06 May - Friday Times

For 30-something women, the biological clock is ticking

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Pakistanis say US shot bin Laden in ‘cold blood’

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Black night for Brazil as the Big Four crash out

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NO: 15080- Friday, May 6, 2011

Obama visits Ground Zero President lays wreath in memory of 9/11 victims

See Page 16

NEW YORK: President Barack Obama pauses after laying a wreath at the National September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero in New York yesterday. — AP

Local FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Local Spotlight

Swiss banks and secrecy

Satire Wire

Fertile ground for blossoming conspiracies

By Muna Al-Fuzai

By Sawsan Kazak muna@kuwaittimes.net

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witzerland’s banks have long been known for their secrecy and confidentiality. In recent times, however, we’ve seen a rash of reports about the estimated wealth of former presidents like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, and Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine ben Ali. These news raise questions about Swiss banks and their working practices.

For many years, we the people did not know much about the way in which Swiss banks worked. Most of what we knew or thought we knew came from James Bond films, action movies and various news reports. All of this information created one impression - that penetrating these banks was not wholly impossible - at least from the viewpoint of these movies - but that they were intended for the use of multimillionaires only.

This was the common perception of Swiss banks, that their clients were the super-wealthy, including celebrities and government leaders, which was helped by many of these people being high profile clients of these banks.

We can perhaps understand that celebrities want Swiss bank accounts for various reasons, perhaps to hide their assets from their former spouses for instance. The riches kept in these banks by leaders and senior officials, however, indicate only that there is something deeply wrong about how they obtained this wealth, and that they are only using these

banks to conceal these funds they’ve obtained by deceitful means in case they’re forced out of power, so that their families will continue to be fantastically rich and live lives of vast privilege with no risk of them ever dying from hunger!

I agree that people who live under the threat of instability in their own nations should have the right to open a bank account somewhere safer overseas, not only in a Swiss bank but in any other country. But leaders amassing wealth in Swiss bank accounts out of sight of their peoples clearly indicates that this money is dirty and very possibly stolen from the funds belonging to their nations which they swore to protect and serve rather than rob and cheat!

I think the people of all nations are entitled to demand further inquiries into the role of Swiss banks and their working practices, such as where they stand in regard to receiving large amounts of money from individuals in the Middle East and what regulations and methods of transparency they follow!

Kaffeeklatsch

Can someone please find the Abominable Snowman?

By Shakir Reshamwala

shakir@kuwaittimes.net

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o the Americans finally “found” OBL and liquidated him - though they should have documented his killing better, rather than changing the story every few hours.

Anyway, technology apparently played a great part in this operation, from satellite imagery to super-secret stealth whirlybirds. Now that they’ve put this episode behind them, they should use this highfalutin’ wizardry to track down the yeti, who supposedly lives in the Himalayas just a few steps northwards from bin Laden’s “mansion”. This apelike creature has been eluding and deluding humans for centuries, so it’s about time he was unveiled to the sniggering public and condemned to life in a travelling freak show. It would be even nicer if he weren’t lobotomized and thrown into the sea.

But since the SEALs hotfooted it out of Pakistan and it looks likely they won’t be returning anytime soon, they should look stateside, where the Abominable Snowman’s distant cousin lurks - Bigfoot. It is really mindboggling that this cryptid is allowed to roam with impunity in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest without causing the least bit of concern in Washington about this homegrown terrorist’s activities. Even if the CIA names the sasquatch “Geronimo 2”, the Apaches may be forgiving this time, since they too want to know who is violating their ancestral lands.

Just picture the SEALs arresting Bigfoot - maybe he’s too thickskulled to be shot - and “easing” him, instead of the sea, into a flat-folding chair. They can then signal back to the White House: “Geronimo 2 IKEA.” The POTUS would be ecstatic in the Situation Room!

Or perhaps the Yanks, after violating the sovereignty of one friendly country, can do it again in another and send choppers into Britain. The hardy Scots - probably afraid to get their kilts wet - still haven’t found the Loch Ness Monster.

It is outrageous that humans are close to finding the Higgs boson particle but have still not located a lumbering plesiosaur waddling in a Highland pond. Finding Nessie would be just what the Americans need to prove to the snooty moralizing Europeans that they can do better than kill an unarmed man in the dead of the night in his pyjamas.

Or they could just find Elvis...

sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

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t has only been a few days since America announced it had captured, quickly killed and buried Osama Bin Laden. For ten years this one man had been on top of America’s most wanted list. Being labeled the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and many others before that, bin Laden was the face of terrorism for America as well as many other countries. For this reason, his capture and death was called one of President Obama’s greatest achievements.

For such a monumental accomplishment, very little information has been made public. You would think the catching and killing of your country’s worst enemy would be something you would brag about forever. If I had captured and killed my rival, I would not have buried the body at sea with few witnesses and no physical proof. I would have made countless videos, photo albums and I would probably have the head stuffed and hung as a trophy in my house (hypothetically speaking of course).

But I guess we don’t all deal with enemies and their captures in the same way.

Some of us make it a public affair, others seems to want to keep it a private event with details remaining confidential. The problem with the latter technique is that it is fertile ground for conspiracy theories to blossom.

Already the conspiracies have begun to grow with some people believing that Osama died from natural causes and then handed over to the Americans, who in turn hurried up to ‘bury’ him to hide the evidence. Another theory states that the Al-Qaeda leader had been dead for years and his ‘killing’ is just a trick to get Obama reelected. And let us not forget the always popular, that it wasn’t even him that was captured and killed.

I predict that if there isn’t more information and proof made available to the public, conspiracy theories will get weirder and more frequent. Allow me to try my hand at the conspiracy creation thing: Maybe he was abducted by aliens years ago and he is floating around in a spaceship waiting for the right time to come back and terrorize again with his new alien army. Or maybe they actually caught him but he was innocent this whole time because he was framed by his evil twin Dave bin Laden who has always been jealous of him and his many wives. These conspiracies may seem farfetched for now, but I am convinced that even weirder ones will evolve, not to mention sightings. Hopefully more information will be made available and maybe we can avoid the incredible conspiracies to come.

Local FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

From the editor’s desk

Ding dong! Osama’s dead

By Abd Al-Rahman Alyan Editor-in-Chief

myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

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bama killed Osama is the news everyone is talking about and as expected, all the conspiracy theories are flooding the planet. Some say Osama is not dead and that the US has not proved his death. Some say that he was seriously ill for the past few years and he died because of that and that’s why the US can’t show pictures of his body. The point is that the saga of the super villain Osama bin Laden is over and that is the last you are going to see of him. I say super villain because it is hard to believe that a longbearded, turban-wearing Bedouin with a 60’s

Kalashnikov has managed to last that long against the might of the world’s best intelligence services and technological weapons. The only logical explanation to why he lasted that long is that someone somewhere wanted him alive and perhaps his role is now over.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Osama pulls another trick and comes back from the dead to add one more episode to the war on terror - ‘Return of the Terrorist’. After all, there is still one more Bush who could become president and if he can’t make it, count on many likeminded republicans to Trump a card like that. If it’s not Osama returning, there might be another terrorist in the pipeline. After all Osama bin Laden was a rebel backed by the US against the Soviet Union before he turned against them and became a terrorist.

Who knows if the next terrorist is another US-backed rebel in Libya. Only time will tell.

The thing that surprised me about Osama’s death is how some people condemned the way he was

dumped into the sea rather than giving him a proper burial! Yes, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I don’t remember Osama or his clowns worrying about a proper burial for all the innocent people they killed by their cowardly acts. Please don’t tell me he wasn’t responsible for 9/11 as well. Yes there might be unanswered questions about how he was allowed to do it but I didn’t see him crying and pleading his innocence after the whole incident.

For now, the death of Osama is some justice to the families of the victims who were killed by this criminal around the world, but there are still many questions that need to be answered and put to bed in order to give closure to those families.

Conspiracy Theories

Is it boredom, the weather or stress?

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

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hat is the obsession with mobile phones in Kuwait? I know it is an essential tool of communication in our lives, but come on... My career takes me to many places around the world - the Gulf, Dubai, Jordan, Europe and elsewhere - but wherever I’ve been, I haven’t seen people glued to their mobile phones like we are in Kuwait...especially while driving. I hardly see anybody in Europe or in the rest of the Arab world using their mobile phone behind the wheel. Maybe on rare occasions it might happen that you’re on the phone with someone overseas and they’ll politely say, “I will call you back, I am driving now.” And as he or she says that, you know that the driver is looking left and right to check if there’s a policeman nearby because the penalties for driving-and-talking elsewhere are high.

Here in Kuwait it is a totally different scenario.

Nobody is bothered. Sometimes I even see policemen driving and talking on their own cell phones. You can tell from their facial expressions that they’re not discussing any urgent police matters either, but simply chatting with their wives, girlfriends or friends, and the smiling expression on their faces show that they’re certainly not taking urgent calls reporting armed robberies in the neighborhood!

Here I think people actually wait until they begin driving to start using their phones. Doing so has become part of the driving routine: start the ignition, release the brake and start dialing. It is truly amazing. Some drivers begin talking immediately when starting the engine. Others wait till they reach a traffic jam - which nowadays is everywhere and at any time. Sometimes you think they’d put the phone down when they’re

reversing, parking or taking a sharp turn to the left or right, but this is never the case. Instead, it’s always one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the phone. If there is an emergency requiring the use of both the driver’s hands then he or she will support the phone with his/her shoulder and keep on driving. Their hand picks up the phone immediately. This bad habit has gone as far as some people writing text messages and chatting while driving; you’ll see drivers alternating glances at the phone and the street.

That is why I am not surprised at the news that Fahaheel Expressway is one of the most dangerous highways in the world, even being nicknamed Death Road.

The worst scenario in Kuwait is driving and talking on the mobile because it is hazardous to your life and to other road users. I do not mind seeing someone who is waiting in a queue in the hospital or in a line in the shop fiddling with his or her phone. In the past people used to wait in line with a newspaper, a book or a magazine, potentially increasing their knowledge. Now, however, with the mobile phone our culture is ruined, our education lags behind and our social lives are wrecked. Sometimes even friends sitting at the same table will talk with each other via messages. You can go to meet a friend for dinner or lunch and the minute you’ve exchanged greetings, he or she will pick up the phone, with their attention going elsewhere.

What is your analysis of this? Readers, help me! Is it boredom because there is nothing else to do in Kuwait and the weather is so bad that it pushes people into behaving this way? Is it our social system? Is it stress or is it because we can afford high phone bills? What’s the problem?

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

‘I wanted to race with time more and do stuff I didn’t do when I was younger. I feel that I am running out of time and that my energy is being drained.’

Reality TV obsession

By Hussain Al-Qatari

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n recent years the entertainment industry has witnessed some great changes, including an unprecedented obsession with reality television series. This made its debut in the Arab world in 2003 with Star Academy, which was aired on LBC. This series met with uproar from Islamists across the region, who objected to the nature of the show. Because it focuses on music and dancing, two things considered haram by most if not all Islamists, it received heavy criticism and the contestants were subjected to attacks via various media. Calls to boycott such shows were at the top of many Islamists’ priorities lists.

For thirty-something women, the biological

clock is ticking

By Nisreen Zahreddine The anger has since subsided, and more such shows are being produced in the region today. This is reflective of a global obsession with reality television; it is as if our own lives are too dull and boring, so we need to sit in front of the television and watch others do everyday things like wake up in the morning, have breakfast, etc.

Two years ago while shopping at a local bookstore, I found a novel entitled Sulphuric Acid, written by a Belgian author, Amelie Nothomb. This very short novel, written in simple language and with short chapters to suit our short attention spans, discusses a reality television show set in a concentration camp. People are eagerly glued to their TVs, watching who is going to die next, and how they’ll die, literally. This premise is not too far-fetched in comparison to our obsession today with watching people get married, confront their cheating spouses or scream profanities at one another.

This industry of plot-less, substance-less entertainment is flourishing at the expense of good art that challenges our perceptions and tries to make a difference. There are many artists here in Kuwait and worldwide whose work deserves to be seen and watched, and yet they are marginalized because they defy the trend. It is time for reviving art and giving it another chance.

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re you a female and, if so, do you feel that your biological clock is ticking more loudly with every passing birthday? What does it feel like to be in your thirties? Will people call you a spinster if you’re unmarried or start advising you to settle down fast? Maybe you could have some firming cosmetic surgery? Or demand more freedom? Will you start to listen to the voice of logic or will you become more irrational?

As a woman, one wonders about all these questions, for women’s minds are always busy with endless such thoughts, with their fourth decade marking a transitional point in their lives and driving them to wonder more about their future, lifestyle, settling down, family, feminism and maybe even the kitchen; at this stage in life all these things become more important than ever before.

Let’s not get too carried away by the possibilities, however. A friend once told me that the golden years in a woman’s life are her thirties, when she realizes that she is a real lady and enjoys this fact. While I am sure that this friend is greatly enjoying being a lady and having a wonderful family, what about others’ opinions? I set out to find whether or not others in the same age group felt equally positive about the ageing process.

One thirty-something interviewee, Sahar, said that she’s felt a lot of biological and other differences since passing the 30-year mark. “I wanted to race with time more and do stuff I didn’t do when I was younger,” she explained. “I feel that I am running out of time and that my energy is being

drained.” Sahar explained that she sometimes feels that she would love to have kids because she may not have the opportunity to have them later, adding that this consideration has influenced several other aspects of her life, such as her choice of partners for instance. “Young hectic guys don’t attract me anymore; although I’m extremely energetic, my standards are different now when it comes to a partner,” she explained.

Another thirty-something, Rania, saw things differently, however, saying that she refuses to consider changing her lifestyle and calming down just because she’s passed her twenties. “ I want to enjoy my thirties, feel free, travel all around the world and enjoy my freedom,” she insisted.

Rania is certainly not ready to see her wings clipped by domesticity as yet, wanting to keep on spreading them and soaring ever-higher.

“I have a program of trips lined up this year all around Europe and Latin America, I want to enjoy my freedom!” she asserted, rejecting the idea of modifying her attitude towards choosing a partner or changing her taste in men.

“I am an artist; my soul is free and men have to respect the fact that I won’t be locked in a kitchen after hitting thirty,” she insisted.

These are two different opinions, both from women in their early thirties - whilst one has been strongly affected by entering this new phase of her life, the other has not.

Surely, however, there is still a large margin for merging the energetic free spirit of youth with the wisdom and maturity required for settling down and starting a family.

Welcome to Planet Venus!

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Local

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

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By Sunil Cherian

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his is a true story recounted to me years ago by a friend who heard it from someone else. At a foreign school in Kuwait, an American teacher was rather angry with a parent who appeared to be as self-important as his troublesome 8th grade son. “Your son,” the teacher told the disgruntled father, “is the most aggressive student in the whole school and I think you as a parent also have a role in causing and remedying his conduct”. Translating her words for the father, another teacher was bewildered at first but rose to the occasion, using her creative abilities to interpret this rebuke for the parent in question.

“The teacher says,” the translator said politely, “your son can improve a lot if he tries his best.” The parent nodded and appeared to agree. After the father left, the teacher, sensing some amendments to her actual words, asked of her friend and translator, “Hey, did you really translate what I said?” The translator replied, “If I translated what you had said, he wouldn’t do anything to you because you are an American, but what would happen to me cannot be translated.”

At parent-teacher meeting time, usually twice a year at most schools, the tension is heightened mainly through arguments between parents and teachers about the children’s grades, with the parents disputing the teachers’ assessment and the teachers defending their appraisal. The parents are sometimes pushed to bargain for the missed grades out of pressure from the child, appearing for the first time to stand up for a noble cause. One father recently told me that he did not want to go to meet his son’s teachers because he’s happy with his 6th grader son’s marks, including an excellent 99.5 marks for his Arabic. “My son insists on knowing why he lost that half mark”.

“I would leave my children’s educational affairs to my wife”, said a businessman father. He represents most fathers, who believe that their children’s education is not their business, seeing it as the mother’s duty, among hundreds of others, to sit with their children, and help with their homework, only reminding the father to pay the fees and meet the teachers to argue about the child’s falling grades. “Even if both the parents come for the meetings, it is the mother who does the talking because the father won’t have any idea of his children’s falling or flourishing grades,” said a teacher.

It was a refreshing change to hear about parents bringing flowers and chocolates for the teachers as tokens of love and appreciation for their hard work and help with their child’s educational development! “These are the golden moments,” a teacher said, “They wake me up from the fatigue of fighting and frustration and forget them as trivial traffic blocks in the great journey of education.”

Recently I asked the friend who told me about the wise and diplomatic translator what had happened thereafter.

“Oh well, the American teacher is gone,” she revealed.

“The translator has become the head of the department.”

So she doesn’t do any more of those sensible translations, I asked.

“Nope,” my friend said. “Apparently their school doesn’t need translators now. All parents can now understand English!” Wow! Sometimes the value of education can’t be translated.

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It’s parent-teacher meeting time!

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Local

Years

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Finance guru spells out

Part-time lovers saving tricks

By Armineonila M.

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ost of us understand starvation more than we do the law. It is one of the reasons why some of us are determined to earn extra bucks to meet our needs. As a result, many find part-time jobs a necessity rather than an option.

Expending extra efforts in a flexible working environment is somewhat considered an effective way of supplementing inadequate salaries.

Recession is a devil lurking around the corners of one’s home to push employees and employers towards the cliff-edge of civil disobedience

Andy, a cleaner, earns less than KD 60 per month as basic salary. From this, KD 15 is deducted every month for his plane ticket and visa and utilities and he has been forced to work overtime without pay. He realized that his salary was insufficient to raise his family and the only option he could think of was to hire his cleaning services out to private individuals.

“I wash their cars and earn KD 5 for each one in my free time,” he told Kuwait Times.

In his spare time, Andy and some of his colleagues also sell homemade bread to help pay the rent. Although he realizes that this is risky and could lead to imprisonment, he continues to take the chance in order to earn some much-needed money - even being arrested and detained overnight recently for his activities, as well as being fined KD 50 fine, has failed to stop him.

Andy’s case is just one piece of evidence that earning a decent livelihood can also mean acquiring a ‘criminal’ lifestyle.

However, there are still countless of parttime job seekers in Kuwait who represent the face of a black market economy. While they have lost faith in the ability of their regular salaries to cover all their expenditures, they rely on part-time jobs. Likewise, in order to meet the financial requirements of an individual, employers, who are just as aware of their staff members’ financial problems, recruit part-timers to work for them.

Recession is a devil lurking around the corner of one’s home to push employees and employers towards the cliff-edge of civil disobedience. A recent report in the US indicated that at least 5 percent of the unemployment rate surged since recession employed its storming momentum in 2007, and still counting. So what is left of those who are trapped in the middle of this economic cyclone is to resort to alternative ways to fill in the gap.

Part-time housemaids, part-time couturier, part-time entertainers, part-time tutors, part-time waiters, etc comprise the mainstream of casual employment.

Some use the internet as a means to engage in part-time employment online since it provides an accessible and safe way of avoiding the authorities’ unwelcome interests. The popularity of freelancing has grown fast, with even reasonably well-paid professionals laying down their pride to join the club of the socalled one-and-a-half earners.’

Andy is just one of those ordinary individuals who only dream of pouring out their sacrifices to fill the empty bowl of poverty. As an ordinary individual, he has become an open target for law enforcers to accomplish their respective jobs.

Since everyone else is too busy holding debates on ideologies and tackling issues that require long-term deliberation, more lovers of extra profit and megabucks are getting married to part-time jobs.

By Nawara Fattahova

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f you are a young entrepreneur with a myriad ideas about business ventures but a dearth of experience in personal finance Faisal Karkari has the answers you need. Karkari, the Kuwaiti personal finance management guru who has already written two books on the subject, as well as authoring articles for local papers, is a well-respected advisor in this field.

Karkari, who has written for papers including Makan and Al-Jarida, has also offered a number of courses and lectures on the subject of personal finance, with a recent three-day seminar organized by the Omar Al-Arth Group, providing young entrepreneurs with advice on how to develop small businesses.

His first book, ‘How to Manage Your Money,’ was published in 2009, with the 280-page work offering a wide range of personal finance management advice. The book was amongst those chosen for display at the annual Book Fair that year, and has already seen respectable sales. About 2,000 copies of that book have been sold already and a second imprint is to be published soon, Karkari said.

‘How to Manage Your Money’ consists of five ‘pillars’ of personal finance wisdom that make up Karkari’s personal finance management philosophy.

“The first pillar is the personal preparing to overcome the wrong beliefs or ideas; through this preparation I cancel these thoughts, showing that any person can become rich and save money,” Karkari explained The second pillar of Karkari personal finance management philosophy is evaluation. “People’s visions differ. I offer them a mathematical way to measure their financial situation,” he said. In the next part Karkari explains the third pillar: arranging. There he provides a financial plan for people’s life, goals, obstacles, and the tools to get rid of the obstructions. “I tell them how to arrange their life.” The fourth pillar is saving. “In this book I explain the ways of saving, the difficulties, and the general rules of saving. I also mentioned the time value of money,” he said.

Investing is the last pillar. “Here I talk about the way of setting investment goals and an investment strategy from the beginning. The reader will also find the kinds of tools available for everybody,” Karkari said.

He argues that in the West and the States especially, most people have personal finance knowledge. “People (in the West) control their financial situation. Here in Kuwait and the GCC countries this is not available, mainly because there are no taxes or complicated financial tools,” he said asserting that his book is suitable for those who like to manage their money and to help their family members. “The evaluation policy is not strong here,” Karkari further said.

According to Karkari, this book is

intended for everybody on a fixed income, whether they’re teenagers doing a weekend job, full-time workers or pensioners, and can help them manage their money better. “The majority of my readers are women and young people, as well as those who have investment ideas,” he stated. The success of the first book inspired Karkari to write his second one, ‘Saving Workout’, which hit Kuwait’s bookshops in November last year. In Karkari’s own words, this book focuses more attention on one of the main pillars from the first book, saving.

“People focused on saving and investing in the first book, so I aimed to write about both issues in details, so I published my second book, ‘Saving Workout,” he explained, adding, “I will publish my third book soon, which will be speaking about investment, another one of my first book’s pillars.”

On his latest work, Karkari said, “The second book is full of solutions and applications for saving suitable for everybody. There is no theory section.

Different people can count and measure their savings depending on their personalities and ages. This book is shorter than the first one, so it’s pretty much in demand. There are many simple solutions that people don’t realize.

It’s not necessary to make somebody a millionaire but it’s enough to ensure a decent life for him and his family.”

Karkari obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Kuwait University in 1997 and his Certified Public Accounting (CPA) qualification at a Californian institution in 2005.

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

What have Arabs given the world? he world, as it turns out, is indebted to Arab creativity, insight and scientific perseverance. This can be found in all aspects of our daily lives, in our homes, offices and universities, in religion, philosophy, science and the arts.

A trip back in time, and in history books, shows that from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries the Arab world had a great cosmopolitan civilization, which brought together Muslims, Christians and Jews. It united Arabs, Africans, Berbers, Egyptians, and the descendants of the Phoenicians, Canaanites, along with many other peoples. This “melting pot” produced a vibrant and dynamic new civilization, whose remarkable advances are outlined in various journals.

The years between the seventh and thirteenth centuries marked a period in history when culture and learning flourished in North

Arab influence on mathematical studies in European universities.

The astrolabe was improved with religion in mind. It was used to chart the precise time of sunrises and sunsets, and to determine the period for fasting during the month of Ramadan, with Arab astronomers of the Middle Ages compiling astronomical charts and tables in observatories such as those at Palmyra and Maragha. Gradually, they were able to determine the length of a degree, to establish longitude and latitude, and to investigate the relative speeds of sound and light.

Al-Biruni, considered one of the greatest scientists of all time, discussed the possibility of the earth’s rotation on its own axis - a theory proven by Galileo six centuries later.

Arabs also left their imprint on the medical field. Abu Bakr Al-Razi, a ninth century medic of awesome and encyclopedic knowledge, was an authority on contagion. Among his many volumes of medical surveys, perhaps

the Romans, developing it into their own unique style. The Great Mosque of Damascus, built in the early eighth century, is a beautiful demonstration of the use of the horseshoe arch. The mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, meanwhile, was the inspiration behind the building of many magnificent cathedrals in Europe.

Another towering figure, Ibn Al-Haytham, wrote a book in the tenth century on optics, Kitab Al-Manazir, in which he explored optical illusions, the rainbow, and the camera obscura, the device which ultimately gave birth to photography.

Great Arab geographers of the medieval period improved upon ancient navigational practices with the development of the magnetic needle in the ninth century. One of the most brilliant geographers of the medieval world was Al-Idrisi, a twelfth century scientist who lived in Sicily. He was commissioned by the Norman King, Roger II, to compile a world atlas, which contained 70 maps, at a time

King Robert II for his coronation is one of the best examples of this delicate art. Others left a legacy of astounding artistic works in steel, which they polished and decorated with ornate etchings, as well as producing tempered Damascene swords.

Because God spoke to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Arabic, Muslims venerate the Arabic language. Thus, to Muslims, Arabic calligraphy itself became an art form, being the chief form of embellishment on all the mosques of the Arab world; the religious and public buildings of Palermo, Cordoba, Lisbon and Malaga are still resplendent with ornate Arabic calligraphy.

The Arabic language is rich and flexible, with Arabic poetry, literature and drama leaving their mark on both East and West. Among the earliest Arabic publications were translations into Arabic of Greek and Roman classics, such as the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Ptolemy. Arabic poetry was also

Africa, Asia, Southern Europe, and the Middle East. This period enhanced and developed the arts and sciences and preserved the libraries of the early centuries of the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine cultures. Indeed, during the Dark Ages of Europe, much learning was preserved for the world through the Arab libraries. From this period of Arab influence, new words such as orange, sugar, coffee, sofa, satin, and algebra filtered into the languages of Europe.

The math problem In mathematics, the Arab figure sifr, or zero, provided new solutions for complicated mathematical problems. The Arabic numeral which was an improvement on the original Hindu concept and the Arab decimal system facilitated the course of science. Arabs invented and developed algebra and made great strides in trigonometry. Al-Khwarizmi is credited as the founder of algebra. The writings of Leonardo de Vinci, Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa, and Master Jacob of Florence show the

the most famous is the Kitab Al-Mansuri, which was used in Europe until the sixteenth century. Al-Razi was the first to diagnose smallpox and measles and to introduce such remedies as mercurial ointment, as well as introducing the idea of using animal gut for sutures.

Another great Arab figure was Ibn Sina, the celebrated scientist-philosopher known in Europe as Avicenna. Ibn Sina believed that some illnesses were psychosomatic and sometimes led patients back to a recollection of an incident buried in the subconscious in order to explain their present ailment.

Another renowned Arab scientist, Syrian Ibn Al-Nafis, discovered the fundamental principles of pulmonary circulation.

Arabs and architecture The Arab footprint can be found in architecture too, with a number of great Arab architects devoting their skills to the building of breathtaking mosques and mausoleums.

They borrowed the horseshoe arch form from

when many areas had been uncharted.

Called Kitabal-Rujari (Roger’s book), Idrisi’s work was considered the best geographical guide of its time.

When it comes to Arab contributions to engineering, one need only look to the water wheel, cisterns, irrigation, fixed-level water wells and the water clock to get an idea of the immensity of the part played by Arabs in this field. In 860, the three sons of Musa Ibn Shakir published the Book on Artifices, which describes 100 technical constructions.

Another famed Arab figure, Ibn Battuta, was the hardiest traveler of his age. His travels, over a period of decades at a time, took him to Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Persia, and central Asia. He spent several years in India, and from there was appointed ambassador to the Emperor of China. After China, he toured all of North Africa and many lands in western Africa. Arabs were also distinguished craftsmen, with many being masters in silk weaving; the beautiful Arab cape worn by Sicily’s

put to music with a subtle delicacy in minor key sequences and rhythm, which continue to influence Arabic ballads and folk songs today.

Arab philosophers effectively integrated faith and science, allowing the two areas to complement one another. After the advent of Byzantium, Arab philosophers rediscovered the classic philosophy of Aristotle, Plotinus, and Plato, attempting to find answers to the fundamental questions concerning God’s creation of the universe, the nature and destiny of the human soul, and the true existence of the seen and unseen.

Among the well-known philosophers of the medieval world were Al-Kindi, who contributed to works on the work of Plato and Aristotle; Al-Farabi, who created a model of the human community; Avicenna (Ibn Sina), who developed theories on form and matter that were incorporated into medieval Christian scholasticism, and Ibn Khaldun, who expounded the cycles of a state in his Muqqadimah.

By Nisreen Zahreddine

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Being part of the

underwater world

By Sawsan Kazak

F

or as long as I can remember, getting my scuba diving license was on my to-do list.

Never getting around to it when I was at work, I decided to finally take the time to get my certification whilst I was on a recent trip to Thailand. Excited about finally being able to cross this off my list, I thought that the four-day project was going to be filled with fun, sun and learning a few facts about deep-water diving.

Initially, I was under the impression that I would show up to class, we would learn a few terms and then we would head out to the beach and get started.

Within a few minutes I could see that this was not going to be the case. For those readers who aren’t scuba divers, you’d be surprised to know how much equipment you need to be aware of. Not only do you need to learn their names but also how they function and what to do if they malfunction.

With the first day down and all the equipment memorized, I thought the next day was going to be a walk in the park, or rather a swim off the beach. I showed up bright and early to class with my bathing suit on and filled with eagerness to finally get into the water.

My classmates and I each chose the appropriately-sized wet suit, mask and the item known as a BCD (buoyancy control device).

Instead of heading to a boat that would whisk us far away to see marine nature in all its splendor, however, we then headed to the swimming pool where we were informed that we needed to learn more about the equipment and how to use it before getting into the actual water.

We began by attempting to get into our wet suits - attempting being the key word here as donning a wet suit is easier said than done. After that exhausting and somewhat embarrassing procedure we are asked to put on weight belts, grab the rest of our equipment and head to the pool.

When you see divers on TV you don’t actually realize how heavy that air tank really is. Given that I am only 5-feet telland weigh about 50 kg, carrying that tank on my back was like being an ant for a day. I felt as though I was carrying double my weight in equipment. Finally in the pool we put

Scuba diving is being part of another world, one where you’ll see plants, animals and scenery you could never see on dry land on the equipment and were asked to submerge ourselves underwater. You will always remember the first time you breath underwater. I have never been so aware of my

voice reminding me that if you hold your breath underwater, your lungs could explode. After having gone over everything that could go wrong underwater, we

boat was filled with scared and nervous people, trying desperately to remember what they had learnt in the previous days.

We finally stopped, put on our

breathing; my full concentration was on inhaling through my mouth and exhaling through my nose. As if breathing through your mouth wasn’t hard enough, I kept remembering my instructor’s

were adequately terrified of scuba diving and its many dangers.

It was now the third day and we were finally on the boat heading to the middle of nowhere so we can actually scuba dive. The

heavy equipment, waddled to the edge of the boat and jumped off one by one. It felt like being on a pirate ship and forced to walk the plank. At this point I was wondering what was so wrong with solid

ground. What’s this big hype over the underwater world, why do so many people go through all this trouble and pay all this money to be tortured like this?

I leapt in and started to slowly make my descent. At every meter I had to stop because my ears were hurting, my equipment was shifting around and water kept getting into my mask. After what felt like an eternity, I was finally down to 18 meters deep and felt comfortable enough to swim around. Now what? I was concentrating on my breathing, my diving buddy and not much else.

Just when I was about to write off diving as something I would never do again, my instructor pointed frantically at something in the distance, joining his hands together and wiggling his thumbs. I then remembered that this was the signal for ‘turtle.’ And then, a huge turtle swam slowly and serenely past us with the grace of a ballerina.

I was mesmerized at the ease with which it moved underwater and the nonchalant attitude it showed about the 20 annoying scuba divers that were watching its every move. Watching it swim away and disappear behind the rocks I understood the reason for scuba diving. Forgetting about what could go wrong and simply observing nature, I was finally enjoying myself.

People put themselves through all the trouble of getting into the water so they can be, even if only for a few brief moments, a part of the underwater world. Witnessing that turtle in the midst of its migration season, for a few minutes our worlds intertwined.

I now see how all those scary possible scenarios, the heavy equipment, dry hair and earache are worth it. Scuba diving is being part of another world, one where you can see plants, animals and scenery you could never see on dry land. Yes it was scary at first, but that’s because it needs to be taken seriously otherwise it could be a deadly sport.

By the fourth day I couldn’t wait to get into the water. Scuba diving has an addictive quality to it. It could be the peace of mind you get underwater or the extraordinary sights you see that stimulate you. Being part of the underwater world was spectacular and I can’t wait to do it again.

International FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlMohammad Al-Sabah and other members of Al-Sabah family receive at Bayan Palace yesterday envoys and officials who conveyed condolences on the demise of Sheikh Khaled AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. — KUNA

Local FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Obama nominates veteran Tueller as envoy to Kuwait WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has nominated Matthew Tueller, a veteran diplomat with extensive experience in the Middle East, as the next US Ambassador to the State of Kuwait, the White House announced on Wednesday evening. “I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to serve the American people in these important roles. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead,” said Obama in a statement about Tueller and two other administration officials he has nominated for other ambassadorial posts.

Tueller, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Cairo. Since joining the US Foreign Service in 1985, other overseas assignments have included Political Minister Counselor at the Baghdad Embassy, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US’s Kuwait Embassy, Political Counselor at its Riyadh Embassy, Chief of the US Office in Aden, Yemen, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Doha, Political Officer at the US Embassy in London, and Political Officer and Consular Officer at the embassy in Amman.

According to the White House, Tueller’s Washington assignments have included Deputy Director of the Office of Northern Gulf Affairs, and Egypt Desk Officer. He holds a BA from Brigham Young University and a MPP from Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government. If confirmed by the Senate, Tueller will replace Ambassador Deborah Jones who has served as the US Ambassador to Kuwait since April 2008.— KUNA

Food imports banned from some countries KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipality yesterday banned imports of some food items, including poultry products and meat from a number of countries The ban was introduced following recommendations made during a meeting of the municipality’s food safety committee on April 26. The municipality also announced that it will be lifting an earlier ban on importing the same foodstuffs from France, which was imposed over bird flu fears, which have since been proven groundless.

A senior Municipality official also revealed that a ban on Japanese food products is still in place. The ban was introduced after a radiation leak from the Fukushima nuclear power plant that suffered major damage in the massive earthquake and tsunami there earlier in the year.

A ban on poultry from Romania, the Netherlands and India is also still in place, the official said, with the only items excluded being those which have been thermally treated, whilst another ban is still in place on Bulgarian beef due to a feared outbreak of mad cow disease in that country. — KUNA

Khorafi invites MPs for official meetings Interior panel delays debate on single constituency KUWAIT: National Assembly speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi said yesterday that he has sent out invitations for MPs for official parliamentary sessions next week following a 40-day interruption, an indication that the new cabinet will be ready. Khorafi told reporters that the National Assembly will hold regular sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and hoped that the new cabinet will be ready so the sessions will be held.

Under Kuwaiti law, Assembly sessions must be attended by at least one minister in order to be legal. The Assembly has suspended regular sessions since the government resigned on March 31 and after the prime minister informed Khorafi that the resigned Cabinet will not attend assembly sessions. Meanwhile, criticism of the new Cabinet continued from all quarters including pro-government MPs who have expressed strong opposition to retaining Health Minister Helal Al-Sayer in the new Cabinet. The list of ministers in the new Cabinet was leaked on Wednesday and based on the unofficial list which has not been confirmed

yet, five members of the outgoing Cabinet have been dropped and five newcomers have been included. The new Cabinet was supposed to be announced on Wednesday but was delayed, possibly over the weekend, following the sudden death of Sheikh Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the brother of HH the Amir.

Khorafi had said that the prime minister informed him that the new Cabinet was ready but it will be announced after the three-day mourning period. Almost all Shiite MPs and several others have warned the prime minister against retaining the health minister, while some Islamist MPs defended the minister.

