22 April

Theory of Seasons unveiled

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Lakers, Spurs bounce back with victories

63

FR EE

6

Gulf region envoy in Yemen to discuss crisis

Max 34 Min 23

NO: 15066 - Friday, April 22, 2011

www.kuwaittimes.net

Iran cell planned attacks on Kuwait

The view from the seaside in Ras Al-Salmiya in Kuwait.

—Photo by Sherif Ismail

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s foreign minister said yesterday that an Iranian spy cell uncovered by the Gulf Arab state last year had monitored the US military presence in the country and possessed explosives to bomb “strategic” facilities here.

“We are talking about a cell whose task was not only to monitor and record the [US] military presence that is in their view hostile - the American forces presence on Kuwait lands - but it exceeded that,” Sheikh Mohammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah told Dubaibased Al-Arabiya television. “They had explosives and the intention to blow up vital Kuwaiti facilities. They had names of officers and they had extremely sensitive information. This indicates bad intentions to harm Kuwaiti security.”

OPEC member Kuwait hosts Camp Arifjan, a vast US logistics base in the desert south of the capital that serves as a staging post for US forces deployed in neighboring Iraq. The United States has air and naval installations in Gulf Arab states, some of which are little more than 200 kilometers from the Iranian coast. The US Central Command maintains its forward headquarters in Qatar while Bahrain hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

Last month, a Kuwaiti court sentenced two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to death for being part of an alleged Iranian spy ring in a case that has strained relations between

Kuwait and the Islamic Republic.

Earlier this month, Iran expelled three Kuwaiti diplomats in a tit-for-tat move after the Gulf emirate said it would throw out three Iranian diplomats in a row over spy allegations.

The move came after Kuwait expelled three Iranian diplomats, a Kuwaiti official said. Kuwaiti media reported in May 2010 that local authorities had detained a number of people, Kuwaitis and foreigners, suspected of engaging in espionage for Iran.

Media reports said these individuals were accused of gathering information on Kuwaiti and US military sites for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Sheikh Mohammad added, however, that Kuwait still wants good relations with Iran. “We completely reject severing ties [with Iran],” he said, although he added that Iran needs to treat Gulf Cooperation Council states as “sovereign,” not “subordinate”.

Iran’s relations with its US-allied Gulf Arab neighbors, who offer various facilities to US forces, have soured since popular uprisings in the region were suppressed by government forces. Sunni Muslim-ruled Gulf Arab states have accused Shiite power Iran of interfering in their affairs after Tehran objected to the dispatch of Saudi and Emirati troops to help Bahrain put down protests by its Shiite majority in March. — Reuters

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Local Spotlight

Conspiracy Theories

Earth Day! Mayday from Kuwait!

Join the census and be part of the future

By Muna Al-Fuzai

By Badrya Darwish muna@kuwaittimes.net

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

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esterday I wrote about who should be held responsible for the hike of oil prices and the impact of this issue on people’s personal budgets and circumstances all over the globe. Today I woke up and saw gloomy weather around me. I looked out the window and everything seemed yellow. Last week the color was orange. The color of my surroundings, I discovered, was related to the color of dust we get. If you remember three weeks ago the whole of Kuwait went dark.

The issue of price rises is a human responsibility.

Unfortunately, weather and the environment is sometimes unpredictable. Still, human beings can interfere and reduce the impact. Who is responsible for ignoring environmental issues in Kuwait?

My point is that I was informed by a report published recently in an Arabic newspaper, with which I agree completely, that sandstorm levels could be cut by 60 percent; if Kuwait were to plant more trees and develop forestation around the empty areas surrounding the city the air quality would be far better.

This would have the additional benefit of offering beautiful scenery, which could have a major positive impact on people’s health, especially individuals who suffer from allergies and asthma for example. It would also have a positive psychological impact on people; when you see less dust and more green around you, you’d certainly feel happier and less depressed. I fully agree with that anecdotal evidence.

That is why I second the initiative by well-known Kuwaiti meteorologist Essa Ramadan to launch a project for forestation across Kuwait. His Twitter and Facebook followers could all join the initiative, which

is being launched to celebrate the global environmental day celebrating our planet, which falls today (April 22) and is known simply as Earth Day. As far as I can recall before the invasion, Sheikh Saad, The Crown Prince at the time, God bless his soul, started a forestation project in Kuwait. After the invasion and liberation, however, the project ended, with nobody pursuing it further. It was one of the best projects the government could offer to Kuwait.

Maybe I could call on the Minister of Planning, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who is taking charge of planning the development of Kuwait in the period up to 2035, to revive this project. He already has many excellent projects in mind and could include the forestation of Kuwait to his list of development-related initiatives. I think if he did that he would enter the Kuwaiti history books, with generation after generation of future citizens thanking him. On top of all the other benefits, of course, in addition to offering better scenery and a more welcoming landscape, such an initiative would also be a great boon to Kuwait’s tourism industry.

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his is a topic that I really believe is worth covering ... maybe because I believe we are living in the era of technology and electronic gadgets. I believe that everything should be done through the use of machines, which are capable of greater accuracy and reliability than humans, with electronic communication being more trustworthy than word of mouth. That’s where I see myself standing in regard to a local multimedia campaign being conducted online and in the local press, which calls on the public to participate in the 2011 census and help be part of the future!

Now, I don’t want to adopt a satirical tone, but let’s be logical about this matter and analyze the objectives of the census and its national goals. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) had adopted a plan to conduct a census for Kuwait for 2011.

According to the CSO’s official website, the purpose of any general census is to collect and analyze socioeconomic data for all the persons residing in a specific country or region at a given time. Analysis of the data yields information on demographic trends and patterns which are crucial to planners and decision-makers. The CSO site further added that the 2011 Kuwait General Census would collect information on the socioeconomic characteristics of all Kuwait’s residents, including details such as age, gender, nationality, marital status, employment, education and any special needs.

Now , the thing that really surprised me about this is that we in Kuwait already have an official government body, called the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI), which issues a civil ID card for every living soul in Kuwait, with each civil ID card displaying the holder’s civil ID number, full name, age, gender, date of birth (which is also included in the algorithm for the ID number), nationality, local address, blood group, sponsor’s name, type of visa, etc, along with the date of the card’s expiry. The Ministry of Interior (MoI), meanwhile, holds all kind of information related to marital status and other data. As for residents’ education level, isn’t the Civil Service Commission able to provide any information about the jobs and level of education in Kuwait? After all, as far as I know this body is responsible for providing jobs for Kuwaitis.

People can register for the census online in order to fill in applications. Personally, I don’t think they should be asked to do this as forms can easily collected from the offices of any of the relevant official bodies that hold same information.

Census-takers will be visiting residential areas between April 21 and May 31, from 4 to 9 pm.

I wonder, if they have all the data at hand, why they need to have workers out in this weather and in a time when the only respondents available at most Kuwaitis’ homes to answer their questions will be the servants, with the householders still out? Are the maids to be considered a reliable source for the information required or would we be better to save the money spent on paying the census-takers to include in salaries for necessary workers?!

I believe that all the information which the census organizers are seeking is already available from various official bodies whose efficiency and speed we all trust.

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

From the editor’s desk

Friday night fever!

By Abd Al-Rahman Alyan Editor-in-Chief

myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

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t is common for old songs to resurface with a newer version sung by our many artists of this generation. If you go through the charts of the past 10 years you will find many covers, mixes and remixes of old classics.

In the late 70s there was a song by the Boomtown Rats that hit number one in the UK. The song was called ‘I don’t like Mondays’. I heard that song the other day and thought it would be a popular idea among many Arab leaders if someone did an Arabic remix of that song called ‘I hate Fridays’. Just think about what Fridays mean to many Arab leaders and ex-leaders since 2011. In Tunisia and Egypt the demonstrations against the ruling regimes started on a Friday that was labeled ‘The Friday of Anger’ then a second push that was labeled ‘The Friday of Departure’ then the Egyptians took it a few steps forward with the Friday of Victory, the Friday of

Truth, the Friday of Judgment and the list goes on.

Other countries in the Arab world have followed suit and every demonstration starts after Friday prayers and is always labeled the “Friday of .......” so it is no surprise if many leaders in the Arab world hate Fridays. I wonder if any Arab leaders are contemplating the idea of removing Fridays from the calendar all together and having six days in a week rather than seven. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Gaddafi is reading this article and thinking: “Hey, that’s an idea; cancel Friday which means no more Friday demonstrations; switch Friday prayers to Sunday and that would keep our religious days in parallel to the world’s major markets just like many countries changed their weekends to make it easier to do business abroad. Wait a minute, maybe even switch Friday prayers to Saturday and that will bring us closer to our fellow

Jews in Israel and help solve the conflict Shabbat Shalom”. If that’s the case then I just want him to know he does not need to credit that idea to me if he decides to add it as a supplement in his ‘Green Book’.

T.G.I Friday’s should probably sponsor some of these demonstrations to save some of their restaurants from being banned or forced to change their name by authoritarian regimes. Luckily for us, the Kuwait Times does not have Friday times offices in such countries, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this article.

To me this Friday is the Friday of humor. I wish you all a pleasant weekend. God Bless!

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Fine Jewellery Designer

collection to be shown in Kuwait for the first time

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elebrated British jewellery designer, Nina Koutibashvili, will be showcasing her signature style at the Knooz Jewellery and Watch Exhibition 2011 for the first time with her new collection called ‘I am before I do’. The exhibition will be held from the 24th to the 28th of April in Courtyard Marriott, Kuwait.

‘I am before I do’ collection is geared to empower women to celebrate and honour themselves just as they are. Nina, who will be participating at the exhibition, wanted the collection to be an expression of how fabulous women are. Nina offers handmade pieces with ultimate sophistication and artisanship, in addition to creativity and original designs. Unlike Nina’s previous collec-

tions, this colourful line of bracelets, rings and pendants offers a touch of luxury, style and glamour. Every piece in the sophisticated ‘I am before I do’ collection is indeed a display of painstaking artisanship.

Nina creates unique pieces that cater to more adventurous clients. Her clients usually demand more individual and creative pieces exclusively designed for them. She encourages her customers to be the artists of their own piece by giving them access to some of the most exotic gemstones to choose from. In this way her customers can design what their hearts desire.

Jewellery collection ‘I am before I do’ empowers women

‘Sleek

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Stars’

New colorful line of bracelets, rings and pendants is a touch of luxury, style and glamour.

Fine Jewellery Designer www.ninakoutibashvili.com

It is our pleasure to invite you to visit our exhibit at the Knooz Jewellery and Watch Exhibition 2011 to be held from the 24th to the 28th of April Time: 10 am -1.30pm 5 pm- 9.30pm

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Theory of seasons unveiled Listening to the dream within

By Hussain Al-Qatari

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here’s something extraordinary about this young man. He speaks with complete honesty, and manages to convey messages with complicated emotions effortlessly in simple words. His eyes are lively with emotions, and while talking you can almost see at times a torrent of thoughts swimming fiercely in his mind. He is Essa Adel Al-Essa, a twenty-something Kuwaiti writer who came up with an original and thoughtprovoking theory entitled the Theory of Seasons in 2007.

Al-Essa does not conform to the traditional lifestyle of people his age. He takes offense when people say that the young people of Kuwait are the happiest because they are provided with free education, healthcare, and guaranteed jobs in the public sector. While this excuse is immediately used to silence any demands for better opportunities, Al-Essa finds it quite obnoxious. “You could provide the same things, healthcare and marriage and what not, to housepets. People don’t realize that they are human: there is really a lot more to them than just following this redundant path,” he says.

Al-Essa believes that every one of us has a big dream, and what is really peculiar about this dream is that some of us don’t realize it.

“Everyone has a dream - a really big dream. I often tell my friends that people are walking dreams.” Once we realize this dream and pursue making it a reality, our whole perception of life would change, Al-Essa asserts.

Growing up, Al-Essa often had many questions about many things. He was well-known for this curiosity among other family members, and often came up with absurd explanations for situations. He recounts: “During Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, I wasn’t satisfied with the answers the adults gave me.

It didn’t make sense that Saddam would invade Kuwait because he wanted oil. I tried to make up my own explanation for this story.

This became a ritual: I would sit in my room with a pencil and a notebook and write down what I thought was the reason behind every-

thing. It is sort of like my own grand narrative, ‘Life According to Essa’ or something,” he jokes.

Theorizing seasons It is these collections of writings which he accumulated over the years that later on became Al-Essa’s Theory of Seasons. “My passion and obsession with understanding people, motives, underlying issues behind everything led me to write about what I noticed in certain characters. This passion extended to my workplace: when I worked in the National Bank of Kuwait shortly after graduating from Kuwait University, I often found myself attached to the clients. I couldn’t look at them as just clients who are benefiting the company. I was curious about how they feel, what issues they are dealing with,” he said.

During the few years Al-Essa spent working at the bank, he became acquainted with several regular clients and found himself thinking about their habits and nature. “Judging by the excellent reviews I received from my superiors, I was then relocated to work in the Service Quality Department, a field in which my passion for understanding others could come in handy. I started giving seminars to NBK employees about customer experience, service quality and other related issues.”

Turning point In 2007, Al-Essa was invited by Kuwait University’s Media Club to host a seminar. He was not limited to any specific subject, so he seized this opportunity to use something from his personal writings. “This was my first seminar about the theory which was later dubbed by local media as the Theory of Seasons.

Before that in my seminars in the bank, I only touched upon the theory lightly. After all, the employees in the bank just want to do their job more efficiently, and there is a very small margin in which I can bring up anything from the theory.”

The night of the seminar at Kuwait University was a turning point in Al-Essa’s

SEASONS SUMMARY This is a brief outlook into each of the four seasons according to the Theory of Seasons.

WINTER: Winter people are cold, quiet, and rarely express emotions. They may move slowly, talk slowly, and are hard to impress or excite.

SUMMER: Summer people are hot-tempered, easily excitable, full of life and energy.

They cannot be on the margin, and hate routine. They are also emotional, and have a soft side that makes up for their temper.

AUTUMN: Autumn is a shift between two seasons, and Autumn people have that ability to shift people’s perceptions and convictions. They are very critical, and criticize without being emotionally tied. They see things in either black or white, and don’t believe in grey at all.

SPRING: Spring people beautify everything that has been damaged by the other seasons. They are sensitive, but even-tempered. Their emotions lead most of their decisions, and they are often optimistic.

life. The event was supposed to last from 5 to 8 pm. “We concluded the seminar shortly before 10 pm, and no one left the seminar hall among the attendees. It was a great success. I felt like I wasn’t aware of my surroundings, I just took flight and went on and on. I used music and lights to aid me in delivering the ideas of the semi-

nar, and I could see the people in the hall reacting to the material I presented. I felt that this is it: this is what I want to do in my life,” he says.

By his own admission, the reactions from the attendees were impressive. “I kept receiving emails from people, some of them were swearing that their lives had changed, and it’s these comments that kept me going until today,” he said.

Al-Essa quit his job in the bank, and started to focus on freelancing as a service quality consultant. Whenever he has free time, he works on expanding the theory of seasons. “I am hoping to hold a big seminar in the next few months, as well as launch the official website for the Theory of Seasons. I hope to leave an impact on other people’s lives. I will do my best in delivering this message in an appropriate manner. I truly believe that we possess amazing abilities, and we just need to be directed towards them in order to uncover them and lead a better life,” he concluded.

More information about the Theory of Seasons can be found on Twitter: TheoryOfSeasons or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ theoryofseasons

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Years

Local

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on Wednesday evening attended a celebratory event marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). The picture on the left shows HH the Amir receiving a commemorative memento marking the event from the Minister of Oil and of Information, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah. The picture on the right shows HH the Amir amongst the young performers after their musical performance. —KUNA

Anti-govt MPs allege major corruption in government deals

By B Izzak KUWAIT: Leading anti-government parliamentarians yesterday lashed out at the government for alleged corruption deals, with MP Ahmad AlSaadoun threatening that new issues would be added to the planned grilling of the prime minister immediately after the formation of the new cabinet.

Another MP, Adel Al-Sarawi, warned against retaining the current deputy premier for economic affairs Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah in the new cabinet, saying that he has proved to be a political failure and should be excluded. Fellow lawmaker Musallam Al-Barrak, meanwhile, criticized leaked reports about the reported lineup of the new cabinet, warning the government against the purchase of two transport planes from a local private company for KD 130 million.

Another MP in the anti-government coalition, Khalid Al-Tahous, accused the state’s Public Authority for Industry of committing violations in granting a two square kilometer area of state-owned land to a private company against the advice of the State Audit Bureau.

The new charges came as more speculation emerged on the formation of the new cabinet, with several

sources suggesting that the new government is unlikely to be announced before May 3, meaning that its members would take their oaths in the National Assembly (parliament) building on May 17, the next available regular session.

MP Saadoun went so far as to claim that the date was carefully planned to coincide with an auction to sell off around 35 percent of the shares in Kuwait Airways to local or foreign companies, further alleging that officials at Kuwait Investment Authority, who are handling the KAC privatization process, are involved in corruption.

Saadoun further alleged that the KIA officials, along with the communications minister, who has supervisory authority over KAC, had convinced the cabinet to issue a decision that the government should pay an unspecified amount to complete the founding capital of KAC, an illegal action.

The MP also strongly condemned the recent evaluation of KAC’s assets at less than KD 220 million, alleging the estimation is unfair. He also asserted that there are suspicions of corruption in the planned establishment of a health insurance company, claiming that one of the members of the government’s qualification committee is a board member of one of the compa-

nies that was pre-qualified to take part in the planned auction.

Saadoun’s criticism didn’t end there, with the MP also condemning the government’s KD 1 billion portfolio launched to help real estate companies facing difficulties, saying that the setting up of this portfolio involves corruption.

The veteran lawmaker also charged the government with squandering public funds, adding that all these issues would be added to the planned grilling motion to be filed against the prime minister immediately after the members of the new government take their oaths in parliament. MP Barrak also insisted that the next government, the seventh to be headed by Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed AlSabah, is doomed to failure like the previous six since it will have to pay the political debts those governments have incurred.

Barrak said that, based on recent leaked reports, the members of the new cabinet are due to take their oaths on May 17 when the parliament should actually be working to approve the budgets for the current 2011-12 fiscal year before the summer recess begins, adding that this means that the parliament will be purposefully prevented from carrying out its functions.

Message of heartfelt gratitude

By Yasuyoshi Komizo, Ambassador of Japan to Kuwait

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n my capacity as Ambassador of Japan to the State of Kuwait, I would like to express most sincere gratitude and appreciation, on behalf of the Government and the people of Japan, to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the Government of the State of Kuwait for the extremely generous offer of five million barrels of petroleum products or crude oil to Japan as a donation by the State of Kuwait designated to relieve the suffering from the humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake and tsunami that affected Japan.

In close cooperation with the Kuwaiti Government, we shall make sure that this generous offer will be received in Japan in a most efficient manner and to be devoted most effectively to the designated purpose of the donation. I would also like, at this juncture, to reiterate our sincerest gratitude for the heartfelt expressions of condolences, friendship and assistances extended by the people and the Government of Kuwait as well as international community based in Kuwait. These heartfelt friendships and supports have been coming from all corners of Kuwait, from elderly and youth alike and even from small children.

We can feel the depth of real friendship built upon in 50 years of diplomatic relationship between Kuwait and Japan. Heartfelt sympathy and support from friends around the world will greatly help earthquake and tsunami stricken people to gather necessary courage and strength to stand up and face with the grave challenges ahead and, will provide them with very precious means to cope with daunting difficulties.

In closing, with the deep sense of gratitude, we would like, on our part, to commit ourselves to do everything in our capacity to further nourish this strong bond of trust and friendship between Kuwait and Japan.

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Gulf region envoy in Yemen to discuss crisis

11

Rebels seize border post, NATO warns Libya civilians

12

Sri Lanka opposes release of UN war crimes report

15

CAIRO: Abbud al-Zomor (2L), a member of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad who was jailed over the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat, attends a demonstration to call for the release of Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman in front of the US embassy in Cairo yesterday. — AFP

Syria scraps emergency rule Around 220 killed by security forces: Amnesty DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed a decree to lift almost five decades of draconian emergency rule yesterday, as a protest movement that has rocked his regime called further demonstrations.

Assad, who has been in power since he replaced his father 11 years ago, issued the order to scrap the state of emergency along with separate decrees to abolish the state security court and to allow citizens to protest peacefully. The announcements were flashed in succession on Syrian state television.

The moves are aimed at placating more than a month of unprecedented protests across the country, ruled by one of the Middle East’s most autocratic regimes since the Baath Party seized power 48 years ago. Amnesty International says about 220 people have been killed by security forces and plainclothes police in a brutal crackdown on the protests, which first erupted in mid-March. Syria’s emergency law restricts many civil liberties,

including public gatherings and freedom of movement, and allows the “arrest of anyone suspected of posing a threat to security.”

Assad’s regime has offered a series of concessions to the pro-democracy movement since the protests broke out in Damascus on March 15, but the demonstrators have been undeterred, calling for even greater freedoms.

More rallies are being planned for Friday, when the biggest demonstrations have been staged across the country each week after traditional Muslim prayers.

A page on the social networking website Facebook has called for “Good Friday” protests. “Good Friday, April 22, 2011, one heart, one hand, one goal,” said the Facebook announcement on a banner depicting a cross atop a church between two minarets with crescents. The call appeared on the Syrian Revolution 2011 page of Facebook, a motor of the protests in which demonstrators inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world are

seeking greater freedoms.

Amnesty International, which this week cautioned that moves to lift emergency rule and abolish the security court “ring hollow,” said the crackdown cost 26 lives in recent days. On Tuesday alone, eight people died when security forces opened fire on a protest sit-in at a square in the central industrial city of Homs, activists said.

The cabinet had on Tuesday approved a bill to rescind the emergency rule, as well as agreed to abolish the state security court while also approving a bill to regulate demonstrations. The state security court exists outside the ordinary judicial system and usually prosecutes people considered to challenge the authority of the government, and its verdicts cannot be appealed.

Human rights groups both inside and outside Syria have repeatedly urged the authorities to scrap the feared court, described in a 2009 report by Human

Rights Watch as a “kangaroo court.”

President Assad finally signed the decrees yesterday, in line with a pledge to do so this week. The announcements on state television said Assad was ending the emergency law imposed when the ruling Baath Party seized power in 1963 as well as the state security courts. A third decree said citizens would be granted “the right to peacefully demonstrate” and noted that this is one of the “basic human rights guaranteed by the Syrian constitution.” Earlier on Thursday, he appointed a new governor in Homs after dismissing his predecessor on April 7 following protest-related violence, said the official SANA news agency. “President Assad issued a decree naming Imed Mustafa Abdelal governor of Homs” in place of the sacked Mohammed Iyad Ghazal, the report said.

The ongoing violence has drawn condemnation from international human rights groups and western governments.— AFP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Arab unrest should spur Israel on peace: Gul Peace best way to avoid being seen as ‘apartheid island’

PARIS: French Prime Minister Francois Fillon (R) shakes hands with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas prior to a meeting yesterday at the Hotel Matignon, the Premierís residency, in Paris. Abbas is in Paris as France mulls recognising Palestine. — AFP

Abbas in Paris as France mulls recognising Palestine PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris yesterday as Europe reflects more and more openly on the prospect of recognising an independent Palestine.

Any French move to welcome a Palestinian state into the community of nations would be made jointly with the European Union, and would be seen as an attempt to give a jolt to the stalled Middle East peace process with Israel.

Abbas was due at the Elysee Palace later yesterday, having said he is seeking Sarkozy’s advice on the Palestinian Authority’s drive to convince the world to accept its statehood even ahead of an ever elusive peace deal.

Thus far, most world powers have been reluctant to recognise Palestine before it becomes a viable entity within agreed borders, but now some are starting to think recognition could revive the stalled search for peace.

“It’s a question we must reflect upon and upon which we are reflecting. It will be asked in September or October,” France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters at a diplomatic lunch on Tuesday.

Juppe said France was working with its European Union partners to try to get Israelis and Palestinians “back around the negotiating table” and that this could lead to statehood recognition later this year.

Sarkozy has himself been less forthcoming on the issue, and in January last year was careful to distance himself from his then foreign minister Bernard Kouchner’s suggestion that France might unilaterally recognise Palestine.

But Abbas’ visit comes at a time when France, which holds the G8 and G20 presidencies, is adopting a more muscular foreign policy designed to revive its global role, and in particular its position in the Arab world.

France led international calls for action against Moamer Kadhafi’s Libyan regime, spearheading coalition air strikes and becoming the first power to adopt ties with the rebel shadow government in Benghazi.

Paris has not been in the vanguard of calls for Palestinian recognition, several Latin American states have already taken that step, but it backs the goal of statehood by the time of the UN General Assembly in September.

But, as ever, profound differences remain between Israeli and Palestinian camps that could yet delay a voteand the peace process itself broke down in September last year after the briefest of revivals. Ongoing Jewish settlement construction on occupied territory claimed by Palestinians has sharpened divisions, but the wider international community is also divided on how best to push the talks forward. The “Middle East Quartet”-a diplomatic body overseeing the peace “roadmap” made up of Russia, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States-postponed a meeting that was due on April 15.

Europe hoped to announce the “parameters” of an imagined final agreement, but its partners in the process were not ready. — AFP

BEIRUT: Turkish President Abdullah Gul urged Israel to make peace with the Palestinians as a strategic response to a wave of popular uprisings in the Arab world and to longterm demographic trends working against the Jewish state.

“Israel cannot afford to be perceived as an apartheid island surrounded by an Arab sea of anger and hostility,” Gul wrote in an op-ed piece in the New York Times published yesterday.

The revolts in the Middle East and North Africa reflect a yearning for democracy by Arabs also seeking “to regain their long-suppressed national pride and dignity”, Gul argued.

Israel would need adapt to the new political climate in the region but need not fear it. “The emergence of a democratic neighbourhood around Israel is the ultimate assurance of the country’s security,” the Turkish president wrote.

Turkey, which brokered indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria that ended when Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008, stands ready to help, he declared.

Turkey’s once-warm relationship with Israel cooled after strong Turkish criticism of the Gaza operation and deteriorated further when Israeli commandos killed nine Turks aboard an

aid ship trying to break Israel’s Gaza blockade in May 2010.

Gul said democratic Arab governments that may emerge could not afford to pursue foreign policies “perceived as unjust, undignified and humiliating by the public”. History showed true peace could only be forged between peoples, not ruling elites. “For years, most governments in the region did not consider the wishes of their people when conducting foreign policy.”

Egyptians and Jordanians have never embraced the peace treaties signed with Israel by their U.S.-backed governments. Many Palestinians also chafe at interim deals with Israel.

Gul urged Israeli leaders to reconsider a 2002 Arab League peace initiative which proposed full relations with Israel if it returned to borders before the 1967 Middle East war to make way for a Palestinian state.

“Sticking to the unsustainable status quo will only place Israel in greater danger,” he wrote.

“In the coming 50 years, Arabs will constitute the overwhelming majority of people between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea,” he wrote. “The new generation of Arabs is much more conscious of democracy, freedom and national dignity.

The Turkish leader said the United States had “a long-overdue responsi-

bility to side with international law and fairness when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process” and should act as an impartial and effective mediator.

A “dignified and viable Palestine” living alongside Israel would fortify the Jewish state’s security, he added.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this month that her country planned a new push to promote ArabIsraeli peace.

After 18 years of talks that have failed to gain them a state, Palestinian leaders aim to ask the UN General Assembly in September to recognise statehood on all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which were occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.

US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down last September in a dispute over continued Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned against unilateral moves such as declaring statehood, arguing that a solution could only be achieved by direct negotiations.

“It will be almost impossible for Israel to deal with the emerging democratic and demographic currents in the absence of a peace agreement with the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world,” Gul wrote. — Reuters

Two killed over illegal houses in Lebanon TYRE: Two civilians were shot dead and two others wounded yesterday by police gunfire in a clash over the illegal construction of houses in southern Lebanon, officials said.

“Two people were killed and two wounded in a clash related to illegallybuilt houses” in the southern port city of Tyre, a hospital official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A police spokesman confirmed to AFP that two people had been killed in a clash over the houses at the southern entrance to the city of Tyre but could not give further details, adding that security forces had fired warning shots to disperse the residents.

Witnesses told AFP police opened fire during a clash with Tyre residents over a housing construction site on the outskirts of the city. The witnesses said a group of young men set a police car ablaze in protest after troops had ordered the building operations be stopped. They then dragged the burntout shell of the vehicle to the main road leading out of the city, cutting off traffic.

An AFP reporter said blood stains could be seen where the car had been parked.

Local television LBC reported that in a separate incident residents of the Ouzai

TYRE: A police car burns during a protest in the outskirts of the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre yesterday. Two civilians were shot dead and two others wounded by police gunfire in a clash over the illegal construction of houses. — AFP sector, on the outskirts of the capital Beirut, had prevented a police patrol from approaching another cluster of illegal houses.

The LBC crew reported it had been prevented from filming on site by resi-

dents. Security forces earlier this month launched a crackdown on illegally-constructed buildings on public lands, particularly in Hezbollah-controlled areas in the south of Beirut and in southern Lebanon. —AFP

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Gulf region envoy in Yemen to discuss crisis UAE foreign minister to visit Sanaa tomorrow

JERUSALEM: A Christian pilgrim prays during the Washing of the Feet ceremony outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried, in Jerusalem’s Old City, yesterday. — AP

Ban on Baghdad street protests angers Iraqis BAGHDAD: A government ban on protests on the streets of the capital has led some Iraqis to question their leaders’ commitment to democracy and the rule of law.

Thousands of Iraqis, encouraged by uprisings around the Arab world, have taken to the streets in recent months to press for better basic services and an end to corruption.

But a government edict last week, restricting rallies in Baghdad to its two main sports stadiums, is being seen as unconstitutional and has raised questions over the government’s ability to meet protesters’ demands.

“The government is swinging away from democracy.

Banning protests and locking demonstrators inside a stadium is illegal and unconstitutional,” said Ali al-Fredawi, an activist with the ‘15th of March Movement’ which helped coordinate recent rallies in Baghdad.

“The government decision clearly shows its fear of mounting rage among Iraqis at the blundering performance of (Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki’s government,” he added.

Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the armed forces’ commander-in-chief, said protests were restricted to al-Shaab and al-Zawraa stadiums for economic reasons.

“Shop owners in Baghdad complained that recent protests started to affect their work and therefore we decided to ban protests on the streets and in commercial areas,” he said.

Eight years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and led eventually to free elections, Iraqis are frustrated over shortages of water, electricity, food rations and jobs.

Politicians have tried to calm their anger by giving out free power supplies and diverting money from fighter jets to food rations. In February, Maliki gave ministers 100 days to step up reforms. Unlike other countries in the region where protesters are calling for an end to autocratic regimes, Iraqis have not tried to change their elected government, formed in December. Protests in Baghdad, which started in February and take place mainly on Fridays in central Tahrir Square, have been consistent but have dwindled in size since at least 10 people were killed in nationwide demonstrations on Feb. 25.

Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Sadr bloc is part of the government, criticised the ban. “The government pretends to be democratic and that is contradictory,” he said in a written response to a follower.

Haider al-Mulla, an Iraqiya party lawmaker, agreed.

“The constitution is clear on guaranteeing the right to demonstrate. This limitation from the government ... proves that the government doesn’t have the ability to meet the demands of the Iraqi people,” he said.

Maliki secured a second term as premier in December after months of wrangling between Shi’ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions. His government and that of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region have been criticised for harsh crackdowns on protests causing scores of casualties. Amnesty International said Iraqi police and soldiers have used excessive force in their attempts to stifle the protests.

So far the government has not enforced the ban. Protesters gathered in Tahrir Square last Friday and security forces did not arrest them.

“We will not use force against protesters who refuse to abide by this decision,” said Moussawi, Maliki’s security spokesman. “But we will try to make them understand that closing off roads and bridges will affect commercial and trade activities in Baghdad.” — Reuters

SANAA: The Gulf Cooperation Council’s secretary general met Yemen’s president in Sanaa yesterday to present the GCC’s views on ending a political crisis threatening to plunge the country into further violence.

Gulf Arab and Western states-longtime backers of President Ali Abdullah Saleh-have been seeking to negotiate an orderly transition of power to end over three months of unrest.

Protesters demanding democratic reforms in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state insist the veteran president step down after 32 years in power.

A Yemeni official told Reuters GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani presented Saleh with a new initiative, developed after the GCC met both government and opposition representatives this week. “We welcome this new initiative and we will deal with it positively,” the official said, but he declined to give any details.

Earlier in April, a GCC initiative proposed presidential powers be transferred to the vice president until an election and promised Saleh and his relatives immunity from prosecution.

The opposition rejected it and Saleh, who officially accepted that proposal, has given mixed signals on his readiness to step down. He voiced defiance again on Wednesday, saying he would stand firm amid “conspiracies and coups”.

“Those who want power or to gain the seat of power should do so through the ballot box,” he said.

“Change and departure will be through voting via the legal framework of the constitution.”

Saleh has said he would not seek reelection when his term ends in 2013, and later vowed to stand down this year after organising parliamentary and presidential elections.

But the opposition and protesters have little faith in his promises and

SANAA: Anti-government protesters shout slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, yesterday. — AP

want him to quit first.

“This speech is to raise spirits, but it’s no longer logical because the people have had their say, they say an immediate departure is necessary,” said Sultan al-Atwani, the leader of Yemen’s Nasserist party, part of an opposition coalition. “It (the government) needs to prepare for its departure, voluntarily or by force.” Yemeni officials also expect a visit on Saturday from the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Opposition leaders said it was unclear if Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan, currently the president of the GCC’s rotating council, would also meet them. As rounds of negotiations drag on, violence has flared.

Protesters tested security forces’ limits by marching past the defence and other ministries in Sanaa on Wednesday and burning tyres in the streets of Taiz, south of the capital.

The death toll has been rising. Six people died from their wounds when police opened fire at protests in Sanaa and Taiz on Tuesday, bringing the count of demonstrators killed to 123.

The potential for fractious Yemen to further descend into chaos or bloodshed has been a concern for Washington and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer. Both countries are intended targets for al Qaeda, which has reestablished itself in mountainous Yemen in recent years.

Saleh has warned of chaos if he is forced out of office, suggesting there could be civil war and militants could benefit. But the opposition, which includes the Islamist Islah party, says it could do better at maintaining control and accuses Saleh of making deals with militant groups in the past. — Reuters

Death penalty for 3 Saddam-era spies BAGHDAD: Iraq’s High Criminal Court yesterday sentenced to death three Saddam Hussein-era spies convicted of assassinating the father of a sitting Iraqi lawmaker in Beirut in April 1994.

“The court sentences to death Hadi Hassuni, Abdul Hassan al-Majid and Farukh Hijazi, who were agents of the intelligence services,” tribunal spokesman Mohammed Abdul Saheb told AFP. Two other men, military intelligence chief Saber Duri and Saddam’s secretary Abdul Hamid Mahmoud, were sentenced to life imprisonment at the conclusion of the trial, which began in October 2009.

Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan, the executed dictator’s half-brother, and

Saddam’s deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz were acquitted in the trial.

