17 Jun - Friday Times

Arabic coffee, the traditional taste of hospitality

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Syria’s Assad loses grip on hardliners

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Violence erupts as Boston Bruins grap Stanley Cup

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NO: 15122- Friday, June 17, 2011

Zawahiri succeeds osama ( See Page 13)

Car: KD20,000 Phone: KD199

: e f i L Your

Priceless Drive Now. Talk Later.

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Conspiracy Theories

Me and my Blackberry

From the editor’s desk

Local Spotlight

Saudi women’s right to drive

IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT

By Muna Al-Fuzai

By Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan

By Badrya Darwish

muna@kuwaittimes.net

myopinion@kuwaittimes.net badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

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s usual I began to write my article but a turn of events led me to write a completely different story.

These stories may be of interest to some, but for those who simply gloss over opinion pieces and columns, I’m certain you can relate to what I have just gone through.

I sat at my desk, ready to put pen on paper, fingers to keyboard then I was struck with an emergency. Thank God that it was not an accident like the one I experienced last week. It was an accident between me and my new technology.

I don’t know who on this earth convinced me to switch my old SmartPhone to a Blackberry; but after tireless conversations with my colleagues on the benefits of updating, I thought “Why not. Modern technology, high-tech, so let me give it a try.” The sleek packaging and sexy advertising seduced me into a new world of telecommunications - an expensive new world at that.

I tried to make calls from the device and every time I would slide my finger on one of the numbers I ended up calling somebody else. Instead of calling my son I was phoning my neighbor and I had to apologize for interrupting her mid meal. After that I would then have to explain how I phoned her as a mistake. I wonder what she might have thought.

Instead of calling my other son I phoned my sister in Jordan. I went into a state of chaos, madness and utter frustration. I had to keep on apologizing to the people I bothered while using my new phone.

What was even more frustrating was that every time I made a mistake of calling the wrong number I became increasingly nervous and I couldn’t concentrate on pressing the right number. I think industrial psychologists came up with the term “call reluctance” due to this. Thank God, I did not call the police by mistake. However, do you think they would have responded so fast if I did?

I was driving anxiously to reach to the newspaper’s office, to haul my Blackberry at the wall like a protestor launching a Molotov cocktail, and then switch my SIM to my old Nokia.

I thought after this I would be ready to live like a normal human being again. I could simply dial the number I want and not worry about annoying my neighbours at dinnertime. I like simplicity, it makes everything hassle-free.

After switching back to my Nokia I was surrounded by my Blackberry wielding clan at work. “Oh, Blackberry is awesome! It is the future, It’s user-friendly” they all said. I was accused of all kinds of old-fashioned behavior. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing after everything I went through. “How user-friendly is it?” I think your fingers need to be like pencils and you should not have any nails at all if you want to use a Blackberry” I said.

Is the problem in me or the Blackberry? I’m starting to think maybe it is me. The Blackberry is just an apparatus responding to an order. I think I hate changes and I’m struggling to adjust with the many wonders of modern technology. Drastic changes freak me out. I know many people like this, perhaps you do also. When people purchase a new car, they may take time to adapt although it might be a more beautiful and sophisticated vehicle.

I freaked out when I changed my home. I think, like me, some people are just resistant to changes. How about drastic changes in life? Changing a boyfriend, husband, job or a country? How do people handle relocation then? I envy them. I couldn’t even change my phone.

I hope you don’t have to change anything good in your life.

Have a good evening!

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oday, Friday June 17, marks the day of a new initiative in support of the right of Saudi women to drive cars. That’s just to obtain driving licenses for and to drive cars, not space shuttles or heavy artillery tanks.

Some Saudi female activists have announced that today is the date on which they will send an international message to the world to make people sit up and think about Saudi women’s long-denied right to drive.

This issue had been given limited consideration and focus for many years and calls to grant Saudi women this right have been repeatedly denied using various excuses, including the suggestion that Saudi society is not ready for this kind of change - in other words for seeing Saudi women drive cars like many of their sisters in other Gulf nations.

The fabricated excuse that society is not ready for female drivers is simply not true for many reasons and here is why. First, most Saudi men and women are highly educated, with many of them already receiving their education in the west. So the sight of women driving a car will hardly come as a shock for them at all; already having been exposed to open societies like those in the West has surely made them aware that women driving cars is not a weird phenomenon and shouldn’t shock anyone.

Secondly, Saudi society, like many Gulf societies, had changed dramatically in the last fifty years thanks to new technology and the media. So, suggesting that Saudi society isn’t ready for female drivers is, to me, like saying that the people aren’t ready to use airplanes or build a subway for public transport....

Third, it’s simply unfair that women must have a driver or a husband to go and get whatever she needs.

Being forbidden to drive, a woman in Saudi must find a male to do so instead, regardless of whether he’s a blood relative or a total stranger, meaning that every woman must have a chauffeur! No consideration is given to whether individual women have the financial wherewithal to pay for a driver, while poor women are forgotten - or is there no such thing as a poor woman there?! .. and that is why she is not suppose to drive and instead she got to get a driver.

Also, what about single women, female orphans or widows with no sons or other male relatives? What about all these women? Aren’t they human with needs, indeed possibly needing more attention than wealthy women with husbands and many male household members, as well as drivers to cater to their travel needs?

I sympathize with the Saudi women’s call for their right to drive and believe that those claiming that Saudi society isn’t ready for this should be ashamed of coming up with such excuses which are just like telling the world, ‘We are backwards and don’t even want to see women accorded their normal rights and needs, instead making them reliant on males who might be strangers, chauffeurs or taxi drivers.’

I believe these calls by Saudi women are being made for a just cause and they are right in their efforts to attract the world’s attention and use the media to get the attention of women everywhere, including other nations in the Gulf region, such as Kuwait. We live in the same environment, after all, and have similar customs and yet we are entitled to obtain driving licenses, allowing us to travel around freely and attend to our own needs.

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y aunt who works as a biology teacher in an Arab country abroad told me about a sad incident she recently encountered when one of her students collapsed in class and they had to revive him. When the school nurse was trying to investigate what was wrong with him he said he was just hungry and he got dizzy. Then they asked him if he had breakfast that morning and he replied “no it was my sister’s turn to have breakfast today”. The poor child’s family has reached a level of poverty that forces them to take turns on meals.

When I look at all the incidents and changes that have taken place around the Middle East you will find that they have common demands and the main ones behind them all are better living standards and basic human rights. All these states that have faced these problems had one common feature, they were all authoritarian states with heavy policing that crushed the dignity of their civilians. Now the thing I don’t understand is how do they compare with Kuwait?

I still don’t understand the demands of the people who are demonstrating every Friday against the government. In Kuwait we all have housing either privately owned or supplied by the government; we all have free basic food necessities now as well. I don’t know any Kuwaiti who uses public transport other for the sole reason of them not having driving license because they have not reached the legal age; the government pays for health, medicines, education; the government pays us if we are unemployed; the government pays us for being employed; the government takes care of our social security; the government subsidizes so many things to make our lives easier; we have a functioning parliament where people can democratically voice their opinion; we are not a police-run state and our rights are protected to the extent that we get away with many petty crimes and sometimes even big ones if you take into account tenders! We are the envy of many nations and I can safely say we have it easy.

Yes, there is room for amendments and improvements. I agree with the argument that we should be at a different level of development and we are falling behind our Gulf neighbors in that way.

However, the problems that need internal reparations are not worth risking our stability and starting riots or demonstrations that could cripple the economy in an already difficult market.

Rather than risking the security of the country I am more than happy to give these demonstrators a copy of the constitution and the address of our parliament because the causes and the solutions of our problems are there.

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Arabic coffee, the traditional taste of hospitality

By Nisreen Zahreddine

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Coffee being poured at social function. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat and Joseph Shagra.

hen one thinks of coffee and coffee beans one immediately starts to imagine the coffee plantations in Columbia, Brazil, Yemen, or others.

This is not a general talk about coffee, however, but solely about Arabic coffee - the coffee prepared by residents of the Arabic peninsula.

The main exporter of the raw beans that are used to prepare the unique, golden-hued Arabic coffee to Kuwait is India, and a special recipe is used in the coffee’s preparation to ensure the inimitable flavor. This type of coffee is also heavily flavored with Cardamom seeds, which are exported from Columbia.

Coffee is a social pastime. In Kuwait, whenever you visit a diwaniya or attend a formal event, there are always people serving Arabic coffee in open small cups, into which the hot liquid is poured condensed with a color close to yellow and between yellow and green.

The smell of cardamom fills the air whenever Arabic coffee is served. The same cup goes around all the guests, as the old traditions of Arabic hospitality require.

Arabic or Turkish coffee?

Rashad, a sales employee at a well-known Arabic and Turkish coffee retailer ‘Ban Al-Badawi,’ says that Arabic coffee still has its customers but they are far fewer than the customers for Turkish coffee. “I get usually 10 to 15 customers per day asking for Arabic coffee

while I get 40 customers asking for Turkish coffee,” he revealed. The reason behind that, he explained, is that Arabic coffee is more of a traditional social drink served during official events or at diwaniyas, funerals, weddings and similar social occasions, and is rarely prepared at home for everyday usage. Like every tradition, it is dying off with the passage of time, even in the land where it originated.

Kuwait is a diverse society, a mix of locals and expats, with the changes in recent years meaning that even the native Kuwaitis don’t drink Arabic coffee so much these days on a daily basis. On the other hand, however, Rashad points out that the customers buying Arabic coffee at ‘Ban Al Badawi’ are of all the nationalities found here, not mainly Kuwaitis. This shows indirectly that the exchange of cultures in Kuwait has been mutual; as Kuwaitis have grown to enjoy other types of coffee than their traditional Arabic form, expatriates have likewise grown to appreciate Arabic coffee, as well as the types of coffee they are more accustomed to. Rashad added that the Arabic coffee sales increase at certain times of year, especially during Ramadan, since this is the period when people enjoy traditional Arabic coffee with their fast-breaking Iftar meal.

Ahmed, a young Kuwaiti, says that the strong, unique taste and scent of Arabic coffee remind him of childhood days spent with his grandfather, who was an enthusiastic drinker of it. Despite this, he says, “I have black-brewed coffee in the morning and cafe latte sometimes, but very rare do I have Arabic coffee.”

Local FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

How to prepare Arabic coffee?

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his special kind of coffee is prepared in the traditional upward-tapering Ibrik (a small, tinlined brass, stainless steel, or enameled pot) or the similar but long-spouted Bedouin or Egyptian pots. For the best flavor, a dark or semi-dark Arabian or Ethiopian Mocha bean is used with sugar being optional and usually this type of coffee is served without sugar, according to the traditional method.

The ingredients needed are 3/4 cups of water, seeds from one green or white cardamom pod,

Arabic coee is more of a traditional social drink served during oďŹƒcial events or at diwaniyas, funerals, weddings and similar social occasions, and is rarely prepared at home for everyday usage. Like every tradition, it is dying o with the passage of time, even in the land where it originated.

one tablespoon-full of Turkish or espresso-darkroast coffee. First place the water in the pot, along with the cardamom and bring to the boil. Then stir in the ground coffee and boil until it foams. After this, remove the pot from the heat, tap it on a hard surface to reduce the bubbling, then reboil. Repeat this process twice before setting the pot aside for 15 seconds to allow the grounds to settle to the bottom of the pot. Once this is done, pour the coffee into demitasse cups and serve.

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Local

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Kuwait, where everything is home-delivered

By Hussain Al-Qatari

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ife can be disgustingly comfortable sometimes. Allow me to explain. From the comfort of your sofa, you can order dinner from a bistro, place an order for your groceries, call the laundry to come collect the laundry from your home, and even call a specialist service to bring a miniature car-wash-in-a-van to clean your car. You can order a laptop, mobile phone, or gadget and have it delivered to you from the biggest electronics retailers in Kuwait.

If this doesn’t spoil you enough, wait for it, it gets better.

You can call a specialist service to come and pamper you with a massage, facial, pedicure and manicure, and if you have a pet, you can call another service that can groom your pet at your home.

The ease of life with home delivery can reach a nauseating extent. You can call a restaurant and order a barbecue, with restaurant staff actually coming with the equipment and ingredients for a barbecue to feed you and your friends and family, and then cleaning up the mess and leaving. If you crave frozen yogurt, which is still at the top of the Kuwaiti fad list, there is a number to have that delivered to your doorstep, too. I heard about a new service where you can call to order sheesha. This is serious: you order sheesha, they bring it to your house with three tobacco refills in whatever flavor you want, and you can keep it for 24 hours. After 24 hours, they come collect the sheesha from your home.

The home delivery obsession is strongly combating with the have-it-all suitcase business, which surprisingly still exists. The appeal for dealing with those suitcase salespeople comes from the fact that the prices are ridiculously cheap, as opposed to the costly ‘high end’ home delivery products. Umm Dana, a 43-year-old Kuwaiti who deals with such salespeople, says that she can buy a big bag worth of lotions and creams that costs her half the price it would if she bought the products from a store.

Convenience Umm Dana began dealing with Kabir, her favorite suitcase salesperson to date, more than six years ago. Kabir’s business card identifies him as a salesperson selling DVDs and video games. He travels across Kuwait with a small suitcase filled with the goods he sells, as well as a price list for all the items. Each item is coded with a number, and the list can decipher what each number means, how much the item costs, and how many articles of that product are available. Kabir’s network spreads across Kuwait’s six governorates, offering delivery services around the clock. Although his card states that he only sells DVDs and video games, in reality he offers far more than that, including perfumes, accessories, bukhoor, oud, cosmetics, and even clothes. With the suitcase that follows him around the country, Kabir also has a catalogue listing pictures of other items that he doesn’t normally carry in his case.

The ease of life with home delivery can reach a nauseating extent. You can call a restaurant and order a barbecue, with restaurant staff actually coming with the equipment and ingredients for a barbecue to feed you and your friends and family, and then cleaning up the mess and leaving.

“My children used to order movies from him, and I later found out that he sells some nice novelties and gifts that he brings from India and Dubai. Right now I buy regularly from him. If he doesn’t have a certain product he asks around and recommends places where I can find it,” said Umm Dana, noting that the care he takes in sourcing what the customer wants is the main reason why she is a faithful client.

Have it all Have-it-all suitcase salespeople are very common in Kuwait, although their work is unlicensed and is considered illegal. The reason behind their popularity is their appeal to a large cross-section of society.

They spare you the drive to the mall and the hunt for the product, and bring samples of the item to your doorstep, and promise to find you whatever you’re looking for, all while you are in the comfort of your house.

Twenty-eight-year-old Farah said that she rarely buys products from the suitcase salesman who comes to her office at work. “My colleagues buy things from him regularly, like cartoon DVDs and even perfumes and bukhoor. I rarely find something that I like, but I get why it is appealing to them. It is shopping while you’re in the office, and it doesn’t involve crowds and traffic,” she explained. However, she still believes that buying this way isn’t as rewarding as shopping in a mall. “I’m a shopaholic, and to me nothing feels better than walking out of a mall with many bags full of goods,” she says. Still, there are days when she feels home delivery is a blessing. “I always made fun of the idea of having someone come and deliver your sheesha, yet I tried it once and it was a fun experience,” she said. “The price was cheap, and we were eight people who wanted to smoke sheesha but didn’t want to go out. It’s the perfect business at that moment, even though I hate admitting that I liked it.”

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Local

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

How to get robbed in Kuwait: a 10-step instructional guide Should you also want to experience an easily avoidable, totally frustrating theft, then complete these easy-to-follow steps to getting robbed in Kuwait

By Lisa Conrad (robbery victim extraordinaire) ast Thursday, I decided that I would abandon the strain of carrying my commonsense and logic with me, instead replacing it with an oversized purse filled with valuables. Should you also want to experience an easily avoidable, totally frustrating theft, then complete these easyto-follow steps to getting robbed in Kuwait:

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1. Select your most valued possessions, such as your wallet, passport and family photos, and place them in your purse (or man-satchel). I chose the latter combo, but feel free to mix it up by including your Blackberry/iPhone, iPad, laptop, jewelry (especially personally meaningful jewelry, such as wedding rings) and/or your house keys.

2. Head to the Scientific Centre for an evening stroll (the next step is vital, so pay attention).

3. Step out of the car with your purse, and remind yourself that theft is unheard of in Kuwait. In full view of the entire parking lot (this is the important part) place your purse (or man-satchel) back in the car.

4. To really seal the deal, stuff your bag into a corner of the car that you imagine is out of sight. Again, do this in the least subtle manner possible, occasionally turning and suspiciously looking around to emphasize the fact that you are leaving valuables in your car.

5. Take a walk around the Scientific Center, and take your time: returning too soon may scare away any prospective thieves and completely ruin the entire exercise.

6. Return after your walk to see the window of the car smashed. Run toward it at a speed only exceeded by the rate at which your heart is sinking into your stomach.

7. Awaken your common sense and, upon finding that your bag’s gone from your ‘supersubtle hiding place,’ ask yourself why you left it in the car. Become intensely angry and kick some sand whilst utilizing your favorite expletives, tarnishing both your dignity and your pedicure. Irrationally blame whoever you are with.

8. Call the relative that you rely on to fix your mistakes/problems/idiocies (mine is my brother) and ask them to cancel your cards.

Start sobbing uncontrollably in order to generate pity before the aforementioned family member realizes the extent of the stupidity of your actions.

9. Have a quick scan of the parking lot to see if the bag has been dumped anywhere.

Accept defeat, and head to the police station.

On the way, consider that you have just been robbed in one of the richest countries in the world. Laugh. Immediately stop laughing and return to self-pity. You will laugh in a few days.

Not now.

10. Report the robbery.

Miraculously remember your passport number, thus verifying

your identity and eradicating the questionable circumstance of having American citizenship, but also an English accent.

If you aspire to robbery victim extraordinaire status, then completing these simple-steps will get you there faster than you can say “risk of identity theft.” The steps are not necessarily specific to Kuwait, as theft happens everywhere. Forgetting that puts you on the right track to step one, and it’s a freefall from there.

The police in Kuwait are extremely helpful and professional, but I would have preferred to have discovered that through word-of-mouth

or an interview instead of showing up, relatively hysterical, with mascara smudged down my right cheek and sand all over my feet.

On a side-note, there is a Step 11. This step is the silver lining, the thing that you will take slight satisfaction in days later whilst unashamedly consuming massive quantities of comfort food: 11. Remind yourself that your friend’s wallet was in the car, filled with more cash than the value of your entire purse, and that it was left untouched by the thief in the rush to steal your bag. Laugh, and return to your pie.

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Jelly shot

Local

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

‘Music is all there is’

By Abdullah Al-Qattan

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uwait-based blues-rock band Jelly Shot has been called one of the most promising up-and-coming acts around after playing numerous gigs across the country.

The band, four students from the Australian College of Kuwait, have been playing together since 2008, juggling their time between college work, playing gigs across Kuwait and writing and recording their original material. They’ve been working hard on writing and recording an album, whose release date has yet to be decided. The band has two demos on its MySpace page, ‘Cork It’ and ‘Finest Thing Alive.’ The band has recently written two new songs and the members are currently working on more, hopefully enough to release an EP or a full-length album.

KT: How was the band formed ?

Jelly Shot was formed by Mubarak, its front-man and bassist, in early 2008. Originally, the band started off as an alternative rock band with a completely different line-up to the current one. Over time, Mubarak occasionally changed the band’s name, as well as the musical genres (ranging from alternative rock to metal to jazz fusion) it favored due to the arrival of new band members, simply because he wanted to satisfy all the members’ musical tastes. By the end of 2008, the band took a rest due to the constantly changing line-up and Mubarak’s decision to take time off to rethink how he wanted the band to sound. In early 2009, Mubarak was overawed by watching a show by a local blues band, and made his mind up that he wanted the band to be blues-oriented. He decided, however, that rather than simply imitating the other band he would introduce his own variation on the sound, ultimately settling on blues-rock as the best genre.

After this, Mubarak reassembled the band, reuniting with Abdulwahab, who had been with the band since mid-2008 and two other members, who were eventually replaced by Hashim and Khalid when the other two traveled abroad for university in late 2009 and mid-2010 respectively. Since then, the line-up has remained as Mubarak, Abdulwahab, Hashim and Khalid.

KT: Who came up with the name ? And what does it mean ?

It was during a jam session that the reformed blues-rock unit gained its name. During that one particular session, the mid-2009 line-up, consisting of Mubarak, Abdulwahab, Feras and Yousef, brainstormed numerous names and Mubarak randomly blurted out “Blueberry Jelly”, to which Feras quickly responded with “Jelly Shot.” The name clicked and it was adapted as the band’s name.

There really is no general meaning to the name. It was a random name that the band thought meshed well with its chosen genre,

and had a very classic feel to it, hence why it was chosen.

KT: Are there any plans for a CD release in the future ?

We do plan on releasing an album once we’ve gotten enough tracks together. We’re working on it, but it’s taking a while what with university commitments and such.

KT: Why did you guys choose that style of music ?

Mubarak: The style of music was chosen because it represents an era that has been forgotten over the past decade or so. Blues itself is considered to be the roots of rock music and while rock music is generally popular in Kuwait, most local acts are performing within that one genre.

Hashim: The blues is something I’ve always enjoyed listening to and playing. It’s got a raw feeling of emotion behind it, from the sincerity of the vocals to the pure emotion coming through the guitar lines and the laid-back drive of the drums. In Kuwait, where heavy metal and the louder and angrier genres of rock music dominate the music scene, the blues really is a breath of fresh air, and I as a guitarist coming from a heavier guitar-playing beginning, I find the blues really made me kick back and see the beauty in the music.

Wahab: It was Mubarak’s choice from the beginning but I think at the moment we weren’t exactly what we set out to be, as I believe Mubarak wanted a pure blues band, but in my opinion we were more of blues rock ‘n’ roll baby!

Khalid: Because it’s awesome.

KT: Where does your inspiration come from ?

Each individual member has his own influences and each one tries to add that to the mix to provide a completely different variation of blues music.

Mubarak: Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Willie Dixon, Cream, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and The Police.

Hashim: In terms of the songwriting, inspiration comes from a wide variety of sources, but mainly from personal events and life experiences. Personal inspiration for playing guitar comes from listening to other guitarists and musicians and wanting to be able to do what they do, as well as they do it. My inspiration is the challenge of wanting to constantly become a better guitarist and musician by listening and learning as much about music and theory as I can.

Wahab: Personally, any inspiration I have I get from ideas I think of from various things that I happen to see or events that occur. It’s quite interesting, just a few days ago I actually heard music in my head, but it’s just probably me going crazy.

Khalid: Meshuggah, Periphery, Djent-style music and from the people I jam with.

Hashim Al- Nasser (Lead Guitar) KT: Tell us more about you.

HN: I’m 21 years old, Kuwaiti, and spend all my time playing guitar, and teaching private guitar lessons. I graduated from The British School of Kuwait in 2006 then came to the Australian College of Kuwait where I gained my diploma in Oil and Gas Engineering, and am now working on completing my Bachelors in Petroleum Engineering. I grew up listening to music of all genres but mainly early punk such as The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Jam, which is what got me into listening to more rock music. I have been in a number of bands over the eight years I’ve been playing guitar, spanning many different genres but finally I’m settled in Jelly Shot. The guitars I currently use are a Sunburst Liberty 303 Stratocaster a black Axl Mayhem Jackknifed and a blue Agile AL-2000. I also have a wide array of guitar effects, in my pedalboard from many different brands including Boss, Digitech and Dunlop. Wahab and I use Fender 212R 100Watt Amps, sweet tones and gorgeous design.

KT: Why did you choose that instrument?

HN: The emotions that a guitar can evoke, the sounds it makes and the different tones you can get from the instrument are second to none in my opinion. I chose the guitar because I initially loved the image of a guitarist, the spotlight, and the ‘cool factor’ that comes with it, but now it’s more about the art of channeling feelings into music.

KT: Who do you think is the best musician playing the instrument you are playing?

HN: There are two guitarists that I admire more than any others, namely Zakk Wylde (formerly of Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Label Society) and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Zakk Wylde is one of the front-runners in combining blues, country and hard rock guitar style playing. Aside from his impeccable playing, the sheer aggression of his style has an underlying emotion that really hits me. His songwriting and singing voice are also things that I admire, but have a hard time replicating! Stevie Ray Vaughan however, one of the classic blues guitarists of all time, known for playing songs like Pride and Joy and his infamous cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’. His guitarplaying style is something truly emotional, his guitar tone is very distinctive, and his songs have always been catchy! A true legend in my eyes.

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Local

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Mubarak Jamal (bass guitar, lead vocals, harmonica)

Abdulwahab Al-Asfour (Rhythm Guitarist and Vocals)

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KT: Tell us more about you.

AA: I am 21 years old, but I still feel 17! I love martial arts and music among a lot of other things. I tend to think I’m never great at anything, but good at everything! Folk music is my passion, I dream of writing a sweet melody for Jelly Shot and making it the catchiest most melodic track EVER. PROMISE!

here to start? I was born here in Kuwait (obviously!) and grew up with conflicting interests, since I could never stick to one thing. I graduated from the New English School in 2005 and am about to complete my Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing at the Australian College of Kuwait in July 2011.

I wasn’t that passionate about music in my earlier years but around when I turned 16, I started discovering new music and spent the remainder of my teen years listening to metal and hard rock music. In mid-2007, shortly after my 19th birthday, I bought my first bass guitar, a Squier Precision Bass. A few years later, I discovered the blues from a good friend of mine who performs in what is Kuwait’s original Blues band (names will be disclosed) and immediately feel in love with the style. After months of learning the style and constantly discovering blues artists, I developed the mindset of a bluesman and simply cannot play anything but the blues. In terms of gear, I kept the Squier, and invested in two Fender Precision Basses, a Mexican-made standard model and a Japanese ‘51 reissue, because I learned that the best tone for my preferred music genre - and just about any other genre for that matter - is gained from the original creators of the electric bass guitar, Fender.