Several MPs have predicted that the new Cabinet will not last long, saying it will only raise tensions between the Assembly and the government.

In addition, several ministers are threatened with grillings. They include the prime minister himself, ministers of foreign affairs, health and deputy premier for economic affairs. The liberal National Democractic Alliance (NDA) strongly criticized the new Cabinet based on the leaked names,

saying that it was formed on the basis of the former cabinets and its formation was based on sectarian and tribal quotas besides fulfilling political favours within and outside the ruling family. NDA said in a statement that “such parameters failed to provide the needed stability in the previous governments and to make any achievements toward development and reforms”.

The interior and defense committee meanwhile discussed yesterday two proposals calling to transform Kuwait into a single electoral constituency in order to achieve equality and eliminate corruption. Rapporteur of the panel MP Salem Al-Namlan said the committee decided to postpone its decision on the issue and sent out an invitation for the interior minister to attend the next meeting to hear the government opinion on the matter. Kuwait is currently divided into five electoral districts with each electing 10 MPs, but there have been many complaints that the number of voters in the constituencies greatly varied casting a suspicion over equality among citizens.

US envoy marks World Press Freedom Day KUWAIT: US Ambassador to Kuwait Deborah K Jones on Wednesday delivered a presentation on ‘The United States and the Arab Democratic Spring’ to students and faculty members at the Gulf University of Science and Technology (GUST). “Each country has unique political, diplomatic, military, economic and strategic circumstances, and therefore it makes no sense to expect a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. In each case, we [the USA] have been consistent and unequivocal in condemning violence on all sides, in calling on governments to respond to the legitimate aspirations of their citizens, and in supporting the people’s call for freedom of expression, for association and peaceful assembly,” Jones said in reference to the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region which have experienced popular uprisings over the past few months.

Ambassador Jones’ presentation was organized by the US Embassy Kuwait’s Public Affairs Section in coordination with GUST’s American Corner, with Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dr Ali Al-Ansari introducing the ambassador at the event.

In her presentation, delivered in honor of World Press Freedom Day, observed on May 3 around the world,

KUWAIT: US Ambassador to Kuwait Deborah K Jones speaks at the presentation. — KUNA Ambassador Jones also noted, “Social media users are playing a starring role in the drama unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa. In many countries in the region - including Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria - the Internet is serving as a catalyst for journalists, activists, and citizens alike to connect with each other and share their stories and calls for change with the world.”

She continued, “Around the world people are calling out for freedom, transparency, and self-determination. We

must do all we can - both virtually and in reality - to support press freedom as a fundamental right to be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere.” GUST’s American Corner represents a long-standing partnership between the US Embassy and the host institution, providing a valuable platform for Embassy speakers, as well as for visiting US speakers, including academics, as well as furnishing information on US educational opportunities and on American history, government and culture. — KUNA

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Pakistanis say US shot bin Laden in ‘cold blood’

Suicide bomber kills 20 policemen in central Iraq

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Workers enter Japan nuclear reactor building

18 DARAA: Syrian army troops pull out of the southern protest hub of Daraa yesterday after a military lockdown of more than a week during which dozens of people were killed in what activists termed as “indiscriminate” shelling of the town, some 100 kms south of the capital Damascus. —AFP

Hundreds arrested as troops exit Syria protest hub Sweep in Saqba came despite UN appeals DAMASCUS: Syrian troops arrested 300 people in a Damascus suburb yesterday, while pulling back from the protest hub of Daraa after a military lockdown that lasted more than a week. The sweep in the suburb of Saqba came despite appeals from UN chief Ban Ki-moon, the United States and Italy for President Bashar al-Assad to end the deadly crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators.

Meanwhile, activists vowed a “Day of Defiance” today to press a seven-week-old anti-regime campaign in which rights groups say 607 people have died, while 8,000 people have been jailed or gone missing.

And dozens of armoured vehicles, including tanks and troops reinforcements, were deployed near the Mediterranean coastal town of Banias, an activist told AFP, contacted by telephone. “It looks like they are preparing to attack the town, like they did in Daraa,” the flashpoint town where the protest movement was born, he said. And in northern Syria, regime supporters forcibly dispersed a student sit-in at Aleppo University calling for the

release of detained colleagues, activists said.

“Security service agents backed by troops detained more than 300 people in Saqba, among them a number of clerics,” an activist told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said at least one of those arrested was shot and wounded before being dragged off by security forces. Troops “tore down a banner in the main square renaming it ‘Martyrs’ Square,’ with photos of those killed attached to it,” the activist said, adding that seven Saqba residents had died since Syrian protests erupted on March 15.

The activist said more than 2,000 troops and security agents had taken part in the sweep and that those detained were driven away in waiting coaches.

In southern Syria, troops began withdrawing from Daraa, which has been under a total military lockdown since April 25. About 350 soldiers in armoured personnel carriers and trucks plastered with portraits of Assad drove out of the town at around 10 am (0700 GMT), an AFP reporter said. “We have begun our

withdrawal after having completed our mission in Daraa,” said General Riad Haddad, the military’s political department chief. “The army will have pulled out of Daraa completely by the end of the day.”

Dozens of people were killed during military assaults in Daraa, launched with what activists termed “indiscriminate” shelling of the town. But Haddad insisted that troops “did not confront the protesters. We continue searching for terrorists hidden in several places. As the army, we never confronted the protesters.”

Twenty-five soldiers were killed in Daraa and 177 wounded, he said. Even as the Daraa pullback began, around 100 tanks and troop transports converged on Ar-Rastan, another hotbed of protests, an activist said on Wednesday. “Reinforcements continue to mass at the northern entrance to Ar-Rastan and, according to our estimates, there must be 100 tanks and troop transports on the highway between Homs and Hama,” the activist said.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said security forces had also arrested protesters who were admitted in hospitals after injuries suffered in demonstrations at Banias.

Citing the case of Maher Abdellatif Sahiuni who was admitted to a hospital on the Jableh-Latakia road, the group said, he was arrested “in order to elicit information about other participants.” Ban has appealed to Assad to end the deadly crackdown.

“The secretary general reiterated his calls for an immediate end to violence against, and mass arrests of, peaceful demonstrators,” spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Wednesday. The United States and Italy also called for an end to the bloodshed. “The Syrian government must immediately stop the violence and resume a path of dialogue,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at a news conference in Rome with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton said she supported planned EU sanctions on Syria and spoke of her “deep concern about the alarming situation in Syria.“—AFP

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Israel media skeptical on Fatah-Hamas deal JERUSALEM: Israeli media commentators reacted with scepticism yesterday to the signing of a surprise reconciliation deal between Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas. A day after an official ceremony marking the deal was held in Cairo, commentators wrote that the agreement was unlikely to hold. An opinion piece in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper carried the headline: “Friction in the wings,” an allusion to reported last-minute disagreements between Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

“Egyptian television did not broadcast the ceremony live because of the tensions between Abu Mazen (Abbas) and Khaled Meshaal,” wrote the commentator, Smadar Peri. “Political ego fights regarding seating arrangements at the ceremony, the order of speakers and the amount of time each speaker was allotted stood to scuttle the entire ceremony.”

Ben Caspit, writing in Maariv, compared the deal to an arranged marriage between a reluctant bride and groom. “If reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas could be compared to a wedding, then it would seem that we are still at the early courting period,” he said. “This is both a fatal and forced attraction. The parties are not completely interested in each other’s company. “Their house is not filled with love. There is no chemistry, no click, and it is not yet clear if they have anything to talk about or do together. The thing is that the parents are putting on a lot of pressure.”

Analyst Yaakov Katz, writing for The Jerusalem Post, said: “For Hamas, unity is just a tactic to survive.

“As the fate of his patron, Syrian President Bashar alAssad, hung in the balance, Meshaal made a calculated tactical decision to try and ensure his political survival by approving the reconciliation, which just months earlier he had conspicuously rejected.” But Caspit said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Wednesday described the unity agreement as “a tremendous blow to peace,” had missed a chance to exploit the deal to extract concessions.

“Rather than uniting against the move and attempting to undermine it, Israel should have taken a radically different approach,” he wrote. Israel should simply demand that the new government recognise previous accords with Israel and renounce violence. “This way the burden of proof would have shifted to the other side and Abu Mazen (Abbas) would have to confront his newfound partners on this.” Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper provided a rare outlier of optimism about the agreement’s potential, if not its chances of success. — AFP

Suicide bomber kills 20 policemen in central Iraq No immediate claim of responsibility for attack BAGHDAD: A suicide car bomber rammed his explosive-packed vehicle into a barrier outside a police building in a central Iraq city yesterday morning, killing 20 police officers and wounding dozens more, a local councilman said. The blast , in the mostly Shiite city of Hillah , was the second significant attack in Iraq since the death of Osama bin Laden on Monday at the hands of a US commando team in Pakistan. Iraqis have been on edge, waiting for Al-Qaeda ‘s branch in Iraq to strike back as a way to demonstrate it is still dangerous.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but it resembled many past attacks by AlQaeda in Iraq targeted at security forces. “The attack bears the hallmark of Al-Qaeda which is renewing its efforts to destabilize the country,” said Hamid al-Milli, a member of the region’s provincial council.

Iraqi officials have vowed to increase security in the aftermath of bin Laden’s killing. Already, security is vastly improved since the days when bin Laden’s associates terrorized the country, but yesterday’s bombing seemed to underscore how difficult it is to wipe out all traces of the insurgency. Iraq also faces the withdrawal of the remaining American forces , about 46,000 troops , from Iraq by the end of this year, a prospect that many Iraqis fear will leave their country more vulnerable to violence. A police official said the bomber hit when officers were assembling in a square in front of the police building for a shift change in Hillah, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of the capital Baghdad.

Al-Milli said 20 policemen were killed and 40 more wounded in the bombing. He said the car was believed to have been loaded with about 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of explosives. The attacker sped toward the police building and the guards did not have a chance to shoot at him, he said. A witness at the scene said the blast knocked down the concrete ceil-

BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in Hillah, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq yesterday. —AP ing covering a parking lot where many police cars were parked.

The fact that the bomber was able to wipe out so many policemen in one blast immediately raised questions about security at the building.

“The incident is definitely a security breach and all the security services in the province, especially the police command, are held responsible for that,” said Mansour al-Mani’i, a member of the Hillah council. AP television footage showed ambulances and police vehicles with blaring sirens racing to and from the blast sight. A bulldozer moved debris from the scene, where twisted metal, spots of blood and piles of bricks and rubble lay.

Emergency teams lifted bricks and iron bars from the debris, while shards of glass littered the site. The head of the Babil Provincial Council, Kadim Tuman, told reporters on the scene of the blast that he was holding both officials at the building and at the central government accountable.

“This building was not well fortified and the changing of policemen’s

shifts was exposed to the enemy,” he said. The central government had also failed to provide extra police and explosive detection equipment, he said. The police building that was targeted is located in an important commercial area in Hillah. But many people were not yet at work, meaning the casualties were lower than they could have been.

Hillah is a predominantly Shiite city but its proximity to the Triangle of Death , a mainly Sunni area that at one time was one of the most dangerous in the country , has made it a frequent target of Sunni extremists. In 2005, a suicide car bombing targeted at security recruits killed 125 people in Hillah , one of the worst such attacks of the war. Maj. Gen. Mahdi Hadi alFikkaiki, head of the interior ministry’s intelligence department, said they don’t have the full details of the latest Hillah bombing as yet. He defended the government’s ability to protect Iraq, but acknowledged that there was no way to make the country 100 percent safe. — AP

Bahrain sentences Shiite activist to five years

RAMALLAH: Palestinians wave flags and chant during a rally celebrating the planned signing of a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday. —AP

MANAMA: Bahrain’s security court yesterday convicted a Shiite opposition activist and sentenced him to five years in prison for the attempted murder of a policeman during anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom. The Bahrain News Agency said another activist was acquitted of the same charge in the court that was set up after emergency rule was imposed in March. The report said the convicted protester, Abdulla Mohammed Habib, can appeal his sentence.

Bahrain’s king declared martial law

March 15 to crush weeks of demonstrations by the island’s Shiite majority, which has campaigned for greater freedoms and an elected government in the Sunni-ruled nation. At least 30 people have died since the protests, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, began in February. Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, athletes, activists and Shiite professionals such as doctors and lawyers have been detained in the past month. Last week, four Shiite activists were sentenced to death for killing two policemen during

the protests. Three others were convicted as the accomplices in the killing and were sentenced to life in prison.

On Tuesday, Bahrain’s Justice Minister Khaled bin Ali Al Khalifa said 23 doctors and 24 nurses have been charged for their role in the unrest, including for participating in attempts to topple the island’s Sunni monarchy and taking part in illegal rallies. Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, Washington’s main counterweight against Iran’s expanding military influence in the oil-rich Gulf. —AP

International FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

France says peace talks soon or Palestinian state PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will support a unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence if peace talks with Israel don’t restart by September, dealing a tough setback to Israel’s campaign to isolate the incoming Palestinian unity government. The comments published yesterday, similar to a message from Britain a day earlier, suggest Europe may be inching toward a watershed moment, joining those in favor of recognizing Palestine even if there is no peace deal with Israel.

Sarkozy’s comments were published shortly before his meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is touring Europe to rally opposition against the Palestinians. Netanyahu says it is impossible to talk peace with a government that now includes the Islamic militant group Hamas.

But so far, Netanyahu appears to be making limited progress. Western governments have all called on Hamas to moderate its views, but are also urging Israel to make a new push for peace and appear disinclined to boycott the Palestinians. Speaking to the weekly newsmagazine L’Express, Sarkozy was quoted as saying that if talks between Israel and the Palestinians don’t resume over the summer, France will help promote the international recognition of a Palestinian state.

“The idea that we have time is a dangerous idea, we must finish,” Sarkozy said. With peace talks stalled for more than seven months, the Palestinians have said they will ask the United Nations to recognize their independence in September with or without an agreement with Israel. Palestine is already recognized by dozens of countries, but not by the US or most European nations.

France’s endorsement would be a major setback to Israel and could spark a trend. International endorsement might not immediately change the situation on the ground, but it would deepen Israel’s isolation. In a key step for their UN campaign, the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed Wednesday to form a unity government and end a four-year rift that has left them divided between rival leaderships in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Fatah, which dominates the West Bank government, favors a peace agreement with Israel, while the Iranianbacked Hamas government in Gaza opposes Israel’s existence. World capitals have reacted warily but notably have not ruled out dealing with the new government.

Instead, they are expressing hope that Hamas will assume a peaceful posture.

During Wednesday’s ceremony in Cairo, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal did appear to signal a potentially more moderate tone, saying the goal was statehood in the West Bank and Gaza, as opposed to Israel’s destruction. The French Foreign Ministry said yesterday that Hamas must “recognize the existence of Israel and its (territorial) integrity” and abandon violence. These demands reflect the longstanding positions of the “Quartet” of Mideast mediators , the US, EU, United Nations and Russia. —AP

FRANKFURT: Rami Makanesi, foreground left, awaits the beginning of his trial at a court in Frankfurt, Germany yesterday.—AP

Qaeda suspect confesses as German trial opens Plea deal includes 5 year prison sentence FRANKFURT: A German-Syrian man admitted yesterday to belonging to a terrorist group and training in an AlQaeda paramilitary camp in Pakistan, and now faces up to five years in prison under a plea deal, German officials said.

Frankfurt state court judge Thomas Sagebiel said Rami Makanesi’s full cooperation with investigators made the plea deal possible as his trial began.

Makanesi told judges he fully admits to the charges, though no plea was entered according to the German system. “He wants to take the responsibility for his deeds,” defense attorney Michael Koch said.

The 25-year-old told the court that he did not have a particularly religious upbringing in the Frankfurt suburb where he grew up, but in 2007 met radical Muslims in local mosques and became more interested in radical Islam online. “I looked at internet propagan-

da,” he told the court. “I listened to the speeches of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.” According to German officials, after Makanesi was further radicalized he moved to Hamburg and became one of about a dozen radical Muslims who left the northern German port city in March 2009 to pursue terrorist training in Pakistan.

As Makanesi recounted his approximately 13 months in Pakistan to the court, he looked relaxed sitting on the defendant’s bench, wearing a black Tshirt and Reebok track pants, while occasionally waving to his mother, brothers and cousins in the room. While in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, Makanesi said he struggled to endure physical hardships as he trained in the use of handguns, assault rifles, mortars and other weapons to use in AlQaeda’s fight. “I’m a city person. I didn’t know life in the mountains at all,” he

said. Makanesi said he then sought a way of going home to Germany to continue supporting Al-Qaeda from there.

He told his commander “that I’m not capable for the armed struggle, but that I could raise funds.” But he was arrested in June by Pakistani security forces on his way to Germany’s embassy in Islamabad where he had hoped to receive valid travel documents to return home , where he had left his wife and their daughter behind. He was later extradited to Germany.

Another member of the group from Hamburg, Ahmed Siddiqui, was arrested last year in Afghanistan and provided interrogators details of an early-stage terrorist plot in Europe, which led the U.S. and others last year to issue a travel alert for Europe. Some details revealed

by Makanesi confirmed information provided by Siddiqui. A verdict and sentence is expected on Monday. — AP

Albanian election candidate wounded in blast PARIS: French President Nicolas Sakozy, left, welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Elysee Palace in Paris yesterday.—AP

TIRANA: Police say an explosion has wounded an opposition candidate and damaged his vehicle in northeastern Albania ahead of local elections. The monthlong campaign for May 8 polls has been marred by violence. Several candidates have suffered beatings or had their

cars or homes targeted in explosions.

Political tension has been running high this year, with four opposition party supporters killed in riots in January. Police are investigating the cause of yesterday’s blast which slightly wounded Astrit Cengu, 37, a candidate for head of a dis-

trict near Kukes, 95 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Tirana. The main focus of Sunday’s polls will be for the Tirana mayorship, which pits opposition leader and current mayor, Edi Rama, against former Interior Minister Lulzim Basha.—AP

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Emergency crews work on oil spill in Canada EDMONTON: Emergency crews were working Wednesday to clean up a massive oil spill from a broken pipeline in Alberta as regulators disclosed the leak was much larger than originally thought. Energy regulators said Tuesday 28,000 barrels of oil have oozed into the soil and collected into pools along the pipeline’s path northeast of Peace River. Initial estimates put the leak at several hundred barrels. It’s the largest pipeline leak in Alberta in 36 years. The leak in Plains Midstream Canada’s Rainbow pipeline was discovered late last week. The pipeline, which runs 479 miles (772 kilometers) from the Norman Wells pipeline in Zama, Alberta, to Edmonton, was shut down and both ends sealed off.

Steve Nosky, the chief of the aboriginal community Lubicon Cree, said Wednesday that kids in area had been falling sick due to the leak.

“They were getting nauseous. They were getting headaches and they were sent home,” he said.

Davis Sheremata, a spokesman for Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board, said that the school and town are about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the spill and denied problems were connected to the leak. Sheremata said air quality monitors haven’t detected any con-

taminant levels above established guidelines. Residents in the rural area of Three Creeks, also near Peace River, have complained for more than a year for the province to do something about powerful gassy, tarry smells that waft over their fields, pastures and yards. There, too, officials pointed to air quality monitors that weren’t finding problems. But eventually the government acknowledged the odor came from the oil patch and that it was causing headaches and nausea.

Repairs to the Plains Midstream line were expected to be completed by the end of the week, although restart depends on regulatory approval. The lower half of the line into Edmonton has continued to operate, delivering about half the line’s normal volume. The company said it had not yet diagnosed the cause, but noted on its website that the leak appears to be a singular failure and not a systemic problem.

Sheremata said investigators were digging out the pipe to get their first look at the hole that caused the spill. Early indications were it was a large break, he said.

The pipeline was built in 1965 and has a capacity of 220,000 barrels a day. Average daily volumes were 187,000 barrels a day during 2010. — AP

Miners remove the body of fellow miner Victor Hugo Silva, 39, from a coal mine in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila state, Thursday, May 5, 2011. Silva’s is the sixth body recovered after a gas explosion happened Tuesday trapping 14 miners inside. Rescue workers continued their search using picks, shovels and their hands to tunnel through dirt, wood, metal and rock on to reach the miners trapped 197-foot-deep (60 meters) underground. —AP

Sixth body found two days after Mexico mine blast TORREON: Rescue workers found a sixth body two days after an explosion in a makeshift coal mine in north Mexico, as eight more missing miners were now assumed dead, Labor Minister Javier Lozano said yesterday. “Six workers have died in this tragic accident.

We’re 100 percent sure of the location of the sixth body,” Lozano told Televisa TV network.

“We no longer have the smallest hope” that the eight missing miners are alive, he added. Fourteen miners were trapped inside the small mine after an explosion early Tuesday near the town of Sabinas in northern Coahuila state, near the US border and the

site of a 2006 mine explosion which left 65 dead. The strong blast, which officials blamed on methane gas, also struck a teenager who was working outside the mine and later had to have an arm amputated, investigators said. It provoked fresh criticism of failings in mine safety here, and of the inability to recover most of the bodies from the 2006 blast in the nearby Pasta de Conchos mine. Chile dispatched a team of five specialists to the site Wednesday, at the request of Mexico, including two who had worked on the spectacular operation to save 33 Chilean miners who spent 69 days deep underground last year.— AFP

Peruvian radio reporter shot to death eating lunch

A broken section of a pipeline is worked on, northeast of Peace River, Alberta, on Wednesday May 4, 2011. The pipeline, owned by Plains Midstream Canada, has leaked 28,000 barrels (nearly 4.5 million litres) of crude oil since Friday. Davis Sheremata, a spokesman for Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board said investigators were digging out the pipe to get their first look at the hole that caused the spill. Early indications were it was a large break, he said. — AP

Obama says US can’t forget horrors of Sept 11 NEW YORK : President Barack Obama says the killing of Osama bin Laden sends a message to the world and the country that “when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”

Obama made his remarks as he visited a New York firehouse that lost 15 men during the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attack. Obama visited Engine 54 at Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion in the

city’s theater district in Midtown Manhattan yesterday morning, the first stop on his trip to New York to memorialize the attack victims in the wake of the shooting of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US commandos. The firehouse contains a memorial for the deceased firefighters that includes messages from their families.-AP

LIMA: Gunmen shot to death a provincial Peruvian radio journalist who was outspoken in accusing local and regional officials of corruption, a national journalists group said Wednesday. Four gunmen fired on Julio Cesar Castillo, 41, from close range as he ate lunch at a restaurant in Viru, a town in the northern coastal province of La Libertad, the National Association of Journalists said in a statement. He was the first Peruvian journalist killed in the line of duty since 2007, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

“This is horribly upsetting for us,” National Association of Journalists President Roberto Mejia told The Associated Press.

“It puts us in a situation of alert.” Castillo had a news program on the local station Ollantay and was a fierce critic of officials whom he accused of corruption, Mejia said. The Peruvian journalist association’s statement said Castillo had been receiving death threats since March after broadcasting a recording that implicated a top regional official in acts of corruption.

Prior to Castillo, at least six Peruvian journalists had been killed in the line of duty since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Its website lists the most recent as Miguel Perez, a radio commentator slain by gunmen in the northwestern city of Jaen, slain in 2007 in front of his wife and children. In March, the committee reported, three assailants on motorcycles hurled homemade bombs at the newspaper Voces in the northern regional capital of Tarapoto.

A fire broke out but was quickly extinguished and no one was injured. The paper’s editorial director had earlier received a series of intimidating anonymous text messages after Voces published a series of articles alleging misconduct by a congressional candidate, CPJ said. — AP

Earthquake shakes wide area of southern Mexico ACAPULCO: A moderately strong earthquake shook Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Wednesday, sending people fleeing into the streets. No damages or injuries were reported. The magnitude-5.8 quake occurred at 8:24 am local time (1324 GMT) and was centered about 85 miles (138 kilometers) east of Acapulco, the US Geological Survey reported on its website.

The quake occurred at a depth of nearly six miles (10 kilometers).

“We’re surveying the areas where we know there are adobe houses that could collapse but so far we haven’t received any reports of damages,” said Roel Ayala, a civil protection spokesman for Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located. The quake also swayed buildings in Mexico City, prompting some to evacuate. Police surveying the city by helicopter and land found no damages or injuries, said Mexico City Public Safety Department Secretary Elias Miguel Moreno. — AP

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Former Karzai ally warns of street protests over peace plan KABUL: Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief, who has launched a national campaign urging Afghans to reject a plan by President Hamid Karzai to negotiate with insurgents, went one step further yesterday by threatening to take his protest to the streets. The threat risks further instability in Afghanistan at a time when violence is at its worst in 10 years and could complicate US and NATO-backed efforts to find a political end to the war as foreign troops look to withdraw.

The comments by Amrullah Saleh at a rally of thousands of supporters in the Afghan capital were met with raucous cheers, highlighting the deep division among ordinary Afghans over whether or not to strike a deal with the insurgents. “I swear by the blood of the martyrs of this country ... if you do not listen to our voice ... next time .. we will get together and take to the streets,” Saleh told the crowd, although he did not say when that might be.

“I repeat, they should heed the democratic parties, they should heed the social society and not make us take to the streets,” he said in a warning to Karzai and his government. Saleh, once a staunch ally of Karzai, quit last June as head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, he says, because he opposed the president’s peace proposal with the Taleban, calling the plans a “disgrace”. Since then, he has been touring Kabul and the north of the country in an attempt to rally support for a grass-roots movement to put pressure on the government to end its softer approach to the insurgency.

Yesterday’s warning appeared to be the first time he had threatened street protests.

While Afghanistan has remained untouched by the wave of protests sweeping large parts of the Arab and Muslim world, there have been numerous protests around the country in recent years, many of which have turned deadly. Last month, protesters angered over the burning of a Koran by a pastor of a small fundamentalist church in the United States overran a UN compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing seven international staff.

Violence in Afghanistan last year hit its worst levels since US-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taleban government in late 2001, with record casualties on all sides. While foreign military commanders have trumpeted recent security gains, the insurgency has shown little sign of abating and many experts say the war has reached a stalemate. After struggling to develop a stance on reconciling with the Taleban , the United States and its allies have reluctantly backed Karzai’s peace plan, although there is still little idea on how it will work. The Taleban have publicly rebuffed any negotiations with Karzai’s government as long as foreign troops are in Afghanistan but Afghan officials say some insurgents are starting to reach out.

Saleh, an ethnic Tajik, says his movement is a national one and not based on ethnic lines. He has secured support from politicians from all of Afghanistan’s ethnic groups and has the backing of a powerful ally, Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister under Karzai and presidential candidate in 2009. While Abdullah, who also spoke at the rally, opposes reconciling with the Taleban, he did not call for protests. Despite the warnings of taking to the streets, Saleh maintains his movement is peaceful. “I am not here to say I’m against peace. I am one voice out of millions of Afghans who are against terror,” Saleh told his supporters.

“This government and democracy are a result of your blood and sacrifice but there is a small group of jealous people who are making a deal (with the insurgents) and we will not allow them.” The likelihood of more political uncertainty in Afghanistan coincides with both increased violence and the start soon of a gradual withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. NATO-led forces will hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas in July, with all foreign combat troops scheduled to leave by the end of 2014. — Reuters

Pakistanis say US shot bin Laden in ‘cold blood’ Clinton: US will stand by alliance with Islamabad ABBOTTABAD/ROME: A senior Pakistani security official said US troops killed Osama bin Laden in “cold blood”, fuelling a global controversy and straining a vital relationship Washington was trying to repair yesterday. And Pakistan’s army, in its first comment since Monday’s raid, threatened to halt cooperation with its military sponsor if it repeated what it called a violation of sovereignty.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washinton was still anxious to maintain its alliance with Islamabad.

“It is not always an easy relationship. You know that,” she said. “But, on the other hand, it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies, but most importantly between the American and Pakistani people.”

Americans are questioning how the al Qaeda leader could live for years in some comfort in a garrison town near the Pakistani capital. Some call for cutting billions of dollars in US aid.

As Clinton was meeting European and Arab allies in Rome, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, issued a statement saying any new US raids would mean a possible end to cooperation with the Pentagon on security and intelligence. “Any similar action violating the sovereignty of Pakistan will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States,” the army said. And in a further sign of fractious relations between the allies, senior Pakistani security officials told Reuters that US accounts had been misleading in describing a long gun battle at the compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden and four others were killed by an elite squad of US Navy SEALs. “It was cold-blooded,” said one Pakistani official when asked if there was any exchange of fire. After an initial account of a 40-minute firefight, US officials have now been quoted saying only one person fired at the raiding party, and that only briefly as the helicopter-borne assault team arrived. A US acknowledgment that bin Laden was unarmed when shot in the head-as well as the disposal of his body at sea, a practice rare in Islam-have drawn criticism from the Arab world and Europe, where some have warned of a backlash against the West, even among Muslims who reject Qaeda’s violence.

The White House has blamed the “fog of war” for its changing stories. Citing US officials, NBC television said four of the five people killed, including bin Laden himself, were unarmed. The New York Times quoted officials in the administration of President Barack Obama saying bin Laden’s courier fired the only shots against the Americans, in the early stages of the raid, from a guesthouse in the sprawling, high-walled compound.

“I know for a fact that shots were exchanged during this operation,” said one Pentagon official. Another senior Pakistani security official said no shots were fired inside the building where bin Laden was found. “The people inside the house were unarmed. There was no

MULTAN: Supporters of Pakistani religious party “Pasban”, youth wing of Jamat-e-Islami, rally to condemn the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in Multan, Pakistan yesterday. — AP resistance,” the official said. The two Pakistani officials declined to describe the sources of their information but confirmed several people from the compound were detained.

Pakistan’s GEO TV quoted military sources saying bin Laden’s Yemeni-born wife told them the Saudi-born al Qaeda leader had lived in Abbottabad for five years but had never ventured out.

Photographs taken by a Pakistani security official about an hour after the assault show three dead men-not including bin Laden-lying in pools of blood. No weapons could be seen in the closely cropped images obtained by Reuters.

Friction between Washington and Pakistan, a nuclear-armed Muslim ally in the war in Afghanistan and against al Qaeda, has focused on the role of Pakistan’s top security service, the ISI or Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

With questions swirling about how far it was incompetence or connivance that allowed bin Laden to shelter so close to a major military academy, Pakistan’s leaders and security officials have defended their roles and their commitment to the US alliance. Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir denied the Pakistani forces or ISI aided al Qaeda: “The critique of the ISI is not only unwarranted, it can not be validated,” he said, echoing comments from the prime minister who blamed global intelligence failures. Some Americans, including many in Congress, have suggested that Washington attach more strings to the billions of dollars in aid it gives Pakistan, or even cut off Islamabad altogether.

Bashir said: “That the ISI is incompetent is a value judgment. And we believe that this is not the time for anybody to indulge in the luxury of passing value judgments.” He also issued a warningseemingly directed as much at arch-rival India as to Washington-against intrusions of the kind that saw US troops raid deep inside Pakistan. While few in Pakistan supported bin Laden and his ideology, violations of sovereignty can provoke street protests and media outrage.

A major Islamist party in Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), called for mass protests today against what it called a violation of sovereignty by the US raid. It also urged the government to end support for US battles against militants.

From abroad, China spoke up for Pakistan yesterday: “Pakistan is a country at the forefront of counter-terrorism efforts, and the international community should give greater support and understanding,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in Beijing. “We respect and understand Pakistan’s stance.”

Washington has repeatedly defended its decision to kill bin Laden, though in fact foreign criticism of its failure to take him alive has not been heard in public from the leaders of its key allies in the battle against militant Islam. In Rome for talks on aiding Libya’s rebels, Clinton reminded her international audience that bin Laden had been a clear target for the United States since 2001 and that his death did not end the battle against al Qaeda.

She refused to comment on details of the operation, which she had watched unfolding on a live video transmission.

“Those were 38 of the most intense minutes,” she said, referring to a photograph that caught her looking anxious during the raid. She put her gesture down to suppressing a cough. Aside from defending its forces from criticism from abroad Attorney-General Eric Holder has called the shooting of bin Laden “an act of national self-defence”-the United States has also had to counter those who question the death altogether. Obama resisted pressure from aides to release photographs of bin Laden’s body, saying the images could incite violence and be used by militants as a propaganda tool.

“Given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk,” Obama told CBS television.

“There’s no doubt that bin Laden is dead,” he added. “There are going be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is, you will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again.”— Reuters

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ASEAN credibility at stake in Thai-Cambodia conflict A bloody border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia looks set to dominate an ASEAN summit in Indonesia this weekend, casting doubt on the bloc’s rhetoric about regional integration by 2015. Analysts and diplomats said the fighting, which has left at least 18 people dead since April 22, is expected to be a key topic at the two-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta from tomorrow. Current ASEAN chair Indonesia has been leading mediation efforts, but although the fighting has eased the situation remains tense and deadly firefights break out almost daily.

“The Thai-Cambodia border dispute poses a definite challenge to ASEAN’s credibility and its objective of creating an ASEAN Community by 2015,” said Professor Carl Thayer of the University of New South Wales in

Australia. “ASEAN’s failure to broker a political solution will have a very negative impact on ASEAN’s credibility as a viable regional organization,” he told AFP. But Thayer said Indonesia can use the opportunity to play a “continuing proactive diplomatic role” while other ASEAN states can pressure Bangkok and Phnom Penh to negotiate a settlement. A diplomatic source said ASEAN leaders would call on Bangkok and Phnom Penh to resolve the conflict, which has displaced 85,000 civilians on both sides.

The warring neighbours agreed at a special ASEAN ministerial meeting in Jakarta in February to accept Indonesian military observers at the border.

At the time, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan hailed the agreement as a “historic day” for the 10-nation bloc, but more

than two months and a lot more fighting later, the observers remain in Jakarta.

“You must give credit to what ASEAN is trying to do,” Surin told AFP on Wednesday, adding that February’s meeting of foreign ministers and his personal mediation efforts were unprecedented for the trade-focused grouping. “We are, I think, turning a page. We are making a giant leap forward by taking those steps. It’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be resolved tomorrow.”

A diplomatic briefing paper for one summit participant said ASEAN risked putting its “community-building efforts in jeopardy” if it fails to respond adequately to such bilateral disputes. The paper said intraregional clashes would not go well for “ASEAN’s peace and stability or its credibility”. How it responds is a “litmus test” for

ASEAN’s “ability to contribute to international peace and security”, it added. US-based Southeast Asia specialist Ernest Bower said the Thailand-Cambodia conflict “undercuts the ASEAN leaders’ vision for regional integration by 2015”.

ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, is aiming for an integrated community by 2015 covering economic, cultural, political and security ties. Bower cautioned the bloc against using the ThaiCambodia spat as an excuse for slow progress on “hard issues key to real economic integration”.

“The conflict also belies ASEAN’s hope of projecting a cohesive region to potential international investors,” said Bower, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for

Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ASEAN members are bound by a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, which forbids the threat or the actual use of force in intra-regional disputes. The bloc’s first charter, or constitution, which came into force with much fanfare in 2008, has provisions for settling rows which are being sorely tested by the ongoing border spat.”What ASEAN does now will impact on its role in dispute settlement among its members for a long time to come,” Thayer said.

ASEAN’s hands are often tied by its core principle of non-interference in members’ domestic affairs, which means the group can only intervene with the consent of the involved parties. In the Thai-Cambodia dispute, “ASEAN has to walk on eggshells” so as not to be seen as interfering, Thayer said. — AFP

Workers enter Japan nuclear reactor building Radiation levels in the air inside building reduced

PASAY CITY: In this Wednesday photo Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario narrates his experiences during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in suburban Pasay City, south of Manila, Philippines. —AP

Philippine diplomat praised for Mideast rescues MANILA: The pro-democracy uprisings raging in the Middle East have trapped thousands of overseas Filipino workers and quickly tested the Philippines’ new top diplomat. Albert del Rosario, 74, has quietly traveled to conflict zones from Libya to Yemen , once straying near a gunbattle, to lead the rescue of hundreds of Filipinos. His unorthodox hands-on style has impressed many and helped repair the lethargic image of this impoverished Southeast Asian nation’s bureaucracy. He recalls his daredevil missions with humor.

