6th May 2012

CR IP TI ON BS SU

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

Rights issues deter expats from donating organs

Saudi ambassador returns to Egypt

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Chelsea hang on to beat Liverpool 2-1 in Cup final

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Home-made bomb wounds four Bahrain policemen

www.kuwaittimes.net

9/11 mastermind, plotters defy Guantanamo hearing

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150 FILS

JAMADI ALTHANI 15, 1433 AH

Defendants show contempt for military proceedings

Muslim woman wins $5m for discrimination KANSAS CITY: A Kansas City woman who converted from Christianity to Islam has been awarded $5 million in punitive damages by a jury who found the telecommunications giant AT&T created a “hostile work environment” after her conversion, according to a judge’s order issued Friday. Susann Bashir, a 41year-old married mother, sued AT&T unit Southwestern Bell for what she said was a pattern of offensive and discriminatory conduct by her supervisors that began when she converted to Islam in 2005, six years after she started working for the company as a network technician.

After Bashir started wearing a religious head scarf known as a hijab, and attending Friday mosque services, her managers and co-workers called her names including “terrorist,” and told her she was going to hell, said her attorney Amy Coopman. A manager repeatedly told her to remove her hijab, insulted her for wearing it, and once physically grabbed Bashir and tried to rip the hijab off her head, according to the suit. Bashir complained to human resources and then filed a formal complaint alleging discrimination with the Equal Employment Continued on Page 13

KUWAIT: HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah (right) meets members of a National Assembly probe panel yesterday. The panel, headed by MP Faisal Al-Mislem (second left), is investigating claims that former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah transferred millions of dinars of public funds into his private bank accounts overseas. Sheikh Jaber is the highest official to testify before the panel, which has powers to summon any official for investigations on issues related to the transfers. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Max 42º Min 28º High Tide 11:08 Low Tide 04:54 & 18:00

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba: The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks repeatedly declined to answer a judge’s questions yesterday and his co-defendants knelt in prayer in what appeared to be a concerted protest against the military proceedings.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men appeared for the first time in more than three years for arraignment at a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, charged with 2,976 counts of murder for the 2001 attacks.

The hearing quickly bogged down before they could be arraigned. The men took off the earphones that provide Arabic translations and refused to answer any questions from the judge, Army Col James Pohl, dramatically slowing a hearing that is heavy on military legal procedure. At one point, two defendants got up and prayed alongside their defense tables under the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed watchful eyes of troops arrayed along the sides of the high-security courtroom on the US base in Cuba.

Prisoner Walid bin Attash was put in a restraint chair for unspecified reasons and then removed from it after he agreed to behave. Lawyers for all defendants complained that the prisoners were prevented from wearing the civilian clothes of their choice. Mohammed wore a white turban in court; his flowing beard, which had appeared to be graying in earlier hearings Continued on Page 13

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SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

LOCAL

Joint picture of the Kuwait media delegation with Iraq’s FM Zibari

Iraq, Kuwait try to mend fences Kuwait media delegation tours Iraq

By Mona Shishter KUWAIT: Kuwait Journalists’ visit to Iraq signaled a new step in improving relations between the two brotherly nations.

The Journalists’ visit represented a qualitative move towards strengthening media relations. The visit received unlimited support from both leadership, as confirmed by HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, and his Iraqi counterpart Premier Nouri Al-Maliki.

The delegation which includes the media, political and economic leaders preceded the three visits by media delegations in 2008. The media visit has special importance, especially for the Iraqi public because it was on the heels of the visit of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah’s to Iraq during Baghdad’s Arab Summit in March, which was considered by Iraqis as a ‘historic turn’ in the relations between the two brotherly countries.

The Amiri Diwan Affairs Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah AlAhmad recently visited Iraq’s Kurdistan region and met Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and other officials in the region. The media delegation came to witness the success of those two historic visits. The visit also documented the wish of both governments to turn a new page of relations based on peace and security for both countries. The delegation’s meeting with the Iraqi side was characterized with frankness and openness to identify the cracks, in order to mend them, as they varied between official, cultural, religious and economic

issues.

On the political side, the delegation met with Iraqi Vice President Khudair Al-Khuzaei, Premier Nouri Al-Maliki, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at Iraq’s National Assembly Dr Human Hammoudi, and Chairman of the Higher Council Sayyed Ammar Al-Hakim. On the cultural side, the delegation met with several Iraqi intellectuals, journalists, as well as the head of the Iraqi Journalists Union Moayad Al-Lami. On the economic front, they met the head of the national investment authority Dr Sami Al-Araji.

The delegation also visited several shrines including the two Kazimi Imams in Baghdad. While in Najaf, they met with some Iraqi scholars - Sayyed Mohammad Saeed Al-Hakeem and Scholar Judge Sayyed Mohammad Bahr Al-Oloum. There was a visit to the shrine of Imam Ali bin Abi Taleb in addition to the shrines of Imam Al-Hussein bin Ali and his brother AlAbbas.

Vice President Al-Khuzaei said Iraq is serious about closing the “file of its bitter past”. He said the Iraqi people were oppressed and that is why “they learned not to become the oppressors”, in an indication about Iraq’s true intention to make amends with all brotherly and friendly people and countries. The Iraqi political and popular leaderships lauded the role of Kuwait Amir and they expressed thanks and appreciation to him for attending the Baghdad summit in March. They pointed to what they felt as true wish by Kuwait

Amir and the Premier to remove all obstacles that stand as a barrier in the way of strengthening ties between the two brotherly neighbors. They also confirmed Iraq’s commitments to all international treaties and commitments, adding that this is mentioned in Iraq’s constitution.

The Iraqi leaders appealed to the media delegation to contribute to closing the gap between the two brotherly people, and stressed the necessity for the Civil Society institutions to communicate in order to shorten distances and erase bad feelings, and send positive messages. The Iraqi leadership said Kuwait will be Iraq’s gate towards the foreign world in the future, which is something that will lead to regional growth. They asked Kuwait businessmen to explore the Iraqi market. The Iraqi leadership said the new Iraq is searching for friendly relations with the rest of the world except Israel, and according to the proximity in joint relations with countries.

They said that they favor Arab companies for the Iraqi market in order to strengthen ties with Arab countries.

Delegation member and former minister Dr Mohammad Al-Busairi conveyed the Amir’s greetings to the Iraqi leader-

ship. Al-Busairi said the Kuwait leaders are keen on such contacts and continued visits of Iraqi delegations. He said that HH the Amir was interested in having representatives of businessmen in Kuwaiti delegations that visited Iraq, adding that a large businessmen delegation will visit Iraq later this month.

Delegation member and Editor-in-chief of Al-Anbaa Newspaper Yousuf Al-Marzouq said that unifying Kuwait and Iraq economic and commercial efforts, will make the two countries a very big economic power house in the North of the Arabian Gulf. He said “new Iraq is a good place for investment and needs many projects - especially infrastructural projects and services”. Meanwhile the coordinator of the media delegation Adnan Al-Rashid expressed thanks and appreciation for the invitation. Al-Rashid lauded efforts of the Information Minister Mohammad Al-Abdallah Al-Sabah and the support of Kuwait’s Ambassador in Iraq Lt General Ali AlMomen and his counterpart Iraq’s Ambassador to Kuwait Dr Mohammad Hussein Bahr Al-Oloum in promoting peace and progress. — KUNA

Al-Anbaa Editor-in-Chief Yousuf Al-Marzouq seen with the Iraqi Premier Nouri Al-Maliki.

Adnan Al-Rashid Al-Anbaa Deputy Editor-in-Chief pictured with Iraq Ambassador to Kuwait Mohammad Bahr Al-

The media delegation pictured during a meeting with Iraqi Premier Nouri Al-Maliki.

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SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

LOCAL

Rights, citizenship issues deter expats from donating organs ‘You keep your citizenship; I’ll keep my organs’

By Lisa Conrad KUWAIT: “Why would I leave my organs to a country that will never recognize me as a full person that deserves full rights?” asked Syrian expatriate, Jassim. “I will never qualify for anything here as long as I live, and I’ll always be treated differently, and in return I’m expected to leave behind my organs?” he added. Sharing his sentiment, Lama, a Jordanian expatriate, said, “I don’t like the idea in general, but somehow it’s worse when you consider how we’re looked down by many people here. If I’m worth so much less, then my organs must be too, so I’ll keep them.”

Organ donation is a sensitive subject in the Middle East, with many citing cultural and religious reasons for refusing to get organ donor cards. Medical professionals have worked hard to reassure hesitant individuals that organ donation is acceptable, and encouraged, within societies across the world. As a result, rates have slowly been rising, but there is still a strong resistance from a rather unexpected source: political reasons.

Expatriates in Kuwait cannot take the nationality unless they marry a Kuwaiti, and that only applies to expatriate women.

Many expats, especially those who were born here or have resided in Kuwait for an extended period of time, resent having to renew their residencies on a yearly or bi-yearly (depending on the laws at the time) basis. “We are not treated in the same way at all,” said Jassim, adding, “Everything here is on wasta (connections) and priority based on nationality. If I get sick and need a transplant, there’s no way I’ll get the organ I need here. I’d be at the end of the list, if on it at all.” Indian expat, Meghna, added “I do not believe for one second that all will be seen equally in terms of priority on waiting lists for organs.”

Mustafa Al-Mousawi, the head of the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Organ Procurement Unit, said of the issue, “I agree that expats feel neglected, and they have a point.

In the past, priority was given to Kuwaitis in the waiting list, which meant expats had slim chance of receiving organs as there are always Kuwaitis waiting.” Whilst Al-Mousawi admitted that the situation was previously unfair, he insists that things have changed, “I changed the system last year, and pushed the council of the department to adopt a scoring system and include all expats in the system. It is working well.” He

Ibrahim Al-Alami

Jewelry exhibition a big success KUWAIT: Ibrahim Al-Alami, General Director of Le Markiz Jewelry, hailed the level of success of the 10th Gold and Jewelry Exhibition which was held by Kuwait International Fair Company at the fair ground in Mishref from April 23 to 28. Le Markiz Jewelry was one of the sponsors of the event.

Al-Alami said the exhibition, under the available conditions and the cooperation provided by concerned official parties, could have achieved better and larger success had local gold and jewelry companies joined in. Speaking to reporters, he suggested having one gold exhibition annually in Kuwait at one time and under one roof. He said this can stop the deviation by visitors and those concerned in following such an activity due to two gold exhibitions at the same time at different locations.

Al-Alami said he agrees with the call made by AbdulRahman AlNasser, Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chairman of Kuwait International Fair Company, who called on all local gold and jewelry companies and traders in Kuwait to join the exhibition at the fair ground, which will positively reflect on the results of all participants and not for one without the other. He explained that such a gathering for exhibitors is a real benefit due to the availability of resources at the fair ground in Mishref, such as the large media campaign which covers all newspapers and television channels and is seen by consumers in Kuwait. It also has the cooperation of concerned government organizations, like the Ministry of Commerce, the Customs Authority and the Ministry of Interior.

He called upon all concerned bodies to gather all gold traders in Kuwait under one roof in one annual exhibition in the interest of the public. He said generally, in all countries of the world, such specialized exhibitions are held under one umbrella for all local and international companies. He said if the exhibition is held only once a year, it requires all efforts by everyone to make it successful and attract more visitors.

Al-Alami spoke about the gold market in Kuwait, saying that compared to other Gulf markets it is very special as consumers in Kuwait have a lot of knowledge about jewelry, know the degrees of purity very well, how the jewels are cut, their colors and the new designs.

Al-Alami described the facilities provided by government organizations such as the Ministry of Commerce and the Customs Authorities as one of the reasons which made the exhibition successful and secure, as before leaving the exhibition customers can check what kind of jewelry they have bought. He said the level of foreign companies participating in the exhibition was also one of the reasons for its success, but gathering all local and foreign companies under one roof could have made it more successful.

Al-Alami concluded that most local companies exhibited a large variety of material that was specially prepared for the exhibition. He said this shows that local traders are keen to show the best designs they have. He expressed the hope that next year the exhibition will have more success with the participation of local and international companies.

Proposal to increase pension KUWAIT: MP Mohammad Al-Khalifa, Member of the Popular Action Bloc and a number of Interior and Defence committees, said he will adopt a draft law to grant retired military men in all sectors a financial increase amounting to KD 250 if the government does not grant them an allowance similar to officers. He said the Interior and Defence committees recommended the government give retired soldiers their right and give them a suitable allowance according to the high prices which face people in Kuwait while their salaries remained fixed over many years.

added, “The waiting list includes expats.” In order to further reassure the public, he outlined how the waiting list is organized. “I am in charge of organ allocation, which is transparent and fair.

Each patient added to the waiting list collects points based on age, period of waiting, non-availability of living donors, previous transplant, medical condition (such as problems related to dialysis) and so on, and rises to the top of the waiting list for each blood group.” He added, “ The waiting list is distributed to all doctors in the center so they know why whichever patient is selected when a donor is available. I do not allow wastas (connection-wielding).”

Al-Mousawi noted that expats refusing to become an organ donor on the basis of dissatisfaction with their status in Kuwait is not the way to go. “I understand their bitterness, but we are asking for a human act, and when we meet them we explain that many patients are children or young adults who may die if they do not get an organ, so why bury organs of the deceased, which could save multiple lives?” He added, “Their organs could certainly end up going to a citizen of their country, if the patient is on the top of the list.” Despite Al-

Mousawi’s reassurances, many are still not accustomed to the idea of donating their organs. “I would not consent to my organs being taken, nor those of my family. It is an awful thing to do to a body,” said 27-year-old Egyptian expatriate, Muna. “It is haram (sinful)” she added. Cultural issues have been a longstanding barrier in increasing the number of donors, so much so that professionals in the field can predict who’s most likely to consent.

“Kuwaitis and Egyptians do not readily consent, with Egyptians being the most difficult to convince,” said Al-Mousawi. He added, “We have little difficulty convincing Europeans, Indians and Filipinos. There are also some incentives to donor families, such as repatriation of the body to their home country with a companion.” The rate of donation in Kuwait is gradually rising, but given the array of factors holding people back, progress may continue to be slow. “For every 100 referrals we get each year, around 50 are documented as brain dead. Of those 50, around a third of families give their consent for donation,” said Al-Mousawi. He added, “At the end of the day, donating your organs is an act of kindness that can save others from death or disease.”

KUWAIT: The Polish ambassador held on Thursday a reception on the occasion of the National Day of his country commemorating the Constitution at the Radisson Blu Hotel. It was attended by a number of diplomats and other dignitaries.

—Photos by Joseph Shagra

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LOCAL

Local Spotlight

Satire Wire

The ugly phase!

It’s not about the money

Sawsan Kazak

Muna Al-Fuzai

sawsank@kuwaittimes.net umping a red light: KD 250. Driving with an excess speed of 40km/h: KD 200. Driving with an expired license: KD 150. Finding a system that will stop people from doing this: Priceless.

Recently the Ministry of Interior completed a study that recommended the increase of financial penalties on violators.

If fines would stop people from driving badly, then the problem would already be non-existent.

If people are jumping red lights even when they know the fine is KD 250, these same people will jump the light if they know the penalty will be KD 450. The violators of the driving laws don’t seem to be deterred by the already steep fines they face when they choose to drive fast, in the wrong direction, or at the wrong time. The ‘fines’ system in Kuwait does not seem to be working and just increasing the numbers will not scare people into driving well.

What we need here in Kuwait is the ‘points’ system. Every driver should be awarded a limited number of driving points; similar to cool points but with actually value. Drivers who decide to break the law would get a fine and lose a few points along the way. When a driver has lost all his points, he or she would then lose their license for a period of time as a punishment. If this same person decides to drive after their license has been revoked, they then have to face even more severe penalties.

Penalties could include a prolonged revocation, the compulsory attending of a driving school, or maybe be forced to ride a unicycle down Gulf Road with a sign that says ‘I’m a bad driver, honk at me’. Ok maybe the last one was a little severe but bad driving leads to accidents and accidents lead to deaths. I think people dying is serious enough to consider a change is our punishment system.

The present system is not making people obey the law, just adding a few zeros to the tickets will not do enough.

muna@kuwaittimes.net

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kuwait digest

Start political treatment now

By Faisal Al-Zamel ur colleague Samir Attallah wrote in the Middle East Daily last Tuesday saying “I was in Kuwait and when you are there, whether you like it or not, you get into the news about Parliament as the new undersecretary for democracy, which is based on abusing mothers and sisters by the nation’s MPs. They call to give the post of the Prime Minister to the ‘people’, and there are similar calls in Bahrain.”

Kuwait is adopted by Sunna extremists, and in Bahrain by the Shiite extremists, as per the phrases which became popular since the time of war in Iraq.

The explanation here and there is a coup against the system by democratic tools. The one after this call in Kuwait was by MP Waleed Al-Tabtabae, who said that this is the system of the British rule.

“Where are you and your group from the British?

What are the similarities?” Abdullateef Al-Duaij commented. A new phase became very common lately by which the word ‘agenda’ is used as a substitute for ‘conspiracy’. In my opinion, ignorance is stronger than all conspiracies and hate is stronger that all agendas and what brings both together is sedition.

The big problem is that the majority are silent i.e. the brainy people who do not want to be seen answering the street people and its coming dangers under the name of the Opposition. Is the abuse in the National Assembly Hall opposition or democracy? Is spoiling the economy democracy or politics?

Kuwait is now like all Arabs remember the first national Assemblies and the first Parliaments. But that time has gone and shall not return and replaced by cruelty. Sectarianism is no shame any more, there is no abuse or destruction of the future, and there are no more social regulations. Many have shifted to their own sects and tribes, and they do not care whether the nation remains one or not. They started dreaming with other countries.

Al-Qabas Arabic daily newspaper listed the problems facing Kuwait last Wednesday, saying “Kuwaitis are swinging between hope and despair, and we do not know any solution.” Personally I don’t know how far the treatment is delayed? But from my follow up “the Opposition” does not really want reform. Clearly, they want a coup. Reading an opinion from outside the local climate with the experience of Sameer Attallah, is like hosting an international surgeon to treat a patient in a very bad condition.

The responsibility should be borne by the one who refuses to listen to the opinions of an international expert.

It is the right of the international surgeon, Sameer Attallah, to say: “I don’t know how late the treatment is?”

Of course we should start the treatment with the ruling house and expand it to the rest of the state halls, with real popular support where the media bears responsibility, a national historic responsibility. It is not enough to write statements and main articles and make fiery calls for treatment, but the minute the solution starts the response to those calls fade away. This is a big mistake against the present and future of a state.—Al-Anba

ecently, I met a Kuwaiti lady who had been living abroad for many years and who just moved back to Kuwait for good. Her reasons to live abroad is not my topic of the day, as our discussion was on how Kuwait has changed in the last five years and if it is still a good place to settle!

In the last five years Kuwait has stepped back fifty years, not to the front but backwards! A tour of any social network will reveal that ugly truth! When any state fails to reach public satisfaction in all of its provided services and practices, both by the government and the National Assembly, then that is a threat!

What we need now is not to be different but at least to be like others in the Gulf circle.

Are our glorious past achievements in the sixties and seventies gone forever? Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have sped up by hundreds of miles and overtaken us while some Kuwaitis are still making justi-

R kuwait digest

The committee’s suspicious work

By Dr Hassan Abbas he Parliament committee investigating the name of businessman Mahmoud Haidar in his statedeposits case has been very active with non- ments? What kind of message was Al-Barrak trying to stop meetings throughout the week and daily make when he stated that “MPs suspected of being headline stories with up-to-date details about their involved in the case never denied the crime, but only work. I am not sure exactly how legal it is to have stepped away from the political scene”?

Such statements and leaked information surely information discussed in these meetings leaked to the press, but it appears that the committee is very leaves negative effects on the people they address, focused in providing messages to the media, not per- regardless of whether the practice was legal or not.

Yes, we all want to haps for noble reasons. find the truth about Ever y day the comthe case as well as mittee led by MP Every day the committee led by MP the identity of anyMusallam Al-Barrak Musallam Al-Barrak reveals the subjects one who collected reveals the subjects disdiscussed during their meetings, which bribes, but the role cussed during their of the investigation meetings, which includes the names of companies, banks committees is to includes the names of or individuals mentioned. For example, make sure that an companies, banks or error was commitindividuals mentioned. the committee mentioned the Burgan ted, to provide a For example, the comBank as one of two banks who gave their suitable launch pad mittee mentioned the testimony without making an oath. Is it a for legal action to Burgan Bank as one of start. two banks who gave coincidence that the same bank was Something else I their testimony without engaged in a legal battle with Al-Barrak’s find suspicious making an oath. Is it a about the work of coincidence that the fellow lawmaker, Faisal Al-Mislem, over the committee is its same bank was engaged exposing classified bank documents? ex treme commitin a legal battle with Alment to investigaBarrak’s fellow lawmaktion and data coler, Faisal Al-Mislem, over lec tion per taining to only to MPs in the last exposing classified bank documents?

The committee is reminding me of a former law- Parliament. What about similar cases that could have maker who used a television station, owned by a for- happened in previous parliaments? Why aren’t they mer female MP, to make attacks through media state- investigating suspicions of bribery committed durments. The information leaked to the media needs to ing parliamentary terms even before Sheikh Nasser be brought to political accountability (I’m not going Al-Mohammad’s first tenure as the Prime Minister? to say legal because I’m not fully aware of the validity Why exactly is the committee only focusing on one of the issue from a legal standpoint). What could pos- period in the histor y of Kuwait ’s parliamentar y sibly be the reason that led Al-Barrak to single out the work? —Al-Rai

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kuwait digest

One company to run ports

By Yousef Al-Mejalhem ecent reports indicate that the Kuwaiti and Iraqi security instability at the time.

An Italian company is currently assigned to carry out governments plan to form a joint committee to study the navigation route in Khor Abdullah, at the study for the mega project, which consists of 120 the opposite banks of which Kuwait’s Mubarak Al- docks including ports for oil tankers carrying oil from Kabeer Port and Iraq’s Al-Fao Port are located. I believe the GCC states to Europe. The project is mainly built for that these developments provide further reasons to commercial purposes, in addition to creating at least seriously consider the establishment of one interna- 100,000 job opportunities to Iraqis.

It is clear that both ports aim to connect East Asia tional company that runs both ports.

The need for forming the aforementioned joint com- with Europe and the United States by providing a pasmittee is to establish coordination that will prevent sage between the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean activity at either port from damaging that of the other, Sea through Iraqi and Turkish lands. The projects will or reducing the level of mobility in the territorial waters therefore help reduce international transportation costs of either country. This source of concern became the by 20 percent when it serves navigation that passes newest episode of pending issues troubling the rela- through the Suez Canal.

Since both ports are to be run by international comtionship between Kuwait and Iraq, which include border demarcations and the dues Iraq owe to Kuwait fol- panies and are considered of vital importance in the global community, I believe that a great idea would be lowing the 1990/91 Iraqi Invasion period.

The idea of establishing the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port to establish an international company to run both emerged in 2004, and the corner stone of the $3 billion ports. 50 percent of its share could be split and distributed to the Kuwaiti project was laid on April and Iraqi people, while 2011. The port is locatSince both ports are to be run by inter20 percent will be split ed over an 890 square and owned by the kilometers area east of national companies and are considered Kuwaiti and Iraqi govBoubyan Island, and at of vital importance in the global commuernments. The other 30 least 30 kilometers nity, I believe that a great idea would be percent of shares will away from the Kuwaiti be owned by internaIraqi borders. It consists to establish an international company to tional companies or of 60 docks, and is built run both ports. 50 percent of its share governments. for commercial purposThe project will es to establish a concould be split and distributed to the then be run by internanection between east Kuwaiti and Iraqi people, while 20 percent tional companies Asia and Europe. A will be split and owned by the Kuwaiti and based on an economic South Korean company basis and will also take is currently building the Iraqi governments. The other 30 percent into account the politiproject. of shares will be owned by international cal and security The idea for estabaspects within both lishing Al-Fao Port goes companies or governments. countries. back to 1985, when a There are many group of international companies came out with the idea of building an inter- examples in history that prove that joining commercial national port to replace the Port of Hong Kong when interests between countries helps reduce the level of sovereignty over Hong Kong passed from Britain to political tensions between them. The project of one China. However, the idea was not welcomed by the international company to run the Mubarak Al-Kabeer regime of Saddam Hussein, who also rejected a second and Al-Fao mega ports could be the beginning of elimioffer made in 1992. The idea was pitched again to the nating political and sectarian tensions in the region, Iraqi government in 2004, but faced numerous obsta- and the first step to establish major projects between cles including a lack of financing as well as political and the GCC states, Iraq and Iran. —Al-Qabas

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What we need now is not to be different but at least to be like others in the Gulf circle. Are our glorious past achievements in the sixties and seventies gone forever? Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have sped up by hundreds of miles and overtaken us while some Kuwaitis are still making justifications for not wishing to be like anyone else, but with every given holiday they rush to these countries for fun and business! fications for not wishing to be like anyone else, but with every given holiday they rush to these countries for fun and business!

Saudi Arabia has achieved great progress in the field of industry. Qatar is investing its wealth in natural gas for its own interests in business and politics.

Dubai has become an international destination for tourism, and Oman is not less with less publicity. But what we have achieved for ourselves and the future generation!?

Satisfaction is a goal that no one seems to reach here! For many years I believed in the need for democracy, but I don’t want to be cursed by my own belief any more! For example, try to go to any government department to finish one job a day. You will lose a day trying to get a wasta just to pass your ordinary and legal request. So what do you call it when you try to get your right with ill practices and by illegal ways. That is total corruption, I believe?

When the freedom of thinking and expression becomes an issue of concern, then we are facing a dilemma of not being able to act as a civil society. When education fails to teach people the real meaning of democracy and respect for the laws and development, then that is a crisis.

When a group of MP’S control the whole country, its policies and the future map then some true thinkers are entitled to wonder and worry about where we are heading?

Some MP’s are calling for a public prime minister? They call it public demand? Lets’ suppose this call comes true? Who will make this choice? The National Assembly or the House Speaker? That issue will soon become a goal?

Education, health, traffic and corruption.

All these are issues of concern to the ordinary people. I wonder if it a priority for those who see their goal to have a prime minster who is possibly a friend or a relative!

I know some have treated this country as a large piece of delicious cake for many years and some have benefited from that in every possible way. But if change has to come then it has to be done for the right reasons and not to fill someone’s stomach!

This daily challenge between different groups in the National Assembly has shaken many beliefs in our understanding of democracy, and I doubt if the current National Assembly, even with what it calls an Islamic majority, is capable of giving this country a new move! I personally doubt it and I guess this phase will not end for the good. Not for people like me at least and not for the many open minded.

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MPs, municipal officials eye viable model for urban Arab cities KUWAIT: A number of Kuwaiti MPs and municipal officials hailed yesterday the Municipal Management and Urban Development for Sustainability of Arab Cities Conference, which kicks off here tomorrow, hoping it will end up with a viable model for urban cities in the Arab region. MP Shaya Al-Shaya said the issues to be tackled by the conference are very important. He noted that many Arab countries are in desperate need for extensive urban development. Al-Shaya also noted that the conference will discuss the role of youth in achieving this development. “Our country has the potential to achieve a quantum leap in urban development of its cities on the short and long run, both through youth,” he said.

MP Abdul Rahman Anjari expressed hopes this conference would be the start of a real Arab development based on a clear strategy that aims to overhaul deteriorating Arab cities. He praised the themes of the conference, especially the urban economy and the role of youth in urban areas.

For his part, Municipal Council Chief Zaid Al-Azmi said Kuwait is eager to support all activities that aim to achieve sustainable development in the Arab region.

“We hope the conference will end up with the important and practical recommendations to achieve urban development of Arab cities in accordance with international standards,” Al-Azmi said.

Meanwhile, Municipal Council member Jinan Bushehri stated that sustainable development can only be achieved through the development of the human resources, meeting the needs of youth and reducing unemployment rates. She pointed out that there is an urgent need to re-evaluate and study the infrastructures and environment features of Arab cities.

The conference is also organized by Kuwait Municipality and UN-HABITAT, over three days in Kuwait, from tomorrow to 9 May 2012.

It will focus on the following themes: local urban governance and urban planning; affordable housing, slum upgrading and urban regeneration; urban economy, urban labor market and youth employment; and climate change, urban energy and mobility.

The conference is considered a preparatory meeting for Arab states for the WUF6 that will take place in Naples, Italy 1-7th September 2012.

It will also discuss Arab States’ directions towards sustainable urban development prior to the United Nations Conference for Sustainable Urban Development scheduled for June, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The conference will mark the launch of

the first report on the State of Arab Cities 2012. The report is the first attempt by UNHABITAT and Arab Towns Organization with support from Kuwait Government to document urban trends in Arab cities and present a snap shot of Arab cities demographic, social, economic, environmental, physical and housing conditions (within sub-regional context).

It also provides an analysis of recent Arab uprising within national and local governance contexts and marks the potentials and merits of Arab cities within regional and international integration prospects.

Earlier, the UN-HABITAT launched the first report on “The State of Arab Cities 2012,” outlining the problems and challenges facing sustainable urban development and setting forth the solutions to them. The launching of the report takes place shortly before the conference on municipal management and sustainable urban development in the Arab region.

The conference under auspices of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, is a preparatory meeting for the sixth session of the World Urban Forum, slated for early September in Naples, south Italy.

Commenting on the report, Executive Director of the UN-HABITAT Dr Joan Clos said the Arab region is at a critical crossroads in terms of sustainable development under the ongoing political and social upheavals.

The key challenge is how to rewrite all policies to ensure higher economic growth rates and better living conditions for all segments of people and in a sustainable way, a statement by Kuwait Municipality quoted Dr. Clos as saying.

She noted that Arab countries constitute the world’s most diversified region in terms of the conditions of cities, discrepancies in the level of their social and educational levels as shown in the UN reports on their urban development.The highest levels of education and urban development were registered in Kuwait - 94.5 and 98.4 percent respectively at the national level, she added.

The new report shows that 18 percent of the population in Arab regions live below the poverty line and oil revenues represent 40 to 50 percent of state budgets in oil-rich countries, which are poised to achieve most of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015.

It suggests launching par tnerships between Arab cities to promote urban development, realize regional integration, improve road and railway networks, hook up power grids and maximize trade exchanges. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Workers doing high-risk jobs in Kuwait. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Poor safety measures at construction sites Increase in number of accidents

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The repeated injuries and death cases of laborers working on building sites and constructions in Kuwait reflect the weak respect for safety and security measures during building. The Government is not directly responsible for such incidents, and the building companies set their own safety measures and instructions. Most companies have security guards on location to check and inspect the laborers. Other companies have engineers doing this job. None of the questioned companies mentioned any controls or inspections from a government institution. They all set their safety rules and measures by themselves and apply that to their laborers.

Anas witnessed a sad story of his Syrian friend who was working as a laborer on a building. He died after he fell down from a building. “My late friend, who was only 23 years old, recently came to Kuwait to work as a laborer. His small wage was equal to a lot in his country, and he was supporting his family there. He fell from the building he was working on as he was not tied with a rope or other restraint. He was transferred to the hospital with serious injuries and remained in the intensive care

unit for one month. And then he died,” Anas told the Kuwait Times.

“The saddest thing about this is that I tried to bring someone from his family to visit him while he was in the hospital, but his employers did not help me and a friend I asked could not help me with this issue. He died alone. After they shipped his corpse to Syria, his mother fell into a coma after seeing his body. His family was upset that they could not be with him while he was in the hospital,” he added.

It’s hard to witness a laborer working on a top of the building tied with a rope. Usually companies solve injury and death cases of laborers with monetary compensation. Most companies have life insurance for their workers. “I admit that we had some injuries during work, and even some laborers died.

We have been working in this field for more than 17 years, so this was mostly their fault as they were not careful and didn’t follow the instructions. All our laborers have life insurance so in any case of harm their families will be compensated. Also, at every location we have security officers who watch the laborers while they work, and in some projects there is an employee from the owner,” noted Yahya, Secretary at a building contracting company.

Nizar, an engineer from another contracting

company, said there are qualified and experienced engineers or contractors controlling the place to make sure of the general safety of the work. “At our company there were no injuries or death cases of laborers during work. We are very strict in our measures and have professionals to follow the work according to the plan we have. Our company has special safety measures for each section, such as wearing suitable safety uniforms, gloves, glasses, helmets and so on. In fact I never saw any inspector from the ministry reviewing our work,” he pointed out.

Saied, an expatriate laborer who has been working in Kuwait for more than 10 years, said he knew people who died while they were working and their families were not even compensated. He explained the difference between the commercial and governmental buildings.

“At commercial buildings there is no inspection by the Government, while at public building projects there are inspectors from the safety and security department in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. In case the inspectors from this department discovers any violation in the safety measures, they penalize the company working on this project and may even close the project,” he stated.

Amghara fire under control KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Sabah has affirmed that the scrap yard fire in Amghara was currently under control and would be put out shortly. In a statement from the incident site, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said that firemen were making a great effort in fighting the fire in accordance with an integrated plan that is being implemented on the ground.

He praised all efforts taken by everyone during

these difficult and dangerous times, affirming his appreciation and pride in what he witnessed from the firefighters, which embodies the national spirit that they were raised on. Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled praised to the Mighty Allah to protect Kuwait and its people from any harm. On his part, Col Yusuf Al-Ansari, the deputy general director for fire combat affairs and development of human resources at the general fire department said that the firefighters have controlled Amghara’s fire and were currently in the process of

putting it out. He noted that the fire would be completely put out within two hours, in which afterward there will be filling procedures using sand to cover ignited tires and prevent them from being ignited again. Al-Ansari praised firefighters’ huge efforts, as well as government sectors that participated in fighting the fire such as ministry of defense and national guards, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), ministry of interior, medical emergencies, municipality, and all citizens who took part in the process. — Agencies

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

local

Rising cost of living ‘greatest concern for youth in Mideast Arab Youth Survey

KUWAIT: Lulu Hypermarket, the largest retail and lifestyle shopping destination in Kuwait, unveiled the longest pizza ever made in the country at a function on Wednesday at the Al-Qurain branch of the hypermarket. The longest pizza, with a total length of 50 meters, was made by chefs at Lulu Hypermarket in association with the international Pizza Inn chain. The pizza was inaugurated by Rohit Mirchandani of Pizza Inn and Mohamed Harris, Regional Director of Lulu Hypermarket in front of a large gathering of shoppers, wellwishers and Lulu Hypermarket officials.

Mentally deranged woman attempts suicide KUWAIT: Hawally security officials have successfully prevented a suicide attempt by a mentally deranged woman in Salmiya. Police rushed to a building where a family member had reported that their daughter was attempting to jump from the fourth floor.

Some security personnel negotiated with the woman and convinced her to give up her deadly plan. The woman, who is in her twenties and suffers from an undisclosed mental illness, was taken to the psychiatric hospital for medical attention.

Landmine found Bomb disposal units have detonated a landmine found at a scrap yard in Abdullah Port. The units arrived to the scene shortly following an emergency call. After securing the area and detonating the explosive, the bomb squads swept the entire neighborhood looking for any further explosives.

Investigations revealed that the landmine was a remnant from the 1990/91 Iraqi Invasion.

Fugitive nabbed A fugitive wanted for two separate criminal cases was arrested in Salmiya during a recent security patrol mission. The Kuwaiti man was driving in the area when the patrol officers pulled him over. He was placed under arrest after police verified his ID and found out that he is wanted for an attempted murder case filed by his ex-wife, as well as other criminal case. The man argued during investigations that he isn’t aware of the attempted murder case, and that it is fabricated by his ex-wife to get him into trouble.

Teen held for thefts Mubarak Al-Kabeer detectives have arrested a teenager responsible for fifteen car thefts reported recently in Sabah AlSalem area. The detectives have noticed striking similarities between reported cases in which parked vehicles were broken into through their windows and had items stolen from inside. Investigators eventually identified a 19-year-old Kuwaiti man as a prime suspect, and he was soon arrested after being located near a Hawally Mall driving a

2011 SUV. The teenager admitted his crimes during investigations and explained that he specifically targeted customers of the area’s co-operative society.

Wife ‘punished’ Hawally police freed a Kuwaiti woman and her mother from an apartment where they were reportedly locked for at least six hours. The woman explained in the emergency call that her husband locked the door from outside “as a form of punishment” following a heated argument. The woman had reportedly tried to contact her husband but he had his cell phone switched off. She eventually called police after he failed to reply to her text messages in which she stated that she would seek police’s help if he doesn’t respond. A case was filed at the area’s police station.

Missing underage found A male driver was arrested recently at the Kabad Road with an underage girl reported missing by her family. The 16-year-old also confessed that she has been in an illegal relationship with the young man ever since he talked her into fleeing her family’s house.

Patrol officers had pulled the suspect over for illegal ‘window tinting’, and grew suspicious when they found a teenager sitting at the passenger’s seat. Police found out after verifying the man’s identity that he is wanted for money-related cases. The girl’s identity verification revealed that she was reported missing. The two were on their way to jakhour (livestock farm) in Kabad where the girl was reportedly offered a place to stay following her escape.

said, adding that France is a close friend and ally which has been a long history supporting human values.

He praised the head of the Program Professor Gilles Kepel a great advocate of Arab causes.

Al-Tarrah also hailed the late French sociologist Michel Seurat who was a staunch supporter of freedom and Arab causes till he was killed by a group of terrorists in Lebanon in 1986.

The workshop discussed the latest developments in Syria and the ongoing violence there.

The KFAS signed an agreement on a five-year cooperative program with the Fondation Nationale Des Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po) in 2007.

The agreement includes financing scientific researches, scholarships, training courses and exchange of professors and students on Middle East and Arab Gulf issues. — KUNA

have shared their profound concerns about the cost of living and the price of home ownership, to cite just two examples, they remain firmly optimistic. It is so heartening that when Arab youth look forward, they also continue to look up.”

“You can see the great promise of Arab youth throughout this survey: in the level of engagement in current affairs, in the sophisticated use of technology, and in the tempered expectations for the post-Arab Spring era,” said Jeremy Galbraith, CEO, Burson-Marsteller, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

“By charting the opinions of young Arab women and men from the modern cities of the oil-rich Gulf to rural areas in the Levant and North Africa,” Galbraith said, “the ASDA’A BursonMarsteller Arab Youth Survey provides evidencebased insights of great value to everyone with a stake in the future of this young and rapidly evolving region.”

“Since 2008, we have been conducting the most representative and authoritative study of the attitudes of young Arabs - polling opinion, analysing this data and then sharing these important findings with the public, including governments, private-sector firms and civil society groups,” said Sunil John, CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller. “We continue to make this signal investment in thought leadership - requiring a significant investment of our time, energy and capital - because we understand how important it is to be able to access reliable data here in the Middle East, where research into public opinion is in short supply.

“The ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2012 - the largest study we have conducted to date - provides a wide range of rich insights that will shape public opinion and the policy-making process,” John added. “We are proud to be able to make this contribution to the community we serve, and to the clients who place their trust in us every day.”

Key findings of the ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2012 include the following insights: •The rising cost of living is the greatest con-

cern among Middle East youth; 63% of Arab youth now say that they are “very concerned” about the cost of living, up from 57% last year, when this was also their greatest concern.

•41% of Arab youth say that the lack of democracy is the biggest obstacle facing the region; an equal percentage identify civil unrest as the biggest obstacle.

•72% of Middle East youth agree that, following the events of the Arab Spring, the region is better off today; 68% of Arab youth say they are also personally better off now than they were a year ago.

•Nearly three-quarters of Middle East youth believe their government has become more trustworthy and transparent since the events of the Arab Spring - at the same time that concerns about corruption have skyrocketed.

•A majority of young people in every Middle East state agrees that traditional values are paramount; however, the percentage of youth who say that such values are outdated and need to be replaced continues to increase.

•When Arab youth look across the region and the world, they see the United Arab Emirates as the country where they would most like to live and as the country they would most like their own nation to emulate.

•Young people in the Middle East today view France most favorably among all foreign nations, with 46% of respondents saying they are “very favorable” towards that nation; positive views of China and India have also increased.

•Arab youth are following the news far more keenly than ever before - with 52% of regional young people now saying they update themselves on news and current affairs every day, up from just 18% in 2011.

•Television remains the most important source of news for Arab youth, with 62% of respondents saying their turn on the TV to get their news - but that number has declined from 79% in 2011.

•Today, reading or writing blogs is the top online activity among young people in the region, with 61% saying they engage with blogs, up from only 29% in 2011.

Wataniya Telecom sponsored Cambridge English School’s graduation KUWAIT: Stemming from its continuous support to the educational sector in Kuwait, and as part of its leading social responsibility program, Wataniya Telecom has recently sponsored the high school graduation ceremony of Cambridge English School. The graduation ceremony was held at the Radisson SAS hotel in the attendance of academic figures and parents.

On the occasion, Abdolaziz Al-Balool, PR director of Wataniya Telecom, congratulated all students on their graduation wishing them all the best and continued success during their university years which is an important stage in their life that will eventually lead them to

become integral elements in the development of our country.

Al-Balool also added: “Wataniya Telecom strongly believes in the strong role the young generation will play in the future of our country, and this is why we seize all opportunities to show our support to the educational sector and the students while sharing with them joyous moments of their lives.” For more information on Wataniya Telecom’s offers and promotions please visit www.wataniya.com , or follow them on Twitter www.twitter.com/wataniyatelecom , or check latest updates on www.facebook.com/wataniya or check latest news on the blog www.wataniya.com/blog.

Kuwaiti ambassador discusses ties with Argentinean official

Infant drinks kerosene A Kuwaiti toddler has received immediate medical attention after consuming a toxic substance. The 2-year-old boy was reportedly left unattended when he made his way to the kitchen and drank from a kerosene bottle he mistook for a water bottle. He was rushed to the nearest medical facility after he collapsed shortly after the incident. He was taken to Al-Farwaniya Hospital where his condition was later stabilized.

Praise for KFAS-Sciences Po cooperative program PARIS: Kuwait Permanent Representative to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Dr Ali AlTarrah extolled yesterday that the cooperative program of Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) and the French University of Sciences Po. In a statement following his participation in a workshop hosted by the French University as a part of the cooperative program, Al-Tarrah said the program embodies the vision of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah and his support of science, culture and passion for Kuwait institutions’ interaction with international scientific institutions.

He added that the program shows Kuwait’s support of scientific and cultural cooperation with leading international scientific institutions.

“We are proud of the important contribution of Kuwait to the programs of Arab and international scientific institutions,” he

KUWAIT: Earning a fair wage and owning a home are now the two highest priorities for young people in the Middle East - displacing “living in a democracy” as the greatest aspiration of regional youth, according to the findings of the ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2012, the largest study of its kind of the region’s largest demographic. Informed by 2,500 interviews conducted by international polling firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) in 12 Middle East states one year after the start of the Arab Spring, the findings of the Fourth Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey highlight how larger political concerns have now been superseded by more personal, economic anxieties.

Today, being paid a fair wage is not only the highest collective priority among those surveyed - with 82 per cent of all Arab youth citing it as “very important” - but is also the highest individual priority in each of the 12 countries covered.

Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents who said that living in a democratic country is “very important” to them declined by 10 percentage points in the 2012 survey. This year, 58 per cent of Arab youth said that this is “very important” to them, down from 68 per cent in 2011.

These findings and others were unveiled today in Dubai at the launch of the ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2012. The survey includes face-to-face interviews with Arabs between the ages of 18-24 in the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), as well as in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and, for the first time, Libya and Tunisia. These interviews, which were conducted exclusively with nationals of each of the surveyed countries, took place in December 2011 and January 2012.

“Eighteen months after the start of the Arab Spring, we all know that Middle East youth are committed to forging an even brighter future,” said Joseph Ghossoub, Chairman and CEO of the MENACOM Group, regional parent of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller. “While these young people

BUENOS AIRES: Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdel-Aziz Al-Roumi with Argentina’s Vice President and Senate President Amado Boudou.

BUENOS AIRES: Kuwaiti ambassador to the Argentines Abdel-Aziz Al-Roumi held talks with Argentina’s Vice President and Senate President Amado Boudou on means of improving bilateral relations between Kuwait and Argentina, according to a statement released by the embassy to the Argentines yesterday.

The senior official, during the meeting asked the diplomat to convey his greetings to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah. The ambassador touched on crucial issues of common concern for the two countries, namely the accord for averting double taxation, protection of investments, cooperation in technology and commerce, as well as resuming mutual visits by officials of the two states. In a statement following the meeting, ambassador Al-Roumi indicated at heavy responsibilities, shouldered by the chief senator, noting his significant experience in the economic field due to his service as former minister of economy.

Al-Roumi presented the vice president with a memorial award, a gold bar engraved with photo of HH the Amir.— KUNA

Kuwait, Cambodia to boost ties KUALA LUMPUR: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Cambodia Dherar Al-Tuwaijri held talks on Thursday with Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasith and Minister of Education, Youth, and Sport Im Sethy with the meetings focusing on mutual cooperation between Kuwait and the Kingdom.

The ambassador said they discussed

efforts to boost cooperation between the two nations. Al-Tuwaijri added that the meeting focused on activating deals and accords signed between the two nations in previous years. On their parts, the Cambodian officials lauded relations with Kuwait, affirming that their country was eager to boost relations on all possible levels. —KUNA

KUALA LUMPUR: Ambassador Dherar Al-Tuwaijri pictured with a Cambodian official.

NBK Instagram competition winners KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announced the winners of its competition on Instagram Merzar Beij, Rose Abbas and Zahraa Abdullah each won valuable cash prizes.

“The competition awarded a valuable cash prize to one winner each week for three weeks,” said NBK Public Relations Officer Badria Al Reshaid, “ The conBadria Al Reshaid cept behind this competition was to send a picture related to the theme of the week. The picture that received the most likes was announced as the winner.”

NBK launched its official page on Instagram late last year, and is among the first regional banks to establish a strong social media presence, with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Google + pages devoted to customer feedback and engagement.

NBK’s Instagram page currently has more than 4,000 followers.

NBK is keen to support customers through all channels and views social media networks as important aspects for supporting the lifestyle and banking habits of NBK clients. For more information regarding banking transactions, events and competitions check out National Bank of Kuwait official facebook page NBK - Official Page or follow NBK on Twitter @NBKPage, and on Instagram @NBKPage

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

Mass arrests in Egypt after deadly clashes Page 8

Afghan girl’s torturers get 10 years jail Page 11

Blasts rock Damascus, toll mounts Nine dead during demonstrations, funerals DAMASCUS: Two explosions rocked central Damascus yesterday, a watchdog said, a day after Syrian security forces killed at least 30 civilians despite the presence of UN observers. “One bomb exploded in As-Saura Street,” an key commercial artery in the capital, while the location for the other was uncertain, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. Abdel Rahman, speaking on the phone from Britain where his rights watchdog is based, accused the government of carrying out the bombings to prevent people attending funerals for nine civilians k illed in Damascus on Friday.

The nine died during demonstrations and funerals in the neighbourhoods Kfar Sousa and Tadamon. “This is the highest death toll we have seen inside Damascus” since a ceasefire took hold in April 12, added Abdel Rahman, whose group says more than 600 people have been killed nationwide during the tenous truce.

Opposition bloc the Syrian National Council called in a statement early Saturday on the UN observers to visit Kfar Sousa and Tadamon, “where the funerals of the martyrs killed Friday will be held.”

The peace agreement was brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, whose office said Friday that his peace plan was “on track.” Under the six-point plan, the government of embattled President Bashar alAssad is supposed to withdraw its troops and heavy weapons from urban areas and allow peaceful demonstrations.

On Friday, protesters emerged from

mosques after weekly prayers across the country, calling for Assad’s ouster, said the Syrian Obser vator y for Human Rights.

Among Friday’s casualties were a couple and their child shot dead in the northern city of Aleppo, scene of a bloody regime raid the day before in which four university students died.

Another 200 students were arrested in what the Observatory said could prove a turning point of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria’s second city and commercial hub, largely spared the violence so far.

Troops also shot at demonstrators in various other cities and towns, activists said.

Opposition ac tivists had called for the protests under the rallying cry: “Our commitment (to the revolution) is our salvation.”

Anti-regime demonstrations have been staged after prayers each Friday since the revolt against Assad’s iron-fisted rule erupted in March 2011. An amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed demonstrators in Irbin, a town in Damascus province, carrying a banner that read: “Dear observers, thank you for your visit and goodbye.”

“One year of killings and you still need observers to know the truth? Enough lies,” read another banner carried by protesters in a neighbourhood of the capital. Overall, the Obser vator y estimates that more than 11,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the revolt against Assad’s regime.

Abu Omar, an activist in the Damascus region, told AFP via Skype that it was clear government troops were not intimidated by

the presence of UN observers. “The security forces seem very much at ease with the situation, as though they’ve been given the green light to go on with the crackdown,” he said.

He added that in some regions around the capital, government checkpoints had been beefed up rather than drawn down.

Major General Robert Mood, who heads the UN mission to oversee the hard-won ceasefire agreement, had issued an appeal late Thursday for the Assad regime to make the first move to end the violence.

“The strongest party needs to make the first move,” he told reporters in Syria, stressing he was referring to the government and army. “They have the strength, they have the position and they also have the potential generosity to make the first step in a good direction,” he said.

The official SANA news agenc y said observers on Friday visited Latakia on the coast, the northwest Idlib province, the central city of Hama and the village of Tal Kalakh near the border with Lebanon. In Geneva, Kofi Annan’s spokesman said his peace plan was “on track.” “The Annan plan is on track and a crisis that has been going on for over a year is not going to be resolved in a day or a week,” Ahmad Fawzi told journalists. “ There are signs on the ground of movement, albeit slow and small.

“Some heavy weapons have been withdrawn, some heavy weapons remain. Some violence has receded, some violence continues. And that is not satisfactory, I’m not saying it is,” Fawzi said. — AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

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

Iran upholds rights lawyer’s 9-year jail term TEHRAN: Iran’s judiciary has upheld a nine-year prison sentence it handed human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadk hah for ac ting against national security, the lawyer said yesterday. “The sentence comprises of a nine-year prison term, a 10-year ban on practicing law and teaching at university, and a whipping sentence which changed into a fine of 25 million rials ($1,500),” Dadkhah told AFP. Dadkhah said the sentence was passed “for breach of national security and membership in the Human Rights Defenders Centre,” adding

that he was awaiting written notification of the decision. S everal lawyers from the Centre, founded by Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms under the same charges, as well as “propaganda against the Islamic regime.”

London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International urged the Iranian authorities to annul the sentence. “Mohammad Ali Dadkhah’s only crime is to have defended the rights of others,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“He should not even have been on trial in the first place and his sentence should be quashed immediately,” she said in a statement.

