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Guilt, pressure may be fuelling OCD in Kuwait

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Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

KUWAIT: An artist’s sketch shows the new plan of Jahra Road envisioned by the Ministry of Public Works as part of a general roadwork development initiative. — KUNA

Conspiracy Theories

Bumper stickers and traffic week

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

P

eople go out of their way to make different statements and write amazing slogans on their cars. It caught my eye a long time ago but I did not have much time to talk about it. Why do people put various statements on their cars? Is this a way for them to express their feelings?

For instance, one lady driver has placed: “Husband in the trunk.” Why would a lady put such a statement on her car?

Is it for fun or is it serious? Another driver has put: “I’d rather be fishing.” My guess is that he is fed up of driving in congested traffic...coincidentally it looks like we are in a traffic jam all this week. Let’s call it Traffic Month, because legally, according to the Ministry of Interior, no writings are allowed to be placed on cars. Traffic police ignore these and allow people to have fun. Unless, it is provocative or inciting hatred or sectarian violence. Otherwise, if it is funny or light it is treated leniently. Many people I noticed put verses from the Quran or hadiths if they are Muslim, others draw the blue eye to protect them from the evil eye.

The funniest one I saw a guy has put on his old car was a verse which is a bit hard to translate in English. It goes like this: Al helwa lamma tida’lla tkali alasphalt ewalla meaning: The way she moves makes even the asphalt burn. Other guys place a sign of a very high-end brand on their shabby old vehicle. The signs for hasad (envy) are really amazing.

Some are funny, others hilarious and others are poetic, religious or even crazy. What do people get out of placing these signs on their cars?

Some guys, the Don Juans, go to the extreme and in addition to their BlackBerry numbers, they put self-references that read like: “Mr Cool”, “I am too hot to handle” or “call me.” I have even seen a lady driver with a sticker that said: “I don’t need kids, I married one.”

The most amazing thing to me is when people put the pictures of their leaders or rulers on their cars. They stick it on the back windshield. What are they seeking? Is the ruler himself coming to thank them or give them a rank in the legislature? Do they think if they cross a red traffic light, the police won’t stop them? Or do they try to scare the people around them? I think that is plain bizarre. I think this is insecurity and hypocrisy.

Some guys even place something like threatening slogans in a funny way: “Don’t you dare joke with me, I could crash your car in pieces.” “Don’t stare like this, I bought this helwa (beauty) in installments. No envy please”. “Drive slowly back there, I am taking a nap.” I think the best thing is to drive reasonably and keep your car clean without any “smart sayings”. Just do smart driving!

Follow me on Twitter: @badryaD

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

From the editor’s desk

My two-point traffic proposal

By Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan Editor-in-Chief

myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

A

s usual, whenever there is a problem in Kuwait, you can always rely on some discriminatory proposal to try and solve the problem. This week’s proposal is meant to address the traffic issues evidently witnessed on the streets of Kuwait. As you all may have read, the proposal aims to make life more difficult for foreigners. The government proposes raising the price of a driving license to a whopping KD 500 and a similarly ridiculous amount of money to renew it. Of course, domestic drivers will be exempt from such pricing otherwise this law will affect every Kuwaiti citizen and that may cause a revolution.

I think the term discrimination does not exist in the dictionary of lawmakers in Kuwait. Any legally resident person in the country is a citizen of Kuwait and should be treated equally under the laws of the land. Such proposals are discriminatory and are unfair, looking at the fact that life is very expensive and there are no other decent means of transportation in the country. Our buses and taxis are horrible and I am sure whoever proposed this law would not even think about using public transport. Or if he got off his high horse and tried the public transport a few times, then I dare him to allow his daughter or sister to use it before he forces others to do so.

I don’t need to point out the evident flaws of our transport system but here are a few proposals that I think will do a heck of a difference to the flow of traffic. At the top of my proposal is for the government to apply the law to the letter. If the government is strict about applying rules and regulations, then this will see areas such as Hawally shrink in population since most of its buildings have illegal extensions to accommodate more flats than what was permitted.

It doesn’t stop there. Building owners then scrap the compulsory car parks they are supposed to provide and rent the ground and basement floors to businesses. This results in overpopulated buildings with plenty of cars, no car parks and also a high unauthorized usage of electricity and water. If all the buildings of Hawally were legal, this will move a large amount of traffic away from Maghreb Street, Fahaheel Expressway and the Third and Fourth Ring Roads.

If only the traffic police get off their phones while driving to pay attention to traffic violators on the road such as the ones who double park on the second lane of a three-lane street just to order shawermas from a restaurant. Or if only police pay attention to those parking right in front of the school gate so his/her spoilt kids don’t walk a few meters to the car park of the school. Or if only traffic police paid attention to those who try to skip the queue of an exit and end up blocking two or three lanes by causing a queue of cars trying to take the exit on the right from the extreme left.

This sort of behavior by drivers blocks main roads everyday in Kuwait. Just monitor the exit on Al-Maghreb Street to the Fourth Ring Road during rush hours and you will know what I mean. Penalizing such actions will put a stop to selfish and uncourteous actions like that.

Not to forget the drivers who stop side by side to talk regardless of traffic behind them!

Another proposal is logical planning. Most of my friends have their kids in private schools and where are most of these famous private schools? Well, in the past few years, many of them were allowed to move to Hawally! As if traffic was not already an issue there with all these buildings! Hawally is school-central. There are over 10 major schools there and thousands of people drive from all over the country to get in and out of there all at the same time. Whoever planned this should win an award for being the best at diverting traffic to one area.

Why does the government license universities and schools in areas of traffic such as Hawally and Salmyia. Where is the logic behind that?

Here is my simple two-point proposal that I am sure will improve traffic in Kuwait dramatically. Implementation of the law and logical planning - it is that simple.

Follow me on Twitter: @ab_alyan

KUWAIT: Migratory birds are seen at the Mubarak Al-Kabeer bird sanctuary on Bubiyan Island. — KUNA

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Satire Wire

Autocorrect is making me sound weird

By Sawsan Kazak

sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

S

KUWAIT: A man walks with an umbrella during the scorching daytime heat in this file photo. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Local Spotlight

Cheat notes

By Muna Al-Fuzai

mart phones are great, especially when it comes to correcting misspelled words. I am usually in a hurry when typing text messages, and enjoy the fact that my iPhone can detect what I am trying to say midword, giving me the option to chose the word. Being the combination of horrible speller and impatient text-message writer that I am, the extra option is a great time saver.

But the problem arises when the phone doesn’t actually understand what I am trying to say and changes words that I don’t want or need changed. The other day I was writing a very heated text message where I wanted to show my anger by asking ‘what the hell?’ But my iPhone did not think this was appropriate and changed my

hell into a he’ll. So my message went out ‘I can’t believe that happened, what the he’ll!’ Clearly the person on the receiving side of the message was laughing too hard at my ‘bad spelling’ to understand my level of anger.

Another aspect of text messaging that my smart phone does not get are names. In Kuwait, it is only normal that many messages will include Arab names - something a smart phone was not programmed to detect. The most embarrassing is when you try to write the name of the person you are sending a message to and your phone changes it. I can just imagine what the person on the other side must be thinking: ‘why did she just call me Robert?

My name is Rami!’

Other than swear words, smart

phones have a tendency to assume they know what you are trying to say and instead of giving you the option of other words that you can use, they will change your sentence for you automatically. Many a times I have been embarrassed by messages that were sent out before a thorough re-reading. Then, when the wrong message gets sent out, I have to take the time to re-send another message with the correction followed by a star to indicate that I am replacing the previous word with a new one.

So now, instead of the autocorrect helping me write a quick and clean message, it has me so paranoid that I re-read every message three times. So much for smart technology actually being smart.

muna@kuwaittimes.net

Just kiddin’, seriously

I

t is common in Kuwait during the exam period to see many young boys, especially teenagers, taking a trip to the local printing shops to make cheat notes. They photocopy books to a very small size, to be used during the exam. They hide the cheat notes under the table or keep it with someone they know, and only bring it out at the right time. I know this may be unethical and only done by losers, but it is happening. It really is a disturbing issue that happens at exam time in order to pass. These days, most households in Kuwait, especially boys and girls in high schools, are living under the pressure of final exams.

Everybody want to pass exams. Some want to pass it by the old, normal, possibly boring way and yet the right way, which is to study. Some are ready to do whatever it takes just to pass. The sweet boys and girls who study hard using the normal way, which any decent person would do, would never commit the crime of cheating, or help a cheater fulfill his goal.

An A student at his final year in high school commented: “I will never help someone to pass exams by cheating from others or me - it is not only unethical, but unfair “. I asked him what his point was? He said, “we may have both ended up with the same grade. But I studied hard to get that grade while he was having fun preparing his cheat notes or depending on someone to help him in the exam.”

I believe he is right and entitled to feel angry. Cheating in school exams means a lot. It means that someone thinks he can cheat anything and anyone. Would you trust someone like that in life as a friend or otherwise? I worry that a young person who would cheat at an early age at school would spend his life cheating others on different matters!

I also think bringing up a child is not about luxurious meals and fancy clothes. It is about the values and morals that help them to live in comfort and peace with themselves and others . Cheaters don’t rest and their self respect and trust is and always will be a questionable matter. I believe any parent who disregards the fact that their boys and girls cheat at schools exams and think this is a small issue is a loser himself too.

I think part of good parenting is to teach your kids great values that help them not only to pass school exams but to grow up like a normal humans that look at themselves and feel proud of all his achievements, even if his grade was not an A at school. I think there are bigger and more important exams that we need to pass in this life with people in which our morals get tested. We may pass school exams but it is impossible to cheat if it’s about life and people. That is the hard exam which no one can use cheat notes for.

Exclusive to expats

By Sahar Moussa

sahar@kuwaittimes.net

I

have a confession to make; I talk and text messages on the phone while I’m driving but that doesn’t mean it’s right and nobody should do it because it’s dangerous and against the law! But I really wonder if the laws in Kuwait apply to policemen too. Two days ago, while I was driving and talking on the phone, I saw a police car and I was scared that he would stop me! I dropped the phone quickly from my hands, only to see him blissfully talking on the phone - with some criminal, perhaps. But I surely felt hypocrisy filling the air!

It was certainly a surprise for me, because here I am nervous and worried that he will stop and fine me for talking on the phone and not wearing the seatbelt (yes, not wearing the seatbelt is my second confession) and there he was just doing the same! So I was like, how can I respect the laws when policemen who are supposed to be our role models don’t respect them in the first place.

Earlier this week, Kuwait Times published news about a police officer who was arrested recently after

he was caught driving his sports car recklessly in Jahra. The officer was spotted performing wild stunts on a public street. Following his arrest, the driver was identified as a police officer in the Jahra traffic police department and after they reported him, he was taken into custody to face charges. Seriously! If the military police were doing their jobs instead of slacking, the police officer wouldn’t even have dared to break the law in the first place.

Amusingly, around a week ago, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) was studying a proposal to increase the minimum monthly salary cap from KD 400 to KD 600 for an expatriate to be eligible to apply for a driver’s license. Another ludicrous proposal was suggested, which was to raise the new driving license fees from KD 10 to KD 500 and the price for renewal from KD 10 to KD 50. There is also a proposal to increase the fee for issuing new registrations from KD 10 to KD 300 and to increase renewal registrations from KD 5 to KD 100. The increase in fees applies exclusively to expatriates, according to what was

published in Kuwait Times.

I really don’t understand what they were thinking and how this proposal can help in finding solutions for the traffic jams and traffic accidents in Kuwait! I didn’t know that car accidents are being caused only by expats in Kuwait! I didn’t know that accidents are exclusive to expats. The only thing I can translate from all this random proposals is this - they are targeting expats and are enjoying finding twisted ways to kick them out from Kuwait!

Gentlemen, be gentle on expats and fix the public transportation facilities, build better roads and/or finish rail network projects that started years ago but haven’t seen the light of day. And if you start monitoring policeman who are breaking the law by punishing them for breaking their own laws without any “wasta” involved, a lot of problems will be solved.

Shouldn’t policemen be role models for the citizens and expats?

And please have the guts to tell expats what you really want from them.

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

By Nawara Fattahova

A printout of selected online news caters to some news hungry ordinaries

By Sunil Cherian

F

rom front-page stories to back-page gossip titbits, only a few items can make it to Khan’s one-page ‘newspaper’. That is because Khan, a 32-year-old Indian from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is permitted to download and print only one A3 page per day by his boss at his office in Shuwaikh. At 8 pm, Khan is all the more busy while others are preparing to go home. His colleagues do not bother Khan because they know that he is doing a service. His one-page printout, bursting with stories in Telugu - his mother tongue - is for his Telugu-speaking roommates who cannot afford to have a satellite TV in their Hawally flat.

Telugu newspapers do come to Kuwait City bookshops on the day they are printed. But for Khan’s readers, going to Kuwait City even once a week is asking too much. Newspaper agents can deliver newspapers at doorsteps but that would cost KD 4 a month. Khan’s potpourri is free, filtered and foolproof. Khan does some editing, avoiding details, so that “more news items can get in”. Some of the readers, who are comprised of salesmen, helpers, drivers and the like, consider themselves lucky because they are at home when Khan is back from work.

The newspaper - still unnamed because Khan does not want to waste space for a header - will be waiting for the latecomers whose duty it is to keep it on top of the shared cupboard. Although the wooden cupboard is the home of the newssheet, rest is rare for the travelling workers.

The rolling page may now be eight-folded. Taxi drivers take the page along with them the day after its arrival. The news page has an early duty according to Khan - someone needs to read in the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning.

Most of these news readers would be watching K-TV while waiting for Khan and his four folded collage news that is safe in his shirt pocket.

They then take turns to gobble the page from top to bottom as others look over to skim the headlines. Discussions follow, amid empathy expressed for their countrymen who are always on the ‘loose line’.

“Common man’s stories is what I look for when I select news items,” Khan said. Various websites are browsed, Khan said, and stories are chosen depending on their size and brevity. “Pictures are less used and news in brief is the best choice,” he said. Indian Premium League and Bollywood stories are usually avoided “because they get to know these stories from someone or from baqalas or restaurants”. Indian MP and a former chief minister’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy’s arrest was Khan’s latest ‘scoop’.

Amid such many scoops, Khan also has a shocking story to tell. “I had placed the photo of a city road accident in one day’s page. A roommate seemed uncomfortable and emotional. It was his brother’s bloodied photo. In response to his anxious phone call, his family in the village said they had also heard about the news just minutes ago”.

For the first time, Khan thought of stopping his newspaper service. But to everyone’s relief, the accident victim survived.

Disposing medical waste

W

hen patients have surgery, they do not think about where the waste from their bodies, such as fat from liposuction and other parts of their bodies, ends up. People think waste is just thrown into the garbage and destroyed, while in fact, medical waste is specially treated. While medical waste is classified as organic or human, other dangerous waste includes materials and instruments. “From the religious point of view, we have to respect the parts of our bodies, and not just throw them into the garbage. They have to be buried. So the hospital deals with a cleaning company to collect human waste to be buried in an area which is used for this purpose until it becomes full, and then the company finds a new burial site,” plastic surgeon Dr Ashraf told Kuwait Times.

“Then there are other medical wastes that are incinerated. Usually, these are used tools, such as injections and other materials that might spread infections, so they are burned. I think that all hospitals follow the same procedure, and there are inspectors from the Ministry of Health at both public and private hospitals to ensure proper hygiene and safety,” he added.

According to a religious sheikh at the fatwa department of the Ministry of Awqaf, which is responsible for responding to questions and issuing opinions based upon sharia, it is not necessary for body fat to be buried.

“According to sharia, parts of the human body should be buried, such as a finger or others, though this does not apply to things or waste from the human body. So this is not applied to teeth, hair or nails, for instance, as well as other organic waste from the body, including fat. People also lose fat with sweating, yet they don’t bury it. There is no religious evidence which requires burying fat, while there is clear evidence for burying body organs or parts,” explained Sheikh Abu Emad.

Danny Sam’an, from the operations department of one of the popular cleaning companies dealing with hospitals, stated that the company receives medical waste from hospitals they are dealing with on a daily basis. “We classify the collected waste from hospitals as hazardous or normal waste. We destroy hazardous waste in three locations, including Mina Shuaiba, Seventh Ring Road, and Mina Abdullah. I don’t know for how long these locations will be used, so after they are full the government will find us new locations,” he pointed out.

Sam’an ensured that the process of collecting waste from hospitals is checked and controlled by supervisors from the Ministry of Health. “The collecting process is done with manifests and documents, including the weight of the waste, date and other information. So there are records of every collection,” he noted.

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Guilt, pressure may be fuelling OCD in Kuwait Obsessive fixation on cleanliness, hygiene increasing

By Lisa Conrad

“I

’m terrified of my wedding day because wedding dresses don’t have pockets: I keep my hands in my pockets when I go out to avoid any contamination.

I don’t touch anything while I’m out of the house,” says 25-year-old Sulla, a Kuwaiti citizen, her hands snugly tucked in the pockets of her cardigan. “I genuinely wish I wasn’t like this; I have to count the number of times I turn the bar of soap to make sure each time is consistent. I’m scared to say the number of times I count in case I encourage someone else to become as obsessed with that number as I am,” she adds.

Dr Fatima Ayyad, a Professor of Psychology at Kuwait University, said that guilt plays a key role in the prevalence of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Kuwait: “It’s common in Kuwait. I think a key factor is rigidity and restriction, which can cause deep feelings of guilt. Without any flexibility or room for error, people end up being completely guilt-ridden.” She added, “OCD is becoming more prevalent than it was before, possibly due to various pressures and feelings of guilt manifesting. In extreme cases, even thoughts and emotions can be interpreted as sources of guilt.”

According to Dr Ayyad, sexual abuse can also be a catalyst. “Abused women and children can also develop OCD sometimes as a result of feelings of guilt following abuse.

They often feel responsible, and this anxiety and guilt can trigger obsessive-compulsive behaviors.” Whilst there sometimes may be a link between the two, the presence of OCD symptoms cannot be seen as an indicator of abuse. “It all started from an idea that got stuck in my mind,” said Salwa. “I was never abused; I had a very happy, normal childhood.”

OCD has become somewhat of a main-

stream issue, with many acknowledging that certain behaviors may be slightly odd, neurotic or different. Sulla even has “OCD obsessed” included in her Twitter bio. While Sulla described her symptoms as ‘life ruining’, many others use the term more loosely. “The term OCD has lately also become part of the popular vernacular as a synonym for being extremely conscientious about one’s responsibilities and/or very concerned about orderliness in general,” said Dr Vincenza Tiberia a psychologist at Kuwait’s Al Razi Counseling Center in Salmiya. “In face, on a societal level some degree of obsessive-compulsiveness may be desirable and appropriate, for example in the case of doctoral students and other high achievers who must be goal-oriented and self-disciplined to be able to successfully achieve their goals and deadlines.”

However, the general awareness of OCD certainly doesn’t play down the severity it can reach. “OCD is an anxiety disorder which involves obsessions (intrusive thoughts) and compulsions (ritualized behaviors). The most common obsessions have to do with germs and contamination, forgetting to do something, and having to do things in a particular order,” said Dr Tiberia. “Associated problems may involve avoidance behavior in the case of contamination obsessions and excessive visits to the physician for reassurance of not having “caught anything”,” she added.

The most common compulsive behaviors involve ritualized hand-washing, ordering, checking, counting and the repetition of certain phrases to oneself, said Dr Tiberia. She added that OCD is just as common in Kuwait as the rest of the world. “The incidence of obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD in Kuwait is comparable with rates in other countries,” said Dr Tiberia. “Excessive handwashing is one of the most familiar compulsions here in Kuwait. Individuals afflicted with this disorder may spend hours in the bath-

room washing their hands, even up to one hundred times per day,” she said.

Sulla suggested that the trend may be something being passed on through the generations, “Cleanliness is a central issue in homes here, but usually to an extreme everything must be perfect all the time.” She added, “It’s easy to become obsessive. My mother would tell me as a child that the devil dwells wherever there is dirt, which really stayed in my mind.” Obsessive cleanliness is something Sulla has been battling for years, “I’ve tried to control it and force myself not to wash my hands for a few hours. But the idea of germs and bacteria makes my stomach turn and makes me feel nauseous.”

Sulla’s predicament is quite common in OCD suffers, said Dr Tiberia. “People with OCD are usually aware that their obsessions and compulsions are unrealistic and dysfunctional, yet they cannot resist performing them.” In fact, Sulla says the more she resists, the worse it gets. “Even if I manage to resist washing my hands for an hour or so, eventually I’ll give in and end up at the sink washing and scrubbing them for an hour to make up for it. It’s relentless.”

Not all sufferers feel that there’s anything wrong or strange about their actions. “Good hygiene is good sense,” said 34-year-old Lebanese expatriate Nahed, every single detail of her appearance as pristine and perfect as her home. “It’s an embarrassment to have any dirt in your home, so constant cleaning is a necessity, especially here where it’s so dusty.” Despite her insistence that she’s following the usual standards of cleanliness, Nahed matches many of the symptoms listed

by Dr Tiberia - she washes her hands with Dettol morning and night, vacuums the curtains and furniture daily at the same time each day and refuses to buy any foodstuff that will leave leftovers.

“I do buy food in certain numbers. There

are five of us in the house, so if I buy steak, there must be five steaks, five potatoes and so on. I don’t think it’s sanitary to have leftovers so I get exactly the amount needed.” She counts from one to five, pointing to each setting on the dining table where the food would be.

Whilst her habit may seem admirable in terms of avoiding waste, it comes at a high cost as every single food item is portion sized.

“I buy miniature milk cartons, miniature cheeses, and even the tiny packets of bread. I don’t want anything molding or ageing in my house or my fridge.” Nahed may feel her behaviors are normal, but according to Dr Ayyad, such signs should not be ignored.

“Leaving OCD untreated can make it considerably worse; it can expand from one issue to another, one habit to a second. It will develop.”

There are treatments available to tackle the disorder, said Dr Tiberia, “There can be negative consequences of such compulsions upon one’s personal relationships or work performance. Many people respond well to cognitive behavioral therapy techniques.” She added, “It is not unusual for some people with OCD to suffer silently for years before seeking treatment.” First, said Dr Ayyad, sufferers must try and address the root cause. “Problems cannot be solved with judgment; we must be realistic. Applying excessive guilt will worsen the situation.”

Despite the impact her OCD is having on her life, Sulla refuses to seek treatment. “I will never change, this is my life now. I have thoughts of awful things happening if I stop my routines.” When asked what she thinks may happen, she replied, “I’m scared to tell you because then maybe it will stay in your mind and you’ll end up with the same obsessions and fears. I’m scared for anyone to know in case I influence them.”

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Internship or internment?

By Dalia Abu Yassien

E

very weekday for four hours, Abdulla Ani, a bright 17-year old student at Kuwait English School, sorted through piles of clothes, folded them and arranged them on a shelf. He had applied for and acquired a summer job at Express through the M H AlShaya Co internship program in

the summer of 2011. Every year, hundreds of young people in Kuwait similarly take on part-time internships at various companies.

There is a range of both benefits and drawbacks associated with internships. The biggest advantage is real-world work expe-

rience that can be slotted into a CV or university application essay. Admission officers often look out for internships as an indication of aptitude. Potential employers have a positive attitude towards them - often interns go on to be hired by the company they were trained at. Students are sometimes looking for something to fill up an empty summer, and there is a possibility of

clothes discounts in a store internship.

However, a major downside is that interns are not always paid. They are often given menial jobs such as filing and photocopying. In addition, internships demand constant perseverance - they are not for the

slacker. Interns are also given a taste of their desired career, ie, for a young woman eager to work in the field of fashion, an internship might give her the future contacts she needs... or it might convince her why it’s not such a worthwhile idea.

To place it in context, an internship focuses on training rather than employment itself. It is an opportunity for career development, as individuals participate in supervised training that integrates experience and education. Before the 1960s, internships as we know them were virtually unheard of. Their value and demand boomed in the 1980s, and more recently in Kuwait. Starting from fields such as business and medicine, they gradually trickled down to all sectors. The attraction of the internship program comes from the fact that there is a diversity of the type of work one can undertake. Increasingly, Kuwait is taking steps to be more focused and in touch with the needs of its youth. A thousand summer jobs have been recently offered by M H AlShaya, while, M A Kharafi & Sons initiated a trainee program in 2004, open to young engineers from major universities of the Gulf and recruit 20-30 interns per year.

Businesses also benefit from hiring young interns. The value of possible employees who have already been ingrained into the community is shown by Nicola Coccioli, a COO at M A Kharafi, who stresses the company gains, saying “future positions could be filled by interns”. Interns offer a fresh point of view. Karina Haum is a lawyer who has had ample experience hiring interns from abroad for her company Act & Echo. “Young, smart, driven... and they want to be somebody,” she said.

Haum’s description illustrates the reason many companies recruit interns. She explains that “they offer insight and a different perspective to business”, and talks about the “cultural exchange that results from international internships”.

Internships can be somewhat of a hindrance to busy companies. Valuable time is taken up by training, and Haum highlights the “need to prepare as an employer”, and states that it is a “sometimes difficult and time-consuming to put aside relevant tasks”.

Working with cars was Stefan Siegel’s dream job. This is why he took the opportunity to help out at a garage in Kuwait back in 2010. He describes the experience as a mechanic as ‘very physical’. It involved being taught first-hand the workings of an engine and getting down and dirty with gasoline. This helped his career goals as it equipped him with a basic skills set for the future and a smoother transition into the world of cars, more valuable than many school-taught courses. In his own words, “my experience was a real eye-opener to what my future will be like”.

Internships are also used as tools to help students get accepted to university.

Vandana Venkatesh, a student at KES who will be attending university in 2013, was trained at a newspaper in India over the summer. She explains: “It is important to interact with other people in the work-

place. I became familiar with invaluable real-world experience.”

Internships pose some degree of risk, as interns rarely know what they’re in for. It can be a sacrifice as a lot of personal time is taken away - you have less of a chance of going out if you’ve got to be at work the next day. Often students are unfairly relegated to non-beneficial tedious tasks, and a question also remains of actual productivity. Stefan mentions “most people were on holiday, so no-one needed their car fixed.. a lot of the time I was just sitting around”.

Back at Express, Abdulla Ani points out that an internship includes none of the spoon-feeding that occurs in a school environment. “I learnt things I normally wouldn’t learn in school life.” Being an intern entails being able to take the initiative in a dynamic and chaotic environment.

He also got the chance to see the true mechanics behind the running of a business, a break from the glamorized image of work that most teenagers are accustomed to. Abdulla maintains that there were “frankly not many disadvantages on the job”. With that coming from someone who devoted a summer to working, you could say an internship’s a pretty sweet deal.

Every year, hundreds of young people in Kuwait take on part-time internships at various companies.

There is a range of both benefits and drawbacks associated with internships.

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Kuwait leads in private wealth booked offshore

rivate financial wealth in Middle East and Africa grew by 4.7 percent in 2011, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, entitled The Battle to Regain Strength: Global Wealth 2012, is BCG’s twelfth annual look at the global wealth-management industry and addresses the current size of the market, the state of offshore wealth , the performance levels of leading institutions, the emergence of alternative business models, and key trends that all players must adapt to.

According to the report, private financial wealth in Middle East and Africa grew to $4.5 trillion in 2011, up from $4.3 trillion in 2010, marking a 4.7 percent increase. Furthermore, it is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6 percent by 2016, to reach $6.1 trillion, largely as a result of continued strong GDP expansion in oil-rich countries.

Dr Sven-Olaf Vathje, Partner and Managing Director at BCG Middle East said: “We see this growth despite the fact that Middle Eastern and African stock markets suffered from the political instability caused by the uprisings across the Arab world in 2011. Despite this, the region’s private wealth grew in 2011 driven by high savings rates and strong economic growth in commodity-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The wealth held in bonds rose by 13.3 percent, and cash and deposits grew by 5.1 percent - only the amount of wealth held in equities decreased by 2.6 percent, mostly driven by weak market performance.”

The BCG study also estimates that between 2011 and 2016, private financial wealth in the region will grow by a CAGR of 8 percent for households worth more than $100 million, 8 percent for households worth between $1-$100 million and 5 percent for households worth less than $1 million. “In 2011, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain were among the top ten countries in the world by proportion of millionaire households,” Markus Massi, Partner and Managing Director at BCG Middle East added. “Qatar stood at second place with 14.3 percent millionaire households; Kuwait came in third (11.8 percent); the UAE came in sixth (5 percent); and Bahrain stood at tenth place (3.2 percent).” In terms of proportion of $100 million-plus, ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) households, Kuwait and Qatar each had 6 UHNW households per 100,000 households, while the UAE had 4 UHNW households per 100,000 households. For private financial wealth originating from Middle East and Africa in 2011, Switzerland was the biggest offshore center attracting $0.56 trillion, followed by the UK drawing $0.33 trillion.

In fact, with over a third of all assets booked abroad in 2011, Middle East and Africa had the highest proportion of offshore wealth in the world. In terms of percentage of private wealth booked offshore, Kuwait (53 percent) took the lead in the region, followed by UAE (52 percent), Tunisia (45 percent), Bahrain (37 percent), Lebanon (34 percent) and Morocco (30 percent). As a regional offshore financial center Dubai held assets worth $0.2 trillion with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India, Iran and Turkey as the top five sources of offshore wealth.

