29th Sep

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 , 2012

THULQADA 13 , 1433 AH

No: 15583

48 8Israel,30 Iran step up Mars rover finds signs of ancient stream

150 Fils

Palestinians seek UN ‘non-member state’ recognition

Watson hammers India with bat and ball

nuclear showdown Netanyahu draws ‘red line’ on Iran nuke

UNITED NATIONS: Iran and Israel stepped up their nuclear tensions yesterday with Iran’s foreign minister calling for UN Security Council action over the killings of nuclear scientists he blames on Israel. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi spoke out at the UN General Assembly a day after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community for a “clear red line” to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb.

Netanyahu was to speak with US President Barack Obama later with Iran’s nuclear drive at the center of the telephone talks. Without naming Israel or the United States, which Iran has accused of staging the killings of four atomic scientists, Salehi said Iran had been a victim of “nuclear terrorism.” Salehi said the Security Council, which has passed four rounds of sanctions against Iran’s uranium enrichment, should stop using nuclear weapons fears “as a pretext to act as a legislative body.”

The council should “utilize its authority to act against those states undertaking cyber attacks and sabotage in the peaceful nuclear facilities and kill nuclear scientists of other countries,” Salehi told a UN General Assembly meeting on nuclear terrorism. “Any such act committed by a state, as certain countries continue to commit such crimes in my country, is a manifestation of nuclear terrorism and consequently a grave violation of the principles of UN Charter and international law,” Salehi added.

The United States has denied involvement in the killings of four Iranian scientists since 2010. Israel has refused to comment on the

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel shows an illustration as he describes his concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions during his address to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters. — AP killings. According to US media, the United a year. Salehi reaffirmed Iran’s denial that it States and Israel were behind the Stuxnet seeks an atomic weapon.

The Israeli prime minister used a cartoon computer virus which temporarily crippled Iran’s uranium enrichment at its Natanz plant. drawing of a bomb with the fuse lit to put his Israel’s Netanyahu launched a fierce red line through Iran’s nuclear program and onslaught against Iran at the General demand a limit on its uranium enrichment. He Assembly on Thursday, warning that it could did not threaten a unilateral attack, but said be ready to build a nuclear bomb in less than Iran’s uranium enrichment plants were a cred-

Max 41º Min 24º

ible “target”. “At this late hour, there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs-and that’s by placing a clear red line on Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” Netanyahu told the 193-member UN assembly. “The red line must be drawn on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program because these enrichment facilities are the only nuclear installations that we can definitely see and credibly target.”

He said Iran could have enough enrichment uranium in the next 12 months to move on to the final stage of making a bomb. “From there, it’s only a few months, possibly a few weeks, before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb.” “Faced with a clear red line, Iran will back down,” Netanyahu added. “Red lines don’t lead to war, red lines prevent war.” Iran sent a diplomat to the UN assembly to warn that it would “retaliate with full force” against any attack and to demand that the international community “exert pressure on this regime to end all this irresponsible behavior.”

While Israel has warned that it could carry out a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the United States is part of a six-nation group which has approved sanctions against Iran while pursuing diplomatic talks on its program. The group-which also includes Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany met on Thursday and warned that the Islamic state must “urgently” act to ease international fears about its nuclear program. But EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she would talk with Iranian negotiators to see if new talks are to be held. — AFP

in the

news

Christians flee Egypt town CAIRO: Several Christian families have fled their homes in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula after receiving death threats from suspected Islamist militants, officials and residents said yesterday. Last week, flyers began circulating in the town of Rafah on the Gaza Strip border demanding that its tiny Coptic population move out, residents said. Officials at the local church informed the authorities of the threats, but no action was taken, they added. Days later, a shop belonging to one of the families was fired on with automatic rifles, witnesses said. The events prompted the families to leave Rafah but there were conflicting accounts over whether they had done so voluntarily or been evicted. “The families have left Rafah and gone to El-Arish,” one official said on condition of anonymity. Another official denied that any Coptic families had left at all.

Jordan picks Israel envoy AMMAN: Jordan has named carrier diplomat Walid Obeidat as a new ambassador to Israel, filling a position that has been vacant since 2010, a senior official said yesterday. “The council of ministers has decided to appoint Walid Obeidat as an ambassador to Israel,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “No date has been set yet for his departure to Israel.” Ali Al-Ayed left his post as ambassador to Israel to become information minister in mid-2010 and since then the post has been vacant. The United States has called on Jordan to appoint a new ambassador in Israel, but Amman has been reluctant over what officials said was the Jewish state’s policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries to have made peace with Israel.

Nigeria suspends haj ABUJA: Nigeria has suspended flights to Saudi Arabia for the annual haj pilgrimage, following a diplomatic spat over the detention of hundreds of female pilgrims for arriving unaccompanied by men. Saudi authorities have deported more than 600 female Nigerian pilgrims and detained hundreds for trying to visit the holy city of Makkah without male relatives. Aminu Tambuwal, Nigeria’s parliament speaker and the second most powerful Muslim in the government, was due to visit Saudi Arabia to try to resolve the spat. “The airlift operations have been temporary stopped ... It does not make sense to airlift people to be detained on landing. We will resume when all outstanding issues are resolved,” Uba Mana, spokesman of National Hajj Commission, said by telephone.

Women in Saudi Arabia are regarded as minors and require the permission of their guardian - father, brother, or husband - to leave the country, receive some kinds of medical treatment or work.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Kuwait hopes changes in Chinese position on Syria KUWAIT: Kuwait hopes that China adopts a new position on Syria that reflects better understanding of the situation at the troubled country, and would be convergent to the Arab and international position, a top state official said recently.

Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khalid Al-Jarallah made these statements to reporters covering the 63rd founding anniversary held recently by the Chinese embassy in Kuwait. He confirmed that the Syrian crisis will be on the table of discussion during the first Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit

that Kuwait hosts next month. “We indeed hope that China had a different position regarding the Syrian crisis”, Al-Jarallah said, adding that “communications need to continue with China in order to explain the Gulf and Arab position regarding the situation” there.

Al-Jarallah also commented on the recent call made by Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani for an Arab military intervention to end the Syrian ordeal. “We respect Qatar’s point of view and understand the reasons behind the call”, Al-Jarallah said, denying knowledge of whether this topic will

be discussed during GCC meetings. Meanwhile, Chinese ambassador Cui Jianchun expressed Beijing’s rejection to resolving the Syrian crisis through military intervention, urging for peaceful solutions “to avoid negative impacts left on Arab countries as a result of outside intervention” in Syria.

And while agreeing that the Syrian regime is responsible for the present situation at the war-torn country, Ambassador Jianchun asserted the importance of “both the government and opposition to abandon violence to end the suffering Syrian people”.

KUWAIT: Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Chancellor Faisal Al-Mershed rewarded the Head of the Appeals Court, Chancellor Rashid Al-Sharrah and his Deputy Chancellor Mohammad BuHendi, whose terms concluded after reaching the age of retirement over the weekend.

Patriarch of Antioch arrives in Kuwait KUWAIT: Ignatius Zakka II, The Partriarch of Antioch and all the East Supreme Head of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church arrived in Kuwait on Thursday. The Patriarch is accompanied by bishops and Apostolic delegation from Lebanon.

This is the first time Ignatius Zakka II is visiting Kuwait as the Patriarch. The Patriarch celebrated the holy mass at National Evangelical Church in Kuwait yesterday morning 8 am and inaugurated a function yesterday evening at Ramada Hotel.

The Catholics Aboon Mor Baselious Thomas I has also arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday in connection with the 40th year of establishment of St George Universal Syrian Orthodox Reesh Church and the Silver Jubilee Celebration of Mar Baselious Youth Association.

Mor Gregorious Joseph, the Secretary to holy Synod of Malankara, Mor Theophilis George Saliba, Secretary to the Holy Universal Synod, Mor Philexinos Mathias Nayis, Patriarchal Assistant, The Apostolic Delegation from Lebanon, Ministers from Kerala K. Babu and Anoop Jacob, the ambassadors of different countries and other diplomats, government officials from Kuwait, archbishops from other churches also attended the function.

Military coup rumors seek to damage reform movement Al-Duwailah lashes out at negative media KUWAIT: Reports speculating about organizations seeking to overthrow ruling systems in Gulf Cooperation Council countries through military action come as part of efforts to distort the national reform movements, said a leading Islamist and political activist in Kuwait recently. Mubarak Al-Duwailah, a former MP and current member of the General Secretariat of the Islamic Constitutional Movement - widely considered to be the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm in Kuwait - insisted that people in Kuwait are familiar with Islamist groups active in the country, arguing that individuals behind the rumors mentioned above “work to achieve known goals”.

Al-Duwailah was asked about reports regarding a secret organization affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood active in a GCC country, to which he rejected the notion that the pan-Arab network against any GCC government.

“These rumors are provided by unknown sources and carried by media outlets with history of cynicism, and they go against the

antiviolence approach that people in GCC countries know of religious groups”, Al-Duwailah told Al-Rai daily.

Al-Duwailah also mentioned a statement released by the Da’wat Al-Eslah (call for reform) organization in the United Arab Emirates, denying allegations of plotting a coup against the UAE’s government through military struggle.

“GCC citizens can tell for sure that these accusations are untrue, and that they are used by media outlets which often exaggerate issues mainly those pertaining with Islamic activity in the region”, Al-Duwailah argued. Meanwhile, Al-Duwailah did not see any negative impact left on the activity of Islamist groups in Kuwait as a result of the recent reports coming from the UAE. “Islamist groups are recognized by the public and government in Kuwait for the nature of their work and relations with the society”, he said, adding that the groups “are integral parts of the society who act as per clear goals and maintain strong ties with the government”.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

MPs join teachers protesting against ‘separation law’ KUWAIT: A group of teachers staged a demonstration outside the Ministry of Education building Thursday in protest against the decision to put teachers and their children in separate schools starting from the current academic year. The demonstrators were later joined by MPs Khalid Al-Tahous and Musallam Al-Barrak who voiced their rejection against “rushed decisions” made by MOE management.

Meanwhile, MP Musallam Al-Barrak announced following a meeting with Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf as

part of the protest that “the minister officially decided to enforce the regulation on the high school stage only this year, while postponed it for the preliminary and intermediate stages until next year”.

The period gives time for more pressure to overrule the decision seen by many teachers as questioning their integrity, since it was based on studies which claimed that putting students in schools where their parents aren’t employed is better to maintain impartiality. The protest was the second since students went back to their classrooms last week, and saw some teachers standing

News

in brief

Owners lose livestock farms KUWAIT: The government plans to take back 50 livestock farms and 18 units licensed for agricultural purposes for breach of contract on the part of owners who used the locations for other activities, a local daily reported yesterday. Quoting a source from the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources, Al-Rai reported that licenses for 50 ‘jakhours’ in Kabad, as well as 8 farms and Wafra and 10 in Abdaly will be withdrawn “after owners violated the terms of their contracts”. The source who spoke on condition of anonymity further explained that legal procedures will be taken to terminate the contracts “after the owners used their properties for activities other than what they have been licensed for”. The source further indicated that electricity was disconnected from the violating properties last week following the end of a warning period given to the owners.

outside the minister’s office and requesting to express their argument to him directly. The minister reportedly told a group of teachers he eventually met that their demands will be given consideration. In another development, well informed sources said that, following the constitutional court ruling pertaining the electoral constituencies system, the opposition majority bloc has already started preparing for the coming parliamentary elections by mobilizing 40 candidates to run the elections on its behalf through listing a number of them in each of the five constituencies. The sources

added that the bloc agreed that all candidates would have the same agenda through their campaigns and that they would avoid any personal additions to it.

Further, the sources also noted that the bloc would form a special supreme committee to run the elections under the leadership of Ahmed Al-Saadoun and Musallam Al-Barrak who both urged the bloc’s candidates not to run by-elections or else they’d be excluded from the bloc’s lists. The sources also underscored that upon Al-Saadoun’s orders, he would be elected speaker and MP Khaled Al-Sultan his deputy.

30,000 more bedoons receive subsidized food KUWAIT: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is expected to start providing subsidized food to an additional 30,000 stateless residents in Kuwait after the government started providing new color-tagged IDs to the country’s community that it regards as illegal residents.

They will be added to 90,000 bedoons who already receive subsidized food as part of benefits the government provided last year to residents

who for long have been asking for basic human rights such as free education and treatment.

According to sources with knowledge of the subject, the ministry is expected to start providing the 30,000 additional stateless residents with subsidized food “sometime before the end of next month”, adding at the same time that the ministry is prepared to cover the expanded need created by the new deci-

New NBK offer to Al-Shabab customers

Radiation Emergency panel reformed KUWAIT: Well-informed sources said that the acting Interior Ministry Undersecretary Lt Gen Sulaiman Al-Fahad ordered reformation of the Radiation and Nuclear Emergency Committee. The sources added that though formed in 2007, the committee did not make any useful studies or solutions so far and that for this reason, in view of the regional tension and the nearness of the Iranian nuclear reactor from Kuwait, Al-Fahad wished to revive and activate the committee.

Man arrested with fake money KUWAIT: A Bangladeshi was arrested with the possession of fake KD 560 in Fintas, said security sources yesterday.

The sources added that the suspect, who works in a waste recycling company, went to a money exchanger to transfer KD 560 to his home country where the teller found out that the money was fake. The teller called the police and the man was arrested. During interrogation, the suspect told the police that he got the money from a representative working in the same company who is being summoned for further investigations.

No discussions on loans KUWAIT: A high-ranking governmental source stressed that the Cabinet did not discuss writing off citizens’ loans in its last meeting. “It would be unwise to discuss dropping loans at such a critical time”, stressed the source adding that, instead, the government is focusing on planning and executing development projects that would boost national economy as instructed by HH the Amir.

Rare sheep auction KUWAIT: It seems that a single minute on a rare sheep auction held recently in Kabd cost KD 1233 since the 90 minute auction ended up making KD 111,000 for selling 60 rare sheep including one sold for KD 3,000. Auctioneer, Abdul Rahman Al-Muttairi, stressed that Kuwait has been leading in holding such auctions for 15 years and that a very rare sheep sold for KD 70,000 was one of them. “That sheep was of a well-known breed and whoever bought it can cover up the price he paid by selling only four of its lambs over a period of one year”, he said noting that a lamb descending from this sheep is sold for KD 18,000.

sion through a KD3 million budget it previously allocated for this purpose.

In other news, the same sources who spoke to Al-Rai on the condition of anonymity announced that the ministry prepares to add eggs to the list of items provided by the government to citizens in subsidized prices, and that as a measure to absorb public frustration as a result of the commodity’s increased price in the local market.— Al-Rai

KUWAIT: Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah yesterday received at his office in the White Palace the secretary of Kuwait Students Union in the UK and Ireland, Abdullah Al-Thafeiri and the union treasurer, Mohammed AlJanahi who presented a memento in appreciation for Al-Sabah’s sponsoring of a honoring ceremony held for Kuwaiti graduates from UK and Ireland.

KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) continues its campaign to reward new and existing Al-Shabab customers who transfer their student allowances to Al-Shabab account with a chance to win a brand new 2012 BMW X3.

All new and existing Al-Shabab customers who transfer their student allowance to Al-Shabab account until Dec 31 will enter the draw for a chance to win the 2012 BMW X3.

Al-Shabab account is a great way for students to save money and organize their finances. NBK encourages all college and university students to take the opportunity and transfer their allowances to NBK during this period.

Al-Shabab is a youth account that caters to the various financial, social and lifestyle needs of college and university students between the ages of 17-23 years. Students can open an Al Shabab account by visiting any NBK branch in Kuwait.

US team holds discussions with MSAL on crackdowns, shelter KUWAIT: A human rights team from the United States will hold a meeting next week with top Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor officials in Kuwait in order to discuss issues pertaining with expatriate labor forces in the country.

The talks will include recent crackdowns carried out against residency violators and fake companies, in addi-

tion to a shelter the government builds in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh to house people facing problems with their sponsors.

This was reported by Al-Rai yesterday quoting a MSAL source, who indicated that the visit comes as per the US delegation’s request to view preparations for the shelter providing a solution for overcrowding of workers at their respective countries’ embassies

and rehabilitation programs to help these workers go back to the local market. On that regard, Annahar daily reported yesterday quoting MSAL sources that the shelter which is set to be opened next month “wouldn’t be a security center for workers to be held pending deportation, but a shelter that looks to resolve stalemates between workers and their sponsors”.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Kuwait opposition warns of more street pressure Dissolution of controversial parliament KUWAIT: Kuwait’s sitting parliament speaker said that he would not run as a candidate in the next parliamentary elections.

“I will not take part in the next legislative elections and Kuwait deserves stability following the events that unfolded here,” Jassem AlKhorafi said. However, opposition members said that they were keen on the elections and called for the dissolution of the controversial parliament elected in 2009 and hold fresh votes to usher in a new legislative body.

Waleed Al-Tabatabi, one of the most vociferous lawmakers, said that more street pressure would be applied until the government dissolved the parliament. “If this announcement is not made, the political and popular forces will hold rallies at the Irada Square,” he was quoted as saying by the media.

“If we feel that the parliament dissolution issue is being procrastinated, we will call for a rally as soon as next Monday,” he said, quoted by Arabic daily Al Rai. Kuwait is still grappling to find a satisfactory solution to the thorny issue of setting up

a functioning parliament. The current parliament, elected in 2009, was dissolved in December, but reinstated in June after the Constitutional Court ruled that the decree dissolving it was not constitutional. The court also ruled that the decree calling for holding elections in February was not in line with the constitution.

The opposition resisted both the rulings by the country’s highest court and, legally unable to challenge them, called for fresh elections. Two attempts by the 2009 parliament to convene and have the government take the oath failed for lack of a quorum after opposition members campaigned against holding any session.

In the second try on Aug 7, only four of the 50-member house turned up.

“We could not convene the session due to the lack of a quorum and I will not call for another session,” AlKhorafi said. “I will take the matter to his highness the Emir.”

In anticipation of seemingly unavoidable parliamentary elections, the government in August referred the 2006

controversial electoral law to the Supreme Court on suspicion that it breached the constitution and sought to “address legal loopholes” and “ensure a fairer representation of the people in parliament.”

The government was keen on reviewing the clause that had reduced in 2006 the number of constituencies from 25 to five.

However, the opposition claimed that the move was part of a conspiracy to give pro-government candidates the edge in new elections.

Several leaders organised rallies near the parliament to express their opposition to repelling the electoral law.

On Sept 25, the court rejected the government’s bid and maintained the fiveconstituency formula, prompting the opposition to pile up pressure on the government to dissolve the 2009 parliament and hold new elections.

The verdict, hailed by all parties, was seen as a landmark for renewed work for the sake of the country.

However, their interpretations of its meaning and implications varied vastly.

UN council adopts Kuwait proposed resolution on Syria GENEVA: United Nations Human Rights Council adopted yesterday a draft resolution on Syria, presented by Kuwait and other Arab countries, partially calling for extension of mission of the the UN panel on Syria and urging Damascus to cooperate fully with the international team.

The resolution was backed by 41 member states. India and the Philippines abstained, while Russia, Cuba and China opposed it.

The resolution was adopted following intensive deliberations and consultations among officials and delegations representing the member states of the council.

The resolution, proposed by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya, Jordan and Morocco, essentially calls for extending mission of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, set up by the UN Human Rights Council last year, to follow up on human rights breaches in Syria and submit a report to the 22nd UN council session, due next year.

It calls on the panel to update the reports about human rights violations since March 2011, reiterates the call upon the Damascus regime to cooperate fully with the commission, allowing its members to have free access to all regions of the country.

Moreover, it stipulates that the UN secre-

tary general should be briefed directly about these reports, condemns wide-scale breaches of human rights in Syria, acts of violence and terrorism, by the Syrian authorities and the loyal paramilitary forces, urges the warring sides to end all forms of violence, respect international laws in full, take necessary measures to protect women and girls from sex violence and rape.

The decision urges the Syrian authorities to free, immediately, all persons of who have been held behind bars arbitrarily, reveal a list of all detention places and allowing independent observers to reach the detention centers.

Furthermore, it urges the Syrian authorities to honor its commitments of protecting the citizens, calls for international investigation into cases of abuse including those that are viewed as tantamount to crimes against humanity.

It affirms respect of aspirations of the Syrian people for democracy, urges potential donors to secure financial aid for the stricken nation, calls on the authorities to secure free access for humanitarian agencies to all areas, condemns usage of heavy arms against civilians, genocides, arbitrary executions, torture, sexual violence and maltreatment that also involve children. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Minister of Health Dr Ali Al-Obaidi attended the opening of the Ibrahim Hajji Husain Marafi Clinic in Bneid Al-Gar recently, during which he also announced the inauguration of the ‘priority cards’ project for senior citizens. The project gives citizens over the age of 65 priority in diagnoses, treatment, doctor appointments and access to other medical services without wait across Kuwait.

Noticeable improvement in ties with Hong Kong KUALA LUMPUR: Kuwaiti Consul General in Hong Kong Bader AlTunaib has expressed satisfaction at noticeable improvement of Kuwait’s ties with Hong Kong.

Al-Tunaib, in telephone remarks after chairing a delegation of general consuls during a meeting with Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung ChunYing, said the visible elevation of these relations is an extension of the historic and distinguished ties bounding Kuwait with China.

The two countries have signed several agreements for cooperation in

the sectors of investments, averting double-taxation, culture, economy and arts.

Elaborating, the ambassador, in a statement he made at the meeting, held by the chief executive in honor of the general consuls serving in his country, expressed admiration at the marked economic growth in the country, which has turned into a key financial hub in Asia.

He called for boosting cooperation with Hong Kong in the sectors of commerce, tourism and investments. — KUNA

LOCAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Kuwait pledges $500m to Yemen in grants, soft loans Talks with Russia on Syria ‘vital’ NEW YORK: Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah announced yesterday that his country will offer Yemen $500 million in grants and soft loans over the coming three years. “The funds will be pumped to development projects slated for implementation during the transitional period in Yemen between 2012 and 2014,” Sheikh Sabah Khalid said in his address to the ministerial meeting of the Friends of Yemen Group here.

“I’d like to seize this opportunity to congratulate the Yemeni people on the strides they have made in the process of peaceful transition envisaged by the GCC initiative for sisterly Yemen and the related executive mechanisms,” he said.

The county is now proceeding on the right track towards ending its political crisis, restoring security and stability, and meeting the aspirations of its people for democracy, development and decent life, the minister pointed out.

Sheikh Sabah renewed the commitment of Kuwait as a GCC member state, to working with the friends of Yemen group of states in order to shore up the Yemeni economy through the implementation of the ambitious development projects.

“The State of Kuwait has contributed effectively to the economic development in the country since 1964, long years before the reunification of north and south Yemen on May 22, 1990, he noted.

Kuwait contributed a total of $420 million to 226 projects in the fields of infrastructure, healthcare and education during this period.

Since its inception in 1968, the Kuwaiti fund in the Yemeni republic has carried out 29 projects in the domains of transport and communication, energy and agriculture through soft loans amounting to $253 million.

It also offered Yemen 21 grants and

NEW YORK: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlHamad Al-Sabah, the envoy of His Highness the Amir, met a host of senior Arab officials over the weekend on sidelines of the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly. They discussed bilateral relations and the latest regional and international developments, in addition to issues on the agenda of the UN meetings.

Kuwait FM discusses bilateral relations with counterparts UNITED NATIONS: Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah has discussed a wide range of issues with a number of his counterparts, focusing on economic cooperation. Following his meeting with Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid, held late on Thursday, Foreign Minister of Romania Tito Korlstsian said that it was an “excellent political and diplomatic discussion, because of the special relationship” between the two countries.

He said Romania will celebrate next year 50 years of diplomatic relations with Kuwait, 50 years of “good political and economic cooperation.” He recalled that Romania stood besides Kuwait in “difficult periods” in August 1990 when Romania was President of the Security Council.

It was under Romania’s presidency that the Council adopted the resolutions that upheld Kuwait’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity after being invaded by Iraq, he recalled. “That was an important moment.”

He added that Romania will continue to promote closer economic projects, and exchange investments and students.

He indicated that Romania has one of the most famous universities in Europe which specializes in the studies of oil and gas, and hosts many students from the Arab world.

He said Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid invited him to visit Kuwait next month and he accepted the invitation with pleasure.

He also invited his Kuwaiti counterpart to visit Romania and to be the special guest during the annual conference of Romanian Ambassadors which is usually held during the summer.

“It will be a good opportunity to speak about

technical assistance amounting in value to $10.4 million, the minister went on.

Sheikh Sabah added that the Kuwaiti and Yemeni governments agreed to set aside $200 million, out of the new contributions, to five projects three of which are under construction.

Concluding, he reaffirmed Kuwait’s commitment to support the Yemeni economy and contribute to the efforts of the international community aiming to

Kuwait, its political and economic development in the Middle East and to share its experience.

All this to coincide with the 50th anniversary of our excellent diplomatic relations,” he said.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid also met with the Foreign Minister of Croatia Ms Vesna Pusic who said following the meeting “we agreed to exchange a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will be a start and where we will define the areas of possible cooperation between Kuwait and Croatia.”

She indicated that Croatia is going into a broad investment project in the energy sector, as well as in transportation, tourism and agriculture. She added that Croatia is only ten months away from becoming a member of the European Union and “we definitely think it’s time to see into our broader neighbourhood, and we sincerely think both countries are in that broad neighbourhood.”

She noted that they both agreed to continue along this path to define the areas and the projects that will be interesting for investment.

She said her host “graciously invited me to visit Kuwait and I accepted with great pleasure.”

The Foreign Minister of Burundi Laurent Kavakure said the discussion with Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid focused on how to re-start the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

He said H.E, asked him to present projects that could be financed by the Kuwaiti Fund for Development.

He said Burundi has presented its projects to the Conference of Burundi’s Development Partners, scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 29-30, which will bring together some 350 participants. Kavakure said Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid promised to attend the Geneva Conference. —KUNA

combat poverty in, and stabilize, Yemen.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Sabah Khalid said here that Russia played an integral role at the UNSC and it was important to hold talks with Moscow to bring upon a resolution towards the crisis in Syria.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid’s statements came after the GCC Foreign Ministers meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “The meeting was of great importance and we are keen on dialogue with Russia, exchanging views with Moscow on the Syrian issue,” said the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, adding that “it was a huge responsibility to brief the Russian Foreign Minister on the Arab view over the Syrian situation and the Arab League handling of the issue through its various stages.”

United Nations and Arab League Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi should focus his mission on bringing security and peace to the fellow Arab country, said the Kuwaiti Minister.

He said that the situation in Syria was very alarming, hoping that things would not escalate to the point of civil war which would lead to the displacement of Syrian people in and outside the country.

Touching on the Asia Cooperation Dialogue Ministerial meeting, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid stressed his country was keen on the success of the meeting to be held in Kuwait in three weeks time, noting meetings with Asian foreign officials here were very important to highlight the matter. — KUNA

LOCAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Bosnia’s Grand Mufti lauds Kuwait’s contributions SARAJEVO: The New Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic lauded here yesterday Kuwait’s continuous efforts to help his country, noting that such reflected the strong relations between the two nations.

Speaking during a meeting with Kuwaiti Ambassador to Bosnia Herzegovina Mohammad Fahdel Khalaf, Kavazovic affirmed that Bosnia was keen on bolstering relations with Kuwait within Islamic affairs’ domain.

He also stressed the special status of Kuwait within the Muslim population of Bosnia, affirming that Bosnian Muslims felt respect and admiration to Kuwait’s strong stance with their country.

Ambassador Khalaf, on his part, congratulated Kavazovic on being elected as the new Grand-Mufti of the country, hoping that both nations would continue to boost their strong ties. — KUNA

Kuwait proposes GCC supervision mechanism

Elderly couple’s killer sentenced to death Suspect held in delivery man’s death KUWAIT: An Asian man accused of killing his two elderly employers was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court Thursday. The cook was found guilty of two counts of murder for killing the Kuwaiti old woman and later her husband who was in his sixties.

According to investigations, the suspect reportedly committed his crime last January when he used a kitchen knife to cut his female employer’s throat, before stabbing her husband repeatedly when he woke up and saw him dragging her body outside their Andalus house. The crime was discovered by the victim’s daughter who headed to the home when her mother and stepfather failed to answer their cell phones.

Murder suspect Hawally detectives arrested a male suspect responsible for the death of a delivery man last week by a drug overdose. Investigations in the death of the Egyptian man led detectives to a compatriot who reportedly was the last person the victim met before his death.

Following his arrest, the suspect admitted that his friend lost consciousness after he gave him an accidental drug overdose. After finding out that his friend lost his pulse, the suspect left him at the backseat of the delivery car and escaped, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. The man was referred to the Public Prosecution to face charges.

Abortion attempt Farwaniya police arrested a couple who attempted to get rid of pregnancy from their extramarital relationship, as well as a person who offered them abortion pills. Detectives were assigned to monitor the activity of an Egyptian man based on information that he was look-

ing for someone that can provide him with pills to end his girlfriend’s pregnancy. He was caught red handed in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh along with a Bangladeshi man who handed him the pills. Police soon arrested the man’s Indonesian girlfriend, before sending all three to the proper authorities to face charges.

Illegal hunting Sixteen people were detained during a recent operation carried out by Jahra police against illegal hunting in the governorate. The crackdown took place in coincidence with the beginning of the birds migration season, which usually marks the beginning of hunting activities carried out illegally in Kuwait.

Sixteen Kuwaiti hunters with possession of hunting rifles were arrested in the campaigns and taken to the proper authorities. The operations are also carried out to secure open areas in anticipation of the camping season that kicks off next month.

Suicide case A man was found dead in Jleeb AlShuyoukh in a suspected suicide committed by poisoning. Paramedics pronounced the Pakistani man dead inside his apartment where he was found by his roommates unconscious. Preliminary investigations indicated that the man committed suicide after a bottle of bleaching liquid was found near his body which showed signs of death by poisoning. Meanwhile, his roommates pointed out that he suffered bad financial problems before his death. The body was taken for an autopsy to confirm the time and cause of death.

Weapons shipment A truck driver was briefly stopped by Mubarak Al-Kabeer police until they got

clearance to allow him to transport artillery loaded on his vehicle. Patrol officers called for backup after realizing that the truck they pulled over is loaded with heavy artillery and equipment for warplanes and tanks. The driver explained that he was assigned by his sponsor to move the shipment from a Ministry of Defense warehouse to private warehouses. Police contacted the sponsor, who confirmed that he bought the equipment - which are remnant from the 1990/91 Iraqi Invasion - from the Ministry of Defense, adding that the State Security Service and the Criminal Investigations General Department are aware of the deal. The driver was allowed to leave after showing an authorization to enter the Ministry of Defense.

Search for shooter Investigations are ongoing to reveal the identity of a suspect behind a gunshot wound sustained by a pedestrian in Jahra recently. The Asian victim fell injured while walking by the bakery in the area, before being rushed to Jahra Hospital. The man told officers that a male suspect driving a Japanese-made car shot him for unknown reasons. A case was filed at the area’s police station.

Detainees release Fintas police station officers arrested a woman who offered a bribe for the release of three compatriots held for violating residency regulations. The Sri Lankan woman reportedly offered an under officer KD900 for the release of the three suspects when he explained to her that they are held pending deportation procedures. The woman was arrested red handed after she was lured in a trap set up after the officer informed his director about the bribe offer. —Al-Rai, Al-Qabas, Al-Anba

RIYADH: Kuwait has proposed drawing up a mechanism for supervision over specialized bodies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Finance Undersecretary of the Gulf State said.

Khalifa Musaed Hamada made this statement upon conclusion of the 38th meeting of the GCC finance and economic undersecretaries, held and concluded over the weekend. Shedding some light on discussions and works of the coordination meeting, Khalifa said the conferees tackled a host of financial and economic issues of joint interest, in preparation for the 94th ministerial meeting, due in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Octr 6.

Agenda of the meeting addressed several topics, such as regulations of governance in regional monetary and financial authorities, reviewing minutes of meetings of the committee of governors of GCC monetary departments and central banks and minutes of meetings of the GCC Custom Union. Hamada indicated that the discussions dealt with minutes of meetings of the unified GCC taxing system authority, the GCC common market committee and studies of the financial and technical committee regarding the joint GCC railway venture.

They also reviewed a report dealing with activation and intensification of meetings of the finance undersecretaries commission, followed up on implementation of economic resolutions, issued by the GCC Supreme Council and amendments to regulations to commercial labels.

The Kuwaiti delegation, headed by the undersecretary, included officials from the ministries of finance and foreign affairs. — KUNA

GITEX Shopper 2012 kicks off DUBAI: The Middle East’s biggest and the best consumer electronics retail show, known as GITEX Shopper 2012, will kick off here today. The eight-day event will be held on an area of 35,000 square meters at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

The show will be the biggest and best yet, with 25 percent increased exhibitor space to accommodate a surge in industry demand and more than 25,000 of the latest cutting-edge products and gadgets on the market.

Over 120 electronic companies from the four corners of the globe are contributing to the event including some of the world’s top consumer IT and electronics brands, including industry giants Bose, Dell, Epson, Fujitsu, HP, HTC, Intel, Nintendo, Samsung, Sanford and Seagate.

Attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, GITEX SHOPER 2012 is expected to offer the biggest ever sales extravaganza, with exclusive show offers, bundled deals, exciting competitions and launches of the latest technology products. — KUNA

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Syria’s Aleppo rattled by ‘unprecedented’ fighting

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Kenya troops fight on beaches in Somali city

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Obama tried to ‘mislead’ on Libya attack: Romney aide

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MANOHARA: Nepalese rescue team members and onlookers gather around the Sita air plane crash site in Manohara, Bhaktapur on the outskirts of Kathmandu yesterday. The plane which went down shortly after taking off from Nepal’s capital was hit by a bird, the pilot told air traffic controllers moments before the crash, according to Kathmandu airport. — AFP

Everest-bound plane crashes British, Chinese among 19 dead

KATHMANDU: A plane flying 19 people towards Mount Everest went down in flames on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital yesterday, killing everyone on board including seven Britons and five Chinese, police said.

