CR IP TI ON BS SU
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
03:24 03:34 05:04 11:54 15:30 18:44 20:12
Feud continues to roil Michael Jackson’s family
Olympic security! Boy flies without ticket, passport
Philippines ex-President released on bail
39 18 12 7 Death toll mounts as
NO: 15520
150 FILS
Emsak: Fajer: Shoruk: Dohr: Asr: Maghreb: Eshaa:
N Korea confirms mystery woman as leader’s wife
www.kuwaittimes.net
RAMADAN 7, 1433 AH
40 PAGES
troops pound Aleppo Syrian envoys to Cyprus, UAE defect Ramadan Kareem
Experience of fasting By Teresa Lesher
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amadan is like spring cleaning: an annual ritual that results in the cleansing of the body, the airing out of the mind, and the beautification of the soul. It provides the opportunity for reorganization and the fine tuning of the soul that is needed periodically to remind us of our roles and responsibilities and to commit to a fresh start in our faith. In a purely physical sense, fasting provides an opportunity to rid the body of an array of unhealthy habits. Caffeine, sugar and nicotine cannot be consumed throughout the day as is the habit of many people. When fasting ends at sunset, the body craves plenty of liquids and a nutritious, balanced meal. By the end of Ramadan, one can accomplish a healthy weight loss and improved eating habits. Compared to the spiritual benefits of Ramadan, however, this is insignificant. First and foremost, fasting is an act of obedience to the Lord’s command to do so. At the least, one can fast as an act of submission. This is the first step towards piety and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that “Whoever fasts in the month of Ramadan with full consciousness of his faith and a sense of accountability, will have all his previous sins forgiven.” After experiencing prolonged hunger and thirst, one can only become more empathetic and compassionate to the poor and disadvantaged, and more thankful for the blessings we enjoy every day. The effects of fasting last far beyond Ramadan, and one more readily offers assistance to those who lack basic comforts in life. When one fasts for an entire month, he quickly develops a level of patience and self-discipline that cannot be achieved in easily in any other way. Indeed, many of our challenges in life are easy compared with the hardship of fasting in summertime, so they, too, can be met with resolve, patience and faith. Fasting not only requires abstinence from physical pleasures but also from non-constructive or harmful thoughts, words and actions. The latter is harder to achieve than the former, but without it, the fast is absolutely useless. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) warned that “God has no need for the hunger and thirst of the person who does not restrain from vain talk and evil conduct while fasting.” Fasting can lead to greater productivity as well. When one is less bothered by the distraction of eating, drinking, preparing meals and casual socializing in his daily schedule, there is more time for fruitful work and worship. Ramadan is a perfect time for spiritual renewal, study and meditation, prayer and increased charity. Fasting is only one aspect of Ramadan that also includes the study and recitation of the Quran, intensified prayers, increased charity, and social visits, each of which deserves a full description. Fasting itself is so rich in sensations, experiences, thoughts, emotions and lessons that it is easy to see why it is a month that, by depriving the body, enriches the soul. — Courtesy, AWARE Center
HAMA: An image grab shows the body of a child following the shelling by Syrian government forces in the central province of Hama. — AFP
AZAZ: The Syrian army turned its forces on Aleppo yesterday, ordering an armored column to advance on the country’s second biggest city and pounding rebels there with artillery and attack helicopters, opposition activists said. As hostilities intensified near the Turkish border, Ankara said it was closing its crossing posts, although the United Nations said refugees fleeing Syria would be allowed through. At the Syrian town of Azaz, a few miles south of the Turkish border, rebels appeared in control after heavy clashes over the past month in which they succeeded in driving out government forces, leaving the place a rubble-strewn ghost-town. Syria’s ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus, who are married, have deserted their posts, becoming the latest officials to abandon the Damascus government, rebels said. The 16-month revolt against President Bashar AlAssad has been transformed from an insurgency in remote provinces into a battle for control of the two main cities, Aleppo and the capital, Damascus, where fighting exploded last week. Assad’s forces have launched massive counter assaults in both cities. They appear to have beaten rebels back from neighborhoods in the capital and are turning towards Aleppo, a commercial hub in the north. North of Aleppo, the town of Azaz has been almost completely destroyed by heavy fighting. Burnt-out armored personnel carriers sat on the roads where rebels hit them with rocket-propelled grenades. Continued on Page 13
Defiant Iran steps up nuke enrichment Tehran threatens cyber-attackers with ‘teeth-breaking’ TEHRAN: Iran is defiantly forging on with its controversial nuclear activities by activating hundreds more uranium enrichment centrifuges, according to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “There are currently 11,000 centrifuges active in enrichment facilities” in Iran, he was quoted by state media as saying late on Tuesday in a meeting with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior regime officials. That was more than the 10,000 centrifuges Iran was last said to have had operating, according to a May 25 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Ahmadinejad’s reported comments did not give a more precise figure nor detail how many centrifuges were now working at each of Iran’s two enrichment sites: Natanz and the heavily fortified underground bunker of Fordo. Fordo has emerged as one of the most contentious points in fruitless negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of nations, which comprises the top UN
Security Council powers the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China, plus Germany. The Security Council has demanded Iran suspend all uranium enrichment and has imposed four sets of sanctions to pressure it to comply. The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, has said it suspects there is a military dimension to Iran’s nuclear program. The United States and the European Union have added their own sanctions on Iran, but the Islamic republic has defiantly said it would continue with its nuclear activities. The IAEA report in May said there were 9,330 installed centrifuges in Natanz, of which 8,818 were being fed uranium hexafluoride gas to produce enriched uranium. The Fordo facility, near the holy city of Qom, had 696 working centrifuges, the report said. The enrichment activities have produced stockpiles of uranium enriched to purities of 3.5 percent and 19.75 percent. Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti man checks a collection of prayer beads displayed at a shop in downtown Kuwait City, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan yesterday. Muslims use beads to count their Tasabih, a prayer cycle said to glorify and praise God, in which one bead is dropped down a string after each phrase. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat
In Syria crisis, stakes high for Hezbollah
Faulty Kuwait Airways KUWAIT: A Kuwait Airways flight #786 from Jeddah to Kuwait returned back to Jeddah after take-off yesterday evening due to a malfunction. The passengers panicked after seeing the oxygen masks. A series of malfunctions have recently hit the confidence in Kuwait’s national carrier. Last month another KuwaitJeddah flight narrowly escaped disaster after one of its engines burst and a second broke down.
Max 47º Min 33º High Tide 04:36 & 16:55 Low Tide 10:53 & 22:24
TEHRAN: Iranians put their shopping bags on the ground as they wait for a bus in central Tehran. Top government officials and lawmakers in the Islamic republic have agreed to budget cuts in a bid to shore up an economy struggling with Western sanctions and inflation. — AFP (See Page 22)
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s powerful Shiite militant group Hezbollah has publicly tied its future to Bashar Al-Assad, but as the tide turns against the Syrian president it is silent on whether it will join the fight to support him. The stakes are high for the group which fears that toppling Assad will pave the way for increased Western pressure - if not war - on its strongest ally and founder,
Shiite Iran. By losing Assad the group would also be deprived of its strategic partner and main supply line for its arsenal. “Hezbollah is at a point of enormous strategic uncertainty. (Syria’s uprising) is not an existential threat, they are too well armed. But now they face a threat from two sides,” a Western diplomat in Continued on Page 13
in the
news
Pharaoh boat unearthed
250 embryos discovered
15 Kurdish rebels killed
CAIRO: French archaeologists have discovered a roughly 5,000-year-old pharaonic solar boat in an expedition in Abu Rawash, west of the Egyptian capital, the antiquities ministry said yesterday. The antiquities minister, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the boat was up to 5,000 years old. “It goes back to the era of Pharaoh Den, one of the First Dynasty kings,” he said in a statement. The six-meter long and 1.5-metre wide boat “is in good condition,” he added. Its planks are now undergoing renovation before it is put on display in a museum. The pharaohs believed that solar boats, buried close to them at death, would transport them in the afterlife. In 1954 an Egyptian archaeologist discovered what may be the Pharaoh Khufu’s 43-metre solar ship, made of cedar, in a Giza pyramid. The 4,500 year-old intact vessel is on display near the pyramid.
MOSCOW: Almost 250 embryos have been found stashed in four huge vats in woods in Russia’s Urals after apparently being illegally dumped by local hospitals that carried out abortions, police said yesterday. Four huge 50-litre vats of formaldehyde with dozens of embryos stashed in were found by local residents while taking a Sunday stroll through woods 75 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Sverdlovsk region. Arriving Monday morning, police found 248 embryos aged 12-16 weeks with tags containing surnames and numbers, said a statement by the regional police force. “I think that soon we will find out who has dropped the embryos and all the guilty will be punished”, said the deputy head of the Sverdlovsk government Vladimir Vlasov. A spokesperson of the local police said that the embryos appear to have been illegally dumped after abortions by local hospitals which treated them as “biological waste”.
DIYARBAKIR: Turkish security forces killed at least 15 Kurdish rebels in a raid near the country’s border with northern Iraq after tracking them with drones and attacking them with helicopters and on the ground, officials said yesterday. They said drones spotted a group of Kurdish fighters who blocked roads on Monday in Hakkari province, then pinpointed them for an attack when the Kurdish fighters returned to the same area on Tuesday evening. Three Turkish soldiers were injured in clashes that ensued, the security officials said. The region is the theatre of a 28-year-old conflict between Turkish forces and fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which in various incarnations has waged a campaign for autonomy in the largely Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
CAIRO: An archaeologist is seen working on the skeleton of a newly discovered wooden boat at the Abu Rawash archaeological compound. — AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
local
Al-Bida’a Kuwait holds Ramadan media ghabqa
KUWAIT: To celebrate the arrival of the blessed month of Ramadan and uphold its commitment to local media appreciation, The Movenpick Hotel and Resort Al-Bida’a Kuwait held a Ghabqa for the media in the breathtaking beach tent “Layali Al Bida’a” which reflects the authentic Arabic ambience. The evening event was a great opportunity to network and socialize, while enjoying the great atmosphere, Arabic dishes and Ramadan specialties. The event kicked off by a short speech given by Mohamed Ibrahim, the Director of Sales and Marketing, welcoming the invitees and extending his gratitude to all sponsors of the evening: Zain, KLM-Air France, Kuwait Airways, Sama Dental Centre and Jothen. “This distinctive event was held in honor of the media, to whom we own much of our success,” said Mohamed. Local media was treated to an evening of traditional Ramadan hospitality with a Swiss touch, in addition to an array of entertainment activities and contests. The event was tinted with enthusiasm on the part of attendees who participated in the various competitions and games, with many of them winning rewarding prizes ranging from travel tickets to valuable gift vouchers and iPhones. The invitees were impressed with the lavish spread of traditional Ghabka treat, rich drapery, comfortable seating and the magnificent ambience which makes “Layali Al Bida’a Tent” the ideal venue to share special moments with family and friends. The event was very successful and had full audience.
KUWAIT: Misbah trade flourishes during Ramadan in all Muslim countries including Kuwait as Muslims use it during prayers. Kuwaitis, in particular, are known to be keen on owning some rare ones especially those with beads made of precious stones or silver. The photos show some customers examining Misbahs in some specialized shops in downtown Kuwait. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh
Zalabiey Bel Simsim
Royal Leg of Lamb 2 tablespoon flaked almonds, plus more to serve 1-2 tablespoon sultanas 2 tablespoon cashew nuts 2 onions, cut into chunks 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 6 centimeter piece of root ginger, chopped 6 green chillies 6 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves and stalks, plus more to serve Juice of 1 lemon Salt For the second marinade: 3 onions, thinly sliced 300grams Greek yogurt 1 tsp saffron threads, steeped in 3 tbsp hot milk for 10 minutes
INGREDIENTS For the lamb: 1.5 kilogram leg of lamb 5 tablespoon ghee or vegetable oil, plus more for the tray 1 tablespoon flaked almonds, toasted 2 tablespoon chopped mint leaves For the first marinade: 1 tablespoon white poppy seeds
For the spice mix: 3 star anise 3-4 blades of mace 2-3 cassia barks or cinnamon sticks 8-10 green cardamom pods 3 black cardamom pods 1 tablespoon black peppercorns 2-3 bay leaves 1 tsp fennel seeds Method Trim off the parchment-like skin and surface fat from the lamb, or get your butcher to do it. Slash it all over and place in an oiled roasting tray. For the first marinade, in a frying pan, toast the poppy seeds until they exude a nutty aroma and become a few shades darker. Put into a bowl with the almonds, raisins and cashews.
Pour over 80-100ml of boiling water and soak for 15 minutes. In the same pan, dry-fry the onion chunks until they soften and form brown patches. Add to the nut mixture. Put the nut and onion mixture, with the soaking liquid, into a blender with the garlic, ginger, chillies, coriander, lemon juice and salt. Blend to a fine paste. If the paste is too coarse, add a little water. Apply the mixture over the lamb and into the slashes. Cover and refrigerate for two to three hours. Heat 3 tbsp of the ghee in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the paste. Place sliced onions. Fry until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper, reserving the ghee. Put two-thirds of the onions into a blender with the yogurt and saffron milk. Blend to a fine paste. Put all the spices for the spice mix into a frying pan and gently toast until they release their wonderful aroma. Remove from the heat and grind to a fine powder in a coffee or spice grinder. Mix 2-3 tsp of the spices into the yogurt mixture and season with salt (store the rest in an airtight container for up to six weeks; you will definitely use it again!). Allow to infuse for an hour. Remove the lamb from the fridge and apply the yogurt mixture. Return to the fridge and marinate overnight. Preheat the oven to 200degreeC/400degreeF/gas mark 6. Return the lamb to room temperature. Pour over the ghee from the onions, the remaining two tablespoon ghee and 300 milliliter water. Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes, basting once. Reduce the oven temperature to 170degreeC/340degreeF/gas mark 3 and cook for about three hours, basting every 30 minutes, until the meat falls off the bone, adding a further 300 millimeter water halfway through. If the sauce starts to dry out too fast, keep adding water and continue to baste. Serve on a platter garnished with toasted flaked almonds, the reserved fried onions and chopped mint. For more information regarding Reza Mahammad and his Food Network show Reza, Spice Prince of India visit www.foodnetworktv.com
INGREDIENTS 1 cup flour 1cup cornstarch 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup white sesame 1 teaspoon yeast Syrup 3 cup sugar 1 cup water 1 tablespoon lemon juice Method 1. Mix the yeast with water. Add flour and cornstarch until it becomes dough 2. Add sesame and water slowly together 3. After mixing together leave aside in a warm area for 2 hours 4. Cut the dough with a small scoop or spoon. 5. Heat the oil and deep fry the dough until it becomes light brown. 6. After frying put directly in a cold syrup and mix well. 7. Add sesame for decoration.
local
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
KUWAIT: The Deewan of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Khalid Al-Sabah received well wishers yesterday on the occasion of the month of Ramadan. A large number of dignitaries visited the deewan to mark the occasion.—Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
LOCAL kuwait digest
kuwait digest
Democratic Forum restores its role
Give youths their chance
By Abdellatif Al-Duaij By Saad Al-Muattash irst position is sought by everyone and only one person will achieve it. But in school, two persons or sometimes more are awarded first position, if the grades were equal then the alphabet is used to determine first position. Since I never received first position in my life, and never shared it with another person, I used to only hear about the repeated first position. Cinema and ac ting media used to call actress Nabeela Obaid Egypt’s first star. But it seems that Nabeela has given up this name, as reported in “Al Anbaa Daily”, by allowing the name of actress and dancer Fifi Abdo to proceed her name and also agreed not to write her old title, which she used to insist was listed before her name. It seems that Nabeela Obaid has now been convinced that the time is no longer hers to remain as first star, and she preferred that someone else share the top position with her. How I do wish that some Arab leaders imitate that actress and not insist on the title of being the one and only ruler. In Kuwait, there are many MPs who should leave their place to the younger generation, who have become used to reaching to the chairs of parliament. Unfortunately, some of the youths have become toys in the hands of those MPs who control them and move them the way they like. The worst thing is that some are guaranteeing the chair, but they want the first position for something inside them. It is a great joy when you get first position or any advanced position, and you receive it because you worked hard for it, and not through cheating and manipulating others. Nabeela was convinced, and she shared the position with Fifi, but who will convince our respected MPs that they have been too long in their position and that they should give the youths the chance to represent other youths, which is the reason behind reaching the parliament? May all bless those who give youths their chance in the parliament and to hell with those who want to leave their chairs to their sons. —Al-Anbaa
he statement of the Democratic Forum on the necessity to refer to the constitutional court to rule on the current distribution of the election constituencies, is a new move in the policy of the D.M., which had been happy with being quiet and following others during the past years. For the D.M. to take such a step is something new, indeed, which has blessed the forum’s action and its response to events. I think that the unique stand of Dr Al-Khateeb towards the constitutional court’s ruling affected the forum’s activity and awakened its members and leaders from their deep sleep. It is not important for the forum to be right in asking for the constitutional court ruling, and it is not important even if the court rejects this request, but the important thing here is that the D.M. restored its role and finally became independent from the right’s dominance on its policies and decisions, which was being subjected to the public stands of the so called political powers. As all the so-called political powers that surfaced after the invasion (even the national alliance was not established then), are rightist religious
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kuwait digest
They’re provoking us...! By Dr. Mohammed Bin Ibrahim Al-Shaibani fter forming the current cabinet, where people who have been under suspicions were appointed ministers, one can only say that the government and its ‘close friends’ have been unfair to us all! We know that some of the 2009 parliament’s MPs had been accused of receiving illegal money and that the courts are still hearing their cases. While we know that a man is innocent until proven guilty by solid irrefutable proof, and I stress that I am not accusing anybody here, since history has never seen a civilized country that respects itself appoint such suspected people to even less important positions, as such countries do respect the people questioning those officials’ integrity. Where is this government taking the country to? We have felt optimistic about cooperating with the 2012 parliament with its majority that suppor ted the government, only to receive ‘Cenmar’s Compensation’. The country has been roaring for over two months and public opinion has simply been ignored, as if Kuwait only
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belonged to a certain sect. It is strange how the government accepts its being hated by the people for such poor performance and leniency with regard to the people’s interests and for awarding the wrong-doers, as if it was telling those speaking from their hearts in providing advice to save their breath and bits of advice. It is as if the government does not consider or value faithful advice and only cares about its well-known close rink ‘guys’. It has always been doing the opposite of what the people want. They have been provoking with seven unproductive governments and then comes this one of the same caliber, which made us all stop dreaming of any bright future built on patriotism, loyalty and respect for the law like any country wishing to rise and earn others’ respect would do. So, this is finally our government and those are the most talented people who are provocatively appointed, despite all suspicions. Didn’t the 2009 parliament have others who were not accused of bribery and could join this temporary, quickly appointed cabinet? —Al-Qabas
kuwait digest
Hidden hands behind govt? By Abdul Lateef Al-Amairi rticle 123 of the constitution of the state of Kuwait states the following: “The council of ministers controls state interest and draws the general policy of the state...” The word control implies controlling, supervision and protection, maybe because this article is very clear and there was no explanation for it in the memorandum attached to the constitution. So, government is the one that controls all state affairs and no other party or group can claim this right and take it away from the government, which constitution has given it to government in a very clear statement that cannot be altered. Perhaps what makes me mention this introduction is the talk these days about an intention to change the number of election constituencies and the system of voting, even more than that, the detailed government studies that have been leaked about this subject. On the other side we find government silence towards all being published about this matter, as government does not deny what has been published and remains either silent or offers a diplomatic answer, such as the council of ministers has so far not discussed this subject. Meaning that it is possible to discuss it later on and possible to approve it, and this means two matters. Either government does not know what is going on and that there is a hidden government being the one that prepares and plans for important and sensitive issues, while the official government only provides legal cover. Or the government knows what is being discussed about the number of constituencies and the voting system but is covering up through diplomatic declarations until the suitable time comes when the government feels it is right. I am convinced that the first possibility is nearer to the truth, especially that many ministers (I think they are right) deny that they know anything about this matter, though leaked information indicates that the number of constituencies voting systems are being prepared outside the council of ministers. But, by all means no necessity decree will be issued except through the council of ministers and its approval. Thus, responsibility is for the minister all together in case such a decision has been taken, which I consider to be a clear violation to article 71 of the constitution. Accordingly, we find no explanation to what is going to happen to change, except that the government has jumped over the constitution in order to design an election law by which it can pass certain candidates and eliminate other MPs who are not wanted, and to work to bring out an NA council designed as per government desires, with the majority being “government made,” and such thing shall unify responses from opposition and youth groups, when they feel that the government and authority is using all unlawful means to end opposition and attack the majority. The coming days shall reveal what kind of government we are dealing with, and shall also reveal whether this government is governing state affairs or is governed by hidden hands. —Al-Anbaa
As all the so-called political powers that surfaced after the invasion (even the national alliance was not established then), are rightist religious groups, and this “belonging” policy forced the forum to accept the groups in their conservative approach and accept the factors of civilized regression that we live in. groups, and this “belonging” policy forced the forum to accept the groups in their conservative approach and accept the factors of civilized regression that we live in, and so not only lose its influence and leadership over issues, but also lost its identity and its unique policy. I am not among the enthusiasts for any adjustment or change of the current distribution of the election constituencies, because I was and still am insisting on going back to real legitimacy and seeking the legal distribution of election constituencies that was approved by the constituent council and that legitimate national assemblies were adjusted based upon it. This distribution of constituencies, which is used in the municipal elections, is the fortified distribution even before the constitutional court ruling, taking into consideration that the last amendment on it was made by a correctly elected national assembly of 1975, which was dissolved because it did not agree with the authority’s wishes. Even if there is some inequality in distribution between constituencies, still it remains the legitimate constitutional distribution, and it is possible to make the necessary changes of it by the elected national assembly. —Al-Qabas
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NO: 15520
RAMADAN 7, 1433 AH
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The special prayers held every evening during Ramadan are called? Taraweeh
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Juma
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Al estesqaa
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kuwait digest
Fleet....constitution...shame! By Dina Sami Al-Tarrah rticle 8 of the constitution states that “ Th e S t a te s a fe g u a rd s t h e p i l l a r s o f Society and ensures security, tranquility, and equal opportunities for citizens”. Article 10 states that “The State cares for the young and protects them from exploitation and from moral, physical, and spiritual neglect”. However, the state did not safeguard either Kuwait Airways’ staff nor passengers’ lives. Neither the government nor the parliament, who can actually make the decisions to upgrade the carrier’s fleet, did anything to save our fellow-citizens. The last incident took place in Saudi Arabia when a flight had engine trouble while in the air and had to make an emergency landing in Madina. Thanks be to Allah, no damage or casualties were reported. According to article 29 of the constitution, “All people are equal in human dignity and in public rights and duties before the law, without distinction to race, origin, language, or religion”. Nevertheless, the government has been discriminating with Kuwaitis and others, which is a constitutional violation. Our constitution was set up to ensure achieving more prosperity, welfare and international status for Kuwait. So, where are such constitutional rights when we learn that KAC has been violating international aviation safety standards, which made many airports refuse receiving its flights? With all due respect, I learnt that Bangladesh, which is incomparable to Kuwait, has renewed its fleet in full! It is really a shame that some of the ruling family members and some MPs, who had set up the constitution in a bid to lay down the foundation of democratic rule should raise the subject of amending the electoral constituencies, which has already been settled, only as a means to foil calls to modernize KAC’s fleet. It’s really a shame that they disregard the following Quran verse: “I was a witness of them while I dwelt among them” (Surat Al-Maeda-Verse 117) —Al-Qabas
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
LOCAL
KUWAIT: Municipality council member Ashwaq Al-Mudhaf commended the efforts of the executive office of Kuwaiti municipality and its role in protecting consumers from unfit foodstuff. The role of media was also lauded in field campaigns carried out by municipality to inform the public and warn them about inedible food material. — Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun
GE completes Kuwait power plant upgrade KUWAIT: Technology giant GE said Kuwait’s largest power plant Sabiya has successfully upgraded to combined cycle operation in the project’s second phase using its advanced gas turbine combined cycle technology. GE said the phase two of the Sabiya combined cycle power plant project began commercial operation in time to meet the country’s peak electricity demands during the hot summer months. This recent upgrade to combined cycle mode (phase 2) boosted the plant’s output to more than 2,000 MW, increasing Kuwait’s power generating capacity by nearly 20 per cent, said the company in a statement. The government-owned Sabiya station is Kuwait’s largest power plant, which is using GE’s advanced gas turbine-generator technology, in combined cycle operations, to produce more than 2,000 MW of additional electricity for the grid. Kuwait’s power demand is growing at approximately seven to 10 per cent per year,
and at this rate, the country estimates it will reach national peak load demand of 25,000 MW by the year 2025. With the Sabiya plant in full commercial operation, GE Energy’s services team is supporting the station under a seven-year operation and maintenance agreement, further illustrating GE’s long-term commitment to the successful operation of the facility. GE said it had been working alongside the government to drive operational efficiencies and capacity enhancements by providing its world-class technologies. Last June, six GE 9FA gas turbines initially operated in simple cycle mode to add nearly 1,400 MW to the grid when phase one of the plant was brought online. The combined-cycle conversion enables the plant to increase its output without any increase in fuel consumption, boosting its operating efficiency. The increased power adds capacity to the country’s power generation to help fuel Kuwait’s robust business and residential growth.
KUWAIT: Turbine room of Sabiya power plant. (Inset) Joseph Anis
Salary hike prevents citizens from seeking govt jobs 63,000 citizens expected to benefit KUWAIT: The recent salary hike accorded to citizens employed in the private sector has stopped their shift from private sector to government jobs. At one point, it has reached 12,000 within six years. The Manager of Minor Projects Department, the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP), Fares AlEnezi said that due to the recently approved pay hikes for citizens working for the government, excluded from working for the private sector, nearly 12,270 citizens shifted from the private sector to government jobs between 2005 and 2012. “That is why we conducted a special study to survey all cadres approved for government employees and compared them to privileges accorded to citizens in the private sector,” said Al-Enezi noting that, the government was advised to pass similar pay hikes for citizens employed in the private sector. He added the best aspect about approving salary increases for citizens in the private sector is that many will be encouraged to join the sector. He also explained that the total cost of the 25 percent increase granted to all citizens was KD 20 million. At least 63,000 citizens will benefit from it. Moreover, Al-Enezi added that another increase was approved in accor-
New exciting promotion for VIVA’s BlackBerry customers KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s newest and most advanced mobile telecommunications service provider, yesterday announced an exciting new promotion for the holy month of Ramadan. Once a week, until the end of Ramadan, VIVA will hold a prize draw to offer one of its postpaid and prepaid BlackBerry customers the chance to win a $10,000 voucher from Emirates Holidays to travel to Europe. VIVA’s postpaid and prepaid BlackBerry customers will be entered into the draw automatically upon subscribing to any BlackBerry service. Each week’s winner will be able to choose from any of “Emirates Holidays Destination” on their Europe network, which includes: Austria, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Emirates Holiday Package compromises of flights on Emirates Airlines, a minimum three-day hotel accommodation as well as airport transfers. Each lucky winner will have complete flexibility to choose their holiday destina-
tion and travel dates and can choose to take their holiday at any time up to one year after they receive their voucher. VIVA will continue to provide its customers with the very best telecommunications services and the best value for money, and hopes this exciting prize draw will give the lucky winners a unique chance to travel to Europe. VIVA’s BlackBerry customers will get a chance to enter the draw for every 100 fils paid on the service. VIVA’s postpaid and prepaid BlackBerry customers can enjoy BlackBerry services from KD 3.9 per month. Through VIVA’s BlackBerry offer, both postpaid and prepaid customers will have access to unlimited local BlackBerry services as well as dedicated data for video streaming. VIVA offers its customers the latest and best services in Kuwait to ensure the highest levels of customer service satisfaction. To find out more about VIVA’s latest BlackBerry smartphone prize draw, or any of its latest promotions, products or serv-
ices, just call VIVA Contact center or visit any of VIVA’s 14 conveniently VIVA is the newest, most advanced mobile telecommunications service provider in Kuwait. Launched in December 2008, VIVA makes things possible for our customers by transforming communication, information and entertainment experiences. The company has rapidly established an unrivalled position in the market through our customer and employee centric approach. VIVA’s quest is to be the mobile brand of choice for Kuwait by being transparent, engaging, energetic and fulfilling. VIVA continues to take a considerable share of the market by offering an innovative range of best value products, services and content propositions; a state of the art, nationwide network and worldclass service. VIVA offers Internet speed up to 42.2Mbps due to the implementation of the most advanced third generation (3G and HSDPA) network in Kuwait resulting in superior coverage, performance and reliability.
dance with the educational level and the degrees held by employees. “The total cost of the increases to be paid to masters degree and PhD holders by next August stands at around KD 90 million.” Al-Enezi added that MGRP inspection teams retrieve over KD 600,000 that was wrongfully spent and paid to undeserving private sector companies, in addition to referring sixcompanies to Public Prosecution Department over charges of ‘ghost employment.’ “A special committee was formed jointly with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor to inspect private sector companies,” he stressed. Further, Al-Enezi expressed wishes that the stricter fines and financial penalties will be imposed on companies that violate the national labor percentage spelled out by the National Labor Support Act. Responding to a question about the support his department provided for small entrepreneurs starting their own small projects, Al-Enezi said that they usually paid a monthly support sum in the form of a monthly salary between KD 500-800 according to qualification and marital status. He added that they also provided special one-month training courses on business studies and preparing feasibility studies, setting media and promotional plans finance resources and other business traits.
News
in brief
Overcrowding at airport KUWAIT: In view of the overcrowding at Kuwait International Airport, the Civil Aviation Department is racing against time to complete the departure and arrival procedures of passengers traveling to Saudi Arabia on Umrah in record time, said Essam Al-Zamel, Operations Manager. Furthermore, Al-Zamel explained that according to records, over 80,000 passengers left onboard 574 flights through Kuwait International Airport. At least 115,000 arrived onboard 585 flights over the past five days heading to or arriving from various destinations.
MSAL in quest of laborers KUWAIT: The assistant undersecretary of the ministry of social affairs and labor (MSAL) for labor sector, Jamal AlDousary said that MSAL is currently in search of expatriate laborers sponsored by companies that have not updated their information on the new automated database system. He added that this included about 28 companies sponsoring around 70,000 laborers. “However, a more accurate report being made by a team of technicians from the ministries of social affairs, of interior and of commerce and industry, will be declared soon. AlDousary added that the technical team was currently analyzing the data input and that a final report will be submitted within a month.
MOI urged to execute ex-MP’s verdict KUWAIT: The Department of Criminal Sentences Execution at the Public Prosecution Office urged the Interior Ministry to execute a three-month jail sentence issued against former MP Badi Al-Dousary in a case filed by Maj Gen Kamel Al-Awadhi. Notably, Al-Dousary was sentenced to three months in prison and he appealed the verdict. It was agreed upon by Ministry of Interior and consequently, Al-Awadhi resigned from office.
Environment committee meeting JEDDAH: Environment coordinating committee of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states held its 29th meeting here yesterday where it discussed various issues concerning the exchange of expertise and data within the environment domain.
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
LOCAL
Tardiness and sick leaves increase during Ramadan Negative impact of fasting By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Tardiness in reporting to work or sick leaves should not be tolerated during Ramadan, said an Islamic cleric. Speaking with Kuwait Times, a Filipino cleric said that Ramadan should not be used as an excuse for tardiness and lack of interest in work. Statistics from the Civil Services Commission (CSC) shows that over 15,000 public sector employees have lodged sick leaves during the first three days of Ramadan. According to a report published in an Arabic daily, most sick
leaves obtained from both public and private sector physicians diagnosed employees with tiredness, exhaustion, negative impact of fasting, indigestion or distention, headaches and others. “The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) teaches us to perform the same work as done in regular days/months. That is the essence of fasting - to endure pain and learn to be others’ shoes even if it is hard,” said cleric who is part of the Islam Presentation Committee, Filipino section. Lethargy and lack of appetite to wake up early during Ramadan are mostly connected to fasting
and weather related issues. In fact, Ramadan month work timing in Kuwait is usually shorter compared to regular months, yet many do not adhere to it. “People here are lazy for many reasons. One because they are fasting, secondly, because the weather is harsh and also because they go to bed late,” a general doctor working in a private clinic at Maidan Hawally noted. Based on the CSC’s records, more than 100,000 cases of employees arriving late to work during the first three days of Ramadan have been reported. “It
is the usual sickness people suffer from during the whole month of Ramadan. Yes, it affects productivity, but on the other hand, we have to understand general feelings,” the doctor told Kuwait Times. Tardiness is expected to increase especially during the last ten days of Ramadan, and when employees rest after late night prayers and go for Umrah. “I feel sluggish because I do not sleep well . People around me are lazy as well. The weather is so harsh. So it is actually a combination of many issues,” an Indian expat said.
Govt rejects Kuwaiti Muslim Brethren request KUWAIT: A few members of the Kuwaiti Muslim Brethren group recently urged the government to issue a clear statement to refute what they considered rumors regarding their involvement in terrorist organizations arrested in UAE, including Kuwaitis, said informed sources. The sources added that the request was rejected by the Kuwaiti government, which clearly shows the government’s rejection on grounds that accusing any political bloc would eventually be an insult to Kuwait. Further, the sources highlighted that the Kuwaiti government refused to interfere in the case as it was purely UAE’s domestic con-
cern. The sources also stressed that UAE has not officially declared the involvement of Kuwaitis in the arrested organization and that Kuwait would never tolerate any violation of its law or involvement in security-threatening organizations. On commencing her tenure as minister of planning and development, Minister Dr. Rola Dashti held a monthly meeting with undersecretaries of the ministries concerned with the development projects to handle any impediments in executing the development plan and saving time in solving problems. In this regard, informed sources said that Dashti received a green light from the Cabinet
on this subject and was asked to push concerned ministries to the meetings’ decisions and recommendations since they would be approved by relevant ministers already represented at the meeting by their undersecretaries. Economically, a court yesterday adjourned the hearing of a case filed demanding nullification of Kuwait Finance House (KFH)’s general assembly and postponing it to a hearing on August 14. Notably, a KFH shareholder had filed case number 2236/2012 against the minister of commerce and industry and others requesting nullification of two KFH board members’ membership as well as that of the whole board.
Ethiopian maid jumps to her death from sponsor’s flat Fight breaks out in fast food joint KUWAIT: The body of an Ethiopian expat was recovered by the coroner after she jumped to her death from her sponsor’s fourth floor flat. A security source said police questioned the family about where the deceased worked and revealed that the woman received a letter from her homeland, after which she changed completely. The source said when the letter was translated, it was found to be from her husband, who told her that he married another woman after terminating their marriage. Brother-in-law attack A citizen filed an attempted murder complaint against a 4WD vehicle driver, who pulled a gun against him near a traffic light in Andalus area. He told police that he suspects his brother-in-law. A security source said the man told them somebody pulled next to him while holding a firearm which made him run the red light but he managed to write down the license plate number. Detectives are investigating.
Sharq fight A fight broke out between young men in front of a fast food joint in Sharq area. Sharp objects and sticks were used. A security source said police men rushed to the area where the fight broke out, and brought the brawlers under control, and took the weapons used as evidence before taking them to Sharq area police station. The source said the fighters confessed that the fight was over a parking space in front of the restaurant. Twitter harassment Member of the annulled Parliament Hamad Al-Matar filed a complaint against member of the same Parliament Mohammad Al-Juwaihel and accused him of insulting him on Twitter. Al-Matar said that Al-Juwaihel claimed that he received a house worth KD 300,000 through a political deal following the (spit) issue that took place in the assembly. Police are investigating.
Overdose case An overdose killed a young man in Hawally. Criminal investigators began an investigation as the body was recovered by the coroner. Citizen cheated A citizen was swindled by an Arab expat as he convinced him to be partners in a men’s barber shop. About KD 10,000 was to be shared by the two. The citizen paid KD 5,000 to the Arab who upon receiving the money disappeared. Witch in custody Hawally police arrested an Asian witch who charged KD 20 for her services. Security sources said that an individual told police about an Asian woman who practiced witchcraft and charged KD 20 for her services. Police arrested the woman in her Hawally flat along with the material she used. — Al-Watan, Al-Rai
Kuwaitis rush to buy London Olympics tickets KUWAIT: The International Olympic Committee’s decision to hoist the flag of Kuwait in the next summer Olympics (London 2012) and playing the National Anthem in the event of winning a medal have increased turnout of Kuwaiti citizens buying tickets for various games in the Olympics. Abdulwahab Al-Senafi, an official in charge of an online spor t website told Kuwait News Agenc y (KUNA) that the turnout of citizens rose by more than three times right after the decision was announced, anticipating this number may increase in the next few days. He said the lifting of suspension has also
contributed to the high percentage of ticket sales to various Olympic Games, especially games in which Kuwaiti athletes would take part in. Kuwait will take part in the shooting, athletics, table tennis and swimming competitions. He explained that although the London Olympics are coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan, “our customers are more determined to support these athletes who will contribute to raise the flag of Kuwait high at this significant sport gathering.” He praised the mediation made by His Highness the Amir in making Kuwait’s participation a reality.
For his part, Ali Maher, Director of a travel agency in Kuwait, expected that the demand for direct flights to London may increase in the next few days, adding that the Olympic Games are among the major sporting events that attract sport fans around the world. He added that the participation of athletes in those continental events contribute significantly in the presence and support of their fans during the tournament, pointing out that these athletes deserve all the support. For his part, Abdullah Al-Shimmari, a customer of a sporting website, urged everyone to support Kuwaiti athletes who would take part in the Olympics. —KUNA
KUWAIT: The Assistant Director of Saad Al-Abdullah Academy for Security Science, for Training Affairs Brig Haroon Mohammad Al-Omer along with Colonel Abdul Kareem Mahdi will travel to United Kingdom to attend the Sixth graduation ceremony of the Coast Guard Officer at Plymouth University. A total number of nine officers will be conferred with a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science.
Ten constituencies, one vote KUWAIT: At a time when the government is preparing to go to the constitutional court to check the constitutionality of the current electoral system without fearing the ongoing controversy, informed sources said the government intends approving the ten electoral constituencies system, allowing voters one vote each. The sources added that more details about the new system would be disclosed within a few days. Commenting on this, constitutional expert Mohammed Al-Feeli stressed that amending the electoral constituencies law through a necessity decree and without going to the constitutional court would be a contestable move. Meanwhile, the majority bloc meeting at speaker Ahmed Al-Sadoun’s Diwaniya continued its debates of related issues. For his part, member of the nullified 2012 parliament, Bader AlDahoom, said during the meeting at Al-Sa’doun’s Diwaniya that the focus was on the leaks the government occasionally made. Those in attendance included MPs Jam’an Al-
Harbash, Abdullatif Al-Omairi, Ammar Al-Ajmi, Hamad Al-Mutar, Ahmed Al_Sa’doun, Khaled Al-Sultan and Mohammed Al-Dallal. He added that if the government went as far as amending the constituencies by a necessity decree in the absence of a parliament, the majority bloc reactions would go far beyond boycotting the coming elections or holding seminars. “We will confront the government’s measures”, he stressed, expressing amazement about what he described as involving the judiciary in politics by referring the five constituencies system to the constitutional court. In this regard, government sources said that the government went to the constitutional court to check the constitutionality of the current electoral system, as called for by Kuwaiti public opinion during a campaign entitled ‘We want it five’. The sources stressed that the government was not convinced that this system was constitutional and that it then demanded going to the constitutional court, which was rejected by many political powers.
Four injured in traffic accidents By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A car accident on the Sixth Ring Road opposite Jaber Stadium resulted in a 35 year old Indian expat complaining of chest pains, a 45 year old Pakistani expat injuring his feet and a 38 year old Egyptian expat suffering from numerous injuries. All were taken to Farwaniya Hospital for treatment. A 32 year old Bangladeshi expat was struck by a car while crossing AlGhazali Road near Al-Omariya and Al-
Rabiya bridge. The pedestrian was taken to Farwaniya Hospital for treatment of a head injury. A 14 year old Kuwaiti boy was bitten on his finger by a fish near Souq Sharq. He was brought to Al-Amiri Hospital. A fight broke out among a number of people at Al-Dhajeej near Beneta Complex resulting in 2 Egyptian expats, ages 25 and 37 years old, receiving injuries to their heads. They were taken to Farwaniya Hospital for treatment.
Kuwait International Bank organizes Islamic seminar KUWAIT: Kuwait International Bank (KIB) recently organized a seminar for its employees, with lectures delivered by Mustafa AlZalzalah on the virtues of worship during the holy month of Ramadan. The lecture held at KIB headquarters, is part of the educational and awareness programs arranged by KIB for its staff in different departments during the month of Ramadan. Commenting on the seminar, Dr Sadeq Abul, Economic Researches Department Manager and Board Secretary said, “Similar to every year during the holy month of Ramadan, KIB dedicates special attention to organizing religious and educational programs for its employees due to the positive impact the activities have on their performance in the workplace.” Abul added, “The purpose of the seminar delivered by Mustafa Al- Zalzalah is to highlight on the virtues of the month of Ramadan such as fasting, praying, fostering family bonds, charity work and most importantly Al-Qadir night which falls to be the most sacred night of the year.” Towards the end of the seminar, KIB’s management honored Mustafa Al-Zalzalah in recognition of his outstanding efforts and positive contribution to KIB’s Ramadan events.
KUWAIT: The narcotics department arrested an Asian expat on the grounds of liquor-trading. He was caught with three cartons of different kinds of liquor. Information was received about the activities of the Asian who specialized in selling liquor mainly to youths and teenagers. A trap was set for him in Hawally, and police managed to catch him red-handed and confiscated other bottles from his car and later from his residence as well. — Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
Mukherjee sworn in as Indian president
‘What?’ Confused caller outs spying by NY police Page 9
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AZAZ, Syria: A Syrian boy sits atop a damaged military tank at the border town 32 km north of Aleppo. —AP
Assad plans blocked by Moscow
Syria tries to reassure world on chemical weapons, but causes alarm BEIRUT: Increasingly under pressure by rebels intent on unseating him, Bashar Al-Assad has considered using chemical weapons against his enemies but Washington and Moscow have formed an unlikely alliance to force him to abandon such plans. Analysts and diplomats across the region and beyond do not doubt that the Assad government, recoiling from a devastating attack on its security establishment last week and struggling to contain rebel offensives across Syria, is capable of using agents such as sarin gas if its survival is at stake. Yet some believe that the government’s unprecedented admission that it possesses a chemical stockpile - although in safe storage and only to be deployed against “external aggressors” - is an attempt to allay international alarm that might prompt outside intervention to secure the weapons. “They have a keen instinct for regime survival and this is an issue which didn’t play well for them, which would really bring serious consequences, not the type of stuff we have been seeing so far from the international community,” said Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Center. “I think they wanted to move quickly to take us away from that, to reassure in many ways. This regime is capable of anything, but in this case it felt there may well be consequences, that they are perhaps crossing some red lines.” There has been a barrage of warnings about Syria’s chemical arsenal this month, especially strident from the United States and Israel, but accompanied by firm but private advice from Russia, Assad’s main international ally, to put an end to speculation he might use it. One Western diplomat in the region said: “There was talk of them using it two weeks ago, but the Russians intervened quickly to stop him. “If you think how desperate these people are and what they have done in the past, you have to assume they would be prepared to use it. All of us think he (Assad) is capable of using it and will do it if he was pushed to the wall,” the diplomat said, referring to credible reports that Assad was preparing to use Sarin gas against Syrian rebels. But “the Russians got hold of him and told him ‘don’t even think about it’”. Moscow went further on Monday, publicly warning Assad not to use chemical weapons, which it said was barred by Syria’s 1968 ratification of an international protocol against using poison gas in war. “The Russian side proceeds from the assumption that Syrian authorities will continue to strictly adhere to the undertaken international obligations,” it said. The diplomat believes Syria’s statement, by foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi, was put out at Russia’s insistence. Despite the diplomatic “debacle” over Syria at the UN Security Council, where Moscow has vetoed tougher action against Damascus, “there is a clear shared interest between Russia and the United States to control the chemical weapons”, he said. “The Israelis are pretty serious about trying to stop it happening, and the Americans too,” the envoy said. Diplomats said the United States, Israel and
Western powers were in close contact on how to deal with the nightmarish eventuality of Assad losing control and his chemical weapons falling into the hands of militant groups - AlQaeda style Sunni jihadi insurgents or Assad’s pro-Iranian Shiite Lebanese fighters from Hezbollah. Israel has publicly discussed military action to prevent Syrian chemical weapons or missiles from reaching Hezbollah. Some Western intelligence sources suggested that Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, both close allies of Syria, have sent some special units to back Assad in his fight against Sunni insurgents and might get hold of the chemical weapons in the case of a total collapse of government authority. Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, has tried to distance itself publicly from the Syrian quagmire but it believes a defeat for Syria would mean the group might be targeted next. Asked whether Hezbollah would try to obtain Syria’s chemical weapons, one diplomat said: “If you think of this as a fight to the death, either with Sunnis or Israelis or both, you’d have an interest in trying to get your hands on chemical weapons. “It’s one more deterrent against Israel and a big stick to wave,” he said. President Barack Obama said on Monday that Assad would be held accountable if he made the “tragic mistake” of using his chemical weapons. Washington said it was keeping a close eye on Syria’s chemical stockpiles and was “actively consulting with Syria’s neighbours and friends to underscore their common concern about the security of these weapons, and the Syrian government’s obligation to secure them”. For the Kremlin, revelations about the chemical arsenal will add to its fears about how chaos in Syria could pose risks to Russia, but will not prompt a shift in Moscow’s stance on a crisis that is poisoning its relations with Arabs and the West. For President Vladimir Putin, making the point that foreign interference is unacceptable trumps other concerns when it comes to Syria. But Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, suggested Russia was working with the United States and other countries to try to safeguard chemical weapons or at least is discussing it, although the Kremlin probably believes the concerns are overblown. “I think Russia is working with everyone, with America first of all ... Putin met the Turkish prime minister, he was in Israel, and is in constant contact with the Americans. Of course, nobody wants chemical weapons to be used, let alone to get into the hands of terrorists”. Russia has blunted Western efforts to condemn Assad and push him from power after voicing anger over NATO air strikes that helped Libyan rebels oust Gaddafi last year. Since Putin announced in September that he intended to return to the presidency this year, Russia has vetoed three resolutions designed to step up pressure on Assad, angering Western and Arab states that say Moscow is protecting a brutal regime. That contention will only be
compounded by Syria’s acknowledgement on Monday that it has chemical and biological weapons and warning that it could use them if foreign countries intervened. Alexander Golts, an independent military analyst, said: “Russia’s position is not dictated by the nature or the actions of the Syrian regime. Russia’s position is very much dictated by an ideological approach - by 19th century Realpolitik, if you will: the overthrow of our ally, our son of a bitch, is a victory for our opponent. Putin still thinks in terms of a zero-sum game.” Damascus has not signed a 1992 convention that bans chemical weapons, but officials had in the past denied it had any. It has officially stated that while it supports a Middle East-wide ban on weapons of mass destruction (WMD), it cannot unilaterally renounce chemical arms as long as Israel continues to pose a threat to its security. Syria began to acquire the ability to develop and produce chemical weapons agents in 1973, including mustard gas and sarin, and possibly also VX nerve agent. The Global Security website, which collects published intelligence reports and other data, says there are four suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria: north of Damascus, near Homs, in Hama, and near the Mediterranean port of Latakia. Analysts have also identified the town of Cerin, on the coast, as a possible producer of biological weapons. Several other sites are monitored by foreign intelligence agencies and are listed only as suspect. Weapons Syria produces include the nerve agents VX, sarin and tabun, the website said. Exact volumes of weapons in the Syrian stockpile are not known. However, the CIA has estimated that Syria possesses several hundred litres of chemical weapons and produces hundreds of tonnes of agents annually. David Friedman, WMD expert at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, said “for weaponisation, the material is poured into warheads, which can be anything from ballistic missiles to standard artillery shells to air-dropped munitions. The weapons can be as small as mortar bombs. Some of Syria’s chemical weapons are already in launch-ready, warhead form”. Abdelbasset Seida, head of the Syrian National Council opposition group, said: “A regime that massacres children and rapes women could use these types of weapons.” There are many scenarios under which Assad could fall but the worst-case scenario envisages a chaotic and messy downfall with militants and rebels seizing chemical arsenals. While observers say the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government cannot be excluded, they believe it is not imminent. “We cannot rule it out but we are probably some ways away from that scenario,” a diplomat said. But another diplomat said Assad’s acknowledgment that he has nonconventional weapons was an “act of desperation by a regime on its last breath, behaving like a wounded animal who would use anything to fight back”. —Reuters
PYONGYANG: This file picture taken on July 6, 2012 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un accompanied by a young woman enjoying a demonstration performance given by the newly organized Moranbong band. —AFP
North Korea confirms leader Kim is married SEOUL: North Korean state media yesterday confirmed that its new leader Kim Jong-Un is married, ending weeks of speculation about the identity of a stylish young woman seen accompanying him at official events. State television reported that Kim and his wife took part in a ceremony Wednesday marking completion of a Pyongyang amusement park. “Marshal Kim Jong-Un took part in the opening ceremony of Nungra People’s Amusement Park with his wife, Comrade Ri Sol-Ju,” it said. The couple were given a warm welcome, the official news agency said. “All the participants enthusiastically welcomed them, loudly shouting ‘Hurrah!’”, it reported. A smiling Kim and his wife toured the pleasure grounds and watched a dolphin show “to the tune of joyful music” together with senior party, state and army officials and diplomats, the agency said. There was no information on how long they have been married. Kim, believed to be in his late 20s, took over the impoverished nuclear-armed nation when his father Kim Jong-Il died last December. But the intensely secretive state had previously given no details of his private life. The short-haired woman was first shown with Jong-Un during a concert in Pyongyang on July 5. She was seen walking next to the leader on July 8 when he visited the mausoleum of his grandfather and the nation’s founder Kim Il-Sung. On July 24, photos aired by state television showed her standing close to the new leader during a visit to a kindergarten. With other officials staying a few steps behind the pair, she was seen smiling while standing immediately behind or next to Jong-Un as he hugged and talked to children. In contrast to his late father, who spoke
just once at a major public event during his 17 years in power, the younger Kim has cultivated an outgoing and informal style. He has been seen hugging soldiers, posing for photos with troops and linking arms with women. The chubby young man physically resembles his late grandfather, who still commands respect among some North Koreans for his past as an anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter and national founder. “It’s quite unusual for North Korea to present its leader and wife together in public,” said Yang MooJin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies. “This highlights the regime’s campaign to create a new image for its leader,” he told AFP. Yang said Jong-Un is also trying to show the people that his leadership is stable. Analysts say the new leader appears fully in charge of the nation, despite having had relatively little time to prepare for the succession. Last week the regime sacked powerful military chief Ri Yong-Ho on the grounds of ill health, in what was seen as a move by the new leader to strengthen his grip on the 1.2 million-strong armed forces. Jong-Un was later appinted “Marshal” of North Korea, a title previously held by his late father. The International Crisis Group think-tank, in a report released yesterday, said he appears to be in charge in his own right despite speculation he would have to rely on close advisers. But it said there was nothing to suggest he would take measures to improve the lot of his people or reduce regional frictions. Regional tensions have been high since the North launched a long-range rocket on April 13. It said the aim was to launch a peaceful satellite, while the United States and its allies saw a disguised ballistic missile test. —AFP
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Egypt’s Brotherhood seeks balance on Islamic law CAIRO: In decades of furtive meetings in tea houses, mosques and universities, members of Egypt’s underground Muslim Brotherhood spoke ardently of a country governed by Islamic law. Now that their debates take place in parliament and the presidential palace, they must decide how far to go in bringing it about. Elections held since the fall of Hosni Mubarak have turned the oncebanned Brotherhood and its allies into the dominant political force in the Arab world’s most populous country. That success has left the Brotherhood facing competing pressures - on the one hand, to satisfy the conservative Islamists who supported them at the polling station, while on the other hand to avoid conflict with secular-minded Egyptians and a potent military establishment that opposes radical change. For now, the outcome appears to be a compromise, satisfying neither side entirely but avoiding major confrontation, with the aim of giving the Brotherhood the leeway to meet the needs of running a modern state. “Everything is a subject of compromise and negotiation for the Brotherhood,” said Khalil Al-Anani, an expert on Islamist movements based at Durham University in England. “It realises that limiting personal freedoms will endanger their political gains,” he said. “At the same time, they will have to satisfy conservative sections of society.” The Brotherhood’s move into public life frightens secular-minded Egyptians, who fear Islamist curbs could lead to dress codes, kill off music and cinema or
force men and women to segregate in public. Christians, a tenth of Egyptians, are particularly worried, despite Mursi’s attempts at outreach. Businesses fear for the impact on a tourism industry that creates one in eight jobs. A call put out on Facebook for a march in defence of beer - first produced in Egypt in pharaonic times - captured a mood of defiance among some after the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi won the presidency. While Morsi has promised to protect freedoms, his campaign was also peppered with promises to implement sharia, the Islamic law code. “The fear is of destroying the civil state in which citizens are equal... The reassurance message is valueless, because we are seeing what they are doing in reality,” said Refaat El-Saeed, head of Tagammu leftist Party. Some Egyptians worry that even without direction from the state, zealots emboldened by the Islamists’ ballot box success could seek to impose their will in the street. Those fears appeared to be manifested in the days following Morsi’s election, when a group of three men stabbed a young man to death for going out with his fiancÈe in the city of Suez. Ahmed Eid was killed by three young men who have been charged with forming an illegal vigilante group to “fight vice and promote virtue”. The Brotherhood denies that it is behind such attacks and has accused agents loyal to Mubarak’s old order of trying to tar it with the same brush by sending youths masquerading as Brotherhood
members to threaten hair salons. There are limits to how far the Brotherhood can go in transforming Egyptian society. Founded in 1928 by urban intellectuals and run by engineers, teachers and doctors, the Brotherhood says it does not want a theocracy - something which in any case the military council has signalled it will not allow to come about. “I don’t think anyone, even if he has a 40-year term rather than a four-year term, will have the ability to change society, such that the sharia is implemented with all its comprehensive aspects,” said Ahmad Ahmad, an associate professor of religious studies at Harvard University in the United States. The Brotherhood is keenly aware that Egyptians will judge it first and foremost by its ability to resolve their deep economic problems and alleviate poverty. That provides a strong incentive to avoid measures that frighten off tourists or hurt commerce. Rather than emphasise the ancient proscriptions of Islamic law, Brotherhood members describe sharia as a pragmatic moral code that can be used by a modern society to promote reform. “Wherever you find benefit for society, then that is God’s law,” said Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Barr, a cleric who sits on the Brotherhood’s executive board. He said Morsi would be applying sharia by ending corruption and cronyism in government, ending police abuses such as torture and eavesdropping, and enforcing traffic laws. There would be no imposition of dress codes, he said,
pointing to the growth in the numbers of Egyptian women voluntarily wearing headscarves as proof that coercion was unnecessary. Tourists need not fear for their beach wear, as resorts would be treated as places with a “special context”. The Brotherhood has been similarly pragmatic on the imposition of bank interest, which is forbidden in Islam but will not be abolished in Egypt. Even the more hardline Islamist groups, or Salafi movements, that have moved into public life in the last year have started to strike a similarly pragmatic tone. Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, a Salafi group that took up arms against the state as recently as the 1990s, now speaks of a sharia that brings justice, fights corruption and prevents torture and unlawful detention. “These are the priorities of the sharia as I see them today,” said Tareq El-Zumor, who spent 30 years in jail for involvement in the killing of former president Anwar Sadat. Kamal Habib, a former Al-Gama’a alIslamiya member and an expert on Islamist groups, said Salafi views had evolved as they moved into mainstream politics during parliamentary elections that began in November last year. “When the Salafis were campaigning in the election, they spoke of sharia as an immediate step, but as they came closer to power they modified their position as they found a lot of serious complications in society.” Still, Islamists are trying to make substantial changes, especially in areas that are seen as a matter of pride for
their conservative followers. In the first few months of the parliament’s work, newly-elected Salafi lawmakers pressed for an end to a woman’s right to seek divorce, to adjust custody laws in favour of men and to toughen the punishment for insulting religion. All of those proposals were raised independently of any party and none made it into law. Barr, the Brotherhood cleric, forecast legislation that would eventually ban Muslims from trading or producing alcohol, while permitting its production and sale to non-Muslims. The role of Islamic law in Egypt’s new constitution has become a defining issue. “I am afraid of leaving the constitution in the hands of people who think in this way,” said Shahata Mohamed Shahata, a lawyer fiercely opposed to Brotherhood rule who filed a lawsuit demanding the dissolution of the body writing the document. One proposal would add language making God the source of sovereignty. Another would give Al-Azhar, a religious school founded in Cairo more than 1,000 years ago, an official role as the body that would interpret Islamic law. “It’s a big step - to put Al-Azhar in the constitution that is supposed to last for generations,” said Anani of Durham University. “What if Al-Azhar’s interpretation is regressive and not in favour of democracy?” But he forecast more compromise ahead by the Brotherhood: “The Brotherhood will do everything for the sake of power. So they might cross the ideological red lines for political gains.” —Reuters
Al-Qaeda in Maghreb puppet masters in Mali occupation Group benefits from knowledge of vast desert terrain
AL-QAIM, Iraq: Red Crescent personnel set up tents for refugees fleeing the fighting in Syria yesterday in this Iraqi town near the border with Syria. —AFP
Iraqis back from Syria face obstacles galore BAGHDAD: Iraqi refugees in Syria may have been able to flee violence again, but they find themselves returning to a homeland where basic services remain poor and unemployment and housing costs are still high. Thousands of Iraqis have returned to their country from strife-hit Syria in recent days, travelling aboard buses and planes clutching hastily-packed luggage, cruelly having to cross the Iraq-Syria border for a second time, once again to escape worsening unrest. But the early days of life back in Iraq have not been easy for those who made the trip. “Life is much easier in Syria than in Iraq,” complained Faatin Mohammed Hussein, a 35-yearold widow who fled Iraq in 2008 after receiving death threats. “There, you can live in a house for $200 a month, and finding a job is easy. Here, finding work is difficult, and housing is very expensive.” With tears streaming down her cheeks, she asked, “Where can I work to provide food for my son and daughter?” referring to 10year-old Mohammed and 12-year-old Dhuha. Hussein returned to Iraq on a bus from Syria and is now living with her only sister at her home in Zayouna, east Baghdad, with her sibling’s family and five children. She had worked as a cook for US forces in the main northern city of Mosul when she received the threats against her life, and briefly moved to Baghdad before crossing the border to Syria. But the situation that has greeted her upon her return to her homeland remains an unpleasant one. Although security has improved compared to Iraq’s sectarian war from 2006 to 2008, and is indeed better than in Syria, deadly attacks remain common and 113 people were killed in a wave of bombings and shootings on Monday that was claimed by an AlQaeda front group. Basic services remain sorely lacking in a country widely regarded as one of the most corrupt in the world. National grid power averages just a handful of hours per day yearround, a figure that drops during the searing summer months as Iraqis put on air conditioners, leaving most reliant on costly private generators, while clean water remains in short supply.