The convictions came over the murder of Sheikh Taleb al-Suhail alTamimi, head of the Banu Tamim tribe, who fled Iraq for the Lebanese capital with his family after a Baath Party coup in 1968.

He later attempted his own coup against Saddam, who rose to power in 1979, but was gunned down outside his Beirut home on April 14, 1994.

Lebanon severed its ties with Iraq in the aftermath of the killing, but arrested five Iraqi diplomats and one Lebanese accomplice over the assassination. All but one were released without charge, with one diplomat having

died in prison in Lebanon. The other four diplomats later returned to Iraq only to flee after the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam.

Tamimi’s daughter, Safia al-Suhail, has been an Iraqi lawmaker since 2005.

She was elected to the Council of Representatives in March 2010 polls as part of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s slate, but is now an independent lawmaker.

“I am satisfied because I have expected this decision for 15 years, but at the same time I will continue my fight to bring to justice those who managed to escape and take refuge abroad,” Suhail told AFP by telephone. — AFP

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Lukashenko: Foreign forces try to subdue Belarus MINSK: Belarus’ authoritarian leader yesterday accused unspecified foreign forces of trying to destabilize the exSoviet nation through political and economic pressure.

President Alexander Lukashenko didn’t name any names, but made it clear he was referring to the European Union and the United States, which have slapped Belarus with travel and economic sanctions after December’s presidential elections harshly criticized by international observers. A massive government crackdown on the opposition, a spiraling currency crisis and a subway bombing last week have fomented a sense of rising panic and disorder in this former Soviet nation of 10 million people, which is often dubbed the last dictatorship in Europe. “Belarus has come under massive pressure,” Lukashenko, who has run the country for 17 years, told the parliament. “First came political threats of rejection of the presidential election results, lists of people barred from travel, economic sanctions, then they stirred up agitation and panic on the currency market and, finally there was ‘dancing on the bones’ after the subway incident. These are all links of one chain.” He has angrily rejected allegations of some bloggers that authorities may have staged the April 11 subway explosion that killed 13 and wounded 200 to use it as a pretext to toughen crackdown on dissent and to distract the Belarusians from the country’s rapidly wors-

ening economic situation. Authorities have arrested five suspects in connection with the blast, including a man in his mid-20s accused of placing the bomb on the platform of Minsk’s busiest subway station.

Lukashenko initially ordered prosecutors to interrogate opposition activists over the subway blast, but took a step back Thursday, saying authorities so far haven’t found any political connections to the blast.

Lukashenko described the main suspect as a “monster,” saying that he and his accomplices had been preparing three more attacks. He said the suspects came from ordinary families, were keen on chemistry and had taken guidance on making explosives from Internet. “We haven’t found any criminal or political trace in the attack,” he said.

Fears have grown over the days since the bombing that it is being used as a pretext to stamp out the last vestiges of political pluralism and dissent.

Authorities already have pledged to “bring order” to the Internet, one of the last outposts of free speech, and issued two reprimands to two leading independent newspapers for their coverage of the bombing.

Meanwhile, Belarus’ quasi-Soviet state-controlled economy has taken a nosedive recently, with hard currency reserves running critically low and people lining up at currency exchange booths to buy dwin-

dling amounts of foreign currency. Earlier this week, authorities have allowed a free float of the national currency in trading between banks, effectively permitting its devaluation. — AP

MINSK: Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to lawmakers during his annual state of the nation address in Minsk, yesterday. — AFP

Rebels seize border post, NATO warns Libya civilians ‘We are sure that Kadhafi will be overthrown sooner or later’ MISRATA: Libyan rebels yesterday overran a post on the Tunisian border, marking their first advance in weeks against Moamer Kadhafi’s forces as NATO warned civilians to stand clear of its bombing blitz.

KAMPALA: Ugandans march in the capital city Kampala during a demonstration sparked off after opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested, and charged with holding an illegal assembly. He was denied bail. — AP

Uganda police tear gas protest, arrest leader KAMPALA: Ugandan police arrested opposition leader Kizza Besigye for the third time this month yesterday and remanded him in custody after they again broke up a “walk to work” protest with tear gas.

Besigye, who was briefly detained on Monday and last week in similar circumstances, has been staging twice-weekly protests in which he walks to work to denounce rising fuel prices.

The protests have left four people dead, three in the northern town of Gulu and one in Kampala.

Yesterday rioting also broke out in Masaka, a town on the road south from Kampala, police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said. Yesterday Besigye drove half way into Kampala and left his car on the edge of town, with hundreds of people soon gathering in his wake, cheering, dancing and lying down on the road in front of him.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had warned he would not allow any protest and police stepped in when the march neared Mulago hospital.

Police fired tear gas and stones were hurled back at them in a brief clash during which Besigye, who stood against Museveni in February elections, was bun-

dled into a police van, an AFP reporter at the scene said. “He was thrown in a van and taken away,” said Sam Mugumya, one of Besigye’s aides. “They got him when we were in disarray.”

Besigye, who turns 55 today, was initially held at Wandegeya police station, near Makerere University, Kampala’s main campus.

In late morning he was transferred under heavy police guard to Nabweru courthouse, just around the corner from the police station, where he was charged, along with three other opposition members, with unlawful assembly. All four pleaded not guilty.

A judge ruled Besigye will remain in custody until his bail hearing on April 27.

“We remand the accused due to matters pending,” chief magistrate Justine Atukwasa said.

“They are remanded until the bail application can be heard at midday on 27th of this month,” she said. Besigye told the court: “I am under police persecution and the police is using the court to further the abuse of my rights.”

“The court and the police are on trial as to whether they can act in the interests of the population,” he said. “I am not on trial. The court is on trial.”—AFP

The capture of the Wazin border post was cheered by several hundred rebels who raised the flag of the Libyan monarchy after some 150 to 200 pro-Kadhafi soldiers abandoned their weapons and fled into Tunisia. Some insurgents paraded in the bucket of a bulldozer and dozens of rebel vehicles were present at the border post, located about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of the main Tunisian-Libyan crossing at Ras Jdir.

Rebels have been pinned back by government troops for more than three weeks in the east of the country and have suffered heavy losses in Misrata, which has been pounded for more than six weeks in fighting which a doctor said had claimed at least 1,000 lives.

Among the latest to die in Misrata, some 215 kilometres (132 miles) west of Tripoli, were 41-yearold Tim Hetherington, an Oscarnominated British film director and war photographer, and award-winning US photographer Chris Hondros, also 41.

The two photographers were hit by a mortar on Wednesday while covering fighting in Misrata’s Tripoli street, the frontline in a bloody battle for control of the city, witnesses said. NATO warned civilians to avoid getting close to Kadhafi’s troops, as it pursues a UN mandate to protect non-combatants while enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya.

“Our planners and pilots go to very great lengths to ensure we do all we can to reduce the risk to civilians when we attack targets, but the risk cannot be reduced to zero,” the general in charge of NATO’s opera-

tions said in a statement from Brussels. “Civilians can assist NATO by distancing themselves from Kadhafi regime forces and equipment whenever possible,” Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard said.

“Doing this will allow NATO to strike those forces and equipment with greater success and with the minimum risk to civilians,” the statement said.

NATO’s warning came as Libyan official media reported seven civilians killed and 18 wounded in an alliance air raid that targeted the southwestern Tripoli suburb of Khellat Al-Ferjan late on Wednesday.

NATO said yesterday however it had no indications that its raid on the suburb killed civilians, saying the target was a command and control bunker in a military compound.

In Paris, Libyan rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the insurgents expect “major strikes by the coalition” against Kadhafi’s forces.

“We are sure that Kadhafi will be overthrown sooner or later, but we want it to be as soon as possible,” Jalil told French TV Wednesday after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Asked whether the conflict would be won by force or negotiation, Jalil, who heads Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), told France 24: “We expect there to be major strikes by the coalition, then Libyans can reach a solution.” Rebel leaders in Misrata have pleaded for foreign soldiers to help them battle Kadhafi’s forces, saying the air strikes are not enough to dislodge troops hiding in civilian areas and fighting street by street.—AFP

BENGHAZI: A Libyan woman evacuated from the besieged city of Misrata weeps as she disembarks from the Turkish ship Ankara upon arrival at Benghazi port yesterday. — AFP

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Nigeria leader says unrest recalls civil war build-up ‘Democracy is about the rule of law’

VATICAN: Pope Benedict XVI holds up the Gospel Book as he celebrates a Chrism Mass in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, yesterday. The Chrism Mass marks the start of the Easter celebrations. — AP

45 Mexican police accused of being in Zetas cartel MONTERREY: Authorities have arrested 45 police in a town in northern Mexico over alleged ties to the Zetas drug ring, a state investigating agency reported on Wednesday.

“There have been 45 of them (police) arrested in Cadereyta,” a spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state investigating agency said, noting the arrests were made late Tuesday.

The detained are being investigated for links to the Zetas, whom the government has blamed for killing the 145 people whose remains were exhumed from mass graves this month in neighboring Tamaulipas state.

Meanwhile police rescued at least 68 people from Mexico and Central America who had been kidnapped while on a bus in Tamaulipas trying to make it illegally to the United States, the public safety ministry said.

The 68 had been held in a house in Reynosa before they were freed; they said they were abducted by the Gulf drugs cartel. Two presumed kidnappers were arrested in nearby McAllen, Texas.

Not far from Reynosa is the village of San Fernando, where this month authorities found the remains of 145 people in mass graves; the government has blamed the Zetas. In the same village, 72 migrants from Central and South America were massacred in August 2010.

Tamaulipas state has suffered an explosion of violence for more than a year blamed on battles between the Zetas — a gang formed in the 1990s by ex-elite soldiers — and their former bosses, the powerful Gulf cartel. —AFP

KANO: President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that deadly post-poll unrest recalled the build-up to the Nigerian civil war, but vowed that next week’s governors’ polls would go on as planned.

Curfews and military patrols have largely restored calm after rioting broke out in the north of Africa’s most populous nation following presidential elections over the weekend and quickly spread across the region.

A Nigerian rights group says more than 200 people have been killed, but authorities have refused to provide a death toll, fearing it could provoke reprisals. Concerns have been raised over governorship and state assembly ballots scheduled for Tuesday amid fears of further outbreaks of violence.

“If anything at all, these acts of mayhem are sad reminders of the events which plunged our country into 30 months of an unfortunate civil war,” Jonathan said in a televised address to the nation. More than a million people are estimated to have lost their lives during the 1967-70 conflict which came as separatists in eastern Nigeria tried to establish the Republic of Biafra.

He pledged that Tuesday’s governorship and state assembly polls would go forward and that a judicial commission of inquiry would be set up over the unrest. Security had been reinforced across the country, he said.

Nearly 40,000 people have been displaced, according to the Red Cross, with many of them seeking refuge at police and military barracks. “My fellow countrymen and women, enough is enough,” Jonathan said. “Democracy is about the rule of law.” He said “these disturbances are more than mere political protests. Clearly they aim to frustrate the remaining elections. This is not acceptable.” Jonathan said security services would deal “decisively” with any further unrest.

Some analysts have said that the upcoming governorship elections could hold the most risk of violence.

Governors wield significant power in

KANO: Nigerians read newspapers yesterday, at a newspapers stand in Kano, northern Nigeria. The number of people displaced by deadly riots in Nigeria over President Goodluck Jonathan’s election win has risen to nearly 40,000. — AFP Nigeria, granted huge budgets thanks to oil revenue.

Nigeria’s 150 million population is roughly divided in half between Muslims and Christians and includes some 250 ethnic groups. The north is mainly Muslim while the south is predominately Christian.

The north has long been economically marginalised compared to the oilrich south, fueling resentment and divisions that Saturday’s elections helped expose. Authorities have however argued that the rioting was not based on religion or ethnicity but was instigated by those unhappy with the victory of Jonathan, a southern Christian.

His northern rival, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, has alleged rigging but has disassociated himself from the rioting. Jonathan was declared the winner with 57 percent of the ballots, easily beating Buhari with 31 percent.

Jonathan took over in May 2010 following the death of his predecessor Umaru Yar’Adua, a northern Muslim

who had not finished his first term, prompting bitterness in sections of the north over its loss of power.

In the most intense rioting Monday, mobs roamed the streets with machetes and clubs, pulling people out of cars and setting homes on fire.

Reprisal attacks worsened the situation.

While the rioting began over allegations that Jonathan’s party had sought to rig the vote, the situation appeared more complex in some areas.

In remote parts of Kaduna state, residents alleged that Christians had initiated the violence, leading to clashes police were unable to control.

There were also indications that Muslims were being targeted in areas of the southeast and seeking refuge in military barracks. Despite the post-poll riots, observers have hailed the conduct of the vote as a major step forward for Africa’s largest oil producer, which has a history of violent and flawed elections, while noting that serious problems remained. — AFP

Obama cranks up re-election machine SAN FRANCISCO: US President Barack Obama has begun rallying supporters for his 2012 presidential campaign, recognizing that some of the soaring promise of 2008 has been grounded by tough political realities. At two campaign events late Wednesday in California, the first a gathering of wealthy donors at a private residence and the second at a grand hall packed with mostly young supporters, Obama sought to galvanize the troops.

“I understand how you guys feel,” he said at the second event. “But we knew this wouldn’t be easy. We knew that on a journey like this there were going to be setbacks. There were going to be detours.” But he applauded what he views as his greatest successes, including the auto industry rescue, major health

care reform, the adoption of new financial regulations and the end of a ban on gays serving openly in the military. At the first event, where donors paid $35,800 each to dine with the president and Stevie Wonder provided the music, Obama took aim at a budget plan advanced by his Republican rivals in the House of Representatives.

They have called for cutting back on social programs while preserving tax cuts on top-earners enacted by Obama’s predecessor, George W Bush.

“That’s the easy path in some ways.

The easiest thing to do is for the rich and powerful to say we’ve got ours and we don’t have to worry about the rest. It doesn’t require a lot of imagination,” Obama said. —AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: President Barack Obama is hugged by a supporter after speaking at a DNC fundraiser at Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco, Calif., yesterday. — AP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Asylum seekers riot, torch buildings in Australia SYDNEY: Asylum seekers torched nine buildings at an Australian detention centre in a night of wild riots with a handful still on rooftops yesterday, reviving debate over the country’s immigration policies.

The riots kicked off late Wednesday at the Villawood Detention Centre in western Sydney with an estimated 100 detainees involved at the height of the drama.

Firefighters were at one stage pelted with roof tiles and pieces of furniture as they tried to douse the blazes, and riot police were called in to protect them.

A computer room, kitchen, medical facilities and a laundry were among the buildings destroyed.

The immigration department said the fires had been contained but several people remained on the roof, sitting beside a large white sign that read “We need help”.

“Emergency services have been working throughout the morning to restore order following a major disturbance at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre,” the department said in a statement.

“About 100 detainees were believed to be involved in the dis-

turbance, in which nine buildings... were set alight.” Immigration spokesman Sandi Logan condemned the “appalling” behaviour of rioters. “At one stage many of the protesters were hurling roof tiles and pieces of furniture, and other clumps of wood at the firefighters,” he said, adding that “miraculously” no injuries had been reported.

The rooftop protest started with just two inmates, apparently upset at the immigration department denying their visa applications.

Australia has a policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers while their claims are processed, and generally holds them on remote Christmas Island, 2,600 kilometres from the mainland in the Indian Ocean.

But the increasing number of people arriving by boat — 6,500 last year, many from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka-has seen increasing use of mainland centres, including Villawood, which houses about 400 people. Protests erupted at the Sydney centre last September after a Fijian leaped to his death from a roof in front of horrified onlookers, shortly before he was due to be

deported. It sparked a tense 29hour standoff with other detainees.

The Christmas Island facility endured days of riots last month, with about 250 inmates setting fire to accommodation tents and hurling makeshift explosives at police, prompting them to respond with tear gas. Brami Jegan, from the Refugee Action Coalition, told ABC radio she believed the Villawood disturbances were prompted by stress and frustration.

“What’s happened is an absolute act of desperation. It’s a cry out for help,” Jegan said, adding that some people had been in the centre for nearly two years. “It’s so obvious the profound psychological effects that mandatory and prolonged detention is having on these people, these human beings,” she said.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen warned that violence would not be tolerated. “These people are not happy, but if they think this can change visa outcomes they have chosen the wrong government and the wrong minister, because that won’t be happening,” he told reporters.

SYDNEY: Detainees gather on a rooftop at the Villawood Detention Center in Sydney, Australia, yesterday. Rioters at the immigration detention center set fire to several buildings, climbed onto rooftops and hurled tiles at officials. — AP In an attempt to stem the steady flow of people making their way to Australia, often by rickety boats from Indonesia, Canberra wants to set up a regional processing centre in East Timor-a move opposed by

Dili. Last month, Asian countries signed a non-binding framework agreement to deal with smuggling networks and humanely process the large numbers of irregular migrants moving through the region. — AFP

Japan makes no-go nuclear zone PM faces more criticism

SAN FERNANDO: A Christian penitent has his bare back whipped bloody with thin strips of bamboo in front of the church in San Fernando, Pampanga province, north of Manila, yesterday, ahead of the traditional Good Friday Easter celebrations where penintents are nailed to the cross. — AFP

Filipinos observe Lent with chants, self-flagellation ANGELES CITY: Hundreds of half-naked Filipinos marched on narrow roads, whipping their backs until they were bloody in a religious ritual yesterday as the mainly Roman Catholic state observed the Lenten season.

Many Filipino Catholics perform religious penance during the week leading up to Easter as a form of worship and supplication. These religious rites are believed to cleanse the sins of the devotees, cure illnesses and even grant wishes.

“I have been doing this as my personal vow to the Lord,” 42-year-old construction worker Luisito Cabini told Reuters, preparing to whip his back with a bundle of bamboo sticks at the end of a rope.

In Angeles City, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of Manila, bloody gashes from repeated strikes of whips could be seen on the backs of devotees as they walked barefoot along the streets, believing that their sacrifice would somehow grant salvation for their sins.

Flagellants begin the ritual by tying a rope around their arms and legs and inflicting wounds on their backs with a blade. The devotees walk barefoot in the sweltering heat, stopping every few hundred metres at makeshift altars while local residents recite a text narrating Jesus Christ’s suffering. — Reuters

TOKYO: Japan said yesterday it would ban anyone entering a 20-km (12mile) evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant north of Tokyo, weeks after the tsunamiwrecked facility began leaking radiation.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 hit eastern Japan on Thursday evening, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

Tens of thousands of people left the zone after the March 11 quake smashed the Fukushima Daiichi power station, operated by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), but some have gone back to collect belongings as the utility struggles to contain the world’s most serious nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, already facing criticism for his handling of the crisis, was publicly berated over his government’s slow response when he visited one evacuation centre in the devastated region.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference that from midnight on Thursday, people could only go into the zone under government supervision.

“We will take strict legal measures against those trying to enter the area ... For residents, all I can say is I ask for their understanding so that no legal action will be taken against them.”

Anyone breaking the ban can be fined up to 100,000 yen ($1,200) or be detained by police.

TEPCO has said it may take the rest of the year or longer to bring the plant under control.

More than 130,000 people are living in school gymnasiums and other shelters more than a month after the March 11 quake and tsunami that left some 28,000 dead or missing.

“Are you leaving?” one man shouted as Kan and his entourage headed for the door at a Fukushima evacuation centre. “We are evacuees. Are you just going to ignore us?”

Kan turned back and apologised, only to be berated again.

“You should bring cabinet ministers here and let them try living here themselves. How do you think we feel? We want you to somehow get the nuclear plant under control,” one woman said.

Later, Kan told reporters he had been out of touch with the needs of those who had lost their homes.

“I thought I knew how the people here felt but by coming here and actually talking to them, I got the renewed sense that I need to stand in their shoes more and think about their needs,” he said. Kan, already unpopular before the disasters hit, has come under fire from inside his own party as well as the opposition for his handling of the crisis as it drags on.

TEPCO wants a “cold shutdown” of

the plant, 240 km (150 miles) from the capital, within six to nine months, a timeline experts say will be tough to meet.

This week it began pumping highly contaminated water from one of the reactors, a key step towards repairing the cooling system that regulates the temperature of radioactive fuel rods.

But water levels were unchanged, the latest in a litany of problems engineers have faced since the crisis began, which has included pumping radioactive water into the sea, to the concern of Japan’s neighbours.

The amount of radiation included in water released from April 1-6 into the sea was at 20,000 times the amount Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency allows for the plant to release outdoors annually, Kyodo news agency reported.

In a letter published in several Chinese newspapers yesterday, Kan expressed “extreme regret” about the nuclear disaster, and said Japanese goods were still safe.

TEPCO insists that while fuel rods at three of its six reactors were damaged when they partially melted after the quake, they are not in “meltdown”.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant, the companion of the crippled Daiichi plant 10 km (6 miles) away, was still leaking radiation but had cleared a key milestone toward stabilising. — Reuters

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International

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Sri Lanka opposes release of UN war crimes report Tamil Tiger rebels recruited children

BANGALORE: In this photograph taken on April 14, 2004, then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (L) walks with Hindu holy man Satya Sai Baba (R) after a meeting in Bangalore. Doctors were treating Indian spiritual leader Sai Baba as his health was deteriorating fast. — AFP

Indian guru Sai Baba close to death: Doctors HYDERABAD: Doctors treating Indian spiritual leader Sai Baba, one of the country’s most famous gurus, said yesterday his health was deteriorating fast as devotees massed to pray for his recovery.

Police in Sai Baba’s hometown of Puttaparthi, in southeast India, erected crowd barriers and called for reinforcements to control frantic followers who rushed to the hospital where he is being treated.

Thousands of worried well-wishers have converged on Puttaparthi, in Andhra Pradesh state, many of them sleeping out in the open on pavements because of a lack of hotel rooms. A medical bulletin said the vital organs of the 85-yearold Hindu mystic were “showing very poor response to the treatment” since he was taken into hospital last month with a heart condition, lung congestion and kidney failure. “Nonfunctioning of the liver and persistent episodes of low blood pressure are causing great worry to the doctors,” the bulletin said. Sai Baba is credited by millions of followers around the world with having supernatural powers, including an ability to conjure objects out of thin air, remember past lives and cure terminal diseases. He counts former prime ministers and presidents, top businessmen and even Indian cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar among his followers. Senior Puttaparthi police officer Narasimhulu, who uses only one name, said safety measures had been introduced including a ban on large public gatherings in the town, 450 kilometres (280 miles) from the state capital Hyderabad. “We have also erected barricades near the hospital to control unruly crowds,” the deputy police superintendent told AFP by telephone.

About 1,000 extra police personnel have been sent to Puttaparthi. In Hyderabad, state Chief Minister Kiran Reddy met officials to organise crowd control plans as shops around the hospital were ordered to shut down. “Doctors attending on him are making attempts to save the Baba. Let us pray,” state minister N Raghuveera Reddy-who is not related to the chief minister-told reporters after the meeting.

Sainath Raju, a close relative of Sai Baba, complained he was not allowed to visit the ailing guru. “There are at least 100 relatives gathered at the hospital but none of us were allowed to see him,” Raju told AFP by telephone. Raju said senior officials from Sai Baba’s religious trust who visited the guru’s bedside remained hopeful that he would recover. —AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka warned the United Nations yesterday that publicly releasing a report on alleged war crimes committed as its civil war was ending could harm efforts at post-war ethnic reconciliation. External Affairs Minister Gamini Peiris told reporters that the UN panel overstepped its mandate and became an investigative rather than an advisory body to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The report handed to Ban last week harshly criticized the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels on their conduct and said there were credible war crimes allegations against both sides.

The UN has not released the report officially, but media reports have described parts of it.

“It’s wrong to publish the report. It’s equally wrong and unacceptable to take any steps at all on the basis of any findings or recommendations contained in the report,” Peiris said.

“We are very conscious of the fact that need of the hour is reconciliation.” “... does it (UN report) further that objective or does it make the accomplishment of that objective more difficult than it needs to be?” Ban’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told media in New York on Wednesday that the report is expected to be released this week and the secretary-general’s senior advisers have “completed their review of the report.” The UN panel’s report called the conduct of the war a “grave assault” on international law and said there were allegations that the government and Tamil Tiger rebels committed serious

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan woman signs a petition against UN chief Ban Ki Moon’s recent report on allegations of war crimes on the island, in Colombo yesterday. — AFP violations, including some that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. It said tens of thousands died in just the last five months of the quarter-century war that ended in May 2009. The report accused the government of large scale shelling of no-fire zones where it had encouraged the civilians to concentrate, hospitals, UN hub, food distribution lines and near Red Cross ships that came to pick up the wounded civilians.

It said Tamil Tiger rebels recruited children to its fighting forces, held civilians as human shields, used them in forced labor blurring their identity and exposed them to danger by firing heavy

weapons from nearby positions. UN documents at the time said that more than 7,000 civilians were killed in the last five months of the fighting alone.

The panel also criticized UN bodies and international officials of not acting to protect civilian lives and not publicizing casualty figures in its possession to show the human toll of the war.

Tamil Tigers fought for 26 years to create an independent state for Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Tamils. Majority ethnic Sinhalese control the government and the armed forces. According to UN figures, between 80,000 to 100,000 people were killed in the fighting. — AP

Pakistan rejects ‘negative Propaganda’ on militant ties ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army yesterday rejected as “negative propaganda” suggestions that it was not doing enough to combat al Qaeda and Taleban, hours after the top US military officer accused its main intelligence agency of maintaining ties with militants.

The comments reflected deepening mistrust between the two uneasy allies, whose relations hit a new low after fatal shooting of two Pakistanis

by Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, in January in the city of Lahore. “The Pakistan army’s ongoing operations are a testimony of our national resolve to defeat terrorism,” a military statement quoted army chief General Ashfaq Kayani as telling Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his fleeting visit to Pakistan on Wednesday.

“He (Kayani) strongly rejected negative propaganda of Pakistan not doing enough and Pakistan army’s lack of clarity on the way forward.”

Mullen, the most senior US official to visit Pakistan since ties were badly strained over the Davis case, told a

ISLAMABAD: Hafiz Saeed, leader of the banned Islamic group Jamat-ud-Dawa flanked by party workers speaks to reporters in Islamabad, Pakistan yesterday. Hafiz Saeed is reported to have said that it is very sad that America is negotiating with the Taleban whom it has been beating for the last ten years but on the other hand the US continues drone attacks in Pakistan. —AP

Pakistani television channel that links between elements of Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence (ISI) and the Haqqani faction of the Afghan Taliban were continuing to strain the relationship.

“Haqqani is supporting, funding,

training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners. And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Mullen told Pakistan’s Geo television ahead of talks with Kayani. —Reuters

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Indian PM admits public fury over corruption NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted yesterday that corruption had become a cause of serious public discontent, as he pledged to introduce an anti-graft bill in parliament soon.

Singh, credited with kickstarting India’s economic boom during his time as finance minister 20 years ago, has seen his reputation suffer during his second term as premier due to a series of major corruption scandals. Public anger at the dishonest officials and shady business deals that are part of everyday life in India recently drew huge support for a 73-year-old man who went on hunger strike to force the government to act.

“There is a growing feeling in the people that our laws, systems and procedures are not effective in dealing with corruption,” Singh told civil servants during a speech in New Delhi.

“We must recognise that there is little public tolerance now for the prevailing state of affairs (and) people expect swift and exemplary action and rightly so.”

His government earlier this month accepted hunger-striker Anna Hazare’s demand to include activists on a panel drafting the anti-graft bill, which could ensure prosecutions of ministers and bureaucrats. Singh said the bill would be introduced in the next session of parliament, which starts in July.

On Wednesday, a court remanded in custody five corporate executives accused in an alleged mobile phone licence sales fraud that may have cost the country up to $40 billion in lost revenue.

Disgraced telecoms minister A. Raja is already in custody along with other government officials and businessmen over the alleged fraud.

Last October’s Commonwealth Games in New

Delhi were also viewed as riddled with graft involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

In yesterday’s speech, Singh reiterated that tackling high inflation was a government priority as India’s rapid economic growth continues.

“During the past year and a half, persistent inflation, especially in the food sector, has become a cause for concern,” he said.

“The long-term solution lies in increased production and productivity in the agriculture sector.”

Inflation in March accelerated to nearly nine percent, which put added pressure on the central bank to raise policy rates further to tame price rises. Surging food prices have given Singh’s Congress-led government one of its biggest problems, causing hardship to the hundreds of millions of poor who powered the coalition to a second term in office in 2009. — AFP

Bomb blast kills three cops in Afghanistan French soldier killed in east KABUL: Fighting has escalated in eastern Afghanistan as Afghan and coalition forces step up their attacks on insurgents along the Pakistan border and militants retaliate with attacks on progovernment forces, including a bomb blast yesterday that killed three Afghan policemen.

MULTAN: In this file photograph taken on March 3, 2005, alleged Pakistani gang rape victim Mukhtar Mai cries in Multan, Pakistan. Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday, freed five men accused in the notorious gang-rape of a woman under orders from a village council. — AP

Pakistan court acquits suspects in rape case MULTAN: A Pakistani victim of a village council-sanctioned gangrape, who became a symbol of the country’s oppressed women, said yesterday her life was in danger after the Supreme Court acquitted 13 men accused of the crime.

Mukhtaran Mai was attacked on the orders of a village council in 2002 as a punishment because her brother-who was 12 at the time-was judged to have offended the honour of a powerful clan by allegedly having an affair with one of its women.

Mai was an illiterate villager at the time but she defied taboos and shot to global fame by speaking out about her ordeal and taking her attackers to court. Mai had accused 14 men of being involved in raping her and in 2002, a court sentenced six of them to death while acquitting the others citing a lack of evidence.

But in an appeal, the Lahore High Court not only upheld the eight acquittals but also overturned five of the six convictions.

The death penalty for the sixth man, Abdul Khaliq, was commuted to life in prison.

Mai appealed to the Supreme Court in 2005 but it rejected her appeal yesterday, said Gohar Ali Shah, a lawyer for Mai. “I’m disappointed. Why was I made to wait for five years if this decision was to be given?” a sobbing Mai told Reuters by telephone from her village in the eastern province of Punjab shortly after the court announced the decision.

“The accused can kill me and my family when they return home,” Mai said. Her courage in defying centuries-old rural customs of repressing women won her human rights awards and made her a role model for many women in Pakistan.

She is running a school for girls in her village with donations from the government and supporters at home and abroad.

Mai said she would neither flee her village nor the country.

“Life and death are in the hands of Allah ... I will not shut my school and other projects,” she said.

The group Human Rights Watch expressed dismay at the court decision, saying the attack on Mai was a “crime that took place in full public view and the perpetrators were publicly identified”.—Reuters

Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said the three policemen were killed by a bomb that was placed on a bus.

The bus was transporting Afghan policemen and trainees to a training academy in the provincial capital of Jalalabad. Six others on the bus were wounded in the explosion, Abdulzai said.

Afghanistan’s spring fighting season is expected to be in full force by the end of this month.

Before winter set in, tens of thousands of US and NATO reinforcements routed the Taliban from their strongholds, captured leading figures and destroyed weapons caches. The militants, known for their resiliency, responded with high-profile attacks across the nation. What’s unknown is how strong the Taliban will prove to be as the fighting gears up in what could be a defining year in the nearly decadeold war.

“In the last several weeks, the activity is starting to go up more, so they (insurgents) are starting to come back” from Pakistan, said Maj. Gen. John Campbell, commander of coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. Campbell spoke to reporters Wednesday night at Bagram Air Field.

“We’ve hammered the Haqqani network and the insurgents,” he said, referring to the insurgent network, which is affiliated with al-Qaida and often blamed for attacks in the Kabul. “We killed a lot of low level and mid-level leadership, especially the Haqqani network, because we have really been going after that. And what we have started to see is that leadership is much younger and less experienced.”

Campbell said the spring offensive

KABUL: Afghan police officials investigate a damaged vehicle at the site of an explosion in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday. — AP would continue to attack safe havens and supply lines in eastern Afghanistan with the help of Pakistani forces on the other side of the border.

At least 21 US troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, at least 10 in eastern Afghanistan. In other incidents in the east, two Afghan men were killed and four other people — three women and a child — were wounded yesterday when their van struck a roadside mine in Dih Yak district of Ghazni province, said Sher Khan Yousefzai, the top local official in neighboring Andar district.

A French soldier was killed and nine others were wounded when their armored vehicle struck a road side bomb Wednesday in Kapisa province, the French Defense Ministry said.

Also, 17 insurgents, including foreign fighters, were killed Tuesday in Kunar province by Afghan and coalition forces searching for a senior leader of the alQaeda network, NATO said late Wednesday. According to the coalition, the al-Qaeda leader commanded insurgents and directed the purchase of equipment used to attack pro-government forces in the border region. NATO also said that a Haqqani operator was captured Wednesday in Tere Zayi district of Khost province, which borders Pakistan and that several suspected insurgents were detained in the provincial capital of Khost. According to NATO, the individuals have been conducting military training and developing a compound linked to al-Qaida leaders based in Pakistan. — AP

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

New chance in Egypt for Islamic finance

Who’s at fault? Battle looms over oil spill

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SHANGHAI: Artists perform next to a Toyota FT-86 II concept car at the Shanghai International Auto Show yesterday. — AP

Saudis in tough act to balance supply Brent-Dubai spread trades near widest level since 2005 SINGAPORE/DUBAI: Saudi Arabia and other OPEC producers are having to play a difficult balancing act in keeping high oil prices from eroding demand while at the same time protecting the value of their lower-priced, more sulphurous crude. Middle East producers are selling their oil at the deepest discounts since 2005, as heavy sour crude values stay under pressure from a triple shock of China’s growing appetite for diesel, Libya’s civil war and Japan’s March disaster.

Additional OPEC supplies are having little effect on prices of lighter and sweeter crude.

The loss of high-quality Libyan barrels over the past two months helped propel Brent crude futures to a 32-month high above $127 a barrel last week, trading about $3 below that peak yesterday. But the Libyan violence has not been as supportive for Mideast Gulf crude prices, which are now key to fund multibillion-dollar spending sprees that emirs and kings across the Arabian peninsula launched to tighten their grip on power amid wide social unrest. “The problem is that the only spare capacity in the Middle East is sour,” said Barclays Capital London-based analyst Amrita Sen. “Even if the Saudis increase production, there will still be a deficit of light

sweet crude.”

Brent’s premium over Middle East benchmark Dubai reached its widest level since 2005 last week, depressing the value of Iranian, Saudi, Kuwaiti, Iraqi, Qatari, Abu Dhabi and Omani crude relative to the nowhalted low-sulphur Libyan oil exports. The premium is around $7 a barrel after nearing $8 on April 11, its widest since mid-2005, giving some credence to the Saudi view that the market is oversupplied, at least for sour crude.

Oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said the kingdom slashed oil output by about 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March.

“Mr Naimi might have thought, ‘What is the good for me to put 800,000 barrels per day of sour crude in the market that nobody wants?’,” said Sadad Al-Husseini, an oil analyst and former top official at Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company. Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is selling Arab Heavy crude to Asian term clients next month at $3.45 a barrel below Oman/Dubai, the deepest discount since Feb 2009, when oil demand was still mired in the effects of a recessionary crash.