KT: Why did you choose that instrument: MJ: In my late teens, during my metal years, I was heavily influenced by two bands, Metallica and Iron Maiden.

Metallica’s bassist at the time, Jason Newsted, became my first major influence in buying a bass guitar, but most of that came from his own persona, stage presence and his instruments’ respective tones. Later on, as I discovered Iron Maiden, their founder and bassist Steve Harris amazed me with his galloping rhythms and the tones that his basses gave out. He was the first influence of mine to use a Fender Precision Bass and while his tone has a very Metal-infused sound, it stuck in my mind that the bass models he used are the best there is, which I discovered later on as stated above.

For the harmonica, it was a spur of the moment kind of thing. I was listening to a lot of Sonny Boy Williamson II and Junior Wells, both of which were highly acclaimed blues harp players (a Blues Harp is a harmonica best suited for Blues). I only recently picked the instrument up and I am constantly learning how to perfect my playing.

KT: Who do you think is the best musician playing your instrument?

MJ: This is very difficult for me, as I can’t pick a single musician who fits the role of “Best Bassist”. I am currently highly influenced by Willie Dixon (who played an upright bass), Roger Waters, Sting, Dusty Hill and Pino Palladino.

Along with my early influences, Steve Harris and Jason Newsted; I simply cannot pick one single musician to fit the role.

As for the harmonica, I have to give it to both Sonny Boy Williamson II and Junior Wells. Sonny Boy’s playing is extremely soulful and he really makes the harmonica ‘wail,’ which serves the genre very well, and Junior Wells is just a fantastic and fun harmonica player. He can keep the songs going with his skillful playing.

Khalid Al-Mansour (Drummer) KT: Tell us more about you: KM: Just a regular Kuwaiti guy, studying at the Australian College of Kuwait. Basically, music is considered my life; without it I wouldn’t be where I am today.

KT: Why did you choose to play that instrument?

KM: I was really fond of percussion growing up as I was in the kindergarten school band playing the drums, so my parents surprised me with a drum kit on my sixteenth birthday and that is when it all started.

KT: Who do you think is the best musician playing your instrument?

KM: Tomas Haake (Meshuggah) and Matt Halpern (Periphery).

KT: Why did you choose that instrument?

AA: It’s a funny story actually; I had many bands I listened to, and

the guitar was always something that sort of stood out in my eyes, and it was a game that actually gave me that final push and made me just stand up and say “I WANT A GUITAR NOW!” which was Devil May Cry, he he. Stop judging me!

KT: Who do you think is the best musician with your instrument?

AA: Paul Gilbert! Not the best as I think every person has his own that they excel in, but he is definitely my favorite artist with a guitar!

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New business authority in town KUWAIT: Following the recent publication of its executive bylaws, Kuwait’s first independent stock market regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), is now ready to begin operations.

The Kuwaiti parliament passed legislation in February 2010 that established the CMA as part of a larger regulatory framework for the country’s capital markets. The Capital Markets Law (CML), as this legislation is generally known, calls for the CMA to regulate the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE), supervise public and private subscriptions, and oversee mergers and acquisitions.

The CML also gives the CMA broad authority over the country’s investment companies, which were previously regulated by the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK).

The legislation set out broad legal concepts, but left the drafting of specific regulations to the CMA’s five-member board of commissioners. In September 2010, the Kuwaiti Cabinet approved the appointment of board chairman Saleh Al-Faleh, the former head of the KSE, and vicechairman Mahdi Al Jazzaf, as well as members Saleh Al Yusuf, Nayef Al Hajraf and Yusuf Al Ali. On March 3 of this year, the CMA board issued its executive regulations - known as the CML bylaws - which implement the provisions of the CML. These regulations were then published in the Kuwait Official Gazette on March 13, at which point they were promulgated into law. In effect, this means that the CMA now has the power to enforce the regulations that it issued.

Prior to the establishment of the CMA, the KSE was a self-monitoring institution. In recent years, some have noted a worrying increase in insider trading and other forms of market manipulation, activities that the CMA is expected to curb.

According to an April 2011 report by the Financial Times, even prior to the promulgation of the bylaws, the KSE had already started to monitor trades more carefully and follow up on those that seemed suspicious.

Saleh Al Fulaij, the chief executive of NBK Capital, a Kuwait-based investment bank, recently told OBG that, as a result of the CML, “a lot of fictitious [trading] volumes that no longer conform with the regulations have disappeared from the market.”

However, he cautioned, the CMA “needs to have teeth to be effective”.

Aside from listed firms, perhaps the institutions that will be most affected by the CML are the investment companies, which are involved in a variety of activities, including direct and indirect investment in various sectors, asset management and financial advisory services. During the financial crisis, investment firms came under increasing pressure as the result of over-leveraging and maturity mismatches, among other

KUWAIT: A file photo of Kuwait Stock Exchange shows a relatively quiet day there.

— Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat factors, and a few investment companies defaulted. In its July 2010 report on the stability of Kuwait’s financial system, the IMF noted that, although the CBK’s oversight framework was effective and well designed for banks, it was not sufficient to “avoid the turmoil that

opted for the latter. Alternatively, investment companies could choose to operate in both fields, however, this would require a second license.

In such cases, the CBK and CMA would each supervise the relevant operations of the investment company. Investment firms were given

The Kuwaiti parliament passed legislation in February 2010 that established the CMA as part of a larger regulatory framework for the country’s capital markets.

severely affected the investment company sector”.

The enactment of the CML means that regulation of the investment companies will largely fall under the CMA’s jurisdiction, and the CBK and the CMA are currently working to coordinate this transition process.

Late last month, Reuters reported that the CBK had told investment firms to review their activities and decide whether to operate in financing or to offer investment and asset management services. Companies that chose the former would continue to be regulated by the CBK, while the CMA would regulate those that

one month to make a decision. Saleh Al Selmi, the vice-president of Kuwait’s Union of Investment Companies, told Reuters that his organization, which represents 44 of the approximately 100 investment companies in Kuwait, was reviewing the statement by the CBK. “This is an important decision that will have an effect on the future of the companies and one month is little time to decide on the fate of a firm,” he said.

The CML also establishes a supervisory framework for mergers and acquisitions, with a particular focus on protecting minority shareholders during the acquisition process.

Anyone making an acquisition offer for a Kuwaiti listed firm must first receive approval from the CMA. In terms of protecting minority shareholders, the bylaws specify that, for example, neither the buyer nor the target can provide information to some shareholders without making this information available to all of them.

Perhaps more significantly, the CML bylaws also require that anyone who buys more than 30 percent of voting shares in a Kuwaiti listed firm must make the same offer to all shareholders within 30 days. There have been some legal questions regarding whether or not this “mandatory offer” rule would apply to deals that were announced prior to the publication of the bylaws.

To this end, on March 19th, the UAE’s Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) announced that it was rescinding its bid to purchase a 46 percent stake in its rival telecoms operator Zain Group, in part because of the new mandatory offer requirement. The private sector will no doubt continue to raise similar legal questions as the CMA begins to enforce its bylaws.

However, despite such uncertainties, implementing the CML will likely increase transparency and improve the overall functioning of Kuwait’s capital markets.

— Oxford Business Group

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FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Friday protest to go ahead, MoI warns against riots

By Hussain Al-Qatari

KUWAIT: A blanket of dust covered Kuwait city last week.

—Photo by Joseph Shagra

Bad weather halts shipping movements: KPA KUWAIT: Shipping movement in Kuwaiti waters was suspended yesterday due to bad weather, according to the Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA).

The head of operations at Shuaiba Port, Captain Faraj Al-Saeed, told the press that all shipping was suspended after offshore wind speeds hit 60 kilometers per hour, whilst

waves crested at between four and eight feet, and visibility in the Gulf waters fell to 1.5 miles.

The ports operations would resume as soon as the weather improved, said Captain AlSaeed, adding that the authorities at Shuwaikh Port had adopted the same measures until conditions returned to normal. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Despite the warning issued by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah against public disturbances, protesters appear to be unwavering in their resolve to hold a demonstration this evening opposite the parliament building. This comes after Wednesday evening’s televised speech by the Kuwaiti monarch highlighting the importance of solidarity in the country.

Earlier this week, senior Ministry of Interior (MoI) officials met to discuss the ministry’s plans for dealing with the possibility of riots breaking out during this evening’s demonstration.

Despite all this, activists are continuing with their preparations for this evening’s demonstration, which they have now dubbed the ‘Friday of Dissolution.’ The protestors believe that dissolving the current parliament, reelecting a new one and appointing a new government after removing the present Prime Minister from his post would be the best solutions to the problems currently facing the country. The demonstration will be led by a number of anti-government MPs, including Faisal Al-Mislem, Walid Al-Tabtabaei and Jamaan Al-Harbish.

An interior ministry insider warned that there will be no tolerance of rioting or uncivi-

lized behavior during this evening’s demonstration, adding that the Kuwaiti authorities will take necessary measures to prevent any outbreak of unrest among the crowds. “The safety and security of the citizens of Kuwait, nationals and expats, is our priority. Anything that threatens this will be dealt with according to the Ministry’s regulations,” said the statement.

Activist Tariq Al-Mutairi, one of the organizers of this evening’s demonstration, claimed that he received a call from MoI officials last Sunday to discuss the upcoming protest.

“Major General Mustafa Al-Za’abi and Major General Tariq Hamada from the Ministry of Interior took the initiative to call me and ask for a meeting to discuss how the protest today could take place without causing any disturbances,” Al-Mutairi told the Kuwait Times, adding, “I sensed that the Ministry of Interior wants to ensure the safety of the protestors, which is highly appreciated and commended.”

Last Friday, a number of protestors led by MP Musallam Al-Barrak quarreled with security personnel in front of the National Assembly building, with the argument almost tipping over into a fight. Traffic on the street where the National Assembly building is situated ground to a halt as protestors decided to march from Safat Square to Irada Square.

Ex with a grudge KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti man who still held a grudge against his ex-wife after their divorce apparently bit off more than he could chew when he decided to take his underhanded revenge on her.

On seeing his former wife whilst he was out with a friend in Salmiya, the resentful man reportedly hatched a plan with the friend to settle old scores with her. He apparently sent the other man to flirt with his ex in order to see if he could regain custody of their children through accusing her of being a sexually promiscuous unfit mother.

The friend’s flirtation was reportedly more rapidly successful than they had hoped, with the woman apparently being so instantly overwhelmed by lust that she agreed to go with him in his car to a more private spot in order to have sex. Whilst they were thus engaged, the husband called his duplicitous friend’s mobile, wanting to learn how their plan was working out. Unfortunately for them, the ex-wife saw the number on the phone’s screen, recognizing it as her former husband’s, and worked out that she was being set up. Leaving her ex’s friend, the woman quickly tore and rubbed dirt on her clothes, wiped off her make-up and went to Rumaithiya police station to report that her ex and the friend had abducted and raped her.

Although they immediately called for the husband and his friend to be picked up for questioning, officers at the station were apparently skeptical about her account of events, and she was referred for further questioning, whilst the clothes in question were removed for tests.

On being questioned, the hapless friend admitted the former husband’s feeble plot to detectives. The investigation is continuing.

Hospital problems A secretary at the psychiatric hospital was surprised on returning from a period of sick leave to find her office full of medicine. She was even more taken aback when the temp receptionist who had replaced her during her absence called to ask her to give a visitor some of the medicine in return for an envelope which the substitute secretary would later pick up. When this happened five more times, the secretary became suspicious and made enquiries with medical staff about the nature of the medicine, discovering that it was an opiate substitute given to recovering drug addicts, with each bottle valued at KD85.

The secretary immediately filed an official complaint, with staff at the hospital confiscating the remaining medicine and the temp office worker being summoned for questioning.

Medical staff at the hospital have questioned how such dangerous medicine came to be stolen from the hospital’s stocks.

Gang attack A Kuwaiti man was brutally attacked and stabbed in his car by five men just after leaving a mosque in Jahra, with the assailants apparently blaming his ‘slow driving’ and obstruction of the road for their frenzied assault, before fleeing the scene in their vehicle. The victim was rushed to Jahra Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), whilst police, who managed to get the license plate details of the attackers’ vehicle from witnesses, are hunting for the five thugs.

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

With friends like that...

Detectives are hunting for five Kuwaiti men who stripped a ‘friend’ naked and took compromising pictures of him to punish him for refusing to phone some prostitutes he knows so they could have an orgy. —Al-Rai

KUWAIT: A series of unannounced municipality inspections of restaurants in Ahmadi resulted in 29 citations being issued to owners for various health and safety violations. These ranged from stocking spoilt and expired foodstuffs to failure to comply with the relevant regulations

29 Ahmadi restaurants face fines over health and safety violations and lack of health certification for staff.

Announcing the results of the inspections, Fahad Al-Otaibi, the director of the Ahmadi municipality branch, added that seven of the restaurant owners had signed official undertakings, pledging to undertake modifications to their seating areas in compliance with municipality regulations.

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API calls for anti-poverty package KUWAIT: The Kuwait-based Arab Planning Institute (API) yesterday called for the introduction of a package of economic and social policies to fight poverty. In a press release issued following the conclusion of a training program it held for Ministry of Finance staff on anti-poverty strategies and fiscal policy with particular reference to the Sudanese economy, the API explained that the program aims to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to stress the vital importance of eliminating poverty.

In the workshop, the API focused on analyzing the concept of poverty and income distribution indicators in Sudan, in addition to measures of poverty levels and the distribution of spending, based on the latest research data from 2010 on spending in the war-torn country. The API press release further explained that the training program dealt with means of developing strategies to combat poverty, as well as studying aggregate and financial policies and analyzing the relation of these to fighting deprivation. —KUNA

KFH eyes retail sector for expansion KUWAIT: Kuwait Finance House announced on Wednesday that it would focus on the retail banking services in its future expansion plans with a view to increasing its activities and revenues. In an interview with CNBC Arabia, KFH Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Al-Omar said that the finance house’s excellent performance in the retail banking market and its ownership of an effective market share, are based on several strengths, such as the legitimacy of the platform from which all KFH’s products and services are launched, which prompts clients to trust the Islamic bank.

Al-Omar further stated that KFH possesses advanced technology enabling it to effectively offer clients the services they require, as well as having highly qualified and creative banking staff, and a network of local, regional and global branches. KFH follows a strategy to support its leading status in the retail sector, he asserted, explaining that this strategy is based on expanding in promising markets that are known for their high population density levels and stable economies.

The bank boss further noted that the finance house goes beyond simply local excellence, reaching markets in Turkey, Bahrain, and Malaysia, where it has excelled through diversifying products and services that usually offer an added value to the economies of those countries.

He also mentioned the gold product that KFHTurkey has offered its clients, which is considered the first of its kind worldwide, in addition to KFH’s transparent banking cards that are deemed the first of their kind among Kuwaiti banks.

Al-Omar explained that KFH first entered the Turkish market 22 years ago long before the economic crisis in 2001, in a period when nobody else believed in investing in the real economy, but KFH had and retains strong trust in the Turkish market and its abilities. The Turkish market has recovered from the recent economic slump and is achieving high revenues, he pointed out, while other international banks are seeking a foothold in the Turkish market which is now dominated by KFH-Turkey. — KUNA

KUWAIT: (File photo) Kuwaiti MPs in a heated debate. --Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Khorafi, MPs welcome Amir’s address, call for national unity Current NA expected to end June 29

By B Izzaak KUWAIT: Kuwait’s National Assembly (parliament) speaker and a number of MPs yesterday welcomed the national address delivered by Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on Wednesday evening, in which he called for national unity, warning against chaos and blasting “highly harmful practices in the National Assembly.”

NA Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi praised the advice offered by HH the Amir, urging everyone to interpret his instructions wisely by safeguarding national unity and shunning practices that could harm democracy.

Al-Khorafi thanked the Amir for what he said was a timely speech which clearly showed that the Kuwaiti monarch was closely watching the current serious events the country is experiencing, as well as demonstrating his fervor for strengthening Kuwait’s unity, stability and security.

MP Ali Al-Deqbasi said HH the Amir’s instructions must be complied with, adding that in accordance with this imperative he

will not attend today’s rally and will practice his authority from within the national assembly. Fellow parliamentarian Abdulrahman Al-Anjari said that HH the Amir had emphasized the democratic nature of Kuwait and its dependence on acting according to the constitution, adding that Kuwait is a country of institutions and civil society. Al-Anjari stressed that there can be no true democracy without freedom.

Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad AlHumoud Al-Sabah emphasized yesterday that he will firmly implement HH the Amir’s instructions to prevent any violations of law and order and to safeguard the country’ security and stability.

MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, meanwhile, warned that Kuwait will witness ‘unprecedented events’ in the coming months as a result of mismanagement, bad planning, financial and administrative corruption and a struggle for selfish interests.

Al-Muwaizri said that the harmful practices and events of the recent past must be dealt with swiftly, without delay and with

immense wisdom in order to avoid unwanted consequences for Kuwait.

Islamist MP Mohammad Hayef, meanwhile, strongly objected to Kuwaiti state TV broadcasting old footage of HH the Amir shaking hands with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad only minutes before the televising of the monarch’s speech.

Hayef called on the information minister to immediately take action against the Assistant Undersecretary for News and Current Affairs, Yousef Mustafa, holding him responsible for the ill-timed broadcasting of the footage.

The lawmaker said that no picture of any other leader was broadcast, although Assad has now become a symbol of dictatorship after the ongoing massacres of his own people. In the meantime, copies of an official memorandum from Jassem Al-Khorafi have distributed to MPs, notifying them the last session in the current parliamentary term will take place on June 29 and will be preceded by several sessions to approve the budgets.

Zakat House expands, diversifies range of ways to donate KUWAIT: Kuwait Zakat House is keen to improve its services and diversify the range of channels through which charity payments can be donated, as well as to harness the latest technology in fundraising and collection.

In a press release issued yesterday, Naif Shaya Al-Jemaz, the Marketing Officer at the Zakat House’s Resource Development Center, revealed that the institution has opened four donation

reception areas in its headquarters building, and another three in its branches in other areas, offering more ways for donors to give money.

The Zakat House has also opened a further 28 outlets in commercial centers across Kuwait, as well as enabling benefactors to donate online at its website or via SMS text message.

Alms giving channels through increasing the number of branches, alms receiv-

ing outlets and use of technology in collecting alms. In a press statement, Marketing Officer at the Zakat House’s Resource Development Department Naif Shaya Al-Jemaz said four halls in the headquarters and three others in branches of different areas were allocated for receiving donors and alms givers. It also opened 28 outlets in the main commercial centers.

Zakat House receives alms through its website and SMS. — KUNA

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

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KHOST: In this file photo, Ayman Al-Zawahri (left) holds a press conference with Osama bin Laden in Khost, Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda has selected its longtime No 2, Ayman Al-Zawahri, to succeed Osama bin Laden. _ AP

Zawahiri named Qaeda chief New leader vows ‘no let-up in deadly jihad’ DUBAI: Al-Qaeda yesterday named Egyptian surgeon Ayman Al-Zawahiri to succeed slain leader Osama bin Laden and vowed no let-up in its deadly “jihad” against arch-foes the United States and Israel. “The general command of Al-Qaeda announces, after consultations, the appointment of Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri as head of the group,” the jihadist network said in a statement posted on an Islamist website.

Zawahiri, the group’s long-time number two, succeeds bin Laden who was killed by US commandos in a May 2 raid in Pakistan.

The statement said that under Zawahiri’s leadership Al-Qaeda would relentlessly pursue its “jihad” (holy war) against the United States and Israel. “We seek with the aid of God to call for the religion of truth and

incite our nation to fight ... by carrying out jihad against the apostate invaders ... with their head being crusader America and its servant Israel, and whoever supports them,” said the statement. The fight would continue “until all invading armies leave the land of Islam.”

The extremist network affirmed that it would not “recognise any legitimacy of the so-called state of Israel.” “We will not accept or adhere to any agreement or accord that recognises it (Israel) or that robs a mile from Palestine, whether it is the United Nations controlled by top criminals or any other organisation.” Al-Qaeda also voiced its “support (to) the uprisings of our oppressed Muslim people against the corrupt and tyrant leaders who have made our nation

suffer in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya Yemen, Syria and Morocco.”

A wave of revolts that have rocked the Middle East and North Africa since December have succeeded in toppling autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia while others, such as Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad are still battling uprisings in their countries. Al-Qaeda urged those involved in the uprisings to continue their “struggle until the fall of all corrupt regimes that the West has forced onto our countries.” The extremist Sunni group made no mention of the Shiite-led uprising in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, crushed in midMarch by the ruling Western-allied Sunni minority which was backed by joint Gulf Arab forces. In the last part of the statement

however, the network reminds that “our religion has forbidden oppression, against Muslims and non-Muslims, against friend and foe.”

“Therefore, we assure every oppressed human in this world-most of whom are the victims of Western and American crimesthat our religion is that of justice and equality,” it said. Like his slain Saudi-born co-conspirator, the 59-year-old Zawahiri has been in hiding since the United States declared its war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Zawahiri, now Washington’s most wanted man, was jailed for three years in Egypt for militancy and was implicated in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, and a 1997 massacre of tourists in Luxor.—AFP

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Arab revolts force US to weigh ideals, interests WASHINGTON: In struggling to keep pace with the Arab spring the United States has increasingly had to balance its democratic ideals with its long-standing interests in a complex and crucial region.

The uprisings have rapidly reshaped the political landscape, with former allies turned to liabilities when their people demand change and hopes for eventual rapprochement dashed as US foes drift further beyond the pale. In September, President Barack Obama welcomed Hosni Mubarak as a trusted ally to the White House for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Six months later he hailed the strongman’s fall, saying “the people of Egypt have spoken.”

From the earliest days of the first uprising in Tunisia, Washington has struggled to keep up with events, as each revolt presented its own unique set

of problems and all seemed to reveal diminishing US influence. “It’s not America that put people into the streets of Tunis or Cairo-it was the people themselves who launched these movements,” Obama said in a May address on the Arab spring, adding his government had to act with “humility.”

But his administration has failed to resolve important contradictions at the heart of its response. When Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi opened fire on his own people, the United States called on him to step down and joined a Western coalition air assault on his isolated regime. But when Syria’s Bashar alAssad launched a similar crackdown on protests, the administration hesitated. It has condemned the violence, but is yet to call on Assad to resign, instead urging him to lead a political transition. “We

have imposed additional sanctions on the regime, including on President Assad and his inner circle,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

“We stand by the Syrian people, who have shown tremendous courage in demanding dignity and a transition to democracy. President Assad now has a choice. He can lead the transition or he can get out of the way.” Officials have said that every case is different, noting that the Libyan intervention came as Kadhafi’s troops neared the rebel stronghold Benghazi, vowing to annihilate the opposition in the country’s second largest city.

But there has been no similar explanation for the administration’s silence on Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates-authoritarian states that provide one seventh of US

petroleum imports.

“To some degree, Saudi Arabia is the biggest obstacle in the US push for democratic change in the region,” Robin Wright, author of an upcoming book on the Arab spring, told NPR radio. “It has not only backed Bahrain’s repression, it is trying to mobilize an alliance of Arab states that will stand up to the protesters.

After years of tension with Syria, it would like to see, in some ways, the Assad regime stay in power because that is stability.” Rather than press Gulf stateswhich are also seen as a bulwark against Iran’s expanding influence in the regionObama, in his May address, talked about “opportunities,” particularly of the economic variety.

Another US interest seen as vital-the security of close ally Israel-is also shadowing its response to the revolts. —AFP

‘King of Kings’ losing friends and influence Africans remain reluctant to cut ties NEW YORK: Louis Farrakhan speaks at a news conference in New York. Farrakhan is reiterating his defense of Muammar Gaddafi, saying the embattled Libyan leader isn’t the monster being portrayed by the Western media. — AP

Gaddafi son holds out elections offer TRIPOLI: Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is willing to hold elections and step aside if he lost, his son said yesterday, an offer unlikely to placate his opponents but which could test the unity of the Western alliance trying to force him out. The proposal-which follows a string of concessions offered by the Libyan leader that Western powers have dismissed as ploys - comes at a time when frustration is mounting in some NATO states at the progress of the military campaign.

Four months into Libya’s conflict, rebel advances towards Tripoli are slow at best, while weeks of NATO air strikes pounding Gaddafi’s compound and other targets have failed to end his 41year-old rule over the oil-producing country. A series of explosions was heard from Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli in the early hours of yesterday and plumes of smoke rose into the sky, a Reuters reporter in the city said.

“They (elections) could be held within three months. At the maximum by the end of the year, and the guarantee of transparency could be the presence of international observers,” Gaddafi’s son Saif Al-Islam told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. He said his father, who came to power in the same year that man first set foot on the moon, would be ready to step aside if he lost the election but would not go into exile. “I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Libyans stand with my father and sees the rebels as fanatical Islamist fundamentalists, terrorists stirred up from abroad,” the newspaper quoted Saif al-Islam as saying. The offer was made as Mikhail Margelov, the envoy leading Russia’s efforts to end the conflict, arrived in Tripoli for talks wtih Gaddafi’s government. The Kremlin, which says Gaddafi should quit but opposes NATO’s action in Libya, has said it is ready to help negotiate the Libyan leader’s departure. “Clearly the talks in Tripoli will not be easy,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Margelov as saying before he left for Tripoli. “In the Arab world there is a tradition of forgiveness and conciliation, and many formerly odious leaders of regimes in the region continue to live in their countries ... despite having been overthrown,” he was quoted as saying. —Reuters

DAKAR: Muammar Gaddafi is losing friends in Africa, the continent where his largesse once bought him the title “King of Kings” but which is now turning to other foreign allies to help shape its future.