Unemployment, meanwhile, is officially reckoned to be 12 percent, but unofficial estimates peg it at closer to 30 percent. To make matters worse, food prices are on the rise and the country suffers from a massive housing shortfall - the housing and construction ministry says it needs to build a new home every 45 seconds of every working day to satisfy demand. By contrast, as a registered refugee in Syria, Hussein was receiving $200 a month from the United Nations, which covered rental costs, while also receiving a regular allocation of food supplies. There, her home received 24 hours of electricity a day and clean water. “There are those who prefer to die, rather than return here without shelter and work,” she said. One of those refugees who has so far chosen to stay in Syria is Soheir Mohammed, who told AFP by telephone: “How can I live in Iraq - I do not have a degree, a salary or a house.” Mohammed’s parents and husband were killed in Baghdad in 2006, when the capital was at the centre of the communal bloodshed engulfing the country. After moving to Damascus, she began working at a local nightclub, at which point she entered into a “marriage of convenience with a Syrian man”. “I left Iraq after the road was cut off in front of me,” she said. “My Syrian husband does not treat me well, but it could be worse. I prefer to stay here and take care of my two daughters.” According to the UN refugee agency, more than 10,000 Iraqis have fled Syria to return home since yesterday, with many of them expressing fears about threats to their safety in their homeland. But they “said they had little choice, given the security threats in Syria,” UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said on Tuesday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri AlMaliki has called on the United Nations to intervene to provide safe passage for Iraqis fleeing Syria, and Baghdad has provided free flights to help those who want to escape do so, saying that road travel from Syria to Iraq is “not safe”. “Before fleeing Syria, we heard explosions and clashes, but the sounds were always far away,” Hussein said. —AFP
GAO, Mali: The armed Islamist groups who have occupied northern Mali, sharing out key towns, are all acting under the aegis of AlQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), according to regional security sources. Northern Mali’s main cities and administrative regions, Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao have been occupied by Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) since late March. But in each city, security experts say, it is the North African Al-Qaeda franchise which is pulling the strings. “AQIM has a chameleon nature, always taking on the local colour so as not to rush, sub-contracting to local jihadists while remaining vigilant,” said one security source, on condition of anonymity. Another security source said: “They organise everything. Food, military training, intelligence, ideological training. Let us not be mistaken, the hundreds of youths being recruited in the name of MUJAO or Ansar Dine are really AQIM fighters.” AQIM stems from a group started in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists, who in 2007 formally subscribed to Al-Qaeda’s ideology. The group benefits from its perfect knowledge of northern Mali and its vast desert terrain, where it has spun a tight network across tribal and business lines, supporting poor communities and protecting traffickers. They have made millions of dollars from ransoms of European hostages. MUJAO was the first of the two Islamist groups to become known when in Oct 2011 it claimed the kidnapping of three European hostages, describing itself as a splinter group from AQIM. Made up mostly of Algerians and Sahrawi, MUJAO now holds the northern Mali town of Gao, having chased out Tuareg separatist
rebels who initially spearheaded the occupation of the north. The takeover took place in the chaos following a coup d’etat in Bamako on March 22. Last week, MUJAO released the three hostages for a ransom of Ä15 million ($18 million) and the release of an Islamist who had
uncatchable” living in the town. “He is living here with his son Oussama, from a marriage with a Malian,” said one resident, adding that the town had become his base. Corroborating sources reported Belmokhtar had supported MUJAO during the ouster of the Tuareg rebels at the end of June. In the
palace built in the city by late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. His deputy Oumar Ould Hamaha is one of Ansar Dine’s leaders, and a key player in the Islamist operation in northern Mali, where he coordinates the activities of the various groups. An ideologist and feared warlord, Ould Hamaha recently
ABIDJAN: Military chiefs of staff (from left) of Senegal Abdoulaye Fall, Nigeria Oluseyi Petinrin, Niger Seyni Gaerba, Burkina Faso Honore Traore and Liberia Sekous Sheriff attend an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) chiefs of staff meeting about the crisis in Mali yesterday. —AFP been imprisoned in Mauritania, the group said. Scores of young Africans were seen arriving in Gao by an AFP reporter, to join two training camps for “military and religious training”, according to the leader of the new Islamic police force. Algerian jihadists move around town in powerful vehicles, and residents have reported seeing notorious AQIM leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, known as “the
fabled city of Timbuktu, hardline Ansar Dine shocked the world by destroying ancient World Heritage sites such as the shrines of ancient Muslim saints, which they say are idolatrous. The group has also enforced strict sharia law, whipping unmarried couples, drinkers and smokers. In this ancient desert crossroads Abou Zeid, one of AQIM’s most radical leaders, is in charge, living in a
threatened to attack west African countries who send troops to northern Mali and those who support them, such as France. Kidal is held by Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghaly, a renowned former Tuareg rebel who led a 1990-95 rebellion, later becoming a mediator in hostage cases and peace talks before becoming radicalised. Ansar Dine has said its main goal is to impose sharia law in Mali. —AFP
Qaeda says bloodshed marks Iraq campaign
JERUSALEM: An Israeli boy receives help to fit a gas mask to his head at a distribution center in a shopping center in Mevaseret Zion yesterday. Israel opened distribution stations to supply its resident with new gas masks, chemical and biological weapons protection kits. —AFP
BAGHDAD: Al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq said yesterday that a wave of attacks that killed 113 days earlier marked the launch of a new offensive, as officials said seven people died in new unrest. The spate of violence nationwide on Monday, which also wounded more than 250 people, was the worst to hit Iraq in more than two and a half years and shattered a relative calm that had held in the lead-up to the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Yesterday, the Islamic State of Iraq claimed the attacks in a statement posted on jihadist forum Honein. “As part of the new military campaign aimed at recovering territory given up by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the war ministry has sent its sons and the mujahedeen on a sacred offensive during the month of Ramadan,” the group said. “The operation by the jihadists has stunned the enemy and made him lose his head. It has demonstrated the failings of the security and intelligence services,” it continued. Last weekend, the group said it would look to retake territory, and appealed for
Sunni tribes to provide support and send fighters, in an Internet audio message purpor tedly left by its leader Abu Bakr AlBaghdadi. The message posted on various jihadist forums said the ISI would begin targeting judges and prosecutors, and try to help its prisoners break out of Iraqi jails. “We are starting a new stage,” said the voice on the audio message, purpor tedly that of Baghdadi. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is regarded by Iraqi officials as significantly weaker than at the peak of its strength in 2006 and 2007, but it is still capable of spectacular masscasualty attacks across the country. Late Tuesday, meanwhile, a car bomb in the town of Ad-Dawr, in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, killed the wife and four children of a police captain, police and medics said. Also on Tuesday evening, another blast, this time a roadside bomb in south Baghdad, killed at least two people and wounded three others, security and medical officials said. The attacks came a day after
Monday’s spate of bombings and shootings, which drew widespread international condemnation. The wave of violence consisted of at least 29 separate attacks in 19 cities, with most of the unrest concentrated in Baghdad and areas north of the capital. In the deadliest incidents - a string of roadside bombs and a car bomb followed by a suicide attack targeting emergency responders in the town of Taji, just north of Baghdad - at least 42 people were killed and 40 wounded, medical officials said. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Washington strongly condemned the attacks. “The targeting of innocents is always cowardly,” she said. “It’s particularly reprehensible during this holy month of Ramadan.” The violence also drew condemnation from the United Nations special envoy to Iraq, the country’s parliament speaker, as well as France, Canada and neighbouring Iran. Monday’s toll was the highest since December 8, 2009, when 127 people were killed. —AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Fear prompts gun sales, panic after US massacre DENVER: Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie theater massacre as buyers express fears that anti-gun politicians may use the shootings to seek new restrictions on owning weapons. In Colorado, the site of Friday’s shooting that killed 12 and injured dozens of others, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed. The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm - 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior. Dick Rutan, owner of Gunners Den in suburban Arvada, Colorado, said requests for concealed-weapon training certification “are off the hook”. His four-hour course in gun safety, required for certification for a concealed-weapons permit in Colorado, has drawn double the interest since Friday. “What they’re saying is: They want to have a chance. They want to have the ability to protect themselves and their families if they are in a situation like what happened in the movie theater,” Rutan said. Day-to-day gun sales frequently fluctuate, but the numbers also look strong outside of Colorado, too. Seattle’s home county, King, saw nearly twice as many requests for concealed pistol licenses than the same timeframe a year ago. Florida record-
ed 2,386 background checks on Friday, up 14 percent from the week before. Oregon sales on Friday and Saturday were up 11 percent over the month prior. Four days of checks in California were up 10 percent monthto-month. During the past decade, June and July have consistently been the slowest months for gun sales, according to FBI data. Jay Wallace, who owns Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Georgia, found that his sales on Saturday were up 300 percent from the same day a year ago - making it one of the best Saturdays his business has ever had. He said customers are often afraid when there’s a gun-related tragedy that some lawmakers might try and push through an antigun agenda. “We shouldn’t let one sick individual make us forget and lose sight of freedoms in this country,” Wallace said. Authorities have said that the suspected Colorado shooter, James Holmes, methodically stockpiled weapons and explosives at work and home in recent months. He purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition and a shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle and two Glock pistols, authorities said. On Friday, clad in head-to-toe combat gear, he burst into a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises”, tossed gas canisters into the crowd and opened fire. The shooting killed 12
people and wounded dozens of others. Police in the Denver suburb of Aurora say Holmes also boobytrapped his apartment. Holmes is now in solitary confinement at a local jail. The rise in gun sales reflects but one of the anxieties created by the shootings. Since the massacre, there have been reports of chaos at movie theaters, apparently sparked by misunderstandings or careless words. A confrontation with an intoxicated man in an Arizona theater caused about 50 people to flee, authorities said. A southern California man was arrested after authorities say he made allusions to the Aurora massacre after the movie didn’t start on time. In New Jersey, a showing of “Batman” was canceled after someone stood up during the movie, opened an emergency exit and then returned to their seat. About 90 minutes into a Monday night showing of “Batman” in Santa Monica, California, shrieks from some girls sent about two dozen people sprinting for the exit. It turned out that a large man with a backpack was actually not a threat and was simply having a medical problem. “This was nothing, and yet it startled us and rattled us so much,” said moviegoer Paria Sadighi. Nationally, the shootings have triggered a fierce debate over gun control and whether government has a role in reining in the ownership of firearms.
HIGH POINT, North Carolina: Randy Hodges holds a firearm at the Gun Vault on July 23, 2012. — AP Gun sales often fluctuate based on pistol licenses when there’s a signifinews events, especially whenever cant gun-related tragedy,” said Sgt people think the passage of more Cindi West of the King County sheriff’s restrictive gun laws is imminent. Sales office in Washington state. Some Democratic lawmakers in spiked following the election of President Barack Obama, when Congress cited the shooting as eviweapons enthusiasts expressed fear dence of the need for tougher gun that the Democrat might curtail gun control laws - particularly a ban on rights. FBI figures also show back- high-capacity ammunition magazines. ground checks for handgun sales Congress, however, hasn’t passed jumped in Arizona following the strict legislation in more than a shooting of US Rep Gabrielle Giffords decade, and leaders in Washington in 2011. “It’s not uncommon for us to show no sign of bringing up such see spikes in requests for concealed measures any time soon. — AP
‘What?’ Confused caller outs spying by NY police Muslim groups outraged, mayor defiant
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Residents of the Desermites and Canape-Vert slums demonstrate yesterday protesting the government’s plans to destroy hillside shanties for a flood-control project. —AFP
In Haiti, anger over slum eviction plans PORT-AU-PRINCE: Plans to evict people from slums precariously situated on the vertiginous slopes around the Haitian capital are sparking protests from many who want to stay despite the dangers. Port-auPrince acts as a magnet in this desperately poor Caribbean nation, which was struck by a catastrophic 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 225,000 people and displaced 1.5 million, one in six of the population. Haitians flock to the capital from badly deforested and degraded rural areas in the hope of finding work to support their families. But 80 percent of people in the capital live below the poverty line, many in squalid tent cities or in rickety housing near the edge of deadly ravines. Some shantytowns are built on flood plains that risk being washed away when rainstorms come. Many camps lack basic sanitation, leaving them more prone to infectious diseases like the cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 7,500 lives since sweeping the country in the wake of the quake. For all these reasons, there have long been moves afoot to relocate slum dwellers to safer housing. When the quake hit and the international community turned its attention to Haiti’s woes, those calls became a clamor. But many slum dwellers don’t want to leave. A lot of the housing alternatives being offered are outside the capital, which would mean less opportunity to find work. “I was born here,” 62-yearold William Jean told AFP as he sat on a bench facing his small dwelling in the optimistically named “Jalousie” or “Jealousy” neighborhood. “At the beginning, there were just a few houses.” In tents or makeshift abodes made out
of sheeting, families eke out a miserable existence in the camps. When the flood waters pour in, mothers try to sleep standing up, cradling their babies. “It’s a delicate matter,” Environment Minister Ronald StCyr told AFP, adding “something has to be done.” The government recently launched a program promoting the return of earthquake victims to their original neighborhoods, with a subsidy of around $500. StCyr has proposed leveling 2,000 houses near the most dangerous ravines. In addition, all new buildings on such sites would be banned. Many slum dwellers are livid at the plans and have taken to the streets of Port-auPrince to protest, erecting flaming barricades and sometimes clashing with police. “There’s no danger in Jalousie,” said a clearly angry Sylvestre Veus. “Over my dead body will they evict us.” Sylvestre Telfort works for an organization defending the rights of Jalousie residents and has called for a dialogue between residents and the government while encouraging those living in danger to move. “Every socio-economic crisis has pushed people to come here, just like in the other ghettos of Portau-Prince,” Telfort told AFP. Some 400,000 Haitians continue to live in tents, according to the International Organization for Migration. “It’s in the shantytowns that they come looking for voters, after that they forget them,” said Jocelyn Louis, sitting on his bike. “I say no! No one can tear us away.” As those around him muttered their approval, he accused the Haitian government of reacting slowly to the crisis and not respecting “the constitution that guarantees housing for every son of this country.”—AFP
Canada ‘spy’ sold US, Australia, UK secrets SYDNEY: A Canadian naval officer arrested this year for allegedly leaking secrets may also have compromised top level Australian, British and American intelligence, a report said yesterday. Jeffrey Delisle, a naval intelligence officer, was charged in Canada in January with communicating over the past five years “with a foreign entity, information that the government of Canada is taking measures to safeguard”. Canadian reports said Ottawa expelled four Russian diplomats in the aftermath of Delisle’s arrest, although Moscow denied this. Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald, citing Australian security sources, said Delisle also allegedly sold to Moscow signals intelligence - information gathered by the interception of radio and radar signals collected by the United States, Britain,
Australia and New Zealand. It said much of the information was more highly classified than the disclosures attributed to US Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of releasing a vast cache of classified files to whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. The newspaper said Delisle was the subject of high-level consultations between the Australian and Canadian governments and was discussed at a secret international conference in New Zealand earlier this year. An Australian security source quoted by the newspaper said Delisle’s access was “apparently very wide” and that “Australian reporting was inevitably compromised”. “The signals intelligence community is very close, we share our intelligence overwhelmingly with the US, UK and Canada,” a former Australian Defence Signals Directorate officer said.—AFP
NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey: It’s an audiotape the New York Police Department hoped people would never hear. A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus in New Jersey called the New Brunswick Police emergency line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious. “What’s suspicious?” the dispatcher asked. “Suspicious in the sense that the apartment has about - has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios.” “Really?” the dispatcher asked, her voice rising with surprise. The caller, Salil Sheth, had stumbled upon one of the NYPD’s biggest secrets: a safe house, a place where undercover officers working well outside the department’s jurisdiction could lie low and coordinate surveillance. Since the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NYPD, with training and guidance from the CIA, has monitored the activities of Muslims in New York and far beyond. Detectives infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and kept tabs on Muslim student groups, including at Rutgers. The NYPD kept files on innocent sermons, recorded the names of political organizers in police documents and built databases of where Muslims lived and shopped, even where they were likely to gather to watch sports. Out-of-state operations, like the one in New Brunswick, were one aspect of this larger intelligence-gathering effort. The Associated Press previously described the discover y of the NYPD inside the New Jersey apartment, but police now have released the tape of the emergency call and other materials after a legal fight. “There’s computer hardware, software, you know, just laying around,” the caller continued. “There’s pictures of terrorists. There’s pictures of our neighboring building that
NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey: This July 13, 2011 photo shows the apartment complex where an apartment was rented by an undercover NYPD officer. — AP they have.” “In New Brunswick?” the dispatcher asked, sounding as confused as the caller. The AP requested a copy of the tape last year. Under pressure from the NYPD, the New Brunswick Police Department refused. After the AP sued, the city this week turned over the tape and emails that described the NYPD’s efforts to keep the recording a secret. The call sent New Brunswick police and the FBI rushing to the apartment complex. Officers and agents were surprised at what they found. None had been told that the NYPD was in town. At the NYPD, the bungled operation was an embarrassment. It made the department look amateurish and forced it to ask the FBI to return the department’s materials. The emails highlight the sometimes convoluted arguments the NYPD has used to justify its out-ofstate activities, which have been criticized by New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie and some members of Congress. The NYPD has infiltrated and photographed Muslim businesses and mosques in New Jersey, monitored the Internet postings of Muslim college students across the Northeast and traveled as far away as New Orleans to infiltrate and build files on liberal advocacy groups. In February, NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, Andrew Schaffer, told reporters that detectives can operate outside New York because they aren’t conducting official police duties. “They’re not acting as police officers in other jurisdictions,” Schaffer said. In trying to keep the tape quiet, however, the NYPD made no mention of the fact that its officers were not acting as police. In fact, Lt Cmdr. William McGroarty and Assistant Chief Thomas Galati argued that releasing the recording would jeopardize investigations and endanger the people and buildings.
Further, the apartment, No. 1076, was rented by an undercover NYPD officer using a fake name that he was still using, New Brunswick attorneys told the AP. “Such identification will place the safety of any officers identified, as well as the undercover operatives with whom they work, at risk,” Galati wrote in a letter to New Brunswick. The city deleted that name from the copy of the tape that it released. Reached by phone Tuesday, McGroarty declined to discuss the New Brunswick operation. But the recording offers a glimpse inside the safe house: a small apartment with two computers, dozens of black plastic boxes and no furniture or clothes except one suit. “And pictures of our neighboring buildings?” the dispatcher asked. “Yes, the Matrix building,” Sheth replied, referring to a local developer. “There’s pictures of terrorists. There’s literature on the Muslim religion.”—AP
Dissidents arrested at Paya funeral in Cuba HAVANA: Cuban police arrested dozens of dissidents Tuesday at the funeral of political activist Oswaldo Paya, after his daughter’s vow to seek justice over his sudden death in a road accident. Those arrested included Guillermo Farinas, a lead-
ing rights activist, who was held for questioning by plainclothes police deployed outside the Havana church where Paya’s funeral was held. Farinas, known for hunger strikes that drew attention to the plight of political prisoners in Cuba,
HAVANA: Cuban opponent Guillermo Farinas and other opponents participate in the funeral of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya on Tuesday at the Salvador del Mundo church. — AFP
and about 50 others were stopped by police after emerging from the funeral mass shouting slogans against the government. They were forced onto two buses that the church had provided to take people to the cemetery where Paya was to be buried. In a dramatic standoff that turned into a shoving match, dissidents started chanting “Freedom! Freedom!” before they were drowned out by about 100 pro-government activists roaring: “Long live the Revolution” and “Long live Fidel”. Authorities said Paya, 60, died on Sunday along with another dissident, Harold Cepero Escalante, when their rental car went off the road and struck a tree in southeastern Cuba. Paya’s daughter, 23-yearold Rosa Maria Paya, sharply questioned that account in an impassioned statement delivered at the funeral before an audience that included leaders of Cuba’s Roman Catholic church. Rosa Maria said her skepticism of the official version is based on “the repeated threats against the life of my father and our
family.” Supporters “who have accompanied us during all these years, know the truth of what I am saying.” Rosa Maria earlier told the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald that passengers in the car at the time of the crash had told the family of a second vehicle that had tried to force their car off the road. She said she held the government of President Raul Castro accountable for the “physical well-being of my two brothers, my mother and all my family.” A Spanish national who was driving the car was taken into custody by Cuban police for questioning after he was released from a Havana hospital on Monday, a Spanish embassy source said. Angel Carromero Barrios, a 27-year-old activist with the youth wing of Spain’s conservative ruling Popular Party, was being held in Bayamo, 744 km southeast of Havana, the source said. “He is still in Bayamo, in a detention center,” the source said, adding that it was not unusual for the driver in a crash to be held for questioning.— AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Compensation controversy over ‘Adriatic Alcatraz’ GOLI OTOK, Croatia: It rises up from the pristine waters off Croatia’s coast, a forbidding mound of rock known as the Adriatic Alcatraz. The amount former political prisoners are being offered for each day they spent on this hell: $9. The paltry compensation Serbia’s government is granting people imprisoned by late Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito in one of Europe’s most notorious post-World War II labor camps has triggered outrage among many and threats of a lawsuit. “It’s miserable,” said Bozdar Vulovic, one of the few living survivors of the Goli Otok, or Barren Island, camp that was created in 1948. Nearly 600 prisoners of all ex-Yugoslav nations Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenes, Macedonians and Montenegrins - are estimated to have died on the island from torture and disease; thousands suffered psychological damage from an infamous prison system that pitted the prisoners against each other in a battle for survival. Goli Otok housed up to 16,000 political prisoners over an eight-year period. They ended up there after being accused by Tito’s regime of expressing sympathy toward Josef Stalin and his hardline Soviet dictatorship. Tito, who espoused a more liberal brand of communism, broke with Moscow in 1948, earning him support from the West. Some of the former Serb inmates are threatening to take the government to an international human rights court for what they say is meager compensation for the horrors they went through. Others say they will reluctantly accept the offer because they have no time to waste on lengthy legal procedures. “If you were my age, and if you were in bad health, what would you do?” asked 91year-old Smilja Filipcev, who spent more than three years at Goli Otok as a woman prisoner. Serbia has now belatedly decided to rehabilitate the victims of Tito’s communist regime, including ex-dissidents, royalists and the Goli Otok inmates. Authorities said they arrived at the $9 a day figure because Croatia had offered a similar sum. But that was 10 years ago when the money was worth much more. Croatia also gave its nationals “privileged” pension status that resulted in a much higher total package than the Serb one. In 2003, Slovenia offered its ex-prisoners ‚Ǩ6,300 for each
year spent on the island. The other former Yugoslav republics - Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia have not yet compensated their nationals. “The fear that we went through is something that should be compensated,” said Vulovic, who was incarcerated on the island for nearly three years. “And great fear it was.” The controversy in Serbia has revived painful memories of the island camp kept secret for decades. Its existence was largely ignored in the West because inmates were
he said. “At Goli Otok, we had to spy on each other, and we had to beat other inmates up if they ordered us to do so. We were beaten all the time, while working, going to breakfast or to lunch,” he said, adding that neither the International Red Cross nor any other international humanitarian organization ever visited the island while he was there. Vulovic said trivial acts could land people in the camp - which was often compared to San Francisco’s Alcatraz island because no one ever
GOLI OTOK, Croatia: In this photo taken June 28, 2012, ruined prison buildings are seen on this Adriatic island. — AP
thought to be hardline pro-Soviet communists, not dissidents like the ones in the ex-Soviet gulags in Siberia. Tito was the undisputed leader of Yugoslavia for 35 years until his death in 1980. Those who publicly declared support after the split with Moscow were summarily dispatched to the island, without a trial. Vulovic, an 85-year-old Serb citizen who was born in Montenegro, said the inmates on Goli Otok had arranged a “welcoming event” for him and the other newcomers. “They screamed at us yelling ‘down with the scum’ and beat us with their hands,”
managed to escape. “It was enough for someone to listen to radio Moscow, or privately say something good about Stalin, to be reported to the secret police and end up on the island,” Vulovic said at his small Belgrade apartment with Stalin’s portrait and the Bible side-by-side on a bookshelf. “I was arrested when I was 17,” Vulovic said. “The reason for my arrest was stupid. Somebody had written ‘Down with Tito, long live Stalin’ in chalk on the walls all over my neighborhood” in the Montenegrin seaside town of Kotor. “According to the logic of the time, they thought that only high
school students had access to chalk. So they arrested six of us from that neighborhood, and they beat us until we had to confess that we were the ones that had written those words.” In 1956, the island ended its days as a political prison and was turned into a high-security facility for the hardest criminals. Years after Tito’s death, Croatia’s tourist organization tried to reopen the 3-sq-km island for tourists willing to pay to re-enact the life of a political prisoner - including hard labor, stale food and nights in solitary confinement. The plan, which even had the support of some former inmates who offered to work as tour guides, was scrapped because of the protests by Goli Otok political prisoner organizations. “This is where the infamous Goli Otok lynches started,” said former inmate Vladimir Bobinac, 85, while interviewed at the island, describing a lane of prisoners forced to organize welcoming party for new inmates. “People were badly beaten, some even died,” Bobinac said. “They were beaten out of fear. Those who did not deliver the punches were beaten themselves.” Filipcev said she was sent to Goli Otok from Serbia because she refused to denounce Stalin in his clash with Tito. “They loaded us onto freight cars, and we were off,” she said. “When we arrived, they opened the car doors and we saw the sea in front of us. They kicked us out of the freight cars, and we waited for a boat to come pick us up. They loaded us into the ship’s hull. They didn’t wait for us to go down the stairs, they pushed us down, and we fell on top of each other. Some women fainted; some had their legs and arms broken.” She said that on the island, all the prisoners, including women, were forced to hard labor, mostly digging stones in a quarry. “There we had wooden boards, with handles on each end, used for carrying heavy loads,” she said. “You would trip and fall down onto the rocks. If you got injured, they’d make you sit down and break rocks until your injury was better, and then they would put you back to carrying rocks.” She said that when released, she came back home to Serbia. “At the time when I was arrested, my elder daughter was four years old, and my younger daughter was two, so when they saw me, the first thing they asked was ‘Are you really our mother?’” — AP
As Ghana mourns president, focus turns to election race Vice president takes over until vote
PODGORICA: A Roma boy walks past burned-out shells of wooden shacks in a refugee camp near Montenegrin capital yesterday. — AFP
Fire destroys Roma camp in Montenegro PODGORICA, Montenegro: It was the only home Selija Hisenaj knew since she was forced out of war-torn Kosovo 13 years ago, and now it’s gone too. The 30-year-old mother of seven is among hundreds of Roma, or Gypsies, from Kosovo who are living in tents after a fire burned down their settlement on the outskirts of the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica. Officials said Wednesday that some 850 people lost their belongings in the fire that swept through the refugee barracks in the suburb of Konik a day earlier. No one was injured in Tuesday’s fire, but for some it was still too much. “We should have stayed and burned as well,” said Hisenaj, who fled from the Kosovo village of Istok during the 1998-99 war. “I lost everything.” It remains unclear what caused the fire that erupted early Tuesday and spread quickly because of strong winds, says emergency official Radomir Scepanovic. He said a police investigation was under way. There was no indication it was a hate crime similar
to those that sometimes target Roma in other Balkan countries and elsewhere in Europe. Witnesses said the fire engulfed the entire settlement in just ten minutes and there was little anyone could do. “We saw the fire and just ran,” said Hisenaj. She said she lost all her documents and the little money she had. Most refugees, including Hisenaj, have moved to tents set up next to the burned-out settlement, while the elderly and small children were placed in a local school. Like 13 years ago, when they first arrived from Kosovo, Hisenaj and other refugees were left with nothing, living in tents in unbearable summer heat, crammed next to each other. They accuse authorities of doing little to help them in the past years, and several dozen refugees gathered yesterday in front of the UN refugee agency headquarters in Podgorica to protest. “We have been waiting and waiting, but they have done nothing for us,” said 20-year-old Kujtin Krasniqi, also from Kosovo. —AP
Madagascar rivals hold landmark talks VICTORIA: Madagascan leader Andry Rajoelina and the man he toppled in 2009, Marc Ravalomanana, met yesterday on a remote Seychelles island to force a breakthrough in reconciliation efforts. “ The face-to-face talks between the Madagascan transitional president and his predecessor began this morning on the island of Desroches,” a Seychelles government official said. The pair met alongside South African President Jacob Zuma, a key mediator in the talks, which are being held on a private beach paradise island some 230 km from the Indian Ocean archipelago’s main island, Mahe. The 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is mediating in the talks, has set a July 31 deadline for the rivals to settle their differences, so that a timetable for elections can be unveiled next week under a deal signed last year. Seychelles President James Michel also attended the meeting, which was expected to close later yesterday. The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has been mired in political crisis since Rajoelina ousted Ravalomanana in March 2009 with the army’s support. Rajoelina, a former disc jockey who was only 34 when he seized power - and who had to change the constitution to become eligible for the top job in future polls - has failed to garner broad international backing. Rajoelina and Ravalomanana last year signed a “roadmap” toward elections, but the deal has yet to be fully
implemented. The two men have already held talks among the country’s main political groups since the ouster of Ravalomanana by Rajoelina, a former mayor of the capital Antananarivo. But they have previously avoided a one-on-one meeting. Their subordinates have inked several pacts but have yet to find a permanent solution to the three-year crisis engulfing Africa’s largest island. One of the main stumbling blocks is to establish conditions for Ravalomanana’s eventual return from his exile in South Africa. The roadmap signed in September provides for his return home without conditions, but he has twice tried and failed to return to Madagascar. Moreover, parliament has passed a law which bars people with criminal records from running for office and demands that any presidential aspirants must have paid their taxes in full, effectively excluding Ravalomanana. In 2010, Ravalomanana was sentenced in absentia to life in prison and hard labour for the murders of around 30 demonstrators, killed by his presidential guard in 2009 protests that led to his overthrow. “A return to stability in Madagascar is crucial for all the countries in our southern and eastern Africa and Indian Ocean region,” President Michel said in a speech Tuesday. He warned that the island nation, where millions “are sinking into extreme poverty” could be facing a “social catastrophe.” — AFP
ACCRA: Ghana has seen a smooth transition of power after the sudden death of its president, but as the nation mourns attention is already turning to who will replace him as the ruling party’s candidate in a December vote. VicePresident John Dramini Mahama was sworn in hours after the announcement of the death through sudden illness on Tuesday of 68-yearold President John Atta Mills. This ensured that the West African oil, gold and cocoa producer, a former British colony once known as the Gold Coast, avoided the kind of messy political transitions that have plagued other states in a coupprone region. Ghanaians congratulated themsleves on the seamless handover. Mahama, 53, a historian, former minister and communications expert, is expected to bring a steady hand to a fast-growing economy, one of Africa’s newest oil producers. But questions over who will now step into Mills’ shoes as the candidate to keep his governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in power in December’s elections will inject some uncertainty into the political outlook. Analysts say this could drive down the Ghanaian currency, which has lost about 17 percent against the dollar this year as the country’s oil-fuelled boom sucks in capital and consumer imports and drives up demand for dollars to pay for them. “Political disruption is likely to be internal and will focus on who is the NDC’s presidential nominee,” said Azim Datardina, Ghana analyst at Africa Risk Consulting. Mills, seeking a second term despite having suffered for years from undisclosed health problems, had already won his party’s nomination to run against the opposition New Patriotic Party’s Nana Akufo-Addo, defeating a divisive challenge from the wife of still influential ex-president Jerry Rawlings. Some analysts expect Nana Konadu, Rawlings’ wife whom Mills crushed in the NDC primaries, to claim an automatic nomination. But Alban Bagbin, Ghana’s health minister and a member of the NDC legal team, said the party would hold an extraordinary meeting to pick a new candidate for what is expected to be a tight race for the presidency. “Most likely is a new nomination contest with a number of high-profile challengers who earlier balked at opposing Mills. A likely candidate is John Mahama,” said Africa Risk Consulting’s Datardina. Flags flew at half mast yesterday as the nation began a week of national mourning for Mills, who had served as president since winning a 2008 presidential contest that won plaudits for
ACCRA: Ghana Vice President John Mahama sits on a chair after being sworn in as new president in parliament after the death of the late President John Atta Mills on Tuesday. — AP going down to the wire but remaining peaceful. “I am personally devastated - I’ve lost a father, I’ve lost a friend, I’ve lost a mentor and a senior comrade,” Mahama said in his first comments after being sworn in before a sombre parliament on Tuesday evening. “The fine gentleman that he was, President Mills rightly earned the title ‘Asomdwehene’ (King of Peace). He brought a distinctive insight to Ghanaian politics. He remained humble, honest and modest throughout his years in public service.” That sense of loss was shared by ordinary Ghanaians too. “I didn’t know him personally but he’s everybody’s father and a peacemaker,” said Peter Fiave, a 70-year-old who went to parliament to witness the swearing-in of Mahama. Tributes poured in from around the globe from heads of state like US President Barack Obama, who had feted Ghana under Mills as a model and “good news story” for Africa. Rivals were quick to praise the nation’s handling of the sudden loss. “We are showing a maturity that must encourage all Ghanaians,” said opposition NPP Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey. Mahama, fresh from a US tour to promote a recently published personal memoir on Ghana’s history, is widely expected to maintain current policies in his caretaker role. Yet, amid the plau-
dits for his predecessor, he will inherit the same struggles Mills had faced in managing Ghanaians’ high expectations over the flow of crude from the country’s Jubilee oil field since 2010, and in tackling corruption scandals that have dogged the NDC administration. “Given the above, recent momentum has favoured the NPP. Ghanaians also have a history of evicting the ruling party at the ballot box in favour of the opposition,” Standard Bank said in a research note yesterday. “Much will hinge on the manner in which the NDC is able to swiftly elect a replacement presidential candidate. Infighting already poses a significant threat to party unity, and any signs of an exacerbation of these tensions will favour the opposition,” it added. Ahead of Mills’ death, most analysts had expected a year of election spending testing Ghana’s reputation for improved economic management. The government last week sought parliament’s permission for extra spending. “We think heightened uncertainty will result in some foreign investors taking a wait-and-see stance, which would imply a slowdown in FX inflows, which in turn would be negative for the already troubled cedi,” Renaissance Capital said. “We think another 5-10 percent depreciation is likely by (the end of 2012),” it added. — Reuters
Tajik forces declare truce after clashes DUSHANBE: Tajik government forces yesterday declared a temporary ceasefire to allow for talks in a deadly operation to reassert government control in the southeast over militants loyal to an exwarlord. The talks involved Tajik Defence Minister Sherali Khayrulloyev and representatives of the town of Khorog that was the focus of this week’s deadly clashes, a military source told AFP. The initial truce was only supposed to last four hours to the early afternoon, but there were no reports of further fighting and the Tajik independent news site Asia Plus said Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon had ordered that the truce would be permanent. The presidency in Dushanbe said it was unable to immediately confirm the reports. According to Asia Plus, the head of the Badakhshan region Kodir Kosim read a message from Rakhmon to inhabitants, saying that the ceasefire would be indefinite to ensure the evacuation of wounded and dead whose bodies risked
“decomposing in the streets”. According to the official toll, 12 government troops and 30 militants have been killed in the military operation close to the Afghan border which was launched after the murder of a top security agent at the weekend. However some local media suggested the toll was sharply higher, although the security service insisted that there were no civilian casualties. The violence in the Pamir Mountains region was the worst internal unrest for two years in Tajikistan, the ex-Soviet Union’s poorest state that borders Afghanistan and China and is still recovering from a 1992-97 civil war. The government blamed Tolib Ayombekov, a former warlord from the civil war, for the murder on Saturday of regional security chief General Abdullo Nazarov who was stabbed to death after being dragged from his car. It accused Ayombekov, who had been the head of a border guards unit, of running an organised crime group that smuggled drugs and precious
stones into Tajikistan over the Afghan border and was behind a series of killings. The military official told AFP that in the truce talks the government side was demanding the handover of four suspects wanted for the murder of Nazarov. The talks also called for attempts to specify the exact number of casualties from the fighting and for the wounded to be evacuated from the area which has been cut off from the rest of Tajikistan during the operation. Meanwhile, Tajikistan’s top military prosecutor Khayrullo Saidov - who was sent to the region to investigate the Nazarov murder - was wounded in an attack and flown back to Dushanbe for treatment, military sources said. The thinly-populated Badakhshan region, making up almost half of Tajikistan, is one of its poorest areas and has long been notorious as a fiefdom of local strongmen, many of whom fought as rebels in the civil war. —AFP
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
international
Indonesia’s mosques seek ‘jazz lounge’ quality JAKARTA: Indonesia’s mosques are trying to sound their best for the Ramadan fasting month, splashing out on high quality loudspeakers to woo the faithful and avoid upsetting non-Muslims. With about 800,000 mosques serving the world’s largest Muslim population, the cacophony of calls to prayer from poor quality and poorly synchronised speakers has become an increasing irritation. Senior Muslims, and even the country’s vice president, have questioned whether the enthusiasm might be getting out of hand. “One complaint includes when there are two or three (mosques) in a neighbourhood and they get involved in a loudspeaker war, trying to be louder than the others,” said Amidhan,
a head of the highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulema Council. Some mosques are responding by seeking smoother sounding speakers. Local company V8sound is trying to tap into that market with its “Al Karim” speakers. “The purpose of these loudspeakers is so that Indonesian mosques can have a jazz lounge standard,” Harry Kisswoto, the company founder and audio adviser for the presidential palace, told Reuters. More mosques, he says, are willing to pay the 25 million rupiah ($2,600) price tag for an Al Karim, more than double the price of more commonly used sound system. The routine use of loudspeakers for five prayer calls a day increases during Ramadan and can include a very early reminder that
dawn prayers are coming up. Analysts say there is a growing desire to show an Islamic identity in a country that has traditionally prided itself on religious moderation. More women are wearing headscarves and mass Quran recitals in big cities are on the rise. That trend has been accompanied by concern that Indonesian society, where Muslims vastly outnumber any other religious groups, may be turning increasingly intolerant. “If a loud call was to last only five to 10 minutes, five times a day... we would not object. The five mosques near us, though, begin the morning call to prayer at different times. For 30-45 minutes, the noise is deafening,” Rosie Kameo, from the country’s main Java island, wrote to the Jakarta Post newspaper. —Reuters
JAKARTA: Indonesian Muslim students look out of a gate of a mosque as they wait to break their fast yesterday. —AP
Mukherjee sworn in as Indian president New leader calls for action to tackle poverty, graft
NEW DELHI: Supporters of anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare participate in a hunger strike yesterday. —AP
Activists fast to demand India pass anti-graft law NEW DELHI: Hundreds of people shouted slogans and waved Indian flags near parliament yesterday in solidarity with three activists who began a hunger strike to pressure the government into passing a strong law against corruption. The three followers of anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare said they would continue their fast indefinitely. Hazare, who has been leading a 16-month campaign for tough anti-corruption legislation, said he will join the fast on Sunday if the government fails to act by then. The activists hope the hunger strike will force Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to take up the bill when Parliament resumes Aug. 8. Hazare and his supporters are also demanding an investigation into corruption allegations against 14 Cabinet ministers. An anti-corruption bill including provisions to appoint an ombudsman was approved last year by the lower
house of Parliament but has yet to be voted on by the upper house. Lawmakers have called for more discussion of some of its more stringent provisions. Information Minister Ambika Soni said government efforts to get the bill passed are continuing. But Hazare said the government is not serious in its efforts. “The government has repeatedly betrayed the people. I t does not want the bill to be passed because so many ministers have been implicated,” Hazare told reporters yesterday. Fed up with rampant corruption, tens of thousands of people, mostly from the middle class, came out into the streets last year to join Hazare’s protest movement. But in recent months, Hazare’s image has taken a beating after allegations of corruption were raised against some key members of his group. The members have denied the charges. —AP
NEW DELHI: Former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee called for action to tackle India’s dire poverty as he was sworn in as president yesterday during an elaborate display of pomp and circumstance. The presidency is mainly a ceremonial role, but Mukherjee used his acceptance speech to appeal for India to prioritise the hundreds of millions of poor who have been left behind by recent economic growth. Mukherjee, 76, arrived for the swearing-in ceremony in a regal cavalcade escorted by horsemounted bodyguards and was greeted by a military guard of honour lining the route leading to the parliament building in New Delhi. After receiving a 21-gun salute, Mukherjee addressed lawmakers and spoke of erasing poverty from the “dictionary of modern India” and striving for equality for all. “For our development to be real, the poorest of our land must feel that they are part of the narrative of rising India,” he said. “There is no humiliation more abusive than hunger. Trickle-down theories do not address the legitimate aspirations of the poor. We must lift those at the bottom.” Mukherjee also touched on corruption, a thorny issue that has dogged the Congress party government that he served in as finance minister until last month. “Corruption is an evil that can depress a nation’s mood and sap its progress,” he said. “We cannot allow our
progress to be hijacked by corruption.” Mukherjee, the official Congress party candidate, was elected president on Sunday after winning 69 percent of the votes
process of forming governments. This could be key in the next general election - due in 2014 - which is expected to produce a fractured parliament that will struggle to produce a stable coalition
across partisan lines, Mukherjee’s performance as finance minister was criticised for a sharp decline in the growth rate and his failure to push through policies aimed at further liberalising India’s econo-
NEW DELHI: New Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and outgoing President Pratibha Devisingh Patil travel to the presidential palace riding in a traditional horse-drawn carriage after the swearing-in ceremony yesterday. —AFP cast by national and state lawmakers. Under the constitution, the prime minister wields most of the executive power in India, but the president can send back some bills for reconsideration and also plays a guiding role in the
government. Mukherjee has a cross-party reputation as a skilled negotiator, and was described by leaked US embassy cables in 2009 as “the ultimate Congress Party fixer and operator”. Although respected
my. His exit from the ministry has raised investors’ hopes that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has taken over the finance portfolio, would kick start stalled reforms like opening the retail sector to foreign investment. —AFP
Pak refuses to reopen presidential graft case
JALALABAD: Afghan boys are transported on the back of a car during Ramadan in the provincial capital of Nangarhar province yesterday. —AP
B’desh arrests 4 over Saudi diplomat death DHAKA: Police in Bangladesh said yesterday they had arrested four people over the mugging death of a Saudi Arabian diplomat in the capital in March. Khalaf Al-Ali, 45, the head of Saudi citizen affairs at the embassy in Dhaka, was shot while taking a late-night walk near his home in the city’s Gulshan area. He was rushed to a local hospital where he died three hours later. Deputy commissioner of police Nazrul Islam said they had arrested four men, aged between 22 to 25, and recovered the pistol allegedly used to shoot Ali as well as a car used by the accused. “We have learned from the detainees that they were out to mug someone that night and encountered Ali. At one stage in the scuffle, a bullet fired from a mugger’s pistol hit Khalaf Al-Ali in the chest,” Islam told AFP.