Some traders see the move as an effort to re-balance a market that Barclays Capital called “massively out of equilibrium”. The ini-

tial trigger for the blowout in the sweet-sour spread was China’s surging appetite for gas oil at the end of last year, when the government replaced coal-fired power generation with oil to meet environmental targets. The Libyan disruption and Japan’s earthquake then threw markets completely off balance.

The former cut the availability of light crude while the latter raised requirements of sweet supplies for electricity and diesel for reconstruction, while reducing demand for sour crude at shut refineries.

The addition of advanced refining capacity across Asia, estimated at almost 1 million bpd last year by China and India alone, has helped little in preventing the blow-out of the sweetsour spread. The premium of Asian gasoil over sulphurous fuel oil has surged to almost $33 a barrel from $8 in July 2009. Gas oil churned out from Middle East oil in Asia has plugged shortages in Japan in the past six weeks instead of going to Europe, where the light Libyan crude supplies are missing. The discount for sour Russian Urals crude in the Mediterranean relative to dated Brent has also expanded to about $3.60 a barrel from less than $1 in Nov 2010.

Flows of light sweet west African crude to

Europe have increased at the expense of shipments to Asia, where imports of heavy sour supplies are only starting to recover, as Japanese refiners resume intake following last month’s earthquake. “As refiners adjust and as the oil finds its proper home, that will take some of the spread away, but I don’t think that it will remove it,” said Jeremy Friesen, commodity strategist at Societe Generale.

Values for the lighter Middle East grades have rallied this week as refiners meet requirements in the run-up to increasing summer demand for transport and harvesting in Asia.

Abu Dhabi Murban, for example, jumped to a premium as high as 85 cents to the reference official selling price this week from about 30 cents earlier this month. Japan’s “natural appetite for Middle East crude is coming back and traders are anticipating that demand coming from Asia is getting stronger,” said John Cross, a crude broker at Daman Quattro based in Dubai. But “there is an abundance of sour crude in the market and I think (the Saudis have) seen that the instant response of pumping more sour crude is not going to fill in the gaps needed to cover the shortfall in the sweet crude,” Quattro added. —Reuters

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Batelco sees Indian unit hitting profit MANAMA: Bahrain’s Batelco expects its full-year profit to fall about 19 percent due to the start-up costs for its Indian unit and stronger competition at home, its chief executive said. Batelco is one of the smaller telecoms operators in the Gulf Arab region where incumbent operators are scrambling to make acquisitions abroad to offset lower margins in their home markets, which are increasingly liberalised.

It posted net profit of 86.77 million Bahraini dinars ($230.2 million) last year, hurt by the entry of a third mobile operator to Bahrain early in 2010 and the costs of its Indian operation S Tel Ltd that it launched in late 2009.

“Our profit will be a little bit higher than what we had in the first quarter, times four,” Peter Kaliaropoulos told Reuters yesterday, implying profit of at least 70 million dinars.

The operator posted a first-quarter net profit of 17.64 million dinars on Wednesday. Kaliaropoulos said that national phone traffic had dropped by more than 10 percent during Bahrain’s recent political unrest, which has slightly hurt the operator’s profit. But he said that traffic had started to recover since the end of March. “It’s been restored, it’s going back to the right levels, but we need international travellers to come back to be honest with you,” he said.

A number of business conferences and Bahrain’s Formula One grand-prix race were cancelled after the island kingdom saw clashes between its majority Shi’ite population and police forces in February and March.

Kaliaropoulos also said the company targets proceeds from asset sales worth 10-15 million dinars this year.

Batelco has teamed up with Kingdom Holding to buy a 25 percent stake in Zain Saudi from its parent firm, Kuwaiti telecoms operator Zain. — Reuters

Bids sought for work at Hout KHOBAR: A Saudi-Kuwaiti oil joint venture has asked construction firms to bid for offshore and onshore work at Hout, one of the oil fields shared by the two OPEC members, industry sources said. Firms need to submit their bids for the work by June 6 to Al-Khafji Joint Operations Co (KJO), industry sources told Reuters.

Three sources said the project would cost around $500 million while a fourth source pegged it at $900 million.

KJO was set up by Aramco Gulf Operations, a subsidiary of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, and Kuwait Gulf Oil Co (KGOC). The two share the Al-Khafji, Lulu, Hout and Dorra fields, which are located in the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The winning firm would build offshore gas gathering facilities, pipelines and onshore gas facilities, sources said. The project would help recover the associated gas, which is now being flared. International firms have the option to submit a combined proposal which would help reduce the cost of the project, one of the sources said. “The key to success is to provide a combined proposal,” said one source who declined to be identified.

Khafji, located in the Neutral Zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has an oil capacity of around 610,000 barrels per day. Most of the gas produced by both countries is a by-product of oil output, so when they pump less crude, they pump less gas. Tight supply has been exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’s and Kuwait’s adherence to OPEC’s oil output curbs since Dec 2008.

Kuwait is plugging the gap between supply and demand with imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) while the world’s largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia has stepped up its exploration for gas after it completed a massive crude expansion program in 2009. — Reuters

ALLAHABAD, India: Indian farmers transport watermelons on camels towards the market, on the banks of the River Ganges yesterday. Watermelons are a popular summer fruit. — AP

New chance in Egypt for Islamic finance Egyptians wary of past corruption scandals DUBAI/CAIRO: Covered head-to-toe in a black abaya embroidered with red and yellow flowers, Amal Abbas waits for her turn to place a deposit at Cairo’s Al Baraka Egypt Bank, one of Egypt’s two fully-fledged Islamic banks.

Although Egypt is considered the birthplace of Islamic finance, which adheres to Islamic principles banning interest and speculative trading, its growth has lagged due to past corruption scandals, while the previous government sought to enforce a more secular financial system.

But after the Egyptian revolution toppled Hosni Mubarak and his government, Muslims like Abbas are embracing Islamic banking, raising the prospect that Egypt could become another thriving centre of Islamic finance. “I prefer Islamic finance, it keeps me far from usury and I feel my money is blessed,” said the 50 year-old research centre manager at the Mohandessin branch of Al Baraka Egypt Bank. “My husband has been dealing with mainstream banks for more than 30 years and all his projects failed because they were funded by unblessed money.”

According to a 2009 report by consulting firm McKinsey, Islamic banking only accounts for 3 to 4 percent of Egypt’s $193 billion banking industry.

That compares with 46 percent in the United Arab Emirates. “In a postMubarak era, the urgency of rebuilding and changing things will clash with the absence of resources and lack of money,” said Ibrahim Warde, adjunct professor at The Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University. That will likely present an opportunity for Islamic finance houses in the Gulf region, which now serves as the industry’s global hub. “Egypt is going to look

towards the Gulf for money and it’s going to have to offer Islamic options to maximise investments.” Cairo-based National Bank for Development, which is converting into a full-fledged Islamic bank, is already 49 percent-owned by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. Al Baraka Egypt is in fact a unit of Bahrain’s Al Baraka Bank. There’s also keen interest in Egypt for Islamic insurance, or takaful, which makes up 5 percent of Egypt’s $1.45 billion insurance market but is expected to grow dramatically, according to a March report by Islamic consultancy BMB Islamic. Salama Islamic Arab Insurance’s chief executive Saleh Malaikah said this month that demand for its products in Egypt have grown significantly since the revolution. According to data from Bankscope and Thomson Reuters, Egypt could see Islamic finance assets grow to $10 billion in 2013 from $6 billion in 2007.

Challenges remain, given the less than encouraging history of Egypt’s Islamic finance industry. Millions of Egyptians were stung by ponzi schemes in the mid-1980s, when a number of money management companies touted Islamic investments at returns above local interest rates. A new post-Mubarak administration is expected to show more interest in Islamic finance, despite concerns that a growing Islamic finance industry could also provide political support for Islamic opposition groups in the country of 80 million.

Egypt will need to adopt Islamic banking as one tool to appease politically active Islamic groups or face a barrage of criticism for adhering to the previous regime’s hard line against the industry, said Humayon Dar, chief executive of consultancy BMBIslamic.

“Egypt is a religiously sensitive country.

There are a number of families and small savers who wouldn’t want to use the conventional system,” he said. “If there’s a movement towards interestfree banking, that would draw deposits.” Grassroots support is already emerging among conservative Muslims. Manal Al-Moursi, another bank customer at Al Baraka Egypt Bank, said Egyptians are turning to Islamic finance, in part, to show their support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, was long persecuted as the main challenger to the ruling National Democratic Party in parliament and was one of the most vocal protesters during the demonstrations that toppled Mubarak on Feb11. With the dissolution of the NDP and growing acceptance of the Muslim Brotherhood in mainstream politics, experts say Islamists will have increasing influence in the new Egypt and Islamic finance will serve as one way to propagate Islamic values and gain supporters.

“The Muslim Brotherhood are for Islamic finance because it is related to religion,” said Mohasseb Refaat, deputy manager at Bank of Alexandria. “They will promote the idea so long as it is in their benefit.”

Refaat said the industry is likely to gain more footing in Egypt if the Brotherhood secures a significant number of seats in the 508-member parliament in September. One leading Brotherhood figure said the group could field candidates for as many as 49 percent of the seats. Even secularists calling for less religion in society may make a pre-emptive attempt to promote Islamic finance ahead of elections to reach a wider group of constituents. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Australia-US gas project signs Sinopec SYDNEY: Canberra yesterday welcomed a huge deal that will see an Australian-US joint venture supply clean-burning liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China’s Sinopec in one of Australia’s biggest ever LNG deals.

Australia-Pacific LNG, a Aus$35 billion joint project by Origin Energy and US firm ConocoPhillips, will supply the Chinese petrochemical giant with 4.3 million tonnes of LNG per year for 20 years from 2015 under the deal.

Sinopec will also spend US$1.5 billion for a 15 percent stake in the joint venture in Queensland state, the largest project currently planned in Australia using pioneering coal seam technology to cool and liquefy underground gases.

The move comes as China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, tries to diversify and move away from its reliance on coal and crude oil while also struggling to take control of its pollution problem. Conoco executive Ryan Lance said the nuclear crisis in

Japan had also boosted interest in LNG, which is considered easy to ship because of its liquid form and is cheap to transport from Australia compared with the Middle East. “Since the tragic events in Japan gas is going to be in greater demand in the Asia Pacific region, and we’re finding that with the customer interaction that we have today,” Lance told reporters.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said it was “the biggest single LNG sales and purchase agreement by annual volume in Australia’s history,” and cemented the country’s leading role in the burgeoning clean fuels market. “Deals like this one put Australia on track to be one of the world’s largest suppliers of LNG in coming years,” Ferguson said. ”Australia will shortly become the second-largest exporter of LNG in the world,” he added. “Increasing our supply of LNG to China will also help reduce emissions and help ensure rising energy demands are met with cleaner fuel

Apple crushes forecasts again SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc’s results smashed Wall Street’s expectations after iPhone and Mac sales scaled new heights while iPad supplies could not keep up with roaring global demand. Shares of the world’s most valuable technology corporation rose 3 percent after it said a record 18.65 million units of the category-defining iPhone - its flagship product - moved in the March quarter, outpacing the 16 million or so expected.

Apple sold just 4.69 million iPads - which command an 80 percent share of a burgeoning tablet market in which Motorola Inc and Samsung Electronics also compete - but investors argued that would not detract from strong longterm demand. But investors largely ignored the lowerthan-expected sales for iPads during the quarter as company executives said they were scrambling to meet “staggering” demand and were heavily backlogged for now.

The stellar results on Wednesday came as concern is growing over how component supply constraints after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami would squeeze margins and restrain iPhone and iPad sales in coming months.

Apple executives told analysts on a conference call they foresaw a hit to revenue this quarter of about $200 million - less than 1 percent of projected global quarterly sales but expected no cost impact. The company, known for its tight relationship with Asian suppliers, stands at the head of the queue for electronics components even if the supply crunch continues. Japan accounts for an estimated 6 percent of overall revenue.— Reuters

Nokia beats estimates HELSINKI: The world’s top mobile phone maker Nokia yesterday a beat analyst expectations despite a slight fall in quarterly net profit, but its global mobile phone market share shrank further to 29 percent. The company’s net profit fell only 1.4 percent to €344 million ($503 million) from €349 million in the first quarter of 2010. The number beat expectations by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires, who had foreseen a net profit of €279 million.

Yesterday marked Nokia’s first quarterly results since its chief executive Steven Elop said in February the company, facing stark competition in the vital smartphone market from iPhone, Blackberry and Google, would abandon its own mobile operating system and start using one designed by Microsoft instead. Following the news, Nokia shares surged by 3.12 percent to €6.12 on a Helsinki market up just 0.31 percent. — FP

sources.”

Ferguson said China was Australia’s second-largest customer for LNG and the Sinopec deal brought new and existing contracts to more than 15 million tonnes annually. Chinese demand for gas was forecast to jump 5.9 percent every year until 2035, compared with OECD growth of 0.5 percent, taking the Asian giant’s share of global gas consumption from 2.7 percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent by 2035. “Our proximity and history as a secure supplier means that Australia is well placed to meet the energy needs of our Asian neighbours, including China, in the decades ahead,” said Ferguson.

The Origin-Conoco project, in Queensland’s Surat Basin, had the potential to significantly expand the region’s lucrative coal seam gas industry, he added, and “cement (its) place as a key LNG hub.” It is expected to create 6,000 construction jobs and another 1,000 once it is operational, with total gas projects expected to generate

more than Aus$50 billion (US$53.8 billion) in investment and “hundreds of billions in exports”, the minister said.

Conoco’s Lance said talks were ongoing with a number of other buyers, believed to be Asian, with production at the facility ultimately expected to ramp up to 18 million tonnes per annum.

Sinopec vice president Zhang Yaocang said the Chinese firm also “continues looking for more cooperation opportunities in Australia” to meet the “rapidly increasing demand of customers in China”.

Australia has already green-lighted two rival projects worth about $30 billion in the region - one run by Britain’s BG Group and a second tie-up between Australia’s Santos, Malaysia’s Petronas and France’s Total called Gladstone LNG. Korea’s KOGAS bought into Gladstone in December, taking a 15 percent stake in the US$16 billion project. It and Petronas will be the venture’s primary customers. —AFP

Who’s at fault? Battle looms over BP oil spill NEW ORLEANS: While solemn commemorations marked the first anniversary of the calamitous BP oil spill, legal claims filed by the oil giant and other companies involved in the disaster show that lengthy court battles lay ahead.

Around the Gulf Coast Wednesday, residents said prayers on the beach and lit candles in the heart of New Orleans, while relatives flew over the sea where 11 rig workers died a year ago. In New Orleans courts, BP filed lawsuits alleging negligence by the rig owner and the maker of the device that failed to stop the spill. The blowout preventer maker and rig owner filed their own claims.

BP said in its lawsuit filed in federal court in New Orleans that Cameron International provided a blowout preventer with a faulty design, alleging that negligence by the manufacturer helped cause the disaster. The lawsuit seeks damages to help BP pay for the tens of billions of dollars in liabilities it has incurred from the disaster. It also was seeking $40 billion from rig owner Transocean, accusing it of causing last year’s deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico that led to the worst offshore oil spill in S history. BP says every single safety system and device and well control procedure on the Deepwater Horizon rig failed.

The lawsuit against Cameron said the blowout preventer “was unreasonably dangerous, and has caused and continues to cause harm, loss, injuries, and damages.”

Houston-based Cameron noted in a statement emailed to AP that Wednesday was the deadline under the relevant statute for all parties to file claims against each other. It said it has filed claims of its own to protect itself.

Also Wednesday, Transocean filed court papers demanding that judgments be made against BP, Cameron and other companies in its favor.

PORT FOURCHON, Louisiana: Wisner Properties Field Inspector Forrest Travirca walks in an area of dead marsh grass that was impacted by oil from the BP PLC oil spill on Fourchon Beach Wednesday. — AP The disaster began on the night of April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon burst into flames and killed the 11 men. The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later, the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor. Over the next 85 days, 780 million liters of oil - 19 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled - spewed from the well.

Relatives of the workers boarded a helicopter Wednesday to see the waters where their loved ones perished. The helicopter took them from New Orleans out to the well site, circled around so people on both sides of the aircraft could see and then returned to shore, said Arleen Weise, whose son, Adam, was killed on the rig. Seventeen family members, one Transocean official and two pilots were aboard the chopper.

“It was just a little emotional, seeing where they were,” Weise said by phone

from Houston, where rig owner Transocean planned an evening memorial service. Asked what went through her mind when she saw where the rig went down, Weise said, “Just rise up. I wanted them to come up, but it didn’t happen.” In a statement, President Barack Obama paid tribute to those killed and said that despite significant progress toward mitigating the spill’s worst impacts, “the job isn’t done.” “We continue to hold BP and other responsible parties fully accountable for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused,” he said. A presidential commission has concluded that a cascade of technical and managerial failures - including a faulty cement job - caused the disaster.

BP, the oil giant that owns the blownout well, has paid billions in cleanup costs and to compensate victims. — AP

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SHANGHAI: Guests visit the Shanghai International Auto Show yesterday. — AP/AFP photos

Carmakers look to electric future

Visitors look at a Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4.

A model stands next to a Citroen Survolt Concept car.

Visitors look at a Spyker C8 Aileron.

An artist performs next to a Peugeot 508.

SHANGHAI: Major carmakers’ high hopes for electric vehicles are on clear display at the Shanghai auto show, but industry leaders say it could be a decade before such eco-friendly cars go mainstream. Wary over its growing dependence on foreign oil, China plans to become a world leader in clean-energy vehicles, pledging to invest more than $14 billion by 2020 — and have five million of them on the road by then. Beijing’s determination has executives predicting China, the world’s largest auto market, will be one of the first to see widespread adoption of electric cars.

“Two-hundred million ride electric motor scooters (in China) now. They know the limitations of batteries and about recharging so they don’t run out of power,” General Motors China President Kevin Wale told AFP. “As soon as someone provides them with the right vehicle at the right price, they’ll start to move towards them. The government’s going to support that transition as well,” Wale said.

General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen, and Chinese firms such as BYD, Geely and Chery, are among those displaying hybrid and electric cars at the Shanghai show, alongside more traditional models, as they jostle to woo Chinese buyers. The scale of China’s market - a record 18 million vehicles were sold last year - provides Chinese auto manufacturers with a huge laboratory to help find the right electric-car formula, Wale said. “They won’t wait until research and development gives the perfect solution. They’ll move much more quickly in terms of putting options in front of people and learning from that and putting the next one out,” Wale said.

GM signed an agreement this week with an eco-city development in the northern port city of Tianjin to provide electric vehicles that will operate on a GPS network designed to eliminate traffic jams. China’s drive for electric cars is motivated by its fear of being addicted to foreign oil, said auto market analyst Michael Dunne of Hong Kong-based Dunne and Co. “Let’s be clear: This effort to go electric is 90 percent about energy security and less than 10 percent about the environment,” Dunne said, adding China will generate most of the electricity to run the cars by burning polluting coal.

Either way, global automakers expect China to set the pace in develop-

ing a market for electric cars. “The new energy vehicle opportunity here is probably bigger than in other countries,” BMW management board member Ian Robertson said. But the transition will not happen overnight. Ford forecasts that by 2020 perhaps 10 to 25 percent of global auto sales will be hybrid and electric cars. “The batteries need to get smaller. They need to be capable of holding more storage and they need to be able to extend the range. But importantly, they also need to get less costly,” Ford Asia Pacific President Joe Hinrichs said.

Battery development “has not kept up with the hype” surrounding new energy vehicles, he said, adding government involvement was necessary to keep innovation moving. “It’s so important to the global economy. It’s not about any one country or any one industry,” Ford’s Hinrichs said. “It’s going to take the better part of this decade to get the development cycles going better.”

For their part, Chinese automakers are powering ahead to avoid falling behind Western competitors with these new technologies, the way they did in developing conventional internal combustion engines. “We cannot wait until these technologies are fully mature, otherwise we will always be late,” said Chen Hong, president of SAIC Motor, the leading Chinese manufacturer by sales. SAIC plans to start mass production of a small electric car, the Roewe E1, and a hybrid car, the Roewe 550, in the second half of 2011. Shenzhen-based BYD, which began as a manufacturer of nickel and lithium-ion batteries, is currently testing a 12-m-long all-electric bus called the K9 in Denmark, BYD spokesman Paul Lin said. Talks are under way for similar tests in Britain, the Netherlands, Singapore and Hong Kong, Lin added. — AFP

A Chinese child looks on next to the Active-E , an electric car made by German car manufacturer BMW.

A model poses by the Mazda Shinari concept car.

Visitors look inside a Ford SUV.

A model poses by a SUV of Chinese car manufacturer Brilliance Auto.

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Wall Street small-caps in vanguard US economy unlikely to fall off a cliff again: Analysts

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maller stocks far outraced their bluechip brethren in the last decade. Now, they’re sprinting well ahead once again, defying predictions that big-name shares would take the lead in market performance.

Mutual funds that own stocks of small-cap and mid-cap companies racked up gains of 6.9 percent to 9.4 percent, on average, in the three months that ended March 31, according to fund tracker Lipper Inc. By contrast, large-cap stock funds posted first-quarter total returns averaging less than 6 percent. The story was much the same in 2010, when small-cap and mid-cap funds generated gains of 20 percent or better versus returns in the mid-teens for large-cap funds. A fund’s total return includes the change in its share price plus any dividends it pays.

In part, the continuing performance streak of smaller stocks reflects Wall Street’s growing sense that the US economy is unlikely to fall off a cliff again. When investors conclude the economy will keep improving, they naturally become willing to bet on riskier enterprises, including smaller firms.

“Small companies tend to be more focused and less diversified than bigger ones. This can be fatal during recessions but may be a big positive during expansions,” said Edward Yardeni, head of Yardeni Research Inc. in New York.

Don Wordell, manager of the RidgeWorth Mid-Cap Value Equity fund in Orlando, Florida, notes that the US financial system has healed further over the last year and that private-sector job growth finally has begun to pick up.

“When I look at the overall environment, I am more encouraged” about the economy, he said.

Still, many market pros had expected investors to shift their focus to blue-chip shares this year. One argument in favor of big-name multinational stocks was that their global reach offered better potential growth prospects in 2011 than those of many smaller, niche companies.

Another argument was simply that largecap stocks had become bargains relative to earnings as many investors ignored them and chose other places for their money in 2010 — not just smaller stocks, but also commodities and corporate bonds.

Classic “value” investors such as Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of money manager Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. in Boston, were making the case for big stocks over other ideas early this year. In a letter to clients in January, Grantham described the highest-quality blue-chips as “very cheap.”

By one common yardstick, blue-chips appear compelling: The average price-toearnings ratio of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index of big-company stocks is 13.7 based on estimated 2011 operating earnings per share, according to S&P. By comparison, the P/E ratio is 19.0 for the S&P index of 600 small-cap stocks and 18.3 for the S&P mid-cap 400-stock index. Still, the momentum has stayed with small- and midcap stocks. The S&P small-cap index gained 3 percent in March and the mid-cap index rose 2.4 percent, while the S&P 500 was largely unchanged.

Satya Pradhuman, who tracks small stocks as head of Cirrus Research in Tarrytown, NY,

NEW YORK: SecondMarket’s private-share brokers sit together in the company’s Wall Street office in New York. The firm has brokered $500 million in trades since launching its private-share market about two years ago. — MCT said one explanation for investors’ robust appetite for the companies is the expectation that bank lending conditions will continue to ease. Access to credit is key to many smaller companies’ success, he said.

As credit conditions improve, “you see the top line accelerate for small-cap companies,” Pradhuman said. “That’s what extends the cycle (for the stocks’ performance) longer

more.

But just as speculators can quickly drive up smaller stocks, they also could quickly drive them down by bailing out if sentiment about the economy should turn bleak.

For investors who worry that the smallest stocks may be too frothy after their latest runup but who also see blue-chips as too stodgy, mid-size stocks may be a good compromise.

For investors who worry that the smallest stocks may be too frothy after their latest run-up but who also see blue-chips as too stodgy, mid-size stocks may be a good compromise. than people think.”

Some market players cite another force driving the stocks: They say smaller issues are favorite targets of hedge funds and other investors with relatively short-term time horizons and a desire to get more bang for their equity buck. After all, it takes less money to drive up a small-cap stock than shares of WalMart Stores or Cisco Systems.

Generally, a small-cap company is one whose market capitalization (stock price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding) is less than $2 billion, and a mid-cap company is one with a market cap of between $2 billion and $10 billion. Large caps are the minority — firms whose shares are worth $10 billion or

The mid-cap sector has gained a reputation as the market’s “sweet spot” over the past decade or so. In the 15 years that ended March 31, the S&P mid-cap index produced a total return of 419 percent, compared with 302 percent for the S&P small-cap index and 168 percent for the S&P 500. Proponents of the mid-cap sector say the companies tend to be more seasoned than smaller firms and more financially stable, yet aren’t handicapped by size as some blue-chips are.

Mid-caps have “perennially been a really good, risk-adjusted place to be,” said Kim Scott, manager of the Waddell & Reed Advisors New Concepts stock fund based in Overland Park, Kan.

The fund, which focuses on mid-cap issues, rose 8.4 percent in the first quarter and was up 8.8 percent a year over the last five years, beating 96 percent of its peers, according to Bloomberg data.

Investors may underestimate the dynamism of management at many mid-cap firms, Scott said. “It’s remarkable how well-run the companies are,” she said.

Her portfolio includes auto-parts maker BorgWarner Inc., which she said was “a fabulous combination of industry and technology.” The company is a leading maker of turbochargers that improve car engine power and efficiency.

Scott also owns shares of retailer WilliamsSonoma Inc., which she said has masterfully used its stores as showrooms while expanding its online sales. That has allowed the company to reduce store inventories, boosting cash flow.

Wordell, at the RidgeWorth Mid-Cap Value fund, is a fan of banks including Chicagobased MB Financial and BB&T Corp of Winston-Salem, N.C. “Credit is clearly getting better, and we’re starting to see loan growth again,” Wordell said.

His fund, which rose 7.3 percent in the first quarter and gained 8.3 percent a year, on average, over the past five years, also owned industrial lubricants maker Lubrizol Corp — which last month accepted a $9 billion takeover offer from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Wordell says the deal points up another draw of mid-cap companies: their appeal to cash-rich larger firms hungry for new growth opportunities. — MCT

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Perceived car bomb threat in Mexico So far, the Mexican cartels have been able to use small IEDs to accomplish what they need - essentially sending messages - without having to use large IEDs that would require more resources and could cause substantial collateral damage that would prompt a public-opinion backlash

By Scott Stewart

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n April 5, Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that a row of concrete Jersey barriers was being emplaced in front of the US Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico. The story indicated that the wall was put in to block visibility of the facility, but being only about 107 cm high, such barriers do little to block visibility. Instead, this modular concrete wall is clearly being used to block one lane of traffic in front of the consulate in an effort to provide the facility with some additional standoff distance from the avenue that passes in front of it.

Due to the location and design of the current consulate building in Monterrey, there is only a narrow sidewalk separating the building’s front wall from the street and very little distance between the front wall and the building. This lack of standoff has been long noted, and it was an important factor in the decision to build a new consulate in Monterrey (construction began in June 2010 and is scheduled to be completed in Jan 2013).

The US Consulate in Monterrey has been targeted in the past by cartels using small arms and grenades. The last grenade attack near the consulate was in Oct 2010. However, the Jersey barriers placed in front of the consulate will do little to protect the building against small arms fire, which can be directed at portions of the building above the perimeter wall, or grenades, which can be thrown over the wall.

Rather, such barriers are used to protect facilities against an attack using a car bomb, or what is called in military and law enforcement vernacular a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED).

That such barriers have been employed (or re-employed, really, since they have been used before at the US Consulate in Monterrey) indicates that there is at least a perceived VBIED threat in Mexico. The placement of the barriers was followed by a Warden Message issued April 8 by the US Consulate General in Monterrey warning that “the US government has received uncorroborated information Mexican criminal gangs may intend to attack US law enforcement officers or US citizens in the near future in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi.” It is quite possible that the placement of the barriers at the consulate was related to this Warden Message.

The Mexican cartels have employed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in

the past, but the devices have been small. While their successful employment has shown that the cartels could deploy larger devices if they decided to do so, there are still some factors causing them to avoid using large VBIEDs. Some History The use of IEDs in Mexico is nothing new. Explosives are plentiful in Mexico

the Liberation of the Earth, Animals and Humans has also employed a large number of small IEDs against banks, insurance companies, car dealerships and other targets.

Explosives have also played a minor role in the escalation of cartel violence in Mexico. The first cartel-related IED incident we recall was the Feb. 15, 2008, premature detonation of an IED in Mexico City that investigators con-

mercial explosives, when they have uncovered arms caches belonging to the cartels. But it was not until July 2010 that IEDs began to be employed by the cartels with any frequency.

On July 15, 2010, in Juarez, Chihuahua state, the enforcement wing of the Juarez cartel, known as La Linea, remotely detonated an IED located inside a car as federal police agents were responding to reports of a

Relatives of the four people found dead in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, arrive at the crime scene on April 13, 2011. – AFP due to their widespread use in the country’s mining and petroleum sectors. Because of Mexico’s strict gun laws, it is easier and cheaper to legally procure explosives - specifically commercial explosives such as Tovex - in Mexico than it is firearms. We have seen a number of different actors use explosive devices in Mexico, including left-wing groups such as the Popular Revolutionary Army and its various splinters, which have targeted banks and commercial centers (though usually at night and in a manner intended to cause property damage and not human casualties). An anarchist group calling itself the Subversive Alliance for

cluded was likely a failed assassination attempt against a high-ranking police official. Three months later, in May 2008, there was a rash of such assassinations in Mexico City targeting highranking police officials such as Edgar Millan Gomez, who at the time of his death was Mexico’s highest-ranking federal law enforcement officer. While these assassinations were conducted using firearms, they supported the theory that the Feb15, 2008, incident was indeed a failed assassination attempt.

Mexican officials have frequently encountered explosives, including small amounts of military-grade explosives and far larger quantities of com-

dead body inside a car. The attack killed two federal agents, one municipal police officer and an emergency medical technician and wounded nine other people.

Shortly after this well-coordinated attack, La Linea threatened that if the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation did not investigate and remove the chief of the Chihuahua state police intelligence unit - who La Linea claimed was working for the Sinaloa Federation - the group would deploy a car bomb containing 100 kg of explosives. The threat proved to be an empty one, and since last July, La Linea has

deployed just one additional IED, which was discovered by police on Sept 10, 2010, in Juarez.

The Sept 10 incident bore a striking resemblance to the July 15 Juarez bombing. The device was hidden in a vehicle parked near another vehicle that contained a dead body that was reported to police. The Sept. 10 device appears to have malfunctioned, since it did not detonate as first responders arrived. The device was noticed by authorities and rendered safe by a Mexican military explosive ordnance disposal team. This device reportedly contained a main charge of 16 kg of Tovex, and while that quantity of explosives was far smaller than the 100-kg device La Linea threatened to employ, it was still a significant step up in size from the July 15 IED. Based upon the amount of physical damage done to buildings and other vehicles in the area where the device exploded, and the lack of a substantial crater in the street under the vehicle containing the device, the July 15 IED appears to have contained at most a couple of kilograms of explosives.

Seemingly taking a cue from La Linea, the Gulf cartel also began deploying IEDs in the summer of 2010 against law enforcement targets it claimed were cooperating with Los Zetas, which is currently locked in a heated battle with the Gulf cartel for control of Mexico’s northeast. Between August and December 2010, Gulf cartel enforcers deployed at least six other IEDs against what they called the “Zeta police” and the media in such cities as Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas state and Zuazua in Nuevo Leon.

However, these attacks were all conducted against empty vehicles and there was no apparent attempt to inflict casualties. The devices were intended more as messages than weapons.

The employment of IEDs has not been confined just to the border. On Jan 22, a small IED placed inside a car detonated near the town of Tula, Hidalgo state, injuring four local policemen. Initial reports suggested that local law enforcement received an anonymous tip about a corpse in a white Volkswagen Bora. The IED reportedly detonated when police opened one of the vehicle’s doors, suggesting either some sort of booby trap or a remotely detonated device.

The damage from the Tula device is consistent with a small device placed inside a vehicle, making it similar to the IEDs deployed in Juarez and Ciudad Victoria in 2010. The setup and the deployment of the IED in Tula also

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bear some resemblance to the tactics used by La Linea in the July 2010 Juarez attack; in both cases, a corpse was used as bait to lure law enforcement to the scene before the device was detonated. Despite these similarities, the distance between Tula and Juarez and the makeup of the cartel landscape make it unlikely that the same group or bombmaker was involved in these two incidents.

Car Bombs vs. Bombs in Cars The IEDs that have been detonated by the Mexican cartels share a very common damage profile. The frames of the vehicles in which the devices were hidden remained largely intact after detonation and damage to surrounding structures and vehicles was relatively minor, indicating the devices were rather small in size. The main charges were probably similar to the device found in a vehicle recovered from an arms cache in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, on Sept. 10, 2010 - a liquor bottle filled with no more than a kilogram of commercial explosives.

In fact, most of the devices we have seen in Mexico so far have been what we consider “bombs in cars” rather than “car bombs.” The difference between the two is one of scale.

Motorcycle gangs and organized crime groups frequently place pipe bombs and other small IEDs in vehicles in order to kill enemies or send messages.

However, it is very uncommon for the police investigating such attacks to refer to these small devices as car bombs or VBIEDs. As the name implies, “vehicle borne” suggests that the device is too large to be borne by other means and requires a vehicle to convey it to the target. This means the satchel device that prematurely detonated in Mexico City in February 2008 or the liquor-bottle charge recovered in Guadalajara in September 2010 would not have been considered VBIEDs had they been detonated in vehicles. None of the devices we have seen successfully employed in Mexico has been an actual VBIED, as defined by those commonly used in Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan - or even Colombia in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The only explosive device we have seen that even remotely approached being considered a VBIED was the 16kilogram device discovered in Juarez in September 2010. This means that those who are referring to the devices deployed in Mexico as VBIEDs are either mistaken or are intentionally hyping the devices. Claiming that the cartels are using “car bombs” clearly benefits those who are trying to portray the cartels as terrorists. As we’ve discussed elsewhere, there are both political and practical motives for labeling the Mexican drug cartels terrorists rather than just vicious criminals.

That said, the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes organization and the Gulf cartel have demonstrated that they can construct small devices and remotely detonate them using cellphones, Futaba radio-control transmitters and servos (as have the still unidentified groups responsible for the Tula attack and the radio-controlled device recovered in Guadalajara in Sept 2010).

Once an organization possesses the ability to do this, and has access to large quantities of explosives, the only

Two corpses lie on a street in Ecatepec municipality, Mexico state, on April 10, 2011. —AFP factor that prevents it from creating and detonating large VBIED-type devices is will. In the late 1980s and early 1990s in Colombia, powerful Colombian drug trafficking organizations such as the Medellin cartel used large-scale terrorist attacks in an effort to get the Colombian government to back off on its counternarcotics efforts.

Some of the attacks conducted by the Medellin cartel, such as the December 1989 bombing of the Colombian Administrative Department of Security, utilized at least 450 kilograms of explosives and were incredibly devastating.

However, these attacks did not achieve their objective. Instead, they served to steel the will of the Colombian government and also caused the Colombians to turn to the United States for even more assistance in their battle against the Colombian cartels.