When his Libyan military escorts dove for cover because of fears that NATO jets were approaching the city of Misrata last week, del Rosario said many were impressed that he did not scamper away in panic. “I was the slowest to move and people thought I was the bravest,” del Rosario told The Associated Press in an interview late Wednesday.

“Of course, bad knees,” he said laughing, referring to past knee surgery that forces him to walk slowly. The former business executive inherits a Department of Foreign Affairs that overlooks the Philippines’ often-testy relationships with America, its former colonizer, and China, the Asian powerhouse that is a major economic partner but is often accused of bullying. In March, two Chinese patrol boats allegedly harassed a Philippine oil exploration ship near the contested Spratly Islands, prompting a Filipino general to deploy two military aircraft that arrived after the Chinese vessels had left. — AP

TOKYO: Workers entered one of the damaged reactor buildings at Japan’s stricken nuclear power plant yesterday for the first time since it was rocked by an explosion in the days after a devastating earthquake, the plant’s operator said. Tokyo Electric Power Co said workers connected ventilation and air filtration equipment in Unit 1 in an attempt to reduce radiation levels in the air inside the building. The utility must lower radiation levels before it can proceed with the key step of replacing the cooling system that was knocked out by the March 11 quake and subsequent tsunami that left more than 25,000 people dead or missing along Japan’s northeastern coast.

Workers have not been able to enter the reactor buildings at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, since the first days after the tsunami. Hydrogen explosions at four of the buildings at the six-reactor complex in the first few days destroyed some of their roofs and walls and scattered radioactive debris. TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto called yesterday’s development “a first step toward a cool and stable shutdown,” which the utility hopes to achieve in six to nine months.

In mid-April, a robot recorded radioactivity of about 50 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 1’s reactor building - a level too high for workers to realistically enter. Readings taken later in April in another part of the building were as high as 1,200 millisieverts.

The decision to send the workers in was made after robots last Friday collected fresh data that showed radia-

TOKYO: Children and their parents including those who survived the March 11 earthquake and tsunami pull a Japan Airlines Airbus A300 during a tug of war, held as part of the “cheer up northeastern Japan” events, at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport yesterday celebrating Children’s Day national holiday. —AP tion levels in some areas inside the building were safe enough for workers to enter, said Taisuke Tomikawa, another TEPCO spokesman.

Two utility workers, wearing a mask and air tank similar to those used by scuba divers, entered the reactor building for about 25 minutes to check radiation levels. They were exposed to 2 millisieverts during that time, Tomikawa said. Outside the building, the utility erected a temporary tent designed to prevent radioactive air from escaping. Later, 11 other workers - two from TEPCO and nine from its subcontractors _ wearing similar gear went into the reactor building to install ducts for the air filtering equipment. Twenty other workers provided help from outside. The utility hopes to start allowing workers into

the building to set up a cooling system around mid-May. In addition to reducing radioactivity with the new air filtering system, it hopes to reduce it further by removing or covering up contaminated debris inside the building, Matsumoto said.

TEPCO is proceeding with a plan to fill the Unit 1 containment vessel with water to soak the core and cool it, and also plans to install big fans as an external cooling system, he said. TEPCO hopes to take similar steps at Units 2 and 3 but is struggling with tougher obstacles such as contaminated water leaks and debris. Radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant has forced 80,000 people living within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius to leave their homes. Many are staying in gymnasiums and community centers. —AP

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Wall Street worries about reprisals Bin Laden death may impact markets marginally

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eople across America are celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death-but Wall Street apparently didn’t get the invitation. An expected “bin Laden rally” fizzled on Wall Street Monday before it even really got going, with the Dow Jones industrial average never rising more than 65 points.

By day’s end, the bluechip index had actually lost 3.18 points to close at 12,807.

“Killing bin Laden is a tremendous accomplishment for our military and intelligence communities,” said Richard Skaggs of Boston financial firm Loomis, Sayles & Co. “But it’s just not a game-changer for stocks, commodities or currencies.” Some experts had expected stocks to soar and gold and oil prices to tumble following word late Sunday that US forces had killed bin Laden in Pakistan.

After all, the terrorist leader’s death presumably reduces the odds of future attacks on America while increasing stability in the petroleum-rich Middle East. But a stock-market rally in the morning petered out by lunchtime, while gold prices fell less than 1 percent and oil dropped just 60 cents a barrel.

Experts say investors concluded that bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network will continue just fine without him-and might even stage “revenge” attacks against America.

“Catching bin Laden is a big event, but its impact is offset by the market anticipating the higher risk of (new attacks) by al-Qaeda,” said Vikram Mansharamani of Boston money-management firm SDK Capital. “Think of two trends offsetting each other: potential rising stability in the Middle East but more violence possible in the short run.”

John Hailer of Boston based Natixis Global Asset Management added that Wall Street is so focused these days on America’s budget deficit and struggling economy that little else matters to investors.

“There’s been so much news in the last year-and a-half-a nuclear crisis in Japan, protests in Iran and Libya-that I think markets just roll with it now,” Hailer said. “Non-economic issues just don’t seem to weigh on markets as much as they used to.”

IMPACT Osama bin Laden’s death received a brief salute from financial markets Monday, but business as usual quickly became the order of the day.

And unless there is a major terrorist attack against the United States, analysts said his demise was unlikely to have any strong economic effect.

Geoff Friedman, vice president of Investors Advisory Services Inc. in Overland Park, said early market sentiment was “guardedly positive”: positive because bin Laden was gone, guarded because of retaliation fears. Optimism battled pessimism during the day, and on the New York Stock Exchange roughly three shares fell for every two that rose.

Despite initial celebrations, the national financial mood is expected to remain dampened by the flagging job market, higher fuel and food prices, the still-collapsed housing market, and federal deficit concerns. “The impact of noneconomic events tends to be short-lived,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center. “The real driver of confidence is employment.”

On CNBC on Monday morning, two icons of the American business world, Warren Buffett and Jack Welch, said that terrorism remained a threat but that rising gasoline and food prices were more likely to quash consumer spending on other goods and services, thus slowing the recovery.

Energy analysts said there were still risks of oil supply disruptions, and that would be enough to keep energy prices up for now.

Gasoline prices, now at a national average of $3.95 per gallon, have been higher mainly because of worries that turmoil in the Middle East and northern Africa will disrupt oil production. That already has happened in Libya, and the possibility that unrest could spread to a country like Saudi Arabia has oil prices carrying a hefty risk premium.

“I think there is more of a possibility of higher prices, not lower,” said James Williams, an analyst at WTRG Economics.

Oil prices initially fell Monday before climbing to a 2 1/2 -year

NEW YORK: Trader Christopher Forbes works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after the market greeted the news of Osma bin Laden’s death.—AP high and then settling back close to where they started. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate oil closed at $113.52, down 41 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s more than 30 percent higher than a year ago.

“I don’t see how bin Laden’s death will change” the energy price trend, said Stephen Brown, a former energy economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. “We’re still in for a bumpy ride.”

Analysts said bin Laden’s slaying wouldn’t restore the “peace dividend” that financial markets and the economy had enjoyed prior to Sept 11, 2001.

“I don’t think there’s a bin Laden dividend,” Friedman said.

“Terrorism isn’t going to go away.”

(The peace dividend came during the 1990s when the end of the cold war meant resources previously devoted to security and military spending could be redirected into consumption and peacetime endeavors.) The most financial drama of the day Monday came in the silver market. Prices plunged about 13 percent before recovering about half the losses. But

the plunge was because the Chicago futures market increased margin requirements, requiring investors to put up more money to buy or sell contracts tied to the price of silver.

Gold, a haven in times of turmoil, reached a record before softening. Cotton, wheat and cattle prices softened, too, but those markets have been slipping after posting steady gains in recent months.

“They were starting to rest without bin Laden,” said Dave Anderson, money manager at Financial Counselors Inc. in Kansas City.Several economists pointed to a two-decades-oldbut still-respected-study of 49 major world events by professors at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They found that distinct events such as the attack on Pearl Harbor and President John Kennedy’s assassination influenced the S&P 500 to move just 1.46 percent, or less than one percentage point difference from the index’s normal movement on other days.

In another recent example, the markets generally shrugged off the cataclysmic earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. — MCT

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Portugal requires ‘national effort’ to overhaul economy Germany’s Merkel urges realistic growth goals

CAIRO: In this photo, an image of ancient Egyptians is projected on rocks during the sound and light show at the Egyptian pyramids. — AP

Egypt pound under pressure to weaken CAIRO: Reduced demand for Egypt’s currency after three months of political upheaval has yet to be reflected in the exchange rate and this has begun to harm the economy, analysts say. The unrest that began on Jan 25 chased away tourists and foreign investors and crimped exports, among Egypt’s main sources of foreign exchange, and analysts say the central bank should allow the currency to depreciate to reflect the change. Egypt drew down its foreign reserves by almost $6 billion in the first three months of this year to $30.1 billion at the end of March. It has also drawn down unofficial reserves by $7 billion.

“Right now the market indicates that the currency will continue to go down and they have to decide what they want to do,” said John Sfakianakis, an economist with Bank Saudi Fransi.

Egypt’s central bank says it does not target currency prices and that its policy is to let the pound reflect supply and demand.

Before the upheaval, tourists were bringing in about $1.15 billion and investors about $375 million a month. Although many have now fled, the pound has inched down by only 2.2 percent against the US dollar. Analysts say the government has been reluctant to let the pound weaken for fear of increasing the cost of imported food. Rising food prices helped trigger the protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February. But Turker Hamzaoglu, MENA economist at BoA-ML, said a weaker pound in the short term would spur exports and in the longer term boost tourism, sectors that in recent years have been among the economy’s greatest generators of employment. “In the short run, tourists will not come even with a weaker pound until things stabilize on the political side. But on the export side, a weaker pound can still generate a comfortable advantage,” he said.

“Other than weaken the pound, there is little they can do to stimulate the economy in the short term,” said Hamzaoglu, who believes the pound should weaken by 10 to 15 percent. Egypt is in a strong position, he said, compared to many central and eastern European countries because neither its corporates nor its households have substantial foreign currency debts that would be harder to repay if the currency depreciated.—Reuters

LISBON: Portugal faces profound economic problems and must be bold if it is to tackle them successfully, the European Union and IMF said yesterday as they confirmed a three-year, 78 billion euro bailout for Lisbon. The economic aid package will push Portugal into recession for the next two years, require a painful overhaul of labor markets and force the government to sell shares in state utilities, but Portugal’s finance minister said it would also help overturn decades-old structural problems. “This program’s success will require a truly national effort,” the EU and IMF said in a joint statement, saying it combined the need to stimulate long-term growth, reduce the deficit and restabilize Portugal’s banking and finance sector.

Germany, as the euro zone’s largest economy, pays the largest share of bailouts and Chancellor Angela Merkel said the bailout must be based on realistic growth targets. Portugal’s government had resisted a bailout for months, mindful of the hardship after it had to call in the International Monetary Fund in the 1970s, when the nation was emerging from decades of authoritarian rule. But pressure from financial markets, which pushed Lisbon’s cost of borrowing to historic highs, eventually forced the country to concede and it has now followed Greece and Ireland into EU/IMF financial protection.

While three of the euro zone’s 17 member states are now effectively quarantined, there is little evidence that the programs designed for them are having the desired effect yet.

Greece, whose debts are expected to rise to 340 billion euros ($505 billion), or 150 percent of gross domestic product, this year, has indicated it wants to renegotiate the terms of the 110 billion of loans granted to it last May. Originally for three years, the loans are now for seven years and have an average interest rate of 4.2 percent. Ireland, which agreed an 85 billion euro bailout in November, wants a lower interest rate on its sevenyear loans, which carry an average rate of 5.8 percent.

Without any adjustment to the programs, there is growing concern among financial analysts and policymakers that Greece, and possibly Ireland, will be forced to restructure their debts. That would have a profound knock-on impact on Greek and Irish bondholders, who include many major French, German and British banks and the European Central Bank.

Seventy percent of Greece’s sovereign debts are held by foreign institutions. The ECB is particularly concerned about potential contagion from a euro zone debt restructuring, with Spain, a large holder of Portuguese assets, among possible vulnerable states.

In recent months, Spain has worked to distance itself from others on the euro zone periphery, and to a large extent appears to have convinced financial markets it has done enough to retool its economy, although growth remains slow and unemployment high. An auction of five-year Spanish government bonds yesterday suggested Madrid remains on track.

It sold 3.35 billion euros at an average yield of 4.549 percent, up only marginally from 4.389 percent at the last auction on March 3. “It’s been a good auction with decent demand. In the

LISBON: Poul Thomson, deputy director of the International Monetary Fund European department, answers a question at a news conference yesterday.— AP last two weeks we’ve seen Spanish spreads come down about 30 basis points, separating itself clearly from Portugal, but also reducing the spread with Italy,” said Antonio Torralba, head of flow trading at BBVA, a bank. While Portugal talked up the terms of its bailout yesterday, the interest rate on the loans has not been agreed and it has not been decided when the first tranche will be paid. Portugal faces a 4.9 billion euro bond redemption on June 15 that it will need outside assistance to meet.

Euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels on May 16 to discuss the bailout, including the interest rate, with the package requiring unanimous backing from all 17 member states.

That should be granted, but Finland, where the anti-bailout True Finns party did well in a parliament election last month and is influential, could prove a sticking point.

Financial markets, which responded broadly positively when details of the package first emerged on Wednesday, were on hold yesterday ahead of the ECB’s interest rate announcement. The central bank left its key rate at 1.25 percent, but another increase is expected in July. Under the bailout, around 12 billion euros will be used to shore up Portugal’s banks, eventually bringing their Tier 1 capital ratios to 10 percent. The government will also have to sell controlling stakes in utilities and engage in hardnosed negotiations with unions to overhaul labor markets.

“This is a program aimed at returning to growth and employment,” Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said, while acknowledging that it would first drive Portugal into recession in 2011 and 2012. While tough-and the EU and IMF insisted it would require long and diligent work by Portugal-caretaker Prime Minister Jose Socrates has touted the fact that some of the terms, including on budget targets, are softer than for Greece or Ireland.—Reuters

McKinsey to conduct strategic review for Emaar Properties in UAE DUBAI: Emaar Properties builder of the world’s tallest tower, has hired consultant McKinsey to conduct a strategic review of its international operations, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. The McKinsey review mainly relates to the developer’s property segment, said two of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It will cover Emaar’s foreign units which span the Middle East, Africa and Asia, in countries like India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The developer is expected to announce the plan later this month. A spokesman for Emaar was not immediately available for comment. A McKinsey spokesman declined to comment. The review may prompt Emaar to focus on expanding its hospitality business-it operates malls, hotels and golf resorts-in key emerging markets, such as China and Brazil as well as Africa. The developer, whose hospitality and mall business has been a key income driver after the property bust, has said it plans to expand its hotel brand globally. Italian designer Giorgio Armani partnered with Emaar to open his first hotel at

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa last year and the company plans more hotels with the designer. The second property is slated to open in Milan in 2011.

Shares in Emaar, about 30 percent owned by the Dubai government, closed down 1.54 percent on the Dubai index. The builder’s operations in its Indian joint venture came under fire after it built the Commomnwealth Games Village, a development plagued by shoddy construction and delays. The developer was penalized by Indian authorities who cashed its $45 million bank guarantee.

In March, Emaar denied a media report that the company is valuing its Indian joint venture’s assets in preparation for an exit or partial sale. Last year, it dropped plans for a $600 million mixed-use resort project in Indonesia, first announced in 2007 before the global credit crunch and property slump. Emaar posted a 45 percent drop in first-quarter net profit last month, missing analysts forecasts, as revenue dipped and losses from associate firms rose. — Reuters

TAIPEI: An exhibition model tries her skills on a motorcycle arcade game during the opening of the GTI, Game Time International Expo yesterday. — AP

Business FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

High costs hamper Iraq telecom growth BAGHDAD: Telecommunications should be one of the hottest growth industries in Iraq. But providers have yet to introduce 3G technology into a market where the military jams mobile phone networks to stop insurgents detonating bombs. Poor infrastructure, high operating costs, conflicts between communications regulators and security problems are stunting development in a country slowly rebuilding eight years after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Iraq holds a pivotal geographical position in the region and could be an important communications bridge joining the Middle East with Europe and Asia. But security remains one of the country’s biggest concerns as Iraq’s army and police battle a weakened yet stubborn insurgency while US troops prepare to withdraw by Dec 31.

Jamming of mobile phone frequencies and poor data services are frequent complaints of Iraqis since the 2003 invasion that toppled its autocratic government and paved the way for a cellular phone market and unrestricted access to the Internet.

Mobile phone firms say military jamming costs them millions of dollars in maintaining and upgrading spectrum. Infrastructure damaged by bombs often takes time to repair due to curfews imposed by authorities because of fears of another attack. Sometimes companies are forced to wait until security officials have investigated the attack. Iraq’s mobile phone and internet providers also fret over the high cost of fiber optic cables, electricity and security. They say that feuding between Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) and the Iraqi Telecommunications and Posts Company (ITPC) is hindering progress.

“We are competing in an environment which is very tough and difficult, especially security-wise and also because of the problem existing between the CMC and ITPC. We are caught between both of them,” said Saman Shali, general manager for network provider Kalimat Telecom. “The lack of electricity puts a big burden on the expenses of all operators, not just Kalimat ... A big chunk of revenue is going to this,” he added. Iraq did not have a mobile phone market under Saddam but the industry has exploded in the past eight years. There are now about 23 million mobile phone subscribers, according to the CMC. But landline and internet development has lagged badly. Iraq currently has 1.2 million landlines, of which only 800,000 are in working order, according to Communications Minister Mohammed Allawi. Internet penetration sits at three percent. Allawi has said the ministry aims to boost fixed-line phone penetration and internet reach to 25 percent within five years through a $3 billion development project. It has allocated $500 million to spend on the telecoms industry this year.

However, uncertainty over the roles of the CMC and ITPC in Iraq has slowed down vital development work, including delays over the issuing of a fourth mobile phone operator license and introducing 3G to the local market.

“The lack is the law. There is no clear definition between our roles,” ITPC Director General Kassim Al-Hassani said.

The CMC was established in 2004 to regulate government policy on communications but continues to rely on pre2003 legislation. A new law is still waiting parliamentary approval.

The ITPC, established in 1919, has control over the fiber optic network, and works as a government entity and operator. It has entered into partnerships with private firms to help develop infrastructure, but companies complain about its monopoly over fiber and say prices are exorbitant. The ITPC says it needs the capital to pay the wages of its 22,000 workers. “Here in Iraq, for each megabyte, we pay $700 and this is only for local circuits, not international. But we have no other choice,” said Munaf Sabeeh, chief executive of fiber optic network operator Scopesky, which signed a 3-year renewable contract with ITPC for fibre in 2009. By comparison, the cost of a megabyte in Europe or the United States is around $50$80, the ITPC says. CMC Commissioner Ahmed Alomary said part of the reason 3G and 4G had not been introduced into Iraq’s market was because operators did not have a strong fiber backbone. Iraq’s three mobile phone operators, AsiaCell, Zain and Korek, who in 2007 each secured $1.25 billion licenses to operate in Iraq, use microwave links instead of fiber.— Reuters

ENGLAND: The sign on a Lloyds TSB branch is seen yesterday. — AP

Lloyds takes $5.3bn hit for insurance mis-selling Banking group unveils £2.4bn quarterly loss LONDON: British bank Lloyds took a shock 3.2 billion pound ($5.3 billion) charge yesterday to cover compensation for people sold insurance they could never claim or did not know they were buying. The hefty charge signaled far higher than expected costs for the whole industry to resolve a mis-selling issue that has dogged it for years, sending shares in British banks into retreat.

Together with loan losses in crisis-hit Ireland and higher funding costs, the charge tipped the rescued bank into loss for the first quarter and raised fears about its recovery prospects.

Lloyds, 41-percent owned by the British government after a credit crisis bailout, made the provision against payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints after banks lost a British court case on the way policies were sold to millions of customers. The policies were typically taken out alongside a personal loan, mortgage or purchase to cover repayment if the borrower was unable to pay due to unemployment, sickness or accident.

But policies were mis-sold, to selfemployed or unemployed people who would not have been able to claim, and to consumers did not realize they were taking out a policy. A court ruled last month the banks were at fault. Banks have until May 10 to appeal that ruling, but Lloyds said it would not do so, a serious blow to any industry defense because it is the biggest player. The British Bankers Association (BBA) said it was still considering whether to mount a new legal challenge.

Investec analyst Gareth Hunt said Lloyds’ PPI charge was double what the market expected, and that other

lenders embroiled in the saga faced booking hits as well. “At least it is clear, we now know what the charge is and the bank can move forward, but it is definitely bigger than expected. It does suggest everyone else will share some of the same pain,” said Hunt. Lloyds shares tumbled 8.5 percent to 53.05 pence by midday, the worst British blue-chip performer.

It dragged the shares further away from the 63 pence level, the average price at which Britain bought its Lloyds stake, leaving taxpayers sitting on a hefty loss.

“We knew they were going to take a hit, but the extent has taken the market by surprise,” said Craig Yeaman at Saracen Fund Managers, who recently sold all his Lloyds shares. Britain’s watchdog has estimated customers were overcharged by 1.4 billion pounds a year from the sale of PPI insurance products. The industry was expected to suffer a hit of around 5 billion pounds, but the scale of Lloyds’ charge could almost double that, analysts said.

There are about 12 million outstanding policies. How that breaks down among lenders is unclear, but Lloyds is estimated to have about one-third of the market. Losses from bad loans at Lloyds rose to 2.6 billion pounds in the first quarter, up from 2.4 billion a year ago but down from 3.8 billion in the previous quarter. It said the first quarter hit was 500 million pounds more than it expected, mainly due to Ireland, where its impairment charge reached 1.1 billion.

The double blow from the insurance mis-selling provision and Ireland pushed Lloyds into a first-quarter statu-

tory loss of 3.5 billion pounds, down from a 721 million profit a year ago.

Lloyds’s net interest margin-the difference between what a bank charges for loans and what it pays to borrow-also fell to 2.07 percent from 2.12 percent at the end of last year. Lloyds had been expected to swing to a 5 billion pound pretax profit this year, and analysts said making an 8 billion pound profit in the final 9 months of the year looked a tall order.

Following talks with the financial watchdog, Lloyds said it wanted to “draw a line under” the PPI problem and move on. Britain’s financial watchdog said there have been more than 1.5 million complaints about the controversial policies. It will affect other banks and some overseas firms. Up to now the most conservative stance had come from Bank of America, which in October took a $592 million reserve related to possible PPI claims.

After Lloyds the biggest PPI providers are estimated to be Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC and Spain’s Santander. Shares in RBS, which reports results today, were down 3 percent and Barclays fell 2 percent. Britain’s stakes in RBS and Lloyds follow its bailout of both during the credit crisis, and both banks have been ordered by European regulators to sell off a host of assets. Lloyds is looking to sell 600 retail bank branches, but last month the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) - set up to propose reforming the industry-said Lloyds may have to sell more to improve competition. Lloyds reiterated its surprise at that proposal, which could delay the sale of branches agreed with the EU. —Reuters

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OPEC may raise oil output limits, restore credibility Obsolete OPEC quotas in need of revision

MINSK: People wait in front of a currency exchange office on May 4, 2011, to buy hard currency after a devaluation of the Belarus ruble. — AFP

Belarussians rush to dollar as economy crisis gets worse MINSK: It’s a throwback to the chaos of the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Dozens of people queuing outside an exchange kiosk in a desperate quest for dollars as Belarus’ economic crisis mounts. People have to register their place in the queue and even when they finally get to the front they can buy only a limit of 200 dollars’ (134.5 euros’) worth of hard currency.

The black market hard currency traders who usually hang out around exchange points in the capital Minsk have disappeared, with the authorities threatening prison sentences of up to three years for repeated violations.

The economic problems in Belarus, and the country’s gigantic current account deficit are now starting to affect the daily lives of the 10 million population in possibly the biggest test for President Alexander Lukashenko after almost 17 years in power. The central bank’s reserves are running out as the government seeks to plug the gaps in the economy, falling over the last month by $1.2 billion to just $2.5 billion.

The failure of the energy-poor country to develop high-quality exports has been exposed by the rise of the price of oil and gas, and by the rising cost of imports.

“The problems of the Belarussian economy have now been laid bare after being hidden for years thanks to reductions on Russian energy imports and external loans,” economist Alexander Alesin said. “Now, in front of our eyes, we are seeing the collapse of the Belarussian economic model which Lukashenko described as the Belarussian economic miracle,” he said. The economic crisis has also broken at a hugely sensitive time since Belarus is becoming increasingly isolated from the West over its crackdown on the opposition after Lukashenko’s disputed election victory on December 19.

Economists blame the government’s relaxation of monetary policy which helped growth of 10.9 percent in the first quarter but also created a gaping external trade deficit of $3 billion as well as rising inflation. In contrast to events during the 2008 economic crisis, Belarus has not turned to the International Monetary Fund for help

and is instead pinning its hopes on a credit from its traditional sponsor Russia. But this may also come with strings attached.

The population is now expecting a full-scale devaluation of the Belarussian ruble, with people now rushing to buy dollars while their local currency is still worth something. People have been left at a loss over how to obtain hard currency at a time of year when many need to pay for foreign holidays or new rental agreements, with many landlords refusing to accept Belarussian rubles.

According to banking sources, the Belarussian ruble is now trading at 5,000 Belarussian rubles to the dollar in transactions compared with the official rate of 3,000 rubles to the dollar. With no other alternative, Belarussians are now offering to buy or sell currency on the Internet through social networks or even websites which have been set up for the purpose. Consumers are already detecting shortages in goods imported by private firms such as baby food, nappies and water filters.

Meanwhile, shop owners are drastically raising the prices of newly-imported goods to take account of the black market exchange rate and their own risks in case of losses. “Here’s a fashionable rucksack, made by a French firm,” said Anna, a saleswoman in a luggage shop in Minsk. “We are selling it for 300,000 Belarussian rubles because we bought it at the old exchange rate. “But here’s the new supply and the owner has priced them at 750,000 Belarussian rubles even though they are absolutely identical,” she added.

The problem has become so acute that even state media, usually slavishly loyal to the authorities, have questioned the decision-making. “There have been no decisive, consistent actions,” said daily Sovetskaya Belorussia (Soviet Belarus). “What are they waiting for? The official answers, alas, do not tell us anything.” Amid the growing crisis, last week Lukashenko visited the isolated Central Asian state of Turkmenistan which along with Iran and Venezuela is one of the few countries in the world where he is welcome.

However it was unclear if the visit was aimed at winning help from the gasrich state for Belarus. — AFP

DUBAI: OPEC is considering raising formal output limits when it meets in June in a bid to convince the oil market it wants to bring crude prices down and reverse the impact of fuel inflation on economic growth. Despite the loss since late February of Libyan supply, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries sees no shortage of crude on world markets, a view largely supported by data on global inventories which are comfortable.

But some in the cartel see the need for a clear signal OPEC is prepared to take action to bring oil back below $100 a barrel, OPEC delegates said. “Saudi already made a promise to the US and the rest of the world to keep the oil markets well supplied and kept that promise by increasing production above quotas,” said a Gulf delegate. “But this doesn’t seem to have an impact on the price, so I think OPEC may consider raising production as a psychological factor that would help prices come down.”

Demand rationing Evidence is mounting that high oil prices are dampening the recovery in the West, in turn holding back fuel demand. “OPEC seems to have somehow resigned from playing an active role in price formation, leaving it up to the market, including speculative players,” said Pierre Terzian of consultancy Petrostrategies. “In the long run OPEC will be the most affected by the impact of high prices on demand.”

Leading producer Saudi Arabia has become increasingly frustrated that, despite its unilateral efforts to pump more to replace lost Libyan production, prices have stayed high near $120 a barrel for Brent. Riyadh is among those in the organization that decided an emergency OPEC meeting was not warranted to address the Libyan outage, perhaps undermining the cartel’s credibility as a cohesive unit.

Last week’s intervention by US President Barack Obama, calling for action on fuel prices, was seen among OPEC countries as domestic US politicking but it has added pressure on those in OPEC friendly to Washington, led by Saudi Arabia, to be seen to be doing something. An increase in formal output could be accompanied by an update to OPEC’s system of allocations, known as quotas, per country that has not been altered since the end of 2008.

“I think that the existing OPEC quota system is obsolete. An updating of OPEC quotas and compliance would certainly improve the credibility of the organization,” said Terzian. OPEC cut quotas sharply, effective Jan 1, 2009, to combat a drop in demand as recession bit, but has since left those formal targets unchanged, which has resulted in a large discrepancy between official and actual output.

Instead, Saudi Arabia has taken the lead in balancing the market, raising output sharply in February to fill the gap left by the loss of Libyan supplies and cut-

ting it again since as global demand growth eased. Most of the rest of OPEC are pumping at or near full capacity for supply of a total estimated 25.79 million barrels daily in April from 11 members with output targets, compared with an official limit of 24.84 million bpd.

Largely because of the outage from Libya, production from the 11 — excluding Iraq which is not restricted under OPEC’s output policy-is still a million barrels a day below its peak of 26.81 million bpd in January. While Saudi Arabia has struggled to sell much of its replacement crude blend to fill the Libyan gap, the millionbpd shortfall versus January may also reflect the damage being done to demand by the impact of high prices on the economy.

Re-establishing OPEC quotas at the core of the group’s production policy is not likely to be simple and arguments over who should get what will make it difficult to establish realistic individual quotas by country. That might mean an agreement simply to raise the combined target for the group as a whole. “At this point we don’t even know who will be representing Libya and going and changing every country’s quota might prove to be a very difficult task,” said another Gulf delegate.

Price hawk Iran may prefer not to raise output at all. Iran argues that current prices are “logical” and that adding volumes won’t make any difference because of political and psychological factors in the market. — Reuters

DALLAS: In this photo, Estee Lauder products are displayed for sale at a mall. Strong sales overseas are helping Estee Lauder put a new face on the recovery. — AP

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Millions in Asia face poverty if prices rise BANGKOK: Soaring food and oil prices could keep an additional 42 million people in poverty in the Asia Pacific region and threaten economic growth, the United Nations said yesterday. As regional economies continue to pick up pace in the wake of the global downturn, they face renewed fears about the impacts of higher oil costs, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) said. In its Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, the UN agency said higher crude prices could wipe up to one percent off growth in the energy-hungry region.

“As soon as you recover from the financial crisis you have the oil and food crisis again,” said Nagesh Kumar, director of the UNESCAP macroeconomic policy and development division. UNESCAP said if crude prices rose to an average of $130 dollars a barrel and food prices doubled this year-a worst case scenario-then an extra 42 million people would either fall into, or fail to climb out of, poverty. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, was priced at about $109 a barrel in Asian trade yesterday.

“Rising food prices are having dire effects on the poor, and reversing development gains,” said the report, which puts the total number of people living on less than $1.25 a day in the region at more than 950 million. The impact of the higher costs would be more severe in rural areas where the majority of poor people live, like India, Laos, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The report said heightened speculation in food commodities as well as poor harvests and increasing conversion of crops to biofuels had driven food prices as much as 35 percent higher in some countries.

“The rising prices are not going to the producers,” Kumar said. “Speculators are making up most of price rises and this is a very disturbing trend.” Countries around the region have suffered from surging inflation in recent months, driven by higher oil prices and a flood of foreign funds attracted to economies’ high growth and rising interest rates. Kumar said there was always potential for unrest when food prices escalate, but added there were signs that governments in the region were acting to reduce the cost of staples and step up social protection.—AFP

JAMMU: An Indian farmer collects wheat after harvest on the outskirts yesterday. A UN food agency has forecast a 3.4 percent rise in world wheat production in 2011 but warned that the increase won’t be as much as it was in previous years because of bumper crops. — AP

Can China’s billions spur next big idea?

Foreign firms upset about technology transfer rules BEIJING/DONGGUAN: If innovation is about dreaming up the next big idea, then the black box devised by Guangdong East Power probably doesn’t qualify. The twometer tall stack is a power supply system, a machine designed to ensure a smooth, uninterrupted flow of electricity to computer servers and medical equipment. The design isn’t entirely original. The company’s engineers, working in stark white laboratories at the heart of China’s Pearl River Delta, spent three years pulling apart rivals’ products and imitating them. But they made some important design changes, producing a machine that is more energy efficient and slimmer, allowing users to squeeze it into smaller spaces.

And it sells for 30-40 percent less than comparable products from Western competitors.

The strategy is the brainchild of He Simo, an amiable former soldier who started the company in 1989 with just 3000 yuan in capital, and once resorted to selling his own blood and bicycle to make ends meet. Through imitation, tinkering and steady improvement, Guangdong East Power is now one of China’s leading producers of power supply systems and increasingly a competitor for the global market leaders, Schneider Electric’s APC and Emerson .

“The company I most admire is Apple,” said He, sitting in an office off of the factory’s humming production line. “God’s hand sometimes gives them an idea and they come up with a completely new product. I don’t think we are anywhere near that stage yet. But I always say a product is never perfect-it can always be improved.” Innovation is an obsession for China’s central planners, who have showered billions on state-owned businesses and research institutes in an effort to make the country a creator of- rather than a mere user and copier of-intellectual property.

It’s an effort that has had western multinationals up in arms, fearful that the policies favor local companies and force foreign companies to transfer their best technologies to China. The government is seeking major breakthroughs - scientific discoveries and new technologies that will set the standard for companies around the world. The effort hasn’t been a success.

“You can’t really point to an individual firm or area where the Chinese are currently leading,” said Adam Segal, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of a book on innovation in Asia.

“Some people point to nanotechnology and some say nuclear. Otherwise, it’s hard to figure out if there’s going to be any breakthrough in China. I just don’t see it on the horizon.” But seen another way, innovation is thriving in China. Thousands of companies in China’s lively and unruly private sector have built money-making businesses on their ability to take existing technology and products and make them better and cheaper.

“Chinese companies have been doing wonderfully by being on the cusp of the latest available technologies developed elsewhere and then being able to work on it,” said Dan Breznitz, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “It’s a

BEIJING: A man walks outside a construction site of a residential project yesterday. — AP strategy that’s basically against the central government’s push. But those innovation capabilities are probably going to maintain Chinese growth for the next 15 years.”

That is, added Breznitz, if the Chinese government’s thirst for big, state-directed projects doesn’t undermine its privately owned companies.

In 2006, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology came up with an answer to what it saw as a vexing problem: the millions of dollars in licensing fees Chinese companies would have to pay to foreign patent holders as the country rolled out its 3G network. The solution was to mandate the use of a homegrown standard, TD-SCDMA, which Chinese engineers had developed jointly with Siemens.

The technology, developed with government money, had shortcomings. TDSCDMA was slower than W-CDMA, the 3G standard developed in Japan. It was less stable. And it took a very long time to roll out. The trials finished two years later than planned. China’s three state-owned carriers complained about the delay and at having to adopt a standard incompatible with the technologies being produced by the world’s major handset makers. Beijing eventually relented, allowing China Telecom and China Unicom to have standard 3G licenses but required the biggest, China Mobile , to use TD-SCDMA. By the time it was implemented, the global telecoms industry was already looking ahead to 4G. The effort wasn’t completely fruitless, says James McGregor, a senior counselor with consulting firm APCO Worldwide.

While the 3G standard developed by China was probably 60 percent as good as the existing standard, Chinese engineers are applying what they learnt to their work on the 4G standard. But the project fell far short of its goals. “The government’s intentions are good in trying to create innovation,” said McGregor. “But its policies are just driven to getting state enterprises to build big industrial machines and borrow technology from around the world to do it.”

In 2006, China launched policies designed to make it a technology leader.