The diplomat had been living alone in a rented apartment in Gulshan for several years. Initial speculation about the death focused on Iran, which has been accused of other international attacks or attempted attacks against diplomats, including Saudis. Iran denies the accusations. Saudi Arabia is a key ally of Bangladesh and a major donor, but ties have become strained in recent years after Riyadh tightened recruitment from the South Asian country. More than two million Bangladeshis - a quarter of the impoverished nation’s large migrant population - work in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom. There was outrage in Dhaka last October when eight Bangladeshis were beheaded in the Saudi capital after being convicted of robbery and murder. —Agencies
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government told the Supreme Court yesterday that it will not reopen an old corruption case against the president, defying a judicial order that has brought down one prime minister and threatens his replacement. The crisis has roiled Pakistan’s political system for months, distracting attention from what many Pakistanis believe are more pressing problems, such as the country’s ailing economy and fight against the Taliban. The dispute centers on a graft case against President Asif Ali Zardari dating back to the late 1990s in Swiss court, a time when he became known as “Mr. 10 percent” for his reputation of demanding kickbacks on government contracts. The Pakistani Supreme Court has demanded the government write a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to reopen the case. The government has refused, saying Zardari enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. The court convicted former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of contempt and ousted him from office in June for refusing to write the letter. The ruling Pakistan People’s Party rallied support to elect a new premier, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, and has remained defiant. Pakistan’s attorney general, Irfan Qadir, appeared before the court yesterday and told the judges that Ashraf also refused to reopen the case because of the president’s immunity. “Your order is not implementable,” said Qadir. He accused the lead judge, Asif Saeed Khosa, of being biased against the president and said he should recuse himself from the proceedings - a demand rejected by Khosa. Many government supporters have accused the Supreme Court of relentlessly pursuing the case because of bad blood between Zardari and Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Khosa demanded the new prime minister write the letter to the Swiss, but also seemed to soften the court’s stance, saying the judges would respect the president’s immunity if the government obeyed their order. He also gave the government more time to come up with a solution. Yesterday was the initial deadline for the government to say whether it would fulfill the court’s order, but Khosa adjourned the hearing until Aug 8. The judge’s somewhat softer stance could be a
reaction to criticism of the court for threatening to bring down the first civilian government poised to finish its five-year term in the country’s history. Past governments were toppled by direct or indirect intervention by the country’s powerful army, often with help of the judiciary. The current government’s term ends in early 2013. It’s unclear whether the judge’s comments will alter the government’s stance. Zardari has said in the past that his government would never write the letter. “I will make a genuine and serious effort to solve this issue,” said Qadir. The case against Zardari relates to kickbacks
ruled it unconstitutional in 2009 and ordered the government to write a letter to Swiss authorities requesting they reopen the case. Also yesterday, militants coming from Afghanistan armed with assault rifles attacked a paramilitary checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, wounding two soldiers, officials said. The attack occurred in Dalasa village in the Kurram tribal area, said Rasheed Khan, a local government official. At least 20 militants were involved in the attack, Pakistani military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The militants escaped across
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani policemen stand guard outside the Supreme Court building yesterday. —AFP he and his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, allegedly received from Swiss companies when Bhutto was in power in the 1990s. They were found guilty in absentia in Swiss court in 2003. Zardari appealed, but Swiss prosecutors dropped the case after the Pakistani parliament passed an ordinance giving the president and others immunity from old corruption cases that many agreed were politically motivated. The bill was decried by many in Pakistan, who saw it as an attempt to subvert the law. The Supreme Court
the border after the attack, and the Pakistani army fired artillery in retaliation, said Khan. The Afghan government said Sunday that four civilians died when hundreds of shells and rockets fired from Pakistan hit homes along frontier areas where insurgents have staged cross-border attacks. The government did not openly blame the Pakistani military for the artillery barrage, but they have done so in the past. Both countries criticize each other for not doing enough to stop cross-border attacks by militants. —AP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
i n t e r n at i o n a l
Sergeant on trial in death of Asian-American soldier FORT BRAGG, North Carolina: Military prosecutors on Tuesday said a U.S. Army sergeant’s physical abuse and racial harassment led a young Chinese-American soldier to commit suicide weeks after he was deployed to Afghanistan. But a defense attorney argued that Private Danny Chen instead took his life out of despair over family troubles and his failure as an infantryman. The dueling theories played out in a military courtroom in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, far from the base in Alaska where 19-year-old Chen was said to eagerly await his first deployment and the small outpost in southern Afghanistan where he killed himself in October. Sergeant Adam Holcomb, 30, is the first of eight of Chen’s superiors to stand trial in connection with his alleged hazing and subsequent death. Holcomb, who has pleaded not guilty, faces nearly 18 years of confinement and a dishonorable discharge if convicted of charges that include negligent homicide. The case has galvanized the Asian-American community in Chen’s hometown of New York City and elsewhere, with supporters calling for the military to do more to guard against prejudice. Chen, born to immigrant parents,
was the only Chinese-American in his unit. Despite Asian-Americans comprising just 4 percent of the active duty U.S. military, many of the four officers and six enlisted soldiers chosen on Tuesday to sit as jurors said they had served with people of that ethnicity. They described a military culture where nicknames are common and often endearing, and soldiers are exposed to suicide awareness training. But during the opening statement for the prosecution, Captain Blake Doughty outlined a scenario where a leader failed to uphold one of the Army’s basic values: respect. Doughty accused Holcomb of using racially disparaging terms to refer to Chen and another soldier. Holcomb called Chen “dragon lady,” “gook,” “egg roll” and “chink,” and called a young African-American soldier “black boy” and “niglet”, the prosecutor said. Doughty said Holcomb admitted to grabbing Chen out of bed by the arm and dragging him across gravel after the lower-ranked soldier left a water pump on in a shower against orders. “This conduct over time drove Private Danny Chen to take his own life,” Doughty said. Chen killed himself in a guard tower on Oct 3, 2011. According to Doughty,
Chen told at least two friends that suicide was the only way he could think of to stop the abuse. But Captain Dennis Hernon, one of Holcomb’s defense attorneys, said Chen alone was responsible for his premature death. He said Chen, an only child, told
Danny Chen
Adam Holcomb
fellow soldiers before they deployed that he had been disowned by his parents for joining the Army in Jan 2011. Hernon said Chen’s troubles continued in Afghanistan, where he “had a lot of deficiencies as a soldier.” The lawyer said Chen at times fell asleep on
guard duty and showed up for tasks without the proper equipment, putting himself and others at risk. Hernon disputed that Holcomb subjected Chen to ongoing physical mistreatment or racial slurs. “Sergeant Holcomb referred to him affectionately as ‘dragon lady’,” Hernon said. “That was the only name he ever called him.” Chen never said the nickname bothered him, according to Hernon. Holcomb, who joined the Army in Aug 2007, also is charged with reckless endangerment, communicating a threat, assault, maltreatment of a subordinate, dereliction of duty and violating a lawful general regulation. The proceedings on Tuesday ended with the emotional testimony of Su Zhen Chen, Danny Chen’s mother. Speaking through an interpreter, she admitted that she tried to dissuade her son from joining the Army. But the grieving woman, who cried through much of her time on the stand, grew even more distraught when asked whether she ever told her son she was disowning him for enlisting. “I never said that,” she said, later adding, “He’s my only son. Why would I disown my only son?” — Reuters
Suu Kyi urges MPs to back minority rights Veteran activist makes first address to lawmakers NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday called for laws to protect the rights of the strife-torn nation’s myriad ethnic minorities in her maiden speech to the fledgling parliament. The Nobel Peace Prize winner won a seat in the legislature in landmark April by-elections, marking a dramatic transformation from a longtime political prisoner to a key figure in the budding reform process. The veteran activist used her first short address to lawmakers to support a motion by a ruling-party MP on upholding ethnic minority rights. “To become a truly democratic union with a spirit of the union, equal rights and mutual
respect, I urge all members of parliament to discuss the enactment of the laws needed to protect equal rights of ethnicities,” she said. Protecting ethnic rights required more than just maintaining languages and culture, she added, noting that minority groups suffer above-average poverty rates. “Furthermore, the flames of war are not completely extinguished,” she said. Ongoing fighting in Kachin state in the north has displaced tens of thousands of people and cast a shadow over the government’s efforts to reach ceasefire agreements with the country’s various armed ethnic minority groups. Meanwhile recent clashes between
NAYPYITAW: Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi asks a question during a regular session of the parliament at the Lower House yesterday. — AP
Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya have left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless in Rakhine state in the west. Myanmar’s government considers the Rohingya to be foreigners, while many citizens see them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and view them with hostility. Suu Kyi has disappointed some rights campaigners by not offering stronger support to Myanmar’s estimated 800,000 Rohingya, described by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. She did not mention the violence in Rakhine in her address. Experts say the issue is a political minefield for Suu Kyi as she tries to build her credentials as a unity figure who can represent Myanmar’s various minority groups as well as pro-democracy activists among the majority Burmans. Civil war has plagued parts of the country formerly known as Burma since it won independence from Britain in 1948, and many members of ethnic minority groups are suspicious of the Burmans, including Suu Kyi. The 67-year-old’s entry into mainstream politics is one of the most visible signs of change under a new reformist government which took power last year under President Thein Sein, a former general. Thein Sein has overseen a series of dramatic reforms, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners, currency market liberalisation and ceasefire deals with several armed rebel groups. An end to the conflicts and alleged rights abuses involving government troops is a key demand of Western nations, which are starting to roll back sanctions imposed over Myanmar’s human rights record during military rule. Delivering a Nobel prize acceptance speech two decades in the making in Oslo last month, Suu Kyi said she and her party “stand ready and willing to play any role in the process of national reconciliation”. — AFP
Ex-Philippine leader Arroyo granted bail MANILA: Ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo walked free from eight months in detention yesterday after a court issued a surprise ruling granting her bail, saying a vote rigging case against her was weak. Wearing a neck brace to support her spine that is weakened from a rare disease, Arroyo left a tightly guarded military hospital in Manila where she had been awaiting trial on the charge that could see her jailed for life. The granting of bail appeared a major setback for her successor, Benigno Aquino, who has said that bringing Arroyo to justice for crimes she allegedly committed while in power is crucial to his high-profile anti-graft campaign. Aquino won the 2010 presidential elections in a landslide after campaigning to wipe out corruption that he said crippled
Philippine society during the nearly 10 years Arroyo was in power. Arroyo’s spokesman, Ferdinand Topacio, described the ruling yesterday morning from a Manila court as “a triumph of justice and a resounding denial of dictatorship” that proved her earlier assertions of innocence. “It is a reaffirmation of what our camp has been saying all along,” Topacio said, before borrowing from a quote by former US president Abraham Lincoln. “That the charges against the former president are as thin as the soup made from boiling the shadow of a chicken that has been starved to death.” Arroyo, 65, was arrested at an exclusive hospital in November last year shortly after immigration authorities blocked her at Manila airport from leaving the country. Aquino had said Arroyo was trying to flee
QUEZON CITY: Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo looks at her supporters as she arrives at her village north of Manila yesterday. —` AP
the country to escape imminent charges against her, although she said she needed specialist treatment overseas for her spinal disease. Arroyo was charged shortly after with “electoral sabotage” for allegedly conspiring with a feared political warlord to rig the 2007 senatorial elections. She was then transferred to the military hospital, where she had been detained while awaiting trial. No date has yet been set for the start of the trial, which could take years to complete. The Pasay City regional trial court, which is hearing the case, said yesterday that the case against Arroyo was weak, and that she should be released on bail of one million pesos ($23,800). In its ruling, the court said the prosecution failed to establish the “required quantum of proof ” that Arroyo was involved in a conspiracy to rig the elections. However the court said she could not leave the country and would still stand trial for the offence. Aquino’s spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said the president would accept the court’s decision, but that it did not mean Arroyo would escape punishment. “The fight against corruption continues. We will still go after people who have found to have plundered the nation’s coffers,” Lacierda said. “ This will not dampen our resolve to file and to continue to institute corruption cases against responsible officials.” He said the government would leave it up to its lawyers whether they would file an appeal or not against the granting of bail. Arroyo has also been charged with corruption for approving an allegedly grafttainted contract to set up a national government broadband system, and plunder for allegedly siphoning off $8 million in state lottery funds. The plunder case is also punishable by life in jail, although trials for those two charges have also yet to begin. The courts handling those two cases have not issued any orders requiring her to be detained while awaiting trial, according to her lawyers. — AFP
YICHANG, China: This picture taken on Tuesday shows water released from the Three Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydropower project on the Yangtze river in central China’s Hubei province after heavy downpours in the upper reaches of the dam caused the highest flood peak of the year. — AFP
Beijing mayor set for promotion BEIJING: Beijing’s mayor is apparently still on track to be promoted to China’s powerful decision-making body despite public questioning of the city government’s handling of floods that left at least 37 dead. Mayor Guo Jinlong and one of his vice mayors resigned, state media reported yesterday, in what is likely a routine reshuffling. The announcement came as more rain was forecast to hit Beijing and amid signs that the death toll from last weekend’s storms could jump higher. Saturday’s massive flooding was a major embarrassment for China’s capital, which spent billions of dollars modernizing the city while apparently neglecting its drainage systems. State media, analysts and ordinary netizens have piled on criticism of the city’s handling of the crisis and its lack of preparedness. Outgoing Mayor Guo had already been tapped for a promotion to the city’s top position as Communist Party secretary, so his resignation was not unexpected. Though his promotion appears to be moving forward, the storm and its fallout are a taint on him and his mentor and ally President Hu Jintao. As Beijing’s party secretary, Guo is almost certain to be named to the powerful 25-member Politburo at a party congress later this year. The official Xinhua News Agency said Wang Anshun, a Beijing city official since 2007, was appointed acting mayor. One of Guo’s vice mayors,
Ji Lin, also resigned. State media reported earlier that Ji had taken up a position as head of the city ’s Political and Legal Committee. Yesterday, China Central Television showed new amateur video of the deadly flash flood that hit the rural community of Fangshan Saturday, with pictures of a high river of brown water roiling through the small town’s streets with enough force to push cars along. Xinhua quoted the top official in the hardest-flood-hit district as saying their fatality and injury figures were still preliminary. “Fangshan has suffered major losses, and the numbers are still in the process of being compiled,” district head Qi Hong told reporters Tuesday, according to Xinhua. The district’s fatality figures were never separately released but incorporated in the overall city toll. The Beijing News reported online that Li Shixiang, head of the Beijing government committee set up to deal with the disaster’s aftermath, told members at their first meeting yesterday that updated information about the missing and dead would be released “in due time”. Saturday’s heavy rain was unusual in normally dry Beijing. But the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said more heavy rain was expected in the capital later today and tomorrow, and warned of possible flash flooding and mudslides in the capital’s mountainous outskirts, including already hard-hit Fangshan. — AP
HANOI: Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (left) shakes hands with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh during a meeting at the government guest house yesterday. Natalegawa is on a two-day official visit to the Vietnamese capital. — AFP
6.4-magnitude quake hits Sumatra SINABANG, Indonesia: A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island yesterday, sending terrified residents fleeing from homes and buildings. One man collapsed and died of shock while rushing out of his home, while several schools and other buildings suffered various degrees of damage, authorities said. The quake, at a depth of 22 km, struck around 07:30 am (0030 GMT), some 34 km northwest of Sinabang, capital of Simeulue - a small, remote island off Sumatra’s west coast, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. Residents of Sinabang said violent shaking was felt for about a minute and had caused an electricity blackout. “People were crying, grabbing their belongings and rushing out of their homes,” said an AFP reporter in Sinabang. “There is no electrical power in some areas and
I can see cracks in the walls of homes around me,” he said. “Some people are returning inside their homes, but others are still outside, afraid there may be aftershocks.” National Disaster Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said one man died while fleeing from his home on the island, which has a population of about 80,000. “A man on Simeulue died of shock. He had a history of high blood pressure and was rushing out of his home when he collapsed and died,” Nugroho said. He said the worst damage occurred on western coastal districts of Simeulue, where “a junior high school is severely damaged, with partially collapsed walls, severe cracks and a collapsed ceiling”. Nugroho added that “minor to severe damage” was spread over three districts of the island, where several schools, health facilities, mosques and other buildings suffered damaged. —AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
NEWS
ASSAM: Villagers flee their homes at Dujabari village in Kokrajhar district, about 230 kms from Guwahati, the capital city of the northeastern state of Assam. — AFP
More bodies found in troubled Assam GUWAHATI: Indian police recovered 12 bodies from rice fields and roadsides in the remote state of Assam yesterday as the death toll from ethnic violence rose to 38 after four days of bloody clashes. At least 170,000 villagers have fled from their homes to relief camps, government buildings and schools to escape the unrest, which has raged since Friday with scores of homes burnt down by rioters. Military reinforcements were called in to try to quell the fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers who have competed for years in long-standing territorial disputes. “It appears all these 12 people were k illed in overnight attacks,” said Tarun Gogoi, the chief minister of Assam, an oil and tea-rich state in the northeast of India bordering on Bhutan and Bangladesh. “The situation is tense,” Gogoi said, adding that there had been a “massive deployment of army, police, and paramilitary troopers”. Northeast India, which is linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land bridge, has seen decades of friction among ethnic and separatist groups, though some rebel movements have recently started
peace talks with the government. News channels broadcast pictures of homes that had been set ablaze by rioters, and of women and children gathered in the governmentrun camps where food was handed out and soldiers were on duty to provide protection. Hagrama Mohilary, chief of the Bodoland Territorial Council, a local government body, told AFP by telephone that an estimated 170,000 people are sheltering in relief camps. Mohilary said the latest victims had been killed with crude weapons such as heavy sticks, and their bodies left at separate sites in fields and besides roads. “Incidents of arson and violence were reported from several places,” he said. Police have issued shoot-on-sight orders after rioters burnt shops and houses and attacked rival gangs. The orders mean that mobs can be shot without warning. Four rioters attempting to burn down properties were killed by security forces on Tuesday. “We have lost everything in the violence. Our houses have all been razed to ground with mobs setting ablaze our properties,” Rabiul Islam, a villager in Kokrajhar district, told
local television at one camp. “We don’t know how long we have to stay in the relief camp. We left everything behind and simply ran for our lives,” said Ronila Brahma, a mother of two children, who had fled her home carrying just a few belongings. Many rail services in the region were disrupted after some trains were ambushed by crowds pelting stones, and main roads into the region were closed. R K Singh, the senior civil servant in the home ministry, said that 2,000 personnel had been ordered to guard the railways, and that thousands more troops were arriving in the troubled west of Assam. “We have asked the state government to book ring leaders of both sides so that violence can be checked immediately. No one involved in the violence will be spared,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi. A team of senior Indian home ministry officials has also arrived in the state to oversee the security plan. The Press Trust of India news agency has reported that the fighting started when two Muslim student leaders were shot and seriously injured in Kokrajhar, leading to revenge strikes on Bodo groups. — AFP
Death toll mounts as troops pound Aleppo Continued from Page 1 Bullet casings were scattered everywhere. Most residents fled during the latest fighting, which drove Assad’s forces out over the past month and ended in the rebels taking the Bab Al-Salam border crossing with Turkey on Sunday. Fighting in and around Aleppo is expected to prompt an exodus across the Turkish border, where some Syrian refugees are already complaining about poor conditions and have clashed with riot police in disputes over food. “There is not enough food. They have broken our hearts, the Turks. Why are they doing this to us?” said a sobbing woman called Umm Omar, with her four children huddled next to her in a camp near the border. Further south, Syrian forces used artillery and fired rockets yesterday on the northern Damascus suburb of Al-Tel in an attempt to seize it from rebels, forcing hundreds of families to flee, residents and opposition activists said. “Military helicopters are flying now over the town. People were awakened by the sound of explosions and are running away,” Rafe Alam, one of the activists, said by phone from a hill overlooking Tel. “Electricity and telephones have been cut off.” Opposition sources also reported helicopters and machineguns were firing on the neighborhood of Hajar Al-Aswad. The slum lies on the southern outskirts of the capital and has been a haven for rebels sneaking into Damascus from the suburbs. In the north, opposition activists said thousands of troops had withdrawn with their tanks and armored vehicles from Idlib province near the Turkish border and were heading towards Aleppo. Rebels attacked the rear of the troops withdrawing from the north, activist Abdelrahman Bakran said from the area. Military experts believe an overstretched Syrian army is pulling back to concentrate on fighting insurgents in Aleppo and Damascus, important power centers for the government, while leaving outlying areas in the hands of rebels. In Aleppo, helicopters were seen firing missiles throughout, residents said. Rebels were battling government forces by the gates of the historic old city. Troops fired mortars and shells at rebels armed with rifles and machine guns. “I heard at least 20 rockets fired, I think from helicopters, and also a lot of machine gun fire,” a resident near one of the areas being shelled, who asked to be identified only by his first name Omar, said by telephone. Residents said fixed-wing jets had also flown over the city, followed by loud noises, although there were contradictory reports as to whether they had opened fire. Video footage posted by activists appeared to show a warplane firing its guns. Assad’s forces have occasion-
ally launched air strikes from fixed-wing jets on other cities during the uprising, but tend to rely on helicopters for air strikes in urban areas. The uprising has entered a more violent phase in the past 10 days since rebels poured into Damascus in large numbers. Last Wednesday, an explosion killed four members of Assad’s inner circle inside a security headquarters, a blow that wiped out much of the top echelon of his military command structure and shattered the reputation for invulnerability that his family has held since his father seized power in a coup in 1970. Western powers have been calling for Assad to be removed from power for many months, and now say they believe his days are numbered. But they fear that he will fight to the end, raising the risk of sectarian warfare spreading across one of the world’s most volatile regions. Syria raised the alarm even further on Monday by confirming that it had chemical and biological weapons, prompting warnings from Washington and Moscow against using the arsenal. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said yesterday that Moscow, an ally of Assad, had received “firm assurances” from Damascus that its chemical arsenal is “fully safeguarded”. But Israel said that if Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas used the situation to take control of the weapons, it would “act immediately and with utmost force”. As the revolt against Assad intensifies, top Syrian officials have started to abandon their posts. Syria’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Abdelatif AlDabbagh, and his wife, who is Damascus’s envoy to Cyprus, Lamia Al-Hariri, have defected and are both now in Qatar, the opposition Syrian National Council said yesterday. Brigadier General Manaf Tlas, a member of Assad’s inner circle who fled Syria this month, appeared on television in his first public comments since defecting. He called on troops to abandon the government. Elsewhere in the country, activists reported a series of killings by government troops and proAssad militia. They reported an attack on a mosque in a village northwest of the city of Hama, with at least 15 confirmed dead. At least nine people were killed in army shelling of Al-Herak, a town south of Deraa. In Damascus, activists said they found the bodies of 11 men executed by government forces in the district of Qaboun. The accounts, like others from activists, could not be confirmed. Syria restricts access by international journalists. The Britishbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which compiles reports from activists, said 1,261 people had been killed since the fighting intensified in Damascus on July 15. That made last week by far the bloodiest in an uprising in which activists say at least 18,000 people have been killed. — Reuters
In Syria crisis, stakes high for Hezbollah Continued from Page 1 Lebanon said, referring to Hezbollah’s foe Israel and a potentially hostile post-Assad Syria. Hezbollah has shown no sign of abandoning Assad and Lebanese officials close to the group say it won’t stand idle if the battle worsens. Some said it will fight Israel. Others said it will deploy some of its fighters to secure the border with Lebanon, from which rebels are attacking Syrian frontier posts. They also said Hezbollah is bracing for the fighting in Syria to be long and hard. “They cannot distance themselves. What is happening now is fateful for them,” said Lebanese analyst Jihad Al-Zein. “Their alliance with Syria is strategic and was formed with the Assad family.” “They do not have a choice - they are with the regime until the last minute. This is a strategic alliance between Iran and Syria and they are part of it,” he added. Hezbollah believes that its enemies, including the West and Israel, are working to reshape the Middle East by replacing Assad with a ruler hostile to it. In a region riven by a Sunni-Shiite divide, Assad belongs to the Alawite sect that is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. A new Sunni Muslim leadership is unlikely to favor the Shiite Hezbollah. While Hezbollah supported the revolts in the Arab world that toppled the leaders of Egypt, Tunis and Libya, it responded to the initially largely peaceful protests in Syria by saying it backed Assad’s promises of reform. “Hezbollah will definitely take part in the war if Syria faces foreign intervention. It sees the whole campaign on Assad as a campaign to target resistance,” a second Lebanese official said, using the label for armed groups opposed to Israel. For now, they say Hezbollah has been watching the unrest in Syria. It banned officials and members from publicly talking about the revolt, leaving its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as the only voice of the group, reiterating his support for Assad. A year ago, officials close to Hezbollah denied Syrian opposition accusations that it was sending fighters to help Assad’s forces. The same officials now say this might change if there is foreign intervention or Assad is weakened. “So far, Assad does not need more fighters. His army is more than capable of dealing with this. He does not need Hezbollah’s fighters. They are only a few thousands and he has hundreds of thousands,” a Lebanese security official said. But another official said “this is a war and in wars all options are on the table.. What is important is that the Damascus supply line remains open to Hezbollah. It is willing to do whatever it takes to keep it like that.” Hezbollah’s view can be encapsulated in the comments of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander who said on Tuesday that any foreign power intervening in Syria would suffer “decisive blows”, specifically referring to “hated Arabs” - a veiled reference to regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Damascus has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of channeling weapons and money to rebels fighting Assad’s forces. Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed in the 16-month uprising against his rule. Israel’s Deputy UN Ambassador Haim Waxman labelled Hezbollah and Iran of being “part of Assad’s killing machine”. “Iran and Hezbollah - Assad’s allies in this ‘trio of brutality’ - will cross any line to keep the
Assad regime in power,” he told a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East on Wednesday. While Hezbollah believes that Assad will not be unseated, it is bracing for a long battle that will get tougher by the day. “I want to know how do (the West) think Bashar is going to fall? By them (rebels) controlling Damascus? Then there will be a major war,” said a Lebanese official close to the group. “Or do they think he will leave by foreign intervention? Then the whole region will be set ablaze. So he is not going to fall. Please get this out of your head.” In a speech last week Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah said the unrest in Syria was a continuation of the 33day war which his group fought with Israel in 2006. The group, established nearly 30 years ago to confront Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon, inflicted serious damage and casualties by firing missiles deep into Israel in that conflict, and was able to sustain weeks of rocket attacks despite a major Israeli military incursion into Lebanon. Western intelligence sources say the movement’s arsenal has been more than replenished since the fighting ended, with Europeanled UN peace keepers in southern Lebanon powerless to prevent supplies entering mostly from Syria. “(The goal was) after destroying the resistance in Lebanon to topple President Bashar al-Assad, destroy Syria and submit it to the American-Israeli agenda,” Nasrallah told supporters. He described the four top Syrian security officials killed last week as martyrs and said the rockets that his group used to bombard Israel were made in Syria. “(The speech) was a signal that the relationship is deep and any revaluation of the position will not take place immediately,” Ayham Kamel from Carnegie centre said. Assad’s fall would weaken Hezbollah in Lebanon and unleash a Sunni-led campaign to limit the group’s power. The tension between Sunnis and Shiite in Lebanon, a small country where sectarian factions fought a 15 year civil war in the 70s, surfaced when former Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri was killed in 2005. Hariri suppor ters accused Syria and then Hezbollah of killing him - a charge they both deny. An international tribunal set to investigate the killing accused several Hezbollah members. The revolt in Syria has deepened sectarian divisions in Lebanon, pitting many Sunni Muslims who support the rebellion against Hezbollah and other Shiite groups who back Assad. A little known Sunni Sheikh Ahmad AlAssir, from the southern coastal city of Sidon, has gained increasing prominence, calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed and emboldening other antiHezbollah voices. While Sunni Muslims have no military power to match Hezbollah, Sunni Islamist fighters including Arab veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have always found haven in Lebanon. But some officials played down the impact on the group internally. One said: “Even if Assad leaves. Who is going to touch Hezbollah here? It is a very powerful group and targeting it is not a joke.” And for the majority of Shiites who form the base of the group’s supporters neither Hezbollah nor Assad will be alone. During the street fights in Damascus a liberal Shiite, summing up the sentiments of many Shiites, wrote on his facebook :”Please Sayyed (Nasrallah) give us the orders (to fight).” — Reuters
Defiant Iran steps up nuke enrichment Continued from Page 1 Iran says the former is to fuel its nuclear power reactor in the southern city of Bushehr, while the highergrade uranium is to make medical isotopes for cancer patients in its Tehran research reactor. Western powers, though, fear the 19.75-percent enriched uranium could, in just a few technical steps more, be processed into bomb-grade, 90-percent uranium. Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, but has rebuffed repeated attempts by the IAEA to expand its ongoing surveillance and inspections, notably to include a suspect sprawling military facility in Parchin, outside Tehran. Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader has urged his country’s politicians to show more unity as he warned the West that sanctions imposed over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program would only make the government more determined to pursue it, Iranian media reported. The sanctions imposed against Iran since the beginning of this year have taken an enormous toll on its economy, which suffers from a weaker currency, rampant inflation and high unemployment. Khamenei, who is unelected and holds ultimate authority over Iran’s foreign policy and nuclear program, told Iranian officials not to bicker publicly. Conservative rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in parliament have increasingly criticized his handling of the economy and for not preventing sharp rises in food prices. “The reality is that there are problems, however you must not blame them on this or that party,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency, in a meeting with officials late on Tuesday. “Instead you must solve those problems with unity.” “You should avoid useless disputes and airing these disputes to help preserve the nation’s unity ... and
officials should know these actions will not bring them any honor or prestige among the people,” he said. Ahmadinejad and his rival, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, were present at the meeting. The United States and European Union have implemented tough sanctions against Iran, including an embargo of its oil, in an effort to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear program, which they suspect is aimed at acquiring an atomic weapon. Iran has repeatedly insisted its program has only peaceful aims, including generating energy and developing medical isotopes to treat cancer patients. In another development, an Iranian official said yesterday the United States will face a “teeth-breaking” response if it continues to carry out cyber attacks against Iran. Iran has previously accused the United States and its allies of trying to sabotage its disputed nuclear program by using computer worms like Stuxnet, which caused centrifuges at the country’s main enrichment facility to fail in 2010. “If the Americans’ futile cyber attacks do not stop, it will face a teethbreaking response,” the Iranian Students’ News agency quoted an unnamed cyber security official as saying. He gave no further details. Last month, Iran said it had detected plans by the United States, Israel and Britain to launch what it said was a massive cyber strike, after diplomatic efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear program broke down. Western powers believe Iran wants to produce atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies. It says it only wants the technology to generate medical isotopes to treat cancer patients. The United States and the European Union have imposed tough sanctions on Iran, including an oil embargo, which have severely weakened its currency and driven up inflation. — Agencies
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
opinion
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Mandela’s mortality is South Africa’s fear By Douglas Foster hat’s what Nelson Mandela began telling startled associates years ago, even seeming cheerful at the prospect. He retired for the first time in 1999, when he stepped down as South Africa’s first post-apartheid president. Then, in 2004, he announced that he would “retire from retirement,” his sly way of signaling that this time, he really meant to step away from the outsized role he had played in the country for more than 60 years. “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” he said on that occasion. Mandela has seemed at peace with that decision in the years since, enjoying family at his home in rural Qunu and largely staying out of national politics. As he celebrated his 94th birthday last week, though, many of his countrymen fretted about the prospect of a South Africa without him. In recent years, reports that Mandela was in poor health, no matter how minor his illness, have sparked public frenzies, including periodic media scrums outside hospitals where he was being treated. Websites operated by rightwing whites have even prematurely announced Mandela’s death online, warning of secret plans for a racial bloodbath. It is a measure of his hold on the imaginations of even the country’s most racist whites that they believe Mandela’s continued existence is somehow crucial to protecting them from annihilation. For the vast majority of South Africans, mostly black and poor, the reluctance to let go of Madiba (his clan name) or “Tata” (grandfather), as he’s widely known, is understandable. It is a standard trope, after all, to ascribe the supposed “miracle” of the largely peaceful transition in 1994 to the exercise of “Madiba’s magic.” And beneath the worry and fears about Mandela’s death - on the part of blacks and whites alike - is a disturbing truth: that the promise Mandela made to help found a nonracial, nonsexist, egalitarian society at the southern tip of Africa has foundered in the last decade. South Africa, for all its progress, remains a quite un-miraculous place. It’s modern cities are bordered by sprawling slums, and the rural areas, where a significant percentage of the population lives, are mired in poverty and often lack the most basic infrastructure. The country endures sky-high unemployment among the young, devastating levels of crime and millions needlessly dead of AIDS. Some of the problems were almost inevitable, the result of post-apartheid hopes colliding with an economy that had been structured for the benefit of a few at the expense of everyone else. To complicate things further, democratization arrived in the newly liberated nation more or less concurrently with rapid globalization and the AIDS plague. Coming to power in such turbulent circumstances, Mandela fumbled in several significant respects. He never drew a clear enough line between party prerogatives and the use of state power. He also missed the chance, as president, to launch a much-needed massive public health campaign on HIV. But if Mandela was less than perfect, the men who followed had far more glaring flaws and little of the first president’s inclination to serve as a national moral conscience. His immediate successor, Thabo Mbeki, made matters far worse on the AIDS front by delaying treatment for rising numbers of HIV-infected South Africans. When action mattered most, he provoked a drawn-out and damaging debate over established medical science by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS. An aggressive campaign to contain the epidemic wasn’t fully launched until he was forced from office in 2008. Mbeki’s successor, Jacob Zuma, came into office in 2009 tainted by a trial on rape charges (he was acquitted, though he admitted to having had sex with his muchyounger accuser) and under the cloud of criminal charges for corruption that were dropped on the eve of the election. Given the apparent devolution in leadership - from Mandela to Mbeki to Zuma - it is small wonder that people began to worry about the future. In fairness to the leaders who succeeded him, the beloved Mandela was among the toughest acts in history to follow. His task had been herculean: bending the course of history to end legalized oppression of the great majority of South Africans and establish a sustainable democracy. But those who followed had an almost impossible task too in trying to bring about true equality and material freedom. In the midst of so many reverses, it’s worth emphasizing that the new democracy, despite many stresses, has held together. When Mbeki was asked to resign his presidency by leaders of his party in 2008, he did so in a nationally televised address. Similarly, Zuma will either retain his post as leader of his party, the African National Congress, or be ushered from it through an election of party delegates at a national conference in December.— MCT
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Consequences of the fall of Syrian Regime By George Friedman e have entered the endgame in Syria. That doesn’t mean that we have reached the end by any means, but it does mean that the precondition has been met for the fall of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. We have argued that so long as the military and security apparatus remain intact and effective, the regime could endure. Although they continue to function, neither appears intact any longer; their control of key areas such as Damascus and Aleppo is in doubt, and the reliability of their personnel, given defections, is no longer certain. We had thought that there was a reasonable chance of the al Assad regime surviving completely. That is no longer the case. At a certain point-in our view, after the defection of a Syrian pilot June 21 and then the defection of the Tlass clan-key members of the regime began to recalculate the probability of survival and their interests. The regime has not unraveled, but it is unraveling. The speculation over al Assad’s whereabouts and heavy fighting in Damascus is simply part of the regime’s problems. Rumors, whether true or not, create uncertainty that the regime cannot afford right now. The outcome is unclear. On the one hand, a new regime might emerge that could exercise control. On the other hand, Syria could collapse into a Lebanon situation in which it disintegrates into regions held by various factions, with no effective central government.
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RUSSIAN, CHINESE STRATEGY The geopolitical picture is somewhat clearer than the internal political picture. Whatever else happens, it is unlikely that al Assad will be able to return to unchallenged rule. The United States, France and other European countries have opposed his regime. Russia, China and Iran have supported it, each for different reasons. The Russians opposed the West’s calls to intervene, which were grounded on human rights concerns, fearing that the proposed intervention was simply subterfuge meant to extend Western power and that it would be used against them. The Chinese also supported the Syrians, in part for these same reasons. Both Moscow and Beijing hoped to avoid legitimizing Western pressure based on human rights considerations-something they had each faced at one time or another. In addition, Russia and China wanted the United States in particular focused on the Middle East rather than on them. They would not have minded a military intervention that would have bogged down the United States, but the United States declined to give that to them. But the Russian and Chinese game was subtler than that. It focused on Iran. As we have argued, if the al Assad regime were to survive and were to be isolated from the West, it would be primarily dependent on Iran, its main patron. Iran had supplied trainers, special operations troops, supplies and money to sustain the regime. For Iran, the events in Syria represented a tremendous opportunity. Iran already held a powerful position in Iraq, not quite dominating it but heavily influencing it. If the al Assad regime survived and had Iranian support to thank for its survival, Syria would become even more dependent on Iran than was Iraq. This would shore up the Iranian position in Iraq, but more important, it would have created an Iranian sphere of influence stretching from western Afghanistan to Lebanon, where Hezbollah is an Iranian ally. The Russians and Chinese clearly understood that if this had happened, the United States would have had an intense interest in undermining the Iranian sphere of influenceand would have had to devote massive resources to doing so. Russia and China benefitted greatly in the post-9/11 world, when the United States was obsessed with the Islamic world and had little interest or resources to devote to China and Russia. With the end of the Afghanistan war looming, this respite seemed likely to end. Underwriting Iranian hegemony over a region that would inevitably draw the United States’ attention was a low-cost, high-return strategy. The Chinese primarily provided political
cover, keeping the Russians from having to operate alone diplomatically. They devoted no resources to the Syrian conflict but did continue to oppose sanctions against Iran and provided trade opportunities for Iran. The Russians made a much larger commitment, providing material and political support to the al Assad regime. It seems the Russians began calculating the end for the regime some time ago. Russia continued to deliver ammunition and other supplies to Syria but pulled back on a delivery of helicopters. Several attempts to deliver the helicopters “failed” when British insurers of the ship pulled coverage. That was the reason the Russians gave for not delivering the helicopters, but obviously the Russians could have insured the ship themselves. They were backing off from supporting al Assad, their intelligence indicating trouble in Damascus. In the last few days the Russians have moved to the point where they had their ambassador to France suggest that the time had come for al Assad to leave-then, of course, he denied having made the statement. STRATEGIC BLOW TO IRAN As the Russians withdraw support, Iran is now left extremely exposed. There had been a sense of inevitability in Iran’s rise in the region, particularly in the Arabian Peninsula. The decline of al Assad’s regime is a strategic blow to the Iranians in two ways. First, the wide-reaching sphere of influence they were creating clearly won’t happen now. Second, Iran will rapidly move from being an ascendant power to a power on the defensive. The place where this will become most apparent is in Iraq. For Iran, Iraq represents a fundamental national security interest. Having fought a bloody war with Iraq in the 1980s, the Iranians have an overriding interest in assuring that Iraq remains at least neutral and preferably pro-Iranian. While Iran was ascendant, Iraqi politicians felt that they had to be accommodating. However, in the same way that Syrian generals had to recalculate their positions, Iraqi politicians have to do the same. With sanctions-whatever their effectiveness-being imposed on Iran, and with Iran’s position in Syria unraveling, the psychology in Iraq might change. This is particularly the case because of intensifying Turkish interest in Iraq. In recent days the Turks have announced plans for pipelines in Iraq to oil
fields in the south and in the north. Turkish economic activity is intensifying. Turkey is the only regional power that can challenge Iran militarily. It uses that power against the Kurds in Iraq. But more to the point, if a country builds a pipeline, it must ensure access to it, either politically or militarily. Turkey does not want to militarily involve itself in Iraq, but it does want political influence to guarantee its interests. Thus, just as the Iranians are in retreat, the Turks have an interest in, if not supplanting them, certainly supplementing them. The pressure on Iran is now intense, and it will be interesting to see the political consequences. There was consensus on the Syrian strategy, but with failure of the strategy, that consensus dissolves. This will have an impact inside of Iran, possibly even more than the sanctions. Governments have trouble managing reversals. OTHER CONSEQUENCES From the American point of view, al Assad’s decline opens two opportunities. First, its policy of no direct military intervention but unremitting political and, to a lesser extent, economic pressure appears to be working in this instance. More precisely, even if it had no effect, it will appear that it did, which will enhance the ability of the United States to influence events in other countries without actually having to intervene. Second, the current situation opens the door for a genuine balance of power in the region that does not require constant American intervention. One of the consequences of the events in Syria is that Turkey has had to reconsider its policy toward countries on its periphery. In the case of Iraq, Turkey has an interest in suppressing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party militants who have taken refuge there and defending oil and other economic interests. Turkey’s strategy is moving from avoiding all confrontations to avoiding major military commitments while pursuing its political interests. In the end, that means that Turkey will begin moving into a position of balancing Iran for its own interests in Iraq. This relieves the United States of the burden of containing Iran. We continue to regard the Iranian sphere of influence as a greater threat to American and regional interests than Iran’s nuclear program. The decline of al Assad solves the major problem. It also increases the sense of vulner-
ability in Iran. Depending on how close they are to creating a deliverable nuclear weaponand our view is that they are not close-the Iranians may feel it necessary to moderate their position. A major loser in this is Israel. Israel had maintained a clear understanding with the al Assad regime. If the al Assad regime restrained Hezbollah, Israel would have no objection to al Assad’s dominating Lebanon. That agreement has frayed since the United States pushed al Assad’s influence out of Lebanon in 2006. Nevertheless, the Israelis preferred al Assad to the Sunnis-until it appeared that the Iranians would dominate Syria. But the possibility of either an Islamist regime in Damascus or, more likely, Lebanese-style instability cannot please the Israelis. They are already experiencing jihadist threats in Sinai. The idea of having similar problems in Syria, where the other side of the border is the Galilee rather than the Negev, must make them nervous. But perhaps the most important losers will be Russia and China. Russia, like Iran, has suffered a significant setback in its foreign policy that will have psychological consequences. The situation in Syria has halted the foreignpolicy momentum the Russians had built up. But more important, the Russian and Chinese hope has been that the United States would continue to treat them as secondary issues while it focused on the Middle East. The decline of al Assad and the resulting dynamic in the region increases the possibility that the United States can disengage from the region. This is not something the Russians or Chinese want, but in the end, they did not have the power to create the outcome in Syria that they had wanted. The strategy of the dominant power is to encourage a balance of power that contains threats without requiring direct intervention. This was the British strategy, but it has not been one that the United States has managed well. After the jihadist wars, there is a maturation under way in US strategy. That means allowing the intrinsic dynamic in the region to work, intervening only as the final recourse. The events in Syria appear to be simply about the survival of the al Assad regime. But they have far greater significance in terms of limiting Iranian power, creating a local balance of power and freeing the United States to focus on global issues, including Russia and China. —Stratfor
Colorado killer no easy fit for mass murderer profile By Sharon Begley nless James Holmes chooses to say why he went on the lethal shooting spree he is accused of in a Colorado movie theater last Friday, the analyses offered by forensic psychiatrists, based on their study of other mass murders, may be as close as we get. From what is known of the attack and his life so far, experts say Holmes was probably not suffering from as serious a mental illness as Jared Loughner, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after killing six people in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011. “People want to believe that someone who does something like this must be floridly psychotic,” said Louis Schlesinger, professor of forensic psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, who has studied mass killers since the 1970s. “They think, ‘ah, he’s mentally ill; now I understand.’ It makes people feel they and people they know would never behave this way.” The scarier prospect is that Holmes’s psychological illness was more common, less severe, and not easily detectable. As experts in forensic psychiatry try to figure out from afar what is wrong with Holmes, they are focusing on three details of the shooting: The targets were strangers to the killer, not colleagues or acquaintances; the shooter did not commit suicide or invite his own death at the hands of police; and Holmes warned authorities about his booby-trapped apartment before the explosives he rigged killed anyone. Murdering 12 strangers and shooting dozens more points to a generalized paranoia and rage against the world rather than a specific grudge, forensic psychiatrists say. “Most mass murderers kill specific people for specific reasons,” said criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, who with colleague Jack Levin has studied every
U
mass murder in the United States since the early 1980s. “They kill the bosses who fired them, the professors who wronged them. These are revenge killings.” One of the many mass murderers who fit this profile is Nathan Dunlap, who killed four employees at a Chuck E Cheese restaurant in Aurora in December 1993, after he was fired and reportedly felt his boss had “made a fool” of him. Holmes was in the process of withdrawing from the University of Colorado’s graduate program in neuroscience, which has prompted speculation that academic failure might have played into his motives. But he did not target either professors or fellow students. REPRESENTATIVE VICTIMS That suggests his resentment was directed elsewhere than academia. It may put him closer to the second most common kind of mass murderer: one who targets people who represent what they consider the source of their woes, experts said. “These killers don’t know the victims personally, but they’re getting back at a certain kind of individual,” said Fox. Marc Lepine, for instance, separated men from women in a classroom at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in December 1989 and shot nine women, six fatally. He killed eight more women as he rampaged through the corridors and cafeteria, claiming feminism had ruined his life. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in April 2007, the deadliest murder by a single gunman in US history. Cho called other students “hedonistic” and “brats” who had “raped” his soul and had “everything” they wanted, such as “Mercedes, golden necklaces, trust fund, vodka and cognac.” If the victims did not represent a category of people Holmes specifically hated or resented, then he would fall into the category of mass murderers who target strangers indiscriminately, the least common profile.— Reuters
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
sp orts
A scheduling nightmare of huge proportions LYTHAM ST. ANNES: Lost in the opening round of the British Open was an announcement from the All England Club that will make it even more difficult for golf to devise a busy summer schedule in an Olympic year. Wimbledon will move back one week starting in 2015 to allow a threeweek break after the French Open. The British Open had considered moving back one week in 2016 in a summer that will be filled with two major championships, the Ryder Cup and golf’s return to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. To do that now would mean the Open would clash with Wimbledon, which wouldn’t go over well in Britain. “ The Wimbledon date change does impact on this with regard to when it’s most sensible to play the Open that particular year, so we are going to have to go slightly back to the drawing board on this,” said Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R&A and the president of the International Golf Federation, which oversees Olympic golf. Dawson said the IGF made a commitment to the International Olympic Committee that no major event would clash with the Olympics. The first step is to set the dates of the 2016 Olympics in Rio. If it were held in its normal time frame, it would clash with the US PGA Championship. The PGA of America, which stages the US PGA Championship in the second week in August, already has offered to move up to the last week in July. The Olympics will take up two weeks for golf - one week for the men, one week for
the women. The US LPGA Tour added a fifth major at the Evian Masters in France (which is held this week). The Women’s British Open this year has moved to September. Also to be considered is the FedEx Cup playoffs on the US PGA Tour, which if held too late would push back the Ryder Cup outside Minneapolis. The 2016 schedule isn’t the only thing under review. Dawson said the IGF planned to take another look at the format for when golf returns to the Olympics for the first time in more than a century. When it put together its proposal, the format was for 72 holes of stroke play, with medals awarded only to individuals. “I think we all had this at the back of our mind at the start, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to make the Olympic competition a little bit different, at least from the week in, week out competition?’” Dawson said. He believes that a standard 72-hole event of stroke play is the best way to determine a champion, though the idea of an element of match play, or a team competition, has been raised and “it’s those areas we’ll be having a look at.” Dawson’s personal opinion is to stick with stroke play, and the format is unlikely to change for 2016. Even if the IGF wanted to change the format, it would require approval from the IOC. “Golf’s bid was based on individual competition,” he said. “In order for that to be changed - and I’m not sure that it ought to be changed - but if it were to be, we’d have to get agreement from the IOC sports department.”—AP
Malisse and Russell advance at Classic
LYTHAM ST ANNES: Ryo Ishikawa of Japan makes notes in a book on the eighth green during a practice round at Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club.—AP
LOS ANGELES: Tobias Kamke of Germany ousted James Blake of the United States 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (4) in the first round of the Farmers Classic at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Tuesday. Blake lost the first four games of the match and was down 3-1 in the second set. He won five games and jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the final set, only to have Kamke fight back. Kamke won four of the next five games to pull even at 5-5. He then won the final five points of the tiebreaker to hand the 32year-old Blake his eighth loss in nine matches this year. “I felt great the last two days of practice and I really don’t know what happened,” Blake said. “I started slow. Even when I was winning, I felt like I was just scrapping out points and not dictating the way I wanted to. When I’m not doing that, I’m not playing my best and I’m not confident, and when you’re not confident in a tiebreaker you’re going to miss a couple of balls by cen-
timeters or millimeters. “I didn’t make a lot of first serves in that tiebreaker and didn’t give myself the chances I needed to. I can’t do that and expect to win out here.” Kamke’s second-round opponent will be No.6 seed Marinko Matosevic who beat Australian compatriot Chris Guccione 3-6, 63, 6-3. Blake joined a list of fellow Americans who were eliminated: Jesse Levine, Nicolas Meister and Bradley Klahn. Levine was beaten 6-3, 6-4, by countryman Michael Russell, who at 34 is the oldest player in the field. Russell will next meet top-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire. Meister, making his ATP Tour debut as a qualifier, fell to No. 5 seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium 64, 6-1. Malisse’s next opponent is Australian Matthew Ebden, who edged German Michael Berrer 46, 6-2, 7-6 (4). Klahn, also a qualifier, lost to Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-4, 3-6, 6-0. Lorenzi will next meet No.4-seeded Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.—AP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
sp orts Arsenal seek new faces LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said yesterday the Premier League club are still active in the transfer market and will bring new players in to bolster their squad. Wenger, who has added Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud during the off season, would not be drawn on specific targets after British media reports linked Spain and Malaga winger Santi Cazorla with a move to the Gunners. The Frenchman also said he was keen to ensure injured players such as Jack Wilshere returned to duty fully fit. Wilshere, a vital element of Arsenal’s midfield, was ruled out of the 2011-12 season with an ankle injury and is still continuing his rehabilitation. “I am ready to talk a lot, but not a lot about transfers, because it is a very fragile subject and a very secret subject,” Wenger said on Arsenal’s website (www.arsenal.com). “We bought Giroud and Podolski, and I hope that we ‘bought’ (Abou) Diaby and Wilshere too, who didn’t play at all last season. “We will add Wilshere to the squad as soon as possible. But we are not at the end of it (transfers) — we will still bring players in.”—Reuters
Salzburg dumped out of Champions League BERNE: Salzburg were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Luxemburg’s Dudelange on Tuesday, continuing an astonishing run of failures in the competition since Red Bull took over the Austrian club. Last season’s double winners, who enjoy substantial financial backing from the energy drinks company, beat visitors Dudelange 4-3 in their second qualifying round, second leg tie but were eliminated on away goals after losing 1-0 last week. Red Bull took over the club in 2005 with ambitious plans of making Salzburg Champions League regulars, only to see their team fail five times in a row in the
qualifiers. The only time they have taken part in the group stage was as the old Austria Salzburg in 1994/95. Their latest failure is a huge setback for coach Roger Schmidt and sporting director Ralf Rangnick, the former Schalke 04 coach, who took over in the close season. Salzburg’s troubles in Tuesday’s match began when they lost possession in midfield, allowing Thierry Steinmetz to break clear and score in the 26th minute. Jakob Jantscher and Martin Hinteregger put Salzburg 2-1 ahead at halftime, only for Aurelien Joachim to level with his sixth goal in four matches in the qualifying tournament.—Reuters
Russia delay Capello’s unveiling MOSCOW: The Russian Football Union (RFU) have delayed the official unveiling of new national team coach Fabio Capello until today, the governing body announced. The RFU had hoped to present Capello to the media yesterday but the presentation was pushed back a day as both sides finalised contract details. In a brief statement on their website (www.rfs.ru), the RFU confirmed a rescheduled news conference would take place in Moscow today. The 66-year-old Italian, who quit as England manager in February, replaces Dutchman Dick Advocaat, whose tenure ended with Russia’s group-stage exit from Euro 2012. Capello, who becomes Russia’s third successive foreign coach, will be tasked with blooding new players into an ageing team, something his predecessor failed to do in two years at the helm. Russian media reports suggest Capello will earn up to 10 million euros ($12.1m) a year after signing a contract through to the 2014 World Cup, with the possibility of extending it for another two years. — Reuters
Red Sox edge Rangers ARLINGTON: Boston’s Mike Aviles blooped a tiebreaking single in the ninth inning to give the Red Sox a 2-1 win over the Texas Rangers in the American League on Tuesday, ending a four-game losing streak. Rangers closer Joe Nathan (1-3) issued a pair of two-out walks in the ninth and Aviles singled just beyond the reach of shortstop Elvis Andrus. Red Sox reliever Vicente Padilla (4-0) escaped a first-and-third jam in the eighth. He hit Adrian Beltre in the helmet with a pitch, leaving the Texas star with a bruise on his head. Boston’s Alfredo Aceves notched the save.