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GLOBAL FINDINGS Market Sizing Global private financial wealth grew by just 1.9 percent in 2011 to a total of $122.8 trillion. In the BRIC countries, total private wealth increased by 18.5 percent, compared with negative growth in North America (-0.9 percent), Western Europe (-0.4 percent), and Japan (-2.0 percent). In terms of household segments, the highest growth rate was in the UHNW segment, which saw its wealth rise by 3.6 percent - compared with average growth of 1.7 percent across all other segments.

Millionaires Although the number of millionaire households decreased by a combined 182,000 in the United States and Japan, globally the number grew by 175,000 as many households crossed the millionaire threshold in developing economies, particularly China and India. The United States still had the largest number of millionaire households (5.1 million), followed by Japan (1.6 million) and China (1.4 million). The report says that the highest density of millionaire households in 2011 was in Singapore where more than 17 percent of all households have private wealth of $1 million or higher.

Offshore Wealth Offshore wealth increased to $7.8 trillion in 2011, up 2.7 percent from the previous year. The increase was driven partly by a flight to safe havens by investors in politically unstable countries and partly by inflows from UHNW families based in rapidly developing economies.

Insights for Wealth Managers Globally, the asset bases of wealth managers remained flat in 2011, compared with a gain of 11 percent in 2010. The lack of

growth was mainly attributable to the deterioration in market values, which was not offset by net new inflows. There was wide variation in how wealth managers fared across regions and performance categories.

Alternative Business Models A handful of business models outside the mainstream - such as external asset managers, family offices, and online wealth managers - have taken advantage of the disruption caused by the financial crisis and the willingness of clients to consider new alternatives. According to the report, traditional wealth managers should aim not only to defend their turf but also to profit from evolving client preferences by adapting their own business models - borrowing different elements from those of unconventional competitors and making sure that they keep their finger on the pulse of what their clients want.

Key Trends Numerous industry dynamics are affecting wealth managers. One theme, BCG says, is that emerging markets will fuel the growth of global wealth in the future. Players that hope to succeed in emerging markets must first define their strategies, operating models, and ambition levels - as well as recognize the pitfalls that have felled many attempts at expansion abroad. Another key trend is that the core economics of wealth managers will continue to be strained. “We expect equity markets to remain volatile, and the risk appetite of private banking clients will be subdued,” said Vathje. “Therefore, wealth managers will need to continue their pricing initiatives, refocus on client discovery, master the ever-shifting regulatory environment, bolster risk management, manage costs, and find ways to use alternative business models to their advantage.” - www.bi-me.com

“In 2011, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain were among the top ten countries in the world by proportion of millionaire households,” Markus Massi, Partner and Managing Director at BCG Middle East added.

“Qatar stood at second place with 14.3 percent millionaire households; Kuwait came in third (11.8 percent); the UAE came in sixth (5 percent); and Bahrain stood at tenth place (3.2percent).”

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Expats survive and thrive with independent start-ups

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Although it looks a little hard to start a business in a country which isn’t your own, many people succeed in doing so. In Kuwait, citizens get support from the government for launching small businesses to encourage young people to become entrepreneurs. But this doesn’t discourage some expats who manage to find their way around with business, even if it’s a small one.

Shirley Sales, a Filipina businesswoman first came to Kuwait in 1998, when she started working as a private nanny for babies. Today she owns three restaurants, a trading company, and a beauty salon. Her business is successful, and she even expanded beyond Kuwait including Bahrain, Dubai, and the Philippines.

“After my first sponsor released me, I joined AlGhanim, where I worked as a secretary. Then I decided to open my own business with my savings and launched my first restaurant with my Kuwaiti partner in 2004 in Fahaheel. Later, I established a general trading company

News

in brief

Point-to-point speed cameras to make debut KUWAIT: Interior Ministry Assistant Undersecretary for Traffic Affairs Maj Gen Dr Mustafa Al-Zaabi said the Traffic General Department is working on road transport safety to reduce accidents as part of a comprehensive and practical vision to tackle traffic problems. He said that the experiment of operating a point-to-point traffic camera system is complete on the First Ring Road and will become operational from June 15, 2012.Zaabi said this system is used to monitor speed violations on roads over certain sectors for specified distances to guarantee compliance with the speed limits over the entire sector.

He said the current location is monitored over three kilometers which is contrary to ordinary cameras that only check the speed where they are installed.

Dust expected during weekend KUWAIT: Dusty weather conditions are expected to prevail in the country, especially in open areas, during the weekend due to ongoing active northwesterly winds, Director of Kuwait Meteorological Center Mohammad Karam said yesterday. Karam told KUNA that the active winds of speeds reaching 20-45 kmph will normalize during the night.

However, they will pick up speed at sea. Meanwhile, temperatures are expected to reach as high as 47 degrees C and as low as 33 degrees C in the next couple of days.

Domestics can transfer iqama to work permit KUWAIT: The Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ahmad Al-Rujaib issued a ministerial decision regulating the process of changing domestic iqamas into work permits in the private sector, taking the interior ministry rules into consideration. A statement said the decision has three conditions, including that the transfer should be for the same employer and that the helper should have had the iqama before May 1. The decision is in effect from June 1 until Nov 30.

Drug smugglers busted in joint Gulf operation KUWAIT: Security sources announced that a joint operation between UAE, Kuwait and Oman resulted in nabbing a six-man international gang that worked on smuggling heroin into the Gulf region. Director of the Federal Drugs Fighting Department at UAE’s Interior Ministry Col Saeed Al-Suwaidi said the gang members had four kilograms of heroin, and lauded the efforts of drugs officials in both Kuwait and Oman, as their investigations gave results that identified the suspects and lead to their arrest.

Suwaidi said three were arrested with 196 capsules weighing two kilograms that were to be sent to Kuwait.

Suwaidi said that Kuwaiti authorities arrested a suspect with one kilo of heroin and he admitted that he received the drugs from a driver coming from the UAE. Investigations revealed that an Asian living in UAE tasks compatriot drivers to take the drugs into Kuwait. The investigations indicated that two other men in Oman were arrested with one kilogram of heroin.

for import and export of Filipino food, by supplying different supermarkets with the foodstuff. I was the first to bring in non-alcoholic beer, swift hotdog, fiesta Pinoy, and other products,” she told the Kuwait times.

Sales was not affected much by the economic crisis.

“When there was a crisis and people were saving, they stopped buying other stuff, not food. In fact the demand has increased, as people always buy food. And now I have two restaurants in Farwaniya and one in Mangaf. I also have a beauty salon in Farwaniya as well,” added Sales.

According to Sales, the sponsor or partner is the most important element in any successful business in Kuwait.

“In general, business is easy in Kuwait. I admit that my partner really helped me expand my business,” she concluded.

Jacob Ommen is an Indian expat who has been in Kuwait for 23 years and started a small business in June 2003. He runs a small bookshop in Kuwait City called Q8books. “My bookshop is not a traditional business. It is primarily a hobby that doubles up as a small store/busi-

ness mainly to bring a selection of good books and inexpensive reading for the book-loving community in Kuwait. Aside from serving the community in one way or the other, it keeps me from idling and away from the television,” he stated.

According to him, Q8books is the only bookstore in Kuwait which has an online presence. “This made it easier for people to reach us. More than 90 percent of the books available in my shop are used books, and about 3 percent are new. Since I don’t import books, I don’t bother about censorship. People come to my bookshop selling their books and buying others. So the books are circulating. I don’t know much about business, but I love books,” said Ommen.

“The crisis worked well for my business. People preferred books to a restaurant. As I mentioned already, this business is more of a hobby. I have a job in the morning, so I open my bookshop in the afternoon only. I’m not making great profit but it’s managing to sustain itself. I started it the hard way as I didn’t have anybody to learn from,” he said.

Juwaihel to grill interior minister for second time MPs approve key reforms to penal code

By B Izzak KUWAIT: Controversial and unpredictable MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel lived up to his image yesterday by surprising everyone by filing a request to grill Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah for the second time in two months over similar issues. As Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun was about to start the session, Juwaihel handed him a huge file which he said was a request to grill the interior minister. Saadoun simply handed the file to Secretary General Allam Al-Kandari.

Juwaihel had filed to grill the interior minister on April 24 over a variety of accusations that he failed to prove in one of the shortest grilling debates in the history of Kuwait on May 8. That grilling ended without any action or recommendations. This time, Juwaihel has attached a large number of classified documents to his grilling to prove his accusations. His grilling alleges that a large number of stateless Arabs, locally known as bedoons, worked in the Iraqi popular army during the Iraqi invasion between Aug 2, 1990 and Feb 26, 1991. Still, these people are still being considered as bedoons and treated as such, Juwaihel claimed. He attached names of a number of bedoons, copies of their original passports and their numbers and the forms they used to join Iraq’s popular army, claiming they pose a threat to Kuwait’s security.

The second issue in Juwaihel’s grilling is the claim that violations have been committed in the Kuwaiti citizenship by upgrading some people from seventh grade citizenship, granted to naturalized people, to first grade citizenship, given to Kuwaitis by birth. He also supplied a number of names for such people along with documents. In the third issue, Juwaihel claimed that the rules of the Kuwaiti citizenship were not implemented strictly on naturalized people.

According to Kuwaiti nationality rules, people who are granted Kuwaiti citizenship are required to drop their previous nationalities within three months or they lose the right to Kuwaiti citizenship. Juwaihel said that many people, including parents of some current MPs, have failed to abide by

this rule and accordingly have violated the Kuwaiti law and must be penalized by withdrawing their citizenship. He said that the interior ministry has failed to apply the law on many people and provided a number of names of such people.

Regarding the fourth issue, Juwaihel claimed that the interior minister in the first grilling had provided false information and denied facts. In addition, the interior ministry’s committee that inspected papers of candidates for the National Assembly election did not perform its duties in a proper way. He said that MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji, for example, had been convicted in court in cases that should have prevented him from contesting the elections, but the interior ministry committee failed to bar him.

The grilling, to be listed on the agenda of June 19 session, is the seventh grilling to be submitted in the new Assembly which held its first session in mid-February. They included grillings of the prime minister, information minister, two of the interior minister, one against the former finance minister after dropping another and two against the minister of social affairs and labour.

The Assembly meanwhile approved two key reforms to the penal code by amending an article and scrapping another that MPs said the authorities have been misusing. In the first amendment, MPs overwhelmingly approved an article allowing people to

challenge appeals court verdicts before the cassation (supreme) court in minor cases.

Under the penal code, minor cases like small fines end at the court of appeals and they cannot be challenged before the court of cassation. The amendment allows people to go to the supreme court if they are convicted.

In the second and more important amendment, MPs scrapped article 15 in the penal code which states that people who spread false news about Kuwait that undermine the reputation of the country will be jailed for at least three years. This article was extensively used by authorities in arresting and sending to trial political activists although lawyers said the provision was massively misused. Islamist MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei said the article is one of the characteristics of a “police state” that most world countries have scrapped, including Bahrain, while Kuwait has kept it.

Islamist MP Mohammad Al-Dallal said the article is against freedoms and must be scrapped.

MPs also rejected a proposal by several MPs to debate the huge compensation awarded to the US Dow Chemical. The Assembly also rejected a request by the government that the concerned committee should immediately study and report to the Assembly two amendments to the sports law so the international ban on Kuwaiti sports can be lifted.

KUWAIT: MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel enters the National Assembly in this June 3, 2012 photo. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

DEA makes drug smuggling arrests in Puerto Rico airport

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Syria blocks monitors from site of killings: UN

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Greek extremist party member in TV assault

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BAGHDAD: In this 2003 file photo, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein meets with his leadership to mark the first day of Eid Al-Adha. From left to right are Vice President Taha Ramadan, Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Presidential Secretary Abid Hamid Mahmud. (Inset) A picture taken on July 1, 2004 shows Abid Hamid Mahmud, executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s presidential secretary and chief bodyguard, sitting in front of an Iraqi judge during his initial interview in Baghdad. Iraq executed Mahmud yesterday, a justice ministry spokesman said. — AFP

Iraq executes Saddam’s chief guard Dictator’s right hand man killed for genocide BAGHDAD: Iraq yesterday executed Saddam Hussein’s presidential secretary and chief bodyguard Abid Hamid Mahmud, justice ministry spokesman Haidar al-Saadi said. “He was executed today,” Saadi said, adding: “The ministry of justice implemented the execution sentence against the criminal Abd Hmoud... for genocide,” referring to Mahmud by the name Iraqis call him.

Mahmud was number four on the list of Iraqi officials targeted by American forces following the 2003 US-led invasion, behind only Saddam and his two sons Uday and Qusay.

He was captured on June 16, 2003, and eventually sentenced to death on October 26, 2010 along with former deputy premier Tareq Aziz and ex-interior minister Saadun Shaker, for their role in the crackdown on Shiite Muslim religious

parties during the 1980s. Saddam, who was hanged on December 30, 2006, killed a large number of Shiite leaders during the 1980-88 war with Iran. When in power, Saddam was rarely seen without Mahmud, who shadowed the president and was charged with handing down his orders to Iraqi ministries and ensuring his personal safety. Both men came from the same village of Aujah, just outside Tikrit north of Baghdad. With his signature beret and moustache, Mahmud’s official title was presidential secretary, but a British government dossier said he was responsible for Saddam’s personal security, as well as defense, security and intelligence issues. The dossier said Mahmud, a lieutenant general in the army, “is regarded by some as the real number two figure in the Iraqi leadership,”

as he controlled access to Saddam and could override government decisions.

Mahmud was seen at Saddam’s side in his last appearance on television before his capture, aired on April 7, 2003. Saddam’s own execution sparked international controversy after mobile phone video of the sentence being carried out was published on the Internet showing witnesses taunting him as he was about to be hanged.

The footage, which was sold on Baghdad streets after the execution, showed an angry but composed Saddam standing on a steel platform in a dark hall, his hands bound and a rough hemp rope around his neck.

Several members of the party carrying out the hanging could be heard chanting, “Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada!” before Saddam is seen

falling to his death as the metal trapdoor opens below his feet. They were referring to Moqtada alSadr, a radical anti-US Shiite cleric who rose to prominence after Saddam’s fall from power. Last August, the lawyer for Aziz-a Christian and close confidant of the executed dictator-quoted him as calling on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to accelerate his execution because of his worsening health. “His health condition is very poor and he asked me to convey a message to Mr Maliki, calling on him to execute him as soon as possible,” Badie Aref told AFP. “He said this is his wish now...

He asked this because of his dangerous health condition. He is suffering.” Aref said at the time Aziz was being treated well in prison, but had diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, prostate problems and stomach ulcers. — AFP

International FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Yemen plan OK for Syria if backed by people: Russia Russia may be edging away from protection of Assad MOSCOW: Russia would accept a Yemen-style power transition in Syria if were decided by the people, a senior Russian diplomat said yesterday, the latest in a series of statements seemingly aimed at distancing the Kremlin from President Bashar alAssad. The diplomat tried to deflect pressure on Moscow to help engineer Assad’s exit from power, however, saying his fate is “not a question for us” but is up to Syrians themselves repeating a position Moscow has long voiced. “Application of the socalled Yemen scenario to resolve the conflict in Syria is possible only if the Syrians themselves agree to it,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said, according to the Interfax news agency.

“The Yemen scenario was discussed by the Yemenis themselves. If this scenario is discussed by Syrians themselves and is adopted by them, we are not against it.” Street protests

against Assad that began 15 months ago have evolved largely into armed insurgency as he stepped up efforts to crush dissent by military might.

Two reported massacres of civilians by pro-Assad forces since May 25 have heightened Western calls for Assad to make way for a democratic transition. Moscow has used its U.N. Security Council veto and other tools to protect Assad, who has given Russia a firm foothold in the Middle East and is a client for Russian weapons. The Kremlin position has shielded him from condemnation by the council and parried Western and Arab efforts to push him from power.

US President Barack Obama told G8 nations including last month that Assad must leave power and pointed to Yemen as a model for a potential transition. After a year of mass protests against his autocratic rule and increasing armed anarchy, longtime Yemeni president Ali Abdullah

Saleh ceded power in February to a transitional administration led by his vice president. In a sign of increasing pressure on Moscow, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was sending a senior State Department official who works on Syria, Fred Hof, to Moscow yesterday. The Russian Foreign Ministry and the US Embassy in Moscow declined immediate comment on the visit.

Clinton told Western and Arab nations at a meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday that a transition strategy in Syria must include Assad’s full transfer of power, a senior State Department official said. The official suggested Clinton was trying to lay down a set of minimum benchmarks for how a Syrian transition could unfold in hopes Russia might back it despite past support for Assad.

DON’T LOOK AT ME Russian President Vladimir Putin

and other officials maintain that Moscow is not out to protect Assad and is open to his exit from power if this arises from a Syrian political dialogue without foreign interference.

Bogdanov said Assad’s fate is not up to Russia. “This is not a question for us, it is a question for the Syrian political forces and society,” he said. In a statement during a visit to Beijing by Putin, a regional security alliance led

by Russia and China said it opposes military interference, forced power handovers and unilateral sanctions in dealings with Middle East states. But Moscow has criticised Assad at times and courted his opponents, suggesting it is hedging its bets. Analysts say Putin could be lured by or seek an orchestrated exit by Assad that could be presented as the work of the people, particularly if he doubts Assad can hang onto power for long and sees a chance of Moscow maintaining influence. — Reuters

Mubarak’s health worsens amid political crisis Imprisonment in Torah was ‘inhumane,’ says doctor

PARIS: France’s President Francois Hollande (right) bids farewell to Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani following a meeting at the presidential Elysee palace yesterday. — AFP

Qatari PM calls to ‘speed up search’ for Syria solution PARIS: Qatar’s prime minister urged the international community yesterday to speed up its search for a solution bringing a “peaceful transfer of power” in Syria, as he met French President Francois Hollande. “We must speed up our search for a solution to maintain the country’s stability and equally there must be a plan for a peaceful transfer of power,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told reporters after the talks in Paris.

A peaceful transfer of power “is really our preferred solution” Sheikh Hamad said as he condemned President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for failing to follow through on United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan. “In the past the Syrian government has always agreed with the proposals that were made and then worked to make them fail,” he said. “We need for Russia and China to agree” to a solution, he said, reiterating support for invoking Chapter Seven of the UN Charter to back the Annan peace plan.

The chapter authorizes member states to take “all necessary measures” to carry out specific UN Security Council decisions and can be used in some cases to authorize military action. “This does not mean that another solution does not exist, but we must continue working to find a peaceful solution,” Sheikh Hamad said. — AFP

CAIRO: Hosni Mubarak’s health sharply deteriorated Wednesday, days after he was sentenced to life in prison, and specialists were evaluating whether to transfer him to a better-equipped hospital outside the penal system, security officials said. The deposed leader’s health scare added to the uncertainty engulfing Egypt, where powerful political groups are seeking to bar Mubarak’s former prime minister from the presidential runoff and derail the election.

Officials at Cairo’s Torah prison said the 84year-old Mubarak’s condition had moved to a “dangerous” phase and that doctors administered oxygen five times to help him breathe. He was also suffering from shock, high blood pressure and severe depression, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Mubarak was being treated in the prison hospital’s intensive care unit, which recently underwent a $1 million renovation to prepare for his arrival, the officials said. He was the only patient in the fivebed ICU ward. Dr. Hamdi el-Sayyed, who has treated Mubarak over the last decade, said imprisonment in Torah was “inhumane” given his age and poor health. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the gravity of Mubarak’s condition. But the ex-leader’s health has been an issue in recent years. He was treated in 2010 for cancer of the gallbladder and pancreas, and his lawyer said after his arrest in April 2011 that it might have spread to his stomach. Officials denied the claim at the time.

Still, the ousted leader was ordered held in a military hospital after a government-appointed panel of physicians determined in May 2011 that he was too ill to be held in prison while awaiting trial, saying he suffered from heart trouble and had

tumors in his pancreas removed. It did not say whether the tumors were malignant.

Mubarak did not want to go to Torah prison after he was sentenced on Saturday, pleading with his escort to take him back to the military hospital east of Cairo where he had stayed in a suite since his trial began in August. Before that, he was held in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm

CAIRO: An Egyptian man wears tape over his mouth and a badge with pictures of protesters killed during the Egyptian uprising during a silent protest marking the second anniversary of Khaled Said’s death at the hands of Egyptian police on Wednesday. Khaled Said’s death in June, 2010 in Alexandria captured the attention of millions in Egypt and helped spark the 18-day uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February. The Arabic on his mask reads, in part, ‘down with military rule.’ — AP

el -Sheikh.

Mubarak and his ex-security chief received life sentences for failing to stop the killing of protesters during last year’s uprising, but he and his two sons - onetime heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa - were acquitted of corruption charges. The sons are also being held in Torah, awaiting a separate trial on charges of insider trading. Mubarak’s authoritarian regime was widely unpopular by the time of his overthrow, but conditions in Egypt have gone from bad to worse, with a wave of deadly protests, a battered economy and seemingly endless strikes. Displeasure over the deteriorating conditions could be seen in the secondplace finish by Mubarak’s former prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, in the first round vote last month, ahead of more liberal candidates. Shafiq is to face the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi in a runoff June 16-17.

However, in a new political twist, Egypt’s highest court said Wednesday that on June 14, two days before the vote, it would take up legal challenges to the legitimacy of both the presidential and recent parliamentary elections. Among other things, it will rule on the constitutionality of a now-suspended “isolation law” that would disqualify top officials of the Mubarak regime from the presidency.

If upheld, Shafiq could be barred from running, possibly forcing the cancellation of the runoff and a repeat of the first-round vote - something that is sure to plunge the nation into more turmoil. Supreme Constitutional Court spokesman Maher Sami told The Associated Press he could not say whether a ruling would be reached on June 14, but added: “The court is responsive to public issues and that is why it is rapidly working to settle the case.” —AP

International FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Outrage in Libya over Cairo talks with Gaddafi remnants TRIPOLI: A meeting in Cairo between former officials of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and an envoy dispatched by Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil has sparked widespread anger and demands for an explanation.

“Abdel Jalil must explain the motives that prompted him to take this initiative without consulting the council,” Intissar Al-Akili, a member of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), told AFP. She has even threatened to resign over the issue. The May 27 meeting was part of a “national reconciliation” initiative headed by religious leader Ali Sallabi, who claims to be acting on Abdel Jalil’s orders, and Ahmed Kadhaf Eddam, who is the former dictator’s cousin and an exofficial.

Sallabi told AFP that he was tasked

by Abdel Jalil to “hold talks with Libyans of the former regime to see how to... alleviate the suffering and

bring together Libyans in a state of justice, liberty, equality and law.” He added that the discussions centred on national reconciliation, reactivating the judiciary, and the right of the relatives of ex-regime supporters abroad to access consular services and participate in upcoming elections.

Thousands of supporters of the former regime fled Libya during and after the regime’s fall, with the majority resettling in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Morocco.

News of the Cairo meeting upset several Libyan personalities including Akili, who slammed the move as “an insult to the martyrs and the aims of the February 17 revolution” which led to Qaddafi’s ouster and killing in 2011. “We will vigorously oppose these negotiations and if they are approved by the National Transitional Council, I will immediately present my resignation,” she told AFP. She told

local television the NTC had held an extraordinary meeting on the issue.

The NTC has distanced itself from the initiative, issuing a statement this week saying it had not commissioned negotiations and that there would be no negotiation with symbols of the former regime. “There is no negotiation or accommodation possible with such figures. These people have to return to Libya to be tried,” said NTC Vice Chairman Aknan Salem in televised remarks. “Sallabi represents only himself,” he added.

Meanwhile, 200 Libyan personalities, including journalists and activists, issued a joint statement expressing their “extreme concern.”

Reconciliation, they said, should not include the members of the former regime who took part in the Cairo meeting, because they are at the “forefront” of those accused of murder, corruption and terrorism under

Qaddafi. NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizi said that Sallabi’s mission aimed only to urge Libyan families who had taken shelter in Egypt to come home and convey to elements wanted by the authorities that they will face a fair trial. NTC members have publicly accused Harizi of watering down this week’s statement.

Several sources said the initiative was begun by Kadhaf Eddam, an adviser and cousin to Qaddafiwho was also in charge of Libya-Egypt ties.

He resigned several days after the start of the 2011 revolt but made no major moves in favour of the uprising.

Some former rebels have questioned his defection and accuse him of having enlisted pro-Qaddafifighters. Ali Lahwal, ex-coordinator of Libyan tribes and a representative of Qaddafi tribe the Kadhafa, was another former regime official present at the Cairo meeting. — AFP

Syria blocks monitors from site of killings: UN Syria labels opposition reports of massacre ‘baseless’

CAIRO: An Egyptian woman draped in the national flag shouts slogans at a protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday. Reports of assaults on women in Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down last year, have been on the rise. — AP

Alarming assaults on women in Egypt’s Tahrir CAIRO: Her screams were not drowned out by the clamor of the crazed mob of nearly 200 men around her. An endless number of hands reached toward the woman in the red shirt in an assault scene that lasted less than 15 minutes but felt more like an hour.

She was pushed by the sea of men for about a block into a side street from Tahrir Square. Many of the men were trying to break up the frenzy, but it was impossible to tell who was helping and who was assaulting. Pushed against the wall, the unknown woman’s head finally disappeared. Her screams grew fainter, then stopped. Her slender tall frame had clearly given way. She apparently had passed out. The helping hands finally splashed the attackers with bottles of water to chase them away.

The assault late Tuesday was witnessed by an Associated Press reporter who was almost overwhelmed by the crowd herself and had to be pulled to safety by men who ferried her out of the melee in an open Jeep. Reports of assaults on women in Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down last year, have been on the rise with a new round of mass protests to denounce a mixed verdict against the ousted leader and his sons in a trial last week. The late Tuesday assault was the last straw for many. Protesters and activists met Wednesday to organize a campaign to prevent sexual harassment in the square.

They recognize it is part of a bigger social problem that has largely gone unpunished in Egypt. But the phenomenon is trampling on their dream of creating in Tahrir a micro-model of a state that respects civil liberties and civic responsibility, which they had hoped would emerge after Mubarak’s ouster.

“Enough is enough,” said Abdel-Fatah Mahmoud, a 22-yearold engineering student, who met Wednesday with friends to organize patrols of the square in an effort to deter attacks against women. “It has gone overboard. No matter what is behind this, it is unacceptable. —AP

BEIRUT: Syrian troops blocked United Nations observers yesterday from reaching the site of a new mass killing where the opposition claims regime forces slaughtered at least 78 people including women and children, the chief of the UN monitoring mission said. Syria denied the opposition claims as “absolutely baseless” and insisted it was facilitating the work of observers in the country. The reports came just weeks after more than 100 people were killed in one day in a cluster of villages known as Houla in central Homs province, many of them children and women gunned down in their homes. UN investigators blamed pro-government gunmen for at least some of the killings, but the Syrian regime denied responsibility and blamed rebels for the deaths.

The Houla massacre brought international outrage and a coordinated expulsion of Syrian diplomats from world capitals. Syria’s main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, also said 78 people were killed in the village of Mazraat al-Qubair in central Hama province when government-aligned militiamen converged on the village from neighboring pro-regime villages. Some of the dead were killed execution-style, others were slain with knives, the SNC said. It said 35 of the dead were from the same family and more than half of them were women and children. “Women and children were burned inside their homes in alQubair,” said Mousab Alhamadee, an activist based in Hama.

Gen. Robert Mood, the head of the observers mission in Syria, said UN patrols headed to the village of were stopped at Syrian army checkpoints and in some cases turned back. He said some patrols were also stopped by civilians and added they had received information from residents of the area that the safety of observers was at risk if they entered the village. The mission “is concerned about the restriction imposed on its movement as it will

HASS: In this image provided by Edlib News Network, anti-Syrian regime protesters hold a banner in Arabic that reads, ‘Al-Qubair massacre challenges the world’s humanity,’ during a protest against the massacre of Mazraat al-Qubair.

Syria yesterday denied ìabsolutely baseless’ claims by opposition groups about a new massacre in the central Hama province. — AP impede our ability to monitor, observe and report,” Mood said in a statement. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the Syrian government for “simply unconscionable” violence, accusing President Bashar Assad of intensifying a crackdown that has already killed thousands.

“The regime-sponsored violence that we witnessed again in Hama yesterday is simply unconscionable,” she said in Turkey. “Assad has doubled down on his brutality and duplicity, and Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable or certainly democratic until Assad goes.” The exact death toll and circumstances of the killings overnight in Mazraat al-Qubair on the outskirts of Hama were impossible to confirm. The violence is bound to reinforce the growing belief that a peace plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan is

unraveling as the country spirals toward civil war. Both Homs and Hama have been centers of opposition to Assad’s rule during the 15-month uprising.