Dadkhah has represented Ebrahim Yazdi, the elderly head of a banned opposition party and former foreign minister, and Yousef Nadarkhani, a Christian clergyman facing the death penalty for apostasy.

The rights lawyer told AFP that he had learned by chance on April 28 that the sentence originally handed down to him in July 2011 had been upheld on appeal. “I was told orally last Saturday about the sentence when I

went to court to defend a client of mine. I was told... that my sentences have been upheld,” he said, adding he has yet to receive written confirmation.

Dadkhah said he appealed the ruling because he had not committed “any crime,” and would continue to fight to try to have it removed. He also stressed that he does not plan to leave Iran to escape imprisonment. A dozen lawyers defending human rights cases and opposition members are currently imprisoned in Iran, according to Amnesty International, which describes them as prisoners of conscience. — AFP

Iranian lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah

Mass arrests in Egypt after deadly clashes Women detainees to be released

CAIRO: Ahmed Kattan, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Egypt, is guided to a waiting car after his arrival in Cairo, Egypt, yesterday. Saudi Arabia’s ambassador has returned to Cairo a week after he was recalled following a wave of protests against the detention of an Egyptian lawyer, the embassy said yesterday. — AP

Saudi ambassador returns to Egypt

CAIRO: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Egypt returned to Cairo yesterday, Egyptian airport officials said, almost a week after he was recalled in a rare diplomatic row between the long-time allies. Ambassador Ahmed Abdulaziz Kattan was withdrawn in response to street protests in Cairo against the arrest of an Egyptian lawyer in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt sent a large parliamentary delegation to Riyadh this week to help rebuild ties with the Gulf kingdom which has promised $2.7 billion to support battered Egyptian finances. Yesterday, Saudi

Arabia confirmed its plans to send aid.

“We’re taking procedures to execute the aid budget,” Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf told reporters after a meeting of Gulf Arab finance ministers in Riyadh.

Previously strong ties between Riyadh and Cairo were strained by last year’s uprising in Egypt that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak who was close to the Saudi leadership. The rising power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has also worried many in the Gulf who fear the spread of its influence. — Reuters

Ahmadinejad rivals rout president in Iran runoff TEHRAN: Supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been reduced to a small fraction in Iran’s legislature, hugely outnumbered by the conservatives who once backed him but then turned against him after he was perceived to challenge the authority of top clerics, according to final results from a runoff parliamentary election announced yesterday.

Iran has touted the turnout for Friday’s vote as a show of support for the country’s religious leadership in their confrontation with the West over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program. The result is also a new humiliation for Ahmadinejad, whose political decline started last year with his bold but failed challenge of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the choice of intelligence chief.

While usually in agreement with the conservatives on foreign policy and many other issues, he had tried to change the rules of the political game in the Islamic Republic, where the president and legislature are subordinate to religious figures like Khamenei.

Ahmadinejad’s opponents had already won an outright majority in the 290-member legislature in the first round of voting in March. Of 65 seats for grabs in Friday’s runoff election, Ahmadinejad’s opponents won 41 while the president’s supporters got only 13 seats. Independents won 11, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency yesterday. The president’s supporters had their best showing in the capital Tehran. Ahmadinejad’s conservatives critics won 16 seats while his supporters nine.

Iran’s major reformist parties, who oppose both Ahmadinejad and the conservatives, mostly did not field candidates.

The new parliament will begin its sessions

in late May. It has no direct control over key foreign and security policy matters like Iran’s nuclear program, but it can influence those issues and economic policies as well as the run-up to the election of Ahmadinejad’s successor.

The results suggest Ahmadinejad will face a more belligerent parliament in the remaining time of his second four-year term in office that ends August 2013. His allies are likely to be ousted from key posts, and his plan to cut economic subsidies challenged.

Iran’s media has claimed that the turnout yesterday matched that of the initial round of voting on March 2, when 64 percent of voters reportedly cast ballots.

“Mass turnout in runoff parliamentary elections,” declared a front-page headline in the government-run Iran Daily. Iranian leaders have showcased the high voter turnout as a sign of trust in the clerical-led system and rejection of Western pressure over the nuclear issue. The West suspects Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and is demanding that Iran stop uranium enrichment. Iran has refused, saying its program is aimed at power generation and cancer treatment.

“The vote is support for the ruling system as it faces the US and its allies over the nuclear program ... The vote also means that tensions will increase between Ahmadinejad and his opponents in the incoming parliament,” political analyst Ali Reza Khamesian said.

Khamesian said Ahmadinejad was gradually fading from Iran’s political scene, but could still stir up conflict with parliament.

“Ahmadinejad is the losing party. So, he will try to create tensions in the hope of getting concessions,” he said.— AP

MANAMA: Bahraini girls take part in an anti-government protest in the Shiite village of Barbar on the western outskirts of the Bahraini capital Manama yesterday. — AFP

CAIRO: Egypt’s military yesterday ordered 300 people detained after deadly clashes between troops and anti-army protesters in Cairo and imposed a new curfew, as tensions spiral ahead of a key presidential poll.

The arrests were announced as the country’s ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi attended an unprecedented public funeral for a soldier killed in the clashes.

Military prosecutors said the 300, including nine journalists, “will be held for 15 days pending investigation” into clashes in the Abbassiya district on Friday that left two people including a soldier dead and at least 300 injured.

Hours later, a military source told AFP all the women detained will be released. “ The military judiciary has decided to release all the women,” he said. He did not say how many women were detained but activists put the number at between 14 and 17.

The army also imposed an overnight cur few around the defence ministry for a second successive night, from 2100 GMT on Saturday until 0400 GMT on Sunday, a military source and state television said.

After hours of overnight questioning, those held were accused of assaulting army officers and soldiers, assembling in a military zone and preventing members of the armed forces from carrying out their work, the source said.

They all denied the charges.

The clashes erupted just three weeks ahead of Egypt’s first presidential election since a popular uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak last year. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has vowed to hand power to civilian rule when a president is elected. But protesters believe the army wants to maintain a degree of power even after the election and fear the polls will rigged in favour of a pro-military candidate.

In Cairo, Tantawi attended the funeral of Samir Anwar Ismail, who died in the clashes. Tantawi and his deputy Sami Enan joined the procession after the funeral prayer for Ismail, a member of a special forces unit, his comrades

CAIRO: Egypt’s military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi (L) attends the funeral of a member of Egypt’s special forces in Cairo yesterday who was killed in clashes between troops and anti-military protesters the previous day. — AFP soldiers and armoured personnel We don’t trust them. SCAF is foltold AFP. A horse-drawn carriage bore carriers blocking off a road to the lowing Mubarak’s example, and we want to protect the revoluthe coffin behind honour guards ministry.

Officials at Al-Zahra University tion,” said Mohammed Badawi carrying wreaths as Tantawi, Enan and other SCAF members fol- hospital said on Friday they from Ismailiya, a member of the lowed with the family of the dead received two people killed in the Coalition of Revolution Youth.

The Abbassiya neighbourhood soldier. The military had in the ministry clashes.

The health ministry said only witnessed deadly clashes just two past refused to disclose their casualties in clashes with protest- the soldier died, while at least 296 days earlier, which the health ers, saying it did not want to people were hurt, including 131 ministry said left at least nine who needed hospital treatment. people dead, although field affect army morale.

But it made an exception with Earlier on Friday, military police medics say more died. On Ismail because “his death at the had charged the protesters, chas- Wednesday, unknown attackers hands of protesters represents a ing them down side streets near also stormed a sit-in near the clear attack on the army,” an offi- the ministry on foot and in mili- defence ministry by supporters of cer told AFP. Media called for an tary vehicles, firing birdshot and Salafist politician Hazem Abu end to the violence, with state- assault rifles into the air amid Ismail, after he was disqualified from the presidential race. owned newspapers urging pro- chaotic scenes.

Other candidates include forThick smoke engulfed testers to confine their demonstrations to Tahrir Square-the epi- Abbassiya square, where several mer Arab League chief Amr centre of the uprising that top- thousand secular and Islamist Mussa and Mubarak’s last premier protesters had gathered. The Ahmed Shafiq. The power ful pled Mubarak.

“Tahrir is calling Abbassiya: go clashes began when some pro- Muslim Brotherhood has fielded back to the square,” the state- testers threw rocks at the military the head of its political arm owned Al-Gomhuriya said on its police. The unrest comes ahead of Mohammed Mursi whose main front page. “Enough Blood,” said the landmark presidential poll Islamist rival is Abdel Moneim Fotouh, a former the government owned Al- amid fears by many Egyptians Abul that the military rulers will renege Brotherhood member. The presiAkhbar.

By yesterday morning, after an on a pledge to hand power to dential election is scheduled for overnight curfew ended at 0500 civilian rule after the election and May 23 and 24 with a run-off for June 16 and 17 if there is no outGMT, protests had subsided in that the vote will be rigged.

“We are here to end SCAF rule. right winner. —AFP the defence ministry area, with

striking prisoners hospitalized JERUSALEM: Ten Palestinian prisoners participating in a mass hunger strike in Israeli jails were placed under medical supervision as their conditions worsened, officials said yesterday. The ten men are among 1,500 to 2,500 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike to demand better conditions and an end to detention without trial.

Although Israeli officials and Palestinians give different numbers of hunger strikers, it is still one of the largest prison protests in years. It involves a quarter to a half of all Palestinians held in Israeli jails, estimated at some 4,600 people. The reasons for their detentions range from throwing stones to killing civilians in brutal militant attacks.

Most them began refusing food 19 days ago, but a smaller core have been striking longer, from periods of time ranging from 40 to almost 70 days. Prison spokeswoman Sivan Weizeman said the 10 were transferred to a prison clinic for medical supervision. Weizeman did not say when they were transferred or what medical treatment they are currently receiving.

Sahar Francis of Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner rights group, said the men were moved at different times last week. She said the men under medical supervision were those who had been on hunger strike the longest.

Another prisoner, Bilal Diab, was moved to a civilian hospital last week. He has refused food for 68 days so far. The prisoners’ chief demands are a halt to imprisonment without charges for periods ranging from months to years, in a system called “administrative detention.”

They are also demanding an end to solitary confinement, and reinstating family visits from Gaza. They also have smaller demands, such as being allowed to take a photo with their families once a year, instead of just once during their prison term.—AP

Bahrain says home-made bomb wounds 4 policemen DUBAI: An improvised bomb explosion wounded four Bahraini policemen on Saturday, a police commander said, as protesters demanding the release of a rights activist who has been on hunger strike for three months clashed again with police.

Unrest has racked Bahrain for more t h a n a ye a r, w i t h m a i n l y m a j o r i t y Shi’ite protesters demanding more democracy and an end to what they see as discrimination in the Sunniruled k ingdom. “ The officers were dealing with saboteurs who were terrorising citizens .. and damaging public and private property,” Public Security Chief Major-General Tariq alHassan told the state -run Bahrain News Agency.

One policeman was critically wounded by the early morning blast in the village of Bani Jamra, west of the capital Manama, and the others suffered burns, Hassan said. Daily protests to demand the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja have been taking place across the small Gulf Arab i s l a n d s t a t e, w h i c h c r u s h e d m a s s street protests last year with the help of troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that it had received requests for financial aid from Bahrain under a facility set

up by Gulf Arab states during the Arab uprisings last year. “We are now discussing (last year’s aid pledge) and we have actually received some requests... from Bahrain, and we will b e f i n a l i s i n g t h e f i n a n ce p a c k a g e with them,” Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf told reporters after a meeting of finance ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh.

The six-member bloc agreed last year to give $10 billion to Oman and B a h r a i n , t wo o f i t s m e m b e r s t h a t faced unrest inspired by uprisings which have toppled four Arab autocrats. Western human rights groups say Khawaja and 13 other opposition figures in prison for their role in last year’s protests are prisoners of conscience and should be freed. Last month the Formula One grand prix returned to Bahrain despite protests.

Last year it was postponed, reinstated and then cancelled due to the uprising and bloody crackdown.

Bahrain’s k ing ratified constitutional reforms on Thursday that the government hopes will help end a year of protests, but the main opposition party denounced them as inadequate and said the struggle for democratic reforms would continue in the island state, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet. — Reuters

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

i n t e r n at i o n a l

Thousands of stranded S Sudanese to be flown home KHARTOUM: Up to 15,000 ethnic South Sudanese who have been encamped in crowded conditions in Sudan will be flown to South Sudan, avoiding a May 20 expulsion deadline by local authorities, the IOM said yesterday.

“We hope to start within a week,” Jill Helke, who heads the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) office in Khartoum, told AFP. The IOM estimates that 12,000-15,000 South Sudanese are in the Kosti way-station about 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Khartoum.

Many have been living in makeshift shelters or barn-like buildings, waiting for months for their transport home.

The governor of the area declared the

migrants a security threat and initially gave them a May 5 deadline to leave, a decision that sparked concern from the United Nations and the IOM, which has already helped to return thousands of South Sudanese.

Sudanese officials last week extended the deadline to May 20 but the IOM, in a written statement, said it has now been assured by the government in Khartoum that the deadline “would not be enforced, given that a firm departure plan was now in place.”

The South Sudanese in Kosti are among about 350,000 ethnic Southerners whom the South Sudanese embassy estimates remain in the north

after an April 8 deadline for them to either formalise their status or leave Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of others have already gone to the South, which separated last July.

IOM said that all the Southerners in Kosti are dependent on assistance from the international community for food, water, healthcare and other essential services and most do not have their own means to arrange transportation.

“The aircraft are already lined up and ready,” Helke told AFP, adding that the passengers will be brought by bus from Kosti to the airport in Khartoum shortly before their departure.

“The planes will keep going twice or

three times a day,” she said. IOM, which is dependent on donor funding, has money for about half the flights “but we’re working on trying to get the rest,” she added.

The IOM had plans for moving thousands of people from Kosti by barge but Sudan’s military expressed security concerns. “Of course, there is an element of mistrust between South and nor th,” South Sudan’s ambassador in Khartoum, Kau Nak, told AFP last week.

A month of deadly clashes between militaries of the north and South along the disputed border culminated in South Sudan’s 10-day occupation of the north’s main Heglig oil field.

Polls open in France’s overseas territories Sarkozy predicts a ‘surprise’ PARIS: Voters in France’s overseas territories began casting ballots for Nicolas Sarkozy or Francois Hollande yesterday in a presidential election that could affect everything from Europe’s efforts to fight its debt crisis to how long French troops stay in Afghanistan.

The final polls show Sarkozy making up ground on his Socialist challenger before today’s election in France - but still suggest a Hollande victory. Campaigning and the release of poll data have been suspended until the results of the run-off election come in today evening.

Sarkozy predicts a “surprise” and Hollande is urging voters to avoid complacency as the bitter campaign neared its climax, driven by fears about joblessness, immigration and France’s economic future.

Hollande spent the weekend in Tulle, the town in central France where he has his electoral base as legislator and one-time mayor.

Greeting shoppers in a market, Hollande said he was “confident, but not sure” when asked about his chances of becoming France’s next president.

“We wait for Sunday, I speak only about Sunday. Monday is another day,” Hollande said.

Sarkozy as spending the day at home with his family in Paris. Under a quirk of French electoral rules, balloting got under way yesterday in France’s embassies and overseas holdings, starting in tiny Saint Pierre and Miquelon - islands south of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The election’s outcome will impact on Europe’s efforts to fight its debt crisis, how long French

troops stay in Afghanistan and how France exercises its military and diplomatic muscle around the world. Sarkozy, disliked by many voters for his handling of the economy, promised he could come out victorious today. Speaking on Europe-1 radio Friday, he said much will depend on whether French voters bother to cast ballots in an election that polls have always predicted Hollande would win. But he also sounded increasingly philosophical and prepared for possible defeat. Asked Friday what he would do if he loses, Sarkozy said simply, “there will be a handover of power.”

“The nation follows its course.

The nation is stronger than the destiny of the men who serve it,” he

said. “The fact that the campaign is ending is more of a relief than a worry.” Hollande urged his followers against complacency. “Victory is within our grasp!” he said in a rousing rally in the southern city of Toulouse on Thursday night.

Polls released Friday and Thursday show the gap between the candidates shrinking but results still solidly in Hollande’s favor. A poll by the BVA agency shows 52.5 percent support for Hollande and 47.5 percent for Sarkozy. A poll by the agency CSA shows 53 percent for Hollande and 47 percent for Sarkozy.

For both polling agencies, that was the smallest spread registered in the campaign, which a few months ago saw polls predicting

TULLE: French Socialist President of the Correze department General Council, Francois Hollande (L), flanked by his companion Valerie Trierweiler, answers to journalists after visiting the market in Tulle, southwestern France, on the eve of the 2012 French presidential election’s final round. — AFP

Hollande winning by a crushing 60 percent to Sarkozy’s 40. The margin of error on each poll was plus or minus 2-3 percent. BVA questioned 2,161 people by telephone Thursday. CSA questioned 1,123 people by telephone Thursday. The polls were carried out after the candidates’ only debate Wednesday night, which Sarkozy had hoped would be the knockout blow he needed.

Hollande has won the support of a prominent centrist who won 9 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential elections, Francois Bayrou. Bayrou said Thursday night he would not give his voters specific guidance for Sunday’s vote - but that he will cast a ballot for Hollande.

Bayrou criticized Sarkozy’s campaign rhetoric as too violent.

Sarkozy has sought to lure far-right voters who supported anti-immigrant candidate Marine Le Pen in the first round. Sarkozy kept it up anyway Thursday at a big campaign rally in Toulon.

“We don’t want different tribes, we don’t want ethnic communities to turn in on themselves, we don’t want (non-citizen) immigrants to vote,” he said. Critics of Sarkozy have often faulted him for his brash style, alleged chumminess with the rich and inability to reverse France’s tough economic fortunes and nearly double-digit jobless rate. Hollande has promised more government spending and higher taxes - including a 75-percent income tax on the rich - and wants to renegotiate a European treaty on trimming budgets to avoid more debt crises of the kind facing Greece.— AP

Greek election critical and uncertain ATHENS: Greeks head to the polls today in their most critical - and uncertain election in decades, with voters set to punish the two main parties that are being held responsible for the country’s dire economic straits.

Such is the disillusionment with the socialist PASOK party and conservative New Democracy, which have been alternating in power for the last 38 years, that neither is expected to garner enough votes to form a government. Days of wrangling over forming a coalition will likely ensue, with the prospect - alarming to Greece’s lenders and much of the country’s population - of another round of elections if they fail.

Public anger has been so high that politicians have been forced to maintain lowprofile campaigns for fear of physical attacks on the streets in a country battered by business closures and hundreds of thousands of job losses.

The last opinion polls published before a two-week blackout ahead of the election showed PASOK and New Democracy hemorrhaging support since the last election in 2009. Their support has reached historic lows,

plunging to percentages last seen in the mid-1970s after the 1974 fall of the sevenyear military dictatorship.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Entirely dependent on billions of euros worth of international rescue loans from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund, Greece must impose yet more austerity measures next month, if it is to keep the money flowing and prevent a default and a potentially disastrous exit from the euro.

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras is expected to come in first, thereby benefiting from a bonus 50 seats in the 300-member parliament. But even with that he would fall far short of the 151 seats needed to form a government. Opinion polls projected him winning not more than 25.5 percent. PASOK, which stormed to victory in the last parliamentary election in 2009 with more than 43 percent and George Papandreou at its helm, has seen its support collapse over the past two years.

Now headed by former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, it is fighting off a challenge by anti-bailout leftwing parties, with opinion polls projecting PASOK to win

between 14.5 and 19 percent.

If that happens, it would be the lowest since November 1974, when the party won 13.5 percent just two months after being founded.

Venizelos warned that Greece faces default and mass poverty if voters back anti-bailout parties. “Sunday will decide whether we remain in Europe and the euro, and we stay on a course that is difficult but safe, after having covered most of the distance, to finally emerge from the crisis and (austerity),” he said during his final campaign rally in central Athens on Friday night.

“Or it will (determine) whether we embark on an adventure, sliding back many decades and taking the country to default, to leave Greeks facing mass poverty.”

Repeated rounds of tax increases and reductions of salaries and pensions over the past two years have seen the country mired in a fifth year of recession and unemployment spiral to above 21 percent. The backlash has seen voters turn to smaller groups and mostly antibailout offshoots created by disgruntled deputies who rebelled rather than vote in favor of the measures.

“This whole situation has

destroyed our dreams,” said Haris Manolis, a worker at a steel factory where employees have been on strike for six months to protest layoffs and wage cuts. “We have no more dreams. We have one: to overturn them so that we can make new ones. That’s it.”

Up to an unprecedented 10 parties have been projected to win more than the 3

percent minimum threshold for a parliamentary seat.

That includes the extreme right Golden Dawn, which has been riding high on the emotive issue of illegal immigration, promising to clean up crime-ridden, ghetto like city neighborhoods and mine the country’s borders to stop more migrants getting in.— AP

Sudan declared on April 20 that its troops had forced the Southern soldiers out of Heglig, but the South said it withdrew of its own accord in line with international calls amid fears of all-out war.

Nak said Khartoum was asking for guarantees the barges would not carry military equipment on their return trips after delivering the human cargo. Since last year the IOM has helped return more than 23,000 Southerners, mostly by river barge. The United Nations Security Council last week ordered Sudan and South Sudan to cease hostilities, and to resume negotiations on unresolved issues including the status of each country’s nationals in the other country. — AFP

Moscow to host rival rallies ahead of Putin’s inauguration MOSCOW: Vladimir Putin supporters unveiled plans yesterday to draw more than 50,000 people onto the streets of Moscow in a show of force ahead of the strongman’s inauguration to a third term as president.

Russia’s current prime minister will take back the Kremlin seat he already held from 2000-2008 during a swearing in ceremony on Monday that follows his thumping March 4 election win against only a token opposition.

The margin of his victory took much the steam out of mass protests that swept Moscow in the winter months and seemed to briefly catch the authorities by surprise. But the nascent protest movement now intends to hold a self-proclaimed “March of Millions” here today that was authorised by the city after weeks of negotiations but officially limited to just 5,000 people.

A coalition of Putin supporters said they needed no permit from Moscow officials to gather more than 50,000 people for a surprise “celebration” at Victory Park-a site dedicated to Russia’s defeat of Napoleon in 1812. The event was timed to coincide with the oneyear anniversary of Putin’s decision to create a new movement called the All-Russian People’s Front (ONF).

The group is tipped to become Putin’s primary base of power during the first of what could potentially become two new six-year terms for the 59-year-old leader. A top city official said Putin’s group did not need permission to bring out such large numbers onto a public square because “what they will be having is not a meeting or a march or a protest.”

“It will be a mass cultural event,” Moscow regional security department head Alexei Mironov told Russian news agencies. The entire transition of power from outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev to Putin has been tightly scripted over the coming few days. The winter protests were in large part

fuelled by the Soviet-styled job swap agreement that Putin and Medvedev struck last year without any public debate.

The plan will see Putin nominate Medvedev-picked by the ex-KGB spy to fill his Kremlin seat while Russia engineered constitutional changes that would allow him to run for president again-for parliamentary confirmation Tuesday. Medvedev was expected to visit parliament only hours after Putin’s swearing in ceremony to complete consultations under which his candidacy would then be swiftly approved on Tuesday after 3:00 pm (1100 GMT). Russia’s two leaders-their role reversal successfully completed-were then largely expected to oversee the country’s nationally-televised May 9 military parade on Red Square commemorating victory in World War II. — AFP

MOSCOW: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, and President-elect, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a meeting with government officials and lawmakers in the Kremlin in Moscow, yesterday.—AP

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SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

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

Suspect forgotten in cell four days survives SAN DIEGO: After questioning him, federal agents told the college student swept up in a drug raid to hang tight in the holding cell while they finished the paperwork to release him. Daniel Chong grew annoyed as he waited hours for them to return. He was livid after spending the night there. He screamed and kicked the door.

Then as the days dragged on, the terrifying realization set in that he was trapped. He had been forgotten in a 5-by-10-foot windowless room, hearing only the muffled sounds of voices and toilets flushing in the Drug Enforcement Administration facility in San Diego.

On the third day, he began to hallucinate.

He urinated on a metal bench to be able to drink his urine. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on the bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, futilely swatting at it with his cuffed hands to set it off.

Then, the 23-year-old says he gave up and accepted death. He bit into his eyeglass-

es to break them. He says he used a shard of glass to carve “Sorry Mom” onto his arm so he could leave something for her. He managed to finish an “S.” He says he considered ending his life with the glass to quicken his death.

“I pretty much lost my mind,” he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Help came after four days, when agents on a fluke opened the door and found him covered in his own feces. He says a bewildered agent asked: “Where’d you come from?”

Chong spent five days in the hospital for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated esophagus. He had lost 15 pounds. His attorneys filed a $20 million claim on Wednesday against the federal agency, saying his treatment constitutes torture under US and international law. The five-page notice, a required precursor to a lawsuit, was sent to the DEA’s chief counsel in Washington, D.C. The $20 million figure refers to the maximum amount that Chong and his lawyers would seek.

The top DEA agent in San Diego, William R. Sherman, said in a statement that he was “deeply troubled” by what happened to Chong and has personally ordered an extensive review of his office’s policies and procedures. The agency declined to say what those were.

Chong was not going to be charged with a crime and should have been released, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the DEA case and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.

Chong said he has no criminal record. The incident was one of the worst cases of its kind, said Thomas Beauclair, deputy director of the National Corrections Institute, a federal agency that provides training and technical assistance to corrections agencies.

“That is pretty much unheard of,” he said, noting that, in his 40-year career, he has heard of instances where people were forgotten overnight but not for days. A federal law enforcement official familiar with DEA

operations said the agency’s protocols require that cells be checked each night.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the cell where Chong was held is not intended for overnight stays because it does not have a toilet.

Federal lawmakers are demanding a thorough investigation. US Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. “Please provide me with the results and the actions the department will take to make sure those responsible are held accountable and that no one in DEA custody will ever again be forced to endure such treatment,” the letter stated.

Chong said no one has contacted him personally to apologize. Chong told the AP his ordeal started after he went to his friend’s house on April 20 to get high, part of a national, annual countercultural ritual on that date. Chong slept there that night and, the next morning, agents stormed into the

house. The raid netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Nine people, including Chong, were taken into custody, according to the DEA. Chong was questioned, then agents told him he was not a suspect and would be released shortly. At one point, he ripped a piece of his jacket off with his teeth and shoved it under the door, hoping someone would spot it and free him.

Chong said he ingested a white powder that he found in the cell. Agents later identified it as methamphetamine. Chong said he ingested it to survive. The next day, hallucinations started, he said. They included Japanese animation characters who told him to dig into the walls to search for water, which he tried, tearing apart the wall’s plastic lining.

People can die from dehydration in as little as three to seven days, said Dr. Wally Ghurabi at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica. Ghurabi said Chong was wise to drink his own urine to stay hydrated. —AP

Obama ‘Ready to Go’ with first campaign rallies Obama leads over Romney with a three-point lead WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama holds his first official reelection rallies yesterday at an unfortunate moment, as signs of the strong economic rebound he hopes to ride to a second term seem to be dimming.

Introduced by popular First Lady Michelle Obama, the president will seek to fire up the vast army of supporters that swept him into the White House four years ago, with “Ready to Go” ral-

unemployment, and sluggish growth has robbed him of the argument that he has restored nationwide prosperity. But Obama plans to make the case that he averted a second Great Depression and that his rich Republican foe Mitt Romney wants to return to the policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and low regulation that unleashed the crisis.

“I don’t think we should priori-

appearing with popular former president Bill Clinton that every candidate said their next election was the most important in US history, but then turned serious.

“But let me tell you this one matters. This one matters. This one matters,” he said. An average of national opinion polls by the RealClearPolitics website shows Obama with a narrow three point lead over Romney — 47 to 44 percent-six months before

COLUMBUS: President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama greet people who gathered for their arrival at Rickenbacker International Airport yesterday in Columbus, Ohio. —AP lies in swing states Ohio and Virginia. The president is an older, wiser and perhaps less exciting candidate than the exhilarating prophet of hope and change who rocketed to prominence when he launched his first presidential campaign on a chilly winter day in 2007.

He is scarred by three-and-ahalf years of political combat in hyper-partisan Washington and the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, which doused the euphoria which greeted his historic 2008 election win.

Now, Obama faces a complicated reelection fight in a polarized nation haunted by high

tize things like more tax cuts for millionaires while cutting the kinds of investments that built a strong middle class,” he said in his weekly address.

He will also sketch a vision of an economy that benefits all Americans, not just the rich, and laud his foreign and security policies, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, which he says have kept Americans safe.

Republicans have scoffed at Obama’s “official” launch, accusing him of conducting months of campaigning under the guise of official events linked to his presidential duties.

Obama joked last week while

election day on November 6.

The president’s approval rating generally sits in the high 40s, just below the 50 percent figure that presidents need to feel confident about reelection. Obama seems to have an easier route to power than Romney on the US political map, with a number of credible paths to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election in a dozen or so battleground states.

The president is seen as more likable than Romney in most polls, and enjoys edges on national security, and among crucial demographic groups like women and Hispanic voters that

could decide the election.

But he is vulnerable on the key issue -the economy, with unemployment over eight percent, amid confusing signals about the state of the recovery and sharp attacks from Romney, who is running under a slogan of “Obama Isn’t Working.”

On Friday, Obama suffered a blow when a second straight month of disappointing job creation was revealed in Labor Department figures showing the economy pumped out only a net 115,000 jobs in April.

“It’s a terrible and very disappointing report,” Romney said, seizing the opening in an interview with Fox News on Friday.

“Clearly, the American people are wondering why this recovery isn’t happening faster,” he said, in the knowledge that poor economic news represents his best chance to send Obama home to Chicago as a one-term president.

In 2008, Obama ran as a candidate of reform, change, and hope-as an insurgent outsider who would shake up bitter Washington politics and transform the country.

As an incumbent, he no longer has that luxury: the economic problems he inherited and has struggled to solve are now part of his legacy, and he must convince Americans that things are getting better and he should get the credit.

He believes Americans will buy his economic vision of ensuring “everybody gets a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same set of rules.”

Obama’s campaign has unleashed a barrage of negative advertising, targeting Romney’s weaknesses with women, and using his career as a wealthy venture capitalist to suggest he does not share the concerns of the middle class. But Romney counters that his business career is exactly what is needed to kickstart the economy. “The president’s a nice guy, but he’s never had a job in the private sector.

He’s never created a job. I think it helps to have had a job to create a job,” Romney said Friday. —AFP

Ex-Edwards aide had run-in with mistress GREENSBORO: Another former close aide to John Edwards testified about bungled efforts to keep the former presidential candidate’s affair hidden from staff members, including an awkward encounter when she showed up at a hotel weeks after her work filming Edwards had ended.

For months in 2006, John Davis said that staff members had been concerned that the woman hired as a videographer was becoming too close to Edwards. For example, while other staff members called him “Sen. Edwards,” Rielle Hunter called him “Johnny” or “John,” Davis said.

“Rielle is a very unique personality,” Davis said. “Everyone else on the team had a political background. Rielle didn’t have that sort of resume. ... She talked a lot about meditation and yogis” Davis, who traveled with Edwards in 2006 and 2007, is one of several former aides who have testified about their suspicion or knowledge of the affair during Edwards’ campaign finance corruption trial. At issue is money from wealthy donors that was used in an attempt to keep the candidate’s affair with Hunter

out of public view.

Edwards’ attorneys have said he didn’t know about the money, and he’s pleaded not guilty to six counts related to campaign-finance violations. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted on all counts.

Hunter’s contract with the Edwards’ organization wasn’t renewed at the end of 2006, days after a campaign event where Davis said he saw the Democrat’s wife crying after seeing her husband with the videographer.

But Davis said Hunter didn’t go away.

In February 2007, he ran into her in an elevator at the candidate’s Detroit hotel.

“We exchanged brief pleasantries,” said Davis. “I would have preferred not to have seen her.” When he saw that she pushed the button for Edwards’ floor where Davis also had his room - he stopped on another floor just so he could get into a different elevator car.

Shortly after, he was on the phone with his wife to express his shock at seeing Hunter. He heard a knock at the door of his room. It was the mistress, who came in to talk. —AP

TENNESSEE: This combo image made of undated photos provided by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety shows, clockwise from top left, Jo Ann Bain and her daughters, Adrienne, 14, Kyliyah 8, and Alexandria,12. Bain and her daughters may be in “extreme danger” after they were abducted in Tennessee and last seen in Mississippi, but they could be in another state where their suspected kidnapper has connections, authorities said yesterday. —AP

QUEBEC: Riot police face protesters during a student demonstration against hikes in tuition outside Le Victorin Hotel where the annual Liberal Convention is being held yesterday in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada. —AFP

Bin Laden’s last words go online WASHINGTON: In letters from his last hideout, Osama bin Laden fretted about dysfunction in his terrorist network and crumbling trust from Muslims he wished to incite against their government and the West. A selection of documents seized in last year’s raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan house was posted online Thursday by the US Army’s Combating Terrorism Center. The documents show dark days for Al-Qaeda and its hunkered-down leader after years of attacks by the United States and what bin Laden saw as bumbling within his own organization and its terrorist allies.

“I plan to release a statement that we are starting a new phase to correct (the mistakes) we made,” bin Laden wrote in 2010. “In doing so, we shall reclaim, God willing, the trust of a large segment of those who lost their trust in the jihadis.”

Until the end, bin Laden remained focused on attacking Americans and coming up with plots, however improbable, to kill US leaders.

He wished especially to target airplanes carrying Gen. David Petraeus and even President Barack Obama, reasoning that an assassination would elevate an “utterly unprepared” Vice President Joe Biden into the presidency and plunge the US into crisis.

But a US analysts’ report released along with bin Laden’s correspondence describes him as upset over the inability of spinoff terrorist groups to win public support for their cause, their unsuccessful media campaigns and poorly planned plots that, in bin Laden’s view, killed too many innocent Muslims. Bin Laden’s inner circle also was frustrated when, in 2010, attention in the US shifted to the weak economy without apparently crediting Al-Qaeda for the economic damage that terrorist attacks had caused. “All the political talk in America is about the economy, forgetting or ignoring the war and its role in weakening the economy,” his spokesman, Adam Gadahn, wrote. Al-Qaeda’s relationship with Iran, a point of deep interest to the US government, was rough, judging from the documents. After the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, some top al-Qaida operatives and their families fled to Iran, where authorities there put them under house arrest. Over the years, Iran has released some, including members of bin Laden’s family. Still, others remain.

Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, who became AlQaeda’s No. 2 after bin Laden’s death, complained bitterly about dealing with the Iranians and their Byzantine methods of negotiating. Al-Rahman was later killed in a US drone strike.

“The criminals did not send us any letter, nor did they send us a message through any of the brothers,” al-Rahman wrote. “Such behavior is of course not unusual for them; indeed, it is typical of their mindset and method. They do not wish to appear to be negotiating with us or responding to our pressures.”

Bin Laden himself wrote that “controlling children” was one of the keys to hiding in cities, as he did for years while US forces searched Pakistan’s rugged frontier. He encouraged his followers in hiding to teach their children the local language and not let them out of their homes “except for extreme necessity like medical care.”

The correspondence suggests that alQaida carefully monitored US cable news networks and generally didn’t like what it saw.

“We can say that there is no single channel that we could rely on for our messages,”

Gadahn wrote, although he described ABC as “all right, actually it could be one of the best channels as far as we are concerned.” He complained that Fox News “falls into the abyss, as you know, and lacks neutrality.” CNN, he said, “seems to be in cooperation with the government more than the others except Fox News, of course.”

Gadahn suggested sending videos of bin Laden’s remarks to all the US news networks except Fox News. “Let her die in anger,” he wrote.

The correspondence includes letters by then-second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, taking Pakistani offshoot Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan to task over its indiscriminate attacks on Muslims. The Al-Qaeda leadership “threatened to take public measures unless we see from you serious and immediate practical and clear steps towards reforming (your ways) and dissociating yourself from these vile mistakes that violate Islamic Law,” al-Libi wrote.

Apparently bin Laden was not made of aware of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s planned bombing of Times Square in New York in May 2010. But he expressed disappointment that Faisal Shahzad didn’t manage to pull off the attack after the bomb failed to detonate.

Shahzad was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the attempted attack.

Bin Laden also warned the leader of Yemeni AQAP, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, against attempting a takeover of Yemen to establish an Islamic state, instead saying he should “refocus his efforts on attacking the United States.”And he seemed uninterested in recognizing Somali-based Al-Shabab when the group pledged loyalty to him because he thought its leaders were poor governors of the areas they controlled and were too strict with their administration of Islamic penalties, like cutting off the hands of thieves.

Nothing in the papers that were released points directly to Al-Qaeda sympathizers in Pakistan’s government, although presumably such references would have remained classified. Bin Laden described “trusted Pakistani brothers” but didn’t identify any Pakistani government or military officials who might have been aware of or complicit in his hiding in Abbottabad.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of bin Laden’s documents the US was still keeping secret. In a note published with the 175 pages in Arabic that were released Thursday along with English translations, retired Gen. John Abizaid said they probably represent only a small fraction of materials taken from the compound in the US raid that tracked down and killed bin Laden in May 2011.

The US said the documents span September 2006 to April 2011. The report said the Special Operations troops in the bin Laden raid were trained to search the home afterward for thumb drives, printed documents and what it described as “pocket litter” that might produce leads to other terrorists.

“The end of the raid in Abbottabad was the beginning of a massive analytical effort,” it said. It said the personal files showed that, during one of the most significant manhunts in history, bin Laden was out of touch with the day-to-day operations of various terrorist groups inspired by Al-Qaeda. He was “not in sync on the operational level with its socalled affiliates,” researchers wrote. “Bin Laden enjoyed little control over either groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda in name or so-called fellow travelers.” —AP

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

I N T E R N AT I O N A L Afghan girl’s torturers get 10 years jail KABUL: The case of a tortured Afghan child bride whose treatment shocked the world has led to three members of her husband’s family being jailed for 10 years, an official said yesterday. Sahar Gul, 15, who was burned and beaten and had her fingernails pulled out was found in the basement of her husband’s house last December in northeastern Baghlan province, where she had been locked in a toilet for six months.

“The court sentenced her father-inlaw, mother-in-law and sister-in-law each to 10 years in prison on Tuesday,” Afghanistan’s supreme court spokesman Abdul Wakil Omari told AFP. A rights group, Women for Afghan Women which helped Gul in the court case, said it was not satisfied with the sentence.

“We are not happy with the sentence, we are going to help her appeal,” pro-

gramme manager Huma Safi told AFP. “How can someone get only 10 years in prison for torturing a girl to almost death,” she said.

Gul, whose case attracted widespread attention in Afghanistan and abroad, attended the court session in Kabul.

“When she first entered the court and saw her in-laws, she was afraid and shaking, but later she calmed down and asked for death penalty for her in-laws,” Safi said.

Gul’s husband and her brother in-law, also allegedly involved in torturing her, are still at large. Violence and abuse against women continues to be a major problem in Afghanistan a decade after US-led troops brought down the notorious Taleban regime.

According to figures by British charity organisation Oxfam, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physi-

cal, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1,026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011 compared with 2,700 cases for the whole of 2010.

Meanwhile, an Afghan official says a roadside bomb has killed five border police in an eastern province near the border with Pakistan. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, who is a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, says the five were killed Friday evening when the vehicle in which they were patrolling was hit by the remote-controlled bomb.

He said yesterday that the incident took place in the province’s Dur Baba district. Militants commonly plant bombs along roads used by security forces, inflicting heavy casualties on the military and also on civilians. — AFP

KABUL: In this Saturday, Jan 7, 2012 file photo, Afghan doctors, unseen, dress the tortured ear of Sahar Gul, 15-year-old at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The in-laws of a child bride who became the bruised and bloodied face of women’s rights in Afghanistan have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for torture, abuse and human rights violations, a judge said yesterday. — AP

Clinton arrives on Bangladesh mission ‘Bangladesh is a voice for regional stability’

KATHMANDU: Rescuers and locals search for bodies of victims of flash floods in Kharapani village of Kaski district, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of capital Kathmandu, Nepal, yesterday. — AP

13 dead, Russian tourists missing in Nepal flood KATHMANDU: A river near one of Nepal’s most popular Himalayan resorts killed 13 people and left 17 missing-including three Russian tourists-when it burst its banks and swept away a village yesterday.

Most of the dead appeared to be locals, said conservationist Bishnu Paudel, who described how terrified people had fled to the hills to escape the sudden deluge. Fastflowing floodwaters from the swollen Seti River smashed into two buildings and a number of shacks in Kharapani village, in the shadow of Mount Annapurna, one of Nepal’s most popular tourist destinations. “ There are 13 dead and 17 missing, including three Russian tourists. The missing include two young students who were in a group of 16 on an outing,” said Ramindra Chhetri, a spokesman for the Nepalese Army. “Two army helicopters and a private airliner have been deployed to the area. We have army rescue teams scouring five villages for survivors.”

Paudel, of Annapurna Conservation Area Project, who reached the devastated site a few hours after the flood hit, said: “Most of the victims were shopkeepers in Kharapani, on the banks of the Seti River. “Another village, Machhapuchre, was also affected.

“Two buildings were swept away. Tourists flock to this area because there is a hotwater spring. There hasn’t been any rain recently, so we were surprised when the flood occurred at 9:30 am.

“The water has risen so high that it was up to a bridge. I found two truck drivers who had survived by fleeing to a hill nearby.”

Three injured people have been taken to hospital in Pokhara, a tourist hub about 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, police said. “Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has ordered the authorities to conduct the rescue operation without any delay,” the premier’s spokesman Bishwadeep Pandey said.

“Bhattarai is monitoring the incident and is in touch with the authorities in Pokhara.

An army helicopter with experts has also been despatched as per his request.” River flooding normally occurs later in the year, during the monsoon season, and the cause of the disaster was not immediately clear.

But Pradeep Mool, a glaciologist at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), said a combination of an avalanche and landslide were likely triggers.

“It’s possible that those two dammed the river for a few hours or even whole night and it burst later, resulting in the flood.” The Annapurna region attracts thousands of trekkers, both local and foreign, each year.

At 8,091 metres (26,545 feet), Annapurna is one of the world’s 14 highest peaks.

It is considered both technically difficult and avalanche-prone and has a much higher death rate among climbers than Everest, the world’s highest peak. — AFP

DHAKA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived yesterday for a brief but difficult mission in Bangladesh, where violence and a crackdown on the opposition threaten new instability. Clinton, set to sign a new partnership agreement, is the first US secretary of state to visit Bangladesh since Colin Powell in 2003, amid political infighting in the world’s third-largest Muslim-majority country.

She touched down in the capital Dhaka fresh from a tricky trip to China that was overshadowed by a row over blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who fled to the US embassy last week, igniting a major diplomatic crisis.

In unusually large crowds even for Clinton, thousands of Bangladeshis lined the streets for a glimpse of her motorcade. One well-wisher held a sign, “Heartiest welcome to Forgain (sic) Minister Clinton.” Police stood guard at every few metres as they sealed off Dhaka’s normally chaotic streets.

In the last few weeks Bangladesh has seen rallies and strikes over the disappearance of regional opposition figure Ilias Ali in April. Supporters say that he was seized by security forces. Four people have died in the unrest.

Following a rally in the capital last weekend and a series of explosions at a government building complex, police charged and arrested a number of senior figures from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

A US official said that Clinton would meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP leader Khaleda Zia, who have dominated Bangladesh’s politics for decades and whose mutual dislike is as intense as it is personal.

The official said Clinton would promote democracy and good governance and look to broader interests with Bangladesh, a US partner in counter-terrorism efforts and the world’s largest contributor to UN peacekeeping.

“Secretary Clinton’s trip is an opportunity to take the bilateral relationship to a new level with this moderate, tolerant, democratic, Muslim-majority nation that offers a viable alternative to violent extremism,” the State Department official said on customary condition of anonymity.

Bangladesh is “a voice for regional stability in a troubled region,” the official said. Analyst Manzur Hasan, a professor of Brac University in Dhaka,

Drone strike ‘kills 10 militants’ in Pakistan MIRANSHAH: A US drone attack targeting a militant compound killed at least 10 insurgents in a troubled Pakistani tribal district along the Afghan border early yesterday, security officials said. The Pakistani officials said two missiles hit and destroyed the compound in Shawal area, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

Waziristan is the most notorious militant stronghold in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt.

Washington considers it the main hub for Taleban and AlQaeda to plot attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.

“The death toll in the US drone strike has risen to 10.

The drone fired two missiles at the compound,” a security

official in the northwestern city of Peshawar told AFP. Officials had earlier put the death toll at six. Yesterday’s attack was the second strike since Pakistan’s parliament in March approved new guidelines on relations with the United States, which included a call for an end to drone attacks on Pakistani territory.

Two security officials in Miranshah confirmed the strike and death toll and added that militants were using the compound as a training centre. They said the mud compound was completely destroyed. The identity of those killed in the strike was yet not known and officials said they were trying to collect more information from the far-flung mountainous area.

Pakistan says the drone strikes are counter productive and undermine government efforts to separate tribes from militants, violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, kill civilians and fuel anti-US sentiment. Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the latest strike, reiterating that such “illegal attacks are a violation of (our) sovereignty and territorial integrity, and are in contravention of international law”.

“It is our considered view that the strategic disadvantages of such attacks far outweigh their tactical advantages, and are therefore, totally counter productive,” it added. Pakistan raised the issue of drone attacks with Marc Grossman, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, when he visited Islamabad last month amid efforts to mend fractured relations.

The uneasy allies are currently taking tentative steps to repair a serious crisis in relations over last year’s covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden and US air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The frequency of the strikes has diminished in recent months, but US officials are believed to consider them too useful to stop them altogether.

US President Barack Obama in January confirmed for the first time that US drones target militants on Pakistani soil, but American officials do not discuss details of the covert programme. According to an AFP tally, 45 US missile strikes were reported in Pakistan’s tribal belt in 2009, the year Obama took office, 101 in 2010 and 64 in 2011.

The New America Foundation think-tank in Washington says drone strikes have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people in Pakistan in the past eight years. — AFP

believes Clinton will press Hasina over governance problems in the notoriously corrupt and politically unstable country.

“She is arriving at an awkward moment in a situation of political turmoil when the country is facing some serious issues and difficulties because of the return of the confrontational politics and street protests,” he told AFP. Recent problems for Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s only Nobel peace prize winner and a personal friend of Clinton and her husband Bill, will be another thorny issue for the secretary of state to address in her meetings.

Yunus was forced out of his ground-breaking micro-credit bank last year and has since claimed he is the victim of a vendetta that will result in the government seizing his empire of social businesses aimed at alleviating poverty. Clinton will meet Yunus today, the US official said.

In Dhaka, the government has talked up Clinton’s visit as an event that will take ties to “a new height”. “It will be a new beginning of bilateral relations between the two countries,” Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said on Thursday. “Her visit is extremely important for Bangladesh.”

Moni told reporters Dhaka would press for lower tariffs on its exports to the US, its largest market, and the two nations were in the final stage of signing an agreement to boost economic ties.—AFP

DHAKA: Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni (R) welcomes US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka yesterday. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived for a difficult mission in Bangladesh where violence and a crackdown on the opposition threaten new instability. — AFP

12

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

international

Hong Kong tycoons’ brother arrested in graft probe HONG KONG: The former chief executive of Hong Kong developer Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. was arrested in a high profile anti-corruption probe that has already targeted his billionaire brothers and a top official.

Hong Kong’s biggest property developer said Walter Kwok was arrested by anti-corruption police on Thursday night as part of an investigation into alleged bribery. Kwok, who is still a director of Sun Hung Kai, was lat-

er released on bail. His brothers Thomas and Raymond Kwok, who are joint chairmen of Sun Hung Kai, were arrested in March by the Independent Commission Against Corruption along with a former chief secretary - the No. 2 job in the government.

No one has been charged. Thomas Kwok, 60, and Raymond Kwok, 58, have denied any wrongdoing. They are estranged from their brother after ousting him as Sung Hung Kai’s chair-

man and CEO in 2008 amid a bitter feud over control of the company.

The arrest announced Friday adds another twist to a scandal that has shocked and fascinated Hong Kong, where billionaire property developer tycoons who once occupied an exalted position in society are now viewed with growing mistrust.

Many residents are angry about a widening rich-poor gap driven by surging property prices and the scandal is

the latest to highlight cozy ties between real estate companies and the government, which controls all the land in the densely populated city.

In an inter view with the South China Morning Post newspaper earlier this week, Walter Kwok, 61, tried to distance himself from the corruption scandal and said he was intensifying his battle for control of the company.

The Kwok family is one of Asia’s richest, with a net worth of $16 billion,

according to Forbes. It estimates $2.3 billion has been wiped off their wealth since the scandal broke. Sun Hung Kai has built some of Hong Kong’s most recognizable buildings, including the 118 story International Commerce Center in Kowloon, the city’s tallest.

The company said the latest arrest would not have any affect on its operations. Five people, including another Sun Hung Kai executive, were also arrested earlier. —AP

Activists: Chen’s case does not mean easing of controls Chen, a symbol in China’s civil rights movement BEIJING: Even if China makes a rare concession and allows legal activist Chen Guangcheng to leave the country with his family, other dissidents say they don’t expect a broader easing of controls. Authorities might even tighten the screws on prominent critics to prevent them from taking encouragement from Chen’s case to challenge the leadership.

The blind activist’s escape from house arrest and flight to safety in the US Embassy has provided a much-needed morale boost for a dissident community that over the last year has been debilitated by a massive government security crackdown aimed

that Chen could submit an application to go abroad. His wife told Hong Kong broadcaster TVB yesterday that applications for travel documents had not yet been started and no date has been set for them to leave.

The turn of events for Chen, while welcomed by most activists and dissidents, is seen as an individual victory that is not likely to pave the way for improvements in the government’s attitude toward its critics.

“I think that after the Chen Guangcheng incident, the situation for us will just become worse and worse, because in today’s society government power has

a scandal that prompted the central government to punish some local officials. His activism earned him the wrath of local authorities, who punished him with nearly seven years of prison and house arrest.

He made an improbable escape from his farmhouse in eastern China two weeks ago and sought refuge in the US Embassy in Beijing. After negotiations between US and Chinese officials, Chen left the embassy under arrangements to stay in China that were supposed to guarantee his and his family’s safety. But he then changed his mind, prompting more talks that resulted in

WASHINGTON: US Park Police move in to arrest protesters demanding the release of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng in front of the White House in Washington yesterday. —AFP at preventing an Arab-style democratic uprising. Dozens of activists, rights lawyers, intellectuals and others have been detained, questioned and in some cases, even tortured.