Among other things, they call for China to

replace foreign technology in key sectors with locally developed intellectual property. Incentives to innovate include tax deductions for R&D expenses, government-backed loans and discounted interest rates for R&D investment. The latest innovation push is a plan to dominate seven “strategic” sectors, ranging from alternative energy and green cars to advanced manufacturing. The government plans to devote$1.5 trillion to the sectors over the next five years. Some of this is likely to be direct government spending, and much of it will come off the balance sheets of large state-owned enterprises.

While that spending is bound to produce some benefits, it’s an open question whether it will result in the new, worldleading technologies China’s planners aspire to. “Inevitably, a lot of that money is going to be wasted,” said Breznitz, who has co-authored a new book on innovation in China, “Run of the Red Queen”. “A lot of it will be spent on big players that either don’t know the market or feel so secure that they won’t compete as hard.”

He points out that some of the companies picked by the government to be champions of the telecoms sector have faded into obscurity. “China’s great companies ZTE and Huawei were not supposed to be the national champions. Those who were just spent all that money.”

Similarly, while government efforts have helped produce a veritable flood of patents in recent years - China will surpass the United States and Japan as the world’s biggest issuer of patents by 2011, according to a Thomson Reuters report - there may be less there than meets the eye.

Nearly half of these patents are so-called “utility patents”, ones that offer a shorter period of protection and are easier to obtain than regular patents issued in the United States or Japan. China’s innovation shortcomings are not merely the product of a preference for central planning over entrepreneurship, of course. Barriers include poor enforcement of intellectual property rules, an educational system that stresses rote learning, and a relative lack of independent organizations that can evaluate scientific projects and help police instances of plagiarism. — Reuters

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US service sector expands at slow pace WASHINGTON: The US economy’s service sector grew last month at the slowest pace since August, renewing concerns that more expensive gas and food may be weakening growth. Service companies, which employ 90 percent of the nation’s work force, still expanded for the 17th straight month. But their growth slowed considerably because of a sharp drop in demand for their services, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

The private trade group of purchasing executives said its index of service-sector activity dropped to 52.8 last month. That’s down from 57.3 in March and a five-year high of 59.7 in February. Any reading over 50 indicates expansion. The trade group measures activity for a range of industries, including retail, health care, financial services and construction. The index plummeted to 37.6 in November 2008, at the height of

the financial crisis. The sector contracted for all but three months in 2009. Many companies and economists said the decline in April reflects the impact of rising gas and food prices. Gas prices averaged $3.98 on Wednesday, up 1.5 cents from Tuesday and 32 cents higher than a month earlier, according to the AAA’s daily price gauge.

Retail food prices rose in March by the most in nearly three years, according to the government’s latest report on inflation. The spike in costs for basic necessities has left consumers with less money to spend elsewhere, leading to a decline in demand for services. The service-sectors’ measure of new orders plummeted to its lowest level since December 2009.

Stocks dropped after the report was released. The Dow Jones industrials closed down 84 points. Other indexes also declined. A weaker outlook for profits may

prompt some firms to hold back on hiring and expansion plans this year. Analysts predict the economy created 185,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.8 percent. But some are saying the service-sector report and other new data suggest the numbers may be weaker when the government issues its employment report Friday. A measure of employment in the service-sector report fell for a second straight month and is at its lowest level since September.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits has increased in two of the past three weeks.

And a report Wednesday by payroll provider ADP shows that businesses added 179,000 jobs in April, below what many economists projected and less than March’s gain of 207,000. ADP only looks at privatesector hiring. Friday’s report will likely

include public-sector job losses. “It’s clear that higher costs are making firms re-think the short-run outlook,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse. Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, said the service-sector report suggests economic growth will remain sluggish in the current April-June quarter.

Growth slowed to a 1.8 percent pace in the first three months of this year.

Retail was the only industry out of the 18 service industries tracked by the index to report contraction. All the others, including agriculture, utilities, hotels and restaurants, and health care, reported growth in April. Many economists cautioned against overreacting to the drop in the service-sector index, which can be volatile. Other indicators, such as healthy auto sales last month, reflect some ongoing economic strength. —AP

US jobless claims increase, productivity slows down Unit labor costs rebound

NEW YORK: In this photo, specialist William Bott (background right) directs trades at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. — AP

World markets wary on struggling US economy BANGKOK: Signs that the US economy may be struggling kept investor enthusiasm in check for riskier assets like stocks yesterday. Oil prices fell below $109 a barrel, extending a weeklong sell-off on investor concern that slowing US economic growth will undermine demand for crude. In currencies, the dollar was lower against the euro and the yen.

Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent to 5,997.03. Germany’s DAX rose 0.4 percent to 7,402.51 while France’s CAC-40 was flat at 4,042.79. Wall Street appeared headed for a higher opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 38 points to 12,710 and S&P 500 futures 3.9 points higher at 1,346.90.

Asian shares ended the day mixed as inflation worries continued to hound the region.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.2 percent to 23,261.61. Benchmarks in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia also fell, while those in Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan rose. Markets in South Korea and Japan were closed for holidays. Investors weighed trades cautiously as analysts warned that inflation remained a major drag on the region despite various actions by central banks in China, India, South Korea and elsewhere to cool rising prices by raising interest rates and taking other steps to reduce the amount of money sloshing around their economies. On Tuesday, China’s central bank said its top priorities were stabilizing consumer prices and managing inflation expectations. The same day, India’s central bank raised its key interest rate, its ninth hike in just over a year, and warned that persistent inflation is threatening growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.“Inflation has been picking up across most Asian economies, and quite rapidly in some places. We expect higher inflation still in the coming months,” said a research note by Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. It said that the Indian central bank’s high inflation forecast “points to more decisive tightening ahead.”

Mainland Chinese shares edged higher as investors snapped up bargains following the Shanghai benchmark’s biggest loss in more than 2 months the day before. — AP

WASHINGTON: The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose to an eight-month high last week and productivity growth slowed in the first quarter, clouding the outlook for an economy that is struggling to gain speed. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000, the highest since mid-August, the Labor Department said yesterday. Claims were pushed up by factors ranging from spring break layoffs to the introduction of an emergency benefits program. Economists had expected claims to fall to 410,000.

A second report from the department showed nonfarm productivity increased at a 1.6 percent annual rate, braking from a 2.9 percent pace in the fourth quarter. The growth pace was above economists’ expectations for 1 percent. “I think we’re in a situation where the markets and the Fed have been too optimistic,” said Bob Andres, chief investment strategist and economist at Merion Wealth Partners in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

“I don’t think we’re going to fall off a cliff but the road to real recovery and full unemployment is going to take a long time, and people ought to get back into that mode.” US stock index futures extended losses after the jobless claims data, while government debt prices touched session highs the data. The dollar extended losses against the yen, but rose against the euro. The claims data falls outside the survey period for the governments closely watched employment report for April, which will be released today.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 186,000 last month, according to a Reuters survey, after rising by 216,000 in Marchwhich was the most in 10 months.

The anticipated slowdown in hiring is mostly blamed on high food and gasoline prices, which clipped eco-

nomic growth in the first quarter. Still, the unemployment rate is expected to have held at a two-year low of 8.8 percent. Last week, even the four-week moving average of unemployment claims-a better measure of underlying trends- increased 22,250 to 431,250, the highest since November.

A Labor Department official attributed the surprise surge in claims last week to spring break layoffs in New York, which added 25,000, and the start of an emergency benefits program in Oregon, which brought in new claimants, including some already on the regular programs.

There were also additional claims from the auto sector, the official said, adding that there could have been some small number of claims related to the tornadoes that struck parts of the country. The New York spring break fell outside the dates the department uses for seasonal adjustments to account for the holiday nationwide.

“The increases are beyond what seasonal factors expected and that is causing claims to go up,” the official said.

But the productivity report offered some hope for the labor market recovery. While the step back in productivity was flagged by a sharp pull back in economic growth in the first quarter, it also suggested that businesses have probably little room to continue with their cost cutting strategies and may soon need to step up hiring.

Productivity-which measures hourly output per worker- rose rapidly in the past two years, peaking at an 8.9 percent rate in the second quarter of 2009. Businesses are estimated to be sitting on $2 trillion in cash.

The economy grew at a 1.8 percent pace in the first three months of this year after expanding at a 3.1 percent rate in the fourth quarter. The productivity report showed a rebound in unit

labor costs, which rose at a 1 percent rate in the first quarter after declining 1 percent in the prior period. Despite the rise in labor costs in the first quarter, wage inflation remains tame amid an 8.8 percent unemployment rate.

High food and energy prices have stoked inflation fears, but Federal Reserve officials see limited scope for a broad pick up in price pressures.

Economists had expected unit labor costs to rise at a 0.8 percent rate in the first quarter.

During the first quarter, output rose at a 3.1 percent rate, moderating from 4.4 percent pace in the final three months of 2010. — Reuters

SYDNEY: A man and woman walk past the National Australia Bank head office yesterday. National Australia Bank, one of the country’s largest lenders, reported a nearly 16 percent rise in first-half net profits yesterday amid a strong economy, lower bad debts and a predicted surge in business lending. — AP

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Lessons learned from Kaspersky kidnapping Armed guards, armored vehicles and other forms of physical security are all valuable protective tools, but they can all be defeated by kidnappers who are allowed to form a plan and execute it at the time and place of their choosing

By Scott Stewart

O

n April 24, officers from the anti-kidnapping unit of Moscow’s Criminal Investigation Department and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) rescued 20-year-old Ivan Kaspersky from a dacha in Sergiev Posad, a small town about 40 miles northeast of Moscow. Kaspersky, the son of Russian computer software services billionaire Eugene Kaspersky (founder of Kaspersky Lab), was kidnapped on April 19 as he was walking to work from his Moscow apartment. A fourth-year computer student at Moscow State University, Kaspersky was working as an intern at a software company located near Moscow’s Strogino metro station.

Following the abduction, Kaspersky was reportedly forced to call his father and relay his captors’ demands for a ransom of 3 million euros ($4.4 million). After receiving the ransom call, the elder Kaspersky turned to Russian law enforcement for assistance. On April 21, news of the abduction hit the Russian and international press, placing pressure on the kidnappers and potentially placing Kaspersky’s life in jeopardy.

In order to defuse the situation, disinformation was leaked to the press that a ransom had been paid, that Kaspersky had been released unharmed and that the family did not want the authorities involved. Kaspersky’s father also contacted the kidnappers and agreed to pay the ransom.

Responding to the ruse, four of the five members of the kidnapping gang left the dacha where Kaspersky was being held to retrieve the ransom and were intercepted by Russian authorities as they left. The authorities then stormed the dacha, arrested the remaining captor and released Kaspersky. The five kidnappers remain in custody and are awaiting trial.

According to Russia’s RT television network, Russian officials indicated that the kidnapping was orchestrated by an older couple who were in debt and sought to use the ransom to get out of their financial difficulties. The couple reportedly enlisted their 30-year-old son and two of his friends to act as muscle for the plot.

Fortunately for Kaspersky, the group that abducted him was quite unprofessional and the place where he was being held was identified by the cell phone used to contact Kaspersky’s father. Reports conflict as to whether the cell phone’s location was tracked by the FSB, the police anti-kidnapping unit or someone else working for Kaspersky’s father, but in any case, in the end the group’s inexperience and naivete allowed for Kaspersky’s story to have a happy ending.

However, the story also demonstrates that even amateurs can successfully locate and abduct the son of a billionaire, and some very important lessons can be drawn from this case.

The Abduction According to the Russian news service RIA Novosti, Kaspersky’s abductors had been stalk-

ing him and his girlfriend for several months prior to the kidnapping. This pre-operational surveillance permitted the kidnappers to determine Kaspersky’s behavioral patterns and learn that he did not have any sort of security detail protecting him. Media reports also indicate that the kidnappers were apparently able to obtain all the information they required to begin their physical surveillance of the victim from information Kaspersky himself had posted on Vkontakte.ru, a Russian social networking site.

According to RT, Kaspersky’s Vkontakte profile

contained information such as his true name, his photo, where he was attending school, what he was studying, who he was dating, where he was working for his internship and even the addresses of the last two apartments where he lived.

Armed with this cornucopia of information, it would be very easy for the criminals to establish physical surveillance of Kaspersky in order to gather the additional behavioral information they needed to complete their plan for the abduction. Kaspersky also appears to have not been practicing the level of situational aware-

ness required to detect the surveillance being conducted against him - even though it was being conducted by amateurish criminals who were undoubtedly clumsy in their surveillance tradecraft. This lack of awareness allowed the kidnappers to freely follow him and plot his abduction without fear of detection. Kaspersky made himself an easy target in a dangerous place for high net worth individuals and their families. While kidnapping for ransom is fairly rare in the United States, Russian law enforcement sources report that some 300 people are

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kidnapped for ransom every year in Russia.

Denial In terms of being an easy target, Kaspersky was not alone. It is not uncommon for the children of high net worth families to want to break free of their family’s protective cocoon and “live like a regular person.” This means going to school, working, dating and living without being insulated from the world by the security measures in place around their parents and their childhood homes. This tendency was exemplified by the well-publicized example of George W. Bush’s twin daughters “ditching” their Secret Service security details so they could go out and party with their friends when they were in college.

Having personally worked as a member of an executive protection detail responsible for the security of a high net worth family, I have seen firsthand how cumbersome and limiting an executive protection detail can be - especially a traditional, overt-security detail. A low-key, “bubble-type” detail, which focuses on surveillance detection and protective intelligence, provides some space and freedom, but it, too, can be quite limiting and intrusive - especially for a young person who wants some freedom to live spontaneously. Because of the very nature of protective security, there will inevitably be a degree of tension between personal security and personal freedom.

However, when reacting to this tension, those protected must remember that there are very real dangers in the world - dangers that must be guarded against. Unfortunately, many people who reject security measures tend to live in a state of denial regarding the potential threats facing them, and that denial can land them in trouble. We have seen this mindset most strongly displayed in high net worth individuals who have recently acquired their wealth and have not yet been victimized by criminals. A prime example of this was US billionaire Eddie Lampert, who at the time of his abduction in 2003 did not believe there was any threat to his personal security. His first encounter with criminals was a traumatic kidnapping at gunpoint.

But this mindset can also appear in younger members of well-established families of means who have not personally been victimized by criminals.

It is important to realize, however, that the choice between security and freedom does not have to be an either/or equation. There are measures that can be taken to protect high net worth individuals and children without employing a full protective security detail. These same measures can also be applied by people of more modest means living in places such as Mexico or Venezuela, where the kidnapping threat is pervasive and extends to almost every strata of society, from middle-class professionals and business owners to farmers.

In this type of environment, the threat also applies to mid-level corporate employees who serve tours as expatriate executives in foreign cities. Some of the cities they are posted in are among the most crime-ridden in the world, including such places as Mexico City, Caracas, Sao Paulo and Moscow. When placed in the middle of an impoverished society, even a midlevel executive or diplomat is, by comparison, incredibly rich. As a result, employees who would spend their lives under the radar of professional criminals back home in the United States, Canada or Europe can become prime targets for kidnapping, home invasion, burglary and carjacking in their overseas posts.

The Basics Before anything else can be done to address the criminal threat, like any other issue, the fact that there is indeed a threat must first be recognized and acknowledged. As long as a potential target is in a state of denial, very little can be done to protect him or her.

Once the threat is recognized, the next step

in devising a personal protection system is creating a realistic baseline assessment of the threat - and exposure to that threat. This assessment should start with some general research on crime and statistics for the area where the person lives, works or goes to school, and the travel corridors between these places. The potential for natural disasters, civil unrest - and in some cases the possibility of terrorism or even war - should also be considered. Based on this general crime-environment assessment, it might be determined that the kidnapping risk in a city such as Mexico City or Moscow will dictate that a child who has a desire to attend university without a protective security detail might be better off doing so in a safer environment abroad.

Building on these generalities, then, the next step should be to determine the specific threats

and vulnerabilities by performing some basic analyses and diagnostics. In some cases, these will have to be performed by professionals, but they can also be undertaken by the individuals themselves if they lack the means to hire professional help. These analyses should include: • In-depth cyberstalking report. Most of the people for whom we have conducted such reports have been shocked to see how much private information analysts are able to dig up on the Internet. This information is available for free (or for a few dollars) to anyone, including criminals, who might be targeting people for kidnapping, extortion or other crimes. The problem of personal information being available on the Internet is magnified when potential targets

gratuitously post personal information online, as in the Kaspersky case.

Even in cases where personal information is available only to online “friends,” it is quite easy for savvy Internet users to use a false social networking account with an attractive photo to social engineer their way into a circle of friends using common pretexting tactics. Therefore, potential targets need to be extremely careful what they post online, and they also must be aware of what information about them is publicly available on the Internet and how that information may make them vulnerable to being targeted. If it is determined that the information available makes them too vulnerable, changes may have to be made.

• Baseline surveillance diagnostics.

Surveillance diagnostics is a blend of surveillance-detection techniques that are designed to

determine if an individual is under systematic criminal surveillance. This can be conducted by the potential targets themselves, if they receive the necessary training, or by a specialized professional surveillance-detection team. As the name suggests, this diagnostic level helps establish a baseline from which to plan future security and surveillance-detection operations.

• Route analysis. This type of analysis examines the regular travel routes of a potential target in order to identify locations such as choke points that can be used by criminals for surveillance or to conduct an attack. Route analysis can be performed by the same team that conducts surveillance diagnostics, or even by a potential target if the person will thoughtfully examine

his or her daily travel routes. Such an analysis allows the potential target to be cognizant of such locations and of the need to increase situational awareness for signs of surveillance or a potential attack as he or she passes through them - especially during a highly predictable move like the morning home-to-work commute.

• Physical security surveys. Such surveys are performed for the home, workplace or school of the potential target. While individuals can effectively conduct such surveys using common sense, a professional assessment can be useful and will often be performed for free by alarm companies. Obviously, any security upgrades required at a workplace or school will require coordination with the security managers for these locations.

• Response capability assessment. This is a realistic assessment of the capabilities and responsiveness of the local police and security forces as well as fire and medical first-responders. In some places, security personnel themselves may be involved in criminal activity, or prove to be generally unresponsive or incompetent. Knowing their true capabilities is necessary to create a realistic security plan.

There are some very good private training facilities that can provide individuals with training in things like attack recognition/avoidance, surveillance detection and route analysis as well hands-on skills like tactical driving.

Guns Alone Are Not the Answer Even if a potential target is being afforded a protection detail, it must be remembered that guards with guns are not in and of themselves a guarantee of security. If a group is brazen enough to undertake a kidnapping, they will in many cases and many places not hesitate to use deadly force in the commission of their crime. If they are given free rein to conduct pre-operational surveillance, they will be able to make plans to overcome any security measures in place, including the neutralizing of armed security personnel.

After recognizing that a threat indeed exists, the next key concept that potential targets need to internalize is that criminals are vulnerable to detection as they plan their crimes, and that ordinary people can develop the skills required to detect criminal activity and take measures to avoid being victimized.

The fact is, most criminals practice terrible surveillance tradecraft. They are permitted to succeed in spite of their lack of skill because, for the most part, people simply do not practice good situational awareness.

The good news for potential targets is that being aware of one’s surroundings and identifying potential threats and dangerous situations is more a mindset or attitude than a hard skill. Because of this, situational awareness is not something that can be practiced only by highly trained government agents or specialized surveillance detection teams - it is something that can be practiced by anyone with the will and the discipline to do so. In the Kaspersky case, it is very likely that had the young man been practicing good situational awareness, he would have been able to note the criminals conducting surveillance on him and to take appropriate action to avoid being kidnapped.

Armed guards, armored vehicles and other forms of physical security are all valuable protective tools, but they can all be defeated by kidnappers who are allowed to form a plan and execute it at the time and place of their choosing. Clearly, a way is needed to deny kidnappers the advantage of striking when and where they choose or, even better, to stop a kidnapping before it can be launched. This is where the intelligence tools outlined above come into play. They permit the potential target, and any security officers working to protect them, to play on the action side of the action/reaction equation rather than passively waiting for something to happen. — Stratfor

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011 www.kuwaittimes.net

Actress Christina Ricci arrives at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tribute honoring Sophia Loren in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wednesday, May 4, 2011. Loren's life and career will be celebrated by friends and colleagues Wednesday. — AP (See Page 50)

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Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Get a grip on

file management W

hen it comes to managing the files you store on your computer, you have two choices. You can ignore the task and spend increasing amounts of time trying to find what you know you have. Or you can acquire tools and a system that help you avoid duplication, make files easy to find, and restore some sanity to your digital life. If the second option sounds more appealing, read on.

Q: My collection of MP3 files now consumes more than 1 terabyte of disk space. I know I have lots of duplicate files. What’s the best way to find them?

A: You need to enlist the help of a duplicate file finder. There are many on the market. A few well regarded ones are Duplicate Cleaner (http://cnet.co/gAJfVH), Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (http://bit.ly/6qHFvb), and DoubleKiller (http://bit.ly/9Pps0Q). While you’ll find many duplicate file finders on the internet, be careful when installing them: most include some type of add-on bar from a sponsor that you may or may not want. Uncheck any options during installation that will just annoy you. Duplicate file finders are generally easy to use. Just start them, point them to a folder or drive that you know contains duplicates, and have them search for files with the same name or content.

Then instruct the programs to remove (or move) the duplicates.

Q: In a large folder full of files, is there any way to force one or two important files always to appear at the top?

A: Sure. You can place an exclamation mark (!) at the beginning of the file names. Doing so causes Windows to move those files to the top, even above those with names beginning with “a.”

You can perform this trick on folders as well, forcing some folders always to appear above others. Placing two exclamation marks before a file name causes that file to take precedence over files or folders with one exclamation mark.

If you do this with a lot of files or folders, though,

you end up with a bunch of files at the top of the list, and you’ll start to run into the same problem with finding what you want quickly. So use this trick sparingly.

Q: My wife stores every conceivable type of file in one place, and now it’s almost impossible to find a specific file efficiently. Do you have any suggestions for how to quickly bring order to this chaos?

A: You could start by sorting that huge folder full of files by file type. Windows Explorer makes that easy. Just open Windows Explorer (Windows key+E), navigate to the folder full of files, and then click the Type column header in the file list pane. In the blink of an eye, all of those files will be sorted by the application that created them.

Select all files of a particular type and move them into a new folder structure that makes sense to you. For instance, you might want to start by having folders called Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentation, Photos, Videos, and so forth.

Beneath each of those folders, you might create subfolders by year, project, occasion, or purpose - whatever makes the most sense. When you’re finished, just remember to open all of the applications your wife uses and change the default file location to match your new file storage system. That way, when she saves files, they’ll go in the proper place.

Q: To share files with several others in my house, should I use the Windows 7 HomeGroup feature or a network attached storage device?

A: HomeGroup makes sharing files and printers less painful than it used to be, but there’s a catch: all of the computers sharing files have to be turned on. It doesn’t hurt to try HomeGroup, though.

To get started, just open the Start menu, type “homegroup,” and follow the instructions.

How to make files easy to find, and restore some sanity to your digital life A network attached storage (NAS) drive or device is designed to be always on, connected to your wireless router. Its sole purpose is to store data and allow several people or machines to access it.

You’ll find NAS devices online at any major electronics retailer. A Windows Home Server machine (such as an HP MediaSmart) is perhaps a preferable option, though. As with a NAS, you connect it to your router and can use it as centralized storage, but it offers the advantage of also backing up every connected computer every night, and you can even use it to access your home computers when you’re on the road. — dpa

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Pe t s FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

New imposter pets make the rounds Some pet owners try to skirt rules with fake service dogs

O

wners and trainers of service dogs are increasingly angry at pet owners who pass their animals off as service dogs by using phony credentials. The imposters go to the Internet to buy vests, ID cards and certificates for their dogs. The deception allows their pets to live in restricted housing, accompany them inside restaurants and hotels or fly for free in airplane cabins rather than in cargo holds. “I don’t want to say it’s a scam, but it is a scam,” said Nick Kutsukos, 72, who runs Elite K9 Academy in Jupiter, Florida, and has trained service dogs for 40 years.

People who fake a disability and/or pretend their pet is a service animal risk at least a fine or, in extreme cases, federal fraud charges. Getting certification is as easy as filling out a form online, sending in your money and perhaps a photograph of your dog.

You can pay from $20 to $300. An owner gets a specially marked dog vest or collar, dog identification tags or ID cards, a certificate, training DVDs, information CDs and other official-looking items. But none of it is required by law.

One website recommends annual certification, while another offers increasingly expensive bronze, silver, gold and platinum packages.

“There is no certification required, so there’s no such thing as a legitimate (document),” said Toni Eames, president of the Michigan-based International Association of Assistance Dog Partners. “Anyone who sells you a certification is a scammer,” said Eames, who also is blind and has her own guide dog.

Given the time and money invested in training service dogs, disabled users and trainers are angered by those who buy or sell worthless service-dog items online for imposter pets.

“I’m condemning the people who are irresponsible and force people into cheating,” Eames said.

Kutsukos, whose service dog helps with his seizures, said the fake certifications “make it difficult for people with legitimate service dogs to do things.” A restaurant manager, for example, might think twice about allowing a legitimate service dog inside because of a bad experience with a fake service dog that barked or misbehaved. The best way to tell if a service dog is legitimate is to observe its behavior, authorities say. Service dogs won’t appear restless or jump or bark.

They will obey the disabled owner’s commands, perform tasks and lie down passively where instructed.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, protects the rights of the disabled, including their use of service animals. But there was confusion when monkeys, cats, ferrets and other critters

were utilized to help people with special needs function in public places such as restaurants and hotels. The US Department of

trained to perform specific tasks related to the owner’s proven disability.

Guide dogs are the most recog-

according to Jose Lopez of Lighthouse of Broward, which serves the sight impaired. He has had a guide dog for five years and

Jack, a German Nick Kut, is a service dog for Nick Kutsukos of Jupiter, Florida. —MCT Justice last month amended guidelines to narrow the definition of service animals to dogs that are

nizable of service animals, having assisted the blind and visually impaired for more than 50 years,

is a consultant for guide-dog training schools. “It’s a heavy gray area,” Lopez said. “Basically, everybody

can print (certifications) from the Internet and say, ‘That’s my assisting dog.’” Legitimate service dogs, of almost any size and breed, can be taught a variety of tasks that include alerting a deaf person to sirens or alarms, retrieving medication, warning of impending seizures and stopping autistic children from wandering off.

The dogs can be trained to wake up a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who’s having a nightmare and help prevent or interrupt destructive or impulsive behavior by someone with a neurological or psychiatric disability, Kutsukos said. Under the new federal rules, dogs that provide emotional comfort are not considered service animals, yet dogs, monkeys, ferrets and other support animals still are allowed in airplane cabins under the Air Carrier Access Act, and in homes under the Fair Housing Act, Eames said, with appropriate proof from the owner’s doctor.

Still, not everyone bothers.

“People come up to me all the time and ask, ‘Where do I get one of those harnesses to take my dog with me,’” Eames said. “They don’t have any clue (my dog) had two years of training before I was able to take her on a plane with me.”

There are about 20,000 legitimate service dogs across the country and as many as 2,000 in Florida, according to Ken Lyons, director of Orlando-based Service Dogs of Florida. Training takes up to two years at most training schools, and only about 2,500 dogs graduate each year. There’s usually a threeyear waiting list.

Training guide dogs for the blind can cost up to $40,000, Lyons said. For most service dogs, it’s up to $20,000. “If you are truly disabled, then it’s worth the money,” Kutsukos said. Although it’s not mandatory, any certification, ID card, vest, tag or harness should have contact information for the service dog’s school and trainer, Lopez said. In Florida, barring a disabled person and his or her service dog from a restaurant, hotel, airplane or other public place is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

By law a disabled person can be asked only two questions about his or her service dog: “Is this a service dog for disabilities?” and “What tasks or assistance does the dog provide you with?” On the federal level, a judge can order a change in business policies to allow access by disabled customers and their service dogs. Fines there are rare. “If you portray yourself as disabled, or your pet as a service animal, the minute you go out in public you’re committing a crime,” Lyons said.

“It’s felony fraud.” —MCT

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Fo o d FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Everyday cooking

T

he quintessential garnish herb, for years parsley sat atop endless dishes as decor. Well its parsley’s time to shine. With its many health benefits and vibrant fresh flavor, parsley can be used as the main ingredient. Cheaper and more available than other herbs, parsley is a delicious replacement in recipes that call for basil, oregano or other fresh herbs.

What do you think? sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Parsley is a member of the Umbelliferae family, which also includes celery, carrots, dill, cilantro, caraway, cumin, and the poisonous hemlock.

Nobody is certain where parsley originated, though it is said by some to have originated in Sardinia.

There are two types commonly used as an herb, curly leaf and flat leaf. Flat leaf is often referred to as Italian parsley.

The Ancient Romans loved parsley. In the first century AD, Pliny wrote that no salad or sauce should be served without parsley. He also wrote that all classes of people loved parsley.

The Ancient Greeks believed parsley sprung from the blood of the hero Archemorus after he was killed by a dragon.

The Greeks used parsley for funeral wreaths and in garlands for the winners of the Nemena and Isthmian sporting games.

There was an ancient belief that plucking a sprig of parsley while saying one’s enemy’s name would bring about the death of said enemy.

Corpses were sprinkled with parsley to help eliminate the stench.

People who looked very sick and near death were often said to be “in need of parsley.”

9th century Emperor Charlemagne loved cheese flavored with parsley seeds and had two cases sent to him every year.

Parsley arrived on British shores in the 16th century.

It is said that parsley goes seven times to the Devil and back before it germinates due to the long time it takes to grow.

Also because of the difficulty in growing it, it is said that only witches or evil people can grow it.

In The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit “ate some lettuce and some broad beans, then some radishes, and then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley.”

Parsley is a natural breath freshener. It reduces the odor of garlic breath when chewed fresh. This is thanks to parsley’s high chlorophyll levels.

• • •

Pregnant women should not consume parsley because it is a uterine stimulant and may induce premature labor.

Parsley is believed by many to be toxic for birds but there is no evidence that this is true. In fact, it is a good source of vitamins and amino acids for birds.

Parsley contains oxalates, substances in some plants that may cause problems for people with kidney or gallbladder problems.

• •

Two tablespoons of parsley contain about three calories.

Two tablespoons of parsley contain 153% of the Recommended Daily Value of Vitamin K. — www.healthdiaries.com

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Fo o d FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Walnuts parsley Pesto with Pasta

Parsley potatoes 1 1/2 pounds new red potatoes 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 cup chicken broth 1 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley 1/4 cup vegetable broth 6 cloves garlic, peeled 1 tablespoon plain unseasoned bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste 16 ounces spaghettini or other thin pasta

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n a food processor fitted with a metal blade, process walnuts, oil, parsley, broth, garlic, bread crumbs, and salt until smooth. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking liquid, then drain pasta in colander. Place pasta in a large serving bowl and add the parsley-walnut pesto and reserved cooking liquid. Toss well to combine and serve at once.

Cream of parsley soup 1 stick butter 2 bunches fresh parsley, chopped (approximately 3 c.)

4 cup water Pepper and salt 4 med sized potatoes, peeled and chopped 1 tbsp butter to top

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elt butter in a kettle. Add parsley, reserving 2 tablespoons for decoration. Stir for 2 minutes. Add water, pepper, and salt. Add potatoes Bring to a boil, cover, reduce flame, and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Pour all into the blender, and blend until you have a smooth, creamy consistency. (You might need to blend it in two batches). Return to kettle, heat until the soup is piping hot. Top with the rest of the parsley, and a dot of butter. Serve, preferably with hot, crisp French bread.

Parsley salad 8 ounces chopped fresh parsley leaves 1 cup chopped onion 2 garlic cloves, minced 1/3 cup kalamata olive, pitted and sliced 1/4 cup chopped tomato 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1 hard-boiled egg, sliced 1 tablespoon olive oil

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eel a strip of skin from around the center of each potato, place the potatoes in cold water. Set aside. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until tender.

Pour in broth and 3/4 cup of the parsley; mix well. Bring to a boil. Place the potatoes into a large pot full of salted water. Bring the water to a boil; then reduce heat. Simmer covered, for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon to a serving bowl. Sprinkle the black pepper into the skillet and stir.. Pour the peppered sauce over potatoes and sprinkle with remaining parsley.

n a mixing bowl, toss together parsley, onions, garlic, olives and tomatoes. In a separate small bowl or cup, mix together lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper; drizzle over the salad. Place in a serving bowl and place egg slices on top.

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 and rescue the victims of a boat accident. But as Samda struggles to free the last man from an underwater reef, the octopus returns…

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

www.the99.org

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Who’s got the hump now?

Camel-riding in the outback It’s not just in the Sahara that camels come in handy.

Our writer finds his intelligent if wayward mount perfect for a trek in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges

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ver a dried-up creek where river red gum trees cluster, we come to a halt in the dusty yard of a remote farm.

Here, the heavy silence of the outback is broken by an enormous Chewbacca-like groan, and a great smiling creature cranes its seamonster neck over a wooden fence.

Australia has its share of animals that look pretty weird to European eyes but it is still a shock to see a camel in the heart of the Flinders Ranges, in South Australia, where kangaroos hop and emus stride under the fierce sun. Camels are not native but have traversed this vast country for more than 150 years, ever since mid-19th century explorers used them to open up its inhospitable desert interior to trains, mining and sheep farming.

Like many animals introduced to the continent from Europe, including foxes and rabbits, wild camels are now a pest, and a million of these indomitable beasts now roam free in central Australia.

Below a mountain called Devil’s Peak lives a man who is doing something about it.

Graham Cannard, a fourth-generation cameleer, has set up home here with his young family and 15 camels, which he caught from the wild and trained to carry visitors into the outback. A lean, wiry man in ripped jeans, eyes shaded by an Akubra bush hat, Cannard is a quintessential bushman - a great storyteller with a psychic connection to camels. Camels are saddled with a reputation as aggressive, grumpy beasts who smell bad and spit. Cannard is keen to change this.

“Don’t go on your cover. Open your book, read a few pages,” he says. They are not aggressive if treated well. “I treat my camels like I do my boys, with a lot of love and affection,” he says. “Camels are very misunder-

stood animals.” Cannard was born among camels - if he cried as a baby, he was placed in a basket on a camel until he fell asleep and if Australia has a better camel whisperer, I’d like to meet him. Cannard’s great grandfather, Hezekiah, an immigrant from Germany, fled internment in Australia during the first world war by heading into the outback. In Australia anyone who looked after camels was known as an “Afghan”. Hezekiah became an Afghan - he bought several camels.

Cannard’s dad, Lofty, a wild-horse catcher and champion rodeo rider, continued the family love affair with camels and founded a travelling rodeo show. The youngest of nine boys in Lofty’s eccentric, itinerant menagerie, which included two lioness cubs and a chimp called Tarzan, Cannard skipped school and devoted his life to animals, competing on the professional rodeo circuit and racing camels.

(His much-loved camel Camanchi, descended from his great-grandfather’s first camels, once ran 400m in 28 seconds - significantly faster than Usain Bolt.) Such was his talent for breaking in wild camels that he was asked to train elephants in Indonesia.

“Marry him, marry his camels,” says his wife, Jannene, before we disappear on our camel trek. When they first met, Cannard phoned Jannene, a “city girl”, and, in a stately, old-fashioned way, asked her if he could “come courting”. He told her he would bring a gift; excited, Jannene imagined jewellery.

Instead, Cannard turned up with a baby bull camel.

We drive in Cannard’s battered truck, with five camels in the back, deeper into the Flinders. You may think you’ve understood the size of the Australian outback from looking at a map but the scale of it is still a shock

once you get there. The pleasantly rolling Flinders Ranges are far less bleak than much of the bush, but hardly anyone lives here.

On a barbed wire fence hang the bodies of 15 foxes - a sign that the landowner doesn’t like non-indigenous animals. A heat haze shimmers and a sleepy shingleback lizard shuffles off the dirt road. We pull up at an abandoned farm. Giant crickets leap from the dry grass. “Cheek cheek,” call noisy flocks of pink-and-grey galahs, as Cannard unloads our camels and starts saddling up.

