a protest in Bangkok yesterday. — AFP

Tensions flare; Protesters urge Thailand PM to quit BANGKOK: Thai police yesterday fired tear gas and detained dozens of demonstrators as clashes erupted at the first major street protests against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government. The violence, while relatively small scale, appeared to mark a new phase in Thailand’s long-running political crisis pitting Thai royalists against ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra-Yingluck’s brother-and his supporters.

About 17,000 police were deployed for the rally in Bangkok’s historic district, which was organized by the royalist group Pitak Siam (Protecting Siam), a relatively new force in the kingdom’s fractured political scene. “In the name of Pitak Siam and its allies I promise that we will topple this government,” the movement’s head, retired general Boonlert Kaewprasit, declared from the rally stage. But the estimated attendance of about 20,000 fell far short of the half a million organizers had hoped for, and by early evening as rain began to fall Boonlert called off the protest, which had been due to last until Sunday.

“I can’t afford to lose even one life so I declare the rally over,” he announced.

The demo comes two and a half years after 90 people died and about 1,900 were wounded in a military crackdown on “Red Shirt” protests in the heart of the capital against the previous government, which was replaced by Yingluck’s administration last year.

Earlier yesterday tensions flared as police fired several rounds of tear gas at protesters trying to ram through barriers near the main rally site in the Royal Plaza using a truck. “Tear gas was used in one area because protesters did not comply with the rules,” said national police spokesman Major General Piya Uthayo.

About 100 protesters were detained while knives and bullets were confiscat-

ed, he said. Forty-two people, including seven police officers, were treated for cuts and other injuries, officials said.

The authorities called in an extra 5,700 police after the clashes, but allowed the rally to go ahead at the main protest site, the Royal Plaza. Yingluck on Thursday voiced fears the protesters aimed to use violence and to “overthrow an elected government and democratic rule”. The government invoked the Internal Security Act (ISA) in three districts of the capital to cope with possible unrest, giving the police additional powers to block routes, impose a curfew, ban gatherings and carry out searches.

Thailand has been rocked by a series of sometimes violent rival street protests in recent years, although an uneasy calm had returned after national elections in 2011. At their height, the Red Shirt rallies in 2010 drew about 100,000 people demanding the resignation of the previous government and the return of Thaksin, who was toppled by royalist generals in a coup in 2006.

Thaksin, who made billions as a telecoms tycoon, is adored by many poor Thais for his populist policies while in power, but reviled by many in elite, military and palace circles who see him as authoritarian and a threat to the monarchy. The demonstrators at yesterday’s rally, who included supporters of the influential “Yellow Shirt” royalist movement, called on Yingluck’s government to stand down. “I can’t stand that they disrespect the king. I want the government to quit,” said 48-year-old farmer Namsai Jantarat from the northern province of Chiang Mai. The Red Shirts threatened to strike back in the event of a new coup. “This rally is illegitimate,” Red Shirt leader Thida Thavornseth said at a news conference yesterday. “We will come out in force if there is any sign of a coup or the government loses control.” — AFP

Ahmadinejad congratulates ‘victorious’ Hamas leader TEHRAN: Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has congratulated Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya in a telephone call on a “great victory” over Israel, the two sides said yesterday. Haniya in turn “thanked Iran for its support,” they added, days after Tehran confirmed it had supplied military aid to Gaza. “The Iranian president congratulated the people of Gaza and the (Palestinian) resistance facing Zionist aggression ... on their great victory,” Iran’s news aogency ISNA reported.

Haniya’s office said Ahmadinejad called late on Friday to praise Gaza’s “victory after eight days of Israeli aggression,” referring to the Jewish state’s Operation Pillar of Defense which ended with a Wednesday ceasefire. “We stand beside the Palestinian people,” the Iranian president added. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday said Iran had supplied military aid to Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza and

which fired missiles at Tel Aviv for the first time during the eight-day conflict with Israel. “We are proud to defend the people of Palestine and Hamas ... and that our assistance to them has been both financial and military,” Larijani said in remarks reported by parliament’s website, ICANA.ir.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari also said on Wednesday that Tehran had provided the “technology” for the Fajr 5 missiles used to target Tel Aviv, but denied supplying the actual weapons.

He said they were being “rapidly produced” in Gaza. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday thanked Iran as well as Egypt for their support during the conflict, saying Iran “had a role in arming” his Islamist movement.

The truce ended eight days of cross border attacks in which 166 Palestinians and six Israelis died. Iran does not recognize arch-enemy Israel and supports hardline Palestinian movements such as Hamas. — AFP

NEW DELHI: India is stamping its map on visas given to Chinese visitors, an Indian official said yesterday, after China began issuing passports showing disputed territories as its own. “We have started issuing visas with India’s map as we know it,” said a foreign ministry official, who did not wish to be named, declining to comment further. India’s tit-fortat action comes after China began issuing new biometric passports showing Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai China-regions that New Delhi claims-as part of Chinese territory. And the response comes amid already strained ties between the two Asian giants.

Beijing has also included disputed islands in the South China Sea in the map outline on the new passports, angering both the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as areas including two of Taiwan’s most famous scenic spots. Early this week, the Philippines foreign secretary wrote a protest note to the Chinese embassy and the Vietnam government said it has also lodged its objections with Beijing.

India’s The Hindu newspaper said the Indian government had decided not to take up the issue formally with China. “It feels it will be better to speak through actions... than words,” the newspaper quoted an unidentified government official as saying.

Beijing has attempted to downplay the diplomatic fallout from the recently introduced passports, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying the maps were “not made to target any specific country”. The disputed border between India and China has

ARUNACHAL PRADESH: An Indian Army soldier patrols at Bumla Pass on the India-China border in the eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. India is stamping its map on visas given to Chinese visitors after China began issuing passports showing territories disputed by the neighbors as its own terrain. — AFP been the subject of 14 rounds of fruitless talks since 1962, when the two nations fought a brief, bloody war over the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. China’s build-up of military infrastructure along the frontier has become a major source of concern for

Japan school aims to create ‘Asian leaders’ KARUIZAWA: Asia may be driving growth in the world economy but a Japanese businesswoman behind an innovative new school believes the region is overreliant on Western-style leadership. Lin Kobayashi hopes her foundation outside Tokyo will help change that by breeding a wave of political and business leaders-but with what she sees as a more “Asian” way of thinking.

Building work on the International School of Asia, Karuizawa (ISAK) began in September. The launch of classes, all taught in English, is planned for 2014 making it Japan’s first international boarding high school.

Kobayashi, 38, a former investment analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the school will bring together students from a wide range of cultures and socio-economic backgrounds, with scholarships for poor students funded by donations. But she said she wasn’t aiming to simply rival elite schools such as Britain’s Harrow or Dulwich College, which have set up Western-style campuses in places such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

And she added she wanted to change what she sees as an assumption in Asia that it was preferable to seek out education systems in which Western-style leadership was taught. “Asia is already at the centre of the world’s economy, but is still relying on Western-style leadership that thinks charisma is only to be found in a loud, top-down approach,” said Kobayashi, formerly of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and also the UN Children’s Fund in Manila. “I think we need Asia-oriented leaders who value consensus and harmony and can combine that with deep background knowledge about the complicated history and diverse cultures of Asia.”

REGIONAL HISTORY The foundation has so far collected 1.5 billion yen ($19 million) in donations and private funding to cover initial costs, while inviting prominent business figures to come on board as advisors. In July it opened its third annual 10-day summer school, with 53 students from 14 countries. The course cost 300,000 yen. Kobayashi said the school will place particular emphasis on regional history, a subject that divides a continent where narratives differ widely from country to country and are at the root of various territorial stand-offs.

Tensions have recently flared between Japan and China in a row over disputed islands in the East China Sea, with trade between the two countries looking set to suffer. The relationship was worth well in excess of $300 billion last year.

“We don’t teach one-sided history. It is important to learn about diversity of historical perspectives and the multi-ethnic structure of the region,” Kobayashi said, adding that she wanted to bring in teachers from many different backgrounds. Lzaw Saw Nai, a 14-year-old student from Myanmar who joined this year’s summer school, said he was “very much interested in leadership”. “We have political and many other problems in my country,” he said. “I feel I should do something, but first I need to learn. So, I came here.” Tareq Habash, 13, from Palestine, said: “My country is in need of leaders who can understand the need of the country and not just for what they want for themselves.”— AFP

India, which increasingly sees Beijing as a longer-term threat to its security than traditional rival Pakistan. India is also wary of increased Chinese activity in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh which New Delhi sees as within its sphere of influence. — AFP

Blast kills seven at Shiite procession PESHAWAR: A bomb blast claimed by the Taleban killed seven people near a Shiite procession in northwest Pakistan yesterday, despite heightened security across the country. Four boys were among the dead and 30 other people were injured when the remote-controlled bomb packed with ball bearings exploded on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

The attack on Shiites, a minority in Sunni-dominated Pakistan, came as they marched to mourn Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Imam Hussain during the holy month of Muharram which culminates Sunday in Ashura, the group’s holiest day of the year. The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility. “We carried out the attack against the Shiite community,” spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location. “The government can make whatever security arrangements it wants but it cannot stop our attacks.” The Taleban had dispatched more than 20 suicide bombers across the country for attacks on the minority community, he said.

The blast followed another suicide attack-also claimed by the Pakistani Taleban-that killed 23 people at a Shiite procession in the garrison city of Rawalpindi Thursday, the country’s deadliest bombing for five months. Authorities subsequently ordered heightened security, with services for mobile phones-which are often used to trigger bombs-suspended in major cities. But that did not prevent yesterday’s attack. Police said a 10-kilogramme bomb was hidden in a dustbin

on the procession route and its powerful blast could be heard several kilometers away. “The death toll is now seven, four of them are children,” local hospital chief Aziz Baluch said. “Four of the wounded were in critical condition, they have been shifted to the central city of Multan.”

Akhtar Nawaz, another official at the state-run district headquarters hospital said three children were dead on arrival and the four other people died after being admitted. City police chief Khalid Suhail said the dead children were aged between six and 11 years. “They were young boys,” he said. Mobile and wireless phone services were temporarily blocked in the commercial capital Karachi, the southwestern city of Quetta and several cities and towns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces as well as in parts of the capital Islamabad.

It is the second time Pakistan has shut down mobile networks during Muharram.

The Taleban has been fighting an insurgency against security forces since 2007 but the hardline Sunni group has also targeted Shiites. Dera Ismail Khan lies near Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, where Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds. It also borders the insurgency-hit southwestern province of Baluchistan and populous Punjab province. Ashura has long been a magnet for sectarian attacks. In December 2009, a suicide bomber killed 43 people at an Ashura procession in Karachi.

During processions, held across the country, Shiites carry black banners and replicas of the tombs of Muslim saints as they parade on main roads. — AFP

PESHAWAR: Pakistani Shiite Muslim mourners flagellate themselves during a religious procession on the ninth day of holy month of Moharram in Peshawar yesterday. — AFP

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

NEWS Morsi faces judicial revolt over decree

Qatar hosts major climate talks

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

In Cairo, a statement by some 20 “independent judges” said that while some of the decisions taken by the president were a response to popular demands, they were issued “at the expense of freedom and democracy.”

Morsi has ordered the reopening of investigations into the deaths of some 850 protesters during the 2011 uprising, and hundreds more since. New prosecutor general Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah said new “revolutionary courts” would be set up and could see former president Hosni Mubarak, his sons and his top security chiefs retried “should there be new evidence”. Mubarak and his interior minister were sentenced to life over the killing of protesters in last year’s popular uprising against him, but six security chiefs were acquitted in the same case sparking nationwide outrage.

In an address to supporters outside the presidential palace on Friday, Morsi had insisted Egypt remained on the path to “freedom and democracy”, despite his move to undercut the judiciary. “Political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for,” he said. It also means that the Islamist-dominated panel drawing up the new charter can no longer be touched and gives it a two-month extension until February to complete its work.

A hard core of opposition activists spent the night in Tahrir Square epicentre of the anti-Mubarak uprising - where they erected some 30 tents, an AFP correspondent reported. When others attempted to join them in the morning, police fired volleys of tear gas and forced them to retreat into surrounding streets. The mainly secular liberals say they are determined to keep up the momentum of protests against Morsi’s decree and have called a new mass protest in Tahrir for Tuesday. The Muslim Brotherhood called on its own supporters to take to the streets

in Abdeen Square, just streets away from Tahrir, to show their support for Morsi. “Egypt is at the start of a new revolution because it was never our intention to replace one dictator with another,” activist Mohammed Al-Gamal told AFP, showing his broken spectacles and hand in a plaster cast than he said were the result of police action.

Washington, which only Wednesday voiced fulsome praise for Morsi’s role in brokering a truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers to end eight days of deadly violence, led international criticism of the Islamist president’s move. “The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community,” said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. “One of the aspirations of the revolution was to ensure that power would not be overly concentrated in the hands of any one person or institution.”

But a spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party, headed by Morsi before his election, said the president’s decree was necessary to cut short the turbulent transition. “We need stability,” said Murad Ali. “That’s not going to happen if we go back again to allowing the judges, who have personal reasons, to dissolve the constituent assembly in order to prolong the transitional phase.”

Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt’s most widely read dailies, hailed Friday’s protest as “The Nov 23 Intifada”, invoking the Arabic word for uprising. “The people support the president’s decisions,” declared Freedom and Justice, the newspaper run by the Brotherhood’s political party. The ultraorthodox Salafi Islamist groups that have been pushing for tighter application of Islamic law in the new constitution have rallied behind the decree. The Nour Party, one such group, stated its support for the Morsi decree. Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, which carried arms against the state in the 1990s, said it would save the revolution from what it described as remnants of the Mubarak regime. —Agencies

“I describe Qatar as the epicenter of climate change. There is no water, no food. It’s barren desert,” said Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiya, chairman of Doha’s COP18 organizing committee. “Any problems to harvest season or productivity outside the Gulf would immediately impact our ability to have access to food at reasonable global prices.”

Qatar and the UAE have rolled out green building codes in an effort to shift away from energy-wasting high-rises that dominate the skyline. Qatar says it will produce 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2024, while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE have announced plans to invest heavily in solar power. The UAE, which has set a target to generate 7 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020, is home to the International Renewable Energy Agency and the government-run Masdar Institute, which has built the first phase of a pre-planned city powered by renewable sources. The UAE has also announced plans to build four nuclear reactors, the first of which should be operational by 2017.

“We don’t want to continue to be seen as only an exporter of oil through barrels or gas through pipelines,” said Sultan Ahmed AlJaber, the chief executive officer of Masdar and

UAE’s Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change. “Our approach should be an energy mix approach where oil and gas continues to play a role, nuclear continues to play a catalytic role but the only energy source that will grow over time will be renewable energy,” he said. “That is simply because the technology is maturing and the world better recognizes the need for advancing this technology.”

Activists, though, want to see Gulf countries go further at the climate talks. Former Irish President Mary Robinson said they should commit to voluntary emissions targets, like former conference host Mexico did. Gulf nations’ total emissions are a fraction of China’s and the United States’, but setting targets would help inspire others to take action.

“Leadership of the Gulf countries is very important” she said at a meeting addressing climate change in Dubai.

Activists say they also could do more to cut fuel subsidies that make bottled water more expensive that gasoline in many Gulf countries, policies partly enacted to keep the lid on political dissent. Others have called on the Gulf which has some of the world’s highest per capita incomes thanks to its vast petrodollars to contribute to the UN’s Green Climate Fund.

The fund aims to channel $100 billion annually by 2020 to aid to poor countries. So far, Gulf countries have contributed nothing. — AP

14

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Washington Watch

Gaza: Clarifying Israel’s intentions

By Dr James J Zogby ometimes wars, even little ones, can become clarifying moments in which the clouds of propaganda are blown away and motives of the antagonists come into clear focus. This appears to be the case with the recent hostilities in Gaza. In the midst of the short but deadly Gaza War, one statement by an Israeli spokesperson struck me as a particularly disturbing distortion of the truth. He claimed that Israel’s goal in the conflict was “to finish [Hamas] off, so we can sit with moderates and talk peace”.

On so many levels, this was not the truth: Israel did not seek to destroy Hamas; Israel has no interest in working with “moderate” Palestinians; and this current government in Israel has no interest in negotiating a lasting solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

I believe that despite the moaning and groaning of some Israeli leaders, the Netanyahu government is, in fact, satisfied with the outcome of this last round of hostilities. Hamas has not been destroyed. In Israel’s view, Hamas has been tamed and has assumed the role of “policeman” insuring that Gaza’s more radical groups will be controlled. This is a situation that Israel can live with.

From the earliest days of the occupation, Israel viewed Gaza as a burden that it would have been more than happy to unload. When then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally “withdrew” from Gaza, he refused to negotiate an orderly hand-off so as not to strengthen the role of Palestinian Authority (PA). He evacuated troublesome settlers from the unwanted Strip, while maintaining near complete external control over the area. In the years that followed, it was not an exaggeration to describe Gaza as a massive open-air prison.

The Hamas takeover, the digging of tunnels which led to the development of an economy based on the smuggling of goods and the importation of arms were the result - as were the three wars between Hamas and Israel that followed in 2006, 2008/9, and the most recent one that ended last week.

Despite its bellicose rhetoric, Hamas, too, appears satisfied with the outcome of the conflict. It has secured international recognition and is now seen as the de facto “authority” in Gaza”, assuming a role not unlike that of its West Bank rival, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

The only price Israel was asked to pay was to refrain from further assassinations of Hamas leaders and the promise to discuss with Egypt, in the future, a regime that might ease restrictions on the flow of goods across the border into the impoverished Gaza Strip. Thus with the backing of Egypt and its minions in Gaza, Israel now hopes to have bought itself at least some years of relative peace on its southern border.

If Israel never intended to “finish Hamas”, then what of the claim that it wants to work with “moderate” Palestinian leaders to “talk peace”? That, too, is a clear distortion of the truth. In the midst of the Gaza conflict, Israel announced the construction of hundreds of new housing units in the Occupied Territories, coupled with renewed threats against the Palestinian Authority should its President, Mahmoud Abbas, proceed with plans to seek limited UN recognition later this month.

What has long been clear is that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s acceptance of a “two state solution” and his offer to “negotiate without preconditions” was a feint designed to keep his US patron at bay. To an extent, it has worked.

Ignored, however, by Israel’s supporters are Netanyahu’s own “preconditions”: he will never surrender occupied East Jerusalem or the substantial area of the West bank that Israel has annexed into what it calls “Greater Jerusalem; he insists on keeping control of the massive settlements and network of connecting “Jewish-only” roads Israel has built in the West Bank - laid out with the intention of “making impossible the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian State”; and he maintains that he will not surrender control of the Jordan Valley - which Israel claims is vital for its security. All of which make negotiations and peace impossible.

Netanyahu’s goal is not a lasting peace based on two states. It appears that he has never surrendered the Revisionist Zionist goal of a Greater Israel, with an autonomous and pacified Palestinian population that submits to Israel’s diktat. And, in his way of thinking, he’s almost there.

The Palestinians (and the international community), he believes, have been sufficiently subdued to allow for continued settlement expansion. The PA areas are now more or less self-policed and dependent on international largess -and threatened with losing some of that financial support should they be defiant and go through with their push for UN recognition. And now Gaza may be tamed, as well. It will be policed

by Hamas and it, too, is financially dependent on international patrons - with more moderate Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt having replaced Iran and Syria.

NOTE: Dr James J Zogby is the President of the Arab American Institute

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

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

Israel wins US support but differences remain

By Peter Apps s conflict erupted in Gaza last week, Israel’s officials and supporters embarked on what proved a successful diplomatic and media campaign to ensure the United States remained right behind them. Israel’s ambassador to Washington Michael Oren became a regular fixture on cable news channels and talk shows. ProIsrael lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Israel Project bombarded journalists with emails offering footage of Hamas rocket strikes and interviews with ordinary Israelis in the line of fire.

After a year of increasingly public disagreements over how to tackle Iran, relations between the Obama Administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were perhaps worse than at any time in recent memory. But the level of US backing for Israel in the last week, both Israel’s supporters and independent analysts say, shows both the depth of ties between the two countries and the level of influence Israel’s supporters can exert when the country feels threatened.

Few doubt there will be differences ahead, particularly when dealing with Iran returns to the top of the agenda. But for now, Israeli officials and supporters simply say they are satisfied with the level of support received over Gaza. “I think you’ve seen a very strong response... standing resolutely with Israel,” says Josh Block, chief executive of the Israel Project, a Washington-based pressure group that has long pushed for greater US support and a tougher line against its enemies. “It’s a reminder of ... how lasting the special relationship is. This is about more than the personal ties between two leaders.”

Widely seen as having tried to nudge this year’s US presidential election against Barack Obama and towards Republican challenger Mitt Romney, Netanyahu seems keen to repair relations. On Thursday, he praised Obama for his “unwavering support”. In a CNN/ORC poll conducted over last weekend, 57 percent of Americans said they believed Israel was justified in taking military action compared to 25 percent who opposed it.

But Gaza may be almost the only issue on which the two countries genuinely and popularly agree.

Beyond differences over Iran, many Democrats in particular - as well as liberal members of the US Jewish community, which makes up two percent of the total population - have expressed frustration over Israeli settlement building on the West Bank

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and the growing influence of Orthodox and hardline parties. “Of course, during a war many though by no means all - parts of American society will rally round Israel,” says Ariel Ratner, a former Obama Administration political appointee and now fellow at the Truman National Security Project. “But potential problems loom large in the future if Israel doesn’t address them.”

A spokesman for the UN mission of the Palestinian Authority - which administers the West Bank and lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007 would not comment on US media coverage of the war or the relationship between Israel and Washington. But he said Palestinians viewed the entire Israeli campaign as a deliberate distraction from their bid for nationhood at the United Nations. “We believe they would try anything to stop this,” the spokesman said, asking not to be identified. The United States may have been influential in urging Israeli restraint. According to Israeli

officials, Obama phoned Netanyahu at the beginning of the conflict to say the United States would rather not see a ground invasion of Gaza like that during its 2008-9 war. That may have helped avoid escalation and casualties on the scale of that war, which killed well over 1,000 people, almost all in Gaza. Israeli officials say Netanyahu always hoped to avoid another ground campaign.

Four Israeli civilians and two soldiers were killed by rocket fire from Gaza during the latest conflict. Palestinian casualties were much higher 163, according to local officials. While Israel used a much greater tonnage of explosions than Hamas, it says it used precision munitions and went to great length to avoid collateral damage even as Hamas fired from densely populated areas. Israel’s supporters say they have been able to use a variety of techniques - from traditional newspaper editorials to Twitter and Facebook - to get their message across. “How people get information has

changed and traditional media no longer has a monopoly,” says Israel Project’s Block. “That presents challenges and opportunities. You’ve seen Israeli officials making their case - echoing the views of most Americans - very persuasively through both social media and traditional outlets.”

Pro-Israeli groups have long used a similar approach to raise awareness of their worries over Tehran’s nuclear program, but with perhaps less success. US voters might like their leader’s proIsraeli, but there is little enthusiasm inside or outside Washington for more major wars. “I think events in Gaza have heightened public sympathy for Israel, and that may last for some time,” says Nikolas Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the US Naval War College. “That may make it more difficult for Obama to push for concessions on the peace process with the Palestinians, but I don’t think it wins the Israelis anything on Iran.” —Reuters

Israel, Hamas both see gains

By Steve Weizman srael and its Hamas foes are each claiming gains from a week of fighting in and around Gaza, but analysts doubt if the army of a sovereign state can ever score a conclusive win against an irregular force rooted in its local community. “There is such a thing, but it happens when the struggle is waged on a state’s own territory,” said Tel Aviv University’s Shlomo Brom, former head of strategic planning of the Israeli military. “I don’t think there is a precedent for being able to win when an organisation is operating from territory which is not your territory,” he told AFP. “When there is a conflict between two societies, two peoples, it cannot be solved in the long term only by military means, only if you physically eliminate the other side,” Brom added.

While Israel’s well-trained and technologically-advanced military could conquer the 360 sq km strip, the cost would be heavy in lives and in the all-important international support that Israel enjoyed during its campaign against rocket fire from Gaza. “Can we win Gaza over from Hamas, yes definitely. If we decide to do it we’ll do it,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor said in response to a journalist’s question on Thursday. “Then we have to ask ourselves what to do when we are there,” he added. “This time we decided that this is not our goal and we hope that we won’t have to do it.” At the start of the Israeli operation, Defence Minister Ehud Barak spelled out its four aims: to bolster the Jewish state’s deterrent posture, to seriously damage the militants’ rocket launching network, to strike “a painful blow at Hamas and the other terrorist organisations” and to safeguard southern Israeli communities. Meridor said those goals were fulfilled. “We didn’t say we were going to win the war against Hamas,” he said. “What we want to do is to make them rethink if this is worth it or

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not...this is a limited goal which I think has been fully achieved.”

Yediot Aharonot defence analyst Alex Fishman disagreed. “This is a victory for Hamas,” he wrote on Wednesday, as the truce was emerging. “It is important to remember that relations between Israel and Hamas are not symmetrical, and therefore their accomplishments must be assessed asymmetrically. In contrast with reports over the last few days, the security establishment did not succeed in injuring major terror activists, certainly not in numbers that would cause any real damage to the other side.”

On a high after the truce, Hamas issued a statement on Thursday saying that its premier Ismail Haniya had received formal congratulations from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank and has little authority in Gaza. But some analysts said that because Israel is keen to avoid a deterioration of relations with Egypt, with whom it has a three-decade-old truce, it may now be more willing than ever to engage in direct talks with “political Islam”. Israel’s current position “implies a greater tolerance of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood in that very same Gaza Strip,” said Yossi Alpher, a peace process expert. “Though we cannot yet speak of a new political strategy toward political Islam, the agreement (reached Wednesday) shows that Israel recognises that it is living in a Sunni Arab world,” Alpher said.

The week-long confrontation between Israel and Gaza militants claimed the lives of 163 Palestinians and injured 1,235, according to the Hamas health ministry. In Israel, rocket fire from Gaza killed six people four civilians and two soldiers - and another 240 were injured, the military said. Meridor said that “thousands” of Hamas rockets were destroyed but could not say how many remained. “If Hamas and Islamic Jihad together had around 10,000 rockets...several thousand are not there anymore,” he said. —AFP

With eye on Iran, conflict reassures Bibi

By Crispian Balmer oth on the diplomatic and military front, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will draw some comfort from his offensive against Gaza as he switches his gaze once more to his main strategic challenge - Iran. Israel views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat in a totally different league to the problems posed by the Islamist group Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu fears a nuclear-armed Iran could one day eradicate Israel and has promised that Tehran will not get the bomb should he win a third term in office in elections on Jan. 22.

In the meantime, he has just ended an eightday offensive against Hamas with the aim of halting rocket fire out of the coastal Palestinian territory into southern Israel. Six Israelis and 163 Palestinians died in the fighting before an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday, ending a localised, asymmetric conflict that looked very different to any potential war with Iran. “You cannot compare the Gaza Strip to any other military environment, which makes it unwise to describe what has happened there as a rehearsal for attacking Iran,” said Uzi Eilam, senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies.

Nonetheless, the Israeli military inflicted serious blows to Hamas’s weapons arsenal, much of it sourced from Iran, and showed the world that it has cutting-edge technology, particularly when it comes to missile defence. Israel says its new Iron Dome interceptors knocked out 421 incoming

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rockets from Gaza, scoring an 84 percent success rate. Without it, there would have been much more destruction and a significantly higher death toll.

Analysts here believe this will worry Iran’s main ally in the region, the Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is based in neighbouring Lebanon and is estimated to have anywhere up to 60,000 rockets pointing across Israel’s northern border. Netanyahu has suggested he might attack Iran if diplomacy and international sanctions fail to halt its nuclear progress. Iran says its atomic program is peaceful, and if war breaks out Israelis fear Hezbollah might leap into the fray.

Politicians say the Iron Dome gives Israel an advantage. “The Iron Dome has proved itself to be a game changer...and has undoubtedly lessened the threat of Hezbollah,” said Yohanan Plesner, an opposition member of parliament who sits on the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defence committee.

The fact Israel weathered some 1,500 short-tomedium range rockets from Gaza with relative ease was savoured by the country’s leaders, who, for once, were not clamouring for an committee of enquiry following a major military enterprise.

“We have moved light years ahead in recent years, both in terms of preparation, instructions to the people, the whole way the municipalities operate,” Plesner told Reuters. “This explains why almost 1,500 rockets have caused a relatively astounding level of low casualties.”

Defence Minister Ehud Barak predicted that it would take a “few years and billions of shekels” to build a defensive shield that covered the whole

country, but the groundwork was in place. “No army has such a system, nor does any state or civilian population... From this point we look on with optimism,” he said. “Eventually (it will) protect the entire state of Israel against most threats, short and medium-range missiles.”

Israel’s answer to the bigger, ballistic missiles of Iran is Arrow II, an interceptor that works in a similar way to Iron Dome, but at far higher altitudes.

Tehran has vowed to retaliate if it comes under attack and is estimated to have a few hundred long-range rockets which could hit the Jewish state. Developers of the Arrow II, which has so far proved itself only in trials, boast a shoot-down rate of some 90 percent.

Israeli ministers were not just singing the praises of their missile technologies in the wake of the Gaza offensive, but also their intelligence gathering. The Israeli Defence Forces said it attacked 1,500 sites in Gaza and “severely impaired” Hamas’s launching capabilities, suggesting it would take a long time to recover - possibly helping to sideline it in the event of an Iran conflagration. “In Iran, I have no doubt, there are fevered discussions going on as they try to understand how was it that the Jews managed to crack so many targets,” Civil Defence Minister Avi Dichter told Israel Radio.

Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel’s right to exist, has claimed victory in the fighting and denied that it suffered any major losses in the round-the-clock bombing raids. Whatever the result on the ground, there is little doubt in Israel

that Iran suffered a diplomatic setback this week.

“It was very important for Iran to see a major rift between Israel and Egypt,” said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian expert who teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya.

But by avoiding a potentially bloody ground invasion of Gaza and welcoming Egyptian mediation in the crisis, Israel managed to stave off a major split with President Mohamed Morsi and opened a welcome window of dialogue.

Moreover, the ceasefire brokered by Morsi made clear that Hamas, once viewed as being under Iranian sway, is very much in the Egyptian camp and is not taking any orders from Tehran. “It’s becoming clear that major Palestinian groups have realized that (Iran) would fight Israel to the last Palestinian, and this is a price which they are unwilling to pay,” said Javedanfar. “Hamas has moved away from Iran.”

Few Israelis believe that the ceasefire with Hamas will last for any great length of time, but it should provide Netanyahu with time to refocus on the Iranian dossier. Whereas he had broad support from the military, the public and politicians for his Gaza offensive, he will rapidly rediscover that the divisions over a much more difficult assault on far-away Iran remain as deep as ever. As such, the perceived achievements of the last eight days are unlikely to inform on final decision-making on Iran. “This is not going to affect the future possible confrontation between Israel and Iran,” said Giora Eiland, a former Israeli National Security Adviser. —Reuters

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

sp orts Jarmila record under threat

Lee, Chen in HK Open final HONG KONG: Lee Chong Wei will meet Chinese second seed Chen Long in the final of the Hong Kong Open after the Malaysian world number one breezed past Japan’s Kenichi Tago yesterday. The top-seed and Olympic silver medallist saw off sixth seeded Tago 21-19, 21-15 in 45 minutes, with the Malaysian smashing his way to the $350,000 Badminton World Federation Super Series tournament final.

Lee will face Chen after the latter beat unseeded Tommy Sugiarto from Indonesia 21-18, 21-10. In the women’s draw, China’s top seed Wang Yihan overcame Germany’s Juliane Schenk 21-8, 19-21, 21-15, to set up an all-Chinese final after her compatriot Li Xuerui defeated another Chinese player Wang Ling 21-12, 21-13.

In the men’s doubles China’s second seed Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng fended off a fierce challenge from compatriots Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan 18-21, 21-17, 21-16 in a 62-minute encounter. They will meet Malaysia’s top pair Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong after they advanced to the finals beating Taipei’s unseeded Lee Sheng-mu and Tsai Chia-hsin 22-20, 2113. In the women’s doubles, it will be another all-Chinese finals between top seed Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei and the controversial duo Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, who were disqualified during this summer’s Olympic Games for playing to lose.

Yu, who along with Wang, raised eyebrows when she won last week’s China Open, after apparently announcing her retirement a day after her expulsion in August. But Yu on Tuesday denied she was quitting and said she now wants to focus on the sport. —AFP

Dilshan back for second Test

BARCELONA: Jarmila Kratochvilova believes her 29-year-old 800 metres world record may be under threat from Russian athletes at next year’s world championships in Moscow.

The Czech runner, now 61, set the fastest time of one minute 53.28 seconds in Munich in July 1983 and it is the longest standing record on the track.

“It’s always a small happiness for me when the season ends and the record is still there,” Kratochvilova, who also held the record for the 400 metres before it was broken by East German Marita Koch, told a news conference at the IAAF centenary celebrations in Barcelona.

“It will be 30 years next year and I have been thinking about it for 30 years who will break it,” she added through an interpreter. “In 2008 when Pamela Jelimo (of Kenya) was running so well I was thinking she’s the closest and she has the biggest potential but it didn’t happen.

“Seeing as the world championships are in Russia next year I think the Russian 800 metres runners will be very fast and maybe one of them will come close to the record. “But I will be very happy to still have the record in July next year to celebrate the 30 years.”

Russia’s Mariya Savinova, who has a personal best of 1.55.87, won gold in the event at this year’s London Olympics, with South African Caster Semenya taking the silver and Ekaterina Poistogova, another Russian, bronze.

World champion Savinova’s winning time of 1.56.19 is well outside the world record and Svetlana Masterkova, who won gold for Russia in both the 800 and 1,500 metres at the Atlanta Olympics, was sceptical about her compatriots’ chances of challenging Kratochvilova’s mark. “It’s very fast, it’s impossible for women to run so fast. It will last for 100 years,” she said. —Reuters

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will welcome back opener Tillakaratne Dilshan for the second and final test against New Zealand in Colombo starting today after he recovered from a back injury. Dilshan, whose last innings was an unbeaten 102 in the third match of the five-game ODI series, missed Sri Lanka’s 10-wicket win inside three days in the first test in Galle. “ Dilshan is pretty much 100 per cent fit and Dimuth Karunaratne will make way for him,” captain Mahela Jayawardene told reporters yesterday.

“We want to get Dilshan back into things ready for the Australia tour, which is very important for us and we wouldn’t take a risk with him. “When he left he was in pretty good form and now he feels ready and comfortable and the physio has given him clearance. He wants to play, he is happy and eager.” There was also good news for New Zealand with fast bowler Tim Southee likely to play after recovering from a groin injury that prevented him for bowling on the final day in Galle. “He has been having a lot of rehab and participated in training yesterday, did the fitness work and pulled up well so he has been named in the 12 and he is looking good to play,” said New Zealand captain Ross Taylor. New Zealand have named the same 11 that lost in Galle, plus uncapped leg-spinner Todd Astle, and will make a decision on the final make-up of the side on Sunday morning. “Todd has had a lot of success in New Zealand and is not far from being a genuine all-rounder,” said Taylor. —Reuters

Rockets pound Knicks HOUSTON: James Harden scored 33 points, and Chandler Parsons had a career-high 31 to help the Houston Rockets coast to a 131-103 victory over the New York Knicks on Friday night.

Jeremy Lin added 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists for Houston in the first game against his former team. The Rockets entered the third quarter up by 12, and scored 10 straight points later in the quarter to extend their lead to 21. Carmelo Anthony had a seasonhigh 37 for New York, which dropped consecutive games for the first time this season.

Grizzlies 106, Lakers 98 In Memphis, Rudy Gay scored 21 points, Mike Conley added 19, and Memphis beat Los Angeles to improve to an NBA-best 9-2. Zach Randolph had 17 points and 12 rebounds, Marc Gasol added 14 points and eight assists. The Lakers, playing their third road game in four nights, have lost all four road games this season and their second straight with new coach Mike D’Antoni on the bench. Kobe Bryant scored 14 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter. Metta World Peace and Antawn Jamison each had 16.

BMW ‘M Power Experience’ drive event thrills customers from Kuwait KUWAIT: Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive participated in the recent BMW ‘M Power Experience’ drive event at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Through this event, the BMW Group importer in Kuwait gave five Kuwaiti BMW M car enthusiasts the opportunity to experience driving a range of BMW’s exclusive, sporty and dynamic sub-brand BMW M models, including the M3, M5 and BMW X5M and X6M. In addition, guests had the opportunity to celebrate the exclusive launch of the BMW M6 by driving it both on track and on the roads of the UAE capital. The third generation BMW M6 Coupe, revealed for the first time in Kuwait in August this year, is an exceptionally dynamic highperformance sports car features a highrevving 4.4 litre V8 engine with M TwinPower Turbo technology that is accompanied by a seven-speed M Double Clutch Transmission with Drivelogic, Active M Differential and model-specific chassis technology.

Organised by BMW Group, participants at the event benefited from personalised sessions on how best to enjoy the maximum performance of driving M vehicles in a variety of different conditions, such as breaking, slalom and cor-

nering. Attendees also enjoyed a unique track driving experience that allowed the drivers to test the limits of the M vehicles in a safe and controlled environment. The event also offered customers special circuit laps with professional BMW driving instructors at the helm.

“At the heart of any BMW model is the engine and experience our drivers feel when behind the wheel. Events like the ‘M Power Experience’ therefore provide the perfect opportunity for highly experienced BMW instructors to impart valuable knowledge on how best to utilise the power and driver assistant features of our M models in a safe and responsible manner. Most drivers come away from the event with not just knowledge about the M vehicles, but practical application of how these vehicles can be driven on the trace as well as in the traffic,” said Mr. Yousef Al Qatami, General Manager of Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive.

Customers can experience and get more details about the BMW M Vehicles and the brand’s safety technologies by visiting Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive at their flagship BMW showrooms in Shuwaikh, or visit http://www.aas.com.kw/.