Chen, a symbol in China’s civil rights movement, may be able to leave to study in the United States under still-evolving arrangements announced Friday

by Washington and Beijing to end a weeklong diplomatic standoff over his case.

Yesterday, Chen was still in a hospital where he was taken to receive medical care, joined by his wife and two children. US Embassy officials met with his wife, although Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Beijing this past week for annual talks, left Beijing without visiting him.

The Foreign Ministry said Friday

no limits,” said Liu Yi, an artist and Chen supporter who was assaulted Thursday by men he thinks were plainclothes police while he attempted to visit Chen in the hospital.

Liu Feiyue, a veteran activist who runs a rights monitoring network in the central province of Hubei, noted the importance of U.S. involvement in Chen’s case.

“This is only an individual case.

Because it turned into a ChinaU.S. incident, the U.S. put a lot of pressure on China, which is why the authorities made a concession to allow Chen Guangcheng to study overseas,” he said.

“Not all dissident cases can become international issues,” Liu Feiyue said. Chen, a self-taught legal activist, is best known for exposing forced abortions and sterilizations in his community in

Two dead, 19 hurt in Philippine blast ILIGAN: Two people were killed and 19 others injured after an unidentified man tossed an explosive device into a crowded tourist area in a southern Philippine city late yesterday, police said. After the explosion in Iligan, the man boarding a van that sped away, city police chief Celso Regencia said, citing witnesses.

“The apparent target was El Centro,” he told AFP, referring to an area in the port city popular for its restaurants, bars and night clubs. The motive of the attack and the type of explosive used was not immediately clear, Regencia added. He said police recovered the body of a 20-year-old male victim at the site, while his 20-year-old cousin was later pronounced dead at a government hospital. Three city hospitals contacted by AFP said they were treating 19 others wounded in the attack.

Iligan lies on the north coast of Mindanao island. The region has been mired in a decades-old Muslim insurgency as well as bombings and kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf, a group founded with seed money from late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. —AFP

Friday’s tentative deal that would let him travel to the US with his family for a university fellowship.

All this played out as Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and a slew of senior U.S. officials arrived for meetings on trade tensions and global economic and political trouble spots.

It also occurred as Chinese President Hu Jintao and most of his senior leadership prepare to step aside for a younger generation of leaders - a time the Communist Party is acutely wary of challenges to its authority and usually reins-in critics.

Activists said that while Chen, his wife and children are likely to find sanctuary in the United States, it is unclear what will happen to his other relatives.

Authorities have already detained Chen’s elder brother, and his

nephew is on the run after attacking local officials who raided his house apparently in search of Chen after his escape. Chen’s mother, who lived with the couple, has been under constant surveillance.

If Chen leaves, the officials who mistreated him and his family will likely not be held accountable - something Chen asked for in a video statement he made while in hiding in Beijing before entering the US Embassy.

“Chen’s story is not a triumph for China’s human rights, unfortunately,” said Wang Songlian, a Hong Kong-based researcher with Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Although Chen and his immediate family might gain freedom, his extended family is likely to be retaliated against. ...

None of those whose violence Chen exposed, or those who beat and detained Chen and his family, have been punished.”

There are concerns China will exact retribution on Chen’s supporters who aided his escape, as well as friends who later tried to get the message out about his fears for his safety or publicly urged him to flee to the United States. Two supporters who helped him escape were detained, then released, but placed under gag orders and close monitoring.

Others like Chen’s friend Zeng Jinyan, who - at great risk to herself - publicized Chen’s worries about leaving the embassy Wednesday, have since been barred from speaking to the media and placed under house arrest. Also under similar restrictions is Teng Biao, a rights lawyer who repeatedly called Chen imploring him to flee the country, then published a transcript of their phone conversations online.

“They (the authorities) will certainly settle scores with them later,” Teng told Chen, referring to the two supporters who aided Chen’s escape. Some activists say local officials who have been watching dissidents in their own jurisdictions might beef up monitoring and restrictions on them to prevent them from attempting copycat escapes into diplomatic compounds.

“One guess is that they will learn a lesson from this experience and be stricter in guarding and monitoring similar key figures and take even harder measures against them,” said Mo Zhixu, a liberal-minded author and Chen supporter. —AP

US intelligence, military at odds on Afghanistan WASHINGTON: US military and intelligence officials are at odds about how the 11-year war in Afghanistan is faring as President Barack Obama presses ahead with a gradual withdrawal of US troops out of the country, a leading Republican lawmaker said Friday.

The US military is more optimistic about the state of the battle against Taleban insurgents than are intelligence officials on the ground in Afghanistan, said House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who returned this week from a visit to the country.

“My biggest take away from the trip was the huge difference between what the military says ... they believe the state of affairs is or our intelligence community believes the state of affairs is,” said Rogers, referring to officials he met during his visit to Afghanistan.

His comments came days after Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan to sign a strategic pact with Kabul and deliver an election-year message to Americans on the anniversary of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s death.

The partnership pact sets out a long-term role for the United States in Afghanistan beyond 2014, when most NATO combat troops are scheduled to leave. The war started in the month after the Sept.

11, 2001, attacks. But Rogers said Afghanistan’s fate after 2014 is far from clear.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty. There is no certain plan yet about what it looks like when the drawdown happens,” he said. “Nobody knows ...

the military didn’t know, the intelligence folks didn’t know, nobody had a good feeling about what happens next,” he added.

Other US and counterterrorism officials have said that counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan have recently showed success in pacifying swaths of territory where American and allied troops maintain a significant presence.

But even optimistic officials fear that any stability that currently exists in those areas could well deteriorate rapidly after US and allied troops permanently withdraw. The US military sees the current situation as one in which the Taliban loses every battle fought against US forces.

“The Taleban has never won an engagement against the United States military, never, not one, zero,” Rogers said. “The military’s perspective is ‘Hey, they have never won a fight with us yet.’ True they have not.”

But intelligence officials see the Taleban adjusting to avoid casualties and having strong recruiting, so they believe “the Taleban are stronger today than it was even a couple of years ago,” Rogers said.

“The Taleban has a clear political aim: to run the country. They want back,” Rogers said.

Counterterrorism officials say that the prospects for a stable, credible, and non-corrupt civilian government in Afghanistan remain poor for the longterm, and there is little optimism about what might happen after scheduled large-scale US withdrawals. —Reuters

TOMARI: No 3 unit, right, of Tomari Nuclear Power Plant operated by Hokkaido Electric Power Co is observed in Tomari, northern Japan, last night. The unit, Japan’s last operating commercial nuclear reactor, went offline last night for mandatory routine maintenance, leaving the nation without atomic-generated electricity for the first time in 42 years. —AP

Japan says ‘sayonara’ to nuclear power TOKYO: A Japanese power firm began switching off the country’s last working reactor, leaving it without nuclear power just over a year after the world’s worst atomic accident in a quarter of a century.

As technicians close down the No. 3 unit at Tomari in Hokkaido, the debate over whether Japan needs nuclear power has been reignited, amid increasingly shrill warnings of summer power blackouts.

Hokkaido Electric Power, which runs the plant, said they started inserting control rods at 5:00 pm (0800 GMT ) that would halt the chain reaction and bring the reactor to “cold shutdown” some time tomorrow.

“Power output started declining at the No. 3 unit,” said Tomohiko Shibuya, a Hokkaido Electric Power spokesman. “We have not heard of any trouble so far.

Power generation there is scheduled to stop completely in about six hours.”

The shuttering will mark the first time since the 1970s that resource-poor and energy-hungry Japan has been without nuclear power, a technology that had provided a third of its electricity until meltdowns at Fukushima. The tsunamisparked disaster forced tens of thousands of people from their homes in an area around the plant-some of whom may never be allowed to return.

It did not directly claim any lives, but has devastated the local economy, leaving swathes of land unfarmable as radiation spewed from the ruins. With the four reactors at Fukushima crippled by the natural disaster public suspicion of nuclear power grew, so much so that no reactor shut for routine safety checks has since been allowed to restart.

“A new (era in) Japan with no nuclear power has begun,” said Gyoshu Otsu, a 56-year-old monk who joined a protest against nuclear power in front of the industry ministry in Tokyo which supervises the nation’s power utilities.

“Generating nuclear power is like a criminal act as a lot of people are still suffering,” said Otsu wearing white Buddhist clothes. “If we allow the situation as it is now, another accident will occur.”

Protest organiser Masao Kimura said: “It’s a symbolic day today. Now we can prove that we will be able to live without nuclear power.” Separately, some 5,500

demonstrators staged a rally at a park near Tokyo Tower and later marched through central Tokyo carrying banners, which read: “Sayonara (Goodbye), nuclear power.”

“We have to take action now so that Fukushima should be the last nuclear accident not only in Japan but all over the world,” Mizuho Fukushima, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party, told AFP during the rally.

When generation stops late Saturday, Japan’s entire stable of 50 reactors will be offline, despite increasingly urgent calls from the power industry and bodies like the OECD, who fear dire consequences for the world’s third largest economy.

Last month, Kansai Electric Power, which supplies mid-western Japan, including the commercial hubs of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, said a hot summer could see supply fall nearly 20 percent short of demand.

Kyushu Electric Power, covering an area further west, as well as Hokkaido Electric Power also said they will struggle as air conditioning gets cranked up in Japan’s sweltering summer.

Kansai Electric last month booked a $3 billion annual loss, turning around a $1.5 billion profit the year earlier on the increased cost of using previously mothballed thermal fuel plants.

A week earlier, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government gave the green light to restarting reactors at the Oi nuclear plant, run by Kansai Electric, but regulators still have to convince those living near the plant.

In order to be fired up again, reactors must now pass International Atomic Energy Agency-approved stress tests and get the consent of their host communities-it is this last hurdle that is proving hardest to overcome. Critics of nuclear power say Japan has managed thus far with its ever dwindling pool of reactors and need not look back.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said Friday the country should concentrate on ramping up renewables and boosting energy efficiency. “Despite the closure of all reactors, security of electricity supply is not threatened in Japan,” said Hisayo Takada, Greenpeace Japan climate and energy campaigner. —AFP

YANGON: This picture taken on May 4, 2012 shows San Myint (C) displaying a picture of her son Aye Aung playing the guitar, a political prisoner detained at Kalay prison in northwest Sagaing Division, at their family home in Yangon. While the West lauds Myanmar for its steps towards democracy and starts to roll back sanctions, hundreds of political prisoners languishing in prison are still waiting to hear their fate. —AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

NEWS

YEREVAN: Hydrogen balloons explode during a governing Republican party’s campaign concert on Friday in the Armenian capital ahead of parliamentary polls today. More than 140 people were injured. — AFP

Qaeda papers highlight tense dealings with Iran DUBAI: In the rigid enemy-or-ally world view of Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenants, Iran occupied a spot somewhere in between - a state seen as arrogant, enigmatic and driven by self interest, according to newly released Al-Qaeda documents. Yet there is also a sense that AlQaeda recognizes the importance of Iran’s role in the region and the need to keep some level of dialogue. The papers - seized in last year’s raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan hide-out and posted online Thursday by the US Army’s Combating Terrorism Center - portray Al-Qaeda’s relations with Iran as clouded by deep mutual distrust and sharply divergent interests.

A June 2009 Al-Qaeda memo - possibly to bin Laden - refers to the Iranian government as “criminals” in a no-holds bashing of its opaque and unpredictable policies. “The criminals did not send us any letter,” wrote Al-Qaeda’s top Afghanistan commander, Atiyah Abd al-

Rahman, about the earlier kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in Pakistan that was believed to have been carried out by militants linked to Al-Qaeda. “Such behavior is, of course, not unusual for (the Iranians); indeed it is typical of their mindset and methods,” continued Abd alRahman, who was killed the following year in a CIA drone strike in the Waziristan region of Pakistan. “They do not wish to appear to be negotiating with us or responding to our pressures.”

In one narrow sense, Al-Qaeda and the West share this much: exasperation over Tehran’s shifting and often contradictory messages that extend all the way to talks over its nuclear program. The full extent of the interplay between Iran and Al-Qaeda remains unclear to Western policymakers. But the newly disclosed documents reinforce the long-held consensus that there is little common ground. Al-Qaeda opera-

tives - and even bin Laden relatives - used Iran as an escape route during the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan after the Sept 11. attacks.

Iran was not willing to be an open passageway, however. Dozens of top Al-Qaeda figures, including one of bin Laden’s sons, Omar, were placed under house arrest-style detention. Many were later released, but several high-ranking AlQaeda figures are believed to remain in Iran under close surveillance, including the network’s most senior military strategist, Saif Al-Adel, one of the alleged masterminds of the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa. In 2010, another of bin Laden’s sons, Khalid, sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claiming that his relatives were mistreated and “beaten and silenced”. Al-Qaeda’s branch in North Africa issued a warning to Iran over the matter.

Khalid was among those killed in the US raid on

Muslim woman wins $5m for discrimination Continued from Page 1 Opportunity Commission and was subsequently fired in 2010.

Though Bashir’s complaint alleged she was fired in a retaliatory action by AT&T, the jury did not agree, and no damages were awarded on that charge.

After several days of hearing testimony

and deliberation, a jury in Jackson County Circuit Court on Thursday ordered AT&T to pay $5 million in punitive damages on top of $120,000 in actual damages. AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said the company would appeal.

“AT&T is a nationally recognized leader in workforce diversity and inclusion, something in which we take great pride. We

disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal,” Richter said. Bashir’s lawyer said the jury award was “monumental” to Bashir, but said it had little impact on AT&T, a multi-billion-dollar global corporation. “The company has an excellent written policy,” said Coopman. “If they had just followed the policy none of this would have happened.” — Reuters

9/11 mastermind, plotters defy ...

Continued from Page 1 and photos, was streaked with red henna.

Mohammed’s civilian lawyer, David Nevin, said he believed Mohammed was not responding because he believes the tribunal is unfair.

Jim Harrington, a civilian attorney for Yemeni defendant Ramzi Binalshibh, said his client would not respond to questions “without addressing the issues of confinement”.

No further explanation was given. Pohl warned he would not permit defendants to block the hearing and would continue without his participation. “One cannot choose not to participate and frustrate the normal course of business,” Pohl said. He addressed the earpiece issue by bringing the translators into the courtroom to translate out loud and attempted to stick to the standard script for tribunals, asking the defendants if they understood their rights to counsel and would accept the attorneys appointed for them. The men did not respond, not even to acknowledge that they understood the questions.

Through much of the session, the defendants seemed to be trying to give the impression they were in a different world than the rest of the court. Cheryl Bormann, a civilian attorney for bin Attash, appeared in a conservative Islamic outfit that left only her face uncovered and she asked the court to order other women present to wear “appropriate” clothing so that defendants do not have to avert their eyes “for fear of committing a sin under their faith”. And Binalshibh interrupted the session with an outburst from the defense table in a mix of Arabic and broken English, saying, “Maybe they will kill me and say I committed suicide.”

Six 9/11 family members were in the courtroom with the defendants while more than 100 others watched the proceedings on closed-circuit video feeds in the US Jim Riches, a retired city firefighter whose son was killed at the World Trade Center, said some people blurted out “C’mon, are you kidding me?” as the defendants became more disruptive. In the past, during the failed first effort to prosecute them at the US base in Cuba, Mohammed has mocked the tribunal and said he and his co-defendants would plead guilty and welcome execution. But there were signs that at least some of the defense teams were preparing for a lengthy fight, planning challenges of the military tribunals and the secrecy that shrouds the case.

The arraignment is “only the beginning of a trial that will take years to complete, followed by years of appellate review,” attorney James Connell, who represents defendant Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, told reporters gathered at the base to observe the hearing. “I can’t imagine any scenario where this thing gets wrapped up in six months,” Connell said.

Defendants in what is known as a military commission typically do not enter a plea during their arraignment. Instead, the judge reads the charges, makes sure the accused understand their rights and then moves on to procedural issues. Lawyers for the men said they were prohibited by secrecy rules from disclosing their clients’ intentions.

Harrington, representing Binalshibh, who has said at one hearing that he was proud of the Sept 11 attacks, said

he did not think that any of the defendants would plead guilty, notwithstanding their earlier statements. Army Capt Jason Wright, one of Mohammed’s Pentagon-appointed lawyers, declined to comment on the case. Before the hearing, family members at Guantanamo said they were grateful for the chance to see a case they believe has been delayed too long.

Suzanne Sisolak of Brooklyn, whose husband Joseph was killed in his office in the trade center’s north tower, said she is not concerned about the ultimate outcome as long as the five prisoners do not go free. “They can put them in prison for life. They can execute them,” Sisolak said.

“What I do care about is that this does not happen again.

They need to be stopped.” The arraignment for the five comes more than three years after President Barack Obama’s failed effort to try the suspects in a federal civilian court and close the prison at the US base in Cuba.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2009 that Mohammed and his co-defendants would be tried blocks from the site of the destroyed trade center in downtown Manhattan, but the plan was shelved after New York officials cited huge costs to secure the neighborhood and family opposition to trying the suspects in the US. Congress then blocked the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo to the US, forcing the Obama administration to refile the charges under a reformed military commission system.

New rules adopted by Congress and Obama forbid the use of testimony obtained through cruel treatment or torture. Gen Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, said the commission provides many of the same protections that defendants would get in civilian court. “I’m confident that this court can achieve justice and fairness,” he said. But human rights groups and the defense lawyers say the reforms have not gone far enough and that restrictions on legal mail and the overall secret nature of Guantanamo and the commissions makes it impossible to provide an adequate defense.

They argue that the US has sought to keep the case in the military commission to prevent disclosure of the harsh treatment of prisoners such as Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times and subjected to other measures that some have called torture. Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who grew up in Kuwait and attended college in Greensboro, North Carolina, has admitted to military authorities that he was responsible for the Sept 11 attacks “from A to Z”, as well as about 30 other plots, and that he personally killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Mohammed was captured in 2003 in Pakistan.

Binalshibh was allegedly chosen to be a hijacker but couldn’t get a US visa and ended up providing assistance such as finding flight schools. Bin Attash, also from Yemen, allegedly ran an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and researched flight simulators and timetables. Mustafa Ahmad Al-Hawsawi is a Saudi accused of helping the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler’s checks and credit cards. Abdul al-Aziz Ali, a Pakistani national and nephew of Mohammed, allegedly provided money to the hijackers. — AP

bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan a year ago.

The reasons behind the mutual suspicions cut across many of the region’s main flashpoints.

Iran was a major foe of Afghanistan’s Taleban, which sheltered Al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks and remains its close ally. In 1998, Sunniled Taliban forces overran Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and were accused of killing eight Iranian diplomats as well as Afghans with cultural and religious ties to Iran, a Shiite power. In Iraq, Sunni insurgents backed by AlQaeda often targeted Shiites in attempts to trigger an all-out civil war during the occupation by American forces.

Some hardline militants backing Al-Qaeda which is made up almost entirely of Islam’s majority Sunnis - consider Islam’s Shiite branch as heretical and view Iran’s regional ambitions as a greater threat than the West. Last year, the AlQaeda faction in Yemen declared “holy war”

against Shiite rebels that get apparent indirect support from Tehran.

Iran, meanwhile, is acutely aware of the consequences if it is perceived as accommodating toward Al-Qaeda. Key Iranian allies such as Russia and China tolerate Tehran’s backing for anti-Israel militant groups led by Hamas and Hezbollah, but any major concessions to AlQaeda would risk crippling blows to Iran’s strategic networks. A possible motive for keeping the Al-Qaeda figures under Iranian custody is as insurance against possible retaliation attacks by the terror group. Also they could be used as bargaining chips with the West. In 2003, Iran received rare Western praise after giving the UN Security Council the names of 225 AlQaeda suspects detained after illegally crossing into Iran. The suspects were later deported to their countries in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. — AP

14

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

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Issues

Ins and outs of Russia’s next govt

By Douglas Busvine hen Vladimir Putin stood for re-election to the presidency in 2004, he named a new government even before the vote. Now, days before he is sworn in as Kremlin chief for a third time, the shape of his next administration remains a mystery. Although outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev has been nominated by Putin to be prime minister in a job swap flagged as long ago as last September, it is not apparent that he will even rank as Russia’s second most powerful man. That status may shift to Putin’s energy tsar, Igor Sechin, who has strengthened his hand since the March 4 presidential election vote by masterminding two big exploration deals involving state oil firm Rosneft and launching sweeping energy tax reforms.

Yet Sechin, ousted by Medvedev as Rosneft chairman last year, may not keep his formal job as deputy premier amid speculation that he could move to a security role in which he would report directly to Putin, a close friend for 20 years. “Elevations and falls from grace have become enmeshed in the hidden but acute rivalry between the two rulers, (and) clashes of interests between clans and ambitious newcomers,” analyst Pavel Baev wrote in a commentary for the Jamestown Foundation.

Russia’s unresolved conflicts, from street protests over alleged electoral fraud to power struggles in the ruling ‘nomenklatura’, have entrenched the risk premium that investors demand to buy the country’s financial assets.

Promises by officials that the next government will act decisively to privatise state companies, strengthen the budget and fix a hole in the pensions system cut little ice with the financial community. “To be a strong Russia bull one must hold a sanguine outlook on the oil price and expect the next Russian government to initiate an ambitious reform package,” said Peter Westin, chief economist at Moscow brokerage Aton.

Westin, editor of a new book on Russia called ‘In From The Cold’, suggests however that rising prices for oil, the main export driver for the country’s $1.9 trillion economy, will sap its leaders’ will to reform. “It’s a Catch-22 situation,” he said. Although Putin’s return to the Kremlin ends an unhappy four-year experiment with ‘tandemocracy’, as his double act with Medvedev came to be called, the return of one-man rule can hardly bring back the boom years of the early 2000s. The financial crash of 2008 and ensuing economic slump have slowed the speed limit of the economy, increased the state’s reliance on energy revenues and allowed Kremlin capitalists to retake the economy’s commanding heights. “Future historians will come to view the 2008 credit squeeze as the pivotal event of modern Russian economic history,” hedge fund manager Steven Dashevsky wrote in Westin’s book. “It was the last straw that broke Russian capitalism’s back - if you can call a highly-leveraged mix of cronyism, corruption and backroom dealing capitalism, of course - and opened the gates for the state’s successful final march on the economy.”

In another big deal struck during the two-month transition, billionaire Alisher Usmanov won control over MegaFon, positioning Russia’s No.2 mobile phone firm to partner with the state in offering next-generation ‘4G’ services. Banking sources say MegaFon’s departing CEO, Sergei Soldatenkov, could become Russia’s next telecoms minister in a move that, if it happens, would cement Usmanov’s standing as Russia’s richest and best-connected oligarch. Russian stocks trade at a forward price/earnings ratio of 5 - a discount of around 50 percent to emerging markets as a whole - and to close that gap will require action on reforms from the next government and not just words. “The legacy of 2008 looms large over the market,” said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Troika Dialog in Moscow. “People will want to see specific action taken, rather than pay for it in advance.”

Russia’s factional divisions between the “siloviki”, or men of power, led by Sechin, and a liberal camp grouped around Medvedev, now spread beyond government following the ouster of hawkish Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin last autumn. Kudrin, who restored Russia to financial health from the devaluation and default of 1998, has launched a policy task force, already dubbed a “shadow government”, that could position him to return to government should Medvedev stumble.

But, for now, Kudrin’s successor as finance minister, Anton Siluanov, is likely to keep his job, having notched up a successful $7 billion international sovereign debt placement in March.— Reuters

W

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West doubtful of UN Syria peace push

By Louis Charbonneau s corpses pile up in Syrian morgues, US and European diplomats are growing increasingly skeptical that a UN-backed peace plan has a chance of ending more than a year of violence that has brought Syria to the brink of civil war. But with Russia firmly behind UN-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan to end the conflict between government forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad and opposition fighters determined to oust him, Western powers have little choice but to stick with it for now.

While the United States, Europe and Gulf Arab states have long said that Assad should step down, they lack any viable alternatives to the Annan plan to end the Syrian conflict, arguably the bloodiest of the “Arab Spring” uprisings that erupted last year across North Africa and the Middle East. Despite suggestions from countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar that they might arm the rebels, US and European officials say there has been no systematic attempt to provide Syria’s fractious opposition with weapons to carry on fighting.

Unwilling to arm the rebels and unable to break the UN Security Council deadlock, Western powers have no alternative to Annan’s plan, which, while imperfect, is the only diplomatic effort that has had any impact on the 14-month-old conflict. “Right now the only option that we have is to try and get all sides to cooperate to stop the violence, to allow humanitarian efforts to take place and to help the people that most need that help,” said UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey.

Annan’s plan requires the withdrawal of

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heavy weapons and troops from Syrian towns, an end to all violence by Syrian security forces and rebels, and dialogue between the government and opposition aimed at a “political transition.” It also calls for the deployment of an unarmed UN truce-monitoring force. Syria’s government and the opposition promised to comply with the former UN chief’s peace plan but have not done so. The fighting goes on and people are being killed every day. So far, UN officials and diplomats say, there has been only a slight decrease in violence since the April 12 truce was declared. The rebels, outgunned, are increasingly turning to bomb attacks to target government forces, while the Syrian army pounds civilian areas with heavy weapons.

A UN truce-monitoring force, called UNSMIS, is struggling to get its maximum 300 unarmed military observers on the ground. It now has around 50 observers in a country with a population of 22 million. Deployment is slow since Damascus has to issue visas. It has already rejected several Europeans.

“There is effectively no ceasefire for UN monitors to observe,” a Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “The time is coming where we’re going to have to call it what it is.” Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters in Geneva on Friday that the peace plan is “on track” and while there have been no major signs that the Syrian government is complying with the truce, there have been “small signs.”

The head of the UN monitoring mission, Major General Robert Mood from Norway, told reporters during a trip to battle-scarred Hama on Thursday that observers were having a “calming effect” and the army appeared willing to cooperate with the truce in a con-

flict that has killed thousands of civilians.

While Mood was voicing cautious optimism, a Reuters team could hear mortars exploding in the Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs at a rate of one a minute. They also reported the sound of heavy gunfire but did not know where it was coming from.

The optimism of Fawzi and Mood also contrasts sharply with a bleak assessment the White House offered on Thursday. “If the regime’s intransigence continues, the international community is going to have to admit defeat and work to address the serious threat to peace and stability being perpetrated by the Assad regime,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Annan and UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous will brief the 15-nation Security Council on developments in Syria on Tuesday. Western diplomats in New York say Annan will likely report limited progress in achieving the full ceasefire.

Annan’s “natural and understandable tendency ... will be to try and keep the show on the road rather than do what would really amount to be drawing a line and a declaration of failure,” a senior Western diplomat said this week. “We will have to be hardheaded,” he said. “If the government continues not to comply we will want to come back to the council for a different kind of action.” Another senior envoy said: “If there’s no progress, I think voices will increase that we ought to call a spade a spade.”

Diplomats say such tough statements are not a critique of Annan and his team, who are anything but naive, but intended to make it clear to Assad that cat-and-mouse games with the UN observer team and Annan will not be tolerated. One possibility for further council action would be UN sanctions. The

United States and European powers have suggested sanctioning the Syrian government but Russia and China would almost certainly use their veto power to block UN sanctions. Moscow and Beijing have twice vetoed resolutions condemning Syria, though they backed the deployment of UN observers.

More extreme measures, such as authorizing Libya-style foreign military intervention in Syria to protect civilians, are even less likely.

Russia and China oppose them and there is no appetite in the United States or Europe to jump into a war that could unleash brutal sectarian violence similar to Iraq. “I don’t see any evidence of a coherent Plan B,” said David Bosco of American University in Washington.

“Through the UN, some kind of sanctions action would be the likeliest outcome. There still does not appear to be any will on the council for authorizing more forceful intervention.”

As a result, the United States and Europe will use Annan’s 15-day progress reports as a forum for complaining about Syrian noncompliance. They can also round up a “coalition of the willing” to impose group sanctions on Syria outside the United Nations. The socalled “Group of Friends” of Syria is one such coalition. When UNSMIS’ 90-day mandate expires in late July, the United States and its European allies will have to think hard about whether they see any point in renewing it. If the situation continues as is, UN officials and diplomats say it would be hard to justify renewing the mandate. “It can’t go on like this,” a senior UN official told Reuters. “If there’s not going to be full compliance with a truce, if we don’t see serious progress made soon, Annan won’t have any choice but to declare the mission a failure.” —Reuters

Chen deal a face-saver for US, China

By Bradley Klapper tentative deal to allow activist Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng to study in the United States serves as a face-saving measure for all involved: Washington can say it safeguarded human rights, Beijing can point to its cooperative diplomacy and Chen gets a new start in America. After a week of hectic back-and-forth negotiations and Chen’s own flip-flop on staying in China, Friday’s announcements by US and Chinese officials pointed to a positive end for a standoff that embarrassed the Chinese government by shining a light on its human rights record and put President Barack Obama in a tight spot while campaigning for re-election.

Several steps remain before Chen can take up an academic fellowship in the US. But the speed with which a near-calamity was resolved illustrates the maturing partnership between the world’s biggest powers, after years of stumbling over lesser disputes. “It is a testament to how far we’ve come in building a strong and resilient relationship and being able to have very candid open discussions about issues where there is disagreement, without it endangering the entire range of significant matters that we are working on together,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday in Beijing.

Chen, a blind, self-taught lawyer, has emerged as a symbol of the Chinese civil rights movement after exposing forced abortions and sterilizations as part of China’s onechild policy and then enduring almost seven years of prison and house arrest. His dramatic, nighttime escape last week from local authorities into the halls of the US Embassy, just before Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were to arrive for unrelated meetings, had all the ingredients of a diplomatic fiasco.

The escape forced the Obama administration to balance its defense of an internationally renowned human rights defender against its courting of the Chinese to help advance the global economic recovery and deal with North Korea and Iran. It presented tough

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choices, too, for Beijing, whose violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square 23 years ago is the portrait of its human rights behavior retained by much of the world. Chinese leaders still are extremely concerned about internal security and chafe at any foreign criticism of the nation’s domestic affairs. At the same time, China has become increasingly conscious of its global image. Somehow the worst was avoided this time. Eschewing the public grandstanding that has long prompted the Chinese to dig in their heels, US officials worked behind the scenes, first to secure a

even as Clinton and Geithner were holding sensitive talks with the Chinese on issues such as currency, trade and territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea. When she finally spoke, Clinton was able to deliver positive news. “Over the course of the day, progress has been made to help him have the future that he wants,” she told reporters after the strategic talks. But she also sought to drive home Washington’s message that the cause of human rights was not thrown aside. She said the administration would continue to engage China’s government at the highest levels and put “these con-

Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng and his wife Yuan Weijing hold their son in Shandong province, China in this 2005 photo.— AP deal that saw Chen leave the embassy on Wednesday to be reunited with his family and receive hospital care. Clinton avoided shaming China publicly. She issued one written statement but said nothing else. When on Wednesday Chen backed out of the deal and demanded to leave China, officials from both sides hammered out a second compromise within 48 hours. The understanding came

cerns at the heart of our diplomacy”. “This is not just about well-known activists,” Clinton said. “It’s about the human rights and aspirations of more than a billion people here in China and billions more around the world.

And it’s about the future of this great nation and all nations.”

China played its part by not letting the dispute sour talks with the US across the board,

and by tamping down the nationalist fervor that has accompanied previous public spats.

China’s top diplomat, Dai Bingguo, called the week’s broader meeting a “tremendous” success, and its final day was accompanied by the breakthrough on Chen’s future. The Chinese Foreign Ministry soberly announced that he could leave the country with his wife and two children.

The arrangement is incomplete and may not satisfy Obama’s critics. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney assailed Obama on Thursday over the terms of the first deal, which would have allowed Chen and his family to relocate in China while he attended a Chinese law school. “If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and it’s a day of shame for the Obama administration,” Romney said, campaigning in Virginia.

Republicans in Congress weighed in, too, saying Friday they would hold a hearing and demand all State Department cable traffic concerning Chen. And the president was not shielded from criticism on the left from a human rights community that has been one of his core constituencies. Frank Jannuzi of Amnesty International voiced concern Friday about possible “retributive actions” in China against Chen’s extended family and supporters. The fates of Chen’s missing elder brother and nephew are unknown, as is that of the woman who helped him escape, leaving the administration vulnerable to the charge that it has abandoned these people.

For China, Chen’s actions presented a new test of its ability to work with its on-and-off adversary Washington while dealing with Communist Party critics at home who are increasingly speaking out, often online.

Giving in to Washington would have angered the nationalists. An overly harsh response might have elevated Chen further in the eyes of dissidents, emboldening their challenge to the party’s grip on power. Either way, a lengthy, messy affair would have done little to bolster China’s image at a time it is spending big to appear as a less scary, more accessible power with cultural influence alongside its economic heft.— AP

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

sp orts Focus back on boxing EL PASO: The focus is finally back on WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and challenger Andy Lee after their summer bout in El Paso’s Sun Bowl was temporarily scuttled by a dustup over security concerns.

“Hay pelea,” promoter Bob Arum declared in the Spanish phrase for “The fight is on.” “There is going to be a fight, and it will be a terrific one,” Arum said at a news conference Friday.

University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa triggered a war of words befitting a boxing match when he canceled the scheduled June 16 fight last week, citing security concerns without publicly offering any specifics. Local officials angrily protested, sensitive to the perception that border cities are unsafe because of the bloody battle among drug cartels in Mexico. Cigarroa reversed the ban three days after his initial announcement, the same day a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that a federal risk assessment had warned that leaders of warring Mexican drug cartels would attend the bout.—AP

Groupama makes comeback MIAMI: French team Groupama launched a comeback in the sixth stage of the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday to keep their chances of scoring a second leg win alive.

Groupama’s hopes of victory seemed to have faded when they found themselves more than 140 miles behind frontrunners Puma-but after halving the distance to their American rivals with just four days to go, they are right back in the race.

“Groupama have moved back in,” said Spanish skipper Iker MartÌnez, whose Telefonica team are currently in third place in the leg and a meagre 16 points ahead of Groupama at the top of the overall standings. “We now

have to try to fend them off.”

After several days of fast sailing, the fleet has stalled in light airs in the Caribbean Sea, 14 days into the race from Brazil to Miami. With less than 20 miles splitting the top trio of Puma, Camper/Team New Zealand and Telefonica, and Groupama and Abu Dhabi less than 70 miles back, the leg remains anyone’s to win.

“Right now, all bets are off,” Puma skipper Ken Read said. “There is a serious game of roulette going on out. This is going to be a battle right to the very end.” The 39,000-mile Volvo Ocean Race, sailing’s toughest event, finishes in Galway, Ireland, in July. — AFP

Muamba: I am the living witness LONDON: Those people who don’t believe in miracles should ask Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers midfielder told The Times after his extraordinary recovery from nearly dying of cardiac arrest two months ago.

The 24-year-old Zaire-born (now Democratic Republic of Congo) former England Under-21 international is back on his feet and recovering after he suffered cardiac arrest during the FA Cup tie with Spurs on March 17 where he was attended to for 78 minutes by a heart specialist who was at the match as a spectator. He was then taken to the London Chest Hospital where he was deemed highly unlikely to survive but instead he has made such rapid progress that he attended Bolton’s home game with Spurs earlier this week and then the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) awards. “This is a miracle, I am a living witness of a miracle,” said Muamba, who received thousands of cards from all round the world including a signed jersey from NBA great Lebron James.—AFP

Nationals edge Phillies WASHINGTON: Washington’s Wilson Ramos delivered an RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Nationals a 4-3 comeback victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday. Steve Lombardozzi started the winning rally against Michael Schwimer (0-1) by singling with two outs, and 19-year-old Bryce Harper - the youngest player in the majors - drew his third walk of the game before Jayson Werth also walked to load the bases. That brought up Ramos, who drove in Lombardozzi. Ryan Perry (1-0), Washington’s sixth pitcher, earned the win. He pitched a perfect 11th, getting the No. 3-4-5 hitters on groundouts.

Braves 9, Rockies 8 In Denver, Eric Hinske had four hits, including a tiebreaking tworun homer in the 11th inning to lead Atlanta over Colorado.

After Tyler Pastornicky singled to start the 11th, Hinske sent a fastball from Edgmer Escalona (0-1) into the Rockies’ bullpen for his first homer of the season. Braves reliever Chad Durbin (2-0) worked his way out of a jam in the 10th to earn the win and Craig Kimbrel survived a shaky 11th for his ninth save in 10 chances. Hinske’s four-hit night ties a career high. He also had two singles and an RBI double.

ST PETERSBURG: Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Carlos Pena puts the tag on Oakland Athletics’ Yoenis Cespedes (52) during the first inning of a baseball game. — AP

Price strikes out 12 as Rays defeat A’s ST. PETERSBURG: Tampa Bay pitcher David Price struck out 12 over eight strong innings as the Rays notched their 12th win in 13 games by beating the Oakland Athletics 7-2 on Friday.

The Rays, who are a major league-best 19-8, improved to 13-1 at home. Price (5-1) threw 106 pitches while allowing one run and one walk. He is the second American League pitcher to win five games this season, joining teammate James Shields. Jose Molina hit his first homer of the season for Tampa Bay. A’s starter Tyson Ross (1-2) had his second straight rough outing, giving up seven runs in 3 1-3 innings.

Indians 6, Rangers 3 In Cleveland, Jeanmar Gomez pitched seven strong innings to guide Cleveland past Texas.

Gomez (2-1) gave up seven hits and three runs.

Johnny Damon hit a two-run triple in his first home game with the Indians, who took an early lead against Texas starter Colby Lewis (3-1).

Damon’s drive off the wall in center was nearly caught by Josh Hamilton, who returned to the Rangers’ lineup after missing three games because of a sore back. Texas had won 11 of its previous 12 games at Progressive Field.

Orioles 6, Red Sox 4 In Boston, Chris Davis drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the top of the 13th inning and Baltimore outlasted Boston.

Mark Reynolds, who hit his first homer of the season in the third, added a sacrifice fly in the 13th to pad the margin, and Jim Johnson set down the Red Sox in order in the bottom of the inning to end the game after 4 hours, 37 minutes.

Baltimore’s Troy Patton (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Franklin Morales (0-1) took the loss for Boston, which led three times but still dropped its eighth home game out of nine.

Blue Jays 4, Angels 0 In Anaheim, Henderson Alvarez pitched his first major league shutout as Toronto beat misfiring Los Angeles. Alvarez (2-2) threw only 97 pitches to complete back-to-back wins after going winless in his previous nine. It was the fourth consecutive complete-game shutout thrown at Angel Stadium.

Jose Bautista hit a two-run homer for the Blue Jays, who handed Los Angeles starter Ervin Santana (0-6) his sixth loss in as many starts this season. Santana allowed only three hits over eight innings with 10 strikeouts but the Angels have been shut out in each of his past five outings.

Tigers 5, White Sox 4 In Detroit, Jhonny Peralta’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Detroit a win over Chicago. The White Sox led 4-2 after Gordon Beckham’s two-run shot in the seventh, but the Tigers got a run back in the eighth on a single by Miguel Cabrera. After Alex Avila’s one-out single in the ninth, Peralta ended it with a homer off Matt Thornton (1-1).

Tigers reliever Jose Valverde (2-0) pitched the ninth for the win. Detroit outfielder Delmon Young was reinstated from the restricted list following a seven-day suspension, but didn’t play. He was arrested last week and accused of yelling antiSemitic epithets in New York.

Yankees 6, Royals 2 In Kansas City, CC Sabathia pitched eight innings to guide New York to victory over Kansas City on an encouraging day for the Yankees.

The night began with closer Mariano Rivera’s announcement that he plans to return from a likely season-ending knee injury rather than retire, and

ended when David Robertson struck out the side in the ninth to give Sabathia (4-0) his fourth straight victory. Derek Jeter singled and scored in the first inning, and then broke the game open with a homer during a four-run seventh.

The damage came against Royals starter Bruce Chen (0-4), who has lost four straight after a pair of no decisions to start the year.

Twins 3, Mariners 2 In Seattle, Joe Mauer’s two-out RBI single in the seventh inning helped Minnesota rally to beat Seattle, handing the Mariners their seventh straight loss. The Twins snapped a 25-inning scoreless streak when they scored three runs in the seventh.

Seattle’s Tom Wilhelmsen (1-1) struggled through four batters and made a costly throwing error that allowed the tying run to score. Mauer followed with a single up the middle that glanced off the glove of the shortstop.

Twins starter Carl Pavano (2-2) needed just 69 pitches to get through six innings. Matt Capps worked the ninth for the save. — AP

held on to beat San Francisco. Ramirez lined a single to left against loser Clay Hensley (1-3).

The Brewers knocked around Giants starter Tim Lincecum in the first then rallied against San Francisco’s bullpen to send San Francisco to its fourth straight loss, all at home. Brewers reliever Kameron Loe (2-0) got two outs in the sixth for the win.

Marlins 9, Padres 8 In San Diego, Omar Infante doubled in the go-ahead run in the 12th inning to give Miami a win over San Diego. Infante one-out hit off Josh Spence (0-1) scored Hanley Ramirez, who led off with a walk. It was Infante’s third hit and second RBI of the game.

Steve Cishek (4-0), the seventh Marlins pitcher, threw three scoreless innings for the win. With a runner on second, Jesus Guzman lined out to second base to end it.

San Diego scored one run in the ninth off its former closer Heath Bell to send the game into extra innings. It was Bell’s fourth blown save in seven chances. The Padres scored six times in the third, including a bases-loaded triple by pitcher Anthony Bass for his first major league hit. — AP

Astros 5, Cardinals 4 In Houston, Jose Altuve put the hosts ahead with a three-run homer in the second inning and Houston held on to beat St. Louis for its fourth straight win.

Houston starter Lucas Harrell (2-2) gave up seven hits in 5 1-3 innings. Closer Brett Myers pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.

Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse (4-1), who began the season 4-0 for the first time in his career, had his worst outing, yielding five runs in as many innings.

Cubs 5, Dodgers 4 In Chicago, Paul Maholm allowed only one run in six crisp innings to lead Chicago to a tight win over Los Angeles. Maholm (3-2) has won his past three outings, giving up just three runs over 18 1-3 innings during the streak. David DeJesus and Alfonso Soriano each had three hits for the Cubs. Chad Billingsley (2-2) gave up four runs in six innings for the Dodgers.

D’backs 5, Mets 4 In New York, Cody Ransom hit a two-run homer and a go-ahead single in the eighth inning to help Arizona hand New York its fourth straight loss. Paul Goldschmidt hit a tying, two-run double off Jon Rauch (3-1) and Ransom followed with an RBI single. The Mets got runners on first and third in the bottom of the eighth but Diamondbacks reliever Brad Ziegler (1-1) induced a lineout to end the threat. J.J. Putz worked a perfect ninth for his sixth save, a day after blowing a save opportunity against Washington.

Reds 6, Pirates 1 In Pittsburgh, Johnny Cueto pitched his first complete game of the season and remained unbeaten as Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh.

Cueto (4-0) did not issue a walk while lowering his season ERA to 1.32. Zack Cozart and Drew Stubbs homered on consecutive pitches in the seventh inning off Pittsburgh starter Kevin Correia (1-2) to give Cincinnati plenty of breathing room.

Brewers 6, Giants 4 In San Francisco, Aramis Ramirez broke out of his slump with a go-ahead, two-run single in the seventh inning and Milwaukee

WASHINGTON: Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Kyle Kendrick delivers to the Washington Nationals during the first inning of their baseball game. — AP

MLB results/standings Chicago Cubs 5, LA Dodgers 4; Cleveland 6, Texas 3; Detroit 5, Chicago White Sox 4; Washington 4, Philadelphia 3 (11 innings); Cincinnati 6, Pittsburgh 1; Baltimore 6, Boston 4 (13 innings); Tampa Bay 7, Oakland 2; Arizona 5, NY Mets 4; Houston 5, St. Louis 4; NY Yankees 6, Kansas City 2; Atlanta 9, Colorado 8 (11 innings); Toronto 4, LA Angels 0; Miami 9, San Diego 8 (12 innings); Minnesota 3, Seattle 2; Milwaukee 6, San Francisco 4.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT Tampa Bay 19 8 .704 Baltimore 17 9 .654 Toronto 16 11 .593 NY Yankees 14 12 .538 Boston 11 14 .440 Central Division Cleveland 14 10 .583 Detroit 13 12 .520 Chicago W Sox 12 14 .462 Kansas City 8 17 .320 Minnesota 7 18 .280 Western Division Texas 17 9 .654 Oakland 13 14 .481 Seattle 11 17 .393 LA Angels 10 17 .370 National League Eastern Division Washington 17 9 .654 Atlanta 16 11 .593 NY Mets 13 13 .500 Philadelphia 13 14 .481 Miami 12 14 .462 Central Division St. Louis 16 10 .615 Cincinnati 13 12 .520 Milwaukee 12 14 .462 Houston 12 14 .462 Pittsburgh 11 15 .423 Chicago Cubs 10 16 .385 Western Division LA Dodgers 17 9 .654 Arizona 14 13 .519 Colorado 12 13 .480 San Francisco 12 14 .462 San Diego 9 18 .333

GB 1.5 3 4.5 7

Coyotes go up 3-1 in series NASHVILLE: The Phoenix Coyotes moved within one win of a place in the NHL Western Conference finals by beating the Nashville Predators 1-0 on Friday, taking a 3-1 lead in the semifinal series.

Shane Doan scored the sole goal in the first period and goaltender Mike Smith made 25 saves to help preserve that advantage.

Nashville played without forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn for a second straight game. Their team suspension for curfew violation was over but coach Barry Trotz decided to stick with the lineup that won the previous game.

They sorely missed the pair, though Nashville thought it tied

the game with 7:12 remaining. But officials waved off the power-play goal because a whistle blew before the puck crossed the line.

Phoenix improved to 4-1 on the road in the postseason, and outskated and outshot Nashville from the start, coming with much more energy. Doan scored on a backhander as he skated across the slot and got a nice bounce off goalie Pekka Rinne’s pad and over across the line at 14:25 of the first.

With Smith in net, Doan’s goal proved to be more than enough with the way the Coyotes played in front of him. They blocked 10 of Nashville’s first 15 shots, and Smith either covered up or gloved the others. — AP

1.5 3 6.5 7.5 4.5 7 7.5 1.5 4 4.5 5 2.5 4 4 5 6 3.5 4.5 5 8.5

GLENDALE: After tripping over Nashville Predators’ Pekka Rinne, of Finland (middle) and Mike Fisher (12), Phoenix Coyotes’ Shane Doan (19) celebrates a goal by teammate Antoine Vermette in the first period. — AP

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

sp orts

Woods misses cut, Watney takes lead SINTRA: 2011 MotoGP World Champion rider Casey Stoner, from Australia, drives his Honda onto the track during his qualifying session for today’s Portugal Motorcycling MotoGP Grand Prix at the Estoril racetrack.—AP

Stoner wins pole at Portugal ESTORIL: MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner won his 35th career pole position at yesterday’s Portugal Grand Prix marked

by Colin Edwards breaking his collarbone.

The Australian rode his Honda around the 4.2-kilometer (2.6-mile) Estoril circuit in a session-best 1 minute, 37.188 seconds, for his first pole of the season.

Stoner’s teammate Dani Pedrosa, who won here in 2011, had the second fastest lap while Cal Crutchlow of Britain was third.

Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo will start today’s race in fourth place, and seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi will start from ninth.

The session’s quickest times came after it was temporarily stopped when Randy

de Puniet lost control of his bike and blind-sided Edwards, slinging the American pilot to the ground. De Puniet emerged with an abrasion to his finger.

Lorenzo leads Stoner by four points at the top of the points standings after two races.

In the Moto2 category, leader Marc Marquez of Spain will start from pole position after recording a lap of 1 minute, 40.934 seconds. Thomas Luthi of Switzerland and Britain’s Scott Redding were next. In Moto3, Sandro Cor tese earned his second pole of the season with a best lap of 1 minute, 47.145 seconds. The German rider was followed by Maverick Vinales of Spain and local favorite Miguel Oliveira.—AP

CHARLOTTE: A frustrated Tiger Woods missed a cut for only the eighth time in a PGA Tour event while Nick Watney stormed into a one-shot lead in Friday’s second round of the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Former world number one Woods battled to a one-over-par 73 at Quail Hollow Club, struggling with his putter, failing to birdie any of the four par-five holes and finishing one stroke outside the cutline. The greatest player of his generation and arguably the best of all time, Woods has now missed four cuts in his last 36 PGA Tour appearances after missed the same number in his previous 231 starts.

“The entire week I didn’t play the par-fives well,” Woods told reporters after parring his last nine holes for an even-par total of 144, a distant 12 strokes behind fellow American Watney who fired an eight-under 64.

“You just can’t do that, especially when all of them are reachable with irons. I didn’t take care of the par-fives, missed a couple of other little shor t ones for birdie and consequently got no momentum during the round.”

Asked to explain why he had struggled, Woods replied: “It all has to do with my setup. If I get over the golf ball and I feel uncomfortable, I hit it great.

“It’s just that I get out there and I want to get comfortable, and I follow my old stuff, and I hit it awful.” The 14-times major champion, playing his first PGA Tour event since tying for 40th last month’s Masters, then reiterated what has become a mantra for him as he strives to regain

the form that once saw him dominate the game.

“I know what I need to do, it’s just I need more (repetitions) doing it,” said Woods, who has been grooving a new swing with coach Sean Foley over the last two years.

“Obviously we’ve changed a bunch of different things, and

every now and again I fall into the same stuff, old stuff. It takes time to get rid of old patterns.”

While Woods struggled on the challenging Quail Hollow layout, four-times PGA Tour champion Watney surged to the top of the leader board with a superb 64 that included seven birdies, an eagle at the par-five

CHARLOTTE: Phil Mickelson lines up a putt on the 18th green during the third round of the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament at Quail Hollow Club.—AP

15th and a lone bogey.

“I played great, I hit the ball probably the best I have all year,” Watney said after posting a 12under total of 132 to finish one ahead of compatriot Webb Simpson (68). “ This was just really, really good ball striking. I hit a bunch of shots close. I putted well, and I’m very, very pleased. But we’re only halfway done, so I’m really looking forward to the weekend.” Former British Open champion Stewart Cink carded a 69 to sit two strokes off the pace at 10-under with fellow Americans Ben Crane (64), DA Points (68) and Australian John Senden (68).

US Open champion Ror y McIlroy, who blew away a topquality field by four shots at the 2010 Wells Fargo Championship, improved on his opening 70 with a 68 for a six-under total.

“I haven’t felt like I’ve had anything near my best the last couple days, but I’ve been able to get it around,” the Northern Irish world number two said after mixing five birdies with one bogey on his 23rd birthday.

“To be six-under through two rounds is pretty good, considering the way I’ve hit the ball.”