NEW YORK: Mets catcher Mike Nickeas and Washington Nationals’ Adam LaRoche (25) watch LaRoche’s two-run home run off of Mets starting pitcher RA Dickey (43) in the sixth inning. — AP
Nationals pound Mets NEW YORK: The Washington Nationals handed New York pitching ace RA Dickey his first loss in nearly three months by beating the Mets 5-2 in the National League on Tuesday. Dickey (13-2) allowed five consecutive hits in the sixth, ending his 11-game winning streak, as the Mets lost their 11th in 12 games. Their lone victory during that skid was over the Nationals. Washington’s Adam LaRoche hit a tiebreaking homer and Gio Gonzalez (13-5) did not allow an earned run in seven innings as the NL-leading Nationals notched a fourth-straight win. Cardinals 8, Dodgers 2 In St. Louis, pitcher Adam Wainwright got his first two RBIs of the season to help St. Louis beat Los Angeles. On the mound, Wainwright (8-10) allowed two runs with seven strikeouts in 7 1-3 innings. His performance with the bat was more surprising. He was batting .079 (3-for-38) with just three singles and 17 strikeouts this season. But he doubled with two outs in the fifth for St. Louis’ first run, then scored the tying run on Rafael Furcal’s single. After an intentional walk loaded the bases in the sixth, Wainwright walked on five pitches to give the Cardinals a two-run lead. By the end of the six-run sixth the hosts were up 8-2. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw (7-6) gave up eight runs in 5 2-3 innings, the second-most runs ever allowed by the 2011 NL Cy Young winner. Los Angeles had won five straight. Braves 4, Marlins 3 In Miami, Tim Hudson pitched seven innings to guide Atlanta to a tight win over Miami. After conceding a home run in the second inning, Hudson (9-4) retired 16 straight before he was relieved. He allowed five hits. Jason Heyward broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning with an RBI single off Wade LeBlanc (1-1) that scored Martin Prado, who tripled to lead off the inning. Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 29th save in 30 chances. Giants 3, Padres 2 In San Francisco, Brandon Crawford singled home the winning run in the ninth inning to give San Francisco victory over San Diego. Brandon Belt walked to open the ninth and Angel Pagan singled. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch ahead of Crawford’s single off Joe Thatcher (0-4). Padres reliever Santiago Casilla (4-4) pitched the ninth for the win. Cubs 5, Pirates 1 In Pittsburgh, Paul Maholm pitched eight strong innings against his old team to win his fifth straight start as Chicago downed Pittsburgh. Maholm gave up one run in handing the Pittsburgh its first consecutive home losses since May. He struck out seven and walked one. Maholm (9-6) has allowed just four earned runs in 38 1-3 innings during his winning streak for a 0.94 ERA in that span. He spent his first seven seasons with the Pirates before signing with the Cubs for this year. Starlin Castro and Alfonso Soriano both homered off James McDonald (104), who had his career-high five-game winning streak snapped. Reds 4, Astros 2 In Houston, Drew Stubbs hit a go-ahead homer and Cincinnati rallied for three runs in the ninth inning against former teammate Francisco Cordero, beating Houston. The NL Central-leading Reds have won six in a row while the Astros have lost eight straight. Cordero (3-6) got his first Astros save chance since being acquired in a trade with Toronto last week. Stubbs hit a two-run homer for a 3-2 lead and Xavier Paul added an RBI single. Reds starter Mike Leake (4-6) conceded only two runs over eight innings. Phillies 7, Brewers 6 In Philadelphia, Hunter Pence singled in the go-ahead run after Carlos Ruiz hit a tying, three-
run double as Philadelphia rallied with six runs in the eighth inning to overwhelm Milwaukee. This came a night after the Phillies had scored four runs in the ninth to beat Milwaukee by the same score. Eric Kratz got the Phillies started in the eighth with a two-run homer to cut it to 6-3. Shane Victorino, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard worked consecutive two-out walks to load the bases. Kameron Loe (4-4) entered to face Ruiz, who ripped a shot through the gap in left-center to clear the bases. Pence followed with a looping RBI single to right. Michael Schwimer (1-1) pitched a scoreless eighth to earn the win. Jonathan Papelbon finished for his 22nd save in 25 tries. D’backs 6, Rockies 2 In Phoenix, Joe Saunders scattered three hits over seven innings to steer Arizona past Colorado and to its fifth straight win. Saunders (5-6) allowed only a single in the fifth and solo home runs in the fourth and sixth. He struck out nine and walked one. Chris Young homered for the Diamondbacks; winners of eight straight at home. Young also singled, walked twice, stole a base and scored two runs. Rockies starter Edwar Cabrera (0-2), who was recalled from the minors, lasted only 3 1-3 innings and allowed two runs and four walks. Colorado has lost six of seven. — AP
MLB results/standings Tampa Bay 3, Baltimore 1; Cleveland 3, Detroit 2; Chicago Cubs 5, Pittsburgh 1; Philadelphia 7, Milwaukee 6; Oakland 7, Toronto 2; Atlanta 4, Miami 3; Washington 5, NY Mets 2; Cincinnati 4, Houston 2; Boston 2, Texas 1; Chicago White Sox 11, Minnesota 4; St. Louis 8, LA Dodgers 2; Arizona 6, Colorado 2; Kansas City 4, LA Angels 1; Seattle 4, NY Yankees 2; San Francisco 3, San Diego 2. American League Eastern Division W L PCT NY Yankees 58 39 .598 51 46 .526 Baltimore Tampa Bay 50 47 .515 Boston 49 49 .500 Toronto 48 48 .500 Central Division Detroit 52 45 .536 Chicago White Sox 52 45 .536 Cleveland 49 48 .505 Kansas City 41 55 .427 Minnesota 40 57 .412 Western Division Texas 57 39 .594 Oakland 52 44 .542 LA Angels 53 45 .541 Seattle 43 56 .434 National League Eastern Division Washington 57 39 .594 Atlanta 53 44 .546 NY Mets 47 50 .485 Miami 45 52 .464 Philadelphia 44 54 .449 Central Division Cincinnati 57 40 .588 Pittsburgh 54 42 .563 St. Louis 51 46 .526 Milwaukee 44 52 .458 Chicago Cubs 40 56 .417 Houston 34 64 .347 Western Division San Francisco 55 42 .567 LA Dodgers 53 45 .541 Arizona 49 48 .505 San Diego 41 58 .414 Colorado 36 60 .375
GB 7 8 9.5 9.5 3 10.5 12 5 5 15.5
4.5 10.5 12.5 14 2.5 6 12.5 16.5 23.5 2.5 6 15 18.5
Indians 3, Tigers 2 In Cleveland, Aaron Cunningham drove in the go-ahead run with a suicide squeeze in the seventh inning, giving Cleveland victory over Detroit. Travis Hafner tripled with one out in the seventh inning off Doug Fister (4-7) and Lou Marson ran for him. Marson took off running as Cunningham dropped a bunt in front of the plate. Fister quickly got the ball and tried to shovel it to catcher Alex Avila. It rolled away, Marson scored, and Cunningham took second on the error. Miguel Cabrera’s two-run homer off reliever Joe Smith (6-2) had tied the game 2-2 in the top half. Chris Perez pitched the ninth for his 28th save in 30 chances. Cleveland is 6-1 against the Tigers and Perez has saved each win. Rays 3, Orioles 1 In Baltimore, Tampa Bay star ter Jeremy Hellickson held Baltimore scoreless into the seventh inning to earn his first win in 10 starts. Hellickson (5-6) was 0-6 since beating Boston on May 16, although he allowed more than three earned runs only once during his losing streak. The light-hitting Brooks Conrad hit a homer for the Rays, who were playing their first road game since the All-Star break. Fernando Rodney got three outs around two walks to pick up his 28th save in 29 tries. Orioles starter Wei-Yin Chen (8-6) yielded three runs in 6 2-3 innings. Mariners 4, Yankees 2 In Seattle, New York’s Alex Rodriguez sustained a broken left hand when he was hit by a pitch in Seattle’s win. The Yankees said Rodriguez has a non-displaced fracture and there is no timetable for his return. He was hit with a pitch from Seattle ace Felix Hernandez (9-5), who got his fifth straight win. As well as Rodriguez, he also hit Derek Jeter and former teammate Ichiro Suzuki. Yankees starter Freddy Garcia (4-4) struck out a season-high eight and retired his final 15 batters before being pulled with one out in the eighth. Athletics 7, Blue Jays 2 In Toronto, Yoenis Cespedes hit a three-run single as streaking Oakland beat Toronto for its season-best sixth win in a row. The A’s are 15-2 in July, and are now eight games over .500 for the first time in four years. Oakland starter Travis Blackley (3-2) allowed one run in seven innings. He struck out a careerbest eight. Toronto’s Brett Cecil (2-3) has won just once in his past six starts. The Blue Jays had won three straight.
ARLINGTON: Texas Rangers’ Adrian Beltre (29) escapes the tag at second base attempted by Boston Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks (64) as second baseman Dustin Pedroia (right) watches during the fourth inning. — AP
Preview
Alonso looks for 31st win on 31st birthday HUNGARY: Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso could celebrate his 31st birthday by winning his 31st Grand Prix on Sunday at the Hungaroring circuit where he chalked up his Formula One victory nine years ago. McLaren will hope to get the most out of their upgraded car after Lewis Hamilton’s bad luck in Germany and champions Red Bull will want to put a troubled weekend in Hockenheim behind them. Alonso will go into the August break on top of the standings whatever happens at the ageing, twisty Hungaroring, where temperatures usually soar after the cooler races in Britain and Germany. Although Alonso’s Ferrari is not the fastest car on the circuit, the Spaniard has amassed 154 points, shooting 34 clear of Red Bull’s Mark Webber (120). Webber’s team mate and world champion Sebastian Vettel is a further 10 points back in third place followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, who are both in the 90s. After two wins and a second place in his last three outings, a fourth win of the season would put Alonso well on course for a third Formula One title to add to the ones he won as a youngster with Renault in 2005 and 2006. “I don’t want anyone to come to Hungary better prepared than me, physically or mentally or more motivated than me and I always try and win this competition that runs alongside the one on the track,” Alonso said. “I expect to go well in Budapest and there is no reason to be pessimistic. However, I am not forgetting that Red Bull and McLaren were quicker (at Hockenheim).” Team principal Stefano Domenicali described it as a key race and added: “We know we still have a lot of work to do, because we are still not the fastest.” Reliability has become the watchword for Ferrari, who have not had a retirement since the opening race in Australia while Alonso has managed a top ten finish in every round. He
has also racked up 22 successive races in the points. “We must keep concentrating to the maximum, especially on the reliability front,” Domenicali added. Alonso became the youngest driver to win a Grand Prix when he led from pole to win in Budapest in 2003 at the age of 22, a record subsequently taken by Vettel in 2008 aged 21. “It is a dream come true. I am 22 years old and I have my first victory. I hope I have a long career with lots more victories,” Alonso said at the time. He is not the only one who has happy memories of Budapest. McLaren have won five of the last seven races there, two of them with Lewis Hamilton and one with Button who was victorious last year and also won with Honda in 2006 — his first triumph after years of waiting. “We know we’ve got a good car and a good recent track record there - we won in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011,” team principal Martin Whitmarsh said. “ Winning just before the shutdown is always positive because it provides you with great momentum across the summer break.” McLaren’s performance upgrades have thrust them back into contention with Button finishing second at Hockenheim, although Hamilton suffered the frustration of an early puncture and eventual retirement. Webber won in 2010 and a repeat would be timely for the Australian after he bafflingly lacked pace at Hockenheim. Having been penalised five places on the starting grid at Hockenheim for an unauthorised gearbox change, Webber drove to an uninspired eighth place finish. Meanwhile, Vettel was stripped of his second place because of an illegal passing manoeuvre and dropped to fifth. “We have to be quick in all conditions and we weren’t for whatever reason,” said Webber, giving the constructors championship leaders plenty of food for thought. — Reuters
Royals 4, Angels 1 In Anaheim, Will Smith pitched twohit ball over seven innings in the longest of his five major league starts, steering Kansas City past Los Angeles. Smith (2-3) allowed one run by his old team, who traded him to Kansas City in 2010. Lorenzo Cain hit a two-run homer for the Royals. Angels starter Garrett Richards (3-2) gave up four runs in five innings. White Sox 11, Twins 4 In Chicago, Adam Dunn hit his major league-leading 30th homer of the season and a two-run double as Chicago rallied past Minnesota. Nate Jones (4-0), who relieved Chicago starter Jose Quintana in the seventh, got the win. Minnesota’s Casey Fien (1-1) took the loss. — AP
GERMANY: Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the German Formula One Grand Prix in this file photo. — AP
17 THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
In Olympic London, Muhammad Ali still wows LONDON: Muhammad Ali moving people to tears by starring again, however briefly, at the Olympic opening ceremony - this time in London? That really would be something. Only ceremony director Danny Boyle and a few well-informed others will know for certain if British newspapers are wrong with their speculation that Ali could play a role on Friday night. He surely won’t, as he did at the Atlanta Games, light the Olympic cauldron. Ali, 70 and imprisoned by Parkinson’s disease, seems far too frail for that now. And one imagines that Boyle, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, is clever enough to realize that it would be foolish and crass to try to recreate that Atlanta moment as poignant and powerful as anything that happened on the Olympic fields of play in 1996. But even a glimpse of Ali in London’s Olympic Stadium would be, well, just wow. The former heavyweight champion’s presence this week in London - he attended an award ceremony on Tuesday - seemed to lend credence to the notion that he might somehow be involved tomorrow.
Parkinson’s has stolen away Ali’s worldbeating strength and quick reflexes and frozen his beautiful face into a mask. He was helped onto the stage, sat largely motionless and did not speak at the award ceremony. But he still inspires, and imaginations buzzed with hope that he might be well enough for another Olympic piece of magic. “It’s a beautiful idea. If you have one of the greatest sporting icons ever coming to the 2012 Games, what more can you ask for?” said Londoner Antonia Ugbaja. Her wait for Ali outside the hotel that hosted the award ceremony was rewarded with glimpses of him being wheeled in on a chair and later being helped out upright to a waiting van. As an American, Ali may not seem an obvious choice to light up the British capital’s Olympic opening spectacular for an estimated global television audience of 1 billion. But Ali, as he did almost everywhere, won many hearts in Britain during his career. As a young fighter, Ali initially seemed less than impressed by Britain - “The cars are too small, the streets are too narrow - I
like open spaces - and I haven’t seen as many pretty girls like I do at home,” the 1960 Olympic gold medalist said when he came to fight Henry Cooper in London in 1963. Yet he kept coming back. He defeated Cooper again in 1966 and, by 1971, on a promotional tour, was raving about how loved he felt here. “I never realized how many people and followers of all ages, all races, religions and creeds I had following me,” Ali said. “I’ve never had so many admirers.” And perhaps none so fervent as Paddy Monaghan. The bare-knuckle boxer mounted a one-man campaign in Britain against the decision in 1967 to ban Ali from boxing after he refused to fight in Vietnam. Before the days when the Internet made this easy, Monaghan collected 22,224 signatures, which he delivered to the U.S. Embassy in London; he also wrote to then-President Richard Nixon and spoke for Ali at Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park. “The crowd would be forming and he’d be saying it’s not right that a man’s livelihood be taken away, that you shouldn’t mix politics with sport,” Monaghan’s son,
Tyrone, told The Associated Press in an interview this week. Over the years, according to Tyrone, the two men became firm friends. Ali, in a televised chat show, once described Monaghan as “my No. 1 fan.” Tyrone said Ali would regularly drop by the Monaghans’ modest house in Abingdon, west of London, when visiting England. “Dad would say to me, ‘Muhammad’s coming tomorrow’ or ‘Muhammad is coming next week.’ I’d say, ‘Oh, all right, Dad.’” Tyrone said. “I just thought it was no big deal.” Once, Ali pulled up in a white Lincoln Continental, quickly drawing a crowd. Another time, Tyrone came home to find Ali “just chilled on the sofa. My mum made him tea.” In 1974, after his “Rumble in the Jungle” defeat of George Foreman to reclaim the world heavyweight crown, Ali shadowboxed Tyrone in their front garden. In 1983, he also sparred with Tyrone in their back garden, telling him: “There’s no rounds. Whoever collapses last is going to be the winner.” Ali was retired and would announce the following year he was suffer-
ing from Parkinson’s. Even so, “I couldn’t see his jab move. He was like sheet lightning,” Tyrone said. He said his father was in Ali’s corner when he defeated Alvin Lewis at Dublin, Ireland, in 1972 and again, in 1974, for Ali’s second fight against Joe Frazier. “He was always phoning my dad and my dad was always phoning him.” They last saw Ali in his hotel when he visited Dublin in 2009. “Muhammad just looked up and struggled out of his chair, and he shuffled over, and my dad and he just hugged each other,” Tyrone said. Paddy Monaghan, now 68, was taken ill eight weeks ago; in the hospital, his heart stopped four times, Tyrone said. He said his father is slowly recovering. Tyrone said he has told Ali’s son-in-law about it and he’s sure Ali would have visited his old friend on this trip, too, had he been in better health himself. On Friday, if his father is well enough, Tyrone may put him in front of a TV if Ali is making an opening ceremony appearance. “I’m sure my dad would love to see that,” he said. We all would.—AP
US men’s team unbeaten
LONDON: Murat Shakenov of the Kazakhstan men’s water polo team, throws a ball during a training session in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics. —AP
Norman receives overdue recognition LONDON: For more years than should have been necessary, Australian sprinter Peter Norman has been the answer to a sports quiz question. Even hardcore track fans struggle to name the third man in the iconic photo of Tommie Smith and John Carlos standing on the victory podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics with heads bowed and one blackgloved fist raised. A film by Norman’s nephew Matt, which has been several years in the gestation, seeks to redress this historic oversight. “Salute”, available on DVD/Download 30 July, tells the story of Norman’s early life and shows Australia was far from immune from the turmoil of the 1960s. Protesters demonstrated on behalf of the oppressed aboriginal people and there was fierce opposition to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war. Norman, still the finest sprinter produced in the southern hemisphere, wore a badge in support of the two black Americans and their cause, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, at the victory ceremony for the 200 metres. How a young man from a Melbourne white working class background came to support Smith and Carlos in their silent protest is related by “Salute”. Smith elaborated on the events leading to an unprecedented protest which stunned the world during the course of an interview with Reuters in a recent visit to London. Smith, who smashed the world record en route to taking the gold medal ahead of Norman and Carlos, said the trio had been waiting underneath the stands for the victory ceremony, a room he said was known as “the dungeon”. “I remember the conversation that John had with Peter,” he said. “And the question from John to Peter was ‘do you believe in human rights?’ “And Peter said, in the Australian manner, ‘yeah, I believe in human rights’. John said ‘if you had a button would you wear it’ and he said ‘yeah, I’d wear it. “I had only one button, Carlos had a button, as we were coming out of
the dungeon there was a overhang and one of the rowers from Harvard, who backed the human rights issue, also had a button. “I don’t know how John got the button. I was in front of John coming out, and the next thing I knew he was pinning it on Peter. And I said, ‘oh God, no’. I said ‘Peter are you going to wear it’ and he said ‘yeah, why not? “In Australia they had their problem with the aboriginal people, their black people and I knew the history behind that. And he was going to wear a a button, on a political victory stand? With two of the most political athletes in the history of the world? “Yeah, sure there was going to be a problem. But John Carlos and Tommie Smith had each other. Peter had nobody to go back home with. So when he got back home he received loads of problems.” Smith and Carlos not only outraged the grandees of the International Olympic Committee, who ordered their immediate expulsion from Mexico City. They were treated as pariahs in the United States where Smith’s marriage broke down, Carlos’ wife committed suicide and both struggled for years to make a living. The Australian sporting authorities were no more forgiving. Norman, who died in 2006, was not selected for the 1972 Munich Olympics and never ran for his country again. He suffered from depression, became addicted to pain killers and, in a final indignity, was not asked to play any part in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. “Physically he was good but socially he was almost abandoned,” Smith lamented. “Of course he had the heart problems anyway and he had the massive heart attack and I believe because of the social problems the heart attack was imminent. He died after a massive heart attack. “It’s tough to see a person like that, who has so much love for the human race and mankind, put on the backburner to fade away. That’s what I perceived.”—Reuters
Bikini beauties to frolic on British PM’s doorstep LONDON: Bikini-clad beauties battling for Olympic gold will bring a new excitement to the Horse Guards Parade, hallowed grounds that annually host the Trooping of the Color on the Queen’s official birthday. Beach volleyball will be contested practically on the doorstep of British Prime Minister David Cameron starting Saturday, with Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor seeking an unprecedented third consecutive women’s title. “We have played really well,” said MayTreanor, who turns 35 on Monday. “Kerri and I feel in our hearts we are a threat and we can win this.” Together with US rivals April Ross and Jennifer Kessy, they considered the possibilities of members of the British Royal Family appearing to watch. “Prince Harry! Yes, we’ve been tweeting,” Ross said, quickly confessing that she was joking. “It would be great to see Harry at our sport. Or Kate.” “We would be available for tea also,” Kessy noted. “Any of the Royal Family
would be fun,” May-Treanor said. “Their interest is important. They would bring the rest of the country.” Bikini-wearing women playing volleyball on 5,000 tonnes of sand from a quarry in southern England might bring a few viewers on their own, even though women’s matches start as late as an hour before midnight, when it can get cold. “We are allowed to wear different gear when it gets too cold. That keeps us warm,” May-Treanor said. “But if it’s the same as it has been, we’ll wear our bikinis. It was warm at 11 at night,” Ross added. “We’ll try to go in bikinis unless weather dictates more discreet outfits. “We grew up in California and this is what we have worn all the time. We wouldn’t be playing in shorts. You get sand everywhere. It’s not comfortable.” Horse Guards Parade, which dates to 1745, was named for the soldiers that have guarded the royal monarch since 1660 and serves as the staging ground for the pagentry of the Queen’s official, and bikini-free, birthday bash.—AFP
BARCELONA: The question sounded more like a concession. The US men’s Olympic basketball team had come to Barcelona and put a 100-78 beating on Spain, the country given the best chance of stopping the Americans’ bid for a second straight gold medal. It was such a dominating performance over the final three quarters Tuesday that it was hard to imagine what could be much different if the teams meet again in London. So, one Spanish journalist asked Chris Paul, is this US team invincible? “No,” Paul said. “I mean, I wish we were. We’d get to live a long time.” OK, so they’re not immortal, either. What the Americans have, after a five-game exhibition schedule, is a team that is unbeaten, though not unbeatable. The Americans have a weakness that can be exploited, though also the ability to turn it into a strength. They head to London as the clear favorites, and maybe among the few who believe winning gold again will require much more than just showing up. “I think for us, it’s about going out there and playing the right way and worrying about us,” Paul said. “We go into games, fortunately we know that we’re probably going to be the most talented team there, but that doesn’t always win games for you.” It worked during this tour, which started nearly three weeks ago in Las Vegas and ended with an off day Wednesday in Barcelona. The US flies to London today, then plays its Olympic opener Sunday against France. Games against overmatched Britain and the Dominican Republic weren’t competitive, but the Americans were challenged at times during the three contests against medal contenders. Brazil had a 10-point lead after one quarter before the US won by 11. Argentina cut a 20-point deficit to four in the final minutes of the Americans’ 86-80 victory here
Sunday. And Spain was ahead by nine points in the opening period before the US got the game under control. “We got better. We got better and at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about,” LeBron James said of the pre-Olympic schedule. “We’ve got to continue to improve and it was a good test.” The biggest question - maybe the only one - facing the Americans since they assembled their team was how they would overcome their size problem. Spain had NBA big men Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka on their front line Tuesday, an advantage that seemed even bigger when starting center Tyson Chandler quickly went to the bench with two fouls. Carmelo Anthony came in and played on the front line with James and Kevin Durant. That made the Americans vulnerable on defense but unguardable on offense, forcing someone who would rarely find himself on the perimeter suddenly having to check one of the NBA’s top scorers out there. “Their athleticism and quickness makes up for the lack of size. Interior players are not used to guarding players 20 feet away from the basket, so it’s sort of a double-edged sword,” Gasol said. “You have to try to punish them at one end, then adjust at the other end. And they’re loaded, so you have to be alert at all times.” While Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo called the US the best team in the world, the Americans were a bit more cautious, perhaps because they remember what happened against Spain four years ago in the Olympics. The US won by 37 points in pool play, then held only a four-point edge down the stretch before pulling away to a 118-107 victory in the goldmedal game. Spain didn’t use All-Star center Marc Gasol or backup point guard Sergio Rodriguez on Tuesday, and Scariolo said the Spanish would be “more ready than tonight” if the
BARCELONA: Russell Westbrook of the US Men’s Senior National Team (left) jumps for the ball during an exhibition match between Spain and the United States.—AP teams meet again in London. The Americans don’t view a victory in a rematch as inevitable. “No, some people may think that, but we certainly don’t think that,” Kobe Bryant said. “We know how tough Spain is, we know how good they are. We know how they’re excellent passers, excellent shooters and very big. So we knew it was something that we’re going to have to deal with.” The US averaged 99.4 points
and shot nearly 52 percent in preOlympic play, seemingly settling on a rotation with Anthony as the sixth man. The Americans’ leading scorer in tournaments in 2006 and ‘07, he scored 27 points Tuesday. All impressive, but ultimately unimportant. Gold may be conceded to the Americans, but they can’t claim it for themselves until Aug. 12. “It’s exhibition,” Durant said, “so the games start to count on Sunday.”—AP
Goddard itching to race Phelps LONDON: British swimmer James Goddard may have become an unwilling participant in a fierce debate yesterday, just who had the best Olympic performance in Beijing four years ago? American swimmer Michael Phelps or Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt? The debate has raged between pundits for four years over whether Bolt’s three gold medals in the athletics, all in world record times, or Phelps’ record eight golds was the performance people would discuss in 100 years. Phelps’ haul in Beijing beat compatriot Mark Spitz’s haul of seven in 1972 and he now has 14 Olympic titles in total. The American is swimming seven events in London. Bolt, meanwhile, is looking to become the first athlete to win the hat-trick of sprint titles at successive Games in London. Goddard, however, was unequivocal. “I think Phelps is the best athlete that has ever walked the planet in any sport,” the 29year-old, who will swim against Phelps and world champion and record holder Ryan Lochte in the 200 metre individual medley, said yesterday. “I’m honored to swim in this event. It’s a dream come true,” he said before adding he was trying to avoid the likely heightened anticipation that will surround the race. “I’m hoping they get caught up with each other. I try not to get caught up with the whirlwind of Lochte and Phelps.” Phelps beat Lochte at the US trials last month in the 200 while Lochte got his revenge in the 400. Goddard finished sixth in the shorter event in Beijing four years ago and fourth at the 2011 world championships and is the European championships silver medallist and was “itching”
James Goddard
to get into the pool. “I’m a racer. I like to get in and race hard.” Goddard said that an additional motivation would be the passionate home crowd, which British Swimming’s head coach Dennis Pursley said could be a factor in lifting the performance of the team. “A home Olympics does bring the best out of the home country and its athletes,” said the former US swimming head coach, who knows the benefits of home advantage having worked with his compatriots in Atlanta in 1996. “All the indicators I look at coming into a major competition are pointing in the right direction,” said Pursley who added a Rudyard Kipling quote ‘the strength of the wolf is the
pack’ to demonstrate his feelings on how the team had come together in final training camps. “We’re healthy, injury-free and there’s a great demeanor and camaraderie in the team. “I fully expect the team to come together and swim very well next week.” Performance director Michael Scott echoed Pursley’s assessment and said he hoped Britain’s swimmers would get the Games off to a perfect start for the host nation on all fronts. “If we get momentum within the swimming first that will build momentum for Team GB,” said the Australian, who played a significant role in attracting Pursley to the British set-up. “Our goal, always, is performance first. That has to be our priority.”—AP
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Records on the line come rain or shine LONDON: Olympic athletes hoping to leave their mark in the record books in London may find themselves relying on the one thing they cannot control-the British weather. Whether you are a sprinter, distance runner, shot putter or discus thrower, the science behind athletics says your chances of living up t o t h e O l ymp ic mo t t o o f fast er, high er , stronger could be decided by the unpredictable elements. For example, if London returns to the cold and wet conditions of last week, the prospect of Usain Bolt breaking his sprint world records is slim-though a cold spell would be welc om e d b y endu rance at hl et es su ch as marathon runners. “In terms of the hot and cold axis, you have the simple effect of the shorter the event, the warmer you need to be,” Steve Ingham, a physiologist at the English Institute of Sport, told Reuters. “If you are warm, your muscles will be operating more powerfully for the short explosive events. If you are persisting with an event, like an endurance event, then heat is not your friend. You need to stay cool.” This is borne out by the experience of previous Olympics. The men’s 100-metre sprint world record has fallen twice in the last four summer Games in warm conditions, while the men’s marathon benchmark has not been lowe r e d a t the Ol ymp ics since A b eb e Bik ila achieved the feat in Tokyo in 1964. The reason is relatively simple. Muscles contract with an improved efficiency when it is warm. The biology underpinning the theory, however, is more complicated. “Within a certain limit, when it is warm, your muscle enzymes will operate faster, turning over energy and releasing it to the muscles,” Ingham said. “And when you are accumulating heat in endurance events, you are slowly but surely tipping yourself over (the optimum), the enzymes are getting too hot and it is starting to impair not only the enzyme’s actions but you also become very uncomfortable.” The optimum temperature for what Ingham calls a “power performance” is a very unBritish 26-32 degrees Celsius, whereas for endurance events it would be 12-18, which is roughly what Londoners endured last week. “If you are out in the cold weather,” Ingham said, “there is also a psychological element in
LONDON: US athlete Tyson Gay takes part in a training session at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.— AP
LONDON: United States javelin thrower Craig Kingesley, trains for the 2012 Summer Olympics in Birmingham. —AP that you are feeling like you should be shivering rather than relaxed and warm and ready to go.”Then, of course, there is rain. Britain has
had the wettest June on record and the wet weather is set to return just in time for Friday’s opening ceremony.
“The wet will provide a different limit to performance in that there is likely to be a biomechanical change,” Ingham said. “There is likely to be a slippage, albeit very subtly, at ground contact with your shoe, so that might mean you have to go for a different type of shoe or equipment.” Athletes competing in the throwing events will also be affected by the weather, but unlike the sprinters and distance runners, it is the effect of temperature on aerodynamics t ha t c oul d he l p or hi nd e r t he i r r e c or d attempts. According to Professor Mont Hubbard, director of the sports biomechanics lab at the University of California, Davis, shot putters and hammer throwers will be hoping for heat, while in the discus and javelin they will be less concerned should Britain revert to its autumnal climate. T he r e a s on ha s t o d o w i t h f or c e s , a nd specifically what forces come into play in different throwing events. “A sphere, which is what the shot and the hammer are, only has drag,” Hubbard told Reuters. “Drag is the part of aerodynamics that slows you down.” Drag, he explained, is proportional to air density, and that is affected by temperature and air pressure. Hubbard said: “To throw a sphere a long way you want low pressure, which is usually associated with stormy weather and high temperatures, both of which cause the density to be low.” This, however, is in contrast to the discus and the javelin. These two events are affected by a force called lift, which is greater when the air density is high - and the density increases when the temperature falls. Hubbard calculated that with all other factors being equal, a temperature drop of five percent results in a discus throw that is 38cm further. Interestingly, Hubbard’s calculations also showed that if the temperature drops, a thrower should alter the angle of his release by a small amount for optimum performance. Not that he believes athletes could do this in the heat of competition. “It is a question of how accurately they could control it,” he said. “All these throwing events are very explosive and everything happens so rapidly and it comes with years of training to try to do it a certain way.” —Reuters
Cox eyes judo gold ‘Oy tink’: Primer on British English for Americans LONDON: It took me over two years to understand English and I am American. Americans arriving for the London Olympics will find that the chasm between British and American English can seem as large as the ocean that separates the two nations. Here’s a primer: BRILLIANT - The land that gave us the poetic cadence of William Shakespeare now places everything into one of two categories: brilliant and rubbish. Shades of gray are not permitted. Brilliant does not mean smart or ingenious. It can mean anything from “OK,” “great” or “fun” to “stop asking questions.” Each of the 542 British Olympic athletes is likely capable of using the phrase 10 times in a single press conference. BROLLY - Essential British accoutrement also known as an umbrella, carried by men and women alike daily without embarrassment. See weather. FOOTBALL - A way of life not related to the American game with helmets. Balls are propelled forward by everything except hands and arms, unless you are a goalkeeper or Diego Maradona. Describing this as “soccer” might get your teeth knocked out in a bar fight (see trollied). GUTTED - An emotion beyond “disappointed” but not quite “suicidal.” Unlike fish, British athletes can be gutted more than once. Related to the nation’s historic inability to win football matches on penalty kicks. KETTLE - Electric device used to boil water for tea. Also the British police practice of corralling protesters. THE LOO - The toilet. OVER THE MOON - The opposite of gutted. Something to do with cows jumping. OY TINK - Phrase heard with increasing urgency in bars as the night goes on and the sports debate gets more heated. Alternate spelling: “I think.” PUNTER - Nothing to do with a fourth down. A bettor in a land where casinos are as common as pharmacies. RAIN - See Inuit entry for snow. Too many variations to list.
DARTFORD: Sophie Cox is no stranger to breaking new ground. The first female to play rugby league at London’s Wembley Stadium has now got her heart set on making history again by winning Britain’s first Olympic judo gold medal. “I always like doing things a little differently, being a bit unconventional,” she told Reuters at the British judo training centre in Dartford, just outside London. “I’m always looking for something different and to be the first gold medal that Britain has had in the judo would be amazing.” Back in 1993 and aged just 11, she sent shockwaves through the sport of rugby league with her controversial appearance in a match for “schoolboys” at Wembley, a curtain-raiser to the showpiece English Challenge Cup final. “It does feel like it was just yesterday. It was just an event that happened in my life but now looking back I’m actually ‘wow that’s really good’,” said the 29-yearold, whose father had got her involved in rugby league, popular in the northwest of England where she hails from. “I just started playing at the local club when I was eight-years-old and it was great, I loved it. I must just like rolling around in mud or something,” she laughed. Having turned her focus to judo, she competed at the Athens Olympics in 2004 before turning her back on the sport. But after five years in Thailand, teaching English and dabbling with Thai boxing, the chance of competing in London lured her out of retirement. “There was a feeling of unfinished business. I felt like I had lot to give, I hadn’t fulfilled all the things I wanted to do and one of the things was winning a major medal,” she said. “Obviously the Games being in London was too good an opportunity not to try to go for it again.” She acknowledged it had been very hard to return to the level of performance needed to compete. “I’m feeling ready to put in a good performance and I think if I do I can beat anybody on the day, so I’ll definitely be looking for a medal,” she said. “I know when stepping on that mat it will be the proudest feeling I could hope for.” — Reuters
Keller wants to add more Oly gold to family name BERLIN: Natascha Keller, born into Germany’s bestknown hockey family, has been likened to good wine as she prepares for her fifth Olympics, where it was announced yesterday she will be bearing Germany’s flag. The striker played her first international aged 17 and now, almost 18 years and more than 400 caps later, Keller heads to London in search of a second Olympic gold in what she has said will be her last Games. “I’m proud to have her on my team,” Germany’s women’s team coach Michael Behrmann told Reuters. “She’s like a good wine. She gets better with age.” Behrmann has previously even gone as far as to say the team can only be successful with Keller in it. The playoffs for the German club championship last month made clear what he meant. Keller suffered an injury in the first half of Berliner Hockey Club’s semi-final after scoring a goal that was sub-
RUBBISH - See brilliant. No plural. Conjugate as: “I was rubbish,” “we were rubbish,” “the ref was rubbish,” “the decision to ban me for doping was rubbish.” Occasionally also used to mean “garbage.” STICKY WICKET - A cricket term used to describe when one is between a rock and a hard place. Easily applicable to other sports. TAKING THE PISS - Not to be confused with what is done in the loo. Winding somebody up or playing a joke on them. A favorite ploy of drinkers and sportswriters. TROLLIED - Drunk, as in taking too much from the drinks trolley. Alcohol has fueled so many bar fights in Britain that one firm created a pint glass that doesn’t shatter so it can’t be used as a weapon. WEATHER— See brolly. Also see rubbish.—AP
LONDON: Female Saudi Judo athlete Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani (left) arrives with her father at Heathrow airport in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games. — AFP
Natascha Keller
sequently disallowed. The 35-year-old was off the pitch for much of the game, being treated for her injury, but on her return was straight back into the action. With her team losing 3-0, Keller scored twice to almost change her team’s fate. While some of her younger team mates were in tears well after the end of the match, Keller quickly regained her composure. “Shame, maybe it was my last German championship,” she told the pack of reporters. Given her family, Keller was simply following a welltrodden path when she chose hockey. Her grandfather Erwin won hockey silver at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Her father Carsten was part of Germany’s gold-medal winning team at the 1972 Munich Games, and brothers Andreas and Florian, took gold in 1992 and 2008 respectively. The sports consultant - hockey is largely an amateur sport - already has a gold from the 2004 Olympics in Athens, in an impressive list of honours which includes European championships, the Champions Trophy and being named International Hockey Federation world player of the year in 1999. She is among only a handful of international players whose name has a ring beyond hockey, a marginal sport in much of Europe, and on Wednesday became the fifth German woman to carry the flag at a Summer Olympics, and the first hockey player. “It’s the crowning moment of an already extremely successful career and a homage to the entire Keller family with its unique Olympic history,” said Stephan Abel, the head of Germany’s hockey association. “It’s great for our sport to be presented at the Olympics that way and maybe it will give our sport another push.” Keller is keen to break a recent series of fourth places for Germany after the team, ranked third in the world, missed out on medals at the Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup as well as the last two editions of the biennial Champions Trophy tournaments. —Reuters
How did 11-year-old fly with no ticket and boarding pass? LONDON: An 11-year-old boy who managed to fly from Manchester to Rome without a passport, ticket or boarding pass on the eve of the London Olympic Games has left red faces among airport officials, who are investigating how he did it. Manchester Airport spokesman John Greenway said initial inquiries revealed the boy passed through border controls and ticket checks without documentation on Tuesday just by closely tailing families. He was discovered only after passengers raised concerns mid-way through the flight. Manchester, in northern England, is hosting several Olympic soccer teams playing at the city’s famous Old Trafford stadium. The airport and the airline, Jet2, have suspended several staff. Transport Secretary Justine Greening has demanded a report. “We’ll be looking to rectify [the situation] as soon as possible, making sure it doesn’t happen ever again,” Greenway said. The airport emphasized the boy did not pose a security risk. “He did go through full security screening. So he didn’t present a threat to himself, to other passengers, to the aircraft,” Manchester Airport Director of Communications Russell Craig told Sky TV. The boy was escorted back to Manchester on a return flight and reunited with his parents on Tuesday evening. Spokesman Greenway said the airport has not beefed up security to the level of the international airports around London, which are seeing the bulk of visitors for the July 27-Aug. 12 Games. “But it’s the busy summer period for us so there will be additional security staff on anyway,” he said. Speaking on Sky TV, Transport Secretary Greening said: “We place an incredibly high premium on making sure that security checks are being done and obviously I’ll be very keen to understand exactly what happened in that case.” — Reuters
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Start could determine finish for Bolt and Blake LONDON: Silence will envelop the Olympic stadium on the evening of Aug. 5 while the world’s eight swiftest men crouch in their blocks awaiting the starter’s gun. What happens in the split second after the gun fires and the stadium resounds to the clamor generated by 80,000 spectators will in all likelihood determine the result of the men’s 100 metres final. If Usain Bolt’s troublesome right hamstring has healed and he gets a good start there is nobody in the world who can catch the defending champion. If he takes too long to unwind his long legs and body, his Jamaican club mate and world champion Yohan Blake is the probable winner. The 100 metres is the most unforgiving of all foot races and one mistake by any of the finalists, as Bolt knows from bitter personal experience after false starting at the world championships last year, will mean the race is over. Unlike the theatre, where Hamlet will always die in the final act, unpredictability and the unexpected give sport its special appeal and there are no guarantees that any of the contestants who line up in Saturday’s first round will still be contenders on Sunday night.
But if Bolt and Blake do come through unscathed, Sunday’s final will rival the Carl Lewis-Ben Johnson clash at the 1988 Seoul Olympics for drama and excitement. The field should also feature American Tyson Gay and another Jamaican Asafa Powell who have both run faster than Blake plus the 2004 champion Justin Gatlin who has returned from a doping ban. Jamaica is enjoying a remarkable era in both men’s and women’s sprinting. Jamaicans took five of the six medals at stake in the women’s 100 and 200 in Beijing four years ago as well as the 400 metres hurdles title. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is the defending 100 metres champion and is the world leader this year with a time of 10.70 seconds. Her main challenge is likely to come from the American world champion Carmelita Jeter. Swimming dominates the first week of the Games, athletics the second while gymnastics continues throughout at the North Greenwich Arena. The Chinese won nine of the 14 gymnastics titles at stake in Beijing and seven out of eight in the men’s competition. Japan’s Kohei Uchimura finished second in the all-around competition, after twice falling off the pommel horse, but has
since won an unprecedented three successive world titles. Now 23, Uchimura is known as “Super-mura” and in 2009 and 2011 he finished first in four of the six disciplines. Already the pundits are calling the Japanese the greatest of all time, an accolade that will be confirmed if he performs as expected in London. The swimming features another potentially thrilling individual duel between two athletes from the same country. Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing, will attempt seven events this time before he retires. In two of them, the 200 and 400 metres individual medley, he will come up against Ryan Lochte, who collected five gold medals at last year’s world championships and became the first swimmer to break a long course world record since controversial polyurethane suits were banned. Lochte has featured in a series of photo shoots in which he displays the Olympic rings tattooed on his right bicep and an alligator on his shoulder. The flash playboy image is misleading. There is no more dedicated trainer in or out of the water than Lochte, who believes his time has come. “I have put in
the work and it’s something that I believe so strongly that I know I can make that happen,” he said. Lochte’s 17-year-old team mate Missy Franklin will be in action each day of the competition in an attempt to become the first woman from the United States to win seven gold medals. Australia hope for a reprise of their golden days by winning their first men’s 100 metres freestyle gold since Michael Wendon at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. James Magnussen, the overwhelming favourite, holds the world’s fastest time of 47.10 seconds and believes he could even break the world record of 46.91 seconds set by Cesar Cielo in the now banned swim suit. Other rivalries to add spice to the Games include Britain versus Australia in the cycling and the men’s triathlon in Hyde Park where Britain’s world champion Alistair Brownlee competes against his younger brother Jonathan. The country which produced Francis Drake and Horatio Nelson now possesses 35-year-old sailor Ben Ainslie, who if he wins in Weymouth will equal the four gold medals of the great Dane Paul Elvstrom. Ainslie, who also won a silver at the 1996 Atlanta Games, will represent Britain in the single handed dinghy
Finn class. The Games showcase national strengths in sports which get little international attention outside Olympic years. South Korea, who have won 16 archery gold medals, more than any other country, will display their skills at Lord’s, the spiritual home of world cricket. Cuba, aided by a system which nurtures talent while banning professionalism, has a proud boxing pedigree, Japan sets the pace in judo and China rules the world in table tennis. Ultimately it is individuals, even within the context of a team sport, who are at the beating heart of the Olympics. They include Italy’s Valentina Vezzali, a glamorous figure in a glamorous sport, who bids for a fourth individual foil gold medal. Women’s boxing, an exhibition sport at the 1904 St Louis Games, has finally been included in the programme and four times world lightweight champion Katie Taylor has been selected to carry the flag for Ireland at Friday’s opening ceremony. At the age of 30, Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva is battling to prove she can still pole vault higher than any other woman in the world. And Iranian Behdad Salimikordasiabi will show just why weightlifting is such a gripping spectacle when he competes in the super-heavyweight class.—Reuters
Kiwi pair send ominous warning to rowing rivals WINDSOR: They compare themselves with the All Blacks of rugby fame, and are among the most dominant crews in world rowing thanks to their unbeaten three-year streak. Still, New Zealand pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray aren’t fully satisfied heading into the London Olympics. Murray says they’ve produced some fast races “but I don’t think we have showed how fast we can actually be.” For their rivals at Dorney Lake, that’s a scary thought. Bond and Murray were part of the New Zealand four that finished seventh at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, then decided to switch to the pair. The results have been sensational. They haven’t lost in 14 World Cup or world championship finals and such has been the ease of their victories since 2009 that they are comfortably New Zealand’s best hope of a gold medal in London. Their closest challengers, Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge of Britain, were so disillusioned at finishing second to Bond and Murray that they decided in April to join the British four crew for the Olympics. “We put the most expectations on ourselves,” said Murray, who last year set a world record on an indoor rowing machine. “We’ll be the most disappointed if things don’t go the way that we want them to. “But that’s what happens when you are successful. The All Blacks have expectations on them every week. You’ve got to win, got to win, got to win.” It’s even got to the stage where their coach, Richard Tonks, has dispensed with any dramatic pre-race pep talks. “You watch on TV and you saw (former New Zealand rugby coach) Graham Henry go into the changing rooms and he’s telling the boys what to do and this and that,” Murray said. “But Richard, he just stands there, and we sit there and look at him. He’s looking at us. Still waiting. And then he goes, “Ah well, go on the water and do
what you’ve always done.’ “And that’s pretty much our pep-talk.” The “kiwi pair,” as they are known on Twitter, lead arguably New Zealand’s finest ever squad of rowers into the London Games. The country has never won multiple rowing gold medals at an Olympics. But with Mahe Drysdale among the favorites in the single sculls, the lightweight double sculls (Peter Taylor and Storm Uru) performing impressively in the World Cup regattas and Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan back to form in the double sculls, that could change. There are also medal chances in the women’s squad through the women’s lightweight double sculls (Louise Ayling and Julia Edward), the women’s pair (twotime world champions Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown), and Emma Twigg in the single sculls. “Rowing has historically been a popular and successful sport in New Zealand,” said Bond, speaking in glorious sunshine in the garden of the plush, mock-Tudor house the Kiwis are renting two kilometers from Dorney Lake. “We had a bit of a lean patch and it went away but come 2000, Rob Waddell won the Olympics in Sydney and then we had the Evers-Swindell twins who won in ‘04 and ‘08. “Everyone used them as a benchmark. We have multiple people here who are in world champion crews and have the capability to go far. It’s been an evolution and I guess we’ve been lucky there are some naturally talented people in there as well.” None seem to be more talented, or dominant, as Bond and Murray. They are refusing to say whether they will still be together after London - “I think the marriage is getting a little bit stale, but he hasn’t cheated on my yet,” Murray joked. “I think we have surpassed all our expectations,” Murray said. “But we’re not quite there yet.”—AP
WINDSOR: United States women’s eight team train before the 2012 Summer Olympics in Eton Dorney. —AP
Moroccan Selsouli tests positive LONDON: Moroccan 1,500 metres runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli has tested positive for a banned diuretic and will miss the London Olympics, the governing body of international athletics said yesterday. Selsouli, a silver medallist at the world indoor championships this year, has already served a two-year suspension for doping and now faces a lifetime ban under World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) rules. The 28-yearold became the hot favourite to win 1,500m gold in London when she ran three minutes 56.15 seconds to win the Paris Diamond League at the Stade de France earlier this month. It was the fastest 1,500 metres time since 2006 and shaved more than four seconds off her personal best, raising question marks that were answered yesterday. “The prohibited substance furosemide was found in Mrs Alaoui Selsouli’s sample collected... in Paris on 6 July 2012,” a
spokesman for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said in a statement. “Alaoui Selsouli has waived her right to the B analysis, and as a result has now been provisionally suspended from all competition in athletics. “In accordance with IAAF Rules, she still has the right to request a hearing which needs to be held by the Moroccan Athletic Federation within the next three months.” Selsouli was banned for two years in August 2009 for using the banned performance enhancing blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO). Diuretics are used to mask the presence of illegal drugs that are screened for doping testing by concealing their presence in the urine sample. WADA said on Tuesday that more than 100 athletes were caught doping and sanctioned in the months leading up to the London Olympics in a drive to eliminate cheats before they reach the Games.—Reuters
LONDON: An athlete dives during a diving training session at the Aquatics Centre ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.—AFP
LONDON: A jogger runs past the Olympics Rings hanging from Tower Bridge in London days before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games. —AFP
Are 2012 Games one too many for London? LONDON: When the curtain goes up on the Olympic Games on Friday it will confirm London’s place as the only city to host the summer sporting spectacle three times. But could it be a Games too far? London hopes to show off the city as a dynamic 21st century metropolis with shiny new buildings, nestling alongside the historic capital of Shakespeare and Dickens with its palaces and cathedrals. For some critics, though, the Games represent a poisoned chalice. “London would, in a perfect scenario, wish to convey to the world that this is an historical city but a city equipped to face the 21st century,” Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University, said. “But this is the wrong stage in history and the British don’t do these things very well.” London politician Andrew Boff said London 2012 was “one Olympics too many”. “It always was an Olympics we did not really need,” he added. “London is not a city that needs to be put on the map.” The Games has cost the British taxpayer more than 9 billion pounds ($13.97 billion)at a time of economic downturn, when Britons have had to tighten their belts and they have seen public services pared to the bone. Public resentment against the Games has been heightened by concerns about how an already cramped and creaking transport network, some of which dates back to the 19th century, will be able to cope with an additional million passengers a day. Some of that ire will also be direct-
ed at the specially designated Games Lanes which open on Wednesday, designed to whisk 82,000 athletes, officials, dignitaries, media and sponsors to stadiums on time, but which will exclude other motorists and taxi drivers. The threat of strikes by some train drivers and border staff have added to the perception of a city overstretching itself. The capital is also threatened with a security lockdown, as many of the world’s leaders and top dignitaries, including first lady Michelle Obama, arrive for the opening ceremony. Security was always going to be an issue after four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on London’s transport network the day after the capital was awarded the Games in July 2005. Tensions were also going to be high as 2012 is the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Munich attack by Palestinian militants that killed 11 Israeli Olympic team members. The Games also face a potential threat from dissidents unhappy with the Northern Ireland peace process. Britain is to deploy an array of air, navy and military defences, raising questions about civil liberties. Residents in east London, near the Olympic Park, have tried to prevent missile batteries being placed on the roof of their apartment block, without success. Up to 9,000 extra police will be walking the streets of London, while more than 17,000 troops will be deployed after a botched private security recruitment drive. Police and politicians say they will do all that is necessary to deliver a safe and secure Games. But the failure of private con-
tractor G4S to recruit its contracted numbers in time to guard venues embarrassed not only the firm, but also the government and London Olympic organisers (LOCOG), coming just days before the Games were due to begin. The story dominated headlines around the world and could damage the government’s aim of using the Games to lure inward investment and tourists. Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested the Games could generate 13 billion pounds over four years. The official cost of the Games has trebled since its initial estimate, with some observers suggesting it could be as high as 12 billion pounds. This is at a time when Britons are struggling with a double-dip recession, rising unemployment and severe public spending cuts. But organisers say the Olympics have helped regenerate a previously run-down part of east London, where unemployment is high and educational skills are low. The Games will not be so lavish as Beijing’s in 2008, but it will certainly be more extravagant than the last time London staged the Games in 1948, since dubbed the “austerity Games”. World War Two had crippled the government financially and left large parts of the capital a scarred bomb site. Building materials were in short supply and no new venues or athletes village were built. London 2012 will also be more spectacular than the first time the city staged the Olympics in 1908, which was organised by aristocrats and largely funded by an entrepreneur. In
neither case did the British government stump up any money, and both made a profit. The 1908 Games cost 15,000 pounds, excluding the 60,000 pound new stadium which was privately funded, while total receipts amounted to 21,500 pounds. The 1948 Games, held amid rationing and post-war gloom, cost 732,000 pounds, while receipts were 762,000 pounds.“Qualitatively and quantitatively this is in a different universe to the previous two,” Cashmore said about the 2012 Games. About 6.5 billion pounds has been spent on transport infrastructure ahead of the 2012 Games, while in 1908, an era of Edwardian opulence, the only transport improvement was the extension of a train link. British athletes were expected to make their own way to competition in 1908, though Olympic cars for dignitaries made an appearance in 1948. Some environmental and human rights groups have targeted 2012 sponsors, but in 1908 demonstrations were thin on the ground. “There was very little in the way of public protest, that I am aware of,” Bob Wilcock, vice chairman of the Society of Olympic Collectors, said. “There were public disturbances. During the closing ceremony, there was trouble in the stands and the police had to intervene, but it was very minor. It was rowdiness, drunken revellers.” London politician Boff still believes London 2012 will be a “fantastic Games”. “It will be great,” he said. One thing London 2012 may not be able to emulate. In 1908, Britain topped the medals table.—Reuters
Female fighting focus pleases medal hopeful LONDON: Part-time actress, part-time tiler, fulltime women’s boxing trailblazer, British flyweight world champion Nicola Adams has a lot on her plate. The diminutive Leeds local is currently basking in the spotlight as one of 36 female boxers taking part at the Olympics for the first time. Finally knocking down the last male-only Olympic sport, all eyes will be on the 29-year-old Adams and the 35 other women taking part, intrigued to see how popular the bouts will be. “It is nice to get recognition for what we are doing, we have been boxing a long time and it is really nice to get that recognition and support now,” Adams told reporters at Olympic Park on Wednesday. “It is doing wonders for the sport. “Once amateur boxing got announced as an Olympic sport, in England participation doubled so after the Olympics I am hoping it trebles and just goes through the roof.” With only three categories-flyweight, lightweight and middleweight-for the
women in London, qualifying was tough. Adams went to China in May and battled through the flyweight category, facing world and European champions who had either slimmed down or bulked up to try to qualify for one of the Olympic flyweight places. She claimed silver after losing to China’s Cancan Ren, the Olympic favourite, in the final. Never one to drink from a glass half-empty, the cheerful Adams wants future Games to include more weight categories so her fellow fighters have a chance to live ‘the Olympic dream’. “It would be nice to see more weights for the next Olympics for the people who could have made my weight, or the other weights, to get the chance to compete in the next Olympics, that would be great. “(In qualifying) I had the five-times world champion Mary Kom, the Russian two-times world champion and European champion (Elena Savelyeva), Cancan Ren-world champion, everybody is a champion.” Given the number of talented fighters who
Nicola Adams failed to squeeze into the few qualifying places, Adams believes the sport can only grow and with a global audience tuning into the London Games a viable women’s professional product could flourish. “Women’s boxing has come from strength-tostrength over the years, we have done really good and to think that it is in the Olympics shows just how far it has come,” Adams said.—Reuters
Spain seeks French support as eurozone crisis deepens Page 23
China end-June jobless rate steady at 4.1% Page 24
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
Toyota sold 4.97m vehicles in first half Page 25
Iran cuts spending to help sanctions-hit economy Page 22
FRANKFURT: In this Sept. 2, 2009 file picture the Euro sculpture is seen in front of the European Central Bank ECB in Frankfurt, central Germany. Demand for loans from business and consumers remains weak in Europe in the face of the continent’s debt crisis, a closely watched European Central Bank survey showed yesterday. — AP
ECB policy talk lifts shares Poor US corporate earnings to dominate Wall Street for fresh cash from the ECB, increasing its from Germany and Britain, which reinforced cent in the second quarter of 2012 after firepower without additional government the view that the European Union’s biggest contracting by 0.3 percent at the start of the Inflation below economies were being dragged into the year, much worse than forecasts. funds. “The economy looks to be badly holed ECB President Mario Draghi has long mire of the debt crisis. 4% in second German business sentiment dropped in below the water line at this stage. It’s a far poured cold water on the proposal and legal problems could also prevent such a July for the third straight month to its low- worse period of activity than we’d expecthalf of 2012: KFH move, but Nowotny’s comments show the est level in over two years, according to the ed,” said Peter Dixon, an economist from
LONDON: Signs the European Central Bank is open to changing the way it tackles the region’s growing debt crisis lifted the euro and European shares yesterday but deepening economic gloom kept a lid on the gains. Weak corporate earnings also set the stage for a mixed open to trading on Wall Street. The rise in European assets came after ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said there were arguments for giving Europe’s new permanent rescue fund a banking licence, enabling it to borrow unlimited central bank money, boosting its capacity to prevent the crisis spreading. The single currency saw its strongest gains of the month on the comments, rising 0.85 percent to $1.2165, although the outlook remains weak and it is only just above a two-year low of $1.2042 hit on Tuesday. “We take little solace from the fact that one member of the ECB is suddenly working up to the fact that we need a bigger firewall. That argument has been out there for two years, and it’s not met with much response yet,” said David Page, senior economist at Lloyds Bank. Granting the fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), a banking licence means it could exchange bonds it buys to support highly indebted countries
crisis is forcing policymakers to at least consider options they have previously shunned. Investors are worried that the firepower of the new fund would be quickly exhausted if, as widely expected, Spain needs a full sovereign bailout on top of the rescue deal for its banks. The pressure on the central bank was also highlighted in its quarterly bank survey which showed fears about the euro zone’s future have made companies and other borrowers nervous about taking on credit and investing in their businesses. The Nowotny comments were enough to end a three-day selloff in European share markets and lifted the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index by 0.2 percent at 1,020.69 points. The MSCI world equity index was little changed at 303.65 points though it has fallen 2.7 percent this week as concerns about the impact of Europe’s problems on growth spread across the world. The gains in the euro and regional equities came in the face of weak economic data
latest survey by the Munich-based Ifo think tank. The monthly survey of some 7,000 companies, produced an Ifo index reading of 103.3 for this month from a revised 105.2 in June. “Today’s Ifo index sends a clear warning that even the most solid ship can capsize in a rough thunderstorm,” Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING Group said. “With austerity-driven slowdowns coming now also to most other core euro zone countries, an obvious cooling of the Chinese economy and a still not very dynamic US recovery, order books are emptying and companies have started to reduce stocks,” he said. Britain’s economy is also suffering heavily from the impact of the euro zone crisis on business and consumer sentiment. The UK tipped into a second recession within four years at the end of last year, and second-quarter data out Wednesday showed the situation had worsened. The Office for National Statistics said Britain’s gross domestic product fell 0.7 per-
Commerzbank. Sterling fell sharply after data, hitting a 12-day low of $1.5469 and pushing the euro to a 6-day high against the UK pound of 78.40 pence. Worries about Spain’s ability to fund itself as it faces rising demands from regional governments for help overcoming spiraling deficits were undiminished but Nowotny comments did ease some of the pressure on Spanish debt. Ten-year government bond yields eased 10 basis points to 7.54 percent, and equivalent Italian debt yields fell 16 bps to 6.49 percent. While 10-year German bond yields were higher, rising 6.3 basis points at 1.297 percent, after an auction of bonds maturing in 2044 was met with poor demand. Greece was also back in the headlines with inspectors from the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund in Athens to decide whether to keep it hooked up to a 130-billion-euro lifeline or let it go bust. —Reuters
Zain Group increases stake to 37% in Zain KSA through rights issue KUWAIT: Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC (“Zain Group”), a leading regional telecoms player operating in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa, serving over 40.3 million active customers, yesterday confirmed that it has increased its shareholding in Zain KSA to 37.045% through participation and oversubscription in Zain KSA’s rights issue which completed on 17th July 2012. Zain Group, which previously owned 25% of the Saudi Arabian mobile operator, subscribed to its full entitlement in the Zain KSA rights issue through the conversion of USD 400 million of shareh o l d e r d e b t a n d ove r s u b s c r i b e d by $346.93 million, at the issue price of SAR 10 per share. Zain Group’s post rights issue shareholding is now confirmed at 37.045%. Zain KSA commenced operations in 2008, building on the expertise of both Zain Group and its local team. The company currently has around 7.4 million subscribers as of 30th June 2012 and a
network covering 90% of the KSA population. The rights issue was part of a wider capital restructuring process to improve the capital structure of Zain KSA, with the proceeds raised being used to invest in network capacity and services as well as to repay certain financial obligations. These improvements are designed to create the highest quality network as well as a network infrastructure for the new era of mobile usage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for the benefit of both current and future customers. Zain KSA’s Ex traordinar y General Assembly M eeting had recently approved the reduction of Zain KSA’s capital from SAR 14 billion to SAR 4.801 billion, before increasing it by SAR 6 billion through a rights issue. Nabeel Bin Salamah, Chief Executive O f fi ce r o f Z ai n Gro up sai d: We are delighted to have participated in Zain KSA’s rights issue and to have increased our shareholding in the Company, as the
Saudi market is set to play a central role in the Group’s growth plans and regional consolidation. As a leading mobile telecom operator, with a commercial presence in eight markets and a leading position in five, we recognise the significant opportunity in the Kingdom, particularly in the area of mobile broadband, and are pleased to further support the development of this business as it builds its position in this important market. In this vein, we will continue to ensure that Zain KSA, with its experienced management team, is able to leverage synergies from across the Group, be that in resources, shared international connectivity infrastructure, expertise and brand equity. Zain KSA’s detailed plans for the future are founded upon the financial flexibility and investment potential that will be delivered by the successful completion on its Rights Issue. The company is already showing operational improvements and we are confident it will continue to do so.”