The twin-propeller Sita Air plane had just taken off from Kathmandu and was headed to the town of Lukla, gateway to the world’s highest mountain, when it plunged into the banks of a river near the city’s airport around daybreak.

Witnesses described hearing the screams of passengers and seeing flames coming from one of the plane’s wings moments before it hit the ground, while airport authorities said the pilot had reported hitting a bird shortly after take off.

“We could hear people inside the aircraft screaming, but we couldn’t throw water at the plane to put out the fire because we were scared that the engines were about to explode,” Tulasha Pokharel, a 26-year-old housewife who said she one of the first on the scene, told AFP. Emergency workers lined up the corpseswhich included seven Nepalese along with

the Britons and Chinese-near the smouldering wreckage as they picked through passengers’ belongings to identify the dead.

A crowd of thousands quickly gathered around the riverbank less than a kilometre (half a mile) from the airport, with many shocked bystanders clutching prayer beads and wailing in anguish as they surveyed the devastation.

“The pilots seem to have tried to land it safely on the banks of the river but unfortunately the plane caught fire,” police spokesman Binod Singh told AFP, adding that the accident occurred at around 6:30 am (0045 GMT). Although the exact cause of the crash was still unclear, the manager of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu said the pilot had reported hitting a bird moments before the crash.

“Immediately after the take-off, the air traffic controllers noticed the aircraft making unusual manoeuvres,” Ratish Chandra Lal Suman told reporters. “When the traffic controller asked the pilot about it, he said the plane had struck a bird,” he added.

The crash was the sixth fatal air accident in

Nepal in the last two years and it raises fresh questions about safety in the impoverished Himalayan country, home to challenging weather, treacherous landing strips and often lax safety standards.

Ninety-five lives have been lost in air accidents in the last two years, according to an AFP tally, with 15 people killed in the latest crash in May when an Agni Air plane carrying Indian pilgrims went down near northern Jomsom airport. Six people made a miraculous escape from that accident, including a 30-year-old Danish traveller who survived with nothing more than a bruised leg.

“The record on aircraft flying hours is lax,” said Toya Dahal, an air safety specialist with the Initiative for Aviation Safety in Nepal, a lobby group promoting air safety.

“Also, the airlines don’t conduct routine maintenance,” he added, explaining that they also take risks by flying planes during poor weather conditions.

He cast doubt on the idea that a bird strike had brought down the plane. “This plane with double engines would have landed safely even after it was struck by a bird. If one

engine is damaged, another engine can support the aircraft,” he told AFP. “It looks like the pilot, after noticing technical problems, took the best possible decision to force-land the plane.”

The British group, the youngest of whom was 27 and the eldest 60, were travelling to the Khumbu area, their agency Sherpa Adventures told AFP, and they were due to go on a 16-day trek to three high passes and the Everest Base Camp.

Two of the group were brothers Vincent and Darren Kelly while another was their Nepalese tour group leader, the agency told AFP. A British foreign office spokesman confirmed there had been seven British casualties. The crash is the second disaster to hit mountaineers in Nepal this week at the start of the autumn climbing season, which is the peak time for visiting Nepal, which has eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains.

On Sunday, at least eight people were killed in an avalanche on Mount Mansalu in northwest Nepal. The search for three other missing climbers was abandoned on Thursday. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Abbas says to seek upgrade of Palestinian UN status UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he would seek to have the Palestinians’ UN status upgraded to a sovereign country and cautioned that Israeli settlement expansion meant time was running out for a two-state solution.

“Despite all the complexities of the prevailing reality and all the frustrations that abound, we say before the international community there is still a chance - maybe the last - to save the two-state solution and to salvage peace,” Abbas told the UN General Assembly.

But he warned the 193-nation assembly that Israel was “promising the Palestinian people a new catastrophe” if it continued with its current Jewish settlement policies in the occupied West Bank. The so-called twostate solution involves the creation of a state of Palestine to exist peacefully alongside Israel. After failing last year to win recognition of full statehood for the Palestinians at the United Nations, Abbas is looking for a less-ambi-

tious status upgrade at the world body that would make it a “non-member state” like the Vatican. The Palestinians’ current US status is that of an “observer entity.” If Abbas gets his way, that would change to “observer state.” Upgraded status for a Palestinian state could be uncomfortable for Israel. Being registered as a state rather than an entity would mean the Palestinians could join bodies such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and file a raft of complaints against Israel for its continued occupation. Abbas said that seeking an upgrade of Palestinian membership was not aimed at harming Israel. “In our endeavor, we do not seek to delegitimize an existing state - that is Israel - but to assert the state that must be realized - that is Palestine,” he said.

This time around, Abbas looks certain to get his way, UN diplomats say, but the resolution he plans will not bring true independence any nearer. It will also anger the United States as well as Israel, which is likely to retaliate with painful

economic countermeasures. In 2011, when Abbas bid for full UN statehood, there was excitement in the West Bank.

Predictably, the request wilted in the face of fierce US opposition. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the two-state solution was the only sustainable option for peace. But he said the continued growth of Israeli settlements meant that “the door may be closing, for good.” Abbas said that for the past year Israel, “the occupying power, has persisted with its settlement campaign, focusing on Jerusalem and its environs.”

“It is a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people via the demolition of their homes and prevention of their construction, the revocation of residency rights, the denial of basic services,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke shortly after Abbas and reiterated his call for direct talks. He also made clear he was not pleased with the Palestinian address. —Reuters

Syria’s Aleppo rattled by ‘unprecedented’ fighting ‘Tonight, Aleppo will be ours’

BEIRUT: Lebanese women hold Lebanese flags as chant slogans during a protest against a film ridiculing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), in front of the United Nations house, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday. The Arabic placard reads: “at your service God’s Prophet,” top, and below left, “an Israeli soldier forget his ranger during July 2006 war in Lebanon, Freemason against Islam.” — AP

Egypt Christians flee town after militant threats CAIRO: Coptic Christian families have fled their homes in a town in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, fearing for their lives after receiving death threats from suspected Islamic militants, a local priest said Thursday.

Father Youssef Sobhi said that Islamic militants dropped leaflets on the doorsteps of shops owned by Copts in the city of Rafah near the border with Gaza and Israel, ordering them to leave town within 48 hours and making an implicit warning of violence if they failed to do so. Two days later, masked militants on a motorcycle opened fire on one of the shops before speeding off, Sobhi said. No one was hurt in the shooting.

When Christians met Tuesday with the province’s top government official, who was recently appointed by Egypt’s new Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, the governor promised to facilitate the Copts’ move to the nearby city of el-Arish but did not offer to protect the community to ensure that it stayed in Rafah, according to the priest.

“I was shocked at the governor’s response,” Sobhi said. “This is simply displacement by the overnment’s consent.” An Egyptian intelligence official

confirmed that a number of Coptic families had fled Rafah because of a militant threat. Another security official denied the reports and said that no Christians were forced to leave. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.

It was not exactly clear how many Christians have left the town, but Sobhi said that the number of Copts in Rafah had dwindled from 14 families to two since the uprising that pushed longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power in February 2011.

A first wave left Rafah after the only church in the town, The Holy Family Church, was looted, torched and destroyed in several militant attacks over the past year. The church is built on the site where Christians believe the Holy Family first stopped to rest after crossing into Egypt.

Sobhi was in the first group of Christians to flee, although he returns frequently to Rafah check on his parish.

Mamdouh Nasef, the Coptic shop owner who recently came under attack, said that his Muslim neighbors are urging him to stay and pledging to protect him.—AP

ALEPPO: Rebels unleashed an unprecedented barrage of mortar fire against troops in Aleppo yesterday after announcing a “decisive” battle for Syria’s second city, residents and a watchdog said.

Shells crashed down at a steady rate and clashes were widespread, leaving layers of dust and smoke over Aleppo, according to the residents of the northern city and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The fighting is unprecedented and has not stopped since Thursday. The clashes used to be limited to one or two blocks of a district, but now the fighting is on several fronts,” the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Residents in neighbourhoods previously spared the worst of the two-month-old battle for Aleppo also told AFP the violence was “unprecedented”. “The sound from the fighting... has been non-stop,” said a resident of the central district of Sulimaniyeh, who only identified himself as Ziad. “Everyone is terrified. I have never heard anything like this before.”

The fighting had decreased in intensity by the afternoon, the Observatory and an AFP reporter said.

“Clashes are continuing at a steady pace in some areas and subsiding in others,” said Abdel Rahman.

“It seems the rebels have brought in reinforcements and ammunition from all areas of Syria,” he said. But he noted the battles were not yielding major gains for either side: “Neither the regime nor the rebels are able to gain a decisive advantage.”

The outgunned rebels, a rag-tag army made up of mutinous soldiers and civilians who have taken up arms to oust President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, declared an all-out assault for Aleppo on Thursday.

“Tonight, Aleppo will be ours or we will be defeated,” Abu Furat, a rebel commander, told AFP as several thousand fighters went on the offensive in the city.

Afterwards, an AFP correspondent said mortars were fired about every 15 minutes into army-held areas, including Sulimaniyeh and Sayyid Ali. “This is the first time I have seen something like this in Sayyid Ali,” another resident told AFP on condition of anonymity. “One of the mortars hit a residential building and killed four people from the same family, including an old man and a young child. We tried to carry them away to bring them to the hospital but they were already dead,” added the resident.

In northern Damascus, meanwhile, Assad’s forces attacked several rebel areas on Friday, said the Observatory. “Regime forces stormed the neighbourhoods of Barzeh, Jubar and Qaboon in Damascus, cutting off streets and breaking into and raiding houses.

They arrested a large number of residents,” it said.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network said “a large number of soldiers and tanks have deployed throughout” Barzeh district and that “the sound of gunfire can be heard, and families in the neighborhood are in panic.” On Thursday, the Observatory said at least 128 people were killed in violence nationwide, including 78 civilians.

The conflict has dominated proceedings at the UN General Assembly in New York, where UN and Arab leaders expressed concerns the country could become a “regional battleground.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League leader Nabil al-Arabi and special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi voiced those fears as they met at UN headquarters to discuss “the appalling levels of violence,” said a UN spokesman.

“The three leaders warned against the risk of Syria turning into a regional battleground as violence intensifies. “They were concerned that Syria will fall prey to actors whose agenda has nothing to do with Syria if violence continued,” the spokesman added.

There was mounting Western pressure on Russia and China to ease their opposition to UN action against the Assad regime. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the UN’s inability to act.—AFP

ALEPPO: An injured rebel fighter is helped away during heavy fighting with Syrian government troops some 50 meters away in Aleppo’s northern Izaa quarter yesterday. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Many nations lag in plan to slow extinctions by 2020: UN OSLO/SINGAPORE: Many nations need

to do more to slow extinctions of animals and plants under UN targets for 2020 that would also save the world economy billions of dollars a year, UN experts say. Only a few countriesincluding France, Guatemala and Britain-have so far adopted new national plans to tackle threats such as pollution or climate change in line with a sweeping pact agreed in Japan in 2010. “There is a lot more to do,” David Cooper, head of the scientific, technical and technological unit at the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, told Reuters by phone.

Almost 200 nations will meet in Hyderabad, India, from October 8-19 to review progress towards goals to protect life on earth that UN reports say is suffering the biggest wave of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.

Governments agreed in 2010 to 20

targets including phasing out damaging subsidies and expanding protected areas, for instance to save valuable coral reefs that are nurseries for fish or to slow deforestation from the Congo to the Amazon.

“There is substantial progress. Is it fast enough to achieve the targets by 2020 for most of them? Probably not overall,” Cooper said. Biodiversity is threatened by a projected rise in the human population to 9 billion by 2050 from 7 billion now.

“We need a step up in the activities,” he said as part of a series of interviews on the outlook for Hyderabad.

Biodiversity underpins everything from food to timber production. Nations have also been sluggish in ratifying a protocol laying out rules for access to genetic resources, such as rare tropical plants used in medicines, and ways to share benefits among companies, indigenous peoples or governments.

So far, 92 nations have signed the

Nagoya Protocol but just six have ratified, well short of the 50 needed for it to gain legal force. The target is for the protocol to be up and running by 2015.

“We were a bit too optimistic,” said Valerie Normand, senior programme officer for access and benefit sharing at the CBD, who said the Secretariat had hoped for it to come into force this year. The Secretariat now expected entry into force in 2014.

Cooper said many of the targets set for 2020 would save billions of dollars a year, by ensuring that farming, logging or fishing can be managed sustainably.

Some fisheries, for instance, have been exploited to the point of collapse.

In Nagoya, experts estimated that annual funding to safeguard biodiversity totalled about $3 billion a year but some developing countries wanted it raised to about $300 billion.

“These are big numbers but they are trivial compared to the benefits we are getting from biodiversity. If we don’t

act the costs will be very much greater,” Cooper said.

Among concerns, 32 percent of livestock breeds are under threat of extinction within the next 20 years, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says. And 75 percent of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost since 1900.

“Because we don’t really know the full impacts of climate change down the line, we don’t really know what’s going to happen in terms of growing conditions around the world. It’s just safer for us to have a lot of these other varieties in our pocket,” said David Ainsworth, spokesman of the CBD Secretariat.

Cooper said the pace of extinctions among the planet’s estimated 9 million species-plants, animals from insects to whales but excluding legions of tiny bacteria-was perhaps 100 times the background rate estimated in fossil records. — Reuters

‘Gospel of Jesus’ wife’ fragment is a fake

TBILISI: A woman walks past a wall plastered with election posters in central Tbilisi, yesterday.

Georgia entered the final week of a parliamentary election campaign, the toughest electoral battle of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s governing party since coming to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution, against a revitalised opposition. — AFP

Kazakh ambassador to US reappointed as FM Appointment balances relations with Russia and West ALMATY: Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has appointed his long-serving ambassador to the United States as foreign minister to help the oil-rich country to forge stronger economic ties with the West.

Yerlan Idrisov, 53, was reappointed to the post he held between 1999 and 2002 before embarking on consecutive five-year stints as ambassador to Britain and the United States. Nazarbayev is an ardent supporter of plans by Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish closer economic and political ties between former Soviet states; a “Eurasian Union” to recoup the potential lost when the Soviet empire collapsed.

But yesterday’s appointment of Idrisov to run foreign policy, utilising the contacts and experience gained from a decade working in Western capitals, helps Nazarbayev

to allay possible concerns in Washington and the European Union that Kazakhstan might be turning its back on the West, analysts said.

“We need to be pragmatic. This includes reinforcing our embassies in those countries with which we have serious economic contacts and interests,” Nazarbayev said while introducing Idrisov to ministry staff.

The president is also keen to look at making business investments in the West. “We have reached the point where we have the opportunity to invest abroad. If the need is there, we can become shareholders in high-tech companies,” he said in comments on the presidential website.

Idrisov’s switch comes as 72year-old Nazarbayev, who was a member of the last Soviet Politburo, guides his country towards a Eurasian Union based on an existing

three-way customs union with Russia and Belarus. “With Kazakhstan participating in the Eurasian Union, this appointment was required to balance foreign policy in a Western direction,” political analyst Andrei Chebotaryov said.

Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan throughout its two decades of independence from the Soviet Union. During that time the nation, a majority Muslim country of 17 million people stretching from the Caspian Sea to China, has carefully balanced its foreign policy between the West and surrounding powers.

Western oil majors and, more recently, Chinese state-owned companies have contributed a large part of the more than $150 billion of foreign investment Kazakhstan has received over the period. Kazakhstan is the biggest former Soviet oil producer after Russia. — Reuters

VATICAN CITY: An ancient papyrus fragment which a Harvard scholar says contains the first recorded mention that Jesus may have had a wife is a fake, the Vatican said yesterday.

“Substantial reasons would lead one to conclude that the papyrus is indeed a clumsy forgery,” the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, said in an editorial by its editor, Gian Maria Vian.

“In any case, it’s a fake.”

Joining a highly charged academic debate over the authenticity of the text, written in ancient Egyptian Coptic, the newspaper published a lengthy analysis by expert Alberto Camplani of Rome’s La Sapienza university, outlining doubts about the manuscript and urging extreme caution.

The fragment, which reads “Jesus said to them, my wife” was unveiled by Harvard Professor Karen King as a text from the 4th century at a congress of Coptic Studies in Rome last week. Her study divided the academic community, with some hailing it as a landmark discovery while others rapidly expressed their doubts.

“It’s really pretty unlikely that it’s authentic,” University of Durham Professor Francis Watson told Reuters after he published a paper arguing the words on the fragment were a rearrangement of phrases from a well known Coptic text.

Watson, who has previously worked on identifying forged gospels, said it was likely to be an ancient blank fragment that was written over in the 20th or 21st century by a forger seeking to make money. Watson argues the words on the fragment do not fit grammatically into a larger text.

“It’s possible to get hold of an old bit of un-written on papyrus and write some new stuff on it,” Watson said. “There is a market for fake antiquities throughout the Middle East ... I would guess that in this case the motivation might have been a financial one.”

Manuscript experts who heard King’s presentation quickly took to their blogs to express doubts, noting that the let-

ters were clumsy, perhaps the script of someone unused to writing Coptic.

Writing from the conference, early Christian scholar Christian Askeland said specialists there were divided between two-thirds who were extremely sceptical, and one-third convinced the fragment was false.

“I have not met anyone who supports its authenticity,” Askeland wrote from a session of the Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, where King gave her paper.

In an email to Reuters after the conference ended and before the Vatican editorial, King said: “Whether, in the end, the fragment will be shown to be authentic is still to be finally determined, but the serious conversation among scholars has begun.”

During the conference King stressed that the fragment did not give “any evidence that Jesus was married, or not married” but that early Christians were talking about the possibility.

AnneMarie Luijendijk, associate professor of religion at Princeton University, said she concluded that the fragment was indeed an authentic, ancient text, written by a scribe in antiquity.

“We can see that by the way the ink is preserved on the papyrus and also the way the papyrus has faded and also the way the papyrus has become very fragmentary, which is actually in line with a lot of other papyri we have also from the New Testament,” Luijendijk told Reuters during the conference.

The idea that Jesus was married resurfaces regularly in popular culture, notably with the 2003 publication of Dan Brown’s best-seller “The Da Vinci Code,” which angered the Vatican because, among other things, it was based on the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had children. Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married and the Catholic Church, by far the largest in Christendom, says women cannot become priests because Christ chose only men as his apostles. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Trial of pope’s ex-butler to shine big light on Vatican VATICAN CITY: The Vatican has certainly seen more sensational trials in its long history. The Inquisition ordered Galileo to recant his theory that the earth revolves around the sun, and philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy.

But even those cases, both in the 17th century, did not involve a breach of trust by a papal aide - the issue at the core of this Saturday’s trial of papal butler Paolo Gabriele for stealing and leaking the pontiff’s personal papers.

One of the worst crises in Pope Benedict’s papacy will play out in a small Vatican tribunal, where a threejudge panel will decide the fate of the 46-year-old Gabriele, whom the pope used to call “Paoletto” (little Paul) and who is now described in Vatican documents as “the defendant”.

The case will put the inner workings of the tiny Vatican, the world’s smallest state, in the type of media spotlight it usually strives to avoid.

The man who served Pope Benedict his meals and helped him dress is charged with aggravated theft for leaking private papers in a self-styled attempt to clean up what he saw as evil and corruption in the headquar-

ters of the Roman Catholic Church.

The documents pointed to a power struggle at the church’s highest levels.

Gabriele, who said he saw himself as a whistle-blowing “agent of the Holy Spirit”, risks up to four years in jail if convicted, which is widely expected to be the outcome of the case because he has confessed.

Since the Vatican is a monarchy where the pope reigns supreme, the trial will start when the president of the tribunal, standing in front of a crucifix, says, “In the name of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI ...”.

The trial procedures will be based on a 19th century Italian penal code.

The wood-panelled courtroom, which can hold only several dozen people and has an ornate papal crest at the centre of its ceiling, is the venue for about 30 trials a year, usually for petty crimes such as theft in St Peter’s Square, according to Prof. Giovanni Giacobbe, an expert on Vatican law who briefed reporters.

It is not clear how long the trial might last. Gabriele, a father of three living a simple but comfortable life in the city-state, told investigators after his arrest in May that he believed a shock “could be a healthy thing to

bring the Church back on the right track”. The trusted manservant said he wanted to help root out the corruption, “because the pope was not sufficiently informed”, according to details made public when Gabriele was indicted in August.

“The Pope cannot tell the judge what verdict to reach, but he can intervene at any time if he wants to, and he can also grant a pardon,” Giacobbe said. Since the papal state has no prison, Gabriele would serve time in an Italian jail if he is convicted and the pope does not pardon him.

Either side at the trial can call witnesses, but the president of the court will decide on each request. The prosecution and the defence cannot directly question the defendant or witnesses but must do so through the judge, Giacobbe said.

The trial will be covered by a pool of eight reporters. Television cameras and recording devices will be not be allowed in the courtroom, but the Vatican will release a short, silent video clip of the opening of each session of the trial. Gabriele’s arrest capped nearly five months of intrigue and suspense as a string of documents and private letters found their

Kenya troops fight on beaches in Somali city Militants resorting to al Qaeda-inspired tactics MOGADISHU: Kenyan troops launched a pre-dawn attack on the Somali port city of Kismayu yesterday in an assault to drive the Al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group from its last major stronghold. Fighting and shelling was taking place on the city’s beaches after a land and amphibious assault, city residents and rebels said.

The loss of the southern port would deal a huge blow to al Shabaab as it is a lucrative source of revenue and a centre for operations over areas it has controlled in south-central Somalia since 2007. The group, which formally merged with Al-Qaeda in February, has been steadily losing its footholds under sustained pressure from African peacekeeping forces (AMISOM) and Somali government troops for the past year.

While Kismayu’s recapture would go a long way towards stabilising Somalia, which has lacked effective central government for the past 20 years, it may embolden the militants to resort to more guerrilla-style attacks.

Kenyan military spokesman Col. Cyrus Oguna said Kenyan soldiers and Somali government troops had advanced on Kismayu from the north, south and from the sea and was now in control of parts of the city. “We’re moving towards the main city. Our surveillance aircraft are monitoring every event taking place on the ground,” Oguna told Reuters.

Oguna said there had been little resistance while Al Shabaab said it was

TABDA: In this Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 file photo, Kenyan army soldiers ride in a vehicle at their base in Tabda, inside Somalia. Kenya’s military said yesterday, that its troops attacked Kismayo, the last remaining port city held by Al-Qaedalinked al-Shabab insurgents in Somalia, during an overnight attack involving a beach landing. — AP still in Kismayu, the country’s second biggest city. Residents reported fighting near the beach earlier on Friday, about 4 km (2.5 miles) outside the city, as military helicopters hovered overhead.

“We saw seven ships early in the morning and now their firing looks like lightening and thunder. Al Shabaab have gone towards the beach. The ships poured many AU troops on the beach,” Ismail Suglow told Reuters.

Locals said businesses were closed and many streets were deserted. Some

masked men looked on from windows and balconies.

“We can hear deafening shells and the town looks dead. We don’t know where to go, the jets are now flying over,” said Rukia Jelle, who was watching the scene outside her home with her five children. The Kenyan military spokesman predicted an easy takeover.

“For now, we’re not everywhere.

We’ve taken a large part of it without resistance, I don’t see anything major happening,” he said. — Reuters

way into the Italian media. The most notorious of the letters were written to the pope by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, currently the Vatican’s ambassador to Washington, who was deputy governor of Vatican City at the time. In one, Vigano complains that when he took office in 2009, he discovered corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to outside companies at inflated prices.

Vigano later wrote to the pope about a smear campaign against him by other Vatican officials who were upset that he had taken drastic steps to clean up the purchasing procedures. Despite begging not to be moved away from the Vatican, Vigano was later transferred to Washington

by Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s number two.

Other leaked letters concerned the Vatican’s bank, which has been at the centre of several scandals in the last few decades. The Vatican has described the revelations as a “brutal” attack on the pope. Benedict himself has merely alluded to personal pain and criticised a media portrayal of the Vatican that “does not correspond to reality”. — Reuters

Missing British schoolgirl found BORDEAUX: A British schoolgirl and her maths teacher, who triggered a Europe-wide hunt after running away together, have been found in Bordeaux, France, police said yesterday. The teacher, Jeremy Forrest, 30, was arrested and placed in custody, while Megan Stammers, 15, was under police protection, they said.

“The couple were found on a public street in the centre of Bordeaux,” a spokesman said, adding that Stammers was “in good health”.

The pair had not been seen since being filmed boarding a cross-Channel ferry together on September 20.

Their parents had appealed for them to get in touch but had played down fears that the schoolgirl could be in any danger. A European Arrest Warrant had been issued for Forrest, a married part-time musician who had reportedly begun an affair with his pupil.

The warrant was issued on the basis of a suspected offence of child abduction although there was never any suggestion that Stammers had not left voluntarily. Police in Sussex, the area of southeastern England where the couple lived, said that they had both been found safe and well as a result of coverage in the French media.

French authorities had been accused by the British media of failing to take the disappearance of Stammers seriously after some judicial officials were quoted as saying the couple were not being actively looked for.

Under French law, a 15-year-old is not considered a minor in sexual terms, unlike in Britain, where the age of consent is 16. Forrest could however be deemed to have committed a crime in France if he is found to have abused the position of authority he had as Stammers’ teacher. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

More registered Democrats than Republicans WASHINGTON: It has become the new battle cry for Republicans: All the polls showing Mitt Romney trailing by big margins are just wrong because pollsters are interviewing too many Democrats.

Surveys showing President Barack Obama leading nationally by 5 to 7 points, and even more in swing states, have come under fire from the Romney campaign and conservatives who accuse polling companies of misjudging their data at best, and deliberately skewing it against Romney at worst. While pollsters say the Republicans are griping because they are losing, the kernel of the conservatives’ complaints - that pollsters frequently survey more Democrats than Republicans - is true. But poll companies do not go out of their way to find Democrats - it is just that there are more of them on voter registers than there are Republicans and independents.

Thirty-five percent of registered voters identify with Democrats, 28 percent with Republicans, and 33 percent are independents, according to a Pew study in August.

That make-up of the electorate is reflected in many of the recent polls that show Obama well ahead in the race for the Nov. 6 election. Even then, Democrats do appear to be over-represented in some of the surveys being criticized by Republicans. The percentage of Democrats inter-

viewed in some polls is a few points higher than the 35 percent found in the Pew study.

“I’m a little uncomfortable at some of the samples, which strike me as surprisingly Democratic,” said Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report, which analyzes political races.

But given the number of public - and internal campaign polls with similar results, Rothenberg said it was clear that Obama had a healthy lead over Romney, 40 days before Election Day. “If I don’t focus on an individual poll here or there and look at the dynamic of the race, and the broad array of polls, it tells me that the president has a significant lead at this point,” he said. The debate over polls intensified on Wednesday, when a trend of improving numbers for Obama solidified. A Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS poll in particular drew protests for giving Obama big leads in the swing states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University polling institute, said Quinnipiac’s samples were random.Quinnipiac, like most pollsters, does not choose who it will interview based on party affiliation.

If a certain percentage of respondents are Democrats, then that is just because it has turned out that way,

Brown said. “Our numbers are based on a random sample,” he said. “We get what we get.”

Some conservatives agree reluctantly that, overall, the polls are not going in Romney’s favor.

“I’ve been in politics long enough to know that the louder one side gets complaining about the polls, the more likely it is that this is the side that, in reality, actually is losing,” conservative commentator Erick Erickson, who runs the RedState blog, wrote on Thursday.

Pollsters point to history, noting that surveys often get the races right. “I don’t want to be making a claim that the polling is infallible, or even that the average of the poll is infallible,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University poll in Wisconsin. “But the more polls we have across more races, meaning different states and nationally across different years ... on average they perform quite well.” In 2010, when Republicans won huge victories in the midterm elections, Democrats accused polling firms of oversampling Republicans, but the results proved them wrong. The last presidential election when pollsters were off track was George W. Bush’s Electoral College victory in 2000, when opinion surveys forecast that the Republican would win the popular vote, but he ended up trailing Al Gore.—Reuters

Obama tried to ‘mislead’ on Libya attack: Romney aide ‘It was a pre-planned terrorist attack’

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE: Air Force chaplain Maj. James Parrish, left, leads a prayer over a transfer case containing the remains of Staff Sgt. Orion N. Sparks at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Thursday. According to the Department of Defense, Sparks, of Tucson, Ariz., died while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. — AP

Pakistan: Monsoon rains, flooding kill 422 people ISLAMABAD: Monsoon rains and flooding killed more than 400 people across Pakistan during the rainy season this year, authorities said yesterday. Pakistan suffers every year from flooding caused by massive monsoon rains that sweep across the country late in the summer and cause rivers and streams to overflow. The National Disaster Management Authority said 422 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 have been injured during the season of heavy rains. About five million people have been affected by the resulting floods, according to statistics that were posted on the authority’s website.

Sindh province in southeastern Pakistan was the hardest hit with 239 deaths. An official with the authority, Maj. Iftikhar Ahmed, told The Associated Press that the rainfall this year was significantly less than in 2010, when catastrophic floods put one-fifth of the country under water and killed 1,985 people. Last year 443 people were killed in flood-related incidents.

Pakistan has in recent years struggled to cope with the chaos, caused by the rains and flooding around the country.

Authorities have often relied on international help to provide those affected by the floods with food, water and housing.

UNICEF called on international donors to provide $15.4 million to help protect people affected by the flooding over the next three to six months. In a statement yesterday, the UN agency said it has been helping with supplies of drinking water to people affected by floods in the provinces of Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh.

“Some of the affected children are living in areas that are experiencing devastating flooding for the second or third time over the past three years, and these new floods have disrupted their recovery,” said UNICEF Pakistan Deputy Representative, Karen Allen. As Pakistan struggles with another natural disaster, the country is also trying to suppress a violent insurgency in the northwest. A senior police officer died Friday while defusing a roadside bomb in Peshawar, a city that is considered the gateway to Pakistan’s volatile tribal regions, from which violence often spills over into its streets.—AP

WASHINGTON: Mitt Romney’s campaign accused President Barack Obama’s administration on Thursday of trying to “mislead the American people” over the attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya.

“We were initially told that this was a spontaneous demonstration in response to a video that was on YouTube,” the top political adviser to the Republican White House hopeful, Eric Fehrnstrom, told Fox News.

“Now we’re learning that it was a pre-planned terrorist attack, conducted on the anniversary of 9/11 and that it involved elements of Al Qaeda.” Obama “needs to be held accountable for his administration’s attempts to mislead the American people about what happened in Benghazi,” the Republican aide added.

Republican opponents accuse the Obama administration of downplaying and changing its story about the attack in eastern Libya two weeks ago that claimed the lives of four Americans, in a bid to paper over possible security or intelligence lapses that may have contributed to the deaths.

Libyan officials say they believe the assault on the consulate, which included the firing of rocket-propelled grenades and several hours of small arms fire, was pre-planned in advance by foreign extremists.

Asked directly if he thought the Obama administration was lying, Fehrnstrom did not use the word but suggested it was possible. “If in fact there were early intelligence reports indicating that this was a preplanned terrorist attack, and instead the administration was trying to persuade the American people that it was a spontaneous demonstration in response to a YouTube video, then of course, there does appear to be

an attempt to mislead,” he said.

“This president would prefer not to talk about this attack on Benghazi being a terrorist attack. But I think we need to level with the American people about what’s happening in that part of the world.”

The White House had earlier Thursday accused Republicans of using the US deaths in Libya for political gain. “There was an attempt

by Republicans beginning with governor Romney to try to turn this event into a partisan issue,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, accusing Republicans of trying to “score political points out of a terror attack.”

US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice initially said the attack was by extremists taking advantage of a spontaneous demon-

stration against an anti-Islamic film made by Christian extremists in the United States.

Carney said last week and on Wednesday that the attack was terrorism. On Tuesday, Romney accused the president of papering over the incident in which US ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.

Obama has not yet used the word “terrorism” specifically in reference to the attack, but in his initial reaction he did say that “no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve” of Americans.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to suggest there could have been an Al-Qaeda link to the attack on the consulate. A senior administration official later rowed back her remarks. — AFP

RALEIGH: In this photo taken Sept. 26, 2012, campaign volunteer Barbara Smalley-McMahan, left, provides voter registration information to people in Raleigh, N.C. Dozens of volunteers armed with clipboards and voter registration forms gather at President Barack Obama’s field office here every day. Their mission: Fan out across the city seeking new voters in this rapidly growing state. — AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Chef found guilty of murder in boiled body case LOS ANGELES: A chef who told police he boiled his wife’s body for four days to hide evidence of her death was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder. David Viens showed no reaction as the verdict was read. The sister of his victim burst out sobbing.

In a recorded interrogation presented by prosecutors during the trial, Viens, 49, can be heard saying he cooked the body of his 39-year-old wife, Dawn Viens, in late 2009 until little was left but her skull. “He treated her like a piece of meat and got rid of her,” said Karen Patterson, the couple’s best friend who spoke to reporters outside court.

She was the key witness in Viens’ trial and the person who prodded police to investigate her friend’s disappearance. At a news conference, she tearfully warned others to take

heed of domestic violence among friends and call police. She apologized for failing to call 911 when Dawn Viens called her during an incident of abuse but begged her not to call police.

“Maybe you have to go beyond your friend’s trust and try to save lives,” she said. Juror Tal Erickson said it was Viens’ own words in two confessions that convinced them of his guilt. The chef spoke to authorities from a hospital bed in March 2011 after leaping off an 80-foot cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes. Authorities say he jumped after learning he was a suspect in her disappearance.