A US government investigator who assisted the Colombian government in investigating some of the large VBIED attacks conducted by the Medellin cartel notes that Medellin frequently employed Futaba radiocontrol devices in its VBIEDs like those used for model aircraft. A similar Futaba device was recovered in Guadalajara in September 2010, found wired to the explosives-filled liquor bottle inside the car. This may or may not provide the Mexican authorities with any sort of hard forensic link between the Mexican and Colombian cartels, but it is quite significant that the Futaba device was used in an IED in Mexico with a main explosive charge that was much

smaller than those used in Colombia.

On April 1, 2011, the Mexican military discovered a large arms cache in Matamoros. In addition to encountering the customary automatic weapons, grenades and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the military also seized 412 chubs (plastic sleeves) of hydrogel commercial explosives, 36 electric detonators and more than 11 m of detonation cord. (The Mexican government did not provide photos of the explosives nor the weight of the material recovered, but chubs of gel explosives can range in size from less than half a kilogram to a couple of kilograms in weight.) This means there were at least a hundred kilograms of explosives in the cache, enough to make a sizable VBIED. Given that the cache was located in Matamoros and appears to have been there for some time, it is likely that it belonged to the Gulf cartel. This, like other seizures of explosives, indicates that the reason the Gulf cartel has used small explosive devices in its past attacks is not due to lack of explosives or expertise but lack of will.

Assessing the Threat When assessing any threat, two main factors must be considered: intent and capability. So far, the Mexican cartels have demonstrated they have the capability to employ VBIEDs but not the intent. Discerning future intent is difficult, but judging from an actor’s past behavior can allow a thoughtful observer to draw some conclusions. First, the Juarez cartel has

been hard-pressed by both the Mexican government and the Sinaloa Federation, and it is desperately struggling to survive.

Despite this, the leaders of that organization have decided not to follow through with their threats from last July to unleash a 100-kg VBIED on Juarez. The Juarez cartel is not at all squeamish about killing people and it is therefore unlikely that the group has avoided employing VBIEDs for altruistic or benevolent reasons. Clearly, they seem to believe that it is in their best interests not to pop off a VBIED or a series of such devices.

Although the Juarez cartel is badly wounded, the last thing it wants to do is invite the full weight of the US and Mexican governments down upon its head by becoming the Mexican version of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel, which would likely happen should it begin to conduct large terrorist-style bombings. Escobar’s employment of terrorism backfired on him and resulted not only in his own death but also the dismantlement of his entire organization. A key factor in Escobar’s downfall was that his use of terrorism not only affected the government but also served to turn the population against him. He went from being seen by many Colombians as almost a folk hero to being reviled and hated. His organization lost the support of the population and found itself isolated and unable to hide amid the populace.

Similar concerns are likely constraining the actions of the Mexican cartels. It is one thing to target mem-

bers of opposing cartels, or even law enforcement and military personnel, and it is quite another to begin to indiscriminately target civilians or to level entire city blocks with large VBIEDs. While the drug war - and the crime wave that has accompanied it has affected many ordinary Mexicans and turned sentiment against the cartels, public sentiment would be dramatically altered by the adoption of true terrorist tactics. So far, the Mexican cartels have been very careful not to cross that line.

There is also the question of cost versus benefit. So far, the Mexican cartels have been able to use small IEDs to accomplish what they need - essentially sending messages - without having to use large IEDs that would require more resources and could cause substantial collateral damage that would prompt a public-opinion backlash.

There is also considerable doubt that a larger IED attack would really accomplish anything concrete for the cartels.

While the cartels will sometimes conduct very violent actions, most of those actions are quite pragmatic.

Cartel elements who operate as loose cannons are often harshly disciplined by cartel leadership, like the gunmen involved in the Falcon Lake shooting.

So while the US Consulate in Monterrey may be erecting Jersey barriers to protect it from VBIED attacks, it is likely doing so based on an abundance of caution or some bureaucratic mandate, not hard intelligence that the cartels are planning to hit the facility with a VBIED. — Stratfor

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The Yin and Yang at work

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

How to manage and solve workplace negativity

Deal with the source If the negativity emanates from an individual, you can: ● Inform the employee about the negative impact her negativity is having on co-workers and the department. Use specific examples that describe behaviors the employee can do something about. ● Avoid becoming defensive. Don’t take the employee’s negative words or attitude personally.

● Focus on creating solutions. Don’t focus on everything that is wrong and negative; focus instead on creating options for positive morale. If the person is unwilling to hold this discussion, and you feel you have fairly heard her out, end the discussion. ● Focus on the positive aspects and contributions the individual brings to the work setting, not the negativity.

Help the employee build her self-

image and capacity to contribute. ● Compliment the individual any time you hear a positive statement or contribution rather than negativity from her.

If none of the above is working and the employee’s negativity is impacting productivity, workplace harmony, and department members’ attitudes and morale, deal with the negativity as you would any other performance issue.

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our workplace is seething with hostility and negativity.

No matter where the bad vibes came from, it’s up to you to help make the atmosphere more positive, productive and supportive. As a manager, supervisor, or staff member, you usually do not control the situation that is causing the negativity. Perhaps no one in your workplace does.

How you address negativity depends on whether you control it and how it started in the first place. The timeliness of your intervention also has an impact. You can address negativity when it is already present in your workplace. Addressing negativity prevents workplace violence, promotes workplace safety, and creates positive employee morale.

When you can control negativity This is a best case scenario. You have received feedback about negative rumors and you know that the underlying cause of the negativity is based on faulty information, incorrect assumptions, or deliberate misinformation. You may receive feedback that a new policy or procedure is not understood correctly. People may be misinterpreting a corporate memo. An industry newsletter might have referenced an industry problem your company does not share. You may have fired an individual who is circulating false information about the company. In each of these circumstances, you have some control over the information, the situation, and the communication. You can solve the problem and communicate well to overcome the negativity.

When you can control or influence the situation, use a systematic problem-solving process with the affected employees to improve the identified areas of negativity. Do this as quickly as you determine that negativity exists. (Many Human Resource offices launch a complete investigation, and by the time the facts are gathered, the negativity is out of control. ) Include the employees who are closest to the negative situation in the problem-solving process. Do a good cause analysis so that all possible causes of the negativity are identified. It is not enough to say, “We have low morale.” You need to identify exactly what is causing the low morale to have any chance of improving it. Solicit widespread input to each step of the action plan you develop so that solutions are “owned” across your organization. Involve as many people as you can in its development and particularly in its implementation.

Implement the chosen solutions quickly. Then, periodically assess that the plan is working.

At each step of the problem-solving process, communicate as much information as you have about the negativity and the solutions. When the solutions selected in the action plan are rolled out, people in the organization are not surprised. They have participated in the information exchange as each step or opportunity was discussed.

Negativity often occurs when people are impacted by decisions and issues that are out of their control. Examples of these include: corporation downsizing; understaffing that requires people to work mandatory overtime; budget reductions; and upper-management decisions that adversely impact members of your staff.

Under these circumstances, try some of the following ideas. ● Identify any aspects of the situation that you can impact including providing feedback in your organization about the negative impact that is occurring. (Sometimes decisions are made and no one understands or predicts their outcome.

Sometimes you can influence an issue or a decision if you practice personal, professional courage and speak your mind. ● Listen, listen, listen. Often people just need a sounding board. Be visible and available to staff. Proactively schedule group discussion sessions, town meetings, “lunches with the manager,” or one-on-one blocks of time. ● Challenge pessimistic thinking and negative beliefs about people, the company, and the work area. Don’t let negative, false statements go unchallenged. If the statements are true, provide the rationale, the corporate thinking, and the events that are responsible for the negative circumstances.

Share everything you know about a situation to build trust with the workforce. ● Ask open-ended questions to determine the cause, and the scope of the negative feelings or reaction. Maybe it’s not as bad as people think; maybe their interpretation of events is faulty. Helping people identify exactly what they feel negatively about is the first step in solving the problem. You can’t solve a fog of unhappiness. Help people create options, feel included, and feel part of the communication and problem solving. ● Recognize that, sometimes, a negative outlook may be appropriate. www.careerplanning.about.com

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 www.kuwaittimes.net

In this film publicity image released by Disneynature, a scene is shown from the film "African Cats." —AP

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

The perfect cardio workout to burn fat quicker for flatter abs When you burn more calories in a day than you consume, you are creating a calorie deficit. In order to lose one pound of fat you need a 3500 calorie deficit.

Two common cardio workout approaches If your goal is to burn fat and get flatter abs, you have a few different approaches that you can take.

When you talk to a personal trainer, or fitness gurus they will usually recommend a low intensity approach to cardio. The idea behind low intensity cardio is that most of the calories will come from your body fat. The reason people believe this is that if you work too hard, you are going to be burning carbohydrates as energy and not your body fat stores. People always make the point that more calories are burnt during high intensity exercise, and this is a good thing. When you burn more calories in a day than you consume, you are creating a calorie deficit. In order to lose one pound of fat you need a 3500 calorie deficit.

Low intensity cardio workout A low intensity cardio is the most common form and is pushed by almost all personal trainers. Low intensity cardio works by targeting your body fat and that is what makes it so common. While, university studies have proven low cardio workouts

use fat calories instead of burning muscle carbohydrates. If the body burns fat for energy, you will lose your body fat.

It is important to choose cardio equipment that can track you heart rate. it will let you monitor your heart rate during your workout and allow you to hit the ideal intensity level. After about 10 minutes or so, you should be close to reaching your ideal heart rate. You will want to stay within your target hart rate for at least 30 minutes this is recommended by most experts.

High intensity cardio workout High intensity cardio is the less utilized form of cardio. This type of cardio involves pushing past your pain threshold, and so few people choose this route. This type of cardio method can give you great results in burning body fat, that is if it is done properly. You will burn a great deal more calories in a high intensity work out than in a low intensity workout.

Limitations of the 2 types of cardio workouts Once you get your heart rate up to the correct level, the low intensity cardio workout will burn

body fat. The downside to the low intensity cardio is that it takes up to 10 minutes for your body to get to the proper heart rate, during that first 10 minutes your workout is somewhat unproductive.

In regards to the high intensity cardio workout, it is very hard for a person trying to get in fit to maintain a high rate of cardio for long periods of time.

Working at intense levels for over 10 - 15 minutes is extremely difficult.

How to make the two into one Imagine combining both cardio workout into one, to take advantage of both worlds. Guess what, you can! You can make the first ten minutes of your low intensity cardio workout very productive, by starting your cardio workout off at a high intensity level. Find an exercise machine and set it at a high level. Once you have pushed yourself for 10 to 15 minutes and have a good sweet going, switch to a lower intensity and keep going for another 20 to 30 minutes. This will burn more calories and create a calorie deficit as well as burning body fat during your workout. (www.turbofitnesssecrets.com)

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Are Carbs the Enemy?

The debate over eating and diabetes

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hen it comes to diabetes, there may be no topic more fraught with controversy than carbohydrates. Sure, everyone agrees that the body uses carbs for energy in the form of glucose. But how much carbohydrate should people with diabetes really eat?

That question has divided researchers, doctors, dietitians-and people with diabetes themselves.

Some insulin users in particular find that their blood glucose is far easier to control when they limit the carbs in their diet. Others think people with diabetes deserve to eat (and enjoy) the same healthy diet recommended for all Americans. All are deeply passionate on the subject. And, in a sense, they may all be right.

Today, most people with diabetes are encouraged to eat a balanced diet of lean meats and dairy, whole grains, healthy fats, and fruits and vegetables. This concept is backed by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) as well as the American Heart Association and American Dietetic Association, and it incorporates recommendations from agencies like the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services.

While the ADA does not specify exact grams or percentages of calories from carbohydrate, the approach is generally moderate in carbs. According to Marion J. Franz, MS, RD, CDE, a registered dietitian and nutrition/health consultant in Minneapolis, studies have shown that people with diabetes generally get about 40 to 45 percent of their calories from carbs.

The moderate-carb approach stresses that grains should come in the form of whole grains instead of refined grains (like white flour), which have been stripped of important vitamins and minerals. Research has shown that eating a moderate-carb, high-fiber diet (like one that includes whole grains) may improve post-meal glucose levels and lower the risk for cardiovascular disease.

What’s more, foods that contain carbohydrate also tend to contain a lot of other healthy things. Consider the four major categories of foods that have carbs: fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy.

Many of the individual foods in those categories are nutrition powerhouses. Legumes like lentils and black beans are chock-full of soluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol levels. Veggies and fruits are a great low-calorie source of vitamins and minerals. Low-fat dairy products provide calcium and, in many cases, vitamin D. Not only that, but carbs are an efficient source of energy. “Like gasoline powers a car, glucose powers your body,” says Neal Barnard, MD, adjunct associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and author of Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes. “The idea that carbohydrate is a problem is, in my opinion, a mistaken one.”

According to Franz, as long as people eat less or cover their carb intake with medications, they can keep blood glucose levels in check with a healthy diet. “What determines the blood glucose level,” she says, is “certainly the amount of carbs you eat, but it’s the balance between carbs and insulin.”

What’s more, she points out, the moderate diet is all about freedom. “If someone told me you have diabetes but you can’t eat carbs, I’d be floored,” says Franz. “I would cry out in alarm and say, ‘But I deserve the right to eat healthfully, and I can keep my blood glucose in control by watching my portion sizes and, if necessary, taking medication.’ “ Indeed, a lot of those newly diagnosed with diabetes are happy to find out that they can still have most of their favorite foods, in moderation-as long

as they lower their blood glucose with medication and exercise. (People who control their diabetes without medication or who take oral drugs will need to watch how carbs affect their glucose levels and then work with their doctor to determine the right number of carbs and amount of medication needed to stay in good glucose control.) Gone are the days of “diabetic diets” that were meager and confining. Today, the idea is that people with diabetes can eat everything recommended to those without the disease. “If we look at what’s important for all of us,” says Franz, “it’s important to eat healthy foods in the right portion sizes.”

The Low-Carb Approach When Richard Bernstein, MD, FACE, FACN, started eating a low-carbohydrate diet 40 years ago, he had heart disease and kidney disease, complications of uncontrolled type 1 diabetes. Bernstein says he cut the majority of carbs from his diet, and eventually his complications retreated.

Today, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Bernstein, author of Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars, has become low-carb’s greatest cheerleader. Bernstein and others who back the low-carb diet say the best way to keep blood glucose levels low is to avoid raising them in the first place. As the body’s fastest, easiest source of glucose, carbohydrates are the

obvious target.

What’s more, says Bernstein, counting carbs is an inexact science, even when food has a nutrition label. For restaurant meals and other unlabeled foods, he says, dosing insulin to match carbohydrates is a matter of even greater guesswork.

Instead, Bernstein advocates a higher-protein, higher-fat diet, and counsels patients in his medical practice on how to make it work. Their daily totals amount to about 20 to 30 grams of carbohydrateusually less than 10 percent of the day’s calories.

(Some people who follow a lower-carb diet are less stringent, allowing 20 to 40 percent of their calories to come from carbs.) “[In] the history of humanity, high-carbohydrate is new,” Bernstein says. “It’s an experiment that started in the 20th century.” Replacing carbs with protein and fat is a smart alternative, says William Yancy, Jr., MD, MHS, a researcher at the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at Durham (N.C.) VA Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center. “They all produce energy for the body. The body was designed this way. Just in case you didn’t have one, you could use the other.”

To match their carbohydrate intake, low-carb dieters cut their insulin doses. “The risk for hypoglycemia is brought about by a high-carbohydrate diet,” says Bernstein. “You take industrial doses of insulin [to cover a large amount of carbs], you’re certainly going to get hypoglycemia.”

Critics say that the low-carb diet is hard to stick to over time. Any drop in A1C levels (average blood glucose over two to three months), they say, is a direct result of losing weight. But low-carb proponents counter that, even without weight loss, the low-carb diet can keep blood glucose levels in line.

“Data would indicate that people with [type 2] diabetes, if the goal was glucose control, would be best off with a low-carb diet,” says Mary Gannon, PhD, director of the Metabolic Research Laboratory at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

In a 2004 study published in the journal Diabetes, Gannon found that men with type 2 diabetes had lower blood glucose levels after five weeks on a lower-carb diet (20 percent of calories from carbs) than they did on a higher-carb diet (55 percent of calories from carbs). A 2005 study by Yancy, published in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, showed that when they ate fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, overweight people with type 2 diabetes improved their A1C enough that they were able to stop or decrease their diabetes medications.

Another study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that eating fewer than 30 grams of carbs per day for a year improved A1C, lowered triglycerides, and raised HDL (“good”) cholesterol more than a conventional diet. In all three studies, researchers saw improvements independent of weight loss.

The Fat Question Both sides mostly agree that a low-carb approach will end up being high in fat, including saturated fat.

What they don’t agree on is whether that’s a bad thing. According to low-carb proponents, the idea that saturated fat causes cardiovascular disease is misguided. “There’s some misunderstanding about saturated fats,” says Frank Nuttall, MD, PhD, chief of the Endocrinology, Metabolism & Nutrition Section at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.

“We really don’t have good evidence that saturated fat causes coronary heart disease. It can raise cholesterol levels, but whether that’s sufficient to raise the risk for coronary heart disease is not conclusive.”

Yancy points to the long-term Nurses Health Study, which didn’t find a link between saturated-fat consumption and heart disease. “Fat is something that we’ve demonized for 30 years now,” he says.

“People have realized the unsaturated fats are healthy. The new observational studies don’t show saturated fat is bad.”

Barnard, for one, disagrees. “I would never prescribe a low-carb diet for people with diabetes because they raise their risk for coronary artery disease,” he says. And according to Alice Lichtenstein, a

professor of nutrition at the Friedman School of Tufts University and director and senior scientist at the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory in the school’s Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, people who eat more saturated fat have higher cholesterol levels and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

An important fact to consider, says Lichtenstein, an expert in fats, is a study’s length. “When you’re evaluating one diet over another,” she says, “you’ve got to look at the period of time when they’re losing weight as well as when their weight stabilizes.” That is, while people may lower their cholesterol on a high-fat diet while losing weight, the same is not necessarily true when their weight stabilizes (which usually happens).

There may be another reason aside from concerns about heart disease to avoid fats: “When people don’t eat carbohydrates, they eat fat, and they eat saturated fat,” says Franz. “People have to eat something. . . . Eating a higher-saturated-fat diet contributes to insulin resistance.” According to Barnard, fat buildup in the muscle cells correlates with insulin resistance. On the flip side, he says, eating a low-fat diet clears the buildup and improves insulin sensitivity.

The Right Way? Part of the reason for the great carb divide is that science hasn’t settled the debate. In addition to the research that demonstrates the success of a low-carb diet, there are also plenty of studies that show benefits of high-carb diets. Barnard’s 2006 article in Diabetes Care, for instance, found improved cholesterol and decreased A1C in people on a vegan diet (consisting of no animal food or products, including dairy) that was a whopping 75 percent carbohydrate.

Barnard supports a vegan diet because it beat out both low-carb and moderate diets when it came to heart health and glycemic control.

Another article from Diabetes Care, this one published in 2009, didn’t find any difference between moderate-carb diets (45 percent of calories from carbs) and higher-carb diets (60 percent of calories from carbs) when it came to glucose control and cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

But the real problem is that there’s little long-term research on the subject. Plus, there are few studies on low-carb dieting for people with type 1 diabetes, who need insulin regardless of what diet they follow. “The physiology of the whole thing is very complex and not completely understood,” says Franz. “How do you look at it long term?” Part of the problem is cost: Long-term studies are expensive to conduct. And it’s difficult to consistently measure a large group of people’s food intake over years or decades.

People with diabetes looking for a one-size-fits-all “right” way to eat are going to come up short. There probably is no one way to eat that works for everyone. For some, all but nixing carbs is the ideal way to normalize blood glucose levels. For others, eating a higher-carb diet and covering the carbs with insulin or oral medications wins. This is all part of the reason that the American Diabetes Association stresses that meal plans should be geared to fit each person’s individual lifestyle.

So what should you do if you have diabetes and you’re trying to eat healthfully? First of all, keep in mind that what works for someone else may not necessarily work for you-and vice versa. You may need to experiment a bit to see how different methods affect your blood glucose levels. Consider making an appointment with a registered dietitian, who can review your individual needs and circumstances and help you tailor a nutrition plan that’s right for you. In the end, the best diet is the healthy one you’re able to follow. (www.forecast.diabetes.org)

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

In most countries, the monthly fees can add up quickly, easily outstripping the cost of the device.

Apple’s

iPad2 makes you pay for it

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here’s a lot to like about Apple’s new iPad2. Cost, however, is probably not one of them. With a base price of 499 dollars in the US to the equivalent of over 700 dollars in parts of Europe, the iPad2 is no small expenditure. Purchase price, though, is just the beginning.

Apple’s glitzy new tablet will likely not only wow onlookers with its impressive touch-screen interface and dazzling display but also shock more than a few unsuspecting owners when they discover how many hidden costs come with the device. Here are a few.

Network service The iPad2 thrives on an internet connection, and depending upon which version of the iPad2 you purchase, that connection could be a significant ongoing expense.

There are two versions of the iPad2. A “Wi-Fi” edition allows you to connect the device to any available wireless (Wi-Fi) hotspot or router, and a “Wi-Fi + 3G” edition gives you the option of connecting to the internet either through a wireless router or to a cellular carrier’s 3G network.

The latter - Wi-Fi + 3G - is the one that will bring the iPad2 to life, for it allows you to use the iPad2’s many internet-dependent features just about everywhere. It’s also, unfortunately, the edition that will cost the most up front and throughout the life of the device. The reason: You’ll have to buy that 3G network access from a cellular carrier and pay a monthly fee based upon how much data you download or intend to download.

In most countries, those monthly fees can add up quickly, easily outstripping the cost of the device. So spend some time investigating 3G plans for the iPad2 before you purchase the tablet. And if you plan to travel abroad with

your iPad2, know that you may be looking either at the purchase of additional SIM cards or at adding potentially expensive data options to your existing plan in order to use the iPad2 as you travel.

Protection plans When you purchase an iPad2, you’ll likely have the option of purchasing some type of protection plan. Apple, for instance, offers an AppleCare Protection Plan that will cover certain types of damage to the iPad for two years from the original purchase date. The cost of such protection will probably add at least 15 per cent to the price of the least expensive iPad2. The cost of insuring the iPad2 should probably be considered a necessity, however. The device, after all, is not cheap, nor is it indestructible. While tests have shown the unit’s screen to hold up well to typical usage, it is made of glass, and the entire unit is portable, so accidents could happen. Plus the iPad2 is one of the hottest items in the world of tech right now, so it’s obviously an attractive target for thieves. But before you buy the first protection plan that’s offered to you, spend some time looking at your options. If you have renter’s or homeowner’s insurance, for instance, you may actually be able to add the iPad2 as personal property and get theft insurance thrown in as well.

Apps Like the iPhone, the iPad2 will tempt you with a bevy of downloadable apps that give the device new or irresistible functionality. The catch? Many of these apps will cost you additional money. While some apps go for just a few dollars, others sell for 40 dollars or more. Start piling on the apps, and you may quickly find your wallet getting lighter.

Accessories What’s an iPad2 without accessories? It’s still an iPad2, of course, but it may suddenly seem less useful once you learn about the plethora of accessories available for the device. For instance, there’s an add-on that can turn the iPad2 into an audio-visual presentation tool and another that can transform it into something resembling a notebook computer, complete with separate keyboard. A wide range of accessories provide more protection to the tablet or give it personal panache. There’s even an accessory that turns the iPad2 into a portable amplifier for your guitar.

All of these accessories have one thing in common: They add significantly to the amount of money you tie up in the iPad2. The guitar gizmo alone, for instance, retails for 99 dollars. If you’ve had your heart set on an iPad2, none of this means that you should be any less excited. The iPad is, after all, the device that virtually jumpstarted an entire category of computing just over a year ago. But before you hand over your hard-earned cash for the iPad2, it’s probably wise to calculate just how much the tablet will really cost you. - dpa

Pe t s FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Historically in Japan, animals that didn’t hunt, guard the house or kill pests were seen as a luxury in a society that for centuries produced barely enough to feed itself.

This small brown dog was rescued by Maki Oshiro, a volunteer rescue worker, in Natori, Japan. — MCT

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he dog had been left tied up in a yard in Fukushima, the largely emptied city synonymous with the words “nuclear disaster.” Despite the threat of radiation leaking from the nuclear plant 40 miles away, Toby Weymiller, a teacher who got the distress call from the shelter Animal Friends Niigata, drove to the city and rescued the dog and a stranded cat. “The dog was really freaked out,” said Weymiller, who downplayed any danger to his own health.

“But he’s in the shelter and happy now.”

Several weeks after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, a loose network of pet groups is working to provide many of the services for stranded and stressed animals that emergency services have been providing for people, including food, medicine and shelter. Some question why scarce resources should be devoted to saving animals when gas shortages are endemic and human beings have so many needs. Their response: The welfare of animals and people are often integrally linked. “Many people are very anxious, having lost their houses and most everything else,” said Kazumasu Sasaki, a veterinarian who has been traveling to hard-hit communities around Sendai with donated pet food and animal medicine. “One way to take care of

anxious people is to take care of their pets.”

Some pet owners went to great lengths during the tsunami to save their animals.

Ofunato resident Atsuko Oikawa was helping her mother-in-law into their car when the earthquake hit, and their two beloved miniature dachshunds ran off toward the port and the killer wave. She found Carlos, but Ghosn - the two are named after Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn - couldn’t be found despite frantic searching. As the wave approached, she reluctantly headed for the hills with her husband, but there was a hole in their hearts over the missing dog, she said.

A week later, however, in what she considers a near-miracle, they received word from the police that Ghosn had not only survived but was in good shape. He had been found far inland near a beach sign, and the Oikawas speculate that he may have ridden the wave in. “Maybe he rode on it, a surfing dog, perhaps,” said Oikawa’s husband, Yuki. “We’re so incredibly happy to get him back.” For the pet lovers in Japan who saved their animals, however, that was often just the first step.

The growing tension between pet owners and others in temporary shelters has forced some to keep surviving animals in

their cars or tied up alone in the cold, Sasaki said, compounding the animals’ stress. Historically in Japan, animals that didn’t hunt, guard the house or kill pests were seen as a luxury in a society that for centuries produced barely enough to feed itself, animal specialists said.

Economic conditions have changed, however, and cats and small dogs are increasingly common for companionship and even fashion accessories, with a booming market in designer dog clothing and even animal funerals. Still, outside big cities, tradition still runs deep. “And the Tohoku area where the earthquake hit has more traditional views than elsewhere, particularly among older men,” Sasaki said.

At Miyako’s Yamaguchi Elementary School, a post-disaster shelter, Chizuru Nakaya, 19, and her family have retreated with their two hyperactive Yorkshire terriers to a narrow balcony, aware that their animals aren’t appreciated by others.

Seconds before the earthquake hit, the family’s younger dog, Lion, started shaking and his companion Lucky started barking, the waitress said. Although she can’t be sure, she said, she suspects that they had some kind of premonition.

Amid the devastation a few days after

the tsunami, volunteer rescue worker Maki Oshiro found a small brown dog wandering in the debris fields in Natori. The number of abandoned or homeless pets hasn’t been huge so far, reflecting the deadly force of the tsunami, though animal lovers said they may still find more in still-isolated areas. On Wednesday, Animal Friends Niigata helped rescue a corgi found on the roof of a house that had floated out to sea.

“He bites, but I’m sure that is because he’s stressed out to the eyeballs,” Isabella Gallaon-Aoki said. “It’s possible the owner might turn up - and we’ll wait before placing him with another family - although I doubt it.” Activists also worry about pets left behind when foreigners evacuate because of nuclear radiation risks. “Our concern is that animals will be left uncared for in apartments,” said Ashley Fruno, a Manila-based senior campaigner with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Those whose pets have survived the disaster with them, however, said they’ve provided comfort. “We can’t tell you how happy we are that Ghosn is back,” Atsuko Oikawa said. “He’s part of our family and he’s taught us a valuable lesson: Never, never give up.” — MCT

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EVERY DAY COOKING

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

By Sawsan Kazak

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e all have pasta lying around the house but we don’t always know what to do with it. Other than the sometimes boring tomato based sauce, pasta can be combined with many other pantry items and become a fine dining experience. Try the following recipes and discover the inner Italian. sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

Making egg pasta at home

• 2 cups flour plus addition 1/2 cup reserved • 3 large eggs, an extra yoke handy if you need it • extra virgin olive oil (optional) • pinch of salt (optional) • 1 cup of semolina to keep pasta from sticking BLENDER f using salt, put the flour in the blender and pulse briefly until mixed. With the blender running, add 3 eggs. Mixture should become small, moist crumbs. If the mixture is too liquid, add a TBSP of flour, if too dry, add the additional egg yolk OR a TBSP of extra virgin olive oil.

Test it by pinching the mixture with your finger - it should meld together (bond) but not stick to your fingers.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface. Kneed it together - it should be very firm, but not sticky, and not falling apart. Make a ball and place the ball under an overturned bowl to rest - about 1 hour (can be longer, but the best way to save your pasta is made and cut, put in waxed paper and put in the refrigerator until you want to use it).

Notice the options for additional flour or additional egg/olive oil. This gives you control over the wetness/dryness (stickiness) of the pasta, as ingredients and conditions vary greatly.

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BY HAND reak three eggs into a bowl, making sure that no bits of egg shell are included. On a formica, wood or marble surface, make a well of the flour and pour the eggs into it.

With a fork, carefully pull the flour from the walls into the center, gradually mixing the flour and egg (if you have ever mixed cement, this is along the same line).

When the mixture becomes less of a sticky mess, kneed the mixture into a ball. Kneed until well mixed and firm but not sticky and place the ball under a bowl, where it should rest for about an hour.

When the pasta has rested, divide the ball into 6 smaller balls about the size of a large golf ball. Start your pasta machine on the rollers farthest apart. Run the pieces through the rollers, about ten times on the widest section, folding the pasta top to bottom or side to side the achieve a long sheet slightly narrower than the machine rollers. Continue to roll the sheets through the rollers with ever diminishing settings until you achieve the thickness you wish - usually the smallest or second smallest setting.

You should have a long, narrow thin sheet of pasta, pliable, not sticky. Hang the sheets to dry (or lay them out on dish towels) - the drying process can take an hour or more - the pasta should actually feel dry to the touch and not stick together when cut into segments - if it does, run it through the rolling process again and let it dry more before cutting it.

When the pasta is dry, run it through the cutting rollers of the pasta machine. If you are making strangozzi, roll the sheets loosely into logs. Cut the logs into strips about 1/4 of an inch wide. Pile loosely on wax paper until you are ready to throw it into the pot.

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COOKING fresh pasta: Fresh pasta cooks in about 4 minutes it floats to the top of the water when it is ready. Take a strand out on a wooden fork and bite it to make sure it is done to your taste it will be ‘resistent’ but not tough.

NOTE: For high protein pasta, try the following: 1 cup full-fat soy flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 eggs in a food processor until it forms a dough (add more soy flour or regular flour one TBSP at a time if it seems too sticky).

— (www.e-rcps.com)

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EVERY DAY COOKING

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

1/2 pkg pasta 3 c. cubed cooked chicken 1 c. diced zucchini 3/4 c. diced celery 1/2 c. mayonnaise 1/8 tsp. pepper 2 tbsp. dried basil 3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (optional) 1 c. diced tomatoes 3/4 c. sour cream 1 tsp. salt 2 tsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. dried oregano

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ook pasta according to package directions; drain. Rinse with cold water and drain well. Add chicken, zucchini, tomatoes and celery. Place remaining ingredients in blender or food processor and blend until well mixed. Chill the dressing 1 hour before adding to salad. Toss salad, coating well.

2 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped 400g can chopped tomatoes with herbs 1/2 tsp chilli powder 1 tsp sugar 500g pkt pasta bows 100g can tuna, drained handful of basil leaves , optional

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Tuna pasta

eat the oil in a pan, throw in the onion and cook for a couple of minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, chilli and sugar. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Give it a good stir, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to packet instructions. Flake the tuna into the sauce and heat through. Drain the pasta, return to the pan and stir in the sauce and basil leaves if you have any. Serve with a generous grinding of pepper.

• 8 ounces pasta • 1 bunch cooked broccoli floret, drained • 5 medium fresh basil leaves • 3 tablespoons butter • 3/4 cup heavy cream • 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese • salt and pepper to taste

Creamy broccoli

pasta

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ook pasta until tender; drain. In food processor with steel blade, combine broccoli, basil, butter and cream. Pulse to purÈe. Add Parmesan cheese and pulse to blend.

Mix broccoli mixture into drained pasta; stir. Cook, stirring, over medium-low heat.

Add salt and pepper.

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Fresh Basil Pesto

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve with pasta.

THEY ARE THE 99!

99 Mystical Noor Stones carry all that is left of the wisdom and knowledge of the lost civilization of Baghdad. But the Noor Stones lie scattered across the globe - now little more than a legend.

One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost. His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life. Now, his luck is about to change the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power. Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world. A force known as ... the 99!

THE STORY SO FAR : Jabbar, Samda, and Mukit take a vacation to the Red Sea. On a scuba diving trip, they see a giant octopus!

The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2011, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.the99.org

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Travel

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Eye on the tigers in India Holiday cottage at the Sarai at Toria.—Guardian

Wildlife experts have opened a new eco-lodge in India that offers comfort and calm, as well as a chance to spot big cats

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he early morning sun is bright on the long grass, the shadows are shortening and my wife Anne-Sophie, and our 10-month-old son Victor are sitting beside me on a small sandy spur above the placid river Ken. We are at a new eco-lodge, the Sarai at Toria, 400 miles east of Delhi, near the Panna national park and the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. The journey overnight on the train from the capital to the town of Khajuraho (famous for its 11th century temple complex) and the taxi trip through 15 miles of deep rural India, were smooth. We are relieved to be away from the traffic-choked, polluted, often angry city where we live. Breakfast is being served, there are birds in the trees and buffalo in the river. In the background I can hear that classic sound of rural India: the soft repetitive hoot of an irrigation pump in the fields behind us. The lodge opened last year and is the creation of wildlife photographer Joanna Van Gruisen, originally from Northumberland, and Raghudandan Singh Chundawat, one of India’s best-known wildlife biologists.

“We chose the place because of our 10-year association with the area,” says Joanna. “It had immediate potential as a lodge site because it is in an under-recognised but tourist-destinationrich beautiful part of the country; besides this there is plenty of potential for research - on wildlife and on climate change - and great need for development and economic stimulation.”

Profits from the venture are being channelled into local projects.

Lounge area at the Sarai at Toria Six spacious cottages with thatched roofs and open verandas have been built just behind the small spur. Trees, a few paths, a small creek and enthusiastic and conscientious local staff make the nine-acre plot seem larger than it is and homely.

Many of the “eco-lodges” springing up around India are nothing of the sort. In cutthroat competition for foreign tourists, hoteliers soon worked out that a bit of green marketing works wonders. So dozens of establishments claim that, because they are in rural settings, have a lot of local textiles draped over the beds

and offer trekking, they are “ecologically responsible”. Joanna and Raghu, however, are very serious about conservation and the environment.