The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said it had compiled the names of at least 49 people who had died in the massacre. But Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the group which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said the circumstances of the killings were still unclear and called on UN observers to visit the area immediately. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, group gave a higher death toll, saying more than 78 people were killed, including many women and children. It said pro-government militiamen known as shabiha first shelled the farming area and then went in and killed the residents there. —AP

International FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Kurd teenager killed at militant funeral in Turkey Government, main opposition party seek common ground DIYARBAKIR: A 15-year-old boy was killed and one man wounded in Turkey’s troubled southeast after gunfire erupted during the funeral of a Kurdish separatist militant, a local official said yesterday. The incident late on Wednesday occurred a day after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held a landmark meeting with Kemal Kilicdarolgu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), setting aside differences to thrash out a common approach to ending the long-running conflict. There were conflicting accounts about who opened fire on the funeral procession in the town of Yusekova near the border with Iraq after it turned into a rally in support of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group that took up arms against the Turkish state in the early 1980s.

District official Aziz Uzeyir Ozeren told reporters at the town in Hakkari province that PKK gunmen, wearing civilian clothes rather than their usual green fatigues, fired on protesters to stir trouble. Firat News, a website close to the PKK, said police were responsible. Teenager Ozgur Tasar was killed and Veysel Yildirim, 34, was wounded, Ozeren said. Tensions are bubbling up anew in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast as the PKK steps up attacks following a spring thaw.

Most PKK fighters are based in northern Iraq, and the militants increase their incursions into neighboring Turkey once the snow melts and mountains become passable. For its part, the government has taken a harder stance against the PKK over the past year, halting state contacts with the

militant group and arresting members of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) for alleged ties to the PKK. Turkey has also warned Syria against encouraging PKK attacks as payback for Ankara’s strong stand in support of a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. In a separate incident late on Wednesday, PKK militants kidnapped three people, including a soldier, near the town of Lice in Diyarbakir province, security sources said.

A group of militants set up a roadblock and stopped about 30 vehicles to check identification cards before taking the soldier and two others captive, they said. Security forces have launched an operation in the area to rescue the hostages.

More than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have

died in nearly three decades of fighting between the PKK and Turkish armed forces. The United States, European Union and Turkey list the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

The PKK has scaled back its demands for an independent homeland to some political autonomy for Turkey’s estimated 14 million ethnic Kurds.

But a political solution appears difficult as thousands of Kurdish politicians and activists have been arrested in recent years and remain in prison during their trials on charges connected with supporting the PKK. Yesterday, police detained six mayors belonging to the proKurdish Peace and Democracy Party, including the mayor of the city of Van, on charges of links with the PKK. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Italy probes mysterious school bombing after arrest ROME: Italian police yesterday probed deeper into the motivations of a man who has admitted setting off a bomb outside a vocational college in an attack that killed a 16-year-old girl and shocked the nation.

Giovanni Vantaggiato, 68, was detained on Wednesday and has confessed to last month’s attack which also left five teenagers badly burned but prosecutors said they were not convinced by the motive he had provided. “Yes it was me. I built the bomb on my own,” Vantaggiato was quoted as telling investigators after a five-hour interrogation on Wednesday.

“I lost it. What can you do about it?” he was quoted as saying.

Prosecutor Cataldo Motta yesterday told reporters: “He said he was having economic problems but the link to an attack like this is inexplicable.” The man reportedly told investigators that the blast was an act of vengeance aimed at a courtroom next to the college because of a judicial case in which he claimed to have been treated unfairly despite being a victim of fraud.

“He gave very vague reasons without any credibility....

He did not really explain anything. He didn’t justify himself,” Motta said at a press conference in the southern city of Brindisi where the deadly attack took place.

He said that the investigations were continuing and that police yesterday had raided a fuel depot owned by the businessman near the city of Lecce. Motta said the married father-of-two had, however, confessed to building the bomb out of three gas canisters and a detonator and setting it off. “I bought fireworks and emptied them out, filling each canister with 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of gunpowder,” the suspect was quoted as saying.

Italian media said he was “passive and submissive” during the interrogation and had asked investigators: “How long are you going to keep me in here?”

Vantaggiato has been arrested on a charge of committing “a massacre with terrorist ends” even though he is believed to have acted alone, Motta said, adding that investigators believed the targets had been selected “at random”. “He achieved the aim of spreading terror,” the prosecutor said. Motta also said Vantaggiato had been identified through CCTV footage showing two cars-one

registered in his name and another in his wife’s name.

One car was seen at the scene when the bomb was put in place during the night and the second was seen in the moments before and after the blast.

Chilling video footage leaked to the media shortly after the May 19 bombing showed a man setting off the bomb with a remote control. Local media cited investigators as saying Vantaggiato’s attack may have been a form of revenge against the director of the college linked to a dispute between the families of the two men, although the director denied this. Initial reactions in the hours after the attack had pointed to possible involvement of the mafia or political militants and there were demonstrations in several cities against a growing climate of violence in the country.

Fears were heightened as the attack came shortly after the shooting of a nuclear energy company executive claimed by an extremist anarchist group. The bombing revived memories of a wave of attacks by farright and far-left militants in the 1970s and 1980s-a period known as the “Years of Lead”. — AFP

Greek extremist party member in TV assault Arrest warrant issued for Ilias Kasidiaris

ABIDJAN: A picture taken on September 29, 2002 Ivory Coast Defense Minister Moise Lida Kouassi during a press conference in Abidjan. The former defense minister of Ivory Coast’s disgraced ex-president Laurent Gbagbo has been arrested in neighboring Togo, accused of trying to destabilize the new Ivorian regime, officials said yesterday. — AFP

Ivory Coast ex-minister arrested LOME: The former defense minister of Ivory Coast’s disgraced ex-president Laurent Gbagbo has been arrested in neighboring Togo, accused of trying to destabilize the new Ivorian regime, officials said. Moise Lida Kouassi had fled to Togo’s capital Lome in the chaotic and bloody months after Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his defeat in November 2010 presidential polls. The crisis led to about 3,000 deaths and Ivory Coast’s new government issued several arrest warrants for members of the old regime.

The Togolese police chief, Matieyendou Mompion, said late Wednesday that Kouassi is charged with misappropriating funds while in government and for working against the current Ivorian regime led by President Alassane Ouattara.

“The search conducted at his home resulted in the seizure of certain documents revealing the existence of subversive activities aimed at destabilizing the regime in place in Ivory Coast,” he said. Kouassi “was arrested Wednesday morning in Lome,” a family member said by phone.

About 20 gendarmes arrived at Kouassi’s home without a search warrant. They searched the house for an hour and “took away a computer and the mobile phones,” the relative said. An Ivorian government source said the former minister was extradited to Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan shortly after his arrest. Gbagbo was captured on April 11, 2011, and has been in custody in The Hague since November on allegations of crimes against humanity. Kouassi’s arrest came at the same time as Ouattara was visiting Togo to attend a regional financial summit.—AFP

ATHENS: Greece’s heated election campaign turned ugly yesterday on live TV: The spokesman of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, after trading insults of “commie” and “fascist,” lunged at two female left-wing politicians on a mainstream morning talk show, throwing water at one and smacking the other three times across the face. The violent display reminiscent of Jerry Springer trash TV, a week and a half ahead of crucial repeat elections, stunned Greeks as they seek to avoid a catastrophic exit from the common euro currency.

Prosecutors immediately issued an arrest warrant for Ilias Kasidiaris, whose party alarmed Europe by gaining 21 of Parliament’s 300 seats in Greece’s inconclusive May 6 elections.

Golden Dawn, which vehemently denies the neo-Nazi label, has been accused of violent attacks against immigrants in Athens. The party denies involvement in the attacks, insisting it is a nationalist patriotic group campaigning on a platform of ridding the country of illegal immigrants and cleaning up crime-ridden neighborhoods. It has advocated planting antipersonnel mines along Greece’s borders to stop migrants from sneaking across. The attack “put on public display what was widely known,” said the radical left-wing Syriza party, whose member Rena Dourou was splashed with water on the show. “The true face of this criminal organization.”

Tempers frayed on the daily morning political show on the private Antenna television station during a political debate, to which representatives of all seven parties that won parliamentary seats on May 6 had been invited. The topic was Greece’s natural resources but it went off on a tangent about political history in Greece, which suffered a vicious civil war between Communists and the right-wing after World War II, and a seven-year military dictatorship that ended in 1974. Kasidiaris, his temper wearing thin, launched an insult of “you old Commie” at prominent Communist Party member Liana Kanelli, who in return called him a “fascist.” Kasidiaris also took offense at a reference by Dourou to a court case pending against him.

It all careened into violence after Dourou, 58, said there was a “crisis of democracy when

ATHENS: A picture taken yesterday of Antena TV shows Golden Dawn Member of Parliament Ilias Kasidiaris (second left) hitting Liana Kanelli, a female MP for the Greek Communist party during a talk show on ANTENA TV station. Athens prosecutors yesterday ordered the arrest of the spokesman and MP of Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party after he attacked two female leftist deputies during a live TV debate. — AFP people who will take the country back 500 years have got into the Greek parliament.” The 31-year-old Kasidiaris, who has served in the Greek military’s special forces, bounded out of his seat and hurled a glass of water at her, shouting an insult loosely translated as “you circus act.” Talk show host Giorgos Papadakis shouting “no, no, no!” - ran over to Kasidiaris attempting to calm him down. But a furious Kasidiaris turned on Kanelli, who had gotten out of her chair and appeared to throw a newspaper at the Golden Dawn member.

Kasidiaris hit Kanelli three times - with rightleft-right slaps to the sides of her head.

Papadakis tried and failed to restrain him. The channel cut to a commercial break, and returned five minutes later without Kasidiaris.

Kasidiaris is accused of participation in a 2007 attack on a student. He faces charges of assisting in robbery and bodily harm after his car was allegedly used in the incident in which a student had his identity card stolen. Kasidiaris

claims the accusation is politically motivated

by Syriza members. The case was to be heard in court on Wednesday but has been postponed to June 11. Papadakis and Kanelli later said attempts had been made to restrain Kasidiaris after the incident by shutting him in a room in the TV channel’s building, but he broke through the door and left. Police were searching for him to serve the arrest warrant, which under Greek law must be carried out within 24 hours of an incident.

“The government condemns in the most categorical way the attack by Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris against Liana Kanelli and Rena Dourou,” government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras said. “This attack is an attack against every democratic citizen.” Tsiodras called on Golden Dawn to condemn its member’s actions. For its part, Golden Dawn said it was Kanelli who first attacked Kasidiaris, “hitting him unprovoked in the face with a packet of documents.” —AP

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International FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Caste system underpins N Korea abuses: Report SEOUL: A political caste system which disadvantages many North Koreans from birth is at the heart of the country’s rights abuses, according to a new study. The system-which classifies each citizen as loyal, wavering or hostile is “the root cause of discrimination and humanitarian abuses”, said a report published Wednesday by the Washingtonbased Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. “The grim reality of North Korea is that this system creates a form of slave labor for a third of North Korea’s population of 23 million citizens, and loyalty-bound servants out of the remainder,” it said. The “songbun” classification system has been in existence for decades. But it has attracted little outside scrutiny compared to the communist state’s network of political prison camps and better-documented rights abuses.

It provides extensive perks to those seen as loy-

al, based largely on their birth and family background, and imposes “pervasive disadvantages” to those deemed disloyal, said the report entitled “Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea’s Social Classification System”. It said an estimated 28 percent of the people are classified as loyal, 45 percent as wavering and 27 percent as hostile, under a system comparable to the former apartheid regime in South Africa. Members of the three broad castes are further divided into 51 categories which lets the regime discriminate in providing social welfare, jobs, housing and food programs, said the report, based partly on interviews with 75 defectors.

Those deemed loyal include descendants of people who battled Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of Korea or fought for the North in the 1950-53 war.

They get to live in the showpiece capital Pyongyang and have access to the best education

and jobs. Among those considered hostile are families whose ancestors collaborated with Japan or whose members had fled to South Korea, as well as religious figures and landlords. They are assigned to menial and hard-labor jobs. “The songbun system leads to a society that is highly stratified as a means of social control, where every North Korean is truly ‘marked for life’ from birth,” the document said.

The national police force keeps a file on every person aged over 17, it added. It cited some analysts as saying the songbun system has weakened since the state rationing system largely collapsed during the 1990s famine years and private markets sprang up. But the report said the system persists and in many ways is more insidious than before, now that all information on each individual’s classification has been digitalized. — AFP

Russia supports ‘peaceful’ nuclear drive in Iran Leaders hold talks at Shanghai Cooperation Organization

PYONGYANG: This photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) yesterday shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un surrounded by members of the Korean Children’s Union (KCU) organizations during a joint national meeting to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the KCU organizations at Kim Il-Sung Stadium in Pyongyang on June 6, 2012. — AFP

Myanmar assigns cop, minister to probe murder of Muslims YANGON: Myanmar’s government has appointed a minister and senior police chief to head an investigation into the killing of 10 Muslims by a Buddhist mob that has stoked communal tensions in the country’s Westernmost state. The government has been quick to respond to Sunday’s killings by a group of vigilantes who were angered by reports of a recent gang rape and murder of a local woman, allegedly by Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Rakhine state. The new reformist, civilian-led administration says national reconciliation and unity is one of its top priorities and its success in striking ceasefires with all but one of the country’s ethnic minority rebel groups may have played a part in the recent suspension of most Western sanctions.

It took the unusual step of announcing the probe on the front pages of several state-controlled newspapers yesterday after a protest by Burmese Muslims in the biggest city, Yangon and anger on social media about the brutal killings and the media’s reporting of the incident. The 16-member committee, headed by the deputy interior minister and second-in-command of the police, was given until June 30 to determine the “cause and instigation of the incident” and pursue legal action. The announcement made no mention of the killings or the rape, referring only to “organized lawless and anarchic acts” in Rakhine state. Myanmar is predominately Buddhist and many members of the majority community resent minority groups, like those which descended from South Asia, most of whom are Muslim. Demonstrators have demanded justice for the deaths of the Muslims, which came after leaflets were handed out urging retribution for the young woman’s rape and murder. Residents of Taunggoke, where the killings took place, said the dead had no connection to those blamed for the woman’s murder. —Reuters

BEIJING: Russia supports Tehran’s atomic program as long as it is “peaceful”, President Vladimir Putin told Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday ahead of global talks on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The Iranian president, meanwhile, called for more cooperation between Iran and Russia as NATO “sets its sights on the east”, in a likely reference to a missile defense system currently being deployed by the Western alliance. “We have always supported the right of the Iranian people to modern technologies, including the peaceful use of atomic energy,” Putin told Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of a regional security summit in Beijing.

“But I want to emphasize that it is peaceful that we are talking about.

You know our position.”

The West believes Iran is trying to develop an atomic bomb under cover of a civilian program but Tehran insists its intentions are purely peaceful, and the situation has brought about a shaky standoff. The talks between the two leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit-the first since Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third term - come as Russia prepares to host the latest round of global talks on Iran. The June 18 and 19 meeting between world powers and Iranian negotiators will try to find a diplomatic solution to the current standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program. Russia has in the past urged Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency to clear up any suspicions about the nature of its nuclear program.

But it has never explicitly backed Western claims that Iran is seeking to develop an atomic weapon-a stance reiterated yesterday. “We are very strong supporters of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Putin said.

“But we know your position and the position of all the Iranian leadership, which is that Iran is not working on the

BEIJING: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari (left) poses with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday. — AFP

creation of a nuclear weapon. We are proceeding based on this.” Putin’s comments came after leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s member states issued a statement yesterday opposing any use of force in Iran, saying it could threaten global security. “Any attempts to solve the Iranian problem with force are unacceptable and could lead to unpredictable circumstances that threaten stability and security in the region and the entire world,” said the statement signed at the end of a summit. In his talks with Putin, Ahmadinejad called for “serious and broader cooperation

between Iran and Russia” due to developments “in the region and the world”.

“Iran and Russia are now on the same side of the barricades,” he told Putin. “There are people who stand against the progress and development of both Russia and Iran.

Especially considering that now, NATO has set its sights on the east,” he said. Ahmadinejad was likely referring to a NATO defense system that is being deployed over several years to protect Europeans from the threat of ballistic missiles from countries such as Iran. — AFP

International FRIDAY, JUNE 8 , 2012

Panetta: Patience with Pakistan ‘reaching limits’ US urged to label Haqqani network terrorist organization

BEIJING: Chinese President Hu Jintao (centre right) and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari (centre left) attend a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday. Security in Central Asia, including the situation in Afghanistan, is set to be the focus of talks at a meeting in Beijing of a regional group dominated by China and Russia. — AFP

‘We’re not afraid of war,’ Taiwan’s president says PINGTUNG: Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday the island does not seek war with the mainland, but is not afraid of it either, as he attended a live-fire drill simulating a Chinese invasion. Ma, who has been criticised for being too soft on arch rival China, made the remark in the south of the island, where about 1,000 soldiers played through an elaborate scenario with the help of aircraft, tanks and warships.

“We don’t seek war, but we’re not afraid of war,” Ma told reporters and other guests invited to witness the drill, held at Mount Paoli in one of Taiwan’s largest military training grounds.

The manoeuvre, codenamed “Lien Yung”, or “Joint Endeavour”, played through a scenario in which Chinese forces had landed on Taiwan’s western beaches and occupied nearby mountainous positions. In the course of the drill, Taiwanese infantry retook the positions, aided by F-16 fighters, AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters and Javlin antitank missiles. Ma, who was inaugurated for a second and final four-year term last month, is widely credited with having brought about closer ties with China, especially economically, boosting tourism, trade and investment flows.

But unlike his predecessor Chen Shui-bian, an advocate of independence from China, Ma has been a relatively rare visitor at major drills carried out by the island’s military, exposing him to criticism from political opponents. Despite the detente between China and Taiwan under Ma, Beijing has refused to renounce the possible use of force against the island, should it declare formal independence. China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still considers the island part of its territory awaiting reunification. — AFP

KABUL, Afghanistan: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta yesterday pressured Pakistan to do more to root out the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani terrorist network from its territory, saying that US officials are “reaching the limits of our patience.”

The Haqqani group has been blamed for several attacks on Americans in Afghanistan, including last year’s attack against the US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul. It also has ties to the Taliban and has emerged as perhaps the biggest threat to stability in Afghanistan.

US lawmakers from both parties have been urging the US State Department to designate the Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization.

The US has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aid for its support in fighting Islamist militants. Despite pressure from the US, Pakistan has remained reluctant to go after insurgents, particularly the Haqqani network. Panetta’s remarks capped two days of blunt commentary on Pakistan. “It is an increasing concern that the safe haven exists and that there are those - likely Haqqanis - who are making use of that to attack our forces,” Panetta said at a news conference with Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

“We are reaching the limits of our patience here, and for that reason it is extremely important that Pakistan take action to prevent this kind of safe haven from taking place and allowing terrorists to use their country as a safety net in order to conduct their attacks on our forces.”

Panetta then underscored his point. “We have made that very clear time and time again and we will continue to do that, but as I said, we are reaching the limits of our patience.” For more than three decades the Haqqani network, led by the elderly Jalaluddin Haqqani, has maintained headquarters in Pakistan’s Miran Shah district of North Waziristan. Pakistan has denied aiding the Haqqanis, and the Pakistani military has refused to carry out an offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region, saying it would unleash a tribal-wide war that Pakistan could not contain.

Panetta said the US continues to see Haqqani fighters moving from Pakistan into Afghanistan to attack American forces - most recently on June 1 when he said

KABUL: US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks with US troops during an event in Kabul yesterday. — AFP they detonated a truck bomb and then tried to storm Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province. Some US service members were wounded in the attack, which was repelled by coalition forces.

Fourteen heavily armed militants were killed. “It is very important that Pakistan take steps to deal with this threat,” Panetta said. “We have made that clear time and time again. We will continue to make that clear that it is an intolerable situation to have those attacking our people, our forces, have the convenience of being able to return to a safe haven in Pakistan.”

Panetta’s explicit description of frustration, which he also voiced in his visit to neighboring India, appeared to signal a somewhat tougher stance and a suggestion that the US is becoming even more willing and quick to strike terrorist targets inside Pakistan. A senior US official acknowledged yesterday that the recent increase in drone strikes on insurgents in Pakistan is due in part to frustration with Islamabad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations. The Afghan defense minister also said he thought Pakistan could do more to eliminate the sanctuaries that militants are

using in Pakistan, saying the Pakistanis are in a better position to provide intelligence or take law enforcement or military actions.

“I do hope that gradually they will come to the conclusion to cooperate with us,” Wardak said. “If that cooperation starts, we will be able to disrupt their command and control, disrupt their training, disrupt their weapon recruitment and also will be able to eliminate or capture their leadership.”

“Without doing that, I think our endeavor to achieve victory will become much more difficult.” Panetta arrived in Afghanistan yesterday to take stock of progress in the war and discuss plans for the troop drawdown, even as violence spiked in the south. Making his fourth trip to the war zone as defense secretary, Panetta acknowledged the increase in attacks and that the insurgents appear to be much more organized. But he insisted that the overall level of violence was down, and that commanders had expected the uptick. Panetta said he wants to get an assessment of the situation from the top US commander, Marine Gen. John Allen, and see how confident he is about NATO’s ability to confront the threats both from the Taliban and the Haqqani network. —AP

Bomb kills eight at Pakistani madrassa

PINGTUNG: US-made White phosphorous hits the target during the Lien Yung military drill in southern Pingtung county yesterday. Taiwan displayed its military might at the first live-fire drill simulating Chinese invasion at the very beginning of the second term in office of Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou. — AFP

QUETTA: A bomb attack killed at least eight people and wounded more than 20 others outside a Pakistani madrassa in the troubled southwestern city of Quetta yesterday, police said.

The bomb was detonated outside the gates of the Sunni Muslim seminary as a degree ceremony for students was being held inside, police told reporters. It was the deadliest attack in the city since a car bomb killed 15 people last December. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the city suffers from Islamist attacks, sectarian violence between the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslim sects and a separatist insurgency. Doctor Mohammad Haider at the state-run Civil Hospital said three boys and five men were killed. He said the children were aged seven, nine and 14. Police official Hamid Shakeel confirmed the death toll and said that more than 20 people were wounded. “It was a remote-controlled bomb,” he told AFP. Haji Khudai Nazar, 40, who was wounded in the abdomen, told AFP that he had come to attend the function as a guest. “I came with two friends to attend the event. As soon as we got out of the car, there was a huge blast. Dust covered the whole area.

People were crying. I don’t know what happened afterwards-I fell unconscious,” he said.

Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. Baluch rebels rose up in the province in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from oil, gas and mineral resources in the region. It is one of the most deprived regions of Pakistan despite its wealth in resources, and human rights activists have heavily condemned the military for summary arrests and executions in its bid to put down the separatist insurgency. Pakistan sits on the frontline of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda and since July 2007 has been gripped by a local Taliban-led insurgency, concentrated largely in the northwest.

In the last five years, attacks blamed on Islamist bombers have killed more than 5,000 people according to an AFP tally. Its relations with the United States are in disarray and for the last six months Pakistan has imposed a blockade on NATO supplies crossing overland into Afghanistan since US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the border. — AFP

International FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

After Wisconsin loss, more perils loom for Obama WASHINGTON: The bitter loss this week of a highstakes state election is the latest sign that President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats are losing momentum five months before the November elections - and it could get a lot worse. The failure to oust the Republican governor of Wisconsin on Tuesday followed last week’s abysmal unemployment numbers, and comes shortly before the Supreme Court will pass judgment on Obama’s signature legislative achievement - the 2010 law overhauling the nation’s health care system.

Facing an election-year summer fraught with political peril, the Democrats are struggling to revive supporters’ spirits and counteract developments that could energize Republicans and solidify public opinion that the country is on the wrong track and in need of new leadership. In a video pep talk to supporters this week, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina acknowledged the challenge. “We need to stay focused, work hard and ignore the ups and downs,” he said. If the conservativedominated Supreme Court strikes down all or part of the health care law, it could further demoralize Democrats who invested more than a year - and quite a

few political careers - to secure the bill’s passage.

The Supreme Court is also set to decide on the Obama administration’s challenge to Arizona’s tough immigration law. And in Arizona, aside from the big immigration case, the Democrats are fighting to hold onto the House seat of Gabrielle Giffords, who resigned in January to focus on recovering from a gunshot wound suffered in a January 2011 shooting that killed six people. Just weeks ago, the momentum seemed to favor Obama. Recovery from the Great Recession that started under former President George W. Bush continued, albeit sluggishly. Republican challenger Mitt Romney was struggling to energize the most conservative voters, who doubted him and largely supported his opponents during a divisive Republican primary race.

Now, Romney is taking heart from the Wisconsin election where voters rejected a bid by labor unions and Democrats to oust Gov. Scott Walker in the middle of his term. Walker, a rising Republican star who enjoys support from the deeply conservative tea party movement, soundly defeated his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Republicans swiftly cast the victory as an endorsement of Walker’s tough eco-

nomic policies including stripping public employee unions of their collective bargain rights and steep budget cuts to education - and a repudiation of the direction Obama and the Democrats want to take the US Romney said voters in Wisconsin “recognize we just can’t keep going down the same path that we’re on. It ends up in calamity. ... I’m convinced that the American people recognize, or they will by the time the election comes, that we’ve got a very stark choice, two very different paths.”

Obama has repeatedly characterized the election in similar terms, telling Americans that they must choose which direction they want the country to take. At a San Francisco fundraiser Wednesday, Obama told donors that “the other side” doesn’t have any new ideas. “And because they don’t have any new ideas, what they will do is spend 500, 700, a billion dollars in negative ads and their simple message will be: This is someone else’s fault and that’s enough reason for you to vote for us,” he said. With Wisconsin voters signaling support for the Republican path, the Midwestern state has suddenly moved up on the battleground list in the presidential race. Obama easily carried Wisconsin four years ago but may face a harder time in November. —AP

Jury selected in Sandusky trial

Ex-assistant coach faces 52 counts of child sexual abuse

AGATE BEACH: This handout photograph obtained courtesy of the Oregon Parks and Recreation (OPRD) shows residents standing beside a huge floating dock June 5, 2012 in Agate Beach, Oregon. — AFP

Dock from Japan tsunami washes ashore in Oregon OREGON: When the tsunami hit the northern coast of Japan last year, the waves ripped four dock floats the size of freight train boxcars from their pilings in the fishing port of Misawa and turned them over to the whims of wind and currents. One floated up on a nearby island. Two have never been seen again. And one made an incredible journey across 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) of ocean that ended this week on a popular Oregon beach.

Along for the ride were hundreds of millions of individual organisms, including a tiny species of crab, a species of algae, and a little starfish all native to Japan that have scientists worried if they get a chance to spread out on the West Coast.

“This is a very clear threat,” said John Chapman, a research scientist at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, where the dock float washed up early Tuesday morning. “It’s exactly like saying you threw a bowling ball into a China shop. It’s going to break something. But will it be valuable or cheap glass. It’s incredibly difficult to predict what will happen next.” Plans were being considered by state authorities to scrape all the living things off the dock and bury them in the sand, so

they would not spread, Chapman said.

While scientists expect much of the floating debris to follow the currents to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an accumulation of millions of tons of small bits of plastic floating in the northern Pacific, tsunami debris that can catch the wind is making its way to North America. In recent weeks a soccer ball washed up in Alaska, and a Harley Davidson motorcycle in a shipping container in British Columbia. Just how the dock float - 165 tons of concrete and steel measuring 66 feet (20 meters) long, 19 feet (6 meters) wide and 7 feet (2 meters) high - happened to turn up on Agate Beach a mile north of Newport, Oregon, was probably determined within sight of land in Japan, said Jan Hafner, a computer programmer in the University of Hawaii’s International Pacific Research Center, which is tracking the 1.5 million tons of tsunami debris estimated to still be floating across the Pacific. That’s where the winds, currents and tides are most variable, due to changes in the coastline and the features of the land, even for two objects a few yards apart, he said. Once the dock float got into the ocean, it was pushed steadily by the prevailing westerly winds, and the North Pacific Current. —AP

BELLEFONTE: Jury selection ended on Wednesday in the child sex abuse trial of former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, setting the stage for arguments to begin next week in a case that rocked college athletics. The seven women and five men on the jury will consider the charges against Sandusky - 52 counts of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period. He has pleaded not guilty and faces more than 500 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Prosecutors have accused Sandusky, 68, of meeting the boys through a charity he founded, the Second Mile, and have claimed that some of the assaults occurred at Penn State facilities.

“The trial in this case will start on Monday morning. We anticipate that it will take at most three weeks and be done by the last day of June,” Judge John Cleland told jurors, according to a pool report by journalists covering the selection process. The sexual abuse charges shook the school, prompted the firing of legendary football coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier, and put an unprecedented focus on sexual predation. At least eight of jurors have ties to Penn State, underscoring the university’s central role in the area.

Among them, one is a professor, one works as an administrative assistant, another is a dance teacher in the continuing education program, and one is a 2007 graduate.

The white-haired Sandusky, who wore tan slacks and a sport coat, seemed increasingly upbeat and animated as jury selection progressed, according to a pool report. During a lull in the proceedings, he joked with reporters, laughing: “What did you guys do to deserve me? How did you

guys get stuck with this? Ay yi yi.”