Celtics 108, Thunder 100 In Boston, Paul Pierce scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half and Boston beat Oklahoma City to snap a two-game losing streak.

Kevin Garnett had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Rajon Rondo finished with 16 assists and eight rebounds for the Celtics. They led by 14 points in the second half and held on after the Thunder cut it to three with under 2 minutes remaining. Kevin Durant scored 29 points for Oklahoma City, which lost for just the second time in its last 10 games. Russell Westbrook had 26 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and Serge Ibaka added 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Nets 86, Clippers 76 In New York, Brook Lopez had 26 points, including consecutive baskets during the decisive stretch, and Brooklyn shut down Los Angeles in the fourth quarter.

Brooklyn outscored Los Angeles 23-13 during a final period in which Chris Paul had no points, one assist and six fouls. Deron Williams didn’t have a great game either, but he improved to 14-4 in the longtime rivalry between two of the NBA’s top point guards.

Joe Johnson added 19 points for the Nets. They limited the Clippers to 29 points in the second half and got back on track after losing the final two games of a six-game trip.

Paul and Blake Griffin each had 14 points for the Clippers. They have dropped two in a row following a six-game winning streak.

Spurs 104, Pacers 97 In Indianapolis, Tony Parker scored 33 points and San Antonio overcame a 17-point deficit to beat Indiana to improve to 10-3.

Tim Duncan had 22 points for San Antonio, which closed the game with a 17-2 run. Manu Ginobili scored 19 points. David West scored 22 points for the Pacers, and Paul George finished with 15.

Nuggets 102, Warriors 91 In Denver, Andre Iguodala scored a season-high 29 points -

ROSE GARDEN: Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard (0) shoots past the defense of Minnesota Timberwolves center Nikola Pekovic (14) as the Portland Trail Blazers face the Minnesota Timberwolves. —AP 20 in the second half - and Ty Lawson had 18 points and nine assists to help Denver win its third straight game.

Danilo Gallinari added 20 points for the Nuggets. Warriors scoring leader Stephen Curry was held to six points in his lowestscoring game since early last season. David Lee led Golden State with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Carl Landry had 19 points.

Trail Blazers 103, Timberwolves 95 In Portland, Wesley Matthews scored 30 points, rookie Damian Lillard had a season-high 28 points and eight assists and Portland beat Minnesota. JJ Hickson returned from a shoulder injury and had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Portland, which has won four of its last five games.

Kevin Love had 24 points and 13 rebounds in his second game back for Minnesota.

Suns 111, Hornets 108 In Phoenix, Markieff Morris scored a career-high 23 points, including a 3-pointer in overtime, and Phoenix rallied from a 19point third-quarter deficit to hand New Orleans its sixth straight loss.

Goran Dragic scored 20 points, 12 in the final 61/2 minutes of the third quarter, for Phoenix. New Orleans got career performances from Ryan Anderson and Greivis Vasquez. Anderson scored a career-high 34 points, hitting 8 of 13 3s. Vasquez had 25 points and 14 assists, both career bests.

Hawks 101, Bobcats 91 In Charlotte, Al Horford had 26 points and 13 rebounds to help Atlanta beat Charlotte for its fourth consecutive victory.

Horford was 13 of 17 from the field. Kyle Korver hit 4 of 6 3-pointers and finished with 16 points for Atlanta. Jeff Teague added 13 points and 12 assists, and Josh Smith had 10 points and eight assists. Ramon Sessions had 22 points for Charlotte.

Magic 108, Cavaliers 104 In Orlando, Jameer Nelson had 22 points and six assists, and Arron

Afflalo added 19 in Orlando’s comeback victory over Cleveland. Glen Davis had 10 of his 16 points the fourth quarter. Dion Waiters scored 25 points for Cleveland, and Anderson Varejao had 19. The Cavaliers have lost seven of eight.

Jazz 104, Kings 102 In Salt Lake City, Gordon Hayward hit the winning basket with 4.5 seconds left and finished with 23 points in Utah’s comeback victory over Sacramento. Marvin Williams had 20 points for Utah, Al Jefferson added 17, and Derrick Favors had 16 points, 14 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Tyreke Evans led Sacramento with 19 points.

Pistons 91, Raptors 90 In Auburn Hills, Brandon Knight made a layup with 7.8 seconds left to lift Detroit past Toronto. Greg Monroe had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Pistons, and Knight and Tayshaun Prince each had 16 points. Andrea Bargnani scored a season-best 34 points for Toronto. —AP

NBA results/standings Atlanta 101, Charlotte 91; Orlando 108, Cleveland 104; Boston 108, Oklahoma City 100; Brooklyn 86, LA Clippers 76; Detroit 91, Toronto 90; San Antonio 104, Indiana 97; Memphis 106, LA Lakers 98; Houston 131, NY Knicks 103; Denver 102, Golden State 91; Utah 104, Sacramento 102; Phoenix 111, New Orleans 108 (OT); Portland 103, Minnesota 95.

NY Knicks Brooklyn Philadelphia Boston Toronto Milwaukee Chicago Indiana Cleveland Detroit Miami Atlanta Charlotte Orlando Washington

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT 8 3 .727 7 4 .636 7 5 .583 7 6 .538 3 10 .231

GB 1 1.5 2 6

Central Division 6 4 .600 5 6 .455 6 8 .429 3 9 .250 3 10 .231

1.5 2 4 4.5

Southeast Division 9 3 .750 7 4 .636 6 5 .545 5 7 .417 0 10 0

1.5 2.5 4 8

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma City 9 4 .692 Denver 7 6 .538 Utah 7 6 .538 Portland 6 6 .500 Minnesota 5 6 .455

LA Clippers Golden State LA Lakers Phoenix Sacramento

Memphis San Antonio Dallas Houston New Orleans

Pacific Division 8 4 7 6 6 7 6 7 3 9

.667 .538 .462 .462 .250

Southwest Division 9 2 .818 10 3 .769 7 6 .538 6 7 .462 3 8 .273

2 2 2.5 3

1.5 2.5 2.5 5

3 4 6

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

S P ORT S

Saints face crunch time in bid to make playoffs NEW YORK: The pressure mounts this week for the rejuvenated New Orleans Saints as they top a list of teams facing crunch time in their bids to secure a spot in the National Football League (NFL) playoffs.

The Saints, Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, Chicago Bears, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers are among the teams that can remove roadblocks on their path to the playoffs or face a harrowing final home stretch to the schedule.

“Look at the time of the year,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin told the team’s website. “After Thanksgiving, you better be playing your best football or on your way toward playing your best football if you’re going to be representative.”

After an 0-4 start to the 2012 season, the Saints (5-5) have stormed back into the wild card chase but face a crucial

clash on Sunday against the visiting San Francisco 49ers (7-2-1).

The Saints are led by quarterback Drew Brees, who has tossed a league-best 28 touchdowns this season, but will rely heavily on an improving defence against the National Football Conference (NFC) West-leading 49ers.

Colin Kaepernick, who was brilliant in his first career start on Monday leading the 49ers to a 32-7 demolition of the Chicago Bears, is expected to get the start ahead of concussed Alex Smith in what has developed into a minor quarterbacking controversy in the Bay Area.

There is no quarterbacking controversy in San Diego but the Chargers (4-6) need Philip Rivers, who has 14 interceptions this season, to avoid turnovers if they are to have any hope of stopping the high-flying Baltimore Ravens (8-2).

The Chargers got the season off to a blazing start going 3-1 but have since stumbled and are three games back of the American Football Conference (AFC) West-leading Denver Broncos and in desperate need of win to stay in the wild card race.

The Bills (4-6) and Miami Dolphins (46) are in the same dire straits in the AFC East, sitting four games back of the New England Patriots and on the fringes of the wild card fight.

The Bills head to Indianapolis to take on Andrew Luck and the surprising Colts (6-4), who have post-season plans of their own while the Dolphins will try to halt a three-game skid and get back in the playoff picture when they welcome the Seattle Seahawks to South Florida.

The Bears, Giants and Steelers are not yet in desperation mode but wins today

could set up all three contenders with a less jittery finish to the 16-game regular season.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who was red hot to start the season, has gone stone cold going three games without throwing a touchdown. Manning, the most valuable player of last season’s Super Bowl, will have to be on target come Sunday as the Giants (6-4) face another Super Bowl MVP in Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers (7-3).

“You can expect a good game,” said Rodgers. “They’re a really good football team, they’re first in the division, we’re tied for the division lead, and so, you have a couple of division leaders squaring off.

“I think that’s pretty exciting, plus the last two teams to win Super Bowls.” While the Packers and Giants both top their respective divisions their leads are far

from secure. The Giants, who have lost their last two, are being chased by the Washington Redskins (5-6) and Dallas Cowboys (5-6) while the Packers are locked in a tight battle with Bears (7-3).

The Bears, who have struggled without Jay Cutler losing two straight, hope to have their number one quarterback in the lineup for a key clash with the NFC North division rival Minnesota Vikings.

The Steelers (6-4) are also trying to survive without their starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who remains sidelined with a shoulder injur y.

Pittsburgh, who watched backup Byron Leftwich go down in a loss to Baltimore last week, will start third string Charlie Batch against the Cleveland Browns in need of a win if they are to keep pace with AFC North rivals the Ravens. —Reuters

Age-conscious Bolt feels need for speed in 2013 BARCELONA: Conscious that he is not getting any younger, Usain Bolt will be focusing on pure speed next year after retaining his Olympic 100 and 200 metres titles in London.

The charismatic Jamaican, who turns 27 in August, holds the world records in both sprints and will be looking to better those marks, set at the world championship in Berlin in 2009, during 2013, he told Reuters Television on Friday.

“It’s all about speed this year, trying to see how fast as I can go,” he said in an interview in Barcelona, where he is attending the IAAF centenary celebrations. “I want to see what I can do,” he added.

“I’m getting older so I should try to go as fast as I possibly can now. “So I think that will be the main focus as long as everything goes smooth as we want it to, no injuries and stuff, it should be a good season.”

Bolt has said he wants to keep seeking fresh challenges after becoming the first man to retain both the 100 and 200 Olympic crowns, including possibly running the 400 metres or even competing in long jump.

However, he ruled out the latter on Friday, saying his coach had warned him about the risk of injury.

“I have discussed it with my coach (Glen Mills) and he has explained to me that the majority of the time with long jumpers, it messes with your knees,” Bolt said. “If you want to try long jump it’s kind of hard because then you could pick up some knee problems and then you never know, it might be a career threatening injury. “So for me I think I’ll just avoid long jump and think about something else.”

Yohan Blake, three years younger than his Jamaican compatriot, is likely to be Bolt’s main challenger again next year and the world’s fastest man said he was relishing the challenge of competing against his training partner.

“Blake is looking good also this season,” Bolt said. “I’m just looking forward to the competition. “The youngsters that are coming up excite me, who is going to be my next challenger? “Blake stepped up, I proved to him that I’m the best and I’ve proved to the world

over and over, year after year, that I’m the best. So for me I’m looking for the next challenge, the next guy who is going to step up.”

At a later news conference, Bolt said he did not think he should be racing Blake more than once or twice a year and ruled out running the 400 metres in 2013.

“When we get two races a season it’s much more exciting for everyone to come and see us,” he said. “I don’t think we should run more than once or twice a year. I don’t think I should put my body through too much stress.” Looking further ahead, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 were also on his agenda, although Mills would be the one to decide, Bolt said. “That’s the only title I don’t have so I think it’s something I’d like to go for, even if it’s just to do one event,” he told reporters.

“If everything goes well with the contract then I’ll be there. It’s pretty much 50-50 but because he’s the coach he always makes the final decision but it’s the Commonwealth Games so I don’t think he’ll have any objection with me going.” —Reuters

Springboks defeat England

FLORENCE: Italy’s Manoa Vosawai (left) tries to run past Australia’s Kurtley Beale, as Australia’s James Slipper runs (right) during an international rugby union match at the Artemio Franchi stadium. —AP

Australia hold off Italy FLORENCE: Australia narrowly held off Italy 22-19 yesterday after nearly blowing a large lead following a stunning secondhalf performance from the Azzurri. An error-strewn first half from Jacques Brunel’s side saw the Wallabies take a commanding 19-point lead, but Italy reduced the deficit just before the break and a spirited comeback saw them shut out Australia in the second period. Italy even had chances to take the lead as it went close to recording its first victory over Australia in 15 meetings. Luciano Orquera, who had been perfect with each of his previous five kicks, put a penalty heartbreakingly wide in the final minute as Italy missed out on a historic first draw against Australia.

Robert Barbieri, who was earlier yellow carded, scored the try for Italy, the first of 13 points in 15 second-half minutes for the Azzurri. Nick Cummins turned over for Australia.

There was a long delay 15 minutes into the second half following a serious injury to Mirco Bergamasco, who was taken off on a stretcher. Brett Sheehan made his first start for Australia but lasted just over half an hour before he was forced off with a knee injury.Italy took an early lead through Orquera’s penalty after Sitaleki Timani was called for an illegal clear out at the ruck.

But Australia were level almost immediately when Barrick Barnes kicked a penalty from close to the halfway line, and Barnes weighed in with another long-range penalty to give Australia the lead in the 15th.

Australia scored its try five minutes later when Kurtley Beale found Cummins in space after some quick passes through the backline, and the Western Force winger turned over at the corner for his second try in two weeks.

Barnes converted before scoring another penalty from more than 50 meters. Just as it had done in the 42-10 defeat against New Zealand last week, Italy were playing with spirit but unlike its previous two tests - the Azzurri were making too many errors and conceding too many penalties. Australia won yet another penalty on the counterattack and this time Beale stepped up to fire through the posts.

It got worse for Italy on the half hour mark as Barbieri was yellow carded for slapping the ball down out of Sheehan’s hands at the ruck. Beale fired in the resulting penalty to extend Australia’s lead to 19 points. Italy cut the deficit minutes later through another Orquera penalty after Australia had been blown up for offside. However, prop Andrea Lo Cicero was forced off with an injury in his 98th game for Italy. Lo Cicero is now only three caps away from former No. 9 Alessandro Troncon’s Italy record of 101 appearances.

Italy then almost scored a try at the end of the first half.

Andrea Masi went on a mazy run from the halfway line and booted the ball ahead before giving chase, but his kick had too much power on it and rolled over the deadball line. The Azzurri did score a try immediately after the break. Timani dropped the ball and Italy hacked it downfield where Barbieri dove over to touch down. Orquera converted. That seemed to give Italy confidence and it upped the pressure on Australia, much to the crowd’s delight. —AP

LONDON: South Africa completed an unbeaten tour of Europe with a 16-15 victory over England at Twickenham yesterday that did more damage to the hosts’ hopes of a top four seeding at next month’s World Cup draw.

Springbok flanker Willem Alberts’s trythe only one of the match-early in the second half proved the decisive score. But with the home side trailing 16-12 and only two minutes left, England captain Chris Robshaw-criticised for running kickable penalties during last week’s defeat by Australia-told replacement fly-half Owen Farrell to go for goal rather than opt for an attacking line-out that could have lead to a try. But while Farrell landed the kick, it meant England, fifth in the wold rankings, were still a point behind.

South Africa then ran down the clock to extend their unbeaten streak against England to 11 Tests. England, who suffered a frustrating 14-14 draw with the Springboks in Port Elizabeth in June, made six changes from the side beaten 20-14 by Australia.

In the backs Mike Brown came in for left wing Charlie Sharples and Ben Youngs started at scrum-half in place of Danny Care. Lock Joe Launchbury was given a

LONDON: South Africa’s Zane Kirchner (right) and England’s Alex Goode jump to catch the ball during the international rugby union match between England and South Africa at Twickenham stadium. —AP

first Test start as Wasps team-mate Tom Palmer made way and a rejigged backrow saw the return of No 8 Ben Morgan and blindside flanker Tom Wood.

Meanwhile Alex Corbisiero, fit following a knee injury, was back at loose-head prop following Joe Marler’s knee injury.

South Africa, by contrast, were unchanged from the team that last week beat Scotland 21-10 at Murrayfield, having started their tour with a 16-12 win over Ireland in Dublin.

An attritional first half finished with South Africa 9-6 in front after Springbok fly-half Pat Lambie kicked three penalties from as many attempts while his England counterpart, Toby Flood, landed two from four.

At a rainswept Twickenham, England’s rejigged pack was more competitive in the scrum and loose than they had been against the Wallabies, although the Springboks had the edge in the line-out.

England lock Geoff Parling’s chargedown of Springbok scrum-half Ruan Pienaar’s box-kick led to Flood’s opening penalty. But Lambie equalised soon afterwards before Flood made it 6-3 to England when Springbok tight-head prop Jannie du Plessis was penalised for not binding correctly at a scrum.

Lambie, after Robshaw broke too early from a scrum, levelled the match at 6-6 before Flood, who’d already missed one penalty, pulled his fourth effort across the posts.

South Africa, looking the more dangerous with ball in hand, went 9-6 up when, after a break by wing JP Pietersen, Lambie landed an easy penalty. It was no surprise, given the first half, that South Africa kicked a close-range penalty to touch early in the second period and it was from the set-piece that they grabbed a try.

After a catch and drive, South Africa lost the ball but Ben Youngs’s attempted fly-hack clear rebounded off Pietersen.

Wood knocked-on the loose ball and Alberts plunged over the line for a try confirmed by the television match official.

Lambie converted and South Africa were two scored ahead at 16-6. England threatened when centre Manu Tuilagi counter-attacked from inside his own half and found Chris Ashton in support.

But Ashton’s pass to fellow wing Brown was a poor one and allowed the Springbok defence time to regroup. Just after the hour, South Africa conceded a ruck penalty and Farrell, on as a replacement for Flood, landed the 30 metre goalkick to cut the Springboks’ advantage to 16-9. England pressed for the converted try that would have tied the scores but several knock-ons spoilt promising positions. They clawed back some of the ground when, with eight minutes left, Farrell kicked a penalty but it was all to no avail. —AFP

BARCELONA: Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt and US sprinter Allyson Felix pose for photographs with their trophies during the IAAF’s Athlete of the Year Award marking its centenary in Barcelona. —AP

Felix, Bolt named IAAF World Athletes of the Year BARCELONA: Usain Bolt won the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award for the fourth time yesterday after defending his 100 and 200 meter gold medals at last summer’s Olympic Games in London.

The Jamaican sprinter, who beat out American hurdler Aries Merritt and Kenyan runner David Rudisha, had previously won the award in 2008, 2009, and 2011. “For me this is a great honor to win a fourth time. I really worked hard and I was really focused this year. This season was one of my toughest. I had my ups and downs, even though we don’t like to talk about them,” said Bolt, who thanked his coach and the fans at the Olympics. “The London games were magnificent. Fans were there in the stadium from 10 in the morning. I had never seen anything like that.”

Sprinter Allyson Felix of the United States took home the women’s award. In 2003, Bolt and Felix won the Rising Star awards for the most promising young athletes of the year. “Nine years ago I was here with Allyson, now I am back, that means I am getting old, which is slightly worrying,” said the 26-year-old Bolt. “But I

will continue to work hard.”

Felix won the 200-meter gold medal in London after settling for silver four years earlier in Beijing. “My biggest defeats have come at the Olympic Games. After Beijing I was devastated, I had worked as hard as possible but I came up short,” she said.

“But I decided to rededicate myself even harder and it was a blessing in disguise. I was able to work harder than ever before and finally it all came together.”

The other finalists for the women’s award were New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams and British heptathlete Jessica Ennis - both gold medalists in London. Merritt won the Inspiration Award for his season, which included a gold medal and a world record in the 110-meter hurdles. Rudisha, who was named Athlete of the Year in 2010, won the Performance of the Year award for his record-setting gold medal run in the 800 meters. Javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Bahamas sprinter Anthonique Strachan won the Rising Star awards. The awards were announced on the final day of the IAAF’s 100th anniversary celebration. —AP

Dutch skaters dominate World Cup races KOLOMNA: Svet Kramer led a Dutch sweep of podium places in the men’s 5,000-meter race while countrywoman Marrit Leenstra earned her second career speedskating World Cup victory yesterday by winning the women’s 1,500-meter race.

Olympic champion Kramer clocked 6 minutes, 10.62 seconds to mark his second straight victory in the discipline this season. Jan Blokhuijsen was timed in 6:11.97 for second while Jorrit Bergsma was 2.46 seconds behind the winner in third.

Kramer leads the discipline standings with 200 points. He is followed by Blokhuijsen and Bergsma, who are tied for second with 150 points each after two podium finishes in two races.

Leenstra clocked 1 minute, 55.04 seconds at the Kolomna speedskating center near Moscow, edging Yekaterina Shikhova of Russia by 0.49 seconds. Defending overall World Cup champion Christine Nesbitt of Canada clocked 1:56.16 for third.

Leenstra, who was second behind Nesbitt in the season-opening 1,500 race in Heerenveen, Netherlands, last weekend, leads the discipline standings with 180 points. Nesbitt is 10 points behind in second, while Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic is third with 110 points.

Kim Bo-Reum of South Korea claimed victory in the women’s mass start in 8 minutes, 40.77 seconds. She was followed by Ivanie Blondin of Canada and Mariska Huisman of the Netherlands.

Huisman leads the discipline standings with 170 points with one race left in the season. Kim is second, ten points behind.

Blondin is third with 130. The World Cup meet continues today with the men’s 1,500 and mass start and women’s 3,000meter races. —AP

MOSCOW: Winner Marrit Leenstra of Netherlands reacts after the women’s 1500 meter race at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in the Kolomna Speedskating Center. —AP

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

S P ORT S

Hamilton on pole in Brazil

DUBAI: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland tees off at the 16th hole during round three of DP World Golf Championship in Dubai. — AP

World’s top two poised for head-to-head showdown DUBAI: World number one Rory McIlroy and second-ranked Luke Donald gave the organisers and fans what they wanted when the pair set up a classic duel in the desert after the DP World Tour Championship third round yesterday.

The two Britons shot matching six-underpar 66s to sprint three strokes clear of their nearest rivals on 17-under 199 and will engage in a head-to-head showdown for the $1.33-million first prize today.

A rock-solid Donald took his outstanding record in the tournament to 100 holes without dropping a stroke while the big-hitting McIlroy was boosted by an inspired birdiebirdie-par-eagle burst from the 11th. South African compatriots and close friends Louis Oosthuizen (68) and Charl Schwartzel (67) were in a tie for third place on 202.

There has been a sense of anti-climax all week at the final event of the European Tour season with McIlroy having already secured the money-list titles on both sides of the Atlantic.

Billboards in the city have dubbed the tournament ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ and, while that description is overdoing the hyperbole, the top two players in the world will be looking to put on a dazzling exhibition on Sunday.

“I think everybody is looking forward to the duel between the number one and two tomorrow,” said Northern Irishman McIlroy who is chasing his fifth victory of the year. “I know I’m excited. It will be a great way to finish the season.”

Asked by reporters whether he was concerned about Donald’s remarkable run at the Greg Norman-designed Earth course, the 23year-old McIlroy replied: “If you look at it logically it means he’s due a bogey. “I’ve not had that many battles with Luke down the years that’s probably because the courses we do well on are different. He excels on the shorter, tighter ones and I guess I play better on the longer courses.” McIlroy suffered from sunstroke earlier in the week and was again

under the weather on Friday night. “I was up at about four o’clock and had a bit of a fever,” he said. “But I had a good warmup this morning and struck the ball really well on the practice range.

“The heat here probably helps a little bit and the adrenaline of being in contention gets you through.” Donald is pinching himself at the thought of going 100 holes this year and last in Dubai without carding a bogey.

“That’s a little hard to fathom even for myself,” said the 34-year-old Englishman who finished third here in 2011 to become the first player to win the money-lists on both sides of the Atlantic.

“I bet my next run is not even close to that, probably something like 40 or 50 holes. I remember this time last year I was again just trying to play solid golf and minimise mistakes.

“It’s a testament to how I play the game. I kind of keep the ball in front of me and when I do get in trouble I’ve got a good short game to bail myself out.” Donald, who is gunning for his fourth win of the year, knows he will be repeatedly outdriven by his Ryder Cup team mate in the final round.

“My game is different to Rory’s,” he said.

“He is a power player and I can’t go out and try to hit the ball harder or anything like that.

“I just have to play my own game. It will be a fun end to the season.”

The round of the day on Saturday belonged to Jeev Milkha Singh who dedicated a sparkling 64 to his ailing 76-year-old mother back home in India after equalling the course record to finish on 209. Singh, who became the first Indian to play in the U.S. Masters five years ago, said his mother Nirmal was in intensive care in Chandigarh after having a bad fall in the garden. His round matched the record held by Britons Lee Westwood and Ross Fisher, Peter Hanson of Sweden, German Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia and his fellow Spaniard Alvaro Quiros who won last year’s edition of the Dubai tournament. — Reuters

FAYETTEVILLE: LSU wide receiver Jarvis Landry (80) makes a leaping 22-yard touchdown reception during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Arkansas. — AP

LSU and Ebraska advance FAYETTEVILLE: Jarvis Landry made a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch and No. 8 LSU kept its Bowl Championship Series hopes alive with a 20-13 win over Arkansas on Friday.

Zach Mettenberger passed for 217 yards and hooked up with Landry for the play of the day with 1:12 left in the first half to put LSU up 10-0 on a 22-yard TD pass. The Tigers (10-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) reached double-digit wins for the sixth time in eight seasons under coach Les Miles.

LSU must now hope for an Alabama loss to Auburn and Texas A&M victory on Saturday in order to reach next weekend’s SEC championship game. Even without a division crown, the Tigers could still get an at-large bid to the BCS. Tyler Wilson was 31 of 52 passing for the Razorbacks (4-8, 2-6), whose fall from preseason top 10 is now complete. The senior set the school record for career passing yards in the loss. Arkansas’ Cobi Hamilton set the school record for receptions in a career with 175.

Wilson passed former Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallet’s mark of 7,493 yards passing in the second quarter, finishing with 359 yards in the game and 7,765 yards for his career, and his 28yard touchdown pass to freshman Mekale McKay in the third quarter closed the LSU lead to 17-10.

Ebraska 13, Iowa 7 In Iowa City, Rex Burkhead scored the goahead touchdown in his return from a knee injury and Nebraska secured a spot in the Big Ten title game. The Huskers (10-2, 7-1 Big Ten) will face off against Wisconsin next Saturday in Indianapolis. It’ll be a rematch of Nebraska’s thrilling 30-27 home win over the Badgers in

late September. Burkhead, making his first appearance since aggravating a sprained left knee on Oct. 20 against Northwestern, broke through with a 3-yard TD run to make it 13-7 late in the third quarter. Alonzo Whaley’s interception with 2:11 left sealed the victory for Nebraska.

Kent State 28, Ohio 6 In Kent, CJ Malauulu returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown - 12 seconds after another Kent State TD - and the Golden Flashes completed a perfect season in the MidAmerican Conference with their 10th straight win. The regular-season finale was a tuneup for Kent State (11-1, 8-0 MAC), which will meet No. 24 Northern Illinois in next week’s MAC championship. The win allowed the Golden Flashes to continue the best season in the program’s 90year history. They are ranked for the first time since 1972, the last time they appeared in a bowl game.

Northern Illinois 49, E. Michigan 7 In Michigan, Jordan Lynch ran for 107 yards and Akeem Daniels scored a career-best four touchdowns as the Huskies won their 11th straight game. Daniels scored on runs of 25 and 20 yards in the first half and finished with a career-high 112 yards on 12 carries to help the Huskies (11-1, 8-0) cap a perfect run through the Mid-American Conference.

Lynch, a week removed from a 407-yard passing performance, was 16 for 25 for 168 yards but extended his FBS record streak of 100yard rushing games by a quarterback. He had 20 carries to crack the century mark for the 10th straight game. — AP

SAO PAULO: Lewis Hamilton will start his 110th and final race for McLaren from pole position in today’s showdown Brazilian Grand Prix after he and team-mate Jenson Button upstaged the title fighters by locking out the front row.

Hamilton produced a dramatic and fast final lap in yesterday’s qualifying to outstrip all his rivals and maintain his end-of-season domination as McLaren delivered their fourth lockout of the year.

In his final qualifying session for the team before leaving to join Mercedes next year, the 27-year-old Briton clocked a fastest lap of one minute and 12.458 seconds to outpace compatriot Button by one-tenth of a second.

“I am grateful to be able to put the car on the front row and to have a one-two for McLaren in my last qualifying is just great.

The team did a fantastic job,” said Hamilton.

The dazzling performance from the two McLaren men left championship contenders, defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull down in fourth and his title rival, twotime champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in eighth.

Both of them were out-qualified by their team-mates, Mark Webber, who was third for Red Bull, and Felipe Massa, who was fifthfastest on his home track for Ferrari. “It was not quick enough and I know I could have done a little better,” admitted Vettel.

“But let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow.” A cagey Alonso, who may have run in a set-up that may suit today’s forecast wet weather better than the dry, said: “It is more or less what I expected... We didn’t gamble and only made minimal changes.”

Pastor Maldonado was sixth for Williams ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Force India with Kimi Raikkonen taking ninth spot on the grid for Lotus ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes.

SAO PAULO: McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his car during the qualifying session at the Interlagos race track in Sao Paulo, Brazil. —AP

Rosberg’s team-mate and German compatriot seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, and heading into retirement after his final race on Sunday, was down in 14th place.

Hamilton’s pole was his first in Brazil, his seventh this year and the 26th of his career and helped the team to a record 67th front row lockout in Formula One. He had pledged he would do all he could to depart McLaren with a win in his 110th and final race and did all he could to set it up. After a humid final free practice in the morning, topped by Button’s McLaren, qualifying began in damp

and treacherous conditions following a rainstorm that left areas of surface water on the asphalt.

This may have raised spirits at Ferrari where Alonso was relaxing before his entry into the fray along with the rest of the frontrunners. The Spaniard, memorably, was on pole at the two previous wet qualifying sessions this season at the British and German Grands Prix.

Massa was also determined to shine on home soil, as the only man since 1999 to have won the race from pole position in support, in his role as flanker for Alonso. — AFP

Little League set for Canada’s biggest bash TORONTO: Ice hockey may be Canada’s national obsession but for 100 years the Grey Cup has thrown a massive party, a gridiron celebration that unites a country often divided by language and cultural sensibilities.

The Grey Cup, the name of the Canadian Football League’s (CFL) championship game and the trophy awarded to the winner, will be carried onto the Rogers Centre turf by Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Sunday and hoisted high by either the host Toronto Argonauts or the Calgary Stampeders.

The game will be broadcast in 187 countries but with just eight CFL teams spread across the country, the league maintains a folksy, small-town charm. Unlike the Super Bowl’s media day where National Football League (NFL) players are instantly recognisable to the throngs of reporters, the CFL’s lower-key version requires members from the competing teams to wear name tags.

Still, millions of Canadians gather around televisions each year in late November to watch and cheer a game where many could not even name a single player. Even Queen Elizabeth took a moment to observe this year’s game, which marks the 100th Grey Cup. “It is with great pleasure that I extend my sincere best wishes to all Canadians as they prepare to mark the 100th Grey Cup - a trophy first donated by The Earl of Grey,” she said in a statement.

“In this way, the link between the Canadian Crown and Canadian football is particularly meaningful - especially in this year when the 100th Grey Cup coincides with my Diamond Jubilee as Queen of Canada.”

Sometimes referred to as the Grand National Drunk, most fans are guaranteed a fun weekend but the Grey Cup has also evolved into something much more than massive fraternity party.

The East-West rivalry that provided the original foundation for the championship game has faded, the great divide grayed by a doomed expansion to the United States and a forced realignment of the league by failed franchises.

Geography may point to Winnipeg as the gateway to the West but on the CFL map the Canadian Prairie city is part of the East Division, the Blue Bombers filling the hole left by collapse of the Ottawa Rough Riders. While the CFL has spent much of its existence lurching from crisis to crisis, the Grey Cup has remained a treasured sporting institution, important enough to Canada’s national identity that in 1974 Parliament introduced the Canadian Football Act to keep the World Football League from setting up shop in Toronto. Decades later there is a new threat appearing with Toronto eyeing an NFL franchise. “Our game is in good shape, and so is our business,” CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon said on Friday.

“In this year of the 100th Grey Cup, we have strived to not only honour our history, but also build our future.

“I can say with confidence: the state of the CFL is strong, and our future is bright, indeed.” While the CFL has struggled to be relevant, particularly in Toronto where the Argos are an afterthought behind the National Hockey League’s Maple Leafs, Major League Baseball’s Blue Jays and the National Basketball Association’s Raptors, the Grey Cup remains a quintessential bit of Canadiana.

“The Grey Cup has become a cultural sign post,” Stephen Brunt, author of 100 Grey Cups: This is Our Game, told Reuters. “In a lot of ways it is even more powerful than the (NHL’s) Stanley Cup final because it’s 100 percent Canadian content.

“There is continuity, there is history, it’s a uniquely Canadian game, in a uniquely Canadian culture. If you start to add up how many things there are like that - there aren’t many.”

The CFL is a resilient and quirky league where one man (David Braley) can own two teams (the B.C. Lions and Argos) and two teams (Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders) can have one name. Forged from a combination of rugby and American gridiron, the CFL is a uniquely Canadian blend played with 12 men on each side instead of 11 and three downs instead of four. The field is wider and longer and rosters must meet a Canadian player quota while teams are forced to work under a modest $4.3 million salary cap compared to the $120 million NFL teams have to spend each season.

Still, a long list of NFL players, including quarterbacks Doug Flutie, Joe Theismann and Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon have played in the CFL. While the Super Bowl has grown into a giant corporate schmooze pushing the average NFL fan to the sidelines, the Grey Cup has managed to remain quaint holding firm to its every man, blue collar roots.

“The core of the Grey Cup is a bunch of people with their faces painted in the ballroom of a hotel drinking beer,” said Brunt. “At the Super Bowl if you want to go to the good stuff you have to know somebody or have a lot of money.

“At the Grey Cup there is no velvet rope. “Even in Toronto and Vancouver where there are a million cool places to go, people will lineup in the cold for hours to drink beer in a ballroom listening to a bad rock band.” — Reuters

JAPAN: Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan performs during men’s short program at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Sendai. — AP

Hanyu wins NHK Trophy SENDAI: Japanese teenager Yuzuru Hanyu, who broke his own world record with a mark of 95.32 in Friday’s short program, won yesterday’s free skate at the NHK Trophy to secure a place in next month’s Grand Prix final.

The 17-year-old Hanyu opened his free skate with a quadruple toe loop and hit six triple jumps on the way to victory with a score of 261.03 points. He was unable to land the second quad - a salchow - and fell on his final jump, a triple lutz, but did enough to beat second-place finisher and compatriot Daisuke Takahashi by nearly 10 points. Ross Miner of the United States finished third with 235.37 points.

“I’m very happy to make the Grand Prix final,” Hanyu said. “Despite my mistakes in the free skate, I was able to score more than 160 points, so my training has paid off.” Mao Asada of Japan narrowly edged out compatriot Akiko Suzuki for the women’s title. Asada tallied 185.27 points to Suzuki’s 185.22. Mirai Nagasu of the United States finished third with 176.68 points. Takahashi put on a lively performance to “I Pagliacci” and totaled 251.51. The result qualified Takahashi for his seventh GP final. Only Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist, has made more GP finals with eight.

Takahashi, the 2010 world champion, began with a quad toe loop, but underrotated when he performed one for the second time. The mistake took nothing away from the sublime show he put on, however, as he landed seven triple jumps and had the audience completely enthralled with his superior presentation skills. “I feel good about making the final for a seventh time,” Takahash saidi. “I will give everything I have and go all out there.” Hanyu and Takahashi will be joined by compatriots Takahiko Kozuka and Tatsuki Machida at the GP Final in

Sochi, Russia, giving Japan four of the six competitors in the men’s event.

Skating to “Swan Lake,” Asada doubled her opening triple loop, then later doubled a triple lutz and compounded her problems by singling a triple salchow, but her big lead over Suzuki from the short program was enough put her atop the podium. “I feel a lot of disappointment,” Asada said. “I couldn’t execute any of my jumps. I can’t be satisfied with the way I performed.” Suzuki assured herself a spot in the GP final with a tremendous performance to “O” from Cirque du Soleil.

The world bronze medalist landed six triple jumps and moved the audience with her program. Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States retained their lead from the short dance to capture the title in ice dance with 178.48.

White and Davis, the 2011 world champions, beat Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov (156.62) by nearly 18 points in notching the victory. Maia and Alex Shibutani, also of the United States, took third place with a total of 154.56 Davis and White, the 2010 Olympic silver medalists, locked up a spot in the GP final, which they have won the past three years. The win marked the third time that Davis and White have captured the NHK Trophy and the eighth straight Grand Prix victory for the duo. The last regular GP event they entered and did not win was the Cup of Russia in 2008.

Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov of Russia hold a slim lead in pairs after the short program. The Russians top the field with 65.61, with Canada’s Kirsten MooreTowers and Dylan Moscovitch close behind at 65.14. Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir (61.85) of the U.S. are third. The free skate in pairs is set for today. — AP

18

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

sp orts

Pacemen give SA glimmer of hope KHULNA: Bangladesh’s Nasir Hossain avoids a bouncer during the fourth day of the second cricket Test match between Bangladesh and West Indies. —AP

West Indies back on top after Shakib gifts wicket KHULNA: Shakib Al Hasan gifted his wicket on 97 to West Indies in a disappointing end to an otherwise remarkable yesterday for the all-rounder who became only the second bowler to take 100 test wickets for Bangladesh.

The stumps on the fourth day were drawn immediately after Shakib went, with Bangladesh on 226 for six wickets in their second innings of the second test and needing 35 to make West Indies bat again following the visitors’ declaration on 648-9.