Both have devoted much of their lives to the study and preservation of India’s wildlife, and they are not the sort to slap a green label on anything that does not deserve it, however much it might help with marketing.

Solar panels are planned for next season,

local ingredients are used for the excellent food, mainly variations of the classic north Indian dishes of spiced, boiled vegetables but using, for example, a wild herb that grows only in these parts.

Almost every evening we take a short walk, baby strapped to my chest, through villages near the lodge. This is a dirt-poor part of India, with worse poverty than in much of sub-saharan

water comes from a well, heating is designed to minimise consumption, biogas is used for cooking and the thick mud walls of the cottages mean there is no need for air-con. The Sarai shuts for the hottest part of the year - April to early autumn, when temperatures climb well above 40C - and reopens on 1 October, two weeks before the Panna Tiger Reserve.

Joanna has sourced the soap from a women’s cooperative in neighbouring Bihar state. Only

Africa, but the men and women squatting to cut the chickpea plants offer them to us with a smile.

Victor, as ever in India, is quickly surrounded by curious crowds.

If you want to understand what is happening on the ground, nothing beats walking in rural India. We pass a ruined fort, a more prosperous village, with houses of brick, the all-important “tank” or reservoir, then the settlement where the lowest castes live, away from the others, in

homes of mud. On the other side of the river from the lodge is the national park, a long forested ridge that rises in stepped plateaux. Indian national parks are not very visitor-friendly: there are few of the activities you find in their European or US equivalents. The infrastructure just isn’t there - and anyway, much of the Panna national park is unreachable or off limits to tourists, to allow the wildlife space to roam without disturbance. Visitors can take jeep or elephant rides into the north-east of the park, starting from the villages of Madla or Hinouta.

Raghu is the author of one of the most detailed investigations of tigers recently published in India and knows the story of the park’s big cats better than anyone. His opinion of the local forestry department officials is largely unprintable. Only seven years ago, there were around 40 tigers living in the park, fewer than in the past but a sustainable population. Since then they have all died, many poached, in one of the worst local examples of the continuing failure of India’s tiger preservation policies. More recently, a pair of tigers have been reintroduced, one of which we miss by minutes on our first morning in the park. No matter. The focus on tigers distracts from everything else there is to see. From my perch atop a jeep, protected by a blanket against the chill of early morning, the forest is spectacular in itself. Then there are the long-tailed langur monkeys, deer, antelopes, mongoose and boars.

And the birds: shockingly blue rollers, majestic vultures, peregrine falcons and more - all pointed out with enthusiasm by guides armed with binoculars, books and tea in a Thermos. But the place where the birds are most impressive is not in the park at all. I’ve never been much of an ornithologist - too distracted by the easy excitement of bigger game - but here I am converted. When my son is sleeping and the surface of the river at dusk is as smooth as the pebbles by its banks, I am paddled between the rocks and the storks, the herons, the pair of giant owls, the cormorants, the snakenecked darters and the kingfishers in their coats of colours that would put a Punjabi pop star to shame.—Guardian

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Travel

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Hotels: Are price comparison websites still a good deal?

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aterooms.com promises hotel rooms at “unutterably low prices”. Lastminute.com guarantees the lowest prices, while Booking.com offers a “best price promise”. Yet when Guardian Money tested prices for a two-day getaway to Edinburgh over the royal wedding weekend they were nearly identical - and significantly more expensive than on rival comparison websites. To test the hotel sites we selected three different hotels: a Sheraton in New York, a Hilton in Berlin, and a Malmaison in Edinburgh. We sought prices for two nights for two people, on the weekend of 29 April to 1 May. The good news is that shopping around works. In Edinburgh, while the major booking sites all wanted £260 to £280 for two nights at the Malmaison, the surprise winner was Asda, whose hotel booking site found us the same hotel for £229.57 - a saving of more than £50. The price also included breakfast, which is unusual when most websites sell at “room only” prices.

Our survey suggests it is best to bypass sites such as lastminute.com, Travelocity or Expedia and instead go to websites that scan every travel website for the best deal. We found Asda’s cheap price on the Malmaison by going through travelsupermarket.com. It also found the cheapest deal at the Hilton in Berlin - the underlying provider was travelrepublic.co.uk and at the Sheraton in New York, where the underlying provider was lowcostusa.co.uk Hotelsearchengines.net and kayak.co.uk use a similar model, and also found us better value deals than Expedia and Travelocity. But it pays to spend time looking at two or more websites - although Kayak turned up decent deals in the Hilton and the Sheraton, for instance, it found us the most expensive room at the Malmaison. Examine carefully the prices quoted; some headline deals did not include tax or were for the wrong dates.

Generally, we found that going direct to the hotel’s own website failed to pay off - prices were the same as those charged by the big operators and higher than on the comparison sites.

The similar pricing by the Hilton and Sheraton hotels was striking. In part, this is because websites have common owners: lastminute.com is in the same group as travelocity.com; Expedia controls hotels.com, hotwire.com, tripadvisor.com and venere.com.

Booking.com is owned by priceline.com. The gap in pricing between the major players was just £1-£3 which, arguably, could represent price competition as they chase prices down. But the Office of

Fair Trading is examining allegations of price fixing at hotel websites. The investigation began last September but, in a statement last week, the OFT said it is now an “administrative priority” and that it is “pursuing the investigation further”. If the hotel booking industry is found guilty of breaching competition law the fines could be substantial. The OFT can fine companies up to 10% of their global

Money an email from a hotel in Prague. Booking.com had warned the hotel that it wasn’t at parity with Skoosh.com, saying: “You can only succeed in online sales if you have ongoing parity.” The hotel owner, who copied Booking.com’s warning to Skoosh, said this was a “very big problem” and asked him to change the rate quoted.

Harris has consulted competition lawyers who told him that enforcing

a team that is responsible for finding and solving any rate inconsistencies between Booking.com and their competitors”. The person will be expected to “solve rate parity issues” if they arise.

Harris has passed a dossier to the OFT of the emails and letters, and says he has been in touch with the watchdog regularly. “The price comparison sites have been a great thing for consumers, but now as

As the OFT examines allegations that the hotel booking industry is breaching competition law, we investigate whether comparison sites still offer value for money turnover for breaches of competition rules. Last year it fined cigarette makers and retailers £225m for price fixing.

The OFT investigation follows allegations by a small Brightonbased hotel booking website, Skoosh.co.uk. Dorian Harris, founder of the site, said his business started to be squeezed by big US hotel chains insisting they were removed from his site as his prices were below that of competitors.

“It became more of a worry when it moved to Europe, and by March last year I was getting as many as 10 complaints a day from hotels, from major chains through to small independent hotels. The hotels told me they were being put under huge pressure by the big hotel booking websites to ensure what’s called ‘rate parity’.” Unless he raised his prices, he would be prevented from offering the rooms.

As an example, Harris showed

rate parity could be illegal. The sites argue rate parity does not constitute anti competitive behaviour or infringe any law.

Harris does not claim that in each and every case his site could offer lower prices than the major players. He acknowledges that as much as 70% of his quotes could be beaten. But in the 30% where he was cheaper, he came under pressure to charge the same as competitors. “It could be that we were selling the room at £100, but elsewhere it was at £130. But I had hotels telling me they wanted to come off the site if we were even £1 cheaper than the majors. It’s been cripplingly difficult to run a business.”

Hotel booking websites hire individuals to act as rate monitors to check that no one is undercutting them. A current job advert for Booking.com, shows that the company wants to hire a “rate parity associate” in which “you are part of

people are not seeing different prices there’s almost no point in going to them,” he says. Harris adds that, typically, booking websites don’t buy rooms direct from the hotel chains or even the independents. “Distribution of hotel rooms is handled by wholesalers as no hotel group wants to deal with thousands of agents all over the world. The wholesalers give us a net rate and we add a margin, usually around 25%. The wholesaler itself takes around 10%-15%. We don’t make huge profits on these margins.

Sometimes we sell below 25%, sometimes above.”

Money asked Booking.com and Expedia for comment on the OFT investigation and the allegations by Skoosh.com. Neither had responded by the time we went to press.

The guessing game Are “top secret” hotels the best way for budget-conscious travellers

to save money? Lastminute.com pioneered the concept in the UK, and in recent weeks Hotwire.com, a large US operator of secret hotel deals, has launched in Britain. It promises savings of up to 50% by selling off, at bargain prices, the four out of 10 bedrooms that are left vacant in hotels every night.

The drawback is you don’t know precisely what you’re getting until after you buy. All you’re told is the general location and star rating.

This has provoked consumers to try and guess the hotel before committing. Martin Lewis of moneysavingexpert.com says: “Copy and paste all or part of the hotel description into Google. Often, it just uses the hotels standard description text that also appears on its website.” If that doesn’t work, try secrethotelsrevealed.co.uk, although it’s a bit hit and miss. The biggest discounts come from the four- and five-star hotels - you’re unlikely to find 50% off a hotel that only charges £60 a night. Unfortunately, you can end up paying more than booking in the conventional way, as one London couple discovered. Planning to spend a few days in Paris, Jon Law and Helena Bonett, who live in Highgate, north London tried Expedia’s Secret Saver Hotel option.

They were, attracted by the promise of savings of “up to 50%”.

“The hotel we chose was advertised as a four-star in the Latin Quarter and we paid £555 for a room for four nights. However, once we’d made our booking we found the ‘secret’ hotel was in Montparnasse - over a mile from its advertised location - and wasn’t four star. The hotel’s website didn’t appear to show any stars at all.”

Worse: rather than saving 40%, they had paid 53% more than if booking the room in the normal way.

“A direct booking via the hotel’s website was substantially cheaper than our ‘saver’ rate, and double rooms were also being sold on Expedia at almost £200 less than what we paid for the so-called ‘saver’ deal,” says Jon. They printed screenshots to show over-payment, but despite emails to Expedia, no one responded. A spokeswoman for Expedia apologised for the problems the couple experienced.

“We have investigated Mr Law’s issue and a fix has been implemented to resolve the rate issue he experienced. Mr Law has been refunded in line with our best-price guarantee and has been issued him with a gesture of goodwill.

With regards to location, the postcode of this hotel is exactly on the border of two ‘arrondissements’, so is categorised under both areas on our site.” Miles Brignall and Patrick Collinson.—Guardian

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Books

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Great books, great times T

here are certain books that immediately seize you with excitement, sit you down through long nights with very little to no sleep at all. There are many great stories told in such mesmerizing manner, and this list features only a few of them. Enjoy them, share them with loved ones, and let us know what you think.

Send your suggestions to hussain@kuwaittimes.net

The Memory Palace: A Memoir

Enough About Love

By Mira Bartok

By Herve Le Tellier

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ny man-or woman-who wants to hear nothing-or no more-about love should put this book down.

Anna and Louise could be sisters, but they don’t know each other. They are both married with children, and for the most part, they are happy. On almost the same day, Anna, a psychiatrist, crosses paths with Yves, a writer, while Louise, a lawyer, meets Anna’s analyst, Thomas.

Love at first sight is still possible for those into their forties and long-married. But when you have already mapped out a life path, a passionate affair can come at a high price. For our four characters, their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down by the deliciously inconvenient arrival of love. For Anna, meeting Yves has brought a flurry of excitement to her life and made her question her values, her reliable husband, and her responsibilities to her children. For Louise, a successful career woman in a stable and comfort-

able marriage, her routine is uprooted by the youthful passion she feels for Thomas. Thought-provoking, sophisticated, and, above all, amusing, Enough About Love captures the euphoria of desire through tender and unflinching portraits of husbands, wives, and lovers.

You Know When the Men Are Gone

By Siobhan Fallon

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eminiscent of Raymond Carver and Tim O’Brien, an unforgettable collection of interconnected short stories.

In Fort Hood housing, like all army housing, you get used to hearing through the walls... You learn too much. And you learn to move quietly through your own small domain. You also know when the men are gone. No more boots stomping above, no more football games turned up too high, and, best of all, no more front doors slamming before dawn as they trudge out for their early formation, sneakers on metal stairs, cars starting, shouts to the windows above to throw them down their gloves on cold desert mornings. Babies still cry, telephones ring, Saturday morning cartoons screech, but without the men, there is a sense of muted silence, a sense of muted life.

There is an army of women waiting for their men to return in Fort Hood, Texas.

Through a series of loosely interconnected stories, Siobhan Fallon takes readers onto the base, inside the homes, into the marriages and families-intimate places not seen

in newspaper articles or politicians’ speeches.

When you leave Fort Hood, the sign above the gate warns, You’ve Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming. It is eerily prescient.

“P

eople have abandoned their loved ones for much less than you’ve been through,” Mira Bartok is told at her mother’s memorial service. It is a poignant observation about the relationship between Mira, her sister, and their mentally ill mother.

Before she was struck with schizophrenia at the age of nineteen, beautiful piano protÈgÈ Norma Herr had been the most vibrant personality in the room. She loved her daughters and did her best to raise them well, but as her mental state deteriorated, Norma spoke less about Chopin and more about Nazis and her fear that her daughters would be kidnapped, murdered, or raped.

When the girls left for college, the harassment escalated-Norma called them obsessively, appeared at their apartments or jobs, threatened to kill herself if they did not return home. After a traumatic encounter, Mira and her sister were left with no choice but to change their names and sever all contact with Norma in order to stay safe. But while Mira pursued her career as an artist-exploring the ancient romance of Florence, the eerie mysticism of northern Norway, and the raw desert of Israel-the haunting memories of her mother were never far away.

Then one day, Mira’s life changed forever after a debilitating car accident. As she struggled to recover from a traumatic brain injury, she was confronted with a need to recontextualize her life-she had to relearn how to paint, read, and interact with the outside world. In her search for a way back to her lost self, Mira reached out to the homeless shelter where she

believed her mother was living and discovered that Norma was dying.

Mira and her sister traveled to Cleveland, where they shared an extraordinary reconciliation with their mother that none of them had thought possible. At the hospital, Mira discovered a set of keys that opened a storage unit Norma had been keeping for seventeen years.

Filled with family photos, childhood toys, and ephemera from Norma’s life, the storage unit brought back a flood of previous memories that Mira had thought were lost to her forever.

The Memory Palace is a breathtaking literary memoir about the complex meaning of love, truth, and the capacity for forgiveness among family. Through stunning prose and original art created by the author in tandem with the text, The Memory Palace explores the connections between mother and daughter that cannot be broken no matter how much exists-or is lost-between them.

An Exclusive Love

By Johanna Adorjan

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wo people have grown old together. He is terminally ill, she doesn’t want to live without him. One Sunday in autumn, they clean the apartment, leave the dog with a friend, and protect the rose-bushes against the cold of the coming winter. Then they are ready.

Tactfully and affectionately, Johanna Adorjan has reconstructed the day of her grandparents’ suicide. Vera and Istvan were anything but ordinary. Chain-smoking and glamorous, they exuded the aura of a more elegant age.

And they had a past which they did not discusseven within the family. Decades ago they had fled disaster, started a new life in Denmark andso it seemed-never looked back.

Sixteen years after her grandparents’ death, Johanna Adorjan sets out to fill the gaps of their story, in the process discovering unexpected things about herself and her family. Against the backdrop of the horrors of the 20th-century, she brings Vera and Istvan back to life-a fascinating couple, peculiarly stylish, stubborn, eccentric.

With an extraordinary blend of true reporting

and novelistic recreation Johanna Adorjan tries to understand their last and powerful act.

Beautifully written, tender but never sentimental, An Exclusive Love is a brilliantly-constructed memoir and a gorgeous romance, a tale of two people who died as they lived: inseparable.

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Books

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

Here if You Need Me: A True Story

By Helen Simonson

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n the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary in the English countryside lives Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson’s wondrous debut.

Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, the Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother’s death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village.

Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and regarding her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?

By Kate Braestrup

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en years ago, Kate Braestrup, her husband, Drew, and their four young children were enjoying a morning like any other. Then Drew, a Maine state trooper, left for work and everything changed.

On the very roads that he patrolled each day, an oncoming driver lost control, and Kate lost her husband. “Stunned and grieving, Kate decided to pursue what had been her husband’s dream and became a minister. And soon she found a most unusual calling: serving as chaplain for search-andrescue missions in the Maine woods, giving comfort to people whose loved ones are missing - and to the wardens who sometimes have to deal with dreadful outcomes.

Whether with parents whose six-year-old daughter has vanished into the woods, with wardens as they search for a snowmobiler trapped under the ice, or with a man whose sister left an infant seat and a suicide note in her car by the side of the road, Braestrup provides solace, understanding, and spiritu-

al guidance when they’re needed most.

Here If You Need Me recounts Kate Braestrup’s journey from grief to faith to happiness. —bn.com

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

By Siddhartha Mukherjee

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he Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer-from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.

Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with-and perished fromfor more than five thousand years.

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.”

The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist.

From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave may have cut off her diseased breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee’s own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to surviveand to increase our understanding of this iconic disease.

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The

The Autobiography of an Execution

Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

By David R. Dow

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avid R. Dow has had access to a world most of us will never experience. As a lawyer, he has represented over one hundred death-row cases.

Many of his clients have died. Most were guilty. Some might have been innocent.

The Autobiography of an Execution is his deeply personal story about justice, the death penalty, and a lawyer’s life.

His life at paradoxical extremes: Witnessing executions and then coming home to the loving embrace of his wife and young son, who inquire about Dow’s day. Waging moral battles on behalf of people who have committed abhorrent crimes. Fighting for life in America’s deathpenalty capital, within a criminal justice system full of indifferent and ineffectual judges. Racing against time on behalf of clients who have no more time.

Regardless of your views on the death penalty, Dow’s writing will take you inside the issue in striking, intimate ways: through the complicated minds of judges, inside prisons and execution-administration chambers, and into his own home, where the toll of working on these gnarled and difficult cases is often paid. Ultimately, he

shows us a world where suspense clings to every word and action, where human lives hang in the balance, and where doing the right thing is never as easy as it sounds.

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Beauty

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

How to get

a

spa pedicure at home W

ant a spa-quality pedicure without the high price tag?

Wrap yourself in a terry robe and settle in for an easy, at-home pedicure. Really want the spa treatment? Pour yourself a glass of Chardonnay and gossip with your best pal on the phone (in which case we can’t possibly vouch for the results).

1.Remove Old Nail Polish Choose an acetone-free remover (which is gentler) to get rid of all traces of your last pedicure.

2.Soak Your Feet The perfect time for a pedicure is after a bath or shower, but you can soften your skin in five minutes in a pinch. Use warm (not hot) water, and be sure to pat dry before the next step.

3.Remove Dead Skin This is when the ladies at the corner nail salon take out one of those scary razor blades and the spa ladies rub expensive scrubs on your feet. We like to use both a foot scrubber (such as a pumice stone) and an exfoliating rub. Pay special attention to rough heels and rinse away sloughed-off skin when done.

4.Clip and Shape Nails Long toenails are creepy, so get

yours back to a respectable length with a pair of clippers and a file.

5.Tackle Your Cuticles By this, we mean for you to reach for one of those angled wooden tools and push overgrown cuticles back into place.

6.Trim Excess Skin Perhaps the most important step, you’ll need a cuticle trimmer or nail “nipper” to help you remove dead, rough skin from all around your nails.

Be careful - these tools are sharp!

7.Moisturize Slather on a coat of rich moisturizer and give your feet a mini-massage.

Wipe any lotion off your nails before applying polish.

8.Polish Choose a fab nail color and apply two even coats to each nail.

Tips: 1.Use cotton pads - not cotton balls - for tidier polish removal, as the balls tend to shred on stubborn polish.

2.When filing, move from each edge to the center (don’t zig-zag a nail file back and forth) and don’t file the sides of your nails.

3.Use a Q-tip with nail polish remover to clean up any excess polish.

Ginger skin creme Ginger invigorates, and oil soothes.

Try this double dose for dry skin.

2-inch piece of fresh ginger 2 teaspoons light sesame oil 2 teaspoons apricot kernel oil 2 teaspoons vitamin E oil 1/2 cup cocoa butter Preheat oven on lowest setting.

Finely grate the ginger just enough so that you have about an 1/8 teaspoon of ginger “juice.” To obtain the juice, squeeze the freshly grated ginger over a small bowl. Place the ingredients (including the ginger) in a glass container and heat just until the cocoa butter is melted and the oils are blended. Pour into a clean, dry container and store in a cool dry place. You can add a few drops of orange or other essential oil for a nice twist.

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Beauty

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

How to Accessorize

a Business

Suit

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any women wear business suits to the office daily but are unsure what accessories are appropriate. The key to accessorizing a business suit is to stick with pieces that are simple and classic.

Here are six accessories that are essential for any woman who wears a business suit.

Classic Watch Though many of us are in the habit of checking the time on our cell phones, wearing a watch is still the best option in the workplace. If you are interviewing for a job, a watch will indicate to the prospective employer that you care about punctuality.

Choose a classic style in stainless steel, silver or gold with a leather or metal band.

Avoid bright colors and plastic watch bands when wearing a business suit.

Pearl Earrings The pearls don’t have to be expensive or even real, but they should be stylish. Pearl earrings show a touch of class, sophistication and femininity.

Choose pearl stud earrings or simple drop earrings. Avoid anything too dangly or large.

Other than a watch and earrings, women don’t need other jewelry with a business suit. You can add a necklace if you’d like, but avoid bangle bracelets and chunky style jewelry in a corporate atmosphere.

Silk Scarf If you desire, you can add a dash of color with a silk scarf. A scarf is a chic accessory that will add a little flavor to your business suit.

Silk scarves are available in many vibrant colors and unique patterns. A scarf adds a classy and elegant touch to your business

Black Pumps Classic black pumps are appropriate in any business environment. Choose a good quality leather pair of shoes because you will be wearing them often.

Look for a heel that is 1 1/2 to 3 inches high. Anything shorter may make your legs look stumpy, while higher heels should be reserved for the nightclub, not the boardroom.

Pantyhose In a corporate environment, women should wear pantyhose when wearing skirts. Choose nude hose with most outfits.

Black tights are also sometimes an option in the wintertime, particularly with dark tweed or wool suits. Though they are a must in the business world, pantyhose are an inexpensive fashion accessory Briefcase When wearing a business suit, it is more suitable to carry a briefcase or leather tote rather than your everyday handbag.

The briefcase should be brown or black leather and big enough to carry all your office essentials, including a calendar or PDA, notepad, pens, makeup bag and anything else you may need at the office.—About

Arts FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Royal wedding: Bob and Roberta Smith’s commemorative artwork

Artist Bob and Roberta Smith creates likenesses of Prince William and Kate Middleton ahead of the royal wedding

Artist Bob and Roberta Smith with his art piece commissioned by the Observer to mark Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding. —Guardian

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f all the cultural figures we approached to pay tribute to the royal wedding, Bob and Roberta Smith chose arguably the most abstract approach. The east London-based artist (actually just one person, real name Patrick Brill) has what he calls “a broken ice-cream van approach” to aesthetics and decided to build sculptures of the bride and groom out of rubbish he found in a skip. To complete the piece, he made himself a part of it, sitting beside his creations with an empty cat-food tin and a felt-tipped sign, begging for money.

It isn’t necessarily a critique of the expense of the wedding, insists Smith, 48, though he’s pretty sore about recent government arts cuts. “And I haven’t sold a painting in six months. If I was in the right place with these sculptures, on royal wedding day, I could make a

bit of money.” So he plans to find a spot on a kerb in King’s Cross, north London, near the Work gallery where he currently has an exhibition on, titled You Should Be In Charge. “On the day,” says Smith, “I’ll be a bit like those kids with guys on Guy Fawkes night. I might even spend some of the money I make on fireworks to mark the occasion.”

The sculptures don’t immediately recall William and Kate... he’s a broken spade gaffer-taped to an old wall bracket. She’s a plastic football with a lampshade for a veil. “But you can see some of her cheekiness, can’t you? Look at her smile!”

He thinks Middleton has more zing about her than William. “She was practically naked in that student dress. I think she has the potential to become a bit of a Princess Margaret figure. You know. Jolly.”

He’s not against the monarchy - or not completely.

He thinks they should be elected figures. “Not politicians, but interesting people. Then you can still have the pomp and occasion, and keep the attraction to tourists, but also have a king or a queen with ideas.”

Who would he vote into a crown if he had the choice? “My absolute queen at the moment is Susan Hiller, currently being exhibited at the Tate. Who else?

Unfortunately she’s French, and she’s dead, but Louise Bourgeois would have made a wonderful monarch.” It’s an idea that might need work, but Smith will have plenty of time to refine it while he’s chinking his tin in King’s Cross a week on Friday.

—Guardian

A sense of community in Polish art

M

ore than 20 years after introducing a brutal, neoliberal economy into a decaying late communist reality and creating a capitalist market, Poland now has a much-desired art market.

A few years ago, when there was something of a boom in Polish art, an attempt was made to label it Young Polish Art, after the British equivalent. This trend is now fading, partly because numerous events during the long Polska! year promoting Polish culture in the UK failed to attract much publicity.

Even Miroslaw Balka’s prestigious Turbine Hall commission in 2009-10 did little to change the worldwide recognition of Polish art.

What has shifted is the political impact of Poland’s so-called critical art at home. Polish art, rather than being simply an entertainment for the rich, is engaging with politics

and the country’s history - and is much more interesting as a result. It is not mere Èpater les bourgeois - Polish visual arts challenge society on a much deeper level than Polish film or literature.

This is the legacy of the 1990s, when makers of critical art reacted to the years of censorship, superficiality and lack of democracy, and revealed that not much had changed in the new democratic reality.

We enjoyed, on a smaller scale, a version of the Viennese Actionist movement. Artists such as Katarzyna Kozyra, Artur Zmijewski, Zbigniew Libera, Robert Rumas and Grzegorz Klaman excavated Polish traumas, touching upon religiosity, too-soon forgotten memories of the Holocaust, intolerance and exclusions (of homosexuals, women, the disabled), various taboos (such as non-normative sexuality, the body and its visceral

aspects or ageing) and the way individuals are controlled in a free, but actually extremely oppressive, society. More rarely, they addressed the inequalities wrought by the transformation from communism to capitalism.

These artists played upon the theme of the individual versus the system, exposing the fact that the choice between one oppressive system and another is not really a choice at all, at a moment when the majority of society regarded liberalism as the only option and the brutal transformation from communism a necessary evil.

By self-exposure (one example is Kozyra, who posed as Manet’s Olympia while suffering from cancer) or assuming the role of a perpetrator (for example, Zmijewski, who asked a former concentration camp prisoner to “renew” the tattooed number on his arm),

critical artists worked through and acted out numerous traumas, frequently becoming the object of harsh censorship. Gallery closures were common, as was the removal or even destruction of work. A couple of years into the new century, however, some of the most successful critical artists, such as Zmijewski, started to criticise this kind of art for being self-indulgent and for lacking any visible political success. Critical art had not disrupted the system, it was claimed. Worse, it had become a playful, attractive gallery object, all the more pathetic given its initial ambitions.

In 2005, Zmijewski became an art editor of Krytyka Polityczna, a newly emerged but increasingly popular political club and magazine where he published his manifesto, Applied Social Arts, prompting fervent debate about the political impact of Polish critical art.—Guardian

Arts FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

King George IV appears to have valued his Dutch landscapes as much as greater masterpieces he owned.

—Guardian

Palace to reveal George IV’s passion for Dutch landscapes G

Exhibition of 42 paintings from Royal Collection to be held at Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace

eorge IV is famous for his exotic Brighton Pavilion and gave his name to the stylishness of the Regency period, so who would have thought he was keen on Dutch landscape paintings as well?

An exhibition of 42 of them from the Royal Collection is being put on show this summer at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace and the evidence seems to be that he valued them as much as greater masterpieces.

The 17th-century genre paintings by artists such as Hobbema and Van der Heyden depict rustic Dutch and Flemish rural life, showing scenes of haymakers and peasants, hunters and washerwomen. In one small picture by Wouwermans, troops roister belligerently with a captive woman near a provisions tent. In another, by Paulus Potter, two gentleman hunters stop disdainfully at a delapidated country inn, one of their horses showing its disapproval by peeing copiously. The royal valuation of the two paintings at the time was 500 and 800 guineas, while the royal family’s sole painting by the 16th-century Flemish master Pieter Breugel the Elder was consigned to a cellar and valued at 10 guineas.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, the surveyor of the Queen’s pictures, who is curating the exhibition, said: “I think he appreciated the

technical craftsmanship and perhaps liked the fact that the peasantry look so contented - he might have found that a bit of a consolation at a time of revolutions. You can’t imagine the Queen buying a painting of new age travellers, can you?”

The exhibition includes a genuine masterpiece: Rembrandt’s large dual portrait of the shipbuilder Jan Rijcksen and his wife Griet Jans, whom he is looking at impatiently as she delivers him a message. It was the most expensive ever bought by George IV, who paid 5,000 guineas. Even so, that pales beside the £70,000 he spent on silver-gilt banqueting table decorations that the Queen still uses.

Also on show at the gallery are Napoleon’s burnous, or scarlet cloak complete with hoodie, which was liberated from his carriage after the battle of Waterloo in 1815; George’s own uniform as an officer of the 10th Light Dragoons, showing he was already getting tubby by the 1790s; and the costume and helmet of the Indian leader Tippu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, captured at the battle of Seringapatam in 1799. —Guardian

Children

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

CONNECT THE DOTS

ALPHA-SEARCH

Can you find the hidden words? Each word ends with the letter W. The words may be horizontal or vertical.

ALLOW, ARROW, BORROW, CHEW, CREW, CROW, DRAW, ELBOW, FLOW, FOLLOW, GLOW, GROW, HOLLOW, JIGSAW, KNOW, MEADOW, NARROW, NEPHEW, PILLOW, SHADOW, STEW, THROW, VIEW, WINDOW.

SUDOKU

CROSSWISE There are no clue numbers in the grid. Use your powers of deduction to put the right words in the correct positions in the grid. All the E’s have already been filled in.

1. One of the two horizontal 7-letter words is planet nearest to the sun and the other is a day of the week.

2. One of the two vertical 7letter words is envious and the other is a mythical creature, half woman half fish.

3. One of the 5-letter words is illumination and the other is country, home of the Pyramids.

Solution

4. The 4-letter words are enclosure with bars; percussion instrument; organs of sight; opposite of early.

5. The two 3-letter words on the left are snakelike fish and large Australian flightless bird.

6. The two 3-letter words on the right are rodent and beverage.

C h i l d re n FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

COLOR ME

CONNECT THE DOTS

MYSTERY-WORD

NUMBER SEARCH

Can you enter the words correctly into the grid? The letters in the shaded boxes will spell out the name of the mystery word.

3 letters BAY SEA

OASIS OCEAN RIVER

4 letters POND POOL SURF WAVE

6 letters LAGOON PUDDLE

5 letters CANAL CREEK

7 letters CHANNEL

Can you find the hidden numbers? They may be horizontal or vertical.

8 letters FOUNTAIN

03838, 09223, 10383, 14398, 18384, 26782, 26983, 27365, 27883, 33589, 34785, 68966, 75976, 81621, 85766, 91479.

Comic

To Yester

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

C R O S S W O R D

2 9 5

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

ACROSS 1. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

4. (prosody) Of or consisting of iambs.

10. A sudden loss of consciousness resulting when the rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain.

13. The longer of the two telegraphic signals used in Morse code.

14. Minute blackish gregarious flies destructive to mushrooms and seedlings.

15. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

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

17. Personification of the sky or upper air breathed by the Olympians.

18. American prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942).

19. Spiritual leader of a Jewish congregation.

21. A member of a seafaring group of North American Indians living in southern Alaska.

23. An association of people to promote the welfare of senior citizens.

26. A dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived.

27. Broken into sharp pieces.

30. Flat tableland with steep edges.

34. An enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals are kept.

35. Quieten or silence (a sound) or make (an image) less visible.

36. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

37. A federal agency that supervises carriers that transport goods and people between states.

39. Any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes.

40. (informal) Exceptionally good.

42. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

45. A heavy odorless colorless gas formed during respiration and by the decomposition of organic substances.

50. West Indian tree having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice.

54. (plate tectonic theory) A hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland.

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

57. The act of escaping physically.

60. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

61. The 21st letter of the Greek alphabet.

62. Someone who operates an aircraft.

63. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

64. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

65. Blatant or sensational promotion.

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

DOWN 1. The sixth month of the civil year.

2. Type genus of the Ranidae.

3. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

4. (Old Testament) The first of the major Hebrew prophets (8th century BC).

5. (informal) Of the highest quality.

6. An engineering university in Cambridge.

7. The basic unit of money in Thailand.

8. A republic consisting of 26 of 32 counties comprising the island of Ireland.

9. A member of an American Indian peoples of NE South America and the Lesser Antilles.

10. A steep rugged rock or cliff.

11. (Norse mythology) One of the Aesir and avenger of Balder.

12. A nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine.

20. Serving as or forming a base.

22. Acute ulceration of the mucous membranes of the mouth or genitals.

24. Antiquity that as survived from the distant past.

25. A sliver-white metallic element of the platinum group that resembles platinum.

28. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.

29. A city in northern India.

31. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

32. Relating to or characteristic of or occurring on the sea or ships.

33. The part of the nervous system of vertebrates that controls involuntary actions of the smooth muscles and heart and glands.

38. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

41. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

43. A chronic disease of the nose characterized by a foul-smelling nasal discharge and atrophy of nasal structures.

44. An argument opposed to a proposal.

46. A religious belief of African origin involving witchcraft and sorcery.

47. Strike with disgust or revulsion.

48. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

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

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

52. The habitation of wild animals.

53. A genus of European owls.

55. Offering fun and gaiety.

58. Electronic equipment that provides visual images of varying electrical quantities.

59. The basic unit of electric current adopted under the System International d'Unites.

Yesterday’s Solution

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Lifestyle

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Battistelli

gospel music artist of the year

F

rancesca Battistelli continues her strong surge as Christian music’s biggest star. Battistelli won artist of the year at the 42nd annual Dove Awards held in Atlanta for the first time Wednesday night. She also went home with two more awards — best female vocalist and pop-contemporary recorded song. Battistelli, 25, has surged recently with her second major label album, “Hundred More Years,” which reached No

List of key winners Artist of the year: Francesca Battistelli Female vocalist: Francesca Battistelli Male vocalist: Chris August Group of the year: NEEDTOBREATHE New artist: Chris August Songwriter of the year: Gerald Crabb Song of the year: Jason Crabb Producer of the year: Iak Eskelin

Jason Crabb accepts his award for Traditional Gospel Recorded Song of the Year. —AP photos

Francesca Battistelli reacts after winning Artist of the Year.

1 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart last month. “I’m on cloud nine right now,” said Battistelli after the awards show, which airs Sunday on GMC, formerly known as the Gospel Music Channel. “I’m standing here ... speechless. This is totally humbling.” The awards show for gospel and Christian music left Nashville, Tenn, for the first time in its history.

Organizers expected the new production in Atlanta to be just as successful. The show’s new location seemed to fit. “I like having it in Nashville too, but we’re definitely cool to have it right here in Atlanta,” said Casting Crowns’ frontman Mark Hall.

“There’s a lot going on here.” Other winners included Chris Artist, who was new artist of the year and best male vocalist.