Christopher Mallios, an attorney adviser with AEquitas, a resource group for sex crimes prosecutors, said the high percentage of jurors with Penn State ties would not necessarily help Sandusky. Mallios, himself a Penn State graduate, said jurors with Penn State ties could be a “double-edged sword” given the damage done to the school by the Sandusky scandal, he said. “I don’t necessarily see it as a winning strategy to have people with Penn State ties on the jury,” he said.

Along with the 12 regular jurors, four alternates were selected. The jury will not be sequestered.

MOVING FAST Paterno, the winningest coach in major US college football history, died of lung cancer in January, just over two months after his firing. Potential jurors were told his wife Sue and son Jay may be called as witnesses in the

trial. Experts had expected a prolonged jury selection process from a 220-member pool, given the close ties of the area’s small towns and farms and Penn State’s role as the biggest local employer. Instead, Cleland, defense attorney Joe Amendola and prosecutor Joseph McGettigan III picked a jury in less than two days.

Cleland at least twice overturned Amendola’s requests to bar jurors, speeding the process. Media, except for pool reporters, were banned from jury selection in Bellefonte, a town of 6,200 people about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of State College, the site of Penn State’s main campus. The case has drawn intense media attention, with about two dozen television trucks parked outside the Greek Revival courthouse in Bellefonte’s 19th-century downtown and reporters trampling the courthouse lawn. Opening arguments are scheduled to take place Monday. —Reuters

BELLEFONTE: Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, left, leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, with attorneys Karl Reminger, right, and Joe Amendola, front, after a jury was selected for Sandusky’s trial on child sexual abuse charges. Opening arguments in the case are scheduled for Monday. — AP

International FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Students, parents hurt when tour bus flips in KY

KENTUCKY: First responders carry a patient to a waiting ambulance at the scene of a passenger coach bus accident on Ky. 728 about five miles east of Cub Run, Kentucky on Wednesday.

Dozens of students and parents were injured Wednesday night when a tour bus carrying them on a trip to Washington, DC, turned over in south-central Kentucky moments into the trip, officials said. — AP

MUNFORDVILLE: Dozens of students and parents were injured Wednesday night when a tour bus carrying them on a trip to Washington, DC, turned over in south-central Kentucky moments into the trip, officials said. About two dozen people aboard the bus were transported for medical treatment, Hart County schools Superintendent Ricky Line said. One person suffered a head injury, Line said, and others had broken bones. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Line said.

In addition to the driver, the bus was carrying 34 students and 20 parents. Line said the students, from the Cub Run community, were mostly sixth- to eighth-graders; some were from high school. The trip was not school-related.

“The school didn’t have anything to do with it except it’s our precious cargo,” he said. The bus was operated by New Image Travel of Evansville, Ind., for WorldStrides. Rick Juelfs of New Image said company officials were on their way to the

DEA makes drug smuggling arrests in Puerto Rico airport Group accused of transferring 14 tons of cocaine to US SAN JUAN: US federal agents swept through Puerto Rico’s largest airport and other areas early Wednesday, arresting dozens of baggage handlers, airline workers and others suspected of smuggling millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine aboard commercial flights for at least a decade. Tourists gawked when agents with the US Drug Enforcement Administration arrested one suspect as he arrived to work at the Luis Munoz Marin airport in San Juan. At least 33 people were arrested in Puerto Rico, along with two workers at Miami’s international airport and another at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, the DEA said. Those arrested are suspected of belonging to two Puerto Rico-based drug trafficking organizations that worked with each other, including one that was run by a woman, officials said. “We have dismantled the two most significant drug operations at the airport,” said Pedro Janer, acting special agent in charge of the DEA’s Caribbean division. The suspects are accused of helping move some 14 tons (13 metric tons) of cocaine and several pounds (kilograms) of heroin from Puerto Rico to several US cities including Miami, New York, Boston and Newark, New Jersey, according to the DEA. One group operated from 1999 to 2009 and the other from 2010 to 2012, the DEA said.

The 45 suspects include 18 who worked for American Airlines and 19 who worked for Ground Motive Dependable, a local company that provides ramp and baggage services, US Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said.

“They put the security of all passengers at risk,” she said. DEA agents also sought to arrest one employee with Cape Air and a government worker with Puerto Rico’s Port Authority. One of the suspects arrested, Eugene Romero Santiago, also was the driver of Puerto Rico Sen. Lornna Soto, who represents the district where the airport is located and is a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.

Janer said gang members would enter the airport with drugs in their bags, on themselves or in their cars, then hand the drugs over to someone else inside airport bathrooms once they cleared security. Some of the drugs allegedly belonged to Angel Ayala Vazquez, formerly considered Puerto Rico’s top drug dealer and nicknamed “Angelo Millones,” the DEA said. He was arrested in

2009 and later convicted. A spokesman for American Airlines, Ed Martelle, said by email that the company always assists law enforcement in such cases and helps “prosecute the individuals responsible to the fullest extent of the law.”We have a zero-tolerance policy for any employee when it comes to this type of activity,” he said. Vivian Sanchez, a spokeswoman with Ground Motive Dependable, said in an email that the company always has cooperated with federal authorities and noted that all employees undergo a yearly screening as part of a federal requirement.

She also said prospective hires face a prequalification process that can take up to three weeks. “Security is an issue of vital importance for GMD,” she said.

The arrests are a continuation of a September 2009 operation that targeted nine American Airlines workers accused of participating in the same drug ring. Federal authorities arrested ground crews with Ground Motive Dependable on similar charges in August 2010. Bernardo Vazquez, director of Puerto Rico’s Port Authority, said he did not know whether the airport took additional security measures after the 2009 operation because he was not director at the time. He said he would meet with federal authorities to see how to improve security.

He also said all airport workers are screened before they are hired. “We give them an ID

because we understand that they are suitable to work at an airport,” he said. “We had no idea.” Puerto Rico is a major drug shipment point in the Caribbean, and the US territory is seeking more federal funding to fight drug trafficking, with officials noting that more than 70 percent of the cocaine that arrives on the island is destined for the mainland.

“Congress has recognized there’s a problem,” said Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s new police chief, adding that it should be easier to catch drug traffickers because drugs only arrive by air or water. “It’s not that difficult.

We don’t have tunnels. They can’t drive it here.” In the last two years, the DEA and other agencies have reported an increase in the size of cocaine shipments seized around Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Nearly 8,200 pounds (3,700 kilograms) have been seized as of May this year, compared with 10,800 pounds (4,900 kilograms) seized last year and more than 8,300 pounds (3,800 kilograms) in 2010. Gov. Luis Fortuno said he is requesting more equipment and personnel for the Coast Guard, the DEA and other federal agencies to help reduce the number of drugs trafficked through the island. “This is an issue of national security,” he said, “not just of Puerto Rico.” — AP

SAN JUAN: Drug Enforcement Administration officers escort a handcuffed suspect after his arrest on drug smuggling charges in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday. — AP

scene Wednesday night.

A phone message and email seeking comment from WorldStride were not immediately answered. Kentucky State Police Trooper Jonathan Biven of the Bowling Green post said the bus crashed on Kentucky Route 728 in Hart County, about 70 miles south of Louisville. The injured were being transported by ambulance or private vehicle to area hospitals to be checked out. Hardin Memorial Hospital house manager Jerry Taylor said about seven people were brought there by ambulance with injuries that were not life-threatening.

The bus had traveled just a few miles before the wreck happened. “It happened in the first seven minutes of a 14- to 15-hour bus trip, and it hadn’t even left the county,” Line said. Line said he was relieved the injuries were not more serious and recognized the help of emergency workers, who scrambled ambulances to several different hospitals. — AP

Canada police: Notes found in body part packages MONTREAL: Police investigating the grisly killing of a Chinese student said that mailed packages containing the man’s body parts also included notes. The case was discovered last week when Jun Lin’s left hand and left foot were mailed to Canada’s top political parties. The investigation spread to the other end of the country this week as more body parts were mailed from Montreal to two schools in Vancouver. Those parcels contained a right hand and a right foot, and police said they would conduct DNA tests to confirm a match, Montreal Police Cmdr.

Ian Lafreniere said. “They were the same limbs we were looking for,” Lafreniere said. The victim’s head is still unaccounted for. Lafreniere said the parcels mailed to the Conservative and Liberal parties, and at least one of the Vancouver packages contained a note. He declined to say to whom they were addressed, or what they said, for fear of encouraging copycat crimes. Lin’s lover, porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, was arrested in Berlin on Monday and could be extradited to Canada by the end of the week. Lafreniere said Magnotta had either lived in Vancouver or passed through there at one point, but could not otherwise say if he had a connection to those two schools. In 2003, Magnotta worked on a porn movie for a company that was based in Vancouver, according to Jeff Vanzetti, webmaster for the US based Internet Adult Film Database. It was not immediately known if the movie was filmed in Vancouver, however.

Investigators say Magnotta videotaped the killing and dismemberment in his apartment and posted it online. The video also shows the suspect eating parts of the body, police said. A copy of the video viewed by The Associated Press did not show anyone eating the body but did show a man using a fork and knife on it. Police suggested they have access to more extensive video of the killing, possibly an unedited version.

Magnotta was caught at an Internet cafe in Berlin after evading police for days while he partied in Paris. He has told German authorities he would not fight extradition. German authorities are waiting on Canada’s formal extradition request, Martin Steltner, a spokesman for Berlin prosecutors, said Wednesday. The Canadian Embassy in Berlin declined to comment on when Ottawa may file the official papers seeking extradition. Magnotta arrived in Berlin on Saturday on a bus from Paris and stayed with a friend, or someone he met on the Internet, for two nights before he was captured, Steltner said.

Investigators in Germany were looking for more information on the person. Lafreniere said they saw video Wednesday that the suspect might have made while on the run. Lin’s parents, meanwhile, arrived in Montreal from China late Tuesday and met with investigators and officials from Concordia university on Wednesday, said Zheng Xu, a press spokesman at the Chinese consulate. Lin, 33, was registered as an undergraduate in the department of engineering and computer science. Yan Shi, the head of Concordia’s Chinese student association, met the family and described the painful scene at the airport when they arrived Tuesday. “It’s heartbreaking,” Yan Shi said. “Lin’s mother was very emotional. She was crying all the time ... She could barely walk. We had to help her.”—AP

Business FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Samsung fights Apple move to block Galaxy

LinkedIn suffers data breach

PAGE 22 PAGE 20

MANILA: Environmental activists from Greenpeace dressed as “coal demons” protest in front of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) during the 7th Annual Clean Energy meeting yesterday. The coal demons, painted black, called on the ADB to stop funding projects using coal in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. — AFP

Spain passes market test Diplomatic pressure remains on euro-zone

MADRID/LONDON: Spain weathered funding pressures in European credit markets yesterday and managed to raise money at an affordable if rising cost, while behind-the-scenes planning for a likely rescue of its debt-stricken banks intensified. Madrid sold 2.1 billion euros ($2.6 billion) of government bonds, paying just over 6 percent to sell 10-year debt, up from 5.74 percent last month. That laid to rest - at least for now - fears raised by Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro on Tuesday that Spain was being shut out of credit markets. Despite a rally in stocks, bonds and the euro owing partly to expectations of action by central banks to revive economic growth, the euro zone remains under pressure from investors and global partners to act decisively - and quickly - to resolve its debt crisis.

While Greece is a major concern, the most immediate threat comes from Spain, where the banking sector is saddled with bad property loans and may need 40 billion euros of new capital as a bare minimum to shore it up.

“Talk of a rescue for Spanish banks is the thing that is reducing risk aversion in the markets,” said Alessandro Giansanti, a bond strategist with ING bank in Amsterdam, who added that such talk had improved the environment for Spanish bonds.

France, the euro zone’s number two econ-

omy after Germany, continued to benefit from its safe-haven status, selling 7.84 billion euros of bonds at record low yields despite announcing a partial reversal of the previous government’s pension reform on Wednesday that runs counter to EU policies. US President Barack Obama and Canadian and Japanese leaders telephoned Europe’s main leaders this week to express concern at the worsening crisis and press for stronger action - ratcheting up hopes ahead of an EU summit on June 2829. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel doused expectations that the summit will produce a major breakthrough towards a tighter fiscal and banking union in the 17nation currency bloc, saying progress would take longer. In a television interview broadcast yesterday, she said the euro area was moving inevitably towards a political union ceding more national sovereignty, and that would lead to more of a two-speed Europe, with non-euro states in the slow lane.

“I don’t believe that there will be one single summit that will decide on a big bang,” Merkel told ARD. “But what we have been doing for some time, and on which a working plan will certainly be presented in June, is to say we need more Europe.” “Whoever is in a currency union will have to move closer together. We have to be open to make it possible for everyone to participate. But we can-

not stand still because some do not want to go with us,” she said. Most EU officials see the process of integration taking five-10 years at best, a timescale much longer than the view of the markets, although economists also argue that agreeing steps towards closer union will itself help boost market sentiment.

Rift with Britain As the EU’s biggest economy and largest contributor, Germany holds the key to how the bloc comes to Spain’s rescue, and whether Europe is able to agree on a banking union with a joint deposit guarantee and a bank resolution fund, as envisaged by the European Central Bank and the European Commission. Merkel’s remarks underscored a growing rift with non-euro member Britain, a longstanding brake on European integration, which said bluntly on Thursday that it would not take any part in a euro zone banking union.

Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) George Osborne told BBC radio: “There is no way that Britain is going to be part of any euro zone banking union. “I think Britain will require certain safeguards if there is a fullblown banking union.” His comments highlighted the potential complexity of EU negotiations on the issue, since London is the euro zone’s main financial centre.

Osborne urged the euro zone to use its bailout fund to recapitalise Spain’s troubled banks, which are reeling from bad debts left from the bursting of a property bubble, aggravated by a deep recession and unemployment approaching 25 percent. Spain says it is awaiting the outcome of an International Monetary Fund report on its banking sector and an independent audit of its banks’ capital needs before deciding on any recourse to Europe to help recapitalise them.

The IMF report goes before the global lender’s board on Friday and will be issued on Monday, raising expectations that EU and Spanish officials may have the outlines of a possible rescue plan worked out when the numbers are released. One senior EU official indicated that Spain could take a “minimalist” approach to recapitalising the banks, requiring 30-40 billion euros for four or five institutions, or else a “maximalist” line which might need as much as 100 billion.

“Politicians tend to prefer doing the least that’s required, so in the case of Spain, it seems likely that a minimalist approach will be taken,” the official said. Spain has so far made no application for European aid, and officials say it is determined to avoid the kind of humiliating policy conditions and intrusive quarterly EU/IMF inspections imposed on Greece, Ireland and Portugal.—Reuters

Business FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Moroccan PM promises poor cash from subsidy reforms RABAT: Morocco’s prime minister promised direct grants of cash to the poor under a planned reform of the costly subsidy system, after his Islamist-led government imposed last week one of the sharpest rises in fuel prices in several years. Abdelilah Benkirane invited needy Moroccans to open bank and postal accounts to ensure they benefit from the reform, one of the boldest moves taken by his government, led since January by Justice and Development, a moderate and former opposition Islamist party. On May 29, General Affairs and Governance Minister Najib Boulif told Reuters the subsidy reform would take place before end-

June amid worsening economic indicators and pressing demands for jobs and less poverty. Speaking to state television channels, Benkirane however has not fixed a precise timeframe for the completion of the reform, saying only the “gradual” process may be completed before the end of his government’s mandate, due towards the end of 2016. “The subsidy fund was set up to help the poor and the needy ... We are going ahead with the reform of the subsidy fund ... We will seek to fix the expenditure on the subsidy fund and directly send that (money) to the .... needy people.

“To do this, I will need statistics - which I

will eventually have - and Moroccans will need ID cards, (they need to be) poor and vulnerable and have a bank or post account,” said Benkirane, who seldom allows state television reporters to ask questions. Banking penetration in Morocco barely reaches 50 percent due mostly to an important grey economy. Amid an accute and now-chronic shortage in liquidity, banks will be looking forward to adding new customers, from a quarter of the 33million population that lives in poverty.

Subsidies favour affluent Government officials say close to 70 percent of the funds spent on subsidies

goes to the wealthiest fifth. Reforming the subsidy system has taken centre stage after Morocco’s budget and current account deficits stood at around 6 percent of its $100 billion GDP in 2011, close to the amount of money it spent the same year to subsidize wheat, sugar and energy products. In 2012, Rabat raised taxes on alcohol and imposed a new tax on firms to develop poor areas and help quash discontent over social inequalities. But it also reduced budgeted spending on subsidies by 36 percent from its level last year.

“This (subsidy) fund has to benefit those who need it the most to restore some social balance.—Reuters

LinkedIn suffers data breach LinkedIn issues security tips

WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke arrives at Capitol Hill yesterday. — AP

Gold falls after Federal meeting LONDON: Gold slid yesterday after the Federal Reserve’s top policymaker offered few hints on the likely course of US monetary policy, thereby boosting the dollar and offsetting the lift to bullion from a Chinese rate cut. China’s central bank cut benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points in a surprise move to shore up slackening economic growth, its first rate reduction since the depths of the 2008/09 financial crisis. The dollar fell in response.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank was prepared to protect the economy from any worsening in the strains on the financial system right now, but did not say that the bank would take additional measures to keep monetary policy ultraaccommodative. Spot gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,625.95 an ounce at 1328 GMT, off an earlier low of $1,612.64 an ounce, while US gold futures for August delivery were down $6.90 an ounce at $1,627.30.

Prices have eased a touch this week after posting their biggest one-day rise in more than three years on Friday after disappointing US jobs data reignited speculation that the Fed would unleash another round of monetary easing. “The market has already reacted to the weaker jobs data, so that will be in everyone’s mind. It will be important for gold to hold the $1,600 level,” HSBC analyst Jim Steel said.

“Gold hasn’t been behaving as a safe-haven, it is more likely to track indications on monetary policy.” The euro surrendered all gains against the dollar after Bernanke’s initial comments, while Treasury prices rose and U.S. stocks rallied sharply. “The gold bulls are desperately hoping for further mention of some form of stimulus (from the Fed),” David Govett of Marex Spectron said in a note. “If some form of this is put on the table, then I expect gold will react very positively.” “If however, as I personally believe, the Fed leaves things as they are for the time being, this will be viewed as negative and gold will fall.”

Indian gold prices fell almost 1 percent from the previous day’s record high as the rupee hit its strongest in two weeks and global gold prices fell, though physical traders waited for bigger falls before buying. Scrap flow remained firm. From a chart perspective, gold is looking better positioned for further gains after Friday’s push higher, analysts who study past price moves for clues as to the futures direction of trade said. However, it has not firmly re-established an upward trend.— Reuters

BOSTON: LinkedIn said on Wednesday that it had a data breach that compromised the passwords of some of the social network’s members. LinkedIn engineer Vicente Silveira confirmed on the website’s blog that some passwords were “compromised.” “We are continuing to investigate this situation,” he said. LinkedIn said it sent emails to members whose passwords were affected, explaining how to reset them since they were no longer valid on the site. LinkedIn, which made its stock debut last year, is a social media company that caters to companies seeking employees and people scouting for jobs.

It has more than 161 million members worldwide. One of the Mountain View, California-based company’s main initiatives is to grow internationally - 61 percent of its membership is located outside the United States.

Marcus Carey, security researcher at Boston-based Rapid7, said he believed the attackers had been inside LinkedIn’s network for at least several days, based on an analysis of the type of information stolen and quantity of data posted on forums.

“While LinkedIn is investigating the breach, the attackers may still have access to the system,” Carey warned.

“If the attackers are still entrenched in the network, then users who have already changed their passwords may have to do so a second time.” Officials with LinkedIn declined to comment on whether an attack might still be in progress. The breach is the latest in a string of high-profile hacks affecting companies and governments around the world, which have put the personal information of millions at risk.

News of the breach surfaced on Wednesday when computer security experts said they discovered files with some 6.4 million encrypted passwords on underground websites where criminal hackers frequently exchange stolen information. Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with British computer security software maker Sophos said that it is not yet clear if all of those passwords belong

MOUNTAIN VIEW: In this file photo, LinkedIn Corp. the professional networking Web site, displays its logo outside the headquarters. — AP

to LinkedIn members.

The files included only passwords and not corresponding email addresses, which means that people who download the files and decrypt, or unscramble, the passwords will not easily be able to access any accounts with compromised passwords. Yet analysts said it is likely that the hackers who stole the passwords also have the corresponding email addresses and would be able to access the accounts.

Needs more salt?

At least two security experts who examined the files containing the LinkedIn passwords said the company had failed to use best practices for protecting the data. The experts said that LinkedIn used a vanilla or basic technique for encrypting, or scrambling, the passwords which allowed hackers to quickly unscramble all passwords after they figured out the formula by which any single password had been encrypted.

The social network could have made it extremely tedious for the passwords to be unscrambled by using a technique known as “salting”,

which means adding a secret code to each password before it is encrypted.

“What they did is considered to be poor practice,” said Mary Landesman, security researcher with Cloudmark, a company that helps secure messaging systems.

LinkedIn officials declined to comment on the criticism, saying it was discussing the breach only on its official blog. (http://blog.linkedin.com) Silveira said in the blog that the company just recently put in place new security measures to protect customer passwords, including the use of salting techniques.

Last year, a security researcher warned that LinkedIn had flaws in the way it managed communications with browsers to authorize logins, making accounts more vulnerable to attack. The company responded by tightening its procedures for logins.

LinkedIn was co-founded by former PayPal executive Reid Hoffman in 2002 and makes money selling marketing services and subscriptions to companies and job seekers. LinkedIn shares closed 8 cents higher at $93.08 on Wednesday. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Greek ship magnates stay afloat amidst choppy economic waters ATHENS: Greece’s economy may be on its knees, but as evidenced in Athens at the world’s biggest maritime trade fair this week, the global titans that are its shipping magnates are still standing tall-for now. “Shipping is an international industry,” said Theodore Vokos, organiser of the biennial Posidonia fair, an event in its fifth decade this year bringing together a record 1,870 exhibitors from 87 countries, many from Asia. “Therefore the good thing for Greek shipping is that it is not affected by the Greek crisis,” he said.

Greece is in its fifth year of recession, unemployment is 20 percent, its debts are so high and its credibility among investors so low that it has had to be bailed out twice. It may leave the eurozone after elections later this month. But the country’s shipping industry is still second to none, with Greek firms controlling 16.2 percent of the world’s “deadweight tonnage” shipping capacity, followed by Japan with 15.8 percent, a United Nations report for 2011 showed.

Owners from Germany, Japan and China possess more actual ships, but in terms of nationally flagged and nationally owned tonnage, Greece’s 3,200-strong fleet continues to be “by far” the world’s largest, the UN says. For Greece, the industry accounts for around six percent of the country’s economic output. Between 2000 and 2010, it contributed 140 billion euros ($175 billion) to the economy, representing half the national debt of 2009.

However, the families that own the industry, the modern-day equivalents of legends like Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos, are hardly flavour of the month in the current crisis. While ordinary Greeks have had to swallow hefty cuts to their pensions and salaries, shipowners have been accused of failing to pull their weight and lacking solidarity in a time of national crisis.

“The Greek state must support and respect the significant potential of the sector which has established Greece at the summit of the global maritime industry,” Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos said as he opened Posidonia. But he added: “I also call upon the Greek shipowners to support our country in these difficult times. You have done so in the past, but today, more than ever before, Greece needs new investments, new job opportunities and more liquidity.”

Alexis Tsipras, the firebrand head of Greece’s leftist Syriza party, which polls indicate could come first in elections on June 17, has vowed to close the constitutional loophole that largely exempts shipping firms from tax. Shipowners, though, are standing firm. “If the shipowners leave Greece, then approximately 200,000 people will lose their jobs because if shipowners move to Singapore, they will not relocate (workers from) their ship management offices with them,” warned George Karageorgiou, chief executive of Globus Maritime Ltd, in Ship Management International magazine.

“Shipping is not part of the problem. We are part of the solution,” said John Lyras, chairman of the Posidonia coordinating committee and ex-chairman of the Union of Greek Shipowners. The industry in any case faces choppy waters ahead, with the global economy still wobbly-partly because of Greecetoo many ships chasing too little cargo, high oil prices and banks coy about providing loans. On May 31, Moody’s said its outlook for the global shipping industry over the next 12-18 months remained negative. In 2011, the Greek shipping industry saw profits fall 8.6 percent. — AFP

Signs of economic life silence UK central bank Economists still view strong chance of future QE

LONDON: The Bank of England decided not to inject help for Britain’s struggling economy yesterday, as signs of resilience kept recovery hopes alive while the euro zone works on a fix to its festering debt crisis. Many economists had seen a strong probability that the central bank would reverse last month’s decision to stop gilt purchases after a slump in a key gauge of British factory activity and calls from the International Monetary Fund to consider looser policy. But the chances of that ebbed away yesterday after a survey of purchasing managers in the services sector - which represents a far bigger chunk of the UK economy than manufacturing - unexpectedly held firm.

“For now the (BoE) are adopting a wait and see approach to the data, given there are still signs that the more domestic side of the economy is holding up and its concerns over the stickiness of inflation,” said David Tinsley, an economist at BNP Paribas. The BoE’s decision means that total gilt purchases to date will continue to stand at 325 billion pounds, and its key interest rate remains at a record low 0.5 percent, where it has been since March 2009.

The no-change decision by the BoE’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee follows a similar one by the European Central Bank on Wednesday to keep its main interest rate unchanged at 1 percent - although the People’s Bank of China surprised markets by cutting rates yesterday.

British government bond prices fell sharply and sterling rose to a one-week high versus the U.S. dollar after the BoE decision, reflecting the fact that markets had priced in an outside chance of more QE this month. “For the Committee to push the button on more QE in July we will most likely need to see some signs that external weakness is beginning to leech further into final domestic demand,” Tinsley said.

Mixed signals For now, the economic signals are mixed. May’s services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) unexpectedly held firm at April’s level of 53.3, and the British Retail Consortium reported a stronger-than-expected 3.4 percent annual rise in the value of retail sales.

These figures paint a much rosier picture of the economy than last week’s

manufacturing PMI, which slumped to its lowest level in three years at 45.9 deep into contractionary territory.

However, Britain’s persistently above-target inflation will also be weighing on members of the MPC as they consider whether to embark on more stimulus. Despite a big drop in April, British inflation is still high at 3 percent, and last month the BoE said it would take nine months longer than previously thought for it to return to its 2 percent target.

Since then, some BoE policymakers have played down the prospect of further stimulus, unless an escalation of the euro crisis worsens Britain’s economic prospects. Although a non-euro zone member, Britain has very strong economic ties to the bloc. Only one of the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee backed more QE in May, though for others the decision was finely balanced. The euro zone’s future still remains unclear, with Greece facing national elections on June 17 that could bring to power parties opposed to a bailout, while Spain is calling for euro-zone assistance to recapitalise its banks. — Reuters

Merkel set for two-speed Europe BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday that she would work towards a reinforced political union in Europe with willing partner countries even if that meant a two-speed approach. “We need more Europe... a budget union... and we need a political union first and foremost,” Merkel told German public television. “We must, step by step, cede responsibilities to Europe.” The German leader, who has been criticised for staunch opposition to some proposals to resolve the eurozone debt crisis, added: “We must not remain immobile because one country or another does not want to follow yet.”

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama discussed the crisis with Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in the latest in a series of calls with global leaders. British Prime Minister David Cameron has also called on Europe to come up with an “immediate plan” to resolve the eurozone crisis.

Cameron met Merkel for further talks in Germany yesterday.

European Union leaders are under intense pressure from their populations as well to take action to break the back of the two year-old crisis at a June 28-29 summit in Brussels.

But Merkel told German television that not all of the bloc’s problems could be solved with one summit meeting. The German chancellor said she did not believe “that one summit is capable of settling everything in one fell swoop.” What she wanted to do at the summit was to propose a framework for getting to a stronger political union, she added.

She explained again how she felt Europe could spur growth to help governments pay down their massive debts and reduce dogged public deficits. “Budget consolidation and growth are two sides of the same coin,” she said. Sustainable growth could only come from boosting the competitive positions of all EU members, Germany’s leader added. “We must, in each European country, confront our respective weaknesses,” Merkel said.

Speaking later at a podium discussion with students in Berlin, alongside Cameron and Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, she reiterated that there was no such thing as a magic solution to the euro crisis. “Calling for this one big bold stroke and then the euro crisis will be gone. This won’t work,” she insisted. “These problems have piled up over many years and now it will take some while to render this system fit for the future. It’s obviously in human nature to wish for this bold stroke but I don’t think it will work,” she added.

The debt crisis’ current focus is on the Spanish banking sector, and Finance Minister Luis De Guindos said Wednesday

that Madrid would decide how to fill a massive hole in the banks’ finances within two weeks. Madrid must come up with 80 billion euros ($100 billion) for bank recapitalisations in the midst of a deep recession brought on by the bursting of a Spanish real-estate bubble. The International Monetary Fund is to report on the state of Spain’s banks on June 11, with separate studies by outside consultants including the world’s biggest firms of auditors also due over the following week and months. — AFP

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to a student during a debate with about 100 students from 16 countries on citizen participation in political decisions at the chancellery yesterday.— AFP

Business FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Panasonic has no plan to invest in Olympus Olympus shareholders’ equity a mere 4.6% TOKYO: Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp has no plan to invest in Olympus Corp , President Fumio Ohtsubo told Reuters yesterday, contradicting a media report it would invest in the medical equipment maker Olympus, which is struggling to recover from an accounting scandal. Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday that Panasonic was making final arrangements to provide up to 50 billion yen ($630 million) in capital to Olympus.