Camels in the rugged outback.

Photograph: Graeme Robertson Our train, or string, of camels begins with Rex at the front, followed by Bonnie, Crystal, Myrtle and Feral.

“Hoosh down,” says Cannard and in three clunky movements, the camels obediently drop to their knees so we can climb on.

Cannard is so at ease with his camels I imagine he could lead a string of 100 but he prefers small groups and usually takes out just six people, 12 at the most. I ride Myrtle; ominously Graeme Robertson, the Guardian’s photographer, gets the beast called Feral.

We ride into a valley that is empty, except for the wildlife. Kangaroos lying up in the shade of trees hop away looking, to our eyes, every bit as weird as prehistoric creatures.

Out of nowhere, the wind gets up and a mini tornado, called a whirly-whirly, dances through the dusty landscape.

“She’ll take you through trees,” warns Cannard as I settle into Myrtle’s comfortable saddle, just behind her hump. Deliberately walking new riders under low branches is a camel’s favorite joke. As Myrtle places her front feet down, they bounce and spring like a new pair of trainers. A camel takes 90% of its weight on its front feet; they look like an

enormous and very comfy pair of slippers.

But despite my tentative patting, Myrtle is fairly contemptuous of her new rider: she drags me against a dead tree and then swerves the wrong way around a wattle tree so its branches whip me. I am being tested.

The sun beats down and the air smells of eucalyptus under the big gums in the bottom of a dry creek. We stop for a picnic lunch in the shade of a dead tree that has shed its bark like a snake might its skin. Storytelling is a great outback tradition and Cannard spins so many fine yarns your sense of reality gets tangled. If there is anything you don’t believe in this story, blame him. His dad taught him how to fall from a bucking horse and land on his feet; his worst injury from rodeo was a broken thumb (and that because he was showing off to several Sheilas); but breaking in camels has proved far more hazardous.

“If you’re gonna work with big wild animals, you’re gonna get hurt,” he shrugs.

“Anyone who tells you any different is a liar.”

My favorite “is-he-having-me-on?” story is that you can put your ear to the trunk of a eucalyptus tree and listen to it drinking.

After lunch, Myrtle seems more accepting of me, particularly when I gaze into her limpid eyes and give her a cuddle. The back of a camel makes a perfect - and safe - vantage point from which to admire wild Australia. The camels tread carefully up a dried riverbed. There are lethal brown snakes here but Cannard has never heard of a camel being bitten. Whenever we stop for a break, I order Myrtle to sit but I am as inconsequential as a fly on her delicate, expressive ears.

She makes it very clear that the only authority she respects is Cannard’s. Only he can get her to “hoosh down”. —Guardian

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Sea change:: 10 quirky cruises The small ship Among tour operator Noble Caledonian’s fleet of vessels is the Island Sky, a small, elegant ship that was refurbished last year.

Noble Caledonian says: “We promise there will be no organised entertainment, fancy dress, deck games or any of the usual big ship experiences.” We like the look of the Island Retreats trip, a low-key journey from Portsmouth to the Scilly Isles, Channel Islands, Brittany and Normandy.

The yoga cruise A yoga cruise with Star Clippers. Star Clippers is offering two one-week yoga cruises in Greece and Turkey this summer on one of its tall sailing ships. The Southern Cyclades trip from 6 August and the Northern Cyclades trip from 13 August will both feature twicedaily yoga sessions on deck with a qualified teacher, plus meditation and lectures on the philosophy and practice of yoga. There will be a focus on vegetarian food.

The anti-cruise Hurtigruten’s fleet of ships has been carrying freight, fish and Norwegian families up and down the coast for more than 100 years, and tourists can tag along too. These days the ships have a few creature comforts, but are still a down-to-earth alternative to super-luxe cruise liners.

The river ride Aqua Expeditions was the first company to offer luxury cruises on the Amazon river in Peru, and it is launching a second vessel on 29 April. Passengers can fish for piranha, and take excursions into the remote Pacaya Samiria reserve, to view pink river dolphins, red howler monkeys and three-toed sloths.

The geology journey Aurora Expeditions is celebrating 15 years of exploring the European Arctic with a twoweek voyage focused on geology from 2 September. A palaeontologist/geologist will be joining the Jewels of the Arctic trip, which visits

If a super-luxe liner isnʼt your thing, there are plenty of other fish in the sea - try pink dolphin-spotting on the Amazon or a trip round Vietnamʼs Ha Long Bay in a wooden junk

Spitsbergen, Greenland and Iceland, to share his knowledge of volcanoes, fjords and rocks.

The tropical tour The Tui Tai is a three-masted schooner that sails around remote islands in northern Fiji.

The cruise is geared towards adventurous outdoorsy types who want to kayak to remote beaches and giant waterfalls, but appreciate a massage when they get back.

The gourmet cruise New wine and gastronomy cruises will be plying the Upper Rhine Valley between May and October this year. The four-day, threenight trips on recently built river cruisers are run by CroisiEurope and include a five-course dinner prepared by the ship’s chef, and a wine tasting with master sommelier Serge Dubs.

The independent cruise Captain your own river cruiser on the river Sarthe in France, which has 82km of navigable waterways from SablÈ-sur-Sarthe to Le Mans.

Or try river cruise camping, where you sail by day in a small Skellig vessel and pitch your tent each night at campsites bordering the river.

The bygone boat Almost 100 years ago, Emperor Khai Dinh sailed around Ha Long Bay in Vietnam in a wooden junk. Now you can too, with a number of operators offering one- or two-night cruises on authentic replica boats.

The Cuban cruise Voyages Jules Verne has a new trip for 2011: a cruise right around Cuba, starting and finishing in Havana.

You’ll stop off at four Cuban destinations Isla de la Juventud, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba and Cayo Saetie - and one on Jamaica, Ochos Rios.

This is the first time that the Cuban authorities have granted permission for this particular itinerary, as cruises have previously only visited Havana and Santiago de Cuba, so it’s a unique holiday. —Guardian

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Books

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Top

10 HG Wells books

The novelist selects his favourites from the vast and various output of The Time Machine author

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orn in 1935, David Lodge is the author of 14 novels including Nice Work, Thinks... and Deaf Sentence. He is also Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham, where he taught between 1960 and 1987. As well as his fiction, he has written numerous books of criticism. His new novel, A Man of Parts, is a fictionalised account of HG Wells’s life and career. Reviewing it in the Guardian, Blake Morrison said it “bounds along terrifically and never tires” while showing “what made Wells, in his lifetime, so irresistible”.

“HG Wells (1866-1946) was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century. He is probably best known today as the author of classic works of science fiction, but he published well over 100 books in his lifetime, of many different kinds: novels and short stories that were realistic, fantastic, comic, tragic, and didactic, utopias and dystopias, social criticism, reportage, travel, autobiography and biography, world history ... and also found time to edit collaborative encyclopaedic works on science and economics. I have selected 10 personal favourites from this abundance.”

1. The Time Machine (1895) This was the book that made Wells instantly famous when it was first published, and it has never been out of print since. The machine itself quaintly resembles a bicycle, on which the time-traveller ventures further and further towards the death of the Earth as the sun cools. On the way he stops in the year 802,000 to discover a disturbing reversal of the Victorian class-system. Unforgettable.

2. The War of the Worlds (1898) The mother of all aliens-invade-theearth novels. Monsters from Mars land in the south of England near Woking and cause devastation, death and mass panic with their sophisticated weaponry, until they are defeated in an unexpected but plausible way that owes more to Nature than humanity.

3. Kipps (1905) Arthur Kipps is a down-trodden apprentice in a drapery store (as Wells himself was) who unexpectedly inherits a fortune that enables him to live the life of a gentleman. But without education and the talents possessed by

his creator he is exploited and humiliated by his new bourgeois associates. The novel combines rich comedy and biting social criticism with Dickensian verve.

4. Tono-Bungay (1909) Its rather off-putting title is the name of a worthless patent medicine which, through meretricious advertising and marketing, makes the narrator’s pharmacist uncle, Edward Ponderovo, ridiculously rich until his bubble bursts. This, however, is only one thread in a wide-ranging Condition of England novel that contains some of Wells’s most powerful writing, especially its descriptions of London.

5. Ann Veronica (1909) The story of a young woman rebelling against her stuffy middle-class, suburban upbringing, seeking independence in every aspect of life, including sex. Set against the background of the suffragette movement, from which Ann Veronica eventually parts, the novel was banned from libraries and denounced from pulpits when it was first published. It remains a lively, engaging picture of a society in transition between traditional and progressive values.

6. The History of Mr Polly (1910) Widely considered to be Wells’s most perfectly-formed novel, this comic idyll is the story of a henpecked, unsuccessful, desperately frustrated small shopkeeper who bungles but survives a suicide-and-arson attempt, and becomes master of his fate under another identity.

7. Mr Brittling Sees It Through (1916) “The War That Will End War”, Wells called it when it broke out in August 1914, but as time passed and the casualties mounted he became disillusioned and renounced his early jingoistic fervour. Mr Brittling is a transparently autobiographical and amusingly critical self-portrait. His changing response to the tragic conflict struck a chord with people in many countries, and the novel was a bestseller.

8. Russia in the Shadows (1920) Wells first visited Russia in January 1914. This is a vivid account of his

return to post-revolutionary St Petersburg, now called Petrograd, a ruined city with a near-starving population. Wells was a first-class reporter, and he had the advantage of staying with his friend, Maxim Gorky, rather than the carefully-monitored hotel usually reserved for foreign visitors. He also had enough prestige to get an interview with Lenin in Moscow.

9. A Short History of the World (1922) Although it drew on the same research as Wells’s Outline of History, this book was a separate, original work. It is an amazing feat of lucid, economical exposition that tells the story of our planet from its very beginnings up to the

first world war. It has been reissued by Penguin with an admiring introduction by the historian Norman Stone, who says: “Wells is the English writer of this century whom I should most like to raise from the dead.”

10. Experiment in Autobiography: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain (1934) The subtitle is of course to be taken with a pinch of salt, but this work is remarkable for its honesty and absence of vanity. Organised thematically rather than chronologically, it contains revealing memories of Wells’s underprivileged family background and early struggles, and reflects the multiplicity of his later interests and achievements. —Guardian

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

A Palestinian girl walks in an alley in the Silwan neighborhood of east Jerusalem, where the closing event took place.

Postcard from Palestine Hussam Gosheh tells the dramatic story of how onions saved the day at a book festival in Jerusalem

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t was the final day of the fourth Palestine Festival of Literature and I knew it was going to be a long day.

I’m a student volunteer at the festival, and the closing event was to take place in the Silwan Solidarity Tent - a public meeting point in a deeply threatened neighbourhood of my city, Jerusalem with more than twenty writers from all over the world.

I decided to skip my first lecture for two more hours of sleep. I skipped the last one for a ride home from my university to Jerusalem - in a car with Israeli number plates you can avoid the militarized humiliation and air pollution of Qalandia Checkpoint, which separates the Israeli from the Palestine area.

The journey began at 2pm with a series of phone calls, each with a new surprise, a new problem. After an hour on the bypass road, entering Jerusalem, we were pulled over by an Israeli patrol.

I had to get out and walk to Damascus Gate dragging my suitcase behind me, its fabric mottled with “security” stamps in Hebrew (the daily commute through Qalandia stamps you as if it were an airport).

I walked the final stretch to meet Najwan Darwish - a poet from Jerusalem who is one of the organisers of the festival. As I updated him on our list of problems, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing either. Last minute changes meant we needed a talented technician and a very

specific sound system for DAM, the night’s rap group.

The fumes in the street were suffocating us and when April’s gritty, sandheavy winds started blowing Najwan hurled the flyers in the air and shouted “You spread the brochures, I’m done with this country!”

Just in time our producer appeared.

He had found sound equipment and needed a car to pick it up. We picked up the scattered flyers, and got into Najwan’s car, a patient car capable of any mission. At the music store, it became clear that the sound equipment would be enjoying my seat in the car. I was abandoned in the street to wait for another driver to pick me up.

Just before 7pm, as we drew near the outskirts of al-Rababa Valley in Silwan from a bypass road that can only fit one tiny car, two Special Unit jeeps blocked our way, and would only let us through on foot. So we got out started to walk.

While we were climbing down to the tent a hail of bullets rang out around the valley and we scrambled to take refuge under an old olive tree. With the soldiers at the top of the valley above us and the tent down below, my companion turned to me and asked if I’d brought him to volunteer or become a martyr.

But with plenty of adrenaline and God’s protection we cut through the valley like a pair of birds.

Down at the tent the audience were

starting to arrive. Unfortunately the authors weren’t, because the roads to Silwan were closed.

Just as I started to apologise for the delay, two cars full of Israeli settlers raced through the streets, veering towards people, and the soldiers launched rounds of tear gas around the festival tent from the top of the hill. We quickly got the audience out. A child had fainted inside and I wasn’t able to help him until a journalist with a gas mask appeared. The people of Silwan gave us onions to help with the gas. You hold a segment up to your nose and it counters the effects, helps you breathe.

We climbed down the hill and found the group of writers standing next to their bus. We shared our onions with them and told them not to go to the tent, it was too dangerous.

I had left my suitcase behind, though, and had to sneak back to search for it in the thick darkness. As I started my journey back to safety I was confronted with a procession of writers, who were strolling toward the tent like royals, sniffing onions as if they were roses.

Despite all the warnings, we turned the lights on and quickly set up. The event happened - the readings, the music. And though it was so international, it felt like a family event in that tent. We brought the festival to a proper close through faith, literature and three kilograms of onions. — Guardian

Beauty FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Makeup tips for brunettes I

f you’re a brunette, you’re in luck when it comes to choosing makeup. Brunettes have the most flexible hair shade to work with because so many colors complement darker locks. The key is to balance that darkness with light-reflecting, warm makeup.

Otherwise, your face can look pale and washed out.

Brunettes can also get away with very little makeup during the day. At night, a smoky eye with black or gray eyeliner can be especially striking.

“A brunette gal has the option to amp up the exotic feel of her dark hair with strong eyes or lips, or soften with neutrals and pale shades,” says celebrity stylist Brett Freedman. Plums, navy blues, and pewters work well for these dark-haired mavens. Blush is also a must to reduce the contrast between light skin and dark hair.

When choosing makeup, the key is to match it to your specific shade of brown.

Deep, espresso brunettes: You can pull off this sea-

son’s hot trend of vibrant red or wine lips. If you have fair skin, look for softer tones in your makeup like light browns, peaches, and neutrals. Darker skin tones should lean toward warmer shades like honey, caramel, or brown. When in doubt, lighter complexions should look for hints of pink and deeper complexions should look for touches of gold shimmer.

Chocolate browns: On medium to dark skin tones, opt for makeup with copper and honey shades for a soft look. Fair-skinned gals should avoid mauve or anything with silver because it looks too artificial — especially for daytime. Brown eyeliner and eye shadow is especially flattering.

Caramel brunettes or “brondes”: Lighter brunettes need to go bolder with makeup. You want to make sure your skin doesn’t blend in too much with your hair. Since bronde is a more subtle hair color, your makeup should take center stage. A crisp lash line, smoky liner, or bold lip will create interest. Just

Strawberry Hand and Foot Exfoliant 8-10 Strawberries 2 tablespoons Apricot Oil (you may substitute olive oil) 1 teaspoon of coarse salt, such as Kosher Salt, or Sea Salt Mix together all ingredients, massage into hands and feet, rinse, and pat dry. Strawberries contain a natural fruit acid which aids in exfoliation.

choose one feature on your face to play up, though — bold eyes, cheeks, and lips would be too overwhelming.

If you have fair flesh, try a sunless tanner or bronzer. Brunette locks look gorgeous with sun-kissed skin.

Another tip is to stay natural with your makeup — especially during the day. “The biggest mistake brunettes make is going too cool-toned with lips and cheek colors,” says Freedman. “Opt for colors that look like your natural blush or lip tone, just a bit more vivid.”

Hollywood has some gorgeous brunettes who know how to choose the right makeup. Leighton Meester is a great example of a chocolate brunette, Megan Fox pulls off her dark espresso shade flawlessly, and Eva Mendes does a beautiful job with her bronde tone. —www.stylelist.com

Beauty FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Know your clothes and look good, always

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ave you ever left the house in an outfit you’ve felt unattractive, uninspired and neither classic nor fashionable in? I’m sure we’ve all had many days like those. But dressing fashionably and nicely every day doesn’t have to mean that you need to spend thousands of dollars or spend many hours getting ready to go out and grab lunch with your boyfriend. It just means that you have to know your style and your wardrobe.

Tips on shopping Buy classic quality items - spend more on items you can have for many many years and less on trends that go out of style after one season.

Experimenting with fashion is great - but don’t experiment too much in the last moment just before you have to leave the house!

Doubt means don’t! Deep down inside you know you’re never

gonna wear it! So keep that wallet in your pretty handbag!

When shopping on sale, go for the classic items. Don’t get fooled by the red tags and all those savings! You spend more than you save, if you buy things just because they’re cheap.

Tips on dressing Know your wardrobe and declutter it. Do you have something you haven’t worn in years? Chances

are, you’re not going to wear it again. And if you do, you’ll end up feeling old-fashioned and uncomfortable wearing it. It’s true.

Know what goes well with what in your wardrobe. Do you have a lot of shirt that go well with a lot of your skirts and pants? Or do you have a lot of different items that might go well with one other item in your wardrobe? Make your wardrobe more cohesive.

Take good care of your clothes.

Use hangers. Wash them according to the directions on the garment.

Washed out black items are not pretty. Iron the shirts before hanging them up, so they’re ready to put on! www.fashionstyleadvice.com

2011 Hair Trend: The Middle Parting

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hen it comes to hair, the 70s feel that we’ve seen all over the fashion runways is also very trendy in the beauty department. Hair is moving from the side to the middle in real modelesque, chic, natural style.

What’s important to remember is, that the more straight the hair the more natural and subtle the look will be.

How To Get The Look...

Parting your hair in the middle may seem like an easy task, however if your hair has been used to being parted on one side for the last many years, parting it in the middle may demand some extra help. None the less, your hair will look perfect in no time!

1. The Tool One of my absolute favorite hair tools, which I’ve spoken of before as well, is the ghd hair straightener. A product I’ve been using for for the last 45 years and never had any complaints about. What I like about ghd is the fact that it doesn’t damage your hair the same way other straighteners do and leaves you with a perfect looking hairdo.

2. The Products Make sure to apply heat protecters to your hair before you start using any kind of tool. Your hair will thank you later.

Ghd have their own range of excellent hair products, but there are also many natural remedies that will nourish your straight hair like, for instanse, olive oil.

3. The Procedure Make sure to part your hair straight in the middle - maybe it will take a few minutes to get used to the look - but the end result will be just great. If your hair lifts on one side because the parting used to be there, make sure to iron that section of hair more than the other and perhaps lift the other side up a bit with a comb. Before bed, part your hair in the middle and put it in a ponytail - you’ll wake up in the morning with a perfect parting and looking like a fashion model!

—www.fashionstyleadvice.com

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Health FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Heartburn relief can be achieved by some simple lifestyle and diet changes.

Here are some suggestions for preventing and managing heartburn.

Prevent and manage heartburn D

on’t go to bed with a full stomach. Eat meals at least 2 to 3 hours before lying down-this will give food time to digest and empty from your stomach, and acid levels a chance to decrease before you lay down.

Don’t overeat. Decrease the size of portions at meal times or try eating four to five small meals instead of three large ones.

Eat slowly. Take time to eat-don’t rush. Try putting your fork down between bites.

Wear loose-fitting clothes.

Avoid heartburn triggers. Stay away from foods and beverages that trigger your heartburn symptoms (for example, onions, peppermint, chocolate, caffeinated beverages such as coffee, citrus fruits or juices,

tomatoes, or high-fat foods). A good way to figure out what foods cause your heartburn symptoms is to keep a food diary.

Shed some pounds. If you are overweight, losing weight can help relieve heartburn symptoms.

Stop smoking. Nicotine, one of the

main active ingredients in cigarettes, can weaken the lower esophageal sphincter, the muscle that controls the opening between the esophagus and stomach, allowing the acid-containing contents of the stomach to enter the esophagus.

Avoid alcohol. If your aim is to unwind after a stressful day, try exercise, meditation, stretching, or deep breathing instead of drinking alcohol.

Keep a diary or heartburn log. Keep track of when heartburn hits and the specific activities that seem to trigger the incidents.

If your heartburn is worse when lying down: Raise the head of your bed so that your head and chest are higher than your feet. You can do this by placing 6inch blocks under the

bedposts at the head of the bed. Don’t use piles of pillows to achieve the same goal. You will only put your head at an angle that can increase pressure on your stomach and make your heartburn worse.

Eat earlier. Try not to eat within three hours of going to bed.

If your heartburn worsens after exercise: Time your meals. Wait at least two hours after a meal

before exercising. If you work out any sooner, you may trigger heartburn.

Drink more water. Drink plenty of water before and during exercise. This will help keep you hydrated.

Heartburn Relief: Food Facts Though heartburn triggers can vary from person to person, certain food and drinks are more prone to allowing stomach acid to splash up into your esophagus, including: ● Meats. Ground beef, marbled sirloin, chicken nugget-style, and chicken/buffalo wings. ● Fats, Oils & Sweets. Chocolate, regular corn and potato chips, high-fat butter cookies, brownies, doughnuts, creamy and oily salad dressings, fried or fatty food in general. ● Fruits, Vegetables & Juice. Orange juice, lemon, lemonade, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, tomato, mashed potatoes, French fries, raw onion, potato salad. ● Other Beverages.

Liquor, wine, coffee, and tea. ● Grains.

Macaroni and cheese, spaghetti with marinara sauce. ● Dairy. Sour cream, milk shake, ice cream, regular cottage cheese.

Foods and beverages like these contribute to heartburn (and the more serious GERD) by lessening the effectiveness of the LES to keep stomach contents in the stomach. Smoking also plays a large role, and carbonated beverages should be added to the list as they can put pressure on the stomach, forcing stomach acid back up into the esophagus.

Avoid the foods and beverages above-and eat smaller meals-and you may decrease the amount of reflux from your stomach into the esophagus.

Yet changing what you eat isn’t the only way to avoid the horrors of heartburn, there are simple lifestyle changes you can make as well.

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Health FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Exercise may slow age-related memory loss Study Suggests Moderate Exercise Has Benefits for Brain Health of Older Adults

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taying active as an older adult may keep both the body and the brain in shape.

A new study suggests moderate aerobic exercise may slow or even reverse age-related memory loss in older adults by increasing the size of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that assists in forming memories.

The volume of the hippocampus may shrink and lead to memory impairment in the elderly. But researchers found one year of moderate aerobic exercise, like walking, in a group of older adults increased the volume of hippocampus by 2%, which effectively reversed the age-associated shrinkage by one to two years.

Researchers say it’s the first study of its kind to look at the effects of exercise on agerelated brain changes associated with memory loss in the elderly.

“We think of the atrophy of the hippocampus in later life as almost inevitable,” says researcher Kirk Erickson, professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, in a news release. “But we’ve shown that even moderate exercise for one year can increase the size of that structure. The brain at that stage remains modifiable.”

Exercise and the Brain In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers randomly assigned 120 sedentary adults between the ages of 55 and 80 into one of two groups. One group began an aerobic exercise program of walking around a track for 40 minutes a day, three days a week; a comparison group limited exercise to

stretching and toning exercise.

Brain scans taken at the start of the study and again one year later showed that the right and left sides of the hippocampus increased by 2.12% and 1.97%, respectively, in the aerobic exercise group.

In contrast, these regions decreased in volume in the comparison group by 1.40% and 1.43%, respectively.

Tests of spatial memory function also showed improvements in the aerobic exercise group associated with this increase in hippocampus volume.

Researchers say they also found increases in several markers associated with brain health, such as brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) that corresponded with the increase in hippocampus volume.

“The results of our study are particularly interesting in that they suggest that even modest amounts of exercise by sedentary older adults can lead to substantial improvements in memory and brain health,” says researcher Art Kramer, director of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, in the release. “Such improvements have important implications for the health of our citizens and the expanding population of older adults worldwide.”

—WebMD

Exactly how much calcium do you need?

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mother’s bone density have reversed. ● Calcium RDA for pregnant/breastfeeding women: 1300 mg (under age 19), 1000 mg (over age 19)

here is no better way to care for your bones than by ensuring that you get enough calcium and vitamin D each day. But how much is exactly enough?

Knowing what to eat, when to take supplements, how to combine calcium with vitamin D and other factors can cause confusion, yet with a little research you can develop a plan to make sure your bones are getting the nutrients they need to stay strong.

Your gender, age, health status, and diet all play significant roles in helping determine how much calcium you need and whether supplements are right for you. It is also essential that you get enough vitamin D-if you are lacking adequate vitamin D, your calcium intake will offer your bones only limited benefit.

Bone loss increases as you age. The following age-by-age guidelines can help you decide what is best for you and your family.

Check with your doctor to make sure your calcium and vitamin D intake goals match your individual health needs.

Childhood and Adolescence During these prime bone-building years, kids need more calcium than when they are fully grown. Luckily, during this stage of development, the body is best able retain calcium, and supplements are not usually necessary unless your child has a particularly low calcium intake from his or her diet.

Adulthood Your bone mass is likely to remain stable from early adulthood until about age 50 in men and menopause in women. Women generally lose 2-3% of bone during the first five years after menopause and then at a rate of about 1% per year. Men lose bone more slowly, with the most dramatic bone loss occurring after age 70. As you reach the stage of life when you bone density starts to decrease, it is time to pay extra attention to how much calcium is in the foods and beverages you regularly consume and to consider calcium and vitamin D supplements. ● Calcium RDA for men under age 50 and premenopausal women: 800 mg ● Calcium RDA for men over age 50 and peri- or postmenopausal women: 1500 mg (www.americanbonehealth.org) ● Calcium RDA for children and teenagers: 1200 milligrams (mg)

Reproductive Years (For Women) While pregnancy and breastfeeding require a large amount of calcium for the fetus to grow properly and to produce breast milk, the body adapts to this high

need, virtually regardless of how much calcium the mother takes, unless the mother is under age 21 years old and/or has a particularly low-calcium diet, in which case supplementation or increasing calcium intake through diet, is crucial. Studies have shown that usually within three months after breastfeeding ends, any reductions in a

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Arts

Years

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Detail from The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello at the National Gallery. —Guardian

Why war has spring in its step The timing of the N Taliban prison escape reminds us that war and springtime have been linked in art for centuries

ews that 480 Taleban prisoners have escaped in time for this year’s “fighting season” in Afghanistan is hardly something to be taken lightly. But the fact that this war has a fighting season is a strange reminder of the dark side of springtime. For centuries, before mechanised conflict, the seasonal nature of war was a familiar fact, recorded in famous works of art.

Paolo Uccello’s early 15th-century painting The Battle of San Romano is a joyous depiction of war. It captures the brilliant colours and dramatic display of medieval chivalry in a bouncing carnival of tubular armoured bodies, hovering banners and prancing horses. In modern terms it is a lie, as any glorification of battle must be. But it is historically simplistic to dismiss the culture of chivalry, with its treatment of war as a beautiful game, as cynical. They simply saw things differently in those days.

Uccello weaves a spell of martial spectacle.

The way he does it is to root war in the landscape of Tuscan spring and early summer.

The Battle of San Romano was fought

by Florentine and Sienese armies on 1 June 1432. In the three paintings that narrate this Florentine victory, Uccello stresses the seasonal delights of nature. Dogs chase hares across the fields; great round fruits glow orange among dark leaves on the trees, just as they do in Botticelli’s Primavera (Spring).

The same abundance that graces Botticelli’s allegory of spring proliferates in Uccello’s pageant of battle. War is associated with the vitality of spring: it is a lusty natural rite in The Battle of San Romano.

Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina, by contrast, portrays a battle out of season. A 14th-century Florentine army was headed towards the enemy city Pisa on 28 July 1364. The war season had run into the heat of full Italian summer: instead of joyous

springtime pilgrims, the soldiers were sweaty and faint inside their heavy armour.

So they stripped and jumped in the river Arno for a swim - only for the alarm to be sounded. Michelangelo depicts the naked soldiers jumping out of the river. Where Uccello’s vision of war might seem complacent, Michelangelo’s is anxious and tense.

The season is wrong, spring’s promise has decayed into summer fever (the Florentine commander was apparently suffering from malaria). Nothing about war is comforting.

Perhaps a deeper change lies behind Michelangelo’s image. When he designed it in the early 1500s, artillery was changing warfare. It was starting to be about guns rather than chivalry. Displays of banners and knights meant little when the cannon fired. Michelangelo portrays a new age when war can come at any time, and death obeys no rituals. Yet in the unique and difficult landscape of Afghanistan, it seems that ancient habits still apply. —Guardian

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Picasso painting of lov A

fabulously vibrant Picasso painting of his young lover Marie-Therese Walter that has not been seen in public for 60 years is to be auctioned in London.

Christie’s said it was selling Jeune fille endormie on behalf of the University of Sydney, which will put the £10m-plus it is expected to make towards scientific and medical research.

Its auction follows the recordbreaking sale of another 1930s portrait of Walter last year. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) became the most expensive painting sold at auction when it was bought in New York for $106m (£65.5m), and can now be seen at Tate Modern, to which it was loaned by its anonymous owner.

Another in Picasso’s series of Walter portraits, La Lecture (1932), was sold in London earlier this year for £25.2m, more than double the low estimate of £12m.

Jeune fille endormie, painted in 1935, has an estimate of £9m-12m and will go on sale on 21 June.

Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie’s London, called it “an absolute jewel of a painting by one of the great artistic geniuses of western art”.

The portrait shows Walter asleep on her arms. It was bought by Walter P Chrysler, founder of the motor company, and was shown at a Picasso retrospective at MoMa in 1939 and an exhibition of works from the Chrysler collection in 1941. It has changed hands just once since and not been seen in public.

Its anonymous owner offered the painting to the university on condition the proceeds went to scientific research. The vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, said the donor “was prepared to fly to Australia to personally give this painting to the university”. He added: “This very generous and farsighted gift is recognition of the international standing and reputation of the University of Sydney.

“In this case the proceeds of the sale of the Picasso will create multiple endowed chairs across several disciplines within a new multidisciplinary university centre dedicated to research into obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The new centre will transform research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these conditions, involving everything from metabolic research to the economics of food supply.”

Picasso, then 45, fell for the 17year-old Walter when he spotted her leaving a Paris metro station in 1927.

He approached the girl, grabbed her arm and declared: “I’m Picasso! You and I are going to do great things together.”—Guardian

Anonymous owner donates Jeune fille endormie to Sydney University, with expected £10m sale to fund scientific research

Pablo Picasso’s painting Jeune fille endormie (detail pictured) will go for sale at auction in London in June. —Guardian

Comic

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

To Yester

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

ACROSS 1. (Norse mythology) One of the Aesir known for his beauty and skill with bow and skis.

4. Czech novelist who wrote in German about a nightmarish world of isolated and troubled individuals (1883-1924).

9. Unusually great in size or amount or degree or especially extent or scope.

13. The basic unit of money in Romania.

14. Become broader or wider or more extensive.

15. Large elliptical brightly colored deep-sea fish of Atlantic and Pacific and Mediterranean.

16. Someone (especially a woman) who annoys people by constantly finding fault.

17. Jordan's port.

18. The income arising from land or other property.

19. Small buffalo of the Celebes having small straight horns.

21. An ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia which is in present-day Iraq.

23. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

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

26. Relating to or characteristic of Shintoism.

32. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

33. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

35. Large brownish-green New Zealand parrot.

36. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

37. A small amount of residue.

38. (British) A waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric.

41. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

42. A long thin fluffy scarf of feathers or fur.

44. Extremely exciting as if by alcohol or a narcotic.

46. A high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus.

50. Extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use.

54. Of or relating to a directionless magnitude.

56. A state in New England.

57. Tropical American tree producing cacao beans.

60. Combined or joined to increase in size or quantity or scope.

61. An independent ruler or chieftain (especially in Africa or Arabia).

64. A graphical record of electric currents associated with muscle contractions.

65. Move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment.

66. The state of being unsure of something.

67. The seed of the cereal grass.

DOWN 1. The inner and longer of the two bones of the human forearm.

2. Lacking excess flesh.

3. United States film actor (born in Hungary) noted for portraying monsters (1884-1956).

4. A group of African language in the Niger-Congo group spoken from the Ivory Coast east to Nigeria.

5. A Japanese martial art employing principles similar to judo.

6. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

7. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

8. Type genus of the Anatidae.

9. A member of the Finno-Ugric-speaking people living in eastern European Russia.

10. South American armadillo with three bands of bony plates.

11. British writer of short stories (1870-1916).

12. (Greek mythology) The Titaness who was mother of Helios and Selene and Eos in ancient mythology.

20. (of complexion) Blemished by imperfections of the skin.

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

24. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

27. An indication of radiant light drawn around the head of a saint.

28. God of love and erotic desire.

29. A monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles.

30. A unit of length of thread or yarn.

31. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

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

39. Not capable of being swayed or diverted from a course.

40. Any tropical gymnosperm of the order Cycadales.

43. Any of various spiny trees or shrubs of the genus Acacia.

45. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

47. Fear resulting from the awareness of danger.

48. Of or relating to a member of the Buddhist people inhabiting the Mekong river in Laos and Thailand.

49. A soft yellowish-white trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

51. A traveler who actively rides an animal (as a horse or camel).

52. Of or belonging to an enemy.

53. Grasslike or rushlike plant growing in wet places having solid stems, narrow grasslike leaves and spikelets of inconspicuous flowers.

55. Fabric dyed with splotches of green and brown and black and tan.

58. 100 avos equal 1 pataca.

59. God of war and sky.

62. A public promotion of some product or service.

63. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

Yesterday’s Solution

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Lifestyle

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

South Korean citizens stage an acrobatic wire show, about 30 meters above a public park in Seoul yesterday, to herald the start of a spring festival. The show, called “Rainbow Drops”, involved 48 volunteers and a giant crane. — AFP

Spider Man’s

World to Get Too Crowded for Comfort

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hings are going to get buggy for Spider-Man as the Marvel Comics hero realizes what life can be like when everybody - from the food cart vendor on the corner to the guy sitting across the subway train - can crawl on walls, tingle with spider-sense and even spin webs. Marvel writer Dan Slott is set to upend Peter Parker’s existence - one where

In this cover provided by Marvel Comics, the cover of an upcoming Spider-Man comic book is shown. — AP

his arachnid-inspired powers were usually his own - with a story this summer set in Manhattan and, fittingly, dubbed “Spider-Island.”

The seeds of the eight-issue story starting in “The Amazing Spider-Man” No. 666, drawn by Stefano Caselli, and concluding with the epilogue in No. 673, also drawn by Caselli, will be sown in one of the two comics that Marvel is giving away on Saturday as part of the international Free Comic Book Day celebration, now in its 10th year. “It’s an honest to gosh all new issue of Spider-Man, 20 pages,” Slott said, adding that events in the issue, titled “The Way of the Spider” will set up the upcoming “Spider-Island” story.

The free issue, illustrated by Humberto Ramos, who is also drawing the full story in issues No. 667-672, with inks by Carlos Cuevas and Victor Olazaba, features not just Spider-Man but also Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu, and Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman. “This issue will also set up a new challenge for Spider-Man which will play into the events of ‘Spider-Island,’” Slott said. “There is something that happens in this free issue - that any out there can get - that sows an important seed for ‘Spider-Island.’”