The trial relied heavily on recorded interviews with authorities in which the chef acknowledged the crime in detail. “I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days,” Viens could be heard saying on the

News

in brief

Jewish center damaged STOCKHOLM: Police yesterday arrested two youths on suspicion of vandalism after an explosive device detonated and damaged a Jewish congregation center in Sweden’s third largest city. No one was injured in the early-morning blast which broke windows of the entrance to the center in the southern city of Malmo.

The attack comes amid growing safety concerns for the country’s small Jewish community which says it feels increasingly threatened. Police said it is still questioning the two men, who are both in their teens and have denied involvement, but did not give details of any suspected motive. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, an international non-government organization that acts to fight anti-Semitism around the world and which has warned members of the Jewish community against visiting the city, condemned the attack, calling for “permanent police presence at Malmo Jewish institutions.”

Malmo, which has a large immigrant Muslim community, saw a surge in hate crimes against Jews after Israel’s invasion of Gaza in 2009. Last year, the government earmarked funds to combat the problem. An estimated 20,000 Jews live in Sweden.

Killer recaptured RALEIGH: A convicted killer who walked away from a North Carolina prison farm was captured Thursday after more than four days on the run. James J. Ladd, 51, was taken into custody by state authorities at about 11 a.m., according to North Carolina Department of Public Safety spokesman Keith Acree. The inmate was found hiding in a garage about 10 miles from the minimum security Tillery Correctional Center, which is located in a rural area more than an hour’s drive east of Raleigh. A passing motorist called authorities after spotting Ladd running from a wooded area toward a home. He offered no resistance once officers found him. The capture ends a massive search for Ladd, who went missing Sunday morning after a tractor he had been operating was found abandoned in a field outside the prison.

Dozens of officers from multiple state and local law enforcement agencies were involved, utilizing bloodhounds and a helicopter. Ladd is serving three life sentences for the 1980 robbery and shooting deaths of two men in Yadkin County. He became parole eligible after serving 30 years, but was denied release in January 2011. He will now face criminal charges for escaping prison, as well as disciplinary charges within the correction system.

recording.

Viens, who attended his trial in a wheelchair, said in the interview that he stuffed his wife’s body in a 55-gallon drum of boiling water and kept it submerged with weights.

He said he mixed what remained after four days with other waste, dumping some of it in a grease pit at his restaurant in Lomita, and putting the rest in the trash.

He said he stashed his wife’s skull in his mother’s attic in Torrance. But a search of the house turned up nothing, nor did an excavation of the restaurant. Erickson told reporters the gruesome evidence shocked jurors. “A few of us had a hard time sleeping at night,” he said. “I would think about it and ask, ‘Why?’” If there was any question about the guilt of Viens, it was wiped out by his plunge off the cliff, Erickson said.

“My opinion was if he was innocent, he wouldn’t jump off a cliff,” the juror said. On the recording played in court, Viens was asked what happened on Oct. 18, 2009, the night his wife disappeared.

He said he had noticed money missing from his restaurant and suspected his wife. They got into an argument, he said, and he forced her onto the floor where he wrapped her up and put a piece of duct tape over her mouth before going to bed.

He awoke to find her dead, and he panicked, he said. Viens was charged with first-degree murder, which means the killing was premeditated, but jurors had the option of convicting him of that or second-degree murder or manslaughter. The six men and six women on the panel deliberated for about five hours before reaching the verdict. — AP

Venezuelans abandon Chavez ahead of vote ‘My future President Henrique Capriles’ CARACAS: Liliana Carias used to hope President Hugo Chavez would change her life. Not anymore. She’s been living for years in a dirt-floor shack without running water, and after voting for Chavez in the last three presidential elections, the single mother of four said she’s tired of waiting for help. She was among thousands of people who cheered for the president’s rival recently in the serpentine streets of Caracas’ Petare slum, which used to be a bastion of support for Chavez. She held out a handwritten letter addressed to “My future President Henrique Capriles,” the opposition challenger, writing that her salary as a supermarket cashier was no longer enough to support her family and she was worried her landlord would evict them.

“We need change,” Carias said as the drum-beating caravan paraded by. “I thought it would come with Chavez but I’m very disappointed. He promised us everything but nothing changed. I still don’t have running water, sewer or electricity.”

From single mothers to construction workers, some Chavez supporters have been turning away from the president to consider new leadership.

They’ve become key to the Oct. 7 presidential vote and Capriles’ strategy. Surveys don’t indicate exactly which “Chavistas” are becoming “Caprilistas,” but the group appears to include working-class and lowermiddle-class Venezuelans. Polls also reveal weariness over a growing yet troubled economy, 18 percent inflation and one of the world’s highest murder rates.

Despite billions of dollars in government spending on social pro-

VALENCIA: Supporters of opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles attend a campaign rally in Valencia, Venezuela, Thursday.

Capriles is running against President Hugo Chavez in the country’s Oct 7 election. — AP grams, solutions to problems such as the country’s severe housing shortage have been elusive. Slums have grown during Chavez’s presidency, and the government’s construction of new housing projects hasn’t kept up with the legions of poor people like Carias who have applied for apartments and ended up waiting for years.

Now Chavez is spending heavily building apartments and paying out more benefits to poor families. But some in the working class still complain that they’re being bypassed and have lost faith in the government’s promises.

Chavez held a 10-point lead over Capriles in a survey released this week by the Venezuelan polling firm Datanalisis. But the 49 percent who said they intend to vote for Chavez

was dramatically lower than the 63 percent who re-elected him in 2006.

The latest poll said 11 percent of those interviewed didn’t reveal a preference.

A survey by the Venezuelan polling firm Consultores 21 put the two candidates roughly even, with 46.5 percent saying they would vote for Capriles and nearly 46 percent saying they would vote for Chavez.

The poll questioned 1,500 people Sept. 7-18 and had an error margin of 3 percentage points. It also included a second question, in which people were asked to mark their choice in secret, in case they didn’t want to reveal their preference to the pollster.

Under that method, Capriles had almost 49 percent and Chavez just under 46 percent. — AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

US call for ‘cool heads’ in China-Japan island dispute NEW YORK/BEIJING: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged China and Japan to let “cool heads” prevail in a dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islands, but her pleas fell on deaf ears as Chinese and Japanese diplomats again traded fierce words.

Clinton met Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of this week’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York and said it was important to cool the quarrel over the islands that has soured ties between Asia’s two largest economies, a senior State Department official said.

The uninhabited islets, whose nearby waters are thought to hold potentially rich natural gas reserves, are known as the Diaoyu islands in China and the Senkaku islands in Japan. They have been under Japan’s control since 1895. “The secretary ... again urged that cooler heads prevail, that Japan and China engage in dialogue to calm the waters,” the official told reporters.

“We believe that Japan and China have the resources, have the restraint, have the ability to work on this directly and

take tensions down, and that is our message to both sides.”

Yang, however, used a portion of China’s annual address to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday night to forcefully restate Beijing’s stance that the islands had belonged to China from ancient times and were seized in 1895 after Japan defeated the Qing Dynasty in a war.

Yang also condemned the Japanese government’s purchase of the islands earlier this month from their private owner, a step that sparked protests across China and prompted Beijing to curb bilateral trade and tourism.

“The moves taken by Japan are totally illegal and invalid,” he said of the purchase, which Tokyo says was done to ease the dispute by preventing the islands’ use by Japanese activists.

“They can in no way change the historical fact that Japan stole the Diaoyu and affiliated islands and that China has sovereignty over them,” Yang told the General Assembly.

Japan restated Tokyo’s position that no sovereignty dispute exists and that

Japan began surveying the islands a decade before deciding to incorporate them in 1895, and there exists no evidence that the islands belonged to China. “It has only been since the 1970s that the government of China and the Taiwanese authorities began making their assertions on territorial sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands,” said Kazuo Kodama, Japan’s deputy UN ambassador.

“Before then they did not express any objections.” China has declared the islands “sacred territory,” and Taiwan has also asserted its own sovereignty over the area. China’s U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong accused the Japanese envoy of “resorting to spurious, fallacious arguments that defy all reason and logic”. “The recent so-called purchase of the islands is nothing different than money laundering,” he said, accusing Tokyo of buying stolen property when it acquired the islands this month. Continuing the barrage of rhetoric on Friday, Assistant Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told a forum i n Beijing o n the 40th anniversary of

China-Japan diplomatic ties that the island purchase decision was “like lobbing an atom bomb at China”.

“If Japan continues to act erroneously despite advice to the contrary and keeps going down the wrong path, then Sino-Japanese relations could sink like the Titanic,” Le said, according to a transcript of his remarks carried on the ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn). Both China and Japan have sent patrol boats in a game of cat-and-mouse in the waters near the disputed islands, raising concerns that an unintended collision or other incident could escalate into a broader clash. In a further sign of economic fallout from the dispute, Chinese buyers and Japanese sellers of refined copper have postponed agreement on terms for 2013 shipments.

Chinese and Japanese companies failed to reach a deal in talks this week, even though Japanese sellers were willing to cut price premiums by about 10 percent from last year, a Chinese executive familiar with the talks said. —Reuters

China seals Bo’s fate ahead of Nov 8 leadership congress Party says Bo brought harm to its reputation

MANILA: Filipino Muslims shout slogans during a protest at the Malacanang palace ysterday. The protesters were shouting that Muslim indignation over the blasphemous film “Innocence of Muslims” would continue unless Philippine President Benigno Aquino blocks the video on Youtube. — AFP

Philippines expands probe into ‘blood’ ivory MANILA: Philippine authorities said yesterday they had launched a nationwide investigation into Catholic devotees collecting religious figures made of “blood” ivory smuggled from Africa.

The probe, launched this week, was initially focused primarily on one priest who was quoted in a National Geographic article allegedly giving instructions on how to smuggle ivory and naming carvers who would turn it into statues. However the head of the National Bureau of Investigation’s environment division, Sixto Comia, said his officers had now also begun looking into other owners of ivory figures, amid concerns that the trade was extensive.

“This is a nationwide operation. Those people who like religious statues, especially the rich, they want ivory. Some of them know it is illegal but there are people still importing it,” he told AFP. “It isn’t just the priests we will be investigating. Anyone who we hear who owns banned ivory, we will file a case against them.” He declined to give details, saying it might tip off suspects. About 80 percent of the Philippines’ roughly 100 million people are Catholic, a legacy of Spanish colonial rule that ended in 1898. Catholic statues have for centuries been made with ivory, however the church now officially condemns the practice to prevent the slaughter of elephants for their tusks. — AFP

BEIJING: China’s ruling Communist Party accused disgraced politician Bo Xilai of abusing power, taking huge bribes and other crimes yesterday, sealing the fate of a controversial leader whose fall shook a leadership handover due at a congress from Nov. 8. The once high-flying Bo now faces a criminal investigation that stemmed from a murder scandal, and will almost certainly be jailed. With the Communist Party congress about six weeks away, further steps in the case could come before then, experts said, paving the way for a smooth transition of power.

“Bo Xilai’s actions created grave repercussions and did massive harm to the reputation of the party and state, producing an extremely malign effect at home and abroad,” the official statement from a party leaders’ meeting said, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency.

Bo’s wife Gu Kailai and his former police chief Wang Lijun have both already been jailed over the scandal stemming from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, where Bo was Communist Party chief.

The official statement carried by Xinhua said that in the murder scandal, Bo “abused his powers of office, committed serious errors and bears a major responsibility”. Rumours that the party could deal Bo, the “princeling” son of a revolutionary leader, a light punishment have now been dealt a fatal blow, and accusations of womanising could further tarnish his reputation in the eyes of Chinese people. The party could

push to wrap up the Bo case before the party congress, which was later than the mid-October date that many expected, said Lai Hongyi, a researcher at the Contemporary Chinese Studies of the University of Nottingham in Britain.

But the few weeks left before the congress probably will not allow time for a trial, said He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University who has closely followed Bo’s downfall.

“I think it’s quite certain that he won’t be able to escape punishment under the criminal law, but the timing makes it unlikely that will happen before the congress,” said He. “I’d guess that he’ll get a jail sentence of 20 years or longer. The death penalty is unlikely, although the bribery charges could in theory allow it, if the amount is as huge as they say.”

At the congress, Chinese President Hu Jintao will step down as party chief, almost certainly making way for Vice President Xi Jinping to emerge as top leader. Xi is then almost sure to be appointed state president at the annual parliament session, likely in March next year. Bo has been expelled from the party as well as the elite decision-making Politburo and Central Committee “in view of his errors and culpability in the Wang Lijun incident and the intentional homicide case involving Bogu Kailai”, said the party announcement.

Bogu is his wife’s official but rarely used surname. Bo’s “grave violations of party discipline” extended back to his time as an official in Dalian city and Liaoning province in northeast China, and as minister of commerce, said the statement from the Politburo.

“Party organisations at all levels must use the case of Bo Xilai’s grave disciplinary violations as a negative example,” it said. At the same time as announcing the slate of accusations against Bo, the party set the Nov. 8 date for the congress that will unveil the country’s new central leadership lineup. Eight is considered a lucky number in China.

The twin announcements will “significantly reduce perceived political and economic risks” and “help end policy paralysis,” Ting Lu, China economist Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong said in an emailed research note.

“Simply put, the dust finally settled on new leadership,” said Lu. — Reuters

BEIJING: In this March 14, 2012 file photo, Bo Xilai, Chongqing party secretary, attends the closing session of the annual National People’s Congress in the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing. — AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Tibet PM calls for global support against China DHARAMSHALA: The prime minister of Tibet’s government-in-exile yesterday called on the international community to resist growing pressure from China and stand up for human rights in his homeland.

Lobsang Sangay, who last year took over political duties from revered spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, said that a spate of self-immolation protests were proof of severe Chinese repression in Tibet.

“Now I have more responsibilities, the Chinese government is raising pressure on the West,” Sangay told a meeting in the northern hilltown of Dharamshala.

“We have to re-establish our strong contacts with these countries.”

The Dalai Lama, 77, is a totemic figure for the Tibetan cause and has kept the Tibetan movement high on the global agenda, but he has now handed over all political duties to Sangay, a Harvardeducated scholar.

Sangay said Tibetan exiles, who have been based in Dharamshala since the Dalai Lama fled after a failed uprising in 1959, were determined to highlight that authoritarian Chinese rule was triggering

the scores of fatal protests.

“We send a strong message to China that we will not tolerate these repressive policies,” he told 400 delegates from around the world who gathered for the meeting. “We seek and need support from the international community to push China to stop oppression in Tibet.”

Sangay, 44, who was born in India and has never visited Tibet, won elections last year and has since faced intense frustration from Tibetans distraught over the unprecedented selfimmolations.

Since 2009, 51 people have set themselves on fire across Tibetan-inhabited areas of China, with 41 dying from their burns. Tibetan leaders are keen to show they are addressing the protests, but the four-day meeting struggled to get around the exiles’ lack of influence inside Tibet and the absence of new ideas in how to deal with China.

“The discussions have been too narrow. We missed the bigger picture,” Tenzin Tsundue, a writer and activist who attended the conclave, told AFP. “The organisers have kept the debate to just responding to self-immolations

DHARAMSHALA: Tibetan Buddhist devotees wait for the arrival of their sipiritual leader The Dalai Lama for a prayer meeting at The Namgyal Monastry in Dharamshala, yesterday. The prayer meeting was held on the concluding day of the four-day second Special General meeting of Tibetans which was held in Dharamshala to discuss the critical issues of recent self immolations by Tibetans in Tibet, and about taking up the Tibet issue with new Chinese leadership. — AFP when we need a complete review of our approach to end the repression.”

The Dalai Lama, who stayed away from the meeting to emphasise the

administration’s democratic mandate, held a prayer session at the main temple in Dharamshala marking the final day of talks. — AFP

NATO rebuilding partner operations with Afghans ‘Taleban clearly trying to split us apart’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani paramilitary soldiers walk as lawyers attempt to reach the US embassy in the diplomatic enclave during a protest against an anti-Islam film in Islamabad yesterday. — AFP

US, Pakistan call off military talks WASHINGTON: A planned meeting between US and Pakistani military chiefs was postponed this week due to a wave of violent anti-American protests, the top-ranking US officer, General Martin Dempsey, said Thursday.

Dempsey revealed at a news conference that he had scheduled a discreet trip to Pakistan to meet chief of the army staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, but the two agreed to call off the talks amid unrest on the streets of Pakistani cities.

“I was originally planned to go to Pakistan to meet with General Kayani, and because of some of the issues related to that film, he and I discussed postponing that visit-mostly so that I would give him the time to deal with the issues he was dealing with internally,” said Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pakistan has been rocked by days of violent protests in its major cities as demonstrations have swept Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia over an anti-

Islam film, a crude production by American amateurs.

Instead, Dempsey said he extended an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, visiting the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. The general did not take reporters with him and his office made no public announcement about his Afghan trip.

Dempsey has adopted a lower profile than his media-friendly predecessor, Admiral Mike Mullen, who at times publicly diverged from the White House’s stance on some issues. Unlike the previous chairman, Dempsey has taken a number of overseas trips without any press documenting his visits, including a meeting of NATO officers in Romania last week.

The general denied that he had kept the trip under wraps because of any doubts about the war effort in Afghanistan, where a rise in insider attacks by Afghan forces has caused concern at the Pentagon. — AFP

WASHINGTON: Most US and coalition combat units in Afghanistan have returned to their practice of partnering with Afghan forces, nearly two weeks after the top US commander put restrictions on such arrangements, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday.

Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, Panetta provided no statistics on the change or any details on why partnering has returned to normal in most cases. The limitations had been set by Gen. John Allen on Sept. 16 after a string of deadly insider attacks against coalition forces, and amid concern about Afghan backlash over an anti-Islam video.

As of Thursday, well more than half the operations included both coalition and Afghan forces, according to a US defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to release details. That compares to 90 percent of operations that included NATO and Afghan troops before the new restrictions that were implemented nearly two weeks ago.

US officials have said that when they first began to use the new approval process, US-Afghan joint operations fell off significantly, but the approval process is beginning to work more smoothly. A spike in insider attacks - where Afghan forces or insurgents wearing their uniforms turned their guns on their NATO counterparts - led commanders to limit when certain coalition and Afghan troops could patrol or work together.

Under the new directive, partnered operations such as patrols or the manning of outposts with small-sized units now must be approved by the senior regional commander. Since Allen issued the directive, there has been one non-fatal insider attack, on Sept 17. There have been 51 deaths attributed to insider attacks this year.

“The Taleban is clearly trying to split us apart, but it won’t work,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the

press conference with Panetta. “They’re working to weaken the coalition and that won’t work either.”

Dempsey, who revealed he had just made a quick trip to Afghanistan to evaluate the situation, said he returned “with a renewed sense that we can lower the risk of the insider threat.”

The chairman’s stealthy trip, however, underscored how worried US officials were that the insider attacks could erode trust between the coalition and Afghan forces and possibly derail the war strategy. He said he went there to find out “whether our campaign plan was still on track.”

After talking to commanders, he said the military can achieve its objectives in Afghanistan. In order to approve the mission under the new rules, commanders must review all of the risks and benefits of the operation and decide whether it is worth the risk of the mission as well as an insider attack. The plan for the operation also must include the additional steps the unit will take to safeguard the troops.

In some cases, the steps involve adding more guards or identifying specific points in the mission where the troops could be at greater risk, and then taking precautions to mitigate those risks.

Commanders also have ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all times in Afghanistan, even when they are on their bases.

Troops also are told where to gather if there is an incident and have rehearsed what they should do.

According to senior defense and military leaders, the new restrictions were a necessary but temporary measure. And they expect that slowly, the operations will return to the normal numbers, although the additional safety precautions may likely continue.

Officials did not know exactly how low the number of partnered operations dropped in the initial days of the restrictions, but they said the number has been slowly growing as commanders get more familiar with the risk assessment process. — AP

Kuwait crude exports to Japan hit 42-month high

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Energy fuels euro inflation but ECB rate cut still on

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Business SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Hollande stakes credibility on 2013 French budget

US consumers lift spending to pay for pricier gasoline

19 18

NEW YORK: Bank of America has agreed to pay $2.43 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit related to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis.

BofA to pay $2.43bn in settlement Lawsuit related to acquisition of Merrill Lynch NEW YORK: Bank of America says it has agreed to pay $2.43 billion to settle a classaction lawsuit related to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that Bank of America and some of its officers made false or misleading statements about both companies’ financial health.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of investors that bought or held Bank of America stock when the company announced its plans to buy Merrill Lynch in a $20 billion deal as the banking industry and federal government struggled to contain fallout from the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.

Bank of America’s deal to buy Merrill Lynch was forged on the same September 2008 weekend that Lehman Brothers collapsed. The transaction came into question later after Bank of America disclosed that Merrill would post $27.6 billion in losses that year. That added significantly to Bank of America’s financial woes, and the company subsequently asked for a $20 billion bailout from the government to help offset those losses, on top of the $25 billion it had already received. It has since repaid all $45 billion.

In announcing the proposed settlement yesterday, Bank of America denied the allegations and said that it agreed to the settlement to get rid of the uncertainties, burden and costs related to the lawsuit.

“As we work to put these long-standing issues behind us, our primary focus is on the future and serving our customers and clients,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in a statement.

S Korea firm ends ship work, new blow to Iran LONDON: The last big company doing classification work on Iranian ships, key to securing insurance and ports access, said yesterday it is stopping the work, spelling further difficulty for Iran’s shipping, including its oil exports.

The Korean Register of Shipping (KR) is the last of the world’s top 13 classification societies to halt marine work in Iran following a recent exodus, including Britain’s Lloyd’s Register, triggered by Western sanctions on Tehran. “In early August, the Korean Register of Shipping took the decision to stop providing classification services to Iranian ships. All relevant authorities and parties concerned were informed at that time,” KR said in a statement yesterday. “KR continues, at all times, to comply with all

national and international regulations,” it said, without further comment. In July, KR had sidestepped calls by US pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran to halt its verification work saying it was concerned that vessel safety and marine environment protection could be compromised. Certification involves verifying safety and environmental standards and without it vessels have difficulty securing insurance cover and cannot call at most international ports.

Iran is under growing pressure over its disputed nuclear program and companies are cutting ties with its shipping sector, which transports most of the OPEC member state’s crude oil for fear of losing lucrative US business. —Reuters

The settlement still needs court approval and will be reviewed by Judge Kevin Castel in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. As part of the settlement, the bank has also agreed to adopt several corporate governance policies until Jan. 1, 2015. These policies include those related to majority voting in board member elections, annual disclosure of noncompliance with stock ownership guidelines, policies for a board committee regarding future acquisitions, the independence of the board’s compensation committee and its compensation consultants and conducting an annual “sayon-pay” vote by shareholders.

The bank said yesterday that it will pay for the settlement with existing litigation reserves and about $1.6 billion in litigation expense that will be recorded in its third quarter. The company cautioned that this expense, coupled with some other charges, is expected to lower its third-quarter earnings by about 28 cents per share. Bank of America will report its third-quarter financial results on Oct 17.

Shares of Bank of America Corp, which is based in Charlotte, NC, fell 11 cents to $8.86 in premarket trading yesterday. — AP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Kuwait crude exports to Japan hit 42-month high First increase in two months

TOKYO: People cross a street in Tokyo yesterday. Japan’s manufacturing contracted further in August, dropping 1.3 percent from the previous month on weakening auto and electronics output, as anti-Japanese riots in China darkened an already bleak outlook for both economies. — AP

Japan’s industrial output down 1.3% TOKYO: Japan’s factory output fell a worse-than-expected 1.3 percent in August from the previous month for the second straight month of decline amid slowing Chinese demand and the strong yen, official data showed yesterday.

The fall followed a revised 1.0 percent drop in July, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. The reading prompted the ministry to downgrade its overall assessment of production in the world’s third-biggest economy, saying, “Industrial production appears to have weakened.” It said output was flat in its assessment in July. The August production fall was chiefly due to sluggish output of electronics parts and transport equipments on lower demand in China, where the economy has been weakening, and other countries, according to the ministry. Looking ahead, manufacturers polled by the ministry expect production will further shrink 2.9 percent in September and will be flat in October.

Manufacturers are concerned about the impact of the increasing tensions between Japan and China over islands in the East China Sea, which led to Chinese consumer to boycott Japanese products, including cars and construction materials. China is Japan’s biggest export market. Massive anti-Japan rallies across China following Japan’s Sept 11 nationalization of the disputed islands also forced Japanese companies to close factories in China. — KUNA

SINGAPORE: This photo taken on September 10, 2012 shows people exercising after work at a park in downtown Singapore. The number of foreign workers in Singapore rose by about 100,000 as of the end of June this year from a year ago despite measures to slow their influx, government data released September 28 showed. — AFP

TOKYO: Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan surged 177.6 percent in August from a year earlier to a 42-month high of 10.90 million barrels, or 352,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first increase in two months, the government said yesterday.

The figure was the highest since February 2009, when Kuwait sold 12.40 million barrels (443,000 bpd) to Japan. As the Asian nation’s fourth-biggest oil supplier, Kuwait provided 9.8 percent of Japan’s total crude imports, compared with 3.6 percent in the same month of last year and 4.9 percent in July, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.

Japan’s overall imports of crude oil in August rose 2.9 percent year-on-year to 111.77 million barrels (3.61 million bpd) for the first expansion in two months. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 84.3 percent of the total, up 1.5 percentage points from a year before.

Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s biggest oil supplier, with imports from the kingdom growing 6.9 percent on the year to

1.09 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 766,000 bpd, down 7.0 percent. Qatar ranked third with 476,000 bpd, up 36.9 percent and Russia fifth with 148,000 bpd, down 22.5 percent, respectively.

Although the Japanese government provides insurance for tankers carrying Iranian crude bound for Japan, its imports from Iran plunged 66.8 percent to 101,000 bpd last month.

The special measure enables the world’s No.3 oil consumer to continue importing Iranian oil even after new European Union (EU) sanctions against Iran starting from July, which ban insurance firms of EU countries from covering Iran’s exports. Japan has also secured a waiver from US financial sanctions against Iran in return for cutting its imports of Iranian crude oil.

Resources-poor Japan relies on crude oil imports for about 50 percent of its energy needs. Shipments of direct-deal, which prices are based on the average spot price of Dubai crude, the benchmark for Asia, account for about 80 percent of Japan’s crude imports. — KUNA

Malaysia unveils spending plans ahead of polls KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s government plans to splash out $252 billion ringgit ($82.1 billion) next year with cash handouts and affordable housing along with income tax cuts, seeking to shore up support as elections loom. Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday the budget will bolster quality of life and ensure economic growth of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent in 2013. Growth is expected at 4.5 percent to 5 percent this year.

He pledged to spend prudently to narrow the country’s growing debt and fiscal deficit. Taking a swipe at Anwar Ibrahim’s opposition alliance, he accused them of “promising the moon and the heavens just to gain power.” “This government has never promised the moon, the stars or the galaxy,” Najib, wearing a lime green traditional costume, told Parliament. The 2013 national budget targets lower-income workers with a 1 percentage point tax cut for individuals earning up to 50,000 ringgit ($16,312) a year. Some 4.3 million poor households will get 500 ringgit ($163) each while poor single individuals will receive 250 ringgit ($82) costing the government a total of 3 billion ringgit ($979 million). The ruling National Front coalition, which has led Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957, is striving to claw back support after its worst electoral performance in 2008. It lost more than a third of seats in Parliament to Anwar’s alliance amid allegations of corruption and racial discrimination.

Although the National Front is expected to win in polls that must be held by June, the coalition’s performance must improve to obtain a strong mandate to rule. The government earlier this year spent billions on raising government salaries and giving cash to the poor. But Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings recently warned of credit ratings downgrade if Malaysia fails to tighten its

public finances. Najib said about 80 percent of the budget will be used for operating expenditures with the rest for development - including infrastructure development, poverty reduction programs, educational training, health care and housing. He said government revenue will rise 0.7 percent to 208.6 billion ringgit ($68.1 billion), helping to narrow the budget deficit to 4 percent of gross domestic product from 4.5 percent this year. He said the government is committed to cutting this to 3 percent by 2015.

He said plans to implement an unpopular goods and services tax crucial to strengthen public finances would be done in an orderly manner, but didn’t give any timeline.

In its economic report released together with the budget, the government said it plans to cut fuel and other subsidies to 37.6 billion ringgit ($12.3 bil-

lion) in 2013, down 13.4 percent from this year.

In a reaction to public grumbling over fast-rising house prices, Najib said the government will raise the property gains tax by 5 percent to curb speculation. He said 1.9 billion ringgit ($620 million) has also been allocated to build 123,000 affordable homes next year.

New clinics will be built for the poor, and every school child will receive 100 ringgit ($33) and book vouchers, he said.

Some 1.3 million civil servants - a core voter group - will receive a total 1.5 month bonus this year, he said.

Opposition lawmaker Tony Pua said the 2013 budget displays a lack of political will to undertake reforms needed to tackle government debt. He said it was also worrying that development spending crucial to economic growth was declining. — AP

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Razak (center) holds a briefcase as he poses with Finance Minister II Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah (second from left), Deputy Finance Minister Awang Adek (right), and Deputy Finance Minister Donald Lim before he leaves from Finance Ministry office in Putrajaya, Malaysia yesterday. — AP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Energy fuels euro inflation but ECB rate cut still on BRUSSELS: Euro-zone inflation accelerated in September as energy costs soared but core prices rose at their slowest pace for a year, likely leaving the European Central Bank on track to cut interest rates soon. Consumer prices in the 17 countries sharing the euro rose 2.7 percent year-on-year, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said yesterday in a first estimate that marked a rise from 2.6 percent in August.

Markets had expected inflation to ease to 2.5 percent. Energy prices jumped 9.2 percent after a 8.9 percent rise the previous month. But core inflation, excluding both energy and unprocessed foods, fell to 1.7 percent, its lowest level in a year.

Together with recent data indicating that the euro zone economy entered a

recession in the third quarter, yesterday’s inflation reading kept intact expectations that the ECB will not wait long before delivering a growth-boosting rate cut. “It seems highly likely that the ECB will take interest rates down from 0.75 percent to 0.50 percent in the fourth quarter,” said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.

“While the ECB could act as soon as its October meeting next Thursday, we lean towards the view that they will probably hold off to November.”

Just 14 of 73 economists polled by Reuters this week expect the ECB to cut rates when it meets next Thursday but a majority expect the bank to have lopped off 25 basis points by the end of the year. The ECB kept its main interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.75 percent at its meeting earlier this

month, taking another policy-easing route by agreeing to launch a new and potentially unlimited bond-buying program. Inflation fell steadily from 3 percent in November 2011 to stabilize at 2.4 percent in May, June and July, as the euro-zone economy slowed sharply as a result of the sovereign debt crisis.

But it rose again for the first time in 11 months in August due to higher fuel and transport costs. The ECB’s target is to keep inflation below, but close to 2 percent, a rate it is not expected to drop back to for some time, though price pressures should ease further as the economy continues to struggle. “Eurozone inflation should resume its downward trend before long as previous sharp increases in energy and food prices cease to boost the annual rate,” said Martin Van Vliet, economist at ING

bank. “But with commodity prices remaining high and volatile, and further VAT hikes in the pipeline (e.g. in the Netherlands next month and in Finland in January), it is probably going to be a very gradual descent,” he said. Headline inflation might stay above 2 percent well into next year.

“The bottom line, however, is that underlying inflation pressures remain muted in most parts of the euro-zone economy. This gives the ECB scope to ease monetary policy further,” he said.

In September, Eurostat for the first time provided year-on-year prices changes in the index’s components - food, alcohol and tobacco, energy, non-energy industrial goods and services. It publishes a more detailed breakdown for September as well as monthly inflation figures on Oct. 16. — Reuters

China shippers place order for 50 supertankers

MADRID: Government employees take part in a demonstration against the Spanish government’s latest austerity measures in the center of Madrid yesterday. — AFP

Spain public workers protest pay freeze MADRID: Spanish nurses, policemen and other public workers protested yesterday against having their pay frozen for the third year in a row in the government’s latest crisis budget.

Several hundred demonstrated under umbrellas in the rain outside the budget ministry in Madrid the day after the government approved new cuts, which analysts said could clear the way for a sovereign bailout.

The government said it would freeze public sector pay, which has not risen since it was cut by five percent in 2010 and which suffered an effective seven-percent fall this year with the cutting of the end-of-year bonus.

Presenting its 2013 budget Thursday, the government said it would pay the bonuses next year, but protestors said the freeze is already hurting them while they are working more for less pay due to job cuts. “I cannot buy Christmas presents for my son, but that is the least of my worries,” said Patricia Gonzalez, 40, a Madrid nurse, amid the din of horns and whistles at yesterday’s demonstration. “What worries me is the decline in the quality of services. There are fewer and fewer staff so how can we give quality treatment to the elderly and other patients?” she told AFP. Separately, Spain was due to announce later the results of an audit to determine how much money its banks need to stabilixe. Speculation was peaking that these results, along with its budget and a list of European Union-approved structural reforms announced Thursday, would clear the way for Spain to request a bailout from the euro-zone in the coming days.

Struggling to clean up its public finances, Spain has imposed tens of billions of euros (dollars) in savings measures which have sharpened the effects of a recession. The unemployment rate is close to 25 percent. “The budget still does not solve the problems of the public administration,” said Francisco Camarillo, spokesman for the public sector labor federation CSI-F. “Overall we are talking about a 20 percent loss of earnings since 2010,” he told AFP. “Those at the lowest income level are falling into poverty.” — AFP

BEIJING: A group of state-owned Chinese shipping companies have placed a $4.5 billion order for 50 supertankers, throwing a financial lifeline to China’s struggling shipbuilders, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The order adds to a multibillion-dollar flurry of investments by state companies in recent weeks - a key element in Beijing’s carefully controlled effort to reverse a painful economic slump. The government has approved a wave of spending on new steel mills, subway lines and other corporate and public works projects. The move also could help China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, gain more control over its energy supply chain by owning the giant ships needed to import crude from the Middle East and elsewhere.