Shakib defied West Indies for more than three hours but just when he looked set for a well-deserved century he charged down left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul and

was caught by Tino Best at mid off. “I think breaking this partnership this evening was the turning point in the game,” Best told reporters. “Shakib played fantastic, (it was) just shot selection again. I think he’s young and will improve.”Shakib shared 144 runs with Nasir Hossain for the sixth wicket after a familiar Bangladesh batting collapse cost them their first five for 82 runs. The leftarmer had earlier taken four wickets to join Mohammad Rafique as the only Bangladesh test bowlers to break the 100 mark. Nasir, who remained unbeaten on 64, will resume on the fifth day hoping to bat out a session or two and give Bangladesh a chance of avoiding the defeat. — Reuters

SCOREBOARD KHULNA, Bangladesh: Scoreboard at close on the fourth day of the second test between Bangladesh and West Indies at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium yesterday.

West Indies innings Bangladesh first innings 387 (Abul Hasan 113, Mahmudullah 76, Nasir Hossain 52; Fidel Edwards 6-90) West Indies first innings (overnight 564-4) C.Gayle c Rahim b Gazi 25 K.Powell c Shakib b Rubel 13 D.Bravo lbw b Gazi 127 M.Samuels c sub b Rubel 260 S.Chanderpaul not out 150 D.Ramdin c Rahim b Shakib 31 D.Sammy c Mahmudullah b Shakib 0 V.Permaul c Gazi b Shakib 13 S.Narine c Shahriar b Shakib 0 F.Edwards c Shakib b Gazi 2 Extras (b-10 lb-7 w-2 nb-8) 27 Total (eight wickets, 200.3 overs) 648 Did not bat: T.Best Fall of wickets: 1-37 2-43 3-369 4-546 5621 6-621 7-639 8-639 9-648 Bowling: Sohag Gazi 57.3-4-167-3, Abul

Hasan 24-0-113-0 (1w, 4nb), Rubel Hossain 31-8-86-2 (3nb), Naeem Islam 141-43-0 (1nb), Shakib Al Hasan 52-11-151-4 (1w), Mahmudullah 10-0-42-0, Nasir Hossain 12-1-29-0.

Bangladesh second innings Tamim Iqbal b Best 28 Nazimuddin lbw b Edwards 0 Shahriar Nafees c Sammy b Best 21 Naeem Islam b Best 2 Shakib Al Hasan c Best b Permaul 97 Mushfiqur Rahim b Permaul 10 Nasir Hossain not out 64 Extras (lb-2 w-1 nb-1) 4 Total (six wickets; 56.1 overs) 226 To bat: Mahmudullah, Sohag Gazi, Abul Hasan, Rubel Hossain Fall of wickets: 1-1 2-49 3-51 4-62 5-82 6-226 Bowling: F. Edwards 11-0-65-1 (nb-1), S. Narine 9-0-48-0, V. Permaul 16.1-2-51-2, T. Best 8-0-26-3(w-1), C. Gayle 4-0-15-0, D. Sammy 8-3-19-0.

ADELAIDE: South Africa’s pacemen routed Australia’s batsmen with five late wickets to leave the hosts reeling at 111-5 at the close of day three yesterday and give the tourists faint hope of pulling off an unlikely victory in the second test.

Dismissed for 388 at tea to trail Australia’s massive first innings total by 162 runs, Rory Kleinveldt took three wickets in a withering pace assault, with fellow quicks Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel taking a wicket each as the Adelaide Oval pitch bared its teeth late in the day.

First innings hero Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey survived a nervous few overs as shadows crept across the ground, with the hosts stuttering to a still-precarious 273-run lead.

“What we did tonight in the last session was exactly what we needed to still have a sniff in the game,” all-rounder Faf du Plessis told reporters, after scoring an impressive 78 on debut to help the Proteas avoid the follow-on.

“Because if they just went 4 1/2 runs an over with no wickets, we would have been under massive pressure. At the moment, we’re still in there.” Clarke, who scored a second consecutive double-century in the first innings, was on nine, with Hussey on five after a pulsating day in hot conditions. David Warner and Ed Cowan pushed the lead to 239, before Kleinveldt ended their 77-run opening stand amid a superb burst of swing bowling.

Kleinveldt, a late selection following a back injury to Vernon Philander, removed Warner for 41, the pugnacious opener miscuing a swipe off his pads to produce a simple catch to Du Plessis at extra cover.

The two-test paceman Kleinveldt then had Rob Quiney feathering an edge to wicketkeeper AB de Villiers in the same over, the Australian number three slumping to his second duck of the test following a nine in his sole innings in Brisbane.

Kleinveldt made it a third in quick succession by bowling Cowan through the gate, before Dale Steyn had the out-of-form Ricky Ponting out for 16 when the former Australia captain played onto his stumps.

Nightwatchman Peter Siddle strode out to the crease to meet Clarke but headed back quickly, managing just one run, after nicking to De Villiers off Morkel.

The powerhouse display opened the door slightly for South Africa, but they will be mindful of history at Adelaide Oval, where the greatest successful run chase was by England in 1901/02 when they mowed down 315 for victory. After conceding 180 runs in a wayward, wicketless performance during Australia’s first innings, legspinner Imran Tahir’s nightmare test continued yesterday. Tahir celebrated what he thought was a breakthrough wicket when opener Cowan edged to extra cover in his third over, but umpire Billy Bowden summoned a video review which confirmed the spinner had over-stepped his mark. —Reuters

ADELAIDE: South Africa’s team (left) celebrate as Australia’s captain Michael Clarke (right) waits for another batting partner after a wicket on the third day of their cricket Test match. —AP

SCOREBOARD ADELAIDE: Scoreboard at the close of the third day of the second test between Australia and South Africa at Adelaide Oval yesterday: Australia won the toss and chose to bat Australia first innings 550 South Africa first innings G. Smith c Wade b Siddle 122 A. Petersen run out 54 H. Amla st Wade b Warner 11 J. Rudolph c Quiney b Lyon 29 AB de Villiers lbw b Siddle 1 F. du Plessis c Clarke b Hilfenhaus 78 D. Steyn c Ponting b Hilfenhaus 1 R. Kleinveldt b Hilfenhaus 0 J. Kallis c Wade b Clarke 58 M. Morkel b Lyon 6 I. Tahir not out 10 Extras (b-7, lb-2, w-3, nb-6) 18 Total: (all out, 124.3 overs) 388 Fall of wickets: 1-138 2-169 3-233 4-233 5-240 6-246 7-250 8-343 9-352 10-388 Bowling: B. Hilfenhaus 19.3-6-49-3, J. Pattinson

9.1-0-41-0 (nb-4, w-1) N. Lyon 44-7-91-2, P. Siddle 30.5-6-130-2 (nb-2), M. Clarke 7-1-22-1, M. Hussey 1-0-7-0 (w-2), D. Warner 5-0-27-1, R. Quiney 8-3-12-0 Australia second innings D. Warner c Du Plessis b Kleinveldt 41 E. Cowan b Kleinveldt 29 R. Quiney c De Villiers b Kleinveldt 0 R. Ponting b Steyn 16 M. Clarke not out 9 P. Siddle c De Villiers b Morkel 1 M. Hussey 5 Extras (lb-7, nb-3) 10 Total (for five wickets, 32 overs) 111 Fall of wickets: 1-77 2-77 3-91 4-98 5-103 Still to bat: M. Wade, B. Hilfenhaus, J. Pattinson, N. Lyon.

Bowling: Steyn 10-4-28-1, Morkel 9-2-24-1, Kleinveldt 6-1-14-3 (nb-2), Tahir 7-1-38-0 (nb-1).

Puerto Rican boxing great dies SAN JUAN: Puerto Rican boxing great Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho, shot in the head last week, was declared dead yesterday after being removed from a respirator, a doctor said. His death brings a tragic end to a career that saw Camacho triumph in three weight classes but struggle with drugs and alcohol.

Highlights of his career included wins over legends such as Roberto Duran of Panama and American fighter Sugar Ray Leonard, whom Camacho knocked out in

five rounds. Camacho, who was 50, suffered a heart attack overnight Friday and doctors later disconnected him from life support equipment, said Dr. Ernesto Torres, director of Centro Medico de Rio Piedras, where the boxer was admitted after being shot Tuesday. “There was nothing else we could do for him,” Torres said. Camacho had been declared brain dead on Thursday. His relatives were informed as soon as he was taken off life support yesterday, the doctor said. — AFP

Racers burn rubber at ‘Red Bull Kart Fight’

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Kart-racing lovers had an opportunity to put their skills to test during ‘Red Bull Kart Fight’, a two-day event held on Friday and Saturday at 360 Mall outdoor parking lot.

About 185 participants from different nationalities registered for this amateur race.

Registration was free-of-charge for Kuwaiti residents between 13-40 years of age. “Anybody who came on Friday

could register as there was no limit. Twenty out of 185 of the fastest participants qualified on Friday after passing four laps.

No female participants qualified for the second day though,” Richard Breiss, Communication Manager of Red Bull Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain told the Kuwait Times yesterday.

Yesterday, the qualified participants were divided into two groups with 10 participants in each. “Also the fastest five in each group made it to the top 10. They drove around the track to set the position according to which they start the

final race. The majority of the 20 qualified are Kuwaitis, in addition to other Arab nationalities,” he said. ‘Red Bull Kart Fight’ is held in 20 countries around the world. “Apart from Kuwait, it’s also held in Bahrain and Lebanon. This is the first time it’s held in Kuwait as its hosting the last round. The karters will fight it out for No 1 spot and head to the world finals which will take place in Italy on December 8 and 9, 2012, as a part of the Bologna Motor Show activities,” Breiss further added. This activity was sponsored by Nissan Al-

Babtain, and was held in cooperation with the Kuwait Quarter Mile Club. Red Bull is planning other activities next year. “We are preparing to organize about 10-12 sports, motorsports, and cultural event in 2013.

Our activities will start from February,” he said. Nawaf Hamad Al-Safi was the first winner who will represent Kuwait in the world finals of ‘Red Bull Kart Fight’ held in Italy next month. Mohammed Jassem ranked second, while Al-Baraa Al-Nafisi bagged the third spot.

19

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

SPORTS

Arsenal frustrated in Villa Park stalemate Aston Villa 0

Arsenal 0

GERMANY: Munich’s Xherdan Shaqiri (right) and Hannover’s Konstantin Rausch challenge for the ball during the German First Division Bundesliga soccer match.—AP

Bayern hammer Hanover BERLIN: Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich romped to a 5-0 win at home to Hanover 96 yesterday to extend their lead at the top to nine points as champions Borussia Dortmund moved up to second with a win at Mainz.

Having secured their place in the knockout phase of the Champions League in midweek with a draw at Valencia, Bayern ran riot at the Allianz Arena and added a point to their lead. “We were deadly, aggresive and we played with a high level of concentration,” enthused Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes. “We really turned it on in both halves. “Everything has to be earned at the top level and I am really pleased for Dante, Javi Martinez and Mario Gomez.”

Bayern set another Bundesliga record of 34 points after the first 13 games and the hosts took the lead with only four minutes gone when Spain midfielder Javi Martinez netted his first goal since his August transfer from Athletic Bilbao.

Germany midfielder Toni Kroos doubled the Bavarians’ lead with a superbly taken half-volley from a Philipp Lahm cross on 24 minutes. The third came on 37 minutes when French winger Franck Ribery fired home while Brazil centre-back Dante made it 4-0 when he met Kroos’ free-kick at the far post on 63 minutes.

Germany striker Mario Gomez needed just 26 seconds to claim the fifth after coming off the bench on 67 minutes for his first appearance for Bayern in three months following ankle surgery.

Dortmund came from behind at Mainz to claim their third straight away win.

Mainz’s Marco Caligiuri put the hosts ahead on four minutes, but Germany midfielder Marco Reus equalised when he hit the top corner from 17 metres out just eight minutes later. Dortmund went ahead just

before the break when Mario Goetze put Poland striker Robert Lewandowski into space to flick the ball over the Mainz goalkeeper and claim the three points and wrest second place from Ruhr neighbours Schalke 04.

“I have to pay my team a huge compliment and I am delighted with the way they are playing,” said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp, whose team face Bayern in Munich next Saturday. “It was an incredibly intense game. It was a psychological test of our character and we passed it.”

Schalke dropped to third after drawing 1-1 with Eintracht Frankfurt, who are fourth, in Gelsenkirchen. Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who has been linked with a move to Arsenal in the winter break, opened the scoring on 11 minutes to claim his first Bundeliga goal in 580 minutes.

The lead lasted only 105 seconds as Stefan Aigner headed Frankfurt level, but Eintracht were reduced to 10 men when Karim Matmour was dismissed for a second yellow card on 87 minutes.

Wolfsburg held Werder Bremen to a 1-1 draw as Wolves’ director of sport Klaus Allofs met the north German team he left earlier this month after 13 years. It was goalless in the Bundesliga’s first Franconian derby as Nuremberg were held by their neighbours Greuther Fuerth as both sides finished with 10 men.

On Friday, Hamburg’s Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart looks to hgave been ruled out for the rest of this year after suffering a suspected hamstring tear in his team’s 2-0 defeat at Fortuna Duesseldorf.

Hamburg are ninth in the league, while Duesseldorf, 13th, earned their first home win this season since their promotion-their first home victory in the Bundesliga for 15 years.—AFP

BIRMINGHAM: Arsenal were left to rue poor finishing after their Premier League encounter with Aston Villa ended in a frustrating 0-0 draw yesterday. Arsene Wenger’s side created plenty of chances at Villa Park but were unable to strike the decisive blow, with Wales international Aaron Ramsey particularly guilty of wastefulness in front of goal.

Villa substitute Brett Holman went closest for the home side with a shot that rattled the crossbar from distance, but the point was still enough for Paul Lambert’s side to climb out of the relegation zone. Arsenal, meanwhile, remain sixth, a point below fifth-place Everton and four points outside the Champions League qualifying places.

The visitors made three changes from their mid-week game against Montpellier as Thomas Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna were dropped to the bench in favour of Kieran Gibbs, Carl Jenkinson and Ramsey.

Aston Villa coach Lambert made one change from the side that lost 50 to Manchester City last weekend, with Karim El Ahmadi replacing Stephen Ireland in midfield.

Villa carved out an opportunity in the 13th minute when Ashley Westwood’s cross-field pass picked out Andreas Weimann and the Austria international saw his shot from a tight angle beaten away at the near post by Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Moments later, Villa forward

BIRMINGHAM: Aston Villa’s Dutch-born Moroccan midfielder Karim El Ahmadi (left) vies with Arsenal’s English striker Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain during an English Premier League football match. —AFP minute and then lifted a shot over Christian Benteke laid the ball into already raised his flag for offside.

Arsenal missed a golden chance the bar from close range seven minBarry Bannan but his ambitious 30yard shot was comfortably gathered to break the deadlock shortly before utes later when the ball fell to him

by Szczesny. Arsenal started to find half-time when Laurent Koscielny lift- from a corner.

Gabriel Agbonlahor teed up subtheir rhythm as the first half wore on ed a shot over the crossbar from and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain threat- close range after he had been picked stitute Holman in a Villa counterattack shortly afterwards but his low, ened when he cut in from the right out by Olivier Giroud.

The visitors began the second half stinging shot from 12 yards was flank in the 21st minute, only to drag brightly and the lively Santi Cazorla saved by Szczesny. The Polish goalhis shot wide.

The Gunners opened up the curled a shot round the post just keeper then produced a stunning home side’s defence again seven after the break following a swift full-stretch save to touch Holman’s minutes later and Ramsey’s low counter-attack. Villa were dealt a brilliant long-range effort onto the angled shot through a crowd of bod- blow in the 50th minute when cap- bar.

Ciaran Clark’s last-ditch intercepies forced Brad Guzan to make a tain Ron Vlaar limped out through injury and was replaced by Eric tion denied Gervinho at the back smart diving save in the Villa goal.

Villa had the ball in the net in the Lichaj, with Matthew Lowton shifting post as the Arsenal forward attempted to get on the end of a cross from 28th minute when a Bannan free-kick to centre-back.

Ramsey failed to capitalise on a fellow substitute Andrey Arshavin caused a scramble inside the penalty area and Weimann squeezed the ball teasing cross into the six-yard area late on, but Villa held on to claim a home, but the assistant referee had from Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 55th point.—AFP

EPL results/standings Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 0; Everton 1 (Naismith 12) Norwich 1 (Bassong 90); Man Utd 3 (Evans 64, Fletcher 68, Hernandez 72) QPR 1 (Mackie 52); Stoke 1 (Adam 26) Fulham 0; Sunderland 2 (Gardner 73, Sessegnon 87) West Brom 4 (Gera 30, Long 44, Lukaku 81-pen, Fortune 90); Wigan 3 (Gomez 58, 68, 90) Reading 2 (Morrison 35, Al Habsi 80-og).

German League results/standings

Playing today Chelsea v Man City, Southampton v Newcastle, Swansea v Liverpool, Tottenham v West Ham.

Bayern Munich 5 (Martinez 4, Kroos 24, Ribery 37, Dante 63, Gomez 67) Hanover 0; Schalke 04 1 (Huntelaar 11) Eintracht Frankfurt 1 (Aigner 13); VfL Wolfsburg 1 (Dost 64) Werder Bremen 1 (Arnautovic 35); Mainz 05 1 (Caligiuri 4) Borussia Dortmund 2 (Reus 12, Lewandowski 43); Furth 0 Nuremberg 0.

Playing today Freiburg v VfB Stuttgart, Augsburg v M’gladbach, Hoffenheim v Bayer Leverkusen.

English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):

German league table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Bayern Munich 13 Dortmund 13 Schalke 13 Eintracht 13 Leverkusen 12 Werder Bremen13 Hanover 13 Mainz 13 Hamburg 13

11 7 7 7 6 5 5 5 5

1 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2

1 2 3 3 3 5 6 6 6

38 28 23 26 21 21 25 16 12

5 14 15 19 17 19 25 16 16

34 25 24 24 21 18 17 17 17

Freiburg Borussia VfB Stuttgart VfL Wolfsburg Duesseldorf Nuremberg Hoffenheim Fuerth Augsburg

12 12 12 13 13 13 12 13 12

4 4 4 4 3 3 3 1 1

4 4 4 3 5 4 3 5 3

4 4 4 6 5 6 6 7 8

16 18 14 13 13 10 18 10 8

14 23 20 20 18 18 26 23 22

16 16 16 15 14 13 12 8 6

LONDON: Fulham’s John Arne Riise (left) battles for the ball with Stoke City’s Charlie Adam during the English Premier League match at the Britannia Stadium.—AP

Adam the hero again as Stoke sink Fulham Stoke 1

Redknapp replaces Hughes as QPR manager LONDON: Harry Redknapp has been named manager of Queens Park Rangers following Friday’s sacking of Mark Hughes, the Premier League’s bottom club announced yesterday.

Redknapp, who was fired by fellow London club Tottenham Hotspur in June, has agreed a two-and-a-half-year contract, the club announced, although the manager himself later said that the deal had yet to be signed because of the speed of events.

Hughes’s assistants Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki were put in temporary charge of the team for Saturday’s daunting trip to face Manchester United in the league and Redknapp would watch from the stands he told Sky Sports News.

QPR, who narrowly avoided relegation last season, have not won any of their 12 league matches this season under Welshman Hughes, who lost his job after 10 months at Loftus Road. “I’m delighted to be back in the managerial hot-seat at QPR,” Redknapp, 65, told the club website (www.qpr.co.uk). “There’s no doubt there’s a lot of ability in the squad but for one reason or another things haven’t gone as well as everyone expected since the start of the season.

“I can’t wait to get to work and get the results necessary to kick-start our season.”

Regarded as one of the best managers in the English game, Redknapp had been close to accepting the job of Ukraine coach this week, but said on Friday that he would be the happiest man if he could save Rangers from relegation.

“It was a really interesting job,” Redknapp said of the Ukraine post in a telephone interview on the BBC yesterday. “I had met the people and to be honest it was almost a done deal.—Reuters

Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League

Swansea v Liverpool Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5 Southampton v Newcastle Abu Dhabi Sports HD 4 Chelsea v Man City Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5 Tottenham v West Ham Abu Dhabi Sports HD 7

Spanish League

Espanyol v Getafe Aljazeera Sport +2 Aljazeera Sport 2 HD Bilbao v Deportivo Aljazeera Sport +5 Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Atletico v Sevilla Aljazeera Sport +2 Aljazeera Sport 2 HD Levante v Barcelona Aljazeera Sport +2 Aljazeera Sport 2 HD

Italian League

Atalanta v Genoa Aljazeera Sport +1 Torino v Fiorentina Aljazeera Sport +9 Chievo Verona v Siena Aljazeera Sport +2 Pescara v AS Roma Aljazeera Sport +5 Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Sampdoria v Bologna Aljazeera Sport +7 AC Milan v Juventus Aljazeera Sport +1 Aljazeera Sport 1 HD

16:30

18:00 19:00 19:00

14:00 19:00 21:00

Fulham 0

LONDON: Charlie Adam was Stoke’s hero again as the Scotland midfielder scored the only goal in his side’s 1-0 win over Fulham yesterday. Adam bagged the winner in Stoke’s previous match in front of their own fans against QPR at the Britannia Stadium and the former Liverpool star made the decisive intervention once more to lift City up to 11th place in the Premier League. His first half goal extended Stoke’s unbeaten home league run to 13 games stretching back to February, while ninthplaced Fulham are now winless in their last five games.

In driving rain, Martin Jol’s visitors who made the brighter start, with Giorgos Karagounis firing just wide in the second

Everton 1 17:00

Norwich 1 17:00 17:00

17:00 22:45

13 10

0

3

32

18 30

Man City

12

8

4

0

25

10 28

West Brom

13

8

2

3

23

15 26

Chelsea

12

7

3

2

24

13 24

Everton

13

5

6

2

23

17 21

Arsenal

13

5

5

3

23

13 20

West Ham

12

5

4

3

15

12 19

Tottenham

12

5

2

5

20

21 17

Fulham

13

4

4

5

25

23 16

Swansea

12

4

4

4

18

16 16

Stoke

13

3

7

3

11

11 16

Liverpool

12

3

6

3

17

16 15

Norwich

13

3

6

4

10

19 15

Newcastle

12

3

5

4

13

17 14

Wigan

13

4

2

7

15

23 14

Sunderland

12

2

6

4

12

16 12

Aston Villa

13

2

4

7

10

22 10

Reading

12

1

6

5

16

22

9

Southampton 12

2

2

8

18

30

8

QPR

0

4

9

10

26

4

13

Bassong rescues Norwich

23:00

17:00

minute. Stoke hit back and Robert Huth headed wide from Matthew Etherington’s corner before Adam broke the deadlock in the 26th minute.

Adam showed impressive footwork as he took one touch, turned and fired home from close-range after Peter Crouch headed down Ryan Shotton’s cross. Ryan Shawcross almost made it 2-0 in the 36th minute when his header crashed off the crossbar.

Stoke kept pressing and midfielder Glenn Whelan miscued his shot over the bar from a Jon Walters pass early in the second half. Fulham’s Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer tipped away a header by Huth from Etherington’s corner before Shawcross nodded wide from another setpiece. The Cottagers went close to equalising against the run of play when former Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov saw his drive tipped away by Asmir Begovic. But Stoke finished strongly and substitute Kenwyne Jones thought he had doubled his side’s lead in the closing moments, only for his effort to be ruled out for offside.—AFP

Man Utd

LIVERPOOL: Sebastien Bassong scored in the last minute to earn Norwich City a 1-1 draw at Everton yesterday that prevented the hosts from making ground on the top four. David Moyes’ side would have been a point behind fourth-placed Chelsea if they had won, but

Bassong’s dramatic late intervention cancelled out Steven Naismith’s 12th-minute opener to leave Everton frustrated.

Norwich, who beat Manchester United 1-0 last weekend, are now unbeaten in six matches, while Everton have won just one of their last seven league games. Costa Rican midfielder Brian Oviedo made his first start for Everton since joining from FC Copenhagen and he made a quick impression by creating the opening goal at Goodison Park. After chesting down a long ball on the Everton left, Oviedo stole past Steven Whittaker and then cut the ball back for Naismith to tap in

his third goal in three Premier League starts. It was the first goal Norwich had conceded in over 345 minutes of league football, following clean sheets in their three previous outings.

Everton came close to a second goal on several occasions, with John Ruddy saving from Leighton Baines and Naismith and twice thwarting Leon Osman. Norwich striker Grant Holt screwed a shot wide after bludgeoning his way to the edge of the Everton area, while Bassong put a header fractionally wide from a Robert Snodgrass corner in the 41st minute. The visitors redoubled their efforts to find an equaliser in the

second half, with Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard obliged to parry an Anthony Pilkington free-kick just before the hour. John Heitinga then had to slide in to clear the ball off his own goal-line after Snodgrass beat Howard from Holt’s through-ball.

Baines stung Ruddy’s palms in the 74th minute after surging into the penalty area but Everton appeared to have done enough, only for Bassong to strike in injury time.

Javier Garrido’s deep free-kick fell at the back post and Bassong met it with a strong header that hit the underside of the bar and dropped over the line, with Holt following in to make sure.—AFP

World’s top two poised for head-to-head showdown

Felix, Bolt named IAAF World Athletes of the Year

17

16

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Arsenal frustrated in Villa Park stalemate

Page 19

LONDON: Manchester United’s Robin van Persie (second left) fights for the ball against Queens Park Rangers’ Clint Hill, left, during their English Premier League soccer match at Old Trafford Stadium.—AP

Man United storm to the top Man United 3

QPR 1

MANCHESTER: Manchester United came back from behind to beat Queens Park Rangers 3-1 and return to the top of the Premier League in front of QPR managerin-waiting Harry Redknapp yesterday.

The hosts struck three times in eight second-half minutes to claim the three points after Jamie Mackie had put QPR in front, meaning that Alex Ferguson’s side

have now trailed in nine of their 13 league games to date.

Efforts in quick succession from Jonny Evans, Darren Fletcher and Javier Hernandez were sufficient to ensure that Rangers’ wretched start to the season continued. Mackie struck after 52 minutes following neat inter-play between Kieron Dyer and Adel Taarabt, who exchanged passes from a corner before the former sent in a cross that goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard could only turn into the path of Mackie for a simple finish.

It was a startling opening goal but, within a dozen minutes, United were level from Wayne Rooney’s left-wing corner, which found Danny Welbeck at the far post.

The forward headed the ball back into the six-yard area, where Evans lost his marker Anton Ferdinand and powered in an unstoppable header of his own. After 68 minutes, United went in front in almost identical circumstances as Rooney’s corner was met by Fletcher, who eluded Ferdinand too easily before producing a header that gave Julio Cesar no hope.

It was a cathartic moment for the Scotland midfielder, who was making his first Premier League appearance in over a year after a long spell on the sidelines due to a bowel condition. Finally, United were in full flow and minutes later they had a two-goal cushion.

Substitute Anderson powered forward impressively from the halfway line before

delivering a perfectly timed pass that Hernandez collected in his stride and drove past Julio Cesar from a dozen yards.

Earlier, Redknapp took his position in the United directors’ box, just hours after agreeing a two-and-a-half-year deal as Mark Hughes’ replacement, having flirted with the Ukraine manager’s job earlier in the week.

Redknapp’s brief is to haul QPR off the foot of the table but the visitors performed admirably and even had the ball in the net after 36 minutes, through a Mackie header, only for the effort to be correctly ruled out for offside.

United were struggling to find their rhythm. Robin van Persie found himself on the end of United’s first real attack of

Mignolet howler helps Albion up to third spot Sunderland 2

West Brom 4

SUNDERLAND: West Bromwich Albion took advantage of a howler from Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to move up to third place in the Premier League with a 4-2 win at the Stadium of Light yesterday.

Steve Clarke’s side were leading through Zoltan Gera’s blistering first half strike when Mignolet allowed the ball to slip from his grasp and Shane Long tapped in to cement Albion’s lead.

Craig Gardner got one back for Sunderland in the second half before a penalty from Albion forward Romelu Lukaku. Stephane Sessegnon struck late for the hosts, but Marc-Antoine Fortune sealed the Baggies’ fourth successive win in stoppage time.

West Brom’s victory lifted the season’s surprise package above Chelsea and within two points of leaders Manchester City, while Sunderland lie only three points above the relegation zone. Black Cats defender John O’Shea, who had already been booked, was

involved in an early flashpoint when he challenged Long just outside the Sunderland penalty area.

Initially it seemed Mike Dean was about to show the former Manchester United star a second yellow card, but instead the referee booked Long for diving. Albion snatched the lead against the run of play in the 30th minute when Gera pounced on Adam Johnson’s poor control 25 yards from goal and unleashed a superb shot that had too much power and movement for Mignolet to keep out.

Martin O’Neill’s side suffered a blow when midfielder Lee Cattermole was forced off with an injur y. And it got worse for Sunderland when Mignolet’s blunder gifted Albion their second goal in the 44th minute.

Chris Brunt’s over-hit through pass should have been easy for Mignolet to collect, but the Belgian somehow let the ball escape and Long was on hand to pounce as the Irish striker slotted into the empty net.

Mignolet was more secure when Brunt slipped Long clear in the second half, this time the ‘keeper was off his line to block the striker’s shot. Gardner reduced the deficit in the 73rd minute when his free -kick took a deflection off Fortune in the defensive wall and

the game, after 19 minutes, but his strike from Welbeck’s pull-back flew into the side-netting.

After 26 minutes Rooney and Paul Scholes showed neat footwork, juggling the ball for Ashley Young to half-volley just wide, before Julio Cesar saved with his legs from Rooney after Welbeck had launched a strong run down the right.

The Rangers goalkeeper showed sharp reflexes again a few moments later when he dived to keep out another Rooney shot, this time from the edge of the area.

United’s frustrations showed when Young found himself in a furious row with QPR defender Clint Hill, who was angered by the winger for allegedly diving in the box.

Seven months ago, QPR skipper Shaun

Derry was sent off controversially after a challenge on Young in a fixture won 2-0

by United, and Derry was quick to enter the argument on Saturday as tempers frayed.

A decent half for the visitors-and their new manager-might have ended on an even brighter note when Taarabt made room for himself on the edge of the area but could only fire directly at Lindegaard.

After the flurry of goals, it was simply a matter of how many more United might score, with van Persie coming close once more with a half-volley into the side-netting. QPR might have claimed a late consolation goal through Hill’s set-piece header, only for United right-back Rafael to clear off the line.—AFP

Hat-trick hero Gomez sinks Reading Wigan 3

Reading 2

LONDON: Sunderland’s Scottish striker Steven Fletcher (center) is challenged by West Bromwich Albion’s Argentinian midfielder Claudio Yacob (left) during their English Premier League football match.—AFP

looped into the net. But Johnson’s rash lunge on Liam Ridgewell in the 81st minute conceded a penalty that on-loan Chelsea forward Lukaku calmly conver ted.

Sessegnon then fired home from

close-range after Steven Fletcher’s header was saved in the 87th minute, but Albion substitute Fortune netted on the counterattack with virtually the last kick of the match.—AFP

LONDON: Spanish striker Jordi Gomez hit a hat-trick to give Wigan a last-gasp 3-2 victory over Reading after an atrocious blunder by goalkeeper Ali al Habsi appeared to have gifted the visitors a share of the points.

Gomez, restored to the side after two defeats, hit three clinically-taken second half goals, the winner coming in stoppage time.

But 10 minutes from the end, al Habsi had one of those moments all keepers dread as Reading striker Jason Roberts buslted his way into the area and found Hal RobsonKanu in space only for the winger’s shot to be deflected up into the air.

Al Habsi could only stand and watch in horror as the ball dropped earthwards in what looked like slow motion, then let it slip from his grasp and trickle over the line. But in a final throw of the dice, Gomez sent Ivory Coast striker Arouna Kone away down the left and slamed the return pass into the roof of the net. Gomez had earlier struck twice in 10 minutes early in the second half, as half-time substitute di Santo raised Wigan’s game.

Reading ‘keeper Adam Federici had a letoff on the quarter hour when Kone missed a sitter, stealing into the area and, unmarked six metres out, contrived to head Jean

Beausejour’s cross wide when it would have been easier to score.

In the 28th minute, Reading had Nicky Shorey to thank as Kone made a mess of his attempt after rounding Federici and Shorey cleared off the line. Sean Morisson finally broke the deadlock for Reading on 35 minutes against the run of play and Shorey, having kept a goal out at the other end, turned provider with a deep free-kick from the left for Morrison to score his first Premier League goal with a bullet of a header into the top corner.

The second half got underway in driving rain and Wigan’s Argentine striker Franco di Santo, on at the break for Shaun Maloney, went close with his very first touch as Federici had to be fling himself to his left to keep the shot out. Wigan were back on terms after 58 minutes as Gomez made up for an earlier miss after being set up by the livewire di Santo.

His cross from the left was met by Gomez, steaming in and although Adam Federici blocked the shot, it fell back into Gomez’s path and he whipped in the rebound.

Reading had a clear penalty appeal waved away by referee Howard Webb after Maynor Figueroa hauled down Jay Tabb and moments later at the other end, Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi brougbht out a brilliant save to deny Adam le Fondre.

Gomez capped Wigan’s fine second-half performance with his second goal 10 minutes later, stooping to head home Beausejour’s cross from the left, only for al Habsi to undo his good work near the end before Gomez had the final say.—AFP

Business

Thousands of students rally against austerity in Rome Page 22 Fiscal cliff: How to judge if debt cuts are real

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Page 23 SMEs need adequate capital reserves to ward off crisis

Al-Tijaria net profits reach KD4,245,674 Page 26

Page 25

THESSALONIKI: Demonstrators shout slogans as they march in Thessaloniki yesterday during a protest against efforts by Hellenic Gold, a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Eldorado Gold, to mine the Skouries quarry on Mount Kakkavos, in the Halkidiki Peninsula in Northern Greece. — AFP

Merkel rival warns Greece could cost Germans Euro firms vs dollar on new Greece optimism BERLIN: German chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck warned in a newspaper interview released yesterday that German taxpayers could get stuck with a large bill if Greece were to default on its loans. Steinbrueck told Bild am Sonntag newspaper that Germany has so far only provided loan guarantees for Greece but that could end up costing German taxpayers billions of euros. He said the government should make that fact clear to the public at home. “One must tell the people that Greece could default on these loans,” said Steinbrueck, who will lead the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) candidate against Chancellor Angela Merkel in next September’s federal election. “We in Germany have to make sacrifices to help hold Europe together. We’re already part of a ‘liability union’,” he

Dubai plans new ‘city’, world’s largest mall DUBAI: Dubai, famed for its mega-projects before it was hit by the global financial crisis, yesterday announced a new development to open the world’s biggest mall and a park larger than London’s Hyde Park. The ruler of the Gulf desert city state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced the plan for a “new city within Dubai,” according to an official statement, naming it after himself.

No cost was stated for “Mohammed bin Rashid City,” to be carried out by his Dubai Holding and the publiclylisted Emaar Properties, which developed many of Dubai’s prestigious projects, including Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower. The plan also features new residential areas, although the emirate continues to have a surplus of units built during a five-year bubble which burst in 2009.

The “Mall of the World” will have a capacity of 80 million visitors a year to become the “largest in the world,” said the statement, while its park will be “30 percent bigger than Hyde Park of London.” The mall will be connected to a family entertainment centre to be developed in cooperation with Universal Studios International that will be the largest in the region, aiming to attract six million visitors a year. The emirate already has countless malls and hotels, including the Dubai Mall, touted as the world’s largest shopping, leisure and entertainment destination, with 62 million visitors this year.

“The current facilities available in Dubai need to be scaled up in line with the future ambitions for the city,” Sheikh Mohammed said in the statement. Dubai’s tourism is growing by 13 percent a year, according to the statement, with hotel occupancy hitting 82 percent in 2011 while hotel revenues grew 22 percent last year, exceeding 16 billion dirhams ($4.4 billion). The emirate rocked global financial markets in autumn 2009 over its debt crisis, but Dubai has restructured the mountain of debt owed by its corporations, and its economy has returned to growth after contracting in 2009. — AFP

added. Many Germans, especially conservatives who support Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), are firmly opposed to any sort of collectivised debt in Europe and especially the creation of euro-zone bonds.

Steinbrueck said “so far Germany has not paid a single cent” to Greece but added it was quite possible that could change. “We were ready to pay money for the costs of German reunification - something all of our neighbors welcomed despite the bad experiences they had had with us,” he said, referring to Germany’s Nazi past. “Now is time that we have to ask ourselves the question: what is Europe worth to us?”

Steinbrueck said that Greece will not be able to return to the capital markets for another eight years. “We’re going to

have to build a bridge for this period and that’s going to cost money,” Steinbrueck said.

The euro hit a three-week high against the dollar Friday, boosted by an encouraging German rebound in business confidence and rising hopes for a crucial aid payment to debtwracked Greece. The euro bought $1.2973 at 2200 GMT, compared with $1.2884 at the same time Thursday. It climbed to 106.90 yen from 106.25 yen late Thursday, while the dollar edged down against the Japanese currency to 82.40 yen from 82.47 yen. “The US dollar is lower on balance and the euro is higher, with investor sentiment supported by better-thanexpected data and with a lack of progress by European policymakers doing little to unsettle markets for now,” said Nick

Bennenbroek at Wells Fargo Advisors. In Germany, the IFO business confidence reading unexpectedly rose in November, ending a six-month slide in Europe’s biggest economy.

European officials voiced confidence that a deal on Greece aid will be reached Monday, at the next emergency meeting of the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 17 states that use the single currency. “Events in Europe are likely to be the focus of the week as the Eurogroup meeting is expected to see negotiations on the Greek financing gap progress further,” said Geoffrey Kendrick at Nomura Foreign Exchange. The dollar fell to 0.9279 Swiss francs from 0.9349 francs late Thursday. The greenback also was lower against the British pound, which fetched $1.6033, up from $1.5937 a day earlier. — Agencies

India FM sees 5.5% quarterly growth NEW DELHI: India’s economy logged around 5.5 percent growth in the last financial quarter, the finance minister estimated yesterday-a rate that could boost calls for lower interest rates to spur activity. India’s once-booming economy has been hit by high interest rates, Europe’s debt crisis that has slowed exports, and sluggish investment caused by domestic and overseas concerns about policy and corruption.