Moves by countries including Senegal, Mauritania, Liberia, Chad and Gambia to distance themselves from Gaddafi are partly a gamble that NATO-backed rebels will finally succeed in ending his four decades of authoritarian and quixotic rule.

But they also show Gaddafi’s waning role in a region where foreign investor appetite, trade ties with Asia and a domestic yearning for democracy are all eclipsing the lure of Libyan petrodollars and weakening the old-boy networks they propped up. “The rest of the continent has passed him by. The favours he can call in are few and far between,” said Tara O’Connor of London-based Africa Risk Consulting.

Most of the 50-plus members of the African Union group back a neutral AU policy calling for a ceasefire and a “roadmap” out of the civil war sparked by a February riot over human rights. But efforts to maintain a single African line have been smashed by a vanguard of countries which, encouraged by NATO members France and the United States, have either called for Gaddafi to go or explicitly thrown in their lot with the rebels. Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade last week became the first sub-Saharan African leader to travel to the rebel stronghold city of Benghazi to recognise the CNT opposition movement, and has also received CNT leaders in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

Equally significant is a statement last week attributed to Mauritania’s Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz-who forms part of the AU mediation panel on Libya-in which he said Gaddafi’s departure had become necessary. Chad, which has faced CNT accusations that its solders have fought alongside pro-Gaddafi troops, has now made clear that it does not support Gaddafi, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after talks with its foreign minister last week.

Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf severed

diplomatic ties with Libya on Tuesday, declaring that Gaddafi had lost legitimacy, while the tiny West African state of Gambia best known as a beach and jungle tourist destination has done likewise.

For most, the economic impact of ditching Gaddafi will be surprisingly limited. Despite the grandiose promise of the five-year-old Libya Africa Portfolio for Investments (LAP) to channel billions of dollars into “natural resources, technology, tourism, real-estate, services and financials”, Reuters reporters across Africa say many of the projects barely got off the

accounts so he can’t funnel cash to his old crony network in the Sahel,” Stratfor analyst Mark Schroeder said of the lavish cash gifts Gaddafi has used to curry favour with local political elites. The African leaders which Gaddafi must deal with now are savvier and more aware of their central role in the global scramble for resources than they were a few years back.

Having survived the 2009 financial crisis largely intact, Africa is sufficiently alluring to investors that pan-African private equity fund Helios Investment Partners this week closed its latest fund at its $900 million cap.

MISRATA: Rebel fighters fire their mortars towards pro-Muammar Gaddafi forces at the front line of Dafniya, west of Misrata. — AP ground. Such is the case for a $30 million Libyan project to promote local production of rice in Liberia and the renovation of Monrovia’s Ducor Hotel, one of the few five-star hotels in Africa but which fell victim to the 1990s civil war there.

A UN freeze on Libyan transactions prompted neighbouring Niger this week to revoke a $68 million telecom deal with Libya’s LAP Green Network, citing nonrespect of the terms of the transaction.

“He does not have access to his external

China, now Africa’s largest trading partner, is forging infrastructure and resource accords across the continent, such as March’s deal to build over 1,300 km of railway in Chad and talks on a long-term fisheries pact with Mauritania. Gaddafi holds little sway with Africa’s new giants such as South Africa, Nigeria or Egypt, and his past attempts to wield influence have irked some-notably Sierra Leone and Liberia, where he bankrolled the rebels who plunged them into war.—Reuters

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Syria’s Assad loses grip on hardliners Money drying up; Security forces overstretched LONDON: President Bashar Al-Assad is losing control to his hardline relatives, his forces are overstretched, his government is running out of money and the revolt against his rule is gathering support and funding. Given all this, analysts and Syrianbased diplomats say the international community is starting to plan for a Syria without the Assads. The risks of a slide into sectarian war are significant, most Syriawatchers nonetheless say, believing Assad will fight to the end, and start to regionalise the conflict by inciting violence in Lebanon, Turkey and across the borders with Israel.

“Despite everything they have done over the past few weeks killing, torture, mass arrests and raids-the protests are continuing,” said one Western diplomat.

“This regime will fight to the death, but the only strategy they have is to kill people, and this is accelerating the crisis.” In its attempt to stamp out protests across the country of 23 million, the government has withdrawn most security forces from the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, diplomats say. Yet each time the authorities go in hard to deal with one centre of rebellion, other towns rise up.

Reliant on two elite units commanded by his brother Maher- the 4th Armoured Division and the Republican Guard-as well as secret police and militia from his minority Alawite sect, President Assad is plainly overstretched. “Our assessment is that the regime will fall,” predicted the Damascusbased diplomat. “They have three to six months of actual military capabilities to sustain this, but they cannot keep a prolonged operation going indefinitely”.

Najib Al-Ghadban, a Syrian academic

and activist, said in London there was a broad consensus on overthrowing the Assad family after 40 years in power. “We believe strongly that the regime has lost its legitimacy. It has no vision on how to get the country out of the crisis. The situation is deteriorating,” Ghadban said. “We are certain this will reach a positive end like Tunisia and Egypt,” he added. So far more than 1,100 people have been killed, up to 10,000 detained and thousands have fled since the crackdown began, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The international community, diplomats said, see a post-Assad era ideally facilitated by a military coup and several governments are encouraging Syrian generals to mutiny. “We are isolating him and his family. We’re addressing military leaders and cabinet members to rise up. We’re encouraging the generals to rise up”, the diplomat said. “The key variable is the continuation of the momentum (of the revolt).

We really believe there is no point of return.” He and other analysts also believe that Syria’s economic paralysis, amid insistent reports the government is running out of money and having to call on its inner circle for emergency funding, will fatally weaken the Assads.

One diplomat said Assad’s cousin, the business tycoon Rami Makhlouf who is a hate figure for protesters, has recently deposited $1 billion at the central bank to stabilise the Syrian pound. “When they are no longer capable of paying the salaries of bureaucrats, the army, the police and their Alawite militia this crisis will balloon and bring about the collapse of the regime,” the diplomat said. “This is a train wreck

Jordan king fears a ‘very bad year’ WASHINGTON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II expressed pessimism about the prospects of Middle East peace in an interview published yesterday, speaking openly about a “one-state solution” to the conflict. “2011 will be, I think, a very bad year for peace,” Abdullah told The Washington Post in an interview at his palace in the Jordanian capital. “Although we will continue to try to bring both sides to the table, I am the most pessimistic I have been in 11 years.” He expressed concern that the United States is distracted by its sputtering economy and weary of expending precious capital on the intractable issue.

The monarch, a key US ally, painted an increasingly dim outlook, warning that violence and chaos are all but inevitable after the failure of US and international efforts to revive the long-stalled peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “If it’s not a two-state solution, then it’s a one-state solution,” he said. “And then, is it going to be apartheid, or is it going to be democracy? The Palestinians are seeking an independent state based on the borders that preceded the Six-Day War of 1967, including the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which has been annexed by Israel.

The Palestinian leadership also plans to make an appeal for UN recognition and membership in September. Abdullah, who met with US President Barack Obama in Washington last month, said the popular uprisings roiling across the Middle East and North Africa presented a unique opportunity for a possible peace deal, but that both sides have failed to seize it. He said that as the revolts progress, Israel will be surrounded by more hostile Arab governments than ever before. And if the Israelis grant the Palestinians full rights, they will soon be outnumbered by the fast-growing Arab populations. If not, the monarch said they could see more unrest. “When there’s a status quo, usually what shakes everybody up is some sort of military confrontation, at which point we all come running and screaming to pick up the pieces,” Abdullah said.

He warned more Palestinian clashes were likely, adding: “A lot of Arabs are saying, ‘Okay, if you’re talking about democracy for us, what about democracy (in) Israel?’” Abdullah expressed concern about the United States losing its credibility as an honest broker after repeated failures to clinch a deal and a long record of fierce support for Israel regardless of the Jewish state’s policies toward the Palestinians and Arab states. —AFP

waiting to happen”.

Signs of stretched resources and fraying loyalties are already apparent. As protests started to spread, the authorities pulled out contingents of security and elite forces from the capital, which are now firefighting from Deraa in the south to Jisr al-Sughour in the north, the scene of heavy reprisals after the government this month claimed to have lost 120 dead to “armed gangs”. But even so residents say there are demonstrations every weekend in Damascus and surrounding suburbs. The bloodshed in Jisr al Shugour was the result of splits in army ranks, diplomats say, an ominous sign for the Assads.

“Around 50 soldiers and mid ranking officers defected and were supported by locals and the authorities sent a force to counter them and 120 were killed”, said another Syria-based diplomat, dismissing government accounts this was the work of Salafi fundamentalists as propaganda. He and others point to the growing sophistication of the rebellion, which draws support from across society.

“After three months this is not a poor man’s uprising. There is significant financing from the Syrian business community and upper class. They give money for satellite phones, cameras, food, water and medical supplies,” the resident diplomat said. “This is a broad-based movement that includes not only Syrian youth, but imams from mosques, businessmen, even former Baath party members.”

Analysts are puzzled by Assad’s failure to address the nation in a speech since the revolt started in mid-March. They point out that conciliatory statements by Assad promising that protesters will not be fired on and the killings that followed show that he is not in control. “The big unanswered question concerns the president,” said Patrick Seale, biographer of Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad. “The question is: Is he (Bashar) complicit with the killing or has he been pushed aside? The people running the show are the hardliners, the thugs.” Seale added: “Assad is not in charge. He is showing no leadership. He is depasse. They have really taken over.”

Residents of Syria describe a state of fear and panic among the Alawite community, saying there had been revenge attacks against Alawite army officers and security men. They said Alawite officers in Sunni areas have pulled their children out of school and sent their families to Alawite villages or abroad. Syrian activist Ausama Monajed said the international community, which has put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list, should add army officers involved in killing protesters as well as Syrian firms linked to the Assad family.

Syrian oil sales, worth $7-8 million a day and which Monajed says go directly to fund the military, should be boycotted.

Arab states must build a consensus against Assad by lobbying China and Russia for a Security Council resolution, he said. All scenarios that anticipate the downfall of Assad, however, depend on the Sunni-dominated army splitting, while Western military intervention such as in Libya is unlikely in Syria because of the regional risks. Analysts say the risks are high that Syria, an ally of Iran and Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah guerrillas and with a sectarian and ethnic mix of Sunni, Kurdish, Alawite and Christians, could slip into war. —Reuters

YAYLADAGI: Syrian refugee children flash victory signs from behind plastic sheets used by Turkish authorities to obscure view in a camp in Yayladagi, Turkey, near the Syrian border yesterday. — AP

Obama and an elusive peace in Sudan WASHINGTON: Fresh violence in Sudan has broken out, throwing up a roadblock just short of what had been expected to be the finish line for years of US efforts to help end the country’s civil war. After 10 days of clashes, President Barack Obama stepped in on Wednesday to personally urge the North and South to end their hostilities, three weeks ahead of the scheduled independence for the South. “There is no military solution,” Obama said in an audio message recorded late Tuesday for the USfunded Voice of America (VOA) broadcasting network.

“The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan must live up to their responsibilities. “The government of Sudan must prevent a further escalation of this crisis by ceasing its military actions immediately, including aerial bombardments, forced displacements and campaigns of intimidation,” the US leader said. The State Department earlier had warned Khartoum, capital of the North, that it could derail the normalization process if violence continued in South Kordofan.

Heavy fighting has flared up across South Kordofan state on the south Sudan border since June 5 between the northern Sudanese Armed Forces and allied militiamen against fighters aligned to the southern former rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The south is due to proclaim full independence on July 9, under a peace deal worked out after decades of conflict with the north, but the fighting threatens to overshadow the historic event, particularly if the southern army is drawn in.

The United States under George W Bush was among the leaders in pushing through the peace plan that in late 2005 stopped two decades of bloodletting. Obama picked up the torch and joined a UN conference in September on the issue. His presence helped boost the event’s weight to something more like a mini-summit.

Under the peace plan, the United States pledged to review Sudan’s inclusion on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Washington also is at work on the country’s foreign debt burden and is weighing naming an ambassador to Khartoum after the country’s partitioning on July 9. For now a US charge d’affaires represents US interests. —AFP

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Turkey calls for immediate end to Syrian crackdown Turkish-Syrian ties strained ANKARA: Turkey called for Syria to immediately halt a violent crackdown on protesters and pass democratic reforms, in a meeting yesterday between Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and a top Syrian envoy. The crackdown, which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has condemned as “savagery”, has tested relations between the two countries, and Turkey has given sanctuary to some 8,900 Syrian refugees who have streamed across the border.

“We want a strong, stable, prosperous Syria.

To achieve this we believe it necessary to implement the comprehensive reform process towards democratisation guaranteed by (President) Bashar al-Assad,” Davutoglu told reporters after three hours of talks with Syria’s Hassan Turkmani yesterday morning. “In order to achieve this the violence must stop immediately. Yesterday I clearly saw the fear in the eyes of the people and I shared this,” he added, describing talks with Turkmani as friendly and Syria as Turkey’s “closest friend”.

Davutoglu on Wednesday talked to refugees at the border, including wounded men in camp hospitals at Yayladagi, across from the Syrian town of Jisr Al-Shughour, 20 km away.

Refugees chanted “People want freedom!” and “Erdogan help us!” Yesterday, Syrian tanks and armoured vehicles reinforced positions around the northern town of Maarat Al-Numaan.

Turkmani on Wednesday met Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has also called for rapid reform in Syria.

Turkmani said then Syrian refugees staying in makeshift camps in Turkey’s border province of Hatay would soon be returning to Syria.

Assad asked to send an emissary when he called Erdogan on Tuesday to congratulate him on winning a third term in office.

Yesterday afternoon Davutoglu was to meet with Ankara’s ambassadors to the Middle East,

United States and some EU countries to discuss Syria and policy across the region.

Former advisor to Erdogan, Nabi Avci, said Turkey was dismayed by Syria’s response to its requests that it refrain from using violence against civilians and undertake reforms.

“Turkey’s efforts to bring about peaceful change in Syria will continue,” Avci said in Istanbul. “The response of the Syrian regime so far has been, unfortunately, unhelpful and disappointing,” said Avci, elected a member of parliament for the ruling AK party in Sunday’s vote.

Asked about the possibility the Turkish military could enforce a buffer zone on Syrian territory to protect civilians, Avci said Turkey had no plan for military intervention in Syria. But he said Turkey constantly reminded the Syrian government that intervention could become part of the international community’s agenda, and urged Damascus to make rational choices.

“We are trying our best for the last chance for the Syrian regime,” he said. Preparations are being made for another influx of refugees far to the east along the 800-km border, with more tent camps able to shelter 10,000 people being set up near the Turkish city of Mardin and the town of Nusaybin.

High-ranking Syrian soldiers and police are among those seeking refuge at the camps in Turkey, state-run Anatolian news agency reported. Most recently a lieutenant colonel and four other soldiers arrived in Hatay on Wednesday evening after deserting. There were also increasing numbers of Syrians arriving at the border but remaining on the Syrian side in makeshift tents. Anatolian said all hotel rooms had been booked up in Hatay ahead of the visit

by United Nations refugee agency goodwill envoy Angelina Jolie. The actress was expected to arrive on Friday afternoon.— Reuters

Starving for protest in India NEW DELHI: The protest fast, used to historic effect by Mahatma Gandhi in his fight against British rule, has made a comeback in India among activists seeking to pressure the government on a host of issues. A series of highprofile fasts-mostly focusing on corruptionhave garnered national attention in recent months and posed a public relations challenge to the scandal-tainted coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But where Gandhi’s fasts are still seen as models of principled, non-violent self-sacrifice, the modernday versions have been criticised by some as publicity-seeking stunts that are also undemocratic.

In April, 73-year-old veteran activist Anna Hazare-an ardent admirer of Gandhi-launched what he said would be a fast to the death to demand greater civil participation in the drafting of anti-corruption legislation. Mounting popular anger over graft, Hazare’s frail resemblance to Gandhi and blanket media coverage supported by Twitter and Facebook campaigns lent the protest an unexpected momentum that took the authorities by surprise. In the end, the government agreed to certain concessions and Hazare called off his fast after 98 hours.

Then in early June, India’s most celebrated yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, embarked on a similar hunger strike to highlight the issue of “black money”-illicit cash squirrelled away by officials in foreign bank accounts. This time

the government took a harder stance, sending in police with tear gas to clear Ramdev and his supporters from their camp in New Delhi-an operation that was seen by many as desperate and heavy-handed. Ramdev finally called off his strike last Sunday. A day later, another Indian guru and social activist, Swami Nigamananda, died in the northern hilltown of Dehradun after a four-month fast to highlight corruption and rising pollution in the Ganges river.

Observers said the various fasts had caught a national mood, with public outrage over official corruption running at an historic high.

“Their rise is best explained by the falling credibility of the ruling political class,” said Aroon Purie, editor-in-chief of Indian Today magazine. “What matters is the message: India is erupting against corruption and those who are shielding the corrupt,” Purie said. Indian political analyst Parsa Venkateshwar Rao agreed that timing had helped Hazare and Ramdev become “very visible icons” of protest. “They are very conspicuous dissidents, while political parties have been marginalised,” Rao said. “Hazare’s main backing has come from the urban middle class, who are outraged by corruption and are all for taking up cudgels against it.” While public opinion in India is united behind the anti-corruption message, there are those who question the motives and tactics of the fasting messengers. —AFP

KARACHI: Pakistani women interact during Pakistan’s First International Social Media Summit in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, attracting some 200 people. — AP

Young Pakistanis blog and tweet for change KARACHI: Meet Pakistan’s “Teeth Maestro,” a dentist who uses his blog to get to the root of the country’s many pains. One day it might be trigger-happy soldiers. Another day it’s corrupt bureaucrats. Sometimes, it’s US meddling. The Teeth Maestro is among a growing group of bloggers, tweeters and others using the Web to influence Pakistani society and government.

These activists are providing a more nuanced perspective than Pakistan’s mainstream media, where right-wing TV talk shows tend to dominate the national discussion. “Social media has actually created a dialogue of opposing thoughts and tries to bring them together to some sort of understanding,” said the Teeth Maestro, a 36-year-old whose real name is Awab Alvi. There’s no revolution in the works like in Egypt, where young people used Facebook, Twitter and other web tools to organize protests. But the use of such Internet tools is rising so rapidly in Pakistan that even US officials have taken notice, recently co-sponsoring the country’s first international social media summit. Held in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, it attracted some 200 people. Pakistan, a country of roughly 187 million, has roughly 20 million Internet users. Its penetration rate is a bit higher than neighbor India but a bit lower than fellow Muslim country Indonesia, according to http://www.internetworldstats.com.

There are at least 4.3 million Facebook users in Pakistan, while Twitter is the ninth most popular web site in the country, according to statistics presented Saturday at the summit. To be sure, plenty of Pakistan’s bloggers promote antiUS conspiracy theories and Islamist, even promilitant agendas. One group created an alternative to Facebook catering to Muslims, unhappy with what they say was offensive material on the regular site. The overall numbers are skewed toward wealthier, educated city dwellers, and most of the Pakistani blogosphere is in English, though Urdu-language use is growing, experts said. But although social media lovers don’t represent Pakistan’s masses, they do represent many of “the elite” who hold the

levers of power.

In many small ways, Pakistan’s social media activists already have been making their presence felt. One of the more famous social media users in Pakistan is Sohaib Athar, the man who unknowingly live-tweeted the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, gaining tens of thousands of new followers and providing witty insight into a stunning news event. There also have been videos posted on the Internet showing the alleged brutality of the armed forces in Pakistan, outraging civilians and leading to investigations (though rarely with any publicized results). And during nationwide floods in 2010, social media activists helped raise money.

The blogs in particular give Pakistanis a chance to vent, no matter what their philosophy. Alvi, the dentist, recently posted an entry about the shooting of an unarmed young man by security troops in Karachi. The incident was caught on tape, posted to YouTube and played on television, making him wonder what it would take for the masses to rise up and end such brutalities.

“Could this blatant killing of a young individual (regardless of his innocence or guilt) be the trigger?” he wrote. “Or are we still too occupied at allowing these political and military crooks run our country to smithereens?” Pakistan’s TV and radio stations remain the dominant force in shaping public discourse, followed by newspapers - especially Urdu-language ones. But employees of mainstream outlets note they still have to worry about some restrictive laws that are less likely to affect social media users. “We have buildings and offices - we can get burned, we can get bombed,” said Kamal Siddiqi, editor of The Express Tribune newspaper.

He said blogs were a very popular part of his paper’s online edition, a sign of how the mainstream media and the social media are blending. Pakistani social media activists said they too worry about their security, with some noting wryly that the Internet is also a place for militants to recruit suicide bombers and post tapes of beheadings. —AP

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Lunar eclipse turns the moon blood red SYDNEY: The longest lunar eclipse in more than a decade turned the moon blood red yesterday, yielding a rare visual treat for stargazers across a large swathe of the planet from Australia to Europe. The first eclipse of the year-when the Earth casts its shadow over the moon-was seen in parts of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Often the moon turns brown in an eclipse but this time it became a reddish, coppery colour. Contrary to some Internet chatter, the moon’s vivid red hue was not necessarily the result of ash from the erupting Puyehue volcano, high in Chile’s Andes, according to Sydney Observatory astronomer Geoffrey Wyatt.

“We can’t say for sure,” he said. “The red colour is not caused by dust in the atmosphere. What dust does is extinguish colour and make it look darker.”

The terrestrial shadow started to fall at 1724 GMT and lifted around 2300 GMT, although “totality”-when the lunar face is completely covered-lasted 100 minutes.

That was the longest since July 2000. While

keen astronomers in parts of Australia had to contend with dense cloud cover and rain, others had a clearer view. Around 130 people watched at the Sydney Observatory, with one woman dressed as a vampire.

“There was (also) a child dressed very elegantly as if she was from another century, and a little boy dressed up as a red superhuman,” the observatory’s manager Toner Stevenson said.

Professor Fred Watson, chief astronomer at the Australian Astronomical Observatory, said the best view would have been from the moon itself. “If you could watch the phenomena, you would see the Earth moving across the sun and it creating a brilliant red rim around the Earth,” he said. In Singapore, more than 700 people gathered outside a science centre to watch. Some avid enthusiasts staked out spots more than four hours ahead of schedule with the centre organising astronomy talks and movie screenings to entertain the audience.

There were similar scenes in the

Philippine capital Manila where hundreds of amateur and professional astronomers converged before dawn to catch a glimpse.

With blankets and flasks of coffee, they were rewarded with clear skies.

“I will never get tired of watching these events,” said Maximo Sacro, 67, the retired curator of the National Museum Planetarium who dusted off his telephoto lens to capture the image. “The moon’s entry into the Earth’s shadow was right smack in the middle, it was just perfect. It was very rare and the duration was long.”

The eclipse was widely seen across Pakistan and India, with crowds gathered at the Nehru planetarium in New Delhi, which organised a “moon carnival”, setting up special viewing telescopes.

But traditionalists were not as enthusiastic, with authorities at several Indian temples reportedly shutting their doors to ward off the supposed “evil effects” of the eclipse.

In the Afghan capital Kabul, mosques were packed, as crowds recited verses from the

Koran and offered special prayers. “In Afghanistan, people believe that the eclipse is a sign of the power of Allah,” said Mir Ahmad Joyenda, an Afghan analyst who commentates on culture and society.

“People usually offer special prayers and shout Allah Akbar (God is great) at the time of the eclipse. Most of them are not aware how and why the eclipse takes place.”

While the phenomenon could not be seen everywhere, including the United States, space lovers still got a chance to see it unfold as Google teamed up with Slooh.com. Slooh accesses telescopes around the world and Google live-streamed the event, with audio narration from astronomers. And on its home page, Google replaced its usual banner “doodle” with an animated eclipse. The next total lunar eclipse will be on December 10. There will be partial solar eclipses on July 1 and November 25, but the next total solar eclipse will not take place until November 13, 2012.—AFP

5 Pakistanis killed in ‘cross-border attack’ Hundreds of militants attack civilians in Mamoond

ISLAMABAD: The house and madrassa (seminary) where militant Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil lives stands behind a high wall in the suburb of Golra Sharif outside Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. —AP

Female madrassas ‘breed’ radicalism ISLAMABAD: Varda is an accountancy student who dreams of working abroad. Dainty and soft-spoken, the 22-year-old aspires to broaden her horizons, but when it comes to Islam, she refuses to question the fundamentalist interpretations offered by clerics and lecturers nationwide. Varda is among more than a quarter of a million Pakistani students attending an all-female madrassa, or Islamic seminary, where legions of well-to-do women are experiencing an awakening of faith, at the cost of rising intolerance.

In a nation where Muslim extremists are slowly strengthening their grip on society, the number of all-female madrassas has boomed over the past decade, fuelled by the failures of the state education system and a deepening conservativism among the middle to upper classes. Parents often encourage girls to enrol in madrassas after finishing high school or university, as an alternative to a shrinking, largely male-orientated job market, and to ensure a girl waiting to get married isn’t drawn into romantic relationships, says Masooda Bano, a research fellow at the Britishbased Economic and Social Research Council.

But, like Varda, many students at the 2,000 or so registered madrassas are university students or graduates looking for greater understanding of Islam, as well as housewives who, like others in Pakistani society, feel pressured to deepen their faith. “I listened to what they said and I thought this is the correct thing to follow, and I wanted to learn more about my religion”, said Varda, who was encouraged by her neighbours to sign up to a part-time course at the Tehreek-i-Islami madrassa.