The supertankers were ordered by three of China’s biggest shippers, China Shipping Group, Dalian Ocean Shipping Co and China Merchants Group, the 21st Century Business Herald said. It cited the president of China Shipping and the general manager of Dalian Ocean Shipping. Employees who answered the phone at the press offices of the three companies said they could not confirm the report or give other details such as where the tankers would be produced.

Chinese shipyards, which are the world’s biggest shipbuilders by total tonnage, have been among the hardest-hit industries in the slowdown. Orders have fallen by more than half and shipyards are cutting jobs. “Small and medium-size shipbuilding companies are either out of business or near bankruptcy,” said Xia Xiaowen, an analyst for the

BEIJING: A foreigner cycles past two Chinese men outside a club in Beijing, yesterday. China’s manufacturing activity contracted for an 11th straight month in September, banking giant HSBC said, as factories struggled with weak demand and hard-to-sell inventories. — AFP China Shipbuilding Economy Research Center, a think tank in Beijing.

If the reports of new orders are accurate, “it will definitely be good news for those large manufacturers, and they don’t need to worry about survival anymore,” Xia said.

China’s economic growth fell to a three-year low of 7.6 percent in the three months ending in June. That is healthy by the standards of the United States and Japan, where this year’s growth is forecast in low single digits, but painful for companies that need higher

growth to drive demand for new ships, factories and other assets. Officials including President Hu Jintao have warned growth could decline further before rebounding later this year.

Some Chinese industries such as retailing and other services are relatively strong, helping to reduce politically dangerous job losses. But fields such as shipbuilding and production of steel, cement and solar panels have been hit hard by weak demand and excess production capacity. —AP

France, Germany revive EU financial tax plan BRUSSELS: France and Germany want to revive a controversial financial transactions tax (FTT), seeking support from the European Commission and enough EU partners to get a limited deal through.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and French counterpart Pierre Moscovici wrote to European Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta and their 25 EU colleagues seeking permission for an “enhanced cooperation” accord which could be implemented if one third of all

EU states back it. The two ministers say in their letters, undated according to copies seen by AFP yesterday, that their governments “request” that the Commission formally ask the 27 EU member states for “a decision authorizing enhanced cooperation with regard to the creation of a common system of financial transaction tax.”

A bid to introduce the tax-aimed at curbing the market excesses that led to the 2008 global financial crisis-in all 27 EU states failed in June, in part due to British

concerns over the City of London’s future.

Under its provisions, the Commission would have levied a 0.1 percent tax on share and bond trades, and 0.01 percent on other transactions, generating billions of euros in revenue. France and Germany hope the FTT can be operational by the end of this year based on the support of nine states but they will need at least tacit permission from London and other opponents who would not be joining in. —AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

PARIS: The new Honda CRV is presented at the Honda stand, on the eve of the opening of the Paris Auto Show yesterday. The Paris Auto Show will open its gates to the public from today to Oct. 14. —AP

PARIS: A Jaguar F Type is presented during the press days of the Paris Motor Show. — AFP

US consumers lift spending to pay for pricier gasoline Report points to tepid Q3 economic growth WASHINGTON: US consumer spending rose in August by the most in six months as households stretched to pay for higher gasoline prices, according to a government report yesterday that pointed to lackluster economic growth in the third quarter. The Commerce Department said consumer spending increased 0.5 percent after an unrevised 0.4 percent gain in July. When adjusted for inflation, spending edged up 0.1 percent after increasing 0.4 percent in July.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of US economic activity and the second straight monthly increase mostly reflected higher gasoline prices, which rose 28.2 cents per gallon last month, though automobile purchases also helped.

“With other sectors of the economy slowing down, relying on consumers is not the exact position we want to be in right now when incomes are slowing sharply,” said Jacob Oubina, senior US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

The US dollar fell slightly against the euro and the yen after the data. Major

US stock index futures edged lower in early trading, while the 30-year Treasury bond price rose.

Spending on nondurable goods jumped 1.7 percent in August after increasing 0.8 percent the previous month. Household spending on services rose a modest 0.2 percent compared to 0.3 percent in July.

With the inflation adjusted spending barely rising last month, growth in real consumer spending is unlikely to improve much this quarter from the tepid 1.5 percent annual pace recorded in the April-June period.

Slower consumer spending and a drop in farm inventories due to a severe drought in the Midwest held gross domestic product growth to a 1.3 percent pace in the second quarter, a step down from 2 percent in the first three months of the year.

With gasoline prices rising, inflation pressures picked up a bit last month. A price index for personal consumer expenditures increased 0.4 percent, the largest gain since March last year, after being flat in July. In the 12 months

through August, the PCE price index rose 1.5 percent after increasing 1.3 percent in July.

However, a measure which strips out food and energy costs, rose only 0.1 percent from July. The index advanced by the same margin in July.

In the 12 months to August, the core PCE index, increased 1.6 percent matching July’s increase. The Federal Reserve has a 2 percent inflation target and the still-moderate pace of inflation should give the US central bank comfort to maintain its accommodative monetary policy stance for a while as it seeks to spur job growth and domestic demand.

Income nudged up 0.1 percent but was eroded by the rise in inflation. The amount of income at the disposal of households after accounting for inflation and taxes fell 0.3 percent after ticking up 0.1 percent in July. That was the first decline since November.

With spending outstripping income growth, the saving rate slipped 3.7 percent last month from 4.1 percent in July. — Reuters

PARIS: Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn (right) talks with Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche (left) during a press conference during the press days of the Paris Motor Show yesterday. —AFP

Oil up above $112 on Spain, US gasoline LONDON: Oil prices were firmer above $112 yesterday as plans for economic reform in Spain temporarily eased investor concerns about Europe’s debt crisis, whilst tight gasoline supply in the United States also helped to underpin the crude market.

Improved market sentiment helped lift oil, base metals and gold after Spain announced a crisis budget for 2013 based mostly on spending cuts. Spain has slashed ministry budgets by 8.9 percent for next year and kept public sector wages frozen for a third year.

“It’s a broad-based risk-on rally,” said Carsten Fritsch, an energy analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “The trigger was the approval of the Spanish austerity measures yesterday which has has temporarily eased some of the concerns about the euro-zone debt crisis.” Brent crude futures were up 69 to $112.70 a barrel by 1303 GMT, on track for a 15 percent quarterly gain. US crude was up 18 cents to $92.03.

Traders and analysts said that Brent was also drawing strength from US RBOB gasoline, which has been supported by very low inventories and unplanned outages that have tightened up the market.

“A lot of people trade RBOB against Brent, so it does have an impact,” a broker said. “One trader told me that he had never seen a physical market as tight as this one.”

Dominick Chirichella of the Energy Management Institute said RBOB had increased by almost 8 percent in the last three trading sessions as the October futures contract approaches expiry. “The plethora of refinery issues including the restart problems from Hurricane Isaac have all contributed to gasoline inventories continuing to decline and now standing at the lowest level for this time of the year since October of 2008,” he said. — Reuters

Copper rises on Spain relief

CHICAGO: Shoppers carry their purchases at a Target in Chicago. Americans spent at the fastest pace in six months in August but much of that increase went to pay their higher gas bills, the Commerce Department announced yesterday. —AP

LONDON: Copper rose yesterday, on track for a more than 7 percent rise this quarter, as the dollar softened and after debtladen Spain unveiled a budget that reassured investors that a resolution to the euro zone crisis had cleared a hurdle.

Spain’s detailed timetable for economic reforms and spending cuts drove both commodities and equities higher.

And following new monetary stimulus unveiled by the United States and Japan this month, markets expect China to cut interest rates to spur growth, as weakening demand in China has damaged global economies and weighed on investor sentiment.

“The combination of Chinese fiscal stimulus, Federal Reserve unlimited quantitative easing and possible resolution in Europe is a very positive mix for base metals,” Guy Wolf, macro strategist at Marex Spectron, said. “We expect significant fund flow into commodities over the quarter end and a positive Q4 performance.”

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.9 percent to $8,242 a ton by 1044 GMT, extending gains from the previous session when it closed at $8,175. Prices hit their lowest in two weeks at $8,082 a ton on Wednesday.

While copper was on track to post a 7.3 percent rise this quarter, after falling 9 percent in the previous one, it is still down 0.4 percent this week. — Reuters

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Hollande stakes credibility on 2013 French budget Economists believe growth forecast too optimistic

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and then German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck (left) briefing the media after a meeting with the German Government’s task force for finance architecture at the chancellery in Berlin. — AP

Ex-finance minister to challenge Merkel in 2013 BERLIN: Germany’s main opposition party is set to nominate former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who helped pilot the country through the 2008-9 financial crisis, as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s challenger in elections next year.

Officials with the center-left Social Democrats wouldn’t immediately confirm reports yesterday in several German media outlets that the leadership had decided on Steinbrueck, 65. But the party scheduled an afternoon news conference and former Cabinet colleague Brigitte Zypries wrote on Facebook: “it’s true, it’s going to be him.”

The choice of Steinbrueck - one of three candidates who has been discussed for months as criticism mounted of the party’s failure to settle on a challenger - kicks off in earnest the race for the chancellery in parliamentary elections expected this time next year.

Steinbrueck earlier this week presented a plan for “taming financial markets,” flagging that as a prominent issue in the party’s campaign. But polls suggest that, while Steinbrueck is relatively well-placed to attract swing voters, the Social Democrats face an uphill struggle to unseat the popular Merkel, 58, Germany’s leader since 2005.

The party consistently trails her conservative Christian Democrats, and surveys show no majority for their hoped-for coalition with the Green party.

They’re keen to avoid ending up as Merkel’s junior partner in another “grand coalition” of right and left, the combination in which Steinbrueck served as finance minister from 2005 to 2009.

A significant source of Merkel’s popularity is her handling of the euro-zone debt crisis, and that’s been making it hard for the Social Democrats to land blows on her. They and the Greens have criticized Merkel for what they decry as a too-little, too-late response - before invariably supporting her plans in Parliament. — AP

Competition watchdog to probe UK motor insurers LONDON: UK regulators launched an investigation of the motor insurance market yesterday, saying that competition was not working properly and pushing up costs for consumers. The Office of Fair Trading, Britain’s main consumer watchdog, said it had decided to refer the industry to the Competition Commission for an investigation that could take up to two years.

“Competition appears not to be working effectively in the private motor insurance market,” the OFT’s chief executive Clive Maxwell said.“The insurers of at-fault drivers appear to have little control over the bills they must pay, and this may be leading to higher costs for them and ultimately higher premiums for motorists.”The OFT had in May provisionally recommended that the sector be investigated on the grounds that “dysfunctional” competition between car insurers was inflating the cost of car insurance.The watchdog is concerned that insurers whose customers are involved in accidents that they do not cause provide them with replacement vehicles and repair services that cost more than the market rate, pushing up costs for the at-fault drivers’ insurers. — Reuters

PARIS: President Francois Hollande puts his fiscal credibility on the line yesterday when he delivers France’s toughest budget in 30 years in the face of a stagnant economy, record unemployment and plunging opinion poll ratings. The Socialist leader’s first full budget, to be presented to the cabinet at mid-morning, must secure 30 billion euros ($39 billion) in savings to keep promises on cutting the deficit made as part of euro-zone efforts to end the debt crisis.

The belt-tightening, via tax rises for high earners and a freeze on spending, aims to cut the 2013 public deficit to 3 percent of annual economic output and bolster France’s place as a euro zone power with Germany despite its record debt levels.

“We need to get France back on the rails,” Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told Europe 1 radio, stressing that low and middle-income households would be largely shielded from tax rises that would hit only around one taxpayer in 10. “This budget is about struggle, about reconstruction,” Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said late on Thursday, warning that France’s bond yields - currently at record lows around 2 percent - would jump if it did not meet its 2013 deficit target.

Economists, however, are concerned that the budget goals look ambitious, especially based on a 2013 economic growth forecast of 0.8 percent that is widely seen as over-optimistic.

Moscovici said that if Europe’s economic crisis steadied, French growth

could exceed 0.8 percent next year. But data yesterday confirmed zero growth was posted in the second quarter, marking nine months of stagnation, as a pickup in business investment and government spending was offset by a worsening trade balance and sluggish consumer expenditure.

Despite a rise in wages, consumers traditionally the motor of France’s growth - increased their savings to 16.4 percent of income from 16.0 percent a year earlier, amid concern about unemployment which is at a 10-year high and rising. In another setback for Hollande’s finance team, other data showed the public debt rose to 91 percent of GDP in the second quarter, the highest level in post-war France, and consumer spending dropped 0.8 percent in August.

“Altogether the data paint the picture of a stagnating economy,” said BNP economist Dominique Barbet.

Yesterday’s budget bill is expected to lay out 10 billion euros in expected new revenues from extra taxes on mainly welloff households and another 10 billion from either corporate tax rises or cuts to existing tax breaks. Fulfilling a campaign promise, the budget is expected to slap an upper tax rate of 75 percent on income above 1 million euros, and a new rate of 45 percent above 150,000 euros. These measures will raise a relatively modest half a billion euros but they have prompted predictions of a flight of business talent from France. A further 10 billion will come from keeping a lid on central government spending, continuing a policy of

replacing only one in two retiring civil servants and postponing spending. Calls from some economists for broader cuts will be ignored.

Hollande’s promise to cut the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product from 4.5 percent this year is a step towards his promise to balance the budget in 2017.

BNP Paribas economist Helene Baudchon said the deficit was likely to come in above 3.0 percent due to the weak growth outlook. “As things stand, achieving a deficit of 3.3 percent would in itself be a remarkable outcome,” she said.

Any sign of wavering could not only prompt financial markets to rethink their attitude towards France, in terms of low bond yields, but also trigger further downgrades after Standard & Poor’s stripped France of its triple-A rating this year. At the same time, the state belttightening risks putting further pressure on an economy which has stagnated over the last three quarters to teeter on the brink of recession, while the unemployment rate has risen to a 13-year high above 10 percent.

Below-target growth could mean Hollande - whose approval ratings have slid as low as 43 percent since his May election - may have to seek more painful savings to meet his deficit goals.

“It’s a big risk, because it’s possible that, as they try to reduce government spending and return to a balanced budget, they have a negative impact on growth,” said Christopher Bickerton, an associate professor at Paris’ Sciences Po university. — Reuters

Greek power workers call 48-hour strikes ATHENS: Greece’s electricity workers said yesterday they will start rolling 48hour strikes as early as next week to protest austerity measures demanded by the country’s international lenders.

Strikes at state-controlled utility PPC have in the past led to rotating power cuts across the country, as the grid operator reduces the load to prevent wider blackouts. PPC is the country’s single power retailer and produces about 70 percent of all electricity generated in the country.

The strike will begin as early as Oct 1 if the government submits new austerity measures to parliament next week, said PPC’s labor union GENOP-DEH, one of the most militant unions.

If the vote takes place later in the month, the strikes will be postponed accordingly.

The walkout poses yet another challenge to the wage and pension cuts that Athens is negotiating with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to obtain fresh bailout funds.

“These measures ... must not be allowed to go through. GENOP-DEH wants to reverse this policy,” the union said. GENOP also urged labor union confederation GSEE, the country’s biggest, to step up its anti-austerity action after a nationwide 24-hour strike on Wednesday. If GSEE agrees to new labor action, GENOP will call off its strike, it said. — Reuters

ATHENS: An unpaid for five months private clinic’s nurse Paraskevi Petropoulou (center) holds her unpaid electricity bill outside the ministry of health in Athens yesterday during a demonstration against the government. — AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Britain tightens screw on banks over Libor scandal Action after FSA makes proposals

PHILADELPHIA: A Walgreens pharmacy sign is displayed in Philadelphia. The nation’s largest drugstore chain says it earned $353 million, or 39 per share, in its 2012 fiscal fourth quarter. — AP

Starbucks to open first cafe in India next month MUMBAI: Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee chain, said yesterday it will open its first outlet in India next month as it seeks to tap the beverage’s growing popularity in a country famed for its love of tea.

Seattle-based Starbucks, which has eyed the Indian market for years, has chosen to launch operations in financial and entertainment hub Mumbai. The firm is entering India in a joint venture with the nation’s beverage-to-steel Tata conglomerate, making an initial $78 million investment.

“The store will open October-end,” Starbucks’ Asia-Pacific and China president John Culver said in a statement, without disclosing a specific date. Starbucks had aimed for 50 outlets in India by the end of 2012, when it announced the venture in January, but made no mention of that target in its statement yesterday. Analysts said Starbucks was unlikely to rush into launching its cafes.

“Their first store is like a laboratory, there will be tests, checking and re-checking” before they move forward, said Sonam Udasi, research head at Mumbai’s IDBI Capital.

“Expansions take time,” he told AFP. The Tata-Starbucks venture’s chief executive will be Avani Saglani Davda, who has held other senior posts with the Tata group.

“We are excited about the great opportunities the Indian market presents,” Davda said in the statement. Tata Global Beverages shares jumped 8.30 percent to close at 142.8 rupees. Globally Starbucks is focusing intently on Asia, particularly China- which is expected to become its largest market outside the United States by 2014 — as it seeks to offset weaker demand in some European markets. India is the company’s next big bet.

“Given the size of the Indian economy, the growth of cafe culture and the rising spending power, India will be a very large market (for Starbucks) over the long term,” Culver told AFP in an interview last month. “Coffee has changed from being a traditional beverage, consumed mainly in South India, to a mainstream beverage with a national presence,” he said. India is primarily a tea-drinking nation, but in recent years lifestyle changes and rising incomes have spawned a booming market for cafes. Still, India’s annual per capita coffee consumption is just 82 grams (three ounces) — far below that of 6.79 kilograms (15 pounds) in Germany and 5.87 kilograms in Brazil, according to data from the International Coffee Organization.

Starbucks said the espresso coffee served in India will be sourced and roasted locally from Tata Coffee, one of the world’s largest coffee plantation firms. “This is an important part of delivering a locally relevant experience to our customers,” Culver said.

Baked goods will be tailored to suit local tastes. Appetite for coffee is growing as the nation sees an explosion of trendy Western-style cafes catering to an increasing number of young professionals. The new outlet will appear in south Mumbai’s Horniman Circle-a park-like commercial area near banks, residential neighborhoods and luxury hotels. The US giant will be competing against Indian-owned Cafe Coffee Day, which dominates the market, and foreign chains such as Britain’s Costa Coffee and US rival Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf that are well established in big Indian cities. — AFP

LONDON: Britain tightened the screws on troubled banks yesterday, vowing to overhaul a “broken” Libor interest rate system that tainted the financial sector’s reputation, and threatening to jail those who abuse it.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) watchdog made the proposals in an independent report that was commissioned by British finance minister George Osborne in the wake of this year’s notorious Libor rate-rigging affair.

Britain’s banks, already being forced to ringfence retail and investment operations and boost their capital reserves, were facing even more pressure to reform as authorities seek to prevent a new global financial crisis. “The reason we are here is that we have been misled,” FSA managing director Martin Wheatley said yesterday as he published his review of Libor.

“The system is broken and needs a complete overhaul. The disturbing events we have uncovered in the manipulation of Libor have severely damaged our confidence and our trust-it has torn the very fabric that our financial system is built on.”

The Libor affair erupted in June when Barclays bank was fined £290 million ($470 million, 363 million euros) by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates between 2005 and 2009. The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, is a flagship instrument used all over the world, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money. Euribor is the euro-zone equivalent. Libor is calculated daily, using estimates from banks of their own interbank rates, and affects the pricing of more than $300-trillion of contracts across the world, according to the FSA. However, the system was found to be open to abuse, with some traders lying about borrowing costs to boost trading positions or make their bank seem more secure. The FSA on Friday said regulatory and sanctioning powers-including the threat of jail-were now needed to punish those who attempt to manipulate Libor. “Society wants the people who commit these sorts of crimes to pay the price, and if that includes jail for the most extreme fraud in the system, then that is what should happen,” Wheatley told BBC radio. Clear failure of banking lobby groupHis report also slammed industry body the British Bankers’ Association, arguing it had “clearly failed” in its key role in setting Libor, which must now be handed to a new group. “Today we press the reset button,” said Wheatley, while pledging to

stamp out the “shocking behavior” that led to systemic rate manipulation at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.

“We need to get back to what this reference rate is supposed to; restore integrity to a globally important benchmark; (and) make sure we get to a position where individuals act with integrity.” Barclays is the only bank to have been fined over Libor, but it is understood that at least 15 lenders globally are being investigated for potential rate manipulation. Britain’s government said it welcomed the Wheatley report, adding that it would respond when parliament reopens next month following the party conference season. Treasury minister Greg Clark, who works under Osborne, said yesterday that Libor was “another example of the broken regulatory system that this

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne government is committed to fixing.” Bank of England head Mervyn King meanwhile called for the Wheatley proposals to be acted upon “as soon as possible”.

Implementation of Wheatley’s recommendations would come as the financial sector faces fierce political criticism over excessive boardroom pay and seeks to overcome various scandals linked to the mis-selling of financial products. The FSA on Friday recommended that Libor submissions must be supported by “relevant trade data” and “proper record keeping” with “greater rigor and transparency.” —AFP

Turkish trade deficit falls on gold sales to Iran ISTANBUL: Turkey’s trade deficit fell 30 percent in August on the back of strong gold sales to Iran, bolstering efforts to improve its current account and giving more room to cut interest rates.

The trade deficit fell to $5.86 billion, the Turkish Statistics Institute said, compared with a forecast for $8.10 billion in a Reuters poll and a $7.89 billion deficit in July.

“This data is a result of soaring gold exports, which broke a record with $2.3 billion in August,” Oyak Securities economist Mehmet Besimoglu said yesterday. “Gold exports were to Iran, made via the United Arab Emirates.” Turkish gold sales to Iran have soared as Iranians turn to the precious metal to protect savings and, potentially, to trade as Western sanctions aimed at forcing the Islamic republic to curb its nuclear program tighten.

Turkey’s gold exports, as a whole, jumped more than fourfold to $11.2 billion in the first eight months of 2012. Exports rose 14.5 percent to $12.87 billion, as growing trade with markets in Africa and the Middle East eclipsed a slowdown in demand from Europe. Imports fell 4.8 percent to $18.74 billion. Overall exports to the United Arab Emirates jumped eightfold to $2.23 billion, making the UAE Turkey’s biggest export destination in August. “The improve-

ment in the foreign trade deficit accelerated sharply in August. It is good news for the current account deficit, but bad news for growth,” BGC Partners economist Ozgur Altug said. Central bank Governor Erdem

Basci said last Friday while the bank expected economic growth to pick up next year and inflation to fall, the extent to which this would allow it to cut rates would depend on how quickly exports grow. —Reuters

MEXICO CITY: A protester throws an object toward a police car under the heavy rain as other protesters walk behind as they demonstrate against proposed labor reforms outside Congress in Mexico City on Thursday. A proposal to reform Mexico’s 1970s-era labor laws, loosen work rules and increase union democracy split Mexican political parties, threatening to create the first big political battle for President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto. —AP

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

www.kuwaittimes.net

Schwarzenegger: Maid affair was ‘stupidest thing’ PAGE 26

Batman takes on his nemesis The Joker during the LA Batman Live premiere on Thursday Sept.27, 2012, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. — AP

Christie’s offers Bond items on 50th anniversary PAGE 27

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

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he ‘Give Me All Your Luvin” singer has invited the eccentric pop superstar to join her on stage during her ‘MDNA Tour’, despite previously accusing her of copying elements of her song ‘Express Yourself’ in her single ‘Born This Way’.

Gaga’s writer-and-producer Vincent Herbert revealed: “Madonna just called to ask Gaga to perform with her at Yankee Stadium. Her manager reached out to us and said Madonna would like Gaga to perform with her.” Madonna was so desperate to have Gaga, 26, join her that she even promised to give the money raised to charity. Unluckily for the 54-year-old music legend, Gaga’s own work schedule meant she couldn’t accept her offer.

Vincent is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: “She really wished she could do it. She said,

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he 31-year-old actor enjoys throwing lavish barbecues and cooking meals for his friends.

Justin told food blog Bon Appetit: “The key to good hosting is to make sure everyone has enough to eat. In my house, we tend to host Sunday barbecues, which is convenient in football season. Everybody can do chips and dips.” The Hollywood hunk also revealed he enjoys hosting themed dinners and keeps things fun by organising games and getting guests to dress up. Justin - who is engaged to Jessica Biel - explained: “If you’re hosting people, you want them to feel like they’re in their own home. I don’t like things to be too formal. “I’ve hosted Halloween murder

‘If we do it, let’s donate the money to charity.’ But Gaga’s committed to her own tour.” Earlier this month, Madonna dedicated her song ‘Masterpiece’ to Gaga, telling the crowd at a performance in Atlantic City: “I’m going to dedicate this next song ... to Lady Gaga. You wanna know something? I love her. I love her. I do love her. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. But one day, very soon, we’re going to be on stage together. Just you wait. You think I’m kidding? I love Lady Gaga.”

mystery dinners where people had to search through the house for clues.

We did one that was Prohibition erathemed. The girls showed up as flappers and the guys showed up in waistcoats and pinstripes. “I’ve hosted parties where I’ll have an In-and-Out (burger) truck show up later on in the evening. You know everyone will be hungry again.”

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he ‘Almost Famous’ actress’ fiance Matt Bellamy is enjoying watching their toddler Bingham develop and while he is already showing signs of following in his Muse rocker dad’s musical footsteps, the ‘Survival’ singer thinks he is more like his mother. Matt said: “[Going on the road] will be hard as Bing is 15 months now and at the age where his personality is starting to come through. “He loves music and banging on the piano. He has Kate’s personality. He’s so funny.” Matt also revealed that Kate and Bingham will be joining him on tour, as will Ryder, the actress’ eight-year-old son from her marriage to Black Crowes frontman Chris

Robinson. He added in an interview with The Sun newspaper: “We manage it all pretty well.

Kate’s looking forward to coming on tour with the kids. Ryder is eight now and it will be cool to have them on tour. “[Bandmate] Chris [Wolstenholme] has his own tour bus for his six kids. It will be great when we have all the kids on tour.”

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

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he 22-year-old actress teamed up with her castmates - including Logan Lerman - to start a group called Octopus Jam and write some songs. She said: “Throughout the movie we all made music together. Our band was called Octopus Jam. I sing and Logan Lerman is a classical composer, and he created a piece for me. Most nights we would sit and play music, so that was fun.” Emma - who has been famous since she was 10 after starring in the ‘Harry Potter’ movies - also spoke about how she used to feel isolated when she was growing up because she felt different to her peers. She is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: “It made me aware my life has been very different and unusual, my life has almost been done backwards. There are certain parts of my development that are happening at certain times and in different orders and at times that felt lonely. But, overall, I feel privileged to have had so many different experiences.”

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he couple split up in 2009 after Chris assaulted his then girlfriend but have kept in touch and after Rihanna reached out with a supportive message before his recent probation hearing, Chris texted Rihanna to compliment her on her latest single ‘Diamonds’. A source told HollywoodLife.com: “Chris heard the track and fell in love with it and started busting out a few moves of his own when he heard it. He [thinks] it’s a hot...song and [he’s] proud of Rihanna and her music. “He texted her and was like ‘Love ‘Diamonds’. Am I shining enough?’ and she replied back saying something like ‘hell yeah.’” While

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he ‘Trying Not to Love You’ singer doesn’t follow one religion, but draws a number of elements from different faiths into his own set of beliefs. He said: “I would call myself more spiritual than religious. My beliefs are my beliefs.

I believe in karma. There are so many different things that you like to pull from so many different religions. “At the end of the day, the golden rule is called the golden rule for a reason - do unto others as you would have done to you. In terms of commandments you could probably just do that one and you would be well off. If everybody could adhere to that one, we’d be OK, as long as a masochist wasn’t in charge of people.” The singer-and-guitarist - who is engaged to fellow Canadian singer Avril Lavigne - said he thinks many people follow his example and work on putting out “good energy” through their lives. He added: “I think a lot of people do that, a lot of people talk about putting out good energy, and it’s not just, ‘Thou shalt not, and thou shalt’. “It’s far more in-depth and I think that can be too black and white when there’s so much grey. It’s OK to have faith in something that you can’t see or touch.” Nickelback’s ‘Here & Now’ European tour comes to the UK on Monday (01.10.12), starting at London’s The O2 before travelling around the country. Visit www.nickelback.com or www.livenation.co.uk for more information.

Rihanna has stated that in the past that she doesn’t want the incident to hinder Chris’ career, he is said to be supportive of her music too. The source added: “He [wants] her album to do well, and [he’s] supportive of her. He [likes] the art work too...” Rihanna has also previously confessed to still loving Chris, despite his actions. She said: “We went to a mutual friend’s party on a yacht. “It’s awkward because I still love him. My stomach drops and I have to maintain this poker face and not let it get to the outer part of me.”

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he 26-year-old actress plays the late screen icon in upcoming TV movie ‘Liz & Dick’ and she claims she found it easy to play the character because she can identify with the high-profile lifestyle Elizabeth led because she is used to dealing with the “stress” of being constantly scrutinized. Speaking in an interview with Lifetime - who will air the movie - Lindsay said: “I’m a huge Elizabeth Taylor fan, and I relate to her on a lot of levels - living in the public eye, dealing with the stress of what other people say, whether it’s true or not.” The flame-haired star is infamous for her wild antics, drug and alcohol use and jail stints, while ‘Cleopatra’ star Elizabeth is remembered for her tumultuous love life and eight marriages. Lindsay feels the

two are kindred spirits because of their tumultuous lives. The star mused: “I personally understand Liz, because you’re living your life for everyone to see, and people are growing with you. “You get to a point where you become numb to it, and you just live your life the way you feel you need to live it.” Grant Bowler who plays Richard Burton, who was married to Elizabeth twice, in the film - can also see the similarities between his co-star and the late Hollywood legend, who died in March 2011. He quipped: “She’s pretty much Elizabeth Taylor reincarnated.”— Bangshowbiz

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Pictures show a woman visiting an exhibition of visual art created by Romanian artists during the Communist period, between 1950 and 1990, in Bucharest, Romania. — AP photos

Exhibit shows Romanian artists resisted regime O

ne painting shows a peasant crucified above a hole in the shape of Romania.

Another of a man holding a book is painted in the style of Pablo Picasso. Neither work would not have been displayed in public during the communist era, when censorship was rife and art was used as a propaganda tool to glorify late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. A new exhibit of some 650 paintings that opened this week at the National Library seeks to show how some artists subverted the regime, creating works that criticized communism or painting in styles like cubism that were out of favor.

“It’s late justice,” said Ruxandra Garofeanu, the curator of the exhibition, who worked for two years to assemble the works from 27 museums and 30 collections in Romania and abroad. “It shows there was resistance to the regime, not a violent resistance it’s true, but not everything was social realism.” The exhibit, which will run until Dec 2, shows some works being seen publicly in Romania for the first

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time. Previous exhibits of communist-era art focused on how artists paid sycophantic tribute to Ceausescu, showing him as a demigod or a revolutionary hero. This selection reveals how some painters refused to follow the slavish aesthetic of the time. Escapism is a recurring theme. A man floats above the earth in one painting, while another dressed in white rides a horse on a beach, far from an industrial city seen in the background.

A key work depicts a beheaded Stalin relieving himself in the top hat of Winston Churchill.

The enormous canvas in hues of gray and blue was painted by Ioan Dreptu over 22 years and first went on display in the Van-der-Heyt Museum in Wupperthal, Germany, in 1986, three years before the collapse of communism.

“What should be seen here is that during communism... painters and artists resisted the socialist pressure and painted or created works according to their tastes and how their souls dictated to them,” said Vasile Dobre, who visited the exhibit. — AP

NYC auction offers 125 meteorites for sale

New York City auction will offer 125 meteorites for sale, including a large chunk of the moon and a 179pound iron cosmic rock that evokes Edvard Munch’s iconic painting “The Scream.” The sale, one of the largest of its kind, is being held by the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions on Oct 14. The sale also includes a large piece of the Peekskill meteorite, famous for puncturing a Chevy Malibu in 1992 about 50 miles north of Manhattan, and the largest complete slice of the most famous meteorite in the world, the Willamette, a huge specimen that is housed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The moon rock has the highest pre-sale estimate of $340,000 to $380,000; less than 0.1 percent of all meteorites recovered are lunar in origin. The 18-inch-tall meteorite, dubbed “The Scream,” is estimated at $175,000 to $225,000. “When I first saw this meteorite, I saw the resemblance in a heartbeat,” said Darryl Pitt, who has consigned the piece to the auction. “It is sculpted in part by atmospheric entry and most significantly by its exposure to the elements on earth over millennia.”

Three of the concave hallows are evocative of Munch’s image of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked sky. It is classified a Gibeon and was discovered in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. More than half of the meteorites in the sale come from the Macovich collection, the world’s largest grouping of aesthetic iron meteorites specimens that are considered desirable for display.

Specimens from the collection are found at the natural history museums in London, New York and Paris and The Smithsonian in Washington, DC, among others. Its principal owner is Pitt, who said that 20 years ago all meteorites were selling for the same price irrespective of their aesthetic attributes.

“That has radically changed with the introduction of the first natural history auction in the mid-1990s,” he said in an interview. “I was on a mission to popularize meteorites. I knew that the only way I would be able to attract interest on the part of the public was to offer objects that were more visually captivating.” “The overwhelming majority of meteorites are not

aesthetic,” he said. The cover lot in the sale is of an iron meteorite with naturally formed holes that resemble a mask. The catalog says it is “arguably the most exotically aesthetic” and was discovered by indigenous tribesmen in Namibia with a metal detector. It is estimated to bring $140,000 to $180,000. The Peekskill piece

This undated photo provided by Heritage Auctions shows a large chunk of the moon, which will be offered at a sale in New York of more than 125 meteorites. — AP

This undated photo provided by Heritage Auctions shows a naturally sculpted Gibeon iron meteorite discovered by indigenous tribesmen in Namibia with a metal detector.

has a pre-sale estimate of $47,500 to $55,000. There are others that have lower estimates but come with interesting stories, like a small portion of a meteorite estimated at about $4,000 that fell from the sky in 1492. It was later chained up in a church so it couldn’t fly back into orbit.—AP

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

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A One Direction trivia book

ow here’s a test preparation book the kids will be begging to crack open during their summer vacation. No, really. Barron’s, the Hauppauge-based publisher best known for its standardized-test-taking guides, has released “One Direction: Test Your Super-Fan Status,” which quizzes fans about their knowledge of the British-Irish boy band.