Nabeel Bin Salamah
KUWAIT: Inflation rate in Kuwait is expected to remain between 3-4 percent throughout the second half of fiscal 2012 with government subsidies and other forms of financial support yielding fruit, said the monthly report of Kuwait Finance House (KFH) yesterday. The KFH report added there was notable drop in inflation rate in May when it came to 2.8 percent on the heels of said subsidies and sharp drop in credit volume with tougher lending policies adopted by banks. This is close to April’s 3.3 percent amid global drop in food prices, coupled with stability in real estate prices and rent rates with surplus in supply. The food stuff sector, which accounts for 18.3 percent of the consumer price index in Kuwait, saw a slight drop to 3.6 in May, compared to 6.3 in April pushed down by global drop in food prices. Continued economic ambiguity and forecasts of continues ample supply pushed prices downwards. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food price index had been revised and brought down 1.8 percent month-on-month in June. The KFH report added improvement in agricultural products supply according to World Bank estimates would lead to further drop in prices. “It is expected that price of agricultural products would drop 11 percent (annual basis) in 2012.” Average price for wheat and corn for this year was expected to come down 9 and 12 percent respectively (annual basis) compared to 2011, and there would be drops in prices of other goods as well, according to the KFH estimates. The report also said that average price of home products and services, which accounts for 14.7 percent of the consumer price index, slipped 1.9 percent (annual basis) in May, which indicates state subsidies and other forms of financial support to consumers are showing positive effect. As for housing sector prices, which is the biggest chunk of 26.7 percent of the consumer index, the bank predicted inflation rate would remain at 1.6 percent amid drop in rents due to surplus in supply, both in residential and commercial real estate sectors. The bank foresees further drops in rent rates for apartments and offices in the near future, with completion of many development and construction projects in the few coming years. It meanwhile noted a sharp drop in the number of approved housing loans as a result of local banks’ enforcing tougher more reserved policies. — KUNA
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
BUSINESS
Iraq blacklists Chevron for Kurdish oil deals BAGHDAD: Iraq hit out at Chevron Corp over its just-signed oil contract with Kurdistan, barring it from any oil agreements with the central government in a move meant to deter other companies from dealing directly with the semiautonomous northern region. Baghdad has long held that contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are illegal, and last year Exxon Mobil Corp aroused its anger by striking a deal with the region while also running a project at a supergiant oilfield in the south. Baghdad retaliated by banning Exxon from an exploration tender in May. Chevron followed its larger rival into Kurdistan last week, and Baghdad’s action on Tuesday will be closely watched by other oil majors, such as France’s Total, which is widely expected to be the next to make a Kurdish oil
play. “In line with Oil Ministry policy based on the constitution, the Oil Ministry announces the disqualification of Chevron company and bars it from signing any deals with the federal Oil Ministry and its companies,” the Oil Ministry said in a statement. Last week, Chevron said it would purchase 80 percent of two blocks in Iraq’s Kurdistan, an area where oil rights are a subject of fierce dispute. Responding to the ministry’s rejection, Chevron highlighted its near-decadelong relationship with Iraq’s government, having started a technical assistance program in 2003. “Our goal is to help Iraq achieve its objectives for the oil and gas industry by participating in opportunities that meet our investment criteria,” Chevron said in a statement. Yet whatever the impact on goodwill, Chevron has no
material stake in the south to lose at the moment. The second-largest US oil company was qualified to take part in Iraq’s four oil and gas licensing rounds, but chose not to. The company found the commercial terms of Iraq’s service contract unworkable, but - like other investors - found the production-sharing contracts on offer in Kurdistan more attractive, industry sources said. Chevron has said it will continue to monitor opportunities in both the north and south of Iraq. Iraqi oil officials said the company had shown interest in developing the giant southern Nasiriyah oilfield, which was not offered in any of the tenders. “The reputation and credibility of Chevron and other companies are being tested today, and we are fully confident the result of its test is a total
failure and it should feel ashamed of its action,” the Oil Ministry statement said. Kurdistan said in June that it expected more oil majors to follow Exxon in the next few months. Total, which also has a stake in a project in the south, is widely believed to be close to doing a deal. “Total is waiting for the best time to proceed,” said an Iraqi oil executive. “After today’s announcement, they may think twice.” Just last month, Iraq asked US President Barack Obama to stop Exxon from exploring in Kurdistan, saying it could have dire consequences for the country’s stability. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Obama sent a “positive” written response. Seemingly undeterred, Exxon is close to awarding a contract for drilling rigs at its six exploration blocks in Kurdistan, said Iraqi oil sources. As part
Deutsche Bank sees end of ‘sukuk premium’
Iran cuts spending to help sanctions-hit economy To focus on domestic production TEHRAN: Top Iranian government officials and lawmakers agreed in a meeting yesterday to budget cuts in a bid to shore up an economy struggling with Western sanctions and inflation, media reported. “The conclusion of yesterday’s meeting between the economic officials of the government and lawmakers is to minimise the effects of sanctions,” Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said
Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme. “Not only will we not revise our calculations, but we will continue on our path with greater confidence,” he was quoted as saying by state media. “Iran retreating (from its policies) regardless of justifications or excuses, or showing flexibility, will only embolden the enemy,” he said. The closed meeting came amid
the Western sanctions are the principal cause. “ The reality is that problems exist in Iran, but we should not blame them on each other but we should solve them through unity ... (Officials) should refrain from useless quarrels and from publicising them,” Khamenei said. The United States and the European Union this month severely ramped up their sanctions
TEHRAN: Iranians shop in central Tehran yesterday as top government officials and lawmakers in the Islamic republic agreed in a meeting to budget cuts in a bid to shore up an economy struggling with Western sanctions and inflation, media reported. —AFP after the talks also involving oil, commerce and agriculture ministers, and the central bank chief, the official IRNA news agenc y reported. He said “we agreed to cut budget spending ... and focus on domestic production.” Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed late Tuesday, in a meeting with the regime’s senior figures, that Iran would not cede to the pressure exerted by the West over
increasing news reports in Iran highlighting economic hardships, despite a directive two weeks ago from the culture and Islamic guidance ministry warning media to avoid reporting on the impact of the sanctions. Khamenei, who dubbed this year the year of “domestic production and the support of Iranian investment and labour,” and other senior officials are beginning to admit to economic pain, but deny
on Iran with the aim of strangling its oil-export dependent economy in a bid to force it to roll back its nuclear activities. The sanctions are expected to cut Iranian oil exports by 40 percent, according to the International Energy Agency. They have also greatly pushed up the price of imported goods after the Iranian currency lost nearly half of its value against the dollar this year, aggravating already high inflation.
of its deal announced last week, Chevron is buying the Sarta and Rovi blocks from India’s Reliance Industries Ltd , making it the new partner of Austria’s OMV AG , holder of the other 20 percent interest. Baghdad has a long-running dispute with the KRG over oil, land and sharing revenues and insists that it has the sole authority to manage oil fields and sign deals in the north. As well as Total, Norway’s Statoil is looking at KRG exploration blocks, industry sources have said. A move into the north by a third big oil name could be a tipping point. “Chevron has no contracts in the south, so that’s likely to minimise the fallout,” an oil industry executive said. “If Total joins the procession, that will signal the transition from a trickle to a flood.” —Reuters
The effects of the inflation could be seen in media photos of long lines at state distribution centres for subsidised chicken, whose price in normal supermarkets has nearly tripled in the past year. “We don’t eat a lot of red meat because it’s not healthy. But now chicken has also become expensive. We eat chicken just two times a week and make more vegetable dishes,” one shopper, a 57-year-old woman who gave only her first name as Pouran, told AFP. “Now, when we invite people, we have them over after dinner because everything’s become so expensive,” she said. Inflation is officially put at 21 percent but estimated by outside analysts to be much higher. Bread, taxi and energy prices have all risen markedly. Some Iranian officials attribute the painful price rises to government mismanagement. Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, for instance, said last week: “The country’s economic problems are only 20 percent due to the sanctions. Unfortunately, the main origin of the inflation comes from the maladroit application of the plan to suppress subsidies.” The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has since 2010 been phasing out state subsidies on petrol, food and energy, offsetting them with cash handouts to most of Iran’s population. The latest phase of the subsidy cuts was suspended this month. Authorities instead are deploying measures to make staples-such as meat, chicken, animal feed, powdered milk and medicine-more affordable for the population by aligning their import price to the fixed official exchange rate, which is 40 percent cheaper than the open-market currency rate. Other, non-essential, imported goods would be priced higher under a three-tier exchange rate system. —AFP
DOHA: The “sukuk premium” - the additional cost which borrowers must pay to issue an Islamic bond instead of a conventional bond - has effectively disappeared, and this will stimulate a boom in sukuk issuance while lengthening tenors, a senior executive at Deutsche Bank said. “I don’t think there is an Islamic premium anymore,” Salah Jaidah, head of Islamic finance at the bank and chief country officer for Qatar, said in an interview this week. Until late last year, sukuk issuers commonly paid a premium because they catered to a smaller investor base and because investors were not as familiar with sukuk structures as they were with conventional bonds. This year’s heavy investor demand for sukuk, due to the appetite of cash-rich Islamic investment funds and the Gulf ’s growing reputation as a relatively highyielding safe haven, has transformed the market. Many high-grade credits - such as Qatar, in its record $4 billion deal this month - now pay less to sell sukuk than they would for conventional bonds. Jaidah said the shift in the market’s perceptions was not temporary. “This trend will continue,” he said. Sukuk issuance volumes regionally as well as globally have already surpassed last year’s total, including Qatar’s issue, which was the largestever dollar-denominated sukuk and on which Deutsche Bank was lead arranger and bookrunner. Global dollar- denominated sukuk issuance so far this year stands at $12.8 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data, the vast majority from the Gulf Arab region; total dollar sukuk issuance last year was $11.2 billion. Deutsche Bank placed fourth in the Thomson Reuters Islamic debt capital markets league table rankings for the first six months of this year, up five places yearon-year. It is ranked third in the Middle East DCM ranking. Jaidah said that in addition to stimulating issuance, the new popularity of sukuk would permit issuers to lengthen tenors beyond the five years which was previously used for the vast majority of issues. “Sukuk will be attractive for longer maturities, and used for infrastructure spending, for example. This is very encouraging. It will allow a lot of issuers on the
conventional side to tap Islamic markets.” Governments making plans for their debut issues of international sovereign sukuk include Turkey and South Africa, as well as other sub-Saharan African nations. “Many nations are looking at issuing sovereign sukuk, even non-Middle Eastern nations. We think North Africa will also be very active when it comes to issuing sovereign sukuk,” said Jaidah, who was previously Qatar Islamic Bank’s chief executive. “A lot of sovereign transactions will be more liquid. It’s an opportunity to create more liquid sukuk. This liquidity is an added attraction of the sukuk market.” He declined to discuss specific mandates but noted that for first-time sukuk issuers, the process to enable them to print a deal can be a long one. “We’re focusing on readying potential issuers for sukuk. We’re exploring, we’re convincing, the clients are learning.” Sovereign and quasi-sovereign borrowers from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are among the most frequent Gulf issuers of debt; international corporate issuance from the Gulf has lagged. Partly because of the sukuk boom, however, Jaidah expects this to change. This year, Dubai’s Majid Al Futtaim Holding, a rare investment-grade, private corporate issuer, has printed two debt deals, while Saudi Electricity Co sold a $1.75 billion sukuk in the first dollardenominated deal from Saudi Arabia since 2010. Deutsche Bank and HSBC were mandated on that deal. “We see corporate sukuk issuance as a trend. They will be medium-sized transactions but most of the family-owned corporates are exploring short- to medium-term funding options,” Jaidah said. “Kuwaiti banks may be an area of growth in future as none of the Kuwaiti banks have tapped the sukuk market yet.” Although Kuwaiti corporates have been increasingly active in their domestic debt markes, international issuance has not been forthcoming. Deutsche Bank is also look ing for opportunities to grow its Qatar business, which it considers an “anchor” country for the firm. “The potential projects in the pipeline will demand more ser vices,” Jaidah said. —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 US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso
.2797210 .4341140 .3390920 .2822760 .2747220 .2880150 .0050240 .0021460 .0761870 .7422620 .3956460 .0746120 .7268320 .0466200
.2851140 .4424830 .3456290 .2877180 .2840180 .2935680 .0051200 .0021880 .0776560 .7565720 .4032730 .0760500 .7408440 .0475190
CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2812000 .2833000 .4364080 .4396670 .3408850 .3434300 .2837680 .2858870 .2761740 .2782360 .0458160 .0461580 .0405370 .0408400 .2895380 .2917000 .0362490 .0365200 .2233160 .2249840 .0035930 .0036200 .0000000 .0050880 .0000000 .0021740 .0000000 .0030080 .0000000 .0034780 .0765900 .0771620 .7461850 .7517580 .0000000 .4007070 .0750070 .0755670 .7306740 .7361310 .0000000 .0067920
Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar
SELL CASH 292.700 751.680
SELL DRAFT 291.200 751.680
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 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
10 Tola
Sterling Pound US Dollar
3.730 278.700 555.100 46.000 46.900 167.800 48.140 345.600 37.140 5.330 0.032 0.161 0.237 3.710 400.540 0.191 91.700 43.600 4.340 224.900 1.831 47.700 734.190 3.100 6.980 78.180 75.410 225.390 36.490 2.692 442.000 41.500 287.700 4.400 9.290 198.263 77.060 283.000 1.360 GOLD 1,695.390 TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 440.000 282.600
3.451 277.200
225.400 46.571 344.100 36.990 5.015 0.031
400.510 0.190 91.700 3.180 223.400
734.010 3.003 6.730 77.750 75.470 225.390 36.490 2.157 440.000 286.200 4.400 9.100 76.960 282.600
UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal
SELL DRAFT 294.51 281.95 289.17 345.07 282.00 441.81 3.68 3.455 5.030 2.161 3.168 2.990 76.85 750.87 46.52 401.76 733.93 77.87 75.41
SELL CASH 294.00 282.00 288.00 344.00 282.85 442.50 3.63 3.580 5.295 2.380 3.650 3.150 77.35 750.00 48.10 399.00 736.00 78.00 75.65
Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit
Selling Rate 282.550 280.485 439.385 341.575 284.300 748.045 76.905 77.555 75.310 398.295 46.563 2.154 5.012 2.995 3.453 6.688 693.100 4.610 8.980 4.405 3.270 88.925
Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Currency Rate per 1000 (Tran) US Dollar 282.600 Pak Rupees 2.987 Indian Rupees 5.020 Sri Lankan Rupees 2.165 Bangladesh Taka 3.457 Philippines Peso 6.750 UAE Dirhams 77.050 Saudi Riyals 75.520 Bahraini Dinars 751.300 Egyptian Pounds 46.565 Pound Sterling 445.500 Indonesian Rupiah 2.990 Nepali rupee 3.205 Yemeni Riyal 1.550 Euro 348.000 Canadian Dollars 285.600
Al Mulla Exchange Currency 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
Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 282.400 343.850 439.850 278.610 3.650 5.025 46.575 2.158 3.447 6.710 2.993 751.540 76.900 75.350
*Rates are subject to change
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
BUSINESS
Boeing Q2 net income up, raises outlook NEW YORK: Boeing Co. posted an unexpected 3 percent improvement in second-quarter net income on strong sales of commercial airplanes. The results surprised Wall Street and the company raised its earnings forecast for the year. The results announced before the markets opened Wednesday eased investors’ fears of an imminent slowdown in the company’s defense unit, which produces Chinook helicopters and F-18s among many other aircraft models. They also highlighted strong growth in the company’s commercial airplane unit which has been rapidly increasing the pace of production for some planes to meet demand.
Shares rose more than 2 percent in premarket trading. The Chicago company reported net income of $967 million, or $1.27 per share, for the April-June period compared with $941 million, or $1.25 per share, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 21 percent to $20 billion from $16.54 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $19.28 billion. Defense revenue rose 7 percent, while revenue in the commercial airplane division jumped 34 percent. The divisions are roughly the same size, but some observers fear they will go in opposite directions.
Boeing’s defense unit is vulnerable to potentially severe military spending cuts in January. The cuts would be automatic unless Congress agrees to an alternative for cutting the deficit. The military would face $492 billion in cuts over a decade, with domestic spending reduced by another $492 billion over 10 years. But it’s clear the unit is still holding strong. The second-quarter revenue growth is about the same as Boeing saw in the first three months of the year. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin had reported second-quarter results that surprised Wall Street earlier.
Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, meanwhile, is rapidly speeding production and deliveries of its new 787. That will move planes that have been mostly finished, but undelivered, out of inventory and turn them into cash. Boeing is also booking firm orders for its new 737 Max, a redesigned version of its classic 737. For all of 2012, Boeing Co. now expects to earn $4.40 to $4.60 per share, up from between $4.15 and $4.35. Still, that new forecast is mostly under what Wall Street is banking on. Analysts predict $4.57 per share, on average. Its shares rose $1.97, or 2.7 percent, to $74 in premarket trading yesterday. — AP
Britain sinks deeper into recession than forecast Osborne warns of ‘deep-rooted economic problems’
PARIS: Protesters use megaphones during a demonstration of French car maker Peugeot PSA employees and unions against the planned layoffs and plant closing yesterday near the PSA headquarters in Paris. — AFP
France to boost clean cars as Peugeot details losses PARIS: France will boost support for environmentally friendly cars as part of a recovery plan to be unveiled yesterday amid growing concern for the country’s crisis-hit auto industry and top carmaker Peugeot. Highlighting the difficulties facing the French auto sector, PSA Peugeot Citroen announced Wednesday it had suffered a first half net loss of 819 million euros ($989 million), more than reversing a year-earlier net profit of 806 million euros. The recovery plan, which was to be presented Wednesday and parts of which were seen by AFP, includes a range of measures to boost cleaner vehicles amid hopes French carmakers can carve out a niche in the market. But it also contains hints of protectionism, with France planning to ask the European Union to put its 2010 Free Trade Agreement with South Korea under surveillance to “defend the interests of the French automobile industry.” The plan will boost consumer bonuses for purchasing electric cars from 5,000 euros to 7,000 euros and for hybrids from 2,000 euros to 4,000 euros. It will see the government commit to 25 percent of its new vehicles being electric or hybrid and provide for financing facilities for manufacturers and suppliers suffering from a major drop in European car sales. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government had chosen to “go on the offensive” with the plan, which he said was “extremely ambitious”. “This is part of our very great determination to see the automotive industry recover, this is an extremely important act,” he said. Peugeot, France’s biggest carmaker and the second-largest in Europe, had been expected to announce a first-half net loss
but the final figure was more than double analysts’ expectations. Peugeot said overall revenues were down 5.1 percent in the first half to 29.6 billion euros while the auto division alone suffered a net loss of 662 million euros. Sales in Europe fell 15.2 percent. The company, which has already announced 8,000 job cuts in France, said it will implement a 1.5-billion-euro cost reduction plan through to 2015. The costcutting plan will include 600 million euros in savings from reorganising French production, which includes the job cuts, reductions in capital spending and savings from a tie-up with US giant General Motors. “The group is facing difficult times,” Peugeot chief Philippe Varin said. “The depth and persistence of the crisis impacting our business in Europe requires the launch of the reorganisation of our French production base and a reduction in our structural costs,” he said. After the results, agency Fitch said it was lowering its rating on Peugeot’s long-term debt by one notch to BB, with a negative outlook. President Francois Hollande’s new Socialist government has attacked Peugeot’s strategy and called the job cuts “unacceptable.” The cuts announcement sparked anger among France’s powerful unions and dealt a blow to Hollande’s efforts to get the economy back on track amid concerns the country might be heading for a recession after an expected contraction in the second quarter. Peugeot, which employs 100,000 people in France, is a key symbol of the country’s industry and its problems highlight France’s difficulty in competing with rivals with lower labour costs.—AFP
LONDON: Britain’s economy shrank far more than expected in the second quarter, battered by everything from an extra public holiday to government spending cuts and the neighbouring euro zone crisis. Finance minister George Osborne said figures released yesterday showed Britain had “deeprooted economic problems”, adding that the slump in the second quarter was disappointing even when taking into account one-off factors that hurt. Britain’s gross domestic product fell 0.7 percent compared with the first three months, the sharpest fall since the height of the global financial crisis in early 2009, the Office for National Statistics said, showing a bigger drop than any of the economists surveyed in a Reuters poll last week had expected. Output in Britain’s service sector-which makes up more than three quarters of GDP-contracted by 0.1 percent in the second quarter after growing 0.2 percent in Q1 2012. Industrial output was 1.3 percent lower, while construction which accounts for less than 8 percent of GDP-shrank by 5.2 percent, its biggest drop since the first quarter of 2009. The figures confirmed that Britain remains mired in its second recession since the start of the financial crisis, with the economy shrinking for a third consecutive quarter. The broad-based slump will fuel pressure on the government to get the economy growing again after a crisis that has left many Britons poorer with rising prices and higher taxes eating up meagre wage increases. However, Osborne believes he has no money left for a meaningful spending boost, having staked his reputation on a tough plan to eliminate a budget deficit, still around 8 percent of GDP. The lack of growth also puts this goal into question. Sterling hit its lowest in nearly two weeks against the dollar after the data, and two-year government bond yields hit a record low on speculation that the Bank of England may have to provide more economic stimulus than expected. The central bank has already embarked on another 50 billion pound programme of gilt purchases with newly created money to soften a grim economic outlook, but the dismal numbers boosted speculation that it may cut interest rates later this year. “This is terrible data. Frankly there’s nothing good that comes out of these numbers at all,” said Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank. “The economy looks to be badly holed below the water line at this stage. It’s a far worse period of activity than we’d expected,” he said.
Britain is due some kind of boost over the coming months as production looks set to rebound from the hit from the extra public holiday to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee in June, and from the ticket sales and visitors’ spending during the London Olympics that it is hoped will boost growth. But the overall outlook remains poor. Many Britons have reined in spending since the crisis and business are holding back investment as the lack of demand and fears about the spillovers from the euro zone crisis weigh on confidence, with the lack of credit hurting smaller firms. “There are a great many so-called ‘zombie businesses’ teetering on the edge and operating on fine margins, and many directors are becoming increasingly weary after several years of tough trading,” said Julie Palmer of business recovery and restructuring specialist, Begbies. But business surveys have so far painted a less dire picture of the economy, and unemployment has been falling over the past few months, leading some economists to voice doubts about the official data. The Confederation of British Industry’s monthly survey showed that manufacturers’ order inflow unexpectedly improved in July, though their quarterly survey showed dwindling confidence among firms about their outlook. The CBI’s director-general, John Cridland, said businesses were not reporting a sharp contraction in outlook. “The overwhelming view is that right now the economy is flat rather than negative, and there is potential for Britain to get back into growth later in the year,” he said. The ONS said it was too early to provide an
LONDON: Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, visits a construction site of the Crick Institute in London, shortly before the second quarter GDP figures were released yesterday. Britain is suffering a far deeper recession than thought, official figures showed in a development that is likely to increase the pressure on the government to ease up on its tough austerity approach. — AP
Spain seeks French support as eurozone crisis deepens PARIS: Beleaguered Spain was to seek French support in the face of its soaring borrowing costs yesterday as Europe’s economic crisis deepened with a slump in German confidence and worsening British recession. After talks in Berlin Tuesday, Spanish Finance Minister Luis de Guindos was to meet French counterpart Pierre Moscovici in Paris as the eurozone tries to contain fears Spain may be headed for a full bailout. In Berlin, de Guindos and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had issued a joint statement saying Spain’s borrowing costs do not correspond to its economic strength or the “sustainability of its public debt”.
A German finance ministry spokesman said there was no question of Spain seeking a new bailout, saying: “This is wrong, it is not on the agenda.” Storm clouds were meanwhile gathering over Europe’s top economy, with data showing that business confidence in Germany dropped again in July as companies grow increasingly wary of fallout from the eurozone debt turmoil. The Ifo economic institute’s closely watched business climate index dropped to 103.3 points in July from 105.2 points in June, a slightly steeper decline than analysts expected. It was the third month in a row the index fell. New data also showed that Britain, a eurozone out-
MADRID: Government employees demonstrate against the Spanish government’s latest austerity measures, in the center of Madrid, yesterday, after conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced, on July 13, the latest measures to lower Spain’s deficit, a 65-billion-euro (80 billion USD) austerity package involving among other things an increase in the VAT (TVA) tax and cuts in unemployment benefits. — AFP
estimate of the Jubilee effect, but warned that this and the wettest spring on record added “uncertainty”, increasing the scope for revisions. Before the data, economists had pencilled in a 0.4-0.5 percent hit, meaning that at least some of the fall in second quarter output represents an underlying contraction. The weak economy remains the biggest headache for the government and the opposition Labour party seized on the latest slump to reiterate its call for a change in policy. “We need some action from the chancellor (finance minister), not excuses ... and digging a deeper hole for the country,” Labour finance spokesman Ed Balls said in a BBC interview. Last week the International Monetary Fund slashed its growth forecast for Britain by more than those for any other advanced economy, and warned the government and BoE that they will need to rethink their approach if the economy fails to pick up by early next year. Eliminating Britain’s structural budget deficit over the next five years is the central political goal of Britain’s coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, but the opposition Labour Party says the pace is too rapid. Over the past month the coalition and BoE have announced several measures to ease the flow of credit to households and businesses, as the euro zone debt crisis saps demand in Britain’s major export markets. But for now, any change to the fiscal austerity programme is opposed both by finance minister Osborne and BoE Governor Mervyn King, who fear it could trigger a loss of confidence in Britain’s commitment to long-term deficit reduction. — Reuters
sider but closely connected to the bloc’s economies, suffered a worse-than-expected 0.7 percent contraction in the second quarter as recession tightened its grip. De Guindos’s meeting in France comes after Spain sparked anger Tuesday by issuing a statement reportedly on behalf of Madrid, Paris and Rome expressing impatience at a delay in major eurozone financial reforms. France and Italy immediately denied they had joined in the call, which would have likely been interpreted as a thinly disguised challenge to Germany. The reforms are part of an accord struck in Brussels in June that paves the way for the eurozone’s 500-billion-euro ($600 billion) bailout fund to recapitalise ailing banks directly, without passing through national budgets and adding to struggling countries’ debt mountains. But this can occur only after a Europe-wide banking supervisory body is set up, with leaders aiming for that to happen by the end of the year. Thee ratings agency Moody’s on Tuesday delivered bad news for the bailout fund-the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) — by lowering its outlook from stable to negative, a day after threatening the triple-A credit ratings of Germany, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. The EFSF, which was established with a total lending capacity of 440 billion euros, is to be replaced eventually by a 500-billion-euro permanent rescue fund called the European Stability Mechanism. Economists increasingly agree that a eurozone bailout of up to 100 billion euros agreed for Spain’s banks will be insufficient to get the country through the crisis brought on by a collapse of its real estate boom in 2008. One Spanish region, Valencia, has already requested help from the 18-billion-euro fund set up by the central government to rescue struggling regions and another region, Catalonia, has indicated it may do the same. Spain’s borrowing costs have hit their highest level since the country adopted the euro, with yields on 10year government bonds hitting 7.621 percent Tuesdaynear the levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek EU-IMF bailouts. Analysts said Spain needs either a bailout or market intervention by the European Central Bank to force its borrowing costs down by buying bonds.—AFP
Sanctions to shut India, Iran shipping company MUMBAI: Anti-Iran sanctions are forcing a shipping company backed by the governments of India and Iran to close, the company said yesterday. The Irano Hind Shipping Co., jointly owned by the Shipping Corp. of India and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, was formed in 1974 and is among the few international ventures to survive the 1979 Islamic Revolution and decades of economic and diplomatic pressure from the West. “ The fleet will be split between the two partners,” said S. Hajara, chairman and managing director of Shipping Corp. of India. “Irano Hind will cease operation.” Hajara said sanctions have made it too difficult to operate the fleet’s seven vessels. “Charters don’t want to take vessels which are under sanctions,” he said. “The company is having difficulty deploying the vessels and that’s why the decision has been taken.” He said the decision to dissolve the company was made last week at an Irano Hind board meeting and must be approved by the two governments and the United Nations. India is one of the main targets of US attempts to chip away at Iran’s critical commer-
cial lifelines across Asia. In May, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited New Delhi to urge leaders to cut back on oil imports from Iran about 9 percent of India’s fastrising energy consumption and turn to other suppliers such as Saudi Arabia. The breakup of Irano Hind which was placed under UN sanctions in 2010 - shows how even longstanding companies can quickly become unhinged by the widening sanctions. The joint venture - owned 51 percent by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and 49 percent by the Indian side - was formed by Iran’s former Shah Reza Pahlavi and the late Indira Gandhi of India as a bond of friendship. Last week, the US Treasury Department cited IRISL for trying to evade sanctions “through deceptive practices” such as shifting the registry of its ships to avoid monitors. The US and its allies have pressed nations with traditions of easy maritime registry - socalled flags of convenience - to shun Iranian vessels. Last month, Sierra Leone became the latest to revoke flags for Irano Hind’s tanker Amin, Treasury said. — AP
24
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
business
Morocco struggles to withstand eurozone crisis RABAT: After a decade of prosperity, Morocco is suffering the knock-on effects of the debt crisis in Europe, its largest trade partner, cutting growth forecasts as prices rise and social discontent simmers. Depressed revenues from the key tourism sector, a slowdown in foreign investment and remittances from Moroccans working abroad, and a widening trade deficit are among the mounting economic woes facing the North African country. A harsh drought has also badly affected agricultural output this year, which along with a 20 percent rise in petrol prices has driven up the cost of food. Reflecting the lingering discontent, thousands took to the streets of Rabat on Sunday, after months of relative calm, chanting slogans criticising the Islamist-led government and protesting against unemployment, high prices and corruption. Similar demonstrations were held in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city and economic capital. The World Bank, in a report published in June, said around 30 percent of Moroccans aged between 15 and 29 — who account for 44 percent of the working age population-were unemployed. And central bank Governor Abdellatif alJouahri last month lowered the growth forecast for 2012, to less than three percent from the 4.2 percent forecast in the budget. But on Monday, Finance Minister Nizar Baraka downplayed the worrying economic figures, pointing instead to a five percent growth rate over the past 10 years and insisting Morocco’s competitiveness and stability made it part of the solution to Europe’s problems. Normally “when Europe sneezes, Morocco gets a cold. But now Europe has a
cold and Morocco is far from being sick,” Baraka told a conference in Casablanca. Morocco’s per capita income, he said, rose between 2001 and 2011 from 15,700 dirhams (1,430 euros) to 26,151 dirhams (2,382 euros), accompanied by a fall in the rate of unemployment to 8.9 percent in 2011 from 12.5 percent in 2001. The country has also mostly been spared the unrest that swept North Africa last year, toppling the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. King Mohammed VI managed to contain the protest movement by introducing significant reforms to curb his near-absolute powers, culminating in November elections that saw a moderate Islamist party win most seats and head a coalition government. The finance minister acknowledged that fluctuating global commodity prices were a threat to the Moroccan economy, which lacks hydrocarbon reserves of its own and depends heavily on oil and grain imports. European head winds-”Above all, Morocco must deal with the vulnerability of its economy ... to the strong volatility in the price of raw materials,” he said. The central bank, in a report earlier this month, said the trade deficit in the first half of 2012 rose 7.1 percent on the same period last year, to hit 100 billion dirhams (9.1 billion euros). It blamed the high price of energy and raw materials for rising import costs, while Europe’s economic malaise has weighed heavily on exports and remittances from Moroccans working abroad, according to the bank. Meanwhile, the budget deficit could remain as high as six percent of GDP this year, the central bank noted, after reaching that level last year, a record caused in part by growing subsidies, notably on food.— AFP
China end-June jobless rate steady at 4.1% Official jobless surveys omit migrant workers BEIJING: China’s urban jobless rate held steady for the eighth straight quarter at 4.1 percent at the end of June, the labour ministry said yesterday, even after the economy cooled to its slowest growth rate in three years. The measure is China’s only official unemployment indicator but many analysts say the figure grossly underestimates the true number of jobless because it omits about 160 million migrant workers from its surveys. China created 6.94 million new jobs in urban areas in the first half of 2012, accounting for 77 percent of its annual target of creating 9 million new jobs in 2012, Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, told a media briefing. Yin said 2.94 million urban workers were re-employed in the first six months, meeting 59 percent of the annual target to have 5 million unemployed workers move back into jobs, according to a live webcast of the briefing. China’s job market has remained relatively tight so far this year, partly reflecting the country’s demographic shifts, compared with 2008/09 when a sudden collapse of exports sent some 20 mil-
lion Chinese migrant workers homebound. There is no massive return home of immigrant workers so far, but some smaller firms are on the verge of cutting jobs and the countr y also faces “a more acute mismatch” between demand and the supply of highly-skilled
workers, Yin said. “More labourers will enter the job market in the second half and employment pressures will grow bigger,” Yin said. “ We will closely monitor changes in the second half and take some timely measures to
SHANGHAI: A woman stands outside a retail store along a street in Shanghai yesterday. China’s economy will rebound in the second half of 2012 to expand eight percent annually as government policies to spur growth take effect, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday. — AFP
ensure basically stable employment,” he said, adding slowing economic growth tends to have a lagging impact on the job market. Many college graduates are struggling to find jobs. China’s Premier Wen Jiabao warned last week that the job market could turn for the worse and the government must step up efforts to create more employment. The government has vowed to create 85 million jobs in urban and rural areas between 2012 and 2015 while holding the jobless rate under 5 percent, underscoring its resolve to stave off any unrest that may flare up as China’s economy slows. Maintaining social stability is crucial for Beijing as the country heads into a once -in-a-decade leadership transition. China’s annual economic growth hit a three-year low of 7.6 percent in the second quar ter. The HSBC Flash China manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 49.5 in July from 48.2 in June, close to the 50 level that divides expansion from contraction, but the employment sub-index, deteriorated versus June, sinking further below 50 to its lowest level since March 2009. — Reuters
Hitachi inks British high-speed rail deal TOKYO: Japan’s Hitachi will supply nearly 600 train carriages for Britain’s intercity high-speed rail project in a deal worth £4.5 billion ($6.99 billion), the company and the British government said yesterday. The giant conglomerate won the project along with British partner John Laing in 2009 but negotiations had been delayed after a change of government in Britain. The firms will supply 92 complete trains-comprised of 596 carriages-to replace the ageing fleet on Britain’s inter-city rail networks, with Hitachi holding a 70-percent stake in the consortium while John Laing has 30 percent. “I am extremely pleased that after a long period of negotiations, we have been able to complete the formal contract for this project,” Hitachi president Hiroaki Nakanishi said in a statement.
The firm said it would construct a new factory and several maintenance depots in Britain to service the fleet, which can reach speeds of 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour) and alternate between electric and diesel power. “With a considerable reduction in weight per seat when compared to the trains currently running on the line, the fleet of trains will use less energy to deliver improved journey times,” it said. Hitachi, whose products range from microchips to railways, has been shifting its business focus from consumer electronics to more stable, large-scale infrastructure projects abroad. Hitachi said it would build the new factory in Newton Aycliffe in northern England to assemble the train cars, and aimed for the plant to be fully operational by 2015. The facility is expected to
create 730 skilled jobs in addition to 200 jobs during construction of the plant, according to a statement from Britain’s department for transport. “The decision to build almost 600 new inter-city train carriages is great for rail passengers who will experience faster and more comfortable journeys when travelling across Britain on the East Coast and Great Western main lines,” British Transport Minister Justine Greening said in the statement. The project will replace Britain’s current fleet of InterCity 125 High Speed Trains originally rolled out by British Rail in the 1970s and 1980s, the department said. “A new train factory is fantastic news for Britain and will be welcomed by everyone who wants to see a thriving UK manufacturing sector,” Greening said. — AFP
Malaysia hospital firm IHH in strong market debut KUALA LUMPUR: Shares in Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare jumped by over 10 percent yesterday as Asia’s biggest hospital operator made its stock market debut in the world’s third-largest IPO this year. IHH shares closed at 3.09 ringgit ($0.97) in Kuala Lumpur, 10.4 percent above the 2.80 ringgit offer price for the float, which has raised $2.0 billion. The stock had opened at 3.07 ringgit. The company is being dual-listed in Malaysia and Singapore. IHH’s Singapore-listed shares ended at around its opening price of 1.22 Singapore dollars ($0.96), also about 10 percent up from the offer price. Analysts had forecast a strong debut thanks to expectations for growth in demand for quality medical services from Asia’s expanding middle class. Fast-growing IHH employs 24,000 people in 30 hospitals and clinics in Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, China and other Asian markets. “The outlook for them is very positive. We have a growing awareness of healthcare needs in Asia so the demand is there and is increasing,” said Ooi Chin Hock, a dealer with Malaysia’s M & A Securities. “It is the right industry to be in now. There is a lot of growth potential.” The offering is the world’s third-largest this year after social networking giant Facebook and Malaysian plantations operator Felda Global Ventures. Facebook raised $16 billion from its IPO (initial public offering) in May but its shares plummeted afterwards. Felda raised $3 billion last month and its stock soared on its debut.
Felda and IHH went ahead with listing despite the volatile world economic environment, which has delayed other major public offerings in Asia, including a planned $2.5 billion Formula One listing in Singapore. And IHH’s shares on Wednesday bucked the gloom on world markets linked to the eurozone’s woes. IHH expects double-digit growth over the next five years, particularly in China and possibly eastern Europe, the company’s managing director Lim Cheok Peng told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. Besides the 4,800 hospital beds now in its portfolio, the company says another 3,300 are in the pipeline either through new developments or expansion projects. “We are just starting our journey. I’m sure in time to come we are going to create more value for our shareholders,” Lim said. Like Felda, the IHH listing is part of a plan to divest Malaysian government-linked companies. IHH, which is majority-owned by Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, has reserved 62 percent of its offering for 22 so-called cornerstone investors. The Felda and IHH listings have helped make Kuala Lumpur’s exchange a bright spot this year in an otherwise gloomy world IPO scene. Global accountancy firm Ernst and Young has said the exchange, Bursa Malaysia, was the third-biggest in terms of funds raised in IPOs in the second quarter of 2012, after NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.— AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: Chairman of IHH Healthcare Abu Bakar Suleiman (2nd, L) hits a gong to mark the company’s listing debut at Malaysia Stock Exchange in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Shares in Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare jumped nearly 10 percent as Asia’s biggest hospital operator made its stock market debut in the world’s third-largest IPO this year. — AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
BUSINESS
India to lead talks on EU airline carbon scheme: IATA NEW DELHI: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects India to lead global talks on the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the organisation’s head said, sympathising with the country’s objections to the proposal. Two Indian airlines failed to meet a March 31 deadline to comply with the ETS, which requires carriers flying to or from Europe to offset their carbon emissions, but has prompted an outcry from some in the industry.
“Introducing a divisive regional ETS risks a trade war that nobody can afford,” Tony Tyler, director general of the IATA told a news conference in New Delhi. “India does not appear to be philosophically against the EU ETS. The objection India has is that it is an attempt to wield the EU’s territorial rights. A lot of countries are also of that view. That position is very reasonable.” The two Indian airlines joined eight Chinese
carriers to deliver on threats not to comply with the ETS. More than 1,200 airlines, including US carriers, have met the requirements. Opponents of the law accuse the European Union of imposing an extra-territorial tax and say it sets a dangerous precedent. “The problem with the EU ETS is that it is regional and not a global scheme that everybody agress to,” said Tyler. “We expect that the objectionable elements of the scheme will be withdrawn.”
Tyler added that he believed India had no objection to working towards a non-regional solution to managing the aviation industry’s 2 percent contribution to global man-made CO2 emissions. More than 20 nations opposed to the ETS have grouped together in a “coalition of the unwilling”. They last met in Moscow in February, when they agreed possible retaliatory measures and said they would meet again in Saudi Arabia, although a date has not been confirmed. — Reuters
Asian shares down on European woe Tech shares hit by Apple’s earnings report
BEIJING: In this April 23, 2012 file photo, Toyota cars, including Vios, center, are on display at the Beijing International Auto Exhibition in Beijing before China’s biggest auto show opens to the public on April 27. Toyota said yesterday, it sold 4.97 million vehicles globally for the first six months of this year, a strong result that could see the Japanese automaker regain its crown as the world’s top automaker from General Motors Co. — AP
Toyota sold 4.97m vehicles in first half TOKYO: Toyota sold 4.97 million vehicles globally in the first six months of this year, a strong result that could see the Japanese automaker regain its crown as the world’s top automaker from General Motors Co. The number, released yesterday, underlines Toyota Motor Corp.’s powerful rebound from a period of dismal sales, and the resilience of its brand as it gains traction in new markets such as China and Southeast Asia while clawing back lost market share in the US. Toyota’s production was hit by the quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan last year and then by flooding in Thailand, which is an important production base for the automaker. Before those disasters, its sales were dented by massive US recalls, totaling more than 14 million vehicles since the quality control problems emerged three years ago. GM, which was No. 1 in world auto sales last year, plans to release first-half global sales Aug. 2. Its vehicle sales will total 4.56 million, even if it merely matches the first-quarter pace, and will likely approach 4.7 million vehicles, given its strong performance in China and the US, its two largest markets. GM had held the global sales crown for more than seven decades before losing it to Toyota in 2008 as GM’s sales tanked while it headed toward financial ruin. In 2009, GM filed for bankruptcy protection, needing a U.S. government bailout to survive. Volkswagen AG earlier this month said it sold 4.45 million vehicles in the first half. It came in second after GM in global vehicle sales last year. GM had already trailed Toyota for the first quarter of
this year at 2.28 million cars and trucks across the globe, while Toyota sold 2.49 million vehicles. Toyota has forecast that it will sell 9.58 million vehicles in 2012, up 21 percent from last year. Chizuko Satsukawa, auto analyst for Standard & Poor’s in Tokyo, said Toyota faces intense competition not only from GM and Volkswagen but from other automakers, including Hyundai of South Korea. Toyota is counting on its next surge of expansion in Southeast Asia, following other highgrowth markets such as China, India and Brazil, she said. “Toyota’s rebound is impressive,” said Satsukawa. “But what’s even more important than the numbers is profitability.” Satsukawa said Toyota was at a disadvantage because of a strong yen, compared to European and South Korean makers that have the perk of a weak currency that raises earnings from exported vehicles. That makes gaining sales numbers critical for Toyota, she said. Doing well in North America was also critical because that rich market is where many automakers, including Toyota, can hope to rake in hefty profits. After the recall fiasco, Toyota President Akio Toyoda acknowledged that the automaker needed to go back to its roots and strengthen quality rather than pursuing rapid growth at any cost. But in recent months, he has changed his tone slightly, promising growth for Toyota, although he has stressed it will do so with good products. Toyota spokesman Joichi Tachikawa played down Wednesday’s figures. “We can only keep trying to make good products that appeal to our customers,” he said. — AP
HONG KONG: Asian markets fell yesterday and the euro sat near multi-year lows amid growing fears Spain will need a full bailout, while tech shares were hit by Apple’s disappointing earnings report. Japanese shares were also hurt by news the country had posted a record trade deficit in the first six months of the year as energy costs soared and exports to key markets tumbled while the strong yen also weighed. Tokyo closed down 1.44 percent, or 122.19 points, at 8,365.90, Seoul fell 1 . 3 7 p e rce n t , o r 2 4 . 6 2 p o i n t s to 1,769.31, and Sydney lost 0.23 percent, or 9.3 points, to close at 4,123.9. Hong Kong closed 0.14 percent lower, shedding 25.87 points to 18,877.33, and Shanghai eased 0.49 percent, or 10.44 points, to 2,136.15. Eyes are firmly on Europe, where Madrid remains in focus as its borrowing costs for benchmark 10-year bonds reached 7.621 percent on Tuesday, well inside the danger zone considered too much to sustain. The figure is also around the levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts, raising the prospect that Spain will have to go cap-in-hand. Economists fear help for Spain, one of the region’s biggest economies, could cost more than the previous three put together, putting pressure on the eurozone bailout fund. And they are increasingly in unison that a eurozone bailout of up to 100 billion euros agreed for Spain’s banks will be insufficient to get the country through the crisis brought on by a collapse of its real estate boom in 2008. More bad news came as Moody’s lowered the outlook on the EU’s bailout fund from stable to negative Tuesday, a day after threatening the triple-A ratings of Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, three of the eurozone’s top guarantors. The euro remained under pressure, sitting at 12-year lows against the yen and two-year lows against the dollar. In late Asian trade the common currency fetched $1.2090 and 94.56 yen, compared with $1.2063 and 94.28 late Tuesday in New York, where it had touched lows of $1.2050 and 94.08 yen. The dollar was at 78.20 yen against 78.17 Japanese yen. The rolling crises pressed on Wall Street, which saw the Dow close 0.82 percent lower, the S&P 500 fall 0.90 percent and the Nasdaq drop 0.94 percent. Adding to the downward pressure on US stocks was Apple’s announcement that quarterly profit rose 20.5 percent to $8.8 billion on hot iPad sales-below forecasts.