British world number three Lee West wood and 10th-ranked American Phil Mickelson flirted with the cutline as the wind p i c k e d u p i n t h e a f te r n o o n before carding matching 72s to qualify for the weekend right on the number. The cut fell at one-under with former major winners Angel Cabrera, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, holder Lucas Glover and last year’s PGA champion Keegan Bradley a m ong t hos e f a i l i ng to advance.—Reuters

London Stadium ready to welcome the world

LAS VEGAS: Floyd Mayweather (left) and Miguel Cotto pose for a photo during a news conference. Mayweather and Cotto are scheduled to box for a super welterweight title late yesterday. —AP

Mayweather takes on Cotto, vows to remain unbeaten LAS VEGAS: Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been doing this all his life, since he was a scrawny kid seeking solace in the gym. The ring is his comfort zone, and he’ll enter it Saturday for the 43rd time as a pro, certain as ever that when the night is through he’ll not only be a lot richer but still unbeaten.

Miguel Cotto is certain of a few things himself. Certain that he has conquered his worst fears in boxing, certain that he can be the first one to conquer Mayweather.

“I don’t need anyone else giving me a chance,” Cotto said. “If I can trust in myself, I don’t need anyone else believing in me.”

Not many are, especially the oddsmakers who make Mayweather a 6-1 favorite in Saturday night’s fight. But if any fighter is a live underdog it’s Cotto, a relentless puncher who believes in himself again after finally avenging a beating he took from Antonio Margarito four years ago that left him searching for answers about his chosen profession.

Cotto stopped Margarito in their rematch in December, and will be defending his version of the 154-pound title against a fighter who knows how to promote a big bout almost as well as he knows how to fight one.

“Nobody is invincible in life. I know that because I pass through this point in my life,” Cotto said. “I’m ready for anything Floyd brings me. The question is, is Floyd ready for anything Miguel can bring to him?”

Mayweather has answered that question every time he’s stepped in the ring as a pro, winning all 42 of his fights while becoming the biggest pay-per-view attraction in the sport. If he needs any added incentive to win this fight, it would be that it might make the nights pass easier when he goes to jail June 1 for what is expected to be a two-month sentence for domestic abuse.

There are still questions, though, about why Mayweather doesn’t fight Manny Pacquiao in the fight most boxing fans want, a fight that would be the richest in boxing history. Mayweather answered them in part earlier this week with a lengthy rant about how he believes Pacquiao uses steroids and that he wouldn’t want to risk his health against him.

“Writers are saying, ‘Floyd is scared,’” he said. “No, Floyd cares about his family. Floyd is smart. At the end of the day, Floyd is smart.

My health is important. My health is more important than money. They can take all the money and my health is more important. If they say, Floyd, you can live a healthy life like you is right now, or you got to walk with a limp, and walk all bent over, but you can have a lot of money for the rest of your life, I’d say, ‘Take it all back.’”

Mayweather continues to insist he doesn’t need Pacquiao, and he may be right. He gets the biggest cut of the revenues for all his fights, and he’s guaranteed to make at least $32 million for this one, while Cotto will pocket $8 million. Mayweather may not be doing boxing any favors by not giving the sport a desperately needed fight, but he’s doing fine for himself.

“When I get in the ring it’s like, here we go again, it’s just another day,” Mayweather said.

“I’ve got so much experience I can go to him if I want. I know when a fighter is starting to wear down and he will wear down.”

Despite the odds in his favor, there’s a decent chance Mayweather could be challenged by Cotto, who will be fighting at 154 pounds for the fourth time and appears to be comfortable at the weight - which is the class limit. Mayweather agreed to move up from 147 pounds - he weighed in at a 151 pounds Friday, his highest ever - to take Cotto on in a scheduled 12-round fight from the MGM Grand hotel that will be televised on pay-perview.

Most in boxing, though, believe Cotto (372, 30 knockouts) is too slow for the slick Mayweather and will be unable to apply enough pressure to land effectively and often. They believe if he cannot get inside he will be easy pickings for the 35-year-old, who in recent fights has shown an inclination to fight more flat-footed rather than try to win by playing defense.

Not surprisingly, the Puerto Rican boxer disagrees. “The only thing I can say is I’m ready, and I am prepared for anything that happens in the ring,” Cotto said. “I’m going to work every second in there.”

Cotto is coming off a dominating performance against Margarito, who had stopped him in the 12th round of their welterweight title fight in 2008. It was the first loss for Cotto, who was also stopped the next year in the 12th round by Pacquiao. He said beating Margarito in the rematch not only redeemed himself in the eyes of his fans, but gave him his confidence back.

“A lot of things got away from me,” he said.

“My confidence in myself, trust in my work.

When I beat (Margarito) those things came back to me.”

Also on the card is a fight between Canelo Alvarez and 40-year-old former champion Shane Mosley. Alvarez, a 21-year-old rising star from Mexico who is unbeaten in 40 fights, will defend his piece of the 154-pound title against Mosley, who dropped a lopsided decision to Pacquiao in his last fight and was beaten by Mayweather two fights before that.—AP

LONDON: The London Olympic stadium, all set to become the beating heart of the Games when the world comes to town in 83 days’ time, opens formally late yesterday.

One lucky youngster will be chosen to do the honors in front of a 40,000-strong crowd at a special test event celebrating 2,012 hours to go until the Games begin.

Paralympic gold medal-winning archer Danielle Brown will shoot arrows at a series of spinning targets to select the stadium opener from 100 pre-selected eight to 14-year-olds.

The stadium has already witnessed its first races and winners, with the event coming at the end of the British Universities and Colleges (BUCS) outdoor championships which started on a damp and cold Friday evening.

In what may not be the best omen for Team GB, seeking to trigger a gold rush when the Games start on July 27, the first athlete to win a race on the gleaming new track was an Irish hurdler.

“I feel like I’ve just won a major championships or something,” declared Justine Kinney, a 24year-old psychology masters stu-

dent at Loughborough University - alma mater of London 2012 chairman Seb Coe. “It feels amazing to know that all these world class athletes are going to be running down this track in just a few months,” she told reporters after winning her 400m heat on Friday. “The track feels amazing, it feels like you could fly down it,” she added.

Some of those world-class athletes will also be in attendance late yesterday, with retired fivetimes rowing gold medallist Steve Redgrave and swimmer Mark Foster among celebrities involved in the proceedings.

British Olympic track hopeful Perri Shakes-Drayton and pole vaulter Holly Bleasdale will be competing.

“This crowd will not only be starting their Olympic journey just weeks ahead of the Games, they will also play a vital role in helping us test the venue and earn our licence to operate the Stadium,” said Coe. The 500 million pound ($807.92 million) stadium, at the centre of the Olympic Park in a formerly rundown part of east London, will go into lockdown from May 12 as organisers put the final touches to the facility. —Reuters

Meshal Al-Sabr in action

Kuwaiti racers dominate UAE Drag Race KUWAIT: Kuwaiti racers dominated the competition during the final round of the 2012 UAE Drag Race Championship, featuring 65 teams from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries taking part in six classes for sports cars and motorbikes.

Members from the Kuwait Quarter Mile Motorsports Club were crowned winners in multiple classes including the Pro Mode Bike class won by Meshal Al-Sabr, and followed by fellow club members Mohammad BuRashid, Misfer Al-Misfer and Mohammad Al-Awad respectively.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti racers Mohammad Al-Baddah, Yaqoub Al-Ali and Ahmad bin Belal won the first, second and fourth places respectively in the Superstreet Bike class.

In sports cars classes Tariq Al-Qudairi was crowned champion of the Index 4.8 class, while Imad Al-Jassem came in fourth place in the Pro Mode class. The Superstreet V8 class was dominated by Kuwaiti racers in the meantime, as the top four places went respectively to Mohammad Dashty,

Abdullah Al-Shatti of the Q80 team Mohammad Al-Sulaiman, Faraj Al-Ajmi and the Q80 team led by Abdullah Al-Shatti.

These results put Meshal Al-Sabr as winner of the Pro Mode Bike class in the 2012

UAE Drag Race Championship, and Mohammad BuRashid as winner of the Superstreet Bike class, while Q80 team was crowed winner of the Superstreet V8 class.

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

S P ORT S

Lukas more than willing to roll the dice

LOUISVILLE: It’s hard to see why four-time winner D. Wayne Lukas bothered to put a 50-1 shot named Optimizer into the Kentucky Derby.

“It’s the one race where I’m always more than willing to roll the dice,” Lukas said, with classic understatement.

We once joked Lukas would enter an emu, if he found one big enough to put a saddle on, just to be in the Derby. That was more than a decade ago.

Not much has changed for him since.

“You’ve got a full field of 20 horses and they’ll all be nervous. None of them have run a mile and a quarter before, let alone in front of 140,000, a large number of whom will be screaming drunks,” he added. “It stirs the imagination.”

But that’s about all it stirs anymore. Lukas’ last Derby win was in 1999 with Charismatic. He’s entered nine horses since and finished in the money just once. Optimizer, the bay colt that Lukas will send to the post late yesterday, is only slightly better - one win and four top-3 finishes in nine lifetime starts.

That’s the funny thing about Lukas and the Derby. Even though his legacy in Louisville was secured long ago, he simply can’t imagine the race going on without him.

Three trainers who learned most of what they know about racing from working in Lukas’ barns Todd Pletcher, Kiaran McLaughlin and Mike Maker - will be opposing him late yesterday.

Only six-time winner Ben Jones has more trophies and only HJ “Derby Dick” Thompson has as many. None of that is coincidence. When Lukas broke in, fans of the thoroughbred game believed in magic, but he relied on cold-blooded science.

They were used to folksy, but he was corporate, running cookie-cutter operations in dozens of barns from coast to coast. While every other trainer focused on quality, Lukas overwhelmed the sport by force-feeding it quantity.

Since his first Derby try in 1981, Lukas has saddled more entries, 44 coming into this race, and has had more finish out of the money (35) than Thompson had starters (24), and more than three times as many as Jones (11). He entered five horses in the 1996 race and won with Grindstone. He no longer pulls the deepest-pocketed owners and rarely gets any client’s best horse. Still, one more win on the first Saturday in May would make Lukas, four months of his 77th birthday, the oldest winning trainer ever.

“You don’t have enough guys with gray hair

saddling horses this time around,” the Hall of Famer joked standing in the paddock at Churchill Downs the day before the Derby.

He was saddling a mare named Absinthe Minded for The La Troienne. She would go on to finish fourth, extending Lukas’ winless streak in graded stakes races to a mind-numbing 0-for-114.

If you think any of this worries him, you do not know D. Wayne. In a sharp navy suit, set off by a pink tie and pocket square, he works his latest connections with a practiced smoothness honed over decades.

“Somebody’s been very good to you,” he told a client. “It shows. A reporter reminded Lukas, a onetime high school basketball coach, of something Jack Nicklaus said about wanting to leave his sport before he became “a ceremonial golfer.”

“I’ve got a win left in me,” Lukas said, “in fact, more than one. Competing at this is different. It’s not just a young man’s game. I don’t get nervous watching them run, never have. I don’t shout. I’m more ... analytical. I’m looking to see, ‘Is that the stride we wanted? Are the feet positioned the way we worked on?’

“I’m learning as much as I ever did. From the bad as well as the good,” Lukas said, acknowledg-

ing the lean times of late. “I still get a kick out of watching my former assistants work. There are things I pick up from them.” He has saved the best for last. “And,” Lukas said, with a smile, “I got a new guy.”

That would be Optimizer’s owner, Brad Kelley, the somewhat-reclusive billionaire who just purchased the legendary Calumet Farm, home to two Triple Crown champions, eight Derby winners and both Ben Jones and two-time-winning trainer Jimmy Jones. Once the gold-standard for the thoroughbred industry, Churchill Downs spokesman John Asher said anybody who loves the sport “is dreaming of seeing those fields filled with mares and foals again ... and maybe seeing those devil’s red and blue silks on the track again.”

A rumor swept across Churchill Downs late Friday afternoon that those fabled silks would be pulled out of storage and draped across Optimizer in time for yesterday’s run. If so, Lukas was willing to take any edge he could get.

“It’s not like the heyday, the 1950s and ‘60s, where seven or eight horses came to the post for the Derby and Calumet Farm won most of them,” he said. “But this is still one game where a little bit of luck goes a long way.” — AP

Sixers overrun Bulls PHILADELPHIA: Philadelphia’s Spencer Hawes scored 21 points, grabbed nine rebounds and hit the go-ahead jumper late in the fourth quarter to help the 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls 79-74 on Friday and take a 2-1 lead in their NBA Eastern Conference playoff series.

Hawes scored 10 points in the fourth quarter for the eighth-seeded Sixers, who took the series edge against the top-seeded Bulls.

Already playing the rest of the series without reigning MVP Derrick Rose, the Bulls got another scare in the third quarter when Joakim Noah left with a sprained left ankle. Noah, who scored 12 points, returned in the fourth quarter and mostly hobbled around the court.

The Sixers scored only 11 points in the third quarter and trailed by double digits early in the fourth.

Hawes hit a 20-footer for a 72-71 lead and Evan Turner made two free throws for a three-point lead with 1:24 left. Chicago’s John Lucas III buried a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game but Jrue Holiday hit two free throws for the hosts to seal the win.

Carlos Boozer had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls and Richard Hamilton scored 17 points. Game 4 is today in Philadelphia.

LOUISVILLE: Rosie Napravnik rides Believe You Can to victory in the 138th running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race at Churchill Downs Friday. — AP

Napravnik wins Kentucky Oaks on Believe You Can LOUISVILLE: Rosie Napravnik became the first woman jockey to win the Kentucky Oaks when she steered Believe You Can to victory in the 138th running of the three-year-old fillies’ classic on Friday at Churchill Downs.

Twelve months after she came within a whisker of winning the mile and one eighth (1800 metres) race, Napravnik broke through to win the $1 million event with a superbly judged ride.

“It’s unbelievable, I’m just so happy,” said Napravnik. “I cried a little but I don’t think I’m done crying yet.” Trailing Broadway’s Alibi to the home turn, Napravnik made her move approaching the iconic Twin Spires, passing the leader on the outside then riding furiously to the line as the crowd of 112,000 let out a mighty roar.

Believe You Can paid $29.60 for a $2 win bet. Broadway’s Alibi held on for second, three quarters of a length behind the winner, while the favourite Grace Hall came third, a further two and a half lengths adrift.

“Last year was kind of a tease, I was so close but not there,” Napravnik said. “This year I was determined to be the one in the winner’s circle and I had the right horse to do it.”

Napravnik, 24, has already left her mark on the male-dominated sport since getting her jockey’s license in 2005. Two years ago, she became the first woman to win the riding title at Delaware Park. Last season took the Fair Grounds riding title and won the $1 million Louisiana Derby with Pants On Fire.

Napravnik finished ninth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby with Pants On Fire - the best finish in the race for a female jockey - but missed out on a ride this year after her mount Mark Valeski was scratched. “I think the whole female versus male issue just comes down to talent,” she said. “If you’re talented it’s not going to matter what sex you are.” — Reuters

Celtics 90, Hawks 84 In Boston, Rajon Rondo had a triple-double with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists as Boston edged Atlanta in overtime and took a 2-1 series lead.

The Celtics went on an 11-1 run to open a doubledigit lead with 7 minutes to play in regulation, but Atlanta tied it 80-80 on Joe Johnson’s 3-pointer with 1:23 left. Boston’s Paul Pierce took a long, fallaway jumper that bounced off the rim at the buzzer but the visitors still prevailed in overtime. It was the seventh career playoff triple-double for Rondo, who missed Game 2 because he was suspended for bumping a referee in the closing minutes of the series opener.

Ray Allen returned for Boston after missing almost a month and scored 13 points in 38 minutes. Kevin Garnett had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Paul Pierce had 21 points. Joe Johnson scored 29 points and Jeff Teague had 23 for the Hawks. Tracy McGrady had 12 points but 10 were in the first half, before he landed awkwardly on his right ankle. Game 4 is today.

Nuggets 99, Lakers 84 In Denver, the hosts raced to an early 24-point lead to set up a victory over Los Angeles, cutting the series deficit to 2-1. Ty Lawson scored 25 points and JaVale

CHICAGO: Bulls point guard CJ Watson passes around the back of Philadelphia 76ers’ Spencer Hawes during Game 1 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series. —AP McGee had 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Nuggets, who will try to even the best-of-seven series at two games each on Sunday at the Pepsi Center.

The Nuggets grabbed a 55-39 halftime lead by stifling Andrew Bynum down low and forcing Kobe Bryant to work harder for his baskets.

Bynum’s putback with 1:18 left in the third quarter not only pulled the Lakers to 68-64 but his inadvertent

elbow on the play broke Al Harrington’s nose.

Harrington didn’t return, but the Nuggets went on a 125 run to regain their composure and control of the game. Kenneth Faried had 12 points and 15 rebounds as the Nuggets outrebounded the Lakers 55-44. Denver’s bench outscored Los Angeles’ reserves 39-9. Bryant finished with 22 points on 7-of-23 shooting and Bynum had 18 points and 12 rebounds. — AP

US and Canada win at world championships

HELSINKI: Canadian player Dion Phanuer (right) vies with Paul Stastny of the US during a preliminary round game of the IIHF International Ice Hockey World Championship. — AFP

STOCKHOLM: United States crushed France 7-2 while Canada squeezed past Slovakia 3-2 as the preliminary round of the world ice hockey championships got underway on Friday.

France went into a surprise 1-0 lead midway through the first period but Kyle Okposo of the New York Islanders soon levelled. The superior fitness of the Americans told the longer the game went on and they eventually swept the French aside in the third period of the Group H game.

Canada, in the same eight-team group being staged in Helsinki, made a good start against Slovakia and seemed to be cruising when Andrew Ladd of the Winnipeg Jets put them 3-1 ahead with less than half the game to play.

Milan Bartovic pulled a goal back for the Slovaks and netminder Cam Ward made 10 saves in the final period to help Canada hold on for victory. The co-hosts also made pleasing starts, Sweden coasting to a 3-1 win over Norway in Group S in Stockholm and holders Finland beating Belarus 1-0 in Group H. The Swedes peppered the goal with 44 shots as they avenged their 5-4 defeat by Norway in last year’s opening fixture. In the day’s other Group S games, Germany beat Italy 3-0 and Czech Republic overcame Denmark 2-0. — Reuters

Italian riders face foreign challenge at Giro d’Italia ROME: Roman Kreuziger, Joaquim Rodriguez and Frank Schleck spearhead a foreign legion hoping to end Italian hopes of scoring a home win in the Giro d’Italia, which begins late yesterday in Herning, Denmark.

In 66 of the 94 previous editions Italians have claimed the race’s coveted pink jerseyand this year will be no different.

Italians Michele Scarponi, Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego have all been crowned Giro champions and will be looking to stay in contention throughout a 21-stage epic which, although including three time trials, should have the climbing specialists licking their lips. The 95th edition has been billed as wide open, meaning they are likely to be pushed all the way.

Kreuziger, 25, has decided to skip the Tour de France this year to concentrate on

trying to win one of the other two Grand Tours. An all-rounder with good time-trialling and climbing abilities, he finished fifth last year having impressed with two consecutive top ten places at the Tour de France in the two previous years.

“I’ve stepped up every year since 2008. I haven’t won a grand tour but I’m confident that I’m progressing,” said Kreuziger, who finished sixth overall at the Tour of Romandie Sunday.

“My season is going well. I had a good Tirreno-Adriatico, Giro del Trentino and Tour de Romandie. We’ll see if it’s my year.”

Rodriguez has never won a Grand Tour but the former winner of the Tour of Spain’s King of the Mountains prize finished seventh at the 2010 Tour de France and was fourth at the Giro in 2011. “In Spain they say I’m the biggest favourite to win the Giro for

several years,” admitted the Spaniard.

“I don’t think there’s one big favorite in the race. There are a lot of riders who can win the Giro, including some who could cause a surprise.”

Luxemburger Schleck could fall into that category. He was shocked to be called up at the last minute by RadioShack after Danish teammate Jakob Fuglsang got injured.

“I was at the playground with my daughter when I got the call and was asked to ride the Giro d’Italia,” said Schleck, who finished third in last year’s Tour. “It was a shock but then I looked at the race route and realised it’s a good opportunity for me.”

Last year ’s race was won by Spain’s Alberto Contador, but after his results over the last two years were annulled due to doping offences Lampre all-rounder Scarponi will start as the official defending

champion.

He was presented with the pink jersey on Thursday, but said: “I want to taste the feeling of winning the pink jersey on the roads, that’s going to be my true motivation in the 2012 Giro.

“There are a lot of favourites this year, who all have an equal chance of victory or to climb on the podium.” Basso, the outstanding competitor in the field when he won in 2006 and 2010, will spearhead the Liquigas team’s bid.

Despite not being the rider he once was, Basso is hoping to show that his mediocre start to the season was a blip. “Two crashes cost me two weeks of important racing early in the season but I’ve done a lot more work in the last 40 days,” he said.

“I’m 34 and I’ve got to trust my experience. We’ll see stage by stage but I’m confi-

dent I can fight for success with the best riders in the race.”

Cunego, the 2004 champion, is likely to work for his team leader Scarponi but the ‘Little Prince’ could come into his own in the climb-heavy third week.

Four of the six stages in the last week will be spent in the thin air of the high mountains, giving the likes of Italian Domenico Pozzovivo and Venezuelan Jose Rujano outside chances of a top finish.

French climbing specialist John Gadret, who finished a surprise but deserved third last year, is hoping to do even better. “I wasn’t a favorite last year but I proved what I could do,” he said.

“I’ll try and do the same, if not even better. The last week of the route is very difficult, all the stages are tough. “But it’s the riders who make the race.” — AFP

18

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

S P ORT S

Gasquet outlasts Ramos to reach Estoril Open final

OEIRAS: France’s Richard Gasquet reacts during an Estoril Open tennis tournament semi-final match against Spain’s Albert Ramos. —AFP

ESTORIL: R ichard G asquet needed a workout before coming to grips with the game of Spain’s Albert Ramos as the second seed reached the final of the Estoril Open 2-6, 7-6 (7/1), 75 yesterday.

The marathon lasting just over three hours at the Estadio Nacional puts the 18th-ranked Frenchman into a Sunday title bid against the winner from Argentine holder and top seed Juan Martin del Potro or Swiss Stanislas Wawrink a, seeded third.

S econd seed G asquet last played in Estoril in 2007, but reached the final, where he lost to the then up-and-coming Serb Novak Djokovic. “It was a very difficult win for me,” said Gasquet. “He is a tough player.

“He was attacking a lot and I had to defend all the time. He played very well, as clay is his best surface, he really made me work.

“I had to serve well in the end to get this win. I don’t care whom I play nex t, both del Potro and Stan are playing very well this week.”

Gasquet will be playing in his 15th career final on the ATP. He trails Del Potro 1-3 while beating Wawrinka in their only previous meeting six years ago indoors in Paris.

The Swiss-based G asquet stands 6-8 in ATP finals, winning his last trophy two years ago in Nice. His last final was in Gstaad two months later.

The second seed committed 16 errors in a sloppy opening set which 42nd-ranked Casablanca finalist Ramos won easily. But despite baseline battling from both men, Gasquet began to find his rhythm, making a match of it in the second set.

The Frenchman recovered an early break and dominated in a tiebreaker to level the sets at one each.

The third set was drum-tight until Gasquet earned his only chance with a break for 6-5 with a winner at the net. Gasquet took the hard-fought victory a game later as Ramos put out a return on his first match point.

Gasquet was playing his first semi-final since Rome a year ago. —AFP

Harlequins clinch top spot LONDON: Harlequins secured first place in English rugby’s Premiership with a 24-10 win over Sale that guarantees them a home semifinal in the play-offs.

Quins will be joined in the play-offs by Leicester, Saracens and Northampton, who all scored convincing wins in the season’s final round of action before the knockout rounds get under way. Harlequins victory came after England internationals Danny Care and Mike Brown dotted down for tries in the first-half to

help the London club establish a 15-3 first-half lead at Edgeley Park.

Two second-half penalties from Nick Evans stretched Harlequins lead to 21-3 before Will Addison gave Sale a fleeting hope of a fightback with a converted try which took the score to 21-10. But a further Harlequins penalty took the score to 24-10 as the visitors wrapped up a clinical victory.

In other matches yesterday, nine-time champions Leicester fired a warning to their

rivals after recording a 28-3 win over Bath at Welford Road which secured second place in the table.

Saracens meanwhile held onto third place in the standings with a 40-22 win over Exeter, while Northampton breezed past Worcester 42-14 to finish the season on a high at Franklin’s Gardens. England internationals Chris Ashton and Ben Foden were among the scorers as Saints crossed five times for a comfortable win. —AFP

DURBAN: New Zealand’s Otago Highlanders player Ben Smith (center) is tackled by South Africa’s Coastal Sharks players Patrick Lambie (left) and Tim Whitehead during a Super 15 rugby match. —AFP

MUNICH: Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany reacts after winning his semifinal match against Feliciano Lopez of Spain at the ATP tennis tournament BMW Open. —AP

Cilic, Kohlschreiber in final MUNICH: Croatian third-seed Marin Cilic will face Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the final of Munich’s ATP tournament after they both enjoyed victories in yesterday’s semi-final.

Fourth-seed Kohlschreiber needed three sets and more than two hours to beat Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, the second seed, to seal a 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 victory and book his place in Sunday’s clay-court final. The German saved all five break points and converted three of his 13 break-point opportunities to defeat Lopez for the second time in five meetings. “It was a tough match for both of us,” admitted Kohlschreiber.

“It had a bit of everything for the spectators, so I am super happy.” In contrast, the 23-year-old Cilic needed just 75

minutes to secure a 6-3, 6-4 win over former world number two Tommy Haas, who defeated Marcos Baghdatis in Friday’s quarter-finals and also saw off top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earlier in the competition.

“It was my best match of the week,” said Cilic, who is through to his first final of the season. “I played and served extremely well. I believe he didn’t reach deuce on my serve. I waited for my chances on return. Tommy played really well this week and I went into the match with thoughts of that. It made good preparation for everything.”

Having lost the 2010 final to Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, Cilic is bidding to lift his first clay-court trophy at the third attempt. —AFP

Gambhir, Watson help their teams win games KOLKATA: Captain Gautam Gambhir and Brendon McCullum shared a decisive 113-run opening stand as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Pune Warriors by seven runs, Rajasthan Royals beat Kings XI Punjab by 43 runs in the Indian Premier League yesterday.

Gambhir struck 56 and McCullum hit 42 as Kolkata set a competitive 150-5 in 20 overs after electing to bat at Eden Gardens.

Captain Sourav Ganguly (36) and allrounder Angelo Mathews (35) led the chase with a 73-run stand for the sixth wicket but Pune could manage only 143-8 in reply.

The Gambhir-McCullum partnership added 100 runs in only 10.2 overs but their dismissals in quick succession on a slower pitch allowed Pune to bounce back.

Gambhir smashed pace bowler Ashok Dinda for 22 runs off seven deliveries during his 36-ball innings which included two sixes and four boundaries.

Gambhir was caught by Mithun Manhas at long-off while trying to hoist a full toss from left-arm spinner Murali Kartik.

In the next over, New Zealander McCullum was trapped lbw by Sri Lanka allrounder Angelo Mathews while trying a paddle-sweep, but only after he had struck one six and five fours off 43 balls .

Pune started badly as openers Michael Clarke (1) and Robin Uthappa (18) were dismissed by South Africa paceman Marchant de Lange by the fourth over. At 55-5, Ganguly and Mathews started

Pune’s recovery. Mathews hit three straight sixes against off-spinner Yusuf Pathan in the 15th over but the chase always looked difficult, especially after Ganguly’s departure.

Ganguly, who comes from Kolkata, hit one six and four boundaries. It was the fifth consecutive loss for Pune, which is second from bottom with four wins and eight losses. Kolkata is second in the nineteam league with seven wins, three defeats and a no-result.

At Mohali, Australia allrounder Shane Watson stood out from among a clutch of batting performances with a whirlwind 36 off 17 balls with two sixes and four fours as Rajasthan scored a challenging 177-6 after electing to bat.

He then produced a spell of 2-22, which included the wicket of in-form opener Mandeep Singh, as Punjab was restricted to 134-8. Rajasthan and Punjab have five wins each from 11 games. Delhi Daredevils lead the table with eight wins and two losses.

Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 150-5 (Gautam Gambhir 56, Brendon McCullum 42; Angelo Mathews 2-17, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar 2-26) def. Pune Warriors 143-8 (Sourav Ganguly 36, Angelo Mathews 35; Marchant de Lange 3-34).

Rajasthan Royals 177-6 (Rahul Dravid 46, Shane Watson 36, Brad Hodge 36, Ashok Menaria 34; Ryan Haris 4-34, Piyush Chawla 2-38) def. Kings XI Punjab 134-8 (Shaun Marsh 34; Shaun Tait 2-18, Johan Botha 2-21, Shane Watson 2-22). —AP

Lambie leads Highlanders to the slaughter DURBAN: Young fly-half Patrick Lambie scored all Coastal Sharks’ points as they triumphed 28-16 against Otago Highlanders yesterday in the Super 15 at Kings Park.

Springbok Lambie converted his try mid-way through the second half of an infringement-infested match in the Indian Ocean city after succeeding with all seven penalty attempts for a home team who led 15-9 at half-time.

The 28-point haul lifted the season tally of the 21-year-old in the southern hemisphere provincial championship to 108 — 41 less than leader and fellow Bok Morne Steyn from Northern Bulls. Steyn played fly-half and Lambie fullback for the Springboks in the 2011 rugby World Cup and they are likely to fill the same positions against visiting England during

June’s three-Test series.

Asked which position he preferred after his match-winning performance against the injuryplagued visitors from Dunedin, Lambie said that decision was up to the national selectors.

“While I enjoy the responsibility of playing fly-half, I would be more than happy to play full-back,” he said before receiving the man of the match award in wet conditions.

Sharks eighthman and skipper Keegan Daniel praised the babyfaced pivot. “Patrick has a great head on his shoulders and his tactical kicking was the difference between the teams,” he said.

Highlanders prop and captain Jamie MacKintosh offered no excuses as his team failed to build on a dramatic victory over Central

Cheetahs in Bloemfontein last weekend, when they overcame a 21-point deficit. “The Sharks are a quality team who kicked well and defended superbly,” he said.

“I really enjoyed the physicality of this match, but it is pretty disappointing to come away without any points.” MacKintosh had good reason to be disappointed as Highlanders won far more possession than the Sharks, but fly-half Mike Delany lacked the accuracy of Lambie, missing two penalty shots in quick succession during the first half. Lambie slotted five penalties and Delany three during a first half constantly interrupted by the shrill of the whistle and referee Steve Walsh lost his patience on 32 minutes and sent Sharks flank Jacques Botes to the sin bin.

It was an unlucky half for the

New Zealanders, with flank Doug Tietjens and replacement Elliot Dixon retiring injured and right wing Siale Piutau needing extensive treatment.

Highlanders edged ahead 11 minutes into the second half when replacement wing Kurt Baker went over for a soft try that Delany converted, but Lambie slotted two more penalties for a 21-16 lead before the Sharks’ only try.

Highlanders left wing Hosea Gear failed to field a Daniel kick ahead and Lambie was perfectly placed to dot down and converted from almost in front of the posts.

The losers remain fifth in the combined standings with 34 points, while Sharks moved up one place to seventh, two points behind record seven-time champions Canterbury Crusaders. —AFP

Chiefs’ Cruden tame Lions DURBAN: Aaron Cruden again underlined his credentials as the long-term successor to Daniel Carter in the All Blacks with a superb all round performance in guiding the Waikato Chiefs to a 34-21 victory over the Lions in their Super Rugby clash yesterday.

Cruden scored a try, set up another for winger Lelia Masaga and was perfect with his goal kicking as he slotted four conversions and two penalties for the table-topping Chiefs, who moved to 44 points with the bonus-point win.

“We are pretty pleased we scored a few tries, but there were also a few lapses too and we let them run too much,” said Chiefs captain Craig Clarke, who scored his first Super Rugby try. Scrumhalf Brendon

Leonard grabbed the bonus-point try following a speculative kick and chase.

The Chiefs success this season has been built on smothering defence and a much improved forward performance that has given flyhalf Cruden the time to dictate play, which he did with composed efficiency against the Lions in Pukekohe.

Coach Dave Rennie chose to rest several of the forwards that had helped the Chiefs to eight successive wins but it made little difference as the Hamilton-based side smashed into tackles and the breakdown on the way to equalling their most wins in a Super Rugby season. They also won nine games in 2009, when they finished runners-up to the Bulls, though with six matches remaining are

almost certain to add to that total. The Lions used their massive pack to score all three of their tries, with replacement lock Cobus Grobelaar bashing over twice from rolling mauls following attacking lineouts, while captain Joshua Strauss smashed over from in close. Elton Jantjies converted all three tries, though the Lions played most of the game hemmed inside their own half and made too many errors in their execution. “When we stuck to our game plan it worked for us but we gave them a lot of ball and they’re a side that punishes you,” said Grobelaar. “We were playing a lot of catch-up rugby but the guys showed good character. “We just need to work on our basics and there are things to improve.” —Reuters

MOHALI: Rajasthan Royals’ cricketers celebrate the dismissal of Kings XI Punjab’s Shaun Marsh during their Indian Premier League cricket match. —AP

Racing leave Stade needing a miracle PARIS: Racing-Metro all but booked their place in the Top 14 play-offs and condemned Stade Francais to missing out with a 19-13 victory over their bitter rivals at Stade de France yesterday.

Victory gives Racing a five-point advantage over Stade with a game remaining and leaves the latter needing to beat Biarritz away with a bonus point and for Racing to fail to pick up a bonus point in their trip to Agen to make the play-offs.

It is likely to mean that the 13-time French champions-five of their wins coming in the past 14 years-miss out on the play-offs for the third successive year.

It would leave Stade hoping Toulon beat Biarritz in the European Challenge final later this month so they could at least have the consolation of qualifying for next season’s European Cup. Toulon had earlier ensured their qualifi-

cation for the play-offs, while Brive plunged towards the second relegation spot after losing to Bordeaux-Begles.

Toulon enjoyed a three-tries-to-one 2522 victory over Toulouse, who are already through to the semi-finals of the end-ofseason finale with Clermont as the two top finishers.

“Even if we weren’t outstanding in the past month, we are confident we have the weaponry required for the play-offs,” said Toulon forwards coach Olivier Azam.

Toulon’s win saw them move into third spot, with Montpellier also having qualified for the six-team play-offs by beating Biarritz 21-16 on Friday. Castres beat Clermont 3019 to also qualify for the play-offs. At the other end of the table, Bayonne took a massive step towards survival in the Top 14 with a bonus-point 31-10 home win over Agen. —AFP

19

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

SPORTS

Dortmund break another record

SPAIN: Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi fights for the ball with Espanyol’s Mexican defender Hector Alfredo Moreno during a Spanish League football match at the Camp Nou stadium. —AFP

Messi hits 50 in La Liga as Guardiola says adios MADRID: Barcelona star Lionel Messi scored all four goals in a 4-0 rout of Espanyol to bring up his half century in La Liga and take his total goals tally for the season to a record-breaking 72 yesterday.

In what was Pep Guardiola’s last home match in charge at the Nou Camp, Messi made sure there was a happy ending to what was an emotional night for the home fans.

Thousands had turned out with flags and banners paying tribute to Guardiola and what he has achieved for the club during his four-year spell in charge.

Barcelona may have conceded their 2011 league title to arch-rivals Real Madrid last week, but three-time FIFA Ballon d’Or winner Messi gave the Nou Camp a boost by pulling ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the league’s top scorer title.

Ronaldo scored a goal in Real’s last-gasp 2-1 win over Granada, leaving the Portugal striker on 45 league goals, five behind Messi with one league match remaining.

Messi is now also the undisputed alltime top-scorer in the history of European football, having overtaken the previous record of 67 goals scored by German legend Gerd Mueller for Bayern Munich in a single season in the 1970s.

In the Spanis capital a party atmosphere reigned following Real’s 32nd league title triumph but they were heading for defeat until Ronaldo equalised an early Franco Jara goal from the spot ten minutes from time.

Then, in a dramatic finale an own-goal from David Cortes gave Jose Mourinho’s men the victory. It was an unfamiliar looking Real side as Mourinho gave a run out to players who have not been regulars, with Ricardo Carvalho coming into defence and Nuri Sahin and Esteban Granero paired together in the centre of the pitch.

Granada, still looking to secure their own top flight status, took full advantage of their uncertainty as they took the lead after just

four minutes through Jara.

The forward stole the ball off Marcelo midway through the Real half and ran through on goal before slotting the ball through the legs of reserve keeper Antonio Adan, standing in for Iker Casillas.

Minutes later Odion Ighalo’s strike was blocked well by the keeper and then his follow-up was cleared off the line by Marcelo.

Ronaldo then headed over and Kaka, left unmarked, fired over inside the area but they remained exposed at the back.

Marcelo was again called on to head away a Jara shot which was heading for the bottom corner.

Karim Benzema was inches away from equalising shortly before the hour mark with a strike from a tight angle which came back off the post and then Ronaldo shot at the keeper Julio Cesar instead of passing to Gonzalo Higuain.

Ronaldo finally levelled for the champions from the spot after a foul in the area, and Granada suffered heartbreak in the dying moments when Cortes scored an own goal.

Barcelona were without the injured Gerard Pique and Alexis Sanchez while Xavi Hernandez was only fit enough for the bench. Seydou Keita kept his place in midfield and Pedro Rodriguez’s return to form in front of goal saw him start in attack.

Barca took the lead after just 12 minutes through a Messi free-kick which clipped off the top of the wall and past keeper Cristian Alvarez.

Messi scored his second from the penalty spot after 63 minutes following a handball in the area by Cristian Gomez, and then completed his hat-trick with a clinical finish with 16 minutes to go.

There was still time for Messi to hit another again from the penalty spot after a foul on Sergio Busquets. Valencia took control in the battle for third place with a 1-0 win over Villarreal while Malaga crashed 2-1 away to Atletico Madrid. — AFP

Spanish League results/standings Real Mallorca 1 (Pina 54) Levante 0; Athletic Bilbao 0 Getafe 0; Grenade 1 (Jara 5) Real Madrid 2 (Cristiano Ronaldo 81-pen, Cortes 90+3-og); Valencia 1 (Jonas 90+2) Villarreal 0; Sevilla 5 (Baba 30, 47, Cala 42, Reyes 65, Kanoute 81) Rayo Vallecano 2;(Diego Costa 37-pen, 77); Barcelona 4 (Messi 12, 64-pen, 74, 79-pen) Espanyol 0; Sporting Gijon 2 (Sangoy 12-pen, 54) Real Betis 1 (Molina 45+1); Atletico Madrid 2 (Koke 69, Adrian 79) Malaga 1 (Eliseu 38); Real Zaragoza 2 (Helder Postiga 13, Lafita 79) Racing Santander 1 (Fernandez 11); Osasuna 1 (Balde 13) Real Sociedad 0.

Spanish league table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Real Madrid Barcelona Valencia Malaga Atletico Levante Mallorca Osasuna Sevilla Bilbao

37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37

31 28 17 16 14 15 14 12 13 12

4 6 10 7 11 7 10 15 10 13

2 117 3 112 10 59 14 53 12 52 15 51 13 41 10 40 14 47 12 49

31 27 43 53 46 50 42 59 46 49

97 90 61 55 53 52 52 51 49 49

Getafe Real Betis Espanyol Sociedad Grenada Villarreal Vallecano Zaragoza Gijon Racing

37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37

12 13 12 11 12 9 12 11 10 4

11 7 9 11 6 14 4 7 7 15

14 17 16 15 19 14 21 19 20 18

40 45 45 45 35 39 52 34 42 26

49 54 55 52 55 52 73 61 68 59

47 46 45 44 42 41 40 40 37 27

BERLIN: Cologne had their German League relegation confirmed yesterday, while Borussia Dortmund broke the Bundesliga record for the most points in a season with a 4-0 thrashing of Freiburg.

“My team has erased any doubts and proven their character,” said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp after his side finished the season eight points clear of Champions League finalists Bayern Munich. “They have shown an impressive appetite for football. Something extraordinary has happened: we have got 81 points, which no team will beat anytime soon.”

Dortmund’s second consecutive title triumph allowed them to break Bayern’s long-held record of 79 for the most points amassed in a season (Bayern twice picked up the equivalent of 79 points when two points were awarded for a win).

Dortmund also extended their unbeaten run to 28 games. All four Dortmund goals came from Poland internationals as Robert Lewandowski netted twice, while international team-mate Jakub Blaszczykowski also hit two goals to make it 4-0 at the break. In contrast, Cologne’s 4-1 defeat at home to Bayern saw them drop to 17th in the league, synonymous with automatic relegation, after Hertha Berlin’s 3-1 home win over 10-man Hoffenheim lifted them to 16th.

Hertha must now win a twoleg play-off against a team from the second division to stay in the top tier. The capital side will discover who their opponents are on Sunday and play the first leg on Thursday.

Hertha took the lead at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium when Tunisia

GERMANY: Dortmund’s players celebrate with the trophy after the German First Division Bundesliga match against Freiburg. —AFP midfielder Anis Ben-Hatira slammed home a direct free-kick just 14 minutes into the game.

Hoffenheim were reduced to 10 men when ex-Liverpool forward Ryan Babel was shown two yellow cards in quick succession after theatrics from Georgia’s Levan Kobiashvili convinced the referee he had been struck in the face by the Dutchman.

Replays showed it was a harsh decision against Babel, who was dismissed with 42 minutes on the clock. Hertha made it 2-0 when Ben-Hatira tapped home again on 78 minutes to secure Berlin’s play-off lifeline.

Ex-Germany defender Marvin Compper netted a late consolation for Hoffenheim before Brazilian striker Raffael made it 31 to the hosts in the 92nd minute.

Arsenal-bound Lukas Podolski

marked his Cologne farewell, but could not prevent his team suffering a home defeat by Bayern.

German international Thomas Mueller put Bayern ahead with a well-timed strike as the Cologne defence swarmed around Munich hot-shot Mario Gomez, leaving Mueller to fire home on 34 minutes. Cologne captain Pedro Geromel then turned the ball into his own net on 52 minutes and Bayern’s Dutch star Arjen Robben curled in the third on 54 minutes.

The hosts pulled a goal back, but Mueller netted Bayern’s fourth to compound Cologne’s misery and send them down.

Hanvover claimed the last available Europa League qualification spot as their 2-1 win at home to Kaiserslautern left them seventh, while Stuttgart’s 3-2 win at home to Wolfsburg denied

Wolves a top-seven finish and a place in Europe.

Stuttgart’s win saw them score three goals in six second-half minutes to hit back from 3-2 down. Germany’s Stefan Kiessling hit a hat-trick in Bayer Leverkusen’s 4-1 victory at Nuremberg as ex-Germany captain Michael Ballack made his final appearance for Leverkusen.

Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was confirmed as the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 29 goals in 32 games after he scored twice in his team’s 3-2 win at Werder Bremen.

Having finished 14th in their first season in Germany’s top flight, Augsburg enjoyed a 1-0 win over Hamburg, which proved to be the last for their Dutch coach Jos Luhukay, who resigned after the final whistle.—AFP

Roma stumble to end CL hopes ROME: Roma all but crashed out of European contention with a limp performance in a 2-2 draw at home to Catania yesterday.

With rumours abounding that Spanish coach Luis Enrique will be replaced by Portuguese Andre Villas-Boas at the end of the season, this was hardly the way Roma would have wanted to end their home campaign. Goals from Francesco Lodi, from the spot, and Giovanni Marchese were sandwiched between a Francesco Totti brace for the hosts.

Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League Newcastle v Man City 15:30 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 5 QPR v Stoke 16:00 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 4 Wolves v Everton 16:00 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 7 Fulham v Sunderland 16:00 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 9 Bolton v West Bromwich 16:00 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 8 Aston Villa v Tottenham 16:00 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 6 Man United v Swansea 18:00 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sport HD 5 Italian League Siena v Parma 13:30 Aljazeera Sport +7 Bologna v Napoli 16:00 Aljazeera Sport +7 Atalanta v Lazio 16:00 Aljazeera Sport +2 Inter v AC Milan 21:45 Aljazeera Sport +5 Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Cagliari v Juventus 21:45 Aljazeera Sport +2

It was the emblematic club captain’s 500th Serie A appearance for the giallorossi but he also missed an early penalty. Roma are now mathematically out of Champions League contention and are two points behind the final Europa League place, but they have just one match left while the teams above them will all play twice.

Roma were awarded a controversial penalty early on when Catania goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo was adjudged to have fouled Fabio Borini in the box.

Carrizo had spilled Pablo Osvaldo’s cross but then punched the loose ball clear as Borini charged in. The pair collided and the referee pointed to the spot. Justice was done in the eyes of the visitors, though, as Carrizo saved Totti’s poor spot-kick before the veteran forward embarrassingly blazed the rebound over the bar.

However, he was not to be denied a goal on his 500th league appearance as he bent a leftfoot shot from 20 yards into the bottom corner on 52 minutes with Carrizo seemingly unsighted. Just five minutes later Gabriel Heinze brouhgt down Pablo Barrientos in the Roma area and the Sicilians were awarded a penalty.

Lodi made no mistake and 10 minutes later, from another set-piece, he provided the cross for Marchese to fire home.

It was Totti’s day, though, and he grabbed his second 13 minutes from time as he arrived 15 yards out to slot home Miralem Pjanic’s low cross. Lecce are almost certain to be relegated from Serie A following their 1-0 defeat at home to Fiorentina. Serse Cosmi’s team now trail Genoa in the final survival spot by three points but they have only one match left.

Genoa, who play away to Udinese on Sunday, have two chances to get the one point they need to ensure they remain in Serie A next season. Fiorentina also ensured their own survival, having come into the game needing a point to be mathematically secure. Alessio Cerci scored the only goal of the game 10 minutes before the break, slotting home from the left side of the box after latching onto Ruben Olivera’s through ball. Andrea Esposito came within a lick of paint

Italian League results/standings Lecce 0, Fiorentina 1 (Cerci 35); Roma 2 (Totti 52, 77) Catania 2 (Lodi 57-pen, Marchese 67) Italian Serie A table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Juventus 36 21 15 0 63 19 78 AC Milan 36 23 8 5 70 28 77 Napoli 36 15 13 8 64 43 58 Udinese 36 16 10 10 48 35 58 Lazio 36 16 8 12 51 46 56 Inter Milan 36 16 7 13 53 50 55 Roma 37 15 8 14 57 52 53 Parma 36 13 11 12 51 53 50 Catania 37 11 15 11 47 50 48 Bologna 36 12 12 12 39 42 48 Atalanta 36 13 13 10 40 38 46 Fiorentina 37 11 12 14 37 43 45 Chievo 36 11 12 13 30 41 45 Siena 36 11 11 14 44 41 44 Cagliari 36 10 12 14 37 44 42 Palermo 36 11 9 16 48 56 42 Genoa 36 10 9 17 48 67 39 Lecce 37 8 12 17 40 55 36 Novara 36 6 11 19 31 6329 - relegated Cesena 36 4 10 22 22 5422 - relegated Note: Atalanta deducted six points at start of season for match-fixing

of equalising early in the second period but he headed Andrea Bertolacci’s corner against the bar. It was a huge let-down for the giallorossi after their dramatic fightback against league leaders Juventus in mid-week, when they rescued a point five minutes from time despite playing the final 35 minutes with 10 men.

It means they are near certainties to join already relegated Cesena and Novara in Serie B next season. Today, champions AC Milan play Inter Milan in their city derby while leaders Juventus travel to Trieste to tackle Cagliari.

Juve lead the table by a point from Milan, who need to win to ensure they take the title race to the final weekend.—AFP

Preview

City look to seal the deal at Newcastle LONDON: Manchester City are steeling themselves for one final assault on the Premier League at Newcastle today, where victory over the Magpies will leave them on the brink of the title. After trailing bitter rivals Manchester United by eight points less than a month ago, City took control of the title race at Eastlands this week with a gritty 1-0 win over Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

Two more wins, over Newcastle and at home to QPR, will see Roberto Mancini’s men pip United for the title, unless Ferguson’s team can make up an eight-goal disdvantage in goal difference. Yet Mancini insists City will not take anything for granted against a Newcastle side who are brimming with confidence after an impressive 20 win at Chelsea which kept alive their dreams of Champions League qualification.

City’s fans may have revelled in their derby triumph over United on Monday which saw them edge ahead in the title race, but Mancini has

warned that it will count for nothing if they slip up against Newcastle.

“I am happy that we are here and we have this chance after being eight points behind United,” Mancini said.

“We now have a big chance.

“But in the end, nothing has changed. We still have two games to go and in football anything can happen. You can lose or win. But the guys have worked really well and I am proud of this.”

Mancini also believes Sunday’s assignment at St James’ Park, where they have won on three of their last four visits, will be more demanding than their title-decider against United.

“Against United we played at home and we played very well,” said Mancini. “Against Newcastle it will be harder.” Newcastle manager Alan Pardew knows that his side are tantalisingly close to a top-four finish, something that would represent a phenomenal achievement for a club that only returned to the top-flight in 2010.—AFP

Preview

Everton blunders cost us, fumes Ferguson MANCHESTER: Sir Alex Ferguson has launched an inquest into Manchester United’s campaign and claims his team’s “stupid” 4-4 draw with Everton will be to blame if they fail to secure the Premier League title.

United, who boasted an eight-point lead at the top of the table a month ago, head into the penultimate weekend of the campaign with hopes of winning a record 20th crown out of their hands.

Ferguson and his players must beat Swansea at Old Trafford today and hope fifthplaced Newcastle stop leaders City from winning if United are to lead the table going into the final game.

Failure to win the Premier League will leave United facing the rare prospect of a trophy-less season, and Ferguson has already started an investigation into why his players have tailed off. United were 4-2 up against Everton when they conceded twice in the final seven minutes to draw 4-4 on April 22. Since then they have lost 1-0 at Manchester City.

“I think the Everton game was the killer for us. It was an absolutely ridiculous performance in the last 10 minutes of the match. Just absolute carelessness,” said Ferguson.

“It’s alright saying the history of the club is

to attack all the time but it was a stupid performance and it’s put us on the back-foot, no question about that.

“If we lose the league we’ll have to accept it’s the Everton game that did it. No doubt about that.” United are looking to bounce back from a 1-0 defeat at City on Monday and are hoping Newcastle can do them a favor.

“That is a tough game, there’s no question about that,” added Ferguson, when asked about City’s trip to Champions League hopefuls Newcastle.

“They know that, everyone knows that. But at the end of the day, we’re on the back foot.