Oh, sure, everyone knows that the group became the first British act to have its debut album reach No. 1 on the American charts earlier this year with “Up All Night.”

And they can probably tell Harry Styles (the one with the weird hair) from Niall Horan (the blond one). But

do they know what Liam Payne would like his super power to be? Or whether Styles’ favorite vegetable is sweet corn?

The “Test Your Super-Fan Status” series is part of the publisher’s move into pop-culture titles that appeal to a tween and young-adult audience - a move started last year with a book testing fans’ Justin Bieber knowledge.

Barron’s plans to market the One Direction book similarly, moving into nontraditional retail outlets for the company, such as Claire’s Boutiques. It also plans on releasing tween-targeted biographies of One Direction, Bieber and newly minted Jets quarterback Tim Tebow. — MCT

One Direction performs at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. — MCT

‘Hitchcock’ world premiere to open AFI Fest This image released by Starpix shows cast members (from left) Ty Burrell, Alicia Silverstone, Ashley Greene, Yara Shahidi and Jennifer Garner at the premiere of The Weinstein Company- Radius film, “Butter,” hosted by the Cinema Society and DKNY on Thursday, Sept 27, 2012 in New York. — AP

Samuel Fuller’s daughter shoots for celebration

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averick independent director Samuel Fuller, who helmed such provocative films as 1951’s “The Steel Helmet,” 1953’s “Pickup on South Street” and 1980’s “The Big Red One,” was 63

Samantha Fuller with her late father’s M1 rifle and a bullet pocked helmet he used in his picture “The Steel Helmet” as she looks through the “shack,” a cranny in her father’s house in the Hollywood Hills, where he worked on writing movies amid piles of World War II mementos, documents and books. — MCT

when he had his only child, Samantha. “He always reassured me that he would be around for his 100th birthday and we would have a big party,” Samantha Fuller recalled on a recent afternoon in the living room of the filmmaker’s house in the Hollywood Hills that she still shares with her mother, Christa, and her own teenage daughter, Samira. As far as the eye can see are boxes and tubs filled with her father’s pictures, letters and other memorabilia.

“He died at the age of 85. I always knew in my head that his centennial would be something personally I would want to celebrate.”

Fuller, 37, who designs glass jewelry and platters, realized on her father’s 99th anniversary on Aug. 12, 2011, that she’d better get going on her tribute.

So she decided to make a personal documentary on her dad, “A Fuller Life.” She’s completed the first 50 minutes of it; the project is currently on Kickstarter to help raise the $25,000 needed to complete the featurelength film she hopes will be ready for release next year. Fuller found her inspiration last year by going to “the shack,” the garage where her father wrote his screenplays. It has remained basically untouched for 15 years.

“I went back into the shack, cleaning up some spider webs and maintaining it to a

minimum. It dawned on me it would be the perfect setting to commemorate him.” She selected 12 passages from the autobiography her father wrote with his wife and Jerry Rudes, “A Third Face,” highlighting historical events in his life, and filmed a variety of actors and directors reading these excerpts in the shack: James Franco, Tim Roth, Bill Duke, Wim Wenders, Buck Henry, James Toback, Monte Hellman and the four leads from “The Big Red One” - Robert Carradine, Mark Hamill, Perry Lang and Kelly Ward - a film that was based on Fuller’s experiences with the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.

She hopes with the Kickstarter funds to add clips from her father’s films and 16 mm footage of him at work that she found in the shack. “I didn’t realize what I was getting into, but I am happy to be in it and I am going to take it to the end,” she said. It was her father’s experiences that fueled his tough, uncompromising and often polarizing war films, dramas, melodramas and even westerns.

“We talk about the Great Depression and how he was a freelance reporter throughout the ‘30s and crossed the United States from coast to coast with his typewriter and his backpack,” Fuller said. Her father, she said, “witnessed executions and he infiltrated KKK meetings. —MCT

“H

itchcock,” the Sacha Gervasi film starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitcock and Helen Mirren as his wife, Alma Reville, will have its world premiere on the opening night of the 2012 AFI Fest, the American Film Institute announced on Thursday. The film, which was recently scheduled for a November release by Fox Searchlight, will premiere at AFI Fest on Thursday, Nov 1.

“Hitchcock” focuses on the making of the 1960 film “Psycho,” and also features Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles and James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins.

“This film pulls back the curtain and takes us behind-the-scenes of his lifelong collaboration with his wife Alma during the making of his 1960 masterpiece ‘Psycho,’” said AFI Fest director Jacqueline Lyanga in a release announcing the selection. “It’s the perfect film to welcome our audience of movie-lovers with on opening night.”

AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale called the film “a bloody valentine to [Hitchcock’s] creative genius and the inspired woman at his side.” Hitchcock conducted a master seminar at the AFI in 1970, and received the organization’s Life Achievement Award in 1979. Four of his films, including “Psycho,” appear on the AFI’s list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. (“Vertigo,” “Rear Window” and “North by Northwest” are the others.)

The film marks a change of pace for cowriter and director Gervasi, whose last film was the music documentary “Anvil! The Story of Anvil.” Although he wrote the films “The Big Tease” and “The Terminal,” “Hitchcock” marks his narrative directorial debut. The recent decision by Fox Searchlight to give it a Nov. release in the heart of awards season was seen as a sign that the studio expects “Hitchcock” to be a factor in this year’s Oscar race.

The AFI Fest 2012, which is sponsored by Audi, will kick off on Nov 1 with the “Hitchcock” gala and will run through Nov 8, when it will close with the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” Tickets are free to the public, though only paid patron passholders will receive reserved tickets to high-profile events like the “Hitchcock” premiere. Tickets will be made available to AFI members on Oct 24, and to the general public on Oct 25. — Reuters

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Schwarzenegger:

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rnold Schwarzenegger says the affair he had with his family’s longtime housekeeper was “the stupidest thing” he ever did to then-wife Maria Shriver and caused great pain to her and their four children. “I think it was the stupidest thing I’ve done in the whole relationship. It was terrible. I inflicted tremendous pain on Maria and unbelievable pain on the kids,” Schwarzenegger said of the affair that led to a son who is now 14. The former Republican governor of California made the comments in an interview with “60 Minutes” scheduled to air Sunday, as the one-time “Mr. Universe” and Hollywood action star tries to rebrand himself and promote his new autobiography, “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story.” CBS aired excerpts of the interview yesterday.

After leaving the governor’s office in January 2011 following a turbulent seven years, Schwarzenegger, 65, has launched a wholesale effort to redeem his reputation in the wake of the embarrassing public revelations about the affair he had with Mildred Baena, a housekeeper who reportedly worked for the family for 20 years.

Their son, Joseph, was born just days after Schwarzenegger’s youngest child with Shriver. Baena listed her former husband as the father on the birth certificate and has said she did not know for certain who the father was until the boy began looking more and more like Schwarzenegger.

Revelations about the affair came

Maid affair was ‘stupidest thing’ shortly after Schwarzenegger’s political reputation had taken a blow because of a decision made in his final hours in office.

Schwarzenegger commuted the voluntary manslaughter sentence of the son of a political ally. Schwarzenegger said he thought the 16-year sentence for Esteban Nunez was excessive and cut it to seven, but later acknowledged he was helping a friend, former state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.

Esteban Nunez pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in a 2008 attack on an unarmed group of young men after he and some friends were turned away from a fraternity party in San Diego. Three others pleaded guilty to various charges in the stabbing attack that killed 22-year-old college student Luis Santos.

Earlier this month, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge said the commutation was within the powers granted the governor but also criticized Schwarzenegger’s action, calling it “an abuse of discretion” and “repugnant to the bulk of the citizenry of this state.” The California Republican Party also officially condemned the commutation, saying it was done “without concern for the victims and their suffering.”

Schwarzenegger came into office during California’s historic 2003 recall election, promising to restore fiscal responsibility to the state. But he faced repeated multibillion-dollar budget deficits that he acknowledged he and lawmakers could

Ancient statue

made from meteorite

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n ancient statue that a Nazi expedition brought back from Tibet shortly before World War II was carved from a meteorite that crashed on Earth thousands of years ago. What sounds like an Indiana Jones movie plot appears to have actually taken place, according to European researchers publishing in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science this month. Elmar Buchner of the University of Stuttgart said Thursday the statue was brought to Germany by the Schaefer expedition. The Nazi-backed venture set out for Tibet in 1938 in part to trace the origins of the Aryan race - a cornerstone of the Nazis’ racist ideology.

The existence of the 10.6-kilogram (23.4pound) statue, known as “iron man,” was only revealed in 2007 when its owner died and it came up for auction, Buchner told The Associated Press. German and Austrian scientists were able to get permission from its new owner, who wasn’t disclosed, to conduct a chemical analysis that shows the statue came from the Chinga meteorite, which crashed in the area of what is now the Russian and Mongolian border around 15,000 years ago.

The meteorite was officially discovered in 1913, but Buchner said the statue could be 1,000 years old and represent a Buddhist god called Vaisravana. The Nazis were probably attracted to it by a left-facing swastika symbol on its front. The swastika has been used by various cultures throughout the ages, but the Nazis tried to appropriate it as the symbol of their ideology, going so far as to put a right-facing version of it on their red and white flag. Scientists not involved in the study told the AP that the research linking the statThe undated photo shows an ue to the meteorite was credible. “Looks like a ancient statue that a Nazi expedi- solid piece of geochemical ‘forensic’ work,” tion brought back from Tibet short- said Qing-Zhu Yin, a researcher in geology at the University of California, Davis. —AP ly before World War II. — AP

A

In this file photo, then Gov-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, smile as they walk to a meeting of his transition committee, in Sacramento, Calif. — AP not fully address. The “60 Minutes” interview comes a week after Schwarzenegger launched a think tank at the University of Southern California, the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy. He started it in part, he said, because he accomplished only about half of what he set out to do as governor.

Schwarzenegger has also returned to his acting career, appearing most recently in “The Expendables 2” and the forthcom-

ing “The Tomb,” co-starring Sylvester Stallone, and “The Last Stand,” which opens in January. Shriver, a member of the politically powerful Kennedy clan, filed for divorce in July. In a separate excerpt of the “60 Minutes” interview released by CBS earlier this week, Schwarzenegger said Shriver has not read his tell-all book. “I think that Maria is, you know, wishing me well in everything I do,” Schwarzenegger told interviewer Lesley Stahl. — AP

‘Sons of Anarchy’ actor suspected of killing woman

n actor whose character died a violent death on the TV drama “Sons of Anarchy” plunged to his death in a driveway after apparently killing his landlady and attacking neighbors near Hollywood, police said Thursday. Johnny Lewis, who played Kip “Half-Sack” Epps in the FX show, is the only suspect in the death of 81-year-old Catherine Davis, according to Los Angeles police. Authorities found them dead Wednesday morning after neighbors reported a woman screaming inside the home, Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

The home was ransacked, glass was shattered and a dead cat was found. Neighbors said a man had jumped a fence and assaulted a painter and homeowner next door. The body of Lewis, 28, was found in the driveway. He could have jumped or fallen from the roof, garage or balcony, or tumbled down stairs from a patio area, Smith said. It appears Davis had been beaten, Smith added. Because of the circumstances, investigators were checking whether Lewis was on drugs or had mental health issues, Smith said.

Lewis’ attorney Jonathan Mandel said the actor did have serious mental issues that seemed to surface fairly recently. He said Lewis’ parents and others had tried desperately to help him. “Johnny Lewis had a lot of problems, a lot of mental problems,” Mandel said by phone Thursday. “I recommended treatment for him but he declined it.” He continued, saying: “I give a lot of credit to his parents. They were really strong in trying to help him out. They really went to bat for him, but I guess they just couldn’t do enough.” Lewis was released from Los Angeles County Jail a week ago, according to court records.

He had pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon and attempted burglary in separate cases

This file photo shows actor Johnny Lewis posing for a portrait during the 36th Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. — AFP this year and was enrolled in a drug, alcohol and psychiatric treatment program over the summer, according to the records. In the assault case, two men reported that Lewis hit them in the head with a bottle in January, according to a probation report.

The injuries were described as minor, but a probation officer wrote, “Obviously defendant’s behavior is out of control and needs counseling afforded by a professional.” The report states that Lewis had been earning about $20,000 a year as an actor in recent years, but that probation officials had not interviewed him. He was living with his parents in their San Fernando Valley at the time of his arrest. When he was sentenced in September, Lewis was on informal probation on another battery and resisting arrest case filed in February. —AP

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

A pre-production replica BMW Z8 roadster made for the film ‘The World is Not Enough’ starring Pierce Brosnan is seen.

A general view of the James Bond movie memorabilia charity auction.

Christie’s offers

Bond items on 50th anniversary C

hristie’s will offer 50 items of James Bond memorabilia over the coming week in a charity sale that culminates in a live auction next Friday, the 50th anniversary of the release of the first 007 movie “Dr. No”. The auction, which will raise funds for a range of charities including UNICEF, is one of a series of events being held around the world to mark the anniversary of one of the world’s longest-running and most successful film franchises.

A Christie’s employee poses next to a 1/3 scale replica Aston Martin DB5 used in the film “Skyfall” during the press preview.

Two Omega watches (left) a Seamaster Planet Ocean model used by Daniel Craig in the James Bond movie ‘Quantum of Solace’, and a Seamaster Planet Ocean model which is made of Titanium and used by Craig for an action sequence in the upcoming James Bond movie ‘Skyfall’ is seen during the press preview of the James Bond movie memorabilia charity auction at Christie’s auction house in London yesterday. — AP photos Fifty lots will be up for sale, many of them coming from EON Productions, the company behind the movie series.

Of the total, 40 will be sold online between Sept. 28 and Oct. 8 and 10 of the star items have been reserved for the live auction on Oct 5, “Global James Bond Day”, at Christie’s offices in South Kensington in London.

All lots will go on public display there from Saturday until Oct 4.

Admittance is free. “I think what we wanted to do was to celebrate the 50th anniversary in a meaningful way and let people have the opportunity to buy some of the things in our archive that we could raise money for charity from,”

The 2008 Aston Martin 6 litre V12 DBS 2 door coupe used by Daniel Craig as James Bond in the movie ‘Quantum of Solace’ is shown. said Michael G. Wilson, who along with Barbara Broccoli is guardian of the Bond films.

“There’s a lot of things ... from 1,000 pounds ($1,600) on up, really,” he told Reuters. “There’s plenty of things for a whole range of collectors.” Among the highlights for him was a one-third scale model of an Aston Martin DB5 used in the filming of “Skyfall”, the next Bond adventure which hits the screens in October.

The car was used in earlier Bonds and has become closely associated

with the fictional double agent. “In Skyfall we go back to the old Aston Martin, the DB5, we bring that out of mothball,” Wilson said. “We used it in the film but we had to make a model of it. We made an extra model, one third scale ... that was made for the film and I think that’s a pretty unique thing to get.” The model is expected to fetch 30-40,000 pounds, while another Aston Martin built in 2008 and used in the opening sequence of the last Bond movie “Quantum of Solace” has a price tag of 100-150,000 pounds. There is

also a special edition of Bollinger champagne on offer for 10-15,000 pounds. “Can you imagine, a champagne that comes out in an edition of 12 only?” Wilson said.

He added that Bond producers had been working with a number of charities for some time, although their ties to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, were particularly close through the involvement of former Bond actor Roger Moore.

Among the smaller items being sold are 10 tarot cards used by Jane Seymour playing the character Solitaire in “Live and Let Die” and a belt with a golden bullet buckle worn by Christopher Lee as Scaramanga in “The Man With the Golden Gun”. “With memorabilia offered from every official Bond film ever made, the auction is sure to appeal to new and established fans of the famous British spy,” said Nicolette Tomkinson, a director at Christie’s. — Reuters

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Tuxedo magic from Lanvin at Paris fashion

T

uxedos everywhere. Lanvin sent out a dazzling variation on the classic theme as its designer Alber Elbaz closed day three of the Paris ready-to-wear shows for next spring. So far this year’s collections have merrily blurred the lines between masculine and feminine, and Elbaz was no exception with a look built around that most virile of staples, the tuxedo. Except in his hands the tux was taken apart, piece by piece, to become a feminine thing, with a jacket lapel sliced off here, a bow added there, or trousers made soft and slinky like desert pants.

The satin used on a cummerbund or down the side of pants becomes the ribbon fastening a dress. Plunging V-necks reached almost to the navel of body-skimming black dresses, their glossy trim suggesting dinner jacket lapels.

Slowly black and white gave way to Elbaz’s favoured colours: emerald, wine red but also aniseed, with shoulders growing stronger, 1980s style. Catherine Deneuve, a close friend of Yves Saint Laurent, sat front row at the show in the historic Beaux Arts faculty on the banks of the Seine. Before joining Lanvin, Elbaz created several lines for the house of the late couturier, for whom the woman’s tuxedo was a signature creation. — AFP

Models wear creations by designer Alber Elbaz for Lanvin’s spring-summer 2013 ready to wear collection in Paris, Thursday, Sept 27, 2012.

— AP/AFP photos

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Miyake’s tropical birds alight on Paris catwalks T Models present creations for Issey Miyake during the Spring /Summer 2013 ready-to-wear collection show yesterday in Paris.

— AFP/AP photos

ropical birds, their striped plumage an optical feast, fluttered onto the Paris catwalks yesterday as the Japanese house Issey Miyake sent out a joyously upbeat look for next spring. Designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae took as starting point the feathers of a bird-first immobile, then flapping its wings as it lands on waterfor a collection billed as an exploration of colour.

Black and white was the baseline of the look, worked in fine pleats, wide stripes and geometric panes, on kneelength dresses, tunics and leggings, worn above athletic leather sandals. But eye-popping colour-lime, orange, purple or blue-was never far away, whether splashed alongside a black and white check, or used on its own in merry collages of three or four hues at a time.

Upbeat was the watchword as the models positively bounced down the catwalk, hair pulled up into big backcombed ponytails, in knit dresses whose light-as-air mesh sprung up and down as they walked. The Miyake collection was sent out on day four of the Paris ready-to-wear shows, just before the hotly awaited show by Dior’s new designer Raf Simons. — AFP

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

The curious case of internet privacy LONDON: Here’s a story you’ve heard about the Internet: we trade our privacy for services. The idea is that your private information is less valuable to you than it is to the firms that siphon it out of your browser as you navigate the Web. They know what to do with it to turn it into value-for them and for you. This story has taken on mythic proportions, and no wonder, since it has billions of dollars riding on it.

But if it’s a bargain, it’s a curious, one-sided arrangement. To understand the kind of deal you make with your privacy a hundred times a day, please read and agree with the following: By reading this agreement, you give Technology Review and its partners the unlimited right to intercept and examine your reading choices from this day forward, to sell the insights gleaned thereby, and to retain that information in perpetuity and supply it without limitation to any third party.

Actually, the text above is not exactly analogous to the terms on which we bargain with every mouse click. To really polish the analogy, I’d have to ask this magazine to hide that text in the margin of one of the back pages. And I’d have to end it with This agreement is subject to change at any time. What we agree to participate in on the Internet isn’t a negotiated trade; it’s a smorgasbord, and intimate facts of your life (your location, your interests, your friends) are the buffet.

Why do we seem to value privacy so little? In part, it’s because we are told to. Facebook has more than once overridden its users’ privacy preferences, replacing them with new default settings. Facebook then responds to the inevitable public outcry by restoring something that’s like the old system, except slightly less private. And it adds a few more lines to an inexplicably complex privacy dashboard.

Even if you read the fine print, human beings are awful at pricing out the net present value of a decision whose consequences are far in the future. No one would take up smoking if the tumors sprouted with the first puff. Most privacy disclosures don’t put us in immediate physical or emotional distress either. But given a large population making a large number of disclosures, harm is inevitable.

We’ve all heard the stories about people who’ve been fired because they set the wrong privacy flag on that post where they blew off on-the-job steam.

The risks increase as we disclose more, something that

the design of our social media conditions us to do. When you start out your life in a new social network, you are rewarded with social reinforcement as your old friends pop up and congratulate you on arriving at the party.

Subsequent disclosures generate further rewards, but not always. Some disclosures seem like bombshells to you (“I’m getting a divorce”) but produce only virtual cricket chirps from your social network. And yet seemingly insignificant communications (“Does my butt look big in these jeans?”) can produce a torrent of responses. Behavioral scientists have a name for this dynamic: “intermittent reinforcement.” It’s one of the most powerful behavioral training techniques we know about. Give a lab rat a lever that produces a food pellet on demand and he’ll only press it when he’s hungry. Give him a lever that produces food pellets at random intervals, and he’ll keep pressing it forever.

How does society get better at preserving privacy online? As Lawrence Lessig pointed out in his book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, there are four possible mechanisms: norms, law, code, and markets.

So far, we’ve been pretty terrible on all counts. Take norms: our primary normative mechanism for improving privacy decisions is a kind of pious finger-wagging, especially directed at kids. “You spend too much time on those Interwebs!” And yet schools and libraries and parents use network spyware to trap every click, status update, and IM from kids, in the name of protecting them from other adults. In other words: your privacy is infinitely valuable, unless I’m violating it. (Oh, and if you do anything to get around our network surveillance, you’re in deep trouble.)

What about laws? In the United States, there’s a legal vogue for something called “Do Not Track”: users can instruct their browsers to transmit a tag that says, “Don’t collect information on my user.” But there’s no built-in compliance mechanism-we can’t be sure it works unless auditors descend on IT giants’ data centers to ensure they aren’t cheating. In the EU, they like the idea that you own your data, which means that you have a property interest in the facts of your life and the right to demand that this “property” not be misused. But this approach is flawed, too.

If there’s one thing the last 15 years of Internet policy fights have taught us, it’s that nothing is ever solved by ascribing property-like rights to easily copied information.

There’s still room for improvement-and profit-in code.

A great deal of Internet-data harvesting is the result of permissive defaults on how our browsers handle cookies,

those bits of code used to track us. Right now, there are two ways to browse the Web: turn cookies off altogether and live with the fact that many sites won’t work; or turn on all cookies and accept the wholesale extraction of your Internet use habits.

Browser vendors could take a stab at the problem. For a precedent, recall what happened to pop-up ads. When the Web was young, pop-ups were everywhere. They’d appear in tiny windows that re-spawned when you closed them.

They ran away from your cursor and auto-played music.

Because pop-ups were the only way to command a decent rate from advertisers, the conventional wisdom was that no browser vendor could afford to block pop-ups by default, even though users hated them.

The deadlock was broken by Mozilla, a nonprofit foundation that cared mostly about serving users, not site owners or advertisers. When Mozilla’s Firefox turned on pop-up blocking by default, it began to be wildly successful. The other browser vendors had no choice but to follow suit.

Today, pop-ups are all but gone.

Cookie managers should come next. Imagine if your browser loaded only cookies that it thought were useful to you, rather than dozens from ad networks you never intended to interact with. Advertisers and media buyers will say the idea can’t work. But the truth is that dialing down Internet tracking won’t be the end of advertising.

Ultimately, it could be a welcome change for those in the analytics and advertising business. Once the privacy bargain takes place without coercion, good companies will be able to build services that get more data from their users than bad companies. Right now, it seems as if everyone gets to slurp data out of your computer, regardless of whether the service is superior.

For mobile devices, we’d need more sophisticated tools. Today, mobile-app marketplaces present you with take-it-or-leave-it offers. If you want to download that Connect the Dots app to entertain your kids on a long car ride, you must give the app access to your phone number and location. What if mobile OSes were designed to let their users instruct them to lie to apps? “Whenever the Connect the Dots app wants to know where I am, make something up. When it wants my phone number, give it a random one.” An experimental module for Cyanogenmod (a free/open version of the Android OS) already does this. It works moderately well but would be better if it were officially supported by Google.—MCT

Mars rover finds first evidence of water Gravel-studded rock was formed by flowing stream of water

CAPE CANAVERAL: This image provided by NASA shows a Martian rock outcrop near the landing site of the rover Curiosity thought to be the site of an ancient streambed. Curiosity landed in a crater near Mars’ equator on Aug. 5, 2012, on a two-year mission to study whether the environment could have been favorable for microbial life. — AP

CAPE CANAVERAL: NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, dispatched to learn if the most Earthlike planet in the solar system was suitable for microbial life, has found clear evidence its landing site was once awash in water, a key ingredient for life, scientists said Thursday. Curiosity, a roving chemistry laboratory the size of a small car, touched down on Aug. 6 inside a giant impact basin near the planet’s equator. The primary target for the two-year mission is a threemile (five-km) -high mound of layered rock rising from the floor of Gale Crater.

Scientists suspect the mound, known as Mount Sharp, is the remains of sediment that once completely filled the crater. Analysis of a slab of rock located between the crater’s north rim and the base of Mount Sharp indicate a fast-moving stream of water once flowed there.

Images taken by Curiosity and released on Thursday show rounded stones cemented into the rock, which rises like a piece of jack-hammered sidewalk from the planet’s surface.

The stones inside the rock are too big to have been moved by wind, Curiosity scientist Rebecca Williams, with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, told reporters on a

conference call. “The consensus of the science team is that these are water-transported gravel in a vigorous stream,” she said. The rock is believed to be from the floor of an ancient stream which was once between ankle- and knee-deep.

The analysis is based on telephoto images taken by the rover, which is en route to a patch of land named Glenelg where three different types of rock intersect.

Scientists have not yet decided if the slab of rock warrants a chemical analysis, or if there are better targets for Curiosity to look for the building blocks of life and the minerals to preserve it.

“The question about habitability goes beyond the simple observation of water on Mars,” said lead scientist John Grotzinger at the California Institute of Technology.

“Certainly flowing water is a place where microorganisms could have lived. This particular kind of rock may or may not be a good place to preserve those components that we associate with a habitable environment,” he said. The $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission is NASA’s first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes. — Reuters

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Facebook lets friends send real gifts SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook on Thursday added a feature that lets people send cupcakes, coffee, stuffed animals or other gifts to friends at the social network.

Facebook said it was rolling Gifts out gradually, starting in the United States.

“Every day, millions of people share special moments with their friends on Facebook,” the Californiabased firm said in a blog post.

“Now, there is another way to celebrate these moments.”

People can click on icons that look like bow-wrapped boxes to select gifts from an array of merchants then send friends virtual cards either as

private messages or for posting in public timelines at Facebook pages.

Intended recipients tell Facebook whether they accept gifts and where items should be delivered.

“There are hundreds of gifts with more added every day: cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, a stuffed animal from Gund, or a digital gift card from Starbucks,” Facebook said.

The blog post showed the Gifts feature being used on a smartphone.

Facebook has been under pressure to show how it will make money from users who are increasingly opting to access the social network from smartphones or tablets. — AFP

STOCKHOLM: Eighteen-year-old Alice has just bought one of the first Apple iPhone 5 mobile phones that went on sale in Sweden at midnight Thursday, in central Stockholm. Alice had been queueing since 11 am on Wednesday, to buy her smart phone. — AP

Can energy startups be saved?

WASHINGTON: The Department of Energy’s loan program, the centerpiece of the US government’s effort to help scale up and commercialize new energy technologies, is in shambles. Its reputation has been destroyed by the failure of Solyndra, a Silicon Valleybased solar company that declared bankruptcy last September after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009. Another early recipient of a DOE loan, Beacon Power, which received a $43 million loan in August of 2010, also went bankrupt late last year.

And a number of other energy startups that have received large federal loans appear to be in financial trouble.

This February, Abound Solar, a Colorado company that has received a $400 million loan guarantee, said it was shutting down its initial production and laying off 180 workers. As a result of these difficulties and the subsequent political finger-pointing, even many advocates of the program have given up on it as a meaningful way to encourage the commercialization of energy technologies. Few startups these days are penciling in DOE loans as part of their business plans.

The reasons for the program’s woes are numerous. The bureaucratic and logistical complexities of quickly and intelligently doling out $35 billion to “innovative and advanced clean energy technologies” were, at least in retrospect, predictable. But in many ways, the difficulties of the DOE loan program reflect a larger and more fundamental problem: given that energy is a highly competitive commodity business dominated by entrenched corporations and infrastructure, commercializing new energy technologies requires much more than a large infusion of money. Scaling up innovations in energy production also requires exceptional acumen in business, engineering, and understanding markets.

Indeed, Solyndra makes a near-perfect case study. It spent too much money too fast. In addition to the $535 million from the DOE, the company raised over $1.2 billion from private investors, including some of venture capital’s most prominent firms. What Solyndra lacked, though, was market savvy and manufacturing flexibility. Although the company had quickly traversed what Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs like to call “the valley of death”-the risky financial period between receiving initial venture funding and beginning to earn revenues-it badly faltered in turning its operations into a viable, long-term business. If there is a prevailing lesson from the Solyndra debacle, it has to do with the danger of trying to do too much too quickly-and doing it alone.

The era when a company such as Solyndra could cobble together more than a billion dollars in financing through a combination of government loans and venture funding is clearly over.

Today’s energy startups face the increasingly difficult challenge of raising the vast sums needed to scale up their technologies even as they recognize that attempting to commercialize those technologies by themselves is risky. Finding ways to overcome that problem is especially important because a new generation of clean-energy companies, many initially funded during the boom in clean-tech investments from 2005 through 2008, are ready to begin scaling up. With venture capitalists losing their appetite for high-risk clean-energy projects, can these startups survive?

For a growing number of energy startups, the solution is to find opportunities to work with large, incumbent energy and manufacturing companies in order to secure capital and gain market and engineering expertise. In part, this strategy is an acknowledgment that the venture capital model is ill suited to creating energy com-

panies on its own. Most venture capital funds look to invest no more than $20 million to $30 million in a company, and in order to make a profit they need an “exit”-typically either an acquisition or a public offering-well within 10 years. What’s more, conventional venture capital strategy assumes that roughly 20 percent of companies will produce extremely high financial returns, to compensate for the failures. It’s a very specific investment model, says Ramana Nanda, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, and the “sweet spot” lies in sectors such as software and social media, where startups typically require little capital and rarely take long to succeed or fail. In contrast, creating a successful energy company requires immense amounts of capital and can take decades. As Nanda puts it: “The venture model, as it stands today, just doesn’t work for most energy production technologies.”

In theory, at least, more collaboration between small companies and large corporations makes obvious sense. Established energy and manufacturing firms have the engineering experience, market savvy, and access to capital that startups need. At the same time, the big firms often lack startups’ entrepreneurial spirit and the creativity to invent truly innovative technologies.

The success of many biotech companies over the last two decades suggests how such collaborations can work. Like cleanenergy companies, biotech startups face a lengthy and expensive commercialization process for their products. But many have avoided that process by making themselves attractive targets for large pharmaceutical companies. The acquisition of startups by drug companies desperate to gain innovative new technologies has fueled much of the biotech industry’s growth. These deals by large pharmaceutical firms, which recognized that their own research was inadequate and their drug pipelines were collapsing, gave venture capitalists a highly profitable way to cash out of their investments in biotech startups long before the fledgling companies had to deal with the expense and difficulty of scaling up or commercializing their technologies. In turn, these lucrative “exits” for venture investors provided strong incentives to invest in the next round of early-stage companies. “It is a virtuous cycle,” Nanda says.

Likewise, energy startups can introduce innovations that, say, make solar cells more develop. What’s more, Nanda is quick to add, the analogy between the biotech industry in the mid-1980s and the fledgling clean-energy sector today “is not perfect.”

Perhaps the most notable difference is that energy, unlike new drugs, is a commodity: the products of its technologies generally compete on price. The value of many clean-energy technologies, such as new types of batteries or solar cells, lies in whether they can deliver power more cheaply. Finding out whether that’s the case often takes years of testing in costly large-scale demonstration plants. What’s more, energy is generally a mature industry with limited prospects for growth. So while pharmaceutical companies might pay extravagantly to acquire a startup in hopes of eventually offering a blockbuster new drug, energy companies have no such incentive to sink that kind of money into new technologies.

Indeed, many large corporations remain skeptical about the value of the technology that small companies bring to any deal.

While obtaining venture investments from a big company or being acquired by one are viable strategies for energy startups, says William Banholzer, Dow Chemical’s executive vice president

and chief technology officer, they have to present a convincing “value proposition” to the larger company, and that can be difficult. “Energy is a commodity, and commodities are low-margin businesses,” Banholzer says. “Startups often have unrealistic expectations of what we will pay. They don’t understand how much work it takes to commercialize this stuff. We’re talking time frames that are typically decades-not months, not years.” And, says Banholzer, there is always “a next-best alternative” that determines the market value of an energy technology. “You’re not as special as you think,” he says.

Even so, a number of manufacturers, including Dow, invest in energy startups as a way to broaden their portfolios of emerging technologies. GE, for one, has taken minority stakes in a number of startups over the last five years. The investments, says Mark Little, a senior vice president and chief technology officer at GE, are meant both to make money and to provide “a window on interesting technologies,” allowing GE to explore the viability and potential impact of a wide range of projects. GE spends $4.6 billion per year on its own R&D, but Little says that gaining knowledge of outside technologies is still valuable. The objective of the investments, however, is generally not to acquire the startups. “It could happen, but it’s not our intent,” he says.

Such messages can be humbling, especially for venture capitalists who hope to disrupt the energy business and have counted on the kinds of lucrative acquisitions common in the biotech and Internet industries. But there are signs that some energy startups are focusing more sharply on their core innovations and becoming more patient with their ambitions, making themselves far more desirable partners for large companies.