Chidambaram said in televised remarks in the western Indian city of Pune that he expected official data to be released next Friday to show that the economy grew by “around 5.5 percent” in the three months to September 30.

That would be down from 6.9 percent in the same secondquarter period a year earlier. “It goes without saying that we face a difficult situation,” Chidambaram said at a bankers’ conference, adding the “global economy is still in crisis”.

SILIGURI: Indian construction laborers work at a construction site in Siliguri. India’s economy logged around 5.5 percent growth in the last financial quarter, the finance minister estimated yesterday— a rate that could boost calls for lower interest rates to spur activity. — AFP

India’s economy was growing by more than eight percent before 2011-12. But it has been performing increasingly worse with the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan widely criticized for its handling of the situation. Even though 5.5-percent growth would be the envy of much of the world, it is not enough for India, which has been aiming for close to double-digit expansion to substantially reduce crushing poverty. “For us eight percent growth is not an aspiration but a necessity.

India cannot afford to grow below eight percent,” Chidambaram said.

The slow growth comes at a time when it is more difficult for the Indian government to pep up the economy than in the 2008-09 financial crisis. Then, the government had more fiscal room to stimulate the economy but now it is struggling to cut a widening budget deficit and avert a downgrade of its sovereign debt to “junk” status by global credit ratings agencies.

In addition, the central bank has been keeping interest rates high to combat stubbornly high inflation.

Inflation eased marginally in October to 7.45 percent year-on-year, but economists said the level is still too high to permit the bank to lower rates. Indian businesses have been calling for lower rates, saying the slowdown is in large part due to high borrowing costs that have curbed consumer spending.

Chidambaram said India must boost growth “through innovation, through finding ways of increasing the production of goods and services”. The government recently introduced a blitz of liberalization measures to spur the economy-including opening the door wider for foreign investors in the retail and aviation sectors. But the promarket reforms have stirred huge political controversy, paralysing parliament which resumed sitting on Thursday.

Opponents have billed the measures as anti-poor, saying they pander to large foreign corporations, and have demanded they be submitted to parliament for discussion.

The weak growth comes as the government, which has also been buffeted by a slew of corruption scandals, gears up for elections due in less than 18 months. — AFP

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

BUSINESS

Thousands of students rally against austerity in Rome

Bayt.com weekly report

Entrepreneurship: How to go about with it

Monti’s cuts provoke massive protests ROME: Several thousand students and teachers marched through central Rome yesterday to protest against austerity measures imposed by Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government that have cut into education spending.

Appointed a year ago when Italy came close to a Greek-style debt crisis, Monti has pushed through painful tax hikes and spending cuts to try to rein in public finances at a time when schools and universities say they desperately need more support.

“We need to fight for our rights. This government doesn’t represent us and these austerity measures and all the cuts they’ve introduced are totally anti-democratic,” said student protester Tommaso Bernardi. Several other protests are due to take place in Rome later yesterday including a rally organized by a far right group that opposes the Monti government as well as an anti-fascist march.

Police have organized different routes and times for the rallies to reduce the risk of violence after scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators during protests on Nov. 14 that saw the police criticized for heavy-handed tactics. “We need to change this country, starting from investments in schools, universities and culture,” said Michele Orezzi, a university union coordinator, saying that Italy’s education system was “crumbling into pieces”.

With youth unemployment at about 35 percent, more than three times the national average,

ntrepreneurship According to attracts its fair Bayt.com’s sur vey share of interest “Entrepreneurship in as a career option the Social Sector and among professionals Arab Springs” (March who think they have 2012), most profes‘the’ idea that will sionals agree that the change the world, or key barriers preventthat product or serving them from startice that will be revoluing their own busitionary in its industry. ness are: lack of A recent survey on financing, inability to Lama Ataya “Entrepreneurship in self-finance, and fear the Social Sector and Arab of failure. Other reasons stated by Springs” (March 2012) conducted the professionals include ecoby Bayt.com, Stanford and nomic uncertainty, the lack of YouGov, revealed that about 40% entrepreneurial skills, and strict of professionals from across the government regulations. To avoid region say that if given the failing, make sure that once you choice, they would prefer to be have chosen the type of your self-employed or own a business. business, you identity the limits As far as the reasons are con- imposed by the relevant industry, cerned, 50% of professionals said or in the country you will be operthat they star ted a business ating in. because they wanted greater 3- Do a market study: Study independence. The second and the market where you will be runthird most popular reasons are ning your operations; study the tied to economic necessity: 27% industry itself and the targeted said it was because they could audience. Check the offernot find a job at that time and demand balance and the eco20% said because of higher nomic situation in the relevant income. countries and/or in the region as But the road to entrepreneur- a whole. Assess the market size ship has to be a well thought out current and future, as well as its plan and not something that pro- growth rate and profitability. fessionals turn to on a whim. The Highlight the market trends, career experts at Bayt.com, the study the industry cost structure Middle East’s leading jobsite, rec- and your prospective ROI. Identify ommend some key steps that your distribution channels and could greatly help you if you want the key factors of success etc. to go down the road of entrepre4- Plan and organize Put an neurship: organized action plan that you 1- Know what you want: For can follow for an effective launch. you to start your own business, Here’s a basic checklist you can you have to first identify what it is use for your start-up: ● Assess your strengths and that you want and like. Starting one’s own business is a big deci- weaknesses ● Establish business and persion that comes with a lot of responsibilities. The business and sonal goals ● Identify the financial risks industry you choose are the ones ● Determine the start-up costs you will be working in for the ● Do market research next 20 years if not even the rest ● Identify your customers of your life. What skills do you ● Identify your competitors have that you could make great ● Develop a marketing plan use of in your new business? ● Create your business (register What areas do you excel in? What is the job you will wake up to your name, incorporate the busiever y morning with a lot of ness, etc.) ● Prepare a business plan excitement? These are just some ● Line up suppliers (if applicaof the questions you need to ask yourself and will help you indenti- ble) ● Set a starting date fy the type of business you want.

Make sure ever ything is 2- Know your limits: Entrepreneurship is not for every- checked and double-checked; one because it requires hard cross your fingers and finally...

5- Take-off Now is the time for work, long hours and the ability to keep going in difficult times. It your ‘baby’ to see the light of day! is not sufficient to just have a Smile, greet, and let your optigood idea. Starting a business mism in the future of your project often comes with a set of limits or and your great attitude glow. challenges; some you know Remember that such an advenbefore launching and some you ture has its ups and downs, so come across unpredictably when keep your chin up no matter what and do your best. putting in practice.

E

ROME: Students march during a demonstration against tax hikes on university fees and a cut in scholarships in the wake of the economic crisis yesterday. — AFP and Monti’s austerity policies biting into educa- chaining gates shut and camping inside classtion spending, school pupils and university stu- rooms. Monti has defended his austerity plan, dents have taken an active role in anti-govern- saying he believes his technocrat government ment protests. Students have occupied schools will be remembered for having helped Italy pull around Rome in recent weeks to express their itself out of a deep economic crisis without needanger and frustration at repeated funding cuts, ing to resort to external aid. — Reuters

Vietnam inflation hits 6-month high HANOI: Vietnamese inflation picked up to the fastest pace in six months in November, official data showed yesterday adding to the economic challenges facing the country’s Communist rulers.

Consumer prices gained an estimated 7.08 percent this month from a year earlier, following a 7.0-percent rise in October, according to the General Statistics Office. It was the sharpest increase since May. Month-on-month, prices edged up 0.47 percent in November.

“The government is really struggling to curb inflation while pushing economic growth,” said a senior manager at one of Vietnam’s major private banks who did not want to be named.

Vietnam struggled with double-digit price rises for years but after a string of interest rate hikes by the central bank to prevent the economy from overheating, annual inflation dropped to a threeyear low of around 5.0 percent in August, well off a peak of 23 percent seen a year earlier. The authorities have since changed tack in response to slowing economic growth, cutting interest rates five times since the start of 2012.

The communist country expects economic growth of just 5.2 percent for 2012 the slowest rate in 13 years. Vietnam is also grappling with falling foreign direct investment and rising fears about toxic debts in the fragile banking system.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung admitted last month that his government had made mistakes in its stewardship of the troubled economy and had “learned our lesson”. — AFP

Allies help UK’s Cameron prevail in EU showdown BRUSSELS: British Prime Minister David Cameron gained allies in his fight against EU spending rises on Friday to avoid having to wield a solitary veto that would have further isolated Britain and fuelled questions about its future in the 27-nation bloc.

The collapse of talks in Brussels to agree a 1-trillion-euro ($1.30 trillion) budget also meant Cameron for now will avoid having to present a deal to a fractious parliament that defeated him last month in a vote calling for European Union spending cuts.

That undermined Cameron’s authority and raised doubts about how he would appease anti-EU rebels in his Conservative Party without upsetting partners in Europe, Britain’s biggest trading partner.

Last December, Cameron angered many EU neighbors when he became the first British prime minister to veto an EU treaty, blocking plans for stricter fiscal rules in the euro zone. He warned he was prepared to do it again. There was talk of the other 26 countries reaching a budget deal without Britain, while the opposition Labor Party said Britain under Cameron risked “sleepwalking” out of the EU. “There might have been (attempts) to say let’s just put the British in a box over there and do a deal without them,” Cameron said after the talks ended. “That didn’t work because there are other countries that I worked with very closely.” Cameron, who wants a budget freeze, said Germany,

Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark supported tighter spending controls. Attempts to find a 2014-2020 budget will resume early next year.

Cameron faced a difficult balancing act.

Trailing in opinion polls, he had to appear tough to the growing chunk of voters who would vote to leave the EU, seen by critics as a wasteful super-state that threatens British sovereignty.

He also was squeezed by anti-EU Conservatives, a group that unseated former leader Margaret Thatcher and wants to use the euro-zone crisis to rethink Britain’s EU role. However, Britain had to be careful to avoid upsetting its main trading partner at a time of austerity.

London also wants to retain influence before a critical summit next month on plans for a European banking union.

Cameron’s pro-European coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, had warned him to tone down the anti-EU talk.

According to one EU diplomat, Cameron “played it well”, defying expectations he would be the “bad guy”, and winning the support of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Labor-supporting Guardian newspaper said the scale of the divisions among the other countries had helped Cameron.

“With no one in Europe agreeing on anything, he could strike a moderate tone,” it said in an editorial. — Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds

.2740000 .4440000 .3550000 .2940000 .2800000 .2910000 .0040000 .0020000 .0764600 .7449300 .3870000 .0720000 .7302720 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2816500 GB Pound/KD .4467530 Euro .3571040 Swiss francs .2964420 Canadian dollars .2816080 Danish Kroner .0478830 Swedish Kroner .0415540 Australian dlr .2930570 Hong Kong dlr .0363400 Singapore dlr .2302000 Japanese yen .0035510 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0767130 Bahraini dinars .7473800 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0751270 Omani riyals .7318440 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - transfer Irani Riyal - cash

3.440 5.110 2.942 2.169 3.200 233.000 36.507 3.450 6.882 9.210 0.271 0.273

.2850000 .4590000 .3690000 .3070000 .2910000 .2990000 .0067500 .0035000 .0772290 .7524170 .4070000 .0770000 .7376110 .0510000 .2837500 .4500840 .3597670 .2986530 .2837070 .0482400 .0418640 .2952420 .0366110 .2319170 .0035780 .0051870 .0021810 .0029700 .0034870 .0772840 .7529520 .4013440 .0756870 .7373000 .0069520

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

GCC COUNTRIES 75.484 77.776 735.220 751.830 77.077

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 47.800 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.381 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.321 Tunisian Dinar 179.370 Jordanian Dinar 399.280 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.899 Syrian Lier 3.870 Morocco Dirham 33.288 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 282.950 Euro 367.840 Sterling Pound 454.130 Canadian dollar 286.470 Turkish lire 157.400 Swiss Franc 305.890 Australian dollar 297.100 US Dollar Buying 281.750 GOLD 332.000 167.000 86.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria

SELL CASH

296.900 752.740 3.710 287.100 555.900 46.100 49.500 167.800 48.070 365.900 37.200 5.550 0.032 0.162 0.249 3.560 401.110 0.191 95.780 45.100 4.350 234.200 1.833

50.400 735.230 3.090 7.070 78.290 75.570 232.110 34.600 2.696 454.300 42.700 303.600 4.100 9.580 198.263 77.170 283.400 1.370

10 Tola

GOLD 1,835.360

Sterling Pound US Dollar

735.050 2.965 6.892 77.860 75.570 232.110 34.600 2.173 452.300 302.100 4.100 9.420 77.070 283.000

COUNTRY

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 452.300 283.000

SELL DRAFT

295.400 752.740 3.458 285.600

232.100 46.369 364.400 37.050 5.130 0.031

SELL DRAFT

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

SELL CASH

297.74 288.27 305.07 364.91 282.60 453.79 3.51 3.476 5.127 2.177 3.211 2.953 77.01 752.46 46.32 402.61 735.49 78.04 75.57

296.000 285.500 304.000 362.500 283.000 451.600 3.690 3.580 5.550 2.310 3.650 3.150 77.500 750.000 47.950 400.000 740.000 77.850 75.850

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd 401.080 0.190 94.780 3.220 232.700

Rate for Transfer

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro

Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

299.925 749.110 77.015 77.665 75.415 398.860 46.326 2.169 5.123 2.946 3.462 6.863 694.080 4.450 9.310 4.390 3.300 9.310

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

UAE Exchange Centre WLL

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY

Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

Selling Rate

282.950 284.075 451.020 361.410

Currency

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Yemeni Riyal Euro Canadian Dollars Nepali rupee

282.700 2.940 5.146 2.180 3.463 6.915 77.075 75.545 751.500 46.299 455.500 2.990 1.550 364.700 289.700 3.345

Al Mulla Exchange Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

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

282.350 364.100 452.100 285.400 3.485 5.124 46.340 2.167 3.455 6.878 2.948 751.950 76.975 75.450

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

BUSINESS

Political wrangling to pinch market’s nerves WALL STREET WEEKLY OUTLOOK NEW YORK: Volatility is the name of this game. With the S&P 500 above 1,400 following five days of gains, traders will be hard pressed not to cash in on the advance at the first sign of trouble during negotiations over tax hikes and spending cuts that resume next week in Washington.

President Barack Obama and US congressional leaders are expected to discuss ways to reduce the budget deficit and avoid the “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax increases and spending cuts in 2013 that could tip the economy into recession.

As politicians make their case, markets could react with wild swings. The CBOE Volatility Index, known as the VIX, Wall Street’s favorite barometer of market anxiety that usually moves in an inverse relationship with the S&P 500, is in a long-term decline with its 200-day moving average at its lowest in five years.

The VIX could spike if dealings in Washington begin to stall. “If the fiscal cliff happens, a lot of major assets will be down on a short-term basis because of the fear factor and the chaos factor,” said Yu-Dee Chang, chief trader and sole principal of ACE Investments in Virginia. “So whatever you are in, you’re going to lose some money unless you go long the VIX and short the market. The ‘upside risk’ there is some kind of grand bargain, and then the market goes crazy.”

He set the chances of the economy going over the

cliff at only about 5 percent. Many in the market agree there will be some sort of agreement that will fuel a rally, but the road there will be full of political landmines as Democrats and Republicans dig in on positions defended during the recent election.

Liberals want tax increases on the wealthiest Americans while protecting progressive advances in healthcare, while conservatives make a case for deep cuts in programs for the poor and a widening of the tax base to raise revenues without lifting tax rates.

“Both parties will raise the stakes and the pressure on the opposing side, so the market is going to feel much more concerned,” said Tim Leach, chief investment officer of US Bank Wealth Management in San Francisco. “The administration feels really confident at this point, or a little more than the Republican side of Congress may feel,” he said. “But it’s still a balancedpower Congress so neither side can feel that they can act with impunity.”

Tension in the Middle East and unresolved talks in Europe over aid for Greece could add to the uncertainty and volatility on Wall Street could surge, analysts say. An Egypt-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force late on Wednesday after a week of conflict, but it was broken with the shooting of a Palestinian man by Israeli soldiers, according to Palestine’s foreign minister.

Buoyed by accolades from around the world for mediating the truce, Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi assumed sweeping powers, angering his opponents and prompting violent clashes in central Cairo and other cities on Friday.

“Those kinds of potential large-scale conflicts can certainly overwhelm some of the fundamental data here at home,” said US Bank’s Leach. “We are trying to keep in mind the idea that there are a lot of factors that are probably going to contribute to higher volatility.” On a brighter note for markets, Greece’s finance minister said the International Monetary Fund has relaxed its debt-cutting target for Greece and a gap of only $13 billion remains to be filled for a vital aid installment to be paid.

Still, a deal has not been struck, and Greece is increasingly frustrated at its lenders, still squabbling over a deal to unlock fresh aid even though Athens has pushed through unpopular austerity cuts.

This week is heavy on economic data, especially on the housing front. Some of the numbers have been affected by Superstorm Sandy, which hit the US East Coast more than three weeks ago, killing more than 100 people in the United States alone and leaving billions of dollars in damages.

The housing data, though, could continue to confirm a rebound in the sector that is seen as a neces-

sary step to unlock spending and lower the stubbornly high unemployment rate.

Tuesday’s S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for September is expected to show the eighth straight month of increases, extending the longest continuous string of gains since prices were boosted by a homebuyer tax credit in 2009 and 2010.

New home sales for October, due on Wednesday, and October pending home sales data, due on Thursday, are also expected to show a stronger housing market. Other data highlights next week include durable goods orders for October and consumer confidence for November on Tuesday and the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index on Friday.

At Friday’s close, the S&P 500 wrapped up its second-best week of the year with a 3.6 percent gain.

Encouraging economic data next week could confirm that regardless of the ups and downs that the fiscal cliff could bring, the market’s fundamentals are solid.

Jeff Morris, head of US equities at Standard Life Investments in Boston, said that “it’s kind of noise here” in terms of whether the market has spent “a few days up or down. It has made some solid gains over the course of the year as the housing recovery has come into view, and that’s what’s underpinning the market at these levels. “I would caution against reading too much into the next few days.” —Reuters

Why must we buy? Black Friday’s powerful pull

SHANGHAI: An investor gestures to another in front of the stock price monitor at a private securities company in Shanghai. — AP

Fiscal cliff: How to judge if debt cuts are real WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and leaders of the lame-duck Congress may be just weeks away from shaking hands on a deal to avert the dreaded “fiscal cliff.” So it’s natural to wonder: If they announce a bipartisan package promising to curb mushrooming federal deficits, will it be real?

Both sides have struck cooperative tones since Obama’s re-election. Even so, he and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the GOP’s pivotal bargainer, have spent most of the past two years in an acrid political climate in which both sides have fought stubbornly to protect their constituencies.

Obama and top lawmakers could produce an agreement that takes a serious bite out of the government’s growing $16 trillion pile of debt and puts it on a true downward trajectory.

Or they might reach an accord heading off massive tax increases and spending cuts that begin to bite in January - that’s the fiscal cliff - while appearing to be getting tough on deficits through painful savings deferred until years from now, when their successors might revoke or dilute them.

Historically, Congress and presidents have proven themselves capable of either. So before bargainers concoct a product, and assuming they can, here’s a checklist of how to assess their work: The House and Senate have four weeks until Christmas. Their leaders and the president want a deal before then. Bargainers are shooting for a framework setting future debt-reduction targets, with detailed tax and spending changes to be approved next year but possibly some initial savings enacted immediately.

Obama has suggested 10-year savings totaling around $4.4 trillion. Passing a framework next month that sets deficit-cutting targets for each of the next 10 years would be seen as a sign of seriousness. But look for specifics. An agreement will have a greater chance of actually reducing deficits if it details how the savings would be divided between revenue increases and cuts in federal programs, averting future fights among lawmakers over that question.

Better yet would be including a fast-track process for passing next year’s tax and spending bills if they meet the savings targets so they can whisk through Congress without the possibility of a Senate filibuster, in which 41 of the 100 senators could kill a measure they dislike.

Another sign of sincerity: An enforcement mechanism that imposes savings automatically if lawmakers gridlock over details. Legislators’ efforts now to avert January’s combination of automatic tax boosts and spending cuts underscores the effectiveness of forcing them to act.

Less impressive would be verbal pledges by the White House and congressional leaders to meet deficit-cutting goals without passing legislation inscribing the figures into law.

Taxes A deal that specifies where revenue would come from would lay important groundwork for next year’s follow-up bill enacting actual changes in tax laws.

The biggest clash has been over whether to raise income tax rates on earnings over $200,000 annually for individuals, $250,000 for families. Obama wants to let them rise next year to a top rate of 39.6 percent but has suggested he would compromise. Boehner and other Republicans oppose any increase above today’s top marginal rate of 35 percent. Instead, they advocate lower rates and eliminating or reducing unspecified deductions and tax credits. Settling that would resolve the toughest impediment to a deal.

Raising money from higher rates, closing loopholes or a combination of the two would create real revenue for the government. The problem is many

tax deductions and credits , such as for home mortgages and the value of employer-provided health insurance, are so popular that enacting them into law over objections from the public and lobbyists would be extremely difficult.

With the price tags of tax and spending laws typically measured over a decade, delaying the implementation date can distort the projected impact of a change on people and the government’s debt. Tax cuts written to expire in a certain year can put future lawmakers under political pressure to extend it. That is what Obama and Congress face today with the January expiration of tax cuts, including many enacted a decade ago under President George W. Bush.

Even more questionable are assumptions that overhauling tax laws will boost economic activity and thus produce large new revenues for the government. Many Republicans and ideologically conservative economists contend that’s the case, but most economists say there is no sound way to estimate how much revenue can be generated from strengthening the economy by revamping the tax system. Many believe the amount is modest.

Spending A serious agreement should specify how much savings would come from entitlements, meaning those big, costly benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare. It also should say how much would come from discretionary spending, which covers federal agency budgets for everything from the military and national parks to food safety inspections and weather forecasts.

Why the need for specificity? Because spending for entitlements occurs automatically, accounts for nearly two-thirds of federal spending and is the fastest growing part of the budget. Discretionary spending has been shackled by past budget deals and, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, is moving toward falling below 6 percent the size of the economy by 2022, the lowest level in at least 50 years.

A sincere effort to control expenditures would focus on entitlements, the true source of the government’s spending problem. An agreement that envisions deep discretionary cuts risks a reliance on savings that future lawmakers could find unbearable and rescind.

Savings that come from weeding out waste, fraud and abuse, which sounds good but are difficult to find, or rely on one-time sales of federal assets should be treated with suspicion.

Deep cuts that take effect in the future, say after Obama leaves office in 2017, might be better than imposing them now and hurting an already weak economy by reducing spending.

But delayed cuts also open the door for Obama’s successors and future Congresses to roll them back.

In 1997, Congress voted for cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors; those cuts have grown so large that lawmakers now vote annually to restore the money.

Postponing the implementation of spending increases already scheduled to take effect, such as federal health insurance subsidies under Obama’s health care overhaul, saves money upfront but makes no permanent changes that would ease future spending pressures.

Another debatable source of deficit reduction would be the hundreds of billions of dollars the Obama administration says the government is saving by winding down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While there is no question those expenditures are dropping, the government has run huge deficits while those wars were waged, so there’s no money being left unspent as those wars end.—AP

BEAVER FALLS, Pennsylvania: Gravy was still warm. Dallas Cowboys were still in uniform. Thanks were still being given across the country as the pilgrimages to the stores began, heralding a new era of American consumerism. Lured by earlier-than-ever Black Friday sales, people left Grandma and Grandpa in search of Samsung and Toshiba.

They did not go blindly: In dozens of interviews, people acknowledged how spending has become inseparable from the holidays.

Older folks pined for the days of Erector Sets and Thumbelinas while in line to pay iPad prices. Even some younger shoppers said it felt wrong to be spending money instead of quality time on Thanksgiving.

“But we’re still out here,” said Kelly Jackson, a paralegal who was standing inside a Best Buy store in the Pittsburgh suburbs, a 32-inch television ($189) in her cart. It was a consolation prize: Despite four hours on line, she missed the cheaper 40-inchers ($179) that she had heard about while listening to Internet radio. Jackson’s resignation was common among those who flocked to capitalism’s temples for the consumer equivalent of genuflecting. Many said that this Black Friday bled into Thursday crossed a line, that merchants should not intrude like this. Christmas is about the message of Jesus, the feeling went - not about the gold, frankincense and myrrh. Yet amid these protests, people still talked about feeling powerless beneath the moment - as if they had no choice but to shop. “You have to have these things to enjoy your children and your family,” said Jackson’s friend Ebony Jones, who had secured two laptops ($187.99 each) for her 7 and 11 year olds.

Why must we buy? To demonstrate our love for others? To add a few more inches to our televisions? To help America recover from a vicious recession that itself was born of the desire for more? Such questions make Jones wince. “It shouldn’t be that way, but in a sense there’s no way around it,” said Jones, a nurse.

“Everything ends up with a dollar amount.

Even your happiness.” Retailers have long capitalized on the holiday season’s perfect storm of emotion and tradition. “We all want to be loved, we all like to give love,” says Roger Beahme, director of the Center for Retail Innovation at the Wake Forest Schools of Business. Through a flood of advertising on TV, radio and newspapers, he says, retailers can create emotions.

“Will Rogers said it’s the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have on something they don’t need,” Beahme says.

Although advertising can serve useful purposes, he says, “there’s some truth to that.” Many embrace the feeling - and have, in accelerating ways, for a generation and more. Without legions of believers, Black Friday never would have gotten this bold. Despite a surge of resistance as the sales drew near, with scolding editorials and protests by retail employees and reminders of frantic tramplings past, Black Friday’s grip on America may have been proven stronger than ever this year.

“It’s all part of the holiday - part of the tradition,” said Dennis River, a truck driver who was in line for a television at the Walmart in Beaver Falls, a small community outside of Pittsburgh. Last year, he went out alone at midnight Thursday. This year, he brought his wife and daughter. They were in place by 7 p.m. “You get up in the morning, cook, do your dinner and your football, then you go shopping,” River said. “It’s the new thing now.

Everyone’s afraid of change.” “If they wanna have sales today,” he said, “I’m gonna go shopping today.”

Walmart’s cavernous store is always open, but the deals began at 8 p.m. As with most big retail stores, a police car was parked near the Beaver Falls store entrance. A uniformed officer was at the door, near a stand holding maps to “featured products” such as bikes, cookware, sheets, video game consoles, and eight different TVs. The witching hour approached. Yellow CAUTION tape cordoned off the bargains and funneled a few thousand supplicants through aisles of ignored items - yarn, shower curtains, party hats, clocks. Balloons printed with dollar signs followed by low numbers floated above the treasures.

As the cell phones struck eight, a din arose.

Excited voices mixed with the sound of boxes dropping into metal shopping carts. The balloons danced as people dug into stacks of

FLINT: Dakota Stefanko, 14, of Davison, Mich. rubs her eyes as she sits in the shoe department at a Macy’s store in Flint, Michigan on Friday. Stefanko says she began shopping with her family at 3:30 am, and at 10:45 am they plan on getting breakfast before heading home to sleep. — AP leather ottomans ($29) and 5-by-5 foot bins of $5 DVDs. The temperature climbed. An old man inched through the throng using a folding chair ($11.88) as a crutch. Traffic jammed.

Complaints and a few curses echoed. “I’m not an angry person, but I was angry for the 20 minutes I was in there,” Danyel Coyne, a college student, said as she loaded a child booster seat ($12.98) into her trunk. She and her boyfriend, Mike Yanke, had not come to shop.

They needed a spare car seat to take Yanke’s daughter back to Pittsburgh. Yet Yanke still had bought a red, battery-powered convertible ($129) at his dad’s request.

“I wouldn’t say Black Friday has taken over,” said Dave Davies, a music producer who was part of the national parade of TVs (his was 50 inches and $399). “Shopping IS the

holiday. That’s all people care about - what are you gonna get?”

For some, the items themselves can even take a back seat to the simple act of shopping. Childhood friends Jesse Bredholt, Ryan Seech and a few other buddies have camped out at Best Buy for four years straight. This year, they arrived a full week early, with a tent, sleeping bags, deodorizing mist sprayer, propane heater and battery power for their gadgets. They had no idea what they would buy. That was not the point. For this group of single men in their early 20s, part of a generation who mark the passage of time by their first cell phones and video games, the point is spending time with each other at the source of the products that have always defined their lives. —AP

BUSINESS

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Kuwait equities advance on demand BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the green zone. The price index ended last week with an increase amounted to 1.51%, and the weighted index advanced by 2.06% compared to the closings of the week before. In addition KSX-15 index increased by 2.54%.

Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover increased by 10.25%, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 32.77 million, whereas trading volume average was 388.07 million shares, recording decrease of 5.64%.

Furthermore, the market was able to continue its ascending direction supported by the strong purchasing operations during most of the week’s sessions, and included many large-cap and small-cap stocks. This behavior enabled the market indices to realize gains, especially the Price Index, which was able to compensate all its losses for the year, and ended the week in the green zone realizing gains of 1.27%.

Moreover, all market indices started the week with a negative performance at mixed declining rate due to the profit collection operations and quick speculations on small-cap stocks; however, the market was able to divert its direction and improve its performance supported by the purchasing power to a large number of listed stocks and large-cap stocks, in line with the national portfolio contribution, which supported the purchasing activity in the market.

On the contrary, the market witnessed some profit collection operations, which positively impacted the indices performance during some daily sessions; however this impact was weak on the overall market performance, due to the purchasing trend that superseded stock trading most of the times.

For the annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 1.21% annual gain compared to its closing in 2011, while the weighted index increased by 3.03%, and the KSX-15 recorded 2.20% increase compared to its value at inception.

By the end of the week, the price index closed at 5,888.30 points, up by 1.51% from the week before closing,

whereas the weighted index registered a 2.06% weekly gain after closing at 417.93 points. Moreover, the KSX-15 index closed at 1,021.99 points, increasing with 2.54%.

Sectors’ Indices Six of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, The Telecommunications sector headed the gainers list, after its index closed at 924.16 points, to increase by 8.04%.

Real Estate sector was the second on the list, as its index closed at 997.84 points, up by 4.10%. The Industrial sector was the least on the gainers’ list, which index advanced by

0.45%, closing at 916.71 points.

On the Other hand, The Health Care sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 2.66% to end the week’s activity at 826.04 points. While the Oil & Gas was the least, when its index closed at 922.86, down by 0.75%.

Sectors’ Activity The Real Estate sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 663.13 million shares changing hands, representing 34.18% of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of

trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 32.86% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 637.52 million shares.

On the other hand, the Real Estate sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 44.69 million or 27.27% of last week’s total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 35.56 million represented 21.70% of the total market trading value.

— Prepared by the Studies & Research Department Bayan Investment Co.

Elliott Wave principles in action applied to Canadian dollar

By KamelMansour The first time I analyzed the Canadian dollar against the US dollar (CAD/USD), better known as the “Loonie”, was on 20th of February 2011 with a unique Elliott principles. The accuracy of this unique method that has been dormant for decades was brought to light with a new perspective.

“The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everyone sees. ... But life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth. (Arthur Schopenhauer, 1818)” Few of the excerpts of the Loonie article of 20th of February 2011 are quoted hereunder: “The market is currently forming its final five sub-waves of the (c) whose bottom range is estimated to be around 0.9800 - 0.9700 marks. It is just a matter of limited time now to finalize this formation where we will see a new phase, a new era in the bullishness of the US dollar against the Loonie for many years to come.” “.....Fibonacci ratios ... applied to the Loonie ... if we take 61.8% of movement from the high on 21 November 2008 at 1.2984 to the Low in Q4-2007 at 0.9056, we end up at a level of 0.9620 marks on the Loonie ...”

The USD against CAD actually bottomed on 25th of July 2011 at 0.9406 and continued appreciating for 10 weeks till 3rd of October 2011 to top at 1.0657. This movement was composed of an impulse first wave and an irregular correction of a second wave.

With the elongated consolidation that took place from September 2011 to September 2012, we can rest assured that the ensuing wave will be elongated.

The long term bullishness in the USD against the Loonie or the long term depreciation of the Loonie will, indeed, see swift impulse moves with excessive consolidations embedded with

large swings that will deceive the investor of changes in trend.

With Elliott glasses on, the path should be well guided.

History of the Loonie in Elliott Perspective Listed down were the Loonie’s movement waves and their constituent sub waves, in decreasing order, from Super Cycle, to Cycle, to Primary and to Intermediate Waves for the last half a century.

Super Cycle I @ 1.0900 in Q2-1962 Super Cycle II @ 0.9577 in Q2-1974 Super Cycle III @ 1.4389 in Q1-1986 was composed of these Cycle Waves: Cycle Wave I @ 1.0400 in Q3-1975 Cycle Wave II @ 0.9628 in Q2-1976 Cycle Wave III @ 1.1899 in Q4-1978 Cycle Wave IV @ 1.1423 in Q3-1980 Cycle Wave V @ 1.4389 in Q1-1986 Super Cycle IV @ 1.1189 in Q4-1991 Super Cycle V @ 1.5845 in Q3-1998 was composed of these Cycle Waves: Cycle Wave I @ 1.2107 in Q2-1992 Cycle Wave II @ 1.1780 in Q2-1992 Cycle Wave III @ 1.2945 in Q4-1992 Cycle Wave IV @ 1.2523 in Q2-1993 Cycle Wave V @ 1.5845 in Q3-1998 Super Cycle Correction A @ 0.9056 in Q4-2007 was composed of these Cycle and Primary Waves: Cycle Wave (A) @ 1.4310 in Q1-2000 Cycle Wave (B) @ 1.6188 in Q1-2002 Cycle Wave (c) @ 0.9056 in Q4-2007 was extended and composed of these Primary Waves: Primary Wave 1 @ 1.5026 in Q2-2002

Super Cycle Correction B @ 1.2984 on 21 Nov 2008 was composed of these Primary Waves: Primary Wave (a) @ 1.0247 on 14 Dec 2007 Primary Wave (b) @ 0.9816 on 21 May 2008 Primary Wave (c) @ 1.2984 on 21 Nov 2008

Primary I, which commenced @ 0.9406 on 25 July 2011, is composed of these Intermediate, Minor and Minute Waves: Intermediate I @ 1.0009 on 8 August 2011 Intermediate II @ 0.9632 on 13 September 2012 was composed of three Minor waves: Minor A @ 0.9785 on 15 September 2011 Minor B @ 1.0657 on 3 October 2011 Minor C @ 0.9632 on 13 September 2012 was composed of five Minute waves: Minute I @ 0.9891 on 26 October 2011 Minute II @ 1.0523 on 24 November 2011 Minute III @ 0.9799 on 26 April 2012 Minute IV @ 1.0446 on 3 June 2012 Minute V @ 0.9632 on 13 September 2012

Super Cycle Correction C @ 0.9406 on 25 July 2011 was composed of these Primary Waves: Primary Wave (a) @ 1.1816 on 18 Dec 2008 Primary Wave (b) @ 1.3063 on 9 Mar 2009 Primary Wave (c) @ 0.9406 on 25 July 2011 was composed of these Intermediate Waves Intermediate Wave (i) @ 1.0782 on 1 Jun 2009 Intermediate Wave (ii) @ 1.1724 on 8 Jul 2009 Intermediate Wave (iii) @ 0.9926 on 21 Apr 2010 Intermediate Wave (iv) @ 1.0208 on 20 Dec 2010 Intermediate Wave (v) @ 0.9406 on 25 July 2011 Current Wave in Progress Since July 2011, the Loonie commenced its First Impulsive wave. It is probably too mature to define the degree of the waves whether they are of Cycle, Primary or Intermediate nature. But irrespective of these classifications, the market is not deviating from its original upward direction.

Cycle I, which commenced @ 0.9406 on 25 July 2011, is in progress and is composed of:

Indicators for USD Bullishness “Denying realism amounts to megalomania. (Karl Popper, 1975)” Several intriguing findings are quite essential in the analysis of this bullish market: First, the unexpected, unique and elongated consolidation was disproportionate to the impulse it underwent for the 10 weeks move from 0.9406 on 25th of July 2011 to 1.0657 on 3rd of October 2011. This elongated sideways coiling of Intermediate wave II should act as a spring board for a strong third wave.

Second, which adds as an extra indicator to the impetus of the perusing impulse wave, was the Elongated irregular B sub wave of Intermediate II which was much higher than the top of first wave of Intermediate I. Third, the Low of Intermediate II reached at 0.9632 did not cross the first Minor wave @ 0.9551 reached on 29th of July 2011 which was part of the Intermediate I from 0.9406. This was a strong indication that the market was indeed in an overall upward trend.

Primary Wave 2 @ 1.5990 in Q4-2002 Primary Wave 3 @ 1.3305 in Q2-2003 Primary Wave 4 @ 1.4001 in Q2-2004 Primary Wave 5 @ 1.1712 in Q4-2004 Primary Wave 6 @ 1.2733 in Q2-2005 Primary Wave 7 @ 1.0926 in Q2-2006 Primary Wave 8 @ 1.1876 in Q1-2007 Primary Wave 9 @0.9056 in Q4-2007

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

BUSINESS

By Sajeev K Peter

SMEs need adequate capital reserves to ward off crisis

FRANKFURT: The three-day German Equity Forum, Europe’s largest capital market conference of its kind, brought together more than 5,000 participants including investors, corporates and analysts who shared critical information on bolstering financial sector and widening market networks.

As the leading information and networking platform for corporate financing through the stock market, the forum took place against the backdrop of a deepening economic crisis in southern part of the euro-zone.

“The German Equity Forum has become the most important European platform for dialogue between the financial sector and the real economy,” said Andreas Preuss, Deputy CEO of Deutsche Boerse AG, in his opening remarks at the forum.

The forum was jointly hosted by Deutsche Boerse Group and KfW Banking Group from 12 to 14 November, 2012, in the Congress Centre of Messe Frankfurt’s International Trade Fair complex.

International entrepreneurs, investors and analysts as well as participants from the financial industry utilized the opportunity to present themselves to a professional audience, with the goal of speaking with investors, deepening knowledge and expanding networks.