Slott is tightlipped about what that seed is and about the wider story line planned for this summer, but called the saga a new struggle for Peter Parker, Spidey’s alter-ego. “One of the things we all know about Spider-Man is his great catch line even President Obama has said it - ‘With great power comes great responsibility,’” Slott said. “And ‘Spider-Island’ is asking, ‘What if his power was not great?’” What if New Yorkers suddenly wake up with abilities like Spider-Man? How would that change things? What would it mean for Spider-Man? “Peter Parker will not be the only spider-powered person in New York. His power will not be so great,” Slott said. “Everyday folks - the guy putting the schmear on your bagel, the guy driving you in the bus, your neighbor down the block - it’s spider powers for everyone! All shapes and sizes!” Of course, infecting that many people at the same time is hard, but Slott has found a unique way to affect the transfer, one that real New Yorkers already fear: bedbugs. An evil person has genetically altered the critters. Who is that malevolent force? You’ll just have to read the comic book to find out. — AP

Monet sells for $22.5 million at Christie’s NY

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Claude Monet painting of poplars sold for $22.5 million at a Christie’s auction in New York on Wednesday, while a Maurice de Vlaminck smashed records for the artist by also selling for $22.5 million. The works were among the better earners at the impressionist and modern art spring sale which totaled $156 million, falling below the low end of the overall pre-sale estimate.

Monet’s “Les Peupliers,” painted in 1891, had been estimated to sell for $20 million to $30 million. Another Monet, “Iris Mauves,” was estimated to sell for between $15 and $20 million dollars, but found no buyer in tepid trading. De Vlaminck’s 1905 “Paysage de banlieue” was a hit, selling for more than double the previous world record for the French artist of $10.8 million.

Claude Monet, Les peupli“Les femmes d’Alger,” ers, oil on canvas, painted in painted in 1955 by 1891.

Pablo Picasso, sold for $21.3 million, at the low end of the pre-sale estimate. On Tuesday, rival Sotheby’s saw $170.5 million in sales, within the pre-sale estimate range. Only three quarters of lots found buyers, with Pablo Picasso’s “Femmes lisant” at $21.4 million and a Gauguin sculpture the main highlights. Next week, the two auction giants will hold their spring contemporary art sales. —AFP

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

G O S S I P

Cole to be judge on US X Factor

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ritish singer Cheryl Cole will appear as a judge on TV talent show “The X Factor” in the United States, her spokeswoman said yesterday, ending months of speculation in the domestic press. Cole, 27, has been a judge alongside Simon Cowell on the British version of the show for three years, raising her profile as a major celebrity. But there have been doubts over whether her relatively low profile in the United

States, and her Newcastle accent, would limit her appeal there. Cowell, who is launching the US edition of The X Factor on Fox television in September, has long championed Cole, and also said he wanted former “American Idol” sparring partner Paula Abdul to join him on the show.

Acid-tongued Cowell and record executive Antonio “LA” Reid have already been confirmed as The X Factor judges.

Gabor back in hospital

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iling actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was admitted to hospital again Wednesday suffering with pneumonia, in the 94-year-old’s latest health scare, her spokesman said. Her husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, called a doctor after she had difficulty breathing, and she was diagnosed with pneumonia, said spokesman John Blanchette.

“He immediately called for an ambulance and right now they’re trying to save her life, trying to drain her lungs,” he said, declining to say if the scare was more serious than previous occasions when she has been taken to hospital.

Her husband “is hoping that she’ll be able to survive. Their 25th wedding anniversary is in August, and he wants to celebrate that,” the publicist told AFP. Gabor, a platinum blonde actress known for her flamboyant lifestyle, legal troubles and multiple marriages, was briefly hospitalized after Elizabeth Taylor died in March, declaring she feared she would be next to go. Her long career included spots in a dozen films and TV series, such as John Huston’s 1952 “Moulin Rouge” and the 1958 film noir “Touch of Evil” by Orson Welles. She also lent her voice to several animated films and TV series.

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avid and Victoria Beckham are reputedly worth £165 million. The soccer superstar and his former Spice Girl spouse have made £20 million in the past year, mainly thanks to the success of Victoria’s fashion line Victoria Beckham, which has won critical acclaim as well as attracting A-list clients. The ex-pop star ñ who is currently pregnant with the couple’s fourth child ñ has recently added handbags to her range, meaning her profit margins could increase even further. In addition to her fashion range, Victoria signed a multi-million pound deal with luxury car manufacturer Range Rover. But it’s not just the 37-year-old star who has been racking in the money in the Beckham household. David, 36, has been paid £56 million before tax in the past two years by his soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy, while he recently announced a multi-million pound contract to become Samsung’s global brand ambassador for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Beckhams’ wealth is revealed in the 2011 Sunday Times Rich List, which will be published on Sunday. The annual list also reveals TV chef Jamie Oliver is now worth £106 million - a £41 million increase on last year - while Hollywood couple Catherine ZetaJones and Michael Douglas have increased their fortune by £5 million to £180 million.

—Agencies

Beckhams are worth £165 million Gibson’s ex drops violence claims in court

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source says Mel Gibson’s former girlfriend has told a judge hearing the couple’s child custody dispute that she is dropping allegations that the Oscar-winner struck her during a fight last year. The source familiar with the case says Oksana Grigorieva told a family law judge Wednesday she was withdrawing all domestic violence allegations against Gibson from the case. Most of it is sealed and the source spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the dispute. The move doesn’t affect a misdemeanor battery case in which the actor-director pleaded no contest in March. His plea didn’t include an admission of guilt and cannot be used against him in a civil lawsuit. He remains on probation and is undergoing domestic violence counseling. Gibson’s attorney, Stephen Kolodny, declined comment.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

File photo, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is seen with interior designer Nate Berkus, left, Dr Mehmet Oz and Dr Phil McGraw, right, during “The Oprah Winfrey Show” live from Radio City Music Hall in New York.—AP

Questions linger about end of ‘Oprah Winfrey’ show prah Winfrey has given the world 25 years of poets and politicians, A-list actors and musicians and talk show topics that defined and reflected American culture.

As “The Oprah Winfrey Show” ends, with 16 episodes left as of May 4, her millions of fans around the globe are waiting to see how she will close out a show that engineered a media empire.

Winfrey’s producers plan a star-stud-

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File photo shows thousands of fans watch the taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” along Michigan Avenue in Chicago during the kickoff for Winfrey’s 24th season.—AP ded, double taping on May 17 at Chicago’s United Center. The shows will air May 23 and 24, as Winfrey’s second and third-to-last episodes. The show is dubbed “Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular.” Winfrey hates surprises, producers say, but she has agreed to this event.

But for fans, questions remain. Who will be at the United Center that Tuesday night? Who will be beamed in by satellite or deliver a taped farewell message? Winfrey has a stable of celebrity friends who have appeared

repeatedly on her talk show. John Travolta. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

Jennifer Aniston. Chris Rock. Could the Black Eyed Peas perform, as they did when Winfrey shut down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue in 2009?

Then there are the presidents and world leaders: Bill Clinton; George W Bush; Nelson Mandela. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have already appeared on a special show that aired Monday. And Winfrey has other well-respected friends who could be possibilities: Maya Angelou; Sidney Poitier; Barbara Walters. Not to mention Winfrey’s proteges, who she fostered to their own television stardom, such as Mehmet Oz, Phil McGraw and Nate Berkus.

Kelly Brittain, a 41-year-old mother of three and assistant professor from East Lansing, Mich., has watched Winfrey for decades. In 2000, she attended a taping on phenomenal graduates. Audience members received mortarboard caps; Brittain stores hers in a keepsake box. “Somehow I know the producers, they’re going to absolutely ‘wow’ her,” Brittain said. It has the makings for a major cultural event, said Bill Carroll, expert on the daytime television market for Katz Television in New York. “It’s going to be the top-of-thetop of anybody who is available to go to Chicago on that day,” Carroll said.

“It’s going to be talked about and talked about and watched and talked about.” Harpo Productions received more than 154,000 ticket requests for seats to the event - the United Center’s capacity is about 20,000. There was a lottery for seats. “For a national, international audience that’s a small number,” said Marianne Jennings, an Arizona State University professor who

has researched the ticket industry for decades.

Tickets for the Chicago taping could be even more coveted than seats for the Super Bowl or World Series, she said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Jennings said. “There’s something that grips us about that. It’s something about being there with the crowd, being there for history.”

And Winfrey’s talk show history is anything but small: 30,000 guests, 4,500 episodes and 283 items named her “favorite things” in the famous annual giveaway. But there’s still a bigger question: What will Winfrey do for the May 25 finale? Harpo isn’t talking, nor is the talk show queen. Experts suggest the Chicago celebrity blowout means the finale will be in Winfrey’s studio for a quieter, more intimate occasion, maybe even without an audience. “If I were a longtime viewer, I’d want the show to end in a place where I’m most comfortable with her and most familiar,” said Janice Peck, author of “The Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era.” Viewers are looking for a heartfelt connection after having daily interaction with Winfrey for 25 years, Peck said. “The longtime fans are going to feel cheated if she doesn’t somehow honor that history,” Peck said. “They want to be crying. They want to feel something, some powerful emotional departure.” Samantha Howsare, 22, of Pittsburgh, who has watched Winfrey since she can remember and named her goldfish “Oprah” when she was 3, said she doesn’t know who Winfrey could interview or what Winfrey could give away to make it worthy of the finale.

“I don’t want it to feel like it’s going

to be on tomorrow,” Howsare said. “I don’t want it to be played down in any way and if she played up it being the last episode right, then it would get a lot of people to cry and that would be a good thing.” A model to look to would be Johnny Carson’s final episode as host of “The Tonight Show” in 1992, Carroll said: There were no guests and after his traditional monologue Carson showed a montage of past shows. “For

File photo shows Oprah Winfrey listens to a reporter’s question during the Discovery Communications Television Critics Association winter media tour in Pasadena.—AP the better part of the end of the show he sat there on a stool and just talked directly to people at home,” Carroll said. “That had so much class to it.”

Brittain is among fans who hope that Winfrey will stay on television, thinking there may be a promise of a yearly Oprah Winfrey special or other appearances. “What would TV be without Oprah on the radar?” Brittain said.

“That’s hard to fathom. Who now serves as that source of overall inspiration, the infinite possibilities of the impossible?”—AP

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon

Carey and

Cannon

announce twins names

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ariah Carey and Nick Cannon have named their babies Monroe and Moroccan Scott. The pair welcomed their twins into the world on Saturday and, following days of speculation, have finally confirmed the monikers of their daughter and son.

According to Mariah’s spokesperson, Monroe - who is named after late actress Marilyn Monroe, one of the singer’s biggest inspirations - does not have a middle name because her mother doesn’t have one. Her brother shares his middle name with his father, as well as it being his grandmother’s maiden name.

The top tier of the 42-year-old singer’s New York apartment is called the Moroccan Room - because of its African-inspired decor - and is the place where Nick proposed to her. Mariah’s spokesperson Cindi Berger said: “It has been a long, emotional journey for this family, and I couldn’t be happier for all of them.” Earlier this week, the ‘We Belong Together’ hitmaker teased fans by revealing the twins’ names both began with the letter M and invited her twitter followers to guess at what they have been called. She tweeted: “I wish I could personally thank all those around the world who continue 2 send congrats+prayers for #dembabies! they’re doing great (sic).” “And they are the most incredible gifts we could ever have imagined (sic)!” “So we r bout 2 reveal the actual names and b4 we tell em 2 our friends etc. both begin w/M’s (sic)!!!!” — Bang Showbiz

Photo taken yesterday siblings Donny Osmond, left, and Marie Osmond pose backstage at their show at the Flamingo hotel and casino in Las Vegas. —AP

Australian charged over Bieber egg throwing A

n Australian teenager was charged yesterday with breaking into the roof of a concert arena so he could throw eggs at Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber. The 17year-old heartthrob, touring Australia, has been mobbed by screaming girls at

Osmond remarries first husband in Las Vegas

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arie Osmond married her first husband a second time in Las Vegas on Wednesday, more than 25 years after they divorced. The 51-yearold entertainer tied the knot with Stephen Craig, 54, during a private ceremony at the Las Vegas Mormon Temple, wearing the same dress that she wore first time around, according to People magazine.

They originally married in 1982 and divorced in 1985. “I am so happy and look forward to sharing my life with Stephen, who is an amazing man as well as a great father to my children,” Osmond told People. She had one son with Craig, and seven children with her second husband, Brian Blosil. That marriage ended in 2007 after almost 20 years. Osmond’s brother, Donny, who was at the wedding, described it as “a last minute thing ... Not very many people knew about it,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “It was a perfect Cinderella story with a fairytale ending. They were sealed together again, forever,” he added. —Reuters

sold-out shows, but had eggs thrown at him when performing his first single “One Time” at a concert in Sydney on Friday.

None hit him and he finished singing the song before taking a break so the stage could be cleaned up. Australian

Associated Press said a 17-year-old Sydney resident was arrested at his home early yesterday and charged with break and enter, trespass and malicious damage following complaints from Acer Arena. He was bailed to appear at a children’s court on June 2. —AFP

Cowell tops Jagger, Sting in UK music rich list

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he X Factor” and former “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell jumped to number 6 in the British music rich list in 2011 after his fortune hit 200 million pounds ($330 million), Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper said yesterday. That was a 35 million pound rise on 2010, when he was 11th in the annual rankings published by the newspaper, and took him above Elton John and Mick Jagger whose fortunes were estimated at 195 million and 190 million pounds respectively.

Cowell, also a music producer with an entertainment company called Syco, has signed a new deal with Britain’s ITV channel and is preparing to launch “The X Factor” in the United States. But he was still some way behind his arch-rival Simon Fuller, creator of the talent TV “Idol” franchise, who ranked 5th in 2011 with personal wealth of 375 million pounds.

British-based record executive Clive Calder, who sold Zomba Records in 2002, took over at the top of the music rich list with 1.3 billion pounds, unchanged on the amount in 2010. He regained his position at number one after Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman moved back to New York from his temporary home in

London. Musical composer and theatre owner Andrew Lloyd Webber was second with a fortune of 680 million pounds, musical producer Cameron Mackintosh was third (675 million) and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney fourth (495 million). In the Irish music rich list, U2 boosted their wealth to 455 million pounds from 429 million in 2010 to remain comfortably on top, followed by dancer Michael Flatley with 214 million pounds.

Following is a list of the top 10 British music millionaires. (all figures in pounds) 1. Clive Calder (1.3 billion) 2. Andrew Lloyd Webber (680 million) 3. Cameron Mackintosh (675 million) 4. Paul McCartney (495 million) 5. Simon Fuller (375 million) 6. Simon Cowell (200 million) 7. Elton John (195 million) 8. Mick Jagger (190 million) 9. Sting (180 million) 10. Keith Richards (175 million) —Reuters

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Lifestyle

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Novice filmmakers

open window on Iraq A

s Baghdad writhed with violence in 2006, Emad Ali set out to make a film about the iconic Shabandar Cafe.

But he turned the camera on himself after the teahouse was bombed, a deadly mortar killed his wife and a gunman shot him three times. Despite the ordeals, he finished “A candle for the Shabandar Cafe,” screening it for the first time in Iraq at this month’s Documentary Film Festival in Baghdad, organized by the capital’s struggling, non-governmental Independent Film and Television College to showcase student films made between 2004 and this year.

The films are without a common theme: A young woman arrives in violence-torn Baghdad to finish college; a gentle surgeon with literary talents struggles at an understaffed hospital; an academic moonlights as a barber; a singer refuses to quit music despite threats by Islamists. But through the lives of ordinary people, the 16 documentaries capture all the plagues visited on Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein: a vicious Al-Qaeda insurgency; abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers; sectarian violence that killed tens of thousands; and ethnic divisions that turned friends into enemies.

“We wanted to show what it feels like to be an Iraqi, to capture a portion of Iraq’s ongoing history,” said Kasim Abid, 60, who returned from Britain in 2003 and began the tuition-free college the year after with fellow Iraqi and filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi. In “Baghdad Days,” Hiba Bassem returns from the family home in northern Kirkuk to finish college in 2004. It is a time of chaos: US troops and tanks patrol the streets, electricity is as scarce as a good night’s sleep in the stifling heat, and Al-Qaeda is targeting Americans and “collaborators.”Her year-long ordeals hit a low when Ali, a cousin in his 20s who works as a translator for the Americans, finds a booby-trapped phone charger left for him in the garden.

It rips off his left hand, mutilates the right and leaves him blinded.

Bassem recalls a night with Ali and his sisters, staying up until 4:00 am in talk and banter: “We chatted about our hopes, and Ali said: ‘I’m a little afraid because of my work, but if I can make some money I’ll go abroad to study painting, which I always dreamt of doing’.” But when she sees the stump that was his hand resting on the dining table, she knows the bomb that severed Ali’s limb also sundered his dreams.

Brewing sectarian and ethnic divisions were coming to a boil, especially in multi-ethnic and multi-

religious Kirkuk. Like the countless displaced across Iraq, her Arab family which had lived for decades in a Sunni Kurdish neighborhood flees Kirkuk one night and joins her in Baghdad, after threats on other Arab families.

Bassem films a scene from a play in which she takes part: an actor portraying a US soldier shoves her into a room and slaps her across the face, mirroring the Abu Ghraib prison scandal of 2004, when pictures of US troops torturing and abusing Iraqi prisoners made international headlines.

In March 2007, a suicide bombing killed more than 30 people and wounded at least 60 in Baghdad’s renowned Mutannabi street, destroying the centenarian Shabandar Cafe. Before the attack, Emad Ali had finished filming faded pictures of old Baghdad on the cafe walls, an ancient radio on the mantle and a withered manager tapping out customers’ bills on a clunky typewriter.

He stopped filming after his wife and father died in a mortar attack on their home. Violence was rampant and often random when he resumed after several months, and he was returning from filming one day when a gunman shot him in the chest, back and leg. Ali turned the camera on himself, capturing just another victim of another day in Baghdad.

“A creative person dies when he stops creating, that’s why I continued,” a healed Ali said on the sidelines of the two-day film festival. There is no recorded history between 2007, when Abid had to pack up and leave temporarily because things became too risky, and 2010, when the school reopened, and had the funds to run classes. “When we started in 2004 we had no money, nothing at all,” said Abid, joking that he is the cleaner and manager of the school, housed in a modest tworoom flat.

Then came a $22,000 grant from California-based NGO Internews, and the students’ cameras began to roll. Since then, most of the funding has come from charities and independent foundations in Europe, the United States and Arab countries. “We are always struggling for money,” Abid said. Violence in Iraq now has dropped, although kidnappings and bombings still happen nearly every day. American forces have retreated to their bases, largely invisible on the streets, ahead of a pullout at year’s end.

The films made in 2010 and early this year are about people glueing back broken lives.

In “Na’eem the barber,” a professor who moonlights as a men’s hairdresser returns home to to his war-wrecked Baghdad neighborhood. —AP

A documentary film at the Al-Elwiya club during this month’s Documentary Film Festival in Baghdad on April 2, 2011. — AFP

Hollywood actor Jackie Cooper dead at 88

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ctor Jackie Cooper, who survived a tumultuous childhood as an Oscar-nominated star to enjoy a varied career as a TV executive, director and “Superman” sidekick, died near Los Angeles, his attorney said on Wednesday. He was 88. Cooper succumbed to complications of old age at a convalescent home in the coastal city of Santa Monica on Tuesday, attorney Roger Licht told Reuters. He starred in more than 100 movies and TV shows before retiring from Hollywood more than 20 years ago.

He retreated to a high-rise condominium with his third wife, Barbara, whom he credited for keeping him on the straight and narrow.

Cooper’s life outside Hollywood was just as interesting. He served in the US Navy during World War Two, and retired with the rank of captain from the reserves in the early 1980s. He also raced cars and owned racehorses. He never really shed the pug nose and firm chin that endeared him to millions of Americans during the Great Depression, when he starred as a prominent cast member of Hal Roach’s “Our Gang” short comedy films. At the twilight of his career, Cooper played grizzled Daily Planet editor Perry White in the 1978 “Superman” movie and its three sequels.

Born John Cooper, Jr. in Los Angeles, he was the illegitimate child of a sickly Italian mother who died when he was a teenager and a Jewish father who quickly abandoned the family. He got his start in Hollywood when his much-loathed grandmother dragged him around studio lots for day work as an extra.

His “Our Gang” work-he appeared

in such comedy shorts as “Teacher’s Pet” and “Love Business”-led to his starring role in the 1931 film “Skippy,” an adaptation of the comic strip about a lively youngster.

In order to force him to cry for a scene, his grandmother dragged his dog off set and had it shot by a security guard.

The boy duly cried, but remained hysterical even after it was revealed that the dog was not actually dead. Cooper titled his 1981 memoir “Please Don’t Shoot My Dog.” Aged 9, he made Oscar history by becoming the youngest male performer to be nominated for a lead role. (He lost to Lionel Barrymore.)

Later in 1931, he co-starred in “The Champ” as the innocent son of a washed-up boxer played by Wallace Beery. The film was remade in 1979 with Rick Schroder as the tow-headed little boy. Cooper

reunited with Beery in such films as “The Bowery” (1933) and “Treasure Island” (1934). Off-screen, he fully enjoyed the fruits of stardom. By 18 he had become the lover of Joan Crawford, who was almost twice his age. But he was an old hand by then. He later recounted that when he was 13 he was having sex two or three times before 9 a.m. with a 20year-old girl across the street.

His career inevitably dried up as he got older, and he had been divorced twice by the time he was in his early 30s. Cooper won an Emmy for his title role as a Navy doctor in the sitcom “Hennesey” before becoming a vice president at Screen Gems during the 1960s, working on such shows as “Bewitched” and “Gidget.” He turned to TV directing in the 1970s, winning Emmys for episodes of “M*A*S*H” and “The White Shadow.” —Reuters

File photo shows actor Jackie Cooper admires photos from his 1931 film ‘Skippy’. —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Hollywood honors ‘timeless, beautiful’ Sophia Loren J

ohn Travolta called her the “most delicious” thing to come out of Italy, Roberto Benigni serenaded her with the Neapolitan song “O Sole Mio” and Billy Crystal said she was his “first great love.” Hollywood came out on Wednesday to honor Sophia Loren, 50 years after she become the first person to win an acting Oscar for a foreign-language role with the Italian movie “Two Women.” Loren, now 76 and with her famous hour-glass figure intact, did not attend that 1961 Academy Award ceremony. She told an audience of some 800 actors, directors, friends and family on Wednesday she never dreamed an Italian in an Italian-language film would earn the movie industry’s highest honor.

“The Academy Award changed my life completely,” she said at the tribute organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “It helped me to believe in myself and encouraged me to push my own artistic boundaries.” “There are no words to describe my emotions right now. It is hard to imagine that 50 years have

Sophia Loren and Billy Crystal

passed since I welcomed my Oscar to my home,” she added. Regarded as the most famous living Italian actress with more than 80 movies, Loren received a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1991 and was declared “one of world cinema’s greatest treasures.” On Wednesday, she was feted with tributes and clips of the most famous roles from her 1950s to 1970s heyday, including “Marriage Italian Style,” “A Special Day,” “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” and Hollywood films “El Cid” and “Man of La Mancha.”

With most of her co-stars and directors long dead- Marcello Mastroianni, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando and her producer husband Carlo Ponti-the speeches were left to a younger generation. Rob Marshall, who directed Loren in her most recent feature film “Nine” in 2009, said working with her was “the most magic I will ever have.” Tom Hanks called her “timeless, beautiful and authentically real.” Christian De Sica described the frequent pairing of Loren with his

Eva Mendes

father, Italian director Vittorio De Sica, as “like a cappuccino-no-one could tell the milk from the coffee.”

Exuberant Italian actor and director Benigni, himself an Oscar winner for the 1997 movie “Life is Beautiful,” sang to Loren in a video message and her son Edoardo Ponti fought back tears as he told her: “We are here because we love you and you deserve every single thing.” Asked by host and US comedian Crystal whether she was happy with her career, Loren dabbed tears from her eyes. “You are never content,” she replied. “You always want to do more and find the right thing at the right time. I like my career, my life, so much. I was born for this. I am sick when I don’t work for a year or two.”—Reuters

Actress Sophia Loren arrives at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tribute honoring her in Beverly Hills, Calif.—AP

Sophia Loren, her two sons composer Carlo Ponti Jr (left) and director Edoardo Ponti and actress Sasha Alexander.

‘Godfather’ prequel novel in works for 2012

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all it an offer you can’t refuse? A prequel to the late Mario Puzo’s best-selling novel “The Godfather” is headed for bookstores in June 2012, publishers Grand Central Publishing said on Wednesday.

Called “The Family Corleone,” the book will be written by author Ed Falco and is based on an unproduced screenplay by Puzo. The story is set in 1930s Depression-

era New York and tells how Vito Corleone rose through the criminal underworld to become the influential Don Corleone in “The Godfather”.

The novel is authorized by the estate of Puzo, who died in 1999 at the age of 78 after winning two Oscars for adapting “The Godfather” into the 1970s movies “The Godfather” and “The Godfather: Part II,” starring

Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.

Puzo’s son Tony described “The Family Corleone” in a statement as a novel “that is true to Mario Puzo’s legacy”.

It was not immediately clear how “The Family Corleone” would differ from the plot of the Oscar-winning movie “The Godfather: Part II,” which also chronicles Vito Corleone’s early life and ascent through the ranks

of the Italian-American underworld.

“The Godfather” was originally published in 1969 and has sold more than 21 million copies.

Puzo followed up with two other books in the series-The Sicilian” in 1984 and “Omerta” which was published posthumously in 2000.

Jamie Raab, executive vice president of Grand Central Publishing, said that “The Family Corleone”

was a novel that “thrillingly brings back Puzo’s classic characters in a prequel that both honors the original, and stands on its own.” Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group.—Reuters

Stars

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Imagine this scene, as described by Seattle-based video artist Michael Douglas. "Sometimes a tree falls down in a field of cows, and the cows walk over to it and stare at it. It used to be standing and now it's on the ground.

There's something different in the field and the cows start to hang out around the tree and watch it like it's television, attracted to the rupture in the order of things. They gather around it for months, even after they completely forget why they started doing it." I think there's a comparable scene going on in your life right now, Aries. People you care about are in a daze, seemingly hypnotized by a certain "rupture in the order of things" that took place some time ago.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

You're an animal! And I mean that in the best senses of the word. Your vitality is heading toward peak levels, and your body is as smart as it gets.

If you were ever going to act as if every move you make is a dance, now would be the time to do it. If you ever wanted to explore the righteous blending of grace and power, this is a perfect moment. Give yourself permission to be a fluid bolt of ingenious fun, Taurus. Play hard and sweet, with sublime ferocity.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

"Make the invisible dark force beautiful." That was the first line of the horoscope I wrote for you in my dream last night. Here's what came next: "Create a song out of your moans. Brag about your wounds. Dance reverently on the graves of your enemies." Does any of this make sense to you so far? It all seemed perfectly reasonable and helpful in my dream. "Sneak a gift to your bad self. Dissolve the ties that bind you to hollow intelligence. Seek the angel near the funky gulley that winds through no man's land. Dig for treasure in the muddy puddle where the single lily grows."

That's it, Gemini -- my dream of your horoscope.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, psychologist Richard Bentall proposed that happiness be reclassified as a "psychiatric disorder" -- a pathology that should be treated with therapy. "Happiness is statistically abnormal," he argued. It "consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system." If he's correct, Cancerian, you may have a problem. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you're about to be besieged by a massive influx of good feelings. It may be hard for you to fend off surges of unreasonable joy, well-being, and gratitude.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

Two British men, Jack Jones and Chris Cuddihy, pulled off an epic deed in 2009.

They ran seven marathons in seven consecutive days on seven continents.

Each marathon was over 31 miles. I'm not recommending that you try something as ridiculously excessive as they did, Leo, but I do want to note that you're now in a phase when your capacity for amazing feats is bigger than usual. Do you have any ideas about what you could accomplish that's beyond your expectations?

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

What have you had to relinquish in the past ten months, Virgo? What were you forced to sacrifice or surrender? Whatever it is, I predict you will be compensated for it over the course of the next 12 months. And the process begins soon.

It's not likely that the incoming blessing will bring an exact replacement for the dream that got away. Rather, you will be awakened to an unexpected new source of excitement, thereby dissolving the lingering sense of loss and liberating you to rise again.

COUNTRY CODES Libra (September 23-October 22) If given the choice between having our lives change or keeping our lives the same, many of us would choose the status quo. We tend to feel that even if the current state of things is uncomfortable, it's still preferable to having to deal with the uncertainty and fear that come from transformation. But I don't think you fit this description right now, Libra. Of all the signs of the zodiac, you're the one that's most receptive to shifting the mood and experimenting with the rules. It's easier than usual for you to imagine different ways of doing things.

Take advantage of this superpower.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

Hugo Chavez is the socialist president of Venezuela, not an astronomer or New Age philosopher. And yet he recently speculated that the planet Mars once had a thriving civilization that met its doom because its resources were drained off and poisoned by the excesses of capitalism. I love it when notable people go off-message and freestyle wacky fantasies, so I applaud Chavez's improvisation. May I respectfully suggest you consider indulging in your own version of this art form? According to my reading of the astrological omens, it would be downright healthy for you to depart from your usual raps and unveil some unpredictable self-expressions to anyone and everyone who think they have you all figured out.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Symmetry and equilibrium are not all that valuable right now. They're certainly not worth obsessing over or having screaming fights about. In fact, I recommend that you cultivate a jaunty knack for stylish lopsidedness.

Appreciate the beauty of irregularity. Be alert for the way incongruous details and crooked angles reveal fresh, hot truths that provide you with exactly what you need. Even so-called flaws and mistakes may lead to lucky accidents.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

"It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn't always there," said Charles Bukowski, a generally cranky writer not renowned for his optimism. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, this strategy will also work wonders for you in the coming days. Trying to see what's great about other people will tend to activate your own dormant greatness, and will just generally make you feel good. So ask yourself: What's beautiful, smart, interesting, and successful about the people you know? Fantasize aggressively.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

The income gap between the richest and poorest sections of society has always been large, but in recent years it has grown absurdly, grotesquely humongous. As journalist Les Leopold notes, there are hedge-fund gamblers who rake in more money in an hour than a middle-class wage-earner makes in 47 years. From an astrological perspective, Aquarius, it's an excellent time for you to raise your voice against this inequity. Furthermore, you'd be wise to dramatically shrink the discrepancy between the haves and have-nots in your own personal sphere, where you can actually have an immediate effect.

You might start the healing by asking yourself how the rich aspects of your psyche steal from the poor parts.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

There's a good chance you will soon utter the smartest words you have ever said in your life. It's also possible that you will generate two of the top five thoughts that have popped into your brain in the last decade.

That's how in tune I expect you to be with your inner sources of wisdom.

And that's how closely aligned you'll be with the Divine Intelligence formerly known as God. Now here's the surprise ending to my message for you, Pisces -- the unexpected outcome: Your brilliant insights and cogent statements may tempt you to be wilder and freer than you've been in a long time.

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, MAY 6, 2011

Announcement Shaastrotsav Shaastrotsav- Festival of Science will be held today at the Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST) campus, Mishref, near Kuwait International Fair Grounds.

Shaastrotsav, which is a highly popular science and technology event in Kuwait, is organized by Kuwait chapter of NSS College of Engineering Alumni, in association with Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST). Fifteen schools and many technical and professional organizations will be participating in the day-long events of Shaastrotsav. Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) will be participating in the event.

Entry to Shaastrotsav, which will start at 10:30 am and is open to all. Visit www.Shaastrotsav.org or www.facebook.com/shaastrotsav or call 66699504 / 99379966 / 99377238 / 99778352 / 55377238 to know more about this science & technology extravaganza.

Kindergarten kids celebrate ‘Go Green Day’ at IIS

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ittle drops make a mighty ocean. Little kids proved that their contributions also could make a big impact in protecting our mother earth. KG kids celebrated Go Green Day in a grand way on Thursday, April 21, 2011 at IIS to show their love and affection to their dear mother earth. All the tiny tots were in green costumes on that day. One could see the reflection of green color in every nook and corner of KG Department and feel as if they entered an enchanting world of young green plants with cheerful blossoms moving around. A special assembly was conducted in which these little kids cheered the mother earth by singing a melodious song, “With leaves so green” in chorus. All the kids joyfully did the “Hand Print Activity”. Moosa Koya, Director, F M. Basheer Ahmed, Principal, Narindrer Kaur, VicePrincipal and Shifana, KG Head were all in the company of sweet tiny tots and joined them in their activity. Kids enjoyed a lot the company of elders. Hats off to the organizer of this event Shifana and her creative team. Then all the children listened to an interesting story depicting the importance of planting new trees and the miseries of cutting down the trees. At the end of the day, while leaving the school, the little kids carry in their heart the message of plant kindness everywhere and the love blossoms to cheer the ailing mother earth.

Ice-cream Day was celebrated by the Kids of Class I & II on Thursday, April 21, 2011 at the auditorium of IIS. The children

would never forget this day in their life time. They had music, dance, game and the ice-cream of many flavors- all at a time which they have not dreamed of. What a wonderful moment for these tiny tots which they cherish in their tender hearts forever.

All the children with their colorful costumes created an enchanting world wherein hundreds of colorful butterflies were happily flying around and looking for the nectar. Class II students joyfully played the ball game along with their teachers. Class I students danced in rhythm with the music. Moosa Koya, Director, colored the picture of Ice-cream cone on the board, received the first scoop of ice-cream in a cone and declared open the grand icecream day. F M Basheer Ahmed, Principal, Narinder Kaur, Vice Principal, N Balasubramanian, Headmaster, Shifana, Head of the KG Dept. and Sophy, Class Coordinator, also colored the pictures of Ice-cream cones and wrote different messages for the tiny tots.

All children screamed I scream; You scream; We scream; icecream! All the children tasted many scoops of ice-cream. After hectic activities of playing and dancing under the scorching sun, tasting ice-cream was a sweet and soothing experience for these tiny tots. Hats off to the organizers of this event, Sophy, Varsha, Akila, Asha and all the Class Teachers of I and II.

Leisure activities Kuwait Zoo The Kuwait Zoo is located in Omariya on the Airport Road. It is open everyday except on Saturdays.

The timings during winter are 8am to 8pm. For more information contact: 24733389.

10.30pm and on Fridays from 2pm to 10.30pm. For more information contact: 22240025 or visit their website at: www.tsck.org.kw.

Amusements Parks

a)Sultan Art Gallery The Sultan art gallery is located on Street no: 105, building no: 168, Subhan, Kuwait city.

Aqua Park Aqua Park will be open from 1st April 2011 from 10am-10pm everyday. For information contact: 22431960/1/3 or visit: www.aquaparkkuwait.com.

Entertainment City Entertainment City is open from Sunday to Wednesday from 3pm to 11pm during winter. It is also open on Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 10pm. For more information contact: 24879455.

The Scientific Centre Scientific Centre is located on the Gulf road in Salmiya. It is open from Saturdays to Thursdays from 9am to

Art galleries and artifacts

b)Boshehri Gallery Boshehri Gallery is located on the Al-Mobarak street, Salmiya, Kuwait.

For more information on their collection please contact: 25714883/25724883. c)Tariq Rajab Museum This museum is open from Saturdays to Thursdays at 9am to 12pm and 4pm to 7pm. On Fridays it is open from 9am to 12pm. For more information on their location etc contact: 25317358 or visit their website: www.trmkt.com.

Woogie Woogie 2011

A

fter two rounds of rigorous auditions that were held on the 16th and 23rd of April 2011, the finest talent from more than 350 solo and group participants with diverse backgrounds and dance disciplines has been pooled together for the much awaited finals. With the generous support of our sponsors and exemplary team efforts the Woogie Woogie 2011 experience is taken to a new level this year with celebrity guests on the judging panel - Sudha Chandran, popularly known as India’s dancing peacock and Marischa Fernandes, choreographer and winner of Jhalak Dhikla Jaa, which will be held today at the American International School, Maidan Hawally from 5 pm onwards.