Singer Jason Crabb and the group Point of Grace joined Battistelli in claiming three Doves apiece. Crabb won song of the year for his heartfelt single “Sometimes I Cry.” He also won inspirational recorded song and traditional gospel recorded song. His father Gerald Crabb won songwriter of the year. “Who knew both of us would’ve come away with an award,” Gerald Crabb said. “This was a big night for us.” Point of Grace took home country album of the

year and Christmas album of the year and country recorded song of the year. The allfemale trio comprised of Shelley Breen, Denise Jones, and Leigh Cappillino took the stage with legendary country singer Kenny Rogers to perform his newest inspirational country melody, “The Rock of Your Love.” “It was great to be on stage with them,” Rogers said. “I just met them this morning. How good are they?

It was great to have them as a support system for me.” The show opened with Chris Tomlin standing in a black leather jacket and blue jeans as he performed his hit single “Our God” before Christian comedian Chonda Pierce took the stage. “I hope Jesus comes soon, because I don’t think I can stand too much longer in this dress,” she quipped, as the crowd in attendance went into laughter.

Host Sherri Shepherd of ABC’s “The View” followed Pierce’s short comedy act and demanded attendees to repeatedly chant, “I love Jesus, I love Jesus.” Later in the show, Hall, Third Day, and Steven Curtis Chapman — who has won more

Dove Awards with 56 than any other artist — performed together.

Legendary singer Sandi Patty, who showed up to the awards 75 pounds lighter, was honored for her lifetime achievements. Several singers, including Battistelli, Natalie Grant, Audrey Assad, Kerri Robert, Janet Paschal, Brit Nicole and Laura Story, each gave a rendition of Patty’s past hit songs. Patty then joined the seven singers and sang with them

Chris August reacts after winning Male vocalist of the Year.

The singing preachers perform at the 42nd annual Dove Awards.

Group 1 Crew speak onstage at the 42nd Annual GMA Dove Awards at The Fox Theatre on April 20, 2011 in Atlanta City.

before she presented Battistelli with her second-straight female artist of the year award. Patty said she feels comfortable “passing on the torch” to the other female singers, saying she was impressed with Battistelli’s poise. “She has the least amount of lines than anyone else,” Patty said. “But she didn’t gripe and or get mad.

She just kept being gracious. I told her to never lose that.” Actress Tamala Mann, who is known for her role as Cora in Tyler Perry’s plays, movies and TV show “Meet the Browns,” won in the traditional gospel album of the year category over Shirley Caesar. She screamed, then eagerly pranced down the aisle to accept her first Dove Award with her husband, David Mann, who also co-stars on Perry’s shows.

“This is amazing,” she said. “This is a gift that God has stirred up in me. My husband has stood beside me and pushed me in every way.” Presenters included Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow; Super Bowl winner and Green Bay Packers wideout Greg Jennings; singer Ruben Studdard; and actress Kim Fields. Tebow, who often talks about his Christian beliefs, said he it was a pleasure to introduce Third Day to highlight the group’s adoption effort. The former Heisman Trophy winner said he found inspiration in many of the show’s acts. —AP

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Elton John opens Tribeca festival with ‘The Union’

P

Singer Elton John attends the world premiere of ‘The Union’ featured as the opening night gala screening at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday. — AP

French rockers join British

aying tribute to his piano-playing idol Leon Russell, Elton John opened the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday with a free outdoor performance and film premiere about the making of his album, “The Union.” The 64-year-old British singer belted out six songs, including several that appeared on the 2010 critically acclaimed album he collaborated on with fellow singersongwriter Russell, at the opening of the 10th Tribeca Film Festival in New York that runs until May 1. The opening night documentary, also called “The Union,” by director Cameron Crowe, was shown to an audience of several thousand people in the downtown area of Manhattan where the film festival was founded in order to revive the area after the Sept. 11 2001 attacks.

“He’s got the accolades that he deserves and I am so proud of him,” John told the crowd before playing two songs, including “Never Too Old (to Hold Somebody),” which he made with Russell, whose musical abilities as a composer and piano player inspired

John before he became a hit-making world sensation. The film shows John and Russell reuniting after having not spoken in 38 years and gives a behindthe-scenes glance at the writing and recording of the collaboration between John, John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin and Russell for the album that was released last year and debuted at No. 3 in the Billboard 200.

It also flashes back to old footage of both musicians in the early 1970s, snippets of guest musicians on “The Union” such as Brian Wilson and various sequences of John hailing Russell, now 69, as the greatest piano player that ever influenced him and crying when Russell composes “In the Hands of Angels” off “The Union.” John told Reuters on the red carpet that the film was Crowe’s idea, and his style was “uninvasive. You know, you don’t notice him there after awhile, he’s got a knack of kind of appearing behind plants and things like that.”

Russell and Crowe, who made the fiction rock film “Almost Famous,” did

hero Carl Barat for gig

A

s teenagers French rockers The Tatianas were so inspired by British act The Libertines, they formed a band and went looking for gigs. So it was only natural that six years later the gallic trio would open for their hero, former Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things frontman Carl Barat, at new Parisian venue Le Trianon. “It’s a great honor to be opening for Carl” The Tatianas lead singer and guitarist Pierre Hesling, 22, told Reuters. Barat, 32, who released a self-titled debut solo album last October, was wrapping up in Paris a two-month tour. The singer and guitarist, who reunited with his former Libertines bandmates for two triumphant gigs at the Leeds and Reading festivals last August, recently quashed rumors he would again join forces with Pete Doherty this Summer.

He told Reuters there was no plan at this stage for a third Libertines album and was already planning a second solo album.

The Tatianas, who sing in English and also cite The Clash and The Pogues as key influences, have built a reputation at home for electric live performances, well-crafted songs and the rare ability to wow a crowd. The band, which also includes bassplayer Timothee Imhaus, 25, and drummer Lois David, 24, released a debut album “Verses & Verve or the Lost Causes” in 2010 and a 5track EP “The Brilliant Rubbish” last January. Barat and Hesling spoke to Reuters about their plans and the bonds between them while relaxing backstage after the show.

Q: The Libertines along with The Strokes have been credited with revitalizing guitar rock and inspiring a new generation of musicians. How do you feel about it?

A: (Barat) : I will never have that hubris to say we started it. But we were lucky enough to be in that place at that time. I think it’s wonderful if we can be open enough to give each other something back. It keeps growing and it’s evolving and to be part of that lineage, that’s a great thing. I am proud of that.

Q: What did The Tatianas learn from The Libertines ?

A: (Hesling): The Libertines gave us the drive to dare going in front of an audience. Before that, we were writing songs in our bedrooms in the suburbs. The Libertines were rough and free. Bands like The Strokes made us go buy rock CDs again but The Libertines made us want to go on a stage to own it.

TV on the Radio musician dead of lung cancer at 36

T

he bass player with alternative rock band TV on the Radio died on Wednesday after a battle with lung cancer, the group said. Gerard Smith was 36. “We are very sad to announce the death of our beloved friend and bandmate, Gerard Smith, following a courageous fight against lung cancer,” said a message posted on its Web site. “We will miss him terribly.”

Smith’s illness was disclosed five weeks ago, with the band noting in an upbeat statement that given Smith’s “legendarily willful disposition ... it might just be cancer that has the problem.” He was diagnosed with cancer after the band had finished recording its new album “Nine Types of Light,” which coincidentally debuted at No12 on the US pop chart Wednesday. — Reuters

A: (Barat): If there was ever a message from The Libertines, it was that of spirit. I recently told a kid in Belgium that no-one needs to play guitar that well, if you get the emotion and you connect, that is all there is to it. I relate to Pierre because when I watch his band, I see the energy, I see the truth. They are not faking it or acting.

Q: Carl, what other French bands do you feel close to ?

A: (Barat): The BB Brunes, they craft pop songs with melodies, which I really like. They seem quite innocent, which I also quite like. But I would not want the BB Brunes to help me in a fight, I would want The Tatianas.

Q: What’s next for you now ?

A: (Barat) : Take care of the baby. I’ve got some acting things coming up and also think about the next album. I am also writing a screenplay. I am also thinking about this band idea, just get a few musicians to play to get the energy and anger we kind of missed on this solo record which is quite mellow, maybe do an EP and a few gigs without any band commitment.

Q: Is there any chance of a third Libertines album ?

A: (Barat) : Pete and I have a very complex relationship. Right now, I do not see how doing a Libertines record would be of any good to us. The Libertines are something we brought back, we did the gigs, that closed the chapter. If there is a new chapter, that will happen in time. People want what we already have given them. This solo tour made me more confident. I’d hate becoming a pastiche of the Libertines. — Reuters

The Tatianas

not attend the event. The “Jerry Maguire” and “Vanilla Sky” director also has a Pearl Jam documentary due out this year. “The Union” is one of 15 music-themed feature films showing at Tribeca. Cinematic accounts of Kings of Leon, rocker Ozzy Osbourne and South African singer Miriam Makeba will also screen. The opening night marked a change for the festival, one of the most prominent in the United States, after recent years in which Tribeca featured an uptown glitzy private premiere with feature fiction films like last year’s “Shrek Forever After.”

This year more than 5,000 films were submitted, resulting in 93 feature films, which include 41 documentaries and 52 narrative fiction films. Festival attendees will include Julia Roberts, Will Ferrell, Martin Scorsese, Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Piven and Ryan Phillippe.—Reuters

US singer-songwriter Ben Harper performs during the opening day of the annual Blues Festival (Bluesfest) near Byron Bay yesterday. Australia’s largest celebration of blues music runs until April 26 and includes Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Grace Jones, The Cat Empire, ZZ Top, and Leon Russell in the line-up. — AFP

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Bollywood blog addict Bachchan Whoopi Goldberg appears at the curtain call for the opening night performance of the Broadway musical ‘Sister Act’ in New York, Wednesday.

— AP

celebrates landmark

L

Lindsay Lohan to play Junior

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ctress Lindsay Lohan is joining the big screen Gotti family as the wife of John Gotti Jr. in a biopic of one of New York’s most infamous families. She called her casting in “Gotti: Three Generations” a huge honor and told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the film is an opportunity to prove herself as

Gotti’s wife

name “Teflon Don.” Joe Pesci will play one of his deputies. The younger Gotti has insisted he left the mob life in the 1990s, but has been unsuccessfully tried four times on racketeering charges.

He sold the rights to his life story to Fiore Films, which is developing the film focusing on Junior Gotti’s relationship

File photo shows Victoria Gotti, author and daughter of the late John Gotti, left, actor John Travolta, John Gotti Jr and actress Lindsay Lohan pose during a news conference for the film ‘Gotti: Three Generations’, based on the life of John Gotti in New York. — AP an actress again. “I’m really excited to be back on set and clear up all the misinterpretations about me and show this is what I love to do,” Lohan said.

John Travolta has been cast to play John Gotti Sr, the mob family’s patriarch who had a flair for style and a knack for avoiding convictions that earned him the

with his father. It will be shot in New York and is set for a 2012 release. Lohan made a surprise appearance at a press conference last week and was expected to be in the running to play the elder Gotti’s daughter, Victoria. By Wednesday discussions for Lohan playing that role had ended, but the actress successfully lobbied to remain

on the project.

“I think it’s such an iconic story,” Lohan told the AP. “I think it’s a great story to be told. I’m honored to be working with John Travolta and Joe Pesci.” Lohan’s role as Kim Gotti has parallels to her own life, she said. “You don’t get to see the heart behind the story and the real side of people,” she said of most mob movies, which she said veer toward shoot-’em-up fare. “I can relate to that because I think that I’ve been portrayed in a certain light. I just want to do my best to show what their family really went through.” Like the Gotti family, Lohan is no stranger to criminal troubles. She faces a felony grand theft case in Los Angeles after a jewelry store accused her of stealing a $2,500 necklace, and is due in court for a hearing on Friday.

She has rejected two plea deals in that case with guaranteed jail time, and could be incarcerated for violating her probation on a 2007 drunken driving case. She said her legal troubles won’t be a distraction. “I think in the past, I had a lot of distractions,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot. I’ve lived a lot. When I’m on set, it’s about the film.” Fiore Films is making a commitment to Lohan, who is a former Disney child star and once headlined films, but for nearly four years has been known more for making the tabloids than acting.—AP

ots of celebrities write blogs, but no one blogs quite like Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan who this week marked three years of writing in which he has often produced 1,000 words a day. Bachchan celebrated the anniversary of his Internet outpourings with a characteristic array of long postings covering family news, spiritual thoughts and updates on his health, travel plans and sleep patterns. Each Bachchan message attracts a huge readership and hundreds of comments contributed by adoring Indians who view him as a national father figure as well as an ageing screen star. “Thank you for your presence and for your gratitude,” Bachchan wrote to followers who congratulated him on his blog landmark. “You have stood by me in rough weather and fair,” he continued in inimitable style. “You have commented and encouraged, analyzed and assessed, laughed and cried.” “This is indeed a superior class of people and I am proud to have been an initiator for all.” Bachchan, who is universally known as “the Big B”, blogs about 5,000 words most weeks-a rate that would give him a total output of about 780,000 words since his first posting on April 18, 2008. —AFP

File photo shows Indian Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan posing during a fashion show by designers Karan Johar and Varun Bahl at the second day of the HDIL India Couture Week in Mumbai. — AFP

Photographers killed in Libya were top of their field

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A combo picture shows British photographer Tim Hetherington climbing from a building in Misrata on April 20, 2011 and US Getty photographer walking in Misrata on April 18, 2011. — AFP

ritish photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington and award-winning photographer Chris Hondros spent long careers on the front lines before they were killed in Libya’s unrest. Liverpool-born Hetherington, 41, most recently directed the Oscar-nominated “Restrepo” in which he and writer Sebastian Junger spent a year living with US troops in an outpost in one of Afghanistan’s deadliest valleys. He had previously covered several conflicts as a contributing photographer to Vanity Fair and worked on two documentaries about civil wars in Africa.

In an interview with AFP at last year’s Sundance Film Festival-where “Restrepo” won the Grand Jury Prize-Hetherington said that when “you’ve been through so much combat... you seek an emotional honesty.” That honesty, he said, “is not about politics of the left or the right. It’s about showing these guys how they are.” Junger, who co-directed the film with

Hetherington, told ABC News his colleague “worked in a world where people risked their lives and died regularly, so I don’t even think it crossed his mind that he was brave.” “It was just something he felt had to be done by somebody, and he knew he was good at it, he was really good at it,” he said.

Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer Hondros, also 41, had covered many of the world’s conflict zones over the past decade, working in Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, Iraq and Liberia. After starting out as an intern at his local Fayetteville, North Carolina newspaper, he moved to New York to pursue his dream of working as a war photojournalist. “When it came to photography, he gave it everything,” reporter Paul Woolverton for the Fayetteville Observer newspaper said on Wednesday.—AFP

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Kate visits Diana’s grave before wedding

R

oyal bride-to-be Kate Middleton has visited the grave of Princess Diana, mother of her future husband Prince William, ahead of their wedding next week, Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper reported yesterday.

William took Kate to the resting place of Diana at the Althorp Estate, home of her family in central England, and laid flowers there, the paper reported.

“It was very important for William to take Kate to visit his mum just before their wedding day,” an unnamed source told the Mirror, adding it was important for Middleton to understand her future husband’s love and grief for his mother. “Diana is a huge part of her boys’ everyday life and always will be. It is tragic that she won’t be there to see the wedding and that she never got to meet his bride.” Diana, first wife of William’s father and heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 with her lover

This product image courtesy of Fekkai/ Proenza Schouler shows the Fekkai/ Proenza Schouler tote bag.

Kate Middleton ‘Princess Catherine’ dolls are pictured at Hamley’s toy store in central London, on April 20, 2011. A ‘Princess Catherine Doll’ has been created to commemorate the Royal Wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton, 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London. The toy, retailed at GBP 35, (USD 57 or 40 euros) is a themed fashion doll that has been dressed and accessorized by seven British designers. — AFP Dodi al-Fayed as they tried to escape paparazzi who were chasing them on motorbikes. She was buried on a leafy oval island in the grounds of Althorp. A spokesman for William and Middleton, who will marry in London’s Westminster Abbey on April 29, said he could not confirm the visit.

“We wouldn’t comment on a speculative story about what would be an entirely private matter,” he said. However, William has regu-

larly spoken about how important his mother is to him and he gave Middleton the large blue oval sapphire and diamond engagement ring which had belonged to Diana when he proposed. “It’s very special to me,” William told reporters when the engagement was officially announced last November.

“It’s my way of making sure my mother didn’t miss out on today and the excitement and the fact we are going to spend the rest

of our lives together.” Meanwhile, Middleton’s parents Michael and Carole met Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip on Wednesday, the royal spokesman confirmed, for what is believed to be their first ever get together. They enjoyed a private lunch at Windsor Castle, the queen’s residence to the west of London, where the Mirror reported they tucked into sandwiches and drank tea. — Reuters

Is it a weak moment of practicality or do totes make the strong case to fashion fans?

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t can hold your iPad, wallet, makeup and umbrella - maybe a sweater, too. The tote bag is the clown car of the bag world, fitting everything you need and more.

Glamour, however, had seemed immune to this two-handled bucket bag’s charm, but that is changing, too, with trendsetting labels offering versions with just a tweak or two to the classic canvas version.

Proenza Schouler designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCullough teamed with beauty guru (and tote carrier) Frederic Fekkai for a slightly longer, leaner version, while other top designer labels have moved toward more luxe materials, including leather and exotic skins. “A tote is the quintessential thing of casual chic,” says Fekkai.

“It’s practical because you can put your personal belongings and business files in it at the same time, and still look chic and stylish. I think it gives you an accessory that defines very well your attitude that you can do it all.”

Glamour magazine accessories director Gretchen Gunlocke Fenton says she likes

This file photo provided by LL Bean shows an LL Bean canvas Boat and Tote bag.

it because you can carry your life in one bag. It’s “the best way to consolidate and stop wearing two or even

three smaller bags, like you see women doing so often,” she says. “Most of us are on the go from morning until night, so having a bag that is roomy enough to hold your daily must-haves is essential.” The modern tote roots are humble: LL Bean introduced its basic off-white Ice Carrier Bag in 1944, then reintroduced it in the 1960s as the Boat and Tote Bag. Fekkai wishes the cornflower blue leather-trimmed canvas bag now being sold in his salons was just a touch more masculine. The wheelie computer case he uses when he travels for business is OK, he says, but it won’t take him from work to the weekend in one bag. —AP

This product image courtesy of Alexander McQueen shows the Alexander McQueen Folk Tote.

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Lifestyle

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Westwood, new to LA, serves as intersection of fashion, art, culture

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t’s 2:30 in the afternoon, and Dame Vivienne Westwood needs a little pick-me-up. “Just wait a second. I think I’d like to have a glass of wine,” says the flame-haired British fashion designer, avant-garde as ever at 70, wearing a low-cut blouse that shows off an oversized heart-shaped pendant and offers a peek of her ribbon-trimmed bra. “I just need to get going a bit for some reason.”

She has an excuse: The previous evening, Westwood, a 40-year industry veteran, celebrated

A general view of the opening celebration.

Dame Vivienne Westwood, center, actress Christina Hendricks, right, and musician Kelis as they pose together at the opening celebration for the Vivienne Westwood flagship store. the opening of her first stateside store in more than a dozen years with a star-studded party that stretched into the night. Fashionistas and the famous such as Marilyn Manson, Christina Hendricks, Malin Akerman and Dita Von Teese packed the new two-story boutique and showroom (with impressive rooftop views of the Hollywood Hills) on L.A.’s trendy Melrose Avenue. Afterward, Westwood hosted a private dinner for her closest colleagues.

Now she is relaxing on the patio outside Chateau Marmont, a Hollywood hideaway since 1929, with husband and collaborator Andreas

A general view of the opening celebration.

Kronthaler by her side. And her pinot noir has just arrived. Westwood and Kronthaler (who is more than 20 years her junior) independently own and create the Vivienne Westwood brand. “Andreas does half the work,” Westwood says of her partner since 1993. “He’s a designer. He’s my husband but he does as much design as I do.” It was he who helped set up the new store in Los Angeles. The couple found it a natural home for the brand’s American operations, “especially because we do these great dresses for the red carpet,” says Westwood, who scored credits on Oscar night for Anne Hathaway and Helen Mirren.

More practically, Los Angeles, compared to New York’s Soho, where Westwood closed her store a decade ago, offers an ideal location for shipping throughout the United States and Asia, Kronthaler adds. In case you couldn’t tell, Kronthaler is the more business-minded of the pair. “It’s like a gateway, so it’s an incredibly big opportunity for us,” he says. “It’s like a door is opening.”

For Westwood, this is just the latest chapter in a career that began in 1971, when she opened her first clothing store with then-partner Malcolm McLaren. He went on to create the Sex Pistols, and she pioneered a new London street style characterized by zippers, safety pins, scrawled messages and torn fabrics. Music has always been tightly woven into the Westwood label, and many ó including rocker Marilyn Manson ó consider her the queen of

File photo shows fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood as she poses for a portrait at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles. — AP photos punk. “There’s a bit of an opinion on the Sex Pistols, the Stooges or the Doors on who invented punk rock, but for me, she did,” says Manson, who attended the grand-opening bash. “The entire thing was a process, very much an art piece, and that’s what made it punk rock.” Westwood is reticent to call fashion art, but she hints that maybe, sometimes, it can get close.

“Art is always original,” she writes in her “Active Resistance to Propaganda” manifesto, which she published in 2005. Today, she says, “I’m proud in the past to have invented silhouettes that didn’t exist if I hadn’t have existed, in an age of conformity, really.” Indeed, without her, the world likely would be without Rocking Horse platform shoes and mini-crinis (crinoline-flared short skirts), among other things. “I certainly think fashion makes your life better, that you have a more positive outlook,” she says. “It’s a way of engaging in the world ... and fashion is a way of communicating and projecting an image of who you feel you are and the kind of person you wish to attract.”

Westwood makes fashion personal and political, putting slogans on T-shirts since her earliest design days. Some of the latest messages on the now-$90 tees include “I (heart) crap,” ‘’I am not a terrorist, please don’t arrest me,” and “Act fast, slow down, stop climate change.” Perhaps ironically, the designer, whose dresses and suits sell for thousands of dollars, rails against consumerism.

“I think it’s very dulling. It’s not very alive to just be sucking up one thing after another without really choosing anything,” she says, sipping her wine.

“So I’m saying at the moment: Buy less, choose well.” And make fashion your own, she says. “I always like that anyway, you know. Sticking safety pins on you, even make a necklace out of safety pins and put a towel around you instead of a coat and pin it on you like a little dress or whatever, I love all that.” It’s no accident that she likes what her label sells, although Kronthaler makes an active effort to make sure customers will like it, too.

Westwood, though, can act on a whim, and often does. “That’s the freedom I have by not being tied to any other company. ... My clothes have always got a story of a character, and I just feel that other people can get into this thing, too. But I don’t do it for them. No, I do it for myself, actually.” —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Image released by Life & Style magazine, singer Mariah Carey is shown in the nursery of her Los Angeles home in the current issue of “Life & Style” magazine.—AP

In this undated publicity image released by Life & Style magazine, a general view of a baby nursery for the expected twins of singer Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon is shown in the current issue of “Life & Style” magazine on sale nationwide on Friday.—AP

Carey talks twins, shares nursery pictures

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ariah Carey hasn’t even given birth to her twins yet, but she’s already dismissing the idea of more children. The expectant mother talked about her pregnancy to Life & Style magazine in an issue that hits newsstands nationwide Friday.

When asked if she would like to have more children, Carey admits it would require “a much stronger person” than her to go through pregnancy again, adding she’s “ready to be done.” Carey and husband Nick Cannon are expecting a daughter and a son this spring. The singer says

Iguana, turtle or mega-rodent: Colombian Easter fare

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reen iguana, slider turtles and the world’s largest rodent, capybara: it’s not a trip to the zoo. It’s what’s for traditional Easter dinner in Colombia. “This is the season we have them all coming in,” said nutritionist Carolina Rangel, at a center for confiscated animals in the Colombian capital.

She showed AFP about 30 confiscated “outlawed” slider turtles, common here and in Venezuela, as well as a rogue green iguana officials picked up on a bus. Sometimes problems crop up when the animals escape from their “caretakers” especially in the busy Easter season; many Colombians travel for hours on intercity buses to spend the holiday with family and prepare special meals.

“People bring them in (from far-flung provinces) secretly, even stashed in suitcases so they can eat them with relatives, or sell them at open-air markets,” said local environmental official Andres Alvarez, a veterinarian.

Colombia has wildly varied geography, with tropical Pacific and Caribbean coasts; cooler Andean mountain climes and a huge range of plant and animal life that thrive, sometimes in relative isolation.

These recipes based on local animalsinstead of imported ones-have close ties to the northern and northwestern parts of the country. They are often served up in the ageold recipes of indigenous peoples descended from migrants who came from eastern Asia into North and South America thousands of years ago. Among the mouthwatering seasonal treats: turtles’ eggs omelettes; iguana soup; cayman or turtle stew, which is served up with coconut rice, fried yuca, all washed down with cold beer.

“Colombia’s gastronomic wealth is a reflection of the country’s biodiversity,” the

Handout picture released by Colombian Environmental Police showing the seizure of 1.200 Iguana eggs found in a bus travelling from Cartagena to Sinceleno, Bolivar department, in recent days.—AFP world’s second greatest after Brazil, said anthropolgist Julian Estrada. How the custom evolved of eating these meals at this time-the Christian celebration of Easter-is not so clear.

But people who lived along local rivers in what is modern-day Colombia ate all of these animals before the Spanish colonial era started in the 15th century, anthropologists say.

“For our indigenous people, the sleeper turtle and iguana are historically symbolic, mystical animals and part of age-old customs.

Ultimately, what happened was that the (Roman) Catholic calendar’s tradition ended up melding with the fact that those animals are plentiful” during the spring Easter period, said anthropologist Ramiro Delgado.—AFP

carrying multiple babies “can be difficult” but that “it’s all worth it.” She also says she’s ready to have her body back and she misses wearing high heels. Carey and Cannon gave the magazine a first look at the babies’ rooms in the couple’s homes in Bel Air, Calif., and New York City.—AP

Poland lets Vinci’s ‘Lady with an Ermine’ hit the road

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a Vinci painting will travel abroad for exhibition. It finally has been decided: Poland’s most precious painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, will be allowed to travel to Spain, Germany and Britain. Wednesday’s decision came after almost a year of discussion by art experts and Poland’s Culture Ministry about whether the 15th century masterpiece should be allowed to leave the country. The painting will be shown for three months each, starting in May, at Madrid’s Palacio Real, Berlin’s Gemaeldegalerie and London’s National Gallery. In February, it will return to Krakow, where it has been for more than 100 years. Historians believe the subject of the painting was Cecilia Gallerani, mistress of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, when she was 16 or 17. Da Vinci painted it about 1490. Between 1991 and 2004, Lady with an Ermine traveled to exhibitions in the United States, Sweden, Italy and Japan. One of only four existing female portraits by da Vinci, the painting has belonged to the Czartoryski family since the early 19th century.

‘Don’t Tread On Me’ license plate awaits signature Tea party supporters in Arizona could show off their affinity for the movement on their vehicles if Gov. Jan Brewer signs a bill sent to her Wednesday creating a special “Don’t Tread On Me” license plate. The plate would feature the rattlesnake emblem and yellow background of the historic Gadsden Flag that is a symbol of the tea party movement. The measure creating the plate and two others won final legislative approval late Tuesday in a 22-8 vote by the Senate. The House earlier passed it. Brewer faces a May 2 File photo shows a Leonardo Da Vinci paintdeadline for acting on the measure. ing entitled “Lady with an Ermine” is seen Opponents said the plate inappropriately during a presentation by art conservators at promotes a specific political movement. the Royal Castle .—AP Supporters said its way to stand up for constitutional principles.—AP

Stars

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Now comes one of the supreme tests that most every Aries must periodically face: Will you live up to your promises? Will you follow through on your rousing start? Will you continue to stay passionately committed once the fiery infatuation stage evolves into the earthy foundation-building stage? Here's a secret to succeeding at this test: You can't just try to force yourself to "be good" and do the right thing. Nor does it work to use shame or guilt to motivate yourself. Somehow you've got to marshal pure, raw excitement for the gritty detail work to come.

You've got to fall in love with the task of actually fleshing out your dreams.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

In his book on intuition, psychologist David G. Myers defines it as "the capacity for direct knowledge and immediate insight, without any observation or reason."

Another expert on the subject, Malcolm Gladwell, describes intuition as the "power of thinking without thinking." Both authors encourage us to cultivate this undersung way of grasping our raw experience. But Myers also warns us of the perils of intuition if it's untempered by logic and analysis. It can lead us down rabbit holes where we lose track of the difference between our fantasies and the real world. It can cause us to mistake our fears for accurate ESP or get lost in a maze of self-fulfilling prophecies. I bring all of this to your attention, Taurus, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to hone and purify your intuition.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

One of the most impressive elements of the Egyptian uprising in January and February came after it was all over. Eighteen days of street protests created a huge mess in Cairo's Tahrir Square and the surrounding area. When Hosni Mubarak finally resigned and reforms began percolating, thousands of demonstrators returned with brooms and rubber gloves and garbage bags to set the place back in order. I urge you to follow a similar sequence in the coming weeks, Gemini. Agitate for change; rebel against the stale status quo; fight corruption and ignorance; and once your work has led to at least a partial success, clean up after yourself.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

"Sometimes nature seems more beautiful than strictly necessary," said physicist Steven Weinberg as he admired a hackberry tree stoked with blue jays, yellowthroated vireos, and a red cardinal. You may find yourself thinking similar thoughts in the coming week, Cancerian. From what I can tell, life is primed to flood you with simple glories and exotic revelations, with signs of eternal splendor and hints of sublime meaning, with natural wonders and civilization's more interesting gifts.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

I became an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church when I was 19 years old. Since then I have officiated at numerous baptisms, initiations, weddings (including marrying people to themselves), divorces, renamings, housewarmings, ghost-banishings, and the taking of primal vows. In all my years of facilitating these ceremonies, I've rarely seen a better time than right now for you Leos to seek a cathartic rite of passage. You may even be tempted to try several. I recommend you do no more than two, however. Are you ready to break a taboo or smash an addiction?

Renounce a delusion or pledge your devotion or leap to the next level?

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

It would be an excellent time for you to acquire the Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Kit, a package of goodies prepared by domestic expert Martha Stewart. I say this not because a Zombie Apocalypse is looming, or any other kind of apocalypse for that matter. Rather, the kit's presence in your life might encourage you to make fun of your fears. And that would be a perfect way to cooperate with the current cosmic tendencies, which are conspiring to diminish the inhibitions that your anxieties hold in place. Remember one of the key rules in the game of life: Humor dissipates worry.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

Eighty years ago, an explorer who visited the Maori of New Zealand found they had such good eyesight that many were able to detect Jupiter's four largest moons with their naked eyes. That's the kind of vision you could have in the coming days, Libra -- metaphorically speaking, at least. The astrological omens say you have the potential to see further and deeper into any part of reality you choose to focus on. Inner truths that have been hidden from you are ready to be plucked by your penetrating probes. For best results, cleanse your thoughts of expectations. Perceive what's actually there, not what you want or don't want to be there.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

You really should ventilate your house periodically, even when the weather's cool. The air indoors gets stale; you need to flush it out and welcome in some fresh stuff. In my astrological opinion, it's especially important for you to do this right now. So please consider opening all the windows for a while and inviting the breezes to blow through. In addition to its practical value for your respiratory system, it could serve as a ritual that gently blows the dusty crud out of your mind, thereby improving the circulation in your thoughts and emotions and fantasies.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

What do you like most about work? What are the pleasurable experiences that happen for you when you're engaged in demanding tasks that require you to be focused, competent, and principled? I think it's important for you to identify those hard-earned joys and then brainstorm about what you can do to expand and intensify them. You're in a phase of your long-term cycle when you can make a lot of headway toward transforming your job situation so it serves you better.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

The next phase of your life will be an excellent time to unbreak your heart.

Here's what I mean by that: You will have extra power to dissolve any pain that still lingers from the romantic disappointments of the past. You'll be able to summon acute insights into how to dismantle the sodden and unnecessary defenses you built to protect yourself from loss and humiliation. You will find it easier than ever before to forgive and forget any close companion who hurt you. So get out there, Capricorn, and launch the joyful process of restoring your love muscles to their original potency.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

"Search For Self Called Off After 38 Years," read the headline in The Onion. "I always thought that if I kept searching and exploring, I'd discover who I truly was," the report began, quoting 38-year-old Andrew Speth. "Well, I looked deep into the innermost recesses of my soul, and you know what I found? An empty, windowless room the size of an aircraft hangar. From now on, if anybody needs me, I'll be sprawled out on my couch drinking black-cherry soda and watching Law & Order like everybody else." I wonder if Speth is an Aquarius? Many of my Aquarian acquaintances seem to have hit a dead end recently in their quest to fulfill the ancient maxim "Know thyself." If you're like that, please hang on. The floodgates of self-discovery will open soon.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Odds are high that you know very little about Africa. Can you name even 20 of its more than 50 countries? Are you aware that its land mass is bigger than Europe, China, and the U.S. combined? Did you realize that about 2,000 languages are spoken by the people living there? I bring this up, Pisces, because from an astrological perspective it's an excellent time for you to fill the gaps in your education about Africa -- or any other subject about which you are deeply uninformed. Don't get overwhelmed by this assignment, though. Choose maybe three areas of ignorance that you will concentrate on in the coming weeks.

COUNTRY CODES Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African Republic 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands)0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062 Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland)0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK)0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677 Somalia 00252 South Africa 0027 South Korea 0082 Spain 0034 Sri Lanka 0094 Sudan 00249 Suriname 00597 Swaziland 00268 Sweden 0046 Switzerland 0041 Syria 00963 Taiwan 00886 Tanzania 00255 Thailand 0066 Toga 00228 Tonga 00676 Tokelau 00690 Trinidad 001868 Tunisia 00216 Turkey 0090 Tuvalu 00688 Uganda 00256 Ukraine 00380 United Arab Emirates00976

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W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Announcement B Sasikumar Musical program today A musical tribute Samarpana to guru B Sasikumar by the students of Mavellikara Sathees Chandran, at Indian Community School (senior), Salmiya. Arangettam by the students of Mavellikara Sathees Chandran today at 7 pm.

Violin recital by Maestro B. Sasikumar accompanied by Sathees Chandran - violin, Chertala Jayadev - mridangam, Adichanallore Anil Kumar - ghatam, Kottayam Santhosh Kumar - ganjira. For more information 99584182, e-mail violinsathees@yahoo.com Al Taalib Scholarship 2011 Al Taalib Scholarship is a financial aid scheme for the under privileged school students in Kuwait, sponsored by the Ministry of Awqaf in association with Islam Presentation Committee (IPC), Friday Forum and Pakistan Kuwait Welfare Association. These scholarships were given to the needy students irrespective of their religion or nationality. The process of Al Taalib Scholarship for the current academic year, 2011-12, has begun for all Indian and Pakistani Schools in Kuwait. In order to avail this scholarship, applicants are requested to collect the Application Form from Al Taalib Office located in CAMS, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Darwaza, Near Warba Insurance Co., Int’l Islamic Charity Organization Building, 2nd Floor, Al Sharq.