“I don’t know where that information came from, not from us,” Ohtsubo said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association.

“There isn’t any,” he said when asked if Panasonic had a plan to invest in Olympus. Olympus last year admitted it used improper accounting to conceal huge investment losses under a scheme that began in the 1990s, after sacked British CEO Michael Woodford raised concerns in October about dubious book-keeping.

Shareholders’ equity in Olympus is now 4.6 percent of its total assets as of the end of March, far below the 20 percent level widely regarded as indicative of financial stability for a company, spurring speculation the endoscope maker will seek a capital injection in return for stock. To mend its dented bal-

ance sheet, the firm has considered bringing in a strategic investor, with Sony Corp, Fujifilm Holdings Corp and Terumo Corp, and Panasonic identified as possible candidates.

While Panasonic is interested in expanding its own healthcare business in a bid to tap a growing market, the company, which posted a record net loss in the year ended March 31, may balk at making a large financial commitment as it counts the cost of restructuring other units. Olympus shares, which surged to as high as 1,380 yen earlier in the day, were 1.6 percent higher at 1,360 yen in afternoon trading. — Reuters

Samsung fights Apple move to block Galaxy Apple accuses Samsung of infringing patents

SHANGHAI: In this photo, workers arrange the Chinese sign of a bank. — AP

China cuts key lending rate to boost economy BEIJING: China cut its benchmark lending rate yesterday for the first time in nearly four years, adding to efforts to reverse a sharp economic downturn. The interest rate on a oneyear loan will be cut by a quarter percentage point to 6.31 percent effective today, the central bank announced. It was the first rate cut since November 2008. Beijing has rolled out a series of measures to stimulate the economy after growth fell to a nearly three-year low of 8.1 percent in the first quarter and April factory output grew at its slowest rate since the 2008 crisis. Private sector analysts expect this quarter’s growth to fall further.

“The changes indicate mounting concern in Beijing over slowdown of growth,” said Credit Agricole CIB economist Dariusz Kowalczyk in a report. “We expect a boost to demand for lending as a result of the cuts, although the actual impact will be limited given low demand for credit.” The government has said it will pump billions of dollars into the economy through spending on building low-cost housing, airports and other public works. It also has approved a wave of major investments by state companies.

However, communist leaders are moving cautiously after their huge stimulus in response to the 2008 financial crisis fuelled inflation and a wasteful building boom. After spend-

ing two years tightening lending and investment curbs to cool an overheated economy, the government reversed course in December after exporters were hit by a plunge in global demand for Chinese goods.

On May 12, regulators cut the minimum amount of reserves Chinese banks are required to hold in another effort to boost lending. Analysts said that would have little effect because struggling businesses were unlikely to borrow.

Monthly data due to be reported this weekend are expected to show a further deceleration in industrial activity. Yesterday’s rate cut was small but in line with past moves by China’s central bank. Beijing tends to use small changes as a signal to banks, companies and consumers that it approves of more borrowing.

“The biggest impact of the move is likely to be on sentiment, both among businesses and consumers domestically” by showing Beijing is “bringing out the big guns to support growth,” Kowalczyk said.

“They are acting early enough and investors now that they have more ammunition if need be and a good track record in using it.” Among other measures in recent weeks, Beijing has announced 66 billion yuan ($10 billion) in spending on building affordable housing and 26.5 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) to subsidize sales of energy-efficient appliances. — AP

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co. said yesterday it will fight Apple’s move to stop US sales of its new Galaxy phone in the latest flare-up of an intellectual property battle between the world’s top smartphone makers. Samsung said it will vigorously oppose Apple’s request for a court to ban sales of the Galaxy S III smartphone and still plans to go ahead with the device’s scheduled release in the US on June 21. The South Korean company said in a statement that it will “demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S III is innovative and distinctive.”

On Tuesday, Apple Inc. asked a US district court to temporarily ban sales of the S III smartphone before its launch in the United States. The maker of the iPhone accused Samsung of infringing two Apple patents. The request, if accepted by the US District Court for Northern California, would deal a blow to Samsung’s attempt to get a headstart on sales of Apple’s next iPhone.

The S III smartphone went on sale in Europe on May 29 and will be offered by around 300 mobile carriers in Asia and North America later this month. The early launch puts

Samsung in a favorable position to take a bigger chunk of the lucrative smartphone market. While Apple is keeping mum on its annual iPhone upgrade, many analysts expect the new iPhone to go on sale as early as July.

Samsung has become the biggest threat to Apple’s clout in the mobile market as its Galaxy series of smartphones won popularity among consumers seeking an Android-powered device. Most market research firms say Samsung overtook Apple in smartphone shipments for the first time during the first three months of this year.

Samsung and Apple have been embroiled in bitter patent lawsuits in North America, Europe and Asia since Apple accused Samsung of copying its iPhone in April 2011.

Chief executives of the two companies met in San Francisco last month after a court instructed them to negotiate, but the talks didn’t produce a settlement. Amid the legal battles, the two companies continue to do business with each other. Samsung counts Apple as among its largest buyers of chips and display screens while Apple relies on Samsung for mobile components. — AP

India’s Reliance on investment drive MUMBAI: India’s largest private company, Reliance Industries, said yesterday will invest $18 billion over the next four to five years to expand in the country and more than double operating profit. Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, also told the firm’s annual general meeting in Mumbai that he had faith the nation’s economy, which is struggling with slow growth and high inflation, would beat its woes to “emerge stronger”. “The current difficulties faced by the Indian economy in my belief are temporary,” he said.

Energy giant Reliance in April said consolidated net profit fell 21.2 percent to 42.36 billion rupees ($830 million) in the three months ended March, from 53.76 billion rupees a year before. The firm blamed the weak results on declining output from its offshore gas fields. And last month, India’s oil minister said production from the Reliance’s main gas fields was expected to fall to a record low.

However, while announcing the 1 trillion rupee ($18 billion) investment move Ambani told the AGM the firm planned to achieve production of 60 million cubic metres of gas a day at the fields in the next three to four years. Reliance has held talks with India’s upstream regulator about how to lift production, seen as vital both for the company and to fuel the country’s economic growth. In other business, Ambani said plans to offer nationwide digital services were being finalised, while retail would be an important growth engine in the coming years. Shares in the Reliance rose 1.60 percent to 725.50 points on the benchmark 30share Sensex after the AGM. However, the firm’s stock, which lost 30 percent in 2011, continues to underperform the index this year. — AFP

MUMBAI: A shareholder sits underneath a poster bearing the portrait of Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani during the company’s annual general meeting yesterday. — AFP

POLAND GROUP GREECE RUSSIA CZECH REP.

NETHERLANDS DENMARK GERMANY PORTUGAL

Town

Date

Town

Date

Warsaw Poland - Greece Wroclaw Russia - Czech Rep. Warsaw Poland - Russia Wroclaw Greece - Czech Rep. Warsaw Greece - Russia Wroclaw

8 june

19:00 - 21:45 - 21:45 - 19:00 - 21:45 - 21:45

Kharkiv Netherlands - Denmark Lviv Germany - Portugal Kharkiv Netherlands - Germany Lviv Denmark - Portugal Kharkiv Portugal - Netherlands Lviv

9 june

-

Denmark - Germany

GROUP

A

8 june 12 june 12 june 16 june 16 june

Czech Rep. - Poland Quarter-finals 1 Warsaw

Hour

B

GROUP

C

Hour

9 june 13 june 13 june 17 june 17 june

SPAIN ITALY IRELAND CROATIA

Town

Date

Hour

19:00 - 21:45 - 21:45 - 19:00 - 21:45 - 21:45

Gdansk Spain - Italy Poznan Ireland - Croatia Gdansk Spain - Ireland Poznan Italy - Croatia Gdansk Croatia - Spain Poznan

10 june

-

Italy - Ireland

10 june 14 june 14 june 18 june 18 june

21.45

D Town

Date

19:00 - 21:45 - 21:45 - 19:00 - 21:45 - 21:45

Kiev Ukraine - Sweden Donetsk France - England Kiev Sweden - England Donetsk Ukraine - France Kiev Sweden - France Donetsk

11 june

-

England - Ukraine

11 june 15 june 15 june 19 june 19 june

Hour

21:45 - 19:00 - 21:45 - 19:00 - 21:45 - 21:45 -

Quarter-finals 2 Gdansk Quarter-finals 3 Donetsk

21 June

UKRAINE SWEDEN FRANCE ENGLAND

GROUP

22 June

21.45

............................................. ............................ .................

............................................. ............................ .................

A1 - B2

B1 - A2

23 June

Semifinals 2 Warsaw 28 June

Semifinals Donetsk 27 June

21.45

21.45

............................................. ............................ .................

............................................. ............................ .................

Winner Q2 - Winner Q4

Winner Q1 - Winner Q3

Final

Kiev

28 June

20.45

............................................. ............................ .................

Winner S1 - Winner S2

21.45

Quarter-finals 4 24 June

Kiev 21.45

............................................. ............................ .................

............................................. ............................ .................

C1 - D2

D1 - C2

Opinion FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Maliki enemies battle to vote him out of office

Despite outrage, US security leaks may go unplugged

By Mark Hosenball and Susan Cornwell

D

emocratic and Republican intelligence experts in Congress are joining forces to condemn a series of jaw-dropping intelligence leaks which some Republicans charge are timed to boost President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. But castigating leakers and questioning their motives may be a lot easier than coming up with remedies that might make leaking more difficult and risky. On Wednesday, the leadership from both parties of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees issued a rare joint statement deploring recent leaks which have included reports on US cyber warfare against Iran, procedures for targeting militants with drones, and the existence of a double-agent who penetrated a militant group in Yemen.

The committee leaders said their panels would consider legislation to “strengthen authorities and procedures with respect to access to classified information and disclosure of it, as well as to ensure that criminal and administrative measures are taken each time sensitive information is improperly disclosed”. The pending intelligence authorization bill could become a vehicle for new efforts to tighten laws against leakers, lawmakers said.

The revelations of US secrets in the media have sparked a bitter presidential election-season exchange of words.

Republican Senator John McCain on Tuesday accused the Obama administration of leaking classified information for political advantage to burnish the Democratic president’s national security credentials. This drew a sharp reaction from the White House. “Any suggestion that this administration has authorized intentional leaks of classified information for political gain is grossly irresponsible,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said, adding that officials take all necessary steps to protect sensitive data.

But however much both sides condemn leaks, talking about them is likely to prove much easier than actually doing something to curb unauthorized disclosures.

Historically even minor efforts to tighten laws against leakers have met with strong resistance from whistleblower advocates who contend it could be used to conceal government wrong-doing. For example, a measure was blocked that would have let government agencies revoke pension benefits of former officials who violated rules that books or articles they published after leaving the government first be vetted by appropriate agency review boards.

During the Clinton administration, Congress passed a bill that would have declared it illegal for anyone to disclose without authorization information they knew to be classified. A former government official said the Justice Department backed the law, but ultimately President Bill Clinton vetoed it. In 2002, John Ashcroft, President George W Bush’s attorney general, sent a nine-page letter to thenHouse of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert suggesting steps to crack down on leaks. They included requiring federal agencies to be more aggressive in reporting classified information leaks to the Justice Department, and tightening non-disclosure agreements signed by government employees to include penalties for possible perjury. It is unclear how many of his recommendations were adopted.

The Obama administration has been much more aggressive than its predecessor in prosecuting government officials accused of leaking classified information to reporters. But, the current administration has largely avoided confronting journalists who obtain classified information - a step secrecy experts say prosecutors almost certainly would have to take if the government really wanted to put a lid on leaks. That step is full of legal and political peril, however, as it runs into the Constitution’s free press protections. Following the wholesale leak of low-level classified documents to WikiLeaks, including field reports from US military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq and cables filed

by US diplomats around the world, the White House did set up a high-level task force to tighten control over classified information. But if the latest congressional complaints are any indication, leaks are as frequent as ever. The fact that they are occurring in an election year means that the issue could attract the kind of attention that makes both politicians and the media uncomfortable. — Reuters

By Patrick Markey and Suadad Al-Salhy

A

sk Iraq’s Sunni, Kurdish and even some Shiite leaders these days what they think of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, and the rhetoric is likely to be shrill: Many call him a dictator, autocrat or even a new “Saddam” who needs to be voted from office. For the second time since American troops left last December, Maliki is wading through a crisis with the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs in his government at each other’s throats in a feud that risks spilling from politics into sectarian violence. A wily political survivor, Maliki has so far emerged unscathed from the unrelenting melee since the government was formed 18 months ago. Now his foes want to test his survival skills to the limit with the threat of a vote of no confidence.

If this vote does come before parliament it will be the most serious challenge in Maliki’s six years in office, potentially collapsing a fragile powersharing deal. But even that outcome is unclear: His foes agree they dislike him, but they disagree on everything else, not least on who would replace him. And in a country of often fickle political loyalties, even some Maliki foes question whether they have the backing for a vote - or the stomach for its messy aftermath.

Those divisions hand the embattled Shiite leader more room to fight on for now.

Iraq’s crisis is watched closely by neighbours, Turkey, Gulf Arab states Qatar and Saudi Arabia and their rival, Shiite power Iran, countries that have often dipped into the country’s sectarian-tinged politics to back or urge on one bloc or another. “There will be complications, because the blocs don’t have any dialogue,” veteran Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said. “Everyone uses their cards against the other, so the question will be asked in an atmosphere of animosity, and it will not be easy.”

The departure of the last American troops in December helped peel back the veneer over the deep splinters in Iraq’s cross-sectarian government that took almost a year of backroom haggling to cobble together after contested 2010 elections. Maliki was engulfed in crisis that threatened to bring down his government after a court sought to arrest Sunni vice president, Tareq AlHashemi, and lawmakers were told to dismiss Sunni deputy prime minister Saleh Al-Mutlaq who branded Maliki a dictator.

The quagmire around Maliki has only thickened since. On one flank, Hashemi’s Sunnibacked Iraqiya bloc, though increasingly splintered, is rustling up support from other blocs for the noconfidence move against a prime minister they say is increasingly authoritarian.

To the north, Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region is testing Maliki’s mettle by cutting off its oil exports and hinting at a fullscale breakaway from Baghdad after accusing him of amassing power at the expense of Kurds and Sunni minorities.

Even within his Shiite alliance, Maliki is under fire from Moqtada Al-Sadr, the populist cleric who helped re-elect him in 2010.

His Sadrist movement has begun aggressively flirting outside the Shiite alliance and calling for Maliki to go. Many Sunni Iraqis and Kurds believe Maliki is shoring up his position, failing to live up to agreements to share power, especially by cementing his control over the key defence and interior ministries. But forming a lasting alliance against Maliki looks tough. Iraqiya

- leading the no-confidence charge - is splintered into at least seven factions, including one breakaway group of 26 lawmakers who oppose the vote campaign.

Kurdish blocs are also split between supporters of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has urged conciliation, and Kurdistan’s President Masoud Barzani, whose clash with Maliki seems at times a personal battle. “The problem for the opposition to Maliki is that all that unites them is opposition to Maliki. And because they can’t offer anything more positive, the majority, and those who sit on the fence, will ask why should we change?” one diplomat said. “With everyone else running around, he becomes the point of stability.”

Maliki, who rose through the ranks of the Shiite Islamist Dawa party from spokesman to lawmaker and once fled into exile from Saddam Hussein, has shown himself to be a shrewd political operator even as brawling factions try to gather against him. The jockeying could be just posturing as political blocs seek to position themselves before provincial elections at the end of this year and the parliamentary race in 2014. Still, the mathematics of getting a vote of no confidence through parliament look complicated. Under the constitution, the president can call for a vote of no confidence, which requires 164 votes out of the Congress’ 325 members to pass.

Sadrists claim to have collected petitions from more than 176 lawmakers, to pressure Talabani to start the process. But some Maliki supporters see Iraqiya with only 50 votes of its own, which even joined with 39 Sadrists and half the Kurdish 57 seats would leave them short. Talabani’s office is checking the validity of signatures Maliki’s opponents says they have collected to push for a vote.

But in a signal of tough legal challenges they will face, Maliki is already claiming fraud among the signatories.

Getting past the non-binding petition to an actual vote with a quorum in the parliament is a more concrete hurdle, if Maliki’s opponents can persuade Talabani to call for the ballot. “Based on the dismal average attendance record of the Iraqi parliament, it is hard to see how today’s political constellation would translate into more than 150 to 160 votes against Maliki in parliament,” said Reidar Visser, editor of the Iraq website www.historiae.org.

While the parties wrangle over the vote, Iran, which helped rally Shi’ite parties behind Maliki in the past, maybe more keen on the status quo now, especially with no predictable end to the violent revolt in Syria, Tehran’s key Arab ally. Iranian officials have visited Talabani to push for conciliation, and Sadr left on Tuesday to Iran where he will be urged to curb his anti-Maliki campaign, senior Shi’ite lawmakers familiar with Tehran’s approach said. For Kurdish lawmakers, their position is also complicated by the dispute over oil and land between the Iraqi Arab central government and Kurdistan. They must weigh joining with Iraqi Arabs against potential gains for disputed territories.

Even the names forwarded to replace Maliki from his National Alliance are divisive.

They include former prime minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, who many Sunnis see as sectarian and who was criticized by the United States, and former vice president, Adel Abdul-Mahdi who lacks broad support. According to the constitution, should Maliki lose a vote, a caretaker government would follow, ushering in chaotic negotiations over a new administration - a scenario that makes even some Iraqiya chieftains queasy about a vote. “No one wins if we go ahead with this,” said one senior Iraqiya leader. “We will just enter into a whirlpool, and under a caretaker government, everyone will be a loser.” — Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Years

www.kuwaittimes.net

Singer Carrie Underwood arrives at the 2012 CMT Music Awards on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 in Nashville, Tenn — AP (See Pages 34-35)

Food

Everyday cooking

FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

By Sawsan Kazak he heat is on in Kuwait and nothing is more refreshing than cucumbers. But they can be enjoyed in more than just slices in a salad. Cucumbers can be used soups, sandwiches and even main dishes. The following recipes will keep you cool and satisfied this summer.

T

Send suggestions to: sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

Cucumber lemonade Cucumber tea sandwiches

1 cucumber, peeled and cubed 1 lemon 5 c water Sugar to taste

Add cucumber and water to a blender and puree. Strain. Add juice of lemon and sugar to taste. Serve over ice.

with tarragon butter 1 large English cucumber, peeled, sliced paper thin 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons white vinegar 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/4 cup minced fresh tarragon 1/4 cup minced fresh chervil 30 thin slices whole-wheat bread, enough to make 72 (2x4inch) rectangles Watercress leaves (optional) Mayonnaise and chopped fresh parsley (optional) ut cucumber slices into a large, nonmetal bowl. Toss with salt. Sprinkle with vinegar. Toss to mix well. Let stand 1 hour. Drain well in colander.

Blend butter, tarragon and chervil.

To assemble, spread butter over 1 side of each bread slice. Cover 15 slices with cucumbers, dividing evenly. Close sandwiches. Trim crusts. Cut into 36 rectangles.

Arrange on platter, garnished with watercress leaves.

P

Food FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Cucumber salad with spicy wasabi dressing

Sauteed Cucumbers 1 1/2 teaspoons dry wasabi (or to taste) 2 cucumbers 2 Tbs rice vinegar 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp sesame oil Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 green onion or 2 scallions, thinly sliced 1 Tbs black or toasted white sesame seeds

ix the wasabi with 1/2 teaspoon warm water in the bottom of a mixing bowl and let it stand for 5 minutes. Peel the cucumbers, cut each one in half lengthwise, and use a melon baller or spoon to scoop out the seeds. Cut the cucumbers widthwise into 1/4inch crescents. Add the vinegar and sugar to the wasabi and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the sesame oil, salt, and pepper. Just before serving, add the cucumbers, green onion, and sesame seeds to the dressing and mix well.

M

3 Tbsp. butter or margarine 2 cucumbers peeled, seeded and finely sliced 1/4 cup 35% cream pinch of nutmeg salt and pepper, to taste 3 Tbsp. dill or chives, chopped hile 3 Tbsp. butter or margarine is melting in a skillet, peel, seed and finely slice cucumbers. Saute

W

Hot cucumber soup

Georgia cucumber jelly 2 teaspoon butter 1 cucumber 2 cup chicken stock 2 scallions 1/2 teaspoon vegetable salt seasoning pinch of nutmeg 2 T yogurt 2 t mint leaves, chopped elt butter in pan. Peel cucumber and cut in half lengthwise. remove the seeds and cut into thin slices. Saute for 2 minutes. Chop the scallions and add them, together with the chicken stock and spices, to the pan. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot, topped with yogurt and chopped mint.

M

6 Cucumbers,medium-sized 3 pk Gelatin,unflavored 1/2 c Water,cold 2 c Water,boiling 1/4 c Apple cider vinegar 1 ts Onion,grated 1/4 ts Salt 2 drops Green food coloring 1/4 c Pimientos,chopped eel cucumbers, remove seeds, and grate.

Wrap in a clean kitchen cloth to absorb all moisture for about 15 minutes.

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water, add boiling water, and stir until dissolved. Add vinegar, onion, salt, and food coloring; refrigerate until slightly thickened. Stir in grated cucumber and pimientos.

Pour into 8 1/2-cup individual molds or 1 4-cup ring mold. Chill 4 hours, or until very firm. Serve jelly as accompaniment to cold meat or fish.

P

cucumbers until they begin to shine.

Add cream and pinch of nutmeg, salt and pepper, to taste and stir constantly over low heat. Add dill or chives, and place in serving dish.

PETS FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

No horsing around

Miaka Palmieri, the president of, “For the love of a horse,” talks with one of their resident horses, Gracie, at Show Me Farm North, in Ball Ground, Georgia.

O

n a warm spring day, the silence hanging over the hills of Ball Ground is dotted with braying and neighing from more than 160 horse ranches clustered in the area. At the Show Me Farm North - 35 acres of pasture and woods just off Ga. 20 - another sound rises up in the early morning chorus. “Gracie,” Miaka Palmieri coos softly as she coaxes the dapple gray horse to the gate of a half-acre fenced-in home. Gracie moves forward with such a steady gait it is hard to notice the immovable joints of her right front leg. “She is so pretty, but she is a brat,” Palmieri said. “We’re to blame because we baby her.”

Cole, a minature horse, runs with Sheelagh Cafferkey, the financial officer of, “For the love of a horse”. —MCT photos

Three years ago, Gracie was found by the roadside in Rockdale County, Ga., with a broken leg when fate put her in Palmieri’s path. Gracie needed someone to save her, and Palmieri needed someone to rescue. Palmieri was working as an office administrator and paralegal for an industrial engineering firm. It was a good job, but not fulfilling enough to convince her to leave her Roswell, Ga., home and move to South Carolina when the company relocated. She was looking for something more - a place where she could make a real difference. As a volunteer at Northside Hospital, she toted a clipboard through the maternity ward and asked new mothers what they needed. She fielded phone calls for the American Red Cross. But still, something was missing.

“I felt like I wasn’t really giving back all that much,” said Palmieri, 47. So she changed gears. “I had always loved animals and wanted to work with them,” she said. With no experience other than a childhood ride at a dude ranch, Palmieri decided to rescue horses. Since 2006, Congress has prohibited the use of federal funds to inspect horses intended for food, effectively banning the domestic slaughter of horses. State and local governments and animal welfare groups have reported an uptick in horse neglect and abuse as a result of the ban, with states such as Colorado recording an increase as high as 60 percent.

By 2009, about 18,000 of an estimated 180,000 unwanted horses each year were being housed at 430 rescues nationwide, said Ericka Caslin, director of the DC-based Unwanted Horse Coalition. “We have a huge issue of people needing to give up horses,” Caslin said. “Now the rescues are full and we can attribute that to the plants closing and the downturn of the economy.”

That was the landscape when Palmieri met the four women who would become partners in her journey. Sheelagh Cafferkey, Kathy Ivy, Gretchen Kronz and Lisa Setser were fellow volunteers at a local horse rescue. Only Cafferkey, who grew up on a farm in Ireland, and Setser, a former horse owner, had real experience with horses. Ivy had volunteered at rescues for years.

Gracie limped into their lives with grim

Women create horse rescue as demand for equine aid grows prospects. A facility in Kentucky had decided the horse’s injuries couldn’t be fixed, but the women sought a second opinion. Dr. Dean Richardson in Pennsylvania thought he could help. With $1,900 in pooled funds, they transported Gracie to the New Bolton Veterinary Center, where the surgery to repair her leg was successful. The women were elated, but the $20,000 medical bill posed a problem. “We didn’t have the money,” Palmieri said.

Their only choice was to raise it.

They founded For the Love of a Horse, a nonprofit dedicated to rehabilitating critically ill horses that would otherwise be euthanized. An ad on Craigslist led them to the farm where they would hold stables for their charges. Then, they combined their talents. Palmieri made jewelry, and Cafferkey made handcrafted greeting cards. They added candles, T-shirts, tea towels and more to the mix, paying for materials out of pocket and donating 100 percent of sales from local craft fairs back to FTLOAH. Within nine months, Gracie’s bill was paid off, and the women had found their calling. Farriers, veterinarians and horse owners heard what they were doing, and their list of equine clients grew.

“We found a special niche working with people who loved their animals, but (the horses) were criti-

cally ill and the owners couldn’t afford to sustain them,” Palmieri said.

In some ways, they became a rescue for rescues.

They claimed Bishop, a miniature paint pony, when the farm housing Whisper Ranch in Murrayville, Ga., fell on hard times. Bishop had been tied to a tree while the owner performed sterilization without anesthesia. The pony ripped away from the tree in pain, severing his ear and part of his lip. Bishop has healed and now visits the elderly and children through FTLOAH’s outreach program. “With all he has been through, he still loves people,” Palmieri said. “(The elderly) get such a kick out of it. It really stimulates their minds.”

On average, FTLOAH helps six horses each year by securing medical care ranging from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. The goal is to return a healthy horse to its owner or find a home for the animal if the owner is unable to afford its care.

Social media led them to Belle, a Belgian draft horse from R Ranch in the Mountains in Dahlonega, Ga., with a tumor in her eye. Lisa Richards, treasurer at R Ranch, reached out to Palmieri on Facebook.

FTLOAH arranged a consultation at the University of Georgia.

“We figured we would be bringing her back that day,” Richards said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh God, it will take us months to raise that money and that is if we can have a successful fundraiser, and in this economy, you don’t get that kind of money.’” To her surprise, the women at FTLOAH told them to leave Belle and they would cover the $2,600 cost of surgery to remove her eye.

To cover the costs of maintaining the FTLOAH horses as well as to meet the needs of a growing number of ill horses, they have had to increase their fundraising efforts. In addition to attending 10 festivals each year to sell their crafts, they have hosted an annual yard sale, a bowling fundraiser, and in June, they will hold a golf tournament. Over the years, Palmieri has had moments of concern about devoting herself to volunteer work, but no matter the problems swirling in her head, when she arrives at the stables, her worries seem to float away - pushed from her mind by a gentle nudge from a happy and healthy horse. — MCT

BOOKS FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Review

A taste of Scottish literature O

The strain of twisted rural myths, which were such an exciting feature of novels such as The Man Who Walks, is sustained here, and integrated into a form of characterization.

f all the writers associated with Rebel Inc, the countercultural Scottish magazine which appeared in the early 1990s and launched the career of Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner has always struck me as the one with by far the most potential. He has the kind of unflinching hyper-realism that shades into the surreal, and has ambitiously avoided becoming typecast: readers of his “chemical generation” debut, Morvern Callar, could hardly have predicted the gothic extravagances of its sort-of sequel, These Demented Lands, nor that after that he would write an acutely observed evocation of schoolgirlhood in non-metropolitan Scotland, The Sopranos. That said, I have, until now, had a degree of skepticism about the extent to which his evident potential has been realized. A novel such as The Worms Can Carry Me To Heaven seemed to me, to use Walter Scott’s wonderful phrase about the novels of Tobias Smollett, “sedulously labored into excellence”. Even Morvern Callar seemed to swither: was Morvern’s striking amorality, her disavowal of cause and effect, inexplicable or just not explained?

Such caveats no longer apply. Warner’s new novel, The Deadman’s Pedal, amply fulfils his talent. It is not merely by far his best work to date, it is an exceptionally fine novel by any standards; and although it is wholeheartedly Scottish it would be an immense shame were it to be pigeonholed as a “Scottish novel”: its themes the transition from childhood to adulthood, the vagaries and subtleties of class distinctions, the intangible nature of desire, the dignity and daftness of work - are universal. That they are expressed through the precise, the local and the specific is part of the novel’s charm.