Asked about the killing of a governor earlier this year because he opposed the country’s controversial blasphemy law, Varda, without hesitation, said Salman Taseer’s murder by his own bodyguard was the right thing to do. “If people ... call themselves Muslims and they are members of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, then they should not be criticising this law,” she said. “I am sorry to say this, but this is what he deserved.” —Reuters

KHAR: Several hundred militants crossed the border from Afghanistan yesterday and stormed a village in Pakistan’s lawless tribal district, killing five civilians, Pakistani officials said.

Afghan officials denied any cross-border attack and accused Pakistani troops of killing six people in a rocket strike on Wednesday. It was the third attack reportedly carried out by hundreds of fighters into northwest Pakistan this month. The border is porous and tensions between Afghans and Pakistanis are high over Islamist militants in both countries.

Pakistanis said the militants targeted a village in Bajaur, where troops have carried out a series of offensives against the Taleban and other Islamist militants since August 2008. “Some 250-300 militants targeted civilians in Mamoond. At least five civilians, including two women were killed,” local government official Fazle Akbar said. Akbar said three women were wounded in the attack, which took place about 65 kilometres northwest of Khar, the main town in Bajaur.

Muhammad Ilyas Khan, a government official in Mamoond, and security officials in the northwest confirmed the attack and casualties. “About 300 militants came from Afghanistan and attacked villagers,” Khan said.

“Tribesmen from the local lashkar (militia) have joined paramilitary forces and army artillery is pounding shells.” The militants eventually fled and the firing stopped around 1.00 pm (0800 GMT), local government and security officials said. Bajaur borders the Afghan province of Kunar, where police chief Mohammad Ewaz Nazir said that Pakistani troops had been shelling the Shigal district of the province for a month.

“Four children and two men were

killed in one of their rocket attacks on the Chugam area of Shigal district yesterday.” “There hasn’t been any attack from Afghan soil on Pakistani territory today or yesterday,” he added. But Pakistani officials rubbished the Afghan denial. “We cannot say why Afghans are denying the attack, but we are certain that the militants came from across the border,” a Pakistani security official said.

Pakistan’s military has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the militant threat in Bajaur, one of seven districts

in the country’s semi-autonomous tribal belt that the United States sees as the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.

On June 1 and June 3, hundreds of militants besieged an area in Pakistan’s northwestern district of Upper Dir on the Afghan border, sparking prolonged fighting that killed at least 34 people.

At the time, Pakistan conveyed “strong concern” to the Afghan ambassador to Islamabad, calling for “stern action” by Afghan and US-led NATO troops to crack down on militants in eastern Afghanistan.— AFP

QUETTA: People shift an injured Pakistani Olympic boxer Abrar Hussain from one hospital to another in Quetta, Pakistan yesterday. Police say armed men have shot and killed three-time Pakistani Olympic boxer Abrar Hussain. Police officer Hamid Shakil says Hussain died after assailants shot him in the head while he was driving from his office in Quetta. The 50-year-old Hussain represented Pakistan in the 1984, ‘88 and ‘92 Olympics. — AP

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Radical Islam spreading in US jails: Lawmakers WASHINGTON: US prisons are becoming a hotbed for indoctrinating inmates and turning them into radical Muslims, US lawmakers were told Wednesday in the second of a series of controversial hearings.

“Despite appearances, prison walls are porous. Outside influences access those on the inside, and inmates reach from the inside out,” Patrick Dunleavy, a retired New York prison inspector, told US lawmakers.

“Individuals and groups that subscribe to radical Islamic ideology have made sustained efforts to target inmates for indoctrination.”

He was addressing a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Representative Peter King, whose first session in March on Muslim radicalization in the United States

drew accusations of a religious witch hunt. “Dozens of ex-cons who became radicalized Muslims inside US prisons have gone to Yemen to join an Al-Qaeda group run by a fellow American, Anwar al-Awlaqi,” King, a Republican, told the committee.

Awlaqi’s “terrorists have attacked the US Homeland several times since 2008 and are generally acknowledged to be Al-Qaeda most dangerous affiliate,” he added. King has accused Muslim leaders and mosque imams of doing too little to stop the radicalization of young Americans and are not cooperating with law enforcement. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with about 1.4 million people behind bars across the country,

meaning there is potentially a captive audience. “The prison population is vulnerable to radicalization by the same agents responsible for radicalizing Americans outside of the prison walls,” said Dunleavy, who has investigated terror recruitment in New York prisons.

“The initial exposure to extremist jihadi Islam may begin in prison.

However, it often matures and deepens after the release.” And militant groups have little difficulty in smuggling materials into cells, he charged. “Jihadi and extremist literature finds its way through the mail, even though it is largely prohibited. Anything can be gotten in prison, including a PDA or a smartphone,” he said. But Purdue University sociology professor Bert Useem was less alarmist, saying:

“The crux of my testimony is that prisons have not served as a major source of jihad radicalization.”

He insisted prison guards were vigilant about the dangers. “Rather than waiting for facilities to be penetrated by radicalizing groups, correctional leaders have fashioned, staffed and energized the effort to defeat radicalization,” he said. And former assistant US attorney Kevin Smith said: “The particular group that we’re talking about, these particular radicalized inmates, represent a very small proportion.”

Although he recognized that “it’s a small portion with a much greater exponential danger for the community.”

And Democratic Representative Hansen Clarke, who grew up in the tough city of Detroit, grew emotional when he

talked about friends who had spent years in prison, blaming radicalization on a failure of the prison system.

He said he had asked someone why people converted to Islam in jail. “You know, essentially, it’s two reasons: number one, for protection-to protect myself from other inmates and the prison staff. And then, number two, because these young men were tired of their past.

They wanted to break away from their criminal past and to become a new man. So they became Muslim.

“These young men are going to Islam. They’re trying to protect themselves. They want to change themselves. Are there some bad folks? Yes, there are, like in every other faith and every other organization.” —AFP

Secret tunnels found on US-Mexico border Governor’s bodyguards found mutilated WASHINGTON: More than 150 secret tunnels for smuggling people and drugs into the United States have been found on its long, porous border with Mexico, some in use for more than two decades, US officials said. “Illicit tunnel activity has been on the rise since the first documented tunnel was discovered in 1990. Since then, 154 tunnel attempts have been discovered, all but one of which were located along the southwest border” with Mexico, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official James Dinkens told lawmakers. “Over the past several years, law enforcement has seen a marked increase in the number and sophistication of tunnels,” he told a Senate hearing.

California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said at the hearing that she would introduce a bill seeking to tighten an illegal tunnel-fighting law passed in 2007. The idea is to make illegal tunnel making a more serious offense: conspiracy. Half of the tunnels authorities identified-used by drug cartels and people-smuggling operations-were located on between the US state of California and Mexico’s Baja California Norte state, said US Attorney for the Southern District of California Laura Duffy.

Some of the tunnels are quite rustic and others are well-made with internal rail systems and ventilation, officials said. “It is a real serious penetration into the US,” said Feinstein, who leads the senate’s anti-drug trafficking committee. “They could mobilize

large groups.” Only one person, meanwhile, has been prosecuted for “crime tunnel” building, she noted. The toll in suspected drug-related violence in Mexico has surpassed 37,000 since its President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime in 2006.

In another development, police on Wednesday found the dismembered bodies of two bodyguards who worked for the governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, the site of a violent turf war between drug cartels. Authorities believe Gov Rodrigo Medina’s bodyguards were killed by a drug cartel. A message left near the bodies accused Medina of favoring a rival drug organization. Medina confirmed that the victims were part of his security detail and

called the killings “cowardly.” He told local media later that “no message, no threat will make us stop in this fight” against organized crime.

The bodies were found at an intersection in Guadalupe, a suburb of the state capital Monterrey. The city, Mexico’s third largest and one of its most wealthy, has been the scene of bloody cartel turf battles that have included frequent attacks on police. The area in northern Mexico has been a scene of constant killings and reprisals since a rupture between the Gulf and Zeta cartels in late 2009. The Zetas - founded by a group of deserters from an elite army unit - have extended their territory so much that they are now carrying out killings and trafficking drugs in Guatemala. —Agencies

Hackers ‘hit’ CIA website WASHINGTON: A group of hackers who breached the Senate computer system earlier this week claimed responsibility for problems with the CIA’s website Wednesday. The group, known as Lulz Security, tweeted “Tango down - CIA.gov,” and there were difficulties throughout the early evening accessing the agency’s website. The computer mischief appeared to be targeting the CIA’s public website, which does not include classified data and has no impact on the CIA’s operation. CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf said the agency is looking into the reports.

It is sometimes difficult to tell if a website has been hacked, or if the claim alone drove so many people to the site that it crashed. Efforts to access the website were met with an error message long after the breach began, around 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT). Early yesterday the site had returned to normal operation and could be accessed from various parts of the country, according to a review by analysts at Keynote, a mobile and internet

cloud monitoring company based in San Mateo, California.

Lulz has claimed credit for hacking into the systems of Sony and Nintendo and for defacing the PBS website after the public television broadcaster aired a documentary seen as critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. On Monday, the group accessed a Senate server that supports the chamber’s public website but did not breach other files, according to a Capitol Hill law enforcement official.

The hackers said the release was a “just for kicks” attempt to help the government “fix their issues.” Senate Deputy Sergeantat-Arms Martina Bradford said in a statement that while the intrusion was inconvenient, it did not compromise the security of the Senate’s network, members or staff. Lulz Security claimed that it had added a Senate file to its list of successful, high-profile intrusions at a time when governments and corporations are on high guard for cyber intrusions. The group has suggested it is trying to highlight cyber security weaknesses. —AP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama with first lady Michelle Obama walk out of the Oval Office to host the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. —AP

Report on Libya fails to appease US lawmakers WASHINGTON: The White House is vigorously defending President Barack Obama’s right to keep the US military engaged in Libya without congressional approval, but its arguments aren’t soothing the anger among Republican lawmakers and anti-war Democrats. In a report sent to Congress on Wednesday, administration officials said that because the US is in a supporting role in the NATO-led bombing mission, American forces are not facing the “hostilities” that would require the president to seek congressional approval under the War Powers Resolution. That 1973 law prohibits the military from being involved in actions for more than 60 days without congressional authorization, plus a 30-day extension.

The Libya campaign has gone on for nearly three months.

The report, which put the cost of US military operations at about $715 million as of June 3, with the total increasing to $1.1 billion by early September, did little to appease lawmakers who have been critical of Obama’s dealings with Congress throughout the Libya campaign. “I’m sure Sen Barack Obama would have disagreed if he were serving at this time,” said Rep Brad Sherman, a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Obama was a senator before he was president.

Sen Bob Corker, a Republican, said he was amazed that the administration did not believe US forces were facing “hostilities” in Libya, saying generals have told lawmakers otherwise in classified briefings. “The way the administration handled this entire affair left people on both sides of the aisle very perplexed,” said Corker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Adding to the congressional pressure on Obama, a bipartisan group of 10 lawmakers on Wednesday sued the president for taking military action against Libya without war authorization from Congress.

The lawmakers said Obama violated the Constitution in bypassing Congress and using international organizations like the United Nations and NATO to authorize military force. The White House sent Congress the 32-page report in response to a nonbinding House resolution passed this month that chastised Obama for failing to provide a “compelling rationale” for US involvement in Libya. —AP

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Oil around $114 on dollar strength

Boeing sees 20-yr global jet market worth $4 trln PAGE 23

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ATHENS: A couple sits next to Syntagma square on June 15, 2011 during a demonstration near the parliament in Athens. Thousands of protesters ringed the Greek parliament building yesterday as the government tried to push through its emergency package inside and a general strike paralysed the country. A Greek government lawmaker quit over his party’s unpopular austerity policies as Prime Minister George Papandreou was to name a new government to deal with the country’s debt crisis. — AFP

Greek debt crises deepens EU urges bailout compromise BRUSSELS: European leaders yesterday urged a compromise be found on a second bailout for Greece as time ran short to avoid a default and the government in Athens plunged into political disarray.

Despite Athens hurtling towards a potential default as early as next month, talks on a new 105-billion-euro ($150 billion) bailout broke down this week over how to get the private sector to contribute alongside taxpayers. Ministers from the 17-nation eurozone are set return to the negotiating table Sunday in Luxembourg to take a fresh stab at a solution. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the European Union executive yesterday each called for compromises to reach a deal.

“What we need more than anything today is unity. We must leave behind national quarrels to rediscover our sense of a common destiny,” said the French leader, who meets today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the eurozone debt crisis.

Mindful of German taxpayer sentiment,

Merkel heads a group of eurozone nations bent on pressing private investors to contribute up to a third of the rescue funds by accepting later repayment on Greek bonds.

Sarkozy on the other hand backs the European Central Bank (ECB) and European Commission, which want the private sector to contribute on a “voluntary” basis to avoid causing a default that would shake the whole eurozone. “Without the euro, there is no Europe and without Europe there is no possible peace and stability,” Sarkozy said. “We have no right to damage the euro.”

Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn also urged European decision-makers to put aside differences “at this critical juncture.”

He said he was confident eurozone finance ministers would agree at meetings Sunday and Monday on the disbursement of the latest, 8.7-billion-euro tranche of Greece’s first 110-billion-euro bailout as well as the outline of the new rescue package.

“I call on all EU decision-makers, and more

particularly the finance ministers of the euro area next Sunday, to overcome the remaining differences and come to a responsible agreement at this critical juncture,” Rehn said in a statement.

He said agreements on the details of the new rescue package would be pushed back to a eurozone meeting on July 11.

“This will avoid the default scenario and pave the way for an agreement on the medium-term strategy,” said Rehn.

“It has been difficult, but I strongly believe that with this two-step approach, in agreement with IMF, we can avoid any accident scenario. “It means that the funding of the Greek sovereign debt can now be ensured until September, while we take the decisions for the medium-term, beyond September, in July,” he added.

An EU diplomatic source underlined to AFP that the detail of that medium-term financing deal could actually wait until September. A senior IMF official said the glob-

al lender stood ready to offer further support.

“The situation changed very dramatically in the last 24 hours,” said Min Zhu in Paris.

“We are working extremely hard on this issue. We are ready to provide support... It’s an absolutely important issue today for Greece, for Europe and for the whole global economy.” Rehn though warned that while time could be bought over the summer, responsibility also fell on the shoulders of the Greek authorities and its political leaders.

“We expect the Greek parliament to endorse the economic reform programme as agreed by the end of June,” he said.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is facing growing disarray in the ranks of his PASOK socialist party as he tries to reshuffle his government and seek a vote of confidence on further austerity measures needed as part of the international bailout. Rehn said it was “regrettable” that efforts to build national unity around the reforms had failed. “The next days will be critical,” he warned. — AFP

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Low demand, inflation to hurt UAE real estate DUBAI: The real estate sector in the United Arab Emirates continues to languish due to high inflation and reduced demand, despite improving liquidity, Nomura said, and cut its price targets on four real-estate developers in the region.

Nomura cuts its price target on Aldar to 1.66 dirhams from 2.01 dirhams, citing the company’s ongoing restructuring programme, while reducing its price target on Rak Properties to 0.44 dirhams from 0.50 dirhams, and on Emaar Properties to 4.26 dirhams from 4.84 dirhams.

“Real estate capital remains ‘sticky’ and we think the sector is part-way through a prolonged period of asset stagflation rather than asset reflation,” Nomura said in a note.

The brokerage also cut its price target on Sorouh to 2.64 dirhams from 2.78 dirhams, but elevated the stock to ‘top sector’ status, citing its promising near-term prospects.

“We think the direct market (residential) is slowly forming a base, but commercial pressures continue,” Nomura said, adding that it still sees overall asset and rental values falling 10 percent in aggregate in 2011.

Nomura, which raised its price target on Union Properties , said it continued to favour large real estate companies like Sorouh, with medium-term prospects looking attractive. — Reuters

TOKYO: Honda Motor Co. President Takanobu Ito, stands next to the company’s new hybrid Fit Shuttle at its headquarters in Tokyo, yesterday. — AP

Qatar’s Aamal pulls London listing plans LONDON: Qatar’s Aamal Co has postponed plans to list shares in London after failing to reach the valuation it had hoped for in a rocky European market for share offerings, two sources close to the deal said yesterday.

The diversified trading, property and industrial company had aimed to list up to 24 percent of its share capital in the form of global depositary receipts, boosting its free float from a previously illiquid 0.3 percent.

“Ultimately when there is a listed price and the price the market is willing to pay is meaningfully below that ... they weren’t happy to sell the stake and decided to postpone,” said one of the sources.

The European market for new listings has had a tough year so far with investors, jaded by the number of withdrawn deals and poor performances once companies have floated, increasingly demanding greater discounts.

Banks running Aamal’s offering had begun bookbuilding without setting a price range to reduce the risk of wider market uncertainty impacting the process. But despite attracting orders, the company was not happy with the price.

The offering, made up of existing shares, would have raised a maximum of around $400 million to $500 million, the source added. Aamal, which had said it would also maintain its listing on the Qatar Exchange, was not available for comment. Citi and HSBC were joint global coordinators of the offering and Arab African International Bank was a co-lead manager. — Reuters

Cebu Pacific buys 37 Airbus jets worth $3.8bn New technology to cut fuel consumption by 15% MANILA: Philippine budget carrier Cebu Pacific announced yesterday it had ordered 37 new Airbus jets worth $3.8 billion in the nation’s biggest-ever aircraft order so it can expand across the Asia Pacific.

Cebu Pacific chief executive Lance Gokongwei said his airline was aiming to fly to destinations further afield such as Australia, building on an aggressive strategy that has seen it become the nation’s top carrier in recent years.

Gokongwei told a news conference his company had ordered 30 Airbus A321neo jets and seven A320s, to be delivered between 2015 and 2021, in what was the “largest single aircraft order ever made by a Philippine carrier”.

He said the airline also had an option for 10 more A321neo jets, which can carry more people and fly hundreds of kilometres (miles) further than the A320s that currently dominate Cebu Pacific’s fleet.

“These 220-seater aircraft will be a game changer for Cebu Pacific,” Gokongwei said.

“We will be able to serve cities in Australia, India and northern Japan, places the A320 cannot reach.”

Cebu Pacific’s announcement came moments before India’s GoAir said in Mumbai it had ordered 72 A320s, making it a banner day for France-based Airbus and highlighting the fast-growing muscle of Asia’s low-cost aviation market.

As part of the region’s low-cost boom, airlines have in recent years successfully expanded from simple short flights to medium and long-haul.

While Malaysia’s AirAsia X has been the pioneer, Singapore Airlines also announced last month it planned to launch a long-haul low-cost airline.

Gokongwei said Cebu Pacific was aiming to see passenger numbers in its domestic operations grow 10-15 percent a year, with an even more ambitious target of 25-percent annual growth for its international division.

Taking to the skies only 15 years ago, Cebu Pacific passed national carrier Philippine Airlines recently to become the country’s number-one airline in terms of passenger numbers.

It now flies to more than 30 destinations within the Philippines and 16 across Asia, all within a few hours’ flying time from Manila.

Gokongwei said he expected Cebu Pacific to fly at least 12 million people this year, up from 10.5 million in 2010.

Cebu Pacific’s fleet is currently made up of 25 A320s, which carry a maximum of 180 passengers, and eight small ATR turbo-prop aircraft.

It already has another 18 320s on order to be delivered between 2011 and 2014.

With the fresh orders announced on Thursday, Cebu Pacific’s fleet size will reach 88 over the next decade.

Cebu Pacific said the new technology featured on the A321neo aircraft, which include large, wing-tip devices

MANILA: Lance Gokongwei, president and CEO of Cebu Pacific, the fastest growing airline company in the Philippines, poses beside a model of an Airbus passenger plane following his announcement of buying 37 new Airbus planes for $3.8 billion in the largest single aircraft order made by an airline company in the country, yesterday. — AP called sharklets, and bigger passenger capacity would allow it to cut its fuel consumption by 15 percent.

“This means Cebu Pacific will be able to offer even lower fares to our guests and be much more competitive with anyone flying less cost-efficient aircraft,” Gokongwei said.

Cebu Pacific raised 23.3 billion pesos ($540 million) last year in the

country’s biggest initial public offering to fund expansion plans.

Gokongwei said Thursday a mixture of borrowing and internal funds would fund the new Airbus orders.

Cebu Air Inc., the carrier’s corporate name, closed 2.18 percent higher to 86.85 pesos yesterday, minutes before Gokongwei announced the fleet boost plan. — AFP

UAE’s Al Jaber nears debt agreement with core banks DUBAI: Abu Dhabi conglomerate Al Jaber Group, in talks to restructure over $1 billion in debt, is close to reaching a standstill agreement with its core lenders, the company said yesterday.

Al Jaber set up a banks’ committee earlier this year to thrash out a debt restructuring after it announced talks with lenders to discuss the terms of its facilities.

Sources at creditor banks had said the company and its lender committee of five banks had been locked in discussions on a standstill agreement, and are awaiting an announcement imminently. “The group confirms that it is continuing to move forward with its plans to reschedule its borrowings,” Al Jaber said in an emailed statement.

“As part of this process the group and the CoCom (core committee) are finalising a proposed standstill agreement which is to be presented to the Group’s creditor banks in due course.”

The banks’ committee is chaired by the National Bank of Abu Dhabi , and includes Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank , HSBC , RBS and Union National Bank .

A source familiar with the debt talks told Reuters in December that Al Jaber was seeking a one-year delay in the repayment of certain debts. The company has not said how much debt is being restructured. “A restructuring is a long way down the line for them ... at first they will need to agree on a standstill agreement, which usually assists the lenders in getting a lot of extra information on the company and its projects,” another source familiar with debt restructurings in the UAE said.

Al Jaber has significant exposure to indebted Dubai developer Nakheel, a unit of state conglomerate Dubai World undergoing its own restructuring, the source said. “A lot about the future of some of the Al Jaber companies depends upon the fate of trade creditors’ restructuring being done by Nakheel.” Al Jaber currently has $840 million in two syndicated facilities outstanding as well as bilateral loans. A $440 million five-year term syndicated loan is due to mature in September and a $400 million (Islamic) ijara facility expires in April 2013. — Reuters

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Korean Air takes first A380 on special flights INCHEON: Korean Air showed off its first Airbus A380, outfitted with a unique full business class upper deck, in a pair of special flights yesterday, a day before the launch of regular international service. Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea’s largest airline, is the sixth global carrier to introduce the hulking aircraft and the first in Northeast Asia to take delivery. The plane is manufactured by Toulouse, France-based Airbus. The jumbo passenger jet rolled down the runway at Incheon International Airport west of Seoul yesterday in the first of two demonstration flights. It flew east across South Korea and out over the ocean, passing low near the Dokdo islets that lie in waters between South Korea and Japan before returning.

The two islets are claimed by both countries. Seoul, however, controls them and stations a contingent of police there. The territory is known as Takeshima in Japan. Korean Air’s A380 begins international service today with roundtrip flights from Incheon to Japan’s Narita airport, near Tokyo, and then from Incheon to Hong Kong later the same day.

Air France, Germany’s Lufthansa, Dubai-based Emirates, Australia’s Qantas and Singapore Airlines also fly the A380.

Cho Yang-ho, Korean Air’s chairman and CEO, said that the introduction of the jet is part of the airline’s emphasis on service.

“This is another step to show our customers our comfortable and effi-

cient airplanes,” Cho told The Associated Press on the day’s first flight, for journalists. A second demonstration flight for VIPs was also scheduled Thursday.

Cho emphasized the airline’s special configuration in which the upper deck is devoted solely to business class seats. Korean Air is so far the only airline to utilize the A380 in such a way.

Korean Air plans service to Bangkok beginning next month, to New York in August, to Paris in September and to Los Angeles in October, the airline said.

Keith Stonestreet, Airbus’ product marketing director for the A380, said that Korean Air’s launch of the plane helps his company promote market acceptance for it in Asia, which he called the “key market” for the future. “We’re

looking to the growth of the Asian airlines as being a core part of the business,” Stonestreet said. China Southern Airlines will be the next carrier in the region to take delivery later this year, with Malaysia Airlines System and Thai Airways International set for 2012, he added.

Korean Air has ordered a total of 10 A380s. The airline has also chosen to go with the fewest number of seats — 407 — of any airline flying the plane so far. Air France and Lufthansa have the most seats at present with 525 to 530, Stonestreet said.

Air Austral, which flies between Paris and La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, plans to take the A380 in an all economy configuration of 820 seats, he said. —AP

India raises rates again, signals more increases Rate increase follows tightening in China, Brazil MUMBAI: India’s central bank raised interest rates yesterday for the 10th time in just over a year to combat stubbornly high inflation and signalled more increases to come even as growth in Asia’s third-largest economy is slowing down. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate , at which it lends to banks, by 25 basis points to 7.5 percent, in line with expectations in a Reuters poll. Wholesale inflation stands at 9 percent, roughly double the central bank’s comfort level.

NEW DELHI: In this file photograph taken on March 25, 2009, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GoAir, Edgardo Badiali (L) poses with General Manager Carolina Bajaj holding a model aircraft at a press conference in New Delhi upon the induction of two brand new Airbus A320 aircraft and the announcment of an expansion of the airline’s network. —AFP

GoAir orders 72 new Airbus planes MUMBAI: Indian budget airline GoAir said yesterday it had placed a $7.2-billion order for 72 new Airbus aircraft as local carriers continue an aircraft shopping spree to meet booming demand on the subcontinent.

The order comes on top of a previous $2.4-billion deal made early last year with the European aircraft manufacturer to supply another 20 jets for use on short-haul domestic routes.