At a quick glance, Stion has several things in common with Solyndra. Both were founded in the mid-2000s and were backed by some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent investors. And as Solyndra attempted to do, Stion is manufacturing a novel photovoltaic design based on copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), hoping the nascent technology can outperform other solar materials. But while Solyndra rushed to scale up its technology, Stion has taken a far more conservative route. Its first sizable manufacturing facility began operation last September, just as Solyndra was shutting its doors.

Perhaps most critical, whereas Solyndra went it alone, Stion has deals with two Asian manufacturers. TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, and Avaco, a South Korean maker of equipment for manufacturing flat-panel displays, have invested in the company. Not only will the Asian manufacturing partners supply Stion with capital and products, but they will help the startup with engineering and manufacturing know-how. In turn, those companies gain access to Stion’s innovations in materials and solar-cell design.

Such deals fall far short of the blockbuster acquisitions that a venture investor might hope for. But for startups, these partnerships provide the capital and expertise to begin making commercial products. “The [energy startups] that are breaking out are the ones able to craft meaningful partnerships with larger companies,” says Jim Matheson, a general partner at Flagship Ventures.

Matheson is a director of Mascoma, a company that struggled for years to find the funding for a commercial-scale plant that would make cellulosic biofuels based on its novel process for turning biomass into ethanol.

CINEMA

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

00:45 Your Worst Animal Nightmares 01:35 Untamed & Uncut 02:25 Deadly Waters 03:15 Shark Attack File 2 04:05 I Shouldn’t Be Alive 04:55 The Pack 05:20 Echo And The Elephants Of Amboseli 05:45 Animal Airport 06:10 Animal Airport 06:35 Wildlife SOS 07:00 Animal Crackers 07:25 Meerkat Manor 07:50 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 08:15 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 09:10 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 09:35 Natural Born Hunters 10:05 Dogs 101 11:00 Crocodile Hunter 11:55 Shark After Dark 12:50 New Breed Vets With Steve Irwin 13:45 Air Jaws 2 14:40 Sharkman 15:35 Sharkman 16:30 Shark Attack File 17:25 Shark Attack File 3 18:20 Mutant Planet 19:15 Mutant Planet 20:10 Killer Whales 21:05 Natural World 22:00 Shark Attack File 2 22:55 Crocodile Feeding Frenzy 23:50 Untamed & Uncut

00:20 Ty Pennington’s Homes For The Brave 01:05 A Taste Of My Life 01:35 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 02:00 Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey 02:55 Saturday Kitchen 2008/09 03:25 Saturday Kitchen 03:50 Living In The Sun 04:45 MasterChef 05:10 Living In The Sun 06:00 MasterChef 06:30 Ty Pennington’s Homes For The Brave 07:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 08:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 09:55 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 23:20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

00:00 BBC World News America 00:30 BBC World News America 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:10 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:10 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:00 11:10 11:30 12:00 12:10 13:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:10 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30

BBC World News Newsnight BBC World News Our World BBC World News Weekend World One Day In BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News World Features The Ideas Exchange BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News Click BBC World News Weekend World One Day In BBC World News Football Focus BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News World Features Newsnight BBC World News Our World BBC World News Weekend World Talking Movies: Toronto BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track

17:00 17:30 18:00 18:10 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:10 23:30

BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News World Features The Ideas Exchange BBC World News Final Score BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Click BBC World News World Features Dateline London

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 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:55 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 10:55 22:35 23:00 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 Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry Tales Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals 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 Ed, Edd n Eddy 06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Powerpuff Girls 07:15 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi 07:40 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 08:05 The Amazing World Of Gumball 08:30 Adventure Time 08:55 Level Up 09:20 Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated 10:10 Redakai:conquer The Kairu 10:35 Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes...

11:50 Grim Adventures Of...

12:15 Courage The Cowardly Dog 13:05 Ben 10 13:30 Ben 10 13:55 Powerpuff Girls 14:45 Thundercats 15:10 Green Lantern: The Animated Series 15:35 Hero 108 16:00 Angelo Rules 16:50 The Amazing World Of Gumball 17:15 Adventure Time 17:40 Regular Show 18:05 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 18:30 Evil Con Carne 18:55 Courage The Cowardly Dog 19:45 Johnny Test 20:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 20:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 20:50 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 21:25 Redakai:conquer The Kairu 21:50 Grim Adventures Of...

22:00 22:50 23:15 23:40

Codename: Kids Next Door Ben 10 Ben 10 Chowder

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

Amanpour World Sport Piers Morgan Tonight World Report Anderson Cooper 360 Piers Morgan Tonight Quest Means Business CNN Marketplace Africa The Situation Room World Sport Leading Women Future Cities World Report CNN Marketplace Africa Backstory World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East News Special World Sport Winning Post The Gateway The Best Of The Situation Room World Report Backstory The Brief Inside Africa World Report World’s Untold Stories Talk Asia I Report For CNN News Special Backstory International Desk African Voices CNN Marketplace Europe CNN Marketplace Africa The Brief World Sport Open Court International Desk Inside Africa International Desk Leading Women Future Cities The Best Of The Situation Room World Report World’s Untold Stories

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

00:35 01:25 02:15 03:05 03:35 04:25 05:15 06:05 07:00 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:43 09:10

Hillbilly Handfishin’ Eyewitness X-Machines Crash Course Fifth Gear One Car Too Far Border Security Auction Hunters How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Deadliest Catch How It’s Made Battle Machine Bros Mega Builders Extreme Engineering Man Made Marvels Asia Man, Woman, Wild Alaska’s Great Race Ultimate Survival Ultimate Survival Flying Wild Alaska Swamp Loggers Deadliest Catch Around The World In 80 Ways Raging Nature Finding Bigfoot Gold Rush - Season 2 Specials Deadliest Catch Around The World In 80 Ways Deadliest Catch Deadliest Catch

Engineered Nextworld Powering The Future The Gadget Show Smash Lab The Sun Engineered Nextworld Powering The Future Tech Toys 360 Tech Toys 360 Head Rush Stunt Junkies Stunt Junkies

09:40 Mega World 10:30 Prototype This 11:20 Prototype This 12:10 Prototype This 13:00 Prototype This 13:50 Speed Junkie 14:45 Wallace & Gromit’s World Of Invention 15:10 Wallace & Gromit’s World Of Invention 15:35 Mean Green Machines 16:00 Mean Green Machines 16:25 Head Rush 16:28 The Tech Show 16:55 The Tech Show 17:25 Meteorite Men 18:15 Things That Move 18:40 Tech Toys 360 19:05 Tech Toys 360 19:30 Prophets Of Science Fiction 20:20 Weird Or What?

21:10 Last Flight Of The Space Shuttle 22:00 Prophets Of Science Fiction 22:50 Weird Or What?

23:40 Things That Move

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

Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates So Random Shake It Up Jonas Los Angeles Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie A.N.T. Farm Jessie Austin And Ally Shake It Up Ratatouille Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Shake It Up Wizards Of Waverly Place The

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

Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Lazytown Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Lazytown Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Jungle Junction

A.N.T. Farm Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb So Random Fish Hooks Fish Hooks The Suite Life Of Zack And The Suite Life Of Zack And Sonny With A Chance

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

Little Einsteins Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Imagination Movers Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Lazytown Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jake & The Neverland Pirates Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

101 Dalmatians 101 Dalmatians 101 Dalmatians 101 Dalmatians Jungle Junction Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jake & The Neverland Pirates Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Mouk Art Attack Imagination Movers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse The Hive Mouk Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jake & The Neverland Pirates Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Mouk Mouk Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Adventures Of Disney Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 101 Dalmatians Mouk Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jake & The Neverland Pirates Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Engine Nine, Feelin Fine!

Mini Adventures Of Winnie The A Poem Is...

Animated Stories Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Timmy Time Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Lazytown

00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Have Cake, Will Travel 01:20 Have Cake, Will Travel 01:45 Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco 02:10 Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco 02:35 Aarti Party 03:00 Aarti Party 03:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 03:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:15 Guy’s Big Bite 04:40 Outrageous Food 05:05 Unique Eats 05:30 Chopped 06:10 Barefoot Contessa 06:35 Barefoot Contessa 07:00 Iron Chef America 07:50 Barefoot Contessa 08:15 Barefoot Contessa 08:40 Charly’s Cake Angels 09:05 Charly’s Cake Angels 09:30 Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco 09:55 Cooking For Real 10:20 Cooking For Real 10:45 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 11:10 Kelsey’s Essentials

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

Hungry Girl Chopped Guy’s Big Bite Cooking For Real Barefoot Contessa Barefoot Contessa Charly’s Cake Angels Charly’s Cake Angels Unique Sweets Food Network Challenge Barefoot Contessa Barefoot Contessa Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Guy’s Big Bite Charly’s Cake Angels Charly’s Cake Angels Chopped Iron Chef America Outrageous Food Outrageous Food Chopped Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Guy’s Big Bite

00:30 01:20 02:05 02:30 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 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 Jones 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:05 Jones 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

The Haunted A Haunting Evil, I Evil, I I Escaped Death Extreme Forensics The Haunted A Haunting Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Forensic Detectives FBI Case Files Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite Stalked: Someone’s Watching Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill The Haunted Ghost Lab A Haunting

00:00 Adventure Wanted 01:00 Madventures 01:30 Madventures 02:00 Wheel2Wheel 02:30 Wheel2Wheel 03:00 Exploring The Vine 03:30 Exploring The Vine 04:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:00 Madventures 05:30 Madventures 06:00 Wheel2Wheel 06:30 Wheel2Wheel 07:00 Exploring The Vine 07:30 Exploring The Vine 08:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 09:00 Deadliest Journeys 09:30 Cycling Home From Siberia With Rob Lilwall 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 David Rocco‚Äôs Dolce Vita 3 11:30 David Rocco‚Äôs Dolce Vita 3 12:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 12:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 13:00 Madventures 13:30 Madventures 14:00 Wheel2Wheel 14:30 Wheel2Wheel 15:00 Exploring The Vine 15:30 Exploring The Vine 16:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 17:00 Departures 18:00 The Frankincense Trail 19:00 Long Way Down 20:00 Wheel2Wheel 21:00 Treks In A Wild World 22:00 Food School 22:30 Food School 23:00 City Chase Marrakech

TV listings

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

00:00 Caught In The Act 01:00 Ancient Secrets: Witch Hunter’s Bible 02:00 The Known Universe 03:00 Mega Breakdown 04:00 Salmon Wars 05:00 World’s Toughest Fixes 06:00 Quest for Noah’s Flood 07:00 Nat Geo Amazing!

08:00 Caught In The Act 09:00 Ancient Secrets: Witch Hunter’s Bible 10:00 The Known Universe 11:00 Mega Breakdown 12:00 Into The Crystal Cave 13:00 World’s Toughest Fixes 14:00 Saxon Gold: Finding The Hoard 15:00 Nat Geo Amazing!

16:00 Animal Impact 17:00 China’s Great Wall 18:00 A Traveler’s Guide To The Planets 19:00 Blowdown 20:00 Alaskan Killer Shark 21:00 Alaska State Troopers 22:00 The Border 23:00 Inside

00:00 Animal Fugitives 01:00 Hooked 01:55 Expedition Wild 02:50 Shark Men 03:45 Amazonia’s Giant Jaws 04:40 Swamp Men 05:35 Animal Fugitives 06:30 Moray Eels: Alien Empire 07:25 Fishzilla: Snakehead Invasion 08:20 World’s Weirdest 09:15 Insects From Hell 09:40 Insects From Hell 10:10 Snake Wranglers 10:35 Snake Wranglers 11:05 Python Hunters 12:00 Kingdom of The Oceans 13:00 Snake Underworld 14:00 Animal Superpowers 15:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 16:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 17:00 Python Hunters 18:00 Caught In The Act 19:00 Monster Fish 20:00 Philly Undercover 21:00 Animal Superpowers 22:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 23:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:15 12:15 14:00 16:15 18:15 20:00 22:00

07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 09:30 The Simpsons 10:00 Modern Family 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 14:30 Modern Family 15:00 The Simpsons 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 19:00 The Simpsons 19:30 The Office 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

X Factor Us Glee Survivor: Philippines Survivor: Philippines The Tudors Good Morning America Alphas Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Tudors The View X Factor Us Glee Touch Live Good Morning America The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street House C.S.I. C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami The Tudors

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

Hawthorne Survivor: Philippines Touch Greek X Factor Us Touch Hawthorne Emmerdale Coronation Street The Closer Glee X Factor Us Survivor: Philippines Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Closer Hawthorne Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Closer House C.S.I. C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami Greek

01:00 03:00 05:15 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:30 15:15 17:15 19:15 21:00 23:15

Hustle And Flow-18 13 Assassins-18 Smoke Screen-PG15 Rocky IV-PG15 I Am Number Four-PG15 Master And Commander-PG15 Riddles Of The Sphinx-PG15 I Am Number Four-PG15 The Net-PG15 Restitution-PG15 The Town-18 Splinter-18

00:00 Idle Hands-18 02:00 Austin Powers In GoldmemberPG15 04:00 The Prince And Me 4: The Elephant Adventure-PG15 06:00 The Lightkeepers-PG15 08:00 Austin Powers In GoldmemberPG15 10:00 Open Season 3-FAM 12:00 How The Grinch Stole Christmas-PG 14:00 Labor Pains-PG15 16:00 Open Season 3-FAM 18:00 Melinda And Melinda-PG15 20:00 Cyrus-18 22:00 Made In Dagenham-PG15

01:30 03:00 05:30 07:15 09:30 11:45 13:15 15:00 17:15 19:15 21:15 23:15

Bond Of Silence-PG15 The Great Gatsby-PG The Clearing-18 Funny Bones-PG15 The Great Debaters-PG15 The Headless Woman-PG15 Le Crime Est Notre Affaire-PG15 The Great Debaters-PG15 Eight Below-PG Exodus-PG15 Gigli-18 Gardens Of The Night-PG15

00:00 02:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:15 PG15

Awaydays-18 Soul Surfer-PG15 Treasure Buddies-PG15 Charlie St. Cloud-PG15 Zookeeper-PG15 X-Men: First Class-PG15 Tim Richmond: To The Limit-

Mean Girls 2-PG15 Zookeeper-PG15 Thor-PG15 Anonymous-18 The American-18

00:00 Cher Ami-PG 02:00 Mia And The Migoo-PG 04:00 The Ugly Duckling In Tales Of Mystery-PG15 06:00 Treasure Buddies-PG15 08:00 D’fenders-PG 10:00 The Proud Family Movie-FAM 12:00 The Ugly Duckling In Tales Of Mystery-PG15 14:00 Rio-FAM 16:00 Tommy & Oscar-FAM 18:00 Return To HalloweentownPG15 20:00 The Proud Family Movie-FAM 22:00 Rio-FAM

01:00 MSNBC Politicsnation 02:30 ABC World News W/ Diane Sawyer 03:00 MSNBC The Ed Show 04:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 06:35 ABC Nightline 07:00 ABC World News W/ Diane Sawyer 08:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 09:00 MSNBC The Ed Show 10:00 MSNBC Morning Joe 13:00 MSNBC Caught On Camera 14:00 Live NBC Saturday Today Show 16:00 MSNBC Up With Chris Hayes Saturday 18:38 Live MSNBC The Ed Show 19:19 Live MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 20:00 Live ABC 20/20 21:00 MSNBC Melissa Harris-Perry 23:00 MSNBC Investigates

00:02 Roadie-18 02:00 Red-PG15 04:00 The Muppets-PG 06:00 Double Wedding-PG15 08:00 Glee: The Concert Movie-PG15 10:00 Red-PG15 12:00 The Muppets-PG 14:00 Tim Richmond: To The LimitPG15 15:45 Glee: The Concert Movie-PG15 17:45 Captain America: The First Avenger-PG15 20:00 Anonymous-18 22:15 Unstoppable-PG15

02:00 European Tour Weekly 02:30 America’s Cup World Series Highlight 03:30 Trans World Sport 04:30 Rugby Union Currie Cup 06:30 European Tour Weekly 07:00 Live Ryder Cup 09:00 Trans World Sport 10:00 Futbol Mundial 10:30 Live Rugby Union ITM Cup 12:30 European Tour Weekly 13:00 Ryder Cup 15:00 Live Ryder Cup

And Soon The Darkness-PG15 The Untouchables-PG15 4.3.2.1.-18 Judge Dredd-18 Hidalgo-PG15 Shanghai Noon-PG15 Hackers-PG15 Hidalgo-PG15 The Rocketeer-PG15 Hackers-PG15 Takers-PG15 The Town-18

01:30 Spud-PG15 03:15 Shanghai-PG15 05:00 The Borrowers-PG 07:00 Sounds Like Teen Spirit-PG15 09:00 Spud-PG15 11:00 Helen-PG15 13:00 Black Forest-PG15 15:00 Despicable Me-FAM 17:00 Love Hurts-PG15 19:00 The King’s Speech-PG15 21:00 Hall Pass-18 23:00 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno

14:15 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:15

THE TOWN ON OSN ACTION HD

00:00 01:00 03:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 15:30 17:30 18:00 20:00 20:30 23:00

Trans World Sport Rugby Union Currie Cup Premier League Snooker Futbol Mundial Trans World Sport Rugby Union Currie Cup PGA European Tour Weekly Ryder Cup 2012 Live AFL Premiership Live Rugby Union Currie Cup Live Rugby Matchday Live Rugby Union Live Rugby Matchday AFL Premiership Live UFC

00:00 01:00 01:30 03:30

Golfing World Total Rugby NRL Premiership Super League

05:30 Trans World Sport 06:30 Total Rugby 07:00 Mobil 1 The Grid 07:30 NRL Full Time 08:00 Super League 10:00 Trans World Sport 11:00 Rugby Union Currie Cup 13:00 Live Sailing World Match Racing Tour 15:00 NRL Full Time 15:30 Total Rugby 16:00 Squash PSA World Series 17:00 Live ITU World Triathlon Series 19:45 Total Rugby 20:15 Live Rugby Union Currie Cup 22:15 Rugby Matchday 22:45 Rugby Union The Rugby Championship

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:30 18:30 19:30 22:00 23:00 23:30

UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE SmackDown WWE Bottomline UFC Unleashed UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed WWE SmackDown WWE Bottomline WWE Vintage Collection V8 Supercars V8 Supercars Extra Mobil 1 The Grid WWE Bottomline WWE SmackDown WWE NXT Live Super League UFC The Ultimate Fighter V8 Supercars Extra Mobil 1 The Grid

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

Pawn Stars Storage Wars Roswell: Final Declassification WWII: Europe’s Secret Army Vietnam: Lost Films UFO Hunters The Korean War In Colour Roswell: Final Declassification Deep Sea Detectives Deep Sea Detectives Deep Sea Detectives American Pickers American Pickers American Pickers Deep Sea Detectives Deep Sea Detectives Deep Sea Detectives Rome’s Lost Legion WWII: Europe’s Secret Army UFO Hunters The Day John Lennon Died Top Shot Seeking Salvage Ancient Aliens

00:55 Style Star 01:25 15 Unforgettable Hollywood Tragedies 03:15 Behind The Scenes 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 THS 05:05 E!es 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 10:15 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 11:10 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 12:05 E! News 13:05 Scouted 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 14:30 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Khloe And Lamar 15:25 Khloe And Lamar 15:55 Ice Loves Coco 16:25 Ice Loves Coco 16:55 Opening Act 17:55 E! News 18:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 19:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 20:55 Style Star 21:25 Fashion Police 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Announcements ‘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 to- 97822021 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.

A

The Catholics Aboon Mor Baselious Thomas I was received on arrival at the airport on Wednesday. He is in Kuwait in connection with the 40th year of establishment of St George Universal Syrian Orthodox Reesh Church and the Silver Jubilee Celebration of Mar Baselious Youth Association.

Birthday greetings

Focus Kuwait 6th annual day s a part of the 6th anniversary celebrations, Forum of Cadd Users (FOCUS Kuwait), a nonpolitical, non-religious organization is set to stage a mega cultural event “Focus Fest-2012”. This mega event will be a blend of traditional and contemporary dance and musical extravaganza by renowned South Indian playback singers Jyotsna and Sudeesh.

Scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, October 12, 2012, at the Al-Jeel Al-Jadeed School Auditorium, Hawally, the mega musical show, is expected to be a super-hit in Kuwait.

A

Audition for ZEE Antakshari or the first time Indian Cultural Society brings you live excitement of ZEE - International Antakshari in Kuwait. Audition & first round will be held in Kuwait, there after followed by semi finals in India & Grand Finale in Dubai. Complete team of Carnival films & Zee TV will be in Kuwait for the final round of selection on Friday 5th October with Jaaved Jaaferi: Celebrity Judge, Akriti Kakkar: Female Bollywood Singer & Host of Antakshari, Manish Paul: Host for Auditions, Sarfaraz Khan: Actor, Director and Producer, Michael Amin: Producer & Director Carnival films world. Musicians, Male Singer & many more for live performances. Final audition at 10 am & music show at 7:30 pm at AIS-Hawally.

F

Y Soorya Fest

S

oorya Kuwait Chapter in association with UAE Exchange Centre is all set to stage “Soorya Fest 2012” on Thursday, October 11, 2012, at the Marina Hall, Abbassiya, Kuwait, according to officials. Ambassador Satish C Mehta will inaugurate the festival, aiming to promote International integration through culture.

The program, “An Evening of Classical Dances of India”, a combination of Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and an Odissi, will be a special cultural feast to all art lovers of Kuwait, officials added. Priyadarshini Govind, India’s most talented classical dancer of Bharatanatyam has been giving recitals from the age of 16. Recipient of the “Yuva Kala Bharathi” Bharat Kalachar, Madras, for the year 2000, she has performed in numerous sabhas and academies in India and abroad.

Sunanda Nair is a leading exponent of Mohinyattam and one of the few per-

formers of this style of dance form. An internally recognized dancer in Mohiniyattam, she has the proud privilege of being the first student to earn a Master’s degree in Mohiniyattam from Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidhyalay, affiliated to University of Mumbai.

Odissi (an Akshay Parija Presentation - Ananya, Shivangi and Isha) is one of the eight classical dance forms and the oldest surviving dance form of India.

This dance is characterized by various Bhangas (stance) which involves stamping of the foot and striking various postures as seen in India’s sculptures.

As usual, the entry for the show will be restricted with invitations. Soorya India, led by versatile mastermind Soorya Krishnamurthy, is present in 19 countries. It has been propagating India’s art outside the country for 12 years with active support from its Chief Patron Dr BR Shetty, Managing Director, NMC Group of Companies.

ou came as a blessing in our lives and you’re the reason for us to smile. Our loving princess Fatema, may Allah the Almighty bless you always.

Best wishes on your birthday from Abbu, Ammi, grand-parents and your loving brothers Shaikh Umar, Abdul Rahman, Abdul Razzak, and uncle Muneer and family. A very happy birthday to you.

Study in Canada exhibition

Tulukoota Kuwait ‘Merit Scholarship’ pplications are now being invited for “Tulukoota Kuwait Merit Cum Means Scholarship” to be awarded during Tuluparba 2012 scheduled to be held on October 11 and 12, 2012. The objective of this scholarship is to provide financial assistance and support to deserving meritorious students, to enable them to pursue their higher studies. Applications are accepted from minimum one year valid Tulukoota Kuwait member’s children studying either in the State of Kuwait or in India and scoring high grades in Xth and XIIth standard Board Examination held for Academic year 2011-2012.

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O

rganized by the Embassy of Canada, the seventh annual Middle East Education Initiative (MEEI) will be visiting Kuwait from Oct 2 to 4, 2012. Representatives of 20 leading Canadian universities and colleges will be available to meet students, parents, teachers and guidance counsellors to present the advantages of studying in Canada. On Wednesday, Oct 3, 2012 a Study in Canada exhibition will be held at the Marina Hotel, Salmiya from 6:00 9:00 pm for potential students and their parents to attend. The Canadian institutions will also be visiting local schools to speak to interested students about opportunities to study in Canada.

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

W

hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others!

This summer, let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Dar al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah hosts ME premiere of Islamic Art film

I

slamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World, a new documentary narrated by Academy Award winning actress Susan Sarandon, will make its Middle East debut on Monday, 1 October 2012 at 7 PM at the Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah’s (DAI) Al-Maidan Cultural Centre. This new 90-minute film, from executive producers Michael Wolfe and Alex Kronemer, “takes audiences on an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history. It explores themes such as the Word, Space, Ornament, Color and Water and presents the stories behind many great masterworks of Islamic art and architecture.”

“We are pleased to be hosting the first showing of Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World outside North America,” said Abdulkareen Al-Ghadban, DAI director of exhibitions and educational programmes. “I know the original intention of the film was to share the beauty of Islamic art with people in the west; to give them a sense of our world well beyond the stereotypes.

But the film is equally valuable for viewers in this region.

Periodically we need reminding of our heritage and culture.”

The film, as described by Unity Productions Foundation (UPF), explores the richness of Islamic art in objects big and small, from great ornamented palaces and the play of light in monumental mosques to the exquisite beauty of ceramics, carved boxes, paintings and metal work. It revels in the use of color and finds commonalities in a shared artistic heritage with

the West and East. The film also examines the unique ways in which Islamic art turns calligraphy and the written word into masterpieces and develops water into an expressive, useful art form.

UPF is a non-profit organisation “working for peace through the media.” In addition to this film, UPF has produced documentaries which have won dozens of national awards. The organization uses these films as a platform and catalyst to discuss important topics of today. Since 2008, over 10,000 group discussions have been launched through UPF’s program 20,000 Dialogues (www.20000dialogues.org), based in Washington, DC. More than 80,000 individuals have participated in dialogues held in classrooms, community centers, living rooms, government offices and religious congregations. UPF is also a driving force behind Muslims on Screen and Television (MOST), a nonprofit, cross-cultural resource center that provides complimentary information and expert consultations to legitimate TV and film writers and producers on any of their characters or storylines regarding Muslims, Islam and the Middle East.

“It is exciting to be screening the Middle East debut of Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World. But it’s more exciting to be able to share such a beautiful production with friends of the DAI and with visitors,” concluded Al-Ghadban. “Monday night will be a very good night.”

Cyprus Embassy Announcement

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rominent Carnatic music exponent Dr M G Omanakutty arrived in Kuwait to attend the Onam program ‘Ragolsam 2012’ organized by Vanithavedi, Kuwait. She was received by Vanithavedi members at the airport.

n its capacity as EULocal Presidency in the State of Kuwait, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the Member States of the EU and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, would like to announce that as from October 2, 2012 all Schengen States’ Consulates in Kuwait will use the Visa Information System (VIS).

The VIS is a central database for the exchange of data on short-stay (up to three months) visas between Schengen States. The main objectives of the VIS are to facilitate visa application procedures and checks at external border as well as to enhance security. The VIS will contain all the Schengen visa applications lodged by an applicant over five years and the decisions taken by any Schengen State’s consulate. This will allow applicants to establish more easily the lawful use of previous visas and their bona fide status.

For the purpose of the VIS, applicants will be required to provide their biometric data

(fingerprints and digital photos) when applying for a Schengen visa. It is a simple and discreet procedure that only takes a few minutes. Biometric data, along with the data provided in the Schengen visa application form, will be recorded in the VIS central database.

Therefore, from October 2, 2012, first-time applicants will have to appear in person when lodging the application, in order to provide their fingerprints. For subsequent applications within 5 years the fingerprints can be copied from the previous application file in the VIS. The Cypriot Presidency would like to assure the people of Kuwait and all its permanent citizens that the Member States and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, have taken all necessary technical measures to facilitate the rapid examination and the efficient processing of visa applications and to ensure a quick and discreet procedure for the implementation of the new VIS.

HEALTH

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Finding a new virus Spit, sequencing and serendipity LONDON: Professor Maria Zambon’s first thought when her team of scientists matched a virus from a patient’s sputum to one never before seen in humans was: “Oh no, this is going to be tricky.”

In her north London laboratory last Saturday, an email came in from another specialist virology team in The Netherlands with a 99.5 percent match to a virus from the same family as SARS, a disease that emerged in 2002 and killed 800 people. Her thoughts moved swiftly to the risk of an international outbreak. “Of course it’s really interesting scientifically to get this kind of result, but you also think about what it might mean,” she said in an interview. “Is this the tip of an iceberg? Or is this an isolated event?”

At this stage neither Zambon, who is director of reference microbiology at the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA), nor her team, nor their collaborators at the Rotterdam Erasmus Medical Centre, nor any World Health Organization (WHO) expert, knows the answer.

But they’re working on it. Speeding them along in that effort are state-of-the-art technologies that allow scientists to decipher the genetic makeup of a virus in a matter of hours - work that a decade ago would have been only just possible, and far slower.

Five days after finding that the patient, a Qatari man in intensive care at a London hospital, had a previously unknown virus from a family called coronaviruses, Zambon’s team had sequenced part of its genome, mapped out a so-called “phylogenetic tree” of its links, and published it all online. “We’ve done something pretty unique here in terms of early disclosure of data and making the sequence available to the global community incredibly quickly,” said Zambon. “That will help people working in diagnostic laboratories worldwide.”

With any emerging disease, as with H1N1 swine flu and bubbling concerns about bird flu mutating and spreading between humans, the fear is that scientists will be chasing a disease, unable to develop drugs or vaccines fast enough to contain it. SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, was also new when it emerged in China in 2002 and went on to kill around a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected. But experts stress it was transmissible among people - some-

Animals suspected in spread of new virus LONDON: Britain’s Health Protection Agency has published an early genetic sequence of the new respiratory virus related to SARS that shows it is most closely linked to bat viruses, and scientists say camels, sheep or goats might end up being implicated too. So far, officials have only identified two confirmed cases and say the virus isn’t as infectious as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed hundreds of people, mostly in Asia, in a 2003 global outbreak.

In Geneva, World Health Organization spokesman Glenn Thomas told reporters yesterday that so far the signs are that the virus is “not easily transmitted from person to person” but analyses are ongoing. The agency said it’s too early to tell how big a threat the new virus will be since it is unknown how exactly it spreads and whether it will evolve into a more dangerous form. Global health officials suspect two victims from the Middle East may have caught it from animals.

“It’s a logical possibility to consider any animals present in the region in large numbers,” said Ralph Baric, a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Biologists now need to go into the area and take samples from any animals they can get their hands on, including camels and goats,” he said. Baric said it was crucial to find out how widespread the virus is in animals and what kind of contact might be risky for people. Baric suggested bats might be spreading the virus directly to humans since the two confirmed infections happened months apart. “If there was an established transmission pattern from other animals, we probably would have seen a lot more cases,” he said.

WHO said it is considering the possibility the new coronavirus sickened humans after direct contact with animals. The agency is now working with experts in the Middle East to figure out how the two confirmed cases got infected but could not share details until the investigation was finished. —AP

thing that seems so far not to be the case with this virus.

The WHO stresses there are only two confirmed cases of the new virus worldwide and several laboratories, including Zambon’s, are already developing rapid tests.

The story of how Zambon’s team got to this stage is one of smart scientific detective work, timely checking of emails and a bit of serendipity. But it starts right back at the basics, with a call from a worried doctor and some spit. “Fresh secretions - basically sputum, or spit - were obtained” from the patient, Zambon explains, after an initial call from doctors treating the Qatari man caused scientists in her lab to be concerned he might have a rare infection.

“If you’re a virologist in a laboratory like ours and handing clinical material, whether it be human on animal, you always have to be alive to the possibility that once in a while you might turn up something unusual,” she said.

Maybe because of that, it happened that two key HPA scientists had both spotted a post on an internet-based reporting system called ProMED-mail - the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases. That post, headlined

“Novel Coronavirus - Saudi Arabia” came from Dr Ali Mohamed Zaki in a lab at Soliman Fakeeh Hospital in Jeddah and described a 60-year-old man who died in July of severe respiratory infection and kidney failure.

Zaki sent samples from this patient to Professors Ron Fouchier and Ab Osterhaus at Erasmus - a highly respected virology team made world famous earlier this year for its work on mutations of bird flu viruses. Having been alerted to the proMED post, Zambon emailed Osterhaus and Fouchier in the Netherlands. “Clearly Ab checks his email on Saturdays, because he called me 20 minutes later and I told him the situation,” said Zambon.

A battery of tests on the Qatari patient’s sample had come up with an unusual pattern - negative for all known human coronaviruses, including SARS, but positive on a catch-all test. This was a strong indication the virus was from that family.

“That’s when you realise you’ve got funny result and you need to do something more,” said Zambon. The team set about sequencing a “tiny snippet” of the virus’ genome, then moved on to a so-called a “blast analysis” to see if they could find a match. “You literally blast the sequence fragment you’ve got against everything else that’s publicly available,” Zambon explained. “That provides an alignment of your sequence with other known sequences to give you a measure of identity.”

At this point, “the information came back that it was 99.5 percent identical with the Dutch team’s virus” Zambon said. The chain of events from that point, late in the London day on Saturday 22, saw the HPA immediately reporting their find to the WHO, which in turn issued a global alert about the new virus late on Sunday evening.

Within hours, Zambon said, the HPA was facing “a rising tide of requests” for information about how to spot, test for and diagnose the virus - which it hopes to answer as best it can the DNA analysis data and phylogenetic tree information online.

As she and other scientists work on finding out more, Zambon praises the sharp minds and eyes of her team.

“But I admit I’m tempted to say to them the next time they have a smart idea on a Friday afternoon: ‘Just hold it until Monday morning’.” — Reuters

New virus not spreading easily between people Two cases so far, in Saudi and Qatari: WHO LONDON: A new and potentially fatal virus from the same family as SARS which was discovered in a patient in London last week appears not to spread easily form person to person, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

In an update on the virus, which has so far killed a Saudi man and made a patient from Qatar critically ill, the United Nations health agency said it was working with international partners to understand the public health risk better. “From the information available thus far, it appears that the novel coronavirus cannot be easily transmitted from person-to-person,” it said in a statement. The WHO put out a global alert on Sunday saying a new virus had infected a 49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where another man with the same virus had died.