We’re not favourites, that’s for sure.”

United are without striker Danny Welbeck, who suffered an injury after a challenge with City midfielder Nigel De Jong last Monday.

“I thought it was a bad tackle,” said Ferguson. “I didn’t think it was a red card and when I saw it again I thought a yellow card was sufficient.

“It put him out of the game because at the time he was looking as if he was going to do something. I couldn’t take him off, of course, because I’d used all our substitutes. That was the disappointing thing for us.

“We lost the impact of Danny at that point

so it was a bit of a blow to us.” Swansea start the weekend 12th and with a real chance of ending their first Premier League season in the top half of the table. Nathan Dyer has been one of the Welsh club’s stand-out performers and the winger is confident Swansea can give a good account of themselves at Old Trafford.

“Some people may think that because we are safe then maybe our hunger won’t be the same,” said Dyer. “We want to go to Old Trafford and give a good account of ourselves and play our style against one of the best sides in Europe.

“We have a group of players who have worked so hard to get where we are and we have supporters that follow us everywhere and are hugely passionate about our club - so we will be giving everything we have to ensure we finish this season on a high.

“We have achieved a lot this season, but there’s no way we will be easing up. That’s not what this group of players is about.”

Manager Brendan Rodgers could recall former United youngster Alan Tate to the side.

The defender has not featured in the last three games because of a calf strain but has returned to training and is under consideration for a return.—AFP

Dortmund break another record

Stoner wins pole at Portugal

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

19

16

Woods misses cut, Watney takes lead

Page 16

LONDON: Chelsea’s captain John Terry (second left) lifts the FA Cup with teammate Frank Lampard after they defeated Liverpool in the English FA Cup Final soccer match at Wembley Stadium.—AP

Chelsea seal fourth FA Cup LONDON: Chelsea withstood a late Liverpool onslaught to seal their fourth FA Cup final victory in six seasons here yesterday with a 2-1 win at Wembley.

A goal in each half from Brazilian midfielder Ramires and veteran striker Didier Drogba clinched a narrowly deserved win for Chelsea, with substitute Andy Carroll scoring for Liverpool.

The win saw Chelsea skipper John Terry enter the record books as the first man to captain one side to four victories in the competition having already lifted the famous trophy in 2007, 2009 and 2010. “It’s fantastic, it’s what we live for,” a jubilant Terry told the BBC. “We spoke about winning yesterday and we’ve had a tough competition in the FA Cup this sea-

son and we’ve won, it was a great performance. “At times people have slated us as too old, past it or not together but as a team we come together and unite when our backs are against the wall and we’ve done that superbly in the last 16 or 17 games.”

Terry’s landmark was also matched by Drogba, whose second-half effort made him the first man to score in four FA Cup finals. But the defeat denied Liverpool the opportunity to end a largely disappointing season with a second piece of silverware following their League Cup triumph over Cardiff in February.

However after controlling much of the game, Champions League finalists Chelsea were made to work hard for their

win, and Carroll was denied what would have been a dramatic 82nd-minute equaliser when his close-range header was parried onto the underside of the crossbar by Petr Cech. Carroll wheeled away to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line but referee Phil Dowd and his assistants remained unmoved.

Earlier, Chelsea dominated a poor Liverpool side throughout a poor first half which saw the Merseysiders struggle to get into the game.

Liverpool midfielders Jay Spearing and Jordan Henderson were largely anonymous, all too often leaving captain Steven Gerrard overwhelmed.

Chelsea meanwhile looked comfortable throughout, with Frank Lampard and

Jon Obi Mikel screening the back four against an impotent Liverpool attack.

Drogba had been the first to get a shot on goal, hooking a volley just over the bar after only 33 seconds as Chelsea started brightly. The Blues then took the lead on 11 minutes through a Ramires strike that owed everything to poor play from Liverpool Spearing squandered possession in midfield and Juan Mata gratefully scooped up the loose ball and fired a pass in behind Jose Enrique for Ramires.

The rangy Brazilian shrugged off his man with ease and then took advantage of shoddy goalkeeping from Pepe Reina to lash home at the near post.

Liverpool might have got back into the match almost immediately, only for

Branislav Ivanovic to thwart Craig Bellamy’s fierce volley on 14 minutes with a gutsy block. Yet that was as good as it got for Liverpool for the remainder of the half, with Cech having little to do in the Chelsea goal. Liverpool started the second half more purposefully, with Gerrard producing one surging run into the box and Downing looking lively down the flank.

But Chelsea delivered a hammer blow on 52 minutes when Drogba pounced, rifling home a low left foot shot after being picked out in space by Frank Lampard.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish responded immediately by bringing on Carroll for the ineffectual Spearing but it was Chelsea who continued to look the

Rangers held

by Motherwell

Arsenal suffer setback after Norwich thriller Arsenal 3

Norwich 3 LONDON: Arsenal’s bid for a top-four finish suffered a major setback as Steve Morison’s late goal earned Norwich a deserved point in a sixgoal thriller at the Emirates.

Yossi Benayoun’s opener in the second minute had seemed to put Arsene Wenger’s side on course for an easy afternoon. But with Norwich having gone ahead through Wes Hoolahan and Grant Holt, a double from Robin van Persie seemed to have won it for the hosts before substitute Morison stunned the home crowd with a smart finish five minutes from time.

Without a victory in their last three matches, Arsenal came flying out of the blocks and took the lead inside the opening 70 seconds.

Nothing seemed on when birthday boy Benayoun received the ball from Tomas Rosicky but he cut inside Kyle Naughton and curled a beauty beyond the reach of John Ruddy for his third Premier League goal of the season.

It was a dream start but Norwich have proved they are no pushovers this season and they immediately went in search of an equaliser.

Holt was unlucky to see his goalbound effort blocked by Kieran Gibbs in the sixth minute, with the visiting skipper then heading over from Simon Lappin’s high cross.

Less than a minute later, however, Lambert’s side did draw level as Naughton’s low cross picked out Hoolahan and his firm side-footed shot somehow squirmed past an

embarrassed Szczesny.

Van Persie had a golden opportunity to restore Arsenal’s lead at the other end but fired over, while Holt was unlucky to be flagged offside from Simeon Jackson’s clever through ball.

Norwich looked content to try and hit their opponents on the break and that tactic paid dividends in the 27th minute.

A quick break saw Hoolahan play in Holt and his shot took a lucky deflection to loop over Szczesny and into the net for his 16th goal of a wonderful season.

Van Persie was inches away of an immediate equaliser from Sagna’s weighted cross but Arsenal then struggled to break down Norwich’s rearguard effort.

Benayoun was lucky not to be shown a red card after lashing out at Bradley Johnson off the ball, while the visitors had two great shouts for penalties that were waved away by referee Anthony Taylor.

After leaving the pitch to a chorus of boos, Wenger’s side made a slow start to the second period and should have been punished when Jackson was through on goal but the Canadian fluffed his lines.

Hoolahan also went close to extending Norwich’s lead with a volley before the introduction of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave Arsenal some much-needed extra impetus.

Van Persie had wasted two great opportunities to equalise but he made no mistake when Song’s weighted ball into the box picked him out and he volleyed superbly into the corner of the net.

The Dutchman could have doubled his tally soon after, although there was a touch of fortune when he finally did in the 80th minute.

The ball deflected straight into the 28-yearold’s path 12 yards out and he swept home past Ruddy to give Arsenal the lead.—AFP

more threatening of the two sides.

Drogba lashed a volley into the side netting but then the momentum shifted dramatically when Carroll pulled one back for Liverpool. The £35 million striker pounced after Jose Bosingwa’s clearance ricocheted into his path, wrong-footing Terry to fire high into the net.

It was all Liverpool thereafter, with the Reds galvanised by the presence of Carroll in the front line. Luis Suarez forced a low save from Cech on 73 minutes before Carroll headed just over three minutes later. Carroll was then denied his headed equaliser eight minutes from time but although Liverpool pressed they were unable to find a way through a resolute Chelsea rearguard action.—AFP

LONDON: Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey fights for the ball with Norwich City’s Bradley Johnson during their English Premier League soccer match at Emirates stadium.—AP

EPL result/standings Arsenal 3 (Benayoun 2, Van Persie 72, 80) Norwich 3 (Hoolahan 12, Holt 27, Morison 85) English Premier League table after yesterday’s match (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Man City Man Utd Arsenal Tottenham Newcastle Chelsea Everton Liverpool Fulham West Brom

36 36 37 36 36 36 36 36 36 36

26 26 20 19 19 17 14 13 13 13

5 5 7 8 8 10 10 10 10 7

5 5 10 9 9 9 12 13 13 16

88 86 71 63 55 62 47 43 46 41

27 33 47 40 46 41 39 38 48 47

83 83 67 65 65 61 52 49 49 46

Sunderland Swansea Norwich Stoke Aston Villa Wigan QPR Bolton Blackburn Wolves

36 36 37 36 36 36 36 36 36 36

11 11 11 11 7 9 9 10 8 5

12 11 11 11 16 10 7 4 7 9

13 14 15 14 13 17 20 22 21 22

44 43 50 34 36 38 40 42 47 38

43 49 66 50 50 60 63 73 75 79

45 44 44 44 37 37 34 34 31 24

-relegated

GLASGOW: Rangers failed to muster up a win in their final home game of the season as they played out a goalless draw with Motherwell at Ibrox yesterday.

With Motherwell having already secured third spot and the second Champions League qualifying berth due to Rangers’ exclusion from continental competition for being in administration, there was little at stake for either side in Glasgow’s south side. However, after a turbulent season that has seen the club enter administration and finish trophyless the Rangers players were desperate to end their home campaign on a high to give their fans something to cheer about.

Both sides had chances with Henrik Ojamaa causing the Rangers defence problems while Sone Aluko proved a threat going forward for the hosts.

But Ally McCoist’s side failed to find a way past a stubborn Motherwell defence and had to settle for a disappointing draw.

Rangers made just one change to the side that demolished Dundee United in midweek with Lee McCulloch returning to replace Salim Kerkar up front.

In a lively start, Chris Humhrey teed up Ojamaa, whose shot was gathered by Allan McGregor, before Tom Hateley blocked McCulloch’s fierce strike after good work from Aluko. Kyle Bartley then came close with a shot on the turn from the edge of the box which went just over.

Aluko was a constant source of problems for ‘Well and after a surging run into the box the Nigerian tested Darren Randolph with a low drive that the ‘keeper did well to hold.

Motherwell then missed a golden chance to take the lead when Jamie Murphy threaded through a lovely ball to Ojamaa who rounded McGregor but his cutback for Murphy was heavy and Rangers cleared the danger.

After the break McCulloch sent a glancing header just wide as he stretched to get on the end of Whittaker’s cross, before a Bocanegra header from an Aluko corner was blocked on the line.

Substitute Alejandro Bedoya could have won it late on for Rangers after Whittaker laid the ball on a plate for him but the American international completely missed the ball and the chance was lost. Champions Celtic go to Dundee United on Sunday, with the Tangerines looking to wrap up Europa League qualification, while fellow Euro hopefuls Hearts and St Johnstone meet. —AFP

Business activity in Saudi non-oil private sector up Page 22

Financial crisis creates platform for online solution Page 23

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

Kuwait equities remain in green zone Page 24

Arab aviation sector piloting regional growth Page 25

RIYADH: A general view shows a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) finance ministers in the Saudi capital Riyadh yesterday.—AFP

Iranian traders to visit India as Clinton arrives Delhi hopes to win a waiver from US sanctions on Tehran NEW DELHI: A big Iranian trade mission will arrive in India today to explore commercial opportunities on the same day as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton starts her official visit, officials said. The six-day Iranian trip comes as Washington has been pressuring I ndia to reduce its oil purchases from Iran in a bid to coax the Islamic republic to abandon its disputed nuclear program.

“The timing of the visit with Mrs Clinton’s arrival is a coincidence,” Anand Seth, a spokesman for the

Federation of Indian Expor t Organizations (FIEO), a quasi-government body under the Indian trade ministr y, said yesterday. “ They’re returning our visit. We invited them when we were there (in Iran),” he told AFP. An 80-member Indian trade mission spent five days in Iran in March.

The 56-member Iranian delegation is set to arrive in India on the same day Clinton lands to spend two days in the energy-hungr y South Asian nation, which hopes to win a waiver from tough US

sanctions on Iran. India and China, whose growing economies depend heavily on fuel imports, have publicly opposed US sanctions but at the same time have quietly been diversifying oil sources as a June deadline looms for a US decision on sanctions on importers of the Islamic republic’s oil.

India has pushed state -run refiners to diversify their imports from Iran to win a waiver from sanc tions and is aiming to cut shipments from the Persian Gulf

nation by 15 to 20 percent.

“India has cut back on its oil imports from Iran, it has not been insensitive to American concerns (about Iran),” T P Sreenivasan, exIndian ambassador to the UN, told AFP. The United States say Iran’s nuclear drive is aimed at making an atomic bomb but Iran says it is for civilian energy. The Iranian delegation will also travel to financial hub Mumbai and meet with local trade bodies. India has been walking a diplomatic tightrope as it seeks to drum up more exports

from Iran while managing its growing relations with the United States.

India has been buying around $11 billion worth of oil from Iran a year-its second largest supplier after Saudi Arabia-but sells Tehran just $2.7 billion in goods. India needs to increase its exports to Iran as the intensifying Western sanctions campaign against Iran dries up dollar and euro payment routes that New Delhi was using to pay for Iranian oil imports.

India and Iran have worked out

a deal under which New Delhi will seek to pay for close to half of its Iranian oil imports in rupees. The rupee payments will be used by Iran to purchase Indian goods.

India, which has strong historical ties with Tehran, views Iran as an important counterweight to Pakistan. India, which has one of the world’s largest Muslim populations, is also uneasy about joining a US-led drive against the Islamic republic that could have domestic political repercussions, analysts say. — AFP

Investors say Berkshire will endure after Buffett

OMAHA: Berkshire Hathaway shareholders make their annual pilgrimage here this weekend, and this year they have to confront an uncomfortable truth: Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s CEO and the greatest celebrity in investing, can’t go on forever.

Investors would rather not imagine life without the Oracle of Omaha, who is 81 and said last month that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. And he has no plans to leave the post soon.

When the day comes, people who have studied the company say, Berkshire without Buffett will probably look a lot like Berkshire with Buffett. Berkshire, which owns roughly 80 subsidiaries that range from a railroad to an upscale kitchen products company, is already decentralized: Of its 270,000 employees, just 24 work at Omaha headquarters.

The conglomerate has a succession plan in place. Berkshire will split Buffett’s job into three when he’s gone, and the board has chosen the next CEO - although Buffett has said that person doesn’t know it yet. And at least in the shor t term af ter Buffett, not unlike Apple in these first months after the death of Steve Jobs, there should be strong institutional pressure to keep doing things the way Buffett did them, Berkshire watchers say.

“Nobody is going to want to mess with what Warren Buffett built,” says Jeff Matthews, a Berkshire shareholder and author of “Secrets in Plain Sight: Business and Investing Secrets

of Warren Buffett.” To be sure, a Berkshire without Buffett would lose the sheen of celebrity. More than 30,000 shareholders are expected to be in Omaha for the annual meeting and related events that began Friday.

Buffett and Berkshire’s vice chairman, Charlie Munger, who is 88, will spend more than five hours answering questions - many of them doubtless about what happens to Berkshire when Buffett is gone.

Berkshire’s Class A stock remains the most expensive US stock. One share traded for about $122,000 Thursday, near its 52-week high of a little more than $123,500. The Class B shares sell for a more affordable price, about $81.

Buffett says the growth in the stock’s book value - the company’s assets minus liabilities - has outpaced the Standard & Poor ’s 500 index in all but eight years since 1965 for a compounded annual gain of almost 20 percent. Buffett’s cancer doesn’t appear a threat to the billionaire’s life because doctors caught it early, and Buffett plans to undergo radiation treatments this summer.

But even before last month’s diagnosis, Buffett acknowledged that his age limits how many more years he has to lead Berkshire. And not everyone is confident about the company after those years.

Meyer Shields, a stock analyst for the brokerage Stifel Nicolaus, says that Buffett is deeply intertwined with the company, making it difficult to assess the importance of his role.

“It’s hard to know where Warren Buffett ends and Berkshire begins,” Shields says. In addition to a smaller annual meeting crowd in the postBuffett era, Shields says Berkshire Hathaway and its next chief executive will have a lower cultural profile.

The next CEO won’t have Buffett’s reputation and connections, either.

So he or she may not get calls like the ones Buffett got from Goldman Sachs and General Electric in 2008.

At the depths of the financial crisis that fall, Buffett bought $8 billion of preferred stock in those companies.

They paid him steep 10 percent interest - perhaps because they needed his stamp of approval as much as his cash.

Buffett doesn’t plan to retire because he enjoys the work he has been doing for almost five decades far too much. So he has tried to reassure shareholders - without giving away too many details that Berkshire has a solid succession plan in place.

The highly decentralized structure is part of what gives investors confidence the company can continue with little change. Berkshire’s eclectic mix of companies includes Geico insurance, M idAmerican Energy, the Burlington Nor thern Santa Fe railroad, Shaw carpet, Helzberg Diamonds, the Nebraska Furniture Mart and Pampered Chef.

And all of Berkshire’s subsidiaries run with little input from Buffett. His role is to decide where to invest the excess cash the businesses generate.

That’s why Buffett jokes that he dele-

gates almost to the point of abdication at Berkshire. Buffett biographer Andy Kilpatrick, who is also a shareholder, says he thinks Berkshire will continue operating in much the same fashion.

“It’s not going to be a disaster.

Buffett has thought too much about this, and so has the board,” says Kilpatrick, who wrote “Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett.”

Matthews says Berkshire’s next CEO will face pressure to change if the business begins to languish, though. He predicts that shareholders would one day press the company to pay a dividend for the first time since Buffett took over the company in 1965 and possibly to break apart the conglomerate.

And changes like that will become more likely in several years because more than half of Berkshire’s board is at least 70, so there will be turnover, Matthews says. The management model that Berkshire plans to use after Buffett could also result in more conflict between the company’s top executives, Matthews and Shields say. As chairman and CEO, Buffett oversees Berkshire and invests the cash its subsidiaries generate. The company plans to split his job into three roles - CEO, chairman and a head of investment management - after he leaves.

Buffett told shareholders in February that Berkshire’s board has chosen someone to succeed him as CEO - someday - and he said there are two backup candidates.

OMAHA: Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway sings with University of Nebraska cheerleaders prior to the annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska yesterday.—AP None of the three has been pub- most of Berkshire’s investment decilicly identified. The Berkshire man- sions.

Howard Buffett says he knows agers believed to be possible chief executive successors are Ajit Jain, that if he does succeed his father as who runs Berkshire’s reinsurance chairman, his role won’t be running division; Greg Abel, president and the company. Instead, Howard CEO of MidAmerican; Tony Nicely, Buffett says he’d be using his knowlchief executive of Geico; and Matt edge of his father’s ideas to help preRose, CEO of Burlington Northern serve the company’s culture.

“I will put the interests of Santa Fe. Buffett has said Berkshire hasn’t even told the successor and Berkshire ahead of my own personal backups who they are. But he has interests,” Howard Buffett says.

Still, the AFL-CIO, which owns said that his son Howard, a member of Berkshire’s board, would make an Berkshire stock, has submitted a shareholder proposal that’s up for a ideal chairman.

And Berkshire has hired two vote at the annual meeting asking hedge fund managers, Todd Combs whether the company should be and Ted Weschler, over the past two compelled to disclose more specifics years who Buffett says are capable of about its succession plan. So the eventually running the company’s subject of Buffett’s health is likely to be prominent at the shareholders entire portfolio.

Combs and Weschler manage meeting. But questions will be comportfolios worth about $2 billion ing from a mix of shareholders, while Buffett continues to make reporters and stock analysts. — AP

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

BUSINESS

Business activity in Saudi non-oil private sector up Strong output, new orders boost growth 65.20 in April from 62.68 in March. The employment index rose sharply to 55.76 from 52.46.

Analysts in a Reuters poll conducted in March predicted Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product would expand 4.5 percent this year, after an officially estimated 6.8 percent last year. But the kingdom’s Economy and Planning Minister Mohammed Al-Jasser told reporters last month that the economy was at present headed for 6 percent growth this year. —Reuters

mark distinguishing growth from contraction.

New order growth was the highest since June 2011, at 70.13 points in April against 66.87 in March. “Respondents commented on improved demand conditions and more business from government contracts,” the survey said, adding that data suggested the domestic market remained a key driver for new order growth.

Output growth levels also climbed, reaching

JEDDAH: Growth in business activity in Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private sector jumped to a ninemonth high in April, boosted by strong output and new orders, a survey of over 400 private companies published on Saturday showed.

The SABB HSBC Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures activity in the manufacturing and services sectors, rose to 60.42 in April from 58.73 in March. The seasonally adjusted index stayed well above the 50-point

Iraq to double power supply to 12,330 MW by 2013 BAGHDAD: Iraq plans to double its electricity supply to 12,330 megawatts (MW) by 2013 as it brings new sources of power online, the electricity ministry said on Saturday, but is still seen falling short of demand. Iraq needs investment in most of its industries after years of war and economic decline. In a country where temperatures can top 50 degrees Celsius in summer, power generation is especially crucial.

The national grid supplies only a few hours of power a day to Iraqis. Sporadic electricity supply, one of the public’s top complaints, was at the heart of antigovernment protests last year.

Total power supply, currently at 6,000 MW, is expected to reach 9,000 MW in July and 9,600 MW in August, the electricity ministry said in a statement. It said by December, capacity would be up at around 10,400 MW and would reach 12,330 MW in April 2013.

Last year, the oil-producing nation managed to supply less than half of the demand, which peaked at 15,000 MW. The electricity ministry has said it plans to add 22,000 MW of production capacity across Iraq, except for the autonomous northern Kurdish region, by the end of 2015. Iraq has signed a series of projects, ranging from gas to thermal power plants, with mainly foreign firms, which are expected to help it reach these targets. — Reuters

ME lenders to create joint investment bank DUBAI: Middle East banks EFG Hermes and QInvest say they have reached a deal to combine some of their operations to create a joint investment bank meant to service the Arab world and beyond. The deal announced late Friday will give Qatarís QInvest a 60 percent stake in the new company. It will inject $250 million into the new bank.

Cairo-based EFG Hermes will own the rest of the new company, EFG Hermes Qatar. It has the right to sell its remaining stake for about $165 million after a year.

The companies said in March they were in talks to merge some of their operations.

EFG Hermes is Egyptís largest investment bank. QInvest is a privately held bank based in the energy-rich Gulf state of Qatar. — AP

WICHITA: Employees of Hawker Beechcraft working on a Beechcraft King Air at the Wichita, Kansas plant.

The aircraft maker filed for bankruptcy protection after reaching agreement with the majority of its secured lenders and bondholders to restructure its massive debt. — AP

Hawker Beechcraft files for bankruptcy protection WICHITA, Kansas: Hawker Beechcraft filed for bankruptcy protection in the latest blow to Wichita’s beleaguered aircraft industry, with the company saying it had reached an agreement with many creditors on a plan to restructure its debt.

Hawker Beechcraft, which is based in Wichita, said in a statement that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in New York to expedite the prearranged restructuring of the company and some of its subsidiaries. The company said more than two-thirds of its biggest secured lenders and bondholders have agreed to the plan, which calls for about $2.5 billion in debt and almost $125 million in annual cash interest expenses to be eliminated.

The company also said it had obtained a commitment for $400 million in financing that will enable it to continue paying employees, venders and others. It said all orders will be fulfilled and service to customers will be uninterrupted. The company employs some 7,400 people, with roughly 4,700 working at its Wichita facility. It also has factories in Little Rock, Ark., Britain and Mexico, as well as more than 100 service centers worldwide.

Hawker Beechcraft Corp, which is owned by Onex Partners and GS Capital Partners, a Goldman Sachs private equity fund, has struggled with tepid demand for its military planes and business jets over the past few years. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with our largest lenders and bondholders on a solution to stabilize and improve our capital structure,” Robert Miller, CEO of Hawker Beechcraft Inc, which is the parent company of Hawker Beechcraft Corp, said in a statement. “In the last three years, the company has made aggressive transformational changes in all operational functions, and today’s announcement represents the next step forward.”

Wichita, the self-proclaimed “Air Capital of the World,” is the home of major manufacturing plants not only for Hawker Beechcraft but also for Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Cessna, Bombardier and more than a hundred smaller aircraft suppliers. But the industry has struggled in recent years. Thousands of aircraft workers here have lost their jobs since the Great Recession, which pummeled plane sales.

Another blow came earlier this year when Boeing announced it was closing its defense plant in Wichita.

“Hawker Beechcraft has a long and significant history in Wichita and is a critical part of our state’s aerospace cluster,” Gov. Sam Brownback said in a statement. “Preserving jobs in Wichita and safeguarding

the state’s investment are our priorities. We will be working closely with the company’s leaders during this restructuring process.”

Bankruptcy court records show 18 Hawker Beechcraft entities filed for Chapter 11 protection.

The filing shows some 25,000 to 50,000 creditors with estimated assets and liabilities of more than $1 billion. Listed first among Hawker Beechcraft’s biggest creditors is the company’s pension benefit fund, although the filing did not specify a figure for it. The company told employees on its website that it was possible it might have to end the pension plan to obtain financing to exit bankruptcy. If so, the plan would be taken over by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

The president of Machinists union did not immediately return a call for comment. Bankruptcy lawyer Ed Nazar, who represents a couple of subcontractors who are owed money by Hawker Beechcraft, said the bankruptcy may hurt the ability of subcontractors and vendors to get paid for outstanding accounts. He also lamented that the filing wasn’t made in Kansas.

“The interests of the local vendors and local suppliers may be better addressed in a local filing,” Nazar said. Since its founding with the highly-leveraged 2007 purchase of Raytheon’s former aircraft unit, Raytheon Aircraft, Hawker Beechcraft has carried a heavy debt burden, reporting a total debt of $2.3 billion at the end of 2011, according to its annual statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the annual statement filed April 13, Hawker Beechcraft reported operating losses of $481.8 million in 2011 and a net loss of $632.8 million, including $135.6 million in interest and other costs. Sales at Hawker Beechcraft fell by more than 13 percent, or $369.6 million, in the year ending December 2011, according to its SEC filing. Some 350 employees were handed 60-day layoff notices last month in the latest round of workforce reductions. The company insisted at the time that the layoffs wouldn’t affect its agreement with state and local officials to keep its aircraft operations and at least 4,000 jobs in Kansas until 2020 in exchange for $45 million in incentives.

Hawker Beechcraft can trace its Kansas roots to Beech Aircraft Corp, a company founded by Walter and Olive Ann Beech that began making aircraft in the 1930s. Beech Aircraft became a subsidiary of Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co in 1980 but continued to build its planes in Wichita until the 2007 sale to Hawker Beechcraft. — AP

Bayt.com report

How to ace salary questions KUWAIT: Now that you have tackled the written assessment and walked through the panel inter view, the coveted job offer letter is almost ready; but first comes the salary negotiation.

Once you have reached that stage you can be assured to some extent that the employers are very much interested in having you onboard, but during your negotiations make sure you do not make the irreversible mistake of quoting a number without knowing what the interviewer has in mind. The salary negotiation stage gives you yet another opportunity to show your keen negotiation skills which are much demanded by recruiters. Below are a few common salary questions and some key pointers the career experts at Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 Jobsite, have compiled to help you answer correctly.

“What is your salary expectation?”

Just like in interviews preparation is key, in salary negotiations good due diligence can go a long way. When answering the question about your salary expectation, don’t quote a number without finding out what figure the interviewer has in mind first. Salary scales can differ a great deal depending on company-size, industry-type and from private to public sector. Thus, try to find what are the prevalent salary scales in the company’s industry - for this you may consult friends who are in a similar industry or take a look at the comparative salary scales published on websites like salaries.bayt.com, as these are accurate figures submitted by professionals themselves.

When answering this question you can also give a diplomatic answer and throw the ball back into the interviewer’s court by saying that you would like to know more about the job responsibilities and the type of benefits that the company usually offers to a person

with the same career and educational profile as yours.

If the interviewer is still persistent on extracting a salary range from you, then quoting a salary figure that is a minimum of 20% more than your current drawing salary is a good rule of thumb.

“What was your salary in your previous job?

Try not to give a quick answer on this one. Try to point out that it wouldn’t be fair to make a comparison of what you were previously making to what your expectation is because the salary structure in your former company was very different and the position that you have applied for entails job functions that you did not handle in your previous job role. Try to make the interviewer drop hints about the package they are offering.

In case you do quote your previous compensation - try to be accurate about it. If you are worried that you were paid too low compared to the market, you can communicate that going forward you would like to be compensated within so-and-so range.

“How would you feel about settling for a lower pay than what you were getting in your last job?

Don’t get uneasy as soon as you hear the words “less pay”, talk about how salary isn’t the only aspect of a job that attracts you and that you are open to options but it depends on what those other factors are that make the job so appealing that you will be ready to forgo the salary. If the job is less stressful, offers more flexibility and higher career development and growth then it is probably worth a thought. However, in answering the question do establish your minimum range and then ask them for more details about the job and the compensation package.

Libya’s Agoco cuts oil output further TRIPOLI: Libya’s Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) has cut oil production by another 10,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to protests that have closed off its headquarters for nearly two weeks, a spokesman said yesterday.

Protesters have prevented employees from entering Agoco’s office since April 23, calling for more transparency over how Libya’s new rulers are spending its money and more jobs for youth.

Agoco, based in the eastern city of Benghazi, had threatened to cut production if no solution was found by May 3. It first cut 20,000 bpd on Thursday and another 10,000 bpd on Friday, spokesman Abdeljalil Mayuf said, in a setback for Libya’s oil industry which has recovered well since the end of last year’s conflict that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

“We are now at 340,000 bpd,” Mayuf said by phone, adding that the eastern Tobruk refinery was down to 15,000 bpd from 20,000 bpd because of the protests.

Mayuf said more than 100 Agoco employees gathered outside the Benghazi office of the High Security Committee on Saturday calling for a solution to end the blockade. Officials there said a meeting was planned later in the day with the head of

Libya’s ruling council over the matter, he added. “Now we wait and see. If there is a solution we won’t need to cut (production) again,” he said.

Meetings have been held between civil society groups and the demonstrators, who have pitched a tent outside Agoco’s office, but have failed to end the protests.

Oil accounts for the bulk of Libya’s economy and exports. The North African country is close to returning to pre-war production of 1.6 million bpd, and its recovery contributed to a rise in OPEC output in April despite a drop in Iranian supply. Discontent has been simmering in Benghazi, the cradle of the Libyan revolt, for a while. In January, protesters stormed the headquarters of the ruling National Transitional Council while its chairman was still inside.

The interim government appointed in November is leading Libya towards elections in June but is struggling to impose order on a country awash with weapons.

Agoco, which produced 425,000 bpd of crude oil before the war, acted as the de facto state oil company of the Libyan uprising as international sanctions imposed during the conflict prevented dealings with its parent company, the National Oil Corporation. — Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

.2730000 .4470000 .3620000 .3010000 .2790000 .2840000 .0040000 .0020000 .0752410 .7330540 .3830000 .0710000 .7186270 .0040000 .0430000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2771500 .4486640 .3643000 .3031450 .2812140 .0489800 .0410540 .2855750 .0357170 .2233460 .0034560 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0754870 .7354390 .0000000 .0739260 .7201510 .0000000

.2805000 .4560000 .3700000 .3120000 .2870000 .2930000 .0070000 .0035000 .0759970 .7404210 .4000000 .0760000 .7258490 .0072000 .0500000 .2792500 .4520640 .3670600 .3054420 .2833440 .0493510 .0413650 .2877390 .0359870 .2250380 .0034820 .0052790 .0021700 .0030850 .0034240 .0760590 .7410110 .3949790 .0744870 .7256070 .0066640

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Currency US Dollar Pak Rupees

Rate per 1000 (Tran) 278.300 3.062

Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Yemeni Riyal Euro Canadian Dollars Nepali rupee

Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

5.240 2.190 3.400 6.630 75.875 74.365 739.900 46.013 455.900 3.090 1.550 371.500 288.200 3.350

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 277.550 370.500 453.500 285.200 3.495 5.283 45.914 2.130 3.387 6.548 3.060 739.100 75.600 74.100

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka

SELL DRAFT 289.75 286.11 309.01 368.65 453.45 3.54 3.398

5.700 2.550 4.000 3.250 76.50 741.00 47.25 394.50 726.00 77.75 74.25

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

5.177 2.170 3.248 3.068 75.74 740.40 45.98 396.00 723.41 76.76 74.32

SELL CASH 292.00 287.00 311.00 372.50 456.50 3.65 3.550

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Selling Rate 278.300 284.250 451.815 367.140 304.905 736.970 75.745 76.390 74.175 391.745 46.013 2.168 5.235 3.089 3.403 6.598 682.655 4.465 9.105 5.860 3.405 92.090

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka

SELL CASH 287.300 740.940 3.660

SELL DRAFT 285.800 740.940 3.400

Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

286.400 547.200 45.400 50.000 167.800 47.740 368.700 36.600 5.520 0.032 0.159 0.228 3.590 394.830 0.188 93.610 45.400 4.280 225.700 1.805 49.300 723.670 3.150 6.830 77.070 74.390 225.280 38.190 2.655 454.200 41.900 307.400 4.300 9.420 198.263 75.960 279.000 1.340 GOLD

10 Tola

Sterling Pound US Dollar

1,717.990 TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 452.200 278.600

284.900

225.300 46.074 367.200 36.450 5.200 0.031

394.780 0.187 93.610 3.260 224.200

723.490 3.069 6.603 76.640 74.390 225.280 38.190 2.172 452.200 305.900 4.300 9.210 75.860 278.600

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

BUSINESS

Rallies ahead, opportunities in Asia KCIC Asia Weekly Report

By Francisco Quintana KUWAIT: Global financial markets posted significant gains since the beginning of 2012. The MSCI World, an index of stocks’ performance across the globe, increased 10% year to date. In the United States, the S&P 500 rose by 11.2%. In Asia, the MSCI Asia ex Japan gained 13.3%. In the GCC, Saudi rose by 17.5, Kuwait by 10 and UAE/Dubai by 22.4%. Bullish analysts consider these numbers, along with good unemployment and production figures in the US, as a sign of an imminent global recovery, which would be fuelled by policy stimulus in China. Unfortunately, the amount of evidence against this view is large. Despite significant liquidity injections, growth is softening across the globe. In the US quarterly GDP growth annualized decreased from 3 to 2.2% in the first quarter. Chinese growth also softened from 8.9 to 8.1% year on year in the same period. The EU is expected to contract by 0.4% in 2012 while only 6 months ago consensus was that it would grow 0.6%. Liquidity explains the divergence between economics and markets. Central banks are printing money across the globe with the intention of 1) supporting sovereign bonds, 2) providing liquidity to a fragile financial system and 3) revitalizing credit flows to the real sector. The third goal has not been achieved as credit to the private sector is still weak. Success in the second goal is unclear as no one knows how much banks need to cover for toxic assets (i.e.: real estate, EU periphery and Eastern Europe sovereign debt). The first and main goal was achieved albeit temporarily.

Sovereign bonds in Italy and Spain moved away from danger zones. Additionally, with abundant liquidity in the markets, risk appetite grew in

investors lifting stocks in most markets, as shown in the graph.

The graph shows the evolution of stocks markets in the United States (S&P 500) and Emerging Asia (MSCI Asia ex Japan) since July 2011, at the beginning of the market downturn, enhanced by the US sovereign debt downgrade last summer.

Additionally, it shows the size of long term refinancing operation (LTRO) assets on the European Central Bank (ECB) balance sheet. The ECB uses this type of

operations to provide liquidity to banks. The last two operations, in December 2011 and February 2012, provided more than 800 banks with over 1 trillion euro of three-year loans at 1% interest rates.

The graph highlights how the strong injections of cash occurred shortly before market runs.

Market volatility should be expected in 2012.

Sovereign bonds yields are again on the rise: Spanish 10 year bonds went up from 5.33 a month ago to 5.75%, Italian bonds rose from 5.10 to

5.51%. With weak fundamentals and harsh austerity plans in place, we expect Portugal to restructure its debt this year and Spain to access an IMFEU financing program. While a structural solution is needed, the EU is likely to resort again to temporary support programs. Direct purchase of bonds in the secondary market is more efficient but less politically viable as Germany opposes it (for the time being). The alternative is more LTRO which will increase risk appetite, triggering “core to periphery” flows. During these rallies, returns in Asia will probably be higher than in G3, as a) Asian firms have smaller market caps, making them more sensitive to demand, and b) demand for Asia will be higher than that for G3 which offers less returns in market runs: equities in the UK rose by 3.7% year to date and the European Eurostoxx 600 index went up by 6.0%. Safe fixed income assets are a poor alternative: 10-year bonds return 1.95% in the US, 1.66% in Germany and 0.88% in Japan.

The duration and intensity of this positive trend in Asia will depend on the size of the injection but will be only temporary. We still believe that the best investment opportunities in this global environment are linked to Asia, but catching volatile rallies is not the way to go. First, Asia has better fundamentals (2012 GDP is expected to grow 78% against 1-1.5% in G3) which will eventually play out. It’s the moment to pick Asian stocks and stick to them while volatility dissipates. Second, the ongoing crisis is creating private equity opportunities in Europe. Solvent but cash starving firms look for investors. Those that cater emerging consumption trends in Asia are the best target. — Francisco Quintana is economist at KCIC, an investment firm specializing in emerging Asia investments.

Global financial crisis creates platform for online solution Knockbook Online explores GCC markets

By Ben Garcia

SAKHIR, Bahrain: An oil pump works in the Gulf desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain. The price of oil plunged below $100 per barrel for the first time in more than two months, and a drop in gasoline prices can’t be far behind. — AP

Natural gas prices rise 4%; oil drops NEW YORK: Natural gas prices jumped more than 4 percent after a government report eased concerns that US supplies would overwhelm storage capacity this year. The futures price added 9.5 cents to $2.348 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York.

Prices are rebounding from 10-year lows as supplies fall more in line with average levels for this time of year. The government’s latest supply report says US natural gas supplies rose by 28 billion cubic feet last week, below the 3034 billion cubic feet that analysts had expected.

Analysts warned earlier this year that a glut in natural gas was in danger of expanding to a point where the US would run out of places to put it. Natural gas producers such as Chesapeake Energy Corp, Encana Corp and ConocoPhillips responded by shutting down some natural gas operations this year.

Those efforts are starting to make a difference, said independent analyst and trader Stephen Schork. Supplies are still nearly 50 percent higher than average for this time of year, according to the Energy Information Administration. But they were more than 60 percent above average earlier this year. Meanwhile, oil prices fell after the New York Mercantile Exchange made it more expensive for some traders to buy commodity contracts. Traders also said they were concerned about reports that US service companies expanded more slowly last month. Costco, Macy’s and Target also reported disappointing April sales.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $2.58, or 2.4 percent, to $102.64 per barrel. Brent crude, which helps set the price for oil imported into the US, lost $1.87 to $116.33 per barrel in London. At the pump, retail gasoline prices were flat at a national average of $3.803 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded has dropped by 13.3 cents since peaking in April at $3.936.

Gasoline is also 16.4 cents per gallon cheaper than the same time last year.

In other futures trading, heating oil gave up 4.84 cents to $3.0941 per gallon while wholesale gasoline lost 1.82 cents to $3.0575 per gallon. — AP

KUWAIT: The global financial crisis which affected many companies around the world, including Kuwait, has created a new but positive platform for the online media solution, says Knockbook Online Media Consultant Islam Inshassi. In an exclusive interview to Kuwait Times, the online media consultant said that the global financial crisis has made companies more ingenious especially in terms of spending.

He said, nowadays, instead of using the traditional medium which is far more expensive, many companies are utilizing the power of online media. “Global financial crisis have actually taught many companies how to utilize the power of online media which is not just effective, but also economically cheap compared to traditional medium. [Traditional medium include newspaper, television and radio]. Online media is more effective and could reach out to specific targets,” he added.

Inshassi said that companies are now spending more on online advertisements than ever.

The Knockbook was born in early 2000 in the United Kingdom to cater for the needs of companies that wish to utilize the power of online media. It was eventually brought to Dubai in early 2007. It then established its operations in Kuwait in 2009. Knockbook provides digital media solution from A-Z for agencies, advertisers and publishers. “Our clients’ base is increasingly and steadily growing due to the fact that we provide excellent services, high attentiveness and continuous unmatched support” he asserted.

Knockbook services include receiving campaign briefs [materials from the part of clients], planning, recommendations and suggestions of creative solutions that can be applied for each campaign such as launching

campaign adverts to monitoring and optimizing the results and analyzing data. “We provide media planning, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and consultations for companies who wants to do business online,” Inshassi disclosed.

Since establishment, the growth of digital media has been outstanding. The annual growth according to Inshassi since 2009 is about 50 percent. “Actually in 2009, the sales stood at $300,000 and in 2010 it went up to $1.7 million and it grew further to $2.5 million in 2011,” he added. Inshassi takes pride of the fact that Knockbook was the first to sell Facebook media advertising in Kuwait market.

“When we started our business, many companies in Kuwait have started dealing with us.

We also get businesses from Dubai,” he added.

The online media consultant said that the company plans to extend operation globally in the near future. “We have in the pipeline within the next year to open branches in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan. We are also planning to purchase some companies in Europe as well as in the United States.”

“Companies nowadays are very selective, they want to reach out to audience with lesser budget and we could provide them with that,” he reiterated. Communications between Knockbook and their clients are usually done through the internet. “Clients provide briefs about their company, and about the campaign they want to produce. We will plan according to their objectives. We do a media planning. We are doing it online and we usually tell them where the placement of their ads

KUWAIT: Knockbook Online Media Consultant Islam Inshassi receiving a token of appreciation from Adnan Saad, Kuwait Times Marketing Director during a function recently.

US House in agreement on Export-Import Bank WASHINGTON: Leaders of the US House of Representatives said on Friday they reached a bipartisan deal to reauthorize the US Export-Import Bank through Sept. 30, 2014, and gradually increase its lending cap to $140 billion from the current $100 billion. The deal, negotiated by Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Democratic House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer came just weeks before the bank’s temporary charter was set to expire. The nearly 80-year-old government bank provides direct loans and credit guarantees to help US exporters make sales in oversea markets that private lenders consider too risky. Boeing Co is the bank’s biggest customer and many other US manufacturers also rely on its services.

Bank officials have warned that without a rise in the ceiling, they could soon reach the current lending cap of $100 billion, forcing them to stop supporting US exports.

Efforts to renew the Export-Import Bank’s charter, which expires May 31, had run into objections from conservative Republicans, who say it is unnecessary government interference in the market. Delta Air Lines had raised concerns, saying it had been hurt by low-interest Eximbank loans to foreign carriers. The Senate must also approve reauthorization, but the House agreement increase chances a bill reauthorizing the bank will be on President Barack Obama’s desk before the bank’s charter expires later this month.

Last year, the Senate Banking Committee unanimously passed an alternative bill, which was supported by the Obama administration and would have reauthorized the bank for four years while raising the lending cap to $140 billion in one step.

Republicans and business groups praised the House deal.

“Action on this agreement is necessary to promote American exports and remove a threat to the creation of American jobs,” Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said in a statement urging all House members to support the package.

The National Association of Manufacturers, which has backed reauthorization in the past, said the move would boost job growth. “Leaders on both sides of the political aisle came

together today to prevent the unilateral economic disarmament of the United States on the issue of export financing,” the group said. The Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable also issued statements praising the deal.

The plan raises the bank’s lending cap to $120 billion through the end of the current fiscal year in September and allows it to rise to $140 billion in equal increments over the next two years as long as the bank maintains a default rate of less than 2 percent, according to a fact sheet provided by Cantor’s office. The proposed lending cap increases also depend on the bank submitting a business plan to Congress and responding to a review by the Government Accountability Office on its risk management practices.

The bill, in a nod to Delta’s demands, directs the U.S. Treasury Department to initiate and pursue multilateral negotiations for the purpose of reducing and then eliminating government export subsidies for aircraft and ultimately ending all government export subsidies. It requires the Treasury secretary to report annually on progress in those talks until export subsidies are eliminated.

The Cantor-Hoyer bill contains reporting provisions aimed at preventing defaults that would leave the US taxpayer on the hook for bad loans. If the overall default rate equals or exceeds 2 percent, Eximbank must implement a corrective plan and provide monthly updates to Congress. If the situation is not corrected within six months, a third party would be brought in to audit the bank. The bill also requires the bank to give interested parties the opportunity to comment on any transaction over $100 million in a bid to ensure US companies are not put at a competitive disadvantage by a particular sale. Delta complains it has been hurt by the bank’s lending to some foreign carriers such as Air India. Another provision requires all companies that do business with the bank to certify they do not do business with Iran, further isolating that country from the international business community due to Western concerns about its nuclear program. — Reuters

would be. We have ‘tie up websites’ all over the country, within the region but also within the famous websites such as MSN Arabia, Yahoo Middle East, Google Search Engine and Facebook,” he said.

On comparison between the traditional and the online media, Ishassi explained that the most effective tool this time is the online media. “Although until now traditional and online media supports each other, but companies who are cutting advertisement costs are now using the power of online media. In the online media, you have the customers and they are growing day by day. Besides, you can reach the specific target. Newspapers are lagging behind. If you read the online news of today it will be the newspaper contents of tomorrow. So, some newspapers now are turning to e-papers [digital papers] to overcome the challenges,” he explained.

One of the advantages of the online media placement according to Inshassi is the fact that it could be read by millions. “Social media and online media are two different media tools. Social media is like a pre-service where you can post the content on social websites but online media however is to support the social media in spreading the words about the post or the content you posted in the social media.” Knockbook Kuwait has about 30 websites currently available for advertisement placements.

“We promise to deliver your message to the specific target,” he said. “We are dealing with the advertising agency called Starcom.

We run online campaign for companies like Viva Telecom, Burgan Bank, Gulf Bank, Wataniya Telecom, NBK, Zain Telecom and AlShaya. We have international clients like the Forex Company and we have at least 30 percent of our business coming from Dubai,” Inshassi revealed.

Rosneft strikes $2.5bn Arctic deal with Statoil MOSCOW: Russia’s state oil champion Rosneft struck a $2.5 billion Arctic exploration deal yesterday with Norway’s Statoil-its third global tie-up in a month and a sign of its growing global ambitions. The new deal was signed by the two companies’ chief executives in the presence of Vladimir Putin and came only two days ahead of his swearing in to a third presidential term. “We value our relations with our neighbors and are confident that the project will develop well,” news agencies quoted Putin as saying at the ceremony. “There is no question that it will have the government’s full support,” Putin added.

The terms of the deal announced by Rosneft will see Norway’s state-held group win one-third ownership in a new joint venture that will explore one of the Russian firm’s many fields in the Barents Sea. The deal also covers three Rosneft blocs in the Far Eastern Sea of Okhotsk. Rosneft said the deal further sees its “participation in the exploration of license blocks in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea, as well as the possible acquisition by Rosneft of interests in Statoil’s international projects.” The agreement’s structure is almost identical to those Rosneft engineered in the past month with the US supermajor ExxonMobil and Italy’s ENI. All three deals give foreign companies access to the Arctic in return for investments in development and advanced technology sharing with Rosneft. “By building on both companies’ competence and experience, this agreement is a significant step further in the industrial development of the northern areas,” Statoil CEO Helge Lund. The deal also represents another massive coup for Russia’s energy tsar Igor Sechin-a former Rosneft chairman and close Putin ally who is widely tipped for a promotion in the new government. — AFP

24

business

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

Kuwait equities remain in green zone

BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the green zone. The price index ended last week with an increase amounted to 2.24%, while the weighted index advanced by 0.99% compared to the closings of the week before. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover increased by 18.45%, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 43.32 million, whereas trading volume average was 687.52 million shares, recording increase of 38.40%.

The market managed to end the week in the green zone for the fourth week, supported by the positive speculations, which concentrated on small stocks, especially on Investment and Real Estate sectors. Moreover, selective buying on some leading stocks supported the market, especially on Banking and Services sectors, despite some profit taking operations.

In addition, more companies announced its first quarter financial results during last week, the number of declared companies reached 17% so far. The total number of declared companies reached 35 out of 204 listed companies, realizing approximately KD 252.04 million, with a decline of 50.01% compared to same companies’ results for 2011.

By the end of the week, the price index closed at 6,479.1 points, up by 2.24% from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 0.99% weekly gain after closing at 421.99 points.

Sectors’ indices All of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone except for one sector. Last week’s highest gainer was the Real estate sector, achieving 8.29% growth rate as its index closed at 2,559.2 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Investment sector’s index closed at 4,144.3 points recording

3.17% increase. The Services sector came in third as its index achieved 1.31% growth, ending the week at 14,632.0 points.

The Insurance sector was the least growing as its index closed at 2,671.1 points with a 0.01% increase. On the other hand, the Industry sector was last week’s only loser as its

index declined by 0.14% to end the week’s activity at 4,533.9 points.

Sectors’ activity The Real estate sector dominated total trade volume dur-

ing last week with 1.38 billion shares changing hands, representing 40.05% of the total market trading volume. The Services sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 28.48% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 978.92 million shares. On the other hand, the Real Estate sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 58.99 million or 27.24% of last week’s total market trading value. The Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 52.52 million represented 24.25% of the total market trading value.

Market capitalization KSE total market capitalization grew by 0.98% during last week to reach KD 28.78 billion, as all of KSE’s sectors recorded an increase in their respective market capitalization except for one sector. The Non Kuwaiti Companies sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 1.79 billion, increasing by 3.32%. The Real Estate sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 2.77% increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 2.05 billion. The third place was for the Investment sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 2.18 billion by the end of the week, recording an increase of 2.19%. The Insurance sector was the least growing with 0.16% recorded growth after its market capitalization amounted to KD 305.65 million. On the other hand, the Services sector was last week’s only decliner as its total market capitalization decreased by 0.67% to reach, by the end of the week, KD 6.87 billion.

Prepared by the Studies & Research Department —Bayan Investment Co.

25 Arab aviation sector

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

business

piloting regional growth

True ‘open skies’ vital • Arab Spring presents challenges, opportunities

SHARJAH: The speakers (from left) Eithne Treanor (anchor), Dr Majdi Sabri, Foud Attar, Chris Taylor and Abdul Wahab Teffaha during the summit.

AAM Summit Speakers

By Sajeev K Peter SHARJAH, UAE: The Arab aviation industry is piloting the economic growth in Middle East and fuelling a phenomenal spurt in mobility in the region. Despite a challenging geopolitical environment and rising jet fuel prices, Arab aviation industry has built a strong sector with improved airline interconnectivity and passenger movement contributing significantly to the gross domestic product of the countries, experts said at an Arab aviation and media summit here.