“The forum also helps to position Frankfurt as a financial hub for companies seeking to raise capital. This is a significant contribution in terms of financing the real economy, because efficient capital allocation promotes growth and employment,” added Andreas Preuss.

By Sajeev K Peter

FRANKFURT: Friedrich Merz, former member of German parliament, speaks at the German Equity Forum 2012.

Competitive “Germany’s private equity and venture capital sector has become increasingly competitive in the last few years, but there is still a lack of sufficient private equity available,” said Dr Axel Nawrath, member of the KfW Executive Board during the opening plenum.

Promising entrepreneurial ideas cannot be allowed to fail purely because of a lack of financing opportunities. KfW thus offers a range of promotional programs in the area of debt capital, in cooperation with the banks, he added.

“We also offer venture capital to young technology companies as part of the ERP Start-up Fund. We also cooperate here with private market participants, such as venture capital funds, private equity firms and business angels,” he added.

On the first day, a Capital Market Forum was held with presentations and podium discussions on current issues of venture capital and private equity financing and the market situation for raising equity via the stock exchange.

The issue of corporate responsibility and company reporting has become increasingly important for many businesses today. The Corporate Responsibility Investment Forum thus dedicated a day to the issue of sustainability and its significance for the capital markets said an official at the forum. The forum over the years has become a meeting point for the entire community comprising entrepreneurs, investors and analysts as well as the financial services sector, who all came to Frankfurt, said Yusef Ahmed, Founding Partner and Managing Director of F I C Frankfurt International Consulting GmbH, told Kuwait Times.

“The German Equity Forum over the last 17 years has become more and more professionalized. Today it is organized on a much larger scale,” Prof Dr Waldemar Pfoertsch, Speaker of the International Advisory Board, at Frankfurt International Consulting, told Kuwait Times.

Arab investment Prof Dr Pfoertsch, who also has taught in Kellogg University in Chicago, is currently a professor at Pforzheim University, Germany and a visiting professor of marketing at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai (CEIBS).

According to Prof Dr Pfoertsch, Arab investors must come to Germany for two reasons. Though some southern European Prof Dr Waldemar Pfoertsch states have economic problems, Germany is very stable and a safe haven for investors.

The German real estate sector holds out huge potential for investment as it has just begun to boom unlike other parts of Europe. Similarly, sectors like oil & gas, petrochemical,

FRANKFURT: (From left to right) Wolfgang K Schafer, Maha Al-Saadi, Yusef Ahmed, Sara Jazzi, Consultant MENA region, FIC and Badr Badrouli, consultant Mena region, FIC, during the German Equity Forum.

By Sajeev K Peter FRANKFURT: Frankfurt am Main, the financial capital of Germany, is slowly but surely emerging as a leading international financial centre, said Hubertus Vaeth, CEO of Frankfurt Main Finance. Talking to Kuwait Times in an interview on the sidelines of the German Equity Forum 2012, Vaeth said Frankfurt has strong reasons to be the number one financial centre in Europe and it is a global financial centre in the making. Most Financial service providers follow their clients and look where the trade routes and investment flows go. Today, Germany is by far the biggest investment destination in Europe and trading partner in Europe, he said.

As the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB), more than 300 banks are located in Frankfurt. It is one of the strongest economic hubs of Europe with excellent level of infrastructure, technology, training and research.

Investment flow “When you look at the volume of real economy, trade and investment, Germany is clearly number one and Frankfurt is the financial centre of Germany,” he pointed out.

When people think about financial centers in Europe, London comes to their mind first. But when you look at the volume, Frankfurt is number one in Europe, he said.

In order to turn Frankfurt into one of leading financial centers in the world, Frankfurt Main Finance board was formed three years ago, Vaeth said. “We, bankers, service providers, stock exchange and financial experts came together and

formed the foundation of the association to turn Frankfurt into the preferred partner and financial centre in the world,” he pointed out.

Regulation Frankfurt as a strong financial centre in the heart of Europe, has qualified employees, regulatory stability, economic power, innovative strength and excellent infrastructure - the central guarantors of success of the Frankfurt Main Financial Centre.

“No doubt, New York is clearly the number one financial centre globally. But we have some areas of definite advantages,” he said. “The financial sector needs some engineering and topnotch technology support. Look at our payment system, stock market and settlement system. According to statistics, transactions worth billions of dollars are re-priced on a daily basis.

Hubertus Vaeth

healthcare, automotive etc offer great opportunities for participation. “Many German companies, especially the SMEs, are now changing generations. This transition needs support not only in leadership but also in financial terms,” he pointed out.

“There is a huge opportunity for Arab investors who can participate in this kind of transition not only in large companies, but in medium sized companies,” he mentioned.

Talking about building confidence among investors, Prof Dr Pfoertsch said, “Traditionally, Middle Eastern investors are well-connected with British or American financial system.

Now it is time they invest into German companies where return rate will be much higher. And 90 percent of German compaDr Awwad H Al-Nesafi nies are global,” he added.

On the sidelines of the forum, Dr Awwad H Al-Nesafi, Deputy General Manager, K C M E Co, Kuwait, said, “It is a great platform for information sharing on European financial sector”. Dr Awwad, the only Kuwaiti businessman attended the forum, said it not only provided a clear overview of the strength of German financial system, but also offered an opportunity for networking among global businesses.” KCME is the only private company in the Gulf region specialized in reconditioning LPG cylinders according to European standards.

China theme The International Forum this year also discussed the implications and opportunities for foreign investors in the context of China’s 12th five-year economic and social development plan.

China’s FYPs provide overall objectives and goals for key sectors and regions. Thus they are a reference point for policy makers, said an investor.

On the third day, the Bond Forum provided an overview of opportunities in debt financing with companies reporting on the experience they gained through issuing bonds.

Deutsche Boerse’s Entry Standard and Prime Standard for corporate bonds also enabled businesses to raise debt capital via the stock exchange.

In addition, around 200 listed companies, primarily from the Prime Standard, presented their Q3 results at investor and analyst conferences. More than 50 non-listed companies utilized the three-day event to introduce their business models to a broad range of investors.

Hundreds of shares get lost in mails in America every day,” he mentioned.

“We have a payment system that is far more advanced than many other centers around the world. Our system is completely digitized. Similarly, Germans have a long history of being good risk managers and mitigators,” he said.

Frankfurt has a superior regulatory system and it is the number one destination for investment and fund flows.

According to a recent survey, the high degree of internationality of the German financial centre supports its good prospects of becoming a winner in the international competition.

Frankfurt is a truly international centre for finance, commerce, culture, transport, education, and tourism. It is therefore considered an Alpha World city as listed by the Loughborough University group’s 2010 inventory. Frankfurt was ranked 10th among global cities by the Global Power City Index 2011, 11th by the Global City Competitiveness Index 2012 and 7th among international financial centers by the International Financial Centers Development Index 2012.

When asked how the European financial crisis is affecting the fortunes of Frankfurt becoming a global financial centre, Vaeth said, “In this turmoil, one place keeps up and that is Frankfurt. In fact, the financial turmoil is helping Frankfurt. The steady flow of money into Frankfurt shows that.”

FRANKFURT: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) require sufficient capital reserves with an adequate risk-to-capital ratio to withstand any potential financial whirlwinds such as Lehman crisis, said a trade finance expert specialized in financing Middle Eastern businesses.

Talking to Kuwait Times in an interview on the sidelines of German Equity Forum, Marina Attawar, Executive member, DF Deutsche Forfait AG, said, “Lehman crisis was an eye-opener for the mid-cap businesses as well. Unlike previous crises, it affected the entire world because of globalization as financial institutions are inter-connected globally,” she said.

It may be recalled that financial services firm Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008. The filing remains the largest bankruptcy filing in US history, with Lehman holding over $600 billion in assets.

“Lehman crisis was like a wave and it continued rolling and rolling. First the US was affected, then the crisis hit Europe followed by the Middle East. We were all in the same boat,” she elaborated.

Lehman’s loss was apparently a result of having held on to large positions in subprime and other lower-rated mortgage tranches when securitizing the underlying mortgages.

“Historically trade finance products are paid until the last moment. If trade products are not paid in time, people will stop supplying goods to a country, so this area of financing is considered very safe. In this crisis, however, the huge outflow of cash affected trade financing companies as well,” she explained how her company was affected by the crisis.

Marina Attawar

Lehman crisis prompted her company to rethink their business strategy. Each year, we began to create a capital buffer as a precautionary measure. Now we have a risk-to-capital ratio of 65 cents risk to one euro of capital. With these capital reserves and strong base, we are hopeful of weathering any financial storm, she exuded confidence elaborating as to how the company rebounded from Lehman crisis.

Attawar said her company was not interested in entering huge markets. “We have our own niche markets with focus on the Middle East,” she said. The GCC market has always been quite resilient. It recovered from the crisis faster than other regions because of its strong growth potential and economic fundamentals, she added.

Talking specifically about Kuwait market, she said, “Kuwait has a huge demographic advantage. It has a young population,” Attawar said.

DF Deutsche Forfait, specialized in trade finance market over the last 20 years, issued an IPO in 2007. It is listed on Prime Standards in Frankfurt Boerse. The company with an exclusive trade finance fund is now managing its Middle Eastern operations from its Dubai office.

International Consulting, said, “The ongoing harmonization of the pan-European banking regulation will further ease the process for Arab banks to settle in Germany.”

Wolfgang Schaefer, Senior Advisor Banks at Frankfurt International Consulting and former Managing Director of Bank of Beirut in Frankfurt added, “Given the huge trade volumes between the GCC and Germany, we believe Frankfurt the City of Banks - is an ideal location for GCC Arab Banks to start their on-ground operations in Europe. Germany always turns out to be the number one trade partner with every GCC country,” he concluded.

GCC banks Talking to Kuwait Times, Maha Al-Saadi, former regulator at the Qatar Financial Center Regulatory Authority and presently FRANKUFRT am Main: Specialists attend a trading session manager, International Business Development at Frankfurt at the Frankfurt Boerse. — Photos by Sajeev K Peter

26

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

business

Joint venture to import, regasify LNG in Egypt Citadel Capital SAE partners with QInvest, Qatari investors

Bumper-to-Bumper holds annual meeting with customers KUWAIT: Building on tradition of organizing activities and events that enhance channels of communication with its customers, Bumper-to-Bumper from Yusuf A Alghanim & Sons invited its key customers in fleet and insurance companies to an annual ceremonial dinner at the Marina Hotel on Wednesday, November 14, 2012.

This event mark the company’s strategic commitment in building a grounded relationship with its client base in a professional manner in order to grow and enhance their joint successes and accomplishments. Maintaining such a relationship calls for applying various innovative and exclusive services with a focus on offering new products and services on a continuous basis.

Bumper-to-Bumper’s representatives gratefully welcomed the annual ceremonial dinner’s invitees from fleet and insurance companies, and acknowledged that they have played a significant role in Bumper-to-Bumper’s success and exceptional performance especially after the launch of the Vehicle Fitness Test service in association with the Ministry of Interior.

Bumper-to-Bumper is a highly trusted name and company in Kuwait due to its continuous efforts and dedication towards improvement. During May of this year, the Bumper-to-Bumper branch in Al-Rai launched the Vehicle Fitness Test, a milestone that marks the compa-

ny’s pioneering and innovative services that always aim at providing customers with a high level of satisfaction and peace of mind.

At the end of the annual meeting, everyone at the event was invited to enjoy a heartwarming dinner amongst their colleagues, an element that reveals the type of relationship that Bumper-toBumper shares with its entire client database.

Gulf Bank winners of 46th Al-Danah weekly draw KUWAIT: Gulf Bank held its forty-sixth AlDanah weekly draw on November 18, 2012, announcing a total number of eight Al-Danah weekly prize draw winners, each awarded with prizes of KD 1,000.

The 46th Al-Danah weekly Winners are: Lobna Nazem Shafeeq Al-Ghabra, Rawan Abdulreda Abdulla Ashkanani, Lola Thomas Mathew Hessa, Khaled Yassin Abd Al-Gader Enaam, Husain Yousef Mohammed, Wafa Jalel Ahmad Haidar, Abdullah Jasem Mohammed Al-Hamar, Khaled Ibrahim Yousif Al-Raqum.

Gulf Bank encourages everyone in Kuwait to open an Al-Danah account and/or increase their deposits to maximize their chances of becoming a winner in the upcoming weekly (KD1000 each for 10 winners) and 1 Million Dinar draw. Gulf Bank’s Al-Danah allows customers to win cash prizes and encourages them to save money. Chances increase the more mon-

ey is deposited and the longer it is kept in the account.

Al-Danah also offers a number of unique services including the Al-Danah Deposit Only ATM card which helps account holders deposit their money at their convenience; as well as the Al-Danah calculator to help customers calculate their chances of becoming an Al-Danah winner.

To be part of the Al-Danah draws, customers can visit one of Gulf Bank’s 56 branches, transfer on line, or call the Customer Contact Center on 1805805 for assistance and guidance. Customers can also log on to www.e-gulfbank.com, Gulf Bank’s website, to find all the information regarding Al Danah or any of the Bank’s products and services or log on www.egulfbank.com/aldanahwinners, to find out more about Al-Danah and who the winners are.

Al-Tijaria net profits reach KD4,245,674 for period ended Sept 30 Earnings per share reach 2.47 fils l-Tijaria Real Estate Company announced its net profits which reached KD4,245,674 for the period ended on September 30, 2012 with earnings per share amount to 2.47 fils, compared to KD6,370,855 in profits and 4.20 fils in earnings per share for the same period of last year.

As for the financial position and net worth, the total assets have declined slightly due to the disinvestment of some assets. In addition to the Projects under execution which registered an 88% increase in this current period because of the execution and re-evaluation of one of the new projects. On the other hand, the company succeeded in reducing total liabilities by 16.1% i.e. KD23 million in comparison with the same period of the last year which resulted in reducing the financing burden by 33.7% i.e. KD2.2 million.

Furthermore, results the of the company’s business have seen a remarkable progress in some of its activities where revenues of lease related to income - generating revenue real estates rose by 55%. As a result thereof and due to the leasing of the projects already executed and the lease revenues resulted from the consolidation of the financial statements of a subsidiary company (Al Mutajara Real Estate Company). In addition to that, the Company was able to decrease the hotel losses and the losses resulting from the affiliate companies as well as

A

Al Tijaria Chairman and Managing Director, Abdulfattah Marafie other investments. Al Tijaria Chairman and Managing Director, Abdulfattah Marafie, confirmed that the company is steadily moving towards achieving its vision and objectives to achieve the best results, which will lead to added value for the company’s shareholder’s equity.

The chairman thanked all the shareholders and all members of the board, the executive management and all employees of the company for their efforts in attaining the company goals through the attainment of optimum results.

KUWAIT: Leading private equity firm to form joint venture with QInvest and other Qatari investors to bring much-needed natural gas to the Egyptian market starting mid-2013 Citadel Capital SAE, the leading private equity firm in the Middle East and Africa with $9.5 billion in investments under control, yesterday signed a project development and shareholders’ agreement pursuant to which a group of Qatari investors, arranged by QInvest, and Citadel Capital will form a joint venture to construct and own the facilities required to position a Floating LNG storage and regasification unit (FSRU) at a location in Egypt to deliver natural gas to high-volume end-users.

The joint venture will import LNG, regasify it at the FSRU, transmit it through the Egyptian national natural gas grid and market the natural gas to local high-volume endusers. It expects to enter into the Egyptian market pursuant to the licensing process for import of natural gas recently announced by the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).

QInvest is Qatar’s leading investment bank with business lines including investment banking, investment management, brokerage and wealth management. QInvest is owned

by Qatar Islamic Bank, as well as other institutional investors and prominent high net worth individuals from across the Middle East and has an authorized capital of $ 1 billion.

The Qatari investment group will hold a 51% interest in the planned joint venture, with Citadel Capital holding the balance. The planned location of the FSRU facility and the expected investment cost of the project were not announced. The planned joint venture has secured the technical and commercial coop-

Citadel Capital Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal eration of global industry leaders in the field.

“We are delighted to partner with QInvest on this project, which will stand as an important pillar of Egypt’s energy security at a key moment in the nation’s development,” said Citadel Capital Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal. “We believe that Egypt is in strong need of additional natural gas to feed the power generation sector and supply Egypt’s industrial base with a reliable, clean source of energy. Citadel Capital has very strong technical skills in this sector and unrivalled knowledge of the current and planned large consumers of natural gas, thereby putting us in a

unique position to market imported natural gas in Egypt.”

This marks Citadel Capital’s second large project in Egypt’s energy sector with Qatari investors, following this year’s successful financial close of the US$ 3.7 billion financing package for the Egyptian Refining Company (ERC) project, in which Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) is a key shareholder.

Energy is one of five core industries in which Citadel Capital invests, alongside mining, agriculture and consumer foods, transportation and logistics and cement manufacturing.

FASTtelco celebrates 11th anniversary of its establishment KUWAIT: FASTtelco, the leading Internet Service provider in Kuwait recently celebrated the 11th anniversary of its establishment, with an announcement of celebration among its employees Over the years, FT has evolved into a cutting edge professional company that puts full emphasis on employee development, growth and success. Such efforts have not gone unanswered as the company recently was the recipient of the of the Bizz International Award of 2012 as the most prestigious company in its field in business excellence, as well as acquiring the prestigious Annual GCC HR Excellence Award for Best Change Management strategy of 2012, awarded in Spain and UAE respectively.

On this proud occasion, Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of Al-Deera Holding, and CEO of FASTtelco Abdulwahab Al-Nakib declared proudly that FASTtelco takes great pride and excitement in celebrating its 11th anniversary and the many successes achieved over the past decade. He also mentioned that, with the numerous awards, prizes and government honors, FT have

proven it reliability, Quality and customer focused principles, in gaining the public’s admiration and trust.

According to Al-Nakib, FASTtelco, part of it strategic business initiative, has introduced

Abdulwahab Al-Nakib many unique value added products and services to the Internet and data communication market by utilizing the most innovative technologies in the Middle East region. The company is also working on developing large full scale projects by developing the most

advanced infrastructure in Kuwait and has invested strongly in developing and managing its human capital. Moreover, Al-Nakib added that FASTtelco has developed ambitious programs that keep track of the technological cycle in the Internet and data communication field despite the increased usage demand of both individuals and companies.

FASTtelco has striven to maintain a leading position amongst its competitors by offering its customers a vast array of quality services and products at highly competitive prices.

The intense competitive market sector in Kuwait has only challenged FT to become a stronger pioneer in developing and executing cutting edge customer service tools and techniques Placing FT ahead in respect to the latest technological innovations. Al-Nakib, took the opportunity during this special occasion to thank both FTs loyal customers and business partners who have participated and shared in FASTtelco’s impressive growth over the years and highlighted the fact that FASTtelco’s success relies on strategic partnerships, and reliance on its many loyal customers’ who are considered the company’s secret to success!

Malaysia’s economy holds strong KCIC ASIA ECONOMIC REPORT

By Dana Al-Fakir KUWAIT: Malaysia continues to outshine its South East Asian peers: in the third quarter of 2012, it logged in a better-than-expected growth rate of 5.2% year-on-year, an ever so slight ease from 5.6% in the previous quarter.

Unlike its neighbors, the Malaysian economy is becoming increasingly reliant on its resilient domestic sector, against a backdrop of sluggish global demand. Both a surge in investment and strong consumption levels managed to offset shortfalls in the trade sector and government expenditure, and keep growth buoyant into the third quarter. Private consumption was driven upby populist government spending, which included cash transfers to thousands of low-income households and higher wages for civil servants.The rise in investment levels was fuelled by both public and private capital spending: the government engaged in heavy infrastructure spending under its Economic Transformation Program, in a bid to lure in more foreign investors, and private capital spending was spurred by opportunities in the services sector, particularly the transportation, real estate and utilities sectors. Exports continue to get hammered by slowing global demand. The G3 countries (the United States, European Union and Japan) make up almost a third of Malaysia’s export demand, but with the US struggling to sustain a strong economic recovery and the EU sputtering due to its lingering debt crisis, Malaysia’s exports, a bulk of which are machinery and thus cyclical products, are faltering. If domestic demand and investment levels do remain high, they could continue to offset dwindling export demand and help the nation achieve its targeted economic growth rate of 4 to 5% by year-end and, simultaneously, support company earnings.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the economic output or of the size of the economy - adjusted for inflation or deflation. It is the sum of the values of all final

goods and services produced by that country or region over a given time period. The values depend on the quantities (volume) of the goods produced and their prices. Real GDP is a measure that holds prices constant by using a given year’s value (the base date) for all items and services. Then these values are used to calculate GDP for years prior to the base year and subsequent years. The graph illustrates the expenditure breakdown of GDP, which consists of private consumption, government expenditure, fixed capital investments, exports and imports. Private consumption is a strong driver of growth in the domestic-oriented nation, but exports have traditionally contributed more to GDP growth, as illustrated by the graph.

Malaysia is unlikely to witness any positive data on the export front anytime soon, unless an unexpected recovery takes place in the US and the EU. However, if the internal market holds firm, it could help cushion the downturn in external demand. This is the base case for the central bank, which explains why it has not eased its policy rate since early 2011, whilst some of its other Asian counterparts

have had to cut interest rates to bolster growth.The robustness in domestic consumption can be mainly attributed to the government’s cash giveaways to the poor and the implementation of the minimum wage for the very first time in May. Malaysia’s policymakers enacted a minimum wage law to help support low income households, in a bid to achieve a rich nation status by 2020 and please potential voters ahead of the elections, that are expected to be held early next year.

The policymakers are hoping that the lowest paid will now be guaranteed enough income to lift them out of poverty and meet the rising costs of living. Thus, if the cash giveaways and minimum wage do continue to feed through into the hands of the consumer then the domestic economy will subsequently remain buoyant. Higher private investment, from more pipeline projects, is also expected to prop up growth. The shift from being an export-led economy to a more domestically driven one in Malaysia, is taking place faster than elsewhere, making the country increasingly attractive for companies catering for that sector.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

TECHNOLOGY IBM supercomputer used to simulate typical human brain

UAE’s Minister of Foreign Trade Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi.

Ali Faramawy, CVP and President Microsoft Middle East and Africa

Microsoft showcases Windows 8 in Dubai Amazing new devices, rich apps

By Islam Al-Sharaa DUBAI: “Windows 8” was launched at the Armani Hoel, located in Khalifa Tower, Dubai, on Monday. The UAE’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi, who welcomed all those present at the launch, said the UAE is interested in modern technology.

The launch witnessed the display of the largest computer by Microsoft in addition to a large group of applications available at Windows e-trade which were developed by various global companies. Those applications include several Islamic services and various news services apart from others.

The new Windows system provides an opportunity to experience work processing or entertainment. It can be used with a keyboard or touch pad as it meets the needs of the user.

“Windows 8” provides a screen that allows the user to access the application and content with just one touch, in addition to the new internet browser “Internet Explorer 10” which works with touch and is capable of working with cloud applications like Sky Drive.

Technology experts, developers and winning students of the “Imagine Cap” event that was held in Sydney, Australia were present at the launch.

The new system will be available in more than 140 markets in more than 37 languages.

Antoine Leblond, Corporate Vice President for Windows Web Services at Microsoft Corp., and Ali Faramawy, Corporate Vice President Microsoft Corporation and President - Microsoft Middle East & Africa, discussed the opportunity Windows 8 brings to consumers, businesses and developers.

“Windows 8 offers a no compromise platform, giving you the same experience on a touch device as through mouse and keyboard,” said Leblond. “Windows 8 builds on what is great about Windows 7 - it works well side-by-side with existing Windows 7 infrastructure to deliver the experiences people love and the enterprise-grade solutions organizations need.

Windows 8 also helps companies improve the way they do business through immersive apps developed to better reach employees and improve customers’ experiences.”

Now available on more than 1,000 certified PCs and tablets on a wide variety of screen sizes, configurations, and designs, Windows 8 is supported by thousands of apps available in the Windows Store.

“The innovation Windows 8 is sparking in the region is impressive,” said Ali Faramawy. “Just a few weeks after its global launch, Windows 8 is already transforming the lives of consumers, businesses and economies through a set of amazing new

Windows Store represents a major opportunity for developers with the largest potential market of any platform as all new and upgraded Windows PCs can run Windows Store apps. Developers using the Windows Store for their apps have the most control over their business, the most favorable terms, and the most flexibility in their code.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in soft-

Some of the journalists

devices and rich apps.UAE Smart Learning is a great example of how technology is helping to make the region more competitive internationally by equipping students with access tolatest technology.”

Microsoft highlighted early deployment customers, including British Telecom, Emirates Airlines and UAE Smart Learning, that are already taking advantage of enterprise benefits - from enhanced fundamentals with security, performance and manageability to new features like Windows To Go that offer new possibilities in mobile productivity.

Microsoft also announced new apps from DEWA, Time Out Dubai and Fedex ‘Shop & Ship’. These and other apps are available on the recently opened Windows Store. In addition to opportunity for companies to reach customers directly, the

ware, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Emirates, one of the fastest-growing airlines in the world, announced at the Windows 8 launch event in Dubai the developmentof a line-of-business application for Windows 8 called Knowledge Driven Inflight Service (KIS). An in-flight communication and customer relationship management device first introduced by Emirates for its pursers in 2004, the KIS application will now run on the soon-tobe-launched HP ElitePad900 business tablets and will enable Emirates to continue to deliver extraordinary customer service and experiences.

“At Emirates, we strive to deliver the world’s best in-flight experience,” said Kevin Griffiths, senior vice president, Cabin Crew

at Emirates. “We constantly invest in the best aircraft, products and service. To support our crew, we have created an application on Windows 8 that deliversa unique, personalized experience with the necessary information for our cabin crew to better serve the needs of customers. The Windows 8 platform running on HP ElitePad 900 devicesgave us this option, allowing us to create the KIS app that enables our crew to offer an experience not available on other airlines.”

Pursers on the flight use the KIS application to brief the cabin crew before every flight and understand how to best meet the personal preferences and needs of passengers. The crew can also use the application to easily conduct in-flight upgrades to businessclass or first class for Emirates Skywards members, as well as customer feedback that is immediately routed to headquarters upon landing.

As the first global customer of the HP ElitePad 900, Emirates is creating a new KIS tablet that is light, attractive and has a long battery life, ideal for nonstop flights. The device, announced by HP in October and available to customers in January 2013, is built specifically for business users, offering Windows 8 optimization and a beautiful lightweight design. Combined with Windows 8’s touch-optimized user interface, whichquickly shows the most important information via Live Tiles, the crew can spend more time interacting with customers in a unique and efficient way.

When deployment across its fleet is complete, Emirates will have 1,000 HP ElitePad 900 devices running the KIS application on Windows 8.More information on the KIS application running on Windows 8 is available atthe Microsoft Showcase.

Emirates operates more than 2,500 flights per week to 126 destinations in 74 countries across six continents. The awardwinning airline operates the largest fleet of A380s with 27, and the world’s largest fleet of Boeing 777s.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Restaurant waitlist apps ease diner frustration SAN JOSE: It’s a familiar scene at any bustling restaurant during the Sunday brunch rush - the only thing standing between you and eggs Benedict is an unwieldy waitlist and an overwhelmed hostess who may not remember your name when a table opens up in an hour. The backlog of hungry customers and an inefficient table-seating system - which has traditionally relied on a hostess yelling “Frank! Party of four!” out the restaurant door - is enough to try the patience of the most avid restaurant diner and trip up even the most smoothly run restaurant operations.

As it turns out, there’s an app to help with that. Quite a few apps, in fact, and restaurants are scooping up the new technology to ease customer frustrations and create more efficient dining experiences. It’s part of the digital restaurant revolution that has opened up a booming market for iPad applications and given restaurants a boost in style and service. “You’re starting to see mobile technology really penetrates into restaurants,” said Daniel Conway, legislative and public affairs director for the California Restaurant Association. “I think that’s kind of the leading edge of where the technology is going.”

Umami restaurant in San Francisco is among the early adopters of NoshList, a waitlist application out of Pleasanton, Calif.-based incubator Firespotter Labs. Umami General Manager PJ Patton said she realized within a few months of the restaurant’s opening last year that the old pencil-and-paper method wasn’t cutting muster. The trendy restaurant was juggling waitlists an hour or two long, trying to chase down customers once their table was ready. “It was messy-looking,” Patton said. “And people didn’t trust us.”

Convinced that the hostess had forgotten them, some customers were walking out in the midst of waitlist mayhem. So Umami enlisted the help of NoshList. The app allows restaurant staff to manage parties - adding, seating and removing them as necessary - from an iPad or iPhone. NoshList users enter a customer’s name, phone number and party size, and with the press of a button send an automatic text or recorded call to the customer’s cellphone when a table is ready. “It’s not intrusive,” said Cody Rose, who works on the application for Firespotter Labs. “You don’t have a hostess yelling out a name at the top of their lungs.”

NoshList calculates average wait times by party size and tracks

in real time how long each party has been waiting. Patton said customers trust the app _ more than they trust a hostess _ and have more confidence they’ll be seated when they were told they would. “It has changed people’s attitudes completely,” she said.

And because they don’t have to be within earshot when their table is ready, customers can run errands while they wait or head down the street for a cocktail, returning to Umami all the more jubilant.

Waitlist apps can help restaurants turn tables more efficiently, which increases business and profit, said Conway of the California Restaurant Association. “It’s a volume business, and it’s about getting that turnover,” he said. “The quicker you can do that, that’s money.” It’s also about appearance. The iPad is much sexier and cheaper - than those bulky, hockey puck-size buzzers, which inevitably have to be replaced once or twice a month after disappearing with an absent-minded customer. Some restaurant owners say the technology bolsters their business image and is a conversation piece for customers.

NoshList is the latest in restaurant-oriented products from Firespotter, which was founded in 2011 with about $3 million from Google Ventures. It’s done well since launching in February, and the free app is in about 1,500 restaurants, from small eateries

This screen shot displays various apps for the iPad.

to national chains like Red Robin. But it’s far from the only option in an increasingly crowded market, where developers are eagerly courting restaurateurs with products that digitize and streamline every step of the dining experience. Other waitlist management apps and services include TimeView, Tableista, Diner Connection, TurnStar, Table’s Ready and BuzzTable.

Pittsburgh-based NoWait was one of the first to the market when it landed in early 2010. The app (which, despite its name, does not promise customers will have no wait) recently sealed a $2 million investment and is in restaurants in all 50 states - including Comal, a thriving Mexican eatery in Berkeley, Calif. By late summer, three months after Comal opened, the restaurant was seating about 250 parties a night, and the ballooning waitlist was too much for a pencil-and-paper system. “At that point, it felt like we were in triage at the host stand, and we really needed an answer,” said co-owner and general manager Andrew Hoffman. “We will not be going back to the old way.”

But the “new way” poses a few privacy concerns. Janna Cruz, a manager at 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, said the restaurant invoked customer fury when it tested TimeView. The service used customers’ cell numbers to text promotions and advertisements. Cruz said the restaurant put a stop to the marketing texts and switched to NoshList more than six months ago.

That app saves phone numbers, but Cruz said the restaurant doesn’t use customer information for purposes other than the waitlist. Still, she said “sometimes people get a little wary” when the hostess asks for a cell number.

But because most of these apps are free, developers are looking for ways to make money by collecting data to sell back to restaurants. NoshList recently launched a premium service for $49 per month, which, among other features, allows restaurants to obtain up to a month’s worth of information about their guests.

Waitlist apps are just the start of digital restaurant transformation.

The online reservation system is booming, led by giant OpenTable, and more restaurants are replacing cash registers and ordering systems with iPads and apps. “There’s enough critical mass of people trying to do this,” Hoffman said. “We’re fairly convinced that these applications are going to get better and better in the very near future.” — MCT

NEW YORK: The human brain, arguably the most complex object in the known universe, is a truly remarkable power-saver: it can simultaneously gather thousands of sensory inputs, interpret them in real time as a whole and react appropriately, abstracting, learning, planning and inventing, all on a strict power budget of about 20 W. A computer of comparable complexity that uses current technology, according to IBM’s own estimates, would drain about 100 MW of power.

Clearly, such power consumption would be highly impractical. The problem, then, begs for an entirely new approach. IBM’s answer is cognitive computing, a newly coined discipline that combines the latest discoveries in the field of neuroscience, nanotechnology and supercomputing.

Neuroscience has taught us that the brain consumes little power mainly because it is “event-driven.”

In simple terms this means that individual neurons, synapses and axons only consume power as they are activated - e.g. by an external sensory input or other neurons - and consume no power otherwise. This is however not the case with today’s computers, which, in comparison, are huge power wasters.

The IBM engineers have leveraged this knowledge to build a novel computer architecture, and then used it to simulate a number of neurons and synapses comparable to what would be found in a typical human brain. The result is not a biologically or functionally accurate simulation of the human brain - it cannot sense, conceptualize, or “think” in any traditional sense of the word - but it is still a crucial step toward the creation of a machine that, one day, might do just that.

The researchers’ starting point was CoCoMac, a comprehensive but incomplete database detailing the wiring of a macaque’s brain. After four years of painstaking work patching the database, the team members were able to obtain a workable dataset which they used to inspire the layout of their artificial brain.

IBM researchers have simulated a virtual brain comparable in complexity to that of a human.

Inside the system, the two main components are neurons and synapses.

Neurons are the computing centers: each neuron can receive input signals from up to ten thousand neighboring neurons, elaborate the data, and then fire an output signal. Approximately 80 percent of neurons are excitatory - meaning that, if they fire a signal, they also tend to excite neighboring neurons. The remaining 20 percent of neurons are inhibitory - when they fire a signal, they also tend to inhibit neighboring neurons.

Synapses link up different neurons, and it is here that memory and learning actually take place. Each synapse has an associated “weight value” that changes based on the number of signals, fired by the neurons, that travel along them. When a large number of neuron-generated signals travel through the same synapse, the weight value increases and the virtual brain begins to learn by association.

The algorithm periodically checks whether each neuron is firing a signal: if it is, the adjacent synapses will be notified, and they will update their weight values and interact with other neurons accordingly. The crucial aspect here is that the algorithm will only expend CPU time on the very small fraction of synapses that actually need to be fired, rather than on all of them - saving massive amounts of time and energy.

The beauty of this new computer architecture is that - just like an organic brain - it is event-driven, distributed, highly power-conscious, and bypasses some of the well-known limitations intrinsic to the way standard computers are designed.

IBM’s end goal is to eventually build a machine with human-brain complexity in a comparably small package, and with a power consumption approaching 1 kW. For the time being, however, this milestone has been accomplished by the not so portable (nor particularly power-conscious) Blue Gene/Q Sequoia supercomputer, using 1,572,864 processor cores, 1.5 PB (1.5 million GB) of memory, and 6,291,456 threads.

In an effort to dramatically reduce power consumption, IBM is also building its own custom chip so-called “neurosynaptic cores” - that harness the full potential of the new computer architecture and will eventually replace the supercomputer for these simulations.

Making up each core are “neurons,” “synapses” and “axons.” Despite their names, the design of these components wasn’t biologically inspired, but was rather highly optimized for the sake of minimizing manufacturing costs and maximizing performance.

Because of the extreme parallelism built into this architecture, the chips built using this technology could be well-suited to solving any problem in which very large amounts of input data need to be fed into a machine - not unlike a standard neural network, but with massively improved performance and power consumption.

The experiment allowed IBM to better understand the limitations of the standard computer architecture, including the trade-offs between memory, computation and communication on a very large scale.

Looking forward, it also gathered the know-how that will serve design and enable even better low-power, massively parallel chips with improved performance.

Future applications could include dramatically improved weather forecasts, stock market predictions, intelligent patient monitoring systems that can perform diagnoses in real time, and optical character recognition (OCR) and speech recognition software matching human performance, to name just a few.

As for recreating the actual behavior of a human brain, we’re still many, many years away by all accounts. But at least, it seems, progress is being made.

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

health & science

Will storm-struck US deliver at climate talks?

STOCKHOLM: During a year with a monster storm and scorching heat waves, Americans have experienced the kind of freakish weather that many scientists say will occur more often on a warming planet. And as a re-elected president talks about global warming again, climate activists are cautiously optimistic that the US will be more than a disinterested bystander when the UN climate talks resume Monday with a two-week conference in Qatar. “I think there will be expectations from countries to hear a new voice from the United States,” said Jennifer Morgan, director of the climate and energy program at the World Resources Institute in Washington.

The climate officials and environment ministers meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha will not come up with an answer to the global temperature rise that is already melting Arctic sea ice and permafrost, raising and acidifying the seas, and shifting rainfall patterns with impacts on floods and droughts.

They will focus on side issues, like extending the Kyoto protocol - an expiring emissions pact with a dwindling number of members - and ramping up climate financing for poor nations. They will also try to structure the talks for a new global climate deal that is supposed to be adopted in 2015, a process in which American leadership is considered crucial. Many were disappointed

that Obama didn’t put more emphasis on climate change during his first term.

He took some steps to rein in emissions of heat-trapping gases, such as sharply increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. But a climate bill that would have capped US emissions stalled in the Senate. “We need the US to engage even more,” European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said. “Because that can change the dynamic of the talks.” The world tried to move forward without the US after the Bush Administration abandoned the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 pact limiting greenhouse emissions from industrialized nations. As that agreement expires this year, the climate curves are still pointing in the wrong direction.

The concentration of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide has jumped 20 percent since 2000, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil, according to a UN report released this week. And each year, the gap between what researchers say must be done to reverse this trend, and what’s actually being done, gets wider.

Bridging that gap, through clean technology and renewable energy, is not just up to the US, but to countries like India and China, whose carbon emissions are growing the fastest as their economies expand. But Obama raised hopes of a more robust US role in the

talks when he called for a national “conversation” on climate change after winning re-election. The issue had been virtually absent in the presidential campaigning until Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast. The president still faces domestic political constraints, and there’s little hope of the US increasing its voluntary pledge in the UN talks of cutting emissions by 17 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.