The duly filled application form shall be submitted to Al Taalib office on or before 10th May 2011 along with all supporting documents specified in the Application Form.

BSK fest of achievement and graduation 2011

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he British School of Kuwait celebrated its 33rd year at the forefront of British style education when parents and dignitaries gathered in the magnificent splendour of the Futouh Ballroom at the Regency Hotel to laud the many wonderful achievements which the past academic year has brought. BSK was privileged to have Sheikh Ahmed Hamoud Al-Sabah as patron for this most glittering occasion in the school calendar.

Guests also included Lt Gen Ghazi Abdulrahman AlOmar, Undersecretary at the Ministry of the Interior and the Director of Private Education Mohammed Abdullah Al-Dahes.

BSK Chairman, Sadiq Al-Mutawa, welcomed the 96 graduates of the class of 2011 and urged them to continue their great efforts as they set out to take up places in universities and colleges throughout the world.

Following the presentation of Diplomas of Graduation

by General Ghazi Al-Omar, prizes were awarded to the top 30 students in Year 11, 12 and 13. The top academic award, the CIS award was presented to Hiba Arshad, the Leadership Award went to Abrar Al-Husseini. The much coveted Director’s Award went to Yara Al-Wazir.

Guest Speaker General Ghazi Al-Omar gave a very incisive speech on the efforts of BSK in the fields of science and in the use of communication technology to support science and scientists. In reply, BSK Principal Paul Shropshire, spoke of the evidence for academic excellence which is formed in the outstanding public examination results at GCSE, IGCSE, AS and A2 levels.

The evening was not just about academic excellence.

Achievement in the arts and sporting excellence were also celebrated. Charles Fernandes, best pianist at the Young Musicians of the Gulf in Bahrain captivated the audience with his rendition of the revolutionary study

by Chopin. Language prizes were presented by the ambassadors of France, Germany, India, Italy, Switzerland, Bangladesh and UK. Guests were treated to a musical treat from BSK String Orchestra as well as a comic cameo from Arabic poets Ali Al-Omar and Abdulaziz Alobeid. Head students Yara Al-Wazir and Cyrus Moosavinia brought the evening to a close with a vote of thanks to the Director, Madame Vera Al-Mutawa and the Festival of Achievement and Graduation Ceremony came to a rousing finale with a salute to the parents and staff of The British School of Kuwait.

Arpan’s ‘Kathakali 2011’ Arpan Kuwait, an Indian socio-cultural organization, will present ‘Kathakali 2011’ on Saturday, April 30 at 6.30 pm at the Indian Community School (Senior Girls), Salmiya as part of its initiative to promote Indian classical art and culture in Kuwait. The show ‘Kalyanasougandhikam’, a very popular exotic dance drama, will be presented by renowned Kathakali performers from India Kalamandalam Vasudevan, Sasikala S Vellodi, Kalamandalam Sreekantan and Kalamandalam Sreekumar. A 30-minute demo will also be held by the performers prior to the show for the guests who are not familiar with Kathakali.

Kathakali, Kerala’s classical theatre, will be presented as a cross-cultural program before an august gathering comprising diplomats, Kuwaiti guests, dancers and theatre lovers. Arpan is presenting the unique classical art form once again before the Kuwait’s elite audience on popular demand. For details, contact: 99716105, 97277151, 66872372 or 94063428.

NAFO to present Soorya’s ‘Sangamam’ National Forum Kuwait (NAFO Kuwait) is all set to bringing a spectacular, well conceptualized, a jewel in crown super cultural show ‘Sangamam’ for the art lovers of Kuwait, according to a press release . Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra will inaugurate the first of its kind super show, scheduled for the evening of Friday, May 13, 2011 (6.00 PM) at the American International School Auditorium, Maidan-Hawalli.

Voice Kuwait 6th Anniversary Voice Kuwait is celebrating its 6th anniversary “VISWAKALA 2011” on May 20th Friday from 4 pm to 9 pm at Carmel School Khaitan. Voice Kuwait is giving award to its member’s children who got highest mark in last S.S.L.C. either from Kuwait or from Kerala. The students those are eligible should give attested copy of their mark list to Area conveners or sent copy to voicekuwait2004@gmail.com For more information please contact 66950482,94419371.

Catholicate College new members Catholicate College Alumni Association, Kuwait Chapter, is enrolling new members. Ex-students of Catholicate College who have not yet become members of the Alumni Association are requested to complete the Membership Forms and submit the completed Forms to the Treasurer, Thomas Mathew (Mobile no. 66025610) to become eligible for participation in Catholicate College Alumni Association’s activities and programmes. Membership Form is available at the Association’s website : www.ccaakwt.com. For more details contact General Secretary (Mobile no. 66232408) or President ( Mobile no.

66864057.

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W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Pravasandra TDP celebrates Chandrababu Naidu birthday

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ravasandra Telugu Desam Party Kuwait office bearers and core members celebrated TDP Party President N Chandrababu Naidu’s birthday on Wednesday, April 20 at the TDP office in Hawally. Everyone wished Chandrababu good luck with good health for the years ahead. Later, a birthday cake was cut and distributed to all the participants.

Addressing the gathering, Mulakala Subbrarayudu Naidu said that Chandrababu’s discipline and commitment made him a student leader in college and phenomenal leader in politics as well.

“Our state needs a strong and visionary chief minister to uplift the state’s glory in the country and in the world. It is all TDP members’ responsibility to work hard closely with people to bring TDP back to power in 2014,” he said.

Pravasandara TDP is continuing the membership enrollment in Andhra Pradesh, he said, and will later focus on social voluntary services with the help of state TDP intellectual leaders. Other Pravasandra TDP leaders including party president Koduri Venkata Sivarao, B P

AWARE presentation on growing herbs

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he AWARE Center cordially invites all those interested to its presentation entitled “Best herbs for indoor gardening,”

by Michelle Van De Merwe on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 7:00 pm. Growing your own herbs indoors can be both fun and therapeutic as it is relatively easy and not really expensive. Herbs can be placed roughly into 3 categories: Culinary, medicinal and ornamental. Fresh herbs add a wonderful taste to a meal and can add just that right touch to decorate any dish. They can create a beautiful replacement for indoor plants having a multitude of uses - sprinkling on salads, spicing up your salsas, medicinal uses, teas, decoration and fragrance.

Michelle van der Merwe is South African who has lived in numerous African countries and Saudi Arabia working as a Medical Technologist in Hematology (medical laboratory) and now Kuwait. Herbs are just one of her many interests since she was a teenager as she grew up on a farm in South Africa. If you are interested in the topic, the AWARE Center is the best place to visit on April 26, 2011 at 7:00 pm.

For more information, call 25335260 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription is for free and will be end on 25 of April 2011. To register it is necessary that Argentinean citizens should come personally at the Argentinean Embassy (Block 6, street 42, villa 57, Mishref) and present the DNI and four personal photos (size 4x4, face should be front on white background). For further information, contact us on 25379211. nnnnnnn

Naidu, Param Ramana, Pidikiti Srinivasa Chowdeary, Geri, Parugu Srinu, Real Films’ CH Rajasekhar, Tirupathi Hotel’s Bhaskarn Naidu, Ladies Wing’s Lawanyna, Rak

Dance Academy President Kothuru Eswar Babu and Gulfwide Nandmuri Fans President Darla Srinivasa Achari graced the event.

Toshi Sabri: A lion of Bollywood music industry

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n American author, John Steinbeck, said I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession. Muhammad Ovez Sabri, popularly known as Toshi Sabri - is also a lion to roar out of pride in his profession. He is courageous conqueror and has been enduring lots of challenges in life beside success. But not to forget that courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.

Today, the most viewed singer on You Tube, Toshi is a brilliant music director, a phenomenal composer and a dynamic stage performer, and he takes pride in that fact. The pride of his success is hard work, dedication and determination. Toshi is a learned songster and specializes in many genres ranging from qawwali, Sufi, and romantic to pop. He shot to fame after singing the chartbuster song “Maahi” for the movie Raaz 2 (Mahesh Bhatt), he also composed the song and became as a full music director along with his brother Sharib and thus started his official music career from the film Raaz - The Mystery Continues in the blockbuster track Maahi . He along with his brother and finalist of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 Sharib Sabri composed the super hit track of Maahi and Maahi rock with me version. After that there were ‘no looking back’, both the brothers then became one of the most promising and loved music director, stage performers and singers.

Toshi Sabri is now all set to perform at the Creative Indians Association’s Hot Stepper event - the Indian Carnival-2011 to be held on 29th April, 2011 from 2 pm till 11 pm at the Entertainment City, Doha, Kuwait and will be accompanied by his dashing brother Sharib Sabri and the gorgeous singer cum performer Neeti Mohan. The event will be graced by HE the Indian Ambassador to the State of Kuwait Ajai

EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Embassy encourages all Australians to register their presence in Kuwait through Smartraveller Online (see link below). Australians who are registered are asked to update their details. The information provided will assist us in contacting you in an emergency. www.smartraveller.gov.au Kuwait citizens can apply for and receive visit visas to Australia online at www.immi.gov.au.

This usually takes two working days. All others visa applications are handled by the Australian Visa Application Centre Tel. 22971110.

Witnessing and certifying documents are by appointment only, please contact the Embassy on 2232 2422. The Australian Embassy is open from 8.00am to 4.00pm, Sunday to Thursday. nnnnnnn

Malhotra. The event is sponsored by Zain (Main Sponsor), XCITE by Alghanim Electronics - Philips and Almarai (Gold Sponsor), 3 Horses Malt Beverage Distributed by Kuwait Agriculture company (Silver Sponsor), namasteyKuwait.com and IndiansInKuwait.com (Media Sponsor), Kuwait Hyatt Hotel (Hotel Sponsor), Badra Intl (Event marketing).Kuwait’s very own DJ Flames will have you grooving at regular intervals with what’s new and happening at the music scene back home. And for the very first time in the carnival, get ready for the artists rocking on live band performance which is sure to take your breath away. To all the music lovers residing in Kuwait, don’t miss this opportunity!!!

Book your date with Toshi Sabri and watch this space for more information. Visit and register on our website www.hot-stepper.com for timely updates. For more information call 22455818.

EMBASSY OF INDIA The Chief Electoral Officers of the states of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Puducherry, where elections have been declared, have issued notification under Rule 8A of Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, allowing overseas electors to submit registration forms to exercise their franchise in their respective constituencies. Relevant application forms, guidelines for filling them, as well as postal addresses of the Electoral Registration Officers of all constituencies in India are on the website of the Election Commission of India (http://eci.nic.in) and Indian nationals in Kuwait desirous of exercising their franchise are advised to access the website. It is clarified that the attestation of Form 6-A and other documents relating to the election process are to be done by the applicant himself/herself (i.e., self attestation) and not by the Embassy of India, Kuwait. nnnnnnn EMBASSY OF NETHERLAND On the occasion of Easter, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will be closed on Sunday, 24 April 2011 and Monday 25 April 2011. The Embassy will reopen on Tuesday, 26 April 2011. Fridays and Saturdays are the usual weekend of the Embassy. Opening hours are: Sunday Thursday 09:00 - 12:00 hrs (visa section) and 08:00 - 15:00 hrs (all other sections).

TV Listings FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

00:45 Untamed And Uncut 02:35 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 03:30 Pit Bulls And Parolees 04:25 Crime Scene Wild 05:20 The Most Extreme 06:10 Extraordinary Dogs 06:35 Cats Of Claw Hill 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 The Really Wild Show 07:50 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Dogs 101 10:05 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 11:00 Running With Wolves 11:55 Polar Bears: Living On Thin Ice 12:50 South Georgia: Life Under The Furious 50 13:45 Ocean Odyssey 14:40 The Most Extreme 15:30 Animal Battlegrounds 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Growing Up...: Orang-Utan 17:25 Cats 101 18:20 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 19:15 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Austin Stevens Adventures 22:00 Sharkman 22:55 Into The Dragon’s Lair 23:50 The Most Extreme

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

2 Point 4 Children The Weakest Link Casualty Doctor Who Eastenders Doctors 2 Point 4 Children Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola 2 Point 4 Children The Weakest Link Full Circle With Michael Palin Doctors Eastenders Casualty 2 Point 4 Children Full Circle With Michael Palin The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Full Circle With Michael Palin The Weakest Link Doctors Green Green Grass Only Fools And Horses Small Island

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

Great British Menu Antiques Roadshow Eating With The Enemy Cooked Chuck’s Day Off How Not To Decorate Daily Cooks Challenge Antiques Roadshow Fantasy Homes By The Sea What Not To Wear Daily Cooks Challenge Daily Cooks Challenge Glamour Puds What Not To Wear Fantasy Homes By The Sea What Not To Wear Antiques Roadshow Fantasy Homes By The Sea Holmes On Homes Holmes On Homes Cash In The Attic USA Eating With The Enemy Cooked Chuck’s Day Off

00:15 Kendra 00:40 Fashion Police 01:05 Extreme Close-Up 01:30 25 Most Memorable Swimsuit Moments 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 20 Acts of Love Gone Wrong 07:45 Behind the Scenes 08:35 E! News 09:25 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 10:15 THS 12:00 E! News 12:50 Giuliana & Bill 13:40 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 14:05 Kendra 14:30 E!ES 16:15 Behind the Scenes 17:10 Kourtney and Kim Take New York 18:00 E! News 18:50 Married To Rock 19:40 E!ES 20:30 The Soup 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:20 Kendra 22:10 E! News 23:00 Chelsea Lately 23:25 Fashion Police 23:50 Keeping Up with the Kardashians

ENEMY OF THE STATE ON OSN ACTION HD 17:35 18:20 19:10 19:40 20:05 20:55 23:00

How Not To Decorate Eating With The Enemy Cooked Chuck’s Day Off How Not To Decorate Great British Menu Holmes On Homes

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

Ultimate Survival Man Made Marvels China Mythbusters How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Man Made Marvels China American Chopper How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made Mythbusters Border Security Street Customs 2008 Ultimate Survival Mythbusters La Ink Dirty Jobs Street Customs 2008 Mythbusters Extreme Fishing Cake Boss Border Security Industrial Junkie How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made Weaponizers American Chopper: Senior vs Powering The Future Black Gold

00:30 00:55 01:45 02:35 03:25 03:50 04:45 05:40 06:10 07:00 07:55 07:58 08:25 08:55 09:45 10:10 10:35 11:25 11:50 12:40 13:05 13:55 14:45 15:35 16:00 16:03 16:30 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 20:45 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 23:40

The Gadget Show Kings Of Construction The Future Of...

Human Body: Ultimate Machine Cool Stuff And How It Works Thunder Races Brainiac One Step Beyond Eco-Tech Catch It Keep It Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Mars: The Quest For Life The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Human Body: Ultimate Machine Mean Green Machines Catch It Keep It One Step Beyond Weird Or What?

Science Of The Movies Kings Of Construction The Gadget Show Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Brainiac The Sun Ultimate Power Builders Bad Universe Sci-Fi Science How Does That Work?

The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Ultimate Power Builders Bad Universe Colony

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

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Replacements Emperors New School Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Kim Possible Kim Possible Sonny With A Chance Fish Hooks Splits Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Suite Life On Deck Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Phineas And Ferb 16 Wishes Have A Laugh A Kind Of Magic Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Fish Hooks Monsters Inc. Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Fairly Odd Parents Replacements Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas

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

Unwrapped Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives Throwdown With Bobby Flay Ultimate Recipe Showdown Unwrapped Guy Off The Hook - Special Good Eats - Special Unwrapped Ten Dollar Dinners Paula’s Best Dishes Paula’s Party Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics Chopped Guy’s Big Bite Boy Meets Grill Good Deal With Dave Lieberman Ten Dollar Dinners Paula’s Best Dishes Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives Throwdown With Bobby Flay Unwrapped Paula’s Party Good Eats - Special Paula’s Best Dishes Throwdown With Bobby Flay Ultimate Recipe Showdown Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives Unwrapped Boy Meets Grill Chopped Paula’s Best Dishes Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics Good Deal With Dave Lieberman Ten Dollar Dinners Paula’s Party Good Eats - Special Food Network Challenge Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics Chopped Good Eats - Special Food Network Challenge Good Eats - Special

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:50 04:45 05:15 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50

The Haunted A Haunting On The Case With Paula Zahn True Crime Scene Dr G: Medical Examiner Amsterdam Vice The Haunted Mystery ER Forensic Detectives Accident Investigator Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn FBI Files Murder Shift The Prosecutors Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn Forensic Detectives Accident Investigator FBI Files

18:40 19:30 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls Murder Shift The Prosecutors FBI Case Files Fugitive Strike Force Dr G: Medical Examiner

00:00 Bondi Rescue 1 00:30 Bondi Rescue 3 01:00 Lonely Planet- Roads Less Travelled 02:00 Banged Up Abroad 04:00 Graham’s World 05:00 Long Way Down 06:00 Bondi Rescue 1 06:30 Bondi Rescue 3 07:00 Lonely Planet- Roads Less Travelled 08:00 Banged Up Abroad 10:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 11:00 Earth Tripping 12:00 Bondi Rescue 1 12:30 Bondi Rescue 3 13:00 Lonely Planet- Roads Less Travelled 14:00 Food School 14:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet 15:00 Exploring The Vine 15:30 Pressure Cook 16:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 17:00 Earth Tripping 18:00 Bondi Rescue 1 18:30 Bondi Rescue 3 19:00 Lonely Planet- Roads Less Travelled 20:00 Food School 20:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet 21:00 Exploring The Vine 21:30 Pressure Cook 22:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 23:00 Earth Tripping

00:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 00:45 Sport Today 01:00 BBC World News 01:30 Asia Business Report 01:45 Asia Today 02:00 BBC World News America 03:00 BBC World News 03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Asia Today 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Asia Today 05:00 BBC World News 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Asia Today 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Peschardt’s Business People 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Peschardt’s Business People 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact 16:30 Our World 17:00 Impact 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 World Have Your Say 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 19:30 BBC World News 19:40 Weekend World 20:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 21:30 BBC World News 21:40 Weekend World 22:00 BBC World News 22:30 Middle East Business Report 23:00 BBC World News 23:30 Peschardt’s Business People

TV Listings FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

00:15 Clive Barker’s Book Of Blood-18 02:00 Tears Of The Sun-18 04:00 Kiss The Girls-18 06:00 Gone In Sixty Seconds-PG15 08:00 The Faculty-18 10:00 The Taking Of Pelham 123-18 12:00 Enemy Of The State-PG15 14:15 The Faculty-18 16:00 The Fast And The Furious-PG15 17:45 Enemy Of The State-PG15 20:00 Pride And Glory-18 22:15 Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night-PG15

01:00 PG15 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 14:45 16:45 19:00 21:00 23:15

07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 11:30 12:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

8 Simple Rules ...

My Boys Smallville Parenthood The Ellen Degeneres Show 8 Simple Rules ...

My Boys American Idol Smallville Parenthood 8 Simple Rules ...

My Boys The Ellen Degeneres Show Friday Night Lights No Ordinary Family American Idol Survivor: Redemption Island Royal Pains

14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

One Fine Day-PG15 Shorts-PG Swing Vote-PG15 Chasing Amy-18 The Ugly Truth-PG15

00:00 02:00 04:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

The Reckoning-18 Le Premier Cri-18 Almost Famous-PG15 One Week-PG A Far Off Place-PG15 The Soloist-PG15 Born Free-PG April Showers-PG15 The Babe-PG15 Frost/Nixon-PG15 Jerry Maguire-18 The Fisher King-18

01:00 Rage: Carrie 2-PG15 03:00 The General’s Daughter-18 05:00 Children Of The Corn-18 07:00 Captain Drake-PG 09:00 Panic Room-PG15 11:00 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life-PG15 13:00 Alatriste-PG15 15:30 Panic Room-PG15 17:30 The One-PG15 19:00 John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of MarsPG15 20:45 Se7en-18 23:00 Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night-PG15

01:30 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 PG15 21:00 23:00

Say It Isn’t So-18 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story-PG15 America’s Sweethearts-PG15 It’s A Wonderful Afterlife-PG15 Monsters Inc-FAM Legally Blondes-PG Cutting Edge 3-PG15 Amelia-PG15 Monsters Inc-FAM Without A Paddle: Nature’s Calling-

00:00 Shorts-PG 02:00 The Immaculate Conception Of Little Dizzle-PG15 04:00 Exterminators-PG15 06:00 Before You Say I Do-PG15 08:00 My One And Only-PG15 10:00 Ace Ventura : Pet Detective Jr.PG15 12:00 Cop And A Half-PG15

00:00 Kung Fu Magoo-FAM 02:00 Leave It To Beaver-PG 04:00 Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Friends Forever-PG15 06:00 Fly Me To The Moon-PG 08:00 Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation-FAM 10:00 Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Friends Forever-PG15

Desperate Hours: An Amber AlertThe People Speak-PG15 The Sun Also Rises-PG15 Gulliver’s Travel-PG Flying By-PG15 Batman: Under The Red Hood-PG All About Steve-PG15 Flying By-PG15 Invictus-PG15 The Last Station-PG15 Notorious-18 Saw VI-R

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Family Guy 02:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:30 Entourage 03:00 Just Shoot Me 03:30 30 Rock 04:00 Family Guy 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 How I Met Your Mother 06:00 Yes Dear 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 08:30 Dharma And Greg 09:00 Just Shoot Me 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 10:00 Yes Dear 10:30 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 13:30 How I Met Your Mother 14:00 Yes Dear 14:30 Community 15:00 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 The Drew Carey Show 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Friends 18:30 10 Things I Hate About You 19:00 Outsourced 19:30 Parks And Recreation 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Funny Or Die Presents 22:30 Bored To Death 23:00 Family Guy 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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

The Ellen Degeneres Show American Idol The Cape The Gates Good Morning America Commander In Chief Emmerdale Look-A-Like The Martha Stewart Show The View The Gates American Idol Live Good Morning America Commander In Chief The Ellen Degeneres Show Downsize Me No Ordinary Family American Idol Survivor: Redemption Island Lie To Me Commander In Chief

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00

Parenthood American Idol The Gates The Cape Parenthood The Ellen Degeneres Show

Cop Out-PG15 Flying By-PG15

12:00 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs-PG 14:00 Leave It To Beaver-PG 16:00 Rugrats In Paris: The Movie-FAM 18:00 Barney’s Great Adventure-FAM 20:00 Little Match Girl-PG 22:00 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs-PG

00:00 Deadly Impact-18 02:00 Dolan’s Cadillac-PG15 04:00 End Of The Spear-PG15 06:00 Ambrose Bierce: Civil War StoriesPG15 08:00 Super 7-PG 10:00 Fantastic Mr. Fox-FAM 12:00 Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief-PG15 14:00 I Spy-PG 16:00 Fantastic Mr. Fox-FAM 18:00 500 Days Of Summer-PG15 20:00 Cop Out-PG15 22:00 Armored-18

01:00 01:30 02:30 07:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 14:30 17:00 18:00 21:30 22:00

Total Rugby Golfing World PGA European Tour Live AFL Premiership Total Rugby Live Super 15 Live Super 15 AFL Premiership Live The All Sport Show Premier League Darts Futbol Mundial Super League

01:00 03:00 07:00 08:00 12:00

Super League Premier League Darts Golfing World LIVE European PGA Tour Live Snooker World Championship

AMELIA ON OSN MOVIES HD

16:00 16:30 20:30 21:00

ICC Cricket World Live Snooker World Championship Total Rugby Live Snooker World Championship

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

WWE NXT UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed WWE NXT V8 Supercars Championship UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE NXT Full Throttle V8 Supercars Championship WWE NXT Live NRL Premiership NFL Full Time Live Super League Live Super League V8 Supercars Extra WWE SmackDown WWE NXT WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter`

00:05 Cow And Chicken 00:30 Cramp Twins 00:55 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Adrenalini Brothers 01:45 Eliot Kid 02:10 Ed, Edd N Eddy 02:35 Ben 10: Alien Force 03:00 The Powerpuff Girls 03:15 Chowder 03:40 The Secret Saturdays 04:05 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 04:30 Ben 10: Alien Force 04:55 Best Ed 05:20 Skunk Fu! 05:45 Cramp Twins 06:10 Eliot Kid 06:35 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 07:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 07:25 Cow And Chicken 07:50 Best Ed 08:15 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 08:40 Ben 10: Alien Force 09:05 The Secret Saturdays 09:30 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 09:55 The Powerpuff Girls 10:20 Robotboy 10:30 Hero 108 10:55 Ben 10 11:20 Chowder 11:45 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 12:10 Camp Lazlo 12:35 George Of The Jungle 13:00 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 13:25 Codename: Kids Next Door 13:50 Ben 10 14:15 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 14:40 Squirrel Boy 15:05 Cartoon Network Dance Club 15:15 Eliot Kid 15:35 Ed, Edd N Eddy 16:00 Cow And Chicken 16:25 Chop Socky Chooks 16:50 Skunk Fu! 17:15 Chowder 17:40 Best Ed 18:05 Hero 108 18:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 18:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 19:20 Adventure Time 19:45 Cow And Chicken 20:10 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 20:35 Courage The Cowardly Dog 21:00 The Powerpuff Girls 21:25 Ed, Edd N Eddy 21:50 Robotboy 22:00 Camp Lazlo 22:25 Hero 108 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 23:40 Chowder

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00

Backstory World Sport World Report World Report World Business Today Piers Morgan Tonight Anderson Cooper 360 World Sport Ireport For CNN World Report

07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:45 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:45 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:45 22:00 23:00

Backstory World Report World Report World Sport The Best Of Backstory World Business Today CNN Marketplace Middle East World One World Sport The Best Of Backstory Piers Morgan Tonight News Stream World Business Today International Desk The Brief World Sport World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East International Desk Talk Asia Quest Means Business CNN Marketplace Africa Piers Morgan Tonight Connect The World

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

Life After People How the Earth Was Made Battle Stations Ax Men Angels & Demons Decoded Seven Deadly Sins Life After People How the Earth Was Made Battle Stations Ax Men Angels & Demons Decoded Investigating History Life After People How the Earth Was Made Battle Stations Ax Men Angels & Demons Decoded Investigating History Life After People How the Earth Was Made Battle Stations The Universe Ancient Discoveries Decoding the Past Seven Deadly Sins

00:00 Jerseylicious 01:00 Fashion Avenue 01:30 Fashion Avenue 01:55 Big Boutique 02:25 How Do I Look?

03:20 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

04:15 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

05:10 Homes With Style 05:35 Area 06:05 Clean House 07:00 Big Boutique 07:30 Big Boutique 08:00 Homes With Style 08:30 Homes With Style 09:00 Fashion Avenue 09:25 Fashion Avenue 09:55 How Do I Look?

10:50 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

11:50 Clean House: Search For The Messiest...

12:50 Clean House 13:45 Clean House Comes Clean 14:15 Mel B: It’s A Scary World 14:45 Jerseylicious 15:40 Ruby 16:35 Giuliana And Bill 17:00 Giuliana And Bill 17:30 Top 10 17:55 Top 10 18:25 The Dish Presents 19:25 Big Boutique 19:50 Fashion Avenue 20:20 Clean House Comes Clean 20:45 Clean House Comes Clean 21:15 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

22:10 Bridalplasty 23:05 How Do I Look?

01:45 03:25 05:05 07:00 08:20 11:00 14:35 16:15 18:00 19:55 22:00 23:55

The Cincinnati Kid-PG King Solomon’s Mines-FAM Come Fly With Me-FAM The Oklahoma Kid-FAM Where Eagles Dare-PG Gone With The Wind-PG The Liquidator-PG Show Boat-FAM All The Fine Young Cannibals-PG Tea And Sympathy-PG Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid-PG15 3 Godfathers-FAM

Flight Schedule FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines RJA KAC JZR THY TAR ETH UAE DHX ETD FDB GFA QTR JZR JZR JZR JZR BAW KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA MEA JZR JZR IYE MSR GFA RBG KAC KAC MSR UAL RJA FDB OMA KAC KAC KAC JZR QTR JZR MLR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR ABY JZR JZR ALK

Flt 642 544 267 772 327 620 853 370 305 67 211 138 207 503 223 555 157 416 206 302 332 53 678 352 284 362 855 132 125 619 301 213 404 165 121 825 623 219 3553 618 672 610 982 640 57 645 546 552 788 257 134 201 403 303 857 215 510 239 127 213 177 227

Arrival Flights on Friday 22/4/2011 Route AMMAN CAIRO BEIRUT ISTANBUL TUNIS / DUBAI ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA DAMASCUS LUXOR ALEPPO ALEXANDRIA LONDON JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR ISLAMABAD MUMBAI TRIVANDRUM DUBAI MUSCAT / DUBAI COCHIN DHAKA COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH LAR ABU DHABI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DUBAI BAHRAIN SANAA SOHAG BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA / SOHAG DOHA DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN DUBAI MUSCAT ALEXANDRIA DAMASCUS JEDDAH BEIRUT DOHA DAMASCUS COLOMBO / DUBAI ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH AMMAN SHARJAH DEIREZZOR DUBAI COLOMBO / DUBAI

Time 0:05 0:30 0:35 1:15 1:30 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:55 5:15 5:20 6:10 6:30 6:35 7:15 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:00 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:20 9:30 9:35 10:55 11:10 11:15 12:05 12:10 12:40 12:55 12:55 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:50 14:00 14:30 14:35 15:00 15:10 15:15 15:45 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:35 17:40 17:50 18:00 18:00

KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC AIC JAI KAC JZR FDB OMA VOS MEA KAC SVA DHX GFA FCX QTR UAL UAE JZR JZR MSR DLH SAI KLM JZR

166 502 542 744 614 774 674 102 975 572 562 787 61 647 81 402 786 506 372 217 304 136 981 859 135 185 612 636 441 447 481

PARIS / ROME BEIRUT CAIRO DAMMAM BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI NEW YORK / LONDON CHENNAI / GOA MUMBAI AMMAN RIYADH DUBAI MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT JEDDAH JEDDAH BAHRAIN BAHRAIN RIYADH DOHA BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT LAHORE / KARACHI AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN SABIHA

18:40 18:45 18:50 19:15 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:50 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:15 20:20 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:05 23:35 23:50

Airlines AXB DLH BBC AIC PIA THY TAR ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD QTR JZR RJA GFA KAC VOS JZR BAW FDB KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY KAC

Flt 390 637 44 982 206 773 327 620 854 68 371 306 139 164 643 212 545 94 120 156 54 177 671 256 551 787 617 856 126 117

Departure Flights on Friday 22/4/2011 Route MANGALORE / KOZHIKODE FRANKFURT DHAKA AHMEDABAD / CHENNAI LAHORE ISTANBUL TUNIS BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA DUBAI / KANDAHAR BAHRAIN LONDON DUBAI FRANKFURT / GENEVA DUBAI BEIRUT DAMASCUS JEDDAH DOHA DUBAI SHARJAH NEW YORK

Time 0:25 0:40 1:00 1:05 1:10 2:15 2:20 2:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 5:00 6:55 7:00 7:10 7:40 8:00 8:20 8:25 8:40 8:55 9:00 9:10 9:10 9:25 9:35 9:40 9:50 10:00

QTR ETD GFA JZR IRA MEA KAC JZR JZR KAC KAC IYE MSR GFA RBG JZR MSR RJA FDB KAC UAL OMA KAC KAC JZR KAC QTR KAC KAC JZR ETD MLR UAE GFA ABY JZR SVA ALK JZR KAC KAC JAI FDB JZR KAC KAC OMA MEA SVA DHX GFA KAC QTR KAC KAC FCX JZR JZR UAE UAL KAC MSR SAI

133 302 214 200 618 405 541 212 238 103 501 825 624 220 3554 176 611 641 58 561 982 646 785 673 480 773 135 613 743 786 304 404 858 216 128 184 511 228 134 283 361 571 62 528 343 351 648 403 507 373 218 381 137 301 205 102 502 554 860 981 411 613 442

DOHA ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DAMASCUS LAR BEIRUT CAIRO DEIREZZOR AMMAN LONDON BEIRUT DOHA / SANAA SOHAG BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA DUBAI CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN MUSCAT JEDDAH DUBAI SABIHA RIYADH DOHA BAHRAIN DAMMAM RIYADH ABU DHABI DUBAI / COLOMBO DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH DUBAI / COLOMBO BAHRAIN DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI ASSIUT CHENNAI COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT JEDDAH BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DELHI DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD DUBAI LUXOR ALEXANDRIA DUBAI WASHINGTON DC DULLES BANGKOK / MANILA CAIRO LAHORE

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

10:00 10:15 10:20 10:20 10:20 11:55 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:30 13:00 13:05 13:10 13:25 13:35 13:40 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 14:45 15:00 15:05 15:10 16:00 16:05 16:15 16:20 16:25 16:35 17:35 17:40 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:35 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:50 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:55 22:00 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:40 23:40 23:50 23:59

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Santos, Flu go through

BUENOS AIRES: Brazil’s Fluminense Edinho (left) and Argentina’s Argentinos Juniors’s Matias Laba go for a header during a Copa Libertadores soccer match on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. — AP

Players’ free-for-all mars match in Buenos Aires BUENOS AIRES: Striker Fred converted a controversial last-minute penalty to give Fluminense a thrilling 4-2 win at Argentinos Juniors that put them into the last 16 of the Libertadores Cup on goals scored on Wednesday. Mexico’s America qualified as Group Three winners with Fluminense pipping Nacional, held 0-0 by the Mexicans in Montevideo, into second place with equal goal difference but having scored more. Had Fred not converted the penalty, Nacional would have qualified on a better goals differential. Paraguay’s Cerro Porteno, with a brilliant performance from midfielder Jonathan Fabbro, came from two goals down to beat Colo Colo 3-2 in Santiago and win Group Five ahead of Santos, second after a 3-1 home win over Venezuela’s Deportivo Tachira.

On a night of thrilling soccer, the ugly side of South America’s premier club competition emerged at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Buenos Aires in a freefor-all between the Argentinos and Fluminense players after the final whistle.

Argentinos goalkeeper Nicolas Navarro, upset by the penalty decision, was at the heart of the punches thrown between home players and Brazilians exultant at their lastgasp qualification having started the night bottom of the group. “Nothing justifies the violence,” Argentinos Juniors coach Pedro Troglio told Fox Sports. At the Centenario in Montevideo, Nacional thought they were through by a difference of one goal only to learn of Fred’s late goal in Buenos Aires that eliminated them. Flu finished with a goals tally of 9-9 to Nacional’s 3-3.

Heritage draws strong field, despite changes HILTON HEAD ISLAND: Initial fears that a later date on the PGA Tour schedule would weaken the field for The Heritage this week have proved unfounded with seven of the world’s top 20 set to take part. Last year, the event attracted only five of the top 20 players when it was held in its traditional slot the week after the Masters, the year’s opening major. Fast forward 12 months and one extra week, and British world number three Luke Donald will head a strong lineup in Thursday’s opening round as he and his rivals vie to don the tartan jacket awarded to the winner on Sunday.

The Heritage is still The Heritage, with a relaxed and celebratory atmosphere on the demanding Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus-designed course. The layout forces sculpted shots around, over and in between oak trees and culminates with a wind-blown finish along Calibogue Sound. ‘I’ve always said that I think the week after the Masters has been overplayed with players coming in,’ American Jim Furyk, the defending champion who is playing in his 13th Heritage, told reporters on Wednesday.