They however noted that the absence of a true liberalized environment in the Arab aviation sector is hampering the growth. “We are seeing a continuous and sustainable growth in the region. But, the lack of a true ‘open skies policy’ in the Arab world is restricting the aviation industry from realizing its full potential,” said Adel Ali, Group CEO, Air Arabia, at the Arab Aviation and Media Summit 2012. Kuwait is among eight countries that signed the convention on open skies policy though there are many countries in the region yet to endorse the Damascus Convention.

Abdul Wahab Teffaha, Secretary General, Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO), participating in a panel discussion on ‘Aviation in Global Emerging Economies’, said his organization will demand a speedy implementation of the commitments made by the Arab countries within the framework of the Damascus Convention at the next Arab Civil Aviation Commission meeting to be held on May 17. “We are looking at a roadmap for a broader open skies policy in the region that will unlock the full potential of the aviation industry in the region.

“The Arab aviation industry is a catalyst for growth provided the governments ease the regulatory controls and create a liberalized environment for airlines to operate,” Teffaha pointed out. “Unfortunately, many Arab countries still nurture the notion that they should have a flag carrier irrespective of the losses their airlines accumulate,” Teffaha said.

PERCEPTION “Today, many Arab governments are caught in a dilemma, to liberalize or not to liberalize.

That is the reason why they vacillate on implementing the open skies policy,” commented Foud Attar, president, Airbus Middle East. The speakers suggested that the governments must change their perception that aviation is a sector for discharging their social commitment to the people. “They have to realize that aviation is an industry. It is inevitable that airlines must operate without government subsidies and make profits in a competitive market,” Dr Majdi Sabri, Regional Vice president, MENA, IATA said.

Giving an overview of how airlines have benefited from the open skies policy in the region, Omar Bin Ghalib, Deputy Director General, General Civil Aviation Authority, UAE, said: “An increased mobility in the region has remarkably boosted tourism, trade, logistics, technology

Low-cost carriers a sustainable business model: Air Arabia CEO ‘Fair competition will benefit customers, airlines’ id growth of the aviation sector in the Middle East.

“The Middle East is in a very advantageous position today. Examples can be taken from experiences of other parts of the world and see which are the correct steps to take and which to avoid,” he pointed out. Arguing the case for a more liberal aviation policy in the Middle East, he said, “Opening up the industry to increased private investment will be a step in the right direction, however timing it properly will require careful analysis and guidance,” he added.

By Sajeev K Peter

SHARJAH, UAE: Low-cost carriers have evolved into an innovative and sustainable business model over the last few years, said Adel Ali, Group CEO, Air Arabia while addressing the Arab Aviation and Media Summit 2012. “Passengers continue to come back to them because the low-cost carriers have proved that they never compromise on safety, quality and service despite being in turbulent weather. Today, low-cost carriers have gained 10 percent market share in the region which is expected to go KUWAIT up in the coming years,” Ali said.

Kuwait is s very promising market.

Asked how low-cost airlines operBy signing the open skies policy, ate in an increasingly competitive environment, especially alongside SHARJAH: Adel Ali addresses the Arab Aviation and Kuwait has opted for a very open and liberal aviation policy. This initiative conventional carriers, he said a Media Summit 2012. will help the country develop not only healthy competition is good for the its airport infrastructure, but it will industr y.” “ We have been talking about challenges and competition for the last 40 years. Over the boost the passenger numbers and aircraft movement to and from years, the competition has only become more severe, not less. This is the country leading to a very dynamic aviation industry,” Ali told the why I suggest that the aviation industry has to be made a private Kuwait Times on the sidelines of the summit.

Air Arabia has boosted its business in Kuwait by 30 percent this industry,” he said.

The industry has to become more conscious about the economic year. The airline has increased its daily flight to and from Kuwait to costs to sustain a successful business. “It is inevitable that whoever is three. Air Arabia is also flying from Egypt into Kuwait daily, he added. faring better will survive the test of time. A fair competition will ben- Talking about the unrest in Bahrain, Adel Ali said, “Problems happen efit both the customers and the airline. It will also make more people everywhere. We hope that the businesses will return to normal travel,” he pointed out. “Obviously, the region is getting delivered a soon.” Ali however pointed out that Air Arabia has not been affected lot of new planes including Airbus 380s leading to a continuous by the situation in Bahrain. “We continue to operate two flights to growth in the sector. We are seeing a growth in the numbers of air- Bahrain every day. We also have sought permission to operate a craft and passengers in the region,” Ali said, commenting on the rap- third flight to Bahrain and another one from Kuwait,” he added.

and most importantly resulted in massive manpower development and job creation.” He presented a rosy picture of the UAE aviation industry that witnessed robust growth after it implemented an open skies policy and liberalized the industry. “We expect reciprocal treatment form all the countries in the region,” he said. Citing the examples of Kuwait and Lebanon, he said, “Liberalization of aviation sector in these countries has dramatically altered the horizons of their aviation industry.”.

“Consolidation may be the buzzword the industry is looking for at the moment, considering the complex business environment existing in the region in the aftermath of Arab Spring and changing geopolitical scenarios,” he added.

SHARJAH: A cross section of the delegates attending the summit.

ARAB SPRING The Arab spring has impacted on the Arab aviation industry with massive plunge in passenger numbers though the sector has rebounded quickly after the crisis. “Fortunes were not good for the industry. The crisis has affected tourism industry in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen registering a 50 percent drop in tourism arrivals,” commented Dr Sabri measuring the impact of Arab Spring.

However, the experts agreed that the industry has bounced back in the last few months.

Passenger numbers on Middle East airlines rose by 8.9 per cent in 2011. In the first quarter of 2011, the industry registered a 15 percent jump in net sales.

“The long-term impact of the Arab Spring is extremely positive. It not only presented challenges but offered enormous opportunities to the industry to grow,” said Teffaha.

In the Middle East, the aviation sector currently supports 2.7 million jobs and accounts for $129 billion in GDP approximately. Middle East international passenger numbers are expected to reach some 220 million by 2030 as compared to 77 million in 2010. The IATA has raised its 2012 profit forecast for Middle East airlines from $300 million to $500 million. The revision was fuelled by strong growth in regional traffic. The 21-nation Arab League plans to spend nearly $200 billion on the purchase of new aircraft in the next 15 years. Regional markets derive substantial economic benefits from the spending of tourists travelling by air.

The Middle East is home to 65 airlines with 1,029 aircraft in service, operating from 70 commercial airports. The region has 13 air navigation service providers. The combined value of the Arab aircraft fleet is expected to rise to nearly $200 billion in the next 15 years.

LOW-COST CARRIERS The speakers shared the opinion that the low-cost carriers have emerged as major players in the regional skies with rapidly increasing their stakes in the industry. “Low-cost carriers have evolved into a sustainable and innovative business model forcing the traditional ‘legacy carriers’ to change their business model, said Chris Taylor, VP, Spectrum Capital, UK. The lowcost carriers with their low fares have reduced the cost of travel and stimulated the growth of air travel in the region.

He however pointed out that currently in the Middle East, the market share for low-cost airlines is very low compared to the European market offering huge potential for growth. “But this is tempered by the lack of secondary airports and airlines route rights,” he argued. The speakers also placed a greater emphasis on the need for increased skilled and trained manpower availability in the Middle East aviation industr y. Dr Peter Heath, Chancellor, American University of Sharjah, explained how educationists and regional institutions must focus on aviation education and manpower training so as to equip the younger generation with the knowledge and skills in a fast-changing aviation scenario.

Organized by Air Arabia in association with CNBC Arabia and the American University of Sharjah, the second edition of ‘Arab Aviation and Media Summit 2012’ was themed ‘Mobility in the Middle East.’ The summit brought together industry experts and regional media delegates who discussed the growth of the Arab aviation sector and shared views on the increased mobility in the wider MENA region. The summit is an initiative started in 2011 aimed at stimulating constructive dialogue between business leaders and the media fraternity.

Abdul Wahab Teffaha

Omar Bin Ghaleb

Dr Majdi Sabri

Dr Peter Heath

Foud Attar

Chris Taylor

26

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

business

Humoud Al-Roomi, Gulf Bank’s Al-Danah KD125,000 winner

Qatar consumer price inflation may edge up March inflation levels at 1.2% y/y

KUWAIT: Gulf Bank announced the winner of 2012 first quarter Al-Danah Draw for KD125,000 at an event held at the Bank’s Khaldiya branch. The draw event was hosted by Talal Al-Yagout and Mike Imbaltaa from the Al Gaylaa show on 103.7 FM, who also called the KD 125,000 winners, Humoud Khalifa Al-Roomi an Al Reqqa branch customer, live on air. In addition, the ten Al-Danah weekly winners were announced during the event. The event was a lively occasion that was attended by Gulf Bank’s customers, management and students from Kuwait University.

Aly Shalaby, General Manager, Consumer Banking Group at Gulf Bank said: “We congratulate our first quarterly winner for this year, Humoud Khalifa AlRoomi. It’s always exciting to announce our winners’ names, and remind you that everyone stands a chance to win. We are encouraging our customers to keep or increase the money in their accounts so that they can be a part of this renowned

draw prize.”

Gulf Bank’s Al-Danah offers weekly draws of KD 1,000 each to ten winners, quarterly draws of KD 125,000 for the first quarter, KD 250,000 for the second quarter, KD 500,000 for the third quarterly draw and finally KD 1 million during the fourth quarterly draw. No other bank in Kuwait or across the Middle East is offering its customers the opportunity to win KD1 million in one single draw prize, and the Bank is delighted to be rewarding its loyal and growing customer base in Kuwait through the Al Danah draw.

Customers are provided with several channels to open and /or deposit money into their Al Danah accounts, either through the Bank’s 56 branches, visiting the Bank’s website, www.e-gulfbank.com through the Customer Contact Center by calling 1805805 or they can use the Al Danah ATM deposit card to deposit money directly into their Al Danah account at any of Gulf Bank’s deposit ATM machines.

NBK ECONOMIC REPORT KUWAIT: Inflation in March, as measured by the change in the consumer price index (CPI), leveled at 1.2% year-on-year (y/y) for the third consecutive month. By the end of 2011 inflation had averaged 1.9% (y/y), rising on the back of a rapidly growing economy, expansionary fiscal policies, burgeoning global fuel, food and commodity prices (especially in the first half of 2011) and a stabilizing rental market.

Among the four largest components of the CPI, entertainment, recreation and culture posted the highest year-on-year change, of 5.5%, followed by food, beverages and tobac-

co, which increased by 3.4% y/y (Chart 2).

Transport and communications gained 2.0% y/y, while rent, fuel and energy, the largest category, continued its deflationary pattern, declining by 5.7% y/y (Chart 3).

Pronounced inflation in the transport and communications category, which averaged 6.4% during 2011, came in the wake of a 25% increase in the price of fuel by the Qatari government in January 2011. This was a significant contributor to overall inflation in 2011.

Inflationary impulses stemming from this component are, however, not expected to feature

Al-Tijari awards customers 10% cash back of value of purchases at LG & True Value showrooms KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait announced the success of its marketing campaign “Shop with Al Tijari Credit Cards and Get Cash Back” at LG and True Value showrooms which was launched by the Bank in February 2012 and continued until April 2012 in cooperation with LG and True Value showrooms.

The Bank fulfilled its promise to its customers when the campaign came to an end by rewarding them 10% cash back of the value of their purchases and crediting this percentage to their credit card accounts with the Bank. The campaign achieved outstanding success where most of the Bank’s credit cardholders went for shopping at LG and True Value showrooms to benefit from this offer.

On this occasion, Ramzi Al-Sabboury, Executive Manager, Marketing and Sales Department said “This offer was really a success to all parties ie. Commercial Bank of Kuwait, LG, True Value and customers alike, whereas the our customers’ purchases from LG and True Value increased, along with our ultimate goal which we aspire to reach; namely, to attain our customers’ full

Ramzi Al-Sabboury satisfaction. A target that was affirmed by the marked success of this campaign”.

Al-Saboury added that this two-month campaign availed a great chance to customers for shopping with a chance of getting back 10% of the value of their purchases when using Al Tijari credit cards and prepaid cards, whereas this percentage is credited to their credit card accounts.

PORTLAND: Job seekers stand in line during a Career Expo job fair in Portland, Oregon. The Labor Department said Friday that the economy added just 115,000 jobs in April. US employers pulled back on hiring for the second straight month, evidence of an economy still growing only sluggishly. — AP

to the same extent in 2012.

Meanwhile, depressed rental prices which contributed to a decline of 4.9% y/y in the rent, fuel and energy component of the CPI in 2011 continue to exert a deflationary effect.

Even though prices have been stabilizing over the last year, there is little expectation that they will increase in the near term while supply continues to outstrip demand. Excluding the rental component from headline CPI and March’s inflation rate would be showing an increase of 3.8% rather than 1.2% on a y/y basis (Chart 1).

Data from Qatar’s producer price index (PPI), which tracks prices of industrial sector output across 3 categories-mining, manufacturing and electricity and water-and which is heavily correlated with hydrocarbon prices, point to high but perhaps moderating inflation. The PPI in Q4 of 2011 was 29% y/y, down from the 43.4% y/y observed in Q3 (Chart 4). Within both the mining and manufacturing categories, condensates and refined petroleum products, respectively, have experienced declining prices over the final two quarters of 2011.

Despite depressed housing rents, headline inflation in 2012 is expected to continue to rise gradually over the course of the year, by an average of 2.0% y/y. Inflationary impulses are likely to stem from the government’s capital spending plans ahead of the 2022 World Cup, burgeoning credit growth, accommodative monetary policies and recent public sector pay and pensions increases in 2011. The inflationary outlook in Qatar in 2012 will still be at the low end of forecasts for its neighbors in the GCC, however.

KUWAIT: (From right): Mike Imbaltaa and Talal Al-Yagout, from the Al-Gaylaa show on 103.7 FM, holding the winner’s cheque.

(Standing): Mike Imbaltaa from the Al-Gaylaa show on 103.7 FM calling Humoud Khalifa Al-Roomi, Al-Danah KD125,000 winner

Jobs data turns US investors into bears NEW YORK: US traders threw their hats in with the bears Friday, after poor jobs figures appeared to confirm the economy was slumping again after weeks of mixed data. After holding firm for most of the week, the market was sunk by news that the economy generated only 115,000 net new jobs last month, much lower than expected and hardly enough to keep up with the natural growth of the labor market.

The number was less than half of the job creation pace of January-February, which had sparked optimism that converted into an 11 percent gain in the S&P 500 in the first quarter. Combined with numbers showing tens of thousands of people had dropped out of the jobs market altogether, the data suggested that US household incomes were not picking up, and that consumption growth could continue to be weak in the coming months. It came after traders had failed to lock onto any clear direction from the mixed data and corporate earnings in recent weeks.

While economists were more cautious about the data-saying it does not yet confirm a downward trendtraders were not going to wait for any more confirmation. Stocks, from banks to tech products to energy-all fell sharply, oil prices plunged, and so did a host of other commodities.

For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Index was down 1.4 percent to 13,038.27; the S&P 500 sank 2.4 percent to 1,369.10, while the Nasdaq lopped off 3.7 percent to 2,956.34. Analysts said tech stocks had appeared overpriced, and Apple’s 6.3 percent loss for the week appeared to support that view.

But the turn down was widely-based, driven by worries over the economy and, to a smaller extent, the important elections taking place in Greece and France over the weekend. Bank of America lost 6.2 percent; Alcoa lost 3.9 percent, and Caterpillar 5.8 percent. “The jobs data was definitely a major disappointment,” said Ryan Detrick of Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “I’m not sure if we can call this weakness in the jobs data a trend quite yet, but it sure better turn around soon.

Earlier in the week traders were more non-committal, because the confused figures from economic indicators, such as this week’s ISM purchasing manager surveys for April. The one on manufacturing showed a pickup in growth during the month, but two days later, the index on the much larger service sector showed a significant slowdown. “The market kept flip-flopping because of disagreeing economic data,” said Sam Stovall of S&M Capital IQ. But on Thursday a survey of chain stores showed a disappointing read on sales, reinforcing the idea that the economy took a pause in April. At the same time, quarterly earnings reports that came out this week and last have been a mixed bag: most have beaten forecasts-some like Apple wildly so-but many also dealt out warnings that the coming months might not be so buoyant.—AFP

KUWAIT: Hadeel Al-Fadhli, Manager, Marketing Department at Gulf Bank and Abdulaziz Ashkanani, Representative from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry congratulating the winner.

April US retail sales worst since 2009 NEW YORK: Americans’ spending - much like the economy - continues to yo-yo. Major retailers such as Costco and Macy’s reported on Thursday that April revenue rose less that 1 percent in the worst performance since 2009 when the US economy was just coming out of a bad recession.

The disappointing results follow two consecutive months of strong sales that were boosted by positive economic news about the job and housing markets.

“The economy is growing in fits and starts, and we are seeing sales shoot up and down,” said Michael P Niemira, chief economist at International Council of Shopping Centers.

“We’re in a choppy period.”

A small group of merchants representing roughly 13 percent of the $2.4 trillion US retail industry report monthly revenue at stores open at least a year, a key measure since it excludes results from locations that open and close during the year. Still, the figures offer a snapshot of consumer spending, which accounts for more than 70 percent of economic activity. And recently, it’s shown that Americans’ spending sways with the wave of economic news.

An average of April’s results for 22 retailers nationwide rose 0.6 percent - the worst since November 2009 when the tally was down 0.2 percent, according to The International Council of Shopping Centers. The recession officially ended in June 2009. That’s in stark contrast to February and March when the group posted an average 4.1 percent sales gain on signs the economy was improving.

The latest results are impacted by a flurry of negative economic news. Government reports on jobs and housing in recent weeks have renewed concerns that the economic recovery is facing a spring slowdown for the third straight year. And the stock market rally also has lost some steam amid worries about the European financial crisis and the economy at home.

Other factors also helped dampen sales.

For instance, analysts believe an earlier Easter, which was on April 8 and occurred 16 days earlier than last year, pushed sales out of April

into March. Retailers blame a late Mother’s Day for pushing some sales out of April and into May. And unusually warm February and March pulled forward some sales that would have normally occurred in April. Cassie Batinich said she enjoyed the warmer temperatures and went on a buying spree in February and March. She spent $500 on wedge sandals and clothing at Bloomingdale’s, H&M and Barneys New York. But since the beginning of last month, the 25-year-old New York City resident has cut back.

“I jump started on my shopping because the weather was nice,” said Batinich, who works in public relations. Such a pullback from shoppers like Batinich showed up in April’s results. Macy’s Inc, which runs Bloomingdale’s in addition to its namesake stores, said that it expected its April sales to be softer than in March in part because of the earlier Easter. It also said its results were impacted by a move of a cosmetics event in its stores to March from April. As a result, Macy’s posted a 1.2 percent increase in April revenue at stores open at least a year, missing the 1.9 percent rise predicted by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Others posted disappointing results, too.

Costco Wholesale Corp. said its revenue from stores open at least a year rose 4 percent in April, below the analysts’ estimate of a 5.1 percent increase from the wholesale club operator. Meanwhile, Target Corp. said its sales rose 1.1 percent in April, missing the 2.8 percent increase analysts had expected.

But April’s results did give retailers - and economists - reason to be optimistic. Not everyone posted worst-than-expected figures.

TJX Cos., which runs Marshalls, T J Maxx and HomeGoods, reported that revenue at stores open at least a year rose 6 percent in April, topping Wall Street’s forecast of a 4 percent rise. The company also boosted its first-quarter and fiscal 2013 earnings outlooks. Retailers tend to study the combined March and April figures because it’s a better gauge of spending for the overall spring season than a single month. Sales for the combined two months were up 2.4 percent, which is a decent performance for this time of year.—Reuters

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

TECHNOLOGY

Yahoo confirms misleading info on new CEO’s resume SAN FRANCISCO: A disgruntled Yahoo shareholder questioned the qualifications and integrity of recently hired CEO Scott Thompson after exposing a misrepresentation about the executive’s education.

The fabrication confirmed Thursday

by Yahoo Inc. gives New York hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb more artillery as he tries to topple a board of directors favored by Thompson, who became CEO of the troubled Internet company four months ago.

Loeb, whose fund Third Point owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo, gained more leverage when he discovered Thompson doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree in computer science from a small college in Easton, Mass., as Yahoo stated in a regulatory filing last week.

Thompson only has an accounting degree from Stonehill College, an accomplishment that Yahoo also listed

in the filing. The accounting degree was the only listed in Thompson’s resume last year by eBay Inc. when he was still running that company’s PayPal payment service.

Yahoo confirmed Thompson’s credentials had been exaggerated in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and brushed it off as an “inadvertent error.”

But Loeb pounced on the misinformation as a violation of Yahoo’s code of ethics and called for an independent investigation to determine whether Thompson had misled the company’s board about his technology credentials.

He also cited the mix-up as an example of Yahoo’s poor corporate governance.

“If Mr. Thompson embellished his academic credentials we think that it 1) undermines his credibility as a technology expert and 2) reflects poorly on the character of the CEO who has been

tasked with leading Yahoo at this critical juncture,” Loeb wrote in a letter to Yahoo’s board on Thursday. “Now more than ever Yahoo investors need a trustworthy CEO.” In the past, other companies have suspended or fired executives who were caught lying on their resumes.

Yahoo hired Thompson to reverse years of financial lethargy at the company that set in even as more advertising has shifted to the Internet. The funk has weighed on Yahoo’s stock, which has been hovering between $10 and $20 for most of the last three years. Yahoo shares fell 27 cents to close at $15.40 on Thursday. That’s well below the $33 per share that stockholders could have gotten in May 2008 if the board had accepted a takeover offer from Microsoft Corp.

The company stood behind Thompson in its statement. “This in no

way alters that fact that Mr. Thompson is a highly qualified executive with a successful track record leading large consumer technology companies,” Yahoo said.

“Under Mr. Thompson’s leadership, Yahoo Is moving forward to grow the company and drive shareholder value.”

Tensions between Loeb and Thompson have been escalating since late March when Yahoo appointed three new directors to its board. In doing so, Yahoo snubbed Loeb, who had been lobbying for a board seat along with three allies who he believes have the skills necessary to help Yahoo rebound from its long-running struggles. At the time Thompson made it clear that he and the Yahoo committee overseeing the search for new directors had concluded Loeb wasn’t the best candidate.

Loeb is waging a campaign to persuade Yahoo’s shareholders to elect him and

his allies to the board at the company’s annual meeting. The date of that meeting still hasn’t been scheduled.

Thompson so far has mostly cut costs to boost Yahoo’s profits. Last month, he laid off about 2,000 employees, or 14 percent of the workforce, in the biggest payroll purge in Yahoo’s 17-year history and disclosed plans to close about 50 Yahoo ser vices that haven’t been attracting enough users or generating enough revenue. He also made modest progress on other financial fronts as Yahoo registered its first year-over-year increase in quarterly net revenue since 2008 during the three months ending in March. Even though he doesn’t have a computer science degree, Thompson has a background in technology. He served as PayPal’s chief technology officer for three years before being promoted to the payment service’s president in 2008. — AP

New PC games offer post-apocalyptic worlds

Take precautions when using WiFi

BERLIN: With wireless local area networks (WLAN) - more commonly known as WiFi surfing the web is easy. But users of public WLAN hotspots should be careful, as data thieves can be lurking.

Most of the people surfing with wireless networks are unknown to the individual user - whether that be with a smartphone, tablet or laptop. All of them are connecting to the internet via a wireless connection made available by the hotspot operator.

Intruders, however, would have an easy time hacking into the access data for email inboxes or internet mail-order sites since the data is essentially floating around unprotected in an unencrypted connection.

The most important factor for the security of the user is not necessarily if the WLAN itself is open or encrypted. Even a WPA2 standard protected network is only secure from hackers trying to get in from the outside. But all users within the network have the access information - the vacationer at the next table calling home with a voice over IP, the blogger at the other end of the room, and the youngsters in the corner using a social network.

Essential for your own protection is a good firewall for your laptop. This warns the user if someone from the outside is trying to access the laptop. Another must is a regularly updated virus protection program. It’s also recommended to deactivate the automatic data release function in Windows so that no one has access to the information.

Basically, all business matters such as online banking, stock exchange transactions or online purchases should be done in a secure location. Those who log in while using a WiFi hotspot should also be aware if the provider uses secure sites. This can be determined by the URL address if it includes https:// instead of http://. The “s”

stands for secure.

Many other sites show they are secure with the image of a padlock. Even your own email program should only be used in secure transmission processes such as SSL or TLS. It also makes sense to get a free extra program for https pages such as HTTPS Everywhere. This Add-on enhances browsers such as Firefox and Chrome so that pages automatically switch from http to https if possible and necessary. That happens especially with sensitive data sent, by example, when using PayPal or Facebook.

An entire internet visit would be sealed off if the user were to install a virtual private network or VPN. That is, however, not included in most WiFi hotspots, and the set-up is quite elaborate.

The user would need VPN software - for example, Windows PPTP or OpenVPN, which can be downloaded from the web.

The user accesses the web as usual but then the VPN client creates an encrypted tunnel connection between the computer and the VPN server somewhere in the world. Sealed off from the outside, the data travels securely to the VPN server, which sends the request as usual to the web and then sends the answer securely back through the tunnel.

The open WiFi should definitely be shut down after usage, and even the automatic network discovery function should be deactivated. In addition, it is also recommended to delete the used connection from the list of known connections so that the device does not automatically connect with the network when it’s nearby. It’s also better to keep turned off the short distance wireless communication program Bluetooth on smartphones and laptops as others could possibly access the internet connection that way. — dpa

Google wants authors group out of NY library case NEW YORK: Google Inc. urged a judge to toss The Authors Guild and an organization representing photographers out of 6-yearold litigation over the future of the world’s largest digital library, a move that would force authors and photographers to individually fight the online search engine giant. Google attorney Daralyn Durie told Judge Denny Chin in federal court in Manhattan that authors and photographers would be better off fending for themselves because their circumstances varied widely, especially since the copyright issue for authors involves the display of small snippets of text. “ The question of ownership is very murky because of the contractual relationships between the parties and because it is conceded that in many cases authors receive no royalties from the publisher for these displays,” she said.

Joanne Zack, a lawyer for The Authors Guild, countered that the judge should certify the authors as a class because millions of them would not have the money to go to court and because the potential financial reward for doing so would not be high enough to make it practical. She said they also might be intimidated fighting a company as large as Google.

“This action does cry out for mass litigation to adjudicate the mass digitization,” she said. “This is a classic case for a class action because we’re talking about blanket policies that affected millions of people and we’re talking primarily about legal issues - infringement, fair use - that can be determined based on common questions

of law and fact.”

She called it “a terrible burden on the courts if each individual author chose to litigate, and, of course, Google hopes that nobody will.” The judge agreed that Google is “hoping that individual authors won’t come forward.” Chin did not immediately rule on what the law demands, but he questioned whether Google really wanted to face multiple lawsuits from authors and photographers.

“It would take forever. It just seems to make sense to address that on a group basis whether through an association or whether through a class action,” the judge said. The arguments came a year after Chin rejected a $125 million deal that would have settled the case. He tossed out the settlement between Google and representatives of The Authors Guild and publishers after studying objections from Google rivals, consumer watchdogs, academic experts, literary agents, the Department of Justice and even foreign governments.

A challenge to The Authors Guild and the American Society of Media Photographers Inc. as litigants seemed unusual so many years after lawsuits were first filed, Chin said. The Authors Guild sued in 2005. The photographers’ lawsuit was filed two years ago.

“Now all of a sudden Google is saying, ‘You don’t have standing,’” the judge said.

Durie responded that negotiations had consumed most of the time since lawsuits were first filed, and that it was not unusual to put off pretrial challenges while talks were going on. —AP

HAMBURG: The season’s new crop of PC games seem intent on creating a bleaker world. Memento Mori 2 is a crime thriller; Oil Rush focuses on the competition for resources in the future; and Afterfall: Insanity takes place in a world laid to waste by a nuclear war. There are exceptions to the trend, such as Rayman Origins.

Modern Times from Kalypso is an addition to the satirical dictator strategy game Tropico 4. Just like in the main game, players are called on to bring their tropical island under control with smooth dealings and tactical war leadership.

But now there is the option to build organic farms and the stress of dealing with new innovations such as the internet and international financial markets. Especially advanced island nations can even send astronauts to the International Space Station.

The addition only works in conjunction with the main game, adding 12 new scenarios and 30 new buildings to single-player versions of Tropico 4. It costs 25 euros (33 dollars) and is recommended for players aged 12 years and above.

Oil Rush from Koch Media puts PC strategists into a post-apocalyptic scenario straight out of the Hollywood film Waterworld. The earth has been completely flooded, but oil remains the world’s most important resource.

Oil Rush combines elements of strategy and tower defence games, so players don’t just have to create and protect oil platforms, but also have to take over territory from competitors. There’s also the option of developing futuristic

Chance to be a dictator

Memento More 2 game is a crime thriller. boss, to rides on a mosquito, to technology and new products.

There are 16 missions in single- races through levels as they fall player mode, while a multi-player apart. Players can opt to play alone online mode allows battles across or with up to three friends through 15 different maps. Modern graph- five worlds and 60 levels. The 2D ics effects mean detailed textures graphics show a love for detail and and a realistic water surface with remain in the style of the original. reflections and shadows. Intended The funky background music calls for players aged 12 years and upon didgeridoos and Jew’s harps.

Designed for players aged 6 years above, it costs about 20 euros.

Rayman Origins returns to the and above, it sells for 29 euros.

Less child-friendly is Memento hero without arms, legs or a neck as he jumps and runs through a More 2, designed for players aged detailed game world. Body parts 16 years and above. Lara and Max, turn into tools to help him on his the heroes of the first par t, mission: His hair can act like a heli- become witnesses to the theft of a copter rotor to help him cover relic and a series of killings during short distances, while his fists can a visit to Cape Town. When Max knock away opponents and obsta- disappears without a trace, Lara begins the investigation. cles.

The game’s developers put a lot There are also changes of pace, from a fight with a giant monster of attention into creating a movie-

like feel. Instead of static backgrounds, players are treated to real 3D graphics with moving cameras and unusual perspectives.

Memento Mori 2 will be released on April 24 for 34 euros.

Afterfall: Insanity is a horrorshooter game in which people have moved into underground cities after a nuclear war. Players take on the role of a psychiatrist hunting countless mutants and other monsters.

One unique feature is the socalled Fearlock system. If characters become too scared, their ability to perceive their environment becomes limited. At the same time, increased fear means increased abilities. Packed with intense violence, the game sells for 30 euros. —dpa

Simplicity the key factor in mobile phones for old people BERLIN: The less-is-more rule applies when it comes to the mobile phone market for older people, but not all the products advertised as suitable for seniors are in fact simple to operate.

To start with, seniors complain that the buttons on the keypad are too small and the menus are too complicated. This is no help for older people who place importance on user-friendliness. Bells and whistles are not what they are looking for.

“Most of them have a mobile phone in order to summon help in an emergency,” said researcher Nicola Bilstein of the Catholic University in Eichstaett, Germany.

“Only a few want to be constantly reachable. To them an SMS message is too impersonal.”

Bilstein does research into the technical needs of elderly people as part of a project sponsored by the German education ministry. To gather data the researchers inter-

viewed 70 seniors and experts and asked 450 older people to answer questionnaires. One thing the researchers wanted to find out is what makes a phone special to a senior citizen.

“The keypad on a mobile phone should be large and the display screen should be easy to read,” said Bilstein. “On the other hand it shouldn’t look like it’s for a senior person and have giant keys.”

It must be a mix of functionality and design. There have been a number of developments in the products aimed at seniors, said mobile phone exper t Markus Eckstein of the magazine connect.

They are visually more discreet than the models that came out a couple of years ago, for example.

The first ones resembled hospital equipment. But those clunky things are no longer made or are seldom found in the market, Eckstein said.

Beyond the look of the phone,

its sound quality must be good.

“It’s important that the user can understand people who call,” said Bilstein. People who don’t hear well should ensure that the ringer and loudspeaker are loud enough and people who wear hearing aids must make sure the phone is compatible with their devices. They might also want to consider a phone that lights up when a call comes in. Opinions differ when it comes to other things.

“One user would like to have an emergency call function - or their grandchild would like them to have it. Another says he or she doesn’t want it at all,” said Eckstein.

Many mobile phones made for seniors have an emergency button.

When pressed, the mobile phone dials several numbers, one after the other until someone takes the call. It also switches the senior’s phone to speaker mode. Some phones have a function that also sends an SMS. Consumers shouldn’t let themselves be blinded by large keys on the keypad. The menus are the sticking point. Buyers should beware that there are mobile phones on the market that are labeled as made for seniors, but actually are not. “They simply have large keys on the keypad, but are not especially easy to use. Not every manufacturer has developed easy menu structures.”

This is where having a mobile for a trial run is more important than studying the device’s technical specs. Take the thing into your hand, then you notice quickly what works and what doesn’t, say the experts.

Eckstein said simple mobile phones without menu structures are an option for seniors. “With a

bit of practice older people can get on with a stripped down mobile phone,” said Eckstein. Generally, clam shell phones are recommended for older people because it is easier to make them with larger screens and keypads, he added.

Robust mobiles that are relatively durable and waterproof are also worth considering.

“In interviews with users it often came out that seniors fear destroying the technical par ts of the phone,” said Bilstein. There’s no one -size -fits-all mobile phone.

“People are different when it comes to their technical affinity,” she added.

Therefore, seniors interested in getting a phone shouldn’t let themselves be scared away from smartphones with internet access and touchscreens. The variety of functions might be confusing at first glance, but many of the devices have a display that provides a lot of oversight, according to Germany’s senior league, adding that some popular devices are easy to use despite their multiple functions.

Eckstein is also convinced that touchscreens for older people make sense and will prevail in the market when the first manufacturers come out with operating systems that are suitable for seniors.

“I can set up the user interface as I wish and have a large display,” said Eckstein. But many seniors can’t cope with the established mobile operating systems. They are too active, show too much information and ask the user to respond to too many questions about things like networks or GPS access, Eckstein said. “People who are not technology-savvy quickly become discouraged.” — dpa

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

WEST ORANGE, N.J: A full moon rises behind the Empire State Building in New York in this view from Eagle Rock Reservation..—AP

Look up in the sky! It’s Supermoon!

WEST ORANGE, N.J: The biggest and brightest full moon of the year arrived last night as our celestial neighbour passes closer to Earth than usual. But don’t expect any “must have been a full moon” spike in crime or crazy behaviour. That’s just folklore. Last night’s event is a “supermoon,” the closest and therefore the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. The moon will come within about 221,802 miles (357,000 kilometres) from Earth. That’s

about 15,300 miles (24,600 kilometres) closer than average.

That proximity will make the moon appear about 14 percent bigger than it would if the moon were at its farthest distance, said Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory. The difference in appearance is so small that “you’d be very hard-pressed to detect that with the unaided eye,” he said.

The moon’s distance from Earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit rather

Health

in brief

Officials: Rare bacteria may have caused death SAN FRANCISCO: California health officials are investigating the death of a researcher at a Veteran’s Affairs infectious diseases lab that may have been caused by a rare strain of bacteria. The 25-year-old man, who has not been named, died over the weekend shortly after asking friends to take him to a hospital, the San Jose Mercury News reported (http://bit.ly/IAQYAt ) Wednesday.

California Occupational Safety and Health Administration spokesman Peter Melton told the newspaper that the man had been handling a bacteria linked to bloodstream infections at the VA Hospital’s Northern California Institute for Research and Education. CalOSHA was investigating the death and trying to determine if the lab followed safety protocol. The chief of the VA Hospital’s infectious diseases division, Harry Lampiris, said workers at the facility are expected to wear gloves, gowns and do their work behind a protective “safety cabinet,” or hood, while isolating the bacteria. “His coworkers felt he was highly competent and that he was adequately supervised to do the level of work,” Lampiris said. The researcher was working with others in the lab on developing a vaccine for bacteria that causes septicemia and meningitis, officials said. Septicemia is an inflammation of the bloodstream that causes bleeding into the skin and organs and is believed to be the cause of the man’s death. It can be spread by sneezing, coughing or kissing. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Department of Public Health was trying to locate everyone who had close contact with the researcher during the time he was infected, said spokeswoman Eileen Shields. Friends and people who worked with the man, as well as about 60 health workers involved in his treatment, were being given antibiotics, Shields said.

Arizona surgeons carry out rare mom-to-child liver transplant PHOENIX: Surgeons in Arizona have successfully carried out a rare mother-to-child liver transplant, after a search for an organ from a deceased donor for the desperately ill 1-year-old girl came up blank, the hospital said. In a procedure performed on March 20 by surgeons at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, Vanessa Negrete, 26, from Yuma, Arizona, donated a section of her liver to her daughter, Aliyah Negrete. Aliyah was released from the hospital this week. She and her mother were “doing great,” the hospital said in a statement on its website. The family was not immediately available for comment. “We had been waiting for a liver from a deceased donor for several months for Aliyah, but none that was appropriate became available,” transplant surgeon Rainer W.G. Gruessner said in the statement. “In order to halt Aliyah’s health from deteriorating any further, the decision was made to use a living donor. After extensive evaluations of family members, it was determined the best match was Aliyah’s mother,” he added.

Aliyah was diagnosed at age 2 1/2 months with a congenital condition called biliary atresia, which affects the liver’s ability to secret bile, causing cirrhosis and jaundice. The rare and incurable condition strikes one out of every 10,000 to 15,000 newborns and is the leading reason for liver transplants in children. During the transplant procedure, surgeons took about a quarter of the mother’s liver, of which a large portion was expected to regenerate itself, the hospital said.

CDC report: More teen girls use best birth control ATLANTA: Health officials say more teen girls use the best kinds of birth control. A recent survey found 60 percent of teen girls who have sex use the most effective kinds of contraception. That’s up from the mid90s, when less than half were using the best. Health officials say the trend may help explain a large decline in the US teen birth rate since 1990. The most effective forms of birth control were the pill, patch, vaginal ring, IUD, arm implant and contraceptive shot. Using only condoms was deemed only moderately effective.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report Thursday. It’s based on a survey of 2,300 girls ages 15 to 19. Less than half of the girls said they’d had sex.—Agencies

than a circular one. Like any full moon, the supermoon will look bigger when it’s on or near the horizon rather than higher in the sky, thanks to an optical illusion, Chester said. The supermoon will bring unusually high tides because of its closeness and its alignment with the sun and Earth, but the effect will be modest, Chester said. But no matter how far away a full moon is, it’s not going to make people commit crimes, get admitted to a psychiatric hospital or do any-

thing else that popular belief suggests, a psychologist says. Studies that have tried to document such connections have found “pretty much a big mound of nothing, as far as I can tell,” said Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University. Lilienfeld, an author of “50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology,” said the notion of full moons causing bizarre behavior ranks among the top 10 myths because “it’s so widely held and it’s held with such conviction.” Lilienfeld said a key reason

could be the way people pay attention to things. If something unusual happens to occur during a full moon, people who believe the myth take note and remember, even telling other people because it confirms their ideas. But when another full moon appears and nothing out of the ordinary occurs, “they ’re not very likely to remember” or point it out to others. So in the end, he said, all they remember are the coincidences.—AP

Breast cancer is rare in men, but they fare worse

1 in 1,000 men get breast cancer, versus 1 in 8 women CHICAGO : Men rarely get breast cancer, but those who do often don’t survive as long as women, largely because they don’t even realize they can get it and are slow to recognize the warning signs, researchers say. On average, women with breast cancer lived two years longer than men in the biggest study yet of the disease in males. The study found that men’s breast tumors were larger at diagnosis, more advanced and more likely to have spread to other parts of the body. Men were also diagnosed later in life; in the study, they were 63 on average, versus 59 for women.

Many men have no idea that they can get breast cancer, and some doctors are in the dark, too, dismissing symptoms that would be an automatic red flag in women, said study leader Dr Jon Greif, a breast cancer surgeon in Oakland, Calif. The American Cancer Society estimates 1 in 1,000 men will get breast cancer, versus 1 in 8 women. By comparison, 1 in 6 men will get prostate cancer, the most common cancer in men. “It’s not really been on the radar screen to think about breast cancer in men,” said Dr David Winchester, a breast cancer surgeon in Nor thShore University HealthSystem in suburban Chicago who was not involved in the study. Winchester treats only a few men with breast cancer each year, compared with at least 100 women.

The researchers analyzed 10 years of national data on breast cancer cases, from 1998 to 2007. A total of 13,457 male patients diagnosed during those years were included, versus 1.4 million women. The database contains about 75 percent of all US breast cancer cases. The men who were studied lived an average of about eight years after being diagnosed, compared with more than 10 years for women.

The study doesn’t indicate whether patients died of breast cancer or something else. Greif prepared a summary of his study for presentation Friday at a meeting of American Society of Breast Surgeons in Phoenix.

Dr Akkamma Ravi, a breast cancer specialist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said the research bolsters results in smaller studies and may help raise aware-

ness. Because the disease is so rare in men, research is pretty scant, and doctors are left to treat it the same way they manage the disease in women, she said. Some doctors said one finding in the study suggests men’s breast tumors might be biologically different from women’s: Men with early-stage disease had worse survival rates than women

CHICAGO:A surgery scar is seen on breast cancer survivor Robert Kaitz’s left breast. with early-stage cancer. But men’s older age at diagnosis also might explain that result, Greif said.

The causes of breast cancer in men are not well-studied, but some of the same things that increase women’s chances for developing it also affect men, including older age, cancer-linked gene mutations, a family history of the disease, and heavy drinking. There are no formal guidelines for detecting breast cancer in men. The American Cancer Society says routine, across-the-board screening of men is unlikely to be beneficial because the disease is so rare. For men at high risk because of a strong family history or genetic mutations, mammograms and breast exams may

be helpful, but men should discuss this with their doctors, the group says. Men’s breast cancer usually shows up as a lump under or near a nipple. Nipple discharge and breasts that are misshapen or don’t match are also possible signs that should be checked out.

Tom More, 67, of Custer, Wash, was showering when he felt a pea-size lump last year near his right nipple. Because a golfing buddy had breast cancer, More didn’t put off seeing his doctor. The doctor told More that he was his first male breast cancer patient. Robert Kaitz, a computer business owner in Severna Park, Md, thought the small growth under his left nipple was just a harmless cyst, like ones that had been removed from his back. By the time he had it checked out in 2006, almost two years later, the lump had started to hurt. The diagnosis was a shock.

“I had no idea in the world that men could even get breast cancer,” Kaitz said. He had a mastectomy, and 25 nearby lymph nodes were removed, some with cancer.

Chemotherapy and radiation followed. Tests showed Kaitz, 52, had a BRCA genetic mutation that has been linked to breast and ovarian cancer in women. He may have gotten the mutation from his mother, who is also a breast cancer survivor. It has also been linked to prostate cancer, which Kaitz was treated for in 2009. A powerboater and motorcycle buff, Kaitz jokes about being a man with a woman’s disease but said he is not embarrassed and doesn’t mind showing his breast surgery scar.

The one thing he couldn’t tolerate was tamoxifen, a hormone treatment commonly used to help prevent breast cancer from returning in women. It can cause menopausal symptoms, so he stopped taking it. “It killed me. I tell you what - night sweats, hot flashes, mood swings, depression.

I’d be sitting in front of the TV watching a drama and the tears wouldn’t stop pouring,” he said. Doctors sometimes prescribe antidepressants or other medication to control those symptoms. Now Kaitz gets mammograms every year.

Men need to know that “we’re not immune,” he said. “We have the same plumbing.”—AP

Medicare disruptions seen if health law is struck

WASHINGTON: In this April 12, 2012 file photo, former Medicare Administrator Dr Donald Berwick gestures during an interview with The Associated Press.—AP WASHINGTON: Tossing out President Barack Obama’s health care law would have major unintended consequences for Medicare’s payment systems, unseen but vital plumbing that handles 100 million monthly claims from hospitals and other service providers, the administration has quietly informed the courts. Although the law made significant cuts to providers and improved prescription and preventive benefits for seniors, Medicare has been overlooked in a Supreme Court debate focused on the law’s controversial requirement that individuals carry health insurance. Yet havoc in Medicare could have repercussions in an election year when both parties are avidly courting seniors.

In papers filed with the Supreme Court, administration lawyers have warned of “extraordinary disruption” if Medicare is

forced to unwind countless transactions that are based on payment changes required by more than 20 separate sections of the Affordable Care Act. Opponents argue that the whole law should go. The administration counters that even if it strikes down the insurance mandate, the court should preserve most of the rest of the legislation. That would leave in place its changes to Medicare, as well as a major expansion of Medicaid coverage.

Last year, in a lower court filing on the case, Justice Department lawyers said reversing the Medicare payment changes “would impose staggering administrative burdens” on the government and “could cause major delays and errors” in claims payment.

Medicare payment policies are set through a time-consuming process that begins with legislation passed by Congress.

Even if Obama’s overhaul were completely overturned, the government still would have authority under previous law to pay hospitals, doctors, insurance plans, nursing homes and other providers. “There is an independent legal basis to pay providers if the Supreme Court strikes down the entire law,” said Thomas Barker, a former Health and Human Services general counsel in the George W. Bush administration.

But reversing the new law’s payment changes from one day to the next would be a huge legal and logistical challenge, raising many questions. How would the government treat payments made over the last two years, when the overhaul has been the law of the land? Would providers have a right to refunds of cuts that had been made under the legislation?

Former program administrators disagree on the potential for major disruptions, while some private industry executives predict an avalanche of litigation unless Congress intervenes.

“Medicare cannot turn on a dime,” said former administrator Don Berwick, whose confirmation was blocked by Senate Republicans opposed to Obama’s law. “I would not be surprised if there are delays and problems with payment flow. Medicare has dealt with sudden changes in payment before, but it is not easy.”

It’s not just reimbursement levels that would get scrambled,

Berwick said. The law’s new philosophy of paying hospitals and doctors for quality results instead of for sheer volume of tests and procedures has been incorporated in some payment policies. Tom Scully, Medicare chief during former President George W. Bush’s first term, does not foresee major problems, although he acknowledges it would be a “nightmare” for agency bureaucrats. “It is highly unlikely in the short term that any health plan or provider would suffer,” said Scully. “They’re probably likely to get paid more going forward. If you look at the way the law was (financed), it was a combination of higher taxes and lower (Medicare) payments. That’s what you would be rolling back.”

The White House declined to comment. Administration officials say they are confident the entire law will be upheld by the Supreme Court and there is no planning to address what would happen if all or parts of it are struck down. Sharp questioning by the court’s conservative justices during public arguments has led many to speculate that at least parts of the law will be struck.

Opponents of the law argue that Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by requiring most Americans to have health insurance, starting in 2014. The administration says the mandate is permissible because it serves to regulate interstate commerce, underpinning another provision of the law that requires insurance companies to accept people in poor health. A decision is expected by early summer. “There is no doubt that striking down (the) Medicare provisions would be enormously disruptive for patients, physicians, hospitals and countless other providers and suppliers,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich, ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the program.

Former officials say it’s likely that some form of high-level assessment and contingency planning is discreetly going on within the administration. It’s happened in the recent past. Last year, when the GOP-led House was threatening to block funding for carrying out Obama’s law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote to Congress outlining potential consequences. —AP

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

H E A LT H

Leave cholesterol behind Stroll towards a new heart!

Kuwait University students visit New Mowasat Hospital KUWAIT: In a move that reaffirms its community role, New Mowasat Hospital hosted a visit of 3rd year Health Information Administration students from Kuwait University, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences. Fawziya Al Mansouri, Manager of the Medical Records Depar tment, Pierre Aoun, Customer and Suppor t Services Manager, and Yasser Tarabay guided the field trip of 15 students to observe and experience real-world applications of HIA practices in New Mowasat as an internationally accredited healthcare facility.

Furthermore, the trip emphasized New Mowasat Hospital’s vision of the younger generation as a vital element in shaping Kuwait’s future. At the end of the visit, the students highly appreciated New Mowasat’s support for allowing them to see and to learn more about the daily operations that takes place in the different departments of the hospital. In the end of the visit they agree that the continuous support & cooperation between private sector Hospitals and the Kuwait University make New Mowasat Hospital the Leader in this field.

Crohn’s patients can enjoy a normal life by early diagnosis KUWAIT: Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that has been on the rise in Kuwait over the past few years. An inflammatory bowel disease is a general term for gastronomical illnesses that cause inflammation and swelling in the digestive tract.

Crohn’s symptoms include cramps, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue and diarrhea. For some of the more severe cases, patients can suffer from passing of the blood in stool, paleness, fever, pain in the joints, as well as problems in the skin. “Many people are too embarrassed to talk about trouble with their

Dr Ahmad Al Fadli

bowel movements, and so keep it to themselves,” said Dr Ahmad Al Fadli.

“That could be the reason they never recover from this disease.”

He continued to say that in actual fact there is no permanent cure to the disease, and it is one that lasts a lifetime; however, early diagnosis can reduce the intensity and frequency of the symptoms, and could give the patient an opportunity for a normal life.

“By keeping their suffering untold, patients can go into severe progression of the disease, as well as emotional pressure of having to figure it out on their own. By consulting a medical professional, patients can get the required guidance to keep their lives as uninterrupted and as painless as possible.”

Early diagnosis of the disease can help prevent the need for surgery. The later the disease is caught, more chances of repeated setbacks and surgery also increase, thereby leading to frequent hospitalization and increase in healthcare costs.

Treatment for Crohn’s disease involves a number of lifestyle changes, as well as some help through medication. Amongst the first changes to be made would be reducing, and preferably cessation of, smoking, healthy diets which do not include too much fiber or too much fat, and smaller but more frequent meals. “Each patient requires an individualized treatment program, so do not delay the visit to a doctor. Take action now, to live a better tomorrow.”

KUWAIT: It’s tough resisting your palatial cravings when it comes to your taste buds. And often, we find ourselves giving into the aroma and visual pleasure of delicious foods.

This may seem like an everyday occurrence and perhaps your body isn’t even showing any alarming signs yet, but this is in fact a lot more detrimental than you think. Sarah Dimashkieh, expert dietitian at Diet Care explains why.

“Cholesterol spares no one, regardless of your body type, age or gender. As we age, the levels of the artery-clogging substance rise due to poor culinary choices. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to be on the right track towards a healthy heart,” she says. Sarah shares with us five simple and immediate DIY ways to reduce your cholesterol levels!

beer to your salad, make sure there’s always a little omega-3 in your daily diet,” she adds.