Still, just a signal that Washington has faith in the international process would go a long way, analysts said. “The perception of many negotiators and countries is that the US is not really interested in increasing action on climate change in general,” said Bill Hare, senior scientist at Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization based in Berlin. For example, Hare said, the US could stop “talking down” the stated goal of the UN talks to keep the temperature rise below 2 degrees C (3.6 F) compared to pre-industrial levels.

Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change, caused alarm among climate activists in August when he said that “insisting on a structure that would guarantee such a goal will only lead to deadlock.” He later clarified that the US still supports the 2-degree target, but favors a more flexible way to reach it than dividing up carbon rights to the atmosphere. Countries adopted the 2degree target in 2009, reasoning that a

warming world is a dangerous world, with flooding of coastal cities and island nations, disruptions to agriculture and drinking water, and the spread of diseases and the extinction of species. A recent World Bank report found the world is on track toward 4 degrees C (6.2 F) of warming, which would entail “extreme heat-waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and life-threatening sea level rise.” The US, alone among industrialized countries, didn’t ratify the Kyoto Protocol because it found it unfair that China and other emerging economies, as developing countries, were not covered by any binding emissions targets.

The US and other rich countries say that firewall must be removed as the talks enter a new phase aimed at adopting a new climate treaty by 2015 that applies to all countries. China - now the world’s top carbon emitter - wants to keep a clear dividing line between developed and developing countries, noting that historically, the former bear the brunt of the responsibility for man-made climate change. The issue is unlikely to be resolved in Doha, where talks will focus on extending Kyoto as a stopgap measure while negotiators work on the wider deal, which would take effect in 2020.

The 27-nation EU, Switzerland, Norway and Australia are on board but New Zealand, Canada and Japan don’t want to be part of a second commit-

ment period of Kyoto. That means the extended treaty would cover only about 15 percent of global emissions.

Delegates in Doha will also try to finalize the rules of the Green Climate Fund, which is supposed to raise $100 billion a year by 2020. Financed by richer nations, the fund would support poorer nations in converting to cleaner energy sources and in adapting to a shifting climate that may damage people’s health, agriculture and economies in general. In addition, countries need to agree on a work plan to guide the negotiations on a new treaty.

Without a timeframe with clear mileposts, there’s a risk of a repeat in 2015 of the hyped-up but ultimately disappointing climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009. Judging by previous conferences, the negotiations in Doha will ebb and flow, with progress one day being replaced by bitter discord the next. And in the end, after an all-night session, bleary-eyed delegates will emerge with some kind of face-saving “accord” or “action plan” that keeps the talks alive another year, but does little to address the core problem. “It shows that leaders and also the public in these countries - the US certainly is one of them don’t yet understand the full implications of the costs associated with the path that we’re on,” said Alden Meyer, of the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists. — AP

Climate talks to resume amid warnings of looming calamity PARIS: Nearly 200 nations gather in Doha from tomorrow for a new round of climate talks as a rush of reports warn extreme weather events like superstorm Sandy may become commonplace if mitigation efforts fail. Negotiators will converge in the Qatari capital for two weeks under the UN banner to review commitments to cutting climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.

Ramping up the pressure, expert reports warned in recent days that existing mitigation pledges are not nearly enough to limit warming to a manageable 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 deg Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels. “A faster response to climate change is necessary and possible,” UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said ahead of the talks.

“Doha must make sure the response is accelerated.” The UN Environmental Program said this week the goal of keeping planet warming in check has moved further out of reach and the world was headed for an average 3-5 deg C temperature rise this century barring urgent action.

And the World Bank said a planet that is four degrees warmer would see coastal areas inundated and small islands washed away, food production slashed, species eradicated, more frequent heat waves and high-intensity cyclones, and diseases

spread to new areas. “Time is clearly not on our side,” Marlene Moses, chairwoman of the Alliance of Small Island States said.

Topping the agenda in Doha is the launch of a followup commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only binding pact for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Delegates must also set out a work plan for arriving in the next 36 months at a new, global climate deal that must enter into force by 2020. Negotiators will be under pressure to raise pre-2020 emission reduction targets, and rich nations to come up with funding for the developing world’s mitigation actions.

The planet has witnessed recordbreaking temperatures in the past decade and frequent natural disasters that some blame on climate change-recently superstorm Sandy which ravaged Haiti and the US east coast.

Yet countries disagree on several issues, including the duration of a “second commitment period” for the Kyoto Protocol, which binds about 40 rich nations and the EU to an average five percent greenhouse gas reduction from 1990-levels. That commitment runs out on December 31. The EU, Australia and some small Kyoto parties have said they would take on commitments in a followup period, but New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Russia will not. — AFP

JAKARTA: Indonesian children play in the water at a flooded neighborhood in Jakarta. Heavy downpour has caused flooding that occur almost every year in some parts of greater Jakarta due to bad city planning. — AP

Activists rally against dolphin, whale hunt TOKYO: Environmentalists and nationalists held opposing rallies over the issue of Japan’s dolphin and whale hunts in a rare showdown in central Tokyo yesterday, leading to angry scenes. About 50 anti-whaling activists gathered at a park in the Shibuya shopping district with banners bearing slogans such as “Stop the cruel dolphin hunt!” while across the street about 30 nationalists shouted “Get out of Japan!” The nationalists accused the environmentalists of undermining Japanese culture and traditions, saying “environmental terrorists” should be sent to slaughter houses. The rally was part of demonstrations to be held around the world this weekend against the killing of dolphins in the Japanese town of Taiji, according to the organizer, Action for Marine Mammals. Demonstrations are also planned in cities including London, Sao Paulo, Vancouver and across the United States, the Tokyo-based group said.

Taiji, in western Japan, drew global attention after “The Cove”, a hard-hitting film about the annual dolphin hunts there, won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2010. Fishermen corral hundreds of dolphins into a secluded bay, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and slaughter the rest for meat. The dolphin hunt takes place over a period of months. The demonstrators also called for an end to Japan’s annual state-spon-

sored whaling mission to the Southern Ocean, due to start in the next few weeks. Japan hunts whales using a loophole in a global moratorium that allows for so-called “scientific research”, although the meat is later sold openly in shops and restaurants. — AFP

TOKYO: Some 50 anti-whaling and antidolphin-hunting demonstrators march in the street in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP

PLYMOUTH: Two people walk along the Hoe, in Plymouth, England, in heavy rain and high winds yesterday. The Environment Agency (EA) have 52 flood warnings and 159 less serious flood alerts in place as England, Wales and Scotland braces itself for one inch of rain and gusts of winds up to 60mph. (Right) French CNRS researcher Hugo Valls (right) and two Zimbabwean students, download datas from a weather station on November 18, 2012 at the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. — AFP

Extreme weather hits transportation system Wild weather taking toll on roads, airports, railways WASHINGTON: Wild weather is taking a toll on roads, airports, railways and transit systems across the country. That’s leaving states and cities searching for ways to brace for more catastrophes like Superstorm Sandy that are straining the nation’s transportation lifelines beyond what their builders imagined. Despite their concerns about intense rain, historic floods and record heat waves, some transportation planners find it too politically sensitive to say aloud a source of their weather worries: climate change.

Political differences are on the minds of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, whose advice on the design and maintenance of roads and bridges is closely followed by states. The association recently changed the name of its Climate Change Steering Committee to the less controversial Sustainable Transportation, Energy Infrastructure and Climate Solutions Steering Committee.

Still, there is a recognition that the association’s guidance will need to be updated to reflect the new realities of global warming.

“There is a whole series of standards that are going to have to be revisited in light of the change in climate that is coming at us,” said John Horsley, the association’s executive director. In the latest and most severe example, Superstorm Sandy inflicted the worst damage to the New York subway system in its 108-year history, halted Amtrak and commuter train service to the city for days, and forced cancellation of thousands of airline flights at airports in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

In Washington state, “we joked we were having 100-year storms every year,” said Paula Hammond, head of the state’s Department of Transportation. Last year flooding threatened to swallow up the Omaha, Neb., airport, which sits on a bend in the Missouri River. The ground beneath the airfield became saturated, causing about 100 sinkholes and “soil boils” uplifted areas of earth where water bubbles to the surface.

The airport was spared through a massive effort that included installing 70 dewatering wells and stacking sandbags around airport equipment and buildings. Record-smashing heat from Colorado to Virginia last summer caused train tracks to bend and highway pavement to buckle. A US Airways jet was delayed at Washington’s Reagan National Airport after its wheels got stuck in a soft spot in the tarmac. Dallas had more than five weeks of consecutive 100 degree-plus high temperatures.

“That puts stress on pavements that previously we didn’t see,” Horsley said.

States and cities are trying to come to terms

with what the change means to them and how they can prepare for it. Transportation engineers build highways and bridges to last 50 or even 100 years.

Now they are reconsidering how to do that, or even whether they can, with so much uncertainty. No single weather event, even a storm like Sandy, can be ascribed with certainty to climate change, according to scientists.

But the increasing severity of extreme events fits with the kind of changing climate conditions that scientists have observed. For example, several climate scientists say sea level along New York and much of the Northeast is about a foot higher than a century ago, mostly because of man-made global warming, and that added significantly to the damage when Sandy hit.

Making transportation infrastructure more resilient will be expensive, and the bill would come at a particularly difficult time. Aging highways, bridges, trains and buses already are in need of repair or replacement and no longer can handle peak traffic demands. More than 140,000 bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete. The problem only will worsen as the U.S. population grows. A congressional commission estimated that all levels of government together are spending $138 billion a year less than is needed to maintain the current system and to make modest improvements.

“The infrastructure of the nation is aging and it’s at risk because, quite frankly, we’re all not investing enough to take care of these facilities,” said Hammond, the chairwoman of the climate committee. “And now we’re facing extreme weather threats that cause us to need emergency response capabilities beyond what we’ve had in the past.” In Washington state, “we have seen more erratic weather patterns that we haven’t had before, so we really can’t imagine what kind of winter or summer we’re going to have anymore,” Hammond said.

More frequent heavy rainfalls in the western half of the state have increased the volume and velocity of water in rivers and streams, undermining the foundations of bridges.

Rising sea levels are eroding coastal roads. In the drier eastern half of the state, more frequent wildfires have forced road maintenance crews to change their methods in an effort to prevent sparks that might cause a blaze. “Each time you replace a bridge, states have to be thinking about not just what kind of traffic demand there is, but how do I make sure this is a bridge that will withstand the future given the erratic weather patterns and climate change we’re seeing,” Hammond said. “It’s a new layer of analysis.”

About half the states have taken some steps toward assessing their most critical vulnerabilities, experts said. But few have gone to the next step of making preparations. New York was an exception. Not only had transit officials made detailed assessments of the potential effects of climate change, but they’d started to put protections in place. Subway entrances and ventilation grates were raised in low-lying areas to reduce flooding, but that effort was overwhelmed by Sandy. “They got hit with what was even worse than even their worst-case scenario,” said Deron Lovaas, a transportation expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.

“This was an active test of ... climate preparedness, and they failed.” While more than 97 percent of the scientists who publish peerreviewed research say that global warming is real and man-made, the issue remains highly charged. In conservative states, the term “climate change” is often associated with leftleaning politics. Planning for weather extremes is hampered by reluctance among many officials to discuss anything labeled “climate change,” Horsley said.

“In the Northeast, you can call it climate change. ... That’s an acceptable term in that region of the country,” he said. “Elsewhere, in the South and the (Mountain) West, it’s still not an acceptable term because of ideology or whatever you want to call it.”

For example, Horsley said, in North Dakota, where there has been severe flooding in recent years, state officials avoid bringing up global warming, preferring to couch their discussions on how to shore up infrastructure as flood preparation. The Obama administration has also shied away from talking publicly about adaptation to climate change.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s office refused to allow any department officials to be interviewed by The Associated Press about the agency’s efforts to help states adapt.

The Transportation Department and other federal agencies are involved in preparing a national assessment of climate change impacts and adaptations that may be needed.

Their report is expected to be finished in the next few months.

Steve Winkelman, director of transportation and adaptation programs at the Center for Clean Air Policy, said he uses terms like “hazard mitigation” and “emergency preparedness” rather than climate change when talking to state and local officials. “This is about my basement flooding, not the polar bear - what I call inconvenient sewer overflow,” Winkelman said.

“It makes it real.” — AP

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

health & science

Galapagos tortoise can be revived: Researchers

Scientists say they can resurrect Pinta Island subspecies LIMA: Lonesome George, the late reptile prince of the Galapagos Islands, may be dead, but scientists now say he may not be the last giant tortoise of his species after all.

Researchers say they may be able to resurrect the Pinta Island subspecies by launching a cross-breeding program with 17 other tortoises found to contain genetic material similar to that of Lonesome George, who died June 24 at the Pacific Ocean archipelago off Ecuador’s coast after repeated failed efforts to reproduce.

Edwin Naula, director of the Galapagos National Park, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that the probability is high it can be

accomplished. “It would be the first time that a species was recovered after having been declared extinct,” Naula said. But it won’t happen overnight. “This is going to take about 100 to 150 years,” Naula added. Scientists took DNA samples from 1,600 tortoises on Wolf volcano, and found the Pinta variety in 17, though their overall genetic makeup varied. Through cross-breeding, “100 percent pure species” can be achieved, said Naula, a biologist.

He said the 17 tortoises were being transferred from Isabela island, where the volcano is located, to the park’s breeding center at Santa Cruz, the main island on the archipelago

whose unique flora and fauna helped inspire Charles Darwin’s work on evolution.

The results are to be published in the journal Biological Conservation, the park said. The study on Wolf volcano was conducted by Yale University and the Galapagos park with financial help from the Galapagos Conservancy. In a news release, the park said scientists speculate that giant tortoises from Pinta island might have arrived at Wolf volcano after being taken off by whaling ships for food and later cast overboard.

At least 14 species of giant tortoise originally inhabited the islands’

620 miles (1,000 kilometers) off Ecuador’s coast and 10 survive. A visit to Lonesome George became de rigueur for celebrities and common folk alike among the 180,000 people who annually visit the Galapagos.

Before humans arrived, the islands were home to tens of thousands of giant tortoises.

The number fell to about 3,000 in 1974, but the recovery program run by the national park and the Charles Darwin Foundation has succeeded in increasing the overall population to 20,000. Lonesome George’s age at death was not known, but scientists believed he was about 100, not especially old for a giant tortoise. — AFP

Ancient tombs discovered in Pakistan’s Swat valley

SWAT: Photo shows a skeleton in an ancient grave discovered this fall in Udegram, in northwestern Pakistan’s Swat Valley. — AFP

ISLAMABAD: Italian archaeologists say they have discovered a cemetery that reveals complex funeral rites dating back more than 3,000 years in Pakistan’s Swat valley, recently controlled by the Taleban. The Italian mission began digging in the 1950s at Udegram, a site of Buddhist treasures in Swat, the northwestern district formerly known as the Switzerland of Pakistan for its stunning mountains, valleys and rivers. Archaeologists were aware of a pre-Buddhist grave site in Udegram, but only recently discovered the collection of almost 30 graves, tightly clustered and partially overlapping. “Some graves had a stone wall, others were protected by walls and enclosures in beaten clay,” Luca Maria Olivieri, head of the Italian mission said.

“The cemetery... seems to have been used between the end of the second millennium BCE and the first half of the first millennium BCE,” he added. Olivieri says the tombs point to the culture that predates the Buddhist Gandhara civilization that took hold in northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan from the first millennium BCE to the

sixth century AD. “The presence of a few iron fragments might be amongst the most ancient traces of this metal in the subcontinent,” he said. Bodies were first laid to rest in open graves, fenced in by wooden railings. Then the graves were re-opened and the bones partially burnt before the graves were sealed and a burial mound built.

Men were buried with high quality flasks, bowls and cooking pots, and women with semiprecious beads, bronze hairpins, and spindles.

Taleban insurgents led by cleric Maulana Fazlullah terrorised the Swat valley from 2007 to 2009, beheading opponents and burning down girls’ schools as part of their determination to implement a harsh brand of Islamic law. An army offensive in 2009 claimed to have defeated the insurgency, but isolated attacks continue. In October, the Taleban shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in the head in Mingora, the main town of Swat, in a case that sparked worldwide condemnation. She is now undergoing treatment in Birmingham, England. — AFP

MUMBAI: An Aakash-2 computing tablet is pictured at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus in Mumbai. — AFP

DataWind denies Aakash ‘cheap Chinese import’ NEW DELHI: Makers of India’s low-cost Aakash tablet yesterday denied a local media report that said the computer was a cheap Chinese import and not an Indian innovation as was claimed. DataWind, a British-based company with major operations in Canada and India, said the allegations in the Hindustan Times newspaper that the company had “conned” India with the computer were “inaccurate and misleading”.

Early this month India launched the Aaakash 2, a new version of what is dubbed the world’s cheapest computer-for sale to students at a subsidized price of $20 — with a quicker processor and an improved battery. DataWind chief executive Suneet Singh Tuli said in a statement the company’s business model was similar to that of technology giant Apple “where we use subcontract manufacturers to build our products”.

“The software and mechanical parts (of Aakash 2 tablets) are developed by us,” Tuli said in the statement.

The Hindustan Times said the company

may have procured these devices off-theshelf from manufacturers in China and alleged that it had “no role either in the design or manufacturing of Aakash 2 tablets”.

Tuli said for the first 10,000 units, the motherboards and kits were manufactured in its Chinese subcontractor’s facilities “for expediency” but the final assembly and programming was done in India. “This was well discussed and we got approval prior to shipping,” he said.

The Aakash tablet is seen as helping end India’s “digital divide” and is aimed at making computing technology available to students in a country where only one in 10 people use the Internet.

Aakash means sky in Hindi. The paperback-book-sized Aakash 2 has a screen measuring seven inches (18 centimeters) and runs on Google’s Android operating system.

The Aakash has been hailed a major success for India, which is also famous for producing the Tata Nano-the world’s cheapest car, priced at about $2,500. — AFP

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

WHAT’S ON

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! This summer, let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

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Memorial service t was a glorious moment yesterday at the Lighthouse Church, NECK compound in Kuwait City as friends and well-wishers gathered for the memorial service of Oluwafunmilola Foluke Ashebu (1956-2012) who died recently after a brief illness. The event attracted lots of diplomats and other dignitaries.

I ‘The role of India in New World Order’ ichar Bharathi team is coming up with yet another addition to its prestigious activities. A talk on ‘The role of India in the New World Order’ is being conducted on November 30, 2012 at Indian Community School, Amman Branch, Salmiya, at 5 pm. UNESCO Peace Chair, Professor of Geopolitics at Manipal University and famous writer M D Nalapat will inaugurate the function. The speaker of the day will be the Indian economist and Chartered Accountant M R Venkatesh. He is India’s highly ranked corporate advisor who has represented Indian corporates at international forums. He is a prolific writer, author, regular columnist and serves as visiting faculty in various professional Institutions, Chambers of Commerce and Universities.

The discourse will have a look into India’s foreign policy in the current evolving situation around the world, our economic policies, our political and infrastructural systems and their impact on our growth as a super power.

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Announcements

UIS clinches CBSE cluster basketball championship or the sixth consecutive year the UIS girls basketball team proved their night by winning the 14th CBSE Kuwait Cluster Basketball Tournament conducted by Carmel School recently. By a huge margin UIS defeated Carmel School in the finals. The complete

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commitment and hard work of the team and the physical director helped them to achieve this unique distinction. Reena, Rinu, Roshni, Aiswarya, Rinnah and Priya were the main scorers. The other members of the team are Reshma, Anu, Amalu, Vanesa, Namruta and Binny.

UIS girls team last year’s quarter finalist in the CBSE nationals are representing the Kuwait Cluster for the CBSE Nationals to be held in Jaipur.

Basketball Academy he new Premier Basketball Academy offers coaching and games every Friday and Saturday from 10 am onwards for 6 to 18 year olds, boys and girls. Located in Bayan Block 7, Masjed Al-Aqsa Street by Abdullah Al-Rujaib High School. Free Basketball and Tee Shirts for all participants, with certificates and special awards on completion of each 6 week course. Qualified and experienced British and American Coaches, Everyone Welcome.

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Arabic courses WARE will begin Winter 1 Arabic language courses with new textbooks and curricula will begin on December 2, 2012 until January 24, 2013.

AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed & courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community. For more information or registration, please log-on to our website.

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Winter 2012 AMIE examination

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he AMIE Winter 2012 examinations will be held between Dec 01-07, 2012 as follows:

Section A (Diploma) - December 1-4, 2012 Section A (Non-Diploma) - December 1-7, 2012 Section B - December 1-7, 2012 The last date for submission of examination application forms are given hereunder: Candidates not appeared at Summer 2012 Exam: Aug 21 - Sept 21, 2012 Candidates appeared at Summer 2012 Exam: Sept 21 - Oct 19, 2012.

Candidates who intend to appear for the Winter 2012 examination must apply directly to Kolkata by filling the prescribed application form along with requisite amount of demand draft in favour of The Institution of Engineers (India), payable in Kolkata.

Suhaani Shaam fter hosting ‘Bappi Lahiri Live Concert’ Indian Cultural Society brings you live excitement & entertainment with renowned young Ghazal Maestro Jaswinder Singh for romantic geet & ghazal.

An evening accompanied by laughter machine & Hindi poet sardar Manjit Singh. Special guest of honor & attraction from Bollywood will be famous film actress Raveena Tandon. Join us on 30th Nov at 7 pm at Dr. Kamil Al Rays Auditorium AIS - near police station Maidan Hawally, Kuwait.

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Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

Joyalukkas announces winners of ‘Win 2 kg gold’ initiative oyalukkas has announced the final winners for their mega ‘Win 2 Kg gold’ initiative in Kuwait. The draw was held at the Joyalukkas Souk AlWatiya showroom in Kuwait and the winning entries were drawn by an official from the Promotion Department of Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The final set of 12 winners of the mega festival initiative took away 50 and 10 grams gold. Two winners received 50 gm gold each and the rest of them received 10 gm each.

‘Joyalukkas is a great place to shop for

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jewelry, they offer incredible choice, great value, fabulous convenience and delight and to top this I have won 50 gm gold thanks to shopping at Joyalukkas! ,” said Dr Niranjan Joshi, one of the 50 gm gold winners.

The mega draw was picked from thousands of coupons of customers who shopped at Joyalukkas during the festive period. John Paul Joy Alukkas, Executive Director, Joyalukkas Group said “Firstly I would like to thank the residents of Kuwait for their overwhelming response to our festive promotion and congratu-

late all the winners of our ‘Win 2 kg gold’ initiative in Kuwait. We are planning many more initiatives to keep our customers excited and happy.”

The global conglomerate with a chain of 85 showrooms across nine countries is renowned for offering the widest choice in jewelry at the best possible prices.

Joyalukkas showcases over one million choices of jewelry collections and brands from around the world to ensure the customers get everything they desire in jewelry at their showroom. From traditional, modern to ethno-contemporary, the

Joyalukkas range and choice is expansive and delivered to customers with great service and best value. Joyalukkas jewelry is also one of the most awarded jewelry retail chains in the world and has won various accolades and awards for its commitment to quality and excellence in jewelry retailing from world-renowned bodies.

31

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

WHAT’S ON

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department.

All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office).

In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

Damas announces raffle draw winner ongratulations to the winners Biji George! on Monday November 19, 2012, Damas & Al-Ghannam Jewellery celebrated the grand success of Shine on Diwali 2012. Biji George and his wife also had reason to celebrate as they are the lucky winners of the Ten Thola Bar Raffle. The draw took place in the shop located in Souk AlWatiya complex on Wednesday November 21, 2012. Raffle draw was presided by the representative from Ministry of Gold where they presented the Ten Thola Bar to the winners. Thank you to everyone who bought a raffle ticket and for supporting the Shine on Diwali Promotions.

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EMBASSY OF CANADA The Canadian Embassy in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 7:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed for lunch from 12:30 to 13:00. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday.

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X-cite wins best Viva postpaid sales award -cite by Alghanim Electronics was recently awarded for the ‘Best Post Paid Sales’ at the VIVA Annual Dealers Recognition Convention held in Dubai. The Viva Annual Dealers Recognition Convention, is an effort to reinforce relations with Viva’s dealers and reward them for their continuous support and efforts.

X-cite was recognized for achieving the highest Postpaid Sales record of the year and was the only Viva dealer in Kuwait to achieve such results after a one-year partnership.

Salman Al-Badran, CEO of VIVA, presented the award to the Xcite Telecom Services team in the presence of VIVA’s senior management and VIVA dealers and brand ambassadors at the event.

Last year, Viva signed a strategic partnership with Xcite to offer Viva products and services through X-cite showrooms. VIVA applauded X-cite for their continuous efforts to improve Post Paid sales in the market and congratulated them for this significant contri-

X

bution.

Due to the positive response and high demand received from customers, X-cite is now offering VIVA services at more eight showrooms including AlRai, Avenues, Farwaniya,

Fahaheel, Hawally, Salmiya, Sahari and Beitak. X-cite is honored to receive this recognition and congratulates VIVA for achieving success in the year. A special thank you to the members of Viva including its CEO,

Salman Al-Badran, Danny Dweik, Executive Vice President for the Commercial Sector, Faris Sulaibi, Sales Director, Abdulaziz Al-Dawish Indirect Sales Senior Manager, Hamad Al-Marri Dealer Account

Manager, and to Mohammed Askar. With this achievement Xcite looks forward to continuing a successful partnership with VIVA in the coming years.

Narayana, Chaitanya groups to open school in Kuwait

By Lenin Polineni ell-known Indian educational institutions Narayana and Sri Chaitanya are planning to jointly launch a school in Kuwait. Narayana Group of Education Chairman P Narayana and Sri Chaitanya Institutions Managing Director Sridhar visited Kuwait last week. On this occasion, Kuwait Telugu associations organized a get-together last Thursday.

During a brief interview with Kuwait Times, Narayana and Sridhar expressed their objectives.

Narayana and Chaitanya groups have run an educational revolution in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India with a widespread reach all over India. Thousands of students are learning in their schools.

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“Our main objective is to cater to the needs of the students by rendering high quality education and establishing educational institutions such as academic (arts and science), technical, medical, dental, engineering, paramedical courses, health sciences, ITI, B.Ed, training institutions, technical and health training centers and nursing institutions,” Narayana said.

“Our endeavor will be to create and develop goodwill, cooperation and friendship to secure peace, solidarity and work-mindedness in the society to achieve social and educational objectives,” he mentioned.

Every year, 500 to 600 Andhra-based Indian students join 10th to 12th standards in Narayana institutions.

According to Narayana, Kuwait and Indian education systems do not achieve the competitive goals due to

differences in academic standards. Kuwait-based students feel enormous pressure and stress when they appear for entrance examinations for admissions at IIT, GIPMER, ASNC, AIMS or other regional engineering colleges.

“We are planning to collaborate with Sri Chaitanya Institutions to open a KG to 12th standard school in Kuwait from 2014. We will also introduce courses to train children to prepare them for various Indian competitive exams from 6th standard to IIT foundation courses,” he explained. They said that this is for the first time that they are taking such an initiative in Kuwait “before someone uses our name”, Narayana added.

EMBASSY OF CYPRUS In its capacity as EU Local Presidency in the State of Kuwait, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the Member States of the EU and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, would like to announce that as from 2nd October 2012 all Schengen States’ Consulates in Kuwait will use the Visa Information System (VIS). The VIS is a central database for the exchange of data on short-stay (up to three months) visas between Schengen States. The main objectives of the VIS are to facilitate visa application procedures and checks at external border as well as to enhance security. The VIS will contain all the Schengen visa applications lodged by an applicant over five years and the decisions taken by any Schengen State’s consulate. This will allow applicants to establish more easily the lawful use of previous visas and their bona fide status. For the purpose of the VIS, applicants will be required to provide their biometric data (fingerprints and digital photos) when applying for a Schengen visa. It is a simple and discreet procedure that only takes a few minutes. Biometric data, along with the data provided in the Schengen visa application form, will be recorded in the VIS central database. Therefore, as from 2nd October 2012, first-time applicants will have to appear in person when lodging the application, in order to provide their fingerprints. For subsequent applications within 5 years the fingerprints can be copied from the previous application file in the VIS. The Cypriot Presidency would like to assure the people of Kuwait and all its permanent citizens that the Member States and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, have taken all necessary technical measures to facilitate the rapid examination and the efficient processing of visa applications and to ensure a quick and discreet procedure for the implementation of the new VIS. ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF INDIA The Embassy of India will remain closed today - Sunday on account of Muharram.

Due to maintenance work being done in Sharq area by the Ministry of Electricity on Tuesday, November 27, 2012, BLS International Sharq Branch will remain closed between 08:00 Hrs and 11:30 Hrs. The working hours on 27-11-2012 will be from 16:00 Hrs to 19:30 Hrs. Fahaheel Branch will remain open during regular working hours 08:00 - 11:30 and 16:00- 19:30.

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EMBASSY OF LEBANON Due to exceptional circumstances Lebanon is going through currently, a mass celebration that was planned on Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012 at the Lebanese Embassy’s garden has been called off. Ambassador of Lebanon to Kuwait Dr Bassam Al-Nu’mani welcomes well wishers on the occasion of Independence Day at his residence tomorrow, Nov 22, 2012 between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.

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EMBASSY OF UKRAINE The Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait would like to remind that the external polling station No 90046 was created in the Embassy’s premises at the following address: Hawalli, Jabriya, bl.10, str. 6, build. 5. The working hours of the polling station: Sunday from 13.00 to 17.00 pm; Monday from 13.00 to 17.00 pm; Tuesday from 13.00 to 17.00 pm; Wednesday from 13.00 to 17.00 pm; Thursday from 13.00 to 17.00 pm; Friday from 10.00 to 13.00 pm; Saturday from 10.00 to 13.00 pm On October 28, 2012 the working hours of the polling station from 8.00 am to 20.00 pm. Please be advised to refer to the Embassy to check your data in the Electoral Register as well as to pick up your personal invitation from the polling station if you did not receive this document by post.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

TV PROGRAMS

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

Baboons With Bill Bailey I’m Alive Animal Cops Phoenix Natural World My Cat From Hell Baboons With Bill Bailey Baboons With Bill Bailey Wild France Animal Cops Phoenix Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Wildlife SOS Talk To The Animals Dogs 101 Crocodile Hunter Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild Breed All About It Jeff Corwin Unleashed The Really Wild Show Wild France Queens Of The Savannah Queens Of The Savannah Swarm Chasers Rescue Vet Rescue Vet Too Cute!

My Cat From Hell World Wild Vet Gator Boys Killer Whales Wild France Shamwari: A Wild Life Shamwari: A Wild Life Killer Whales

00:15 Bargain Hunt 01:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 02:15 Come Dine With Me 03:05 Antiques Roadshow 03:55 Antiques Roadshow 04:50 Antiques Roadshow 05:40 Antiques Roadshow 06:35 MasterChef Australia 07:00 MasterChef Australia 07:50 MasterChef Australia 13:00 MasterChef Australia 13:50 MasterChef Australia 14:15 Baby Borrowers USA 15:00 Baby Borrowers USA 15:45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:05 Come Dine With Me 17:55 Come Dine With Me 18:50 Bargain Hunt 19:35 Bargain Hunt 20:20 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 21:10 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 22:00 Baking Made Easy 22:30 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 22:55 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 23:20 The Hairy Bakers 23:45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

00:05 00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:40 04:00 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:00 06:25 06:50 07:00 07:15 07:35 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40

Popeye The Addams Family Duck Dodgers Puppy In My Pocket Tom & Jerry Kids Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Johnny Bravo The Flintstones The Jetsons Wacky Races Dexters Laboratory Johnny Bravo The Addams Family Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies

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

Moomins The Looney Tunes Show Taz-Mania What’s New Scooby Doo? Tom & Jerry Tales Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Wacky Races The New Scooby Doo Movies The New Scooby Doo Movies Wacky Races Tom & Jerry Dastardly And Muttley The Addams Family Looney Tunes The Garfield Show Dexter’s Laboratory Johnny Bravo Pink Panther And Pals Scooby Doo Where Are You! New Yogi Bear Show Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Dexters Laboratory Taz-Mania The Addams Family Pink Panther And Pals The Scooby Doo Show The Flintstones Tom & Jerry Tales Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The Looney Tunes Show What’s New Scooby Doo? The Garfield Show Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory

00:40 Chowder 01:30 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 01:55 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 02:20 Foster’s Home For...

02:45 Foster’s Home For...

03:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 04:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 04:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Powerpuff Girls 05:40 Generator Rex 06:05 Ben 10 06:30 Ben 10 06:55 Angelo Rules 07:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 07:30 Casper’s Scare School 08:00 The Marvelous Misadventures...

08:25 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 08:45 Grim Adventures Of...

09:35 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 09:55 Level Up 10:15 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 10:35 Transformers Prime 11:00 Thundercats 11:25 Thundercats 11:50 Regular Show 12:00 Adventure Time 12:25 Regular Show 12:50 Adventure Time 13:15 Regular Show 13:40 Adventure Time 14:05 Regular Show 14:30 Adventure Time 14:55 Regular Show 15:20 Adventure Time 15:45 Regular Show 16:10 Adventure Time 16:35 Regular Show 17:00 Adventure Time 17:25 Regular Show 17:50 Adventure Time 18:15 Regular Show 18:40 Adventure Time 19:05 Regular Show 19:30 Adventure Time 19:55 Regular Show 20:20 Adventure Time 20:45 Regular Show 21:10 Adventure Time 21:35 Regular Show 22:00 Adventure Time 22:25 Regular Show 22:50 Adventure Time 23:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:50 The Powerpuff Girls

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

Behind Bars Chris Ryan’s Elite Police How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made Machines Of Glory World’s Top 5 Wheeler Dealers Outback Truckers Deadliest Catch How It’s Made How It’s Made How It’s Made How It’s Made How It’s Made Scrappers Scrappers Scrappers Scrappers Scrappers Border Security Border Security Border Security Border Security Border Security Earth 2050 Mythbusters Dynamo: Magician Impossible How We Invented The World Curiosity Body Invaders

00:15 Weird Or What?

01:05 Colony 01:55 Colony 02:45 Colony 03:40 Sport Science 04:35 Sport Science 05:25 Sport Science 06:15 Sport Science 07:05 Sport Science 08:00 Meteorite Men 08:50 Weird Or What?

09:40 Head Rush 09:43 Sci-Fi Science 10:10 Sci-Fi Science 10:40 Engineering Thrills 11:30 Punkin Chunkin 2010 12:20 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 13:10 Brave New World 14:00 Build It Bigger: Rebuilding Greensburg 14:50 Meteorite Men 15:45 Weird Or What?

16:35 Things That Move 17:00 Head Rush 17:03 Tech Toys 360 17:30 Tech Toys 360 18:00 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 18:50 Scrapheap Challenge 19:40 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 20:30 Punkin Chunkin 2010 21:20 How Tech Works 21:45 How Tech Works 22:10 Gadget Show - World Tour 22:35 Gadget Show - World Tour 23:00 Punkin Chunkin 2010 23:50 Things That Move

00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:05 03:30 03:55

Kim Possible Kim Possible A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic

THE KINGDOM ON OSN ACTION HD

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

Replacements Replacements Kim Possible Kim Possible Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Jessie My Babysitter’s A Vampire A.N.T. Farm Good Luck Charlie Austin And Ally Gravity Falls Lemonade Mouth Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Gravity Falls My Babysitter’s A Vampire Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm Wizards Of Waverly Place Gravity Falls Girl vs Monster Phineas And Ferb Lemonade Mouth My Babysitter’s A Vampire Austin And Ally Austin And Ally Jessie Jessie Fish Hooks Fish Hooks The Suite Life Of Zack And The Suite Life Of Zack And Stitch

00:00 Programmes Start At 7:00am KSA 07:00 Zeke & Luther 07:20 Phineas And Ferb 07:45 Iron Man Armored Adventures 08:10 Kickin It 08:35 Lab Rats 09:00 Ultimate Spider-Man 09:30 Kick Buttowski 09:55 Kick Buttowski 10:20 Kick Buttowski 10:45 Kick Buttowski 11:10 Kick Buttowski 11:35 Kick Buttowski 12:00 Kick Buttowski 12:30 Ultimate Spider-Man 13:00 Johnny Kapahala 14:35 Phineas And Ferb 15:00 Kickin It 15:25 Kick Buttowski 15:50 Bw Rival Destinies 16:15 Iron Man Armored Adventures 16:40 Mr. Young 17:05 Zeke & Luther 17:30 Tron: Uprising 17:55 Pair Of Kings 18:20 Kickin It 18:45 Lab Rats 19:10 Ultimate Spider-Man 19:35 Scaredy Squirrel 20:00 Zeke & Luther 20:25 Mr. Young 20:50 Rated A For Awesome 21:15 Tron: Uprising 21:40 Phineas And Ferb 21:50 Phineas And Ferb 22:05 Bw Rival Destinies 22:30 Rekkit Rabbit 22:55 Kick Buttowski 23:20 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes

00:30 Kelly Slater: Letting Go 01:25 TNA: Greatest Matches 02:20 M1 Selection 2010 03:15 Transworld Sessions 03:40 Transworld Sessions 04:10 Mantracker 04:35 Mantracker 05:05 Mantracker 05:30 Mantracker 06:00 AMA Motocross 2011 06:55 AMA Motocross 2011 08:00 Alli Presents 08:55 Alli Presents 09:50 Alli Presents 10:45 AMA Motocross 2011 11:40 AMA Motocross 2011 12:35 Tread BMX 13:00 Tread BMX 13:30 Alli Presents 14:25 Alli Presents 15:20 Alli Presents 16:15 Fight Girls 17:10 Fight Girls 18:05 BMX Megatour 19:00 Mantracker 19:55 Mantracker 20:20 Mantracker 20:50 Ed’s Up 21:15 Ed’s Up 21:45 Transworld Sessions 22:10 Transworld Sessions 22:40 50 Years Of HB Pier 23:05 The Trappings Of Noosa And Victoria 23:30 Liquid Spins 23:55 Hawaii: A Fine Mess

00:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:40 Guy’s Big Bite 01:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:30 Heat Seekers 01:55 Iron Chef America 02:45 Chopped 03:35 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:50 Heat Seekers 05:15 Guy’s Big Bite 05:40 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 06:05 Unwrapped 06:30 Iron Chef America 07:10 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 07:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 08:00 Food Network Challenge 08:50 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To

Basics 09:40 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 10:05 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 10:30 Kelsey’s Essentials 10:55 Cooking For Real 11:20 Cooking For Real 11:45 Food Crafters 12:10 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 12:35 Heat Seekers 13:00 Iron Chef America 13:50 Guy’s Big Bite 14:15 Cooking For Real 14:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 15:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 15:30 Food Crafters 15:55 Unique Eats 16:20 Unique Eats 16:45 Chopped 17:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 18:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 18:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:50 Heat Seekers 19:15 Guy’s Big Bite 19:40 Unique Eats 20:05 Unique Eats 20:30 Chopped 21:20 Iron Chef America 22:10 Food Network Challenge 23:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:50 Food(Ography)

01:15 02:55 04:50 06:20 07:50 09:55 12:25 13:55 15:25 16:55 17:10 18:50 20:25 22:00

Longtime Companion The Amityville Horror Retroactive Trade Off Charge Of The Light Brigade It’s A Mad Mad World Who Was Geli Bendl?