The Qatari was described as critically ill on Tuesday and is being treated in a London hospital. No new confirmed cases of infection with the virus have since been reported, the WHO said.

The new virus shares some of the symptoms of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, another coronavirus, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide. Both patients who have so far

been confirmed with the virus suffered kidney failure. “Given the severity of the two laboratory confirmed cases, WHO is continuing to monitor the situation in order to provide the appropriate response, expertise and support to its member states,” the WHO statement said. Scientists at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the European Union, said initial virology results and the separation in time of the only two confirmed cases suggest the infection may have developed from animals. Such dis-

eases are known as zoonoses. “(It) is quite probably is of zoonotic origin and different in behaviour from SARS,” the scientists wrote in a “rapid communication” study in the online journal Eurosurveillance.

The WHO’s clinical guidance to its 194 member states says health workers should be alert to anyone with acute respiratory syndrome and requiring hospitalisation who had been in the Middle East where the virus was found or in contact with a suspected or confirmed case within the previous 10 days.—Reuters

CLASSIFIEDS Al-Madena

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Al-Jahra

25610011

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Clinics Rabiya

24732263

Rawdha

22517733

Adailiya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Khaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Qadisiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

ACCOMMODATION Sharing Accommodation, room partition for FILIPINO in Farwaniya near Coop main, Contact 66826412 or 66158188 27-9-2012 Immediate sharing accommodation available for a decent Indian Christian bachelor or, couple, near by Salmiya garden.

Contact: 66884273, 25657832.

(C 4148) 25-9-2012 Single room accommodation for 2 Keralite bachelors (nonsmoking) in CAC flat (single tenant occupies portioned hall) at Abbassiya opposite to Jas Cargo (opposite side of police station), reasonable rent. Call 66349475.

(C 4176) 23-9-2012

Wanted full time maid/nanny in Salwa. Offering KD 120 salary. Must speak English and be good with small children. Call 9768-7172.

SITUATION WANTED Australian Project Manager, with two Engineering Degrees and four Master Degrees, with 23 years experience in Gulf and Australia, seeking top management job. Call: 65695468. (C 4141) 29-9-2012 Sri Lankan lady looking for house cleaning part time job, English family only. Call 55680045. (C 4149) Sri Lankan driver looking for a job good company or office with good salary, transferable visa 18 (license with pick up permit). Call 97970965. (C 4150) 25-9-2012

Prayer timings Fajr:

04:21

Duhr:

11:38

Asr:

15:03

Maghrib:

17:36

Isha:

18:52

MATRIMOIAL Proposals invited for a girl, God-fearing (Marthomite, 30 yrs/160 cm) born and educated in Kuwait and Mangalore, MDS doctor presently working in India, from Post Graduate boys Marthomite/CSI, Godfearing and having good family background. Contact email: mthewjacob201@hotmail.com (C 4153) 29-092012

CHANGE OF NAME I, Shaikh Meetela Ahamad, S/O Shaik Mettala Vali, holder of Indian Passport No: F3613218 have changed my name Shaik Meetela Ahmad to Shaik Mettala Imad.

(C 4147) 24-9-2012

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station 22434064 Al-Murqab Police Station 22435865 Al-Daiya Police Station

22544200

FOR SALE

SITUATION VACANT House driver needed, preferably Philippine nationality, minimum two years with driving experience in Kuwait and transferable residency.

Mob: 97162925. (C 4151) 27-9-2012 Required driver for a Kuwaiti family. Call: 99854312.

(C 4144)

Used DSLR Nikon D90 Camera body only for sale with Battery Grip and an extra battery, all with original package. Call or what’s app 66603401 25-9-2012 VW TAUREG, 2004 model, white color, beige interior, full options, only 83,000 km. Price KD 4,200. Contact: 99405067.

(C 4145) 22-9-2012

Al-Fayha’a Police Station 22547133 Al-Qadissiya Police Station22515277 Al-Nugra Police Station

22616662

Al-Salmiya Police Station 25714406 Al-Dasma Police Station

22530801

information SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

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

Arrival Flights on Saturday 29/9/2012 Flt Route 6130 DOHA 185 DUBAI 148 DOHA 539 CAIRO 441 LAHORE 620 ADDIS ABABA 239 ISLAMABAD 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 643 MUSCAT 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 503 LUXOR 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA 529 ASSIUT 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 223 BAHRAIN 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 436 BAHRAIN 213 BAHRAIN 871 DUBAI 165 DUBAI 618 ALEXANDRIA 5066 MASHAD 610 CAIRO 219 BAHRAIN 672 DUBAI 57 DUBAI 325 NAJAF 472 JEDDAH 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 562 AMMAN 640 AMMAN 476 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 134 DOHA 538 SHARM EL SHEIKH 4161 MASHAD 118 NEW YORK 535 CAIRO 357 MASHAD 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 6791 MASHAD 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 177 DUBAI 777 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 176 GENEVA 502 BEIRUT 542 CAIRO 144 DOHA 438 BAHRAIN 786 JEDDAH

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

FDB KAC MSR JZR KAC KAC JAI KAC IRA AXB OMA MEA QTR KNE KAC GFA MPH KNE ALK KLM UAE JZR BBC SYR ABY QTR KAC JZR FDB AIC GFA UAL JZR DLH FDB MSR THY DHX JAI

63 104 620 175 618 674 572 774 607 393 647 402 146 460 790 221 79 474 229 415 859 135 43 341 129 136 614 513 61 975 217 981 239 636 51 614 772 372 574

DUBAI LONDON ASSIUT DUBAI DOHA DUBAI MUMBAI RIYADH MASHAD KOZHIKODE MUSCAT BEIRUT DOHA MEDINAH MEDINAH BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM JEDDAH COLOMBO AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN DHAKA DAMASCUS SHARJAH DOHA BAHRAIN SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI CHENNAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN AMMAN FRANKFURT DUBAI CAIRO ISTANBUL BAHRAIN MUMBAI

Airlines AIC UAL DLH MSR JAI KLM QTR THY SAI ETH PIA UAE FDB OMA ETD MSR QTR QTR JZR GFA THY BAW FDB JZR ABY JZR KAC KAC GFA UAE QTR KAC KAC FDB ETD

Departure Flights on Saturday 29/9/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA 981 WASHINGTON 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 573 MUMBAI 413 AMSTERDAM 6131 DOHA 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 621 ADDIS ABABA 240 SIALKOT 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO, EGYPT” 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 126 SHARJAH 534 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 671 DUBAI 224 BAHRAIN 856 DUBAI 133 DOHA 101 LONDON 537 SHARM EL SHEIKH 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI

18:45 18:45 19:10 19:15 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:40 19:50 19:55 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:25 20:25 20:35 20:40 20:45 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:15 21:25 21:30 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:05 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:55 23:10 23:30 23:35 23:40 23:40 23:50

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

BAB JZR JZR GFA KAC KAC KAC JZR UAE MSR KAC JZR IRM GFA FDB MSR JZR KAC KNE KAC RJA KNE JZR KAC SVA QTR KAC IZG ETD JZR JZR QTR UAE IRC GFA JZR ABY UAL SVA JZR KAC QTR FDB BAB JZR MSR KAC JAI IRA KAC KAC OMA MEA KNE KAC GFA KNE DHX ALK KLM ABY MPH KAC UAE SYR QTR KAC KAC FDB JZR BBC AXB QTR GFA KAC JZR JZR

437 324 356 214 541 165 501 776 872 619 785 176 5065 220 58 611 174 673 473 617 641 461 512 789 505 135 773 4162 304 238 538 141 858 6792 216 134 128 982 511 266 613 145 64 439 184 621 283 571 604 331 351 648 403 477 543 222 475 171 230 415 120 79 381 860 342 137 301 205 62 554 44 394 147 218 411 504 528

BAHRAIN AL NAJAF MASHHAD BAHRAIN CAIRO ROME BEIRUT JEDDAH DUBAI ASSIUT JEDDAH DUBAI MASHHAD BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO DUBAI DUBAI JEDDAH DOHA AMMAN MADINAH SHARM EL SHEIKH MADINAH JEDDAH DOHA RIYADH MASHHAD ABU DHABI AMMAN CAIRO DOHA DUBAI MASHHAD BAHRAIN BAHRAIN SHARJAH BAHRAIN RIYADH BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ALEXANDRIA DHAKA MUMBAI ISFAHAN TRIVANDRUM KOCHI MUSCAT BEIRUT JEDDAH CAIRO BAHRAIN JEDDAH BAHRAIN COLOMBO DAMMAM SHARJAH SHARJAH DELHI DUBAI DAMASCUS DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD DUBAI ALEXANDRIA CHITTAGONG KOCHI DOHA BAHRAIN BANGKOK LUXOR ASSIUT

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

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

C R O S S W O R D 8 1 1

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. Standard temperature and pressure.

4. A medicinal drug used to evoke vomiting (especially in cases of drug overdose or poisoning).

10. An infection of the sebaceous gland of the eyelid.

13. A person active in party politics.

14. (statistics) Any of nine points that divided a distribution of ranked scores into equal intervals where each interval contains one-tenth of the scores.

15. Step on it.

16. Native to Egypt but cultivated widely for its aromatic seeds and the oil from them used medicinally and as a flavoring in cookery.

18. Type genus of the Sciaenidae.

20. A sweet liquid secretion that is attractive to pollinators.

22. A person who makes or repairs shoes.

23. Common gray wild goose of Europe.

25. United States writer remembered as the secretary and companion of Gertrude Stein (1877-1967).

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

27. (astronomy) The angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing.

28. The sound made by a gentle blow.

35. A port city of south central Ukraine on an arm of the Black Sea. 40. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

41. Show a response or a reaction to something.

42. Little known Kamarupan languages.

43. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

44. United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters.

45. A medium for oil-paints.

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

50. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 10 liters.

52. An internal representation of the world.

55. An ugly evil-looking old woman.

57. Relating to or accompanying birth.

60. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

61. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

62. 100 thebe equal 1 pula.

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

64. The cry made by sheep.

65. Wild sheep of northern Africa.

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

DOWN 1. Leap. jerk, bang (dialectal).

2. A solution containing chemicals that can change the color of a photographic print.

3. A folded part (as a fold of skin or muscle).

4. Conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or excellence.

5. The 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

6. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

7. (computer science) A kind of computer architecture that has a large number of instructions hard coded into the cpu chip.

8. American novelist noted for children's books (1832-1888).

9. Small South American spiny tree with dark crimson and scarlet flowers solitary or clustered.

10. Lac purified by heating and filtering.

11. Infections of the skin or nails caused by fungi and appearing as itching circular patches.

12. Late time of life.

17. An infection of the sebaceous gland of the eyelid.

19. A member of the Circassian people living east of the Black Sea. 21. Framework for holding objects.

24. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.

29. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice.

30. Small beads made from polished shells and formerly used as money by native Americans.

31. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

32. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984).

33. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

34. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

36. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

37. State capital and largest city of Georgia.

38. A rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion.

39. (Canada) A sled pulled by dogs.

40. Small South American spiny tree with dark crimson and scarlet flowers solitary or clustered.

46. The sacred city of Lamaism.

47. Type genus of the Percidae.

49. A small cake leavened with yeast.

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

51. A Loloish language.

53. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.

54. A French abbot.

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

58. (Brit) A tough youth of 1950's and 1960's wearing Edwardian style clothes.

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

60. (astronomy) A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.

Yesterday始s Solution

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Mets edge Pirates 6-5 Rangers down Athletics ARLINGTON: Ian Kinsler got Texas started with a leadoff homer, Matt Harrison earned his 18th victory and the AL West-leading Rangers held on to win 9-7 Thursday for a four-game split with the chasing Oakland Athletics. The two-time defending American League champion Rangers (92-64) have a four-game division lead over the A’s with six to play, including three games in Oakland next week. The Athletics own a two-game edge in the race for the second wild card. Kinsler’s 19th homer, his major league-best seventh leadoff shot this season, started a five-run first for the Rangers against Travis Blackley (5-4). The Rangers had four consecutive two-out hits, capped by Mike Napoli’s two-run homer. Harrison (18-10) went six innings, allowing four runs, to become the Rangers’ first 18-game winner since Kenny Rogers in 2004. Josh Reddick went deep twice, including one of Oakland’s three solo homers in the eighth off reliever Mike Adams. Joe Nathan worked a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for his 36th save in 38 chances. The Rangers are one win from clinching a playoff berth.

MARINERS 9, ANGELS 4 John Jaso hit a two-run homer and an RBI double for Seattle, and the Los Angeles Angels wasted a chance to get within one game of an AL wild-card spot. Vernon Wells and Alberto Callaspo drove in early runs for the Angels (86-70), who had won five straight and an AL-best 16 of 23 in September before stumbling in their regular-season home finale. Los Angeles remained two games behind Oakland with six to play. The Angels also fell three games back of idle Baltimore, the wildcard leader. Hisashi Iwakuma (8-5) pitched six innings of sevenhit ball, and the Mariners avoided a series sweep by scoring six runs against the Los Angeles bullpen, which held them hitless Tuesday. Dan Haren (12-12) yielded six hits and two earned runs in 5 1-3 innings. The Angels finish the regular season at Texas and Seattle.

TIGERS 5, ROYALS 4 Doug Fister set an AL record by striking out nine straight batters and Detroit kept its lead in the Central, beating Kansas City on Alex Avila’s grounder in the ninth inning. The Tigers began the day with a one-game edge over the Chicago White Sox, who hosted Tampa Bay later. Fister came within one strikeout of matching Tom Seaver’s major league record of 10 in a row. But the Tigers blew a 4-0 lead after seven innings, and Joaquin Benoit (5-3) allowed a solo homer by Billy Butler to tie it in the ninth. The Royals made five errors, including one that loaded the bases in the ninth. Avila hit a grounder to first baseman Brayan Pena, who made a diving stop and touched the bag, but had no play at home. Tim Collins (5-4) took the loss.

Fister finished with 10 strikeouts in 7 2-3 innings. He allowed two earned runs and five hits.

RAYS 3, WHITE SOX 2 Evan Longoria hit a tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning and the surging Tampa Bay Rays won their eighth straight game, handing the White Sox a loss that hurts Chicago’s playoff chances. The Rays and Angels are two games behind Oakland in the race for the second AL wild card. The White Sox fell two games behind first-place Detroit in the AL Central after their eighth loss in nine games. Tampa Bay and Chicago have six games to go, including three more against each other.

Longoria’s 14th homer came off Brett Myers (3-4) on the eve of the anniversary of his dramatic shot that beat the Yankees on the final day last season and gave the Rays the AL wild card. Joel Peralta (2-6) pitched an inning for the win and Fernando Rodney finished for his club-record 46th save in 48 chances.

After giving up a two-out single to Kevin Youkilis, Rodney struck out Adam Dunn on a 3-2 pitch to end the game. Luke Scott also homered for Tampa Bay. BLUE JAYS 6, YANKEES 0 Brandon Morrow and two relievers combined on a five-hitter, pitching Toronto to a victory that trimmed New York’s tight lead in the AL East. Edwin Encarnacion had three hits and three RBIs. Brett Lawrie hit a two-run homer and JP Arencibia added a solo shot as the Blue Jays handed an assist to idle Baltimore, shaving New York’s division lead over the Orioles to one game.

New York lost for the third time in five games and wasted a chance to go two up with six to play. Making his third start since missing 14 games with a sore right shoulder, Yankees right-hander Ivan Nova (12-8) allowed four runs and six hits in 4 2-3 innings. Morrow (9-7) scattered four hits over seven innings to win for the first time in five starts. It was his longest outing since returning from the disabled list Aug. 25 after missing 65 games with a strained muscle in his left side. — AP

PHILADELPHIA: Washington Nationals’ Jayson Werth (left) collides with Philadelphia Phillies catcher Erik Kratz after he was caught trying to score on a fielder’s choice in the seventh inning of a baseball game on Thursday, Sept 27, 2012. — AP NEW YORK: R A Dickey became the first knuckleballer to win 20 games in more than three decades, tying his career-high with 13 strikeouts and leading the New York Mets over Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 Thursday behind David Wright’s tiebreaking, three-run homer.

A 37-year-old knuckleballer who had never won more than 11 games in any previous season, Dickey (20-6) overcame an outstanding, climbing catch by Travis Snider more than 2 feet above the right-field wall that robbed Mike Baxter of a tying home run in the second inning. Dickey allowed three runs and eight hits in 7 2-3 innings, walking two and reaching double digits in strikeouts for the seventh time this season. He leads the NL with 222 Ks. Kevin Correia (11-11) gave up six runs and seven hits.

REDS 2, BREWERS 1 Slumping Todd Frazier tied the game with a two-out homer in the ninth inning, and Dioner Navarro followed with an RBI triple that sent the Reds to a victory and dealt a major setback to the Milwaukee Brewers’ playoff chances. The Brewers slipped four games behind idle St. Louis for the final NL wild card with six games left. All they needed was one more out from closer John Axford (58), who had converted his last 15 save chances. Frazier connected on the first pitch for his first homer since Aug. 21, tying it at 1.

Jay Bruce singled and came around on Navarro’s triple to deep right-center field.

Jonathan Broxton (3-1) escaped a two-on threat in the ninth to keep it 1-0.

NATIONALS 7, PHILLIES 3 Gio Gonzalez became the first 21-game winner in the majors, Michael Morse hit two homers and Washington beat Philadelphia to move closer to an NL East title. Bryce Harper also connected for the Nationals, who reduced their magic number to three. They have a four-game lead over Atlanta with six to play. Gonzalez (21-8) settled down after a shaky start and lasted six innings, allowing three runs and six hits. He’s the first NL lefty to win more than 20 games since Dontrelle Willis won 22 for the Florida Marlins in 2005.

The Phillies closed out their home schedule with a loss that left them on the brink of postseason elimination. They trail St. Louis by six games for the second wild-card spot with six games remaining. They finished 40-41 at home, their first losing record at 9-year-old Citizens Bank Park. Tyler Cloyd (2-2) allowed six runs and six hits in five-plus innings.

BRAVES 6, MARLINS 2 David Ross and Andrelton Simmons raced home on left fielder Bryan Petersen’s costly error, sending Tommy Hanson and Atlanta to a victory over Miami. Hanson (13-9) allowed two runs, one earned, and six hits in 5 1-3 innings for his first win since July 30, also against Miami. The right-hander was 0-4 with a 5.06 ERA in his previous seven starts. Miami led 2-0 before the Braves scored four runs in the fourth. Dan Uggla and Simmons had runscoring doubles before Jacob Turner (1-4) walked Jose Constanza to load the bases.

Petersen dropped Martin Prado’s sinking liner, allowing Ross and Simmons to score. The Braves, who have clinched at least a wild-card berth, have won five in a row. They swept the three-game series to finish 14-4 against the Marlins this season. Uggla finished with three RBIs. Miami has lost seven straight for its longest slide of a disappointing year.

GIANTS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 3 Midseason acquisitions Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro each hit a two-run homer in the second inning to back Barry Zito, and the NL West champion San Francisco Giants beat Arizona in their regular-season home finale.

Zito (14-8) allowed three runs in six innings to win his fourth straight start and sixth consecutive decision.

The 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner with Oakland has his most wins since joining the Giants on a $126 million, seven-year contract before the 2007 season. The Giants won their 10th straight game started by Zito. They have won eight of 10 overall. Buster Posey had two singles and took over the lead in the race for the NL batting title at .333. Pittsburgh star Andrew McCutchen, who was injured and left a game against the Mets, is at .332. Scutaro’s

seventh homer extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games, while Pence connected for his 22nd against starter Patrick Corbin (6-8). Hector Sanchez hit his first career homer at AT&T Park. He also had an RBI double in the six-run second.

DODGERS 8, PADRES 4 Chris Capuano won for the first time in eight starts and Los Angeles inched closer in the wild-card race. Luis Cruz hit a two-run single to help the Dodgers pull within three games of idle St Louis for the second NL wild card. Both teams have six games remaining.

Capuano (12-11) carried a 6-0 lead into the sixth. He allowed one run and five hits in 5 1-3 innings for his first win since Aug 12 at Miami.

Cruz had three hits, including his key single in the fifth as Los Angeles scored four runs with two outs to go ahead 5-0.

The Dodgers had 14 hits for the second straight game. Before that, the struggling offense managed more than three runs in only four of 19 games. Matt Kemp was 2 for 5 with an RBI to finish the season against the Padres hitting .406 (26 for 64) with seven homers and 20 RBIs in 15 games. Rookie starter Casey Kelly (2-3) gave up five runs and six hits in 4 2-3 innings. He struck out six, walked two and hit two batters with pitches.

The loss assured San Diego (74-82) of its fifth consecutive losing season.

ROCKIES 7, CUBS 5 Jordan Pacheco and DJ LeMahieu each homered, leading the Colorado Rockies to a 7-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Thursday for a three-game series sweep. Pacheco, Wilin Rosario and Chris Nelson had two hits apiece for the Rockies, who had 12 hits in their final home game of 2012.

Rafael Betancourt relieved in the ninth after a run was in and there with two on and none out. He gave up an RBI double to Alfonso Soriano before finishing for his 31st save. Chris Volstad (3-11) allowed seven runs on 10 hits in three innings. Jhoulys Chacin got his first win since Sept 1. Chacin (3-5) allowed three runs on seven hits, walked four and struck out two in five innings. — AP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Japan welcomes another Mongolian grand champ TOKYO: Japan welcomed sumo’s first new grand champion in five years yesterday, in a tradition-steeped ceremony at a Shinto shrine in the country’s heaving capital. For the third straight time it was a Mongolian who reached the sport’s top rank, or yokozuna: 28year-old Harumafuji, whose real name is Davaanyam Byambadorj.

He was promoted after winning a bi-monthly tournament 15-0 on Sunday for the second straight time.

He threw down fellow Mongolian-born Hakuho, 27, who was the only yokozuna at the time, on the final day of the Autumn tournament in Tokyo. Yesterday about 3,000 spectators thronged Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine to watch Harumafuji receive his title, before he put on a display of the pre-fight gymnastics that serve as both a warm-up and a pre-battle warning to the opponent.

For about two minutes, the wrestler swung his arms, clapping his plate-like hands together as he lifted his huge legs high into the air before bringing his feet crashing to the ground.

Wearing a nine-kilogram yokozuna belt made of hand-twisted linen, he was flanked by two junior wrestlers, one holding a fake samurai sword and acting

as a guard, and the other serving as an escort. A senior referee in full traditional garb stood by. The clatter of hundreds of camera shutters competed with shouts of “Yoi-sho” (a sound made when extra effort is being put into a physical movement) as Harumafuji pounded the ground with his feet. The rite, known as dohyo-iri (ringentering ceremony), took place in the main yard in front of the central sanctuary of the shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, the great grandfather of reigning Emperor Akihito.

“I aimed to perform a beautiful dohyo-iri and did my best by focusing on each and every move I made,” the wrestler told reporters in fluent Japanese. “I felt good.”

Sumo fan Satoko Asaka who attended the ceremony said she loved the ritual trappings of the sport, and was a particular admirer of the Mongolian. “I have followed him as he climbed up the ladder so I feel overwhelmed,” she said. Harumafuji, a relative lightweight at only 133 kilograms, became the 70th grand champion since the first was declared in the 17th century, and only the fifth foreigner to be made yokozuna since Hawaiian Akebono broke the mold in 1993.

After another Hawaiian, Musashimaru, became one

in 1999, three Mongolians followed him to the top rank. Japanese fighters have struggled to come up to scratch in recent years, with many promising potential wrestlers shunning sumo’s rigorous regimen or being lured away by other, more lucrative sports. “Honestly speaking, I want to see a Japanese yokozuna,” said kabuki actor Tanosuke Sawamura, a member of the blue-riband council tasked with recommending sumo wrestlers for the top rank. But Sawamura, 80, added that “Harumafuji was admirable in the ceremony and he has really grown in stature.” He said he hoped the two Mongolian grand champions would last long at the top of sumo and “lead the coming age of sumo.”

“This is the second time that I have watched this ceremony here,” said Meiji Shrine public relations director Miki Fukutoku, who saw Hakuho sworn in as Yokozuna in 2007. “Mongolian wrestlers have worked hard. It would be great to see some Japanese doing the same.”

Sumo is gradually emerging from a series of scandals that have tainted its centuries-old image. Match-fixing, drug-use and bullying allegations have eaten into its popularity, although it is still held with a great deal of affection. — AFP

Radwanska, Petrova face off in Tokyo final

Players pleased with NFL referees’ return

TOKYO: Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska pulverized Angelique Kerber 61 6-1 to set up a final with Nadia Petrova at the Pan Pacific Open yesterday. Russian Petrova upset eighth seed Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-2 in a surprisingly one-sided match to advance to her first final at the WTA premier five event in Tokyo. Arms, neck and shoulders criss-crossed with taping, third seed Radwanska was in awesome form, the big-hitting Pole completing an easy win in just 59 minutes. “Even if it was 6-1 6-1 I had to run a lot to win that match,” said Radwanska, who earlier this week became the fourth player to qualify for the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul, with four spots still up for grabs.

“The games were long so I started to try something different, mixing my game up.

It worked. I’m just happy I could play my best tennis.” German Kerber failed to hold serve in the first set, and was left to watch as several Radwanska bombs flew past her racquet as her serves fell short and were smashed back with interest. Radwanska, mixing up her game with lobs and delicate drop shots, wrapped up victory by forcing the fifth seed into a wild backhand that landed in the tramlines on her fourth match point.

Petrova, the 17th seed, chasing her second title of the season, came into the match with a 5-3 record over Stosur, last year’s US Open champion. Stosur committed a string of unforced errors and Petrova closed out the match following another errant forehand from the Australian after one hour, 47 minutes.

“Sam is a tough opponent,” said Petrova.

“She has a huge serve, a huge forehand.

You have to be alert, you have to play your best tennis and I was able to accomplish that.” Nine of the world’s top 10 women made the trip to Tokyo, though the $2.16 million hard-court tournament lost its two top seeds, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, on Thursday. — Reuters

NEW YORK: National Football League players were pleased to learn of a new eight-year deal between the league and the referees’ union that will end the use of replacement referees. “It will be nice to have those guys back,” said Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whose Packers were handed a controversial defeat at Seattle on Monday on a botched last-play call that proved the final play for the replacements.

“I think the replacement officials did the best that they could,” said Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. “Things can happen really crazy and really fast. They did the best they could. I’m glad the regular guys are back.” Under the replacements, games in the first three weeks of the NFL season lasted an average of 10 minutes longer than usual, saw the most pass defending penalties in the first three weeks of a season since 2002 and saw most video challenge appeals overruled, including 81 percent of calls upheld last week.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell refused to say that the blunder in Monday’s game, when a touchdown was mistakenly awarded to Seattle on the game’s final play and upheld on video replay, was the major reason why a settlement took place 48 hours later. “I just think it was another factor that kept pushing us,” Goodell said. “It just helped push us through and helped us get the agreement we needed to.” The play sparked national outrage and even a call from US President Barack Obama to make a deal.

The new contract between the NFL and the referees’ union gave the officials a pay hike and five more years of a pension plan, their crucial demands, and the league won the right to hire new full-time officials and phase out the pension plan, moves that were key to their side of talks. “We’re thrilled to get an eight-year agreement with the officials and happy they are back on the field,” Goodell said. Player safety and the integrity of NFL results were being called into question under the replacement referees, who were taken from the college and high school ranks and had never handled games at NFL speeds or physicality. — AFP

TOKYO: Urszula Radwanska of Poland serves against Angelique Kerber of Germany during their women’s singles third round match at the Pan Pacific Open tennis in Tokyo. — AFP

Hatton to fight Senchenko LONDON: Former welterweight and lightwelterweight world champion Ricky Hatton will fight Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Senchenko on his return to the ring in Manchester on November 24. Briton Hatton, who quit after a devastating two-round knockout by Manny Pacquiao in May 2009, announced his comeback from retirement earlier this month.

Senchenko, 35, represents a stern test for Hatton. He has lost just one of 33 fights, winning 21 by knockout, and is a former WBA world welterweight champion. “I can’t wait to get in the ring now and I’m sure that Vyacheslav Senchenko will give me a good fight. It’s one that I am confident I can win though,” Hatton told a news conference.

“Senchenko lost the last time he fought to Paulie Malignaggi but he has got a good pedigree. I’m in great shape, I’m feeling good and I know I can put on a performance for all those watching.” Hatton was one of the Britain’s most popular fighters but has struggled in recent years. His love of drinking beer was well documented while he was also photographed apparently snorting cocaine after which he checked himself in to a rehabilitation centre in 2010. “It’s well documented what’s happened to me, my life turned to mush,” Hatton, whose only other defeat came at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr, said earlier this month. “I’m back to fight for world titles.” — Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Ryder Cup foursomes pairings CHICAGO: Northern Irish duo Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell will kick off Europe’s defense of the Ryder Cup yesterday when they take on Americans Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker in the first of four foursomes. Phil Mickelson will win a US record ninth cap when he goes out in the second tie with rookie Keegan Bradley, up against Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia who are unbeaten in four previous foursomes matches. The third tie sees rookie Jason Dufner partner Zach Johnson against Europe’s most experienced campaigner Lee Westwood and Francesco Molinari

of Italy. In the morning anchor match Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker resume the winning partnership they formed two years ago against the English pair of Justin Rose and Ian Poulter. World No 1 McIlroy made his Ryder Cup debut with close friend McDowell at his side at Celtic Manor, Wales two years ago and they had one win, one loss and one half. But since then the 23-year-old from Holywood near Belfast has shot to superstardom with eight stroke triumphs at the 2011 US Open and 2012 US PGA Championship.

Up against them will be the veteran

Furyk and Snedeker, who won over 11 million dollars last weekend by winning the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Mickelson had already let slip in the pre-tournament press conferences that he would be “playing a lot” with Bradley who won the US PGA title last year in what was his first major championship. The Donald and Garcia pairing had been considered a shoo-in as neither has ever lost a foursomes match playing together or with other partners.

Garcia is back in the Ryder Cup mix after a loss of form meant he was absent from Celtic Manor.

Dufner has suddenly emerged as a force in world golf at the relatively late age of 35, while Johnson is back to the kind of form that saw him win the 2007 Masters. Westwood at 39 is considered the rockbed of the European side especially in foursomes and fourballs where he has enjoyed great success with an assortment of playing partners. The top draw in the morning looks sure to be the anchor match with Woods, back to No 2 in the world and quiet man Stricker taking on Ryder Cup firebrand Poulter and Rose, who has risen to No 5 in the world. — AFP

Hamilton, Mercedes ink three-year deal LONDON: Lewis Hamilton has signed a three-year deal with the Mercedes Formula One team and will replace seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher in 2013, Mercedes said yesteriday. The move for the 2008 world champion comes after Mercedes-Benz signed a new commercial agreement with the sport’s commercial rights holders, guaranteeing the team’s long-term commitment.

There was no word on Schumacher’s future plans. Austrian Niki Lauda, a triple world champion, will join the team as a non-executive chairman of the board. Hamilton’s McLaren team had already announced Mexican Sergio Perez as his replacement for next season. The 27-year-old Hamilton, nurtured through the McLaren Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Program as a teenager, made his F1 debut in 2007, almost winning the championship as a rookie when he came second behind Kimi Raikkonen.

He won the title the following year but is still waiting for his second and trails in fourth place this season, 52 points behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with six races remaining. “It is now time for me to take on a fresh challenge and I am very excited to begin a new chapter racing for the Mercedez AMG Petronas Formula One team,” Hamilton, who has driven in 104 grand prix, said in a statement. “Mercedes-Benz has such an incredible heritage in motorsport, along with a passion for winning which I share. “Together, we can grow and rise to this new challenge. I believe that I can help steer the Silver Arrows to the top and achieve our joint ambitions of winning the world championships.” He will partner Nico Rosberg next year.

The future for Schumacher is unclear with the German admitting that his comeback from retirement had not worked out as well as he had hoped. “I have had three nice years with the team which unfortunately did not go as well as we all would have wanted on the sporting side,” he said in a statement. “I wish Lewis well and for the team to achieve the success we worked so hard for in the build-up. I would like to thank the team for their trust and all the guys for their unconditional commitment. I will now concentrate on the next races.”

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn said Hamilton’s arrival meant they could now match any team on the grid. “Looking ahead to 2013, I am delighted to welcome Lewis Hamilton to our team,” he said. “The arrival of a driver of Lewis’ caliber is a testament to the standing of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One and I am proud that Lewis shares our vision and ambition for the success of the Silver Arrows. — Reuters

Lewis Hamilton of Britain

ILLINOIS: European Team captain Jose Maria Olazabal reacts when speaking of Seve Ballesteros at the Opening Ceremony for the 39th Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club. — AFP

Olazabal sheds tears for Seve as Ryder Cup opens CHICAGO: Jets roared overhead, flags were raised and national anthems sung as the biennial battle between Europe and the USA kicked into high gear Thursday with the Ryder Cup opening ceremonies. The one hour outdoor ceremony on the stage in front of the clubhouse of the Medinah Country Club began with a heart-warming poem from master of ceremonies Justin Timberlake and ended with the announcement of the pairings for Friday’s opening matches.

“Welcome to the 39th Ryder Cup,” said US team captain Davis Love. “We are going to have three incredible days of golf here.” American Olympic swimming hero Michael Phelps gave the opening speech before handing over the microphone to American singeractor Timberlake, a six-handicapper who recited a poem about golf while being

accompanied by the Chicago Youth Symphony orchestra. The teams were then led onto the stage by a military band. The wives and girlfriends arriving first and taking their chairs.

They were followed by the players from both teams dressed in matching gray suits. The European team wore blue ties and the US players had gray ones. The site of the American players brought the first chants of “U-S-A, U-SA” from the gallery.

Phil Weaver, chairman of the European Professional Golf Association, paid tribute in his speech to Seve Ballesteros who died in May of last year from a brain tumor. Weaver’s speech brought a tearful reaction from Ballesteros’ close friend and former playing partner Jose Maria Olazabal, who is captain of the Europe team.