Set in 1973 and 1974, the novel’s interlocking narratives revolve around the figure of Simon Crimmons. The son of the owner of a local road haulage company, he has decided to leave school at 16, much to his parents’ dismay. A misunderstanding in the labor exchange Simon thinks that “Trainee Traction” might have something to do with working with nurses - means that, almost without choosing to, he becomes a trainee train driver. His father is less than enamored of his son’s choice of occupation. Although both the narrative about the railways and the narrative of Simon’s infatuation with the aristocratic Varie Bultitude, daughter of the “Commander of the Pass”, reach beautifully executed points of crisis, the novel’s drama resides in Simon’s gradually maturing consciousness, as he learns and mistakes what it means to be a man. A den in the woods begins as a place to play on rope-swings and fantasize about getting a telescope to look into bedroom windows. It is a novel where even the loss of innocence has a tinge of innocence about it. The central metaphor of the train, involving miles of travel but no change in place, is never overworked.

The Deadman’s Pedal is set around “the Port”, the fictionalized version of Oban familiar from Warner’s previous novels. The demographics of Scotland afford Warner the opportunity to explore class relationships in detail; and the isolated, rural Port is a place where the bampots

and the aristos live side by side. As Simon says exasperatedly to Varie in one of the key scenes inter-relating the different aspects of his life, “I’ve got the whole railway telling me I’m not working class enough and I’ve got you telling me I’m not middle class enough. This country needs to sort out the class question. As far as it applies to me.” There is a cringe-inducing scene where Varie looks out of his bedroom window and says: “Look. Your gardener’s working in your grounds.” Simon replies quietly: “That’ll be my Mum.” Likewise, the heavily unionized railway is both satirized and described with a kind of pre-emptive nostalgia of the present moment. Warner’s dialogue is pitch-perfect throughout, with a convincing mixture of camaraderie and carping: when one job applicant “childishly but accurately” points out that all the men swear, and therefore are hypocritical in upbraiding him for it, the union official immediately fires back: “Three times your age, three times the swears, son, so you watch your step talking back to me.” The desire to evoke a society as a whole places Warner’s new work alongside such books as William McIlvanney’s Docherty or Andrew O’Hagan’s Our Fathers rather than with the analyses of the dÈclassÈ in Welsh or Kelman.

The strain of twisted rural myths, which were such an exciting feature of novels such as The Man Who Walks, is sustained here, and integrated into a form of characterization. The Bultitudes, whose house is called Broken Moan, have a tradition of being buried in glass coffins, so their remains are visible: this is both a striking image for the aristocracy’s necrophiliac possession of the land and something, at least to me, hauntingly familiar (we had similar rumors about the Riddell Mausoleum when I was growing up in the Borders). Both the rail workers and the landowners thrive on anecdote, on tales that reveal the teller.

Although the narrative proceeds in roughly chronological order, there is a very neat switchback, when it jumps ahead and then fills in the details, giving both irony and melancholy to the events. The novel’s ending is both bravura and brave: it closes like a diminished seventh chord, an awful pause that could resolve itself into different cadences. The Deadman’s Pedal is morally sensitive, exquisitely written and emotionally mature. It could not be mistaken for a book by any other author: Warner has triumphantly come into his own.

Health FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Do you need

supplements?

I

n today’s world full of confusion and conflicting information on supplements and supplementation, it’s often very hard to know what to take or even whether we should be taking any supplements at all. You need to know the truth on this subject and to know what is worth your time and money and what is not. If you rely only on your doctor or the main stream media, you’re only going to hear about the slash and burn methods of medicine, those being drugs and surgery. Today far too many are only told about a very narrow dimension when it comes to health care.

That’s because doctors and hospitals only want to get you hooked on their expensive and invasive technological methods to turn you into a long term sick care customer. They’re never going to be interested in telling you how to remove your illness or prevent it altogether since they would not make the kind of money that they have grown accustomed to.

While the ancients may not have known about vitamins or which herbs contained which nutrients as we do

today, they did know which ones would cure you and which ones would keep you healthy well into old age.

There same herbs are often found to have high and vital nutrients in them along with other co-factors that greatly boost immunity and health.

There are a number of common and inexpensive supplements be it both vitamin and mineral that we all need to take on a regular basis to help maintain immunity and make sure that our bones, blood, brain and nervous system are all working correctly.

Here is the list of vital and necessary supplementation for the modern world.

WHOLE FOOD MULTIVITAMIN We all need to be taking a good whole food multivitamin on a daily basis. This is to make sure that we’re getting all the necessary nutrients from complete whole food sources as the body is meant to. If you have a good diet full of super foods, organics fruits and vegetables and other natural sources, then a multivitamin may not be as necessary though it’s still recommended to take one on a daily basis for added protection and benefit.

With the soil being so depleted, the air so polluted, less oxygen in the air and less sunlight hitting the earth we need to take more amounts of nutrients today than those who lived even one hundred years ago. The fact that our food is also about ten times less nutritious than it was a hundred years makes taking a good whole food multivitamin that much more important.

Whole food multivitamins are not the same as synthetic vitamins from any of the major vitamin manufacturers. You want to take only a true whole food multivitamin supplement or better yet, make it yourself.

Making your own juices on a daily basis with lots of fresh organic fruits and vegetables, berries, super foods and herbs is the best way to consume your own whole food multivitamin supplement. This way you’ll also receive plenty of freshly activated enzymes and tons of other nutrients and substances that haven’t even yet been identified.

VITAMIN C (3,000-6,000MG) per day is three doses every six hours Called the king of the anti-oxidants and the most powerful one in the body, vitamin C has over forty six different beneficial effects alone. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin which cannot be stored in the organs or fatty tissues as fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, and E can. The body needs to be recharged with vitamin C in six hour

intervals because it is quickly used up and eliminated from the body Due to a critical deficiency of a certain enzyme in the liver humans are one of only a half dozen species that can’t manufacture their own vitamin C, so we have to be completely supplied with it from the diet. The current recommendations from the FDA of 6090mg is way too low. That’s because those guidelines are only minimums to prevent diseases that occur due to deficiency of that nutrient. They’re nowhere near the proper amounts that the body needs to truly be healthy, thrive and prevent disease.

Don’t worry about overdosing on vitamin C. All that happens if you reach “bowel tolerance” is you get a slight case of the runs. If that happens simply lower you dosage by a 1,0002,000mg per day. Most people have no trouble with 3,000-6,000 per day where as some can go as high as 15,000-20,000mg per day.

VITAMIN D (Sunlight exposure and Lemon-Flavored Cod Liver Oil 8001,200IU’s per day) Make sure to get enough sunlight exposure on a daily basis. Typically about 15-20 minutes per day on the skin of the upper body and face is adequate to generate sufficient vitamin D to protect you from cancer and boost immunity. Vitamin D is often thought of as a vitamin but it’s really a steroid hormone precursor that is primarily formed when our skin is exposed to sunshine.

Taking a good form of cod liver oil during the winter months can help maintain adequate vitamin D in the body. You can also install full spectrum lighting to help irradiate the retinas and skin with vitamin D and boost immunity via the ocular endocrine system in the brain.

Some recent studies show that adults need to take amounts between 3,000-5,000IU’s per day of vitamin D. But check with your doctor or get regular vitamin D blood tests to make sure that your not overdosing at this level of intake. Since vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and is not flushed out from the body as water soluble vitamins are, making certain that your vitamin D levels are correct is an important consideration.

ZINC (25-50mg) per day with morning or noon meal Zinc is a vital mineral that due to food processing and destructive farming practices is far too low in the human diet today. It has powerful immune enhancing properties especially when taken with extra selenium on a regular basis. It’s best to take zinc

with a meal as it can cause mild stomach upset if taken alone.

Zinc works with Selenium to produce SOD (Super Oxide Dismutase) and GTP (Glutathione Peroxidase), which are two of the most powerful anti-oxidant/Anti-Aging enzymes in the body. Zinc is a vital component of more than 300 enzymes that are needed to repair wounds, maintain fertility, synthesize protein, help cells reproduce, preserve vision, boost immunity, and protect against free radicals. So this is definitely one mineral you want to make sure your getting enough of.

Some good natural sources of zinc include meat, eggs, seafood, blackeyed peas, tofu, and wheat germ.

SELENIUM (200-250MCG) per day with morning or noon meal Again due to destructive farming practices, overuse of pesticides and not letting the soil rest, over two thirds of the world’s soil is selenium deficient and not fit for growing crops.

Selenium is a vital and necessary mineral and is almost totally devoid from the human diet because of modern farming methods.

Selenium should be taken daily along with Zinc which greatly increases the effectives and immune boosting capabilities of both. 2-3 Brazil nuts contain approx 200mcg of selenium, so this is an excellent natural whole food source of selenium along with yeast, whole grains, and seafood.

VITAMIN B Complex (50-100mg) The vitamin B complex refers to all of the known essential water-soluble vitamins except for vitamin C. These include thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), biotin, folic acid and the cobalamins (vitamin B12).

Vitamin B complex provides potent anti-oxidant protection to the body and particularly to the cells of the brain and central nervous system.

Since they are part of a family of vitamins which function best as a team they should all be taken together instead of separately.

Adults should take 50-100mg per day of each of the B vitamins except for B12 which should not exceed 1mg per day. Various dosages of the B vitamins may be taken for specific purposes. For example, niacin can be taken at 2-3 grams per day to lower cholesterol or treat schizophrenia. 500mg of vitamin B5 can be taken to increase mental and physical stamina. Food sources of B vitamins include fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products.

— www.naturalnews.com

Beauty

Tan your hide the right way

FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

F

or those that are interested in getting the best suntan, without damaging their skin, there are several ways to accomplish this goal. Following are some things to look for to make sure that you get the skin tone you want. While most are now saying that getting a suntan is not healthy for you, a certain amount of sun can be good for your skin’s health every year. Ultraviolet rays (UV) provide your skin with extra vitamin D, and also has a positive effect on your emotions, because of the light. It is only overexposure to the sun that causes problems. Having the right suntan will give your skin the ability to produce extra antioxidants in order to keep your skin healthier. This means that with the correct amount of exposure to UV, you can have a healthy suntan, while enjoying the summer activities.

When you decide to get a suntan, you first want to make sure that you have the right things available to help you out. This is the first step to ensuring that your skin will stay healthy when it is outside. This will most importantly mean having a quality suntan lotion. Even if you want the sun directly on your skin, having some type of protection is important if you plan to stay exposed for long periods With each sun tan lotion, there will mainly be strength to protect against one particular type of UV ray, known as UVB. Not only can you protect yourself from the sun by having the proper sun tan lotion, but also by having the right accessories. Even wearing a hat or taking an umbrella can help you from being exposed to too much sun. After you have decided to stay in the sun for a small amount of time, you can make sure to give your skin a break in the shade, just to make sure that it doesn’t get overexposed to the sun’s rays. By the end of summer, you will know that you have provided your skin with the best treatment while allowing yourself to have the best exposure possible for your suntan.

Being safe when going to get your suntan for the summer can help provide you with the best possible skin tone. You can simply do this by preparing before going outdoors.

Exfoliating To ensure a long lasting tan it’s important to exfoliate before sun exposure, but not after. By prepping your skin with a good scrub you’ll reduce dryness which can lead to peeling and help your tan develop deeper and in turn last longer. Try to resist using harsh exfoliators once you’re tanned (whether it’s real or not), so that you don’t scrub it off unless of course your skin is flaky, although the trick is to keep it hydrated.

Moisturizing Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize should be your after-sun mantra.

For real results swap a normal body cream for a specialist product like Lancaster Tan Maximiser that works with the skin’s own natural tanning ability and promises to increase your tan by up to 50%. Whilst this will naturally extend your tan you can also give it a helping hand with a moisturizing gradual tanner that will blend into and enhance your sun kissed color. Our all-time fave is the Xen-Tan Transform Luxe. It may be pricey but it never streaks, gives a natural olivey (not orangey) glow and smells divine. For those on a budget reach for Garnier Summer Body Moisturizing Lotion which is also pretty foolproof. If you’re planning on topping up your tan at any time remember to also load up on sun cream. Even though you have your ‘base’ it will actually help make your tan last longer.

Showering Swap your shower gel for an oil like Eucerin Bath and Shower Oil, which is super-hydrating and replace your loofah or sponge for a wash cloth like the fab Life NK Japanese Wash Cloth which magically quadruples your body wash product and is machine washable so lasts for yonks.

Hair removal Avoid waxing when you’re suntanned, always do you hair removal prep before, and if you’re a shaving kind of girl swap your wet razor with an electric shaver which won’t remove as many surface skin cells (i.e. your top layer of tan).

Tan tips It’s never too late to keep up your pre-tanning routine during or after sun exposure. Little things like drinking plenty of water that hydrates you from the inside out will help prevent peeling. Also taking sun care skin nutrients like the Imedeen Tan Optimizer capsules in conjunction with an SPF during tanning and a short while after will support the skins natural tanning and protection mechanism.

Burning is the ultimate health and tanning no-no. Not only does it increase the risk of sun damage, ageing and skin cancer it will ruin your chances of developing an even and long lasting tan in the short term.

However, if you have mistakenly over-exposed your skin there are products that can help reverse the damage. NIA 24 Sun Damage Repair for DÈcolletage and Hand is a nutrient rich anti-ageing body cream that promises to repair skin post-sun exposure. It contains patented pro-niacin which strengthens the skin barrier from within, improving the appearance of photo-damage. It may be expensive but Elizabeth Arden Prevage Body Total Transforming Anti-Ageing Moisturizer also works wonders to reduce the appearance of discoloration, age spots and crepey skin that sun damage can cause. www.ezinearticles.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Underwood CMTs takes her 3rd video of year win at N ashville’s Bridgestone Arena is turning into quite a memorable place for Carrie Underwood and her hunky husband, NHL star Mike Fisher. Underwood won her third video of the year award at the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday night, carving yet another great memory out for the couple in the home of Fisher’s Nashville Predators. “I think we live here,” Underwood said backstage after winning the night’s top honor. “We need to like rent a room here so we can sleep here, too.” Underwood’s two wins - she

Singer Carrie Underwood performs.

From left, Luke Bryan accepts the award for Male Video Of The Year from Tom Arnold and Steve Austin.

Miranda Lambert accepts the award for Female Video Of The Year.

Singer Carrie Underwood, right, accepts the award for Video Of The Year from Alan Jackson at the 2012 CMT Music Awards on Wednesday. — AP photos

also won for collaboration of the year for “Remind Me,” with Brad Paisley - mean she’s now won nine CMT belt buckles since 2006. She matched Taylor Swift’s run in the fan-voted video of the year category over the same period.

The former “American Idol” winner was the night’s only multiple winner, and her fans did it for her again. “They’re the ones in control,” Underwood said. “I have a really active fan base. The people who come to my concerts and support me, they really get out and they do stuff. They vote. Any polls or any awards show, anything that they have control of, they’re all about it.” Luke Bryan pulled off the surprise of the night, taking male video of the year for “I Don’t Want This Night to End.” After beating out country’s top male stars, Bryan briefly covered his face with his hands, then pogo-jumped his way to the stage.

“When you’re at this level of what we do as singers, and your fans vote, it speaks huge volumes and it’s crazy to be fan-voted for an award and win it,” Bryan said. “I don’t really get caught up in trying to be cool, trying to play a part. I just freaking get so excited about this stuff and I will always enjoy it.”

Hillary Scott, left, Charles Kelley, second right, and Dave Haywood, right, of Lady Antebellum accept the award for Group Video Of The Year.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

From left, Angaleena Presley, Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe of Pistol Annies perform.

Singer Carrie Underwood, left, and musician Brad Paisley accept the award for Video Of The Year.

Winners Video of the year: Carrie Underwood, “Good Girl” Male video of the year: Luke Bryan, “I Don’t Want This Night to End” Female video of the year: Miranda Lambert, “Over You” Duo video of the year: Thompson Square, “I Got You” Group video of the year: Lady Antebellum, “We Owned the Night” Breakthrough video of the year: Scotty McCreery, “The Trouble with Girls” Collaborative video of the year: Brad Paisley with Carrie Underwood, “Remind Me.” CMT performance of the year: Jason Aldean, “Tattoos on This Town”. — AP

Shawna Thompson, left, and Keifer Thompson of Thompson Square accept the award for Duo Video Of The Year.

Bryan rewarded his fans by mimicking his actions when he won his first CMT award two years ago. Back then he tossed a jacket into the crowd. This time he went cheaper, asking Tom Arnold to pull a pair of camouflage boxers wedgie-style out of his pants and tossed them into the crowd. “I threw my jacket off the stage and it was really expensive,” Bryan said. “I think it cost something like $4,000, and a lot of people were like, ‘Why did you that?’”

It was far from the raciest moment of the night. Kellie Pickler pretended to motorboat an imaginary pair of breasts to introduce Little Big Town’s performance of “Pontoon,” complete with a full sized pontoon boat and bikini-clad “swimmers” floating around the stage.

And co-host Kristen Bell made sure to spend a little quality time in the stands, sandwiching herself between Bryan and Jake Owen. “I didn’t know I’d be sitting right in the middle of Hunksville, Tenn., population - two,” the actress joked. As for the official business of the night, the rest pretty much held true to current award show trends.Upon hearing their names in the collaboration category, Paisley leaped to his feet and wrapped his arms around Underwood’s husband in a long embrace that got the laughs started. Miranda Lambert won her third straight female video of the year award for the emotional “Over You,” a song she co wrote with husband Blake Shelton about the untimely death of his brother. The win marked another emotional moment involving the song and its video, which was shot just weeks after Lambert lost her father-inlaw, a close friend and her childhood pet. Video director Trey Fanjoy also lost her father just four days before the shoot. “Behind the camera and in front of the camera, the whole video was just trying to hold it together,” Lambert said backstage.

Rising duo Thompson Square was nominated twice for duo video of the year and won for “I Got You.” Former “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery took home breakthrough video of the year for “The Trouble with Girls” just hours before his high school graduation ceremony in Raleigh, N.C. Lady Antebellum won group video of the year for “We Owned the Night.” And Jason Aldean, a multiple nominee in the past, won his first belt buckle, taking home CMT performance of the year for “Tattoos on This Town.” “This is actually my first one of these, so this is pretty cool,” Aldean said after doubletiming it to the stage. “I’ve got to say a big thank you to CMT for still playing videos. Thank you guys so much. It’s such an important part of what we do, and how to get our face (out there), and still connect with our fans.”The night started with President Barack Obama and his likely Republican challenger Mitt Romney making an appearance in taped video segments. Like you might expect, neither was willing to offend voters on either side of the aisle in a “dirty politics” debate over who should host the show, Bell or country star Toby Keith. “This is one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make since I’ve been in office, but I decided I want them both,” Obama said. Romney then also suggested they work as co-hosts and added, “See, I just put two people back to work.”

With the decision made, Keith and Bell arrived at the stage in a huge replica of a red solo cup, in deference to Keith’s hit song.

The night was filled with several strong performances, but none got quite the reaction of Willie Nelson’s rare appearance to play his new song, “Roll Me Up.” Keith, Jamey Johnson, Darius Rucker and Zac Brown Band joined him on stage to sing the ode to marijuana as a smoke machine rolled on high in the background. Lady A singer Charles Kelley sang along, holding his cup in the air, and the performance received a long standing ovation. In a couple of other notable

Scotty McCreery accepts the award for USA Weekend Breakthrough Video Of The Year.

Kenny Chesney performs. mashups, Paisley joined Hank Williams Jr. on a new outside stage to perform their collaboration “I’m Gonna Get Drunk and Play Hank Williams” and Journey joined Rascal Flatts on “Banjo” and “Don’t Stop Believin’” to close the show. Lambert also performed “Takin’ Pills,” with her trio Pistol Annies. If references were counted, Lambert, Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe would have been the big winners. Bell even performed her own audition for the group. “We’ve already named her Hollywood Annie,” Lambert confided. “We just haven’t told her.”—AP

(From left)Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook of Little Big Town perform.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

T

ributes poured in Wednesday for science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, author of dystopian post-war classics including “Fahrenheit 451,” who died aged 91. President Barack Obama led praise for Bradbury, seen as one of the genre’s greatest authors, who died Tuesday in Los Angeles after an unspecified “lengthy illness” according to his publisher HarperCollins. “His gift for storytelling reshaped our culture and expanded our world,” said Obama.

“But Ray also understood that our imaginations could be used as a tool for better understanding, a vehicle for change, and an expression of our most cherished values.” Director Steven Spielberg added: “He was my muse for the better part of my sci-fi career. He lives on through his legion of fans. In the world of science fiction and fantasy and imagination he is immortal.”

In all, the award-winning writer penned nearly 600 short stories and 50 books, including 1950’s “The Martian Chronicles” about human attempts to colonize Mars and the unintended consequences. Bradbury’s most famous work, 1953’s “Fahrenheit 451,” was a Cold War-era warning of the evils of censorship and thought control in a totalitarian state.

It reached a worldwide audience as a film adapted by Francois Truffaut in 1966. “In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create,” HarperCollins said in a statement.

He was not the first to examine the dual potential for good and bad in science and technology, but he sought out a larger audience. Before Bradbury, science fiction had mostly been published in pulp magazines, aiming for mass-circulation magazines such as Mademoiselle and The Saturday Evening Post. He helped bring modern science fiction into the literary mainstream. More than eight million copies of his books have been sold in 36 languages.

US

pop star Katy Perry will become the latest celebrity to be depicted in the biography comic book “Fame” series, publisher Bluewater Productions said on Wednesday. The 27-yearold’s life shown in “Fame: Katy Perry” has her moving from a Californian churchgoing upbringing under her Christian parents to bouncing around several music labels in Los Angeles until striking a deal that landed her first big hits, “I Kissed A Girl,” and “Hot n Cold.”

Samberg says his ‘SNL’ goodbye

T

he season finale of TV sketch comedy “Saturday Night Live” marked the last episode for cast member Kristen Wiig, and as she grew emotional on stage during her musical send-off, co-star Andy Samberg had a feeling it would be his last show, too.

Yet even as the “Bridesmaids” star said goodbye to her cast mates on May 19, Samberg remained mum about his exit, preferring to let his popular digital short films do the talking for him.

“I consider the last two digital shorts my goodbye,” he told Reuters in a recent interview, referring to “Lazy Sunday 2” and the “100th Digital Short.” “I kind of built them in that way because I sensed this was the end for

File photo shows science fiction writer Ray Bradbury at the National Book Awards in New York where he was given the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. — AFP Bradbury preferred the label fantasy to “sci-fi,” defining it as “a depiction of the unreal” and giving as an example “The Martian Chronicles,” because it was a story that could not happen. “Fahrenheit 451” was his only sci-fi book, he said, because it was a “depiction of the real”-or of something that could actually happen in a totalitarian state.

Bradbury said the novel-named after the temperature at which printed books ignite-was not meant to be grim: “I wasn’t trying to predict the future. I was trying to prevent it.”

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them,” he once said.

Bradbury branched out into film, television and theater, with an Academy Award nomination for his 1962 animated film, “Icarus Montgolfier Wright,” and an Emmy as a television writer for “The Halloween Tree.”—AFP

Perry, who has delved into colorful, fantasy-filled recreations of herself in music videos not unlike a comic book character, will also be the subject of a 3-D concert documentary due for release next month. Her marriage to actor and comedian Russell Brand ended late last year. — Reuters

me.” He said at as of the season finale he hadn’t yet told the show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, of his plan to move on and didn’t want to distract from the show and Wiig’s big send-off. He called Michaels, “a mentor and a father figure.”

Less than two weeks later, this past Friday, Samberg announced his exit to cap a seven-season run that saw him rise to stardom behind his digital short films including one with Justin Timberlake that won an Emmy, US TV’s highest honor.—Reuters

E

lvis Presley, the late king of rock’n’roll, is to be virtually resurrected, following in the footsteps of a hologram of late rapper Tupac Shakur, production company Digital Domain Media Group said on Wednesday. The “Hound Dog” singer, who died in 1977 aged 42, will be brought back in a virtual performance by the digital production company, which stunned nearly 90,000 fans with a life-like performing Tupac hologram at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April.

Digital Domain said they are planning multiple virtual Elvis likenesses across various platforms, including live shows, TV and online, and are working in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages the late singer’s brand. “This is a new and exciting way to bring the magic and music of Elvis Presley to life. His lifelong fans will be thrilled all over again and new audiences will discover the electric experience of Elvis the performer,” Jack Soden, president and chief executive of Elvis Presley Enterprises, said in a statement. The digital production company has specialized in creating realistic computer-generated humans, and its work has appeared in movies such as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “TRON:Legacy” and “X-Men: First Class.” — Reuters

Elvis Presley

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

This film image released by DreamWorks Animation shows, Gloria the Hippo, voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith, from left, Alex the Lion, voiced by Ben Stiller, Melman the Giraffe, voiced by David Schwimmer, and Marty the Zebra, voiced by Chris Rock in a scene from ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.’— AP

A

decide to make their way back to the Central Park Zoo they successfully escaped two movies ago. This involves snorkeling to Monaco (don’t ask) to reunite with the penguins and chimps who can fly an airplane (no, really, don’t ask).

Their stint in Monte Carlo draws the attention of ruthless animal control cop Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand, summoning all the Gallic hauteur she can muster), who would like nothing more than to add Alex’s head to the menagerie of stuffed trophies on her wall. Pursued by DuBois, the animals join up with a down-on-its-luck circus, pretending to be performers themselves so that they can hop the train and get out of the country.

The circus’ fortunes declined when knife-throwing tiger Vitaly (Bryan Cranston) lost his mojo, but leopard Gia (Jessica Chastain) thinks these Americans can put their three-ring show back on top.

Not that the plot - how will the circus animals react when they find out their new compadres are mere zoo attractions? - matters much; directors Eric Darnell (who co-wrote) and Tom McGrath use the circus setting as a springboard for eye-popping 3D visuals (there’s a trapeze sequence that’s as trippy as anything since the “Pink

ustralian “Hunger Games” actor Liam Hemsworth has proposed to “Hannah Montana” girlfriend Miley Cyrus, with the pair tweeting their engagement yesterday. “Thank you for all the support. We are both very happy!” said the Melbourne-born Hemsworth, who met the teen star in 2009 while filming “The Last Song” after relocating to the United States to pursue his career. Cyrus, 19, tweeted: “I’m so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness with @LiamHemsworth!!!” “I feel like all my dreams are coming true.

Life is beautiful.” Hemsworth, 22, who is currently shooting “Empire State” in New Orleans, said the ring was “hand-cut around 1880 or 1890 and it’s unique and in its original form”. “It’s a contemporary design based on vintage aesthetics. The light flashes and sparkles no matter where she moves her hand,” he said. Cyrus made her name as a teen idol in the “Hannah Montana” TV series but moved to shake-off her squeaky-clean image with raunchy music videos after she quit the show.

Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, who also starred in “Hannah Montana”, said he was over the moon. “All I ever hoped for as a Daddy was to see my kids reach their dreams. To find happiness... peace of mind... and someday know... true love,” the “Achy Breaky Heart” crooner said. Fellow teen idol Demi Lovato, who made her name in “Camp Rock”, added her congratulations, tweeting: “Congrats and happiness to you both. Love you.”— AFP

Elephants on Parade” number in “Dumbo”) and some genuinely funny character interactions. The returning players all seem to be more on their game: Stiller’s less of a whiner, Rock tones it down a notch or two (but still rattles off a circus theme song that’s still stuck in my head) and it turns out that Schwimmer’s voice sounds more natural coming out of the mouth of a neurotic giraffe than it does coming out of Schwimmer himself. Of the new additions, Cranston, Chastain and Martin Short (as a dopey but friendly performing seal) all score, but McDormand steals her every scene.

It helps that the hyper-capable DuBois nonetheless becomes the object of lots of wonderfully slapstick Inspector Clouseau-esque abuse. If the previous “Madagascar” entries left you cold, take the plunge with this threequel. You will believe a hippopotamus can tight-rope dance. — Reuters

McKellar files for divorce

T

ime for me to dig out my list of “Reasons Why the World Deserves to End in 2012” and amend theentry, “because there are new installments of both ‘Ice Age’ and’Madagascar.’” The third time, despite what you’ve heard, is rarely the charm, but “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” marks the spot where a shrill and unfunny kid franchise made the leap into hilarious and engaging family entertainment. Part of that transition may have to do with the addition of co-writer Noah Baumbach, best known for indies like “Greenberg” (starring Ben Stiller, who voices lion Alex here) and “Margot at the Wedding,” but who made his bones in the animation world by collaborating with Wes Anderson on their charming adaptation of “Fantastic Mr Fox.” Whatever the reason, “Madagascar 3” finds the franchise finally finding its comedic groove, mixing character-based comedy, outrageous adventures and the occasional bit of parent-friendly wordplay. We last left our heroes - Alex, zebra Marty (Chris Rock), hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) - living the high life on the African veldt. Like all transplanted New Yorkers, however, they all kvetch about missing the Big Apple and

T

he wonder years are over for Danica McKellar and her husband of three years - the actress has filed for divorce. McKellar cited irreconcilable differences for the breakup from composer Michael Verta in her petition, which was filed on Monday in Los Angeles.