Japan posts record first-half trade deficit TOKYO: Japan posted a record first-half trade deficit of $37.3 billion yesterday as energy costs soared and exports to key markets slumped, while analysts warned of further pain for the next six months. As the country struggles to recover from last year’s quake-tsunami and nuclear crisis, costs have shot up while income has plummeted owing to the rolling debt crisis in Europe and a stuttering recovery in the United States and a strong yen. The 2.9 trillion yen deficit stemmed largely from energy costs, with the resource-poor nation seeing a nearly 50 percent jump in purchases of liquefied natural gas and a 16 percent increase in crude oil shipments, the data showed. Japan has struggled to meet its energy needs and has turned to pricey fossil fuel alternatives after its nuclear reactors were switched off following the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant caused by the March 11 quake-tsunami. “Japan’s trade balance continues to show a trend of weak exports and extreme sensitivity to import prices, such as those of crude oil,” said RBS Securities chief Japan economist Junko Nishioka. “The crisis in Europe is posing a growing risk to Japan’s economic recovery scenario.” In the first half, Japan’s imports rose 7.4 percent on-year, while exports grew just 1.5 percent. The country’s trade surplus with the European Union during the first half was at a record low, according to the ministry, as vehicles and semiconductor shipments dived. Europe is a major market for a wide range of Japanese products and Tokyo has repeatedly warned that the continent’s economic woes would directly impact its recovery prospects. May saw a bigger-than-expected trade deficit of about 907 billion yen, Japan’s first monthly trade deficit with the European Union since records began in 1979. Adding to the downward pressure on exports is the strengthening yen-which is at a 12-year high against the euro-as investors flock to the safe haven unit owing to uncertainty over the global outlook. Last year it touched a record high against the dollar. The rise has prompted Tokyo to repeat warnings that the currency was overvalued, with officials in recent days hinting that they may intervene again
in foreign exchange markets. In afternoon Asian trade on Wednesday, the yen was at 94.39 against the euro and 78.18 on the dollar. “While exports to Europe and China were already weak, we now see that export (growth) to the US may also be declining,” Hideki Matsumura, economist at Japan Research Institute, told Dow Jones Newswires. “I believe Japan will post another annual trade deficit. We’re already in the red looking at the last six months, and it’s too late to regain our losses.” Data for June alone, however, saw Japan post a better-than-expected trade surplus of 61.7 billion yen, instead of the market forecast for a 135 billion yen deficit, the official data showed. But while it was the first surplus in four months,
with the exports of vehicles and auto parts rising, some analysts said even those figures were less than encouraging for the world’s third-largest economy. “The trade deficit in the first half came from a larger scale of imports, but in June we are seeing something more fundamentally worrying,” said Taro Saito, a senior economist at NLI Research Institute. “Exports are weakening, in particular with the United States,” he told AFP. “The trade surplus is only temporary. The economy will start logging a deficit from next month.” In June, exports to the United States, namely cars and auto parts, rose 15 percent from a year ago, well down from previous months. “The US was the only driver for growth in the global economy, but it is now losing steam,” Saito said. — AFP
TOKYO: A cargo crane unloads containers from a ship at a quay in Tokyo yesterday. Japan posted a record trade deficit of about $37.3 billion in the first half of the year as soaring energy costs weighed on the world’s third-largest economy and exports to key markets slumped. — AFP
Revenues rose 22.5 percent to $35 billion, also below expectations of more than $37 billion. The firm blamed the underachievement on customers putting off buying the iPhone ahead of the expected release of iPhone 5 later in the year. Asian tech firms with links to Apple were hit by the report. In Japan, Sharp slumped 10 percent, with concerns over its upcoming earnings also weighing, while LG Display lost 4.751 percent in South Korea. Tokyo released figures showing a deficit of $37.3 billion in the first half of the year, with imports of energy surging as the country’s key atomic reactors remained switched off following last year’s nuclear crisis. The debt troubles in crucial market Europe affected overseas shipments, while the yen’s rally against the euro and dollar also hit export firms. On oil markets New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, declined 26 cents to $88.24 a barrel in late afternoon trade and Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September fell 11 cents to $103.31. Gold was at $1,592.40 at 1045 GMT from $1,573.81 late Tuesday. In other markets: Singapore closed down 0.25 percent, or 7.52 points, at 2,990.92. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp shed 0.75 percent to Sg$9.29 while Singapore Airlines gained 0.19 percent to Sg$10.69. Taipei fell 29.22 points, or 0.42 percent, to 6,979.13. Hon Hai Precision shed 4.32
percent to Tw$81.9 while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co was 0.27 percent lower at Tw$74.6. Manila ended flat, nudging up 2.06 points to 5,161.80. Ayala Corp fell 1.0 percent to 411 pesos and SM Investments dropped 2.7 percent to 720 pesos while property developer Megaworld gained 4.7 percent to 2.23 pesos. Wellington ended flat, edging down 1.73 points to 3,458.98. Air New Zealand slipped 1.7 percent to NZ$0.895, Fletcher Building was off 0.7 percent at NZ$5.77, and Telecom Corp gained 1.6 percent to NZ$2.565. Kuala Lumpur was up 0.15 percent, or 2.52 points, at 1,635.09. Newly listed IHH Healthcare rose 10 percent to 3.09 ringgit, KL Kepong added 1.9 percent to 24.16 ringgit, and PPB gained 1.8 percent to 15.48 ringgit. Jakarta closed up 0.22 percent, or 8.73 points, at 4,000.84. Telkom rose 1.1 percent to 8,950 rupiah, gas distributor Gas Negara jumped 1.3 percent to 3,825 rupiah, and Bank Permata increased 2.88 percent to 1,430 rupiah. Bangkok added 0.08 percent, or 0.98 points, to 1,188.62. BANPU dropped 2.27 percent to 430.00 baht, while PTT lost 0.93 percent to 318.00 baht. Mumbai fell 0.43 percent, or 72.03 points, to 16,846.05. Jindal Steel fell 4.33 percent to 396.75 rupees while its larger rival Tata Steel fell 2.41 percent to 387.45 rupees. — AFP
TOKYO: Pedestrians walk past an electronic share prices board in Tokyo yesterday. Tokyo stocks closed down 1.44 percent yesterday, hitting a seven-week low as the benchmark index was weighed by a strong yen and eurozone concerns as well as losses on Wall Street. — AFP
Vote seals Hong Kong purchase of LME LONDON: London Metal Exchange (LME) shareholders voted convincingly yesterday to accept a $2.2 billion offer by the Hong Kong bourse for the 135-year-old British institution, underscoring a global shift in manufacturing to China, Asia’s economic powerhouse. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEx) and the LME announced on June 15 they had agreed on an acquisition that would give LME members a gateway to China, the world’s biggest metals buyer. The LME is the largest marketplace for materials such as copper, aluminium and zinc. “The deal with HKEx, Asia’s leading exchange, will secure the LME’s position as the world’s foremost metals trading venue,” said Martin Abbott, chief executive of the LME, who is set to stay on after the deal is concluded later this year. At an extraordinary general meeting early on Wednesday, 64 shareholders voted yes and three voted against, the exchange said, giving a concrete result after some last minute decisions. As late as Monday, more than one significant shareholder had still been undecided. Many shareholder members, who own and use the exchange, which dates from a time when Britain and not China was the workshop of the world, have feared the 1.4 million pound sale might alter its unique, complex structure of futures trading and low fees. At the LME, besuited men and a few women still use arcane hand signals to conduct open outcry trade in copper, aluminium, lead, nickel, tin and zinc around a circular floor in a plain building on Leadenhall Street, near the Bank of England. Michael Overlander, chief executive of major LME shareholder and trading house Sucden Financial, said: “This was the end of an era and the start of a new one.” Not all LME shareholders were pleased at the outcome. “It (the deal) was not what the industry expected,” one executive at a company with a substantial shareholding said, while declining
to elaborate. Others saw clear advantages to moving ahead. “The deal sells itself. No one knows who voted which way, but one can assume from the enormous majority that no significant shareholder voted against,” said Jim Coupland, LME board member and Global Head of Base Metals and Bulk Commodities at Standard Bank. “The exchange evolves over time, this is not the first sea-change that we’ve seen,” he added. HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li has promised that until at least Jan. 1, 2015, HKEx will preserve the LME brand, the open-outcry trading and the structure that many current members believe are crucial to reaching an accurate market price for metals. Concerns over the hefty price tag have partly weighed on the Hong Kong company’s shares, with the stock down 18 percent so far this year, compared to a 2.4 percent rise in the benchmark Hang Seng index. Some analysts have voiced concern HKEx may be over-paying for the LME, which made a net profit of just 7.7 million pounds last year due to the constrained-profit model that was particularly valued by the metals plants and traders who made up the smaller shareholders. For the LME, the deal offers a fast track into China and will strengthen its position in the major market against the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which also trades in base metals. The London exchange has long sought to win approval from China’s regulators to list its warehouses nearer customers in the country which accounts for 40 percent of copper consumption. HKEx Chairman Chow Chung Kong said last month it was preparing to set up metal warehouses in China and launch products using the renminbi currency. HKEx will finance the acquisition of the exchange, where total traded value was $15.4 trillion last year, through its existing funds and with a 1.1 billion pound ($1.7 billion) bank loan. — Reuters
26
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
business
Four KD 5,000 winners of NBK’s Al-Jawhara weekly draws KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announces the four lucky winners in Al-Jawhara weekly draws during the month of July. Badriya Mohamed Al Azmi, Mariam Gholum Dashti, Najat Abd Alnabi AlGhadhban and Betool Ahmad Mohammad Hashem each won KD 5,000. The winners expressed their gratitude and thanked NBK for its great services and promotions. NBK recently re -launched AlJawhara account, by offering customers more chances to win bigger prizes. By offering a KD 5,000 weekly, KD 125,000 monthly and a grand prize of KD 250,000 quarterly draw. Al-Jawhara is one of Kuwait ’s leading cash prize accounts offering numerous benefits to its customers.
Not only is it an interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, it also entitles account holders to enter the weekly, monthly and quarterly Al-Jawhara draws. Each KD 50 in an Al Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance in any of the draws. All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw. The more money held in AlJawhara account, the greater the chances of winning. Al-Jawhara account is available to both Kuwaitis and expats and can be opened at any one of NBK’s branches around Kuwait. For further information visit www.nbk.com, or call Hala Watani at 1801801.
The first prizes draw program based on Islamic Shari’ah principles in Kuwait from AUB KUWAIT: Al-Hassad Islamic is the only scheme to offer high value weekly and monthly prizes that are significantly higher than the total outlay of other prize schemes. AUB has announced the results of the Week ly draws of its Al-Hassad Islamic savings scheme. The lucky customers winning the Grand Weekly prize worth KD 25,000 each at the draws held on the 18th of July, 2012: Abdulla Hamad Al Sulaiti, Mohammad Yousef Al Mutairi, Ismail Ali Ismail . The following Al-Hassad Islamic customers won cash prizes of KD 1000 each: Nasir Zeeb Al Hajri, Mohammed Kunhi K aindar, Nikon Frank Mar x, Jassim Mohammad Al Saffar, Saqr Ahmed Al Hetmi, Jameelah Mohammad Yousef, O wayed Motlaq Al Mutairi, Hessah Saoud Al Hajri, Abdulraheem Hussain Ali, Bader Abdulqader Khaled, Saleh Mohd A.R ahman , Ibtisam Ibraheem Jassim, Abdalla Jawdat Ashour, Hassan Abdulla Fakhroo, Haya Sultan Al Khaldi, Amal Al Mailem, Mohd Ayoub Mohd Hussain, Jaber A.A ziz Abdulla, Zahrah Jassim Taher, Isa Abdulla Nassir, Jalal A.Hussain Ebrahim, Adel A.Rahman Essa, Irene Karpouzidis, Fadhel Hasan Ahmed, Hussain Hasan Majed. With the new Al-Hassad Islamic 2011 scheme, customers have a lot more to look forward to. With 28 Weekly Prizes totaling KD 100,000 each week and “Salary for Life” Prizes every month, the chances to win bigger prizes more often couldn’t get any better. The most attractive feature of the new scheme is the chance to win bigger prizes, more frequently with 3 grand prizes of KD 25,000 each, week on week plus 25 other weekly prizes of KD 1,000. Chances to win big prizes on a weekly basis, offer instant rewards to both existing as well as new Investors in
Investment Saving Account (Al Hassad Islamic). With the introduction of a “Salary for Life” Prize of KD 250,000 every month, the grand prize is also now more frequent and customers do not need to wait for a quarter or more to qualify for the grand prize. The “Salary for Life” has been a core feature for the Al-Hassad Islamic scheme with prizes paid out to date exceeding KD 10 Million. The monthly “Salary for Life” prize has enabled winners to afford better homes, ensure better education for their children and enjoy an improved quality of life, with the assurance that the rewards will continue to come month after month for 250 months. AlHassad Islamic is the only scheme to offer high value weekly and monthly prizes that are significantly higher than the total outlay of other prize schemes in Kuwait. In addition to the attractive prize pool, customers with high balances can opt for other unique features such as Investment savings plan, cheque facility linked to their investment savings account and state of the art e-banking and 24 x 7 Contact Center support. The new Al-Hassad Islamic 2011 is geared to meeting the needs of salaried individuals. Customers can benefit from not only the biggest and most attractive prize pool but can also enjoy state of the art banking benefits and access to AUB’s unique produc ts’ range for Islamic Finances ,credit cards and investment products. All Al-Hassad draws are conducted under the scrutiny of officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and independent auditing firm, Ernst& Young. For more information on the AlHassad Islamic investment savings account, its prize structure and eligibility criteria, customers may visit any AUB Kuwait.
Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive launches exclusive offer to celebrate Ramadan Free warranty, servicing, registration costs on BMW, MINI KUWAIT: To celebrate the commencement of the Holy Month and in line with its commitment to provide its customers with outstanding service, Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive has launched an exclusive Ramadan offer, enabling customers to enjoy worry-free ownership when purchasing BMW and MINI vehicles. The official BMW Group importer in Kuwait is offering customers the chance to buy a new BMW or MINI vehicle throughout the month of Ramadan and receive a free warranty of up to five years or 150,000 km (whichever comes first) and a four-year free servicing package, valid up to 84,000 km (whichever comes first). In addition, all registration costs will be paid by Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, giving customers a convenient and hassle-free start to their BMW Group vehicle ownership. Yousef Al Qatami, General Manager of Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, said: “Customer satisfaction is the foundation of our enduring success in Kuwait. This year’s Ramadan campaign helps support this long term objective and ensures that our customers’ ownership experience is a joyful and very special one. We are delighted to be able to share the special celebrations of the Holy Month with our customers by offering them a premium ownership experience with unmatched value for money - something that they have come to expect from Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive.” The offer is valid from now until the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan at Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive’s BMW showrooms in Shuwaikh and KFH. Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive has had a busy first half to the year with three new model launches: the all-new BMW 6 Series Gran CoupÈ, the latest generation BMW 3 Series and the sixth MINI family member, the MINI
Roadster. The company witnessed a 25% growth for BMW and MINI sales for the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year, signalling the BMW Group brands’ strength in the Kuwaiti market. The importer’s sales team will be available
during the special Ramadan working hours from Saturday to Thursday from 10:00 AM 1:00 PM and from 8:30 PM - 11:30 PM. While the after sales units will operate Saturday to Thursday between 08:00 AM - 2:00 PM and from 8:00 PM - 11:00 PM.
Record Middle East sales for Hyundai in first half of 2012 KUWAIT: Hyundai Motor Company, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing automakers, has announced its best ever first half year sales for the full Middle East region. The company registered an increase of 13% in total sales compared to the first six months of 2011, selling 161,554 vehicles. Hyundai enjoyed increased sales in almost all of the GCC and Levant countries, with Kuwait leading the way with impressive growth of 127%. The Accent, the company’s ever popular midsized sedan, continues to be Hyundai’s biggest selling model across these countries, with sales up 76% with 35,143 units being sold. Bahrain experienced a massive 99% increase in sales, while the UAE saw sales shoot up by 77%, Qatar by 60% and Oman by 48%. With 56,118 cars leaving the show-
room so far this year, Saudi Arabia remains Hyundai’s biggest market in the region, recording a 16% leap in sales. Among the Levant countries, Lebanon and Jordan also enjoyed strong starts to the year with sales up 32% and 31% respectively. Among the models leading the charge for Hyundai are those that make up the company’s luxury car line-up - the Centennial and Genesis - which have experience a combined 60% increase in sales. Sales of the Genesis Saloon have risen by 44%, while Hyundai’s flagship model, the Centennial registered staggering growth of 312%, proving that Hyundai can successfully compete in the luxury car segment. Across the board, Middle East customers are buying Hyundai cars in unprecedented numbers. The company’s trio of SUV models
- the Tucson, Santa Fe and Vera Cruz - experienced a 63% rise in sales across the GCC and Levant, while Hyundai’s new ‘i’ generation of cars, the i10, i20, i30 and i40, saw a combined sales increase of 118%. The biggest selling model after the Accent, was another of Hyundai’s midsized cars, the Azera, which recorded a growth rate of 132%. Tom Lee, Head of Hyundai Middle East’s Regional Headquarters, said: “The levels of quality, reliability and desirability of Hyundai cars have never been so high, and these extremely positive figures reflect the consumer confidence in our brand. Right across the range, whether it be our premium lineup, our SUV models, or our practical saloon cars, Middle East customers continue to choose Hyundai in ever-increasing numbers.”
Mada Communications grows to 130 outlets in a year
STC Group selects Ericsson as global infrastructure partner KUWAIT: STC Group, with its partners Maxis and Oger Telecom and as part of its global synergy creation activities, has selected Ericsson as one of its preferred global partners for network infrastructure development. The collaboration will serve to strengthen ties between the companies, while evolving the Group’s networks to further improve customer experience. The agreement will allow Ericsson to offer its portfolio of network infrastructure equipment through a global price structure based on total business in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,
Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, South Africa and Turkey. “We drive synergies from scale and scope but also from knowledge and foresight to accelerate creativity, development and innovation,” Ghassan Hasbani, Chief Executive Officer, STC International said. “This collaboration with Ericsson mirrors our mutual desire to identify, evaluate and define potential areas for partnership across the many markets that STC is present in. It will help cement our relationship with Ericsson, which will now play a role as a trusted partner and the technology provider
in our efforts to expand our presence not only in the M iddle East but around the world.” “We at Ericsson have always recognized the value of forming cooperative partnerships with our customers in the Middle East and around the world,” Al Eid, President, Ericsson Saudi Arabia said. “This collaboration reflects our focus on consolidating our relationships with a number of key partners and customers in the region. We remain firmly committed to supporting STC International’s requirements here in the Middle East and around the world.”
STC Group, along with the Maxis and Oger Telecom, has reached a leading position in the global mobile and fixed telecommunication markets. In 2010 the groups jointly launched a series of global initiatives focused on capturing synergies across their nine operating companies and on working with best-in-class global suppliers to become preferred partners based on value creating agreements. Saudi-based STC Group already utilizes several Ericsson solutions, and launched its 4G/LTE network in KSA in cooperation with the solutions provider.
KUWAIT: Mada Communications, Kuwait’s only wimax wireless Internet services provider, yesterday announced its partnership with X-cite Alghanim as its newest point-of-sale outlet, bringing the total number of Mada outlets and resellers to 130 locations in 40 areas across Kuwait in just under a year since its launch. Mada began operations in July 2011 with only two outlets, today the company is a leader in non-GSM based mobile Internet, with outlets and resellers in malls, supermarkets, mobile phone shops, online stores, and electronics stores. Mada Communications Marketing Manager Shahad Ibrahim Shahad Ibrahim said: “Mada’s continuous expansion provides customers more options and choices, easily accessible locations and reliable partners they trust to deliver our products and services. Our partnership with X-cite Alghanim is a major milestone in our expansion plans.” X-cite Alghnim currently operates 17 retail outlets in Kuwait, including its flagship store located in Al-Rai. Mada products and services are now available in three X-cite Alghanim branches located at Fahaheel, Farwaniya and Jaleeb.
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
TECHNOLOGY
‘New generation’ of tech-savvy Taleban fighters KABUL: Once seen as uneducated thugs, the Taleban are producing dangerous new fighters who use the latest digital technology to plan and publicise attacks against NATO and Afghan forces, analysts say. The militants recently released a video of a June 1 attack on a US military base in the eastern province of Khost, on the border with Pakistan, showcasing far more developed techniques to plan the assault than previously thought. The footage shows the fighters, in military uniforms, being briefed by their commander using a model and satellite images of the target, For ward Operating Base Salerno. “First we do this operation for God’s sake, second may God accept this (attack) as revenge for the burning of the Koran in Bagram,” the commander tells the fighters. “We will do our best to avoid civilian casualties,” he says after he explains to his
men how they should enter the camp. A huge truck bomb is seen destroying the entrance to the facility, before an assault force enters the base to carry out the second phase of the attackwearing US military uniforms, according to the US-based company IntelCenter. The blast and fighting that followed were filmed from at least three angles, showing the militants’ multiple observation points-and their desire to produce a slick video afterwards for propaganda purposes. Analysts say such organised and complex attacks generate more publicity, require fewer fighters and give the insurgents the appearance of being stronger than they may actually be. “Maybe in some cases they only want the media impact. On other occasions, we say to ourselves that it looks really serious. These videos show that they have real sk ills and technical
knowledge,” a Western official told AFP. The film of the Khost attack was first obtained by Al-Jazeera but later posted on the Taleban ‘s Voice of Jihad website. “Far from showing a Taleban force weakened and on the ropes, the video is a clear reminder that the Taleban maintains the ability to prepare and execute large -scale attacks,” wrote IntelCenter, which monitors jihadist websites. When the Taleban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, almost all electronic products were outlawed as un-Islamic. Photographs of living things were illegal, and ownership of a video player could lead to a public lashing. But now technology plays an essential role in the militants’ reshaped strategy, with carefully-planned surprise attacks in places that previously were spared heavy assaults, said analyst Waheed Wafa. “Five years ago, for instance, the
Taleban would attack in hundreds, mostly in remote towns. But now, 10 fighters can do an even better job in sophisticated attacks in big cities,” he said. “The Taleban also want to show that they are very clean, organised and high-tech, and that comes whenever a par ty in conflict feels that it has a chance to come back to power.” Afghan writer and analyst Waheed Mujda, a former official in the Taleban regime, added: “I t is a new generation of Taleban , they are very high-tech and that is because they face a high-tech army as their enemy. “ They use GPS, they use Google Maps, they use cameras and almost every digital age technology. They can inflict more casualties on their enemy if their attacks are well planned.” NATO’s US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan interior ministry dismissed the video as a prop-
aganda stunt. It is “simply an attempt by the insurgents to sensationalise this action,” ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Guenter Katz told AFP. “What this video really shows is the insurgents’ selfish efforts to recruit and propagandise more young men to needlessly die for a failed cause.” An ISAF spokesman said one US soldier and an Afghan civilian working on the base were killed in the attack, more than 10 American soldiers were seriously wounded and about 115 were slightly hurt. Two buildings were damaged, including the dining room, and 14 insurgents were killed. Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi dismissed the video as propaganda and said it would not demoralise ordinary Afghans. But he told AFP: “It also raises questions where they got all that training and how they obtained about 10 tonnes of explosives.”— AFP
New Mac operating system goes on sale Features borrowed from mobile devices
NASA: Strange and sudden massive melt in Greenland WASHINGTON: Nearly all of Greenland’s massive ice sheet suddenly started melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists. Even Greenland’s coldest and highest place, Summit station, showed melting. Ice core records show that last happened in 1889 and occurs about once every 150 years. Three satellites show what NASA calls unprecedented melting of the ice sheet that blankets the island, starting on July 8 and lasting four days. Most of the thick ice remains. While some ice usually melts during the summer, what was unusual was that the melting happened in a flash and over a widespread area. “You literally had this wave of warm air wash over the Greenland ice sheet and melt it,” NASA ice scientist Tom Wagner said Tuesday. The ice melt area went from 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent in four days, according to NASA. Until now, the most extensive melt seen by satellites in the past three decades was about 55 percent. Wagner said researchers don’t know how much of Greenland’s ice melted, but it seems to be freezing again. “When we see melt in places that we haven’t seen before, at least in a long period of time, it makes you sit up and ask what’s happening?” NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said. It’s a big signal, the meaning of which we’re going to sort out for years to come.” About the same time, a
giant iceberg broke off from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. And the National Snow and Ice Data Center on Tuesday announced that the area filled with Arctic sea ice continues near a record low. Wagner and other scientists said because this Greenland-wide melting has happened before they can’t yet determine if this is a natural rare event or one triggered by man-made global warming. But they do know that the edges of Greenland’s ice sheets have already been thinning because of climate change. Summer in Greenland has been freakishly warm so far. That’s because of frequent high pressure systems that have parked over the island, bringing warm clear weather that melts ice and snow, explained University of Georgia climatologist Thomas Mote. He and others say it’s similar to the high pressure systems that have parked over the American Midwest bringing record-breaking warmth and drought. Ohio State University ice scientist Jason Box, who returned Tuesday from a three-week visit, said he ditched his cold weather gear for the cotton pants that he normally dons in Nevada. “It was sunny and warm and all the locals were talking about how sunny it was,” Box said after getting off a plane. “Beyond T-shirt weather.”— AP
US sees no high-tech trade sanctions violations by UN WASHINGTON: A preliminary US assessment has concluded that the UN ‘s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) did not violate UN sanctions when it sent technical equipment to North Korea and Iran, the State Depar tment said on Tuesday. As two senior US lawmakers accused the Geneva-based agency of stonewalling a US probe into the transfers, the State Department indicated it was satisfied with WIPO’s cooperation on the issue. “Our own preliminary assessment - but we are still seeking more information from WIPO - is that there doesn’t appear to have been a violation of UN sanctions,” department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news briefing. Nuland noted that the transfers had been referred to UN sanctions committees for a final determination and said the United States was seeking more information from WIPO as it probed whether any US laws had been violated. WIPO Director General Francis Gurry has said that the supplied equipment did not violate UN sanctions, although senior US lawmakers have questioned this. Geneva-based WIPO, a 185-member body that includes Iran and North Korea, has in the past provided member states with information technology (IT ) equipment including hardware and general office supplies. The United States said earlier this month that it was reviewing WIPO’s transfers after internal documents showed the organization had sent equipment worth around 50,000 Swiss francs ($52,500) to Iran and a shipment worth somewhat less to North Korea. On Tuesday, the ranking Republican and Democrats on the House Foreign
Affairs Committee accused Gurry of preventing two senior WIPO staff members from testifying before a planned committee hearing, forcing its cancellation. “Director-General Gurry is obstructing this committee’s investigation of WIPO’s transfer of US-origin technology to rogue regimes under international sanctions - a transfer that occurred on his watch,” Republican chair woman Ileana RosLehtinen and ranking Democrat Howard Berman said in a statement. In the July 12 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ros-Lehtinen said she was “appalled” by news of the WIPO transfers and said that her committee planned to launch its own probe into the incident. UN sanctions on Iran and North Korea are designed to curb the development of nuclear technology and prohibit the supply, sale or transfer of a range of materials and technology. Iran is also under much tougher US and European Union trade embargoes. Lawmakers have suggested that United States freeze contributions to WIPO until they are satisfied that the agency is cooperating, although this would likely have a limited impact on the UN agency, which relies on member state contributions for just 10 percent of its budget. Nuland stressed that the Obama administration remained concerned about the WIPO case and had urged the agency to implement better safeguards. But she said the State Department did not believe WIPO was stonewalling on the issue, and listed “positive steps” the agenc y had recently taken including agreeing to independent external project auditing to prevent similar transfers in the future.—Reuters
NEW YORK: Apple Inc. will release its new operating system for Mac computers yesterday, with features borrowed from mobile devices and a tighter integration with online file storage. Dubbed Mountain Lion, the new software narrows the gap between the PC and phone software packages, making Mac personal computers work more like iPhones and iPads. It’s similar to what Microsoft Corp. is doing with its forthcoming Windows 8 system. That system, to be released Oct 26, will bring the look and user interface of Windows Phone to PCs. Mountain Lion will cost $20 and will be sold only as a download. Only computers running the two most recent versions of Mac OS, Lion and Snow Leopard, can be upgraded. Macs bought on or after June 11 can be upgraded for free. Apple previously announced Mountain Lion’s features, but it hadn’t disclosed the exact availability date until Tuesday’s release of its earnings for the April-June quarter. Apple provided no new details in that release. Among the features of Mountain Lion: The new software will have better integration with social networks such as Facebook Inc.’s. It will have built-in features to facilitate sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other services. For instance, you’ll get notifications when you get a message or a mention in a Facebook or Twitter post. You need
NEW YORK: This July 9, 2008 file photo shows buildings reflected in the glass of the Apple Store in New York. —AP to sign in only once, and you can share directly from other apps you are using. Power Nap keeps your Mac updated even while it’s in powersaving “sleep” mode. It will get your email messages, back up your files and download software updates automatically. It will work with recent MacBook Air computers and
the higher-end MacBook Pro model, the one with the sharper, “Retina” display. A new Messages app, copied from Apple’s mobile operating system, will replace iChat. It will allow you to send messages to other Apple users, whether that person is on a Mac or an Apple mobile device. Mountain Lion will
be integrated with iCloud, the new I nternet storage ser vice designed for the mobile devices. The software will bring dictation to Macs, essentially allowing the computer to t ype as you talk . Game Center will store high game scores and help users find opponents on both Macs and Apple mobile devices.—AP
Samsung unveils motion-controlled angry birds app for smart TV KUWAIT : Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital convergence technologies, yesterday announced the global availability of the Angry Birds App for Samsung Smart T V. Developed by Rovio Entertainment, a Finnish entertainment media company, Angry Birds is one of the top smartphone apps worldwide. The game’s fun and colorful characters and engaging gameplay have made it beloved by fans around the world. Since its launch in November 2009, Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, across multiple platforms and all versions of the game. Utilizing Samsung’s Motion Control technology, consumers can play Angry Birds on the large TV screen for the first time ever, and enjoy a maximized, immersive and interactive gaming experience. With just the wave of the hand, fans can control gameplay features including initiating the slingshot and activating the unique skills of each bird. “We are very excited to be the first to introduce the world’s most successful mobile game, Angry Birds, on our Smart TVs. Using Samsung’s Motion Control technology, consumers will be able to experience this game on a completely new level,” said Vinod Nair, General Manager TV
Business, Samsung Gulf Electronics. The first Smart TV game developed to work with Motion Control, Samsung worked closely with Rovio over the past year to apply its advanced technology to the Angry Birds app for
Samsung Smart TVs. Launching worldwide in July, the Angry Birds App for Samsung Smart TV is available on Samsung ES7000 and ES8000 series and can be downloaded from the Samsung app TV store.
Mobile phones help bolster Uganda’s fight against HIV KAMPALA: Stella Nayiga clutches her mobile phone as she describes the messages that she received punctually every morning and evening for over a year, reminding her to take her antiretroviral (ARV) drugs regularly. “The text messages would come twice a day and were saying things like ‘Dear friend, please take care of yourself’ and when you got them you knew it was time to take your medicine,” Nayiga, 28, told AFP. “As a human being you can always forget to take the drugs-maybe not for the whole day but sometimes for some hours-but this service really helps you to remember.” An HIV-positive health worker in the Kampala suburb of Kawempe, Nayiga was part of an innovative scheme that used mobile phones to help remind around 400 patients diagnosed with the virus to take their ARVs regularly. A collaborative project between a local clinic and a Dutch-run non-governmental organisation, the program is part of an attempt in Uganda
to harness the power of mobile technology to help fight HIV. Those involved say that it soon became clear that receiving the daily messages was a big help for the people taking the drugs. “We saw that because of the mobile messaging there was a really tremendous improvement in adherence,” said Samuel Guma, director of Kawempe Home Care, which runs the clinic involved. ARVs-taken twice daily — require a minimum adherence rate of around 95 percent to be truly effective and the SMS scheme saw the number of people taking the drugs correctly rise from 75 percent to over 90 percent. Sitting in an office in an upscale suburb of Kampala, Bas Hoefman, founder of the Dutch-run NGO Text to Change, the organisation behind the text messaging programme, lists the different ways mobile phones can be used to fight HIV. Starting off in Uganda five years ago, Text to Change used SMS quizzes to try and educate people about HIV issues and encourage them to
go for testing-sometimes offering incentives such as phone credit. Since then the organisation has run over 30 HIV-related projects using mobile phones across Africa, such as promoting medical male circumcision in neighbouring Tanzania-and has reached an estimated 1 million people in Uganda alone. “There was a fatigue for people receiving the old messages via traditional media-mobile phones are now so commonly used, especially among the youth, that we realised it was time to repackage the information,” Hoefman said. With mobile phones used for everything from sending money to a rural relative to paying electricity bills, the number of subscribers in Uganda has boomed and now reaches over 40 percent of the population. But while using mobiles may be an effective way to deal with HIV issues, the projects are dependent on foreign donors, and with aid budgets dwindling that means alternative ways of financing the projects need to be found.— AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
H E A LT H & S C I E NC E
Study of anti-AIDS ring begins in Africa WASHINGTON: A monthlong HIV blocker that women could use for protection without their partners knowing? Major new research is beginning in Africa to see whether a special kind of vaginal ring just might work. Giving women tools to protect themselves when their partners won’t use a condom is crucial for battling the AIDS epidemic. Women already make up half of the 34.2 million people worldwide living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; even more - 60 percent - in hardhit Africa are women. But developing what are called microbicides has proved difficult. Previous research found an experimental anti-AIDS vaginal gel offered partial protection, but remembering to use it every time they have sex would be a hurdle for some women.
The new attempt: a vaginal ring that’s inserted once a month and slowly oozes an anti-AIDS drug into the surrounding tissue. The work marks an attempt at “the next generation of women-focused prevention tools,” Dr. Carl Dieffenbach of the National Institutes of Health said Tuesday in announcing the new research at the International AIDS Conference. “We need options that fit readily into women’s lives,” added Dr. Sharon Hillier of the University of Pittsburgh and the Microbide Trials Network, which is conducting the NIH-funded study. Developed by the nonprofit International Par tnership for Microbicides, the silicone ring contains an anti-AIDS drug named dapivirine. Unlike vaginal rings sold today in the US , the experimental ring doesn’t con-
tain birth control, for now; the focus is on HIV prevention only. Early-stage studies suggested the ring could work, and women said they liked using it better than a gel, said Dr. Saidi Kapiga of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Now come the large studies needed to prove whether the ring truly works. The NIH-funded study, named ASPIRE, will enroll nearly 3,500 women in Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They’ll receive either a dapivirine-containing vaginal ring or an identical-looking drug-free ring, to be inserted once a month for a year. The goal is to see whether using the ring lowers women’s risk of HIV infection by at least 60 percent. The first women in Uganda were enrolled Tuesday, Hillier said. A smaller
ring study of 1,650 women got under way last month in South Africa and aims to enroll women in Rwanda and Malawi, too. Vaginal-based protection should cause fewer side effects than pills, and early-stage studies of the ring found no problems, said Zeda Rosenberg, chief executive of the International Partnership for Microbicides. Also, animal studies show no sign that the ring would harm a fetus if a woman became pregnant while using it, she added. Rosenberg’s group licensed dapivirine from a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. If the new research pans out, the partnership hopes to seek approval to sell the ring in 2015. The first study to find even partial success with a microbicide used a vaginal gel made with the widely used AIDS drug tenofovir. Earlier-stage
research is under way to develop a variety of gels, vaginal films and vaginal rings containing that and other drugs, Rosenberg said. Eventually, she said, a goal is for a combination ring that offers both HIV protection and birth control. Also Tuesday, researchers reported more evidence that male circumcision is an important HIV-prevention tool in Africa, where it helps protect men from becoming infected by female partners. In Orange Farm, South Africa, just over half of the 52,000 men had been circumcised by last year, up from 17 percent in 2008. Circumcised men had half the rate of HIV infection as the uncircumcised, said Ber tran Auver t of France’s University of Versailles. He estimated that 1,000 new infections were avoided last year as a result.—AP
World’s 1st dengue vaccine beats three virus strains Full results of Phase IIb Thai trial due in September
WASHINGTON: In this photograph taken by AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, right, holds up a picture next to Terri Ford, Chief of Global Policy for AHF, during the AIDS Activists Unite in Criticism of Obama press conference at the International AIDS Conference, Tuesday, in Washington. —AP
Being cured of HIV is wonderful: US man WASHINGTON: The only person believed to have been cured of HIV infection through a bone marrow transplant said Tuesday he feels wonderful and is launching a new foundation to boost research toward a cure. Timothy Ray Brown, 47, an American from Seattle, Washington, rose to fame as the so-called “Berlin patient” after doctors tried a novel technique to use an HIV-resistant donor for a stem cell transplant to treat Brown’s leukemia. Since 2007, he has had two high-risk bone marrow transplants and continues to test negative for HIV, stunning researchers and offering new pathways for research into how gene therapy may lead to a more widely acceptable approach. “I am living proof that there could be a cure for AIDS,” Brown told AFP in an interview. “It’s very wonderful, being cured of HIV.” Brown looked frail as he spoke to reporters in Washington where the 19th International AIDS Conference, the world’s largest meeting of scientific experts, policymakers and advocates is taking place. The bone marrow transplant he received carried significant risks and may be fatal to one in five patients who undergo it. But he said his only complaint these days is the occasional headache. He also said he was aware that his condition has generated some controversy, but disputed the claims of some scientists who believe he may still have traces of HIV in his body and may remain infectious to others. “Yes, I am cured,” he said. “I am HIV negative.” Brown said he fully supports more aggressive efforts toward finding a universal cure, and has met with a number of top scientists in recent days who have treated him “like a rock star.” He said he hopes to harness some of that fame to encourage donors to fund more research, and noted that Europe and China spend far more on cure research than the United States. “There are thousands of very able researchers who cannot get funded for research, so I want to change that. And there
are a lot of researchers who are willing to work to find a cure for HIV.” Brown was a student in Berlin, Germany, when he tested positive for HIV in 1995 and was told he probably had about two years to live. But combination antiretroviral therapy emerged on the global market a year later, and eventually transformed HIV from a death sentence into a manageable condition for millions of people worldwide. Brown tolerated the medications well but due to persistent fatigue he visited a doctor in 2006 and was diagnosed with leukemia. He underwent chemotherapy, which led to pneumonia and sepsis, nearly killing him. His doctor, Gero Huetter, had the idea of trying a bone marrow transplant using a donor who had a CCR5 receptor mutation. People without that receptor appear to be resistant to HIV because they lack the gateway through which the virus can enter the cells. But such people are rare, and are believed to consist of one percent of the northern European population. It would be an attempt to cure cancer and HIV at the same time. Brown’s leukemia returned in 2007, and he underwent a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a CCR5 mutation donor, whom he has never met in person. He stopped taking antiretrovirals at the same time. He soon had no HIV detectable in his system. His leukemia returned though, and he underwent a second bone marrow transplant in 2008, using stem cells from the same donor. Brown said his recovery from the second operation was more complicated and left him with some neurological problems, but he continues to be free of leukemia and HIV. Asked if he feels like his cure was a miracle, Brown was hesitant to answer. “It’s hard to say. It depends on your religious belief, if you want to believe it’s just medical science or it was a divine intervention,” he told AFP. “I would say it’s a little bit of both.”— AFP
PARIS/LONDON: The world’s first vaccine against dengue, developed by French drugmaker Sanofi SA , has shown the ability to protect against disease caused by three of four virus strains in a keenly awaited clinical trial in Thailand. Sanofi said yesterday the proof of efficacy was a key milestone in the 70-year quest to develop a viable dengue shot, adding the results also confirmed the safety profile of the vaccine candidate. Other drug companies are also working on dengue vaccines but Sanofi’s product is several years ahead. The mosquito-borne disease, also known as “breakbone fever”, is a threat to nearly 3 billion people and is caused by four different types of virus, none of which confers immunity from the others. Sanofi’s vaccine generated an antibody response for all four dengue virus types, but evidence of protection was only demonstrated against three of the four strains circulating in Thailand. Sanofi said researchers were carrying out analyses to understand the lack of protection for the fourth serotype. “It’s a surprise,” company spokesman Pascal Barollier said. “We need to get to the bottom of the data to find out why it is reacting this way
and wait for ongoing Phase III trials to see if it is linked to some specific situation in Thailand.” The Phase IIb study involving 4,002 Thai children aged four to 11 years was conducted during a dengue epidemic, which might be an explanation for the unexpected outcome. Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Clark said the lack of protection against the fourth virus type meant a commercial launch was more likely in 2015 than in 2014, as Sanofi awaits Phase III data rather than filing early in some countries. “More positively, given that protection against at least three of the four viral types has been demonstrated, the data supports the likelihood of launch for this huge unmet clinical need,” Clark wrote in a research note. The company’s vaccine unit Sanofi Pasteur has already invested 350 million euros ($423 million) in a new French factory to make the three-dose vaccine and believes its product could generate more than 1 billion euros in yearly sales. But uptake of the vaccine will depend on precisely how well doctors believe it can protect populations at risk in fast-expanding tropical cities from Rio to Manila, as well as travelers to such areas. Sanofi, which reports second-quarter results
More teens using condoms over past two decades WASHINGTON: Nearly half of high school students say they’ve had sex, yet progress has stalled in getting them to use condoms to protect against the AIDS virus, government researchers reported Tuesday. Today, four of every 10 new HIV infections occur in people younger than 30, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - and the teen years, just as many youths become sexually active, are key for getting across the safe-sex message. Using a long-standing survey of high school students’ health, the CDC tracked how teen sexual behavior has changed over 20 years. The results are decidedly mixed. About 60 percent of sexually active high school students say they used condoms the last time they had sex, researchers said at the International AIDS Conference. That’s an increase from the 46 percent who were using condoms in 1991. “This is good news,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of CDC’s HIV prevention center. But, “we need to do a lot more.” Condom use reached a high of 63 percent back in 2003. Black students are most likely to heed the safesex message, yet their condom use dropped from a high of 70 percent in 1999 to 65 percent last year, the study found. The proportion of high school students who’ve had sex is 47 percent today - down a bit from 54 percent in 1991 - and they typically start at age 16, CDC said. Black teens showed a bigger decrease, with 60 percent sexually active today compared with 82 percent two decades ago. The more partners, the more risk. Fifteen percent of high school students say they’ve had four or more partners, down from 19 percent in 1991. Fenton said many school systems don’t have strong enough sex education policies that include teaching teens about how to prevent HIV. But he cautioned that the CDC study can’t link the abstinence-only policies pushed by Congress through the late 1990s and early 2000s to the stalled condom use. Focusing on individual risk behaviors is just part of the story. Increasingly, HIV is an infection of the poor, and specialists at the world’s largest AIDS meeting are making the point all week that tackling the virus globally will require broader efforts to address problems of poverty. Those include gaining better access to overall health services and fighting stigma. In
hard-hit Africa, where 60 percent of infections are among women, US researchers announced a new step to develop tools women can use to protect themselves when their partners won’t use condoms. A new study will test a monthly vaginal ring that oozes an anti-AIDS drug into the surrounding tissue in hopes of blocking HIV. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will enroll nearly 3,500 women in Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Also Tuesday, researchers reported more evidence that male circumcision is an important HIV-prevention tool in Africa, where it helps protect men from becoming infected by female partners. In Orange Farm, South Africa, just over half of the 52,000 men had been circumcised by last year, up from 17 percent in 2008. Circumcised men had half the rate of HIV infection as the uncircumcised, said Bertran Auvert of France’s University of Versailles, who estimated that 1,000 new infections were avoided last year as a result. While scientists were releasing new data at the meeting, AIDS activists marched across Washington to the White House to call for increased funding of HIV programs. Thirteen were arrested after tying dollar bills and pill bottles to the executive mansion’s fence. In the US , where new infections have stubbornly held at about 50,000 a year for a decade, complacency is part of the reason that progress in teen condom use has stalled, CDC’s Fenton said. “We have to generate a new sense of urgency,” he said. Overall, though, a characteristic of the young is to think they’re invincible, Fenton added. Lawrence Stallworth II, 20, of Cleveland, can attest that they’re not. He learned he was infected with HIV at age 17, when he was a high school senior, after a hospitalization. A black gay man, he’s among one of the nation’s highest-risk groups. He’s now an Ohio AIDS activist who works to teach young people that they need to protect themselves, and how. “I want people to have the tools to keep themselves safe,” said Stallworth, who is working with the nonprofit Advocates for Youth to declare a National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day in April to increase young people’s knowledge about their risk.— AP
Sunbed tanning kills 800 in Europe every year: Study
EBERSWALDE: A newly born marmoset sits on the hand of a zoo keeper at the zoo in Eberswalde, eastern Germany yesterday. A marmoset gave birth to three on June 29, 2012. Since the mother could not feed the third one it is now being raised by hand. —AFP
today, gave no details on the level of protection in a brief statement. The full data are now being reviewed by scientific experts and public health officials, with detailed results to be published later this year. Barollier said the aim was to publish the study results in a scientific journal in September and then present the research to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta in November. Large-scale late-stage Phase III clinical studies with 31,000 participants are under way with Sanofi’s vaccine in 10 countries in Asia and Latin America. Dengue fever, which can cause intense joint and muscle pain, is spread by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The insect thrives in the mega-cities of the tropics, with the result that nearly half the world’s population are at risk of catching the disease. In the past 50 years there has been a 30-fold jump in dengue cases. The World Health Organisation officially puts infections at between 50 and 100 million a year, though many experts think this assessment from the 1990s badly under-estimates the disease. Most patients survive but it is estimated to kill about 20,000 every year, many of them children less able to fight it off. — Reuters
PARIS: Sunbed users run a 20 percent higher risk than non-users of developing skin cancer, according to a report that blamed some 800 melanoma deaths in Europe every year on indoor tanning. About 3,400 of some 64,000 new cases of cutaneous melanoma diagnosed in 18 European countries every year are related to sunbed use-more than five percent, said a statement issued by the BMJ medical journal. The risk doubled if tanners started before the age of 35. The findings were based on an analysis by researchers of 27 studies on skin cancer and sunbed
use conducted between 1981 and 2012 in Britain, France, Germany and other countries. They found a “1.8 percent increase in risk for each additional sunbed session per year”, said the statement.”The authors believe that earlier studies have tended to underestimate the risk of indoor tanning because the use of these devices is relatively new.” The study authors from the International Prevention Research Institute in France and the European Institute of Oncology in Italy urged tougher regulation and restricting children’s access to tanning salons.— AFP
ROTTERDAM: An elephant is sprayed with water to cool her off in the Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam yesterday, as the temperature rises to 28 degree celsius. —AFP
French worms wriggle as far north as Ireland PARIS: A community of French earthworms has been discovered stealthily colonising a farm in Ireland, possibly aided by global warming to thrive so far north of their natural habitat, a study said. No clash seems to be looming as the French worms prefer to eat a different part of the soil as their Irish cousins, according to a report yesterday in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters. But their picky palate may hold another danger-possibly unleashing Earth-warming carbon dioxide left hitherto undisturbed by the native worms. Scientists studying earthworms on a farm in Dublin last year, discovered “abundant populations” of a species endemic to France’s Aquitaine region more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to the south. Some also live naturally in northern Spain, Sardinia and parts of northern Africa. These are the first earthworms from southern Europe ever reported to have settled in previously glaciated areas to the north. “The surprising aspects are that we found worms doing so well far away from their native range and that they have become established at all here in spite of the different climate and the fact that we already have lots of earthworm species,” study co-author Olaf Schmidt of University College Dublin told AFP. “It is tempting to speculate that such a southern species can only survive farther north since the climate is changing,” he said, stressing further research was needed to confirm this. It was not known exactly how the worms travelled to Irelandthey were probably hidden in the roots a batch of plants delivered across the channel. On their own, earthworms can spread by about 10 metres a year, said Schmidt, and this colony was believed to have been on the farm for several years. The French worms were found in six different areas of the farm, several hundred meters apart, feeding on different parts of the soil than the local residents. “If the newcomers expand their range and population sizes, they could assimilate and hence liberate carbon sources in soils that would stay locked up ... when only native species are present,” Schmidt said. The worms ingest the carbon as organic matter, and then eject it as Earth-warming CO2. —AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
H E A LT H & S C I E NC E
Vienna pitches urban chic to beleaguered bee colonies
HANOVER: Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) “Sprinter” eats a treat of frozen fruits, fish and gruel in the pool of his enclosure in the zoo of Hanover, northern Germany yesterday. Temperatures of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) are predicted till Saturday for Germany. —AP
Cavers find mass fossil deposit Down Under SYDNEY: Australian scientists said yesterday cavers had stumbled upon a vast network of tunnels containing fossils that could offer key insights into species’ adaptation to climate change. The limestone caves in Australia’s far north contained what University of Queensland paleontologist Gilbert Price described as a “fossil goldmine” of species ranging from minute rodents and frogs to giant kangaroos. Once part of an ancient rainforest, the remote site now lies in arid grassland and Price said the fossilised remains could hold key clues about how the creatures had adapted to climate change and evolved to their current forms. The caves’ oldest specimens are estimated to be 500,000 years old. Price said they lived in a period of major aridification of central Australia and retreat of the rainforest that triggered a “formal extinction event”. “What we’re trying to do up here is really look at the fossils and look at the animals and see how they responded to those prehistoric climatic changes, and that’s something that’s really quite relevant to today,” Price told AFP. He said the caves could serve as an important benchmark to contrast modern relatives
against, to understand how they had evolved. “We’ve got the question of what the effect of modern climate change is going to be on the organisms that we have around us, and the reality is we just don’t know because we don’t have any significant period of ecological sampling of the modern faunas,” said Price. “Just having an understanding of how they responded in the past is incredible, it’s something that we can use and plug into models for conservation going into the future.” The smaller creatures were thought to have been carried into the cave by a predator such as an owl, while the larger ones, including a 2.2-metre (7.2-feet), 180-kilogram (396 pounds) mega kangaroo, probably tumbled into it through a hole. It is slow work, with access to the caves difficult and time-consuming. Price said it would take a year to work through the 120 kilograms of fossil-rich sediment they had managed to carry out of the site on foot so far. Local cavers had uncovered more tunnels in the past week alone, each producing “something of significance” and Price said there was “potentially many lifetimes worth of work in the area”.—AFP
VIENNA: Felix Munk gets stung up to 20 times a day but that doesn’t stop him from regularly clambering up to the roof of the Vienna Opera and other city landmarks to check on the bees living above the heads of unsuspecting music lovers and government ministers. Munk is a member of Vienna’s Stadtimker, one of a growing number of urban beekeepers’ associations who are trying to encourage bees to make their homes in cities, as pesticides and crop monocultures make the countryside increasingly hostile. Bee populations are in sharp decline around the world, under attack from a poorly understood phenomonenon known as colony collapse disorder, whose main causes are believed to include a virus spread by mites that feed on haemolymph - bees’ “blood”. As well as making honey, bees are important pollinators of flowering plants, including many fruits and vegetables. A 2011 United Nations report estimated that the work of bees and other pollinators was worth 153 billion euros ($186 billion) a year. “Bees do very well in cities,” says Stephen Martin of the University of Sheffield, an expert on the deadly Varroa mite that has wrought destruction on honey bee colonies around the
world since being exported from its native Asia in the 1960s. “There are lots of plants and flowers in cities for bees to live on. Keeping them on rooftops is a great idea because it keeps them out of the way of people.” “I think these initiatives are really good, as long as they maintain them properly,” he said. “Once the mite gets into a colony, which it will do, in a period of two to four years the colony will be killed.” London, Paris and Melbourne are among the cities trying the same approach. The Vienna Stadtimker get no central help from government but have persuaded officials at many of the city’s landmark buildings to let them build “bee hotels” on the rooftops that overlook Vienna’s parks and boulevard ring road. Speaking to Reuters while swapping out honeycombs on the roof of the 18th century Chancellery where the government holds its weekly cabinet meetings, Munk said the honey harvest would go to the building’s officials as gifts. “It was surprisingly easy to persuade them to allow us to do this,” he said. “Many of them are really concerned about the environment and wanted to do something.” Munk, 39, works part-time at his software programming job to
devote as much time as he can to bees. He learned his craft from his aunt and uncle at the age of seven, but is a rarity in Austria, where most beekeepers are 55 or older. “I t ’s an old man’s hobby,” said Rober t Brodschneider, a researcher at the Zoology Institute at the University of Graz and Austria’s foremost expert on bees. “There’s a shortage not only of colonies but also of beekeepers.” Brodschneider, who has been collecting data on bee populations in the region for five years, said he had seen a sharp rise in the percentage of bee colonies dying out in the past winter, according to early results of his latest survey. In Austria alone, where bees have until now fared relatively well, one in four colonies died last winter, compared with a previous range of 9 to 16 percent, said Brodschneider. “I think it’s going to be the highest year for losses all over central Europe,” he told Reuters, adding that it was not yet clear whether it was a blip or a sign of an acceleration in bee colony deaths. “We don’t know what is going on.” Munk is realistic about how fast his work can make a difference. “I’d say in under a generation we can’t achieve much,” he said. “But everything in life takes time.”—Reuters
Taiwan lifts ban on imports of US beef TAIPEI: Taiwan yesterday lifted a ban on imports of US beef containing a controversial additive, in a move likely to facilitate free trade talks with Washington. The 113-seat parliament, controlled by the ruling Kuomintang party, agreed to amend a law that has barred imports of beef containing any residual ractopamine, a growth drug used in animal feed to promote lean meat. The beef issue is emotionally charged in Taiwan, with concern about the prospect of importing tainted beef triggering large street protests and sit-ins in front of parliament. While the public is mainly concerned about the health consequences, Taiwan’s vocal and politically influential pig farmers are afraid it will be a first step towards open-
ing the market to US pork containing the drug. The new law tolerates beef imports containing some small residues of ractopamine, without specifying the acceptable level. Officials from the Department of Health said they will set a standard at a later date. Observers say the passage of the bill may end a lingering, nearly six-year-long dispute between Taiwan and its second-largest trading partner after China. The ban was introduced in late 2006. Taiwan’s opposition, backed by rights and consumer groups, claimed that any residue of the growth drug may pose a public health hazard, a claim dismissed by the United States. “The United States welcomes today’s vote,” the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy,
said in a statement. “We look forward to the quick implementation of the maximum residue level for ractopamine and the resumption of expanded access for US beef in the Taiwan market.” Taiwan, China and the European Union ban ractopamine because of possible human health risks, but 26 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and Brazil, have declared the product safe. Washington had repeatedly urged Taipei to ease restrictions on US beef, indicating that the stalled trade talks between the two sides hinge on the issue. Talks between Taipei and Washington on a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), often a precursor to a full-fledged Free Trade Agreement, have been dormant since 2007, due to the dispute.— AFP
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
WHAT’S ON Bangladesh Embassy notice he Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will follow the following office hours during the holy month of Ramadan. Sunday to Thursday: 9 am - 3:30 pm. Friday and Saturday: Weekly holidays.