Mannequin In The Time Of The Butterflies Mgm’s Big Screen The Mechanic Eddie And The Cruisers Cadillac Man Texasville

00:15 Into The Drink 00:45 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 01:40 Roam 02:05 Deadliest Journeys 02:35 The Best Job In The World 03:00 The Best Job In The World 03:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 03:55 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 04:25 Street Food Around The World 04:50 Market Values 05:20 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 05:45 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 06:15 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 06:40 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 07:10 Market Values 07:35 Market Values 08:05 Bondi Rescue 08:30 Bondi Rescue 09:00 Bondi Rescue 09:25 Bondi Rescue 09:55 Danger Beach 10:20 Into The Drink 10:50 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 11:45 Roam 12:10 Travel Madness 12:40 Hugh’s Three Hungry Boys 13:35 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 Street Food Around The World 14:55 Market Values 15:25 Perilous Journeys 16:20 Bondi Rescue 16:45 Bondi Rescue 17:15 Bondi Rescue 17:40 Bondi Rescue 18:10 Danger Beach 18:35 Into The Drink 19:05 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 19:30 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 20:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 20:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 21:00 Market Values 21:30 Market Values 22:00 Danger Beach 22:25 Danger Beach 22:55 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2

00:00 Gorilla Murders 01:00 American Weed 02:00 Alaska State Troopers 03:00 Alaska Wing Men 04:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 05:00 Megaship 06:00 Secrets Of The Cross 07:00 Nat Geo Amazing!

08:00 Gorilla Murders 09:00 American Weed 10:00 Alaska State Troopers 11:00 Alaska Wing Men 12:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 13:00 China’s Mystery Mummies 14:00 Secrets Of The Cross 15:00 Nat Geo Amazing!

16:00 Predators In Peril 17:00 American Weed 18:00 Alaska State Troopers 19:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 20:00 Animal Mega Moves 21:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 22:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 23:00 Situation Critical

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

Philly Undercover Crocodile King Monster Fish Croc Labyrinth Lions Behaving Badly Caught In The Act Unlikely Animal Friends Dangerous Encounters Dangerous Encounters

RETURN ON OSN CINEMA 08:20 09:15 10:10 11:05 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Cliffhangers Python Hunters Animal Intervention Great Migrations Wild Mississippi Monster Fish Planet Carnivore Animal Intervention America’s Greatest Animals Big Cat Odyssey Wild Mississippi Monster Fish Planet Carnivore Animal Intervention America’s Greatest Animals

0:00 Hostel: Part III-18 02:00 The Kingdom-18 04:00 Meskada-PG15 06:00 Arachnophobia-PG15 08:00 True Justice: Vengeance Is Mine-PG15 10:00 Reign Of Fire-PG15 12:00 The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption-PG15 14:00 True Justice: Vengeance Is Mine-PG15 16:00 Takers-PG15 18:00 The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption-PG15 20:00 Road To Perdition-18 22:00 True Justice: Dead Drop-PG15

01:15 03:15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:30 15:15 17:00 19:00 PG15 21:00 23:00

Henry’s Crime-PG15 Re-Kill-PG15 Spud-PG15 The Hole-PG15 Henry’s Crime-PG15 Another Year-PG15 Ice Age-FAM Princess Lillifee-FAM Relative Stranger-PG15 It’s Kind Of A Funny StoryCowboys & Aliens-PG15 Return-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Saturday Night Live 02:30 Family Guy 03:00 Raising Hope 03:30 Last Man Standing 04:00 Samantha Who? 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Seinfeld 06:00 Seinfeld 06:30 Friends 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Samantha Who? 08:30 Raising Hope 09:00 Seinfeld 09:30 Seinfeld 10:00 Two And A Half Men 10:30 Parks And Recreation 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Friends 12:30 Samantha Who? 13:00 Seinfeld 13:30 Seinfeld 14:00 Last Man Standing 14:30 Parks And Recreation 15:00 Two And A Half Men 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Friends 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Breaking In 18:30 Hot In Cleveland 19:00 Two And A Half Men 19:30 Best Friends Forever 20:00 The Cleveland Show 20:30 Napoleon Dynamite 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 22:30 Eastbound & Down 23:00 Family Guy 23:30 The Cleveland Show

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

Body Of Proof C.S.I. Breakout Kings Downton Abbey Bones C.S.I. Miami Body Of Proof Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. New York Breakout Kings C.S.I. Bones Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York Body Of Proof Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York Bones The River The Killing Sons Of Anarchy Strike Back

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

Gridlock’d-18 Meskada-PG15 Biker Boyz-PG15 The Rocketeer-PG15 Kull The Conqueror-PG15 Biker Boyz-PG15 Men In Black II-PG Kull The Conqueror-PG15 Vengeance-PG15 Ronin-18 True Justice: Dead Drop-PG15 The Morgue-18

00:00 Reach The Rock-18 02:00 No Strings Attached-18 04:00 Hitch-PG15 06:00 Austin Powers In Goldmember-PG15 08:00 Fever Pitch-PG15 10:00 Desperately Seeking SantaPG15 12:00 Last Holiday-PG15 14:00 Happy Gilmore-PG15 16:00 Desperately Seeking SantaPG15 18:00 Big Fat Important MoviePG15 20:00 The Royal Tenenbaums-18 22:00 The Joneses-PG15

01:30 03:30 05:15 07:45 09:30 11:30 13:30 15:15 17:15 19:00 21:30 23:45

Ironclad-18 Elfie Hopkins-PG15 Kings And Queen-18 Pina-PG15 Up Close And Personal-PG Le Divorce-PG15 Khao Niao Moo Ping-PG15 Up Close And Personal-PG Shanghai-PG15 The Great Gatsby-PG John Rabe-PG15 Please Give-18

00:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Elfie Hopkins-PG15 Unmatched-PG15 Teen Spirit-PG15 Battle For Terra-PG Unmatched-PG15 Despicable Me-FAM Monte Carlo-PG15 The Fourth Kind-PG15 The Winning Season-PG15 Despicable Me-FAM Mr. Popper’s Penguins-PG Kung Fu Panda 2-PG Hanna-PG15

01:00 Toyz Goin’ Wild-PG 02:45 The Wild Thornberrys Movie-PG 04:30 A Venetian Rascal Goes To America-FAM 06:00 Horrid Henry-PG 08:15 The Lucky Dragon-PG 10:00 Cats Don’t Dance-FAM

11:30 13:00 14:30 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 23:45

Tommy & Oscar-FAM Micropolis-FAM The Wild Thornberrys Movie-PG The Nimbols: Part I-FAM Cats Don’t Dance-FAM The Adventures Of Tintin-PG The Lucky Dragon-PG The Nimbols: Part I-FAM

00:45 02:30 03:00 11:00 11:30 15:00 22:00 22:30

Rugby Union International ICC Cricket 360 Live Test Cricket ICC Cricket 360 Premier League Snooker Cricket Test Match ICC Cricket 360 Live Premier League Snooker

02:00 02:30 04:30 05:45 08:00 08:15 10:00 10:30 11:00 16:00 17:30 19:30 20:00

Rugby Match Day Rugby Union International Rugby Match Day Rugby Union International Rugby Match Day Rugby Union International ICC Cricket 360 PGA European Tour Weekly Live PGA European Tour The Ryder Cup Official Film Rugby Union International NFL Gameday Live NFL

01:30 03:30 05:30 06:30 07:00 10:30 12:30 13:30 17:30 18:00 19:00 19:30 20:15 22:15

Pro 12 Rugby Union International Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Premier League Snooker Rugby Union International Trans World Sport Rugby Union International Futbol Mundial MENA Golf Tour Highlights Top 14 Highlights Total Rugby Live Pro 12 PGA European Tour

01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 23:00

WWE Bottom Line V8 Supercars Highlights NHL UFC Unleashed WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Experience WWE This Week European Le Mans Series V8 Supercars Highlights V8 Supercars Extra WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown UFC Prelims UFC NHL

00:00 MSNBC News 01:00 MSNBC Investigates 02:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 02:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 03:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 03:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 04:00 Live NBC Saturday Today Show 06:00 Live ABC 20/20 07:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 07:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 08:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 08:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 09:00 MSNBC Investigates 10:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 10:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 11:00 MSNBC Martin Bashir 12:00 MSNBC Hardball With Chris Matthews 13:00 MSNBC The Ed Show 14:00 Live ABC 20/20 15:00 MSNBC Hardball Weekend 15:30 MSNBC Your Business 16:00 Live NBC Sunday Today Show 17:00 Live NBC Meet The Press 18:00 ABC This Week With G Stephanopoulos 19:00 MSNBC Melissa Harris-Perry 20:00 Live NBC Meet The Press 21:00 ABC This Week With G Stephanopoulos 22:00 MSNBC News

Classifieds SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines JAI THY JZR JZR QTR ETH GFA UAE ETD FDB MSR RJA QTR KAC CLX DHX THY JZR BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE GFA KAC ABY QTR FDB ETD GFA IRA IRC JZR MEA UAE KAC MSR KAC GFA FDB KNE KAC KAC SVA QTR

Arrival Flights on Sunday 25/11/2012 Flt Route 574 MUMBAI 772 ISTANBUL 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 148 DOHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 642 AMMAN 138 DOHA 544 CAIRO 792 LUXEMBOURG 170 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 555 ALEXANDRIA 157 LONDON 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 332 TRIVANDRUM 352 COCHIN 855 DUBAI 223 BAHRAIN 284 DHAKA 121 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 603 SHIRAZ 6666 AHWAZ 165 DUBAI 404 BEIRUT 871 DUBAI 742 DAMMAM 610 CAIRO 774 RIYADH 219 BAHRAIN 57 DUBAI 472 JEDDAH 672 DUBAI 538 SOHAG 500 JEDDAH 140 DOHA

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

SYR JZR RBG QTR UAE ETD RJA GFA SVA JZR QTR ABY UAL KAC JZR KAC FDB JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC OMA KAC FDB JAI AXB MSR ABY QTR ALK MEA QTR GFA ETD UAE KAC JZR JAI FDB DHX KAC KLM AFG AIC JZR GFA JZR UAL DLH

341 561 3553 134 857 303 640 215 510 777 144 127 982 542 177 786 63 787 166 618 102 674 647 562 61 572 393 606 129 146 229 402 136 221 307 859 172 135 576 59 372 514 417 405 981 239 217 185 981 636

DAMASCUS SOHAG ALEXANDRIA DOHA DUBAI ABU DHABI AMMAN BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH DOHA SHARJAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO DUBAI JEDDAH DUBAI RIYADH PARIS DOHA NEW YORK DUBAI MUSCAT AMMAN DUBAI MUMBAI KOZHIKODE LUXOR SHARJAH DOHA COLOMBO BEIRUT DOHA BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI FRANKFURT BAHRAIN COCHIN DUBAI BAHRAIN TEHRAN AMSTERDAM KABUL CHENNAI AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN FRANKFURT

14:40 14:50 15:20 15:30 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:45 17:50 17:55 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:30 18:45 19:05 19:10 19:20 19:35 19:35 19:55 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:35 20:45 20:55 21:20 21:25 21:30 21:35 21:40 21:45 21:50 21:55 22:00 22:00 22:00 22:05 22:15 22:30 22:45 22:50 23:05 23:25 23:55

Airlines AIC AXB DHX BBC UAL DLH JAI ETH THY FDB UAE ETD MSR QTR QTR JZR GFA RJA THY KAC JZR CLX FDB BAW KAC GFA KAC ABY UAE KAC FDB KAC ETD KAC QTR GFA KAC IRA IRC JZR KAC MEA KAC JZR MSR UAE GFA FDB KAC

Departure Flights on Sunday 25/11/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA 390 MANGALORE 371 BAHRAIN 44 CHITTAGONG 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 573 MUMBAI 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 643 AMMAN 771 ISTANBUL 587 SOHAG 560 SOHAG 792 GIALAM 54 DUBAI 156 LONDON 171 FRANKFURT 224 BAHRAIN 671 DUBAI 122 SHARJAH 856 DUBAI 741 DAMMAM 56 DUBAI 117 NEW YORK 302 ABU DHABI 773 RIYADH 133 DOHA 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 602 SHIRAZ 6667 AHWAZ 776 JEDDAH 103 LONDON 405 BEIRUT 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 872 DUBAI 220 BAHRAIN 58 DUBAI 561 AMMAN

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

KAC KNE SYR SVA KAC JZR RBG QTR JZR ETD KAC JZR QTR UAE RJA GFA JZR SVA ABY JZR QTR JZR UAL FDB KAC FDB OMA JAI AXB ABY MSR DHX ALK MEA ETD QTR GFA KAC FDB UAE JAI KAC DHX KAC KLM QTR KAC JZR GFA KAC KAC

673 473 342 503 617 786 3554 141 238 304 513 538 135 858 641 216 184 511 128 266 145 134 982 64 283 62 648 571 394 120 619 171 230 403 308 137 222 301 60 860 575 351 373 205 417 147 343 502 218 411 415

DUBAI JEDDAH DAMASCUS MADINAH DOHA RIYADH ALEXANDRIA DOHA AMMAN ABU DHABI TEHRAN CAIRO DOHA DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI RIYADH SHARJAH BEIRUT DOHA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI DHAKA DUBAI MUSCAT MUMBAI KOZHIKODE SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN COLOMBO BEIRUT ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN MUMBAI DUBAI DUBAI KOCHI KOCHI BAHRAIN ISLAMABAD DAMMAM DOHA CHENNAI LUXOR BAHRAIN BANGKOK KUALA LUMPUR

15:05 15:10 15:40 15:45 15:45 15:50 16:00 16:15 17:15 17:35 17:40 17:40 17:45 17:50 17:55 18:15 18:30 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:05 19:10 19:25 20:30 20:40 20:55 21:10 21:15 21:15 21:25 21:50 21:55 22:20 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:50 22:55 22:55 23:00 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:15 23:35 23:50 23:55 23:55

FOR SALE Golden chance Nissan TIIDA HB 1.8 SL 2011, 13,600 km only, full option, power warranty 5 year open mileage, like showroom, 1st owner, mostly lady driven, price KD 3,800/-. Contact: 66489351. (C 4229) 22-11-2012 SITUATION WANTED Western educated “Project Manager ” with 2 Engineering-Degrees (Civil/Elec.), 4-Master Degrees (Project Mgmt/ Engineering/ Education & Training/ MBA), plus 17years experience in Middle East/ Australia, seeking Executive Position. Contact: 65695468 email: rav@engineer.com (C 4195) 23-11-2012

MATRIMONIAL Proposals invited for a girl God-fearing (Marthomite, 27 yrs/166cm, B.Sc nurse), working in Kuwait MOH. Professionally qualified boys can contact varghese.aaron@yahoo.com (C 4227) 24-11-2012

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 19

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) There is a natural drive to investigate problems today. Push too hard and you could be too dominating, even oppressive, to yourself and others. However, everything points to your taking the initiative. With an open mind to what others have to say, you could feel great support. You can also be a positive influence. Careful, your enthusiasm is so strong that it may make others uncomfortable. With the detective work out of the way, you may decide to play with a hobby, game or some other activity. Teaching others is something you enjoy doing, even perhaps something as simple and fun as the fine art of harmonica playing, etc. Completed chores, uncovered and solved problems make for a full and satisfactory day.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You are always out front and manage to spend a lot of time in the spotlight in social situations and today is no exception. Others find it easy to watch and learn from you.

Your mind is on cutting through the nonessentials and penetrating to the core—you want to know who or what pulls the strings. Sex, taxes, investments and others of life’s most compelling phenomena may captivate your interest more than ever. You are very animated and may find communicating your ideas is a particularly easy thing to do. There are messages that you decide to send to congress and you may even try to encourage family members to put their signature to your political plea as well. You may find yourself returning a favor this evening.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. Tastelessness by virtue of being cheap and vulgar.

4. The Fate who determines the length of the thread of life.

12. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

15. A member of the Siouan people living in the Yazoo river valley in Mississippi.

16. An animal having teeth consolidated with the summit of the alveolar ridge without sockets.

17. A unit of electrical power in an AC circuit equal to the power dissipated when 1 volt produces a current of 1 ampere.

18. Any of several ornamental shrubs with shiny mostly evergreen leaves and clusters of small bell-shaped flowers.

20. Fruit with red or yellow or green skin and sweet to tart crisp whitish flesh.

21. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

22. Not still wet.

24. Make harsh or harsher.

26. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

29. Of or relating to the island republic of Nauru or its residents.

32. Type genus of the Ardeidae.

33. A member of the North American Indian people of Arizona and adjacent Mexico and California.

34. (astronomy) The angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing.

35. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

36. (Irish) Mother of the Tuatha De Danann.

40. A historical region in central and northern Yugoslavia.

42. A physician who is not a specialist but treats all illnesses.

45. Witty language used to convey insults or scorn.

47. A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

49. Small compact smooth-coated breed of Asiatic origin having a tightly curled tail and broad flat wrinkled muzzle.

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

51. The cry made by sheep.

52. A fast-growing tropical American evergreen having white flowers and white fleshy edible fruit.

55. A hard gray lustrous metallic element that is highly corrosion-resistant.

57. Genus of North American and east Asian perennial herbs.

58. German publisher of a series of travel guidebooks (1801-1859).

62. (sports) With hand brought forward and up from below shoulder level.

63. Tropical American tree with large peltate leaves and hollow stems.

68. Informal terms for clothing.

69. Used chiefly as a direction or description in music.

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

72. By bad luck.

73. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

75. (Irish) The sea personified.

76. A three-tone Chadic language.

77. A state in the southeastern United States on the Gulf of Mexico.

78. Devoid of warmth and cordiality.

DOWN 1. Scottish chemist noted for his research into the structure of nucleic acids (born in 1907).

2. (old-fashioned) At or from or to a great distance.

3. A light-weight hat worn in tropical countries for protection from the sun.

4. Soviet physicist who worked on low temperature physics (1908-1968).

5. (informal) Of the highest quality.

6. A hard brittle blue-white multivalent metallic element.

7. Showing characteristics of age, especially having gray or white hair.

8. Automatic data processing by electronic means without the use of tabulating cards or punched tapes.

9. Cosmopolitan genus of trees and shrubs having odd-pinnate leaves and showy flowers.

10. Adorned by inlays.

11. English writer (born in Ireland) (17131766).

12. A genus of Indriidae.

13. Having the head uncovered.

14. United States writer (1871-1900).

19. Of or relating to the language of the Hebrews.

23. The battle in 1806 in which Napoleon decisively defeated the Prussians.

25. A large number or amount.

27. The dialect of Malay used as the national language of the Republic of Indonesia or of Malaysia.

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

30. Of or pertaining to hearing or the ear.

31. A region of complete shadow resulting from total obstruction of light.

37. A small bottle that contains a drug (especially a sealed sterile container for injection by needle).

38. An island republic on Nauru Island.

39. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and closely related to Hausa.

41. Rapid and indistinct speech.

43. Offering fun and gaiety.

44. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

46. Equipment and supplies of a military force.

48. Cassava with long tuberous edible roots and soft brittle stems.

53. Obvious and dull.

54. A port city of south central Ukraine on an arm of the Black Sea. 56. A large fleet.

59. Small arboreal tropical American insectivorous lizards with the ability to change skin color.

60. The younger brother of Edwy who became king of Northumbria when it renounced Edwy.

61. The 10th letter of the Greek alphabet.

64. A small cake leavened with yeast.

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

66. The Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Dali region of Yunnan.

67. Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality.

70. Horny projecting mouth of a bird.

74. Before noon.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Strong beliefs are keynotes to your power—the power of ideas and the power they wield over people. Religious, cultural or philosophical controversies and crusades have a way of stirring your blood. You like to work with words and ideas and have a natural appreciation for anything that is artistic. You may find yourself editing or proofing work to be published. You could write poetry or prose and you put a very high value on the written word. You may also enjoy talking about your experiences and asking the advice of an older and more experienced person. Your innate intensity and seriousness are visible to all.

You have a gut sense of how to act in stressful situations. You look and find new and different ways of self-discovery and transformation.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) You could find yourself working today—others may want you to volunteer for more work. You are open-minded and democratic, enthusiastic and have a definite sense of mission—but volunteering for more work is not making you happy for now! A party this evening needs your attention before it can be a success. You love gatherings that involve different cultures, people and interests and this is how you are motivated today. You love to work with all sorts of groups and you will encounter information and unusual interactions. You are a natural counselor and may find yourself involved in deep discussions concerning the lifestyles of others. You will enjoy time alone with a special friend—perhaps a loved one tonight. Romance is possible.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Your enthusiasm is high and there are a lot of projects in which you are interested. A family meeting may be just the place to discuss a new television, bedtime, homework activities or rules. Outer circumstances make it easy to make clear decisions and for others to understand those decisions. Communicating feelings becomes important today, especially with situations that arise regarding family members. Conversations of an inspiring kind may be in order with young people or others around you. You earn the respect and the attention that the young people give to you. This is not too unusual but may be why everyone in your household takes you seriously. An evening away from home with your sweetheart is a good thing for this evening.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You have a lot of passion—perfect for starting something out or taking care of things around the house. You may decide, since some family members are at home, to solicit the aid of youth and ask them for help to rake leaves or prepare a winter garden. Of course, this could take some negotiation—be prepared. This afternoon you may want to enjoy an afternoon tea. Some of you may enjoy a short fishing trip or a trip to check out the new hardware store. A strong urge for the social life may find you out and about this afternoon. Very physical too—there is a feeling that exercise would help that lethargic feeling that keeps hanging around. Whatever the case, today is a day of relaxation and the work that you do is a choice instead of a necessity.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) You may have insights or breakthroughs concerning your living situation or life circumstances. Now is the time to adjust your life style. You enjoy the feeling that, for today, you do not have to teach, solicit anyone’s help or anything else . . . you just pick up your feet, get on the train of life and enjoy the ride. Harmonious ties to others are what you seek. The ideal partnership, the perfect balance, the highest standards of truth and beauty— are some of the things that quicken your pulse. Others may find you especially witty and eccentric at this time. After a shopping expedition, if you are not working, your friends, relatives, etc., may decide to go out to eat, to a movie and perhaps dancing . . . way into the night.

There is talk of travel—perhaps by water.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You may be asked to work today. You may have a special talent that is in high demand. With a little effort, your personal income will increase. You launch a full-scale effort to double your money now. Other people, as well as yourself, will benefit from the energies you put forth. On the personal realm, you will soon be ready for a fresh start, perhaps the establishment of a new relationship. Emotionally, romantically and financially, this will be a good time for you. You find yourself eager for emotional beginnings before the day has ended. You can see that you are able to handle difficulties more easily than in the past. You are learning to see situations from a distance in order to gain perspective and you are ready for anything.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Working today, you may want to take charge of the more important issues so you can leave early. There may be some sort of confusion on the part of people that work around or for you just now and it may be difficult to steady your concentration. This is a time of ambition and responsibility, a time to keep your cool and pace yourself. Working hard is good, but working smart is better. You have the opportunity to show off your unique and unusual qualities this afternoon. Communication is at a high. On the home front there are some disturbing energies. In this case, you may rebel and act at cross-purposes to those who care for you—do not push. Stop trying to figure things out for now and just ask how you can help.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Independence, as well as anything unusual or different, is yearned for today.

You may enjoy getting away from your usual routine and discovering something completely different. Someone near you, a neighbor, friend or relative, may have expressed the same feelings recently. You may both decide to go shopping together—perhaps a movie later. When it comes to finances, you always seem to have an angel watching over you. Of course, this does not mean you can throw caution to the wind and take financial risks. If you wanted to shop for a new winter coat or begin to purchase gifts for the next holiday celebration, this would be a good time to shop. Your dreams and ideals are the numberone component for action in your chart. Dare to dream today!

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You are full of suggestions and yet you may have no energy for the followthrough. Certainly, a day at home, cleaning up after this past week and getting ready for the week ahead, would be of great satisfaction. You continue along this line, take a nap and generally goof off, perhaps. Good for you, you deserve a day of rest—other things will be completed soon enough. A card game may be in the works for this evening. You and your friends love to get together and visit and it just may be your turn to be the host. Of course, a lively game of trivia may be the invitation this evening and you jump at the opportunity. Careful, there could be some interesting discussions this evening. You are sharp and have had your rest so you are able to communicate well.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You may be entertaining out-of-town guests today. Lovely words and a flair for description—the artistic in all of us in its many forms is where you excel above any other today. You have an inner sense of warmth. You are kind and easy to be with—people enjoy being with you. This is a time for imagination and creativity when it comes to ideas and thinking. This, coupled with the ability to put your thoughts into words, allows you to captivate and spellbind. Your keyword is responsibility—the ability to be accountable or in charge. You are happy to show off the city’s new museum, an art gallery, the sushi bar, etc.

Fine conversation and a lifetime of education bring the day and perhaps the visit to a wonderful conclusion.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

ST TAT TE OF K KUW WAIT A

Tel.: e 161

DIRECTORA AT TE GENE GENERAL OF CIVIL AVIA V AT TION METEOROLOGICAL DEP PA ARTMENT DA AY: Y Saturday

24/11/2012

BY Y DA AY:

Fair with light to moderate southerly changing to north westerly wind, with speed of 10 - 32 km/h and some scattered clouds will appear

BY Y NIGHT:

Clouds will increase gradually with light to moderate variable wind changing to light to moderate north

No Current Warnings arnin a

WARNING A

20 °C

KUW WAIT A AIRPOR RT

25 °C

18 °C

NUW WAISEEB A

26 °C

19 °C

WAFRA A

24 °C

18 °C

SALMI

19 °C

15 °C

ABDAL LY

20 °C

15 °C

JAL ALIY YAH A

19 °C

17 °C

25623444

FA AILAKA

23 °C

20 °C

Bayan

25388462

AHMADI POR RT

23 °C

20 °C

Mishref

25381200

UMM AL-MARADEM

24 °C

22 °C

W Hawally

22630786

WARBA A A - BUBY YA AN

20 °C

19 °C

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

ST TAT TION

SFC. CHART

24/11/2012 0000 UTC

4 DA AYS Y FORECAST Temperatures DA AY

DA AT TE

WEA AT THER

MAX.

MIN.

Wind Direction

Wind Speed

Sunday

25/11

partly cloudy + scattered rain

23 °C

13 °C

NW-VRB

08 - 30 km/h

Monday

26/11

Tuesday

27/11

unstable + scattered rain

22 °C

17 °C

SE-NW

20 - 45 km/h

fair + blowing dust

21 °C

14 °C

NW

20 - 40 km/h

Wednesday e

28/11

fair

22 °C

12 °C

NW

20 - 35 km/h

PRA RA AY YER TIMES

RECORDED YESTERDA AY AT KUW WA AIT AIRPORT

Fajr

04:56

MAX. Temp.

22 °C

Sunrise

06:19

MIN. Temp.

18 °C

Zuhr

11:34

MAX. RH

81 %

Asr

14:31

MIN. RH

Sunset

16:50

MAX. Wind

Isha

18:11

TOT TA AL L RAIINF FA ALL L IN 24 HR.

All times are local time unless otherwise stated.

23900322

56 % SE 50 km/h 3.33 mm

24/11/12 03:04 UTC

V1.00

T1.06

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36

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Sir Paul McCartney’s family dresses up for Depp he Beatles legend says his wife Nancy and his fashion designer daughter Stella McCartney act very unnaturally when the handsome ‘Edward Scissorhands’ actor stops by their house, and even he feels the need to smarten up for his “special guest”. Paul told The Sun newspaper: “John - if I can just drop a name there - comes visiting quite a lot. It’s cool. I had my daughter and her husband and the kids staying there recently, and my little one Beatrice. “I said to them all, ‘By the way, Johnny Depp is coming round’. They all perked up ‘Oh yeah?’ I said, ‘Yeah, he’s coming round tomorrow’. That morning I come into breakfast and the first guy coming in is Mary’s husband, and I say, ‘You look very smart today’. “Then Nancy comes in, she’s all smartened up - make-up, you know. Normally, everyone bowls in bleary-eyed. Then suddenly they are all laughing at me because I’m in a waistcoat and I’ve done it too subconsciously made a real effort.

Everyone, Beatrice, all smartly dressed for our special guest.” The 70-year-old singer also revealed Johnny - who recently appeared in Paul’s music video for ‘My Valentine’ - is a talented musician and when the Hollywood star comes around the pair like to chat about music and jam on their guitars together. He added: “Johnny comes in like he’s an old cowboy. He just hung out, it was really nice. He brought me this funky little guitar as a gift. He’s a really decent player. Before he was an actor, when he was about 17, he was in a group.”

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Liz Taylor

has a Barbie doll dedicated to her

oy giant Mattel have honoured the late actress and her charity by creating a unique new doll, which comes with her signature black hair and a glamorous white dress and is named ‘White Diamonds’ after Elizabeth’s best-selling perfume. A red satin ribbon can be seen pinned onto the dress, representing Elizabeth’s dedication to helping those living with HIV/AIDS, and the Barbie comes with accessories such as gold jewellery, white sunglasses and a miniature replica bottle of her famous fragrance. The Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds Barbie doll is available on BarbieCollector.com for $150. The

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doll is not the first to be modelled on the late actress, as one has already been produced capturing the look from her hit film ‘Cleopatra’ and another in a semi-sheer sleeveless chiffon violet gown, with a real Swarovski crystal necklace. Elizabeth, who died in March 2011 from congestive heart failure, was recently named the highest-paid dead celebrity by Forbes and is said to have earned a staggering $210 million last year alone from the auctioning of her jewellery, costumes and artwork.

Justin Bieber found reading his mother’s memoir ‘tough’ attie Mallette, 37, was sexually abused, took drugs and attempted suicide before becoming pregnant with Justin and splitting from his father Jeremy Bieber at the age of 18 and while her autobiography ‘Nowhere But Up’ was difficult reading for her son, Justin, 18, is supportive of her decision to write it. He told Macleans.ca: “Yeah, it was a lot for me to hear. But I’m older now.

When I was younger, my mum never told me any of this stuff. It was definitely hard reading those stories, but I’m supportive of her writing the book. It’s cool.” Pattie’s mother Diane and step-father Bruce Dale admitted they were shocked by some of the incidents in the book as they were unaware of many of her difficulties. Bruce said: “There are three sides to every story. There’s one side, the other side, and then there’s the truth.”

Meanwhile, ‘As Long As You Love Me’ singer Justin is determined to be more than just a “teen heartthrob” and says his competitive nature will help to keep him at the top. He explained: “I don’t just want to be a teen heartthrob. Now I’m at the top, there’s only one way to go and it’s down. That gives me the motivation to stay on top and keep pushing. I grew up with a really competitive side, playing sports-basketball, hockey and soccer. I don’t want to be second-best, thirdbest, fourth-best. I want to be the best. That takes a lot of dedication and hard work. You gotta have plans.”

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Pixie Lott’s influenced

by Motown he singer is due to release her third album next year and is experimenting with soulful pop music similar to 60s groups The Supremes and Jackson 5. Pixie told new! magazine: “I’m making my album at the moment so I’m in the studio every day writing new songs. It has a bit of a vintage-soul sound reminiscent of Motown because that’s my favourite kind of music. We’re nearly finished so it’s definitely going to be out next year.” As well as being hard at work on a new album, the singer, 21, has launched a jewellery line with online retailer Rock ‘N Rose and couldn’t be more excited about the venture. She said: “I’ve been wearing their pieces for a while so I was really excited when they asked me to design a range. I wanted to make sure the whole collection reflected my own style and has a vintage feel. I named every piece after family members and friends. The Millie floral crown is named after my nan because the yellow roses and the lilies of the valley on the headband are her favourite flowers.”

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Taylor Swift

Ed Westwick loves planting flowers he ‘Gossip Girl’ actor is obsessed with nature and loves nothing more than spending his summers sowing seeds in the ground because the experience is so “humble”. Ed enthused: “I just love planting flowers during the summer.

There’s something very humble about it, and natural and beautiful. We’re a more beautiful species in the summer everyone comes out looking gorgeous and girls put on nice dresses.” However, despite his genteel hobby, the handsome star likes to think of himself as a rock star as his most rock ‘n’ roll habits include blasting loud music to annoy his neighbours and shredding his own T-shirts to show off his manly chest. He told more! magazine: “I’m a showman. I wouldn’t say I’m a rock star, though... all right, in my dream world, I am. I annoy my neighbours in my apartment building by blaring music out at 4 o’clock in the morning. I rip my T-shirt. I’m into the whole showing a bit of chest hair thing.”

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loves

bad boys he 22-year-old singer - who has had flings with the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer and Taylor Lautner - is addicted to dating dangerous men and says she can’t help herself from wanting to change them because they are so charismatic. Taylor said: “There’s a really interesting charisma involved. They usually have a lot to say, and even if they don’t, they know how to look at you to say it all. I think every girl’s dream is to find a bad boy at the right time, when he wants to not be bad anymore.”

The country beauty - who is currently linked to One Direction hunk Harry Styles - says she can’t fall in love half-heartedly and often gets herself in trouble as she doesn’t think things through.

Taylor said: “I don’t think there’s an option for me to fall in love slowly, or at medium speed. I either do or I don’t. I don’t think it through, really, which is a good thing and a bad thing. You don’t look before you leap, which is like, ‘Yay, this is awesome! Let’s not think twice!’ and then you’re like, ‘We used to be flying. Now we’re falling. What’s happening?’ “ Despite her many Hollywood suitors, the blonde star isn’t sure she’s ever been in love properly and she hopes the man she falls for completely will be her future husband. Taylor told Parade magazine: “I tend to think things are love and then look back and reevaluate. I know how many people I’ve said ‘I love you’ to. I could probably count it up, but I don’t feel like it. Part of me feels you can’t say you were truly in love if it didn’t last. If I end up getting married and having kids, that’s when I’ll know it’s real - because it lasted.” —BangShowbiz

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Tom Cruise spends Thanksgiving with Suri he 50-year-old actor has been working on ‘All You Need Is Kill’ in London and hadn’t seen his six-year-old daughter - who lives in New York with her mother Katie Holmes - in over three months and Tom was thrilled when Suri flew to the UK so they could spend the holiday together. A source told People magazine: “He’s super excited about the visit.”

Tom sent a family member to New York to pick up Suri and a friend added to Usmagazine.com: “It’s the first time he’s seen Suri in a long time.” Meanwhile, Katie, 33, who had the day off from her Broadway play ‘Dead Accounts’ spent the holiday with her family in her native Ohio. Explaining her holiday plans recently, she said: “We have Thursday off, so I’m going to have a chance to go home with my family. “My sister makes a really good sausage stuffing and my mom makes a great turkey. “Many years ago, my dad started this tradition where we all do this run in the local park.

“It’s a three mile run called the Turkey Trot.

There’s even a prize, which I haven’t won yet. But it’s really fun.”

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37

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

LIFESTYLE M u s i c

Cozy chic style anessa Hudgens, the star of the Disney “High School Musical” films, is tackling more adult roles in the upcoming “Machete Kills” and “The Frozen Ground.” But the 23-year-old has retained her youthful, slightly punk edge when it comes to her personal style - she’s more likely to don combat boots on the red carpet than sparkly stilettos.

When she participated in “The 24 Hour Plays,” Montblanc’s creative fundraiser for the Urban Arts Project, in New York City, the actress opted for a sleeveless white top, simple black pants and lace-up boots. She was equally as casual-chic in a shirt with studded collar, leather jacket and booties at the recent Hurricane Sandy Celebrity Telethon Fundraiser.

And at the taping of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show this month, she opted for warmth, rather than the barely covered style of some of the other fashionable attendees.

Hudgens hit the pink carpet in a

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&

M o v i e s

works for Vanessa Hudgens

knit dress and leopard print coat, braving the chill with stockings, leg warmers and knee high boots.

For a similar cozy look, try the waffle knit sweater dress for $99 from Marciano and the faux leopard fur coat for $138.60 from Express.com.

Hudgens’ luxe red lips and sparkly key pendant necklace added glamour to the ensemble. For a similar necklace, try the Blu Bijoux Live to Give key pendant necklace from Max & Chloe for $36. A good pair of boots and funky leg warmers are fun ways to dress up your cold weather attire. Try the Nine West Shiza boot for $124.99 from Amazon.com or the Nine West Inthehouse boot for $163.17, also from Amazon.com, along with black slouchy leg warmers for $9.99 from Newegg.com. —MCT

Spanx squeezes into tiny shopping malls

Style trendsetters profiled in a bevy of new books

wins separated at birth, “most alike - indeed, virtually identical - in their sovereign ambition to be unique.” That’s how 1930s era fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and her modern-day counterpart Miuccia Prada are described in Judith Thurman’s introduction to “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, $45). The book is the catalog for the exhibition of the same name that opened May 10 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The book, by Andrew Bolton and Harold Koda, explores the similarities and differences between the two women born six decades apart, both of them native Italians with rebellious streaks who grew up in strict Catholic households. More than 200 photographs of Schiaparelli and Prada ensembles are featured, along with a series of “impossible conversations” between the two women, which curators Bolton and Koda orchestrated using quotes from Schiaparelli’s autobiography, “Shocking Life,” and interviews they conducted with Prada.