When it was his turn to speak

Olazabal talked warmly of Ballesteros.

“How wonderful it is to be at Medinah Country Club for the 2012 Ryder Cup,” Olazabal said.

“In my career I have come to realize how unique the Ryder Cup is. When I started playing golf I never thought I could be in this position. “I can mention a great friend in Seve. He was a special man and I believe Seve represented the core of Ryder Cup values. I learned from him what true passion is all about. Seve we miss you.”

“On our stage we have the best 24 golfers on either side of the Atlantic,” Olazabal said. “I know how much you (USA) want this lovely, gold trophy back - but we have every intention of taking it back home with us.”

As Olazabal spoke there were cries of “Oles” and people waving European flags in the gallery. — AFP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Arsenal defend strategy as profit climbs Fans frustrated at departures, lack of trophies LONDON: Arsenal said it would stick to its policy of living within its means after the sale of star players Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri helped the English Premier League soccer club to more than double pretax profit.

The results are a double-edged sword for a club run on a prudent financial basis but whose fans are frustrated by the departure of top players and the lack of a trophy win since 2005.

Arsenal, which last won the Premier League title in 2004, has been overtaken by free-spending teams like Premier League champion Manchester City, bankrolled by cash from Abu Dhabi. Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis said Arsenal was strongly placed to succeed in the long term as clubs are forced to implement rules from European soccer’s governing body to rein in losses.

“We can and we will forge our own path to success and avoid the many examples of clubs across Europe strug-

gling for their very survival after chasing the dream and spending beyond their means,” Gazidis said. “Football is moving powerfully in our direction.”

Majority owned by American Stan Kroenke, Arsenal remains one of the top teams in the Premier League and has qualified for the European Champions’ League for 15 seasons in a row. However, fans of the north London club were angry when striker Robin van Persie joined rival Manchester United last month for a reported 24 million pounds. The club reported pre-tax profit of 36.6 million pounds in the year to May 31, up from 14.8 million the previous year. Profit from player trading was 26 million pounds after Fabregas went to Barcelona and Nasri joined Manchester City.

POWER STRUGGLE Billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov, whose

Red and White Securities vehicle owns just under 30 percent of the club, has criticized the board for selling leading players. Despite the loss of Van Persie, Arsenal has made a promising start to the season and are in fifth place in the 20-team Premier League. Revenue from core football activities rose to 235 million pounds.

This compares with the 320 million pound revenues reported earlier this month by Manchester United, which has mined its powerful global brand to boost its coffers. Gazidis said Arsenal would look for a significant increase in revenue from the renewal of its shirt and kit partnerships after the 2013-14 season.

Nike is the current kit supplier while the club has the name of airline Emirates on its shirts. Manchester United signed a $559 million deal in August with General Motors to have the Chevrolet brand on its shirts for seven years from 2014. — Reuters

Indian owners leave Blackburn in a mess

LEEDS: Tempers flare between the Leeds United and Everton players (in blue shirts) during their third round League Cup match at Elland Road, Leeds in this file photo. — AP

Bahrain firm manages Leeds United takeover Mideast investors target English football DUBAI: Leeds United Football Club could become the next European soccer club to enjoy the backing of Middle East finance after a Bahrainbased investment firm confirmed it signed an exclusive deal to lead a takeover of the British club. Leeds “is one of the best supported clubs in English Football with a higher than average match day attendance than most Premier League teams,” Gulf Finance House (GFH) said on Thursday.

Last week, Leeds chairman and its controlling shareholder Ken Bates, said talks on a potential investment in the club, which last won the English championship in 1992, were at an “advanced stage”. Citing a confidentiality provision, GFH gave no financial details or any indication of when an acquisition might take place. Company officials were not available to comment on whether the Bahraini unit would provide all the money for the purchase or whether other investors might be involved. GFH added the club would benefit financially from a recent renegotiation of television broadcast rights for soccer if it won promotion to the Premier League. The club has had a turbulent past decade, both on and off the pitch. Having reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2001, the club was relegated from the Premier League in 2004 and dropped into the third tier of English soccer in 2007. It gained promotion back to the second tier in 2010.

The on-field descent came against a backdrop of financial woes, which forced the club to sell key players and ultimately led to administration in 2007. “If you look back since the start of the Premier League,

Leeds are without doubt the most successful club not to be in it right now,” said Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. “If you can return it to the Premier League, then it could return to being one of the top 20 clubs in the world by revenue - that’s the scale of the club you’re dealing with.”

Bates said both parties were working towards concluding the deal “as soon as possible”, according to a statement on the club’s website.

Bates is a familiar figure in soccer who was the previous owner of Chelsea for more than two decades before selling to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in 2003.

The acting CEO of GFH, Hisham Alrayes, and representatives of GFH Capital attended Saturday’s game between Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, according to British press reports. An acquisition would add to a string of investments in European soccer teams by Middle Eastern interests over the last several years. Manchester City, the current English Premier League champions, were bought by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family in 2008, while Kuwait’s alHasawi family bought twice European Cup winners Nottingham Forest in July this year. France’s Paris St Germain and Spain’s Malaga are owned by Qatari investors. However, not all football clubs have benefitted from Middle Eastern backing. Spain’s Malaga were forced to sell some of their best players in the summer due to funding issues, while Portsmouth in England have been forced into administration twice in the last three years. — Reuters

SINGAPORE: Indian owners Venky’s have left former Premier League champions Blackburn Rovers in a mess and should have sacked beleaguered manager Steve Kean last season to avoid relegation, former defender Stephane Henchoz said.

Kean and Venky’s have been under a wave of attack from unhappy supporters for over a year with frustrations accelerated by the 1995 champions relegation from the Premier League in May after a lack of investment and dismal run of form.

Despite the frequent protests at Ewood Park, Indian poultry firm Venky’s chose to stick by Kean to get them promotion from the Championship (second division) and backed him by spending a club record eight million pounds ($12.92 million) on Scotland striker Jordan Rhodes. But after four wins and two draws, Kean’s future was again widely discussed in British media this week with his sacking appearing imminent following their 2-1 home loss to Middlesbrough.

“I think that this club, Blackburn Rovers have been in a mess since Venky’s took over. I think the biggest problem is Venky’s,” Henchoz told Reuters in an interview in Singapore on Thursday. “I think Blackburn Rovers is a good club and I think Venky’s have just messed it up. “When you see with Kean everyday (headlines like), ‘is he going to be manager tomorrow?’ and for what, 20 months? it is the same old story, you cannot carry on the way it is at the moment.”

Attendances have halved to just over 13,000 since Blackburn’s relegation, despite their bright start to the new season. Former Malaysia international Shebby Singh, who was appointed director of football in the close season, said this week that falling crowd numbers were hitting the clubs finances and described the situation after seven games as ‘not very pleasant.’ Singh, known throughout Asia as an outspoken television pundit, has already been forced to make a public apology after criticizing Kean and experienced winger Morten Gamst Pedersen in a fan meeting.

BIGGEST PROBLEM Despite the latest wave of speculation, Kean is expected to remain in charge for today’s match against Charlton Athletic, another former Premier League club, but Henchoz believes it is a situation that should have been dealt with months ago. “Before they were relegated they should have replaced Kean, for some reason, which is very strange, they always supported him. With this outcome, they are relegated,” said the former Swiss international who ended his second stint with the club in 2008. “And now, start a new season, they are doing well, doing ok, and all of a sudden they are speaking again about sacking him so I don’t really see the consistency in the way they are running the place.”

Venky’s bought Blackburn for $37 million in November 2010 and talked of bringing former Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho and ex England captain David Beckham to Ewood Park. Neither move materialized and the club removed popular manager Sam Allardyce shortly after and have been ridiculed for a number of their decisions since by unhappy fans. Henchoz, who after a spell coaching the club’s under 18s side is now working with Swiss second division team FC Wohlen, said that despite the criticism, Venky’s should stay and fix the mess. —Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Russia shamed by new hooliganism scandal MOSCOW: The 2018 World Cup hosts Russia is grappling with a new football hooliganism scandal after fans forced the abandonment of a top-flight cup match by throwing fireworks and smoke bombs on the pitch. The referee called off the fourth round Russia Cup tie between Dinamo Moscow and their local rivals Torpedo in the 51st minute amid chaotic scenes with parts of the pitch blanketed in smoke and fireworks crackling on the turf.

Police said in a statement that 20 fans were arrested as fights broke out between rival Moscow fan groups on the streets around the stadium before the match late Wednesday. Another six were arrested after the match was stopped. The Russian Football Union (RFU) said in a statement that it was bringing forward a meeting of its disciplinary committee to

decide sanctions that would likely see hosts Torpedo forfeit the match and face a hefty fine. “Fights before going into the stadium, the pitch pelted with fireworks and endless vulgar chants from the stands.

What happened yesterday had nothing to do with football,” said respected sports daily Sovietsky Sport.

The incident is a huge embarrassment for Russia days before it hosts a top FIFA delegation including the world football body’s president Sepp Blatter for a glitzy ceremony to announce the final list of the host cities for the 2018 World Cup. The head of the Russian Football Union’s inspection committee Alexei Spirin said the incident showed the need for separate laws in Russia against football hooliganism that would allow criminal punishment for misbehavior. “These were not just simple fireworks and smoke

bombs-what the Torpedo fans threw were real minibombs. If one of those had hit someone on the head the consequences could have been very serious.”

Underlining Spirin’s concerns about the lack of proper anti-hooliganism laws in Russsia, all those detained by the security forces got away with relatively light punishments.

A Moscow court handed two of the accused short administrative jail terms of three and five days each, one person was fined 1,000 rubles ($32) and 14 others a mere 500 rubles ($16), the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Russian fan behavior is already under the microscope after the unruly antics of supporters at the Euro 2012 football championships when Russian fans violently clashed with Polish counterparts. —AFP

Testing times for Terry as Chelsea face Arsenal LONDON: Chelsea captain John Terry’s notoriously thick skin will be put to the test again when the Premier League leaders play Arsenal today, the European champions’ first big game of the season according to team mate Branislav Ivanovic. Terry has often found himself attracting the wrong sort of publicity but this week has been a particularly hard one to stomach for the 31-yearold.

He shocked English football on Sunday when he ended his international career ahead of this week’s four-day FA tribunal that on Thursday found him guilty of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand and handing out a fourmatch suspension, pending any appeal.

Terry, who was acquitted of racially abusing Ferdinand in a court of law in July, will have 14 days from the receipt of the written reasons to decide whether to appeal the FA’s decision. His ban will not come into force until he has decided on his next course of action. Hardly an encouraging way to prepare for the trip to The Emirates to play Arsenal, although the obdurate Terry has proved in the past that he can put off-field distractions out of his mind and concentrate on the job in hand. He shrugged off the extra attention when he featured in Chelsea’s 6-0 League Cup romp on Tuesday against Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Arsenal will provide a bigger test of the defender’s, and his team mates’, resolve.

Terry will need to be at his most focused if Chelsea’s unbeaten start remains intact against Arsenal, one of three other top-flight teams yet to lose five games into the season.

“This is the first actual big game for us this season. Our performances and quality - we know how it is. But we have to show everyone and we have to show it every game,” said Serbian defender Ivanovic. Chelsea have yet to play a title rival and have made the most of an inviting start to the Premier League season, racking up wins against Wigan Athletic, Reading, Newcastle United and Stoke City as well as drawing with QPR. They were not totally convincing in a 2-2 Champions League draw at home to Juventus and Arsenal offer a similar threat after an impressive showing in a 1-1 draw at champions Manchester City last weekend.

“This is the biggest challenge. I think Arsenal will be a great challenge for us, and we have to really be ready for that,” added Ivanovic.

Terry had a woeful time against Arsenal in last season’s first league encounter between the pair, slipping to gift Robin van Persie a late goal and the lead from which Chelsea never recovered in the 5-3 rollercoaster ride. —Reuters

News

in brief

Eto’o returns after presidential push YAOUNDE: Cameroon star Samuel Eto’o has bowed to presidential pressure and agreed to return to the international fold in a bid to help his country qualify for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

Eto’o, Africa’s most heavily decorated player, was banned for 15 months (subsequently reduced to eight months) for leading Cameroon’s boycott of a friendly match against Algeria last year.

After serving his ban the former Barcelona striker who is now based with Russian top-flight side Anzhi Makhachkala was recalled to the national squad on August 25, but refused to return, labeling the national side “amateurish and poorly organized”. But after a word in his ear from Cameroon President Paul Biya, the 31-year-old is now prepared to call off his self-imposed exile and come back into the international fray. “Samuel Eto’o is returning with the Indomitable Lions,” the four-time African Player of the Year declared on his website. “After a request from the highest authority in the Republic I agreed to reconsider my position and to put myself at the disposal of the Lions.”

Newcastle, Pardew seal eight-year deal

LONDON: In this file photo, Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand (left) is marked by Chelsea’s John Terry during their English Premier League soccer match at Loftus Road stadium, London. — AP

MATCHES ON TV English Premier League Arsenal v Chelsea 14:45 Abu Dhabi Sports HD Fulham v Man City 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD Reading v Newcastle 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD Everton v Southampton 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD Stoke City v Swansea City 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD Norwich City v Liverpool 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD Sunderland v Wigan Athletic 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD Man United v Tottenham 19:30 Abu Dhabi Sports HD

Italian League Parma v AC Milan Aljazeera Sport +1 Juvenuts v AS Roma Aljazeera Sport +1 German League Bayer v SpVgg Dubai Sports 5 Bremen v Bayern Munich Dubai Sports 2 Nuremberg v Stuttgart Dubai Sports 6 Hamburger v Hannover Dubai Sports 7 Dortmund v Borussia Dubai Sports 2

Spanish League Valencia v Zaragoza Aljazeera Sport +2 Malaga v Real Betis Aljazeera Sport +2 Real Sociedad v Athletic de Bilbao Aljazeera Sport +9 Sevilla v Barcelona Aljazeera Sport +2

French League Saint-German v Sochaux Aljazeera Sport +9 Lorraine v Montpellier Aljazeera Sport +4 Gillard v Lorient Aljazeera Sport +8 Nice v Bastia Aljazeera Sport +5

17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

19:00 21:45

16:30 16:30 16:30 16:30 19:30

18:30 21:00 21:00 21:00

LONDON: Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has been given a remarkable eight-year contract as the north-east club sought to emulate the likes of Premier League rivals Manchester United and Arsenal. Both of those clubs have stuck by Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger respectively and Newcastle believe the 51year-old Pardew is the man to end the north-east club’s now 43year wait for a major trophy. “If you look at clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have shown that stability gives you the best platform to achieve success and that is the model we wish to emulate here,” said Newcastle managing director Derek Llambias. “We are looking to build on the success we had last season and these new contracts are aimed at keeping the club progressing on and off the pitch, as we have done since returning to the Premier League in 2010. “Alan has done a fantastic job over the last couple of years and has proved what a great Premier League manager he is. “I have total respect for him in all football matters and have an excellent relationship with him which I think benefits the club enormously. “Alan also has one of the best backroom teams in the country and I would like to thank John Carver, Steve Stone, and Andy Woodman for all their combined efforts.

Brazil recall Kaka RIO DE JANEIRO: Former World Player of the Year Kaka is set to play his first match for Brazil in more than two years after being recalled on Thursday for next month’s friendlies. The Real Madrid player, plagued by injuries over the last few seasons, was included in the squad for games against Iraq in Sweden on Oct 11 and Japan in Poland five days later. He has not played for his country since the 2-1 defeat by the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup quarter-final. It is the second time Kaka has been called up by coach Mano Menezes, who replaced Dunga after the World Cup in South Africa, but last year he had to drop out through injury and missed the matches against Gabon and Egypt. The 30-yearold, who made his debut for Brazil in 2002, has 82 caps and played at the last three World Cups. “We have been following his progress,” Menezes told reporters. “In terms of training, of dedication, the standard which he has reached gives us hope that he will play well when he is picked for Brazil.” “It’s important to have players with this type of career and experience... I think he is going to confirm what we have been hearing, that he is getting better.”

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

SPANISH LEAGUE

Preview

league tally for the season to seven in five matches, one more than Barca’s World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, last season’s top scorer with a record 50 goals. Real forward Cristiano Ronaldo has three and Atletico fans will have to pinch themselves when they see their bitter city rivals, who

tomorrow’s game, is refusing to feed the rumors and said on Wednesday he was completely focused on Atletico.

“We are just thinking about each match at a time and we are not making any general evaluation,” he told reporters. “The most important thing

SEVILLA: Atletico Madrid’s Uruguayan midfielder Cristian Rodriguez (left) vies for the ball with Betis’ Portuguese defender Nelson during the Spanish league football match between Sevilla and Atletico Madrid at the Benito Villamarin stadium in Sevilla 2. Atletico Madrid won 4-2. —AFP have had a woeful start to the defense of their title, down in seventh on only seven points.

COMPLETELY FOCUSED As Atletico celebrate an impressive start to the season, however, speculation about Falcao’s future continues to swirl and the cash-strapped club may be hard pressed to hold on to him, even beyond the January transfer window. Falcao, who has a minor muscle strain and may be a doubt for

is the game next and we are just looking to keep getting past the obstacle of each weekend.” Barca can make it six wins out of six at Sevilla, before Real host promoted Deportivo Coruna tomorrow. Stuttering Valencia, down in 15th on five points, are at home to Real Zaragoza today, when fourth-placed Malaga host Betis. Real Mallorca have surprised by climbing up to third, level on 11 points with Malaga and Sevilla, and play at Getafe on Monday. — Reuters

ITALIAN LEAGUE

Preview

Fiorentina enjoy new lease of life MILAN: Fiorentina signed a remarkable 18 players during the close season and their drastic overhaul appears to be paying off after a lively start to the new campaign.

After two turbulent seasons following the departure of former coach Cesare Prandelli, Fiorentina, who visit Inter tomorrow, are once again looking capable of challenging for a place in Europe at the very least.

Sixth in the table with eight points from five games, they outplayed defending champions Juventus on Tuesday and would have ended the titleholders’ 44match unbeaten league run had they been sharper in front of goal. Their new South American contingent was especially impressive with David Pizarro, signed from AS Roma, dominating the midfield and Argentine pair Facundo Roncaglia and Gonzalo Rodriguez unflappable in the three-man defense. Roncaglia, signed as a free agent from Boca Juniors, also looked dangerous going forward, nearly scoring after a mazy run which took him past four Juventus players.

Another player with huge potential is Pizarro’s fellow Chilean Matias Fernandez, signed from Sporting, who has not quite fulfilled the early promise he showed as a

Preview

Marseille still haunted by last season ‘ghosts’

Unbeaten Atletico lurk as early-season contenders MADRID: Atletico Madrid have quietly crept up the standings to second and suddenly find themselves being talked about as possible challengers to the La Liga hegemony of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Fired by the goals of Colombia striker Radamel Falcao and inspired by their intensely charismatic Argentine coach Diego Simeone, they are only two points behind leaders Barcelona following Wednesday’s 4-2 win at Real Betis.

“Scare for Barca,” blared the frontpage of Madrid-based sports daily Marca on Thursday next to a shot of Falcao celebrating one of his two goals in Seville. The Europa League champions, who are known as the “mattress makers” and who last won the title in 1996 with Simeone in the side, have a chance for a rare taste of life at the top if Barca slip up at Sevilla on Saturday and Atletico can win at Espanyol.

Simeone told reporters after the Betis victory he and his players were not about to let their impressive early run go to their heads. Atletico have yet to test their title credentials against Real or Barca, although their 4-1 destruction of Champions League winners Chelsea in last month’s European Super Cup, when Falcao netted a hat-trick, suggests they may have what it takes to succeed on the big occasion. “We are not paying attention to the points but to the opponents we have to play against,” said Simeone, a tough-tackling former Argentina captain who was a fan favorite at Atletico and also had stints at Inter Milan and Lazio. “The Spanish championship is very tough, above all to win away,” the 42-year-old added.

“Our focus is already on Espanyol.”

Falcao’s double in Seville took his

FRENCH LEAGUE

precocious teenager with Colo Colo. The contrast to the same fixture last March, when Juventus won 5-0, could not have been greater, although Coach Vincenzo Montella, another newcomer, did not want to get carried away. “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” said the former Sampdoria and AS Roma striker, who led Catania to a respectable 11th in the table last season.

“We have 18 new players and we have to keep on this road with determination and conviction. The club has made our choices but there is still a long way to go.”

Prandelli was at the club for a record five seasons, leading them to the last sixteen of the Champions League in 2010, before leaving to take charge of the Italian national side following the South Africa World Cup. He was replaced by Sinisa Mihajlovic, who led Fiorentina to a modest ninth but never won over the fans and left amid angry protests in November, roughly one third of the way into his second season in charge.

Delio Rossi replaced him but was fired after a bizarre incident when he lashed out at forward Adem Ljajic, one of the few survivors from last season, after substituting him against Novara. — Reuters

PARIS: Olympique Marseille’s perfect start to the Ligue 1 season has not yet banished the “ghosts” which haunted their dreadful campaign last term, left back Jeremy Morel has warned. Marseille, who visit mid-table Valenciennes tomorrow (1200 GMT), finished a dismal 10th last May but are enjoying their best league start in more than 50 years after taking a maximum 18 points from six games under new coach Elie Baup.

The leaders are four ahead of second-placed Olympique Lyon but Morel reckoned the 2010 French champions, who were not expected to challenge for the title this term, have to keep working harder than ever. “We are fully aware that we cannot afford to ease off, otherwise we will quickly be struggling again,” Morel told a news conference. “The ghosts have not gone away yet. Everything will be ruined if we stop making an effort.” Despite his caution, Morel suggested Marseille are already eyeing their next week’s home clash with arch-rivals and title favorites Paris St Germain. “In order to prepare for the PSG game as well as we can, we know we cannot bungle at Valenciennes,” he said.

Marseille are six points ahead of third-placed PSG, who are unbeaten and will seek a fourth consecutive victory at home to modest Sochaux today (1530). The 2011 champions Lille visited 18th-placed Stade Rennes yesterday (1845) as they aim to clinch their first league win since the season’s opener. Lille bounced back last weekend after a shock 3-1 home loss to Belarus’ BATE Borisov in the Champions League by producing a convincing display in a 1-1 draw with Lyon. They will still be without injured forward Salomon Kalou and playmaker Marvin Martin for the trip to the European hopefuls. — Reuters

GERMAN LEAGUE

Preview

Bayern must keep their focus, says Rummenigge BERLIN: Bayern Munich’s perfect start to the Bundesliga season must not go to their heads or they risk repeating the mistakes of last year, the club’s CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge warned. Bayern have won their opening five matches to sit two points clear at the top of the league ahead of today’s game against improving Werder Bremen (1330 GMT), with champions Borussia Dortmund seven points adrift. The situation was similar last season when, after six games, the difference between the two was eight points before Dortmund roared back for a successful title defense.

“I will keep both feet firmly on the ground and will not start flying,” Rummenigge said. “We are on a roll, we are playing good football but there is no place for euphoria. “The main aim is the Bundesliga title. There are another 29 match days and it is a long and potentially bumpy road, so we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past.” Bayern spent heavily in the off-season and have more depth in the squad following a string of transfers including central defender Dante, midfielder Javi Martinez and forwards Claudio Pizarro and Mario Mandzukic.

With winger Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery back fully fit and in fine form, last season’s Champions League finalists are eager not to have another season without silverware. “We were eight points clear last season and then we gifted the title away,” Bayern captain Philipp Lahm told reporters. “This cannot happen this season again. We have been warned.” The prospect of hosting a fired-up Bayern, who have scored 17 goals and conceded two, should be daunting for Bremen’s young squad. — Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Gul powers Pakistan to narrow win COLOMBO: Umar Gul turned an unlikely hero with the bat as Pakistan survived a middle-order collapse to beat South Africa by two wickets in the Super Eights of the World Twenty20 yesterday. Pakistan, chasing South Africa’s modest 133-6, crashed to 76-7 in the 15th over before Gul and Umar Akmal combined to share a match-winning partnership of 49 in 27 balls.

Gul smashed two fours and three sixes in his 32 off 17 balls before he was dismissed off the last ball of the 19th over by fast bowler Dale Steyn with nine more needed.

But Akmal, who remained unbeaten on 43, and Saeed Ajmal steered Pakistan home with two balls to spare, Ajmal edging the winning boundary off Morne Morkel. “We were lucky to get there,” said Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez.

“There were a few bad shots early in the innings but in the end it was a great team effort. “I knew Gul could play big shots and the good thing is that everyone in the team is contributing. The bowlers did well to keep South Africa to a low score.”

South African skipper AB de Villiers said he was proud of the way the team fought back after batting badly. “We probably lost it in the last five overs, but I am very proud the way we came back so strongly.”

Pakistan’s openers raced to 24 in 2.5 overs before the innings fell apart after Imran Nazir (14) was caught behind off Steyn. Left-arm spinner Robin Peterson, who came to bowl the fourth over, removed Hafeez with his second delivery and Nasir Jamshed with the six to make Pakistan 31-3. Off-spinner Johan Botha also struck in his first over by bowling Kamran Akmal for one, Jacques Kallis dismissed Shoaib Malik (12) and JP Duminy had danger man Shahid Afridi caught in the deep first ball. But Gul and Umar Akmal launched a blistering attack on the Proteas to earn Pakistan full points in the opening match of group two.

India and Australia, the other two teams in the group, played in the second match of the double-header at the Premadasa stadium later yesterday. Earlier, Pakistan’s spinners reveled on a slow wicket to restrict mighty South Africa to 133-6. Hafeez claimed 2-23 and 20-year-old left-arm spinner Raza Hasan conceded just 12 runs in three overs after South Africa won the toss and elected to bat. Seamers Yasir Arafat and Gul shared three wickets as the batsmen tried to hit out against them after failing to play the slow bowlers. South Africa, the top-ranked side in the Twenty20 format, were reduced to 28-3 in 6.1 overs before recovering through de Villiers and JP Duminy. Left-handed Duminy top-scored with 48 off 38 balls, while de Villiers made 25, but no other batsman reached 20.— AFP

Sammy to end West Indies’ title drought

SCOREBOARD LOMBO: Scoreboard from the World Twenty20 Super Eight stage match between Pakistan and South Africa at the R Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

South Africa: R. Levi b Ajmal 8 H. Amla c Malik b Arafat 6 J. Kallis c Afridi b Hafeez 12 J.P. Duminy c K. Akmal b Arafat 48 F. Behardienst st K. Akmal b Hafeez 18 AB de Villiers c Nazir b Gul 25 A. Morkel not out 9 R. Peterson not out 3 Extras (lb-2, w-2) 4 Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 133 Did not bat: J.Botha,D. Steyn,M. Morkel.

Fall of wickets: 1-8 2-28 3-28 4-66 5-110 6-123.

Bowling: Raza Hasan 3-1-12-0, Yasir Arafat 3-0-25-2, Saeed Ajmal 4-1-26-1, Mohammad Hafeez 4-0-23-2, Shahid Afridi 40-26-0, Umar Gul 2-0-19-1.

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez st de Villiers b Peterson 15 Imran Nazir c de Villiers b Steyn 14 Nasir Ahmed st de Villiers b Peterson 0 Kamran Akmal b Botha 1 Shoaib Malik c Steyn b Kallis 12 Umar Akmal not out 43 Shahid Afridi c A. Morkel b Duminy 0 Yasir Arafat c Duminy b Steyn 3 Umar Gul c Peterson b Steyn 32 Saeed Ajmal not out 4 Extras (b-2, lb-6, w-3, nb-1) 12 Total (8 wickets; 19.4 overs) 136 Did not bat: Raza Hasan.

Bowling: Steyn 4-0-22-3, M. Morkel 3.4-0-33-0, Peterson 4-115-2, A. Morkel 2-0-26-0, Botha 2-1-10-1, Duminy 2-0-5-1, Kallis 2-0-17-1.

COLOMBO: Pakistan cricketer Umar Gul plays a shot during the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup’s Super Eight match between South Africa and Pakistan at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday. — AFP

PALLEKELE: West Indies have not tasted much international success in the last decade but captain Darren Sammy believes he has succeeded in creating the kind of dressing room atmosphere that can help them end the title drought in Sri Lanka. The erstwhile giants of the game, who won the first two 50-over World Cups and dominated the game largely because of their dreaded pace attack, have gone without a major title since winning the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy. Having arrived in Sri Lanka with a team teeming with hard-hitting batsmen, Sammy wants to win the Twenty20 World Cup and give the fans back home something to cheer about. “When we left the Caribbean that was the most important thing in our minds, winning this tournament for our fans,” Sammy told reporters.

“The last decade has been tough for us. We last won a silverware in 2004. “It is a good opportunity for us to do that here. We’ve been playing well as a team and we have to take it one game at a time,” said the jovial all-rounder. West Indies beat England by 15 runs in their first Super Eight stage match on Thursday and a victory against hosts Sri Lanka on Saturday would assure them a semi-final berth. Leading a team containing mercurial players such as Chris Gayle, Sammy said his brand of captaincy has resulted in a relaxed dressing room. “I just keep everybody cool. We have a lot of cool guys so when you’re out there, you need to have someone in charge.

“When I’m out there I try to get all the senior players involved in decision making so everyone feels a part of the team.

“That’s the important thing for us and it’s easy to do that because my character allows me to involve everyone,” said the 28-year-old player, first from St Lucia to lead West Indies. Dwelling today’s match, Sammy sounded wary of the senior Sri Lankan players such as captain Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

“The senior players always turn up for them and they have a good mix in the squad,” said Sammy. “You just can’t count them out at home. Playing them is a big challenge but it’s one we’re ready for,” he said. His Sri Lankan counterpart Jayawardene was relieved after narrowly beating New Zealand via Super Over in Thursday’s thriller. “When you are leading a team in a pressure situation and a crunch game like this, points on the board are very important,” said Jayawardene. “The first Super Eights game, a big occasion, we didn’t get the momentum in the first few overs. After that we won a game, so that’s good. “At the end of the day what mattered was that you handled the big moments a bit better than the other team. We can build on this,” he added.— Reuters

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Sports

Gul powers Pakistan to a narrow victory

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COLOMBO: Australian cricketer Shane Watson (left) plays a shot as Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni (center) looks on during the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup’s Super Eight match between India and Australia at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium yesterday. — AFP

Australia trounce India in T20 Watson hammers India with bat and ball COLOMBO: Shane Watson grabbed 3-34 and struck 72 off 42 balls to lift Australia to an emphatic nine-wicket win over India in the Super Eights match of the World Twenty20 in Colombo yesterday. Watson, who was adjudged man of the match for the third consecutive game, shared a first-wicket stand of 133 with David Warner (63 not out) as Australia eased past India’s 140-7 in the 15th over.

Warner smashed three sixes and seven boundaries and Watson plundered seven sixes and two fours in a batting treat for a sell-out crowd of 35,000 at the Premadasa stadium. The pair treated the Indian bowlers with disdain as Warner lofted Harbhajan Singh for two successive sixes and Watson hit leg-spinner Piyush Chawla for two sixes in his first over. When seamer Irfan Pathan came on to bowl the 10th over, Watson greeted him with a sequence of 6, 6 and 4 to bring up Australia’s 100 in the same over.

Watson fell in the 14th over when just eight more runs were needed for victory, caught in the covers off Yuvraj Singh. Watson’s matchwinning display followed his 51 and 3-26

against Ireland and 41 not out and 2-29 in the second game against the West Indies. Australia join Pakistan, who beat South Africa by two wickets earlier yesterday, at the top of group two with one win each. Earlier, makeshift opener Pathan made 31 and Suresh Raina boosted the total towards the end with 26 off 19 balls after Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat.

Raina put on 30 for the sixth wicket with Dhoni and 33 for the seventh with Ravichandran Ashwin, who remained unbeaten on 16 off 12 balls. India dropped seasoned opener Virender Sehwag to play five specialist bowlers, including three spinners, and sent all-rounder Pathan to open the innings with Gautam Gambhir. Pathan hit two fours and a six, but India lost three wickets in seven balls to slip from a comfortable 70-2 to 74-5. Watson claimed two wickets in one over, forcing Yuvraj to hole out in the deep before getting Pathan caught in the covers. In the next round of matches tomorrow, Australia take on South Africa and India clash with Pakistan at the same venue. — AFP

SCOREBOARD Scoreboard in the World Cup Twenty20 Super Eight match between India and Australia in Colombo yesterday.

India innings G.Gambhir run out 17 I.Pathan c White b Watson 31 V.Kohli c Christian b Cummins 15 Yuvraj Singh c Maxwell b Watson 8 R.Sharma b Starc 1 S.Raina c Maxwell b Watson 26 MS Dhoni c Bailey b Cummins 15 R.Ashwin not out 16 Harbhajan Singh not out 1 Extras (b-2 lb-2 w-6) 10 Total (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 140 Did not bat: P.Chawla, Zaheer Khan.

Fall of wickets: 1-21 2-56 3-70 4-74 5-74 7137.

Bowling: Maxwell 2-0-11-0, Starc 4-0-27-1, Cummins 4-0-16-2, Watson 4-0-34-3,

Christian 2-0-19-0, Hogg 4-0-29-0 (2w).

Australia innings S.Watson v sub (MK Tiwary) b Yuvraj Singh 72 D.Warner not out 63 G.Maxwell not out 4 Extras (w-2) 2 Total (for one wicket, 14.5 overs) 141 Did not bat: M.Hussey, C.White, G.Bailey, M.Wade, D.Christian, B.Hogg, P.Cummins, M.Starc.

Fall of wickets: 1-133 Bowling: Ashwin 3.5-0-32-0 (1w), Zaheer Khan 3-0-18-0 (1w), Harbhajan Singh 2-020-0, Chawla 1-0-14-0, Pathan 1-0-19-0, Kholi 1-0-10-0, Yuvraj Singh 2-0-16-1, Sharma 1-0-12-0.