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Announcements Indian Embassy passport and visa Passports and Visa applications can be deposited at the two outsourced centers of M/S BLS Ltd at Sharq and Fahaheel. Details are available at www.bls-international.com and www.indembkwt.org . Consular Open House Consular Wing is providing daily service of Open House to Indian citizens on all workings days from 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1530 hrs by the Consular Officer in the Meeting Room of the Consular Hall at the Embassy. For any unaddressed issues, Second Secretary (Consular) can be contacted. Furthermore, the head of the Consular Wing is also available to redress grievances. Indian workers helpline/helpdesk Indian workers helpline is accessible by toll free telephone number 25674163 from all over Kuwait. It provides information and advice to Indian workers as regards their grievances, immigration and other matters. The help desk at the Embassy (Open from 9AM to 1PM and 2PM to 4:30PM, Sunday to Thursday) provides guidance to Indian nationals on routine immigration, employment, legal and other issues. It also provides workers assistance in filling up labour complaint forms. For any unaddressed issues, the concerned attachÈ in the Labour section and the head of the Labour Wing can be contacted. Legal Advice Clinic Free legal advice is provided on matters pertaining to labour disputes, terms of contracts with employers, death/accident compensation, withholding of dues by employers, etc. by lawyers on our panel, to Indian nationals on all working days between 1500hrs to 1600hrs. Ambassador’s Open House The Open House for Indian citizens by the Ambassador is being held on all Wednesdays at the Embassy for redressal of grievances. In case Wednesday is an Embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day.
awally governorate municipality branch carried a campaign titled “Build and don’t Destroy” under the supervision of voluntary work center headed by Sheikha Amthal Al-Ahmad. The aim of the campaign is to make public utilities look better through drawings and informative phrases which urge others to keep the utilities clean and sound.
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Essence of Ramadan Ramadan Iftar he AWARE Center cordially invites you to its Ramadan Iftar to be preceded by a lecture entitled, “The Meaning of Ramadan,” by Iman Martin on July 26th, 2012 at 6:00pm. Ramadan presents a wonderful opportunity for westerners to learn more about Kuwait, to meet new individuals & have questions regarding Islam & the Holy month of Ramadan answered. During this special month, the communal meal referred to as Iftar, breaks the fast at the end of the day & brings family & friends together. As part of AWARE’s Ramadan activities, we invite you to join us for a Ramadan presentation followed by a traditional “Iftar dinner,” at the AWARE Center.
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Register and Win promotion at Q8India.com ity Centre, Kuwait’s premier mega-market, in association with Q8India.com, a leading online Indian community portal, is holding a monthlong ‘Register and Win’ promotion campaign. Any resident in Kuwait can participate in the promotion by visiting www.Q8India.com and registering their name, email and phone number. A winner will be picked each day (except Friday), from the list of names registered on the previous day, and receive a free shopping voucher worth KD10 from City Centre.
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‘Leniency of Islam’ n unprecedented initiative of KTV2 (English channel) is the new program by the name ‘Leniency of Islam’ presented by Shaikh Musaad Alsane and directed by Hamid Al-Turkait. The program is mainly meant to address the expatriates living in Kuwait. Religious questions are received through the program email qislam@tv.gov.kw and sms can be sent to97822021 and answered by the lecturer and Imam in Awqaf Ministry Shaikh Musaad Alsane - a Master Degree holder in Sharia and fiqih from Kuwait University. So don’t forget to watch the program every Friday at 1:00 pm.
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By Abdur Rahim Ramadan the source of purification has come Oh Muslemin! Whole heartedly seek forgiveness from your Lord. Forget your hatred , keep hand in hand Pray to your Lord- please. forgive us. Salat, fasting, Hajj, Jakat perform ye all Until the last breath obey His rule. May none of yours parents, brother-sisters And family members be hurt by you. Don’t hurt them, don’t let them in hunger Ye eat and fed them, don’t leave any one. Parents alive or those who already had passed away Keep praying for them as much as you can. Pay to endowment as much as you afford Their souls will enjoy eternal peace. Poor, beggars, strangers who ever come-you-Don’t deny them, give them what ever you have. Who ever in sickness or in distress in the world May Lord make all of us happy. In this month of Ramadan the source of purification Oh Lord, please forgive us, give us Your blessing
Student Visa Day at US Embassy held o support Kuwaiti students currently studying or planning to study in the United States, the US Embassy’s Consular Section, in cooperation with the National Union of Kuwaiti Students (NUKS) - US Branch, held a Student Visa Day on July 18. The Consular Section allotted 200 appointments for student visa applicants, coordinating closely with NUKS-US Branch representatives to ensure that a successful event be held. Encouraging Kuwaiti students to pursue higher educational opportunities in the
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Your health & Ramadan ou are invited to “Your Health & Ramadan Dasman Diabetes Institute” from 9 am till 2 pm, today 15th July.* Blood Glucose Monitoring. * BMI Calculation * Blood Pressure Monitoring. For any inquiries, please contact us on: www.facebook.com/dasmaninstitute
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Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20
nce again this year, the stage is set for the fourth annual ‘Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament’ to be held from August 3 to 9 at the Kazma Sporting Club, Adailiya. Abdulrahim AlAwadi, the Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee has announced that doors are now open for registration to all those who are interested in participating, stating that the deadline for registration will be August 1. The participation in this tournament is open to all and will fall under three categories this year. The first category is for amateurs from ages 17 and above, second category is for professional players from ages 20 and above and the third category is for ladies 17 and above. Following its last three years of grand success, the 4th annual Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament is being organized during Ramadan for squash lovers who will have an opportunity to practice the sport while being encouraged to develop their skills in a healthy, competitive and social environment. Al-Awadi, the Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee, commented, “In our last tournaments, we have received very positive feedback and have wit-
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Aware Centre he AWARE Management is glad to inform you that Summer 3 Arabic language courses will begin on August 12, 2012 until September 26, 2012. 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. We cater to teachers, travelers & those working in the private business sector. Arabic classes at the AWARE Center are unique because students are provided with the chance to practice their Arabic through vari-
“T Burgan Bank Ramadan timing
urgan Bank announced its new branch timings which will be applicable all throughout the holy month of Ramadan. All Burgan Bank branches will commence work in one shift from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Additionally, the Airport branch will be open seven days a week in the mornings from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm and in the evenings from 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm. On this occasion, Burgan Bank extends its best wishes to everyone during the holy month of Ramadan.
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nessed a huge number of interested participants thus giving us immense encouragement to hold an exciting tournament this year. The 2012 squash tournament offers a great opportunity to all squash players to accept another challenge and build on their sports skills in midst of a friendly atmosphere. I highly encourage all interested players to maintain their level of activity during Ramadan while balancing fitness and fasting and to register before the deadline ends”. All details pertaining to the tournament and means to participate can be found on the tournaments facebook page under ‘Ramadan Stars Squash Tourney’ or follow the official twitter page @RamadanStars for updates. The registration is taking place at GO SPORT store located at The Avenues Mall. Alawadi also pointed out the great interest the ‘Ramadan Stars Squash tournament’ received from the private sector, where companies took the initiative in sponsoring the tournament. Alawadi expressed his gratitude and thanks to Kazma Sporting Clun, Go Sport, Comtel, Vio, Unite Colors and Alawadi Photography guaranteeing unique prizes for all winners.
ous social activities that aim at bringing Arabs and Westerners together. AWARE Arabic courses highlights * Introductory to Level 4 Arabic language basics * Better prepare you for speaking, reading and writing Arabic * Combine language learning with cultural insights * Taught in multi-nationality group settings * Provide opportunities to interact with Western expatriates and native Kuwaitis/Arabs. For more information, call 25335260/80 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw.”
Competitions in patriotic songs ndo-Kuwait Friendship Society, Kuwait (www.indokuwaitfriendshipsociety.com) is planning to conduct competitions in Indian and Kuwaiti Patriotic songs. This is the first time in Kuwait, an Indian Association is organizing contests in “Patriotic Songs” for both Indian and Kuwaiti School students. The first 3 places will be declared separately by Judges who are experts in Indian and Kuwaiti Patriotic songs. Several prizes and awards will be handed over for the winning schools. Pradeep Rajkumar and A K S Abdul Nazar said that IKFS wants let our children learn what they mean as a “Patriotic” to their home country. 4 pages of spot Essay competition related to “Patriotism” also will be held in the same day as a spot registration. 1 Girl and 1 Boy student from each School can participate in the ESSAY contest. Dr. Mohamed Tareq, Chairman of the First Indian Model School in Kuwait “ Salmiya Indian Model School (SIMS) already confirmed as a Co-Sponsor of the Program.
I Write to us
US is one of the top priorities of this US Mission. For instructions on how to apply for a student visa to the US, please see our website for more information: http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/student3.h tml. To avoid delays during periods of high demand, students are encouraged to apply for their visa as early as possible.
Registration for Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament begins
Conditions apply 1) The competitions are meant for all the Schools located in Kuwait and should be nominated by school authority. 2) Each school can select group of 7 students for the “PATRIOTIC SONGS (Indian and Kuwaiti)” and nominate separately. 3) Children of above 12 years till 17 years (VII classes to XII classes) are eligible for the contest. But if School is permitted 4) Musical instruments or KARAOKE mixer should be accompanied by the participating students/Children and the school team should operate and select the mixers. 5) Time frame: 7 minutes - Names will be called as “First come” in the Registration. The Event will be held at the auditorium of “Salmiya Indian Model School” on Saturday, 27th October 2012
from 09:30 am onwards. It will be a full day program with fun and full of entertainments. Food-stalls of different Kuwaiti and Indian tastes will installed. Dr. Ghalib Al-Mashoor said in a press release that Invitations for all schools located in various parts of Kuwait are already been sent. Schools under one management but from different locations can also participate in the contest individually. As per the school directory, there 23 Indian schools in Kuwait. The last date of receiving names of the Participants is scheduled on 2nd day of October, 2012 (INDIA’s GHANDI JAYANTHI DAY). The entry is free to all and due to 2nd day of Eid Al-Adha holidays, a large crowd is expected to attend in addition to, Senior Kuwaiti and Indian citizens will also grace the function. All the applications of interest should be sent to: ikfsociety@gmail.com Phone:99430786
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 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 ConsulateGeneral in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, 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 ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF BRAZIL The Embassy of Brazil requests all Brazilian citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the website www.brazil.org.kw (Contact Us Form / Fale Conosco) in order to register or update contact information. The Embassy encourages all citizens to do so, including the ones who have already registered in person at the Embassy. The registration process helps the Brazilian Government to contact and assist Brazilians living abroad in case of any emergency. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF BRITAIN Consular section at the British Embassy will be starting an online appointment booking system for our consular customers from Sunday, 01 July 2012. All information including how to make an appointment is now available on the embassy website. In addition, there is also a “Consular Appointment System” option under Quick links on the right hand side on the homepage, which should take you to the “Consular online booking appointment system” main page. Please be aware that from 01 July 2012, we will no longer accept walk-in customers for legalisation, notarial services and certificates (birth, death and marriages). If you have problems accessing the system or need to make an appointment for non-notarial consular issues or have a consular emergency, please call 2259 4355/7/8 or email us on consularenquirieskuwait@fco.gov.uk. If you require consular assistance out of office hours (working hours: 0730-l430 hrs), please contact the Embassy on 2259 4320. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF INDIA During the holy month of Ramadan, the office timings of the Indian Passport and Visa Service Centres of BLS International Visa Services Co, Kuwait, situated at (i) Emad Commercial Centre, Basement Floor, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Sharq, Kuwait, and (ii) Mujamma Unood, 4th floor, Office No. 25-26 Makka Street, Fahaheel, Kuwait, will be from 8.00 am - 3.00 pm from Saturday to Thursday (i.e. six days a week). Tokens for submission of applications will NOT be issued after 2.00 pm. Delivery of passports and visas will be from 11.00 am onwards. Embassy of India, Kuwait, will maintain its usual working hours. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform Kenyan residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that with effect from June 1, 2012 the Embassy has moved from its current location to a new location in Surra Block 1, Street 8, Villa 303. Please note that the new telephone and fax numbers will be communicated as soon as possible. For enquiries you can contact Consular Section on mobile 90935162 or 97527306. ■■■■■■■
Sheikh Dr. Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Sabah receives well wishers Sheikh Dr. Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Sabah Ahmadi governor received in his Deewan well wishers on the occasion of the month of Ramadan. —Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh
EMBASSY OF MEXICO The Embassy of Mexico is pleased to inform that it is located in CLIFFS Complex, Villa 6, Salmiya, block 9, Baghdad street, Jadda Lane 7. The working hours for consular issues are from 9:00 to 12:00 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 14:00 to 15:00 hours for lunch break. The Embassy of Mexico kindly requests all Mexicans citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the e-mail: embkuwait@sre.gob.mx in order to register or update contact information. Other consultations or/and appointments could be done by telephone or fax: (+965) 2573 1952 ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, AlSalaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location. Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, e-mail:myankuwait11@gmai1.com ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF SOUTH AFRICA During the holy month of Ramadan, the South African Embassy will be open to the public, Sunday through Thursday from 09:00 am to 13:00 pm. Please note that the Consular Section operation hours will be from 09:30 am to 12:00 pm, Sunday through Thursday. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF THAILAND The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait, wishes to invite the Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 -25317531, Ext: 14. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF UKRAINE We’d like to inform you that in response to the increasing number of our citizens who work in the state and the need for 24-hour operational telephone in case of emergency the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait has opened “hotline telephone number” - (+ 965) 972-79-206.
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
TV PROGRAMS
00:45 I’m Alive 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Monster Bug Wars 03:30 Speed Of Life 04:25 Monster Bug Wars 05:20 Animal Kingdom 05:45 In Too Deep 06:10 Rescue Vet 06:35 Rescue Vet 07:00 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 07:25 Crocodile Hunter 08:15 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Natural Born Hunters 09:35 Natural Born Hunters 10:05 Monster Bug Wars 11:00 Wildlife SOS 11:25 Gorilla School 11:55 Animal Cops Houston 12:50 Escape To Chimp Eden 13:15 Escape To Chimp Eden 13:45 Animal Precinct 14:40 Monster Bug Wars 15:30 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 16:00 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 16:30 Penguin Safari 17:25 Bad Dog 18:20 Dogs 101 19:15 Wildlife SOS 19:40 Gorilla School 20:10 Animal Kingdom 20:35 In Too Deep 21:05 Monster Bug Wars 22:00 Whale Wars 22:55 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 23:50 Miami Animal Police
00:45 Eastenders 01:15 Doctors 01:45 Life On Mars 02:35 My Family 03:05 Roger & Val Have Just Got In 03:35 Last Of The Summer Wine 04:05 Fimbles 04:20 Tellytales 04:30 Bobinogs 04:45 Nina And The Neurons 05:00 Show Me Show Me 05:25 Boogie Beebies 05:40 Charlie And Lola 05:50 Fimbles 06:10 Tellytales 06:20 Bobinogs 06:30 Nina And The Neurons 06:45 Show Me Show Me 07:10 Boogie Beebies 07:25 Charlie And Lola 07:35 My Family 08:05 Last Of The Summer Wine 08:35 Roger & Val Have Just Got In 09:05 Eastenders 09:35 Doctors 10:05 Casualty 10:55 Bleak House 11:25 Bleak House 11:55 My Family 12:25 Last Of The Summer Wine 12:55 The Weakest Link 13:35 Eastenders 14:05 Doctors 14:35 Casualty 15:25 Bleak House 15:55 Bleak House 16:25 The Weakest Link 17:10 Eastenders 17:40 Doctors 18:10 Monarch Of The Glen 19:00 Keeping Up Appearances 19:30 Blackadder The Third 20:00 Going For Gold: The 48’ Games 21:30 Supernova 21:55 The Old Guys 22:25 New Tricks 23:15 Twenty Twelve 23:45 Monarch Of The Glen
00:30 What Not To Wear 01:20 What Not To Wear 02:10 MasterChef
03:05 MasterChef 03:30 Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets 03:55 The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook 04:20 James Martin’s Champagne 04:45 MasterChef 05:40 MasterChef 06:05 Living In The Sun 07:00 Living In The Sun 07:50 MasterChef Australia 08:40 MasterChef Australia 09:30 Bargain Hunt 10:15 Antiques Roadshow 11:05 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:50 Come Dine With Me 12:40 10 Years Younger 13:25 Masterchef: The Professionals 14:20 Masterchef: The Professionals 14:50 Bargain Hunt 15:35 Antiques Roadshow 16:25 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:10 Come Dine With Me 18:00 Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers 18:25 The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook 18:55 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 19:20 James Martin’s Favourite Feasts 19:45 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Bargain Hunt 22:05 Antiques Roadshow 23:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 23:40 Come Dine With Me
00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30 03:45 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 07:45 08:00 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:30 09:45 10:00 10:30 10:45 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 12:45 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 17:45 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 22:45 23:00 23:30
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00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:40 05:00 05:25 05:50 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:55 07:20 07:45 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 Doo 10:55 11:15 11:40 12:00 12:15 12:40 12:55 13:20 13:35 14:00 14:50 15:15 Doo 15:40 16:00 16:15 16:40 17:05 17:30 17:55 18:10 18:35 19:00 19:15 19:40 19:55 20:20 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:15 22:40 23:05 23:20 23:45
Puppy In My Pocket Tom & Jerry Kids Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Popeye Classics Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Johnny Bravo The Flintstones The Jetsons Wacky Races The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry Kids Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Garfield Show Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory Pink Panther And Pals The Scooby Doo Show Scooby-Doo And ScrappyDastardly And Muttley The Flintstones Wacky Races Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Puppy In My Pocket Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Scooby-Doo And ScrappyDastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Tom & Jerry Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show The Garfield Show Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Dexter’s Laboratory Johnny Bravo Pink Panther And Pals Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Popeye The Jetsons Duck Dodgers
00:30 Bakugan: New Vestroia 00:55 Bakugan: New Vestroia 01:20 Powerpuff Girls 02:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Ben 10 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Powerpuff Girls 04:40 Generator Rex 05:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:55 Angelo Rules 06:00 The Marvelous Misadventures... 06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 07:15 Adventure Time 07:40 Johnny Test 08:05 Grim Adventures Of... 08:55 Courage The Cowardly Dog 09:45 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 10:10 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 10:35 Powerpuff Girls 11:25 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 12:15 Ed, Edd n Eddy 13:05 Bakugan Battle Brawlers
CARRIERS ON OSN ACTION HD
13:30 Sym-Bionic Titan 13:55 Foster’s Home For... 14:20 Foster’s Home For... 14:45 Angelo Rules 15:35 Powerpuff Girls 16:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 16:40 Johnny Test 17:00 Level Up 18:00 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 18:20 Batman Brave And The Bold 18:45 Young Justice 19:10 Hero 108 19:35 Ben 10 20:00 Ben 10 20:25 Courage The Cowardly Dog 21:15 Grim Adventures Of... 22:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Ben 10
00:00 Amanpour 00:30 World Sport 01:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 02:00 World Report 03:00 Anderson Cooper 360 04:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 05:00 Quest Means Business 06:00 The Situation Room 07:00 World Sport 07:30 Talk Asia 08:00 World Report 09:00 World Report 10:00 World Sport 10:30 The CNN Freedom Project 11:00 World Business Today 12:00 Amanpour 12:30 Open Court 13:00 World One 14:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 15:00 News Stream 16:00 World Business Today 17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 18:45 CNN Marketplace Middle East 19:00 World Sport 19:30 Open Court 20:00 International Desk 21:00 Quest Means Business 21:45 CNN Marketplace Europe 22:00 Amanpour 22:30 CNN Newscenter 23:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson
00:15 01:10 01:35 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:50 08:45 09:40 10:05 10:30 10:55 11:25 12:20 13:15 14:10 14:35 15:05 16:00 16:55 17:20 18:15 19:10 19:40 20:05 20:35 21:00 21:30 22:25 23:20
Monsters Inside Me Sons Of Guns Stan Lee’s Superhumans Mythbusters Mythbusters Monsters Inside Me How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Swamp Loggers American Chopper Mythbusters Ultimate Survival Border Security Auction Kings How Do They Do It? How It’s Made American Guns Building Sea City Building Sea City Border Security Auction Kings Ultimate Survival American Chopper Fifth Gear Swamp Loggers Mythbusters How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Border Security Auction Kings The Gadget Show American Guns Surviving Disaster Inside Death Row
00:35 Engineered 01:25 Ten Ways 02:15 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 03:05 The Gadget Show 03:35 Junkyard Mega-Wars 04:25 Mars: The Quest For Life 05:15 Engineered 06:05 Ten Ways 07:00 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 07:50 Head Rush 07:53 Bang Goes The Theory 08:20 Sci-Fi Science 08:50 Smash Lab 09:40 Junkyard Mega-Wars 10:30 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 11:20 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 13:00 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 13:50 Real Superhumans 15:35 The Gadget Show 16:00 Head Rush 16:03 Bang Goes The Theory 16:30 Sci-Fi Science 17:00 Invisible Worlds 17:50 Smash Lab 18:40 Cosmic Collisions 19:30 Prank Science 19:55 Prank Science 20:20 Weird Or What? 21:10 The Gadget Show 21:35 The Gadget Show 22:00 Prank Science 22:25 Prank Science 22:50 Weird Or What? 23:40 Smash Lab
00:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:20 THS 03:15 Behind The Scenes 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 THS 06:00 25 Hottest Hollywood Cougar Tales 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Khloe And Lamar 09:45 Khloe And Lamar 10:15 THS 12:05 E! News 13:05 Mrs. Eastwood And Company
13:35 14:05 York 14:30 York 15:00 15:30 16:25 16:55 17:25 17:55 18:55 19:55 20:55 21:25 22:25 23:25
00:30 01:20 02:05 02:55 03:45 04:30 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 Jones 11:10 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 Jones 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:05 19:55 20:20 Jones 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40
Mrs. Eastwood And Company Kourtney & Kim Take New Kourtney & Kim Take New Style Star THS Behind The Scenes Ice Loves Coco Ice Loves Coco E! News THS Giuliana & Bill Mrs. Eastwood And Company Fashion Police E! News Chelsea Lately
Ghost Lab Crime Scene Psychics Australian Families Of Crime American Greed Extreme Forensics Ghost Lab Crime Scene Psychics Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Street Patrol Street Patrol Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Who On Earth Did I Marry? True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Nightmare Next Door Dr G: Medical Examiner
00:00 Into The Drink 01:00 Perilous Journeys 02:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 02:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 03:00 Danger Beach 03:30 Danger Beach 04:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:00 Bondi Rescue 06:00 Into The Drink 07:00 Perilous Journeys 08:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 08:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 09:00 Danger Beach 10:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 11:00 Bondi Rescue 11:30 Bondi Rescue 12:00 Into The Drink 13:00 Perilous Journeys 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 15:00 Danger Beach 15:30 Danger Beach 16:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 17:00 Bondi Rescue 18:00 Into The Drink 19:00 A World Apart 20:00 David Rocco’s Amalfi Getaway 20:30 David Rocco’s Amalfi Getaway 21:00 One Man & His Campervan 21:30 One Man & His Campervan 22:00 City Chase Rome 23:00 Don’t Tell My Mother
00:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 01:00 Convoy: War For The Atlantic 02:00 Apocalypse: The Second World War 03:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 04:00 Huge Moves 05:00 Animal Autopsy (AKA Inside Nature’s Giants) 06:00 Banged Up Abroad 07:00 Air Crash Investigation 08:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 09:00 Convoy: War For The Atlantic 10:00 Apocalypse: The Second World War 11:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 12:00 Huge Moves 13:00 Animal Autopsy (AKA Inside Nature’s Giants) 14:00 Banged Up Abroad 15:00 Naked Science S2.5 16:00 Mega Bridges 17:00 Convoy: War For The Atlantic 18:00 Apocalypse: The Second World War 19:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 20:00 The Known Universe 21:00 Great Migrations 22:00 Departures
00:00 01:00 01:55 02:50 03:45 04:10 04:40 05:35 06:30 07:25 08:20 08:45 09:15 10:10 11:05 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00
Wildlife Rescue Africa Planet Carnivore Journey Into Amazonia Ultimate Predators GPU Monkey Thieves Monkey Thieves The Bear Evidence Clan Of The Meerkat Journey Into Amazonia Ultimate Predators GPU Monkey Thieves Monkey Thieves Cheetah Blood Brothers How Big Can It Get Lizard Kings Africa’s Deadliest California’s Wild Coast America’s Greatest Animals Kalahari Supercats American Eagle Aerial Assasins Journey Into Amazonia Ultimate Predators GPU Monkey Thieves Monkey Thieves Cheetah Blood Brothers How Big Can It Get
WIN WIN ON OSN CINEMA
00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 09:45 12:00 14:15 16:00 18:00 20:15 22:00
Bats-18 Get Rich Or Die Tryin’-18 Road To Perdition-18 The Net-PG15 Inside Out-PG15 Hidalgo-PG15 Iron Man 2-PG15 Inside Out-PG15 Taxi-PG15 Iron Man 2-PG15 Carriers-PG15 The Siege-18
01:00 Marley & Me: The Puppy Years-PG15 03:00 Mars Needs Moms-PG 05:00 The Borrowers-PG 07:00 Helen-PG15 09:00 Waiting For Superman-PG15 11:00 Certified Copy-PG15 13:00 My Sassy Girl-PG15 15:00 According To Greta-PG15 17:00 Just Wright-PG15 19:00 Shanghai-PG15 21:00 Win Win-PG15 23:00 Bloodworth-18
00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:30 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 02:30 Two And A Half Men 03:00 2 Broke Girls 03:30 Whitney 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 06:00 Seinfeld 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:30 2 Broke Girls 09:30 Parks And Recreation 10:00 Parks And Recreation 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Seinfeld 14:00 Whitney 14:30 Parks And Recreation 15:00 Parks And Recreation 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:30 Seinfeld 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 2 Broke Girls 18:30 Whitney 19:00 Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 19:30 How I Met Your Mother 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 22:00 Family Guy 22:30 The League 23:00 Two And A Half Men 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:30 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00
Grimm Alphas Supernatural Hawthorne Warehouse 13 Good Morning America Century City Coronation Street The Martha Stewart Show The View Hawthorne Live Good Morning America Century City One Tree Hill GCB Scandal Warehouse 13
00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 11:00 12:00 12:30
Cold Case Supernatural Revenge Alphas Revenge Cold Case Emmerdale Coronation Street Smallville Supernatural Hawthorne Emmerdale Hot In Cleveland
13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00
The Ellen DeGeneres Show Smallville Cold Case Emmerdale Hot In Cleveland The Ellen DeGeneres Show Smallville Parenthood One Tree Hill GCB Scandal Revenge
00:00 02:00 04:00 07:00 PG15 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:30 23:15
Restitution-PG15 Sniper: Reloaded-18 The Godfather III-18 Bodyguard: A New Beginning-
00:00 02:00 04:00 PG15 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 PG15 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00
The Warlords-PG15 Fighting-PG15 The Last Airbender-PG The Warlords-PG15 Four Brothers-18 Carlito’s Way-18 The Alphabet Killer-18 Dread-18
All Night Long-PG15 Coming & Going-PG15 Inspector Gadget (1999)Babe-FAM Coming & Going-PG15 Babe: Pig In The City-FAM Mr. Wrong-PG15 Return To Sleepaway CampBabe: Pig In The City-FAM Griff The Invisible-PG15 Hitch-PG15 Defendor-PG15
01:00 Karma: Crime, Passion, Reincarnation-18 03:00 Moonlight And ValentinoPG15 05:00 Skirt Day-PG15 07:00 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG 09:00 Don’t Look Back-PG15 11:00 The Tempest-PG15 13:00 Veronica Guerin-PG15 15:00 Don’t Look Back-PG15 17:00 Charlie St. Cloud-PG15 19:00 The Clearing-18 21:00 Kings And Queen-18 23:30 The Public Eye-PG15
00:45 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 16:30 18:30 21:00
The Town-18 Flash Of Genius-PG15 Shrek Forever After-FAM Morning Glory-PG15 Zookeeper-PG15 Rio-FAM Love And Mary-PG15 B-Girl-PG15 Zookeeper-PG15 The Help-PG15 Win Win-PG15
00:00 Paul-PG15 02:00 The Winning Season-PG15 04:00 Kung Fu Magoo-FAM 06:00 Quest For Zhu-PG 08:00 Citizen Jane-PG 10:00 Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star-PG15 12:00 The Winning Season-PG15 14:00 The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice-PG15 16:00 Citizen Jane-PG 18:00 Real Steel-PG15 20:15 Never Let Me Go-PG15 22:00 Inhale-PG15
00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 FAM 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00
Olentzero Christmas Tale-FAM Ramses Of Egypt-PG The Enchanted Mountain-PG Scooter The Penguin-PG15 The Three Musketeers (2008)The Hairy Tooth Fairy 2-PG15 Rango-FAM Emilie Jolie-PG The Proud Family Movie-FAM
18:00 The Hairy Tooth Fairy 2-PG15 20:00 Ulysses-PG 22:00 Emilie Jolie-PG
01:00 07:00 10:15 13:45 16:00 18:45 21:00
Olympics - Football Olympics - Football Olympics - Football Live Olympics - Football Live Olympics - Football Live Olympics - Football Live Olympics - Football
00:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 12:30 16:15 19:00 22:00
Olympics - Football Olympics - Football NRL Premiership Darts Masters Football Live Olympics - Football Live Olympics - Football Live Olympics - Football
04:00 World Cup of Pool 05:00 World Cup of Pool 06:00 Ping Pong World Championship 07:00 Golfing World 08:30 European PGA Tour 13:00 Total Rugby 13:30 Golfing World 14:30 European Tour Weekly 15:00 Live European PGA Tour 19:00 Golfing World 20:00 Super Rugby Highlights 21:00 Futbol Mundial 21:30 Live Olympics - Football
02:00 04:00 07:00 09:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:30 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00
UFC 149 Prelims UFC 149 WWE SmackDown Prizefighter WWE Experience WWE Vintage Collection WWE Bottom Line Mobil 1 The Grid V8 Supercars Highlights V8 Supercars Highlights V8 Supercars Extra UAE National Race Day Series Mobil 1 The Grid WWE NXT UFC The Ultimate Fighter Live Darts World Match
01:25 03:20 05:05 07:00 08:35 10:25 12:00 13:50 15:50 17:45 19:35 22:00
The Appointment Heart Of Darkness The Sandpiper-PG The Catered Affair-PG Jezebel-FAM The Naked Spur-PG Show Boat-FAM Never So Few-PG Little Women-FAM Summer Stock-FAM The Dirty Dozen Cimarron-FAM
00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 22:00 23:00
Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Ax Men Lock N’ Load Top Shot Ancient Aliens Britain At War Ax Men Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Ancient Aliens Britain At War Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Ax Men Lock N’ Load Top Shot Britain At War Ancient Aliens Lock N’ Load Top Shot Britain At War Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Ax Men Ice Road Truckers Ice Road Truckers
Classifieds THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION
Airlines QTR JZR SAI ETH CLX RJA GFA UAE KAC ETD FDB MSR QTR THY DHX KAC BAW JZR KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY IRA QTR IZG IRA FDB ETD BAB GFA MEA MSR KNE MSC SYR MSR GFA OMA KNE QTR SVA RJA KAC KAC QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR ETD UAE UAL GFA SVA JZR TAR JZR ABY KAC KNE KAC KAC BAB KAC KAC MSR MSC RBG KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI KAC AXB FDB OMA MEA QTR GFA ALK FDB UAE ETD ABY QTR AIC GFA UAL JZR DLH MSR THY KLM JZR JAI
Arrival Flights on Thursday 26/7/2012 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 441 LAHORE 620 ADDIS ABABA 792 LUXEMBOURG 642 AMMAN 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 1712 JEDDAH 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 412 MANILA 157 LONDON 529 ASSIUT 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 555 ALEXANDRIA 302 MUMBAI 332 TRIVANDRUM 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 605 ISFAHAN 132 DOHA 4161 MASHAD 617 AHWAZ 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 436 BAHRAIN 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 618 ALEXANDRIA 470 JEDDAH 401 ALEXANDRIA 341 DAMASCUS 610 CAIRO 219 BAHRAIN 645 MUSCAT 472 JEDDAH 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 788 JEDDAH 546 ALEXANDRIA 134 DOHA 1714 JEDDAH 118 NEW YORK 535 CAIRO 357 MASHAD 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 177 DUBAI 328 TUNIS 777 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 176 GENEVA 474 JEDDAH 502 BEIRUT 542 CAIRO 438 BAHRAIN 786 JEDDAH 104 LONDON 624 SOHAG 405 SOHAG 3553 ALEXANDRIA 774 RIYADH 618 DOHA 674 DUBAI 614 BAHRAIN 572 MUMBAI 562 AMMAN 389 KOZHIKODE 61 DUBAI 647 MUSCAT 402 BEIRUT 146 DOHA 221 BAHRAIN 229 COLOMBO 59 DUBAI 859 DUBAI 307 ABU DHABI 129 SHARJAH 136 DOHA 981 CHENNAI 217 BAHRAIN 981 BAHRAIN 239 AMMAN 636 FRANKFURT 614 CAIRO 772 ISTANBUL 411 AMSTERDAM 539 CAIRO 574 MUMBAI
Time 0:20 0:50 1:30 1:45 2:05 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:25 2:30 3:10 3:20 3:25 4:35 5:00 6:15 6:30 6:40 7:15 7:30 7:35 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:30 8:35 9:00 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:30 9:35 10:00 10:55 11:25 11:35 12:00 12:05 13:30 13:40 14:00 14:15 14:25 14:30 14:55 15:00 15:05 15:15 15:20 16:00 16:00 16:20 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:35 17:40 17:45 17:45 17:55 18:00 18:15 18:40 18:40 18:45 18:55 19:00 19:05 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:50 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:35 20:55 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:30 21:35 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:55 23:10 23:35 23:40 23:40 23:40 23:50
Airlines AIC UAL DLH JZR MSR THY SAI ETH RJA CLX UAE FDB ETD MSR QTR QTR GFA THY KAC BAW ABY JZR KAC KAC IRA UAE QTR KAC FDB ETD IRA BAB JZR IZG GFA KAC KAC JZR MEA KAC MSR KNE MSC SYR KAC JZR GFA MSR KAC OMA KAC KNE KAC RJA KAC SVA QTR KAC JZR ETD JZR QTR UAE GFA TAR ABY UAL SVA KNE JZR BAB KAC RBG MSR MSC JAI FDB KAC KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC GFA FDB DHX ALK ABY ETD UAE QTR KAC KAC QTR AXB GFA KAC KAC JZR
Depature Flights on Thursday 26/7/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 981 WASHINGTON DC 637 FRANKFURT 554 ALEXANDRIA 615 CAIRO 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 621 ADDIS ABABA 643 AMMAN 792 HONG KONG 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 545 ALEXANDRIA 156 LONDON 126 SHARJAH 534 CAIRO 1713 JEDDAH 787 JEDDAH 606 MASHHAD 856 DUBAI 133 DOHA 101 LONDON 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 616 AHWAZ 437 BAHRAIN 356 MASHHAD 4162 MASHHAD 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 776 JEDDAH 405 BEIRUT 501 BEIRUT 623 SOHAG 471 JEDDAH 406 SOHAG 342 DAMASCUS 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 220 BAHRAIN 611 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 646 MUSCAT 673 DUBAI 473 JEDDAH 617 DOHA 641 AMMAN 773 RIYADH 505 JEDDAH 135 DOHA 613 BAHRAIN 538 CAIRO 304 ABU DHABI 238 AMMAN 141 DOHA 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 328 TUNIS 128 SHARJAH 982 BAHRAIN 511 RIYADH 475 JEDDAH 266 BEIRUT 439 BAHRAIN 283 DHAKA 3554 ALEXANDRIA 607 LUXOR 402 ALEXANDRIA 571 MUMBAI 62 DUBAI 331 TRIVANDRUM 343 CHENNAI 351 KOCHI 648 MUSCAT 403 BEIRUT 543 CAIRO 222 BAHRAIN 60 DUBAI 171 BAHRAIN 230 COLOMBO 120 SHARJAH 308 ABU DHABI 860 DUBAI 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 147 DOHA 390 MANGALORE 218 BAHRAIN 411 BANGKOK 415 KUALA LUMPUR 502 LUXOR
Time 0:05 0:25 0:30 0:30 0:35 2:15 2:30 2:45 3:10 3:35 3:45 3:50 4:05 4:20 4:50 5:40 7:05 7:10 8:10 8:25 9:05 9:10 9:20 9:35 9:35 9:40 10:00 10:00 10:05 10:15 10:15 10:25 10:30 10:35 10:45 11:30 11:45 11:50 11:55 12:00 12:25 12:25 13:00 13:05 13:10 13:20 14:25 14:30 14:40 15:00 15:05 15:15 15:45 15:50 15:55 16:00 16:15 16:30 16:50 17:20 17:30 17:45 18:05 18:20 18:25 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:45 18:50 19:30 19:30 19:45 19:55 20:00 20:35 20:40 20:50 20:55 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:50 21:50 21:55 22:10 22:20 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:10 23:10 23:30 23:40 23:50 23:55
Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)
Required CNC Operator For Leading Furniture Company Qualifications needed: • Minimum 4 years experience • CNC Router machines programming • Flexicam machine operation • ARTCAM Software • Work experience in Autocad preferably in wood industries Interested candidates may forward their resume to info@domainkwt.com or Fax to 24717498
FOR SALE For sale, Mitsubishi L300 delivery van, model 2004, color white, 2,21,000 km mileage, Al-Mulla maintained, price KD 2,700. Contact: 99852361/ 22418353† A 2008 model, 58 passenger, air conditioned Asher Bus in very good condition, price KD 9,400/-. Contact: 99089981. (C 4087) 23-7-2012
GMCAcadia, model 2007, 52,000 km, full specifications, CD, leather, DVD, excellent condition, condition inspection at the agency. Contact: 55741238. (C 4086) 22-7-2012
SITUAITON WANTED Looking for job, having 20 years of experience in cooking. Contact: 55052382. (C 4088) 26-7-2012
THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988
112
Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw Prayer timings Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:
03:31 11:54 15:29 18:46 20:15
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Kuwait News Agency www.kuna.net.kw
Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mofa.gov.kw
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Ministry of Energy (Oil) www.moo.gov.kw
Kuwait Electronic Government www.e.gov.kw
Ministry of Energy (Electricity and Water) www.energy.govt.kw
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Ministry of Communications www.moc.kw
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Supreme Council for Planning and Development www.scpd.gov.kw
Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation www.awqaf.org
34
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
stars CROSSWORD 748
STAR TRACK
CALVIN & HOBBES
Aries (March 21-April 19) You may be looking for new business ideas and your partners may find you in search of a good deal. If you can, stay out of uncharted waters today—the course will be much clearer tomorrow. Love of animals and children may have you entertaining or volunteering in some group situation that calls for someone as organized and happy to help as you are today. Everything conspires to reveal you at your most elegant, particularly social gatherings. Conversations with your friends this day tend to go along the line of psychic visions. The latest scientific and technical discoveries are also fun topics. Exchanging information takes on more meaning. Your ideas can develop into most useful subjects—stay focused. Support makes this a happy time.
Taurus (April 20-May 20) There could be some pushing and shoving today. Normally, you try to stay away from large crowds but this is a bidding war or auction type of situation where you have to step forward and let yourself be heard. Soon, there will be a balance in your life but for a short while you will need to be brave. This may have to do with an animal, real estate or vehicle sale. You are happy with the results and may think about a repeat performance, perhaps way into the future. This afternoon is a good time to complete a little paperwork and make a few phone calls. This evening brings about an opportunity to either socialize or attend a class or meeting. You and your family or friends may enjoy an easy take-home meal or pizza order that could be delivered for tonight.
POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. A software system that facilitates the creation and maintenance and use of an electronic database. 5. Wet feed (especially for pigs) consisting of mostly kitchen waste mixed with water or skimmed or sour milk. 10. An ancient Hebrew unit of capacity equal to 10 baths or 10 ephahs. 13. A republic in the Middle East in western Asia. 14. A dyed fabric. 15. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters. 16. (Sumerian and Babylonian) A solar deity. 18. Very small. 19. A coenzyme derived from the B vitamin nicotinic acid. 20. Small often spiny insectivorous mammal of Madagascar. 22. Gradually decreasing in tempo and volume. 24. Soft white semisolid fat obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of the hog v 1. 26. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh. 27. Light informal conversation for social occasions. 30. Type genus of the family Myacidae. 31. A port city in southwestern Iran. 34. Large elliptical brightly colored deep-sea fish of Atlantic and Pacific and Mediterranean. 36. Sandwich filled with slices of bacon and tomato with lettuce. 37. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad. 38. The slender spear of the Bantu-speaking people of Africa. 42. Half the width of an em. 43. Go away from the surface to which it is adsorbed, of a substance. 44. Unknown god. 46. The month following April and preceding June. 51. Hungarian choreographer who developed Labanotation (1879-1958). 55. (music) Brought to correct pitch. 56. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth. 57. The capital and largest city of Bangladesh. 60. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk. 61. The force of workers available. 62. Peruvian shrub with small pink to lavender tubular flowers. 63. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls. 64. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders. 65. Someone whose business is advertising. 66. A small cake leavened with yeast. DOWN 1. Interchangeable with `means' in the expression `by dint of'. 2. Soft creamy white cheese. 3. United States educator who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education (1796-1859). 4. The sound of (the chanter of) a bagpipe v 1. 5. A metallic element having four allotropic forms. 6. A broad flat muscle on either side of the back. 7. Of or relating to near the ear. 8. Plaything consisting of a container filled with toys and candy. 9. United States space station. 10. A Dravidian language spoken in southern India. 11. Toward the mouth or oral region. 12. Make anew. 17. A signal transmitted along a narrow path. 21. A person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishywashy. 23. Jordan's port. 25. Surrealist Spanish painter (1904-1989). 28. A domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church. 29. Having or denoting a low vocal or instrumental range. 32. Goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment. 33. (British) Your grandmother. 35. Leafless East Indian vine. 39. The father of your father or mother. 40. A Turkish unit of weight equal to about 2.75 pounds. 41. Having the slant of a bevel. 45. A nation in northern North America. 46. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material. 47. A civil or military authority in Turkey or Egypt. 48. Spicy fruit of the cubeb vine. 49. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables. 50. Swelling from excessive accumulation of serous fluid in tissue. 52. In bed. 53. An unofficial association of people or groups. 54. Electronic warfare undertaken to insure effective friendly use of the electromagnetic spectrum in spite of the enemy's use of electronic warfare. 58. A resource. 59. Belonging to or on behalf of a specified person (especially yourself). 60. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.
Yesterday’s Solution
Gemini (May 21-June 20) You may feel slightly rebellious just now—perhaps putting a high value on personal freedom. You will not take kindly to any restrictions. It may be time to look at all the possibilities for working out-of-doors. There are all sorts of jobs that could be researched. Some suggestions might be park ranger, in construction, real estate, etc. Political matters may have your attention this afternoon—perhaps a group of friends or relatives visiting have brought up a political discussion. Chances are your social skills mean that you are popular with almost everyone and you will have plenty of support for your own ideas. Perhaps you have some ideas on how to run a better school system. Certainly, your ideas are worth further study.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) Meetings and round-table discussions are just where we can find you this morning. This afternoon you will be answering questions. There are a lot of questions that you did not realize you could answer but you are the best one to be put in charge. Perhaps customer service, public relations or any number of other professions that calls for the ability to deal with frustrated or frustrating people. More than likely you will be in charge of new technical products on the market that people have not become adapted to or acquainted with yet. There will be many questions but you will probably share this job with many technical advisors. An important relationship, perhaps with a young person, may come into focus this evening. There is harmony.
NON SEQUITUR
Leo (July 23-August 22) This workday is such a breeze that you may feel that you are a volunteer. Money does seem to set the standards of how we perform and if you think you could increase your earning power it may be time to consider requesting a raise or taking on more responsibilities. If you think your earnings may stunt your travel opportunities, start now to make your plans on where you want to go or what you want to do next. Perhaps, a temporary job as a tour guide will afford you the opportunity to travel and see areas of the country you would not usually be able to see. You could become quite fortunate to find a mate with the same dreams and wishes that you have . . . take a look . . . that partner is out there for you. Tonight is a good time for socializing.
ZITS
Virgo (August 23-September 22) You may meet with an unusual business opportunity this morning. Sometimes it is good to move quickly on a particular deal; with this opportunity it might be best to wait and watch. If you can wait, a three-week period would be a good time. Commonsense thinking makes it possible for you to make the right decisions—move too quickly and you could be in for some problems. This afternoon you could be encouraged to be out with your friends or loved ones at a charity garage sale. A little exercise to skate or bicycle around your area with your mate could be quite relaxing this evening. Fresh grilled vegetables and a little fish is the right idea for the meal this evening. There is plenty of time left for some good conversations.
Libra (September 23-October 22)
MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM
You may be sought after for your advice regarding very personal and emotional issues this Wednesday. Careful . . . could be somebody wants you to babysit and you need to know how your energy level would be able to handle one or two young children. You are able to cut through the red tape and get at the basic issue. Time spent at your own desk, with your own business project, fills your time all day long. After work the children you decided to look after enjoy your attention. By asking some key questions, you will come up with solutions that will be helpful to these youth and you teach this technique as well. You feel enthusiastic for the young people that take you into their confidence. You can relate to all types of people with equal ease.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Being orderly and organized, you are able to work through whatever comes across your path today. In fact, soon you may decide you want to take on an extra job in order to buy some special birthday item for a friend or family member. Your creative energies are high today and you could create new music, art work, poetry or fun plots for stories. This may even mean that you will enjoy teaching or taking some sort of a creative class—perhaps creative writing. Your ideal dream is a private one and heaven is as close as work and family. Luck is in your corner this afternoon and this could mean just being in the right place at the right time. This evening is full of opportunities for some positive interaction among friends and family.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Today you will meet someone who will teach you new things and listen to your ideas. There are activities that include children this afternoon. You will gain their attention for as long as you want it and enjoy teaching these young people new things. You could feel real support and harmony for circumstances and those around you. You find new ways to serve others and you have brilliant insight into diet, health, ecology and conservation, etc. You are very independent when it comes to your own security and family. This could mean an unconventionalstyle home or furnishings. Nurturing and making things grow, taking care of them, planting seeds that will develop and survive far into the future are where your attention is focused now.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19) You attack your work as if there were no tomorrow. With your work completed in record time there may be an opportunity to generate some positive changes around your workplace. You are open to beauty which may manifest as the rearrangement of office furniture. Be aware that your internal censors will discard any unpleasant possibilities and urge your attention toward a most positive and productive outcome. Outdoor, physical activity may pass by your thinking but may need rethinking later this afternoon. It may be that if you keep pushing furniture around they will need to pay you double time so you can get a massage. Oh well . . . later today you should call and cancel a meeting for this evening that promises to double your money. To
Yesterday’s Solution Yester
Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You should enjoy being around people in general, but the rapport between you and your loved one has become especially strong. There may soon be an opportunity to go into business together. If the subject has not come up before, this would be a good time to talk about the prospect of working together. You are both very nurturing and understanding with each other. You are successful in your own work and have a little time to plan future projects together. You are able to express good practical thoughts and ideas. This evening you may be inspired to beautify your surroundings. Perhaps a fun shopping trip with a loved one is in order. It may even be time to think of moving to a place more permanent or with better accommodations.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
Word Sleuth Solution
You derive a great deal of satisfaction from completing the projects that come across your desk this morning. It may seem, however, that your emotions are taking over in your dealings with the public. This can cloud reason, so probably it is not the best day for objective decisions. Hold off on making any big decisions or solving problems until tomorrow. This afternoon there are plenty of opportunities to express your witty side with a friend. This expression of comedy seems to bring your energies back into balance. This friend may introduce some fun activity—before you know it the afternoon is almost gone. Some fun interactions may include quoting sayings from different authors, limericks or a variety of fun word games. You are encouraged to relax.