3. Make the switch “Switch to fat-free and low-fat products. It’s as simple as opting for items like skimmed-milk, lowfat cottage cheese, fresh mozzarella, and ricotta. A bowl of your favorite cereal would probably taste almost the same with skimmed-milk than the usual full-cream milk,” Dimashkieh says. Dimashkieh also adds that if you also have high triglyceride levels, look out for low-sugar products like light or low-sugar syrups and substitute sugar with artificial sweeteners. “Start off by replacing the sugar in your coffee or tea with artificial sweeteners like Stevia, Spenda, or Canderel and then move on to other food items,” she suggests.

1. Know your fat Saturated fat and trans fat are two items that are a no-no. Saturated fat comes from animal products such as meat and dairy are solid at room temperature; a good example of this is butter. An easy way to spot saturated fats is to consider that “solid equals saturated.”

Trans fat is easier to cook with and less likely to spoil than naturally occurring oils. Items with high trans-fat are predominantly bakery items such as doughnuts and pies,” Dimashkieh explains.

So what should be in your kitchen cupboard instead? Sarah strongly suggests plant-based oils as a healthy alternative. “Use olive oil, canola oil, soybean oil and even corn oil. A drizzle of plantbased oils in your favorite steak or a dash in your salad adds wonders to the taste. Plant oils don’t lower bad cholesterol, but don’t raise it, so they are safe to have,” Dimashkieh points out.

EAT THIS, NOT THAT Grains Whole grain breads and cereals, oats, barley High-fat bakery (doughnuts, biscuits, cookies, pies) refined bread Vegetables Fresh or frozen without addition of fat and salt Fried vegetables or vegetables prepared with butter, cheese or cream sauce Fruit Fresh, frozen, dried Fried fruits or fruits served with butter or cream

2. Omega-3 a day keeps cholesterol away “Omega-3 is as powerful as the name suggests.

It’s known to work wonders at lowering bad cholesterol levels,” Dimashkieh reveals. “You should eat one source of omega-3 each day.”

The following is a simple list of food items that contain omega-3 and what you should aim to do is to eat one source of omega-3 each day.

Dairy Skimmed milk and yogurt, or low fat.

White cheese or those that are containing less than 20% fat Whole milk, yogurt, creams, full fat cheeses

Diet Care dietitian, Sarah Dimashkieh

FOOD ITEM SERVING PER DAY Walnuts— 30g (around 5 halves) Salmon—90g Flax seeds—2 tbsp Canola oil—1 tbsp

“Whether or not you’re savoring a delicious piece of grilled salmon, a tuna sandwich, a handful of walnuts as a snack, or even adding some bar-

5. Break a sweat “One word - Exercise. Yes, it involves stretching your limbs in a way you possibly haven’t tried before but it isn’t as hard as you think. You don’t need a gym membership or the latest exercise gadgets to work out. All you need is a pair of shoes and the right spirit. Walking or jogging around your neighborhood or at a nearby community park an hour a day is all it takes to lower your cholesterol by a whole eight percent!” Dimashkieh says.

Alternatively, you could consider parking slightly further than your usual comfort zone and walking a bit more or even taking the stairs as a way to stay fit or even picking up exercise routines you can perform at home such as Yoga and Pilates.

Eat this and not that!

A quick and simple guide on what you should and shouldn’t be eating

4. Fiber it “High-fiber foods directly lower your cholesterol, therefore also lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease. To put it in simply, fiber actually reduces the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream,” she reveals. Dimashkieh says adding high-fiber items that taste great and can be used in our everyday cooking to your grocery basket is the simplest way of saying hello to a healthier you.

She recommends high-fiber items such as wholegrains, legumes, apples, bananas, oranges, pears, prunes, and vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peppers.

Meat Skinless chicken breast Fish Soy protein High fat meat cuts, sausage, cold cuts, hot dogs, organ meats, poultry with skin, fried meat, poultry or fish Fats and oils Olive and vegetable oils, Conola oil, Raw nuts, Avocado, Butter, stick margarine, Regular desserts

Diabetes: A silent killer you can walk away from KUWAIT: In Kuwait we are facing a menace equal to none as the relentless march of diabetes goes o n . Th e p re v a l e n t Ty p e 2 D i a b e te s d e l i ve r s a d o u b l e whammy; it lulls the sufferer into a sense of security due to the absence of symptoms and quietly goes about damaging them and as a result remains the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, foot amputations and i m p o te n ce i n t h e d e ve l o p e d world.

Mainly the brunt of the disease falls on the blood vessel wall, resulting in the leakage of

the small ones located at the back of the eyes, kidneys and the ner ves supplying the feet and the larger ones supplying the heart, the brain and sexual organs.

Diabetes is a serious condition which reduces the life expectancy by several years at the time of diagnosis irrespective of the age.

The heartening element is surely the fact that lifestyle changes, w h i c h a re s u b t l e a n d e a s y to implement can make a huge difference, like displayed by the diabetes prevention program in the U S A , w h e re p e o p l e s u f fe r i n g from early diabetes were divided

into two groups, one group was asked to walk for 30 minutes a day for 5 times a week, the other group was given Glucophage (a commonly used drug). The two groups were followed up to 3 ye a r s a n d t h e re s u l t s c l e a r l y showed that the ‘walking people’ had doubled the improvement in their sugar control than the ‘treated with drug’ group.

Small changes can avert great danger, in Kuwait we live in ‘obesogenic’ environment. The onus is on us to reduce our calories and just walk for 30 minutes a day, which could stop the onset or reverse the course of diabetes.

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W H AT ’ S O N

Announcements Yoga with the Golden Era Club The Golden Era Club presents ‘The Eight Fold Path to Yoga’ on Fridays, 11th and 25th May; 5 to 7 pm. Yoga here! Yoga there! Yoga everywhere! Yet, few comprehend Yoga’s true nature! Join Yoga Guru - Aacharya Shashikala Pushkarna - on this unique journey to the true ‘union’ between the mind, body and spirit. All seniors (60+) are cordially invited. Venue- House #34, next to AbuTammam Intermediate School for Boys, Sate Alhusari St., Block 2, Rumaithiya. For details call 97172788/ 66208183 or drop a line to goldenera60@yahoo.com Indian overseas congress Arts competitions 2012 Indian Overseas Congress, Kuwait is conducting 6th Arts Competitions, 2012, on the 11th and 12 May 2012 at United Indian School. IOC once again welcome the growing buds of the Indian expatriate community in Kuwait from various disciplines to test their talents and competency in the field of arts. The winners of this prestigious competition will be awarded with trophies and medals later in the IOC function. The competitions are for Elocution, Solo, Poetry Recitation, Classical Dance, Folk Dance, Group Dance (Cinematic), Indian Patriotic Song, Mono Act, Drawing/Painting and Poster Poetry writing.

Although the competitions are meant for children from various disciplines, Elocution, Solo and Indian Patriotic Song Competitions will be held for contestants above 18 years also. The closing date of receiving entry forms is 4th May, 2012. The entry forms are available at the following places: Abbassiya - Hidine Super Market, Sakina Book Stall; Salmiya - Uduppi Restaurant, Sakina Book Stall; Riggae - Al Dallah Super Market, Fahaheel -Royal Mobile Services and Sales. Filled forms can be sent to fax : 24331461 or Email : iockuwait@yahoo.com Or delivered to Sakina Book Stall, Abbassiya. For more details, please contact: 24316426, 66110570, 66853100, 99827113, 99576162, 99325841.

People of Uttrankhand state form association It gives us pleasure to inform you that we, the people of Uttrankhand \ state from India, have decided to form an Association which will soon be registered with Indian embassy Kuwait. Nearly 200 people have already been connected and have given their valuable views and suggestions. All people have given their positive response.

Anyone from Uttrakhand who is interested in joining the Association can contact Ravindra Singh Rawat on 6609 4925, dhirendrasrawat@hotmail.com for more information.

Intensive Free Arabic Course in IPC IPC is opening an intensive Basic Arabic Course for ladies commencing from June 3-July 8, 2012. The class will be from 5 -7 pm and 3 days a week. Registration is on! For information, call: 22512257.

Iranian Contemporary Art Date: 23rd April to 10th May, 2012 These are images of conflations and juxtapositions. Sabzi’s paintings signify the crossroad of cultures and evoke one of the most pertinent signs of the multiculturalism that has been the hallmark of the arts in late twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries. His art represents that humanized perspective where in memory persists across cultural zones, even when and where it has no relevance. So many of his works speak of conditions where values and perspectives seep through the chinks of any culture’s shield of protection. They are about the kind of interconnectedness that can no longer be undone; they are about the end of purity and the end of searching for origins and essence.

Graduation ceremony of Kuwait English School

By Hazel Elizabeth Camper

H

is Highness the Prime Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, honored a joyful 2012 Graduation Ceremony of Kuwait English School teenagers as parents and members of staff gathered for the glorious occasion in the Arrayya Ballroom at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. “An exceptionally special occasion in the school calendar”, said Rhoda Elizabeth Muhmood, KES Director.

Dr Yousef Ibrahim, Economic Advisor at the Amiri Diwan, graced the occasion as guest speaker. He said the KES Chairman “is a good friend whom I would not decline and he would not take no for an answer!” Abdulrahman Salem Al-Ateeqi also attended the event. Dr Al-Ibrahim, whose resume includes portfolios at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and at the Planning and Finance Ministries, addressed the gathering with wise words saying youths are taking a leading role in the country.

“Recent statistics show our destiny is in their hands,” he said, adding that one third of the Arab population is aged under 15 and a further third is aged between 15 and 29 years of age. Dr AlIbrahim, who has led a distinguished career in academic and public service, said governments cannot see the consequences of this and ignore their basic human needs. He said unemployment reached 25 percent in some countries and youths are dissatisfied with the quality of education offered to them. The resulting poor standard of living contributed to the Arab Spring in four countries, he remarked.

“In Kuwait, even though youths are not deprived we are not immune. We need to listen to their aspirations,” he stated. His Highness the Amir is organizing a youth conference at the end of the year to discuss plans and ideas and prepare the young generation to take control of Kuwait, Dr Ibrahim said. Dr Ibrahim advised parents not to cut expenses on education during the current financial crisis, saying it is an indispensible investment and that “children are the bright hope of our future.” He observed that KES students are perceptive, intuitive, and that their results in English are encouraging for all people in Kuwait.

KES boasts a 98 percent pass rate from A to E and a 90 percent pass rate from A* to C. The pass rate at GCE AS level from grades A to E was 93

percent and from grades A to C was 75 percent for the May to June External examination results.

The IGCSE/GCSE pass rate was 98 percent from A* to E and 91 percent from A* to C. Rhoda Elizabeth Muhmood, KES Director, said KES students obtained six of the nine 100 percent scholarships awarded by the government to Kuwaiti students this year. She said KES students have earned particular heights of success.

years, said the school has helped her transition to the future. Thanking Drummond, she vowed to continue with the “invaluable art” of music. KES band then performed a lively ‘Funky Town’.

John Sherwood, High School Principal, told the students to expect “an exciting and wonderful year ahead of you.” The Concert Band then played the formal Highland Procession.

Mohammed Al-Dahes, Director of the Private

performing at the University of Sharjah, Medinat Jumeirah, and Emirates Palace Hotel. Dr AlIbrahim presented special prizes, including the prestigious award for the European Council of International Schools. John Sherwood closed the ceremony and the Head Boy and Head Girl, who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to KES, read ‘Time’. The procession of students left the hall. HH the Prime Minister

Dr Ibrahim commented on a brief downpour before the event saying “rain is a good omen in this part of the world!” And within minutes HH the Prime Minister arrived. The program began with the processional, played by 72 students in KES band and orchestra. The National Anthem was followed by a recital of the Holy Quran by Ithar Ibrahim, with a translation in English read by Faleh Al-Salem. Rhoda Elizabeth Muhmood welcomed the guests and Jassim Mohammed AlSaddah, School Chairman, delivered an opening address in which he thanked all staff members for their hard work. Dr Yousef Al-Ibrahim and the KES Chairman presented Certificates to Year 12 and Year 13 school leavers, announced by Year Head Lisa Marchant.

Abdullah Ibrahim, Head Boy, delivered an eloquent speech noting the success of KES football, volleyball and basketball teams and thanking his mentors for the best year of his life. Farah AlSayed, Head Girl who has attended KES for 13

Education Department, was unable to attend to present certificates. Mme. Naela Al Saddah, KES Vice Chairman, assisted Rhoda Muhmood, KES Director, to award Year 11 students.

“You have just confirmed we have the best band in Kuwait,” said John Price, Master of ceremonies, after the Concert Band delivered a magnificent jaunty selection from ‘Chicago’ conducted by Steven Tarry. Over the years, KES band has performed at the British Embassy to commemorate the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and for the visits by Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. The Ministry of Education has invited the band to perform at many prestigious events, and it played at the opening of the Scientific Centre. It has participated in charity concerts in aid of UNICEF, the Red Crescent, the Cancer campaign and for Pakistan, Turkey, Haiti and Japan after their countries witnessed natural disasters.

In 2008, 70 band members toured the Gulf,

and the honored guests remained to greet parents as the band played.

A special thank you was extended to all members of KES music team headed by Ms Donna Clarke: Ian Ross Drummond, Head of Instrumental teaching and Musical Director of the KES Showband, Stephen Tarry, Music teacher and Musical Director of the KES Concert band, Dragan Marcovic, Head of the String orchestra, Mike Hassan, Music teacher and Head of the Senior Choir, James White, Music teacher and Head of Junior Music, and Robert Smith, Music teacher and Director of the Junior Concert band. “We are indebted to the School High Management for the ongoing support and investment in the Music Department of KES, our parents who go the extra mile to encourage musicianship and are always willing to make extra transport arrangements for practices, events etc, and our KES student musicians for their commitment to aim ever higher in performance.”

Sadu House Opening: 7 May 2012 5pm-8pm Exhibition Hours: 8 May, 9am - 1pm & 4- 8pm, 9 May, 9am - 1pm For its launch exhibition, Zen Crafts presents the richness of Gulf handicrafts, blending traditional and modern design to create unique and expertly crafted contemporary pieces. An exquisite limited collection of hand-woven textiles inspired by the bedouin art of Sadu weaving, and award-winning designer/ silversmith Nedda El-Asmar’s take on the modern mabkhar, the Gulf’s iconic incense burner, will be unveiled. Join us on this cultural journey from Kuwait to Laos and Brussels in the brand’s quest for new interpretations of our Gulf heritage. Sodu House is located in Kuwait City, on Gulf Street, next to the Kuwait National Museum. For more Information please call 99402406 or email info@zericrafts.com Visit www.zericrafts.com Open House for Indian Citizens The Ambassador of India will be holding an Open House for Indian citizens to address their problems/grievances on Wednesdays of the second and the fourth week of every month between 1500 hrs and 1600 hrs at the embassy. In case Wednesday is an Embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day. To ensure timely action/follow-up by the Embassy, it is requested that, wherever possible, Indian citizens should exhaust the existing channels of interaction/grievance redressal and bring their problems/issues in writing with supporting documents. It may be mentioned that Embassy of India’s Consular Wing is providing daily service of Open House to Indian citizen on all workings days from 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1530 hrs by the consular officer in the Meeting Room of the Consular Hall. For any unaddressed issues, Second Secretary (Consular) could be contacted. Furthermore, the head of the Consular Wing is also available to redress grievances. Similarly, a labor wing Help Desk functions from 0830 hrs to 1300 hrs and 1400 hrs to 1630 hrs in the Labor Hall to address the labor related issue. There is also a 24X7 Help Line (Tel No. 25674163) to assist labors in distress. For any unaddressed issues, the concerned Attaches in the labor section and the head of the labor wing could be contacted.

T

he Jordanian Ambassador to Kuwait Mohammad Al-Kayed held an open meeting with members of the Jordanian community at the embassy building recently. The event was the first in weekly meetings the ambassadors plans to organize for Jordanian nationals in order to discuss their situation and address any problems they might be facing in Kuwait.

FOKE Vanitha Fest

L

adies wing of Friends of Kannur Expatriates Association, FOKE, announces ‘FOKE Vanitha Fest 2012’ on Friday, May 11, 2012 in a day-long function to be held at Indian central school, Abbasiya. The main attraction of the event is the cookery competition for ladies and gents. Competition on cake-baking and pudding for ladies and biriyani and payasam (kheer) making for gents will be held on that day. A separate salad dressing competition is also arranged for children below 18 years of age.

Mehndi design competition for ladies, baby show for babies of 1 to 2 years old (babies born on or after May 11, 2010), Fancy dress for children are also organized for the public. All the competitions are open to all public. The full-day event will start at 9:00 am. Various other attractions including cultural programs by FOKE Ladies Wing, food stalls, and fun activities for kids, etc will be organized as part of the Ladies Fest 2012, the organizers said.

Educational trip to Paris

T

he French Department of FAIPS organized an educational trip to Paris for French students from 27th March to 4th April, 2012. The trip was arranged with a view to showcase the French way of life and aspects of social behavior including language. The students visited places of interest in Paris like la Concorde, l’Arc de Triomphe, l’avenue des Champs- Elysees, etc. The Louvre museum was breathtaking with its collection of paintings and sculptures from different periods. They were thrilled to see the famous ‘Mona Lisa’.

The visit to Versailles Palace and Fontaine Bleu castle gave them a glimpse of sublime architecture. The

highlights of the trip was the visit to the cheese factory where they were exposed to process of cheese making and its preservation with a chance to taste the King of Cheese “le brie”. A fun filled day spent at Disney Land and a trip to OTIS factory in Giens were both memorable and informative. Students got a chance to taste the delectable French cuisine and also hone their French language skills. The students came away with a sense of wonder and amazement at the different facets of French life and culture- it inspired curiosity to learn more and appreciate other cultures.

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Embassy Information EMBASSY OF BRAZIL The Embassy of Brazil requests all Brazilian citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the website www.brazil.org.kw (Contact Us Form / Fale Conosco) in order to register or update contact information. The Embassy encourages all citizens to do so, including the ones who have already registered in person at the Embassy.

The registration process helps the Brazilian Government to contact and assist Brazilians living abroad in case of any emergency.

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NBK organizes familiarization tour for school girls

N

ational Bank of Kuwait (NBK) hosted a group of students from Abraq Khaitan high school for girls at the bank’s head office in a banking familiarization tour. NBK Public Relations officers Yaqoub Al Baqer received the visiting group of students in a tour of the bank’s various departments, including the main banking hall. Al Baqer said, “The students showed great interest

with the broad-spectrum of NBK financial and banking products and services and were particularly inquisitive about the multi-benefit Al -Azraq and Al-Shabab Al-Watani accounts, exclusively designed for high schools, colleagues and university students.”

NBK’s team representative, were present to inform the students about the PR, media relations and CSR work in addition to the

importance of saving behaviors, and to brief the teaching staff on NBK the benefits of NBK accounts. Commenting on the conclusion of the visit, the students expressed their sincere thanks for NBK and the opportunity they have been given to gain a better understanding of the banking job and get a personal insight about NBK and the career field in general.

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 12:30 to 01:00 pm for lunch break.

Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.uae.gc.ca.

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EMBASSY OF CYPRUS The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus requests Cypriot citizens living in Kuwait to register with the Embassy has moved. This registration service is provided so that the Embassy can update its contact list and assist Cypriot citizens in cases of emergencies.

Registration information can be emailed to cyprusembassykwt@gmail.com or faxed to 22253227 or given by phone to 65906048 (Mrs Christine).

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

Palestinian Hilal Al-Quds shine in Creativity Youth Tournament

10

young players from Hilal Club, Jerusalem (born in 2001) participated in a two day Creativity Youth Tournament at Salmiya club under the patronage of the General Manager of Public Youth & Sport Faisal Al-Jazzaf. In an electrifying atmosphere, and with the participation of 21 additional Kuwaiti Clubs and Academies, the team from Palestine was able to win all six matches including a semifinal that was decided on penalties against Kuwait Club, to carry the trophy back to Jerusalem as a reminder of their achievement.

The players were thrilled and honored to represent their team and country in this tournament, and showcase to all the hidden talent in a country living under occupation. For all the 10 kids, this was their first experience out of Palestine, and the aim was to see how the future can be bright and rewarding with some hard work and commitment.

Hilal Al-Quds were also entertained by the Premier Goal Academy, sponsored by Porsche centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company, where they played a series of matches, then

were presented with individual Everton Playing Strips to take back with them as souvenirs. In addition, friendly matches against Yarmouk and Kuwait clubs were organized to complete an eventful five

day journey. Special thanks to Ahmed Medeath Creativity Festival organizer, Naser Dakak Hilal Al Quds trip Coordinator & Holiday Inn Salmyia for hosting the team during their stay in

Kuwait The official sponsor of Hilal Al Quds club visit to Kuwait is Gulf Cable & Electrical Industry Co.

EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, AlSalaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location.

Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, email:myankuwait11@gmai1.com ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF NEPAL The Embassy of Nepal will be moving from its current location to a new place in Jabriya, Block 8, St. 13, House No. 514, effective from 15th April, 2012. Till the new telephone connections are installed, the Embassy may be contacted by email: info@nepembku.org ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF ROMANIA The Embassy of Romania to the State of Kuwait would like to inform that the Consular Section of the Embassy will be closed for construction works beginning with 18 April 2012, till 10 May 2012. During this period of time the Consular Section will not issue any type of visas for Romania and will not issue any Romanian passports or travel documents. The Consular Section will only be able to assist with notary deeds. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience.

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EMBASSY OF SLOVAKIA The Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Kuwait would like to inform the public that on the occasion of Labor Day, the Embassy will be closed on Tuesday, May the 1st.

The Embassy will also be closed on the occasion of Liberation Day on Tuesday, May the 8th.

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EMBASSY OF THAILAND The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait, wishes to invite the Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 -25317531, Ext: 14.

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ABK hosts Al Hilal International Clinic

A

l Ahli Bank of Kuwait hosted Al Hilal International Clinic at its head office recently. The visiting doctors from the clinic examined bank staff and offered them medical consultation and advice, answering their queries on health and how to maintain it. Sahar Al Therban, Public Relations Manager at ABK, stated: “This initiative comes from ABK’s perseverance on social responsibility, which is summarized in our campaign slogan “Our Society...Our Responsibility” under which we serve the community across

various platforms.” She added, “We would like to thank Al Hilal Clinic for accepting our invitation and for the valuable advice they have offered the Bank staff.” The medical team of Al Hilal clinic appreciated ABK’s initiative and hoped for more such programs in the future where the Clinic can spread health awareness amongst Bank employees and through them among others, on the importance of consistent health monitoring through regular check-ups.

EMBASSY OF UKRAINE We’d like to inform you that in response to the increasing number of our citizens who work in the state and the need for 24-hour operational telephone in case of emergency the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait has opened “hotline telephone number” (+ 965) 972-79-206.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

Classifieds SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines JZR QTR JZR JZR ETH RJA GFA UAE ETD DHX FDB MSR QTR THY CLX KAC DHX FCX JZR KAC BAW KAC KAC IRA FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB IRA ETD GFA IRC FCX MEA JZR BBC MSR JZR AFR SYR KAC MSR GFA KAC FDB KAC KNE KAC QTR SVA RJA KAC JZR QTR JZR JZR ETD UAE SVA GFA UAL JZR JZR ABY KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB MSR JZR KAC KAC JAI KAC KAC AXB FDB OMA MEA QTR GFA ALK KAC JZR KLM UAE JZR ETD KAC ABY QTR DHX KAC AIC GFA UAL JZR DLH THY PIA

Flt 185 148 539 267 620 642 211 853 305 370 67 612 138 770 792 154 170 201 555 412 157 206 382 615 53 302 332 352 284 855 125 132 55 603 301 213 6801 203 404 165 43 618 561 6708 341 742 610 219 672 57 774 472 538 140 500 640 788 257 134 213 535 303 857 510 215 982 177 777 127 502 542 786 166 63 624 787 618 674 572 102 562 389 61 647 402 146 221 229 514 481 417 859 135 307 172 129 136 372 678 981 217 981 239 636 772 205

Arrival Flights on Sunday 6/5/2012 Route DUBAI DOHA CAIRO BEIRUT ADDIS ABABA AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO DOHA ISTANBUL LUXEMBOURG ISTANBUL BAHRAIN DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MANILA LONDON ISLAMABAD DELHI SHAHRE KORD DUBAI MUMBAI TRIVANDRUM COCHIN DHAKA DUBAI SHARJAH DOHA DUBAI SHIRAZ ABU DHABI BAHRAIN AHWAZ DUBAI BEIRUT DUBAI DHAKA ALEXANDRIA SOHAG PARIS DAMASCUS DAMMAM CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI DUBAI RIYADH JEDDAH SOHAG DOHA JEDDAH AMMAN JEDDAH BEIRUT DOHA DEIREZZOR CAIRO ABU DHABI DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN WASHINGTON DC DULLES DUBAI JEDDAH SHARJAH BEIRUT CAIRO JEDDAH PARIS DUBAI SOHAG RIYADH DOHA DUBAI MUMBAI NEW YORK AMMAN KOZHIKODE DUBAI MUSCAT BEIRUT DOHA BAHRAIN COLOMBO TEHRAN SABIHA AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI FRANKFURT SHARJAH DOHA BAHRAIN MUSCAT CHENNAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN AMMAN FRANKFURT ISTANBUL LAHORE

Time 0:15 0:20 0:30 0:50 1:45 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 2:55 3:10 3:20 3:25 4:35 4:55 4:55 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:15 6:30 7:15 7:30 7:35 7:45 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:15 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:20 9:25 9:30 10:00 10:15 10:30 10:55 11:05 11:20 11:25 12:25 12:35 12:35 13:25 13:30 13:40 13:40 13:45 13:45 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:55 15:00 15:00 15:15 15:30 16:00 16:35 16:55 17:20 17:20 17:25 17:30 17:40 17:45 18:00 18:15 18:40 18:40 18:45 18:55 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:50 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:35 20:55 20:55 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:15 21:20 21:25 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:05 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:55 23:10 23:40 23:55

Airlines AIC UAL DLH THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR QTR JZR RJA JZR GFA THY KAC CLX BAW FDB IRA KAC JZR ABY JZR KAC KAC UAE JZR KAC QTR FDB ETD IRA KAC KAC GFA IRC KAC FCX MEA KAC JZR MSR KAC BBC KAC JZR JZR SYR AFR GFA FDB MSR KAC KAC KNE KAC KAC SVA RJA JZR QTR KAC ETD JZR JZR QTR UAE GFA JZR ABY SVA UAL FDB MSR JZR KAC JAI FDB KAC KAC OMA MEA GFA JZR DHX ALK KLM ABY ETD UAE FCX KAC QTR KAC KAC DHX QTR AXB GFA KAC KAC JZR

Departure Flights on Sunday 6/5/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA 981 WASHINGTON DC 637 FRANKFURT 773 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 643 AMMAN 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 537 SOHAG 792 GIALAM 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 614 SHAHRE-KORD, IRAN” 171 FRANKFURT 256 BEIRUT 126 SHARJAH 534 CAIRO 671 DUBAI 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 212 DEIREZZOR 117 NEW YORK 133 DOHA 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 602 SHIRAZ 741 DAMMAM 773 RIYADH 214 BAHRAIN 6802 AHWAZ 541 CAIRO 204 DUBAI 405 BEIRUT 501 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 623 SOHAG 103 LONDON 44 CHITTAGONG 785 JEDDAH 480 ISTANBUL 176 DUBAI 342 ALEPPO 6708 DUBAI 220 BAHRAIN 58 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 673 DUBAI 473 JEDDAH 677 MUSCAT 617 DOHA 503 MADINAH 641 AMMAN 786 RIYADH 135 DOHA 513 IMAM KHOMEINI 304 ABU DHABI 238 AMMAN 538 CAIRO 141 DOHA 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 134 BAHRAIN 128 SHARJAH 511 RIYADH 982 BAHRAIN 64 DUBAI 621 ALEXANDRIA 184 DUBAI 361 COLOMBO 571 MUMBAI 62 DUBAI 283 DHAKA 351 KOCHI 648 MUSCAT 403 BEIRUT 222 BAHRAIN 502 LUXOR 171 BAHRAIN 230 COLOMBO 417 DAMMAM 120 SHARJAH 308 ABU DHABI 860 DUBAI 102 BAHRAIN 343 CHENNAI 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 373 BAHRAIN 147 DOHA 390 MANGALORE 218 BAHRAIN 411 BANGKOK 415 KUALA LUMPUR 528 ASSIUT

Time 0:05 0:25 0:30 2:15 2:45 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:20 4:50 5:40 6:00 6:50 6:55 7:05 7:10 8:05 8:15 8:25 8:25 8:35 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:10 9:20 9:35 9:40 9:45 10:00 10:00 10:05 10:15 10:25 10:25 10:25 10:45 11:15 11:30 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:15 12:25 12:30 12:50 13:10 13:15 13:20 13:35 14:20 14:25 14:25 14:30 14:40 15:05 15:15 15:25 15:45 15:45 15:50 15:50 16:15 16:25 17:20 17:30 17:40 17:45 18:05 18:20 18:20 18:25 18:35 18:40 19:25 19:55 20:05 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:45 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:35 21:45 21:50 21:55 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:10 23:10 23:30 23:40 23:50 23:50

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

112 Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:35 11:45 15:21 18:28 19:53

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available at Abbasiya near United Indian School in a CA/C new building with double (separate) bath room and double bedroom flat with Keralite Christian family. Preference for working ladies and couples only.

Contact: 66324234.

(C 3987) 6-5-2012

FOR SALE Laptop HP, Core2Duo, Ram 1GB, HD 120 GB, Wifi, Bluetooth, Display 15.4”. PC Siemens Core2Duo, Ram 2 GB, HD 160 GB, DVD Writer, Card reader, LCD 17” Multimedia, both excellent condition.

Contact: 99337034.

6-5-2012 Volvo 940, model 98, KD 750. Tel: 66464874.

(C 3983) Household goods at throwaway prices, beds, sofa sets, cupboards, lamps, dishwasher, deep freezer, dining table with 6 chairs, heaters, curtains, computer table, CD players, Ikea racks, roller blinds, Tel: 99510519 / 66210509. (C 3981) 3-5-2012

SITUATION VACANT Required English speaking nanny / maid. Please call 99824597. (C 3982) 3-5-2012 CHANGE OF NAME I, Naranga Valappil Gaffer, holder of Indian passport No. E2897263 hereby change my name to Jafar Narangavalappil. (C 3984) 5-5-2012

No: 15440

I, Vohra Kutbuddin Kikabhai holder of Indian passport No. E6247160 hereby change my name to Raja Kutbuddin Kikabhai.

(C 3985) I, Shaik Younus, S/o, Shaik Ahmed, resident of H.No. 17-1-341/2, Darga Barhanashah, Santoshnagar, Hyderabad that I am holder of Indian passport No. E6703568 issued Hyderabad, A.P. that I am intending to change my name as Shaik

Younus instead of my old name Mohammed Younus.

(C 3986) 6-5-2012

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

FIRE BRIGADE

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25340300 25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

Dr. Salem soso

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

22666300

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

Neurologists Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

22655539

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

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

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

TV PROGRAMS

00:45 Untamed & Uncut 01:40 Lion Feeding Frenzy 02:35 Baboons With Bill Bailey 03:00 Baboons With Bill Bailey 03:30 Into The Lion’s Den 04:25 Austin Stevens Adventures 05:20 Escape To Chimp Eden 05:45 Safari Sisters 06:10 Animal Cops Philadelphia 07:00 Gorilla School 07:25 Crocodile Hunter 08:15 The Jeff Corwin Experience 09:10 Baby Planet 10:05 The Really Wild Show 10:30 The Really Wild Show 11:00 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 11:25 Bondi Vet 11:55 Cats 101 12:50 Mutant Planet 13:45 Mutant Planet 14:40 Wildlife SOS 15:35 Must Love Cats 16:30 Safari Vet School 16:55 Safari Vet School 17:25 Big Five Challenge 18:20 Wild Britain With Ray Mears 18:45 Wild Britain With Ray Mears 19:15 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 20:10 Killer Whales 21:05 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 22:00 Wildest Arctic 22:55 In Search Of The Giant Anaconda 23:50 Animal Cops Philadelphia

00:00 BBC World News 00:10 World Features 00:30 BBC World News 01:00 BBC World News 01:30 Dateline London 02:00 BBC World News 02:10 The Doha Debates 03:00 BBC World News 03:30 Click 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Newsnight 05:00 BBC World News 05:30 The Record Europe 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Fast Track 07:00 BBC World News 07:10 World Features 07:30 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:10 World Features 08:30 Dateline London 09:00 BBC World News 09:10 Imagine 10:00 BBC World News 10:10 Riots And Revolutions: My Arab Journey 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Newsnight 12:00 BBC World News 12:10 World Features 12:30 Tim Marlow On...

13:00 BBC World News 13:15 Sport Today 13:30 Click 14:00 BBC World News 14:30 Horizons 15:00 BBC World News 15:10 The Doha Debates 16:00 BBC World News 16:30 India Business Report 17:00 BBC World News 17:30 Tim Marlow On...

18:00 Sports World Have Your Say 18:30 Sports World Have Your Say 19:00 BBC World News 19:30 BBC World News 20:00 BBC World News 20:10 World Features 20:30 Horizons 21:00 BBC World News 21:10 Imagine 22:00 BBC World News 22:30 Asia Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 BBC World News 23:10 World Features 23:30 Riots And Revolutions: My Arab Journey

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

Duck Dodgers The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Jetsons Puppy In My Pocket Popeye Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Droopy: Master Detective Wacky Races The Flintstones A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Popeye Classics Wacky Races Pink Panther And Pals Dexter’s Laboratory Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm The Garfield Show The Looney Tunes Show Scooby Doo Where Are You! Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Yogi’s Treasure Hunt Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Wacky Races Hollyrock-A-Bye-Baby Dastardly And Muttley Looney Tunes Scooby-Doo And ScrappyTom & Jerry Top Cat Top Cat Pink Panther & Pals The Garfield Show The Looney Tunes Show Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Scooby Doo Show Pink Panther And Pals The Jetsons Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The Garfield Show Duck Dodgers The Flintstones Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Popeye Scooby-Doo And ScrappyWacky Races Dastardly And Muttley New Yogi Bear Show

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 Casper’s Scare School 06:25 Casper’s Scare School 06:50 The Powerpuff Girls 07:40 The Amazing World Of Gumball 08:05 Adventure Time 08:30 Angelo Rules 08:55 Eliot Kid 09:20 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 09:45 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 10:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 10:35 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 11:00 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 11:25 Grim Adventures Of...

12:15 Courage The Cowardly Dog 13:05 Generator Rex 13:30 Powerpuff Girls 14:20 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 14:45 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 15:10 Best Ed 16:00 Fantastic Four...

16:25 Ben 10

16:50 The Amazing World Of Gumball 17:15 Adventure Time 17:40 Regular Show 18:05 Powerpuff Girls 18:55 Ben 10: Alien Force 19:20 Ben 10: Alien Force 19:45 Ed, Edd n Eddy 20:35 Grim Adventures Of...

21:00 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 21:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 21:50 Cow And Chicken 22:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Ben 10 23:40 Chowder

00:40 First Week In 01:35 Kidnap And Rescue 02:30 How It’s Made 03:00 How Stuff’s Made 03:25 How It’s Made 03:55 How Stuff’s Made 04:20 How It’s Made 04:50 How Stuff’s Made 05:15 How It’s Made 05:40 How Stuff’s Made 06:05 How It’s Made 06:35 How Stuff’s Made 07:00 How Stuff’s Made 07:25 How It’s Made 07:50 American Chopper: Senior vs Junior 08:45 Desert Car Kings 09:40 X-Machines 10:30 River Monsters 11:25 Extreme Fishing 12:20 How Stuff’s Made 14:10 How Stuff’s Made 14:35 Auction Hunters 16:25 Auction Hunters 16:55 Border Security 18:45 Border Security 19:10 Soul Food Family 20:05 Mythbusters 21:55 Hell Roads 22:50 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 23:45 Dynamo: Magician Impossible

00:35 Punkin Chunkin 2010 01:25 The Tech Show 01:50 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 05:20 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 06:10 Eco-Tech 07:00 Head Rush 07:03 Sci-Fi Science 07:30 Weird Connections 08:00 Mean Green Machines 08:25 Mean Green Machines 08:55 Scrapheap Challenge 09:45 Catch It Keep It 10:35 The X-Testers 12:40 The X-Testers 13:05 Are We Alone?

14:45 Head Rush 14:48 Sci-Fi Science 15:15 Weird Connections 15:45 The Tech Show 16:10 Mean Green Machines 16:35 Mean Green Machines 17:00 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 17:50 Sci-Trek 18:40 Killer Robots: Robogames 2011 19:30 Punkin Chunkin 2010 20:20 Mega Builders 21:10 Nextworld 22:00 Killer Robots: Robogames 2011 22:50 Punkin Chunkin 2010 23:40 Weird Or What?

00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40

Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Stitch

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

Stitch Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Suite Life Of Zack And So Random Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Jessie A.N.T. Farm Austin & Ally Go Figure Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Shake It Up Shake It Up Shake It Up Shake It Up Jessie Wizards Of Waverly Place So Random Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place The Return Of Jafar Phineas And Ferb A.N.T. Farm Austin & Ally Shake It Up Shake It Up Shake It Up Shake It Up Go Figure Phineas And Ferb Fish Hooks The Suite Life Of Zack And The Suite Life Of Zack And Sonny With A Chance

06:00 Kid vs Kat 06:20 American Dragon 06:45 Rekkit Rabbit 07:10 Pokemon: Black And White 07:35 Phineas And Ferb 07:45 Phineas And Ferb 08:00 Iron Man Armored Adventures 08:30 Rated A For Awesome 09:00 Mr. Young 09:30 Pair Of Kings 10:00 Kickin It 10:30 Scaredy Squirrel 10:55 Zeke & Luther 11:20 I’m In The Band 11:45 Phineas And Ferb 12:10 Fort Boyard - Ultimate Challenge 12:35 Pair Of Kings 13:00 Thirteenth Year 14:35 Kickin It 15:00 Phineas And Ferb 15:10 Phineas And Ferb 15:25 Iron Man Armored Adventures 15:50 Pair Of Kings 16:15 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes 16:40 Zeke & Luther 17:05 Mr. Young 17:30 I’m In The Band 17:55 Rated A For Awesome 18:20 Kickin It 18:45 Phineas And Ferb 19:10 Scaredy Squirrel 19:35 Iron Man Armored Adventures 20:00 Rekkit Rabbit 20:25 Zeke & Luther 20:50 Kick Buttowski 21:15 Pair Of Kings 21:40 Phineas And Ferb 22:05 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes 22:30 Kid vs Kat 23:00 Programmes Start At 6:00am KSA

00:55 Style Star 01:25 15 Most Shocking Political Sex Scandals 03:15 E! Investigates 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Then And Now 05:30 Then And Now 06:00 40 (More) Crimes Of Fashion 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Extreme Close-Up 09:45 Extreme Close-Up 10:15 E!es 11:10 Ice Loves Coco 11:35 Ice Loves Coco 12:05 E! News 13:05 Style Star 13:35 Style Star 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:00 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:55 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 16:55 Behind The Scenes 17:25 Behind The Scenes 17:55 E! News 18:55 Kendra 19:25 Giuliana & Bill 20:25 Ice Loves Coco 20:55 Khloe And Lamar 21:25 Khloe And Lamar 21:55 Ice Loves Coco 22:25 Fashion Police 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

TOP GUN ON OSN ACTION HD

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

06:10 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 06:35 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 07:00 Food Network Challenge 07:50 Gourmet Farmer 08:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 08:40 Kid In A Candy Store 09:05 Good Eats 09:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 09:55 World Cafe Asia 10:20 30 Minute Meals 10:45 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 11:10 Unwrapped 11:35 Easy Chinese: San Francisco 12:00 Food Network Challenge 12:50 Aarti Party 13:15 Cooking For Real 13:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 14:05 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 14:30 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 14:55 30 Minute Meals 15:20 Mexican Made Easy 15:45 Iron Chef America 16:35 Cooking For Real 17:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 17:50 Aarti Party 18:15 Kid In A Candy Store 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Mexican Made Easy 19:30 Food Network Challenge 20:20 Iron Chef America 21:10 Restaurant: Impossible 22:00 Guy’s Big Bite - Special 22:25 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 22:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:40 Meat & Potatoes

Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Unique Sweets Meat & Potatoes Meat & Potatoes Food Network Challenge Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Meat & Potatoes Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Good Eats World Cafe Asia Gourmet Farmer Chopped

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

A Haunting Exorcist Files The Haunted A Haunting A Haunting On The Case With Paula Zahn Mystery ER Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Mall Cops – Mall Of America On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery ER Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Behind Mansion Walls LA: City Of Demons Scorned: Crimes Of Passion

00:05 Everything You Always......

Sex-18 01:30 Illegal In Blue-18 03:05 The Curse Of Inferno-PG 04:30 In The Arms Of A Killer-PG 06:05 Fatal Charm 07:35 It’s A Mad Mad World-FAM 10:05 Kings Of The Sun-PG 11:55 Carry Me Home 13:30 Valdez Is Coming-PG 15:00 Seven Hours To JudgementPG 16:30 Mgm’s Big Screen-FAM 16:45 Women vs. Men-PG 18:10 Hannah And Her Sisters-PG 19:55 Coming Home-18 22:00 The War At Home-18

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

By Any Means Food School One Man & His Campervan Bondi Rescue Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Danger Men Pressure Cook David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 Food School Food School Somewhere In China Perilous Journeys Pressure Cook Pressure Cook Which Way To First Ascent First Ascent Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 Food School Food School Somewhere In China Perilous Journeys A World Apart Geo Sessions Geo Sessions Around The World For Free Departures Graham’s World Earth Tripping Long Way Down Which Way To

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00

Fight Science Ultimate Shark Inside World’s Deadliest Animals Situation Critical Lockdown Adventure Wanted Departures Fight Science Ultimate Shark Inside World’s Deadliest Animals Shark Men Lockdown Adventure Wanted Departures Master of Disaster

DAYDREAM NATION ON OSN CINEMA 17:00 Taboo 18:00 Megastructures 19:00 Dogtown 20:00 Is It Real?

21:00 Taboo 22:00 Inside 23:00 Light At The Edge of The World

00:00 Wild India (aka Secrets of Wild India) 01:00 Night Stalkers 01:55 Cameramen Who Dare 02:50 Animal Autopsy 03:45 Expedition Wild 04:40 Extinction Sucks 05:05 Extinction Sucks 05:35 Wild Detectives 06:00 Wild Detectives 06:30 Planet Carnivore 07:25 Swamp Men 08:20 Monkey Thieves 08:45 Monkey Thieves 09:15 Python Hunters 10:10 Africa’s Secret Seven 11:05 Wild India (aka Secrets of Wild India) 12:00 Planet Carnivore 13:00 The Bear Evidence 14:00 Monster Fish 15:00 Secrets Of The Mediterranean 16:00 Big Cat Wars (aka Lion vs Cheetah) 17:00 Snake Wranglers 17:30 Snake Wranglers 18:00 American Buffalo: Battling Back 19:00 Secrets Of The Mediterranean 20:00 Big Cat Wars (aka Lion vs Cheetah) 21:00 Snake Wranglers 21:30 Snake Wranglers 22:00 American Buffalo: Battling Back 23:00 Planet Carnivore

00:15 02:00 03:45 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Wild Things: Foursome -18 The Hit List-18 Hidalgo-PG Collateral-PG15 Bangkok Adrenaline-PG15 Top Gun-PG15 The Devil’s Teardrop-PG15 Bangkok Adrenaline-PG15 Inside Out-PG The Devil’s Teardrop-PG15 The Siege-18 Walled In-PG15

01:00 I Melt With You-R 03:00 Brighton Rock-PG15 05:00 The Making Of Plus One-PG15 07:00 Tomorrow, When The War Began-PG15 09:00 Sounds Like Teen Spirit-PG15 11:00 50 First Dates-PG15 13:00 Arthur And The Revenge Of Maltazard-PG 15:00 Certified Copy-PG15 17:00 The Tender Hook-PG15 19:00 Calvin Marshall-PG15 21:00 Blue Valentine-18 23:00 Daydream Nation-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Saturday Night Live 02:30 American Dad 03:00 Parks And Recreation 03:30 2 Broke Girls 04:00 Friends 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Seinfeld 06:00 Weird Science 06:30 Dharma And Greg 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Friends 08:30 Parks And Recreation 09:00 Seinfeld 09:30 The Office 10:00 Man Up! 10:30 Dharma And Greg 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Weird Science 12:30 Friends 13:00 Seinfeld

13:30 Dharma And Greg 14:00 2 Broke Girls 14:30 Man Up! 15:00 The Office 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Weird Science 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 The Simpsons 18:30 Last Man Standing 19:00 Two And A Half Men 20:00 Whitney 20:30 King Of The Hill 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 American Dad 23:30 Whitney

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

Criminal Minds Sons Of Anarchy Top Gear (UK) Warehouse 13 Boardwalk Empire The View Good Morning America The Invisible Man Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Martha Stewart Show The View Criminal Minds Warehouse 13 Top Gear (UK) Good Morning America The Invisible Man The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Covert Affairs Unforgettable Missing Top Gear (US) Strike Back

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

Parenthood Top Gear (UK) Criminal Minds Sons Of Anarchy Warehouse 13 Friday Night Lights Parenthood Emmerdale Coronation Street Royal Pains Top Gear (UK) Criminal Minds Warehouse 13 Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Royal Pains Parenthood Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Royal Pains Covert Affairs Unforgettable Missing Top Gear (US) The Tudors

01:00 Tupac: Resurrection-18 03:00 Hidalgo-PG 05:15 From Within-PG15 07:00 A Lonely Place For Dying-PG15 09:00 All Star Superman-PG15 11:00 Tremors-PG15 13:00 The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course-PG15 15:00 All Star Superman-PG15 17:00 Taxi-PG15 19:00 Kiss Of Death-18 21:00 Law Abiding Citizen-18 23:00 Clive Barker’s Book Of Blood-18

00:00 Aim Low: The Very Best Of Dylan Moran-18 02:00 Knucklehead-PG15 04:00 Frank McKlusky, C.I.-PG15 06:00 Snow Dogs-PG 08:00 The Country Bears-PG 10:00 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie-PG

12:00 Dead Men Don’t Wear PlaidPG 14:00 Checking Out-PG15 16:00 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie-PG 18:00 The Night Of The White PantsPG15 20:00 Greenberg-18 22:00 Bulletproof-18

01:00 03:00 05:15 07:15 09:00 PG15 11:00 PG15 13:00 15:00 PG15 16:45 PG 18:45 21:00 23:00

Chelsea On The Rocks-18 Antwone Fisher-PG15 Don’t Look Back-PG15 Witch Hunt-PG15 Sunny And The Elephant-

00:00 02:00 04:30 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 14:45 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Hot Tub Time Machine-18 The Winning Season-PG15 City Of Life-PG15 B-Girl-PG15 Open Season 3-FAM Head Of State-PG15 Elevator Girl-PG15 Glorious 39-PG15 Open Season 3-FAM Crazy On The Outside-PG15 Charlie St. Cloud-PG15 Daydream Nation-PG15

The Deep End Of The OceanReturn To Rajapur-PG15 Sunny And The ElephantSearching For Bobby FischerFunny Bones-PG15 Romeo Is Bleeding-18 Chico & Rita-18

00:00 Live UFC Prelims 03:00 LIVE UFC 05:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 06:00 Live Super Rugby 08:00 Snooker World Championship 11:00 Super Rugby 13:00 Super Rugby 16:00 Live Snooker World Championship 21:00 Live Snooker World Championship

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 12:00 12:30 14:30 15:00 17:00 17:30 20:00 22:00

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35

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

stars CROSSWORD 667

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) The focus today is on your goals and one of your goals benefits many people. You have far-reaching visions with worldviews and group participation of all kinds. You carry a lot of power with your words today. You are determined to get many things accomplished. There is a tendency to give up much superficiality in favor of in-depth learning and self-discipline. Everything comes together to reveal you at your most elegant—particularly where group gatherings are concerned. Success and security at the expense of originality may be too great a price to pay, but a middle road can be found. You may be hard-pressed to stick to a budget next month so begin now to plan your weekly schedule of what you would like to accomplish.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Careful now—you may stop looking for the better job or the great advancement. Perhaps your personal life is involved with lots of volunteer service and hobbies. It could also be that you enjoy performing and a day job is necessary for the essentials in your life. You are much more talented in your nonprofessional job than you give yourself credit for and you might want to consider giving yourself more opportunities to excel in this industry. You might enjoy teaching the skill you know so well. You love imaginative expression—yours or someone else’s. You encourage others and private teaching could be a path you would enjoy. You will do well to seek a balance between your personal and professional world. You will enjoy the harmony.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. A solution containing a phosphate buffer.

4. Of a display that is tawdry or vulgar.

10. A dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived.

13. Annual grass of Europe and North Africa.

14. Be compatible or in accordance with.

15. The upper side of the thighs of a seated person.

16. A master's degree in business.

17. (horseshoes) The throw of a horseshoe so as to lean against (but not encircle) the stake.

18. The compass point that is one point east of due south.

19. An artificial language proposed as an auxiliary European language.

21. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

23. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

24. United States actress and singer (1896-1977).

25. A man who is engaged to be married.

28. A permanent council of the United Nations.

32. A slight amount or degree of difference.

34. A unit of area (4840 square yards) used in English-speaking countries.

35. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

39. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

40. A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance.

44. A light touch or stroke.

45. Something causes misery or death.

46. A minor parish official who serves as an usher and preserves order at services.

49. A member of the Iroquoian people formerly living east of Lake Ontario.

53. A summary that repeats the substance of a longer discussion.

56. A periodic paperback publication.

57. A human limb.

58. Away from the mouth or oral region.

60. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice.

61. A usually soluble substance for staining or coloring e.g. fabrics or hair.

62. West Indian tree having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice.

63. (informal) Roused to anger.

DOWN 1. A fleshy fruit (apple or pear or related fruits) having seed chambers and an outer fleshy part.

2. Used as a Hindi courtesy title.

3. Indicating the most important performer or role.

4. A high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus.

5. Form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case.

6. A feudal lord or baron in Scotland.

7. A fractional monetary unit of Japan and Indonesia and Cambodia.

8. Having wrinkles.

9. A plant lacking a permanent woody stem.

10. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord.