GoAir, which owns just 10 planes currently, said the order for 72 short-haul A320 planes was a “game-changer” and would help to improve access to air travel for more Indians.

“In terms of aircraft, we see tremendous potential in India, which has barely six airlines with 350 aircraft catering to a billion people, compared to China’s present 1,100 aircraft,” managing director Jeh Wadia said in a statement.

“With India’s GDP growing at a brisk 8-9 percent per annum, we see a great future ahead for the aviation sector, including GoAir. Our strategy is to fly those who currently don’t fly,” he added.

GoAir, part of the Wadia Group conglomerate, was launched in November 2005 and currently flies to 18 destinations within India. It operates 931 flights a week with its small fleet and other leased planes.

The first batch of 20 A320s-all of them NEO (new engine option) models, which Airbus says can cut fuel consumption by 15 percent-will be delivered by 2012.

About 15 aircraft a year will be delivered every year from 2015, a company spokesman told AFP. The low-cost airline also announced the appointment of a new chief executive, Giorgio De Roni, the former chief revenue officer at Italian airline Air One. —AFP

Policymakers in the world’s big emerging economies that led the world’s recovery from the financial crisis face a balancing act as growth slows but inflation stays high. A stalling US recovery and weakness in Europe and Japan add to the challenge of managing inflation without choking growth.

Inflation trumps growth concerns for now. India’s rate rise followed moves to tighten policy this month by China, Brazil and South Korea.

“Domestic inflation risks remain high,” the Reserve Bank of India wrote in its mid-quarter review explaining its decision.

“Against this backdrop, the monetary policy stance remains firmly antiinflationary, recognising that, in the current circumstances, some short-run deceleration in growth may be unavoidable in bringing inflation under control,” it said.

Rising rates and slowing growth add to the headaches for an embattled government buffeted by criticism over persistent inflation as well as its handling of a spate of corruption scandals and its inability to push through reforms.

Some 15 months of rate increases in India are taking a toll on companies and investor sentiment.

Car sales growth slowed in May to its weakest pace in two years and investors have taken fright, pushing India’s main stock index down 12 percent this year, making it Asia’s worst performer.

Economists expect a further 50 basis points of rate rises in India in 2011, a Reuters poll showed this week, with the tightening cycle seen to be near its peak. “While the central bank recognised that the ‘global environment has changed for the worse’ most of the comments remained hawkish,” said

MUMBAI: An Indian vendor waits for customers at a vegetable and fruit market in Mumbai yesterday. India’s central bank has raised its key short-term interest rates by 25 basis points, its 10th hike in 16 months, in a bid to tame high inflation stuck at “uncomfortable levels.” — AFP Robert Prior-Wandesforde, economist at Credit Suisse in Singapore.

Stocks briefly swung into positive territory after the rate rise before dropping again in a broader global downdraft over worries about Greek debt.

The index ended down 0.8 percent.

Bonds largely ignored the central bank’s decision as it matched expectations. The 10-year benchmark bond yield fell 10 bps to 8.30 percent as global risk aversion pushed buyers into the perceived safe haven.

The RBI also raised the reverse repo rate, at which it absorbs excess liquidity, by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent. Last month, it said it would keep the rate at 1 percentage point below the repo rate.

Yesterday’s rate increase followed a sharper-than-expected 50 basis point rate rise in early May, although data

since then has pointed to slowing momentum in India and globally.

India’s annual economic growth in January-March slipped to a lower-thanexpected 7.8 percent, the slowest pace in five quarters, as the rise in credit costs and inflation weighed on consumption and investment.

Purchasing managers’ data for both manufacturing and services has indicated a further slowdown, prompting concerns from businessmen including H. M. Bharuka, managing director at Kansai Nerolac Paints .

“The paints industry is already seeing moderation in demand and the continuous increase in rates will hurt us further,” he said. “We are expecting tightening of interest rates to dampen demand from auto and housing sectors.”—Reuters

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Bangladesh signs gas deal with ConocoPhillips DHAKA: Bangladesh has signed a deal with US energy giant ConocoPhillips to explore for gas in disputed waters off its coast despite local opposition and the risk of regional tension, an official said yesterday.

The agreement, which gives ConocoPhillips the right to explore two offshore blocks which lie in disputed waters in the Bay of Bengal, was approved by the cabinet earlier this month, PetroBangla chairman Hossain Monsur told AFP. “The agreement now comes into effect immediately. ConocoPhillips will

search for oil and gas only in undisputed areas in blocks 10 and 11 — some parts of which are also claimed by India and Myanmar,” said the head of the state energy group.

Monsur dismissed protestors’ allegations that Bangladesh would not benefit from the deal, saying the arrangement would help end the country’s chronic power shortages.

Activists have called the deal “suicidal” for the country, with the National Committee on Protection of Oil, Gas and Ports, a left-leaning umbrella group of opponents of the deal, saying the agree-

ment was tantamount to theft.

“This agreement is meant to solve the country’s energy crisis but it will not do that,” said Anu Muhammad, a leader of the committee, who alleged that ConocoPhillips would export 80 percent of the gas found in the blocks.

The two blocks were also at the centre of a tense stand-off between Myanmar and Bangladesh in November 2008, which flared up when Myanmar escorted a South Korean gas exploration company into the disputed stretch of the Bay of Bengal. India also claims certain sections of the Bangladeshi offshore blocks, which

experts have predicted contain major reserves of gas. Large reserves have been discovered in India and Myanmar’s uncontested portions of the bay.

Bangladesh is urgently trying to locate new sources of energy as the government has said the nation’s current gas reserves may run out by 2014-2015 at present consumption rates.

Existing gas supplies-essential for cooking, generating electricity and running buses and cars-are massively overburdened, with supply around 1,900 million cubic feet of gas per day against demand of more than 2,400 mcft. — AFP

Asian markets tumble on unrest over Greek crisis Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and NZ drop HONG KONG: World stocks tumbled yesterday, hammered by continuing fears that Europe’s debt crisis could spiral out of control and worries over China’s economy.

Oil prices stayed below $96 a barrel amid fears of sputtering US economic growth, which would dampen demand for crude. The dollar rose to a three-week high against the euro but was lower against the yen.

In early European trading, the FTSE 100 index of leading British stocks fell 0.7 percent to 5,704.64 while France’s CAC-40 was down 0.7 percent to 3,781.08.

Germany’s DAX was down 0.3 percent to 7,089.45.

US shares were poised to open slightly higher. Dow futures were up less than 1 percent to 11,838 while S&P 500 futures were up 0.2 percent to 1,262.10. Asian markets fell earlier yesterday, after rioters clashed with police in Athens over proposed austerity measures and coalition talks between Greece’s government and opposition parties collapsed, renewing fears of a government debt default.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock fell 1.7 percent to end at 9,411.28 while South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.9 percent to close at 2,046.63. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.5 percent to 21,953.11. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand also dropped.

“The Greek problem is a mess. Everyone is worrying whether the Greek government will default,” said Jackson Wong, a vice president at Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong. “Everything seems just very negative at this point.” Wong said investors are also worried about China’s stubbornly high inflation, which hit 5.5 percent in May, according to a report earlier this week, driven by

food prices. The inflation also raises fears of another interest rate hike.

Mainland Chinese shares slipped as liquidity was constrained by the central government’s latest order to banks to raise the level of deposits they must hold as reserves, to a record 21.5 percent, as of June 20. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.5 percent to close at 2,664.28 while the Shenzhen Composite Index fell 1.9 percent to end at 1,097.17. Shares in expressways and coal miners weakened.

“I expect the market will also edge lower tomorrow, as June 20 is approaching,” said Liu Kan, an analyst at Guoyuan Securities, based in Shanghai. “Monetary policy is certain to keep on tightening. It’s a bear market, just accept it,” he said.

Shares in expressway companies weakened after the government ordered a reduction in highway tolls amid reports of excessively high charges. Guangdong Provincial Expressway Development Co. lost 5.7 percent while Chongqing Road & Bridge Co. lost 2.9 percent.

Adding to woes are reports of accounting problems at Chinese companies listed in North America, which are making investors warier of Chinese companies in general, Wong said.

Benchmark crude for July delivery was up 90 cents to $95.68 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday. The contract fell $4.56 to settle at $94.81 on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro slid to $1.4112 from $1.4169 in late trading Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 80.54 Japanese yen. — AP

TOKYO: A man strolls outside a securities firm in Tokyo yesterday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock fell 1.7 percent to end at 9,411.28 yesterday as world stocks tumbled, hammered by continuing fears that Europe’s debt crisis could spiral out of control and worries over China’s economy. — AP

HONG KONG: Chairman of Samsonite International S.A. Tim Parker shows a suitcase, a souvenir for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, during the trading debut of Samsonite International in Hong Kong yesterday. — AP

Samsonite shares down in Hong Kong trading debut HONG KONG: Luggage maker Samsonite posted a poor start on its Hong Kong trading debut yestersday with its shares slumping amid uncertainty in global markets.

The stock ended the day at HK$13.38 ($1.72), about 7.7 percent lower than its IPO price of HK$14.50, although the firm’s newly minted shares started the day even lower at HK$13.

Samsonite’s weak start, as the broader Hang Seng index lost 1.75 percent, came after the luggage maker raised a lowerthan-expected $1.25 billion to help boost its presence in fast-growing Asian markets, particularly China.

At a time of unease in markets around the world some firms have decided to delay or cancel their listings in the Asian financial hub, which has become the number-one IPO market.

Earlier this month, Australian miner Resourcehouse shelved an IPO originally slated to raise as much as $3.6 billion, citing weak market conditions.

Samsonite, which makes suitcases, casual bags and travel products, sold 671 million shares — 48 percent of the company-in the share sale. It had earlier estimated an IPO price range of HK$13.50HK$17.50 per share, with the top-end price translating into a $1.5 billion initial public offering. Despite the weak start Samsonite chief executive Tim Parker told reporters in Hong Kong: “I’m very optimistic about Samsonite’s prospects in Hong Kong.

“We’re extremely pleased to be listing (our) shares here... People in China are travelling more and more and when they travel they need more suitcases.”

Before the shares began trading, Parker said “we expect over the next few

years to be developing our company extensively in Asia and particularly our biggest markets in China and India.”

China and India are the firm’s second and third biggest markets respectively, after the United States, he said, adding that the firm also has “a major foothold” in South Korea and Japan.

“Even though Samsonite priced the IPO at a reasonable valuation, the weak market sentiment negatively affected investors who buy in IPOs looking for a short-term gain,” Ben Kwong, chief operating officer at KGI Asia, told Dow Jones Newswires. A restructuring has boosted Samsonite’s profit margins while it hikes spending on advertising, especially in Asia, where business grew 45 percent last year, Parker said earlier this month.

European private equity firm CVC bought Samsonite in 2007 in a $2 billion deal, following several earlier restructurings by the company, which almost went bankrupt in 2003.

Samsonite’s sales in 2010 recovered to $1.21 billion from $1.03 billion in 2009, when the global financial meltdown pounded the travel market.

Yesterday’s listing comes as several luxury goods makers prepare to list in Hong Kong in a bid to tap the region’s growing wealth. Prada will make its trading debut later this month with its IPO expected to raise as much as $3 billion, while US handbag maker Coach, already listed in New York, announced in May that its shares may start trading by the end of the year. Firms raised more than $50 billion in Hong Kong IPOs last year, including two monster sales by Asian insurer AIA and Agricultural Bank of China, making it the world’s biggest market for new listings. — AFP

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FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Oil around $114 on dollar strength, risk aversion IEA forecasts tighter oil market to 2012

BERN: The President of the Swiss National Bank Philipp Hildebrand arrives for a news conference yesterday in Bern. The Swiss central bank kept its key interest rate and 2011 growth forecast unchanged, but warned that “downside risks predominate.” — AFP

Swiss central bank holds rate, growth forecast BERN: The Swiss central bank kept its key interest rate and 2011 growth forecast unchanged yesterday, but warned that “downside risks predominate.”

“The Swiss National Bank is maintaining its expansionary monetary policy,” it said in a statement.

“The target range for the three-month Libor remains at 0.0 to 0.75 percent, and the SNB intends to keep the Libor within the lower part of the target range at around 0.25 percent,” it added.

The central bank warned however that mostly negative risks surrounded the economy, including the eurozone’s debt problems which have led to a significant drop of the euro against the Swiss franc. Nevertheless, it maintained its growth forecast for 2011 at 2.0 percent, noting that despite the strong franc and ensuing pressure on the export industry, “the economy continues to benefit from robust international demand”. Beyond the currency issue, the central bank warned that a property bubble may be developing.In its annual financial stability report published Thursday, it said that

“several indicators suggest that overheating is already becoming apparent in the owner-occupied apartment and apartment building segments.”

This is particularly so in Switzerland’s key cities. “The real estate price levels observed in the regions surrounding Lake Geneva, Lake Zurich and Lake Zug as well as certain tourist areas is only partially justified by fundamentals,” warned the central bank. Overall across the country, asking prices for owneroccupied apartments have leapt by as much as 44 percent from 2000, while those for single family houses have increased 27 percent over the decade.

Over the last two years, prices for owner-occupied apartments have risen 10 percent while for single family houses they are up 8 percent.

The central bank observed that overall real estate prices are now close to the level justified by fundamentals. But “in the medium term, a continuation of the price momentum of the past few years would result in a general overvaluation of properties,” it added. — AFP

LONDON: Oil rebounded above $114 yesterday, supported by bargain hunting after Brent’s second-largest drop in two years on Wednesday, but the trend was seen downwards given rising risk aversion and dollar strength.

Brent crude for August, the front-month contract after July expired on Wednesday, was up $1.03 cents to $114.04 a barrel by 1104 GMT, whilst US crude was up 49 cents to $95.30 a barrel at the same time.

This followed larger-thanexpected stock draws week-onweek, according to Energy Information Administration data. [EIA/S] Both contracts were off earlier intraday highs.

Traders and analysts said the overall trend remained downwards, given the stream of negative economic data out of the United States on Wednesday, the Greek sovereign debt crisis and rising risk aversion amongst investors, who returned to the safe haven of the US dollar.

“I wouldn’t read too much into today’s price increase; the overall sentiment is still negative,” said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

“Fear of the contagion of the Greek crisis will spread through European banks and other assets,” said Thorbjorn Bak Jensen, an oil analyst at Global Risk Management. “I think we are back in the $110-$118 dollar range again.” The International Energy Agency (IEA) called on oil-producing

group OPEC to raise output, saying that seasonal demand from refiners was set to soar in the third quarter. It saw a tighter oil market to 2012 than previously expected, but traders were unimpressed.

“I am not sure the IEA report will be enough to create a sustained move to the upside,” said Tony Machacek, a trader at Bache Commodities. “I would expect further downside after yesterday’s action.”

He pointed out that stock markets had also taken a hammering on Wednesday, and the dollar had strengthened as the euro came under sustained pressure.

“We’re reacting to the substantial sell-off last night-US products got absolutely battered,” he said, adding that US crude was challenging twomonth lows.

The dollar was up 0.25 percent against a basket of currencies at 1105 GMT, whilst the euro hit a three-week low against the dollar.

“The dollar index will remain a key trading input today, and with the S&P also at a key technical level, the risk remains for a cross-asset correction,” said Olivier Jakob, an oil analyst at Petromatrix in a note.

Fritsch also pointed to the dollar, weaker stock markets and higher risk aversion. “I think we can expect oil prices to resume their downward trend.”

Fritsch said yesterday’s weak US data and the ongoing problems in the eurozone were weighing on markets.

“We have seen an escalation of the crisis in Greece with violent protests, a government reshuffle, and the ratings agencies are still rating the risk of restructuring or default. This helps keep risk aversion elevated.”

Greece must pass a new round of tax rises and spending cuts to receive a new EU/IMF bailout and a 12 billion euro ($17 billion) aid tranche.

Edward Meir, senior commodity analyst at MF Global, agreed the trend was downwards: “Until such time as the markets get a clear indication as to which way the authorities are leaning, we expect to see further euro weakness, dollar strength, and consequent downward pressure on commodities,” he said in a note.

The commodities markets pulled back sharply on Wednesday, with US crude down more than 4 percent to $94.81, the lowest settlement since Feb. 22. Brent crude gave up nearly 6 percent in its second-largest single-day drop since April 2009.

Ben Westmore, a commodities analyst at National Australia Bank, said there was a little bit of buying on weakness after the fall overnight. Meir said that from a technical standpoint, US crude was at a significant trading range support at around $95. “But given the momentum behind Wednesday’s decline, we suspect this level will eventually give way. Brent is in far better technical shape.” — Reuters

Mulberry eyes China, US as business booms LONDON: British luxury fashion brand Mulberry said it expects overseas sales to overtake those in its home market in two years, as it beat forecasts with a more than fourfold increase in profit.

Shares in the firm, best known for its leather handbags priced around 500-900 pounds ($809-$1,455), rose more than 6 percent on Thursday after the company outlined its potential for expansion, particularly in China and the United States. “Probably in the year after next the sales to the rest of the world will exceed the UK and that trend will continue,” Chairman and Chief Executive Godfrey Davis said.

“We have two shops in New York so there’s quite a lot of the United States to go at, we’ve got one shop in Beijing so there’s quite a lot of China to go at,” he said. Mulberry, which designs, manufactures and sells leather goods and accessories, trades from 44 owned stores and department store

concessions in the UK and 42 owned or franchised stores overseas.

Davis expects at least 12 overseas openings in the 2011-12 year, with new stores in the US, South Korea, China, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

“We believe that this could be just the beginning of the Mulberry story given the limited footprint held in many of the largest luxury goods markets outside the UK,” said John Cummins, analyst at house broker Altium Securities, who raised his earnings forecasts by 12.8 percent and 12.1 percent for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 years respectively.

Shares in Mulberry, which have risen nearly sixfold over the last year, were up 6.4 percent at 1,420 pence at 0959 GMT, valuing the business at about 868 million pounds. The firm has a greater market capitalisation than the combined total of struggling British high street retailers Dixons ,

HMV and Game . The global luxury goods market has continued last year’s strong recovery, defying fears it might be hit by austerity measures in Europe and steps to cool fast-growing emerging market economies. Last month Burberry posted a 39 percent rise in profit.

Mulberry made a pretax profit of 23.3 million pounds in the year to March 31, ahead of analysts’ average forecast of 21.5 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data, and 5.1million pounds made in 2009-10.

2010-11 revenue jumped 69 percent to 121.6 million pounds, with international sales up 145 percent to 40.5 million pounds. Both retail and wholesale sales were up 38 percent in the 10 weeks to June 4. Mulberry, which ended the year with cash of 21.4 million pounds, is paying a dividend of 4 pence, up 82 percent. — Reuters

PARIS: France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers his speech at the French Farmers union (FNSEA) conference on Agriculture bringing together 120 farming organizations from 75 countries at the OECD yesterday in Paris. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Cairn CEO steps into chairman role in board shake-up LONDON: UK-based oil explorer Cairn Energy, battling challenges to two major projects in Greenland and India, said its chief executive would step up into the chairman role amid a sweeping board shake-up.

The company said yesterday that Bill Gammell, who founded the company, would move into the chairman role, leaving the CEO post to be filled by Simon Thomson, the current legal and commercial director.

The UK corporate governance code frowns upon the practice of chief executives stepping into chairman jobs, which can make it hard for new CEOs to challenge their predecessors’ decisions.

Cairn said it had consulted major shareholders and said they were comfortable with the decision. Jonathan Copus,

oil analyst at Deutsche Bank, said the move would reinvigorate the board.

“We view today’s news to be a positive step forward for Cairn’s future,” he said in a research note.

However, one analyst who asked not to be named noted that the new CEO was an unknown quantity, unlike the widely respected deputy CEO, Mike Watts.

Some shareholders had expected Watts, author of the group’s exploration success, to take over from Gammell when he moved out of the CEO job. Instead Watts retains his current position.

“I’m not sure the new CEO is that well known in the City. He doesn’t have the profile of the others,” the analyst said.

Cairn’s shares were down 2.0 percent by 1025 GMT, underperforming a 1.3 percent slide in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil

and Gas index.

Cairn is battling to complete two major undertakings. Its exploration plan in Greenland, aimed at opening up a new oil province with potentially billions of barrels, has been interrupted repeatedly by environmental campaigners.

In addition Cairn’s planned sale of most of its stake in its Indian subsidiary, Cairn India, to Vedanta Resources has also been delayed due to challenges from the government, which wants to extract higher taxes in return for approving the sale.

India’s cabinet yesterday steered clear of discussing the transaction, as it had been expected to, further delaying what could be one of the largest deals in the Indian oil and gas sector.

A spokesman said Gammell, who will retain executive authority with respect to

the Vedanta deal, had been mulling an end to his long tenure for some time and that the move was unrelated to any other issues.

Malcolm Thoms, 55, chief operating officer, and Philip Tracy, 61 group engineering and operations director, will stand down from the board, as will outgoing chairman Norman Murray.

Finance director Jann Brown will become managing director.

Gammell, a childhood friend of former US President George W. Bush who also went to school with former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, built the multi-billion dollar exploration business from scratch.

A former rugby international player for Scotland, he has become one of the most respected figures in the British oil industry. — Reuters

Carstens says IMF race not over yet BEIJING: Mexico’s candidate to lead the IMF said that his battle with France’s Christine Lagarde was not over yet after talks in Beijing yesterday, while chastising Europe for not making it a fair fight.

Agustin Carstens, the governor of Mexico’s central bank, is the clear underdog in the race to become the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund, following the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn last month.

His campaign to win support from major emerging nations has faltered in the face of Lagarde’s worldwide charm offensive, but he said officials in China, the world’s second-largest economy, had “listened very carefully” to his pitch.

“Regrettably this time around, Europe didn’t embrace the spirit of having a merit-based process,” Carstens told reporters after meetings with his Chinese counterpart Zhou Xiaochuan and Finance Minister Xie Xuren.

“That doesn’t mean... I’m declaring defeat by any means.

That’s not the case.”

Europe has maintained a 65-year lock on the top job at the Washington-based lender according to an unwritten agreement, but emerging nations such as China and India have questioned the tradition, calling it outdated.

The race for the IMF leadership began last month after Strauss-Kahn resigned to face sexual assault charges in New York.

Lagarde, France’s finance minister, and Carstens were placed on the shortlist earlier this week by the IMF’s 24-member board, which is expected to make a decision by June 30 after interviewing the candidates.

Carstens, who served as the IMF’s number three from 20032006 before returning to Mexico City to become finance minister and then central bank chief, admitted earlier this week that beating Lagarde would be difficult.

“I know that it’s an uphill battle,” Carstens told CNBC television. —AFP

RENTON: In this photo taken June 3, 2011, Boeing Co. 737 airplanes are shown at the company’s assembly facility in Renton, Wash. Officials said Wednesday, that Boeing plans to build 42 of the jets per month by the first half of 2014, an increase over the current assembly rate of 31.5 per month. — AP

Boeing sees 20-yr global jet market worth $4 trln Sees market for 33,500 jetliners over 20 years

BEIJING: Mexican central bank governor Agustin Carstens, one of the leading candidates to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the International Monetary Fund, gestures during a press conference held at the Mexican Embassy in Beijing yesterday.— AP

PARIS: Passenger jet sales will reach $4 trillion over the next 20 years, Boeing predicted yesterday as it hiked demand forecasts on the eve of the Paris Air Show.

The US planemaker estimated a total of 33,500 jetliner sales by all manufacturers between 2011 and 2030, led by Asia which has already toppled North America as the busiest region for air travel and is set to dominate coming decades.

Last year Boeing predicted 30,900 plane sales worth $3.6 billion over 20 years up to 2029.

Th e in c rease partly reflec ts a healthier starting point as the aviation industry has already turned the corner from recession.

But it also factors in an 8 percent

increase in anticipated demand for single-aisle jets like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, a segment of the market worth $2 trillion.

“The world market has recovered and is now expanding at a significant rate,” said Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing’s commercial division.

Boeing’s forecast includes 11,450 new passenger jets for Asia in a confirmation of the region’s transportintensive growth despite the expansion of high-speed rail networks in China. “The core of the aviation market has now moved from the US and North America to the AsianPacific market place,” Tinseth told a news conference.

By the end of 2012, there will be

12,000 km of high-speed rail lines in China, as much as in the rest of the world. That will curb some demand for air travel but will also promote economic growth that should result in further investment in air travel, with 97 airports set to open in China by 2020, Tinseth said.

Boeing and European rival Airbus face new competition from countries like China and Canada for sales of single-aisle passenger jets in the 150-seat category, the backbone for many fast-growing low-cost airlines.

Sales of a revamped Airbus A320 passenger jet are expected to dominate the Paris Air Show, but Tinseth reiterated that Boeing had not yet decided whether to do its own upgrade. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Couponing dad saves family big bucks

‘It’s not a manly thing to do, I guess, but it’s like a trophy to bring home an awesome receipt’

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cott Boudin’s home in Old Bethpage, NY, doesn’t contain the usual telltale signs of coupon compulsion: There are no stacks of tuna cans and paper towels looming in room corners or under beds, or bundles of newspaper inserts and supermarket circulars on tables - the kind of evidence often found on “Extreme Couponing,” the new TLC series that will feature Boudin on June 8, at 9 p.m.

Even Boudin’s stockpile - the ultimate dead giveaway - situated in the basement is (sort of) modest. Although it includes 2,500 diapers, 400 rolls of toilet paper and 150 rolls of paper towels, it occupies a shelving unit that takes up 14 feet of wall space; whereas, stockpiles of other featured coupon clippers have been known to encroach on bathrooms and children’s bedrooms.