Future Eye Theatre Workshop Future Eye Theatre, Kuwait will hold a demonstration-cumworkshop on ‘Theatre and Dance’ tomorrow at 7.30pm at the Successlines, Abbassiya. Renowned Kathakali exponent Kalamandalam E Vasudevam and Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattom exponent Kalamandalam Mallika will conduct the workshop. All theatre and dance lovers including dance students are welcome. For details, call: 97277151, 66726427 or 65018302.

Thanima to present legend play Thanima (The Human and Nostalgic Interaction of Malayalees Abroad) is presenting of yet another unique cultural event to the Kuwait cultural spectrum by enacting ballads of the epic Vadakkan Pattukal (Ballads of North Malabar) of medieval Kerala on stage. ‘Oru Vadakkan Veerakatha’, drama scope mega budget full length visual entertainer becomes a reality in the collective effort of Malayalee expatriate community in Kuwait spearheaded by Thanima. The play will be staged at 4.30 pm and 8.30 pm on 20 May at Al-Jeel Al-Jadeed School Auditorium at Hawally. The drama combines both the legendary spirit of Vadakkan Pattu and the bravery of Kalaripayattu (martial art form of Kerala) and harmonizes with the technical excellence of silver screen. In 18 sets it will be on stage designed by acclaimed Artist Sujathan. Entry will be restricted through passes.

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.

ABCK golf tournament The American Business Council of Kuwait is hosting its 10th annual Golf Tournament at the Sahara Golf Club on Friday, May 13th, 2011. It will be a Texas 4-man scramble and your participation is encouraged. Registration begins at 7.00am and shotgun at 8.00am. Event includes breakfast, lunch and raffle prizes. For details contact americanbusinesscouncil@gmail.com before May 10th.

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, MaidanHawalli.

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W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

MES Ladies Wing Kuwait hosts exclusive talk

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ES (Muslim Educational Society) Ladies Wing Kuwait organized a Free Exclusive Talk, “Life Skills and Personal Safety for Adolescents” on April 29, 2011 (Friday) at Private Educational Center, Salmiya from 530 pm until 8:30 pm. The program was attended by teenage girls and their mothers.

Muna Al-Fuzai (well-known columnist of Kuwait Times newspaper) inaugurated the program with a brief key note address and the main speakers for the evening were Dr Susan Kuruvilla (leading gynecologist of Farwaniya Hospital Kuwait) and Simi Rajesh (renowned counselor of Jabriya School Kuwait). On one hand, while Dr Susan Kuruvilla stressed on physical challenges that

adolescent girls experience on reaching puberty, feminine hygiene and other related topics, on the other hand, Simi Rajesh enlightened her young audience with the mental challenges that adolescents face, on how to control their anger/depression and how to interact with their parents and friends. The audience was also given a Q&A Session at the end of the talk, enabling them to clear many queries they had in their minds related to the topic for the evening.

At the outset of the program, MES Ladies Wing General Secretary Fibitha Khaleel gave the Welcome Speech and MES Ladies Wing Chairperson; Saleena Mustafa delivered the Presidential Address. The event

was wrapped up by Asma Abdullah delivering the Vote of Thanks. The other MES Ladies Wing Program Coordinators for the event were Jeseema Rafi, Shaheena Abdulkader, Shahina Zubair, Shahana Ashraf and Rabiya Saleh whose sincere efforts resulted in making the program a grand success. According to the feedback received from the many attendees, the program was very informative and they applauded MES Ladies Wing Kuwait for conducting such a program.

Embassy

AUK receives Best Practice award

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he American University of Kuwait has been awarded the NASPA International Education Knowledge Community 2011 Best Practice Award for International Exchange Programs. The Best Practices committee received a record number of noteworthy nominations from institutions around the world including neighboring Qatar. AUK’s Student Affairs Graduate Student Summer Internship Program was selected as this year’s winner. Dr Carol Ross-Scott, Vice President of Administrative & Student Affairs, received for AUK and on behalf of Tadd Kruse the program co-founder and other key colleagues who support the program, during a luncheon on Sunday March 13 at the International Symposium during the NASPA Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA-USA. The selective eight-week internship program began in Summer 2009 and was designed to provide current graduate students or recent graduates from master’s programs in higher education administration, student personnel or related field, the opportunity to gain essential experiences within professional areas of Student Affairs. The goal is to instill a deeper understanding of higher education, allowing for the acquisition of specific skill sets that will help prepare interns for their career in higher education. Katie Mitchell, a 2010 Intern from the University of Northern Colorado briefly summarized her experience by stating “The cultural experience alone was worth the trip, as was the opportunity to work with a great staff and students.” Interns select assignments from Admissions, Registration, Student Life, Parent Relations and Alumni Affairs, Academic Advising Center, or the Dean of Student Affairs Office. The internship program has also provided invaluable learning experiences for the AUK staff. Eman Kamel of the Admissions department said she “learned a lot about how things are done at other institutions, in particular bigger institutions; how we (AUK) can change.”

The lack of knowledge about students of Arab descent in higher education has never been more apparent. The AUK program by design intentionally strives to help prepare new professionals for work within a culturally diverse campus, learning firsthand about the student cohort as well as helping them to understand and defuse stereotypes and misnomers about the Middle East and the Arab world. Interns also have the opportunity to travel within the region and visit other postsecondary institutions. Former intern, Kevin D’Arco, landed a position in Qatar upon graduation.

As part of NASPA’s continuing efforts of educating individu-

als for the profession, the organization also provides a mentoring and development program for undergraduates. For the first time, an AUK student, Omar Mehdi, was selected to participate in the Undergraduate Fellows program. The Fellows’ program includes yearlong mentoring and career exploration in partnership with an AUK Student Affairs professional, attendance at the annual NASPA conference including participating in programs designed specifically for all undergraduate fellows, and participating in a summer internship program at another college or university. AUK has always been committed to identifying undergraduate students who have the potential to one day serve as fulltime staff members. Currently twenty-two alumni are now employed by AUK. Both accolades signify AUK is on the right track as we endeavor to develop an environment that supports the personal and academic growth of our students.

Information 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 emergency. an in you contacting 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

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to request all Kenyans resident in or training through Kuwait to register with the Embassy.

We are updating our database. This information is necessary in order to facilitate quick assistance and advise in times of emergency. Kindly visit in person or register through our website www.kenyaembkuwait.com. The Embassy is located in: Surra Area Block 6 - Street 9 - Villa 3 Tel: 25353362 - 25353314; Fax: 25353316. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has moved its office to Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk

TV Listings FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

10:15 12:05 13:05 14:05 14:35 16:25 16:55 17:25 17:55 18:55 19:25 19:55 20:55 21:25 21:55 22:25 23:25 23:55

00:45 Untamed And Uncut 01:40 Dogs 101 02:35 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 03:30 Pit Bulls And Parolees 04:25 Crime Scene Wild 05:20 Animal Cops Houston 06:10 Extraordinary Dogs 06:35 Project Puppy 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 The Really Wild Show 07:50 Crocodile Hunter 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Dogs 101 10:05 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 11:00 Animal Precinct 11:55 Wildlife SOS 12:50 Animal Cops Houston 13:45 RSPCA: Have You Got What It Takes?

14:10 E-Vets: The Interns 14:40 Raising Baby Giant Panda 15:30 Animal Battlegrounds 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Growing Up... Wolves 17:25 Cats 101 18:20 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 19:15 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Karina: Wild On Safari 22:00 Big Five Challenge 22:55 In Search Of The Giant Anaconda 23:50 Killer Whales

00:00 00:35 01:20 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 10:10 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 22:05 22:55 23:30

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

My Family The Weakest Link Casualty Doctor Who Eastenders Doctors My Family 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 My Family My Family The Weakest Link Full Circle With Michael Palin Doctors Eastenders Casualty My Family Full Circle With Michael Palin The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Full Circle With Michael Palin The Weakest Link Doctors The Planets Jekyll Supernova Taking The Flak

Great British Menu Come Dine With Me Home For Life Great British Menu Indian Food Made Easy Daily Cooks Challenge Chuck’s Day Off Indian Food Made Easy Antiques Roadshow Great British Menu Indian Food Made Easy Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic Bargain Hunt Come Dine With Me Great British Menu Indian Food Made Easy Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic Bargain Hunt Come Dine With Me Home For Life Masterchef: The Professionals Come Dine With Me

THE CORE ON OSN ACTION HD

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

00:30 00:55 01:45 02:35 03:25

Dirty Jobs Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Survival Mega Builders Mythbusters How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Mega Builders American Chopper How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Street Customs 2008 Ultimate Survival Mythbusters LA Ink Dirty Jobs Street Customs 2008 Mythbusters Extreme Fishing Border Security Industrial Junkie Man, Woman, Wild Mega Builders Olympic Park Machines With Jonny

03:50 04:45 05:40 06:10 07:00 07:55 07:58 08:25 08:55 09:45 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 20:20 20:45 21:10 22:00 23:40

Junkyard Wars What’s That About?

Patent Bending Eco-Tech Da Vinci’s Machines Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections The World’s Strangest UFO Stories The Gadget Show Bang Goes The Theory Savage Planet Da Vinci’s Machines Patent Bending Weird Or What?

Powering The Future Kings Of Construction The Gadget Show Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Brainiac Super Comet: After The Impact Stephen Hawking’s Universe Weird Connections How Does That Work?

The Gadget Show Stephen Hawking’s Universe 2012 Apocalypse

Mighty Ships Extreme Fishing

The Gadget Show Kings Of Construction Bang Goes The Theory The Future Of...

How Stuff’s Made

06:00 06:20 06:40 07:05 08:05 08:30 08:50 09:00 09:50 10:15

Kid Vs Kat Kick Buttowski Pokemon Phineas & Ferb American Dragon Kick Buttowski Next X 2011 Winter Edition (Cema) Zeke & Luther I’m In The Band The Super Hero Squad Show

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

Suite Life On Deck Kid Vs Kat Phineas & Ferb Kid Vs Kat The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody Zeke & Luther Suite Life On Deck Next X 2011 Winter Edition (Cema) Kick Buttowski I’m In The Band Suite Life On Deck Zeke & Luther Phineas & Ferb Escape From Scorpion Island

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Kendra Extreme Close-Up E!es E!es E!es 25 Most Stylish Sexiest Extreme Hollywood THS Behind The Scenes E! News Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane

Pokemon American Dragon Aaron Stone Next X 2011 Winter Edition (Cema) The Avengers: Earths Mightiest The Avengers: Earths Mightiest New Spiderman Phineas And Ferb The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Super Hero Squad Show

20 Acts Of Love Gone Wrong E! News Giuliana And Bill Kourtney And Khloe Take Miami E!es Behind The Scenes Kourtney And Kim Take New York Kourtney And Kim Take New York E! News Kendra Kendra E!es Chelsea Lately Kendra Holly’s World E! News Chelsea Lately Kourtney And Kim Take New York

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 18:40 19:30 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Ghost Lab A Haunting On The Case With Paula Zahn True Crime Scene Dr G: Medical Examiner Crime Scene Psychics Ghost Lab Life Or Death: Medical Mysteries Forensic Detectives CSU Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn FBI Files Murder Shift The Prosecutors Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn Forensic Detectives CSU FBI Files Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls Murder Shift The Prosecutors Murder Shift Undercover Dr G: Medical Examiner

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

BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News America Asia Business Report Asia Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Asia Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Asia Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Asia Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Asia Today BBC World News Peschardt’s Business People BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Peschardt’s Business People BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today GMT With George Alagiah GMT With George Alagiah BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today Impact Our World Impact World Business Report Sport Today World Have Your Say World Have Your Say 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 World Have Your Say Extra 21:40 Weekend World 22:00 BBC World News 22:30 Middle East Business Report 23:00 BBC World News America 23:30 Peschardt’s Business People

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 Angelo Rules 08:05 Cartoon Network Dance Club 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 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

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Wild Things-18 Pride And Glory-18 Paranormal Activity-PG15 Ransom-PG15 The Core-PG15 A Knight’s Tale-PG15 Gone In Sixty Seconds-PG15 The Core-PG15 Angels And Demons-PG15 Gone In Sixty Seconds-PG15 The General’s Daughter-18 Orphan-18

01:15 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 12:30 14:30 16:30 18:15 21:00 23:15

Winter Of Frozen Dreams-18 I Love You Beth Cooper-PG15 Green Lantern: First Flight-PG The Break-Up Artist-PG15 The Nutty Professor-FAM Stuart Little 2-FAM The Break-Up Artist-PG15 Bandslam-PG15 The Nutty Professor-FAM 2012-PG15 Invictus-PG15 Whiteout-18

TV Listings FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

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

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report Family Guy The Ricky Gervais Show Entourage Just Shoot Me Community Family Guy The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Malcolm In The Middle Yes Dear The Drew Carey Show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne Dharma And Greg Just Shoot Me Malcolm In The Middle Yes Dear Melissa And Joey The Drew Carey Show The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Dharma And Greg Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne Malcolm In The Middle Yes Dear Community Melissa And Joey The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report The Drew Carey Show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Friends 8 Simple Rules ...

Outsourced Modern Family The Tonight Show With Jay Leno The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report Funny Or Die Presents Bored To Death Family Guy Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

The Cape American Idol The Gates The Cape Good Morning America C.S.I. New York Emmerdale Look-A-Like The Gates The Martha Stewart Show The View American Idol Live Good Morning America C.S.I. New York The Ellen DeGeneres Show One Tree Hill No Ordinary Family American Idol Survivor: Redemption Island Lie To Me C.S.I. New York

00:00 Downton Abbey 01:00 American Idol 03:00 The Cape 04:00 The Gates 05:00 The Philanthropist 06:00 Downton Abbey 07:00 The New Adventures Of Christine 07:30 My Boys 08:00 Smallville 09:00 The Philanthropist 10:00 American Idol 12:00 The New Adventures Of Christine 12:30 My Boys 13:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 14:00 Smallville 15:00 Cold Case 16:00 The New Adventures Of Christine 16:30 The New Adventures Of Christine 17:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 18:00 The Unit 19:00 No Ordinary Family 20:00 American Idol 21:00 Survivor: Redemption Island 22:00 Royal Pains 23:00 The Philanthropist

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00

It’s Alive-R The Descent 2-18 Knife Edge-18 Heaven’s Fall-PG15 Jesse Stone: No Remorse-PG15 The Stepfather-PG15 Vertical Limit-PG15 Jesse Stone: No Remorse-PG15

17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

The Day After Tomorrow-PG The Ruins-R The Fast And The Furious-PG15 The Final-18

17:00 19:00 21:00 PG 23:00

00:00 Three And Out-PG15 02:00 Exterminators-PG15 04:00 The Proposal-PG15 06:00 Dirty Work-PG15 08:00 Tom And Huck-PG15 10:00 Ed-PG 12:00 Daddy Day Care-PG 14:00 Chasing Papi-PG 16:00 Three And Out-PG15 18:00 Patch Adams-PG15 20:00 Just Buried-18 22:00 Aim Low: The Very Best Of Dylan Moran-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 PG15 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Tiptoes-18 Intersection-18 The Brothers Bloom-PG15 45 R.P.M.-PG15 Three Investigators-PG15 Coraline-PG Sticks And Stones-PG The Loss Of A Teardrop DiamondMeet Bill-PG15 Last Chance Harvey-PG15 The Wrestler-18 This Revolution-PG15

01:00 Almost Famous-PG15 03:45 The Soloist-PG15 05:45 The Informant!-PG15 07:30 Not The Messiah: He’s A Very Naughty Boy-PG15 09:00 Astro Boy-FAM 11:00 Morning Light-PG 13:00 Hotel For Dogs-FAM 15:00 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG

Astro Boy-FAM Revolutionary Road-PG15 Nanny Mcphee And The Big BangThe Hangover-18

00:00 Tutenstein: Clash Of The PharaohsPG 02:00 Treasure Island-PG 04:00 Scruff In Midsummer Night’s Dream-FAM 06:00 Aliens In The Attic-FAM 08:00 Yogi And The Invasion Of The Space Bears-FAM 10:00 Tutenstein: Clash Of The PharaohsPG 12:00 Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-DooFAM 14:00 Aliens In The Attic-FAM 16:00 The Trumpet Of The Swan-FAM 18:00 Babe-FAM 20:00 Ace Ventura : Pet Detective Jr.-PG15 22:00 Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-DooFAM

00:00 Jake’s Closet-PG15 02:00 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story-PG15 04:00 The Lizzie McGuire Movie-PG15 06:00 My Son, My Son, What Have You Done?-PG15 08:00 Flicka 2-PG15 10:00 9-PG 12:00 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story-PG15 14:00 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG 16:00 Flicka 2-PG15 18:00 The Boys Are Back-PG 20:00 Nanny Mcphee And The Big BangPG 22:00 Land Of The Lost-PG15

00:30 Futbol Mundial 01:00 Total Rugby 01:30 Scottish Premier League

03:30 04:00 04:30 05:30 06:00 07:00 10:30 12:30 14:30 17:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Scottish Premier League Highlights Futbol Mundial Golfing World NRL Full Time Weber Cup Bowling Premier League Darts Live Super 15 Live Super 15 AFL Premiership Trans World Sport International Rugby League Live Super 15 Super 15

01:30 02:00 05:30 06:30 07:00 08:00 12:30 13:00 15:00 15:30 19:30 20:00 21:00

Futbol Mundial Premier League Darts Trans World Sport Total Rugby Golfing World European PGA Tour NRL Full Time Live International Rugby League ICC Cricket World Live European PGA Tour Futbol Mundial Golfing World European PGA Tour

01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:30 10:30 13:30 14:30 15:00 16:00 17:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE NXT UAE National Race Day Series V8 Supercars Championship V8 Supercars Championship UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE NXT Full Throttle Le Mans Series V8 Supercars Championship Live AFL Premiership WWE NXT Full Throttle V8 Supercars Championship V8 Supercars Championship Superstock Powerboat Series

Old

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WHITEOUT ON OSN CINEMA

17:30 18:30 19:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter V8 Supercars Extra WWE NXT WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter

00:15 00:17 01:00 01:50 02:00 02:45 03:15 03:17 07:15 07:17 09:15 09:17 13:15 13:17 15:15 15:17 16:00 16:45 17:15 17:17 18:00 18:45 19:00 20:00 20:30 22:15 22:17 23:00 23:40

Top Mobile Playlist Hit Us Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Top Fashion Playlist Top Gossip Playlist Top Money Playlist Top Gossip Playlist Monthly Top Playlist Africa 10 Playlist Top Sexy Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Trace Video Mix New Playlist Top Mobile Playlist Club 10 Playlist

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

Market Values Market Values Departures Don’t Tell My Mother Don’t Tell My Mother

By Any Means Pressure Cook David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Exploring The Vine Market Values Market Values Departures Don’t Tell My Mother Don’t Tell My Mother

By Any Means Pressure Cook David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Exploring The Vine Market Values Market Values Departures Don’t Tell My Mother

By Any Means Pressure Cook David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Exploring The Vine Market Values Market Values Departures Don’t Tell My Mother

By Any Means Pressure Cook David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Exploring The Vine

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00

The Big Fish Word Travels Megalopolis Globe Trekker Glutton For Punishment Angry Planet Globe Trekker The Big Fish Word Travels Top Travel Chef Abroad Globe Trekker Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma Megalopolis The Big Fish The Seasoned Traveler Working Holiday Globe Trekker Distant Shores The Thirsty Traveler Top Travel

14:30 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00

Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma Rudy Maxa’s World Globe Trekker Essential The Big Fish Grannies On Safari Distant Shores The Thirsty Traveler Globe Trekker Globe Trekker 48 Hours In Distant Shores Four Men and a Lady Travel Today Globe Trekker

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 17:30 Top 10 17:55 Top 10 18:25 Giuliana And Bill 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 Clean House

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

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Flight Schedule FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Arrival Flights on Friday 6/5/2011

KAC

166 PARIS / ROME

18:40

ABY

126 SHARJAH

9:50

Time

KAC

502 BEIRUT

18:45

KAC

117 NEW YORK

10:00

642 AMMAN

0:05

KAC

542 CAIRO

18:50

QTR

133 DOHA

10:00

KAC

544 CAIRO

0:30

KAC

744 DAMMAM

19:15

ETD

302 ABU DHABI

10:15

JZR

267 BEIRUT

0:35

KAC

774 RIYADH

19:25

JZR

200 DAMASCUS

10:20

THY

772 ISTANBUL

1:15

KAC

674 DUBAI

19:25

IRA

618 LAR

10:20

TAR

327 TUNIS / DUBAI

1:30

KAC

102 NEW YORK / LONDON

19:25

GFA

214 BAHRAIN

10:20

ETH

620 ADDIS ABABA

1:45

AIC

975 CHENNAI / GOA

19:30

MEA

405 BEIRUT

11:55

CLX

794 LUXEMBOURG

1:50

JAI

572 MUMBAI

19:35

KAC

541 CAIRO

12:00

UAE

853 DUBAI

2:25

KAC

562 AMMAN

19:50

JZR

238 AMMAN

12:10

DHX

370 BAHRAIN

2:55

JZR

787 RIYADH

20:00

KAC

103 LONDON

12:30

ETD

305 ABU DHABI

2:55

FDB

61

20:00

KAC

501 BEIRUT

13:00

FDB

67

3:10

OMA

647 MUSCAT

20:10

IYE

825 DOHA / SANAA

13:05

GFA

211 BAHRAIN

3:15

VOS

81

20:15

MSR

624 SOHAG

13:10

QTR

138 DOHA

3:20

MEA

402 BEIRUT

20:15

RBG

3554 ALEXANDRIA

13:35

JZR

503 LUXOR

5:15

KAC

786 JEDDAH

20:20

JZR

176 DUBAI

13:40

JZR

223 ALEPPO

5:20

SVA

506 JEDDAH

20:35

MSR

611 CAIRO

14:20

JZR

555 ALEXANDRIA

6:10

DHX

372 BAHRAIN

21:00

RJA

641 AMMAN

14:30

BAW

157 LONDON

6:30

GFA

217 BAHRAIN

21:25

FDB

58

14:35

KAC

416 JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR

6:35

FCX

304 RIYADH

21:30

UAL

982 BAHRAIN

14:45

KAC

206 ISLAMABAD

7:15

QTR

136 DOHA

21:35

KAC

561 AMMAN

14:45

KAC

302 MUMBAI

7:50

UAL

981 BAHRAIN

22:00

OMA

646 MUSCAT

15:00

FDB

53

DUBAI

7:55

UAE

859 DUBAI

22:00

KAC

785 JEDDAH

15:05

KAC

332 TRIVANDRUM

7:55

JZR

135 BAHRAIN

22:10

KAC

673 DUBAI

15:10

KAC

678 MUSCAT / DUBAI

8:00

JZR

185 DUBAI

22:35

JZR

480 SABIHA

16:00

KAC

352 COCHIN

8:05

MSR

612 CAIRO

22:50

KAC

773 RIYADH

16:05

KAC

284 DHAKA

8:10

DLH

636 FRANKFURT

23:00

QTR

135 DOHA

16:15

KAC

362 COLOMBO

8:20

SAI

441 LAHORE / KARACHI

23:05

KAC

743 DAMMAM

16:25

UAE

855 DUBAI

8:25

KLM

447 AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN

23:35

JZR

786 RIYADH

16:35

QTR

132 DOHA

9:00

JZR

481 SABIHA

23:50

ETD

304 ABU DHABI

17:35

ABY

125 SHARJAH

9:10

MLR

404 DUBAI / COLOMBO

17:40

IRA

619 LAR

9:20

UAE

858 DUBAI

18:05

ETD

301 ABU DHABI

9:30

Airlines

Flt

Time

GFA

216 BAHRAIN

18:15

GFA

213 BAHRAIN

9:35

AXB

390 MANGALORE / KOZHIKODE

0:25

ABY

128 SHARJAH

18:20

MEA

404 BEIRUT

10:55

DLH

637 FRANKFURT

0:40

JZR

184 DUBAI

18:25

JZR

165 DUBAI

11:10

BBC

44

1:00

SVA

511 RIYADH

18:35

JZR

121 BAHRAIN

11:15

AIC

982 AHMEDABAD / CHENNAI

1:05

ALK

228 DUBAI / COLOMBO

19:10

IYE

825 SANAA

12:05

PIA

206 LAHORE

1:10

JZR

134 BAHRAIN

19:10

MSR

623 SOHAG

12:10

THY

773 ISTANBUL

2:15

KAC

283 DHAKA

20:00

RBG

3553 ALEXANDRIA / SOHAG

12:55

TAR

328 TUNIS

2:20

KAC

361 COLOMBO

20:20

KAC

618 DOHA

12:55

ETH

620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA

2:30

JAI

571 MUMBAI

20:35

KAC

672 DUBAI

13:15

CLX

794 HO CHI MINH CITY

3:20

FDB

62

DUBAI

20:40

MSR

610 CAIRO

13:20

UAE

854 DUBAI

3:45

JZR

528 ASSIUT

20:50

UAL

982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES

13:30

FDB

68

3:50

KAC

343 CHENNAI

21:00

RJA

640 AMMAN

13:35

DHX

371 BAHRAIN

3:55

KAC

351 COCHIN

21:05

FDB

57

13:50

ETD

306 ABU DHABI

4:05

OMA

648 MUSCAT

21:10

OMA

645 MUSCAT

14:00

QTR

139 DOHA

5:00

MEA

403 BEIRUT

21:15

KAC

546 ALEXANDRIA

14:30

JZR

164 DUBAI

6:55

SVA

507 JEDDAH

21:55

KAC

552 DAMASCUS

14:35

RJA

643 AMMAN

7:00

DHX

373 BAHRAIN

22:00

KAC

788 JEDDAH

15:00

GFA

212 BAHRAIN

7:10

KAC

381 DELHI

22:30

JZR

257 BEIRUT

15:10

KAC

545 ALEXANDRIA

7:40

GFA

218 BAHRAIN

22:30

QTR

134 DOHA

15:15

VOS

94

8:00

QTR

137 DOHA

22:35

JZR

201 DAMASCUS

15:45

JZR

120 BAHRAIN

8:20

KAC

301 MUMBAI

22:45

MLR

403 COLOMBO / DUBAI

16:40

BAW

156 LONDON

8:25

KAC

205 ISLAMABAD

22:55

ETD

303 ABU DHABI

16:50

FDB

54

8:40

FCX

102 DUBAI

23:00

UAE

857 DUBAI

16:55

KAC

177 FRANKFURT / GENEVA

8:55

JZR

502 LUXOR

23:05

GFA

215 BAHRAIN

17:15

KAC

671 DUBAI

9:00

JZR

554 ALEXANDRIA

23:10

SVA

510 RIYADH

17:20

KAC

551 DAMASCUS

9:10

UAE

860 DUBAI

23:10

JZR

239 AMMAN

17:35

JZR

256 BEIRUT

9:10

KAC

411 BANGKOK / MANILA

23:40

ABY

127 SHARJAH

17:40

KAC

787 JEDDAH

9:25

UAL

981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES

23:40

ALK

227 COLOMBO / DUBAI

18:00

KAC

617 DOHA

9:35

MSR

613 CAIRO

23:50

JZR

177 DUBAI

18:00

UAE

856 DUBAI

9:40

SAI

442 LAHORE

23:59

Airlines

Flt

RJA

Route

DUBAI

DUBAI

DUBAI BAGHDAD

Departure Flights on Friday 6/5/2011 Route

DHAKA

DUBAI

DUBAI / KANDAHAR

DUBAI

DUBAI

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

ACCOMMODATION One big room with attached bath available for decent couple or single bachelor in Fintas 3 BR C-A/C flat, near the London hospital and close to Fahaheel highway.

Please contact: 60020168.

(C 3317) 5-4-2011

street, Indian Community school-3, adjacent building.

Contact: 99813483. (C 3299) Sharing accommodation in Salmiya C-A/C flat, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, for family or bachelor with Indian couple. Contact: 99467432.

(C 3300) 28-4-2011

FOR SALE Keralite family on vacation, flat available for 2 months (June - July). in Abbassiya Call 97121669. (C 3313) 4-5-2011 One bedroom available for Keralite couples or working lady in Abbassiya near Orma restaurant with a family.

Contact: 99494671.

(C 3308) 3-5-2011 A Hindu bachelor wants one bachelor/couple to share a complete 2 bedroom furnished flat near Holy sweet, Abbassiya, minimum rent KD 100. Tel: 66913938. (C 3302) 30-4-2011 Sharing accommodation available with Indian decent bachelor single bedroom flat. 1+1 basic, very good location in Salmiya, Amman

2009 model Toyota Corolla, excellent condition, price KD 3450. Tel: 60951195.

(C 3307) SUV Envoy, model 2007, very good condition, price KD 3700. Tel: 66728911.

(C 3311) 3-5-2011 PC Compaq Pentium 4, HD 20 GB, Ram 128 MB (expandable), Windows XP professional with 15” LCD Neovo.

All in excellent condition, price KD 40 only. Call 60477518 & 99337034.

(C 3305) 1-5-2011 2005 model Mitsubishi Nativa white color, running 96,000 km excellent condi-

tion, CD, remote, alloy wheel, single owner, accident free new 4 tires, price KD 2400.

Contact: 60797291. (C 3303) 30-4-2011

Housemaid urgently needed- preferably Sri Lanka, Indonesian and India. Call 97785326

MATRIMONIAL CHANGE OF NAME I, Shavaz, holder of Pakistan Passport No. KH048265, hereby change my name to Abdul Ahad Fayyaz. (C 3309) 3-5-2011

Proposals invited for postgraduate (MBA) Kuwait employed, Orthodox girl 28/160, planning vacation May-June. Contact: gegekutty@hotmail.com / palliyilus@yahoo.com (C 3314) 4-5-2011

SITUATION VACANT Driver wanted urgently for a decent Kuwaiti family.

Indians with local experience preferred temporary for 3 months. Please contact 99006777 for immediate appointment. (C 3312) American family looking for live-in maid. Call 65729276, 66104141.

(C 3310) American family in Salwa needs full time, live-in maid, start immediately. Must speak English. Call 66838807 after 4pm.

(C 3306) 3-5-2011

SITUATION WANTED

Indian male B.Com, 25 years Gulf experience (Kuwait & UAE) in management, procurement, sales, seeks senior position, experience in oil field materials, hard wares, power and hand tools, timber, steel, building materials etc.

Contact: 66889375.

(C 3302) 4-5-2011 Accountant Indian (male) 9 years experience (2 years in Kuwait), B.Com, PG in Sociology, accounts up to finalization, bank reconciliation, inventory, cash, creditors and debtors manage-

ment, good knowledge in Tally, Oracle, MS Office.

Tel: 65990299.

(C 3304) 1-5-2011

LOST I, Nusheen Mustafa Kardame, Indian Passport holder No: G2641002, have lost my B.Com certificate and

mark sheet a week ago at AlRai bus stop. Anybody who happens to find it please contact 66804400. (C 3316) I, Nida Mustafa Kardame, Indian Passport holder No: G2640931 have lost my B.Com certificate and mark sheet a week ago at Al-Rai bus stop. Anybody who happens to find it please contact 67761591. (C 3315) 4-5-2011

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Dirk blasts Lakers again Noah scores 19 and 14 rebounds for Bulls LOS ANGELES: Dirk Nowitzki scored 24 points and Shawn Marion added 14 as the Dallas Mavericks stunned the erratic Los Angeles Lakers 93-81 in Game 2 on Wednesday to take a 2-0 second-round lead over the two-time defending champions. Jason Kidd scored 10 points for the Mavericks, who pushed the Lakers halfway to playoff elimination with Nowitzki’s stellar shooting, another steady defensive performance, and a decisive 9-0 fourth-quarter rally. Kobe Bryant scored 23 points for the Lakers, who hadn’t lost the first two games of a playoff series since the 2008 NBA finals also the last series they lost. Only three NBA teams have come back to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first two at home. Game 3 is today’s night in Dallas. The Lakers also could be short-handed in Dallas: Ron Artest was ejected with 24.4 seconds left for apparently striking Dallas guard Jose Barea, possibly leading to a suspension.

Bulls 86, Hawks 73 At Chicago, newly crowned Most Valuable Player

Derrick Rose scored 25 points, and Joakim Noah added 19 points and 14 rebounds to help Chicago level the Eastern Conference semifinals at a game each.

The top-seeded Bulls shook off a dismal performance in the opener and looked more like the team with a leaguebest 62 wins, building a 14-point lead and ending the game on a 9-2 run after the Hawks got within six. Jeff Teague had another good game filling in for the injured Kirk Hinrich with 21 points, but Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford struggled after coming up big in the opener for Atlanta.

Johnson’s output dipped from 34 points to 16, while Crawford had 11 after scoring 22 in Game 1.

Now, the series shifts to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4 today and Sunday, with Chicago at least in better shape after a 103-95 loss in Game 1. The night began with Commissioner David Stern presenting the MVP trophy to Rose, the youngest player to win the award. — AP

Lightning sweep Caps Thomas leads Bruins with 37 saves TAMPA BAY: The Tampa Bay Lightning completed a shock 4-0 sweep of Eastern top seeds Washington on Wednesday, while Boston and San Jose each took 3-0 series leads to move one win away from reaching the Conference finals.

The Lightning, playing in the postseason for the first time in four years, beat the Caps 5-3 to record their seventh consecutive win and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Meanwhile, Boston defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 and San Jose captured a 4-3 overtime triumph over

the Detroit Red Wings to leave them in pole position to advance. In Tampa, the home side took the lead through Ryan Malone’s power-play goal at 12:37 of the first but Washington’s Marco Strum tied the score with 90 seconds left in the period. Sean Bergenheim scored twice to give the Bolts a two-goal cushion in the second before John Erskine trimmed the lead to 3-2 at 13:40 in the period. Tampa Bay’s Marc-Andre Bergeron and Martin St Louis scored in the third, while Washington’s John Carlson also tallied. It was yet another post-season disaster for Washington,

DETROIT: Detroit Red Wings right wing Daniel Cleary (11) checks San Jose Sharks center Patrick Marleau (12) in the first period of Game 3 in a second-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff hockey series. — AP

who have won four consecutive Southeast Division titles but failed to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs since 1998. “We wanted to win, they wanted to win, and eventually someone had to lose,” Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin told reporters. “I don’t know what to say right now.”

In Boston, the Bruins are one step away from erasing last season’s playoff collapse. The Bruins held the same advantage in last season’s second round series against Philadelphia before the Flyers rallied to win four in a row and eliminate Boston. “We had confidence last year, if anything overconfidence,” Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas said. “We know they never give up, they’re a team that competes until the end so we’re going to have to take that fourth game, they’re not going to give it to us.”

Thomas, who made 52 saves in Monday’s overtime win, had another outstanding performance with 37 stops as the Bruins stormed to a 4-0 lead in the second period. Zdeno Chara and David Krejci put the Bruins 2-0 up with just over a minute on the clock before Daniel Paille and Nathan Horton scored in the second period to make the game safe. Andrej Meszaros scored Philadelphia’s only goal late in the second and Chara scored his second of the game in the final minutes of the third. Philadelphia’s goaltending struggles in the postseason continued, as Sergei Bobrovsky replaced Brian Boucher in net during the second period. Game Four is today in Boston.

In Detroit, Devin Setoguchi netted the game-winning wrist shot to finish off his hat-trick at 9:21 in overtime and push the Red Wings to the brink of elimination. Setoguchi scored the game’s opening goal in the first period and tied the score 2-2 in the second before Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk gave the home side a 3-2 edge at 18:17 in the second. — Reuters

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Lakers’ Pau Gasol (center) fights for a loose ball with Dallas Mavericks’ Tyson Chandler during the second half in Game 2 of a secondround NBA playoff basketball series on Wednesday, May 4, 2011. — AP

Golf Goerges stuns Wozniacki MADRID: German Julia Goerges defeated world number one Caroline Wozniacki for the second time in little more than a week, sending the top seed out 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the third round of the ATP-WTA Madrid Masters yesterday. The 27th-ranked German had stunned the Dane 11 days ago to win a clay title in Stuttgart, and produced another winning performance to send Wozniacki packing. Wozniacki is now into her 29th week as world number one but will need to lift her game next week in Rome if she is to have any chance of winning a career-first grand slam trophy. The Dane has reached the final at five of eight events and owns three titles this season, the most on the WTA. Clijsters back to training BRUSSELS: Kim Clijsters confirmed yesterday she has returned to training following injury as she bids to compete in the French Open later this month. “I hope that everything will continue to go well and I’ll have enough practice for Paris,” she said. “It’s feels good to be back training. It’s going well, without pain. I hit the ball, I have to see how the wrist, shoulder and ankle react. It’s still not intense training,” added the world number two. The 27-year-old has not played since her quarter-final loss in Miami to Victoria Azarenka on March 31, when she complained of wrist and shoulder pain. She then picked up a serious ankle injury at her cousin’s wedding in April.