The two designers, both self-taught, “converse” about famous fans (Schiaparelli’s include Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Millicent Rogers and Daisy Fellowes; Prada says, “I don’t go out of my way to dress actresses. ...”). They “discuss” their affinity for uniforms (Schiaparelli was asked to design a costume for the typical Soviet woman in the 1930s, and Prada was heavily inspired in the 1990s by industrial materials and a kind of minimalist uniformity). They hold forth on their shared love of “ugly chic” and whether dress designing is an art (Schiaparelli says “yes,” Prada says “no”). But mostly, the reader will be bowled over by the lush images of Schiaparelli’s 1930s goddess gowns, suit jackets with linebacker shoulders (later adopted by Hollywood costume designer Adrian), lamb chop- and shoe-shaped hats, as well as Prada’s chiffon dresses emblazoned with illustrations of whimsical fairies and school-girl skirts in lip prints or bearing nostalgic “tourist” designs of Rome and Venice.

Online Empire In “By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop” (Portfolio, $27.95), Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson tell the story of how they launched Gilt Groupe in 2007, bringing the thrill of sample shopping online on their members-only site, where they offered designer merchandise at up to 70 percent off and created a new retail phenomenon.

Best friends first, the two met at Harvard Business School and bonded over a passion for shopping the rough-and-tumble world of designer sample sales. Using their cumulative experience at EBay, Merrill Lynch, Louis Vuitton and Bulgari, they persuaded luxury brands to get over the fear that online discounting would kill their prestige, bringing Zac Posen onboard for their first sale. The members-only concept created a sense of exclusivity, even if all one had to do was sign up and anyone could join. “If shopping was traditionally a slow, leisurely activity that might consume an entire weekend (the exception being sample sales), it would now be competitive, addictive, urgent, thrilling - a rush delivered at the same time each day via the Internet,” they write. “It would be the appointment you couldn’t miss at a time we’d specified.”

From the first day, they drew a crowd, proving that luxury shoppers like a good bargain as much as anyone. The book traces the rise of Gilt from its first days as a startup with five employees, including Maybank and Wilson. The company, valued at $1 billion, now sells a multitude of items, including cars, Judith Leiber clutches, chocolate truffles, as well as some non-luxury goods. Gilt ships to 90 countries and hosts more than 20 sales a day on several sites, including Gilt City, Gilt Taste and Jetsetter.

There is plenty for fashionistas and budding entrepreneurs alike to chew on, including anecdotes about Valentino, Madonna and J Crew Chief Executive Mickey Drexler; practical advice about how to find the right business partner; and tips on how to know if your business has the potential to go viral. There are also lots of behind-the-scenes stories about the origin of the Gilt name, how “The View” doubled membership overnight and why the two founders turned down an opportunity to buy acres of amazing European designer clothes and felt good about it. —MCT

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hey’re a tummy tuck and butt-lift in a bag. The new-millennium version of Grandma’s girdle, minus the bruising engineering. And each garment has a name so tart, so clever, that even hippy women feel hip when they squirm into a sheet of Spandex. They are, of course, Spanx, the figure-slimming shapewear that has revolutionized how women dress by convincing ladies to shun comfort over compression. The brand has disinterred the dead-and-gone girdle by eliminating painful and visible seams and packaging its promises with sleek tags and Hollywood cachet.

And the Spanx empire is nowhere near satisfied. Just months after 41-year-old founder Sara Blakely was named the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire by Forbes, Spanx’s bun-slimming ambitions continue to grow with plans for its own line of stores. The Atlanta company, privately owned since its founding in 2000, has chosen three deluxe malls on the East Coast for its first stores. The trio are scheduled to open in October in King of Prussia, Pa.; McLean, Va.; and Paramus, NJ. Why, you ask, would a company whose garments already occupy prime shelf space at Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and high-end lingerie boutiques - and that offers more affordable assortments elsewhere, and even sells tummy-tightening shapewear for men - want its own stores?

Spanx declined to comment, even staying mum to trade bible Women’s Wear Daily, despite its reputation for being anything but publicity-shy. Follow the money, however, and the puzzle comes together.

The market for shapewear, as hip-hugging sheaths of stretchy nylon armor are known in the industry, rang up what the NPD Group estimated to be $725 million in sales during the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to a spokeswoman for the market-research firm.

That’s whopping. The segment had all but vanished by the 1990s, when baby boomers stopped wearing the girdles and corsets popularized during the Mad Men era. Consider also that Blakely founded the company on little more than $5,000. She stumbled onto genius as a twentysomething by clipping the feet off a pair of stockings to improve her look in a new pair of pants. A decade later, she’s a Forbes phenom.

“I often wonder what women did before Spanx,” said Donna Goetz, a lingerie retailer since 1984, first in Philadelphia and then from an exclusive spot in Haverford, Pa, where her relocated Hope Chest has done business for seven years. “I don’t

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have a good answer for you.” The fashion world followed Spanx’s lead. Today, Spanx and its emerging competitors are musthaves for cocktail parties and red-carpet events across the globe. The Spanx craze has spawned racks of copycats, whose competing shapewear is cutting into the company’s once-unchallenged hegemony.

“Everyone gets their Spanx on for the weddings,” said Goetz, who credits Blakely for savvy marketing and tip-top quality and service from the start, helping make the product an instant hit with retailers and customers. “She definitely packaged it, marketed it, and made it OK for the 20-

at King of Prussia. Slim Cognito, a $72 midthigh shaper whose “seamless design slims midriff, tummy, thighs and rear.”

The Booty Boost is popular among women who, shall we say, lack natural padding on the posterior. “You know who buys that in my store?” said Goetz, her boisterous voice dropping to a near-whisper. “Thinner, mature women who have no bottom. None.”

Longtime retail expert Marshal Cohen has seen prototypes of the planned Spanx stores and says they will be full-service boutiques. But rather than selling only Spanx’s core products, these stores will

Donna Goetz, owner of the Hope Chest (lingerie boutique) in Haverford, Pennsylvania, displays a size medium, nude, Spanx shaping mid-thigh bodysuit. —MCT and 30-year-olds who would probably never get into a girdle,” Goetz said of the trademark bright-red boxes dreamed up

by Blakely, and the snappy product names that have the touch of a Madison Avenue copy-writing pro.

Playful red product tags catch your eye as you stroll through otherwise forbidding racks of gut-sucking, thigh-tightening Spanx on display at the Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus stores that sit within a few hundred feet of the planned new Spanx boutique at the Plaza

serve as laboratory and showcase for new merchandise, too. “They’re not looking at the initial outset to be Victoria’s Secret,” said Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD Group, which does not count Spanx as a client. “They’re looking to be a very specialized and niche business that caters to a loyal clientele and inquisitive clientele.”

The King of Prussia store, to be located across from Tiffany’s, occupies only 904 square feet, said mall marketing director Kathy Smith. “They’ll carry lines of lingerie, activewear, hosiery, slimwear,” Smith said.

Dial it down for play f you’re looking for a little celebrity PDA, look no further than courtside at an NBA playoff game. When the Lakers took on the Denver Nuggets during Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals last weekend, Kanye West was spotted with his arm around Kim Kardashian, whispering and holding hands, while Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel were seen cuddling and making out between baskets.

Timberlake and Biel can really turn up the style dial for red carpet events. But it was refreshing to see the couple still chic but dressed down for the game.

Timberlake cheered on the Lakers in a classic black henley, charcoal button-down shirt, gray pants, wornin boots and a plaid newsboy cap. Biel wore pastel blue skinny jeans, a sheer embroidered blouse, comfy cardigan and patterned flats.

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“They could have some fragrance, bath and body, and beauty items and accessories. The majority of their floor space will be devoted to their core brand product.”

At its own stores, the company will have more latitude in defining itself to customers, Cohen said. In department stores, a brand’s products are spread all over the place. And mounting a store-within-astore display for an entire brand’s offerings is costly there, requiring lease agreements.

“As they roll it out and they become successful in other brand-extension areas like sportswear and accessories,” Cohen said, “they can expand with bigger space.”

Get Timberlake’s relaxed look with the Ultra slim fit dyed chino pants by Calvin Klein for $69.50, Fox Reserve S/S Henley from 6pm.com for $24.99, Kill City pigment coated poplin shirt from UrbanOutfitters.com for $34.99, Belfrey Wesleyan tartan plaid ivy cap from HatsintheBelfry.com for $29 and the JD Fisk men’s Denver boot from Endless.com for $89.15.

For an outfit similar to Biel’s, try the Embroidered blouse from Zara for $89.90, Marled knit cardigan from Gap for $39.99, Strut sulphur jean in baby blue by Superdry for $98 and the Jersey floral skimmer flat from Wet Seal for $14.50. —MCT

He suspects modern design techniques will help the sector avoid the grim fate of the girdle. So will this: “Until we come up with a diet pill that works,” he said, “shapewear is gonna be around.” —MCT

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

lifestyle

This 1983 file photo shows actor Larry Hagman (center left) with fellow cast members of the television series “Dallas.” — AP/AFP photos

In this 2008 file photo, actor Larry Hagman and his wife Maj, visit the kitchen area of the Southfork Ranch mansion in Parker, Texas made famous in the television show “Dallas.”

‘ Dallas’ star Larry Hagman dies in Texas R.Ewing was a business cheat, faithless husband and bottomless well of corruption. Yet with his sparkling grin, Larry Hagman masterfully created the charmingly loathsome oil baron - and coaxed forth a Texas-size gusher of ratings - on television’s long-running and hugely successful nighttime soap, “Dallas.” Although he first gained fame as nice guy Capt. Tony Nelson on the fluffy 1965-70 NBC comedy “I Dream of Jeannie,” Hagman earned his greatest stardom with JR The CBS serial drama about the Ewing family and those in their orbit aired from April 1978 to May 1991, and broke viewing records with its “Who shot JR?” 1980 cliffhanger that left unclear if Hagman’s character was dead.

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This 1967 file photo shows Barbara Eden (left) and Larry Hagman in a scene from the television show “I Dream of Jeannie.”

The actor, who returned as JR in a new edition of “Dallas” this year, had a long history of health problems and died Friday due to complications from his battle with cancer, his family said. “Larry was back in his beloved hometown of Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved the most. Larry’s family and closest friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday,” the family said in a statement that was provided to The Associated Press by Warner Bros, producer of the show.

The 81-year-old actor was surrounded by friends and family before he passed peacefully, “just as he’d wished for,” the statement said. Linda Gray, his on-screen wife and later ex-wife in the original series and the sequel, was among those with Hagman in his final moments in a Dallas hospital, said her publicist, Jeffrey Lane. “He brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented, and I will miss him enormously. He was an original and lived life to the fullest,” the actress said.

Years before “Dallas,” Hagman had gained TV fame on “I Dream of Jeannie,” in which he played an astronaut whose life is disrupted when he finds a comely genie, portrayed by Barbara Eden, and takes her home to live with him. Eden recalled late Friday shooting the series’ pilot “in the frigid cold” on a Malibu beach. “From that day, for five more years, Larry was the center of so many fun, wild and sometimes crazy times. And in retrospect, memorable moments that will remain in my heart forever,” Eden said.

Hagman also starred in two short-lived sitcoms, “The Good Life” (NBC, 1971-72) and “Here We Go Again” (ABC, 1973). His film work included well-regarded performances in “The Group,” “Harry and Tonto” and “Primary Colors.”

But it was Hagman’s masterful portrayal of JR that brought him the most fame. And the “Who shot JR?” story twist fueled international speculation and millions of dollars in betting-parlor wagers. It also helped give the series a place in ratings history. When the answer was revealed in a November 1980 episode, an average 41 million US viewers tuned in to make “Dallas” one of the mostwatched entertainment shows of all time, trailing only the “MASH” finale in 1983 with 50 million viewers.

It was JR’s sister-in-law, Kristin (Mary Crosby) who plugged him - he had made her pregnant, then threatened to frame her as a prostitute unless she left town - but others had equal motivation. Hagman played Ewing as a bottomless well of corruption with a charming grin: a

business cheat and a faithless husband who tried to get his alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Gray), institutionalized.

“I know what I want on JR’s tombstone,” Hagman said in 1988. “It should say: ‘Here lies upright citizen JR Ewing.

This is the only deal he ever lost.’”

On Friday night, Victoria Principal, who co-starred in the original series, recalled Hagman as “bigger than life, on-screen and off. He is unforgettable, and irreplaceable, to millions of fans around the world, and in the hearts of each of us, who was lucky enough to know and love him.”

Ten episodes of the new edition of “Dallas” aired this past summer and proved a hit for TNT. Filming was in progress on the sixth episode of season two, which is set to begin airing Jan. 28, the network said.

There was no immediate comment from Warner or TNT on how the series would deal with Hagman’s loss. In 2006, he did a guest shot on FX’s drama series “Nip/Tuck,” playing a macho business mogul. He also got new exposure in recent years with the DVD releases of “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Dallas.” The Fort Worth, Texas, native was the son of singer-actress Mary Martin, who starred in such classics as “South Pacific” and “Peter Pan.” Martin was still in her teens when he was born in 1931 during her marriage to attorney Ben Hagman.

As a youngster, Hagman gained a reputation for mischief-making as he was bumped from one private school to another. He made a stab at New York theater in the early 1950s, then served in the Air Force from 1952-56 in England. While there, he met and married young Swedish designer Maj Axelsson. The couple had two children, Preston and Heidi, and were longtime residents of the Malibu beach colony that is home to many celebrities.

Hagman returned to acting and found work in the theater and in such TV series as “The U.S. Steel Hour,” “The Defenders” and “Sea Hunt.” His first continuing role was as lawyer Ed Gibson on the daytime serial “The Edge of Night” (1961-63). He called his 2001 memoir “Hello Darlin’: Tall (and Absolutely True) Tales about My Life.” “I didn’t put anything in that I thought was going to hurt someone or compromise them in any way,” he told The Associated Press at the time. Hagman was diagnosed in 1992 with cirrhosis of the liver and acknowledged that he had drank heavily for years. In 1995, a malignant tumor was discovered on his liver and he underwent a transplant.

After his transplant, he became an advocate for organ donation and volunteered at a hospital to help fright-

Ang Lee talks about risks, spirituality of ‘Life of Pi’ ay cowboy drama “Brokeback Mountain” may have been considered a risky film to make, but director Ang Lee said his new movie, “Life of Pi,” a 3D exploration of faith about a boy stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger, is his riskiest yet.

The film, which was released in US theaters this week, is adapted from Yann Martel’s best-selling novel of the same name and was once considered impossible to make. Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Lee, 58, took on the laborious task of using computer-generated imagery to bring the sensational plot to the big screen, taking a year and a half just to edit the film together. The director talked to Reuters about the film’s themes, technical barriers and casting an unknown actor in the lead.

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Q. Why was “Life of Pi” considered unfilmable?

A. “Because you cannot make the tiger do everything you wantto do, you have to use digital. A digital animal, up until two years ago, was not totally realistic yet, let alone in 3D, and then water is pretty difficult.”

Q. Was this your most difficult filming experience yet?

A. “Oh yes. And it was also the longest...there was the technical difficulty and then it is a big movie.

And it was across continents, I finally decided to shoot most of it in Taiwan, but we also had to go to India to shoot for two to three weeks. Because you can’t fake Pondicherry, and Munnar. And then we have scenes in Canada.”

Q. But Brokeback Mountain was a risky film too?

A. “No, that wasn’t for me. At least when I made it, I thought it was strictly arthouse and few people would see it. And it’s a lot cheaper (to make). So I didn’t care...And then I got nervous, ‘Oh they are going to lynch me, making a gay cowboy movie, that will go into a shopping mall.’”

Q. It was only after you made it you realized that?

A. “Yes, I was afraid. I was looking around when I walked, when I would go home, to see if anybody was following me. Once it hit the shopping mall I was nervous, actually. My brother is a distributor in Taiwan and I told him not to buy it. He hates me to this day, he is still babbling about it.”

Q. Why choose unknown Suraj Sharma to play Pi? A. “I wanted someone authentic, and no bad habits, that means you have to train them from the start.”

Ang Lee

Q. Why did you replace Tobey Maguire and reshoot his scenes with the little-known Rafe Spall?

A. “It was a small part, and he is a big movie star. He is a good old friend of mine and he would do this for nothing, for me. But he is not doing anything (in the role), he is just sitting there listening most of the time. It becomes a little distracting I think.”

Q. How does the film explore spirituality?

A. “To me, faith can be elusive, but .. As a Taoist would say, ‘That’s the apple’s truth.’ The source of all the material comes from nothingness, illusion is working more on things you can prove.

That’s the principle, the essence of life, it is actually an illusion, not immaterial. That’s worth pursuing. So illusion is not nothing. In a way, that is the truth.” “Sometimes I feel (illusions) are more of life’s essence, I can trust them more than real life that is full of deceit and covering up.”

Q. Did exploring faith encourage you to make this?

A. “The book is fascinating, it talks about faith. But it didn’t make me believe in God or anything...I didn’t go to church or a temple after that. When I started making the movie, you do feel faith embody you and carry you through. But when I picked the subject, and chose to do the book, it was actually more storytelling in my mind. The value of storytelling. How people share a story.

Because a story has structure, it has a beginning, middle and end. It seems to have meaning, where life has not.”

Q. Do you practice any religion?

A. “No, my mother is a baptized Christian, so she made me go to church every Sunday, and I prayed four times a day until I was 14. And at lunchtime kids at school would giggle at my praying...I stopped praying. And two weeks later, nothing happened to me, so I didn’t pick it up again.” “I am not particularly religious. But I think we do face the question of where God is, why we are created and where does life go, why we exist.

That sort of thing. And it is very hard to talk about it these days, because it cannot be proven.

It is hard to discuss it rationally.”

Q. Do you consider yourself spiritual?

A. “I hate to think life is just facts and laws. And I am a filmmaker, I am a sensitive person, I like to think it is spiritual, so I like people to be more in that way. I think life without spirit is in the dark, it is absurd. Call it illusion or call it faith, whatever you call it, we have emotional attachment to the unknown. We yearn to find out. That is human nature. It can be, in a way, unrequited love, we don’t know.” — Reuters

This 1981 file photo provided by CBS shows Larry Hagman in character as JR Ewing in the television series “Dallas.” ened patients. “I counsel, encourage, meet them when they come in for their operations, and after,” he said in 1996. “I try to offer some solace, like ‘Don’t be afraid, it will be a little uncomfortable for a brief time, but you’ll be OK.’ “ He also was an anti-smoking activist who took part in “Great American Smoke-Out” campaigns. Funeral plans were not immediately announced. “I can honestly say that we’ve lost not just a great actor, not just a television icon, but an element of pure Americana,” Eden said in her statement Friday night. “Goodbye, Larry. There was no one like you before and there will never be anyone like you again.” — AP

‘Big Bang Theory’ actress Mayim Bialik, husband divorcing he Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik and her husband are divorcing after nine years of marriage, she said in a statement on her Facebook page. Bialik, who starred in the 1990s sitcom “Blossom,” and Michael Stone have two sons together. “Divorce is terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible for children,” Bialik, 36, said in the statement. “It is not something we have decided lightly.” Bialik, a proponent of “attachment parenting” who authored a book on the subject that was published in September, said it “played no role” in the couple’s divorce.

Attachment parenting advocates the nurturing of strong bonds between parents and children, which can include extended breastfeeding and parents and children sleeping in the same bed until the children are as old as 7. A controversial Time magazine cover on the subject in May drew strong reactions across the United States.

“The main priority for us now is to make the transition to two loving homes as smooth and painless as possible,” Bialik wrote in the statement, which was posted to her Facebook page on Wednesday. “Our sons deserve parents committed to their growth and health and that’s what we are focus- Mayim Bialik ing on.” “We will be OK,” the statement concludes. Bialik is a former child star who appeared in the 1980s television series “Webster” and “The Facts of Life” before landing the title role in the coming-of-age television show “Blossom,” which ran from 1991 to 1995. The show was about a smart teenage girl whose parents have divorced and is learning about life.

The actress attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she obtained a doctorate in neuroscience. She met Michael Stone, a fellow graduate student, in calculus class, according to a description of her wedding she previously posted online. In her most recent role on CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler, a neuroscientist who dates one of the two main stars of the show, the socially inept but brilliant physicist Sheldon Cooper. — Reuters

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lifestyle

After ‘Psycho,’ a shower of violence in movies

or his first professional acting job, a 22-yearold Anthony Hopkins took a train from South Wales to Manchester. With time to kill on a rainy day, he dropped off his bags and headed to the movies, where a long queue wound outside the cinema. “It was packed,” Hopkins recalls. “I sat down and I didn’t know what the hell I was in for. I had heard stories about it. When it got to the shower scene, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life.”

The movie was, of course, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” a film that 52 years after its shocking premiere still hasn’t released audiences from its subversive thrall. The film, which Hitchcock called “a fun picture,” was revolutionary in its violence, its sympathy to the perspective of the criminal mind and, perhaps above all, its technique. “What if someone really good made a horror picture?” wonders the British director, played by Hopkins, in the new film “Hitchcock.”

Directed by Sacha Gervasi, it depicts the making of “Psycho” with a keen focus on Hitchcock’s relationship - and profession indebtedness - to his wife Alma Reville (played by Helen Mirren). It is only the latest example of the undying fascination with “Psycho,” a film that ushered in a new darkness in American movies, one with a playful sense of irony toward violence but also a serious treatment of that which had previously been considered mere “schlock.” Though Hitchcock made a dozen films that could easily be labeled masterpieces, none seized audiences with the same power as “Psycho.”

Made for just $800,000 at the end of Hitchcock’s contract with Paramount (which distributed the film but left Hitchcock to finance it himself), “Psycho,” based on Robert Bloch’s novel, went on to gross $32 million - the biggest hit of his career.

The director famously handed out manuals to theaters with explicit directions not to let anyone in after the movie began. Though most critics dismissed the film then, some finally began to consider Hitchcock an artist of the highest order - most notably Robin Wood, who called “Psycho” “perhaps the most terrifying film ever made.”

“We are (taken) forward and downward into the darkness of ourselves,” wrote Wood. “‘Psycho’ begins with the normal and draws us steadily deeper and deeper into the abnormal.” That “Psycho” killed off its star - Janet Leigh - after just half an hour was only one of its many unheard of

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elements. Scenes of Leigh in her underwear were unusual for their time, too, and prompted lengthy negotiations between Hitchcock and the censors.

Even a flushing toilet - considered a vulgar sight had never been seen in such a big movie.

Of course, the infamous shower scene in which Leigh’s Marion Crane meets her demise - immediately recognizable from the “screaming violins” of Bernard Herrmann’s score - is the film’s piece de resistance. The ruthless slicing wasn’t of flesh, but of film: 70 shots in 45 seconds, a perfect marriage of montage and murder. A prop man sounded the

most influential films ever made,” says Thomson.

“It’s the beginnings of a flood of violence. Violence becomes more acceptable in film. It’s a whole new attitude to the criminal personality. It becomes more interesting in a way that had never really operated before. It celebrates the director.

(Hitchcock) was taken with a new seriousness after that, and in turn, directors were.”

In the famous interviews with French director Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock said he was most interested in “all the technical ingredients that made the audience scream” and hoped that “Psycho” would

This publicity film image shows Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock in “Hitchcock.” The new film “Hitchcock,” which is set during the making of the “Psycho,” is only the latest expression of neverending obsession of Hitchcock’s most influential masterpiece. — AP scene by knifing casaba melons.

In his book “The Moment of ‘Psycho’: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder,” the critic David Thomson argues that the influence of “Psycho” is everywhere in movies, including “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Jaws,” “Taxi Driver,” many of the films of Stanley Kubrick and even the James Bond movies. “Psycho,” Thomson writes, let “the subversive secret out,” after which “censorship crumpled like an old lady’s parasol.” “It’s one of the

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be “a film that belongs to filmmakers.” That’s certainly been true, as “Psycho” has inspired perhaps the most obsessive ode in Hollywood history, the near frame-by-frame 1998 remake by Gus Van Sant.

In the every-decade polling done by film magazine Sight & Sound, Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (released two years before “Psycho” to largely negative reviews) earlier this year displaced Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” as the best film of all time, according to voting critics. Among the directors who have

voted for “Psycho” in past Sight & Sound polls is the Australian filmmaker Michael Haneke, maybe the only living director who - as proven by his upcoming film “Amour” - shares both Hitchcock’s skillfulness and his attention to audience manipulation through violence.

Also among filmmakers who have voted for “Psycho” is Errol Morris who, years after seeing it, pursued an interview with the real-life inspiration for Anthony Perkins’ character, the serial killer Ed Gein, at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Wisconsin. Morris was then a graduate student at UC Berkley, but the extensive interviews he did with Gein (he believes the only ever done) helped set Morris on the path that would be his life’s work - films that might in some way be summarized by a scene in “Psycho” that deeply affected Morris. Near the end of the film, a psychiatrist offers a pat, insufficient explanation of Gein’s psychosis, which Pauline Kael called “arguably Hitchcock’s worst scene.”

“You feel that all psychological explanation is defeated,” says Morris. “It’s the ultimate noir idea, that somehow psychological explanation isn’t enough. It’s defeated by some kind of mechanism that stands behind all of our plans and our thoughts, our machinations. It’s the feeling of being haunted by the inexplicable and the unknown.”

In “Hitchcock,” which is partly based on Stephen Rebello’s book, “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho,” Gervasi imagines the director communicating with Gein. A more complex picture of Hitchcock is also seen in the recent HBO film “The Girl,” which shows the making of “The Birds” and Hitchcock’s alleged tormenting of his star actress, Tippi Hedren. Fearing a negative portrait, the Hitchcock estate didn’t allow the use of “Psycho” footage or dialogue for “Hitchcock.” But the film nevertheless takes pleasure in recreating and imagining the circumstances of making a film that still transfixes - that in shrill violin notes, shrieked a revolution. “It was a point in history where we were going from an idealistic, stylized imagination of what America could be, to this very visceral, brutal, violent period where the president is getting killed and people are getting assassinated,” says Gervasi. “Here we are 52 years later talking about the shock of a film. I mean, that’s a pretty powerful film.” — AP

it’s sold to. .

An employee of Christie’s auction house poses with a dollar which is signed by Andy Warhol and is estimated to sell for £1,000 - £1,500.

An employee of Christie’s auction house poses with a handmade bull-whip of kangaroo hide which featured in the Indiana Jones films and is estimated to sell for £10,000 £15,000.

An employee of Christie’s auction house poses with a compass used

by Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl which along with two Aztec gold medallions (not pictured). — AFP photos

Jose Luis Borau, Spanish filmmaker, dead at 83 I nfluential Spanish filmmaker Jose Luis Borau died Friday in Madrid, the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences said. He was 83. Borau had reportedly been suffering from throat cancer. Though Borau, who was born in Zaragoza in 1929, only made handful of films since his 1960 directorial debut “En el Rio,” his talents were widely respected, and he received a Goya award for Best Director in 2000 for his final film, “Leo.” Borau was also a screenwriter and producer, and acted in

‘ Gangnam Style’ becomes YouTube’ s most watched video

some of his films. According to the Academy, his other pursuits included editing the first published biography of director-producer Samuel Bronston and short-story writing. He also “dabbled in advertising,” the Academy said. Borau was probably best known for his 1975 drama “Furtivos” (“Poachers”), a film whose success, he later said, made him “a little sad.” “Nobody is bitter sweet, but I’m a little sad,” the filmmaker once said. “My scale is a bit like what happened to Orson Welles, who made great films after ‘Citizen Kane,’ but just remember that title.” — Reuters

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off has been discussed), the series remains an impact player in the business. “Forever is a very long time,” says Condon, alluding to the romantic phrase used in the movie promotions. But this is part of a movement.”

Consider these bite marks that the series leaves on Hollywood: - Girl power. Before “Twilight,” the studios’ prevailing hitmaking philosophy was to please the teenage boy consumers with male leads for tentpole franchise-worthy projects.

“Twilight” shattered that myth when an overwhelmingly female audience propelled the first installment, with Stewart at the emotional center, to $70 million in its opening weekend. The franchise never cooled.

“That is the best legacy of this series,” says Condon. “Not only can a woman be the center of the story, but also it’s the idea - what this women audience responds to is extremely valuable. They will come out in force. Not every movie has to be made for the teenage boy.” “‘Twilight’ opened Hollywood’s eyes,” says Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, who notes that once studios realized they were losing the boys to video games and the Internet, they needed the teenage girls. —MCT

outh Korean pop sensation Psy’s “Gangnam Style” yesterday became YouTube’s mostwatched video of all time, registering more than 803 million views to overtake “Baby” by Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber. The 34-year-old rapper has rocketed to fame since his “Gangnam Style” video in which he performs his now famous horse-riding dance-became a worldwide hit following its release in July.

Earlier this month the song ousted Jennifer Lopez’s dance hit “On the Floor” from second place on YouTube, and yesterday it overtook Bieber’s hit. In the evening, it had racked up 803,761,928 views against 803,658,345 for “Baby”. Psy’s song, which is a tribute to an upmarket neighbourhood in Seoul, has topped charts from Britain to Australia and has been namechecked by global notables including US President Barack Obama and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

It has spawned numerous tribute videos and been imitated by an impressive roster of big names, including Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and London Mayor Boris Johnson. The quirky star, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, has won adulation in his homeland for the global hit and was this month awarded one of South Korea’s highest cultural honours, the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit. South Korea sees popular culture as a potent export force providing international exposure for a country that still feels overlooked in comparison to neighbours China and Japan. The rapper recently unveiled plans for his next song in an interview with CNN, saying the lyrics would be a mix of English and Korean. — AFP

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‘Twilight’ leaves bite marks on Hollywood ven eternal vampire love must come to an end. “The Twilight Saga” movie franchise’s days are wrapping up to some staggering numbers: five movies, a three-sided romance entangling a human, a vampire and a werewolf - and $2.5 billion (and counting) in worldwide box office. The passionate fans of the series, which is based on Stephenie Meyer’s four best-selling novels, will have a chance to let out one more box-office roar as the final chapter, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2,” hit select theaters at midnight Thursday (before opening wide Friday), nearly four years after the original (2008’s “Twilight”) started the Twi-hards screaming.

“It’s a very emotional thing,” says Bill Condon, who directed the final two installments. “This is a very interactive experience with the fans. And they have come so far with us.” So have the filmmakers who spun the magic - including the celebrated leads Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. Condon says after hearing the screaming crowds at Monday night’s last US premiere, the finality hit him at the party afterwards. “As I was saying goodbye to everyone at the end of the night, I was thinking, ‘Wow, this really is the end.’”

But even after the final film bow (though a “Twilight” spin-

An employee of Christie’s auction house poses with a Hofner 500/1 violin bass guitar which is signed by Paul McCartney and is estimated to sell for £5000 £7,000 during a press preview ahead of Christie’s Pop Culture sale in London.

Models present pieces by designers of Tommy Hilfiger and Brooks Brothers during the Women’s Fashion Week yesterday. — AP

‘Dallas’ star Larry Hagman dies at 81

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Stolen Beauties (Left) This image shows a 1931 Irma Stern “Fishing Boats” oil on canvas. Police in South Africa said that robbers posing as visitors to an art museum stole more than $2 million worth of art including this painting apart from others from an exhibit near the country’s capital. (Middle) This photo shows a Gerard Sekoto “street scene” oil on canvas. (Right) 1936 Maggie Laubser “Cat and Petunias” oil on canvas.

Smithsonian gathers best art of Civil War era aintings and photographs depicting the raw reality of the US Civil War marked a major change in American art that tossed out romantic notions of war. Some of the finest artists of the day, including Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Frederic Church and Sanford Gifford, painted landscapes and scenes of everyday life to show how the 18611865 war transformed America. Their best works, along with some of the first photographs of soldiers killed on the battlefield, have been gathered by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for a major exhibition on how artists represented the war and how the war changed art. “The Civil War and American Art” is on view in Washington through April and then moves to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator Eleanor Jones Harvey spent years researching the project and borrowing many of the 75 works featured in the show. It features Civil War scenes from Washington,

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Baltimore, New York, and points south at Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. Rather than make portraits of war generals and heroes, however, artists of the day focused on the common man. There was a realization that “art that presents normal human beings, rather than celebrities and luminaries, carries more lasting weight.” One painting in the show, Gifford’s 1862 painting “Preaching to the Troops,” depicting a scene near Washington, was displayed in the Oval Office for 13 years.

Photographs had perhaps the greatest impact on art of the era. Battlefield photographs by Alexander Gardner showing piles of dead soldiers and images by George Barnard showing Charleston in ruins destroyed any romantic notions of war being a heroic adventure. Such images were shown in art galleries in the Northeast during the war and made people realize “this is not what I signed up for,” Harvey said. “Photographs from Antietam

This image provided by the Smithsonian American Art Museum Eastman Johnson’s 1859 oil on linen, “Negro Life at the South,” is a part of a major exhibition on how artists represented the war and how the war changed art. — AP photos

Frederic Edwin Church’s, 1861 oil on paper, “Our Banner in the Sky”.

make it stunningly impossible for anyone associated with the New York art world to make romantic pictures of the war because they look like lies,” Harvey said.

Art also changed the rhetoric about war by depicting gruesome reality. Raw imagery shown to President Abraham Lincoln likely influenced the words he drafted for his Gettysburg Address, Harvey said. “There’s a realization that this is a war that left nobody

unscathed,” she said. “As a result, as rich as you are, there is no insulation from the impact of the war.” Landscape paintings reflected the mood of the nation. Artists depicted scenes of nature and weather to represent the war’s destruction and impact. There are layers of coding in such paintings, Harvey said, as with Church’s depiction of ice as Northern fortitude, an erupting volcano to represent slavery and the tropics to represent the South.

At the same time, Homer and Johnson addressed slavery and emancipation with scenes of ordinary people, including a slave family escaping to freedom on horseback and a slave man reading from the Bible. In postwar America, Homer painted a scene of former slaves meeting with their former mistress, renegotiating their relationship to involve wages. “Homer is saying, ‘until this gets fixed, we’re not done,’” Harvey said. — AP

Graffiti finds a new canvas in Paris

uspended between two trees along the Seine River in Paris, a graffiti mural flexes slightly in the breeze. It’s painted on plastic wrap - up close you can see little folds in the overlapping layers - wrapped around the trunks and pulled taut to create a new “wall” in front of the stone behind it. It’s called CelloGraff. Paris is known for its art, but usually evokes visions of grand museums, and masterpieces by artists like Leonardo Da Vinci or Pablo Picasso. Leaning against the bar in a Parisian cafe, wearing jeans and a beat up jacket, Astro says brushes don’t interest him.

But give him a few cans of spray paint and a roll of plastic wrap and his work explodes with colour, and is more detailed than seems possible with a spray can. Astro Greg has been tagging since he was 18, starting out like most graffiti artists, as a vandal. He and CelloGraff co-creator Alex Kanos have known each other for ten years.

Kanos’s story is similar. He did his first tag, “Chikanos”, in high school, but what he considers his first real piece, the letters KNS and a mangainspired character, at 20. “It was horribly awkward, like all first pieces,” he admits.

Museums like The Louvre might as well have been in another country for all the influence they had on Kanos, growing up on the northern outskirts of the city. “In the suburbs the only artists that we really had access to were graffiti artists,” he said, adding that was in awe of the work he saw on the street. “It was the kind of thing where I thought, ‘if I had the tools, I’d copy that right away’,” he said.

Kanos graduated from Paris’s prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts (National School of Fine Art), where he first started experi-

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menting with plastic wrap as a medium. A few years later, in 2009, he returned to the material and, with Astro, started using it to construct walls for graffiti murals, often using trees as posts, stretching the plastic between them. Then they paint the new wall like any other. Astro and Kanos realised they could build walls wherever they wanted, and take their time without having to worry about the police, because they were no longer doing anything illegal. “We had decided that we wanted to do more elaborate pieces while a lot of our friends stayed on the vandal route,” said Kanos.

Cutting out the clean-up costs They wanted to continue working in public places. In France defacing a building can cost the tagger 1,500 euros ($1,960) in fines for a mild offence, or reach extremes of 30,000 euros ($39,000) and two years in prison. Graffiti removal costs Paris more than four million euros ($5m) a year with three different companies employed to clean more than 200,000 square metres (2.15 million square feet) of walls annually.

That’s what happens in a city that Astro says is saturated with taggers. Since emerging in the

A picture shows French graffiti artist Astro Greg posing in front of his work as part of the Artaq Awards ceremony in Paris. — AFP

1980s, modern graffiti has flourished, and developed a wide range of styles. Astro describes his work as wild style, featuring tight designs, angular, abstract letters, and bright colours. It’s not easy to read what his pieces say, but that’s part of the point. “If you’ve been doing graffiti your whole life simple letters are boring, that’s one thing,” Astro said. “But whether you use complicated letters or not it’s about having a personal style.” With Astro nodding in agreement, Kanos adds: “It’s a more of a message between taggers; it’s not for everyone. “We’re trying to push the boundaries between forming letters and abstraction. If you feel something but don’t understand (the words), that’s perfect.” Cellophane offers different opportunities to push those boundaries.

The walls can be shaped by the artist, bent around corners to create different forms.

Clear cellophane allows whatever is behind the piece to show through, and potentially become an element of the design. For sanitation workers clean up consists merely of cutting down the plastic and throwing it away. Around Europe other graffiti artists have got in on the action. In a piece

by Hungarian artist Fat Heat, a vulture perches on a branch in mid air, and is visible from both front and back.

The Swiss group Desstres enclosed the rectangular base of a canopy in cellophane, giving them four walls to work with. Astro and Kanos are now sponsored by a spray paint company, and invited to demonstrate CelloGraff at festivals in Europe and North America. They have won awards for their work from Artaq, an organisation that promotes urban art and is hosting a festival in Paris November 20-27 where the duo will showcase their work. — AFP