“I am not like those people,” says Boudin, 35, a producer and on-air personality for Z100’s “Elvis Duran and The Morning Show.” “At least, in my head, I think I’m not.” Boudin is what he likes to call a “practical” couponer - a person who plays by the rules, who doesn’t split his orders into separate transactions or use expired coupons, who will purchase only the items that he and his family intend to use.

“I actually enjoy doing it,” he says. “It’s not a manly thing to do, I guess, but it’s like a trophy to bring home an awesome receipt.” Indeed, the savings can be

impressive. “These all cost nothing,” Boudin says, pointing to a recent haul of eight bottles of ready-to-feed baby formula, which, at full price, can retail for about $8 each.

How? Boudin found the formula on sale for $5 (his store of choice is ShopRite of Morton Village in Plainview, NY). He used four $5 coupons he found in previous weeks’ newspapers, and four $3 coupons given to him by friends and clipped from leftover inserts found at work. Then he used two $5 checks from Similac, part of the formula manufacturer’s StrongMoms program, to cover the balance. “So, in essence, I made two bucks on the deal,” he says.

And unlike many extreme couponers, who spend dozens of hours each week going through circulars, making spreadsheets and carefully organizing shopping trips, Boudin’s system is far less labor intensive. On Sunday mornings, aided by a cup of coffee and the TV set, Boudin combs the newspaper circulars and pairs the sale items with the coupons he has. “I’ll generally have 30 or 40 items on my shopping list and have coupons for nearly all of them,” says Boudin, who began clipping coupons when he moved to Iowa at age 18 and had to cut corners while living on his own.

He also visits reputable websites, such as Coupons.com, SmartSource.com and RedPlum.com, for added savings. “All the supermarkets have printable coupons on

their sites now too,” he says, “and a lot of them have e-coupons that they’ll send right to your loyalty card.” The groceries that Boudin purchased for the “Extreme Couponing” segment yielded his biggest savings yet - more than 90 percent of his total bill. “It was the most I’ve ever saved, because it was the most I ever bought,” he says, “but on a typical shopping trip, I’ll buy $150 worth of items and spend 30 or 40 bucks. As a general rule, I feel like if you can save more than you spend, you’re successful.”

Like many couponers, Boudin believes “full price is a dirty word,” which is why his wife, Amy, is “not allowed to go anywhere near the supermarket,” he says with a laugh.

“I know she sneaks out on her own during the week, and what I don’t know won’t hurt me. But sometimes I see bags from other stores, and I’m, like, ‘You went to Fairway?

There’s nothing on sale there!’”

“He’s been like this since I met him,” says Amy Boudin, 34, a business manager for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, who works from home and cares for the couple’s daughters, Ashley, 3, and Cooper, a newborn. “At first, I thought it was a little bizarre. At some points, we’d have 30 containers of body wash, and I’ll say to him, ‘Are you nuts?’ But we end up using it all.”

“I look at this as Aisle 3 at the supermarket,” Boudin says of his stockpile, “so my wife can come downstairs and get whatever she needs. I just make sure it’s stocked, and

if I can do it for really cheap or free, then more power to me.” We asked Newsday readers to share their best strategies for couponing.

“One of the things I hear from coupon newbies is, ‘Yes, I cut coupons, but then I forget about them or leave them at home.’

To keep that from happening, you should write your shopping list on an envelope ... then you can put the clipped coupons right in that envelope, so you have them with you as you shop. Or you can even throw them in a Ziploc bag and keep them in the car.” -Sherri Winther, Huntington Station, NY. “Buy the early Sunday edition of the newspaper, which is cheaper and usually has the same inserts as on Sunday. There are websites, such as SundayCouponPreview.com and TheCouponClippers.com, where you can find out what coupons will be available ahead of time. Also, there are sites that give previews of sales at supermarkets and drugstores - my favorites are hip2save.com and afullcup.com, which also do coupon matchups.” - Jodi Weiss, Smithtown, NY. “One of my favorite coupon deals requires NO coupon. King Kullen’s butcher department frequently has ‘manager’s specials’ on meat purchases, whereby the item is on sale at a fraction of the original cost due to the closeness of the sell-through date. The product is perfectly OK and the purchase results in significant savings.” -Bob Buscavage, Moriches, NY. — MCT

Opinion FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

The Palestinian move

By George Friedman

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former head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, has publicly criticized the current Israeli government for a lack of flexibility, judgment and foresight, calling it “reckless and irresponsible” in the handling of Israel’s foreign and security policies. In various recent interviews and speeches, he has made it clear that he regards the decision to ignore the 2002 Saudi proposal for a peace settlement on the pre-1967 lines as a mistake and the focus on Iran as a diversion from the real issue - the likely recognition of an independent Palestinian state by a large segment of the international community, something Dagan considers a greater threat.

What is important in Dagan’s statements is that, having been head of Mossad from 2002 to 2010, he is not considered in any way to be ideologically inclined toward accommodation. When Dagan was selected by Ariel Sharon to be head of Mossad, Sharon told him that he wanted a Mossad with “a knife between its teeth”. There were charges that he was too aggressive, but rarely were there charges that he was too soft. Dagan was as much a member of the Israeli governing establishment as anyone.

Therefore, his statements, and the statements of some other senior figures, represent a split not so much within Israel but within the Israeli national security establishment, which has been seen as being as hard-line as the Likud.

In addition, recently when proPalestinian demonstrators in the Golan Heights tried to force their way into Israeliheld territory, Israeli troops opened fire.

Eleven protesters were killed in the Golan, and six were killed in a separate but similar protest in the West Bank. The demonstrations, like the Nakba-day protests, were clearly intended by the Syrians to redirect anti-government protests to some other issue. They were also meant to be a provocation, and the government in Damascus undoubtedly hoped that the Israelis would open fire. Dagan’s statements seem to point at this paradox. There are two factions that want an extremely aggressive Israeli security policy: the Israeli right and countries and militant proxies like Hamas that are actively hostile to Israel. The issue is which benefits more.

3 Strategic Phases I want us to consider Palestinian strategy and to try to understand how the Palestinians will respond to the current situation. There have been three strategies on Palestine. The first was from before the founding of Israel until 1967. In this period, the primary focus was not on the creation of a Palestinian state but on the destruction of Israel by existing Arab nation-states and the absorption of the territory into those states.

Just a few years before 1967, the Palestine Liberation Army came into existence, and after Israel’s victory in the June 1967 war, the Arab nations began to change their stance from simply the destruction of Israel and absorption of the territories into existing nation-states to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The PLO strategy at this time was a dual track divided between political and

paramilitary operations and included terrorist attacks in both Israel and Europe. The political track tried to position the PLO as being open to a negotiated state, while the terrorist track tried to make the PLO seem extremely dangerous in order to motivate other nations, particularly European nations, to pressure Israel on the political track.

The weakness of this strategy was that the political track lost credibility as the terrorist track became bound up with late Cold War intrigues involving European terrorist groups like Italy’s Red Brigade or Germany’s Red Army Faction. Their networks ranged from the Irish Republican Army to the Basque terrorist group ETA to Soviet bloc intelligence services. The PLO was seen as a threat to Europe on many levels as well as a threat to the Arab royal houses that they tried to undermine.

For the Palestinians, the most significant loss was the decision by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to shift from the Soviet alliance and make peace with Israel. This isolated the Palestinian movement from any significant regional support and made

it dependent on the Soviets. With the Cold War winding down, the PLO became an orphan, losing its sponsorship from the Soviets as it had lost Jordanian and Egyptian support in the 1970s. Two main tendencies developed during this second phase. The first was the emergence of Hamas, a radically new sort of Palestinian movement since it was neither secular nor socialist but religious. The second was the rise of the internal insurrection, or intifada, which, coupled with suicide bombings and rocket fire from Gaza as well as from Hezbollah in Lebanon, was designed to increase the cost of insurrection to the Israelis while generating support for the

In a sense, the Palestinians have been in checkmate since the fall of the Soviet Union. They were divided, holding onto their public, dealing with a hostile Arab world and, except for the suicide bombings that frightened but did not weaken Israel, they had no levers to change the game.

Palestinians. Ultimately, the split between Hamas and Fatah, the dominant faction of the PLO that had morphed into the Palestinian National Authority, was the most significant aspect of the third strategic phase. Essentially, the Palestinians were simultaneously waging a civil war with each other while trying to organize resistance to Israel. This is not as odd as it appears. The Palestinians had always fought one another while they fought common enemies, and revolutionary organizations are frequently split.

But the Hamas-Fatah split undermined

the credibility of the resistance in two ways. First, there were times in which one or the other faction was prepared to share intelligence with the Israelis to gain an advantage over the other. Second, and more important, the Palestinians had no coherent goal, nor did anyone have the ability to negotiate on their behalf. Should Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas engage in negotiations with Israel he could not deliver Hamas, so the whole point of negotiations was limited. Indeed, negotiations were likely to weaken the Palestinians by exacerbating intra-communal tensions.

Post-Cold War Weakness One of the significant problems the Palestinians had always had was the hostility of the Arab world to their cause, a matter insufficiently discussed. The Egyptians spent this period opposed to Hamas as a threat to their regime. They participated in blockading Gaza. The Jordanians hated Fatah, having long memories about the Black September rising in 1970 that almost destroyed the Hashemite regime. Having a population that is still predominantly Palestinian, the Hashemites fear the consequences of a Palestinian state.

The Syrians have never been happy with the concept of an independent Palestinian state because they retain residual claims to all former Syrian provinces, including Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. When they invaded Lebanon in 1976, they were supporting Maronite Christians and trying to destroy the PLO. Finally, the constant attempts by Fatah and the PLO to overthrow the royal houses of Arabia - all of which failed - created massive mistrust between a number of Arab regimes and the fledgling Palestinian movement.

Therefore, the strategic position of the Palestinians has been extremely weak since the end of the Cold War. They have been able to put stress on Israel but not come anywhere close to endangering its survival or even forcing policies to change. Indeed, their actions tended to make Israel even more rigid. This did not displease the Palestinians as an outcome. The more rigid the Israelis were, the more intrusive they would be in the Palestinian community and the more both Fatah and Hamas could rely on Palestinian support for their policies. In a sense, the greatest threat to the Palestinian movement has always been the Palestinians losing interest in a Palestinian state in favor of increased economic wellbeing. The ability to force Israel to take aggressive measures increased public loyalty to each of the two groups. During a time of inherent civil conflict between the two, provoking Israel became a means of assuring support in the civil war.

From Israel’s point of view, so long as the suicide bombings were disrupted and Gaza was contained, it was in an extraordinarily secure position. The Arab states were indifferent or hostile (beyond public proclamations and donations that frequently wound up in European bank accounts); the United States was not prepared to press Israel more than formally; and the Europeans were not prepared to take any meaningful action because of the United States and the Arab countries. The Israelis had a problem but not one that ultimately threatened them. — Stratfor

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011 www.kuwaittimes.net

Jennifer Martinez poses for a photo at the NBCUNIVERSAL VIP party during the Cable Show on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, in Chicago. — AP

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Beyond iCloud

The best cloud services today

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pple turned heads this week with the announcement of its new iCloud service, which is slated to provide online storage and allow you to sync your files and data across many of Apple’s popular gadgets and computers. But iCloud isn’t a reality yet.

Other cloud-based services are. While iCloud will no doubt appeal to die-hard Apple fans, much of what it is set to offer is already available from a number of cloud-based offerings.

Get acquainted with the best of these now, and you’ll know whether iCloud is worth waiting for - or whether you can jump on another cloud now and let Apple take its time in rolling out its latest headline grabber.

Amazon Cloud Drive Amazon.com has been in the cloud business for a long time now. Its Simple Storage Service (S3) offering, in fact, has been available since 2006. The catch: it was primarily targeted at businesses or power users. Now, though, with Cloud Drive (https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive), Amazon has a fullfledged consumer-oriented offering that’s both easy to use and free. The “free” part includes 5 gigabytes (GB) of online storage, which you can use for backing up or synchronising your existing files. The “easy” part means that, for anyone who has ever pur-

chased anything at Amazon, signing up is a two-click process. Once your Cloud Drive is activated, another click allows you to start uploading files.

As you might expect, Amazon has also worked to integrate Cloud Drive with the Amazon store to provide additional features to Cloud Drive users. For instance, if you purchase MP3 files from Amazon, you can save those purchases to your Cloud Drive so that they’re available where you are. You can also set up Cloud Drive to back up your purchased files automatically. A free Cloud Player app will search for an allow you to upload your excising MP3 files as well. Also, if you shop regularly at Amazon anyway, additional Cloud Drive incentives await you. The purchase of an MP3 album from Amazon, for example, automatically nets you an increase in storage space to 20 GB for one year - and you won’t be automatically charged in the next year if you don’t purchase another thing. Your storage limit simply goes back to 5 GB. Dropbox What Amazon’s Cloud Drive lacks, Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com) has in spades. For starters, Dropbox, like Apple’s iCloud, is designed as much with synchroni-

sation in mind as it is with storage. Upload music, files, and videos to your Dropbox space, and you can set up the service to make those files available to your notebook, computer, or phone - wherever you are.

Dropbox sets up a special Dropbox folder on any device that it’s installed on, and then it works in the background to make sure that any files uploaded to your Dropbox account are available on all of your devices. A “public folder” option allows you to share files with others who may not use Dropbox. Dropbox offers a free account option that comes with 2 GB of online storage, while a 9.99 dollar Pro option increases storage space to 50 GB, and a Pro 100 plan provides 100 GB. Dropbox is compatible with both PCs and Macs, and it works with most smartphones, including iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. There’s even an iPad version available.

Windows Live SkyDrive Microsoft’s Live SkyDrive (http://explore.live.com/windows-liveskydrive) cloud offering is compelling for anyone who uses Windows or another Microsoft product, which amounts to a lot of people. Like other cloud services, SkyDrive offers storage - and lots of it. The basic free account provides a generous 25 GB of space,

and 5 GB of that can be used, in conjunction with the free Windows Live Mesh application, for synchronisation of files across devices. A compelling benefit of using SkyDrive is that it comes with free access to Microsoft’s Office web apps, which include online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Getting started with SkyDrive could hardly be easier. Those who already have a Hotmail or other Windows Live account merely need to log on to the SkyDrive site and provide their user ID and password. Uploading of files takes place via the web browser, although on the Internet there are easy-to-find instructions for mapping your SkyDrive to Windows Explorer for easier file operations.

The lowdown on iCloud So what exactly will Apple’s iCloud bring to the table that these other offerings do not? Tight integration with Apple’s devices and services is the primary answer. With existing cloud-based offerings, though, you can do much of what iCloud promises - and you can do it today. At the very least, signing up for one or more of these best-of-breed cloud services will get you acquainted with the concept of cloud computing, which is destined to be with us for some time to come. — dpa

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Relationships

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Motorcycle mamas follow open road to freedom

‘When you’re on a bike, your brain is so preoccupied with what you have to do that it’s like an anti-depressant’

When her bike won’t start after a brief stop, Cheryl Creson, of Auburn, Washington, gets to work to fix the problem during a social ride with local members of Women of Wheels, June 14, 2009. —MCT

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hey’re biker chicks, all right.

But they’re not clinging seductively to the back of some dude’s bike. And you won’t see any of the women in this group wearing a T-shirt that brands them as somebody’s “property,” either. These ladies members of the national Women on Wheels motorcycle organization - are in the driver’s seat when they head out on the highway.

Some started riding as kids, as passengers with their dads or as teens on the back of their own dirt bikes. Others didn’t start motorcycling until they were in their 40s or 50s. But they all have one thing in common: They treasure the wind in their faces and the sense of freedom they feel on the open road.

“When you’re on a bike, your brain is so preoccupied with what you have to do that it’s like an anti-depressant,” says Cheryl Creson of Auburn, Washington, who leads the West Side Girls, which has members from King and Pierce counties. Her group gathered for a ride last month with women riders from the Kitsap County-based Olympic Thunder, another Women on Wheels chapter. Riders ranged in age from their 30s to their 60s.

“I didn’t start riding until I was 57 years old,” says Conne Cannon, 65, who takes her portable oxygen tank along on rides. She and her husband, John, often ride togeth-

er on their own motorcycles they’ve been to Mexico and on a mission trip to Belize on bikes.

And he keeps her ride in top shape. “But it’s also good to do girl things,” she says. Cannon rides a three-wheeled 1500cc Gold Wing. “You don’t have to worry about corners, or stops,” she says,

bike, she was ready for her own. “I said this is what I really want to do,” she says. West Side Girl Trish Alexander got her first taste of motorcycling at about age 5, when the Hells Angels buzzed by her family’s station wagon. “My mom said not to look,” she says.

“I’m sure my brother and sister

Noelle Morris (right) wears a pink and black wig glued to the top of her helmet. —MCT demonstrating how her three wheels help keep her bike stable.

“It rides nice and smooth.”

Cannon’s husband introduced her to motorcycling. But after a couple of trips on the back of his

didn’t. But I did.”

She wasn’t really hooked on two-wheeling transportation until she accidentally stumbled on the Mecca of motorcycling, Sturgis, SD. Since the 1930s, motorcyclists

from all over the country have been converging on the city each summer for races, rallies and raucous fun. Today, the event attracts hundreds of thousands of people.

But Alexander knew nothing of Sturgis’ reputation the year she took her kids to see Mount Rushmore and South Dakota’s Black Hills.

The noisy bikes around Sturgis drove her husband - now her ex crazy. But they were music to the ears of Alexander. She vowed that once her kids were grown up, she was going to get her own motorcycle. As a single mom, she remembers having to dip into her Harley fund to buy the kids shoes.

But she eventually got her own bike. Riding it makes her feel closer to her son, who died in a car accident at age 18. She wears a white butterfly pin on her leather vest in his honor.

“After he died, I needed to be alone with my grief,” she says. “It’s therapy. It’s relaxing.” Biking takes concentration and focus, say the women riders. And they all say the best way to get started motorcycling is to take a safety course.

Motorcyclists need to stay constantly aware of what the cars around them are doing. Often, drivers of cars can’t see them approaching. “You need to drive defensively,” says Jan Roark, who drives a 1500cc Gold Wing twowheel motorcycle that’s powerful enough to haul a small pop-up

camper. “You need to concentrate on the road when you’re out in the open on a bike.”

But like other women in the motorcycle clubs, she finds the need to focus relaxing, rather than stressful. “It forces you to put aside the day’s problems,” Roark says. Jeanette Sayers, chapter director of Olympic Thunder, grew up in a family of cyclists that includes both her parents, aunts, uncles and brothers-in-law, among others. But she says being part of a club makes riding fun.

She was happy to find Olympic Thunder after moving to Washington state two years ago from Utah. “Some of these gals are now my best friends,” she says.

“They’re kind of like family.”

Savanna Stevens started riding 11 years ago. “I wanted to take possession of my own life,” says the grandmother of five. That’s one reason her Harley is called “Freedom.” She wants to get a new bike, and pass on “Freedom” to the oldest of her five grandchildren, who just graduated from high school. And she will direct the oldest to keep passing it down in the family until every grandchild has had a chance to taste “Freedom.” —MCT

Fo o d

EVERY DAY COOKING

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Filipino

favorites

By Sawsan Kazak

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ince I had my first taste of Filipino food a few months back, I have been obsessed ever since. The menu was a little intimidating at first, but a good friend of mine came with me and explained to me the many delightful dishes and their different flavors. Filipino dishes range from sweet, sour and savory and sometimes a combination of all three. With its unique flavors, I predict Filipino food becoming the next food trend. These following recipes will keep you one step ahead of the trend.

Send your suggestions to: sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

Lumpiang Ubod 2 cups fresh ubod (heart of palm) 1 cup chicken 1/2 cup shrimp 1 whole medium onion 1 tablespoon garlic 1 teaspoon black pepper

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aute onion and garlic. Add chicken and fry until brown. Add shrimp and saute for five minutes. Add ubod, stirring occasionally until meat and vegetables are tender.

For sauce, mix 1 cup sugar, 3 teaspoons soy sauce, 3 cups water, 1-1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Slowly stir in 3 tablespoons of cornstarch until thick. Season with black pepper and serve with sauce.

Salt 3 garlic cloves 3 cups cooked white rice 1 tbsp cooking oil

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eat 3 tbsp cooking oil in a wok or large pan on medium-high heat. (Add more cooking oil if necessary) Add garlic and saute for 15 seconds or till golden brown. Add the rice and toss frequently for 1 minute. Sprinkle a pinch of salt.

Cook rice on low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes, and toss rice occasionally.

Filipino garlic fried rice

Fo o d

EVERY DAY COOKING

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Kare Kare I

1 kilo beef (round or sirloin cut) 3 cups peanut butter 1/4 cup grounded toasted rice 1/2 cup cooked bagoong alamang (anchovies) 2 pieces onions, diced 2 heads of garlic, minced 4 tablespoons oil 4 pieces eggplant, sliced 1 inch thick 1 bundle Pechay (Bok choy) 1 bundle of sitaw (string beans) 1 banana bud 1/2 cup oil 8 cups of water Salt to taste

Chicken Adobo

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ut vinegar, bay leaves, pepper, soy sauce, and water in a saucepan. Cover and cook slowly about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the cooking oil in a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan. Peel the garlic, break the cloves into chunks, and brown them over medium-low heat (about 5 minutes). Add the chicken to the fry pan and brown it over medium-high heat (about 5 minutes). Add the broth to the fry pan and simmer, partly covered, until the chicken is done (about 30 minutes). Do not let it come to a boil. Remove the bay leaves and serve over rice.

1 Kilo Shrimp 12 pcs Tamarind or 1 pack Sinigang Mix 1 big Onion (diced) 3 big tomatoes (quartered) 2 pieces Radish (sliced) 1 bundle Sitaw (String beans) 1 bundle Kangkong (cut) 3 pieces long green pepper 5 cups water Salt or Patis (fish sauce)

Sinigang na Hipon

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oil Tamarind in rice wash or water to soften.

Pound and extract all juices and set aside. In a casserole, boil rice wash or water, Tamarind juice, onions, tomatoes and Radish. Lower fire, add in Shrimps, Kangkong, Sitaw and green long pepper.

Simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt or patis

1 can (390g) evaporated milk 1 can (390g) condensed milk 10 egg yolks 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or lemon essence For the caramel: 1 cup sugar 3/4 cup water

Leche Flan

2 lb chicken pieces, cut up or whole 1 head of garlic, coarsely chopped 4 Tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp ground black pepper 2 cups water 1/2 cup vinegar 2 bay leaves 2 Tbsp cooking oil

n a stock pot, boil beef, tripe and oxtails in water for an hour or until cooked. Strain and keep the stock. In a big pan or wok, heat oil and oil. Saute garlic, onions until golden brown, then add the stock, toasted rice, beef, oxtail and peanut butter. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Salt to taste. Add the eggplant, string beans, pechay and banana bud. Cook the vegetables for a few minutes - Do not overcook the vegetables.

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n a saucepan, mix the sugar & water. Bring to a boil for a few minutes until the sugar caramelize.

Pour the caramelized sugar into aluminum moulds - you can use any shape: oval, round or square. Spread the caramel on the bottom of the moulds. Mix well the evaporated milk, condensed milk, egg yolks and vanilla by hand or blender.

Gently pour the mixture on top of the caramel on the aluminum moulds. Fill the moulds to about 1 to 1 1/4 inch thick. Cover moulds individually with aluminum foil. Steam for about 20 minutes (the traditional way to make Leche Flan is by open-air steaming on either an open cooking fire or stove top) OR Bake for about 45 minutes. Before baking the Leche Flan, place the moulds on a larger baking pan half filled with very hot water. Pre-heat oven to about 370 degrees before baking. Let cool then refrigerate.

To serve: run a thin knife around the edges of the mould to loosen the Leche Flan. Place a platter on top of the mould and quickly turn upside down to position the golden brown caramel 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 : Mumita, Rafie and Mukit are in Morocco for the World Kitesurfing Championships.

One of Mumita’s friends is taking part as a competitor.

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

www.the99.org

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

New York city

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aving visited the city dozens of times, we’ve compiled a list of our highlights-things you don’t want to miss. Truth is there are way more than 10 great things to see in New York.

Seems like everyone planning a trip to New York wants a quick list of the best things to see and do when you are in the Big Apple.

1. Get a view of the city from a tall building. In the old days, we took visitors to the top of the World Trade Center - you were on top of the world... Today you have 2 options, either the Empire State Building or Top of the Rock in Rockefeller Center. I think I prefer the view from Top of the Rock because you can also see Central Park from there. The Empire State Building is more famous and has more history to it, and it’s taller-you decide which you prefer, but be sure to go up one of them.

2. See the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is smaller than most people expect, but as such an important symbol of America, you have to see it when in New York. It is out in New York Harbor

beyond the lower end of Manhattan. You can see it from Battery Park downtown, but we recommend riding the Staten Island Ferry out past it. The Ferry is free and takes a little over an hour roundtrip (you have to get off in Staten Island, but you just walk around the line and get back on to return). It sails right past the statue giving you a great view and photo op. The other option is to take the Libery Island Ferry from Battery Park (also stops at Ellis Island) — you can no longer climb up the stairs inside the statue, but you can see it up close and walk around it. If you have several days in New York and plenty of time, then opt for the Ellis Island and Liberty Island trip-otherwise, take a quick cruise on the Staten Island Ferry.

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

3. Walk Around Central Park. Well, not actually around it, walk through it. We like starting at the southern end of the park, right at 59th and 5th Avenue. You’ll see all the horse carriages lined up there-if you’ve got the money, consider one of those (about $35-$40 plus tip for 30 minutes, for the whole carriage, not per person), otherwise start walking. Check out the Wollman ice rink in the winter months, visit Tavern on the Green (especially at night with all the lights), see the Central Park Zoo if you have kids, have a drink at The Boathouse, climb up Belvedere Castle for the view-just walk around and enjoy the sights and sounds.

4. Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge. Yep, the top level of the bridge is open to pedestrians. Take the subway down to City Hall, then follow the signs to the bridge.

You get beautiful views of downtown, all while walking on a world landmark. If you have enough time, go all the way across and tour the Brooklyn Heights area and take in the views from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

5. Walk Around Downtown. This is a relatively compact area. Visit Trinity Church, St. Paul’s Chapel, City Hall, see Ground Zero where the World Trade Center once stood, walk down Wall St. and see Federal Hall where George Washington was sworn in as first President, see the Stock Exchange, walk down to Battery Park, and check out South Street Seaport. Consider taking a Circle Line boat tour around NY Harbor, or in summer months, a high-speed boat ride on the Beast, tickets for both at South Street Seaport. Explore our Downtown New York Walking Tour.

6. See Times Square at night. You have to enjoy the lights of Times Square at night-just get out and walk up and down Broadway. You’ve seen it a million times in movies and on New Year’s Eve of course, now you’re a part of it! Pop into some of the famous spots like Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum and the giant Toys R Us store.

7. Experience 5th Avenue. Walk along 5th Ave. I like to start at 42nd Street at the New York Library (if you have a little more time, start out at Grand Central Station first another block or two down 42nd St-the Chrysler Building is right next door, and the interior of Grand Central has awed people for decades..) — make your way up past Rockefeller Center, window shop at all the fancy stores, check out St. Patrick’s Cathedral, see the famous Plaza Hotel, see the Apple Store glass cube, go into the famous FAO Schwarz toy store, walk past the mansions and fancy uptown apartments as you head north along Central Park. We recommend returning at night as well to see how Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s are lit up, then hop up to the Pen-Top rooftop bar for a $20 cocktail to enjoy while you savor the views over midtown.

8. See a Broadway Show. You can’t go to New York and not see a play or musical on Broadway, right? If you only have one night in the city, I say skip the show and enjoy those hours walking around the city. But if you have time, you’ll never forget the experience of a live show in a New York theater. The popular shows are not cheap - there is information on Broadway tickets here.

You can see what discount tickets are available on the day of a show at the TKTS booth in Times Square (opens at 3PM) or down at South Street Seaport (opens at 11AM).

9. Explore Neighborhoods like Greenwich Village. New York is more than just the area around Times Square and Midtown. Check out some other neighborhoods while in New York. One of our favorites is Greenwich Village. Try this Greenwich Village Walking Tour if you have a few hours. Greenwich Village is also home to many jazz clubs, a great way to spend a late night. Also explore Little Italy and Chinatown (you can see them both in an hour) for a little more local flavor (Chinatown walking tour here). Pizza at Lombardi’s is considered a not-to-be-missed New York experience.

10. New York Museums. Hey, you gotta get a little culture into you when in New York. Go to the Metropolitan Museum (the “Met”), the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Natural History. You can spend hours and hours at all these places-great if you have the time, otherwise make abbreviated visits to get a feel for these famous sites. Also consider the Intrepid (a docked aircraft carrier) Sea, Air, and Space Museum IntrepidMuseum.org.

11. Morningside Heights. Head way up the west side and visit Columbia University, St. John the Divine Cathedral, and Grant’s Tomb overlooking the Hudson River. This is a little off the normal beaten path tourists follow, but it is a neat area to spend an hour walking around.

Books FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Hot new summer reads Dreams of Joy

by Lisa See

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n her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father-the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the

Kamchatka

dangers in the communist regime.

Devastated by Joy’s flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation. Yet even as Joy’s and Pearl’s separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China’s history threatens their very lives.

Acclaimed for her richly drawn characters and vivid storytelling, Lisa See once again renders a family challenged by tragedy and time, yet ultimately united by the resilience of love.

To Be Sung Underwater

by Marcelo Figueras

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n 1976 Buenos Aires, a ten-year-old boy lives in a world of school lessons and comic books, TV shows and games of Risk-a world in which men have superpowers and boys can conquer the globe on a rectangle of cardboard. But in his hometown, the military has just seized power, and amid a climate of increasing terror and intimidation, people begin to disappear without a trace.

When his mother unexpectedly pulls him and his younger brother from school, she tells him they’re going on an impromptu family trip. But he soon realizes that this will be no ordinary holiday: his parents are known supporters of the opposition, and they are going into hiding.

Holed up in a safe house in the remote hills outside the city, the family assumes new identities.

The boy names himself Harry after his hero Houdini, and as tensions rise and the uncertain world around him descends into chaos, he spends his days of exile learning the secrets of escape.

Kamchatka is the portrait of a child forced to square fantasy with a reality in which family, politics, history, and even time itself have become more improbable than any fiction. Told from the points of view of Harry as a grown man and as a boy, Kamchatka is an unforgettable story of courage and sacrifice, the tricks of time and memory, and the fragile yet resilient fabric of childhood.

by Tom McNeal

J

udith Whitman always believed in the kind of love that “picks you up in Akron and sets you down in Rio.” Long ago, she once experienced that love. Willy Blunt was a carpenter with a dry wit and a steadfast sense of honor. Marrying him seemed like a natural thing to promise. But Willy Blunt was not a person you could pick up in Nebraska and transport to Stanford. When Judith left home, she didn’t look back.

Twenty years later, Judith’s marriage is hazy with secrets. In her hand is what may be the phone number for the man who believed she meant it when she said she loved him. If she called, what would he say?

To Be Sung Underwater is the epic love story of a woman trying to remember, and the man who could not even begin to forget.

Books FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Long Drive Home

Getting to Happy

by Will Allison

by Terry McMillan

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erry McMillan’s Waiting to Exhale was more than just a bestselling novel-its publication was a watershed moment in literary history. McMillan’s sassy and vibrant story about four African American women struggling to find love and their place in the world touched a cultural nerve, inspired a blockbuster film, and generated a devoted audience.

Now, McMillan revisits Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin fifteen years later.

Each is at her own midlife crossroads: Savannah has awakened to the fact that she’s made too many concessions in her marriage, and decides to face life single again-at fifty-one. Bernadine has watched her megadivorce settlement dwindle, been swindled by her husband number two, and conned herself into thinking that a few pills will help distract her from her pain. Robin has an all-American case of shopaholism, while the big dream of her life-to wear a wedding dress- has gone unrealized. And for years, Gloria has taken happiness and security for granted. But being at the wrong place at the wrong time can change everything. All four are learning to heal past hurts and to reclaim their joy and their dreams; but they return to us full of spirit, sass, and faith in one another. They’ve exhaled: now they are learning to breathe.

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n his riveting new novel, Will Allison, critically acclaimed author of What You Have Left, crafts an emotional and psychological drama that explores the moral ambiguities of personal responsibility as it chronicles a father’s attempt to explain himself to his daughter-even though he knows that in doing so, he risks losing her.

Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver. But the reckless driver is killed, and just like that, Glen’s placid suburban existence begins to unravel.

Written in part as a confessional letter from Glen to his daughter, Sara, Long Drive Home evokes the sharp-eyed observation of Tom Perrotta and the pathos of Dan Chaon in its trenchant portrait of contemporary American life.

When Glen realizes no one else saw the accident, he impulsively lies about what happened-to the police, to his wife, even to Sara, who was in the backseat at the time of the crash. But a tenacious detective thinks Sara might have seen more than she knows, or more than her parents will let her tell. And when Glen tries to prevent the detective from questioning Sara, he finds himself in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game that could end in a lawsuit or prison. What he doesn’t see coming is the reaction of his wife, Liz-a panicked plan that threatens to tear their

family apart in the name of saving it.

But what if the accident wasn’t really Glen’s fault? What if someone else were to blame for the turn his life has taken? It’s a question Glen can’t let go of. And as he struggles to understand the extent of his own guilt, he finds himself on yet another collision course, different in kind but with the potential to be equally devastating. Long Drive Home is a stunning cautionary tale of unintended consequences that confirms Will Allison’s growing reputation as a rising literary talent.

Faith

by Jennifer Haigh

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t is the spring of 2002 and a perfect storm has hit Boston. Across the city’s archdiocese, trusted priests have been accused of the worst possible betrayal of the souls in their care. In Faith, Jennifer Haigh explores the fallout for one devout family, the McGanns.

Estranged for years from her difficult and demanding relatives, Sheila McGann has remained close to her older brother Art, the popular, dynamic pastor of a large suburban parish. When Art finds himself at the center of the maelstrom, Sheila returns to Boston, ready to fight for him and his reputation.

What she discovers is more complicated than she imagined. Her strict, lace-curtain-Irish mother is living in a state of angry denial. Sheila’s younger brother Mike, to her horror, has already convicted his brother in his heart. But most disturbing of all is Art himself, who persistently dodges Sheila’s questions and refuses to defend himself.

As the scandal forces longburied secrets to surface, Faith explores the corrosive consequences of one family’s history of silence-and the resilience its mem-

bers ultimately find in forgiveness.

Throughout, Haigh demonstrates how the truth can shatter our deepest beliefs-and restore them. A gripping, suspenseful tale of one woman’s quest for the truth, Faith is a haunting meditation on loyalty and family, doubt and belief.

Elegantly crafted, sharply observed, this is Jennifer Haigh’s most ambitious novel to date.

Kuwait bookstores

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ou may be able to find these books in the following bookstores. If not, you can ask for a special order and your books will be delivered within weeks.

Jarir Bookstore Location: Hawally Park, Tunis Street Telephone: 22610111 Virgin Bookstore Location: Marina Mall, Salmiya Al-Muthana Kuwait Bookstore Location: Al-Muthanna Complex, Fahed Al-Salem Street Tel: 22424266 Better Books - Second Hand Books Location: Salmiya, block 10, Amman street.

Behind Al-Rashid Hospital Tel: 66637351

Beauty FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

What to look for when shopping for a

summer dress he right length for your body type: Summer dresses come in lengths that vary from several inches above the knee, down to the ankle. Before you start shopping for a summer dress, determine what length will work best for you this summer. Take into account your body type, and what dress length will look best on your body.

For example, taller people look great in longer dresses, or knee length, whereas, shorter people should never wear full length, as it makes them look even shorter than they are.

The right sleeves, or lack of sleeves: Next, when shopping for a summer dress, narrow down your choices by determining the sleeves you want. Do you want cap sleeves, tank top, strapless, spaghetti strap, halter? There are several options, so choosing the one you want can help you get the right summer dress. If you have bigger arms, a halter, or razorback is a great choice, as it helps draw the focus

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toward your face. If you are broad shouldered, choose something that is not going to make that too obvious, strapless is never a good idea for someone who is broad. If you want sleeves, what length?

Considering what looks good on your body, and what your personal preferences are, will help make choosing a summer dress much simpler.

Choose the right fabric: If you want to hide love handles, or areas that are not as flattering on your body, do not choose an acrylic or skin tight dress. Instead, choose a more structured material that holds its form better, it will help you look thinner. In addition, choose a fabric that can breathe, as this is important if you are going to be outside in your summer dress, sweating, and the like. Natural fabrics like cotton are usually your best choice. Lastly, pick something you can toss in your washing machine at home.

Choose a flattering color:

Summer colors are great, as there are lots of options in both the warm and cool families. This means that you can choose the right tones for your skin. If reds, oranges, and yellows make your skin look blotchy, washed out, pale, or poor in some other way, choose cooler colors like purples, blues, and earth tones. You should shop for a summer dress that flatters you, including the color, not just the cut.

Choose a flattering print or design: Floral, sunbursts, tie dye, solid, checked, etc. The prints and patterns for summer dresses are numerous, and so, remember two things. First, if you are a bigger girl, look for bigger prints. If you have smaller prints, it will look like a very wide expanse. The bigger the print, the smaller you will look. Also, try the dress on, and look how the pattern looks on you. For example, if there are sunbursts, make sure they are not right over your breasts, as this would look very funny. (www.surfnetparents.com)

Beauty FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

7 Skin care tips for

glowing skin in summer ummer is about baring skin and showing off the beautiful (fake) summer tan you have.

But in order to look good baring that skin, you need to take some time to ready your skin and reverse the signs of neglect you showed your skin during fall, winter and spring.

Knock of each step on my skin care tips for glowing skin and you’ll be ready to pull out your favorite summer dress in no time flat.

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1. Exfoliate your body It’s so very important to exfoliate your skin. Your body sheds skin cells at an amazing rate every minute of every day. If you don’t get rid of them, they’ll just sitting on your skin making you look dull and dry. No matter how much lotion you use, you’re never going to have glowing skin if you don’t exfoliate. Grab a body scrub and hit the shower.

Gently rub your exfoliator in circular movements on your entire body from the shoulders down (you’ll want a facial exfoliator for your face and neck) and rinse clean. Continue to do this 2-3 times a week for yearround beautiful skin.

2. Shave the right way I won’t ask for a show of hands; you know who you are. In the winter, what is the point of keeping your legs religiously shaved daily when you know your legs will never see the light of day? Those lazy days of winter are over. Find a good razor that won’t cause razor burn. I’m a fan of Gilette’s Mach 3. (compare prices) When picking out a shaving cream, don’t choose the $1.00 men’s cream; a shaving lotion is much better for your skin as it will hydrate and help ward off nicks and cuts. In a pinch? Use your conditioner for a moisturizing shaving cream.

3. Hydrate your body with a summer-scented lotion Find a summery lotion that you won’t forget to put on.

It’s time to pack away your thick winter body butters for more light summery lotions. You don’t have time to wait for your lotion to sink in, so look for something light fast absorbing. Gels and Purees are perfect fast absorbers. I personally love to break out the coconut or mango scented lotion for summer. Nothing spells summer more than a light refreshing fruity lotion. Make sure you apply right after you dry off from your shower. You need to seal in the moisture your body just soaked in.

4. Get a safe summer glow You have so many choices when it comes to adding a little summer tint to your skin, and the tanning bed shouldn’t be one of them. Using a sunless tanner will give your skin a beautiful start to summer. Even if you’re not a fan of sunless tanners all over your body, you can happily use them on your face. If you alternate your facial moisturizer with one that builds a bit of color, you’ll have a healthy glow that will make it look as though you just spent the weekend on the beach. Most facial tanners build color gradually, by alternating with your regular moisturizer, you’ll never get too dark.

5. Don’t forget your feet Winter boots have long since been packed away; it’s sandal season ladies. Either go and get a pedicure (try a beauty school if cost is a factor), or give yourself an at-home pedicure. You scrub off the dead dry skin to reveal your sandal ready feet. Nothing is worse than seeing dull dry feet inside cute sandals. It doesn’t have to be a big ordeal. Keep a foot scrub and file in your shower and scrub your feet a few times a week.

You’ll notice a big difference in the softness of your feet.

6. Find a new bold summer polish Buy a bold new polish for your toes. Toe nails can be painted a much bolder color than you would usually put on your fingernails. Pick out something that screams summer. Polish tends to stay on your toes much longer than your hands because you don’t abuse your toe nails like you do your finger nails.

Apply a clear base coat, two applications of color and a clear top coat to protect. Go barefoot or put on your flip-flops for at least a couple hours to make sure your polish won’t dent.

7. Out with the old - buy a new sunscreen Throw away last year’s unused sunscreen for a new bottle. Sunscreens aren’t meant to last forever, and seeing most people don’t use as much as they should, I bet you have a bottle or two stored away. Be safe and pick up a new one. And don’t forget the most important sunscreen advice: USE IT. You should be using a shot glass full for your body, and a full teaspoon just on your face. Reapply every 1-2 hours that you are in the sun to ensure a summer full of safe sun fun. —About

A

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Health

Years

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Is chewing gum bad for you?

T

he short answer is yes - that is, if you chew gum with sugar. Sugar-packed gum, a favorite among children, add unwanted low-grade calories while coating their teeth with tooth-decaying sugars. So, what about sugarless gum?

Many experts say that chewing sugarless gum can actually give you whiter, cleaner teeth. Here’s how it works: The gum stimulates production of saliva and increases salivary flow. That helps to “wash” the teeth and neutralizes some of the acid produced by bacteria that feast on sugar and other food particles in your mouth.

The acid, which attacks your teeth enamel, is then reduced. Xylitol, a low calorie sugar substitute in sugarfree gum, has also been shown to reduce the amount of those very same bacteria that also cause bad breath.

Sugarless gum has other benefits, especially with weight gain. It has been known to help curb cravings.

Studies report that popping in a piece of sugarless gum may help you from straying off your diet or indulging in unnecessary after-meal snacks.

On the downside, chewing gum often can result in muscle pain and fatigue to the jaw. If you suffer from IBS

(irritable bowel syndrome), then gum may not be the best thing for you. Chewing causes excess air to be swallowed, which might cause more discomfort or bloating to an already tender large intestine.

I know what the next question will be. Is swallowing gum bad for you? The short answer is again yes. While it might not be detrimental to your health, introducing something into your stomach that your body can’t digest is never a good thing. Gum is made from chewable synthetic polymers like rubber and polyethylene, mixed with a little bit of natural latex injected with flavors and sweeteners. Doesn’t sounds like something I would want in my belly! And no, gum doesn’t stay in your intestines for seven years though all my girlfriends from high school told me it was so.

Super foods to add to your diet: Flax F

lax, also known as linseed. originated from India and has been used since ancient times. It is an annual plant that grows blue flowers with five petals, and can occasionally found in bright red. The fruit is round, brown and glossy and looks much like an apple seed. The seeds and the fibers of this plant are used, both for different purposes.

There are two basic varieties of flax, yellow and brown.

Flax seeds produce oil called flaxseed or linseed oil. It is used as a drying oil in paintings and varnishing. Flax seeds are very healthy and full of fiber and protein. The seeds are often mixed with other foods for an added benefit of fiber and protein. They provide a slightly nutty flavor to the foods to which they are added. The sprouts can also be eaten, and they have a spicy flavor. The sprouts can help to remove bowel obstruction and were added to foods for thousands of years.

Flax seeds have been proven to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The seeds and oil can be used as an anti-inflammatory and laxative. It seems to have a better effect on women. It has been proven to lessen tumors in breasts and prostate. The oil can help to heal burns, and scraped tissues. The oil can also be applied to the chest for colds and coughs. There is new evidence that it can strengthen the immune system.

The flesh of the herb has been used for centuries to make cloth. The plant is harvested and put through a process to make it into a string. It has been used to make cloth and fabrics for thousands of years.

Health FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Our bodies are made to move I

f you have a sedentary job, think about how your body feels at end of the day.

Do you have tight muscles, an aching back, feel exhausted even though you haven’t done anything physical? Maybe your shoulders burn from tension and your head hurts from staring at a computer screen for too long. Now, think about how your body feels after a workout. Your muscles are warm and flexible, the blood is pumping through your body, providing oxygen and energy. You feel energized, confident, proud of yourself and ready to take on the world. It’s much different, isn’t it? Our bodies are made to move-not sit around all day and yet, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Next, take a moment to remember all the benefits of cardio exercise: • Weight loss • Stronger heart and lungs • Increased bone density • Reduced stress • Reduced risk of heart disease and some types of cancer • Temporary relief from depression and anxiety • More confidence about how you feel and how you look • Better sleep • More energy • Setting a good example for your kids to stay active as they get older Notice that weight loss, while a big focus for many people, is only one benefit of cardio. Despite that, weight loss is often our only goal and not just for health, but to look good. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good, having that as our only goal can make exercise harder.

Why? Because losing weight takes time...what happens if you don’t see results on your timetable? Where will your motivation go if the scale doesn’t cooperate?

Open your mind to other reasons to exercise-you might just find new ways to make exercising easier.

Cardio for better quality of life Appearance is important. That’s why I take a shower every day, make sure my clothes match and check that I don’t have anything green stuck in my teeth. But I worry that we’ve gotten so obsessed with how we look that we no longer care about how we feel. If you look at the benefits listed above, all of them translate into feeling good now and in the future. Despite that, we still seem more entranced with getting six-pack abs than feeling good, both physically and mentally.

Have we forgotten that being active can make our lives better? Moving around increases blood flow to our muscles, strengthens the heart and lungs and teaches the heart to work more efficiently. Not only that, when you exercise you set a good example for your kids to do the same, which could mean a better future for them.

If all this is true, why isn’t that enough to get us moving? Why do so many of us struggle with being active? Part of it might be how we think about ourselves, our bodies and exercise. Read on to learn how to Change the Way You Think.

We all get emotionally attached to certain ideas. A few years ago I would’ve laughed at the idea of enjoying my workouts. Every workout I did had to be as hard

Why You Need Cardio Exercise

as possible for as long as possible. But over the years I’ve learned that exercise can actually feel good-no, not lounging-on-thebeach-sipping-margaritas good, but the kind where I feel strong, confident and able to tackle anything. So, if you’re only focused on weight loss, how can you change that? How can you start looking forward to exercise?

• Keep It simple. If you’re confused about what to do, start with the basics-you need at least 20 minutes for the body to get going, so start there. Get out your calendar, find 20 minutes of time on 3 different days and do something-walking, running, going to the gym, vigorous yard work-whatever you want. Make it a habit first and work on your time and intensity later.

• Be Patient. Part of allowing yourself time to make exercise a habit is being patient...you can’t start where you want to be (which may be exercising 5 or 6 days a week), you have to start where you are and

that means weight loss may be slow in coming as you get your mind and body conditioned for exercise. Make your weight loss goal long-term, then focus on the daily steps you need to take to get there.

• Focus on Your Body. If you exercise regularly, when was the last time you left your walkman at home and spent some time focusing on how your body feels?

While music is a great motivator, why not set a goal to do one workout a week with no distractions? Leave your heart rate monitor, magazines and walkman at home.

Forget about calories, intensity and the rest of it and focus on how your body feels.

Try different activities. Go slower or faster and see how your body responds. Take some time to learn about your body and you’ll be able to create workouts based on your own rules instead of someone else’s.

• Stop and Smell the Roses. If you never exercise outside, I challenge you to do so.

Go out and walk, run or ride your bike.

Leave your watch at home and take some

time to look around, notice the scenery. If you see an interesting road...take it.

Breathe deeply. Sometimes just being outside is a reminder of how wonderful it is to have a healthy, functioning body.

• Mix It Up. The nice thing about cardio exercise is that you can choose any activity that raises your heart rate. You don’t have to do the same workout every session, nor every week. If you’ve been doing the same workouts, aren’t you bored? Changing up your cardio is easy, so do it often and you’ll discover more activities you enjoy.

• Appreciate Your Body. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn to appreciate my body until I got an injury. When I was forced to stop exercising, I suddenly missed it. Try to learn to appreciate your body now, while it’s in good working order. Just taking a few moments during your workouts to imagine what it would be like if you couldn’t do what you wanted can help remind you how amazing your body is-no matter how it looks. —About

Art FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Watts gallery: Repaired and restored The legacy of Barack Obama’s favourite painter is alive and well in a Surrey village, thanks to a restoration

George Frederick Watts Adriadne on the Island of Naxos.

I

Barack Obama’s favourite painting, Hope (1885-6) by George Frederic Watts. —Guardian

n recent weeks, several gleaming new galleries have opened to a predictable fanfare of stories about their budgets, the attitude of the local population, their size and appearance: Turner Contemporary in Margate, the Hepworth in Wakefield and the extension to the Holburne in Bath. One might reasonably have expected that our luck, not to mention our cash, would by now have run out. And yet the most thrilling opening of the year is still to come. Only this one involves no astonishing new construction, no (possibly) thin-skinned architect and no whiff of overspend.

Nor, as the doors swing open, will any hot young artists be available for interview on the subject of their unfathomable installations; the painter whose work is gathered inside died a century ago.

As for the locals, they could not be happier. It is the gallery’s doting neighbours who have planted its flower beds with lavender and verbena, and they, too, who will bake the cakes for its tea room.

The Watts Gallery in the village of Compton, Surrey, is the loveliest of places. Lots of people, of course, thought it was lovely in the days when it was still on English Heritage’s “At Risk” register, before it closed and began its £10m restoration.

But it is even lovelier now. The original galleries, which first opened to the public in 1904, have been returned to their former glory, their walls ruby red and emerald green, their tiled dado rails, previously hidden beneath thick paint, shiny as new. In the sculpture studio, a judicious use of glass - the architects are Adam ZomboryMoldovan and Lucy Clark of ZMMA - has brought in light and drama.

Meanwhile, fresh spaces have been subtly created, carved from back rooms and corridors. There is a fine new learning studio, complete with working kiln, and a study room for truffling scholars,

book-lined and soothing sage. Never before has the Watts collection, which comprises some 6,000 objects including 250 oil paintings, 800 drawings and watercolours and 200 sculptures, had a finer home, or a better chance of capturing the imagination of a new generation for whom the great GF Watts, and his wife, Mary, are still an unknown quantity.

In the Weston room, where some of Watts’s most famous paintings hang (Found Drowned, which depicts the body of a suicide by the Thames; Under a Dry Arch, a study of a destitute), the gallery’s director, Perdita Hunt, surveys the result of seven years’ slog. Is she thrilled? “Oh, yes,” she says. “We’ve created a centre of excellence, and I think it will mark the beginning of a reassessment of Watts’s reputation.”