11. A small cake leavened with yeast.

12. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

20. Belonging to or on behalf of a specified person (especially yourself ).

22. Small buffalo of the Celebes having small straight horns.

26. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

27. The sixth month of the civil year.

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

30. Using speech rather than writing.

31. Wrap us in a cerecloth, as of a corpse.

33. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

36. A genus of Ploceidae.

37. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

38. A Dravidian language spoken in southern India.

41. A high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus.

42. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

43. Any of numerous hairy-bodied insects including social and solitary species.

47. Suggestive of the supernatural.

48. The highest level or degree attainable.

50. (Islam) The man who leads prayers in a mosque.

51. An informal term for a father.

52. Advanced in years.

54. A unit of pain intensity.

55. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

59. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

Yesterday’s Solution

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You may race ahead of others with the determination of getting things accomplished. Avoid impulsive decisions. You are at your most practical when it comes to dealing and working with others this afternoon. You know just what to do and can act without haste and emotion. In the evening, you are very motivated when it comes to philosophies, religion and all things essential and lasting. Unconventional in matters of philosophy and religion, you always find new ways to get past the fluff and into what is important. You may find yourself in some interesting conversations around the dinner table. Your insights into truth and the eternal may make you independent and somewhat of a loner. Careful—you will want to allow others their opinions.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) It is usually easy for you to work with those in authority—those older and more experienced than you. However, do not be surprised if you are not in the best mental gear today. You could find yourself struggling to communicate. Healing words, however, are possible with an authority figure or an older person today. This afternoon, you and your friends can relax and enjoy the company of each other. After work, you become the social animal. You are gregarious, even to the point of bringing out the performer in others. You could find members of your own family complaining because you are never home. Relationships, working with other people and making a difference in other people’s lives may be your primary concern. Set time aside for family.

NON SEQUITUR

Leo (July 23-August 22) There is hard work and responsibility, both in salvaging some endeavors that appear to be failing and in branching out in new directions. You could be tempted to misapply your eagerness toward projects that may not be worthwhile. Do some calculations before diving into these more questionable projects. You never seem to lose your sense of humor and people that may be a bit tense may find themselves laughing and thanking you for your attitude.

Everything points to your taking the initiative—you will find a great deal of support for your ideas. You have lots of energy—be wise in how you use it so as not to feel exhausted by the evening. A young person is counting on you to fulfill a promise— don’t forget to leave yourself time for this promise.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Your emotions are positive today and they are contagious. You are friendly and cheerful to all, making you very popular. Rely on your own abilities at work now—anyone you ask to help you might take all the credit for your achievement. A great deal of communication can prove quite beneficial, especially with the opposite sex. You have a lot of inspiration to improve whatever needs improving—you are motivated. By the way, it is important at this time to minimize your romantic thoughts so that they do not interfere with your work. This afternoon, you and a friend work through some difficult puzzle. A serious matter is discussed this evening between yourself and a loved one. General good feelings and a sense of harmony makes this a happy time.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

You may have difficulty concentrating on your work or a project just now—there are many things on your mind. Weather permitting, you could just get outside for a while. This will allow you to bring about a balance in your day. You may need to take a humble attitude this afternoon as you will be in the limelight with people that can help advance you to where you want to go, either at work or in some organization. Work on a favorite project at home this afternoon can be successful—particularly if you solicit the aid of a friend. This evening you can enjoy good relations with members of your family and your finances may improve because of a family member’s suggestions, ideas or offering. Do not be too surprised when an old friend surfaces.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Today others will find you overflowing with charm and enthusiasm. Easy does it—you could be too friendly and mislead an interested co-worker. This is a favorable time to deal with clients, customers or the flow of the public. Reporting, clerking and story writing are all possibilities for today. You will do almost anything to fulfill your leadership or destiny roles and to reach your point of success. Your deepest desire is to have influence over the world in which you live. At least, you want to make a positive difference and perhaps have your name known. You know how to get things done and you will work to achieve your dreams. Perhaps research or study is involved in your professional progress. Finances will be increased today.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Professionally, you can depend on your good, practical, jobrelated thoughts and ideas. The ability to communicate with superiors or describe what you see is far better than most. On a personal level, your imagination is a tool for a most creative outlet . . . perhaps, storytelling. You practice that old saying of turning lemons into lemonade. It works for you by turning the negatives in your life to positives. Emotionally, you can become stuck with thoughts of the past; however, with self-discipline and patience you can bring your emotional thinking as up to date as your professional thinking. If you believe you cannot do something, you are right—otherwise you will find a way to do what you want. Create positive pictures in your mind.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Solving problems is an easy task today. You are able to uncover what is beneath and behind most challenges. You may find yourself guiding a new employee through the day or helping a co-worker with some new technical equipment. There are opportunities to have deep discussions about psychological and spiritual matters with close friends this afternoon. The idea of a little personal self-analysis on the deepest possible level could be exciting to you. The famous psychiatrist Carl Jung enjoyed discovering things about his own personality. Your flamboyant personality expresses itself in all you set out to accomplish. A lover, children and other people are dear to your heart. Taking chances with relationships can bring rewards.

To

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You will enjoy being the center of attention today—others compliment you on your good works. Outshining your fellow workers may require you to have a humble attitude—and you do. You should soon enjoy great success through your profession. You may spend a great deal of time communicating with co-workers and people apart from work today. Additionally, you may find it favorable to voice new ideas to others in hopes of winning them over to your thinking. You may be sought after for your advice and guidance regarding some very personal and emotional issues as well as those usual work issues. You will be able to be understanding and capable of handling any complications or difficulties that come your way. This is a happy and successful time.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Be wise in the use of your time while helping someone today. It is good to be helpful when help is needed; however, know when it is best to back away so that jobs or lessons can be learned. You may have problems holding on to money today. Be cautious and discriminate during the next few days in what you purchase so as not to burden yourself by debt. You are able to enjoy and value your own ability to entertain yourself today. It is good to create a desire in others around your household to be frugal and inventive. If you have young people in your family you could create some fun time around the family dinner table that will encourage communication. It might be fun to take notes regarding some of the ideas you hear. There is beauty everywhere.

36 Cee Lo Green

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

lifestyle

no longer Mrs Kutcher on Twitter

Moore

G O S S I P

says he’s sticking with ‘The Voice’

ee Lo Green says he’ll stick with “The Voice” singing competition show “as long as it ’s fresh.” The rapper turned singer joined the show last year as coach and judge alongside Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine. Green, 37, said in

C ctress Demi Moore, who announced late last year that she was ending her marriage to actor husband Ashton Kutcher, has finally made the split official... by changing her Twitter name. “So hard finding a name that was fun somewhat playful and available. So for now it will be @justdemi It could grow on me!” Moore said on the popular microblogging site, dumping her old user name — @mrskutcher. “Thanks everyone for your help in finding my new name!” she tweeted to her more than five million followers. The 49-year-old Moore was treated for “exhaustion” in January, two months after the couple split amid reports of Kutcher’s infidelity with a woman less than half Moore’s age. A call to emergency services released in January features one woman telling the operator that Moore “smoked something, it’s not marijuana but it’s similar to incense... and she seems to be having convulsions of some sort.”

Moore and Kutcher, 34, announced their separation in November, after months of media reports about problems between the couple, who married in 2005. She had earlier been married to actor Bruce Willis for 13 years. The actress made her name in movies including “Ghost” (1990), “A Few Good Men” (1992), “Indecent Proposal” (1993) and “G.I. Jane” (1997), as well as for a 1991 Vanity Fair magazine cover photo of her naked and heavily pregnant. Kutcher is best known for T V shows including “ That 70s Show” and “Punk’d,” and last year replaced troubled actor Charlie Sheen in the popular comedy “Two and a Half Men.”

A

an interview this week that he believes NBC has plans in place should any of the judges decide to leave. But for now he’s happy to continue “building the brand of Cee Lo Green” on the popular TV series, which ends its second season next week. Aguilera’s appearance on

Maroon 5’s hit “Moves Like Jagger” has led to fur ther musical collaboration among the singers. Green said he’d be open to a supergroup featuring all four : “ Why not? ...

Everybody’s talented. Everybody’s available and highly enthusiastic.”

Police no evidence Lohan hit club manager L indsay Lohan won’t face prosecution over a nightclub manager’s claims that the actress struck him with her sports car due to lack of evidence and doubts about his credibility, prosecutors decided Friday. Police had asked the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to review whether Lohan should be charged with leaving the scene of an accident, but the office determined there was insufficient evidence to pursue a case. Police interviewed the manager, reviewed surveillance footage and looked at Lohan’s Porsche and found no evidence that an accident had occurred. Thaer Kamal, manager of the Hookah Lounge in Hollywood, accused Lohan of striking him with her Porsche early on March 14, just two weeks before the actress’ supervised probation ended. A charge evaluation worksheet noted that although Kamal called emergency services, he refused medical treatment at the scene and told police he had been grazed by

Lohan’s car along his right leg. He refused to cooperate on follow-up interviews until roughly two weeks later, when he gave detectives a photo of a bruised left knee and appeared for the interview with his left knee bandaged, according to the prosecutor’s summary. “There is no direct evidence to show Lindsay Lohan or anyone else struck victim Kamal,” Deputy District Attorney John Gilligan wrote. Victim Kamal’s changed story and lack of cooperation with law enforcement make him a non-credible witness.” Kamal has been represented by attorney Mark Geragos, who did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. Lohan’s spokesman Steve Honig declined comment on the decision. Lohan, 25, remains on informal probation for taking a necklace without permission last year and is attempting to revive her career. She will play Elizabeth Taylor in a television movie about the actress’ love affair with co-star Richard Burton.

Kardashian wants divorce to move forward

D’ Angelo to perform at Essence Music Festival ’Angelo is making his comeback: The reclusive singer will give his first US performance in 10 years at the 2012 Essence Music Festival. D’Angelo will perform during the festival’s opening night. It runs from July 6 to July 8 in New Orleans and also features Trey Songz, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and many others. The soul singer’s latest album is 2000’s “Voodoo.” It went platinum and won

D

Fox cuts baby rumor speculation M

Richie

egan Fox cut an interview with Steve Jones short as he prepared to ask her about her rumored pregnancy. Steve managed to bring up the subject that Megan and Brian Austin Green might be expecting their first child while asking the ‘Dictator’ star about her favorite gadget. He said: “Do you know the ultimate gadget that every man wants? A baby.” During the interview with Entertainment Weekly, she replied: “A baby? Oh, I know where you’re going with this?” The former ‘X Factor’ USA host then attempted to ask the actress if

feels great about her body N

icole Richie says she now feels great about her body. The daughter of singer Lionel Richie - who found fame starring on ‘The Simple Life’ alongside Paris Hilton opened up about revealing her dramatic weight loss in 2006. She confessed that although she can be critical of her fuller figure, she tries to ignore her own negative views and is proud of the positive steps she’s taken. She told American Glamour magazine: “I feel great about my body. You know, aesthetically I can be picky, but I choose not to. I’ve taken huge leaps.

I’m proud of that.” Nicole is mother to Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden’s two children four-year-old Harlow and two-year-old Sparrow. The 30-year-old - who appears as a ‘Fashion Star ’ mentor alongside Jessica Simpson, designer John Varvatos and host Elle MacPherson - revealed more about her new healthy outlook on life. She added: “I work out and I get lots of sleep, so I feel great. And that is most important.” Regarding her style icon status she laughed: “My world is small. I have my circle of 10 friends, my kids, my family. None of them call me a trendsetter.”

two Grammy Awards, including best R&B album. His debut, 1995’s “Brown Sugar,” was also a platinum effort. Since that, D’Angelo has stepped away from the music scene, drawing attention for his runins with the law. The 37-year-old wrapped up a prostitution case last month by pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after his March 2010 arrest. His record label said he is working on a new album.

she is expecting, but she didn’t react well. She retorted: “You hear the grumbles... No, no.” A publicist then reportedly could be heard asking him to end the question and answer session, prompting the presenter to politely terminate it for the camera. He said: “Either way, Megan, it was a pleasure talking to you.”

The presenter later made a tongue-in-cheek apology for his questioning. He joked: “I’d like to formerly apologize to Ms Fox for attacking her with the word baby. Thankfully, there was a publicist there to stop me.”

Will.i.am’s travelling affects ‘The Voice’ contestants ill.i.am’s international lifestyle is apparently causing ‘The Voice’ contestants to lose out on valuable coaching time. The Black Eyed Peas’ star’s frequent trips from the show’s base in the UK to the US means that all competitors on the show are affected because of BBC rules.

The television network bosses say the other coaches can mentor their acts ONLY when Will.i.am sees his, to ensure fairness. His acts told last week how they saw him for just two half-hour sessions in the run-up to the opening live episode. His acts told last week how they saw him for just two half-hour sessions in the run-up to the opening live episode.

Yesterday, coach Danny O’Donoghue’s acts revealed how their time with the Script frontman had been limited by the new ruling. Contestant Bo Bruce told The Sun newspaper: “If Will is out of the country, we aren’t seeing Danny. All the mentors have to do equal amounts.” Max Milner said: “We all get the same amount of time. The coaches fit it round their schedules.” “We only started doing our songs on Monday-we found out what they were at the same time as the other teams but they started on them and we were in the dark on what we were doing with them.” — Agencies

W im Kardashian’s attorney says the television personality wants her divorce to move forward, but lawyers for her estranged husband say they’re still pursuing an annulment.

Kardashian’s attorney Laura Wasser told a judge Friday that she thinks Kris Humphries’ hurt feelings and media attention are slowing the case. She noted the case has lasted longer than the cou-

K

ple’s 72-day marriage. Wasser she says the case is simple but could get expensive for the professional basketball player if he continues to pursue his claims that the marriage was a fraud. She says if the case goes to trial, she’ll ask Humphries to pay legal fees. Humphries’ attorney Marshall Waller says he needs to take depositions of several people before deciding how the case will proceed.

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

lifestyle F E A T U R E S

Ducklings are seen at the Friday market in Kuwait. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayat

Ocean-themed Expo 2012 opens May 12 in S Korea

A

robot fish on a scientific mission shoots lasers from its nose, its tail swinging as it swims around a tank. It’s part of an effort to showcase technology at Expo 2012, which opens for three months on May 12 in Yeosu, South Korea, with a theme focused on the ocean. Organizers have coined the term “seavilization” to promote the event in this southern coastal city.

It’s the first expo to be held in South Korea since 1993, and millions of visitors from around the world are expected to attend. Its formal theme is “The Living Ocean and Coast: Diversity of Resources and Sustainable Activities.”

A journalist takes pictures at the Marine Robot pavilion.

Robots perform at Marine Robot pavilion of the EXPO 2012.

It’s also being billed as the biggest gathering of robots in the history of expos, and South Korea hopes the event will help promote the importance of technology - including robots - to develop underwater resources without harming the environment. In addition to the robot fish with the laser-shooting nose, there is a human-like robot that smiles, cries, frowns and winks at visitors, and at another booth, a group of robots the size of schoolchildren that dances in perfect harmony to the beat of Korean pop music. Another robot that looks like a starfish crawls inside a water tank as it demonstrates its ability to detect and analyze underwater resources.

Organizers hope the expo will both capture visitors’ imagination and showcase South Korea’s eminence as a technology powerhouse. Other high-tech aspects will include submarines, LED displays and a mobile app that allows people with smartphones to access information while touring the exhibits. In another effort to use modern technology to draw attention to the coastal setting, Yeosu has also built a gigantic roundshaped structure in the water called the Big-O to display colorful hologram images. Lasers and flames shoot from the structure, which stands about as high as a 13story building at 41 meters tall and 35 meters wide (135 feet by 115 feet).

Yeosu is a port city 300 kilometers (187 miles) south of Seoul. It is one of the most scenic areas on South Korea’s southern coast, with 300 islands nearby. One of its biggest tourist attractions is a wide coast, submerged daily by flood tides and rich with sea life. The expo venue offers 2.7 million square meters of space (29 million square feet). Typically countries that join the host country for these events create pavilions to showcase their own technology, culture and products related to the expo theme. This year’s participants are expected to come from 105 countries and 10 international organizations, organizers said. The organizing committee said it asked North Korea to participate, but Pyongyang has yet to respond.

Expo 2012 is a smaller exposition than the larger world’s fairs that are held in years ending in 0 and 5.

Those larger events last for six months; the most recent large expo took place in Shanghai in 2010. Smaller expos, like the one in Yeosu, are held every four years for just three months and tend to be in less well known destinations, such as Zaragoza, Spain, which hosted Expo 2008. The expos are sanctioned by the Bureau International des Expositions. The next large expo will take place in Milan, Italy, in 2015.

File photo shows a huge LED screen is seen under the ceiling at the International Pavilion of the EXPO 2012, in Yeosu, South Korea. — AP photos

If you go...

Expo 2012: http://www.worldexpo2012.com/. Opens May 12 for three months in Yeosu, South Korea, located about 300 kilometers (187 miles) from Seoul. One-day tickets are about $30, two days, $50, three days, $60.

Getting there: One-hour flight from Seoul, plus a 30minute bus ride from the Yeosu airport to the expo. By high-speed KTX train, three hours from Seoul to a train station near the expo site. —AP

File photo shows the 2011 National Christmas Tree after being lit by US President Barack Obama and the First Family during a ceremony on The Ellipse near the White House in Washington, DC. — AFP

‘Transplant shock’ kills US National Christmas Tree T he National Christmas Tree is dead. The Colorado blue spruce passed away “due to complications resulting from transplant shock” just 14 months after it was planted in the Ellipse field outside the White House, the National Park Service said Friday. Born on a tree farm in New Jersey, it replaced a similar tree knocked down in a wind storm after 33 years.

A successor tree-also a Colorado blue spruce, from an undisclosed state adjacent to the US capital-has been

A fish robot swims at the Marine Robot Pavilion of the EXPO 2012.

identified, and it will be planted in late October, the federal agency said. The ceremonial lighting of the National Christmas Tree is a Washington tradition that dates back to 1923 when then-president Calvin Coolidge flicked the switch on a fir tree festooned with 2,500 electric bulbs.

Last Christmas, in a nod to 21st century energy efficiency, the tree featured 65 sets of programmable colorchanging LED lights as well as 160 starburst ornaments in an heirloom topper design. — AFP

38

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

LIFESTYLE M u s i c

&

M o v i e s

In first solo album, Jack White taps a blue vein ack White is musing on his latest color scheme. “What if blues musicians like Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell actually wore blue clothes?” White wonders, laughing. The former White Stripe has bathed his first solo album, “Blunderbuss,” with a pale blue palette. It informs the album artwork, the touring stage presentation and the outfits of his backing band, which alternates between all-male and all-female lineups. Since he was a teenage upholsterer in Detroit, White has carefully color-coordinated his work. While recording “Blunderbuss” in his studio in Nashville, Tenn., White played on a pale blue telecaster and an old pale blue amplifier.

“I said, ‘Well, these are my hand tools. It’s all going to build up from this,’” says White. The resulting 13 tracks may be the best compendium yet of White’s particular blend of American music. There’s electric rages (“Sixteen Saltines”), country blues (“Trash Tongue Talker”), rockabilly (Rudolph Toombs’ “I’m Shakin,’” the lone cover) and folk ballads like the lilting “Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy.” After funneling his songwriting through various band conceptions - the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Dead Weather - White is directing his latest production without artifice.

Or at least, less artifice. “The funniest thing is that every album I’ve done and every band I’ve been in have been happy accidents, including

J

this one,” says White, speaking from his home in Nashville. “If you just write songs and don’t tell them what to be - don’t tell the song to be a country song or a rock ‘n’ roll song - then it becomes what it needs to be in the end.”

“Blunderbuss,” which debuted on the Billboard album charts this week at No. 1 with about 138,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, was particularly unplanned. When the rapper RZA didn’t make it to a scheduled session at White’s studio, White decided to start working up some songs of his own. It wasn’t until well into the process that those in the room - a collection of session musicians and others - understood the project taking shape. “I didn’t know we were actually making a solo record until he started wanting to sing on it,” says engineer Vance Powell, who’s frequently worked with White. “There was never any conversation: ‘OK, we’re going to start my solo record today and I want it to sound like this.’”

Instead, White worked in the orchestrating mode he became accustomed to while producing dozens of albums and singles for his label, Third Man Records. “Doing it to my own song was something brand new,” he says.

“When you’re in a band, if I’m in the Raconteurs, I don’t walk around the room and tell everyone what to play. I say, ‘Here’s my song’ and the drummer plays what the drum-

mer wants to play. I don’t tell people what to do.” Third Man prizes analog recording and limited-edition vinyl releases. It has released everything from a single by Tom Jones (the

In this CD cover image released by Third Man Records, the latest release by Jack White, “Blunderbuss,” is shown. —AP recent “Evil”) to a track for the Alabama Shakes (the southern rock sensation that will join White on tour) to an album by Karen Elson (White’s ex-wife and mother to their two chil-

dren, who also sings back-up on “Blunderbuss”).

“He pushed me real hard but I think he pushed me right into the 21st century,” says the 74-year-old Wanda Jackson, whose “The Party Ain’t Over Yet” was produced by White. “I would liken him to a velvet-covered brick. He’s going to get his way.” White’s method on “Blunderbuss” was to “shake it up day to day.”

He would scrap songs and reform them in another style; call in the female band one day and just the guys the next; feign a prepared song and improvise something on the spot.

The opening riff from “Sixteen Saltines” came out of simply trying to test the reverb.

White, widely considered a guitar virtuoso, also continues to push the screechy texture of his playing. The dual-tracked solo on “Weep Themselves to Sleep” is a highlight.

“Nowadays, to put a ‘guitar solo’ onto a record, it better be pretty damn good,” he says. “If I’m going to play a guitar solo, I better be breaking the whole song apart.” One riff of White’s could reasonably be called one of the most widely celebrated. His guitar line on the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” is routinely sung in sports arenas around the world - a remarkable reverberation for a two-piece blues band.

“The part I love about it is people are chanting a melody, not lyrics or a rhythm - which is pretty, pretty amazing” says White. “You don’t own

it anymore. It’s everybody’s.” The White Stripes, the duo of White and drummer Meg White that produced six studio albums before officially splitting in 2011, remains a foundational experience to White. He can sound slightly wistful about the group. “The truth is it’s the most challenging thing that ever happened to me,” he says. “There was no bigger challenge than that - to try to win people over with just two people. It will be hard for me to ever think of something to challenge myself as much as that because of its simplicity.” One might expect a solo record to be a more direct line into White, and perhaps if you add up the ingredients - the Rhodes piano, the mirrored effect on a drum beat, the howl of rebellion it is. But don’t go reading the tea leaves for song meanings. He writes, he says, as he always has: in the guise of a bluesman singing about “some kind of stories, some kind of struggle.” “I never look at any of my songs as being first person, ‘This is about me,’” says White. “I’ve never written in that style, and if even if I did, I probably would never tell people that I was. It would be too close to home to give that away.” —AP

‘Avengers’ star Ruffalo has had Hulk rage moments the Hulk, topped off by computer animation, the green on’t let Mark Ruffalo’s serene demeanor fool you. giant looks more genuine and moves more credibly He admits there’s a bit of an Incredible Hulk temamong real people than he did in the earlier movies. The per lurking underneath. Ruffalo, who comes off as a guy that could give Clark Kent a serious challenge in the Hulk’s face even resembles Ruffalo’s - tinted green and mild-mannered department, plays brilliant scientist Bruce strained and bloated in colossal rage.

“It’s creepy, I have to say,” Ruffalo said as he looked Banner - and his big, green, mad-as-hell alter-ego, the through a photo album with stills of him transformed into Hulk - in the superhero tale “The Avengers,” opening Friday. The actor said there was a time when he had anger the Hulk. “It’s exactly what we wanted it to be like. Even my chest hair, the gray in my hair. Wow. It’s pretty amazissues. ing, but it’s a little shocking.” With the foundation Ruffalo “When I was a young actor, if you came to my apartment, you would have seen pictures and photos hung in the most bizarre places, where they were covering holes in the wall from auditions that I didn’t get or slights that I felt I had suffered, where things were thrown, cups were thrown at the walls,” Ruffalo said. “I’m no stranger to that kind of anger and rage.

“But over time, I’ve, like a rock that’s spent many times being tumbled around in the sea, I’ve sort of gotten the edges polished off of me. I’m not fighting the same fights that I was back then, the same demons.” An Academy Awards nominee for 2010’s “The Kids Are All Right,” the 44-year-old Ruffalo has, in characteristically unassuming manner, built an impressive list of credits in independent and studio films, including “You Can Count on Me,” “Shutter Island,” “Zodiac,” and “Eternal Sunshine of Mark Ruffalo, from the film “The Avengers”, poses for a portrait in the Spotless Mind.” He never saw Beverly Hills, Calif. —AP himself as superhero material, let has built in “The Avengers,” Whedon said he would love to alone the Hulk, considering the Marvel Comics character see him in a solo Hulk movie. Hollywood might be reluchad been played by Eric Bana then Edward Norton in two tant to go there again, but Ruffalo said he would be big-screen misfires over the last decade that failed to game, and plenty of fans seem to like the idea. “I haven’t please fans. heard any talk about it from the producing side of the The nice thing with “The Avengers” is the Hulk doesn’t table, but people have been tweeting it. There’s been a have to carry the film. Banner’s a reluctant recruit to the campaign growing. I would be into doing it, I would think, superhero dream team. That allowed writer-director Joss Whedon to hold Banner back, pick up the man’s trail after if we could come up with the right story line,” Ruffalo said. “And if they want to see a 50-year-old Hulk. That he had found some sense of shaky equanimity through might be the big thing. No one might want to see me which he keeps the “other guy,” the Hulk, from breaking doing this again.” —AP forth. It lends more emotional power to the Hulk when he’s eventually unleashed. And through motion-capture technology in which Ruffalo’s body language and performance is digitally captured as the undercarriage for

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Scarlett Johansson arrives at the premiere of “The Avengers” in Los Angeles, Wednesday. —AP

Johansson ready to play Black Widow again carlett Johansson is deep in Alfred Hitchcock’s world now, playing Janet Leigh opposite Anthony Hopkins’ Hitchcock in the late filmmaker’s biopic, but she’s ready to put on her Black Widow super suit should Marvel call again. The 27-yearold actress is the lone female in a crew of six superheros fighting to save humanity in “The Avengers,” which opened Friday in North America amid speculation that it could break the box office record for an opening weekend.

Where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has a cape and hammer and Captain America (Chris Evans) has his spangled suit and shield, Johansson thought her “Avengers” costume was lackluster until she acknowledged its benefits.

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Original ‘Evil Dead’ makers sue over proposed sequel he Evil Dead,” with its campy take on the horror genre, established Sam Raimi as a young director to watch when it hit theaters in 1981. Now, with several Spider-Mans and a track record as one of Hollywood’s foremost hit-makers under his belt, Raimi is suing the producers of a planned sequel to the film that helped him make his name. Renaissance Pictures, the production company Raimi formed with “Evil Dead” producer Robert Tapert and star Bruce Campbell to make the film, is listed as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court of California, while Award Pictures, the makers of the proposed “Evil Dead” film are listed as defendants.

In court documents, Renaissance claims it holds the copyright to the series of cult films and that it never gave Award Pictures rights to make a new film in the series. Award Pictures did not return a call requesting comment, but a website for the company does claim to be developing a film called “Evil Dead: Genesis of the Necronomicon.” The suit claims that use of the “Evil Dead” trademark and description “... will inevitably confuse consumers and the motion picture industry into believing that Renaissance is associated with such motion pictures, when in fact it is not, or that Renaissance has endorsed or approved such motion pictures, when in fact it has not.” —Reuters

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“I thought I drew the short end because I was complaining about the fact that I wear this latex catsuit and how uncomfortably hot it is and all of that, and then I look around and think, ‘You know, I had it pretty good.’ Chris Hemsworth actually has a cooling system attached to his costume,” she said.

“We spent a lot of time comparing and contrasting the pluses and minuses of our superhero suits.” Though she spent months training to perform in her costume, Johansson said she’d wear it again in a second to tell the story of Black Widow. “I love her origin story. I think it’s just such a riveting one,” she said. “It’s just steeped in history and the richness to shoot in Russia, perhaps. ... I hope that the fans’ voice is loud

enough and they want to see a Widow origin story, I know Marvel would be happy to entertain that. We’ve spoken a lot about it.” Johansson’s Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanoff) first appeared in the second Iron Man film. In “The Avengers,” viewers learn more about her relationship to peacekeeping agency S.H.I.E.L.D. “You see a little bit about how Natasha joined, and it’s not that she’s fighting for the greater good of humanity,” the actress said. “She was almost salvaged by S.H.I.E.L.D. and so she’s loyal to that group, to that agency, but only as sort of paid debt.”

Sounds like a setup for a film of its own. —AP

Bollywood star Khan wants to ‘inspire’ India with TV show ollywood superstar Aamir Khan will make a much-hyped television debut today, starring in a show dealing with real-life stories aimed at inspiring millions of Indians. The weekly show is called “Satyamev Jayate” or “Truth Alone Triumphs”, a patriotic phrase inscribed on India’s national emblem and all Indian currency notes. Khan has kept the plot secret but he was quoted in local media yesterdayas saying the show is “a journey of discovery, of change, of emotions and of human stories which touch and inspire us.”

“My dream is to impact lives,” said Khan, 47, who has also produced the show. The programme will be aired on state-run Doordarshan late morning on Sunday, a slot which most families in India remember for serials based on Hindu epics which would bring the entire country virtually to a standstill. Khan’s show has been creating a buzz even before the first episode, thanks to a novel promotional cross-country campaign in which the actor mingled with locals and shared their meals. Its teasers suggest the content is likely to tug at heartstrings of average Indians, who are struggling to make ends meet with salaries failing to keep pace with soaring prices. Khan has made a name for himself as one of the Indian film industry’s leading actor-producer-directors, combining offbeat subjects with high-quality production.

He is credited with awakening Indians’ consciousness with the Bollywood blockbuster “Rang De Basanti”-”Colour it

B

Saffron”-a film that showed the youth take to the streets and revolt against endemic corruption. The 2006 movie is believed to have fed the anti-corruption movement by social activist Anna Hazare who drew tens of thousands to his protest rallies last year.

Khan also produced “Peepli Live”-a biting satire about the poverty divide between rural and urban India and the problem of

Aamir Khan farmer suicides. Another of Khan’s big hits, “Three Idiots,” exhorted youngsters to take up careers of their choice and not get burdened by their parents’ expectations. Many predict the show will be a runaway success, given Khan’s popularity. “If there is anyone who can pull this show off, it’s Aamir Khan,” said social commentator and Indian advertising guru Santosh Desai. —AFP

Erin Brockovich returns to the big screen rin Brockovich has long been a champion for clean water. Her efforts to sue Pacific Gas & Electric for polluting the water supply of a California town were adapted into a big screen story, “Erin Brockovich,” starring Julia Roberts in the Oscar-winning title role. The real Brockovich is back on the big screen in the new documentary “Last Call at the Oasis,” which opened in New York and Los Angeles on Friday and will spread to other cities throughout the month. The 51-year-old activist is among various environmental experts cited in the 100 minute film, which explores challenges related to the planet’s dwindling and increasingly polluted water supply. The film shows Brockovich visiting a community in Midland, Texas, where water comes out of the tap bright green. She took time out during her cross-country travels to talk with The Associated Press about the future of the world’s water supply.

AP: How did you come to be a part of this documentary?

Brockovich: It seems me and films just kind of by fluke run into each other.... I was happy to be involved because as a foot soldier on the ground and zigzagging across the United States, I can clearly see, from a pollution standpoint, that we have a water problem.

AP: It’s been more than a decade since your namesake film came out, and almost two decades since you brought your case against PG&E, so why don’t these water issues get more attention?

Brockovich: I think that there’s complacency and apathy throughout our country, and we think the EPA is going to come and save our butts on these types of problems, and they’re very absent for a whole host of reasons. We have been completely failed. Then a film comes out or there’s some convergence and people realize: “Oh (expletive), this is in my backyard.” The issue is more relevant and more daunting today than when I began my work in 1991.

AP: Why is that?

Brockovich: We’re using water quantities that

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exceed the capacity for it to renew itself.... But for me, the biggest concern is why the EPA and these other agencies that were put in place for oversight haven’t cleaned it up? All this contamination still sits in the ground, that could have been cleaned up 20 years ago, that could have prevented an aquifer from being destroyed, that could have prevented another commu-

Erin Brockovich nity from coming down with disease, and we’ve done nothing. I find it frustrating. I’m very perplexed. We’ve become comfortable with pointing the blame at somebody else, then they point it back at that person and the issue gets forgotten, and then things never get cleaned up.

AP: What can everyday folks do about this problem?

Brockovich: Don’t get so complacent that you think someone else has got your back. We need to get back to our communities and each other and begin to be our own heroes and rescue ourselves. Get involved.

Be aware. Respect the earth that has made us and sustained us all along, which is your greatest investment, as it is Exxon’s. Speak up, speak out and take back what is rightfully all of ours and your right and your child’s right: Clean water, a good environment and good health. —AP

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LIFESTYLE M u s i c

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In this Thursday, May 3, 2012 photo, members of the Cheyenne Mardi Gras Indian tribe parade with the tribe at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. —AP photos

M o v i e s

Chief Al Womble of the Cheyenne Mardi Gras Indian tribe, top left, parades with the tribe.

Mardi Gras Indians ardi Gras Indians have been parading at Carnival and Louisiana festivals for generations, but growing interest in their cul-

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series “Treme” put a national spotlight on the Indians - African-American troupes who dress in ornate costumes. The growing interest couldn’t be ignored, said

A Spy Boy with the Cheyenne Mardi Gras Indian tribe parades. ture has the dancing, costumed Indians on display in a new way at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Hurricane Katrina and the HBO television

Jazz Fest producer Quint Davis. The Indians have been showcased at Jazz Fest for more than 40 years. But this year, they have an entire pavilion to display

on display at Jazz Fest

their costumes, explain their culture and demonstrate how they create elaborate headdresses and aprons.

“They’ve come so far in the way of public awareness, and this display gives the world an opportunity to meet them and get to know what their culture is all about,” Davis said. Davis said even before Katrina in 2005, the Indians were gaining attention. Some tribes - including the Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias - did recordings of their music. “For the last 10 to 20 years they’ve been out there, but with ‘Treme’ they’ve gotten more exposure,” Davis said, recalling a scene in the series of a lone Mardi Gras Indian in full dress walking down a flood-ravaged street still dark from the months-long power outage that followed the storm.

“It was a very searing, endearing image.”

“Treme” stars, writers and producers met with fans at a music store in the French Quarter on Wednesday. They signed copies of the show’s just-released second season on DVD. The show, which tells true-to-life Katrina experiences through fictional characters, is taping its third season. Wendell Pierce, a New Orleans native who plays a jazz musician on the show, said even he didn’t know much about the Mardi Gras Indian culture until later in life. The culture stems from a working class black culture that was largely a mystery to many New Orleanians, “even me,” he said.

Tyrone Casby, big chief of the Mohawk Hunters tribe, said HBO didn’t get every detail right, but it doesn’t really matter. “It showed that there is another culture here, or a subculture, more

than just the floats and the Bourbon Street of Mardi Gras,” Casby said. The traditions began generations ago when black communities were unable to participate in traditional Mardi Gras parades because of segregation. It led to the creation of their own neighbourhoodbased Mardi Gras traditions. There are numerous theories about the Indians’ roots. Some say they stemmed from mutual respect between Africans and Native Americans in southern Louisiana.

Some say it was a tribute to New Orleans area Indians who helped runaway slaves.

“That’s almost neither here nor there because the art and the history are moving forward anyway,” said Clarke Peters, the actor who plays a Mardi Gras Indian on “Treme.” Peters said playing a Mardi Gras Indian, and the research he’s done on Native American and African culture to prepare for the role, has changed his life. “I feel that playing it is opening up a part of my psyche, a part of my spirit that has been dormant for a long time,” he said. “It’s rekindling my faith in the value of culture.”

Pierce said the second line organizations that included Mardi Gras Indians were formed, in part, out of necessity “out of an ugly time when segregation was happening ... to keep an economic engine happening in the community at a difficult time.” The Mardi Gras Indians also represented pride of neighbourhood, Pierce said. “It shows you the role of culture, how culture is to the community an important venue to show who you are,” he said.

Besides Mardi Gras, the Indians

Clark Gregg’s 5 favorite sci-fi movies here’s a little movie called “The Avengers” coming out this weekend.

You might have heard something about it. Among its impressive ensemble cast is Clark Gregg, returning from previous Marvel movies as Agent Coulson, Nick Fury’s nononsense, right-hand man at S.H.I.E.L.D. In all his copious free time this week, Gregg was kind enough to choose his five favorite science fiction films. Here they are in his own thoughtful words, with the last being most favorite. He’s got good taste: * “Another Earth” (2001): I saw this at Sundance in 2011 and was completely mesmerized by its low-budget, idea-driven premise, which, like the best sci-fi, uses an alternative, near-future reality to provide a unique perspective on who we are now. Mike Cahill’s powerful direction of a clever, haunting script by the movie’s beautiful, unknown lead, Brit Marling, along with an emotional but restrained performance by William Mapother, make this a deeply resonant film about grief and redemption. * “Alien” (1979): This belongs at the top of about five different lists, including best thriller and best horror film, as well. Ridley Scott did so many things right here - from the grimy, lived-in world of the Nostromo mixed with H.R. Giger’s eerily seductive design to the perfect cast and Sigourney Weaver’s bad-ass performance. I also love the way Scott keeps the alien unseen for so much of the gut-churning build up, then delivers one of the most terrifying creatures ever seen on screen. I still can’t watch this one after about 8 pm. * “The Matrix” (1999): The ultimate popcorn movie. I accompanied a friend to the premiere with no idea what I was walking into and had about as much fun as I’ve ever had in a movie theater. Spectacular, mindbending premise which provides the seduc-

T

tive setting for a story delivered with style and precision and more shell casings than all the “Rambo” movies combined. The sequels never quite lived up to this promise, but I can’t hold that against this perfect piece of wired-action pie. * “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968):

In this April 11, 2012 file photo, actor Clark Gregg arrives at the premiere of ‘The Avengers’ in Los Angeles. —AP Stanley Kubrick at his visionary finest. My dad took me to see this when I was about 9 and I was changed forever. Kubrick’s visceral and prescient take on such themes as artificial intelligence, extraterrestrials and their role in human evolution was adapted with

novelist Arthur C. Clarke from one of his short stories. From the astonishing first act at the dawn of man to the hallucinatory, largely non-verbal climax, the film takes more risks than any 10 studio films made today. I watch it over and over and always experience something different. * “Blade Runner” (1982): Holy crap, I love this movie. I’ve seen it countless times in all its incarnations, read Phillip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” on which it’s loosely based and never flip past it on cable. I love the futuristic neo-noir tone, the moody Vangelis score and the pitch-perfect performances by the entire cast, especially Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah and, above all, the young, Brando-esque Rutger Hauer. His turn as the murderous replicant Roy Batty on a desperate, all-toohuman quest to prolong his artificially shortened life in a rain-soaked, post-apocalyptic, 21st century Los Angeles always breaks my heart. There may be a few logic issues here and there, but the whole thing is so damn sexy that you don’t even care. Think of any other examples? Share them with AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire through Twitter: http://twitter.com/christylemire.—AP

parade through the streets of New Orleans the weekend before St Joseph’s Day, in March, and at events such as Jazz Fest. They spend months making elaborate costumes and headdresses with colorful beads and feathers in a style influenced by the Native Americans who originally populated the New Orleans area. Katrina wiped out many of the Mardi Gras Indians’ homes and costumes. They’ve been working for years to replace those lost or destroyed in the flood. For the Jazz Fest display, the Indians will be sewing patches and suits and beading hats while talking to festgoers. The display is in the festival’s Cultural Exchange Pavilion, which is usually reserved for displays and performances unique to countries such as South Africa, Martinique, Brazil and Haiti.

The pavilion is located near Congo Square, the stage named after the area of New Orleans where slaves once gathered on Sundays to play music and celebrate their culture. Jazz Fest continues through Sunday with about 200 musical acts, including the Eagles, My Morning Jacket, Herbie Hancock, Foo Fighters and the Neville Brothers. —AP

Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch dies of cancer, aged 47 gained prominence on New York streets and in dam Yauch, a founding member of pioneering hip-hop group the Beastie Boys underground clubs in the early 1980s. The group’s breakout album, “Licensed to Ill,” was who captivated fans with their brash released in 1986 and featured “Fight for Your style in early hits like “Fight for Your Right (To Right” and “Brass Monkey,” and put it squarely Party),” died on Friday after a battle with canon the music industry’s hitmaker map. cer. He was 47. Yauch, Mike Diamond and Music, film, philanthropy Adam Horovitz formed the band that gained The Beasties followed “Licensed to Ill” with fame in the 1980s and stood out not just for “Paul’s Boutique” (1989), which broke from the their music, but for their ethnicity. In a genre hard rock and rap of their debut. That was foldominated by African-Americans, they were lowed by CDs like “Ill Communication” (1994), three white Jewish kids from Brooklyn, New with its big single, “Sabotage,” and “Hello York. The Beastie Boys sold some 40 million records worldwide over more than 20 years. As time passed, Yauch branched into filmmaking and activism, helping raise money for various causes including efforts to help free Tibet from Chinese rule. “It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys ... passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer,” said a statement posted on the band’s website.

In July 2009, Yauch disclosed Adam Yauch he had been diagnosed with a Nasty” (1998) that featured the hit tumor in his left salivary gland and lymph “Intergalactic.” Over the years, the Beasties node, and he later had surgery and sought challenged themselves with shifting musical medical treatment in Tibet, among other styles, but their fans remained loyal. They places. In October of that year, he said he was released four No. 1 albums in their career and “feeling healthy, strong and hopeful” that he won three of the music industry’s top awards, had beaten the disease. But as recently as last the Grammys. month, it was apparent Yauch was very ill The Recording Academy, which gives out when he missed his group’s introduction into the Grammys, issued a statement calling the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yauch was Yauch “part of one of the most groundbreakborn in Brooklyn on Aug. 5, 1964, and taught ing trios in hip-hop.” Russell Simmons, a cohimself to play bass guitar, forming a band on founder of Def Jam Records, the label that first his 17th birthday that would later become the signed the Beasties to a record deal, posted a Beastie Boys. He went by stage name MCA. message on his website saying, “Adam was Diamond was Mike D and Horovitz, Ad-Rock. incredibly sweet and the most sensitive artist, Initially, the group played punk rock, but who I loved dearly.” —Reuters soon switched to rap as that musical genre

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Demi Moore no longer Mrs Kutcher on Twitter

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SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012

dress

How to do a

Whatever the , these accessories will add polish A

$278 and features elaborate beading and embroidery. The peacock gowns also come in mini, one-shoulder floor-length and ballgown styles. In addition to the peacock, Unique Vintage carries dresses with mirror embellishments in the form of diamondshaped reflective gems for the higher-end dresses priced at $998 and silver fabric cutouts in the same style for a budgetfriendly version priced at $132.

t dress shops across the nation, mother-and-daughter pairs dressed in jeans and high school sweat shirts that read “Seniors 2012” are on a mission. It’s officially springtime, and for many a young woman in high school, that can mean only one thing: Prom season has arrived. The hunt for just the right dress can be a challenge.

The little black dress may be the suitable go-to for almost every other occasion, but for prom, a simple black dress won’t do.

The perfect prom dress has to dazzle in pictures, make the wearer feel like a princess and hold up to a full night on the dance floor. Whether you’re looking for something fun and flirty or classic and conservative, this year’s hottest trends have something for everyone. We talked to a few retailers to find out which dresses are sure to make a smashing entrance this prom season.

blush gown

Champagne glitter cross strap shoe from Windsor.

Betsy-Long blush prom dress from Windsor.

—MCT photos

By Jenn Harris

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ere’s how to put together one of this year’s trendy prom looks, the blush tone ball gown.

Blanca Farber, buyer for Windsor, says, “With this dress, because it’s a light tone, people want to go for gold or bronze so they will go with a gold, glitter shoe for a really nice contrast.

I also recommend, depending on what color earrings you choose, to also go with a bangle.”

Betsy long blush prom dress from Windsor, $154.90 Champagne glitter cross-strap shoe from Windsor, $34.90 Gold drop chain earrings from Windsor, $6.90 Beige rhinestone knuckle clutch from Windsor, $29.90 —MCT

Model Mary Bold shows high low hemline prom dress.

Beige rhinestone knuckle clutch from Windsor.

Gold drop chain earrings from Windsor.

High-low The high-low hemline emerged a clear favorite this season at David’s Bridal dress shops across the state, as well as at the Windsor at the Glendale (Calif ) Galleria and Unique Vintage, a small boutique in Burbank, Calif-Windsor’s buyer Blanca Farber called it the biggest prom trend in California. The new silhouette gives the benefits of both a mini-dress and a gown, with a skirt that is short in the front and longer in the back. The skirts range in length from a longer train that trails behind to a shorter style that just grazes the floor.

“A lot of people are wanting to come in and try that on,” said Kelly Edwards, manager at Unique Vintage, holding up an example of the style. “With the high-low dress we are seeing ruffles with them, so it’s like a fun little cha-cha.” The most whimsical styles have prints lining the inside of the skirtleopard, for instance. Others are lined with multiple layers of colored tulle.

Neon brights vs Soft hues Many dresses this season induce optimism with their neon orange, lemon yellow and rich turquoise. At David’s Bridal, dresses in neon orange sold out in about three weeks, while it’s hard to find a little black dress even if you want one among the rainbow of colors at Windsor and Unique Vintage. Cosmetic tones are popular too.

The palette is pale, with nudes and blush pinks similar to the hues that dominated the red carpet at this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards. “Every style we have put in blush pink this season has been tremendous for us, whether it’s a soft chiffon style or princess ball gown. Any silhouette works in blush pink because it really looks soft

Ball gowns Mini-dresses and body-conscious styles might cut it for a night out, but girls who want to put a ladylike spin on prom are going straight for the classic ball gowns.

“For the last few years everything has been really sexy, but now we’re seeing designs back in the ball-gown area with really unique treatments like differing layers of tulle and appliques,” Farber said. Instead of the classic look of multiple overlapping layers of cinched satin, reminiscent of the Disney princess gown, the ball gowns this season feature an embellished neckline or bust with beading, and the colors veer into the bold and bright for a neon princess look.

Model Mary Bold shows Peacock Embellished prom dress. and pretty and complements different skin tones,” said Marissa Rubinetti, prom buyer for David’s Bridal.

Feathers Longer hemlines may be dominating this prom season, but for the girls who want a shorter cut, it’s all about the feathers. “We are seeing a lot of feathers on the shorter dresses, like feathered skirts that are really fun,” Edwards said. Tufts of feathers in all colors and lengths grace the hemlines of shorter, drop-waist dresses for a 1920s flapper feel. For a dramatic look, some gowns feature a full skirt of feathers or a feathered bust. If you want just a touch of fringe, there are long and short gowns with feather pins on one shoulder.

Lavish embellishments: The peacock and the mirror The bigger and more lavish the embellishment on the dress this year, the betterregardless of the cost. Think peacock prints, mirror jewels and sequins. At Windsor, one of the bestselling dresses is a peacock ball gown priced at $210. At Unique Vintage, the most popular peacock gown sells for

Glitter shoe The modern prom queen shines in a gold, black, silver or rainbow glitter heel. A shimmery shoe can elevate any prom look to pretty and polished and give you some extra sparkle on the dance floor. “We used to do a lot of rhinestone shoes, but this year we had customers telling us that we should have a glitter shoe,” Farber said. “It might be because they see celebrities wear a glitter shoe, or it’s a shoe you can wear later at another time.”

Headpieces The royal wedding frenzy has carried into the world of prom accessories. “The royal wedding has really inspired us to make fascinators so important because people saw such great headpieces last April,” said Rubinetti, who noted that jeweled headbands and flowers are selling well for David’s Bridal. The headbands may be plain satin or glitter or lavish head pieces with feathers, rhinestones or tulle.

Linear drop/shoulder duster earrings This year’s jewel accessories are big, bold statement pieces-the most popular a long, luxe earring that grazes the shoulder. The “shoulder duster” or linear drop earring adds a touch of extravagance without going overboard. The earring goes well with sleeveless dresses, framing the face in rhinestones, feathers and pearls. — MCT

Luxenter launches the

icon’s 1st boutique in Kuwait Y

acob Behbehani Sons Co inaugurated its first Luxenter boutique, a renowned Spanish brand of elegant accessories worldwide, in the prestigious ALFanar Mall in Kuwait.

Amid a jubilant gathering and breathtaking event, the company introduced “Luxenter” as the Spanish International brand offering jewelry, gems and precious accessory products, with cost- effective and competitive price.

Luxenter, an International leading brand with over 2000 outlets in more than 30 countries across the world and a track-record of long expertise, represents a fascinating blend of classic Andalusia and modern Europe that simultaneously combines the spirit of tradition, passion for innovation, and greatly captivates the Arab women as they are always searching for authentic taste and luxury elegance.

Featuring an extreme innovation confidence, luxury and sophistication, Luxenter Kuwait introduces the latest collection of fine jewelry and accessories with unmatched competitive price.

Thanks to a genuine International presence, exceptional characteristics and unique quality, Luxenter has well attracted Yacob Behbehani Sons Co., who showed an immediate interest in presenting the brand to Kuwait. With an outstanding experience traced back to the 30s of the last century, Yacob Behbehani Sons Co. was firm and confident that Luxenter rich products would

(From Left) Spanish Ambassador Angel Losada and his wife, Maria Minicia and Aqeel Y- Behbehani cut the ribbon to officially inaugurate the first Luxenter boutique in Kuwait. appeal women in Kuwait and strongly meet their aspirations.

It’s worth mentioning that a prominent feature of Luxenter reflects the brand’s ability in attending to the clientele’s views and the flexibility in responding to their expectations, not to mention the brand’s unsurpassed competitive edge in terms of design, quality and price. “ It’s with great pleasure and pride, we launch the 1st Luxenter boutique, a Spanish icon of the best jewelry and accessory excellence worldwide “, says Aqeel Y. Behbehani, the Managing Director.” As the brand’s exclusive agent in Kuwait, we are confident to enrich the local market with Luxenter’s jewelry innovation and luxurious products”, he

confirmed. “ An initiative that comes in line with our common view and stated strategy, to introduce only the world’s best of luxury brands , precious gems and accessories . Luxenter represents the latest addition to our prestigious portfolio of brands that includes, West End, Armand Nicolet, Azimuth, Fortis, Alessandro Baldieri, Sheaffer pens and Dimacci, he explained.

Behbehani concluded:” Since inception, we have targeted polices that aim to exceed our customers’ expectations.

We are greatly dedicated to service excellence, product innovation and cost- effective price. Such policies are expected to be followed in line with our commitment towards the society and the market as well”.