Zvonareva loses to Kvitova in Madrid MADRID: World number three Vera Zvonareva fell in the third round of the Madrid Open on Wednesday when she lost 6-1 6-4 to 16th-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova. The Russian, who could have risen to number two had she reached the final of the claycourt event, had her serve broken four times by the world number 18, the only lefthander inside the top 30. Maria Sharapova’s recent resurgence suffered a setback when the former world number one, who is coming back from shoulder surgery, was knocked out by unseeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 7-5 6-4. Sixth seed Li Na of China, who reached the final of this year’s Australian Open, came through 6-1 6-4 in her second-round tussle with unseeded Czech Iveta Benesova. Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, another former number one, was beaten by Benesova’s compatriot Lucie Safarova 6-4 4-6 7-5 in the second round. However, Germany’s Julia Goerges maintained her fine recent form with a 6-4 4-6 6-4 victory over Dinara Safina of Russia who has also previously been top of the rankings.

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FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Teen Kim Hui-Soo takes Maekyung Open lead SEOUL: Teenage amateur Kim Hui-Soo shrugged off the nerves of playing in his first professional tournament to take a one-shot lead at the $1 million Maekyung Open yesterday with a first round six-under-par 66. The 19-year-old university student, who was invited to this week’s OneAsia event at Namseoul Golf & Country Club in Seoul, chipped in for two of his seven birdies to edge ahead of last year’s runner-up Kim Kyung-Tae. On a sun-drenched day, Kim Kyung-Tae, David Oh, Choi Ho-Sung and Cho Min-Gyu shared second place, a shot behind the leader as the field prepares for the second round.

Kim Yeong-Su, Park Sang-Hyun and Australia’s Ashley Hall posted rounds of 68 to sit well placed at four under ahead of a group of seven players,

including 2009 champion Bae Sang-Moon, a shot further back. “On the first tee I was nervous, but also excited. But I know as an amateur, I have nothing to lose,” said Kim Hui-Soo, who has a third place finish on the university amateur circuit to his name this year. “I won once last year in an amateur tournament and averaged inside the top 15, but this year I am playing much better.”

He started a run of three consecutive birdies on the front nine with a chip-in from short of the green at the par four fifth before holing from a bunker at the side of the par three sixth. Another streak of three straight gains on the back nine was halted with Kim’s only dropped shot of the day, but the teenager quickly made amends with his final birdie at the par five 16th to claim the

overnight lead. “I was very lucky on the front nine as two of my approach shots went in,” he said.

“While my irons are becoming accurate, my putting is also working very well.”

After finishing four shots adrift of runaway winner Kim Dae-hyun last year, 2007 champion Kim Kyung-Tae dropped just one shot in his opening round 67 which the world number 37 finished in style with a 50 foot birdie on the final green. “I didn’t play my best and had a lot of pars, while I was also very lucky with my putting. Overall, I was a little bit lucky,” said the 24-year-old, who topped the Japan Tour money list last year after posting three wins. “This is a very difficult course, but I have been playing it since I was very young so I feel like I know the course.” — AFP

Sabbatini in trouble Rory could face suspension from PGA Tour CHARLOTTE: Rory Sabbatini could face suspension from the PGA Tour for what was described as a profanity-laced argument with Sean O’Hair during last week’s Zurich Classic in New Orleans. According to multiple players and officials, it was the second time this year that Sabbatini has run into trouble because of his behavior on the golf course. The first incident was at Riviera in the Northern Trust Open, where Sabbatini was said to have spoken harshly to a teenage volunteer who was trying to help him find a lost ball.

The players and officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the tour keeps all disciplinary matters private. O’Hair also was in Sabbatini’s group at Riviera. Two people familiar with the incident said the volunteer wrote a five-page letter to the PGA Tour, but Sabbatini escaped punishment by offering to apologize to anyone he offended. Sabbatini won two weeks later at the Honda Classic. Stewart Cink also played in the group with O’Hair and Sabbatini at Riviera. “It was raining. It was hard. We were all stressed trying to make the cut, and I think we might have been behind,” Cink said Wednesday.

“There were a lot of factors. And then the incident happened.” Cink didn’t go into details and said it involved “another player in my group,” without mentioning Sabbatini by name. “It was embarrassing for me as a golfer,” Cink said. “He did apologize directly to me. I hope he meant it and he moved on.” Two people with direct knowledge of the Riviera incident said the teenager placed an empty plastic bottle on foot-high grass right of the fifth green where he thought Sabbatini hit his ball.

Sabbatini is said to have berated the youth for affecting his ball, although it turned out the ball was not his.

The grass was so dense that three other balls were found, none belonging to Sabbatini. PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said in an email that the tour was aware of what happened in New Orleans, and that it had responded to the Riviera matter. “We don’t discuss disciplinary matters,” Votaw said. Two officials said Sabbatini hasn’t been suspended and that he has 14 days to appeal any discipline. He is playing in the Wells Fargo Championship this week and is expected to play next week at The Players Championship. Another official said a 30-

day suspension would be typical in this case, although he did not know how it would be resolved.

Asked by reporters for comment, Sabbatini said, “Comment on what? Those crazy rumors going around? Well, I’m playing this week, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much, OK guys?” Asked if the tour was going to suspend him, he replied, “You’re going based on rumors. How many times do I have to tell you?” O’Hair, who has missed his last five cuts on tour, withdrew from the tournament Monday. He recently fired his second caddie in four months, and split with swing coach Sean Foley earlier in the week. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

It was not clear what triggered the argument between Sabbatini and O’Hair on the 14th hole at the TPC Louisiana last week.

Both players missed the cut. Pat Perez was the third player in the group, and when contacted Tuesday evening by The Associated Press, he said, “I can’t really say anything. The tour has asked me not to talk about it.” Two other players who were near Sabbatini’s group in New Orleans said the argument became so heated that Steve Lucas - O’Hair’s father-in-law and caddie stepped in to keep the dispute from getting physical. Lucas is a college basketball referee.

A voice message left for Lucas was not returned. Player confrontations in golf are not uncommon, although they typically are handled privately between players in the locker room or the scoring trailer after the round. What made this unusual is that it happened during the round. Not so unusual is that it involved Sabbatini, a spunky South African with six career wins.

Sabbatini showed a quick temper in 2005 at the Booz Allen Classic when he became so frustrated with Ben Crane’s pace of play that he played ahead on the 17th hole and walked to the 18th tee as Crane was still in the fairway. There was a buzz about Sabbatini at Quail Hollow on Wednesday, unrelated to the allegations from the previous tournaments.

Sabbatini’s wife, Amy, walked with him in the fairway while pushing their infant son in a stroller during a practice round, according to two players who saw it. If he is suspended, it would come at a pivotal time for Sabbatini. — AP

CHARLOTTE: Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland hits from behind a tree on the 16th hole during the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament yesterday. — AP

McIlroy returns to scene of triumph CHARLOTTE: Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy will try to move further past his Masters collapse this week as he returns to a scene of triumph at Quail Hollow. McIlroy posted a final-round 62 here last year, taming one of the most difficult courses on the US circuit for his first American victory. He was just days shy of his 21st birthday when he notched the impressive win, using a late second-round eagle to make the cut then posting his sparkling final round to beat Phil Mickelson by four strokes.

Unfortunately, his return to Carolina marks his first tournament in the United States since Augusta, and his 2010 breakthrough has been less discussed than his Masters breakdown. With a four-shot lead, McIlroy appeared to have the first major title of his career within reach last month, but finished by equaling the worst score by a thirdround leader at the Masters.

“It was a great chance to win a first major, but it’s golf,” said McIlroy, who has finished third at the Malaysian Open since his Masters fade. “It’s only golf at the end of the day. No one died. I’m very happy with

my life, very happy with what’s going on, very happy with my game.” Mickelson is back this year, and said he is looking forward to playing on a Quail Hollow course that features little rough, a lot of birdie opportunities and potential for trouble in the trees. “It really is exciting because it gives you an opportunity to try a recovery shot,” Mickelson said. “There’s a lot of penalties with as many trees that they have here, but I think it’s the most exciting shot in golf.”

The field also includes Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who can regain the world number one ranking with a victory or runner-up finish. A notable absentee is Tiger Woods, who won’t get a chance to improve on his massively disappointing finish of last year, when he missed the cut and notched the highest 36-hole score of his career. Woods remains sidelined by what he called a minor knee injury suffered at the Masters.

Woods, a 14-time major champion, said he was hurt making an awkward shot from the pine straw in the third round at Augusta, where he tied for fourth. — AFP

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Shooting Tournament kicks off in Kuwait

By Abdellatif Sharaa

Shooter Sheikha Al-Rasheedi

KUWAIT: Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah Shooting Tournament kicked off yesterday ahead of today’s main event. Shooter Fahad Al-Mutairi said Kuwait ‘has a great reputation around the world when it comes to shooting, although the number of shooters here is very small compared with other countries.’ “Kuwaiti shooters leave a good impression in every tournament they participate in. I am very confident that Kuwait shooters will be able to qualify for places in the upcoming London Olympics through their participation in the upcoming world championships,” he added.

Meanwhile the head of the Shotgun Referees Committee Mohammad Abbas said the referees have played a major role to ensure the success of the event. He said that 180 shooters will participate in the trap, double trap and skeet. Abbas thanked the officials for their support.

Dialed In tabbed as Kentucky Derby favorite LOUISVILLE: Dialed In, trained by twotime Kentucky Derby winner Nick Zito, drew the eighth post and was installed as the early favorite Wednesday for the first jewel in US flat racing’s Triple Crown. Dialed In was priced at 4-1 and Uncle Mo was installed as the second choice by Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia, even though the colt is being treated for a gastrointestinal infection. Uncle Mo owner Mike Repole said his horse, which drew the 18th post in a full 20-horse field, won’t run on Saturday if he hasn’t recovered sufficiently.

Uncle Mo jogged a mile around Churchill’s dirt track on Wednesday and later stood in the starting gate, getting familiar with the terrain. Only one horse since 1900 has come out of the 18th gate to win-Gato Del Sol in 1982.

Repole’s other colt, Stay Thirsty, will break from the fourth spot and was priced at 20-1. Todd Pletcher trains both Uncle Mo and Stay Thirsty, trying to build on the first Kentucky Derby success of his career last year, when he ended a 0-for-24 drought with Super Saver.

Nehro was the third choice at 6-1.

Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch drew the unfavorable number one gate on the inside rail.

The one spot proved insurmountable

last year for pre-race favorite Lookin At Lucky, who was stuck behind other horses and finished sixth for trainer Bob Baffert. Master of Hounds is the only foreign-based horse in the field, although he has run at Churchill Downs. The colt has been quarantined since arriving from Ireland on Tuesday, and he will be able to test the track yesterday. Trainer Aiden O’Brien won’t be in Louisville for the race. He sent an assistant to handle the colt who started his career on the turf in England and Ireland. He ran sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs last autumn and was second by a nose in his only race this year-the United Arab Emirates Derby in Dubai on a synthetic track.

American D Wayne Lukas, who has saddled four Kentucky Derby winners, said the foreign raider shouldn’t be discounted. “Those guys will not bring horses that can’t run a mile-and-a-quarter.

They train them to go uphill, downhill. If some of our horses are suspect, he could come on late and be a factor.” The 1 1/4mile Kentucky Derby is the first of the trio of races that make up the Triple Crown, along with the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. The last horse to complete the coveted treble was Affirmed in 1978. — AFP

5 hurt after horse jumps into crowd SYDNEY: Spectators were hospitalized after a race horse hurdled the wrong fence and plunged into the crowd at a steeplechase in Australia yesterday.

Banna Strand, who had lost jockey Rowan Waymouth, leapt into a crowd of about 50 people after veering off course at the 5,500-metre race in Warrnambool, Victoria.

Up to five people were taken to hospital after the horse jumped the threemeter high fence, according to

Australia’s AAP news agency. Banna Strand was one of six horses who failed to complete the marathon race over 33 fences, Waymouth falling off his mount in a pile-up on the first lap.

“There were people running everywhere and I could hear the screaming and a horse among all the people over there,” an eye witness said. The seriousness of injuries sustained by spectators has yet to be announced. — Reuters

Referee Mohammad Abbas

Broad leads T20 Cook to captain England ODI side LONDON: Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad were appointed as the new captains of England’s one-day international (ODI) and Twenty20 teams respectively, it was announced here yesterday. Andrew Strauss, who has retired from one-dayers, remains Test skipper meaning England now have separate captains for all three international formats. Cook, Strauss’s opening partner in Tests, was not even a member of the England side at the recent one-day World Cup in the subcontinent.

Broad replaced all-rounder Paul Collingwood as Twenty20 captain.

Strauss, who led England to the World Cup quarter-finals where they were beaten by Sri Lanka in Colombo in March, said: “I’ve enjoyed my time as England one-day captain immensely and I’m extremely proud of the strides we’ve made in limited overs cricket over the past two years. “We still have a long way to go if we’re to achieve our goal of winning ICC global events and I feel now is the right time for me to step aside and ensure someone else takes up that challenge. “Retiring from oneday cricket will also enable me to focus solely on the Test captaincy and our ongoing development in the Test arena as we also strive to be the top ranked team in world cricket.”

Strauss, 34, had been widely expected to stand down from ODIs after the World Cup. England scraped through the group phase but then suffered a 10-wicket thrashing by Sri Lanka, having arrived at the World Cup after just a few days at home following their Ashes-winning tour of Australia. Cook was the star England batsman during the 3-1 Ashes series triumph, making 766 runs. But he was not included in the subsequent one-day series or

World Cup squads. There has long been the belief the 26-year-old, who has made just three ODI appearances in the past two-and-a-half years, all during last year’s tour of Bangladesh when Strauss was rested, is too staid a batsman for ODIs. However, much the same was long said about fellow left-hander Strauss and he was England’s best batsman at the World Cup, scoring a superb century in the thrilling tie with co-hosts and eventual champions India. This will be the first time England have had captains for all three forms of international cricket and coach Andy Flower admitted the new set-up was potentially risky. “We are covering new ground,” Flower said. “We do not know 100 percent whether it will work or be an effective and efficient system, but we are going to give it a try. “With the quality people around us, I think we form a good leadership team.”

Cook said: “Andrew Strauss has led the one-day team to continued success over the past two years and I’ll be looking to continue that progress as captain. “I’ve worked hard on my limited overs cricket in recent times - I’ve never seen myself as a Test batsman exclusively and I know I have a lot to offer strategically and as a top order batsman in one-day cricket.”

Fast-bowling all-rounder Broad, will make his debut as T20 captain when he leads world champions against Sri Lanka in Bristol on June 25. He said: “It’s a huge privilege to be named England Twenty20 captain. Collingwood added: “It’s been a privilege to captain my country. The highlight was clearly last year’s World Twenty20 title but there have been many achievements to be proud of.” — AFP

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Blanc under pressure amid race row storm PARIS: The future of Laurent Blanc as France coach was said to be hanging in the balance yesterday amid the fallout from the race row that has rocked French football. Senegalese-born French footballer Patrick Vieira joined in the criticism after claims that Blanc and high-ranking officials discussed introducing a quota to restrict the number of dualnationality players coming through their national training programs. Blanc was holidaying in the north of Italy as two separate investigations led by France’s sports ministry and the French football federation (FFF) began probing reports of the alleged quota plan.

Vieira, one of the symbols of France’s mixedrace team that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European championship titles, is one of several of Blanc’s former teammates to be stunned by the report. However he is more shocked by Blanc’s reported remarks, which compare the French and Spanish national teams and also underline stereotypes of black players as being “strong and powerful”. “When I read that he (Blanc) said ‘the Spanish say: We don’t have a problem. We don’t have blacks,’ or ‘who are the big, strong, powerful ones?

The blacks’, it’s scandalous! These are serious comments,” said the Dakar-born player who has 107 caps for France.

“I know Laurent Blanc, I’ve always had a good relationship with him. I don’t think he’s racist but I’m surprised by the degree of his comments,” said Vieira. “You can say what you like, but no one was tricked in that meeting. Nobody was forced to make these comments, and still they said them, it’s a fact: it’s shocking.” The Mediapart website last week published a transcript of a meeting in November in which several top French officials, including Blanc, discussed introducing quotas for players with dual-nationalities.

Blanc did not deny the veracity of the transcript, in which he said he was “very much in favor” of a quota, but said that his words had been twisted. “It would be in bad faith not to see that the debate in which I participated was not about ‘reducing the number of blacks and Arabs in French football,’ as the sensational title of the article suggested, but about planning the future of French football and addressing the important and delicate problem of players with dual-nationalities, as well as methods of scouting/selection for a new playing project,” he said.

But the row has unsettled relationships between members of the 1998 golden team.

Guadeloupean Lilian Thuram, who has a record 142 caps, said: “I don’t think his apology was enough after what happened. Obviously he is weakened by these comments. However, I know Laurent Blanc and I don’t think he’s racist.”

Christophe Dugarry had on Wednesday hit back at Thuram, relating a story about the night of France’s World Cup celebrations in July 1998 when he alleges Thuram called for a photo of all the black players with the World Cup trophy.

“And then I hear Lilian Thuram-and I’m not the only one, Franck Leboeuf (heard it) as well-say: ‘Come on, let’s get a photo with all the blacks’,” said Dugarry. “And Franck Leboeuf gets up and says to him: ‘Lilian, what are you saying now?

Imagine if we’d said, ‘Come on, let’s get a photo with all the whites.’ How would you have reacted?’

“Those are discriminatory words and at no point did we misinterpret them and at no point could we have imagined that Lilian Thuram was a fascist or a racist.” As French sports daily L’Equipe headlined: “Blanc could call it quits”, Dugarry warned: “I’m afraid that he’ll leave, that he’ll get fed up being under attack. I hope it’s not too late.” — AFP

NAGOYA: Japan’s Nagoya Grampus forward Hikaru Kuba (right) is fouled by China’s Hangzhou Greentown goalkeeper Jiang Bo in the second half of their Asian Champions League soccer match in Nagoya on Wednesday, May 4, 2011. — AP

Nagoya, Seoul cruise into Champions League last 16 HONG KONG: The South Korean and Japanese champions qualified for the Asian Champions League knockout rounds on Wednesday, underlining the strength of the two powerhouses in the continental competition. FC Seoul romped to a 3-0 win over Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates in their Group F clash to join Nagoya Grampus in the last 16 after the Japanese side beat China’s Hangzhou Greentown 1-0. Both Seoul and Nagoya have 10 points.

They join already qualified K-League sides Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Kashima Antlers of the J-League. An early opener from Go Yo-Han set the stage for Seoul’s easy home win. Dejan Damjanovic doubled the lead shortly before the break with a powerful header and extinguished Al Ain’s hopes with just over a quarter of an hour remaining. In their match earlier, Nagoya had a goal ruled out for offside and also hit the post but their efforts finally paid off in the second half when forward Hikaru Kuba was pulled down by Hangzhou goalkeeper Jiang Bo for a penalty.

Jiang received a yellow card and Jungo Fujimoto scored from the spot after 77 minutes. “Before the game we faced a lot of problems (injuries), but today I think we achieved our goal-it was to make a good game to win and to qualify for the next round,” said Nagoya’s Serbian coach Dragan Stojkovic. In Group E, Chinese outfit Tianjin Teda thumped Jeju United from South Korea 3-0 to secure qualification with 10 points.

Gamba Osaka drew 1-1 away to Melbourne Victory, meaning the second qualification spot is still up for grabs.

Melbourne went ahead early through an Adrian Leijer header but Sota Nakazawa levelled before half-time. Gamba Osaka manager Akira Nishino admitted his players had been surprised by the intensity of Melbourne’s approach after the Australian side lost the reverse fixture 5-1. “They were very strong, especially late in the game. Given what happened in the first game, I think my players were surprised,” he said. The West Asian batch of matches saw the clash between the top two in Group A end all square as Iran’s Foolad Mobarekeh Sepahan and Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia fought out a 1-1 draw.

Both sides have 10 points with one match remaining, but third-placed Qatari side Al Gharafa could still take one of the two places in the knockout stages as they are three points adrift after thrashing Al Jazira 5-2. Al Gharafa, for whom

Younus Mahmood scored a hat-trick, will have to produce a mighty performance in their final match, however, as they travel to Saudi Arabia to play Al Hilal. In Group B, Saudi side Al Nassr inflicted a 4-0 defeat on Uzbek outfit Pakhtakor to leave them needing a draw away at Iranian side Esteghlal to progress to the last 16. The defeat ended Pakhtakor’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages. Thirty-two teams play home and away in eight groups to qualify for the knockout stages starting in May. Other teams already through to the knockout phase are Saudi side Al Ittihad, Qatar’s Al Sadd and Zobahan of Iran. The last round of group matches are next week. —AFP

Kezman blasts ‘stupid’ Asian cup competition HONG KONG: Former Chelsea striker Mateja Kezman, who now plies his trade in Hong Kong, has rubbished one of Asia’s top club competitions as “stupid” and “the worst tournament I have played in”. The 32-year-old launched the scathing attack after his South China side-where exEngland international Nicky Butt also turns out-tumbled out of the AFC Cup on Tuesday after losing 4-2 at Indonesian side Persipura Jayapura.

“This is an unfair competition as the home side can have a great advantage,” the Serbian, who once played for Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post newspaper. “In fact, it is the worst tournament I have played in.” Kezman, whose future remains uncertain because his contract with South China reportedly expires this month, said his side had endured 18 hours of travel for the game and the afternoon kick-off meant playing in searing heat.

“I swear I was fighting to survive under these conditions and it was very difficult,” he said. “A strange competition and kind of stupid.” Ex-international Kezman and former Manchester United star Butt signed for Hong Kong’s top side on short-term deals, but Kezman said he was keen to stay on. —AFP

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Spanish League Preview

Barcelona close on 3rd successive La Liga title MADRID: As Barcelona close on a third successive La Liga title, Real Madrid’s attention is turning to next season and a future that seems certain to include Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho has been questioned in some quarters both for his conservative tactics in the Champions League semifinal first-leg defeat by Barcelona and his outburst that followed at the Bernabeu. Real president Florentino Perez has a notorious lack of patience with coaches but even though the Champions League, and almost certainly the domestic league, have proved elusive in his first season Mourinho can boast a tangible record of progress.

He has landed one major trophy after Real saw off Barcelona in the King’s Cup final and reaching the Champions League semi-finals was a significant achievement given that the club had not made it beyond the second round in six previous seasons. Support for the former Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan boss is likely to remain solid from the club and the Portuguese won high praise from Real’s honorary president Alfredo Di Stefano. “Real may not be in the (Champions League) final but all the club’s values have been reinforced in the duels against Barcelona,” Di Stefano wrote in sports daily Marca yesterday. “A squad of enormous quality, a corps of star players, tactical order on the pitch, sportsmanship among the players, effort and commitment, and a coach with charisma and personality.”

It is a noteworthy vote of confidence from a huge figure at the club who has not been slow in the recent past to criticize Real’s safety-first brand of soccer under Mourinho. According to media reports in Spain, Real have already started to work on the squad for the new campaign, with the futures of Kaka and loan signing Emmanuel Adebayor top of the agenda. —Reuters

French League Preview

‘Guilty’ Lyon set for Marseille test PARIS: Olympique Lyon have been forced to deny rumors that coach Claude Puel is on the brink of the sack as they try to regroup for a last bid at reviving their Ligue 1 hopes against title rivals Olympique Marseille on Sunday. Third-placed Lyon, formerly the great powerhouses of French football having won seven titles in a row between 2002 and 2008, lost 2-0 at mid-table Toulouse last weekend and had two players sent off.

The harrowing defeat left them seven points behind leaders Lille and six adrift of defending champions Marseille with five games remaining and speculation was rife this week that Puel, already unsure of his longterm future, could be axed. “I never envisaged sacking him,” Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas told L’Equipe.

“There’s no reason. We are third, five games from the end. People rang me Monday evening asking about this rumour, but it’s absurd.”

Puel has previously said he may not remain beyond the end of the season and Aulas reiterated that the coach’s future would be discussed only after the final game of the campaign. Aulas was taken ill just after the Toulouse defeat but is now feeling fit and ready to try to inspire his troops to victory at home to Didier Deschamps’ Marseille, who also dropped points last weekend. “There are no excuses, we are all guilty and it’s for this reason we are going to have a proud reaction against Marseille on Sunday,” Aulas added. Marseille were held 1-1 at home by struggling Auxerre on Sunday to hand Lille the initiative back in the title race but the lure of one of the biggest fixtures in the French calendar should be the perfect fillip for Deschamps’ men. Lille, meanwhile, hope their two rivals cancel each other out as they look to extend their advantage at third-bottom AS Nancy on Saturday. —Reuters

United relish chance of avenging 2009 defeat LONDON: If Manchester United are to avenge their defeat to Barcelona in the 2009 Champions League final when they meet again at Wembley on May 28, the words Alex Ferguson spoke that night will have to ring true. Barcelona outplayed United 2-0 in Rome with goals from Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi, as United, after a bright start, were totally overwhelmed by the Catalan giants. After the dust had settled on one of United’s worst performances of the season, Ferguson said: “In adversity you always move forward quicker.

We’re still a young team and we can improve on that. In fairness, we were beaten by the better side. I know what went wrong and it will not happen again.”

Ferguson has never explained exactly what he thought did go wrong, but whether United are a better team now than they were in 2009 is a subject that will be debated every day until the final is over. One thing is certain, they will have to improve on the way they played that night at Rome’s Olympic Stadium to lift the European Cup for a fourth time. To do that against the best club side in the world, they will have to demonstrate the kind of assured authority and confidence they displayed on Wednesday against one of the worst semi-finalists the Champions League has produced. United sealed their place in this year’s final by destroying Schalke 04 4-1 at Old Trafford for a 61 aggregate semi-final victory and were never seriously troubled at any time over the two legs. The team that secured their place at Wembley showed nine changes from the side that won the first leg, and for the final Ferguson could chose 10 of the eleven men who faced Barca in 2009 with only Cristiano Ronaldo of the starting line-up no longer at the club.

There is little that Ferguson or Barca coach Pep Guardiola do not know about each other’s teams and while the game is still more than three weeks away with domestic issues still to be settled, the key area, as it was in 2009, will be in midfield.

Then, Barca’s Xavi and Andres Iniesta totally dominated Anderson, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs and laid the foundation for Barca’s success.

Ferguson will not want that to happen again.

PERFECT SETTING Wembley is in many ways the perfect setting for this year’s final. Both Manchester United, in 1968 and Barcelona, in 1992, won their first European Cups there and Ferguson believes United will go into the game far better prepared than in any of the previous finals he has lead them into.

Asked if there was a sense of destiny after United won the European Cup for the first time at Wembley in 1968, Ferguson added: “Let’s hope so.” “I think it will be a fantastic final. It is

MANCHESTER: Manchester United’s Anderson (right) is congratulated by team mates Paul Scholes (center) and John O’Shea against Schalke 04 during their Champions League semi final second leg soccer match at Old Trafford on Wednesday May 4, 2011. — AP

some weeks ahead and I hope we have everyone ready,” he Sky Sports. “The big advantage this time as opposed to two of our previous finals is that we have no players missing. In ‘99 we missed Roy Keane and Paul Scholes and in 2009 we missed Darren Fletcher.

“We’ve got everyone available this time and that does make a difference. “This is the best competition in the world, all the best teams are there. To get to the final is an achievement itself, but to win it is the ultimate.”

EVEN BETTER Barcelona are, if anything, an even better and more rounded team than the one that beat United in Rome to complete an unprecedented treble of Champions League, Spanish league and cup in Pep Guardiola’s debut campaign as coach. Striker Eto’o was offloaded and won Europe’s elite club competition with Inter Milan the following season, while the brief experiment with Zlatan Ibrahimovic ended

when Barca moved him on to AC Milan and bought David Villa at the end of last season.

While Villa, one of eight Barca players who won the 2010 World Cup with Spain, has been going through a barren patch in recent weeks, his work rate is an important component of Barca’s play and he has formed a highly effective frontline alongside World Player of the Year Lionel Messi and Pedro. Argentina forward Messi has gone from strength to strength since the 2009 triumph in Rome and is top scorer in this season’s edition with 11 goals, including two in the semi-final first leg at arch rivals Real Madrid. Xavi and Andres Iniesta provide the creative spark in midfield, backed up by the mobile and tough-tackling Sergio Busquets, while Gerard Pique, who spent several seasons at United between 2004 and 2008, has been immense at centre back. The stage is set for a classic. —Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Colombia drugs war may have hurt clubs ASUNCION: Colombia’s successful war on drugs may have contributed to the dire financial positions of some domestic clubs by paradoxically starving them of a source of funding, a top soccer official has said. Ramon Jesurun, president of the league’s governing body Dimayor, said that club finances had plummeted since the country had largely managed to eradicate drugs money from the sport.

“In Colombia, drug trafficking spread into all economic, social, religious activities, into journalism, everything, including football,” Jesurun said in an interview.

“Today, fortunately, that’s been almost totally eradicated in Colombia, in football, too,” he said on a visit to Paraguay for the South American Football Confederation’s congress. “That might explain the poverty of the clubs today. If the clubs didn’t have the effects of the narcotics traffickers, we wouldn’t have the structural weakness from the economic point of view that we have today and are trying to fix.” Clubs in the two professional divisions are often behind with players’ wages and social security contributions, sparking industrial action and the threat of government-imposed bans in recent weeks.

Top-flight club Deportes Quindio’s players refused to travel to a match in Bogota last month over unpaid wages, sending a youth team that were hammered 5-0 by Millonarios. The government’s sports regulator Coldeportes has looked to impose suspensions on clubs over unpaid wages, but Jesurun said the government needed to do more to help those that were operating under a vulnerable business structure. “Most stadiums in Colombia belong to the state and the infrastructure and logistics of staging a match is handled by the government of each city at very high tax costs that make for very big investment (by clubs) to organise a match,” Jesurun said.

“We want to be seen as an economic sector like any other and the other economic sectors get help when they enter into crisis. “We are asking for the same thing, we’re as important as them and perhaps even more so because we’re the ones who generate the most important recreation and entertainment for a country that today has nearly 50 million inhabitants.” Colombia’s soccer chiefs and government officials will hold a summit in an attempt to begin curing the many ills afflicting the domestic game, including hooligan violence which has soared in and around stadiums in recent years.

Jesurun said a draft Sports Law aimed at improving financial matters and combating violence had made its way through parliament and was awaiting presidential passage, which could also come on yesterday. “There has been a big increase in (soccer-related) violence in Colombia,” the 58-year-old Jesurun said. “We believe the hard-core fan groups are no longer supporters but delinquents disguised in team colours which is quite different, but we’re trying from a legislative point of view to control it so those delinquents are given severe and hard penalties. “Minors are strongly protected in Colombia as in the majority of countries and generally the so-called leaders of the gangs use minors because they know they have immunity, but that’s where we’re trying with the government and our legislators to radically change that.” Jesurun said he believed that, for now, Colombia had not overstepped FIFA’s guidelines against governments meddling in soccer affairs. “It’s a delicate issue but I’d think that as things are today, it’s still our internal matter and we can resolve it,” Jesurun said. — Reuters

DC, Rapids win in MLS WASHINGTON: Charlie Davies scored his sixth goal of the Major League Soccer season and set up another to help DC United to a 2-1 win over Seattle Sounders FC on Wednesday.

Josh Wolff scored the other goal for Washington, which ended a two-game losing streak with its first ever home win over Seattle. Brad Evans scored from a penalty in the 71st minute for Seattle after Fredy Montero was fouled by DC’s Dejan Jakovic.

In Wednesday’s other match, Scott Palguta scored his MLS goal to help the Colorado Rapids end a four-game winless streak with a 2-1 victory at the Houston Dynamo. Palguta took a pass from Caleb Folan and fired the winner into the right side of the goal in the 84th minute. The Dynamo opened the scoring in the 71st minute when Colin Clark sent a left-footed shot inside the near post from 16 yards. Colorado equalized 3 minutes later when Jamie Smith lofted a free kick over Houston keeper Tally Hall. — AP

PORTO ALEGRE: Uruguay’s Penarol’s fans celebrate at the end of a Copa Libertadores soccer match against Brazil’s Internacional in Porto Alegre. Penarol won 3-2 on aggregate. —AP

Black night for Brazil Big four crash out of Libertadores BUENOS AIRES: It was a black night for Brazil in the Libertadores Cup on Wednesday as holders Internacional, favorites Cruzeiro, Brazilian champions Fluminense and Gremio all crashed out of the competition. Only Santos, who eliminated America of Mexico 1-0 on aggregate, are left to fly the Brazilian flag in the last eight. Cruzeiro, who had notched 20 goals and conceded just one in an unbeaten run through the group phase, suffered the biggest shock, losing 2-0 at the Aligator’s Arena in Sete Lagoas to Colombia’s Once Caldas, who had scraped into the last 16. The result infuriated Cruzeiro coach Cuca, who was sent to the stands by the referee after he appeared to shove Caldas striker Wason Renteria in the face while on the touch-line in the final minutes.

Holding a 2-1 lead from the first leg in Colombia, Cruzeiro were expected to seal their passage comfortably, but it all went wrong in the last half hour with both teams down to 10 men. Roger’s dismissal for a second booking cancelled out a straight red card given to Caldas midfielder Carlos Carbonero in the 56th minute before defender Diego Amaya headed the Colombians in front in the 66th.

Striker Dayro Moreno then handed Caldas a 3-2 aggregate victory when he tapped in after a shot rebounded off goalkeeper Fabio’s bar five minutes later. “When it was 10 against 11 we played better than them but with 10 against 10 their headed goal filled our team with fear and then we conceded the other,” an angry Cuca told reporters.

Internacional also lost 3-2 on aggregate after Penarol

SANTIAGO: Chile’s Universidad Catolica’s Hans Martinez jumps over Brazil’s Gremio’s Douglas during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Santiago, Chile. — AP

upset them 2-1 in Porto Alegre. Penarol recovered after conceding a goal to Oscar in the opening minute, scoring two in five minutes at the start of the second half through strikers Alejandro Martinuccio and Juan Manuel Olivera.

“We dominated the first half. I don’t know what happened in the second, we conceded incredible goals,” Internacional’s Brazil striker Leandro Damiao said.

Fluminense looked to have gained enough of a cushion with a 3-1 first leg victory over Libertad in Rio, even when midfielder Rodrigo Rojas’s 57th-minute strike raised the Paraguayans’ hopes, but were punished 3-0 for employing defensive tactics. With five minutes remaining, left back Miguel Samudio hit a suberb volley inside the base of the post and substitute Jose Nunez added a third to secure a 4-3 aggregate victory. Gremio were set the hardest task of the Brazilian sides, having lost the first leg 2-1 at home to Universidad Catolica. Substitute Milovan Mirosevic’s fine 85th-minute header gave the Chilean champions a 1-0 win in Santiago to go through 3-1 on aggregate.— Agencies

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Dirk blasts Lakers again Page 58

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Black night for Brazil Page 63

SANTIAGO: Brazil’s Gremio’s players Fernando (right), Vilson (left) and Chile’s Universidad Catolica’s Lucas Pratto (center) go for a header during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday, May 4, 2011.— AP