The 37-year-old is best known for playing Winnie Cooper on ABC’s “The Wonder Years.” She went on to author three books on mathematics with titles such as “Math Doesn’t Suck” and “Kiss My Math.”

The pair married in March 2009 and have a son who will be 2-years-old in September. McKellar, who appeared in several episodes of “The West Wing” and other series, is seeking joint custody. Her filing states the couple has a prenuptial agreement. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Archie comics’ 2 CEOs end their NY court fight T

he two CEOs of the company that publishes Archie comics on Wednesday ended their court feud over control of the comics kingdom, but now some relatives are accusing both sides of funny business. A judge on Wednesday signed off on a settlement between Nancy Silberkleit and Jon Goldwater, the co-CEOs of Archie Comic Publications, even as Goldwater’s nieces told the judge in court papers that they think both chief executives’ “hands are dirty.” Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich said the nieces weren’t in a legal position to weigh in on the settlement, but she noted that they could file a suit of their own. Their lawyer had no immediate comment afterward on whether they would.

The settlement ends - at least for now- a bitter and sometimes bizarre fight at the company that produces the congenial, more than 70-year-old comic that follows Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and others through dating and other teenage adventures. The settlement details are confidential, but Silberkleit lawyer Howard D Simmons said the pact restored her reputation and her post at Archie. Silberkleit has been banned from the company’s headquarters in Mamaroneck since the litigation reached a heated point this winter. “Nancy

Silberkleit and Jon Goldwater are no longer in an adversarial position, and they are beginning their working relationship anew,” Simmons said. “She’s thrilled to have settled this extremely upsetting matter.” An Archie spokesman and a lawyer representing both the company and Goldwater didn’t immediately return calls on the settlement, reached after mediation. Debuted in 1941, carrot-

topped Archie Andrews has percolated into pop culture from comics pages to airwaves. The fictional characters’ band, the Archies, had a 1969 hit with “Sugar, Sugar”; the Archie-related “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” TV series had a popular run in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Goldwater is a son of one of the company’s founders; Silberkleit is another founder’s daughter-in-law. They became

File photo shows a girl reading an Archie comic at Oxford Book Shop in Calcutta, India. — AP

co-CEOs in 2009.

Silberkleit, a former elementary school art teacher, was to oversee scholastic and live theatrical endeavors; she will continue to do so under the settlement, her lawyer said. Goldwater, who had been a rock and pop music manager, would have the final say on everything else, according to her employment contract. Each controls 50 percent of the company - Goldwater by managing his own 25 percent share and another 25 percent that belongs to a trust set up by his late half brother, Richard. The nieces are the trust’s beneficiaries.

Archie has made some attention-getting strides under Jon Goldwater and Silberkleit. The perennially dating Archie got married - to both his competing sweethearts, Betty and Veronica, in separate storylines that extended into the future. The comic also introduced its first openly gay character, Kevin Keller. But friction brewed behind the scenes and spilled over into court last summer.

Goldwater and some staffers said Silberkleit was an erratic troublemaker who sexually harassed employees with off-color remarks, made bad business moves and even paraded a former football player around the office to intimidate people. He asked a court to strip her of her role at the company. —AP

‘Global art show’ Documenta to open in Germany

D

ocumenta, one of the world’s biggest contemporary art fairs, will open to the public Saturday in this central German city, accompanied by events in Afghanistan, Egypt and Canada. The 13th edition of the event, held every five years, will present the work of nearly 300 people from around 55 countries-only about half of them “artists” in the conventional sense, organizers said. President Joachim Gauck will kick off the “global art show” in Kassel, a 100-daylong exhibition and opportunity to discuss painting, photography, films and world affairs. Around 750,000 visitors are expected. Although nearly all the works

A sculpture by German artist Stephan Balkenhol stands on the steeple of the St Elisabeth church.

shown are by living artists and intellectuals, Documenta will also show paintings by the late Salvador Dali and even computer inventor Konrad Zuse.

Other participants include Germany’s Rosemarie Trockel, who erected a “House for Pigs and People” at the 1997 edition, and South African painter and filmmaker William Kentridge. China’s Song Dong will unveil a garbage heap that has already been completely colonized by freshly grown grass while Frenchman Pierre Huyghe will be showing off a compost heap. An ambitious plan to display El Chaco, the world’s second heaviest meteorite weighing in at 37 tones, was eventually abandoned. Instead, the attempt will be documented. The guest list also includes anthropologists, biologists, theorists, engineers, political activists, a hypnotherapist, a psychoanalyst and a zoologist.

“What these participants do and what they exhibit at Documenta may or not be art,” the event’s USborn artistic director, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, told reporters. “The boundary between what is art and what is not has become less important.” She said the work on display reflected a world in constant turmoil.”It looks at moments of trauma, at turning points, accidents, catastrophes, crises,” Christov-Bakargiev said, adding that the motto of “collapse and recovery” also applied to most of the presentations. But she said that those themes only became recognizable as the show came together, insisting she had “no concept”.

“Documenta in Kassel is intentionally uncomfortable, incomplete, nervously lacking,” she said. “I think confusion is really wonderful.” Events will take place at local museums, a park, cinemas and a rail station and, for the first time, in parallel events in Kabul, Cairo and Canada’s Banff National Park. The Afghan capital will also host an exhibition and a film series and part of a photo collage whose second half can be seen in Kassel.—AFP

A woman walks past works by German artist Thomas Bayrle (in the foreground the radial engine sound installation ‘Sternmotor: Hochamt (2010)’.

Visitors look at the work titled ‘Of what is, that it is; of what is not, that is not 1, 2012’, a tapestry commissioned and produced by Documenta (13) and made by Polish-born artis Goshka Macuga.

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Good news for

digital book worms I

t’s the standard traveler’s dilemma. One book won’t get you through your trip, but two books can weigh a lot.

It’s time to consider an e-book, which often weighs in at only 200 grams, even if it’s packing thousands of books on its hard drive. Of course, there are drawbacks. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to lend someone an e-book you’ve purchased. But some merchants in America now report that they’re selling more e-books than printed versions.

Supply and demand are growing worldwide as more people discover e-books and their readers.

“The big advantage is that you can carry the contents of an entire bookshelf around with you,” says Michael Wolf of Stiftung Warentest, a German consumer goods association. “That’s particularly practical for people who read a lot while away.” Plus, e-book readers no longer cost a fortune.

“Prices have sunk in recent years,” says Wolf.

Still, if you’re thinking about an e-reader, first test whether you enjoy reading without printed books. “If you have a tablet or a smartphone, it’s a good way to get to know it,” says Wolf. Most have free reader apps. But most tablets and smartphones don’t have the best display for reading. After all, the secret of a good e-reader is that the display is based on electronic paper, also known as electric ink. That means it has a contrast that comes close to that of printed paper.

It’s easy to read outside, even in direct sunlight, and can be read from a variety of angles. Since electric paper only consumes energy when a page is turned, a reader can last several weeks on one charge. But there are differences between kinds of electric paper. Check that the con-

trast is high and resembles printed paper, advises Rita Deutschbein, an e-book expert with the German website Teltarif.de. There are e-readers on the market with relatively pale electric ink.

There are also e-readers with LCD displays, like those found in tablets, smartphones, notebooks, televisions and

“It means you’re independent from a computer,” says Deutschbein. That’s important, since just about every reader is linked to a dedicated shop, via which e-readers with wi-fi can directly download books. Books purchased from other shops or sources can usually only be down-

Lighten your load while filling up your mind by reading an e-book monitors. But that’s a drawback in some cases, since LCDs are lit in a way that tire the eyes and which burns through a battery charge in a few hours. They also suffer from glare outdoors, making them nearly impossible to read.

Ever more manufacturers are opting for touchscreens, although there are models with buttons and sliding controls. Touchscreens make shopping for e-books easier thanks to a virtual keyboard. It’s also easier to mark words in text so they can be looked up in dictionaries, which often come pre-installed. “It’s practical if you’re reading in a foreign language,” says Wolf. So, with what should an ereader be outfitted? A wi-fi module is practical.

loaded by transferring them from a computer via a USB cable. Most e-readers get along fine with just 2 gigabytes of memory, says Deutschbein. That’s enough for about 1,500 e-books.

Just about every electric paper e-reader has a 15-centimetre display. Most weigh between 170 and 280 grams.

Always check out an e-reader before purchase, cautions Deutschbein. That will help a person clear up whether they prefer buttons or a touchscreen. “You can get a good device for 100 to 150 euros” (125 to 188 dollars), she says.

The standard e-book format is EPUB, used by just about all online shops like Libri, Ciando, Thalia, Pubbles or iTunes. All e-readers use it. However, Amazon remains an exception, which markets books in its own format and sells its Kindle with software to read that. The Kindle can’t open EPUBs. “But most shops are nearly impossible to distinguish based on their selection,” says Deutschbein.

There is also freeware, like Calibre EPUB, that can turn ebooks into Kindle format, as long as they are not copyright protected. Most stores, as well as Project Guttenberg.org, often offer free e-books in both formats.

However, there are not a lot of savings to be had with ebooks. Sometimes they come with a 20- to 30-per-cent discount. Still, unlike regular books, those are copyright protected, meaning they can’t be lent out, given as gifts or resold. But it is possible to read them on multiple devices.

—dpa

Stars

C R O S S W O R D

6 9 9

FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. A master's degree in business.

4. Fairly small terrestrial ferns of tropical America.

10. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord.

13. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

14. A medicinal drug used to evoke vomiting (especially in cases of drug overdose or poisoning).

15. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

16. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

17. Usually elongate cluster of flowers along the main stem in which the flowers at the base open first.

18. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

19. An embroidered rug made from a coarse Indian felt.

21. An implement used to erase something.

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

25. The compass point that is one point east of due south.

26. A French abbot.

29. Tag the base runner to get him out.

30. (Irish) Mother of the Tuatha De Danann.

34. The grasses.

35. One of a pair of mobile appendages on the head of e.g. insects and crustaceans.

37. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

38. A person forced to flee from home or country.

40. State in northeastern India.

41. A rapid series of short loud sounds (as might be heard with a stethoscope in some types of respiratory disorders).

44. (Roman mythology) Goddess of abundance and fertility.

45. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

47. A mercantile establishment for the retail sale of goods or services.

51. An indehiscent fruit derived from a single ovary having one or many seeds within a fleshy wall or pericarp.

54. A polygon with 10 sides and 10 angles.

58. Causing nasal discharge.

61. (Babylonian) A demigod or first man.

62. A beverage made by steeping tea leaves in water.

63. A virtually extinct Caucasian language spoken exclusively in Turkey.

66. A notable achievement.

67. An ugly evil-looking old woman.

68. Utter obscenities or profanities.

69. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

DOWN 1. (statistics) Approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value.

2. A small cake leavened with yeast.

3. The biblical name for ancient Syria.

4. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (19021984).

5. The great hall in ancient Persian palaces.

6. An acute inflammatory disease occurring in the intestines of premature infants.

7. (informal) Of the highest quality.

8. United States designer noted for an innovative series of chairs (1907-1978).

9. Sour or bitter in taste.

10. By bad luck.

11. A narrow way or road.

12. A mark left by the healing of injured tissue.

20. One thousandth of a second.

22. Yellow-fever mosquitos.

24. English monk and scholar (672-735).

27. A cord fastened around the neck with an ornamental clasp and worn as a necktie.

28. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

31. In addition.

32. A less than average tide occurring at the first and third quarters of the moon.

33. Weapons considered collectively.

36. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

39. An anxiety disorder associated with serious traumatic events and characterized by such symptoms as guilt about surviving or reliving the trauma in dreams or numbness and lack of involvement with reality or recurrent thoughts and images.

42. (used of count nouns) Every one considered individually.

43. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

46. Roman Emperor who succeeded Tiberius and whose uncontrolled passions resulted in manifest insanity.

47. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

48. A very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses.

49. South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers.

50. A genus of Ploceidae.

51. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

52. A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography).

53. A steep rugged rock or cliff.

55. A Gaelic-speaking Celt in Ireland or Scotland or the Isle of Man. 56. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

57. A quantity of no importance.

59. The compass point that is one point west of due north.

60. The organ of sight (`peeper' is an informal term for `eye').

64. Unknown god.

65. A period of time equal to 1/24th of a day.

Yesterday始s Solution

W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

(From right) Dr. Samer Al Ali, Andrew Miles and Dr. Omar Rifi

(From right) Dr. Abdulmuhsen Al Shammari and Andrew Miles

MSD undertakes study on fasting during Ramadan for people with type 2 diabetes KUWAIT: During a media gathering at Holliday InnSalmiya MSD in Kuwait, pharmaceutical company, launched its diabetes awareness campaign, aimed at tackling the issue of Muslims with type 2 diabetes who wish to fast during Ramadan. Despite the serious health risks that fasting could pose to diabetics, research shows that more than 50 million people with diabetes continue to fast during Ramadan, going against the advice of healthcare professionals. As part of their initiative to understand the best ways to support diabetics who choose to fast, MSD undertook a study assessing 1,066 patients in 43 clinical centres across the Middle East.

Recognizing the critical role that healthcare professionals play in providing advice to people with diabetes wishing to fast, MSD launched a new information kit for healthcare professionals to share and discuss with their patients. In Kuwait this information is expected to support more than 20 percent of the population who already suffer from diabetes.

Dr. Omar Rifi The study, which has been published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice, showed that patients with type 2 diabetes who chose to fast during Ramadan and were taking JANUVIA(r) (sitagliptin) experienced less hypoglycaemia than patients taking a sulphonylurea (SU). In addition, the relative risk of symptomatic hypoglycaemia was significantly lower in patients treated with sitagliptin versus patients treated with SUs. Talking about the results of the study Samer Al Ali, Medical Director, Middle East-MSD, said “The results of this study are extremely important. Hypoglycaemia is a condition that can greatly impact the lives of people with type 2 diabetes and a common problem that diabetics who fast face. Diabetes can result in serious com-

plications and even death when not properly managed and according to the latest IDF results almost 800 Kuwaitis die each year as a result of diabetes and its complications. Furthermore, unmanaged diabetes places an additional financial burden on Kuwaiti citizens who on average spend as much as $1,336 per person on diabetes treatment.”

Discussing the potential dangers that Kuwaiti diabetics could face, Dr. Abdulmuhsen Alshammari, .Endocrinologis and Diabetologist, at Mubarak AlKabeer Hospital, and Head of Endocrinology and Diabetes Obstetric Clinic at the Al-Adan Hospital, said, “For people with type 2 diabetes, decreased food intake, increased exercise, along with certain diabetes medications, or insulin are well-known risk factors for hypoglycemia, the hypoglycemia will leads to break their fast and in some cases might require urgent medical assistance to raise the blood glucose. It is extremely important that Kuwaiti’s meet with their doctors before they make their decision to fast so that their physician can support them in developing strategies and treatment plans which will allow them to safely fast.”

MSD’s study marks the first research conducted in the Middle East for people fasting during Ramadan and is a crucial part of the company’s philosophy that raising awareness can reduce the prevalence of serious diseases like diabetes. Currently around 298,000 people in Kuwait suffer from diabetes. According to the latest IDF figures, if prevalence continues to increase at current rates it will have almost tripled by 2030 to reach 698,000.

Diabetes in Kuwait Kuwait is ranked 3rd in the world in terms of diabetes incidence rates with over 20 per cent of the adult population already currently living with diabetes according to statistics released by the IDF. Figures suggest that around 298,000 Kuwaiti’s have been diagnosed with diabetes and that additional 121,000 Kuwaiti’s suffer from the disease but have yet to be diagnosed. By 2030 if prevalence in Kuwait continues to increase at current rates 698,000 people in the country will suffer from diabetes. Despite having one of the highest diabetes healthcare expenditures in the region, standing at $1,336 per person per year, almost 800 people died of diabetes related complications in 2011.

Announcements Open House for Indian citizens Open House for Indian citizens by the ambassador which is being held every alternate Wednesday has been found useful by the Indian community and the embassy. It will now be held on every Wednesday from June 2012 between 1500 hrs and 1600 hrs. in the embassy. During the month of June, 2012 the dates for the open house fall today, 13th, 20th, and 27th of the month. 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 Indiaís Consular Wing is providing daily service of Open House to Indian citizens on all workings days from 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1530 hrs by the Consular Officer in the Meeting Room of the Consular Hall.

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 labour wing Help Desk functions from 0830 hrs to 1300 hrs and 1400 hrs to 1630 hrs in the Labour Hall to address the labour related issues. There is also a 24x7 Help Line (Tel No. 25674163) to assist labourers in distress. For any unaddressed issues, the concerned attaches in the labour section and the head of the labour wing could be contacted.

‘Leniency of Islam’ An unprecedented initiative of KTV2 (English channel) is the new program by the name ‘Leniency of Islam’ presented by Shaikh Musaad Alsane and directed by Hamid Al-Turkait.

The program is mainly meant to address the expatriates living in Kuwait. Religious questions are received through the program email qislam@tv.gov.kw and sms can be sent to97822021 and answered by the lecturer and Imam in Awqaf Ministry Shaikh Musaad Alsane - a Master Degree holder in Sharia and fiqih from Kuwait University. So don’t forget to watch the program every Friday at 1:00 pm.

Family reformation seminar A seminar on family reformation is conducted on June 8th and 9th, Friday and Saturday from 6:30 pm onwards at United Indian School, Abbassiya. Well renowned speaker and Shalom TV fame Fr. Jacob Manjali will be speaking in the two day seminar. Organizers believe that the seminar will be beneficial to each and every family who lives in a world of stress. The stress life hinders the love and passion among the family members. The seminar focus on reformation of the families to achieve and share the feelings and emotions of family members together. For more details please contact tel. nos. 66110570, 69950131, 55247343.

TV Listings FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

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

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Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Gordon lifts Dodgers over Phillies

PHILADELPHIA: Dee Gordon hit a go-ahead single to back Chris Capuano as the Los Angeles Dodgers held on to beat the struggling Philadelphia Phillies 6-5 on Wednesday night. Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Ty Wigginton homered for the Phillies, who have lost a season-worst five straight games. Capuano (8-2) gave up four runs and four hits in five innings in one of his least effective starts this season. The lefty has a 2.82 ERA and is tied for the most wins in the majors. Three relievers combined for three scoreless innings before Kenley Jansen finished for his ninth save, including three in this series.

Kyle Kendrick (2-5) gave up five runs and five walks in 5 2-3 innings.

BRAVES 2, MARLINS 1 At Miami, Randall Delgado pitched into the seventh inning and contributed his first RBI of the season before three relievers completed a two-hitter to help Atlanta beat

REDS 5, PIRATES 4 At Cincinnati, Johnny Cueto allowed six hits over 7 2-3 innings and Ryan Ludwick drove in three runs with a bases-loaded double, leading Cincinnati past Pittsburgh.

The Reds won for the 12th time in 17 games and extended their NL Central lead over Pittsburgh to three games.

The second-place Pirates lost for only the third time in 11 games.

Cueto (6-3) left with a 5-1 lead in the eighth. Andrew McCutchen hit a three-run homer off Logan Ondrusek two pitches later. Aroldis Chapman retired all three batters he faced in the ninth for his sixth straight save, fanning Rod Barajas on a 101 mph pitch to end it. The left-hander hasn’t allowed an earned run in his 24 appearances this season, a club record. Ludwick’s double highlighted a four-run fourth against Brad Lincoln (3-1), making his second start of the season.

SAN DIEGO: Melky Cabrera #53 of the San Francisco Giants (left) Gregor Blanco #7 (center) and Angel Pagan #16 (right) celebrate after beating the San Diego Padres 6-5 in a baseball game on June 6, 2012. — AFP Miami. Brian McCann had three of the Braves’ six hits and scored a run.

Delgado (4-5) allowed one run and had a career-high seven strikeouts.

He won for the second time in his past nine starts. Braves relievers retired all eight batters they faced.

Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 17th save in 18 chances. In the first two games of the series, the Braves have allowed one run and seven hits. They’ve won five of their past six games. Josh Johnson (3-4) lost for the first time in four decisions even though he went a season-high 7 2-3 innings and allowed two runs. Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman left the game with a bruised left index finger.

Brandon Phillips had a solo homer off Lincoln. Joey Votto extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

NATIONALS 5, METS 3 At Washington, Edwin Jackson pitched seven effective innings and Adam LaRoche hit a three-run homer as Washington beat the New York Mets. Jackson (2-3) allowed three runs, two earned, and three hits to earn his first win since April 14 against Cincinnati. The right-hander was 0-3 with a 3.33 ERA in his previous eight starts. Sean Burnett pitched a perfect eighth and Tyler Clippard worked the ninth for his fifth save in six chances, completing a three-hitter. New York has lost

three straight. LaRoche hit his ninth homer in the first inning against Jeremy Hefner (1-3) and added a sacrifice fly.

GIANTS 6, PADRES 5 At San Diego, Gregor Blanco homered and scored twice and Madison Bumgarner prevailed in a matchup of lefties in San Francisco’s win. The Giants have won eight of 10 overall and 14 of their last 19 against the Padres, who have the worst record in the majors.

Bumgarner (7-4) won his second straight start while Clayton Richard (2-7) lost for the second time in four starts. Sergio Romo pitched the ninth for his third save. Bumgarner allowed four runs and seven hits in six innings.

CARDINALS 4, ASTROS 3 At Houston, Allen Craig and Daniel Descalso homered to back Adam Wainwright in St. Louis’ victory. Descalso’s drive came in a threerun first inning and Craig connected in the third to make it 41. Craig also had an RBI single in the first.

Wainwright (5-6) yielded seven hits and three runs with eight strikeouts in 5 2-3 innings to improve to 5-0 in six starts at Minute Maid Park. Astros starter Bud Norris (5-3) allowed seven hits and four runs with a seasonhigh 12 strikeouts and no walks in six innings. He became the first Astros pitcher to strike out at least 12 without a walk since Shane Reynolds in 1999.

BREWERS 8, CUBS 0 At Milwaukee, Zack Greinke had a season-high 12 strikeouts and Milwaukee rediscovered its offense against Chicago. Greinke (7-2) extended his home winning streak to 15 straight decisions at Miller Park. He gave up two hits in seven innings, with two walks and a wild pitch. Brooks Conrad - who came into the game batting .059 - had a two-run single. Ryan Braun and Cody Ransom each added an RBI double. Norichika Aoki had a walk and three hits after being moved to the leadoff spot and Taylor Green hit a three-run homer, the first of his career. Cubs starter Paul Maholm (45) gave up four runs and six hits in four innings.

DIAMONDBACKS 6, ROCKIES 1 At Phoenix, Paul Goldschmidt homered and drove in three runs while extending his hitting streak to 14 games and Wade Miley pitched eight sharp innings as the Arizona Diamondbacks rolled to a 6-1 win over Colorado.The Diamondbacks beat up the Rockies in the middle game of the series, getting a season high 17 hits Tuesday night. They kept swinging and connecting in the finale, scoring five runs the first three innings off Josh Outman (0-2) on their way to 11 more hits.

Goldschmidt hit a pair of run-scoring doubles off Outman and a leadoff homer to right in the seventh inning, giving Miley (7-2) more than enough support in Arizona’s fourth win in five games.— AP

Indians thump Tigers DETROIT: Michael Brantley hit a three-run homer after a Detroit error kept a first-inning rally going, and Johnny Damon added a two-run single to help the Cleveland Indians to a 9-6 victory over the Tigers on Wednesday night.

Casey Kotchman hit a two-run shot for the Indians, who improved to 5-0 against Detroit this season. Miguel Cabrera and Don Kelly hit solo homers for the Tigers. Jeanmar Gomez (4-4) allowed six runs and seven hits in five innings for Cleveland. Four relievers held Detroit to one hit the rest of the way, with Chris Perez pitching the ninth for his 19th save in 20 chances. Max Scherzer (5-4) allowed five earned runs in 4 1-3 innings - and three unearned runs in the first. Detroit right fielder Brennan Boesch dropped a fly ball with two outs in the first and Brantley hit a drive to right on the next pitch.

MARINERS 8, ANGELS 6 At Anaheim, Ichiro Suzuki homered and scored three times for Seattle, and Kyle Seager drove in four runs. Michael Saunders added three hits to complete an impressive road trip. Saunders went 19 for 39 (.487) during Seattle’s nine-game jaunt to Texas, Chicago and Anaheim, including five games with at least three hits. He had two homers and five RBIs while raising his batting average from .224 to .277. Shawn Kelley (1-2) won in relief of Hector Noesi, but it was Stephen Pryor who got the big outs. Pryor stifled potential Angels rallies in the sixth and seventh innings with double-play balls. Tom Wilhelmsen pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save. Kendrys Morales homered and Albert Pujols had two hits for Los Angeles. Jerome Williams (6-3) gave up seven runs, five earned, and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings.

ATHLETICS 2, RANGERS 0 At Oakland, Yoenis Cespedes went 3 for 3 and Bartolo Colon pitched eight sparkling innings, leading the Athletics to the victory. Brandon Inge hit an RBI single in the second and Colon (5-6) won for the second time in his last nine outings to improve to 18-6 in 28 starts against Texas - his most wins against any opponent. The right-hander was backed by just enough run support in this outing after the A’s were blanked his last time out at Kansas City on Friday - the third time Oakland hasn’t scored a run in one of his games.

Cespedes doubled and scored in the second, hit an RBI single in the fourth and tripled in the sixth during Oakland’s sixth shutout of the year. Texas starter Colby Lewis (4-5) allowed six hits in eight innings.

YANKEES 4, RAYS 1 At New York, Ivan Nova took a two-hitter into the ninth inning, Mark Teixiera and Robinson Cano homered as the Yankees beat the Rays for the second straight night. Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez had RBI doubles in the eighth inning to help the Yankees win for the 10th time in 13 games and pass Tampa Bay in the tight AL East standings for the first time since April 23.

Tampa Bay lost for the sixth time in eight games and dropped to third place after at least holding a share of the division lead since May 27. Nova (7-2) allowed one run and four hits in eight-plus innings. Rafael Soriano got three outs for his eighth save in eight chances. Tampa Bay’s Alex Cobb (2-2) gave up four runs and five hits in seven-plus innings.

BLUE JAYS 4, WHITE SOX 0 At Chicago, Brandon Morrow pitched a two-hitter for his third shutout of the season, and Jose Bautista and Rajai Davis homered for Toronto. Morrow (7-3) allowed singles in the second and eighth to A.J. Pierzynski and retired 14 straight at one point. He gave up his only two walks in the ninth, to Adam Dunn and Alejandro De Aza, and struck out five, including Dayan Viciedo to end it. White Sox star Paul Konerko sat out a second straight game after having a bone chip flushed out of a joint in his left wrist and has now missed three in a row overall after having the day off to rest last Sunday. Chicago starter Jose Quintana (1-1) gave up nine hits and two runs in six innings.

TWINS 4, ROYALS 2 At Kansas City, Nick Blackburn shook off a slow start and pitched five effective innings, helping the Twins pick up another win. Justin Morneau hit a go-ahead, two-run single with two out in the fifth as Minnesota won for the fourth time in five games. Morneau, Ben Revere and Ryan Doumit each had two hits. Blackburn (2-4), who was making his first start since coming off the disabled list following a left quad strain, allowed two runs and five hits. Matt Capps tossing a perfect ninth for his 14th save in 15 opportunities. Yuniesky Betancourt hit a two-run homer in the first for Kansas City. Royals right-hander Felipe Paulino faced four batters in the first before leaving with a strained right groin. Luis Mendoza (2-3) came in and pitched five innings, yielding two runs and five hits.

ORIOLES 2, RED SOX 1 At Boston, Wei-Yin Chen scattered seven hits over seven innings and the Orioles set a franchise record with their seventh straight victory in Boston.

The Orioles, who knocked Boston out of the postseason on the final night of the regular season last year, have won 12 of the past 15 meetings. They are 50 at Fenway Park this season. —AP

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Djokovic feeling Grand Slam strain PARIS: John McEnroe believes Novak Djokovic is feeling the strain as he closes in on Grand Slam history, but backed the world number one to fire on all cylinders in today’s French Open semi-final with Roger Federer.

Djokovic already has the Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open titles in his possession and victory in Sunday’s final would make him just the third man in history, and first in 43 years, to hold all four majors at the same time.

But the top seed has struggled in his last two rounds in Paris, coming from two sets to love down to beat Andreas Seppi in the fourth round and saving four match points in a five-set triumph over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals. “Novak is really feeling the pressure like he did last year. It’s impossible not to feel that because he’s so close,” said American legend McEnroe at a rainswept Roland Garros on Thursday. If Djokovic gets past Federer today in a

Ferrer ‘ready’ to defy Nadal PARIS: David Ferrer says he is ready to face the toughest challenge in world tennis - going up against Rafael Nadal on the claycourts of Roland Garros at the French Open. The player they call “The Bulldozer” because of his relentless and attritional style has played 19 times against his fellow Spaniard and he has lost 15 of them. Oddly for two such claycourt stalwarts, only once previously have they met at Roland Garros and that was in 2005 when Nadal made his debut in Paris and won comfortably 7-5, 6-2, 6-0 before going on to win his first Grand Slam title.