‘I love the event and I’ve always said it didn’t matter what week of the year it was for me, I always want to come here and play because I love the course. ‘For some of the European players or foreign players, we drew a couple extra of them,’ Furyk said, referring to previous years when the Heritage was held the week after the Masters. —Reuters

Navarro had dashed out of his goal to clear with his foot from defender Edinho, who went down with the referee pointing to the spot. It was unclear from television replays whether Navarro reached the ball first as he appeared to claim. Left back Julio Cesar put Fluminense ahead at the end of a fine attacking move midway through a first half dominated by the Brazilian champions.

Paraguayan striker Santiago Salcedo equalized with a penalty but former Brazil striker Fred restored Flu’s lead with his first goal, a bullet of a free kick from 33 meters shortly before halftime. Midfielder Gustavo Oberman hit another equalizer with a shot that took a deflection early in the second half only for striker Rafael Moura to put the Brazilian side ahead again from the rebound after Navarro parried a shot.

FANTASTIC FABBRO Fabbro scored twice in a thriller at the Monumental in Santiago in which midfielder Cristobal Jorquera and Chile striker Esteban Paredes gave Colo Colo a two-goal start inside 20 minutes. Man-of-the-match Fabbro pulled a goal back just before halftime with a looping right-footed shot from left into the top far corner then had a hand in Porteno’s equalizer four minutes into the second half when he laid the ball off to the right for right back Ivan Piris to blast a low shot into the net. Fabbro scored the winner with a brilliant, curling free kick into the top corner in the 88th minute, ushering in a nail-biting five-minute period of added time.

Brazil teenager Neymar, back from suspension, set twice champions Santos on their way to a comfortable win with an early goal at the Pacaembu in Sao Paulo. — Reuters

Westwood makes strong start; Siddikur leads JAKARTA: Lee Westwood began his quest to regain the world number one spot with a four-under 68 in the Indonesian Masters yesterday despite grappling with a belly putter. It could be a memorable 38th birthday on Sunday for the Briton, who will top the rankings if he lifts the title and compatriot Luke Donald fails to win at the Heritage tournament in South Carolina. The Englishman boosted his prospects by firing five birdies and a lone bogey at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club for a share of eighth, two strokes behind Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman.

“I’ll let things take their course and see what happens at the end of the week.

Like I said before, I’m here to win a golf tournament,” he told reporters.

Westwood, who was world number one for 17 weeks until German Martin Kaymer replaced him in February, has struggled with his short game, finishing tied 11th at the US Masters this month, and reckoned the problem was not yet over. “I played solidly but I was a bit frustrated out there. It has been

JAKARTA: Lee Westwood of England hits the ball to the 18th green during the first round of Indonesian Masters golf tournament at Royale Jakarta Golf Club in Jakarta yesterday. — AP the story for me so far, hitting it great from tee to green and giving myself a lot of chances but not taking them,” he said.

Westwood, who swapped his short putter for a longer one at Augusta,

said he was still getting used to the belly putter. “I’ve used the belly putter in two rounds at Augusta and it’s the first time I’m using it here since 2004 so it needs some getting used to,” he said. —Reuters

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Title race could go to wire, says Ancelotti LONDON: Carlo Ancelotti believes the Premier League title race could go down to the final game of the season after Chelsea moved into second place with a 3-1 win over Birmingham. Ancelotti’s team sit above Arsenal on goal difference with the two London clubs trailing leaders Manchester United by six points with five games remaining. Both of the challengers have still to face Sir Alex Ferguson’s side - Chelsea must travel to Old Trafford on May 8 while Arsenal host the leaders on May 1 - handing them the chance to deny United points. And while Ancelotti admits the odds remain stacked against his team, he insists there could be more twists and turns before the season reaches its climax. “In football, I learned that everything can happen in the game right up to the final whistle,” he said. “You can win the title in the last minute, and you can lose the title in the last minute.

“If we thought that one month ago we’d have a little chance to come back to fight for the title, I think that everyone could have said we were crazy. “Now we are happy because we’ve reached second place. We await to see what happens in the next five games. “We know United have to play against Arsenal. Everything is open.

Obviously, I would like to be in United’s position, six points ahead. That’s a lot at this stage of the season.” First half goals from Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou put Chelsea in control on Wednesday before Malouda’s second of the night secured victory. A late Birmingham penalty from Sebastian Larsson came too late to affect the outcome at Stamford Bridge.

Didier Drogba was again preferred as the main striker ahead of Fernando Torres who was left on the bench and Ancelotti admitted the Ivorian’s improved form was driving his side’s late run. Ancelotti denied Drogba had a point to prove following Torres’ arrival and claims the striker’s early season form suffered following a bout of malaria. “He has a strong personality,” Ancelotti said. “He knew that, with malaria, he didn’t play his best. And so, I think that now he’s fit and he’s showing fantastic quality. “In one season, problems like Didier had can happen. We couldn’t do anything about this. Now we have to be happy to see him playing fantastic football, but forget the past.”

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish believes his side now need one more win to be assured of Premier League survival. “I would say we need another win,” McLeish said.

“We’ll try and get as many points in the last five games as we can.” Larsson was involved in an argument with Craig Gardner, the regular penalty taker, before taking the spotkick and McLeish admitted he was unimpressed after being told of the incident. “I never noticed the penalty incident,” he added. “It’s not normally something I’d encourage.

“When a player has been successful in scoring the penalties, as Craig has done, he should keep it. I thought he’d agreed for Seb to take it. I never saw their exchange. But he did score with a fantastic strike. “But Gardner, I’m sure, will have a chat about it over the next few days.”— AFP

LONDON: Chelsea’s manager Carlo Ancelotti (left) talks to his player Ashley Cole during their English Premier League soccer match against Birmingham City on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. — AP

ANGERS: PSG French striker Guillaume Hoarau (right) fights for the ball with Angers’ defender Malik Couturier during the French Cup semi-final football match on April 20, 2011. — AFP

PSG cruise into French Cup final Holders PSG beat second tier Angers 3-1 away PARIS: Holders Paris St Germain easily shrugged off the challenge of second tier Angers to set up a French Cup final against Lille with a 3-1 away win on Wednesday. The semi-final was almost one-way traffic throughout but given the French Cup’s penchant for shocks, PSG fans were still feeling nervous until Mathieu Bodmer finished off Nene’s assist midway through the first half.

Brazilian midfielder Nene notched the second after the break when Bodmer repaid the favour before Sebastien

Renouard gave Angers faint hopes of a comeback. However, PSG forward Guillaume Hoarau sealed their passage to meet Lille in the Stade de France final on May 14 with a third on 62 minutes.

PSG have now reached their sixth final in nine years with the Cup again their only chance of silverware given they lie fourth in Ligue 1 and have bowed out of the Europa League. “At 21 I was a little worried but we have been very efficient,” PSG coach Antoine Kombouare told reporters. “There is

confidence yes but over confidence no. I hope for a great final with great play.”

Angers coach Jean-Louis Garcia was proud of his side for carrying the flag for the lower leagues but still criticized their display. “We lacked maturity and my players will learn from this match,” he said. French league leaders Lille beat fellow top-flight side Nice 2-0 on Tuesday to progress and keep their hopes of a domestic double alive, a feat no fan of the modest club could have imagined at the start of the campaign. — Reuters

French League Preview

Marseille face Montpellier Deja vu will do Marseille just fine in Cup final PARIS: Holders Olympique Marseille play Montpellier in the French League Cup final tomorrow just a week after beating their south coast rivals in Ligue 1 but top striker Loic Remy will this time be missing. The defense of their Ligue 1 title would come before the defense of their League Cup crown for most fans but Marseille are not going to refuse a trophy on offer even in France’s least enamored competition.

Remy is suspended for the final having been dismissed in the 2-1 comeback win in Montpellier on Sunday for reacting after being fouled for the 82nd-minute penalty which gave Didier Deschamps’ second-placed side victory.

“In the heat of the moment I did not think about the final,” Remy told Le Parisien newspaper. “The defender fouled me then he insulted me and touched me. I shouldn’t have reacted. It’s annoying and frustrating to miss an event after all that work.”

Remy’s attitude will enthuse Deschamps despite the forward having to sit in the stands at the Stade de France showpiece alongside Montpellier’s Abdelhamid El-Kaoutari,

the man who tussled with him last weekend and was also sent off. The duo’s absence prevents more tension on the field but Remy missing out piles the scoring burden on Andre-Pierre Gignac, who grabbed the 69th-minute equaliser last Sunday having finally won his place back in the starting lineup. The France striker has had a stop-start season but Gignac’s power and aerial ability could again trouble a Montpellier side who looked to be heading for victory last weekend thanks to Olivier Giroud’s opener midway through the second half.

Montpellier, eighth in Ligue 1, have had difficultly infront of goal this season having netted just 27 times in the league. Nice and already relegated Arles-Avignon the only top-flight team to have scored less. But one goal might do it in a cup final with Montpellier having the added bonus of a place in the Europa league if they win. Even if Rene Girard’s side lose, they could still find their way into the Europa League via Ligue 1 if Marseille qualify for the Champions League and an extra Europa League place is therefore made available in the top-flight. — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

‘Ship captain’ Mourinho answers critics in Cup

Celtic manager Neil Lennon

Celtic stars and fans rally behind Lennon GLASGOW: Celtic star Kris Commons said the revelation that Neil Lennon had been the target of a parcel bomber motivated the players to defeat Kilmarnock and show their support for the manager on Wednesday. Celtic manager Lennon, his lawyer Paul McBride and prominent Celtic supporter Trish Godman, a leading Scottish politician, were all sent explosive devices in the post. Lennon kept out of the media spotlight as his side romped to a comfortable 4-0 win at Kilmarnock that moved them to within a point of rivals Rangers, who they face in Sunday’s Old Firm showdown. It’s a game which is likely to determine the destination of the Scottish Premier League title. “Events definitely inspired us,” said Commons after scoring twice against Kilmarnock. The Celtic fans rose to a man to show their support for their manager, who wore the number 18 shirt as a player, in the 18th minute as they chanted Lennon’s name. And his assistant Johan Mjallby, who spoke to the media on Lennon’s behalf, said the Celtic manager had been touched by the gesture.

“What has happened to him is madness,” Mjallby said of the manager’s treatment. “It shouldn’t happen to anyone, no matter what they do in life. He probably had a tear in his eye tonight. The supporters showed what he means to them.” Police have warned other well-known fans of Celtic, a predominantly Catholic-supported club, to be vigilant after the discovery of the improvised bombs, two of which had been destined for Lennon. One device was sent to the Celtic manager just two days after tempers flared at a fiery March 2 Old Firm derby where three Rangers players were sent off and Lennon and Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist had to be separated at the final whistle.

Security was already high surrounding the Celtic manager, who has previously been sent bullets in the post. He also received death threats while playing for Northern Ireland and who was beaten unconscious in a Glasgow street while on a night out in September 2008. In a written statement, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell described the most recent events as an “intolerable state of affairs”.

He added: “Neil Lennon is a football manager who simply wants to carry out this role to the best of his professional ability. However, in this horrific ongoing campaign, he and other Celtic personnel continue to be the subject of repeated threats and intimidation. “It is an intolerable state of affairs which must end. Celtic, from our inception, has been a club open to all. We enjoy friendship and respect throughout the world yet, here in Scotland, we are caught up in these vile events. “The most recent targeting of Neil Lennon, Paul McBride and Trish Godman - three people who are linked only by an affinity with Celtic - deserves condemnation from all right-minded people. — AFP

VALENCIA: Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has answered his critics in the best possible way by adding an 18th King’s Cup to the club’s trophy cabinet and ending a two-year silverware drought on his debut season. The Portuguese, who has now won domestic cups in his native country, England, Italy and Spain, had earned sharp criticism from honorary Real President Alfredo Di Stefano for his tactics in Saturday’s 1-1 La Liga draw against leaders Barcelona at the Bernabeu. However, the fact that Wednesday’s King’s Cup triumph, courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 103rd-minute header, came at the expense of arch rivals Barca has cemented Mourinho’s status among Real fans and had them singing his name long into the warm Mediterranean night in Valencia.

Thousands of ecstatic fans gathered at the Cibeles fountain in Madrid for the traditional title celebration and captain Iker Casillas draped a club flag and scarf around the goddess’s neck at around 4:15 am local time after the victorious team arrived back in the Spanish capital. Casillas and Sergio Ramos were effusive in their praise for Mourinho, who joined Real after leading Inter Milan to an unprecedented treble of Italian league and cup and Champions League last season. “He is a phenomenon,” Casillas told reporters in the depths of Valencia’s Mestalla stadium as the Real fans continued their celebrations in the streets outside. “He is the captain of the ship and with his philosophy he tries to instil values in us that have served us extremely well,” added defender Ramos.

TREBLE CHANCE Real President Florentino Perez hired the outspoken 48year-old and has spent hundreds of millions of euros on players to try to end Barca’s recent domination. And, more importantly, bring the nine-times winners success in the Champions League again after six seasons of failure. Real are still in with a slim chance of matching Inter’s treble, although Barca’s eight-point lead in La Liga with six games left looks to have put the title beyond the Madrid club’s reach. Wednesday’s Cup triumph, their first since 1993, will nonetheless lift the players for the two-legged Champions League semi-final against Barca at the Bernabeu on April

27 and the Nou Camp on May 3. Former Chelsea and Porto coach Mourinho was at pains to underline who was in charge when asked at a post-King’s Cup final news conference what he made of the criticism.

Di Stefano, who won five consecutive European Cups with Real between 1956 and 1960, was scathing in his newspaper column on Monday about Mourinho’s strategy of instructing his players to sit back against Barca and try to catch them on the break. By contrast, he said watching Pep Guardiola’s Barca side was a “delight”.

“People can say what they want but I am the coach and I decide how we play,” a weary-looking Mourinho said.

“Working as a coach is hard as there are a lot of things at play,” he added. “I try to create the best possible situation for my players.” — Reuters

VALENCIA: Real Madrid’s coach Jose Mourinho from Portugal is thrown in the air by his players after they defeated FC Barcelona 1-0 during the final of the Copa del Rey soccer match at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. — AP

Italian League Preview

Disabled badge affair clouds Serie A relegation Bologna players questioned over affair MILAN: A peculiar scandal involving disabled parking badges could inadvertently affect the Serie A relegation picture this weekend when Bologna will try not to be distracted when they host fourth-bottom Cesena tomorrow. Bologna players including top striker Marco Di Vaio and Italy reserve goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano have been questioned by prosecutors over allegations some of their cars had disabled badges.

“I cannot say anything,” Viviano told reporters on leaving the state prosecutor’s office. Italian media have become obsessed by the story, with the club saying the disabled badge belonged to a woman who was a personal assistant to certain players and thus used their vehicles.

Cesena, two points above

Sampdoria who occupy the last relegation spot with five games left, will hope to catch their preoccupied local rivals off guard even if 12thplaced Bologna are not mathematically safe (1300).

Brescia, second from bottom and four from safety, will be especially hoping Bologna put the affair out of their minds and beat Cesena given they welcome their own neighbors tomorrow in the form of league leaders AC Milan (1700). Milan are planning to take an hour-long train journey rather than get caught up in Easter road traffic, such is the club’s attention to detail as they near a first scudetto since 2004.

“Unfortunately I don’t play but my concentration is total,” Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani, who booked the train, told reporters.

“Now someone else has to go and score a goal.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is again suspended after his appeal against a three-game ban for swearing at a linesman was rejected and fellow striker Alexandre Pato is injured.

Robinho and Antonio Cassano are set to lead the line. The Rossoneri are six points clear of second-placed Napoli, who travel to eighth-placed Palermo (1300) looking to recover from last weekend’s 2-1 home defeat by Udinese. Beleaguered former European Cup finalists Samp travel to long adrift bottom side Bari, who will be relegated if they lose (1300). Champions Inter Milan, third in the standings, host Lazio who are just one spot below them. All Serie A matches take place tomorrow because of Easter. — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Oops! Real drops trophy under bus MADRID: Real Madrid waited 18 years to win back the Copa del Rey trophy - only to drop the cup and watch it get crushed under the wheels of a bus. Only hours after beating archrival Barcelona in the domestic cup final in Valencia, Madrid defender Sergio Ramos let the 15-kilogram cup fall from the top of the team bus during celebrations early yesterday morning in the capital.

The front right wheel of the bus rolled over the trophy before the driver stopped. Emergency services gathered up the broken pieces and returned them to the bus but the trophy did not reappear at the club’s traditional celebration spot of the Plaza de Cibeles in central Madrid.

“The cup fell, it fell,” Ramos said according to Europa Press agency. “But the cup is OK.” Later, the Spain defender made light of the incident on Twitter.

“The whole thing about the cup was a misunderstanding, it didn’t fall ... it jumped off when it reached Cibeles (the fountain in Madrid where the team celebrates its titles) and saw so many Madrid fans,” Ramos tweeted. “Hahahaha ... but don’t worry ... have a good day.”

The club said yesterday that the trophy will be repaired. “It is not in good shape, evidently, it was run over by a bus,” Madrid spokeswoman Marta Santisteban told The Associated Press. “It has to be fixed.” Once it is whole again, the cup will take its place alongside Madrid’s other silverware in its trophy case at the club museum.

Madrid beat Barcelona 1-0 after extra time on Wednesday, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s header giving the club its first domestic cup since 1993 and its first trophy of any kind in three years. Spanish reports said 60,000 fans gathered at Cibeles to celebrate the club’s first silverware under coach Jose Mourinho. “After two complicated years, winning the Copa del Rey is a relief,” Madrid captain Iker Casillas said before following the tradition of wrapping a Madrid insignia and club scarf around the Roman goddess that marks the square.— AP

VALENCIA: FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi from Argentina, right lies on the ground during the final of the Copa del Rey soccer match against Real Madrid at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia on Wednesday April 20, 2011. Real Madrid won the match 1-0. — AP

Wounded Barcelona looking for La Liga lift MADRID: Barcelona cannot afford to wallow in the pain of Wednesday’s King’s Cup final defeat to great rivals Real Madrid and must focus on protecting their eight-point lead in La Liga, striker David Villa said. Real’s dramatic 10 victory in Valencia, courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 103rd-minute header, ended Barca’s hopes of a second treble in three seasons but they are in a strong position to claim a third straight Spanish league title with six games left.

They host struggling Osasuna tomorrow (1800 GMT) before their clash with Real in the two-legged Champions League semi-final on April 27 and May 3.

“We had hoped for victory (in the Cup final) but we have to pick ourselves up and digest this because we have a month left that could be very nice,” Villa

told reporters after the match at the Mestalla stadium. “We have to clinch the league and think about the Champions League where we have the chance to reach the final,” he added. “There are some very nice experiences ahead.”

Barca coach Pep Guardiola, who tasted his first defeat in a final since taking charge at the end of the 2007/08 season, said he was confident his players would demonstrate the same resilience they had shown in the past. “It is always better to win than lose that’s clear,” he said at a news conference. “We will come back from this, of course. These players have showed they can do that many times, with me and without me.”

Jose Mourinho’s Real are on a high ahead of tomorrow’s game at thirdplaced Valencia (1600) after claiming

their first silverware in three seasons and their first King’s Cup since 1993. It was also their first trophy under Mourinho, who has now won domestic cups in four countries after previous triumphs in his native Portugal, England and Italy.

Former Real player Zinedine Zidane, an adviser to club president Florentino Perez, said defeating Barca would give the players a confidence boost but appeared to write off the club’s chances of catching Barca in the Spanish league. “This victory is very important on a psychological level,” the former France international said on Real’s website (www.realmadrid.com).

“This triumph is important, but we must now focus on the Champions League,” he added.— Reuters

No title party just yet for Dortmund

MADRID: In this image made from television, the Copa del Rey trophy is seen falling in front of the team bus. — AP

BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund could win the Bundesliga title tomorrow but the club are in no mood to party just yet.

Eight points clear with four games left, Dortmund will win their first championship since 2002 if they win at Borussia Moenchengladbach tomorrow and second-placed Bayer Leverkusen fail to beat Hoffenheim. While Dortmund are trying to focus on the game and keeping title talk to a minimum, some 19,000 travelling fans will make the trip for the match, the largest number since their 1989 and 2008 German Cup finals, the club said.

Training sessions on Thursday and Friday were closed to fans as coach Juergen Klopp tried to shield his players from the growing waves of spectators. “I

hope our fans understand the need for this measure,” Klopp said. “At the end of the day it is in our interest to prepare in a professional manner for the game in Gladbach.”

Klopp will be without key playmaker Nuri Sahin, who partially tore ligaments last week and will miss the rest of the season. This is unlikely to spoil their offensive appetite against last-placed Gladbach, who have their backs to the wall and in desperate need of a win if they are to have any real hope of staying up. Third-placed Bayern Munich will be looking to make it two wins out of two games under interim coach Andries Jonker when they travel to Eintracht Frankfurt. A win would keep them in the running for a third-place finish that

would see them play in the Champions League qualification spot, with next season’s final to be held in Munich.

Hanover 96, just a point behind in fourth place, travel to Freiburg later on Thursday in a schedule change because of the Easter holidays and a win could lift them provisionally above Bayern.

Champions League semi-finalists Schalke 04, who face Manchester United next week, host Kaiserslautern three days after talismanic goalkeeper Manuel Neuer announced he would not extend his contract beyond 2012 after 20 years with the club, making a move in the summer all but inevitable. Neuer, 25, said he expected some jeers and whistles from the same fans he sat with in the stands as a teenager. —Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Only thinkers ‘survive’ T20 NEW DELHI: Twenty20 cricket is a constant battle of wits and bowlers who cannot think on their feet will end up cannon-fodder, says South African pace bowler Wayne Parnell. Representing Pune Warriors in this year’s Indian Premier League, the 21-year-old left-arm seamer has seen how harshly some bowlers have been treated by unheralded batsmen such as Paul Valthaty and Bharat Chipli. Parnell nearly echoes French philosopher Rene Descartes when he says only those bowlers who think would exist in cricket’s slam-bang format.

“Batters come breaking new ideas every day. But I think as a fast bowler, you just need to be one step ahead,” Parnell told Reuters in a telephone interview.

IPL Punjab batsman Valthaty, who does not make the cut even for Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy squad, blasted an unbeaten 63-ball 120 against Chennai, while Deccan Chargers’ Chipli, a veteran of just 15 first class matches, hammered a 35-ball 61 not out against Bangalore.

Parnell marvels at the cheeky shots unfurled on a regular basis by the batsmen who are out to make the most of a format that unabashedly favors them. The youngster from Port Elizabeth assured he and some of his peers are finding a way to counter that.

WIDE YORKERS “Definitely Twenty20 has forced the bowlers to think more. The batters are coming hard on us to score off every ball and score 150-plus. “We need to be quite smart about how we go about our bowling. You have just four overs in this format and you are probably going to bowl two up front and two at the back. So you have to bowl wisely. I think the bowlers already are a lot smarter now, compared to the first IPL. “Every bowler needs at least a couple of variations in the armoury. The slow bumpers, wide yorkers, leg-cutters, off-cutters... we are practicing these every day and we need to be confident when using these in the match.” Parnell knows a string of good performances would help him win back the third pace bowler’s spot that Lonwabo Tsotsobe currently occupies in the South African national team. “Basically I just need opportunities. People know that I can do the job and I have shown in the past that I can do the job,” said the aspiring all-rounder. “Obviously in the national set-up, Lopsy (Tsotsobe) has been the man in charge now and he has done really well. He is a good player. At the end of the day, we can all be selfish and want to play for South Africa but we have to see what’s best for South Africa.

“Still being part of the squad is obviously very nice for me and when I do get the opportunity again, I will take it with both hands,” said Parnell, who played his 19th one-day international against Bangladesh last month. Parnell grew up watching the Indian left-arm pace duo of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, his Pune team mate, but said he actually benefitted from advice from compatriots Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. “Dale Steyn back home has been unbelievable. He has given me a few tips which I have taken up. Morne also gave me a few tips. Basically they are the guys I look up to.”—Reuters

FLORIDA: Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St Louis (26) celebrates after scoring past Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (second from left) and defenseman Ben Lovejoy (6) during the second period in Game 4 of a firstround NHL Stanley Cup playoff series on Wednesday, April 20. — AP

Red Wings sweep Coyotes 4-0 Caps, Pens win in double overtime GLENDALE: The Detroit Red Wings swept the Phoenix Coyotes out of the NHL playoffs and possibly out of their hometown with a 6-3 victory Wednesday. There was a sellout crowd on hand to what many suspect will be the Coyotes last game in Phoenix before relocation, but their support could not help the team avoid going down to a 40 series loss. After a goal-trading first two periods came a deflating goal by Danny Cleary, who scored from behind the right post with 6:19 left to put Detroit up 4-3.

Todd Bertuzzi sealed the sweep in the first-round Western Conference series less than 2 minutes later, knocking in a shot off a defensive skate, and Patrick Eaves scored his second goal on an empty net. Tomas Holmstrom and Niklas Kronwall also scored, and Detroit earned some time to recuperate before the next round with a dominating series over a team that took the Red Wings to seven games last season. The Coyotes had kept up with goals from Taylor Pyatt, Shane Doan and Martin Hanzal but left saluting the crowd at center ice in Glendale for perhaps the last time.

Capitals 4, Rangers 3, 2OT In New York, Jason Chimera scored in second overtime to complete

Washington’s three-goal comeback that pushed New York to the brink of playoff elimination.

New York scored three times in the second period to take a 3-0 lead and seemed poised to head back to Washington for Game 5 on Saturday with the series squared. But the topseeded Capitals fought back and moved within one win of advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Alexander Semin started Washington’s rally, and Marcus Johansson scored twice in the third to make it 3-3. The Rangers built their big lead on a goal by Artem Anisimov and tallies just 7 seconds apart by Marian Gaborik and Brandon Dubinsky.

Penguins 3, Lightning 2, 2OT In Tampa, James Neal scored the winner in double overtime as Pittsburgh beat Tampa Bay to take a 3-1 series lead.

Neal gathered a loose puck along the boards and sent the winning shot past goalie Dwayne Roloson. Tyler Kennedy and Arron Asham put the Penguins 2-0 ahead in regulation but the hosts forced overtime thanks to a goal from Martin St. Louis late in the second period and another with less than four minutes remaining from Sean Bergenheim.

Game 5 is tomorrow in Pittsburgh.

Sabres 1, Flyers 0 In Buffalo, the hosts beat Philadelphia to even their series 2-2, with Ryan Miller making 32 saves for his second shutout of the playoffs. Jason Pominville scored at 9:38 of the first period. It was Miller’s third career playoff shutout and second of the Eastern Conference series after he stopped 35 shots in Buffalo’s 1-0 victory in Game 1. Miller’s best stops came in the final 9 minutes. First, there was his glove save in stopping Danny Briere, who was set up alone in front. A few minutes later, Miller reached back with his stick to prevent Mike Richards from slipping a shot into an open left side. Game 5 is today in Philadelphia.

Ducks 6, Predators 3 In Nashville, Anaheim powered past Nashville to square the series 2-2. Game 5 is Friday night in Anaheim, with Ducks forward Bobby Ryan set to return from a two-game suspension. Corey Perry’s short-handed goal early in the third period put the Ducks ahead to stay. Cam Fowler had a power-play goal and had an assist, and Ryan Getzlaf, Brandon McMillan, Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu added goals. Patric Hornqvist, Joel Ward and Matt Halischuck scored for Nashville, which blew a chance for its first ever 3-1 series lead.— AP

Windies froze me out, says emotional Gayle GROS ISLET: Chris Gayle claimed Wednesday he had been frozen out by the West Indies Cricket Board and was left with no option but to choose the money-spinning IPL over national team duty. The former captain said he was forced to accept an offer to play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore because he was not sure about his place in the West Indies team, following his axing for the opening matches of Pakistan’s tour. West Indies officials reacted angrily to Gayle’s decision, and said they were less than pleased with the man-

ner in which the he handled the situation.

They begrudgingly gave him a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to participate in the IPL. But a few hours later Gayle blasted the WICB in a revealing radio interview from India. He said after getting injured during the World Cup, he paid all expenses for medical treatment in Britain before returning home to Jamaica, where he took it upon himself to commence a rehabilitation program with his personal trainer. “A group of players were selected for a training camp in Barbados, and I never got a

call, nobody spoke to me, and I decided to leave it alone,” an emotional Gayle said in an hour-long interview on Jamaican radio station, KLAS Sports.

“I continued my training program, and I came to find out via the media that a Twenty20 squad was announced, and a One-day International squad was announced, and I was stunned when I saw a big headline in the newspapers, ‘Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul dropped’.” Gayle said he was puzzled because no WICB official had actually called to check-up on him.

He felt the least they could have done was to call him to the training camp at the West Indies High Performance Centre in Bridgetown, and assess his fitness before making a decision about the team.

“The only communication I have had with anyone connected with the WICB was when I sent a text message to (team physio) CJ Clark, and gave him an update about how I was doing,” he said. “I told him I was feeling good, the progress I was making, I was running, I was in the gym, and working.” —AFP

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011

Thunder overwhelm Nuggets 2-0 Lakers, Spurs bounce back with victories

LOS ANGELES: Manny Pacquiao (right) of the Philippines, works out with trainer Freddie Roach in front of the media in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Pacquiao is scheduled to box Shane Mosley for Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title on May 7 in Las Vegas. — AP

Pacquiao primed for fight against Mosley HOLLYWOOD: Filipino pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao will need find his killer instinct again if he is to become the first boxer to knock out former four-time world champion Shane Mosley.

The eight-division world champion Pacquiao, whose last fight was a 12-round unanimous decision over Antonio Margarito, will fight Mosley for the World Boxing Organization welterweight title May 7 at the MGM Grand hotel and casino. “I want Manny to knock him out and I think we can,” said trainer Freddie Roach on Wednesday.

“But Manny is a compassionate person at times.

Like he wouldn’t hurt Margarito. “He took it easy on him in the last two rounds and let him last the fight.

Asked him if he is OK couple of times. Manny doesn’t want anyone get hurt.”

Despite giving away 17-pounds, Pacquiao bloodied and bruised the bigger Margarito’s face and then carried him through the late rounds. Margarito had to have surgery to repair a broken eye socket but it could have been a lot worse if Pacquiao hadn’t let up. “Boxing isn’t about killing each other,” Pacquiao said Wednesday at the Wild Card Boxing Club.

“Boxing is entertainment. Entertaining people and making people happy.” But Pacquiao says he also can’t afford to underestimate the 39-year-old Mosley who has gone 53 fights in his 18-year career without being knocked out. “He (Mosley) is determined to shock the world,” Pacquiao said. “He is a good fighter. I don’t underestimate him. I never say it is going to be an easy opponent.”

His camp says Pacquiao is in the midst of one of his best training sessions. Roach says Pacquiao is working as hard as ever for a title fight. “His focus is great. There are less distractions this time. He is very motivated and has continued to push himself from day one,” Roach said.

Roach said their game plan is a simple one-box with Mosley early then wait for him to tire and make

a mistake. “Part of the game plan is to out box him and when we do break him down get him to the point where we can take him out,” Roach said. “He can’t move like he used to for 12 rounds. I don’t think his legs are what they used to be. Somewhere in the fight he is going to have to stand flatfooted and fight with us. I think that is when we can catch him.”

Mosley has 46 wins and 39 knockouts but has lost twice and struggled to a draw in his past five fights.

He fell to Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto in 2007 and unbeaten Floyd Mayweather in May before a draw against American Sergio Mora in September.

“He has a good chin,” Roach said of Mosley. “It (knockout) has never been done. He has fought every fighter in the world and some great fighters.

“He is a tough guy and I am sure he is going to come into the ring in the best shape he can. ” Pacquiao has won 13 fights in a row and the southpaw has not lost in nearly six years. In that span he has dispatched such stars as Oscar de la Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez. “I have to be careful of his (Mosley) size and speed,” Pacquiao said. “I have to focus on his speed and counterpunch.

“When we get in the ring I can read what he is doing, his style and then adjust. “He can still fight.

He is not as slow as Margarito. He is fast and he moves fast. He is trying hard and he can do a lot of things.” Pacquiao has also claimed world titles in eight weight classes. He always divides his time training for a fight between the Philippines and America but for this fight they decided to change things up a bit. The biggest change was to spend five weeks, instead of three, training in Los Angeles. For the Margarito fight they spent five weeks training in the Philippines and three in Los Angeles. “We started early for this training camp,” Pacquiao said. — AFP

OKLAHOMA CITY: Oklahoma City Thunder built a big first-half lead on the way to a 106-89 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, taking a 2-0 lead in their NBA first-round playoff series. Kevin Durant scored 23 points and Russell Westbrook added 21 for the Thunder, who did not rely upon its All-Star duo as much as it did in Game 1, instead getting contributions from everyone to build a 26-point lead early in the second quarter.

Ty Lawson scored 20 points to lead Denver, while Nene and Raymond Felton added 16 points apiece. Oklahoma City got a balanced performance, with James Harden providing 18 points and Serge Ibaka adding 12 points and 12 rebounds. Kendrick Perkins had 11 rebounds as the Thunder piled up a 41-19 edge on the boards by late in the third quarter. Denver made a brief rally to get within 86-76 with 8:33 to play. The series shifts to Denver on Saturday with Oklahoma City leading 2-0.

Spurs 93, Grizzlies 87 In San Antonio, the hosts beat Memphis to squared their series at 1-1. Manu Ginobili scored 17 points in the All-Star’s return after missing Game 1 with an elbow sprain, and wore a thick sleeve to protect his right elbow but played as physically as usual. Tim Duncan had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, and Hill and Richard Jefferson added 16

apiece. Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, who combined for 49 points in the opener, were far less dominant in Game 2. Randolph scored 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting and Gasol had 12 points, making just 2 of 9. Gasol had 17 rebounds. Sam Young had 17 points for the Grizzlies, who opened the series with their first franchise playoff win. His 3pointer with 14.9 seconds left made it 89-87 before George Hill sealed the win at the free throw line. Game 3 is tomorrow in Memphis.

Lakers 87, Hornets 78 In Los Angeles, the hosts survived poor games from its two biggest stars to even the firstround playoff series against New Orleans. Andrew Bynum had 17 points and 11 rebounds, Lamar Odom scored 16 points and Ron Artest added 15 as the two-time defending champions rebounded from a stunning loss in the series opener with an improved defensive effort against Chris Paul, who still had 20 points and nine assists. With Odom’s outstanding performance leading strong bench play, the Lakers overcame the struggles of AllStars Kobe Bryant, who managed just 11 points, and Pau Gasol, who had eight. Trevor Ariza scored 22 points for the Hornets, who committed 16 turnovers after making just three in Game 1. Game 3 is today in New Orleans. — AP

SAN ANTONIO: San Antonio Spurs’ Manu Ginobili (20), of Argentina, and Memphis Grizzlies’ Shane Battier (left) scramble for a loose ball during the second quarter of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. — AP

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Oops! Real drops trophy under bus Page 61

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LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum (center) puts up a shot as New Orleans Hornets forward Carl Landry (left) and center Emeka Okafor defend during the first half in Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. — AP

Thunder overwhelm Nuggets 2-0

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