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital
24812000
Amiri Hospital
22450005
Maternity Hospital
24843100
Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital
25312700
Chest Hospital
24849400
Farwaniya Hospital
24892010
Adan Hospital
23940620
Ibn Sina Hospital
24840300
Al-Razi Hospital
24846000
Physiotherapy Hospital
24874330/9
Kaizen center
25716707
Roudha
22517733
Adhaliya
22517144
Khaldiya
24848075
Keifan
24849807
Shamiya
24848913
Shuwaikh
24814507
Abdullah Salim
22549134
Al-Nuzha
22526804
Industrial Shuwaikh
24814764
Al-Khadissiya
22515088
Dasmah
22532265
Bneid Al-Ghar
22531908
Al-Shaab
22518752
Al-Kibla
22459381
Ayoun Al-Kibla
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
Hot with light to moderate freshening gradually at times south easterly wind, with speed of 15 - 40 km/h with a chance for blowing dust over open areas
BY Y NIGHT:
Humid over coastal areas with moderate wind in general south easterly to southerly wind, with speed of 12 - 35 km/h No Current Warnings arnin a
WA ARNING
35 °C
22451082
KUW WA AIT AIRPOR RT
49 °C
32 °C
Al-Mirqab
22456536
NUW WA AISEEB
45 °C
30 °C
Sharq
22465401
WAFRA A
49 °C
29 °C
Salmiya
25746401
SALMI
49 °C
33 °C
ABDAL LY
50 °C
34 °C
Jabriya
25316254
JAL ALIY YA AH
49 °C
34 °C
Maidan Hawally
25623444
FAILAKA A
43 °C
32 °C
Bayan
25388462
AHMADI POR RT
41 °C
36 °C
Mishref
25381200
UMM AL-MARADEM
38 °C
33 °C
W.Hawally
22630786
WARBA A A - BUBY YA AN
40 °C
31 °C
Sabah
24810221
Jahra
24770319
ST TATION T
DA AT TE
WEA AT THER
Thursday
26/07
West Jahra
24772608
Friday
South Jahra
24775066
Saturday
North Jahra
24775992
Sunday
North Jleeb
24311795
MAX.
MIN.
Wind Direction
Wind Speed
hot + raising dust
48 °C
33 °C
SE
15 - 40 km/h
27/07
humid
48 °C
35 °C
SE-S
15 - 40 km/h
28/07
hot
49 °C
35 °C
SE
15 - 40 km/h
29/07
hot
49 °C
33 °C
VRB-SE
10 - 32 km/h
03:34
MAX. Temp.
48 °C
Sunrise
05:04
MIN. Temp.
31 °C
Zuhr
11:54
MAX. RH
36 %
Asr
15:30
MIN. RH
Sunset
18:45
MAX. Wind i
Isha
20:13
TOT TA AL L RAIINF FA ALL L IN 24 HR.
24892674
23900322
AIT AIRPORT RECORDED YESTERDA AY AT KUW WA
PRA RA AYER Y TIMES Fajr
24884079
Fintas
25/07/2012 0000 UTC
Temperatures DA AY
24575755
24710044
SFC. CHART
4 DA AY YS FORECAST
New Jahra
N.Kheitan
06 % SE 28 km/h 00 mm
All times are local time unless otherwise stated.
PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists
Paediatricians
Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf
22547272
Dr. Khaled Hamadi
Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari
22617700
Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed
Dr. Abdel Quttainah
25625030/60
Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar
23729596/23729581
Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari
22635047
Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan
22613623/0
Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe
23729596/23729581
Dr. Verginia s.Marin
2572-6666 ext 8321
Endocrinologist
25665898 25340300
Dr. Zahra Qabazard
25710444
Dr. Sohail Qamar
22621099
Dr. Snaa Maaroof
25713514
Dr. Pradip Gujare
23713100
Dr. Zacharias Mathew
24334282
(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)
25655535
Dentists
Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan
22655539
Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami
25343406
Dr. Shamah Al-Matar
22641071/2
Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly
25739272
Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed
22562226
22618787
Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer
22561444
Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan
22619557
Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash
22525888
Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan
25653755
Dr. Bader Al-Ansari
25620111
Dr. Salem soso General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer
22610044
Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher
25327148
Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Mousa Khadada Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan
22666300 25728004
Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra
25355515
Dr. Mobarak Aldoub
24726446
Dr Nasser Behbehani
25654300/3
info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com
3729596/3729581
Neurologists
22639939
Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman
Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri
25633324
Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan
25345875
Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman
22636464
Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly
25322030
Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali
22633135
Kaizen center 25716707
25339330
Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab
25722291
Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees
22666288
Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi
Dr Anil Thomas
Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688
Al-Shuwaikh
24810598
Al-Nuzha
22545171
Sabhan
24742838
Al-Helaly
22434853
Al-Fayhaa
22545051
Al-Farwaniya
24711433
Al-Sulaibikhat
24316983
Al-Fahaheel
23927002
Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh
24316983
Ahmadi
23980088
Al-Mangaf
23711183
Al-Shuaiba
23262845
Al-Jahra
25610011
Al-Salmiya
25616368
INTERNATIONAL CALLS
BY Y DA AY:
46 °C
24719048
22545171
Expected Weeather for the Next 24 Hours
KUW WA AIT CITY
Al-Omariya
Al-Shohada’a
Ext.: 262 2627 - 2630
WWW.MET.GOV V.KW .
MIN. REC.
Firdous
22418714
Fax: 24348714
MAX. EXP P.
Al-Ardhiya
PHONE
Al-Madena
25330060
Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah
25722290
Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad
24555050 Ext 210
Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123
2611555-2622555
William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677
Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands) 0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062
Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677
36
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
lifestyle G O S S I P
Rihanna wants messages from dead grandmother
ihanna has been pleading for her dead grandmother to contact her from beyond the grave. The ‘Rude Boy’ singer has been rocked by the loss of her beloved grandparent Clara ‘Dolly’ Braithwaite on June 30, and is hoping she will send her some sort of message from the afterlife to let her know she is still watching over her. Referring to her by her nickname, she tweeted: “I wish u were here ... Got so many questions and you always had answers #grangranDOLLY “Send a message in the wind or something please #grangranDOLLY (sic)” Rihanna is reported to be spending time with exboyfriend Chris Brown in the South of France and her desire to speak to ‘Dolly’ could come from her need for advice on whether she should get involved again with the man who brutally assaulted in February 2009. Rihanna cancelled her appearance at the Rock In Rio festival in Madrid, Spain, and flew back to her native Barbados to be with her mother Monica after the death of her grandmother. She then attended both funeral services held for Clara, one in New York and another in Barbados. Rihanna frequently talks to her passed grandparent directly in her tweets, paying tribute after her passing by writing: “Goodbye grangranDolly get your beauty rest until I see you.
R
Batman actor Bale visits US shooting town atman actor Christian Bale paid a low-key visit Tuesday to Aurora, Colorado to comfort victims of last week’s shooting massacre, which occurred during a screening of his latest film. Pictures posted on Twitter showed the Welsh-born actor at the Medical Center of Aurora, where 20 of the 58 people wounded in Friday’s massacre are still receiving treatment, some of them in critical condition. “ChristianBale
B
meeting with #Aurora #theatershooting victim Carey Rottman,” read one tweet above a photo of Bale, crouched next to the young man with his arm resting on his chair as the two smiled for the camera. “What a surprise! 19 Swedish staff members met actor Christian Bale today @ TMCA! More details soon,” read another tweet from the Swedish Medical Center with a photo of Bale wearing a black T-Shirt and posing with
medical personnel. James Holmes, 24, is accused of shooting 12 people dead and wounding 58 more at a cinema on Friday in Aurora, outside Denver, as young moviegoers packed the first midnight screening of the latest Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Bale plays Batman in the movie.
grangranDolly that is all. (sic)” Before her Barbados funeral, she wrote: “grangranDolly time for your party in Barbados. (sic)” Rihanna has become increasingly spiritual in her tweets since ‘Dolly’ died, writing yesterday: “I put it all in Your hands!!! I love my Creator!!!! #1Love #1Life (sic).” She has also retweeted a post by Spiritual Truths, hinting at her love life: “Love is calling you, the happiness you seek is written within the heart, take notice of your feelings & find your way home.”
Rowling builds
a Hogwarts playground for kids .K. Rowling is building a Hogwartsthemed playground for her kids. The ‘Harry Potter’ author is planning a 40ft adventure playground based on her bestselling novels about the boy wizard for her two children, David, nine, and seven-yearold daughter Mackenzie, in the back garden of her Edinburgh mansion. The play area takes its inspiration from the fictional school of witchcraft and wizardry and is estimated to be costing £150,000 and is so big she needs to get planning permission to build it, but it doesn’t look like local residents will be complaining. A neighbor told the MailOnline website: “Nobody around here is going to make a fuss about the tree houses for her children. It’s her cash she can do what she wants with it. “Miss Rowling
has spent a lot of money on trees surrounding her property so even if these tree houses are huge nobody but her is going to see them. In any case she’s extremely nice and well-liked around here.” Luxury tree house makers Blue Forest UK are in charge of building two two-storey tree houses - one for each child - which will be raised on stilts and boast balconies, carvings and turrets straight out of the magical ‘Harry Potter’ universe. Rowling, 46, lives in the 17th century mansion with her husband Dr. Neil Murray, their two children and 18-year-old Jessica, her daughter from her first marriage. She is worth £560 million according to the 2012 Sunday Times Rich List.
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Lady Gaga sued for $10 million
Pitt and Jolie invited to Olympics party on a yacht rad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been invited to an Olympics party on a yacht. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is throwing a lavish bash on his vessel, which is moored in Canary Wharf, east London, for the duration of the games, with the Hollywood couple - who are currently based in the UK while the actress films ‘Maleficent’ -topping the guest list. A source told The Sun newspaper: “Paul’s party is going to be amazing. “Some big names have been invited but Brad and Ange are easily the most glamorous.” Microsoft’s Bill Gates is also expected to attend. Tonight, Brad and Angelina are hosting their own Olympic opening ceremony party at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Princes William and Harry have been invited to the charity fundraiser, which is being held in honor of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. David
Hemsworth: Miley is my ideal woman
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and Victoria Beckham, Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones are also expected to attend. They will be raising funds for the Sports For Peace initiative with a black tie champagne reception before a four-course banquet dinner. A source said: “It‘s going to be an Olympics-themed party, with huge buckets of home-made cocktails on offer. “The who’s who of British and American celebrity will be in attendance, and invitees have been ordered not to take any photos from their phones.” When the extravaganza finishes at 10pm, the couple will host an exclusive after party at their rented £20 million townhouse. A source said recently: “Forget the official opening ceremony; this is the party to be at. “Angelina is on official work duty but Brad is ensuring fun will be had after hours.” iam Hemsworth says fiancee Miley Cyrus is his ideal woman. The ‘Hunger Games’ actor recently proposed to the former ‘Hannah Montana’ star and he knows she is the right person for him because she makes him laugh and he feels totally relaxed around her. When asked to describe his ideal woman, Liam said: “My fiancee. She’s extremely happy and has a sense of humor about life. And she has taught me you can step back and not take everything so seriously. Happy, positive, fun - those qualities are good in anyone.” Liam, 22, also says 19-year-old Miley is very cool when it comes to his fashion choices and would never tell him what to wear. He told America’s InStyle magazine: “She doesn’t care. My style is very inconsistent. One day, I’ll put together a cool outfit, and the next, I’ll look like a homeless person.” Miley recently revealed how she loves being engaged, writing on her twitter page: “I love being a ‘fiancee.” Previous to that the singerand-actress had written on the microblogging website: “Will I ever quit staring at my finger?” —Agencies
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ady Gaga is being sued for $10 million by a toy manufacturer. The ‘Judas’ hitmaker and her management have been accused by MGA Entertainment of requesting a voice chip be removed from a doll made in her likeness, meaning its planned Christmas 2012 delivery time will be unable to be met. The company claims Lady Gaga acted in bad faith as she wants to put the release of the doll on hold until her new album and per fume come out in 2013. According to the New York Daily News newspaper, MGA said those around her had “engaged in intentional and deliberate delays” to the doll - which Gaga reportedly wanted to have a removable head which revealed a bloody stump and a “supermodel” like face with a “sharp jaw-line” and “cat-eyes”. However, her spokesperson Amanda Silverman has claimed she will “prevail” over the court case. She said: “Lady Gaga will vigorously defend MGA’s ill-conceived
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lawsuit and is confident that she will prevail.” The representative added the actual dispute was between MGA and Bravado - part of Lady Gaga’s record label Universal - and there was “no legitimate reason” to bring her into the issue. In addition to the damages, the company is also requesting it can distribute the doll in its current format.
Reid hits nightclub
days after hospitalization
ara Reid has been spotted in a nightclub just days after she was hospitalized. The ‘American Pie’ beauty was admitted to hospital with food poisoning while on holiday in Nice, France, last week, but she was seen smoking cigarettes out and about in Saint-Tropez on Monday .Tara was spotted sunning herself in the South of France hot spot yesterday, where she spent time on the beach and enjoyed a speedboat ride, and the 36-year-old blonde took to her twitter account to post a picture of herself feeling “happy and healthy” to reassure fans she is OK. In a message accompanying the image, she tweeted: “Happy and healthy in st.tropez (sic)” As well as suffering from food poisoning, Tara - who was initially thought to have been taken ill with acute pancreatitis - also hurt her back on a jet ski and had to have an X-ray at hospital, but over the weekend she informed her 118,000 twitter followers that she is recovering “fine”. She tweeted: “Everyone of these stories I’m reading about myself are not true I got hurt on a jetski and went to the hospital to get x ray and I’m fine. “Jetski’s are fun but you have to be safe they can be very dangerous! (sic)”.
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Katie refuses to mention Tom atie Holmes refused to mention Tom Cruise in an inter view she conducted a day before she announced her split from him. The 33-year-old actress took part in an Q&A session with C magazine’s senior editor Kelsey McKinnon just one day prior to announcing her divorce from the ‘Top Gun’ actor in June and Kelsey believes she was particularly guarded, never mentioning her husband by name. Kelsey told WWD.com: “Going back over the tapes, there were signs; Holmes was certainly very aware of herself, laying a couple of cards on the table but never showing her whole hand. “Most noticeably, the one name decisively absent from her lexicon: Tom Cruise. She never actually refers to him by name over pages and pages of transcription.” During the interview, Katie said she “didn’t know” if having six-year-old Suri with Tom had brought them closer together as a couple. She said: “I don’t know. I mean ... I don’t know. People have been having babies a long time.” However, the former ‘Dawson’s Creek’ actress was happier to discuss her career, saying she was ready to take on some more challenging parts. She said: “I feel like I worked so much at such a young age that I really wanted to have life experiences. I feel more balanced and like I have more to bring to the table. “I always felt like I wanted to catch up [in my personal life] to what I was doing [in my career].”
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THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
lifestyle T r a v e l
So much to see and do in
London
By Bob Downing
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he exterior of Westminster Abbey is imposing and grandiose. Our plan was simple: Pay the admission, stick our heads inside to see what it looked like, and then quickly duck out and move on to a museum. The museum never happened. That because expatriate Geoff Auerbach, my wife, Pat, and I were all dazzled by the thousand-year-old church where England’s kings and queens have been crowned since 1066. That is a lot of history. Iconic Westminster Abbey is, quite frankly, a lot of church with its architecture, chapels, crypts, paintings, stained glass and textiles. Many of the decorations go back to the 13th and 14th centuries. It was the most impressive sight we saw in London, part sacred space, part national shrine, part pageant of British history. It was filled with a half-lighted medieval atmosphere and lots of tourists. The church has more than 600 statues, tombs, crypts and markers. It triggers a bit of sensory overload because there’s just so much to see and absorb. Thirty kings and queens are buried in Westminster Abbey, along with English poets, authors, politicians and actors: Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Johnson, Robert Browning, Edmund Spenser, Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, Laurence Olivier and George Frederic Handel. A total of 3,300 people are buried there. The West Towers stand 225 feet high. The body of the building is 531 feet long. The transept is 203 feet long and 80 feet wide. It boasts the highest ceiling in Europe: 102 feet. It is opulent and wears its age well. In places, the marble floor has been worn down by countless footsteps. It has been the site of 16 royal weddings and 38 coronations. It is home of the coronation chair
London, England, is known for its historic bridges over the River Thames. The river also provides a great way to see London’s sights. — MCT photos London is sophisticated, hip, expensive, diverse, cosmopolitan. Thirty percent of its residents were born elsewhere. Its residents come from 300 countries. It lacks the edginess of New York City and is friendly, albeit a little aloof. London covers 607 square miles. It is composed of two cities, London and Westminster, and 31 other boroughs. You can walk neighborhoods and explore alleys, squares and streets on foot. But Londoners rely heavily on the Underground, the ancient subway system called the Tube that is the No. 1 way to get around. It gets 12 million passengers a day. Britons love their tea, con-
St. James Park in London, England, covers 90 acres and is flanked by three palaces.
ordered in 1301 by King Edward I. Much of the Gothic church was built from 1245 to 1272 by King Henry III to honor St. Edward the Confessor. Benedictine monks came to the site in the middle of the 10th century. Guided and self-guided audio tours are available. Westminster Abbey is surrounded by other very familiar landmarks: Big Ben and the Parliament Building, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, 10 Downing Street (home of the prime minister and a must-stop if your name is Downing). It’s been a big year in London with the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, the upcoming Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games that begin July 27, plus the London 2012 Festival that runs to Sept. 9 with 12,000 events and 25,000 artists. London typically gets 25 million visitors a year but this year is even bigger. But there’s a lot to see: the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Square, the London Eye, Oxford Street with its shopping, the Tate Modern and St. Paul’s Cathedral, designed by Christopher Wren. London with its 7.5 million residents is known for its rainy weather, world-class museums, shopping, royalty, art galleries and football (soccer). It has 100 theaters, seven royal palaces, 6,000 restaurants and 5,000 pubs or bars. It is the city of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan, Harry Potter, Abbey Road and Jack the Ripper. London is known for its parks and gardens, more than 2,500 of them. Nine of its parks were once royal property (hunting grounds or estate gardens). Eleven percent of Greater London, or 70 square miles, is parkland.
suming 60 billion cups a year. They also consume 27 million pints of beer daily. Pubs are disappearing at the rate of one or two a year, according to some estimates. British food is known for fish and chips with mushy peas and pub grub, but many say that London is becoming a restaurant hot spot. Immigration has shaped London’s cuisine. Chicken tikka masala, an Anglo-Indian curry hybrid, is often called the national dish. London has no central downtown. But the city is slowly shifting toward the east, with the Olympic development and hipsters moving into the onceindustrial areas in East London. Shoppers love Oxford Street and Harrod’s department store, where you can buy just about anything. St. James, Mayfair, Chelsea and Notting Hill on the city’s west side are known for shops and boutiques. We began our London visit with a 2 {-hour tour on a red double-decker bus. It was a great way to get our bearings and an overview of the city. That’s where we learned that London lost one-third of its buildings to German air raids in World War II. We also took the train 20 miles north to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter. The 150,000-square-foot studio is where the eight Potter movies were filmed, and it has been converted into a self-guided playground of all things Potter, from sets and props to costume and special effects. Reservations are a must: www.wbstudiotour.co.uk. You can explore the Great Hall at Hogwarts, Dumbledore’s office and Diagon Alley. It is heaven for Potter lovers. Back in London, we explored the British Museum, one of the top museums in the world. It is home to the Rosetta Stone, the Magna Carta and other artifacts from around the world. It is one of 300 London museums,
big and small. We walked through lovely 90-acre St. James Park, especially appealing with its pond and three nearby castles, and now-quiet Carnaby Street. Hyde Park covers 630 acres and is known for its soapboxes for free speech. Big Ben is actually the bell in the 320foot-high clock tower, not the clock itself. It was cast in 1859 and rings every hour. Other bells ring on the quarter hour. The tower looms over the Houses of Parliament that are housed where a royal palace once stood. The face of the clock is big: 24 feet in diameter. Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. We missed the changing of the guard, but did see the legendary redcoats. We traveled to Trafalgar Square with the tower monument to Admiral Horatio Nelson, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar against the French and Spanish in 1805, and Piccadilly Circus, a sort of New York Times Square. St. Paul’s Anglican Church is a major London landmark with its dome. It took 35 years to build it after the Great London Fire of 1666 wiped out 80 percent of the city. Poet John Donne preached there on Ludgate Hill. The views from atop the church are spectacular. St. Paul’s was designed by Christopher Wren (1632-1723). Some of the longest lines will greet tourists at the Tower of London. It is an 18-acre complex of royal buildings where 100 Britons, including Henry VIII’s queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were executed. The 1,000-year-old complex has served as a royal residence, prison, armory, mint, zoo and observatory. It is also the repository for the royal jewels. A moving walkway takes visitors past the royal jewelry, including the Imperial Crown of India with 6,000 diamonds. It was worn just once, by King George V in 1911. It’s hard to ignore the seven well-cared-for ravens that live at the Tower of London. A legend says the tower will collapse if the birds ever depart. We explored Borough Market on the south side of the River Thames and walked along the pretty Regent’s Canal that cuts across northern London. The canal is filled with narrow-beamed houseboats. The 4.5-acre market filled with more than 130 vendors and stalls is one of the largest in London, and has become a full-blown tourist attraction by itself. It dates to 1014, perhaps earlier. For information, www.boroughmarket.org.uk. The Thames provides a great way to see the city. So, too, does the London Eye, an oversized Ferris wheel that reaches heights of 443 feet. It is one of the biggest London attractions. Each glass-sided car holds 25 people. Near Tower Bridge, look out for a new pyramidshaped glass skyscraper: It’s the Shard, Europe’s tallest building at 1,016 feet. We even watched England’s national soccer team play on television in a London pub. That was heaven for soccer fans like my family. Keep an eye out for blue circles that identify famous people who lived in specific London buildings. It’s a fun way to identify them. London has 17,000 protected buildings. For London tourist information, check out www.visitlondon.com.—MCT
Two of London, England’s biggest attractions: Big Ben and the London Eye.
Piccadilly Circus is the heart of West London, England.
Westminster Abbey in London, England, is filled with history, including crypts of dead English kings and queens.
Big Ben is the name of the bell on the clock tower that rises over the British Parliament buildings on the banks of the River Thames in London, England. The bell was cast in 1859 and rings every hour.
The British Museum in London, England, is one of the best museums in the world. Its collections include the Rosetta Stone and the Magna Carta. St. Paul’s Church is one of the most striking buildings in London, England. Its dome dominates the skyline. It took 35 years to build the Anglican church.
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
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o be fair, “Ruby Sparks” is probably the best amalgam of “Annie Hall,” “Weird Science,” “The Bride of Frankenstein,” “Stranger than Fiction” and “Xanadu” that anyone’s ever going to make. But the fact that I could so easily come up with that list of titles while watching the movie - when I would rather have been watching any of the films on that list - doesn’t speak all that well for this second effort from “Little Miss Sunshine” directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. There would be interesting connections to be made regarding the fact that Zoe Kazan both wrote the script and stars in the title role as a woman who is literally a writer’s creation if Kazan’s own literary efforts had anything new to say about how men try to control women, or how quirks that initially seem endearing become thoroughly annoying, or how artists depict the world as they’d like to see it rather than how it really is. Instead, “Ruby Sparks” assaults the audience with such an unending charm offensive that what initially seems cute becomes cutesy, and what feels quirky descends into twee. Blocked author Calvin (Paul Dano) hasn’t produced a major piece of writing since a decade ago when, as a 19-year-old high-school dropout, he wrote a culture-shaping, best-selling novel. Now he stares at his electric Olympia typewriter - yes, this is one of those characters in one of tho-e movies - unable to imprint
upon the blank page. The only people Calvin connects to in the outside world are his gregarious brother Harry (Chris Messina) and his therapist Dr. Rosenthal (Elliott Gould). It’s Dr. Rosenthal who assigns Calvin to write a page, no matter how terrible, and Calvin finds inspiration in his dreams to write about his ideal woman, Ruby (Kazan). And then one morning she’s standing in his kitchen eating breakfast. Calvin thinks he’s losing his mind, but then he realizes that other people can see her. Everything’s great at first, but eventually Ruby chafes under Calvin’s doting attention and the fact that he doesn’t have friends. When she starts making a move toward leaving the relationship, will her creator resist the temptation to pull his manuscript out of the drawer and to start editing Ruby to be more pliable, easier to manipulate, more the woman Calvin thinks he wants but can’t control once he has her? “Ruby Sparks” certainly touches on some potentially fascinating concepts, but it never delivers on any of its notions. Worse, the film doesn’t trust the audience to understand the implications beneath its fantasy surface - there’s a completely unnecessary scene in which Calvin’s ex (Deborah Ann Woll) turns up to catalog his faults, as though we hadn’t already figured those out for ourselves by watching how he treats (and revises) Ruby.
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And while Ruby herself takes the expression “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” to new levels of literalness, Kazan doesn’t make this creation as appealing as a more seasoned actress might. She and Dano have been interesting to watch in other movies, but this time out, he’s such a hipster downer (all the way to his gray cardigans) and she’s so artificially twinkly that I didn’t particularly care what happened to either of them, together or apart. There are some memorable turns by Messina and Annette Bening (as Calvin and Harry’s earthmother mom) and Antonio Banderas (as mom’s artist boyfriend), and cinematographer Matthew Libatique (“Black Swan,” “Iron Man”) gives Los Angeles a breezy sheen as Calvin and Ruby hit any number of movie-nerd hotspots, including the Egyptian Theater, the Hammer Museum and the outdoor screenings at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Like a lot of young-adult relationships, “Ruby Sparks” feels charming at first, becomes less interesting as it goes along, and winds up barely memorable by the end. Consider saving yourself the heartache and postponing your date until you can meet on your Netflix queue in about six months.— Reuters
This undated film image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Annette Bening, left, and Antonio Banderas in a scene from “Ruby Sparks.”— AP
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In this July 11, 2012 photo, singer Jennifer Hudson is seen on stage during her performance at the Taste of Chicago. —AP photos
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n angry Chicago judge on Tuesday sentenced Oscarwinner Jennifer Hudson’s former brother-in-law to life in prison for killing her mother, brother and 7year-old nephew in what prosecutors say was a fit of jealous rage. In blistering comments, Cook County Circuit Judge Charles Burns rejected William Balfour’s claims that he was innocent of the crimes. “You have the heart of an arctic night,” Burns told Balfour. “Your soul is as barren as dark space.” Balfour was convicted in May of first-degree murder in the 2008 shooting deaths of Hudson’s 57-yearold mother, Darnell Donerson; her 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson; and her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King. During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Balfour, who was married to Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson, as a jealous estranged husband who often stalked the Hudson family home after he moved out in early 2008. Balfour’s attorneys suggested someone else committed a crime in the family’s three story house in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Burns’ harshest comments Tuesday came in regards to Julian’s death. The judge’s voice cracked as he recounted how terrified the child must have been in the second before he was shot twice in the head. “I have no doubt in my mind he looked to you when you put bullets in his head,” the judge said. Hudson, who attended every day of Balfour’s trial earlier this year, sat next to her sister and dabbed her eyes with a tissue a couple of times during the hearing, including the 10 minutes in which Burns put his own anger into words. She did not make a statement to the judge and left the courtroom without commenting. Balfour offered his condolences to the Hudson family while maintaining that he didn’t kill their relatives. “My deepest prayers goes out to Julian King. I loved him. I still love him,” he said. “I’m innocent, your honor.” Burns, however, said he had no doubt “whatsoever” that Balfour committed the crimes, including the shooting of a little boy “just because he was there.” “I don’t think you have one ounce of remorse in your soul; I really don’t,” Burns said. Illinois does not have the death penalty, and Balfour faced a mandatory life sentence. The judge sentenced Balfour to three terms of life in prison plus 120 years on other charges, a largely symbolic move but one that underlined the judge’s feelings.
In this courtroom sketch, singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, left, sits with her sister, Julia Hudson, at court in Chicago, Tuesday.
The killings occurred the morning after Julia Hudson’s birthday, and prosecutors said he became enraged when he stopped by the home and saw a gift of balloons in the house from her new boyfriend. After his estranged wife left for work on the morning of Oct. 24, 2008, prosecutors said Balfour went back inside the home with a .45-caliber handgun and shot Hudson’s mother. He then allegedly shot Hudson’s brother twice in the head as he lay in bed. Prosecutors said Balfour then drove off in Jason Hudson’s sport utility vehicle with Julian, Julia’s son, and shot the boy several times in the head as he lay behind a front seat. His body was found in the abandoned vehicle miles away after a three-day search. “Three days under a tarp,” Burns said of the time the boy’s body lay in the backseat of the SUV. “Just as if you threw out the trash and left it to rot.” Although the sentence means Balfour will likely die in prison, the judge made a point of telling Balfour the sentences would run one after another, followed by an additional 120 years for his other convictions, including home invasion, aggravated kidnapping and possession of a stolen vehicle. The only family member to speak was Julian’s father, Gregory King, who told of the three days of hoping that his son might be alive only to find out he was dead. He also spoke about what had been taken from him by his son’s death, of the everyday moments that make up a relationship between a father and a son. “I miss picking Julian up from the school bus,” King said. “I miss going on field trips with him. ... I even miss his bugging me about Sponge Bob Square Pants, a cartoon character he was kind of afraid of.” Jennifer Hudson chose not to make a statement. During the trial, the Academy Award-winning actress for her role in the 2007 film “Dreamgirls” testified that she had known Balfour since the eighth grade and always disliked him.—AP
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In this 1977 file photo provided by CBS, from left, Sherman Hemsley, Paul Benedict, and Damon Evans star in an episode of “The Jeffersons.”— AP
atthew McConaughey has spent most of the last decade starring in romantic comedy movieslike “The Ghost of Girlfriends Past,” but in recent years his roles have been edgier, which is the case with new film, “Killer Joe.” Based on Tracy Letts’ stage play of the same name, “Killer Joe” has McConaughey in the title role of a cop who moonlights as contract killer in the crime thriller directed by “The Exorcist” maker William Friedkin. A drug dealer named Chris (Emile Hirsch) hires Killer Joe to murder his mother. When Chris can’t pay the hitman an upfront fee, Killer Joe decides to take Chris’ sister Dottie (Juno Temple) as collateral. McConaughey, 42, recently played a defense attorney in “The Lincoln Lawyer” and a district attorney trying to put away a murderer in “Bernie.” Last month, he bared almost all as the slick owner of an all-male strip club in “Magic Mike.” The star sat down with Reuters to talk about “Killer Joe,” his career choices and being a newlywed.
Q: You spent the better part of a decade doing romantic comedies with Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez. Has it been a conscious decision to take a break from that genre? A: “It’s been conscious. I’ve been seeing some romantic comedies and some action adventure film stories that I just felt like I’d either 1) done a version of them before or 2) felt like I could do them tomorrow. And you know what? Nothing wrong doing something you feel like you can do tomorrow. But let me do something I’m not comfortable with, that quick. Let me do something I’m really excited about getting on the other side of the mystery with, but I don’t know the answer (to).”
Q: What drew you to a low-budget, independent film that was dark and twisted, yet also comedic? A: “It was real good character work for me. A real challenge and exercise in introversion. Because this character is very, very introverted. In ‘Magic Mike,’ (his character) Dallas (his character) is all extroversion, all showman. Killer Joe lives in the shadows, picking out times when he shows you some light.” Q: He is a ruthless killer, but has a soft spot for Dottie. He makes the audience gasp in horror and laugh nervously. A: “He’s a guy who needs family at the bottom of it all. That’s what he’s looking for. It’s wonderfully twisted, cheerfully amoral, provocative and it’s upsetting your stomach, but you’re laughing at the same time. And you’re questioning yourself: ‘Wait a minute, which emotion should I be feeling? Is it okay to laugh?’” Q: Did you choose to play him sinister or with humor? A: “I never chose to play sinister, just play him clear. Half the time he whispers. He speaks his words very clearly. He’s not in a rush. Every move is very deliberate. If a character is doing that, those characters can become a little scary where you’re like, ‘Man, if this guy got off balance, this could be trouble.’” Q: You already have one hit playing, “Magic Mike,” which has $102 million at box offices. Were you surprised at its success? A: “It’s done better than any of us thought it would do. But just talking about the basic DNA (of the film): male strippers. You want so see some male skin? That could hit a nerve. That could be something that a lot of people want to go see. And fortunately it has been. At its very basic, just look at the poster, and you go: male strip club, no one’s ever made that before. So we knew that we had something that was original.”
ctor Sherman Hemsley, who rose to fame in the 1970s as the wise-cracking father in the hit sitcom “The Jeffersons,” has died at the age of 74, police said Tuesday. Hemsley was found dead in his El Paso, Texas home, No foul play is suspected, local police said in a statement. “The Jeffersons” was one of the longest-running US television shows with a predominantly black cast. It focused on how the family adjusted to its newfound affluence after the success of a dry cleaning business. The show explored serious themes such as race and class-and Hemsley’s character George Jefferson was a notable bigot who did not like the interracial marriage of his neighbors in the upscale Manhattan apartment. “It was groundbreaking,” Hemsley said in a 2003 interview with the Archive of American Television. “We were worried about the interracial marriage-and said
Q: So you like not knowing the answers to some of these characters... A: “And I know I’m going to have to go to work and I’m going to have days where I’m going, ‘I don’t know who this guy is! What am I going to do?’ And I’ll figure it out. That’s been a really fun process for me with all these (recent) characters. They are all very singular-willed characters, ones that are not pandering to anyone else is society. They make up their own rules ... and that’s been really fun to hang my hat on.” Q: You recently married your longtime girlfriend, Camila Alvez, who is the mother of your son Levi, 4 and daughter Vida, 2. Do you feel different now that you’ve gone through a formal wedding ceremony? A: “The ritual of what we did and what we’re saying together with God in our lives and with our children means more. It feels like one whole thing.”Reuters
‘oh wow, it’s going to get us cancelled because nobody had done it before’.” But reaction to the show was largely positive, Hemsley said, adding he was surprised at how well George Jefferson was received. The show was not as overtly political as “All in the Family,” in which the Jeffersons were first introduced as neighbors to an even more notable bigot, Archie Bunker. Born in Philadelphia on February 1, 1938, Hemsley was introduced to acting as a child but did not consider it as a career choice until after he left the Air Force. He moved to New York, working at the post office by day and taking acting classes at night. His big break came when he was cast in the Broadway show “Purlie”, catching the eye of “All in the Family” creator and writer Norman Lear. Hemsley joined the cast in 1973 before moving on to “The Jeffersons” in 1975. He starred in 253
episodes before the show was cancelled in 1985. Hemsley took on a softer role in the sitcom “Amen” in 1986, playing a religious deacon named Ernest Frye for five seasons. He continued to perform in cameos and other smaller roles until as recently as last year, when he reprised the George Jefferson role on Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne”. — AFP
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
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yasi Ross grew up decades after the “Lone Ranger” aired on TV, but his friends would still call him “Tonto” when they teased him. “Everybody understands who Tonto is, even if we hadn’t seen the show, and we understood it wasn’t a good thing,” said Ross, a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana who lives and has family in the Suquamish Tribe, outside Seattle. “Why else would you tease someone with that?” The making of a new “Lone Ranger” Disney movie, and the announcement that Johnny Depp is playing sidekick Tonto, have reawakened feelings about a character that has drawn much criticism over the years as being a Hollywood creation guilty of spreading stereotypes. The film is still in production, but Indian Country has been abuzz about it for months, with many sharing opinions online and a national Native publication running an occasional series on the topic. Some Native Americans welcome the new movie, which is slated for release next summer. Parts were filmed on the Navajo Nation with the tribe’s support, and an Oklahoma tribe recently made Depp an honorary member. But for others, the “Lone Ranger” represents a lingering sore spot - one that goes back to the 1950s television version of Tonto, who spoke in broken English, wore buckskin and lacked any real cultural traits. Depp’s role attracted particular attention in April when producer Jerry Bruckheimer tweeted a picture of the actor in his Tonto costume. He had on black and white face paint, an intense gaze, a black bird attached to his head and plenty of decorative feathers. “The moment it hit my Facebook newsfeed, the updates from my friends went nutso,” wrote Natanya Ann Pulley, a doctorate student at University of Utah, in an essay for the online magazine McSweeney’s. For Pulley and her friends, the portrayal of Native Americans in Western movies is getting old. “I’m worried about the Tonto figure becoming a parody or a commercialized figure that doesn’t have any dimension or depth. Or consideration for contemporary context of Native Americans,” she said. But Native Americans are far from a
monolithic group, and many are opening their arms to the new movie. Some are just excited to see Depp take the role. In New Mexico, where some of the movie was filmed, the Navajo presented Depp, his co-star Armie Hammer, director Gore Verbinski and Bruckheimer with Pendleton blankets to welcome them to their land. Elsewhere, the Comanche people of Oklahoma made Depp, one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, an honorary member. “In my niece’s mind, I met Jack Sparrow,” said Emerald Dahozy, spokeswoman for Navajo President Ben Shelly and a member of the Navajo group who met with Depp. “My personal view, I like him playing in a character which he can embody well.” Dahozy said the “Lone Ranger” production brought something more palpable to the reservation: money. The actors and the large crew lived on Navajo land, eating at local restaurants and staying in towns that rely heavily on tourism. Disney representatives declined to comment, but Depp has said the film will be a “sort of rock ‘n’ roll version of the Lone Ranger” with his Tonto offering a different take from the 1950s show. Cheyenne and Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre is willing to give the actor a chance. “Based on Johnny Depp as an artist, and him going all the way and making this film happen, in my book (he) deserves some credit,” Eyre told Indian Country Today for its occasional “Tonto Files” series. “He wants to change the view of Tonto, and he put his reputation and his career on the line.” The “Lone Ranger” began on the radio in the 1930s. Tonto was played by an actor of Irish descent, according to the Lone Ranger Fan Club. The show rocketed in popularity and made a seamless transition to television, running on ABC from 1949 to 1957. In 2003, a TV reboot flopped. That version featured a First Peoples actor from Canada playing Tonto. But the 1950s portrayal of Tonto by Jay Silverheels, a Canadian Mohawk First Nations member, is by far the most recognized. He spoke in pidgin and was the loyal partner of the crimefighting ranger, often bailing out the masked
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avenger from treacherous situations. “Here hat. as did “Dances with Wolves” decades later, said Me wash in stream. Dry in sun. Make whiter,” Ross, an attorney who also writes a column for Tonto says in an early episode setting up his rela- Indian Country Today. “I’m not sure how tionship with the Lone Ranger. “Here gun to kill much redefining I’m going to expect, bad men.” That Tonto has been criticized as being not sure how much of the movie generic and subordinate - a character with no will be something I can show my individuality and no life beyond helping the Lone son,” he said. — AP Ranger. Tex Holland, executive director of the 600member Lone Ranger Fan Club, defended the portrayal. “I felt the Indians had their own language and in doing so, anyone learning the language is going to speak it broken, whether the person is from Japan or Mexico,” Holland said. “I did not look down on him. All of us thought that’s the way the Indians at that time communicated with us. Did we speak Indian fluently? We’d speak it broken it too.” Holland and his fellow fans, however, were taken aback by Depp’s new look. “Yuck. I can’t believe that he’s wearing a crow on his head. And he’s looking like some type of medicine man,” Holland said. “Disney chose (Depp) for one thing: box office draw.” Reportedly costing more than $200 million, plus yet-to-beadded marketing costs, Disney’s “Lone Ranger” is the type of film that can make or break a studio’s summer. It’s already been plagued with budget woes. The movie’s release date in 2013 was recently pushed back a month. Having Depp in the cast assures more eyeballs will be on the screen. Depp led the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and anchored “Alice in Wonderland.” Three of those movies surpassed the rare billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office. Back on Suquamish land, Ross, doesn’t mind having Depp as Tonto. In fact, the 36year-old said he would have been more troubled had a Native American taken the role, knowing its history.But he’s worried the movie, which certainly will attract a large audience, will cement a stereotype for years to come because Hollywood doesn’t make many movies An undated publicity photo from Disney/Bruckheimer Films, shows actors, Johnny with Native American protagonists. Depp, left, as Tonto, a spirit warrior on a personal quest, who joins forces in a fight The popular ones stick in people’s for justice with Armie Hammer, as John Reid, a lawman who has become a masked minds. The first “Lone Ranger” did that, avenger. — AP
Pixar moves ‘Monsters Inc. 3D’ into crowded Christmas field
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hile other studios look to shift their films out of the congested but lucrative Christmas schedule, Disney/Pixar has decided to move in with the 3D version of “Monsters, Inc.” Disney and Pixar had slated the re-release of the animated blockbuster for Friday, Jan. 18, but it will now debut the film Dec. 19, Wednesday. The Christmas schedule is so crowded that DreamWorks just decided to move Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” to
S D
anny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director of “Slumdog Millionaire”, is approaching the culmination of his own Olympian task: producing Friday’s London 2012 opening ceremony. “I’ve never really done anything on this scale,” the 55-year-old Briton admitted last month. Boyle’s eclectic cinematic back-catalogue includes the film noir “Shallow Grave”, fantasy thriller “28 Days Later” and “Trainspotting”, the story of a gang of young heroin addicts in Edinburgh. However, it is the final scene from “Slumdog Millionaire”, with its hundreds of Bollywood dancers, which comes closest to the enormity of the Olympic opening ceremony. No fewer than 10,000 participants, mostly volunteers, will take part in the ceremony in front of 60,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium and an estimated global television audience of one billion. Boyle has begged those attending rehearsals to keep the show a surprise and not go beyond the snippets he has announced publicly. The first section of the ceremony will recreate an English countryside scene. The pastoral set of meadows, peasants and real animals, including horses, cows, and sheep grazing next to picnickers, has stumped commentators, drawing unflattering comparisons to the children’s TV show “Teletubbies”.—AFP
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haron Osbourne said Tuesday that she’s ready to say goodbye to NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” taking the network by surprise. In a posting on Twitter, Osbourne addressed “my darling” fellow judge Howard Stern and said, “money is not the reason I’m not returning” to the show. Her tweet trailed off with “it’s because ....” and didn’t elaborate. Her message was unexpected, NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt told a meeting Tuesday of the Television Critics Association. “This is coming out of context and sort of spontaneously, and we don’t even know what’s going on. And it’s probably much ado about nothing,” Greenblatt said, declining to comment further. Osbourne has a multi-year contract with the series, said a person familiar with the production. The person, who lacked authority to discuss the issue publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity. “America’s Got Talent,” which is now airing its seventh season, added Stern to the judges’ panel this year and moved the production from Los Angeles to New York to accommodate him. Howie Mandel
ichael Jackson’s family members found themselves at the center of a media firestorm on Tuesday over the late singer’s will and guardianship of his three children that prompted questions about the children, his mother and his multimillion-dollar estate. The executors of Jackson’s estate attempted to stanch reports they plan to seek guardianship of the “Thriller” singer’s
November. That movie, directed by Spielberg and starring two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, didn’t fit because of a number of films opening in a stretch of less than two weeks, including “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” Kathryn Bigelow’s film about the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Tom Cruise as “Jack Reacher” and Judd Apatow’s latest, “This is 40.”
However, none of those would be defined as family fare - audiences can expect supreme violence in “Django,” bawdy jokes with Apatow and so on. The only animated films set to open within range of “Monsters, Inc.” both come out in November - Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph” and DreamWorks Animation’s “Rise of the Guardians.” — Reuters
is the show’s third judge. Osbourne’s representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The tweet from Osbourne, co-host of “ The Talk” and wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, appeared to refer to one posted Monday on the account for shock jock Stern’s radio show. Stern “isn’t sure if he’ll do another season and says Sharon Osbourne may not come back unless she gets more money,” the tweet read. Asked whether Stern intended to stay with the show, Don Buchwald, his agent, responded by email that “we do not respond to inquiries of this sort.” Earlier Tuesday, Paul Telegdy, NBC entertainment president of alternative programming, told the critics’ meeting that he was “thrilled” with Stern. Looking beyond this season, Telegdy added, “We’d be delighted if Howard wants to come back.”—AP
children over 82-year-old family matriarch Katherine Jackson, but did express concern for protecting the three children from “undue influences, bullying and greed.” Katherine Jackson was given guardianship of Prince Michael, 15, Paris, 14 and Blanket, 10, following Jackson’s death at age 50 from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol in 2009. In recent
days, Katherine Jackson was reported to police as missing, but she turned up in the Arizona home of her daughter, Rebbie, and police closed their case on Monday. “She’s been playing cards every day. She is having a good time. Her health was ailing. And her doctors order(ed) that she get immediate rest, isolate herself from the outside world and rest. She wasn’t doing too well,” Michael’s brother Randy Jackson told Rev. Al Sharpton on cable TV network MSNBC. Randy Jackson also renewed claims that Jackson estate executors - John Branca and John McClain had concocted a scheme to forge the pop star’s signature on a will that made the pair administrators of Michael Jackson’s estate. The Los Angeles-based executives have for years rejected such claims over the estate that, with rights to numerous pop songs, is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Jackson’s interview followed a statement from Branca and McClain on Tuesday in which they said: “We are acutely concerned about the welfare of Mrs. Jackson, and most particularly with Michael’s minor children. We are concerned that we do what we can to protect them from undue influences, bullying, greed, and other unfortunate circumstances. “While we do not have standing to directly intervene, we have monitored the situation and will continue to do so. We believe measures are being put in place that will help protect them from what they are hav-
ing to deal with,” Branca and McClain said in the joint statement. New turmoil, old claims Michael’s daughter Paris tweeted on Tuesday that she hadn’t spoken to her grandmother in nine days. Celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Branca and McClain would head to court to support a move for temporary guardianship of Jackson’s children on behalf of Tito Jackson Jr., 34, the son of Tito Jackson and cousin to Jackson’s children. ABC television chat program “Good Morning America” posted a video taken from what it claimed was a security camera of a confrontation among family members in the driveway of the Jackson’s Los Angeles-area home. In his interview with Sharpton, Randy Jackson said he and his sister Janet Jackson went there on Monday but “were kind of denied access.” —Reuters
Osbourne tweets: Done with ‘America’s Got Talent’
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
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Palestinian Muslim women perform the “Tarawih” evening prayer in front of the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem during the fasting month of Ramadan. — AFP
China’s ‘unwanted’ single women feel the pressure X
u, a pretty woman in her 30s, warily walked into a Beijing singles club in a bid to shed her status as one of China’s “Unwanted”. Xu had not been to the “Garden of Joy” for more than a year but, with time and societal judgment weighing heavily on her, she returned with cautious hopes. “I hope to find a husband,” she said, as she sat in front of a Mahjong table and awaited her date for the evening, who had been hand-picked for her by the club based on their profiles. “I just want someone with whom I share things in common, but who is also in a better financial situation than me.” Xu, who did not want to be identified, is one of China’s socalled “Sheng Nu”. The term, which translates to the “Unwanted”, is derived from a phenomenon in Chinese society which affects hundreds of thousands of women, particularly the urban, educated and financially independent. The term, which is unique to China and which only applies to women, appears in China’s official dictionary and refers to “all single woman above the age of 27”. Twenty-six-year-old Summer was at the Garden of Joy for the first time, desperate to meet a man before she hit the dreaded cut-off age. “Nothing in the world will allow me to become a Sheng Nu,” she said, lamenting that for many men in China youthful looks count for a lot. “Men don’t want a woman over 30. It’s
important for them that she’s still pretty.” A widely publicized survey in 2010 by the government-backed All China Women’s Federation proved the new social phenomenon beyond doubt. The survey showed that there were 180 million single men and women in China out of a population of 1.3 billion people-and that 92 percent of men questioned believed that a woman should be married before the age of 27. Since then, books and films on the subject have flourished and women’s magazines have sought to decipher why so many are single. “On one hand young people today work very hard and have few places to meet outside of their work, which wasn’t the case earlier,” Wu Di, a sociologist who has just published a book on the subject, told AFP. “On the other hand, traditionally the Chinese say one should ‘make do’ when marrying. Marriage has never been synonymous with happiness. “The new generation of women don’t want to ‘make do’. Many live quite well alone and don’t see the point in lowering their standard or life in order to marry.”
In a photo taken on June 28, 2012 a woman sings karaoke at a singles club in Beijing. —AFP
‘Pressure from all sides’ Still, the pressure on women is huge. Part of this is due to China’s one-child population control policy, which adds to the desperation of parents for their only offspring to marry and produce a grandson or granddaughter. “The
real reason for coming to this club is that I don’t want to disappoint my parents. I want to make them happy,” admitted Xu. The Garden of Joy’s own slogan plays on this emotion in order to attract members. “Are you single? Think about the feelings of your father/moth-
er. Don’t cause them more worry,” read a sign on the entrance. And business is booming. The club, which opened in 2003, has two premises in Beijing and more than 12,000 members. But, after using fear to lure the women in, the Garden of
Joy offers a friendly atmosphere in the basement of a high-end business centre where women can meet prospective husbands with more than 80 different activities. These include table tennis, billiards, board games, movies and speed dating, or outdoor ventures such as organized hiking trips. There are also small booths where couples can sit down in a more private setting to get to know each other. Shelly, 34, a highly educated public relations consultant who had just returned from living in the United States, was among the new members. Since her return to China, she had avoided her relatives and even some of her close friends because of their insistence in trying to arrange dates for her. “I’m under pressure from all sides. I feel my mother is disappointed and sad when she sees the grandchildren of her friends,” she said. But with no potential partner on the horizon, Shelly is preparing to return to the United States to do a second Masters degree-a decision partly motivated by her desire to escape her colleagues, parents and friends. “I think I will return to China when I am 40. I want right now to be so old, so broken that they will leave me in peace,” she said. —AFP
New York bids farewell to
‘Queen of Soul Food’
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ew Yorkers gave a big sendoff to “Queen of Soul Food” Sylvia Woods, whose famed Harlem restaurant served everybody from Muhammad Ali to Bill Clinton, ahead of her burial yesterday. Mourners flocked to a historic African American church in Harlem where Woods, who died last week at 86, lay in an open
coffin Tuesday, surrounded by white roses. Although the Sylvia Woods restaurant will be kept open by family, Woods’ death marked the end of an era. Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered a eulogy at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, while veteran civil rights leader Al Sharpton was to speak at yesterday’s funeral.
People arrive for a viewing of Harlem restaurateur Sylvia Woods ON July 24, 2012 at Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem section of New York. — AFP
Far more than just a successful business in a rough neighborhood, the Sylvia Woods restaurant was a cultural touchstone for multi-ethnic New York. Politicians including President Barack Obama, actors and sports stars rubbed shoulders with busloads of foreign tourists and fervently enthusiastic local fans. They came for the mouthwatering if greasy southern cooking known as soul food-and they came for Woods’ legendary warm welcome. “I went to her restaurant a lot and I wanted to pay my respects,” said John Carton, 57, wearing a Yankees baseball cap. “As famous as she was, people there were always friendly.” The restaurant served fried chicken, corn bread, sweet yams and other southern comfort food. But for outsiders, it was also a chance to experience true Harlem culture in a place that featured in Spike Lee’s film “Jungle Fever” and which despite the tourists remained authentic. “She brought the world to Harlem, and she made sure that the world took Harlem back home with them,” Bloomberg said at her wake. “As we speak, families around the globe are packing their bags for a visit to New York Citywith a visit to Harlem and Sylvia’s restaurant right in the center of their plans.” And if the restaurant was a Harlem institution, Woods herself was more than a mere businesswoman. On Tuesday, mourners from all walks of life filed past her coffin where she lay dressed in a gold-inlaid, ivorycolored jacket. Some held her cold hands, others prayed. —AFP
SAVOY does time with sophistication and style
DUBAI: New about town, clocking in - confidence, edgy and downright bold, this August, is the modish vibe of debutant watchmaker - Savoy’s twenty-twelve line of exquisite Swiss tickers. Packing a wholesome punch of versatility and power, the scintillating and slick new eye-catchers were revealed at the Basel world fair in March, this year. Savoy is a modern new brand of men’s and women’s timepieces from Swiss founder
& designer - Pascal Savoy. The 2012 collection is an all-rounder that is detailed to accommodate the ample personality of each individual uniquely. Exuding facades of style, seduction, sport and sophistication - the luxe line of perpetual ingenuity is one that actually walks the talk. Each timepiece is a state-of-the-art ode to class and character and is set to charm at Al- Rasheed Exhibition Co. and Trafalgar stores across Kuwait this summer.