In fact the only time that Ferrer, who at 30 is four years older than Nadal, has beat him on clay was in their very first meeting in Stuttgart in 2004 and even that took three tough sets to get the job done. The hard facts make grim reading for the hopes of Ferrer ahead of today’s semi-final. Nadal’s straight sets victory over another Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, in the quarter-finals brought up his 50th win at Roland Garros against just the one defeat - to Swede Robin Soderling in the 2009 fourth round. On top of that, Nadal has added motivation this year as a win on Sunday would make him the first man to win seven French Open titles, snapping a tie with Swedish legend Bjorn Borg.

It would also be his 11th Grand Slam title, putting him level with Borg and Rod Laver. Ferrer, through to his first semi-final here, insists that defeat for him is not inevitable. “Yes, Rafa is always difficult to play.

Even more so on clay,” he said. “But as I said and I will say again - I will try and play a beautiful match, my best tennis. I have great ambitions, and I’m quite certain this is going to be a very physical match.” The two have met twice on clay in the buildup to Paris, in Rome and Barcelona, with Nadal winning both in straight sets, but Ferrer came agonizingly close to taking the first set in the Italian capital before ceding in a tie-break. He then lost the second set 6-0.

That, he says, is the problem against Nadal - he never, ever lets up. “In Rome it was different, because I had opportunities to win a set, but he played extremely well,” he said. “I think you can win a set against Rafa, but there is a difference between winning a set and winning a match. “Winning a match against Rafa is almost impossible. He is in such good shape.” Nadal, who has yet to drop a set this year at Roland Garros, is full of praise for his Davis Cup partner and close friend. “His game bothers everybody because he’s one of the best players in the world on every surface, on clay especially,” he said.

“He’s a complete player. It’s very difficult to play against him, because his movements are probably the best of the world, and he’s able to hit the ball very early a lot of the times. “It will be a very tough match.”

Today’s other semi-final is a repeat of last year with top seed Novak Djokovic going up against third seed Roger Federer. Neither player has ever beaten Nadal at Roland Garros.— AFP

rematch of last year’s semi-final clash, where the Swiss great ended the Serb’s 43-match winning run, he could face six-time champion Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final.

“I guess Roger was this close. He had won three in a row and was in the finals twice. I believe Rafa was in the same position in Australia,” added McEnroe. “I was never at the holding three in a row and going for that fourth one. But I know that’s gotta start to get to you a little bit. “It

did obviously when he (Djokovic) played Seppi. It was like he really was struggling. Even against Jo it wasn’t maybe as sharp as we’ve seen him.

That’s not unexpected. “Now that he’s gotten here, I expect him to play better. Even though he lost to Roger here last year, it’s going to be Roger that’s going to have to step up, play even quite a bit better in order to win. “But then again, both of them are going to have to play even better if they want to win the final.”— AFP

Frazar, McIlroy hope to find form at St Jude MEMPHIS: Defending champ Harrison Frazar and world No 2 Rory McIlroy will both be hoping to find their form at this weekís St Jude Classic, the final tune up for the second major of the year. Reigning US Open champ McIlroy is playing the $5.6 million St Jude for just the second time after deciding a couple of weeks ago that he would head to Memphis in order to get some extra playing time ahead of next weekís US Open. ìI just feel like Iíve lacked competitive rounds a little bit,î McIlroy said. ìIím still confident in my abilities. Itís just a matter of working hard and trying to bring it up a level from where it has been the last couple of weeks.î McIlroy missed the cut last week at the Memorial. He hasnít broken par in his last three starts, two on the PGA Tour and one on the European Tour. He missed the cut in all three starts.

But he says he got in a full weekend of practice with his coaches and hopes it pays off with better scores from now on. ìI am hoping to get in another competitive tournament before next week. It would be nice to turn around my form,î he said. Among those McIlroy will be locking horns with this week are the 40-year-old Frazar, who began the season with a pair of top-five finishes in Hawaii, but has not cracked the top-25 since. ìI have had some issues with the left hip,î Frazar said. ìIt hasnít been a breeze. There are times when I needed to go home and take time off. Right now I am in a phase where I am not feeling my best but it is manageable. I am doing the best I can. I am not 25 anymore.î Frazar needed three playoff holes to beat Robert Karlsson and collect his first PGA Tour title last year. It marked the second straight year Karlsson was a playoff runner-up at the tournament.

Joining Frazar and McIlroy in the field will be former major champions Padraig Harrington, Zach Johnson, Davis Love and Graeme McDowell. Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker and Kyle Stanley could also contend.— AFP

MEMPHIS: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland hits his second shot on the par 4 17th hole during the first round of the FedEx St Jude Classic at TPC Southwind in Memphis. — AFP

Taiwan’s Tseng seeks to defend major title PITTSFORD: Yani Tseng, who has won three of the first five events on the 2012 LPGA Tour, is looking forward to defending her title at the LPGA Championship which began yesterday. Taiwan’s Tseng leads the player of the year rankings by a wide margin over Sun Young Yoo and Stacy Lewis, and is looking forward to locking horns with a strong field in another major this week at the Locust Hill Country Club. Tseng has five career major titles on her resume and has already wrapped up the LPGA Tour Player of the Year Award for the second straight year. “I didn’t expect this. When I won the first (major), I never thought I’m going to win a second major,” said Tseng. “I never thought about winning five. I never think about it, but now I’m

thinking I can win more.” The 23-yearold Tseng finished third in the first major of the year, just one stroke out of a playoff at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

“At the beginning of this year, I was putting so much pressure (on myself), the most pressure I’ve ever had in my whole life,” she said. “In January, I would just stay home. I wouldn’t go out. It was no fun.” Tseng, who turned pro five years ago and joined the LPGA full-time in 2008, tees off in Thursday’s opening round in a group with Lewis and Paula Creamer. American Lewis is also on a roll, having won two of her previous three starts, but it is Tseng who has become the poster woman for ladies golf. “She’s been accessible, available, and the ambassador at every turn,” said

Kraig Kann, chief communications officer of the LPGA Tour. “Every opportunity we’ve given her that we feel like is one that she needs to do, she’s done.

You can’t do everything, but I am so impressed with how she carries herself.

She’s not afraid, she’s not intimidated.”

Tseng routed the field at last year’s LPGA Championship, winning by 10 shots over Morgan Pressel and Cindy LaCrosse. “Last year when I walked on the 18th hole-I’m pretty emotional-the crowd was amazing,” Tseng said.

“Everybody stood up and clapped for me. I was like, I don’t know for what because I’m not American.” The win made Tseng the youngest female golfer in history, at 22 years, 4 months and 18 days, to win four major titles.—AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Thunder strike down Spurs OKLAHOMA: The Oklahoma City Thunder booked their place in the National Basketball Association finals on the back of a furious second-half comeback led by Kevin Durant to take a seriesclinching 107-99 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. The Thunder roared back from an 18-point deficit in the first half, outscoring San Antonio 59-36 after the intermission to claim the best-of-seven Western Conference series 4-2 on their home court.

Oklahoma City will now play the winner of the Eastern Conference final between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat in the best-of-seven NBA championship series.

After halting the Spurs’ 20-game winning streak last week, Oklahoma City surged into the championship series by taking four straight games to overturn a 2-0 deficit. Three-time NBA scoring champion Durant, 23, led the charge with a game-high 34 points and 14 rebounds while playing the entire 48 minutes. “This is the toughest game I’ve played since I’ve been here,” Durant said in an on-court ceremony as the packed home arena crowd interrupted him with a chant of “MVP, MVP, MVP.” “But we kept playing hard. I tried to inspire my team mates with my play on both ends of the floor, and I’m glad we got this victory for Oklahoma City.”

Durant and 23-year-old point guard Russell Westbrook helped bring the Thunder to the NBA Finals in the franchise’s fourth season in Oklahoma City after the move from Seattle. The Spurs, a veteran team with core players Tim Duncan (36), Manu Ginobli (34) and Tony Parker (30), came out on fire, determined to force a Game Seven back in San Antonio. French point guard Parker lit up the Thunder with 21 points and handed out 10 assists in the first half, with Duncan adding 13 points as the Spurs held a 15-point lead at halftime 63-48.

PLAY WITH FORCE Durant said the halftime message to the Thunder was clear. “The coaches said we got to play with force, with a sense of urgency and we didn’t want to go back to San Antonio,” he said. “Leave everything out on the floor.” The Thunder went on a 14-4 run to close to 67-62 and grabbed a 79-77 lead on one of Durant’s long three-point bombs from well

Devils down Kings, keep Stanley Cup hopes alive LOS ANGELES: The New Jersey Devils kept their slim Stanley Cup hopes alive with a battling 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday to avoid a sweep and send the series back to the Prudential Center. Devils rookie forward Adam Henrique dampened celebrations for a sold out Staples Center crowd that had turned up hoping to witness the franchise’s first Stanley Cup when he scored the tiebreaking goal with less than five minutes remaining. Ilya Kovalchuk added an insurance marker into an empty net to cap a wild third period and send both teams silently off the ice and to the airport for a trip back to Newark for Saturday’s Game Five.

“We’re pretty happy to live another day,” said Devils netminder Martin Brodeur, who stopped 21 shots in the win. “We just wanted to play well, give everything we had, and see where that’s going to bring us. “We pulled it off, one game.

We’ll take it one game at a time but I’m sure they’re not happy to make that trip. We’ll try to make it miserable for them again. “We know that the road ahead is the most difficult that we could face. So we’re taking a day at a time. While the Devils finally made the breakthrough they had been seeking, the three third-period goals one more than they had mustered in the entire series to date, the challenge ahead remains a daunting one.

Only one team, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, has ever clawed back from a 3-0 deficit to hoist the Cup. It marked the third time in four series that the Kings have held a 3-0 lead and failed to finish off their opponents at the first opportunity, having also allowed Vancouver and Phoenix a consolation win before delivering the knockout punch. “Close out a series in Game Four?” Kings coach Darryl Sutter scoffed. “It’s the Stanley Cup final. The game is the very same as the first two games.” Heading back to New Jersey will not strike any fear into the Kings, however, who opened the series with a pair of tight 2-1 wins at the Prudential Center.

OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook holds the western conference trophy after Game 6 in the NBA basketball Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, June 6, 2012. — AP beyond the arc late in the quarter.

Parker, silenced for most of the third period, came to life at the end of the stanza, scoring on a spinning drive to the hoop to give San Antonio an 81-80 edge going to the last quarter.

Durant and Westbrook, however, helped the Thunder build a six-point lead at 90-84 and San Antonio could not catch the younger, faster team. “They were more energetic,” said Spurs guard Manu Ginobli. “They played better

defense, they were more aggressive. “Of course, we can’t have their legs, their energy. We’re never going to jump as high or run as fast.” Veteran guard Derek Fisher, added to Oklahoma City’s young roster during the season, hit a critical three-pointer late in the game and banked in a jumper to help keep the Thunder ahead. “We’re just playing and doing it for each other, and great things can happen when you do it for each other,” Fisher said. — Reuters

Australia’s Cahill fails to douse UAE club link SYDNEY: Australian international Tim Cahill has not discounted the prospect of leaving the English Premier League to play in the Middle East, reports said yesterday. Cahill, 32, has two years left on his contract with Everton but has been linked with a reported $Aus4 million ($4 million) deal for one season at the cash-rich United Arab Emirates club Al Nasr where compatriot Mark Bresciano currently plays.

Cahill, who is in Muscat preparing for Australia’s World Cup qualifier against Oman on Friday, did not kill off the speculation when speaking to reporters at the team’s training camp. “It is always a compliment. I am a massive fan of the Middle East, the cultures, the people,” Cahill was reported as saying in Australian newspapers yesterday. “I have travelled a lot and I respect them a lot. For me, it is just to

focus on the Socceroos and we will see what happens later.

“I know what the experience is like. I have lived and breathed it. I have played in two Asian Cups and I have got great connections with a lot of important people overseas.

“I come on holiday in the Middle East a lot and I embrace the weather and the culture, and I am a massive fan of this part of the world.” Cahill is feted at Everton but his departure could ease the financial load on the club as it tries to hold onto other key players, reports said. He is one of Everton’s longest serving players, making his club debut in 2004, with 278 appearances and 68 goals. Cahill said he was focused on Australia’s World Cup qualifiers and that speculation of a potential move would be dealt with after Australia’s important match against Japan in Brisbane on Tuesday. — AFP

JOB DONE In fact, the Kings have been at their best on the road, unbeaten away from the Staples Center this post-season in winning an NHL playoff record 10 consecutive games on enemy ice. “We’ve got to take it home and take care of business now and win another one,” Devils coach Peter DeBoer said.

“We’re a good team in front of our home crowd. I’m confident that we’ll be ready to play and we’ll get the job done.” For DeBoer, Henrique has definitely been one of New Jerseys’s players doing just that. It is the third time this post-season that the rookie has come to the Devils rescue and he is developing a reputation as a clutch player with a penchant for scoring big goals. Henrique also notched the double-overtime winner in Game Seven to eliminate the Florida Panthers in their first round series and delivered again in the Eastern Conference finals, scoring the overtime winner to finish off the New York Rangers. “Everybody wants to be out there in those situations,” Henrique said. “You want to be counted on by your team mates, your coaches. “It’s nice that they have that trust in me to put me out there in those certain times of the game. I just play. “I’m not thinking about what’s going to happen if I score, if I don’t score. “I’m just a kid playing hockey, having some fun.” A Devils attack that had produced just two goals in three games, came to life eight minutes into the third when Patrick Elias jumped on a big rebound off Bryce Salvador’s hopeful blast and slid a backhand shot past Kings netminder Jonathan Quick.

The goal was the first surrendered by Quick in nearly 139 minutes of playoff hockey. It also marked the first time in four games that the Devils scored the opening goal, but the lead lasted just 62 seconds as the Kings answered with a powerplay rocket from Drew Doughty that touched off wild celebrations inside Staples Center. “We found a way to get the first goal, we found a way to keep momentum,” DeBoer added. “I think the last three games could have gone our way as easily as they’ve gone LA’s way. “We finally got rewarded tonight.

“I’ve liked our game and our efforts the last three games. We just haven’t found a way to win until tonight. “So hopefully that gets the ball rolling.” — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Juve’s Pepe, Stellini quizzed in match-fixing trial ROME: Juventus winger Simone Pepe and his manager Antonio Conte’s technical assistant Cristian Stellini are among the latest names to be called for questioning yesterday in the match-fixing trial that has rocked Italy.

Thirty seven people have so far been called up by federal prosecutors in the second round of “calcioscommesse” (soccer bet) investigations, which has led to the arrest of several high-profile players, including Lazio captain Stefano Mauri.

In addition to the arrests, a police raid of Italy’s preEuro 2012 training camp led to defender Domenico Crescito being dropped from the squad after he was put under an official police investigation. Stellini also worked under Conte during his time at Siena in the 2010-11 season, when the pair led the Tuscan side to promotion to Serie A. In April, it was reported that

Filippo Carobbio, who played under them during that season, claimed that both Conte and Stellini were aware of at least one match being fixed for a betting syndicate.

It is not yet clear why Pepe, who did not make the Italy squad for the Euro 2012 tournament starting on Friday, has been called by prosecutors, but the pair will be questioned on June 13. The latest Italian soccer scandal led Prime Minister Mario Monti to suggest it might be a good idea to suspend soccer for two years and national team coach Cesare Prandelli admit that he would have no problem if his side were kicked out of Euro 2012. The first round of sentence recommendations saw Pescara and Atalanta handed two-point deductions for next season, while Sampdoria and Siena were handed 50,000 euro fines and relegated Serie B

side AlbinoLeffe a whopping 27-point deduction.

UEFA president Michel Platini added that penalties for players found guilty of fixing matches should be severe. “There should be zero tolerance for anyone found to be guilty - they should never play again,” the French former Juventus midfielder said at a news conference on Wednesday. More revelations look set to emerge with ANSA reporting that prosecutors in Cremona have “devastating” information regarding the 2011 Sampdoria v Genoa derby, in particular for former Genoa player Omar Milanetto, now at Serie B side Padova. “It will have a devastating effect and Milanetto is involved,” says a document which the Italian news agency claims is a transcription of prosecutor Roberto di Martino’s words from May 8. “It will be the worst thing to come out so far in this investigation.”— Reuters

Coach Preciado dies of heart attack at 54 Preciado dies, a day after taking Villarreal job MADRID: Tributes poured in for Manuel Preciado yesterday after the popular Spanish coach died of a heart attack in Valencia at the age of 54. Preciado had on Wednesday agreed to take the reins at relegated Villarreal and was scheduled to attend a news conference at the Madrigal last Friday. “He was a man of football who represented the best values of his profession,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque told Marca Radio from Poland where his team are preparing to start the defence of their Euro 2012 title. “It’s almost impossible to believe so much could happen around one person in such a short space of time. He was a fighter.”

Del Bosque was referring to the personal tragedies that befell Preciado over the last decade when he lost his wife to cancer, his son in a road accident and his father. The charismatic coach, with a bushy moustache and gravelly voice, always maintained a positive outlook and was characteristically blunt about the knocks he had suffered. “Life has hit me hard,” he once said in an interview. “I could have weakened and ended up shooting myself or I could look to the heavens and carry on. I preferred the second option.” His former club Sporting Gijon broke the news of his death in a statement.

GREAT SADNESS “Sporting convey their great sadness for the loss of someone who wrote their name in our history in golden letters and send their condolences to his family in these painful moments,” the relegated club said. Preciado coached Sporting between 2006 and January this year, when he was sacked after a poor run of results. He was Sporting’s second longest-serving coach after having also worked with Racing Santander, Levante and Real Murcia among others.

Villarreal, who were hoping Preciado would lead them back in to La Liga next season after he successfully guided Levante and Sporting into the top division, said: “Villarreal wish to show their deep sorrow for the sad loss”.

Preciado famously had a war of words with Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho two years ago after the Portuguese suggested his Sporting side fielded a weakened team in a match against Barcelona. Later that season Sporting were shock 1-0 winners at the Bernabeu where the two coaches made up. Mourinho ended up inviting Preciado to visit Real’s training facility earlier this year. “Manolo was always a worthy opponent,” Mourinho said in a statement. “He had everything I like in people and sportsmen; character, transparency and the ability to fight against setbacks that were particularly cruel in his case. “A great football figure leaves us and above all a very special person.”— Reuters

EL MOLINON: File photo shows then Sporting Gijon’s coach Manuel Preciado reacting during a match at El Molinon Stadium. Manuel Preciado, 54, former coach of Sporting Gijon, has died of a heart attack, his former club Sporting Gijon said yesterday. — AFP

Bluebirds Cardiff turn red after all KUALA LUMPUR: Cardiff City FC, known as the Bluebirds, will switch to red shirts after all, the club have announced, weeks after their Malaysian owners assured upset fans they were abandoning plans to change. Club chief executive Alan Whiteley said in a statement seen yesterday that the “revolutionary move” to switch jersey color was decided in discussions with the owners, who have pledged to pump in more money. Vincent Tan, a Malaysian tycoon of Chinese origin, had been considering the change because red is “luckier” as well as the Welsh national side’s color, until fans’ “vociferous opposition” saw the plans temporarily halted.

But on their website, the club said their primary home color had been changed to red, while the team would retain blue as an away option. A third kit is to be revealed later. The statement did not specify how much Cardiff’s backers Tan and chairman Chan Tien Ghee would invest, but said the money stood to resolve the club’s long-standing debt problems. “As directors-and as fans in our own right-we recognize that there is a history and commitment that goes with supporting Cardiff City,” said Whiteley.

“At the same time, we also have to be prepared to be realistic and progressive... By securing this investment (from the Malaysian investors) we can safeguard the immediate and long-term future of this club,” he said. The club added: “The color red is widely recognized as being synonymous with Welsh culture and heritage. “The color also holds strong spiritual significance in Asia, where it is seen as a symbol of prosperity, power and good fortune,” it said, adding the change of hue was expected to help build Cardiff’s brand out east. As part of the changes, a new badge will also incorporate the “proud symbol” of the Welsh dragon, Chan said in the statement.

There is a dragon on the Welsh national flag and in Chinese culture it is considered a symbol of power. “I know and understand that there have been reservations in certain quarters over the changes accompanying the investment, but sincerely hope that all of our loyal fans will come to accept the changes,” said Chan. Manager Malky Mackay said the owners’ backing would let Cardiff “look forward to the future with confidence and excitement” and work toward the goal of reaching the Premiership. Cardiff saw their hopes of promotion to the Premier League dashed by West Ham last month in their play-off semi-final. It was the Bluebirds’ third consecutive play-off failure.

The club are planning a new training ground and facilities, and are considering eventually expanding their stadium, as well as strengthening the squad, the statement said.— AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Group A - full of eastern promise WARSAW: Left over tensions from the communist era dominate the background to Euro 2012 Group A for Poland and to a lesser extent the Czech Republic but one thing is likely to remain the same - Russia being in charge. They were the revelation of the tournament four years ago in a run to the semi-finals, led by Andrey Arshavin, and the Russians gave a signal of their intent last month with a 3-0 win over Italy. They are firm favorites to top the group. Off the pitch, Tuesday’s clash with the Poles could be one of the tournament flashpoints given tensions over responsibility for an air crash two years ago that killed Poland’s then president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior officials.

Dick Advocaat’s squad have already ridden out complaints about the hotel they are staying in just yards from a memorial to the crash, which occurred over Russian territory and is still being investigated. On the pitch, the Poles the lowest ranked side at the finals - could by that stage be fighting to stay in the tournament after opening against a Greek side who have lost once in 20 games and have conceded only five goals in qualifying. “We’ve been saying ever since the draw that the Russians were the strongest team in this group,” Polish assistant coach Jacek Zielinski told Reuters on Wednesday.

“For sure they are the strongest in terms of personnel and they are the best integrated team, used to playing with each and used to playing at these sorts of tournaments. For sure they expect to achieve something similar to four years ago.” Pressed by Polish reporters on whether the history of tension with Russia would have an impact on next week’s game, Zielinski smiled and, pointing to winger Maciej Rybus, who plays in the Russian league, said: “We have known each other for years. Russians know us, we know the Russians. Maciej, I assure you, has not learned more in half a year in Grozny (with Terek) than the rest of us learned in 30, 40 or even 50 years of history.”

The Czechs, for their part, are always desperate to beat their former Soviet era occupiers, although traditionally there is more tension around ice hockey, in which the two countries have dominated the world game, than soccer.

After squeezing past Scotland in qualifying courtesy of a hotly-disputed penalty, they are struggling to get captain Tomas Rosicky and striker Milan Baros fit for today’s opener in Wroclaw, just a few miles from the Czech border. “The group is quite open at this point,” Czech team manager Vladimir Smicer said on Wednesday. “All the teams will think they have a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals.

“The really important match for us will be the first game against Russia. They are the favorites in our group.” The Russians and Czechs will be out to prove wrong the critics of their failure to blood new talent in teams previously viewed as being among Europe’s strongest.—Reuters

Matches on TV (Local Timings)

UEFA European Championship Poland v Greece Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Aljazeera Sport +9 Aljazeera Sport +10 Al-jazeera Sport - Euro

19:00

Russia v Czech Republic Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Aljazeera Sport +9 Aljazeera Sport +10 Aljazeera Sport 2 HD Al-jazeera Sport - Euro

21:45

WC2014 Qualifying Japan v Jordan Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Aljazeera Sport Global

13:32

WARSAW: A vendor offers balloons on Zamkowy Square, with the National Stadium in the background, during the Euro 2012 soccer championship in Warsaw, Poland yesterday. — AP

Germans look to get off to flier against Portugal GDANSK: Germany open their Euro 2012 campaign bidding to beat Portugal for the third successive time at a major finals tomorrow with captain Philipp Lahm insisting his team must finally show what they can do. The Germans, three-time European champions, eliminated Portugal in the quarter-finals four years ago and beat them in the largely meaningless third-place match at the 2006 World Cup. But Lahm knows those results will have little effect on their Group B clash and a good result is vital in the group known as the ‘Group of Death’ with 2010 World Cup finalists Holland and the unspectacular but solid Danes to come.

“The tension is building slowly, we have been working for two years for this moment. It’s time to get going,” said the 28-year-old who took over the captaincy officially from Michael Ballack after the 2010 World Cup. “We have a great squad, we just need to show what we can do.” Only Germany and defending champions Spain came through the qualifying campaign with 100 percent records, but after their team finished at least third in their last three tournaments, the German public are growing restless for a title.

Having finished second to Spain at Euro 2008 and third at both the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, a recent survey showed one in four Germans believe their team will win the Euro 2012 final on July 1. But last month’s shock 5-3 friendly defeat at the hands of Switzerland, on the back of their 2-1 loss to France in February, suggest the Germans have defensive deficiencies for Portugal to exploit. Coach Joachim Loew looks set to include his midfield general Bastian Schweinsteiger as the Bayern Munich star has recovered from the calf strain he picked up during the Champions League final defeat to Chelsea. “I’m fine, I have no problems. I’m getting my spark back,” the 27-year-old said. Real Madrid’s Sami Khedira is expected to partner Schweinsteiger with his team-mate from the Spanish giants, Mesut Ozil, leading the attack. Arsenal-bound Lukas Podolski and Bayern’s Thomas Mueller look set to start on the wings with either Bayern’s Mario Gomez or Lazio veteran Miroslav Klose up front as the lone striker. Klose, who turns 34 tomorrow, has made 116 appearances for Germany and is five short of Gerd Mueller’s record of 68 goals for Germany set in the early 1970s. —AFP

Correction Due to an error, the Spanish team list was wrongly published on our Euro 2012 supplement on Page 8. Here is the correct list of the Spanish team.

FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Euro 2012 kicks off Poland, Ukraine envoys woo sports lovers

By Chidi Emmanuel

KUWAIT: The Ukrainian Ambassador Volodymyr Tolkach (left) and the Polish Ambassador Janusz Szwedo are pictured during a press conference at the Polish Embassy yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al- Zayyat

KUWAIT: The Euro 2012 tournament kicks off today in Warsaw with Greece facing hosts Poland in an opener for a rare moment of cheer.

The Poland-Greece opener is followed by Russia versus the Czech Republic in Wroclaw. The final match will be held in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on July 1, 2012. The championship, which is held every four years, consists of three stages - qualification, play-offs and the final tournament. This year’s event - co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine is the first UEFA European Championship to be staged in central and eastern Europe. It is the third time the championship has been organized by two countries. Previously, it was co-hosted by Belgium and Holland in 2000 and Austria and Switzerland in 2008. The 16 teams that qualified for this year’s tournament are Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Croatia, Ukraine, Sweden, France and England.

AGAINST ALL ODDS “Yes we did it against all odds,” the Ukrainian Ambassador Volodymyr Tolkach said during a press conference organized jointly by the Polish and Ukrainian ambassadors in Kuwait at the Polish Embassy. He hailed the progress both countries have made, irrespective of the global financial crisis. “The preparation was not easy.

The financial crisis influenced and affected us, but at the end, we can proudly say we did it.

More than $1 billion was spent in building infrastructures alone. In Ukraine, stadiums and two new airport terminals were built among other things aimed at making this championship a remarkable one,” he said.

VISA FOR KUWAITIS, EXPATRIATES The host ambassadors said that efforts have been made to facilitate the visa process for both countries. “The visa rules have been relaxed a little bit in a bid to help visitors from Kuwait. For Kuwaitis and some other countries, it will take just only one working day to get the visa,” Polish Ambassador Janusz Szwedo said. Moreover, he added that visitors with Ukrainian visas will be allowed to visit Poland and vice versa during the tournament. This he said is a way to ease movement and to assist foreigners who have no Schengen visas - of which Ukraine is not part of.

SECURITY AND RACISM Reacting to a BBC report on racism in Ukraine, the ambassador frowned at what he called “a biased and unbalanced reports by the British and French media”. “We are really surprised. We used to hold BBC to a high extreme before, but its image has been tarnished now. I don’t understand why they are doing this. What they (media groups) called a Nazi salute is referred to as ‘My heart for my team’ in Ukraine.

My government has zero tolerance on racism.

Ukraine promotes peace and tolerance,” he explained. Buttressing Tolkach’s remarks, the Polish ambassador said that the problems were “artificially created to discredit Poland and Ukraine”. “Poland is the center of tolerance.

Other nations are trying to export their racism and violence to Poland. Please don’t believe their reports. Judge us after the event,” Roman Strzemiecki, Poland Embassy’s First Counselor stressed. The ambassadors affirmed that the host nations have deplored adequate security apparatus to protect lives and properties during the event.

UEFA EUROPEAN FOOTBALL The UEFA European Football Championships are held every four years. Qualifying matches are played in nine groups. Group winners and the best team from the second position are automatically qualified for the final tournament. The remaining eight runners-up enter the 2-legged play-off that determines which team will qualify for the final round. The host team (or co-hosting teams) will join the qualified teams for the final tournament. The first competition was held in 1960 as UEFA European Nation’s Cup. The Soviet Union team won the first tournament after beating Yugoslavia in extra time. The form of the tournament is expected to change in the next championship in 2016 that will feature 24 teams.

MOSCOW: Russia’s national football team cheerleaders perform as the team fans depart to Poland for the Euro 2012 football championship at Belarus railway station yesterday.

—AFP