In his day, Watts was extremely famous, as popular and acclaimed as his near contemporary Dickens (both used the distressing inequalities of Victorian life in their work, to stunning effect). His reputation was, moreover, international; Watts was the first living artist to be given a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Born in London in 1817, his artistic ambitions were encouraged by his father, a piano-maker, and in 1837 he exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the first time (his entry, A Wounded Heron, hangs in the room that was formerly known as the Green Gallery). Thereafter, it seemed there was nothing that Watts could not do: narrative painting, landscapes, portraits (his Hall of Fame, featuring the most famous figures of his age, among them Lillie Langtry and John Stuart Mill, is a Watts Gallery highlight), even sculpture (stand before his giant Gesso grosso model of his Monument to Lord Tennyson and feel your knees buckle).

Art FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

His most famous painting is still Barack Obama’s favourite: the allegorical Hope, that curled, blindfolded woman, perched atop a globe, caressing a broken lyre - and at the Watts, the finest version of it, on loan from a private collection, comprises the heart of a small exhibition about its amazing life (it has even appeared on a Jordanian stamp).

But there is more to Watts than his adventures in symbolism. He is a Victorian who feels oddly modern, an enigma who also happens, sometimes, to be an open book.

And the life! In 1864 Watts married the actress, Ellen Terry, then just 16. But the relationship did not prosper, and they separated a year later. It was not until 1886 that Watts married again. For his new wife, Mary Seton Watts, who was 32 years his junior and his former pupil, this was the climax of a long campaign. She had admired him ever since their first meeting in 1870, and by 1880 her feelings were so clear to her, if not to him - he discouraged her affections - that she told him: “Signor, I think I have been looking for you my whole life.”

Together they left London for Compton, where they built their house, Limnerslease, and commissioned Christopher Hatton Turner to create a nearby gallery in Arts & Crafts style, “a simple & rural type of building”, to be constructed of rendered concrete and Surrey tiles.

It opened in 1904, just three months before Watts died.

Thereafter, it was Mary, his devoted amanuensis, who kept the flame

alive, and it is her that we have to thank for the richness of the gallery’s collection - something the refurbished Watts sweetly acknowledges with its display of her remarkable bronze triptych in memory of her nephew, Death Crowning Innocence.

Mary was, of course, a supremely talented artist in her right; the Compton Potters’ Arts Guild she founded survived until the 1950s.

And so, after you have wandered the galleries - after you have gazed on Watts’s charmingly innocent self-portrait from 1834, on his exquisite busts of Clytie and Daphne, and on his almost Bloomsbury-esque double-headed study of his favourite model, Long Mary - stroll along the lane to see her masterpiece, the Watts Chapel.

It astounds, every time. First, walk around the building - still a working mortuary chapel - examining the terracotta tiles that adorn it like some embroidered veil, each one made by the villagers, mostly unemployed agricultural workers, whom Mary trained. Then go inside and gaze on its painted blue-greenbronze panels. You will feel, perhaps, that you have walked into the Morte d’Arthur. Finally, step outside again and follow the path up to the loggia. Beside it is the grave where George and Mary, who died in 1938, lie together. The fact that down the hill their other legacy lives on, transcendent and amazing, seems only to add to the deep sense of peace.

The Watts Gallery reopens tomorrow (18 June) —Guardian

The Irish Famine

George Frederic Watts - Red Riding Hood

Self Portrait of George Frederick Watts: 1864

Comic

C R O S S W O R D

3 5 1

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

ACROSS 1. A detailed description of design criteria for a piece of work.

5. A Hindu prince or king in India.

9. A unit of subjective loudness.

13. The basic unit of money in Papua New Guinea.

14. Very dark black.

15. A narrow way or road.

16. An isogram connecting points having equal barometric pressure at a given time.

18. The capital and chief port of Qatar.

20. A ductile gray metallic element of the lanthanide series.

21. A large and stately mansion.

22. Wearing protective mail.

23. An accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape.

25. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

26. A small cake leavened with yeast.

29. A light touch or stroke.

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

35. Small genus of dioecious tropical aquatic plants.

38. A legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body.

39. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

40. An Indian side dish of yogurt and chopped cucumbers and spices.

41. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

43. The United Nations agency concerned with civil aviation.

46. The fatty flesh of eel.

47. A Russian river.

49. A public promotion of some product or service.

51. By bad luck.

53. United States composer (1900-1990).

57. A river in southeastern Australia that flows generally northwest to join the Darling River.

61. A sudden very loud noise.

62. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

65. Plant with an elongated head of broad stalked leaves resembling celery.

66. A sensation (as of a cold breeze or bright light) that precedes the onset of certain disorders such as a migraine attack or epileptic seizure.

67. Slanting diagonally across the grain of a fabric.

68. On or toward the lee.

69. One thousandth of a second.

70. A former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia.

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

DOWN 1. A gait in which steps and hops alternate.

2. A city in Tuscany.

3. An organic compound that contains a hydroxyl group bonded to a carbon atom which in turn is doubly bonded to another carbon atom.

4. An esoteric or occult matter that is traditionally secret.

5. Read anew.

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

7. The principal activity in your life that you do to earn money.

8. (Jungian psychology) The inner self (not the external persona) that is in touch with the unconscious.

9. A cloth having a crisscross design.

10. (astronomy) The angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing.

11. Belonging to some prior time.

12. A condition requiring relief.

17. (informal) Of the highest quality.

19. An informal term for a father.

24. A family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia.

27. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

28. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

30. A member of an Iroquoian people formerly living on the south shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania and western New York.

31. A wound resulting from biting.

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

34. A heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element.

36. An utterance expressing pain or disapproval.

37. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

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

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

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

48. A small round soft mass (as of chewed food).

50. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

52. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

54. Decrease gradually or bit by bit.

55. (Babylonian) God of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools.

56. A platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it.

58. A public area set aside as a pedestrian walk.

59. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

60. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

63. The network in the reticular formation that serves an alerting or arousal function.

64. The rate at which red blood cells settle out in a tube of blood under standardized conditions.

Yesterday’s Solution

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Young US food critic rates

‘kid-friendly’ eateries E

li Knauer has a ravenous appetite for seeking out the juiciest meats and sweetest desserts in Baltimore restaurants. But at just 10 years old, he is no ordinary food critic. Standing just four feet tall, Eli may appear diminutive, but he has an expansive vocabulary with which he praises, and occasionally skewers, the eateries he visits at least once a week with his parents.

The idea for his online review column flourished during a summer vacation after he told his mother he wanted to become a food critic when he grows up and she said he needed to first start a blog.

“Adventures of a Koodie”-or a kid foodie-chronicles Eli’s take on restaurants in and around Baltimore on the US East Coast, as well as other areas he visits with his family of five. Nearly a year and more than 50 restaurants later, Eli knows what to look for: “The juiciness in meat, sweetness in desserts and gooeyness in cheese.”

And some 120 followers now subscribe to regular updates from his blog, which has received around 43,000 page views. Restaurateurs beware however.

For Eli to reward them with his top five stars, the restaurant “has to have good food and kid-friendliness-a kids’ area or TVs or entertainment with kids’ stuff on it like cartoons or movies, kids’ meals and kidfriendly food like pizza.” That’s not surprising for someone whose favorite food is “pizza!”

His parents, Jason and Cheryl, encourage their son to keep up with his blog and critiques, noting it has helped improve his writing. And some of his teachers check in for ideas on where to take their own children out to eat. “If he keeps at it and he’s himself and he’s always true to himself, he’s gonna go far with it,” Jason Knauer, a local photographer, said as he sat on

the front steps of their modest home in a Baltimore suburb. “As a teenager, he’s going to definitely have to develop that more because he’s going to have a different audience.”

Eli’s enthusiasm and success took his parents by surprise, especially for a child who did not start talking until he was nearly four years old. “This has helped him a lot develop his vocabulary and getting more comfortable speaking,” said Cheryl Knauer. “You would never know that this was a child you were afraid was never going to talk.” Eli has even won a small helping of fame after a host of radio, television and newspaper interviews. But at school, he’s treated just like all the others, as a kid who gets in trouble once in a while, loves his cartoon shows and plays videogames.

Friends “just treat me normal,” Eli told AFP. “It doesn’t matter if I’m famous or not,” he added, attributing his newfound fame to “all these followers and all these page reviews.” For one recent review, the young food critic headed to Morton’s The Steakhouse, “a fancy restaurant because people wear bow ties and fancy chef hats,” in Eli’s words. It’s an award-winning restaurant more accustomed to a hushed atmosphere with couples dining on tuna tartare, filet mignon and domestic double rib lamb chops rather than macaroni and cheese and other standard American kids’ fare.

But Eli was ecstatic when the server brought out a big basket of onion bread that he quickly devoured.

“That’s awesome. I love it, I love it!” he said, consoled somewhat after being “terrified” by a live lobster handled on a demonstration table. Then came a cheeseburger twice as wide as his face, accompanied by French fries and a Coke. “This burger is not kid-friendly because it’s so big, a kid wouldn’t be able to eat it

all,” Eli said, finishing barely a quarter of meal. But he was shrewd enough to save just enough room for dessert, Morton’s Legendary Sundae.

When he caught a glimpse of the towering molten chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream and whip cream extravaganza topped with a maraschino cherry, Eli’s jaw dropped and his eyes popped. The restaurant is appropriate for “kids who are quiet, kids who like to be fancy,” but no younger than eight, Eli concluded.

On his blog, he didn’t mince words, giving Morton’s five stars for the food, but just 1.5 stars for kid-friendliness. “If you want to have your child go out to Morton’s make sure his stomach is completely empty so he can eat every bite of his food,” he wrote. “And make sure that he doesn’t eat all of the humongous Morton’s Legendary Hot Fudge Sundae (so) they don’t get a humongous stomach ache!” — AFP

Eli Knauer, foodie extraordinare, enjoys some spaghetti bolognese.

— Photo from Eli’s site, adventuresofakoodie.blogspot.com.

Photo shows Jun Francisco the director of collections management at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Lady Gaga’s ‘meat dress’ goes to Rock Hall of Fame

L

ady Gaga made history at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards when she turned butcher’s cuts into high fashion. Yesterday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame unveiled the singer’s infamous raw-meat dress to the public.

The dress-made of layers of Argentinian beefwas kept in a meat locker, placed in a vat of chemicals and then dried out by taxidermists in California before being transported to the museum.

Hall of Fame spokeswoman Margaret Thresher says the dress took on a “dark, beefjerky” look while dehydrating, so it was painted to look “fresh” afterwards. The entire process took several months to complete. The dress is being displayed as part of the “Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power” exhibit, which runs until February 2012. — AP

File photo shows the dress made of meat worn by Lady Gaga at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards is shown in the museum’s vault.

— AP photos

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2011

G O S S I P

Bonoʼs

F u n k i c o n

ʻSpider-Manʼ

musical still weak, critics say

Sly Stone pleads not guilty to cocaine charge

S

ly Stone, the reclusive funk legend whose career was crippled by rampant drug abuse, pleaded not guilty to possession of cocaine rocks on Wednesday. The 68year-old frontman for Sly and the Family Stone was arrested April 1 when Los Angeles police pulled over a live-in van for a minor traffic violation. Cocaine rocks were found in the clothing of both Stone, who was a passenger, and the driver, according to the singer’s defense attorneys. Both men were arrested.

“A lot of musicians hang out with people who have drugs. How are they supposed to know?” said Peter Knecht, one of his attorneys. He insisted the cocaine did not belong to Stone. Stone, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, is next scheduled to appear in court in the Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys for a pretrial conference on July 19. His arraignment was originally scheduled for last Friday, but he was hospitalized for heart problems.

Stone, a veteran of the San Francisco power scene, revolutionized soul music with tunes such as “Don’t Call me Nigger, Whitey” and “I Want to Take You Higher” that both fed on and fueled the political and social turmoil of the time.

His career, however, was marred by decades of run-ins with the law. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, he was plagued by drug and gun possession charges. “You can’t punish a guy for what he did 40 years ago, 30 years ago,” said Knecht.

Stone made his first major public appearance in almost 13 years at the Grammy Awards in 2006 when he was the object of an all-star tribute. Sporting a blond Mohawk and a shiny white jacket, he sauntered out on stage during a performance of “I Want to Take You Higher,” but left before the song was over. Stone just finished recording a new album that will be released on Aug. 16, according to Tim Yasui, general manager for Cleopatra Records. It would mark his first album in almost 30 years.—Reuters

(From right) Julie Taymor, Bono and The Edge appear onstage at the curtain call for the opening night performance of the Broadway musical ‘Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark’ in New York, Tuesday. —AP

B

roadway’s most expensive and ridiculed musical, “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark,” suffered another round of crushing reviews, a day after its long-delayed official opening drew celebrities such as former president Bill Clinton and actor Robert De Niro. The $70 million comic-book adaptation, featuring music by U2’s Bono and the Edge, was lambasted earlier this year while playing in a record-breaking 180 previews as its producers struggled to overhaul the production. While the play would take years to turn a profit, tourists and other intrigued theatergoers could keep it on Broadway far longer than usual for productions with such withering notices.

Technical problems had delayed the opening six times since it began previews last year, and the show was suspended at one point after a rash of on-stage injuries and bad publicity ultimately led to the departure of its iconoclastic director Julie Taymor. Many critics said that while the

show had changed dramatically from its initial run under Taymor, it was still hobbled by a weak plot and bad music.

New York magazine said the musical had “deteriorated from mindblowingly misbegotten carnival-of-the-damned to merely embarrassing dud.”And the New York Times said, “this singing comic book is no longer the ungodly, indecipherable mess it was in February. It’s just a bore.”

Somewhat embarrassingly for the highprofile rockers in one of the world’s biggest bands, the music was uniformly panned. “It’s their mediocre score, as much as anything, that makes this thirdrate entertainment,” said the Hollywood Reporter, describing a couple of tunes as “shockingly inept.”

Added New York magazine: “No amount of mulch or manure can cover up the music, which is, by far, the show’s greatest weakness.” Some critics were kinder. USA Today said “the new SpiderMan is ... more in line with the winking musical adaptations of famous films and

brands that have lined the theater district in recent years.” The paper concluded, “it might just make it.” Even Clinton, hitherto unknown as a theater critic, jumped to its defense. In a statement he described the play as “fabulous.” The musical was originally due to open late last year. Aside from the numerous technical and creative challenges that stumped producers, a major cast member quit and the US Department of Labor accused it of serious violations of workplace safety rules.

And in February, with the musical playing to packed houses for so many months, critics broke the customary embargo on running reviews before the official opening to deliver an initial round of blistering reviews. But regardless of the latest reviews, the official opening still drew an A-list crowd. In addition to Clinton and De Niro, the audience included Taymor, Bono and The Edge, actors Matt Damon and Steve Martin, director Spike Lee, model Cindy Crawford and artist Jeff Koons. —Reuters

German hackers convicted of stealing Lady Gaga songs

T

wo young hackers were convicted in Germany yesterday of stealing new songs from stars such as Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey and offering them for sale on the Internet, a court said.

The local court in the western city of Duisburg found the defendants, aged 18 and 23, guilty of dozens of counts of violating copyrights and hacking confidential data, a spokesman said. Their names were not released. The teenager was handed an 18-month sentence at a young offenders’ institute while the older defendant received an 18-month suspended sentence.

The two used Trojan horse software to gain access to the computers and e-mail

accounts of the managers of high-profile artists, took unpublished songs and offered them for sale or download in 2009 and 2010. The new material came from top-selling stars including Carey, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Leona Lewis and Kesha, the court said.

Prosecutors say the two earned more than 15,000 euros ($21,000) with the scheme. In addition, the 18-year-old downloaded explicit private photos from Kesha’s computer and blackmailed her to give him an audio “shout out” which he could use to boost his own status in the hacker scene. “The court considered the fact that both defendants are attested to be highly addicted to the Internet to be a

mitigating factor,” the spokesman told AFP, adding that full confessions given to the court had also counted in their favor.

Defense attorneys had asked the court to call the affected artists as witnesses but the judges rejected the bid.

The 18-year-old, identified in the German press only as Deniz A, had sent a letter of apology to Lady Gaga in December that was published in the daily Bild. “Dear Lady Gaga,” Deniz A, who reportedly called himself DJ Stolen, wrote. “I am ashamed of what I have done. I did not think about the consequences.” The court said it would review his detention within six months and consider converting it to a suspended sentence.—AFP

Defendant Christian M arrives at court on June 16, 2011 in Duisburg, western Germany. —AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Jim Carrey holds his own in ‘Mr Popper’s Penguins’

I

f Disney’s “101 Dalmatians” inspired a run on what many canine experts consider a very demanding dog, then Fox will now have to take the blame when children beg their parents for pet penguins. The six penguins cast in the amiable family comedy “Mr Popper’s Penguins,” steal the movie-along with any fish they can find. The film’s nominal star, Jim Carrey, manages to hold his own. Barely. With the film opening on Friday, the only question is: How many children are we talking about? Pixar’s “Cars 2” comes out a week later, and will likely siphon off the family crowd. Fox can expect a middling performance although you can’t discount the allure of penguins following “March of the Penguins” and “Happy Feet.”

For the record, these are not the Emperor penguins from those films but rather Gentoo penguins. Make that highly trained Gentoo penguins that force their human co-stars to work on 40-degree sets and need a constant supply of fish to perform. The film, from director Mark Waters (“Mean Girls,” “Freaky Friday”). encourages viewers to think of the tuxedo birds as silentmovie comics. They watch Charlie Chaplin movies on TV, then imitate his acrobatic pratfalls and slapstick as they bounce around Carrey’s lavish Park Avenue apartment. There are certain stunts, of course, even a Gentoo can’t reliably perform so computerized birds are frequently substituted into the action.

The film is based on a 1938 novel by the husbandand-wife team of Richard and Florence Atwater. Much has been changed in this update including the need for the penguins to redeem the film’s hero. Trouble is Tom Popper isn’t really a bad dude. Sure he’s divorced, but rather amicably from Amanda (Carla Gugino) and he’s a decent, caring father. Oh sure, he doesn’t completely understand daughter Janie’s (Madeline Carroll) contin-

ual boyfriend problems, but then again when she launches into the latest boyfriend crisis, no one does.

Certainly her younger brother Billy (Maxwell Perry Cotton) thinks dad is swell. He does work for an aggressive Manhattan real estate firm but these are hardly capitalist monsters. The owners just want to buy the venerable Tavern on the Green in Central Park to tear it down to build God-only-knows-what. This is a subplot that is hardly worth the bother other than to bring in the equally venerable Angela Lansbury into the film as the restaurant’s owner.

The penguins enter Mr. Popper’s life as a final gift from his peripatetic father, a rolling stone who visited every corner of the globe except his own home. The father means to reinforce the importance of family on his son-an idea he evidently embraced very late in lifethrough these loving and loyal birds. Certainly his own children better appreciate dad now that joint-custody visits entail romping with these comical birds, albeit in an apartment kept near freezing and full of dead fish.

So the movie clears a lot of space for the birds to caper all over the 3,200-square-foot apartment and around Manhattan when they go out. This includes water sliding down the famous spiraling ramp of the Guggenheim Museum. (No doubt, this was mostly if not entirely accomplished with CG birds.)

The weakness throughout is a story where subplots never really add up to much. These include the mercenary apartment building receptionist (Desmin Borges), a nosy neighbor (David Krumholtz), a mildly villainous zoo keeper (Clark Gregg) and Popper’s perky assistant Pippi (Ophelia Lovibond), who speaks alliterately with a fondness for the letter “p,” a peculiar and perturbing penchant that provokes audience exasperation pretty quickly.

Eliane Elias lights

over sitcom dispute

A

against producer Chuck Lorre. Lawyers for the actor had sought a trial by jury, but Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman agreed Warner Bros and Lorre that Sheen is bound by an arbitration clause in his contract.

In a 21-page ruling, the judge said Sheen’s request for a jury trial is “clearly and unmistakably required to be referred to an arbitrator for determination.” Warner Bros lawyer Howard Weitzman welcomed the decision, saying the judge “made the appropriate ruling ... This matter will now proceed in an orderly fashion as the parties agreed to.”

Sheen, who was sacked from the TV show in March, has in the past boasted of his own wild lifestyle and drug binges but claimed to have single-handedly defeated addiction, arguing that he was able to work.—AFP

File photo shows actor Charlie Sheen as he arrives for the screening of the film “Platoon,” at the 59th International Film Festival in Cannes, France.—AP

In this photo released by NBC, ‘Today’ show cohost Ann Curry talks with actor Jim Carrey on the ‘Today’ show about his new movie ‘Mr Popper’s Penguins’. — AP

Review

Sheen fails to win trial n arbitrator will decide if Charlie Sheen was unfairly sacked from TV series “Two and a Half Men,” a judge ruled Wednesday, rejecting the troubled actor’s request for a trial by jury. The 45-year-old actor is suing Warner Brothers studios for $100 million for alleged breach of contract after the show was canceled for the rest of the season following Sheen’s public tirades

The movie even strands Lansbury with an inconsequential role of a rich snob who declares the 1992 Krug Champagne a “ghastly vintage” when in fact it’s a spectacular one.

Credit Carrey for finding funny and silly ways to clown around with his avian co-stars. Thankfully, he doesn’t revert to the Ace Ventura of his younger years.

His are an older man’s skillful muggings and slapstick, using word deployments- “Y’absolutely!” he always answers in the affirmative-and a lanky body to tweak the comedy. He’s still fun to watch and has gotten over his need to push for jokes and gags where none exists.

Waters keeps things moving briskly through the slumps in the script to get back to penguin antics a swiftly as possible. Production values are glossy as the film delivers a fairy-tale New York where penguins can romp without anyone thinking this is in any way odd.

Well, other than those big-buck donors at the Guggenheim charity reception.—Reuters

a fire on new CD

E

liane Elias stands out from other Brazilian singers because she not only has a deep-rooted feel for the rhythms of her native land but also is fluent in the American jazz idiom after spending some 30 years in the United States.

“Light My Fire” showcases her talents as a four-tool player - singer, pianist, arranger and songwriter - with a romantic collection of classic Brazilian songs, American pop and jazz standards set to Brazilian grooves, and original tunes. She’s supported by top flight Brazilian and American musicians, including her rhythm section of guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, drummer Paulo Braga and her husband, bassist Marc Johnson.

Elias turns her attention beyond bossa nova to the hot Afro-Caribbean rhythms of Brazil’s northern Bahia region, opening with a percussive arrangement of Dorival Caymmi’s “Rosa Morena.” Several tracks mark her first-ever recordings with legendary guitarist-vocalist Gilberto Gil, with the two engaging in some intricate and exuberant vocal interplay on Gil’s uptempo bossa nova “Aquele Abraco” and his Afro-beat-inflected “Toda Menina Baiana.”

She turns down the heat to a sensual

simmer on the Brazilian-flavored American covers - including a breezy rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” with her piano deftly accenting her vocals and a slow, alluring bossa nova version of “Light My Fire” that smoothes out the rough edges of the original by Jim Morrison and The Doors.—AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

US

model-turned-actor Ashton Kutcher grabbed the celebrity spotlight at the Sao Paulo Fashion Week late Wednesday, sauntering down the runway one last time before taking the starring role in the hit TV comedy “Two and a Half Men.” The 33-year-old, who is married to Hollywood star Demi Moore, opened the show for Brazilian label Colcci, walking down the runway with Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio.

He then promptly sat down in the audience, where he remained for the rest of the show-disappointing Brazilian photographers and the crowd, who had been hoping to see Kutcher strut his stuff among the cast of

models. As soon as the show ended, Kutcher was hurriedly ushered out a side exit before cameramen or autograph-hunters could approach. The low-key appearance was in contrast to Kutcher’s turn in future episodes of “Two and a Half Men.”He will be replacing actor Charlie Sheen, who was fired after one too many outbursts following well-publicized bouts with alcohol and drugs. The role calls for Kutcher to play a randy, dissolute bachelor who shares his house with his nerdy brother and nephew. — AFP

Ashton Kutcher wears a creation from the Colcci Summer 2012 collection at Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday . — AP

Models display outfits by Colcci during the presentation of the 2011-2012 SpringSummer collection of the Sao Paulo Fashion Week, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. — AFP

Lifestyle

Ascot

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

300 years of

Royalty

and fashion

R

earing Race-goers w ts ha nt ya flambo edia pose for the m at ay D es di on La yal the annual Ro ng ci Ascot horse ra event near shire Windsor, Berk FP A — yesterday.

oyal Ascot is celebrating its 300th anniversary as High Society’s perfect summer cocktail with a unique mix of royalty, fashion and racing thoroughbreds. Ladies Day yesterday is the highlight of the week at the world’s most famous racecourse, opened in 1711 after Queen Anne first spotted its potential when riding in the forest near Windsor Castle. Long gone are the days when the Royal enclosure at Ascot was so exclusive that divorcees were banned from its sacred lawns and women had to wear gloves.

Aristocrats once reigned supreme but now X-Factor supremo Simon Cowell has a box at Ascot. Singers Shirley Bassey and Bryan Ferry are handing out racing trophies this year although the honor of giving the prize to the winner of yesterday’s Ascot Gold Cup always goes to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. She parades up the Ascot straight every day in an open-topped landau, offering priceless cachet to the summer season when socialites head from Ascot to Wimbledon and then on to the Henley Royal Regatta and Glyndebourne opera.

Paparazzi on the hunt for the most outrageous hats on Ladies Day do not have to look far. Publicity seekers sashay about in over-the-top concoctions in the daily fashion parade that was immortalized by flower girl Eliza Dolittle in the musical “My Fair Lady.” “You cannot think of Ascot without thinking fashion in the same sentence,” said designer Amanda Whateley who is showing her collection once more at Royal Ascot 2011.

The ever elegant Bryan Ferry, lead singer of Roxy Music, sported top hat and tails to present one of the trophies. “Fashion has always been a great interest for me. It

is nice to see people dressing up. The British do it very well. Just look at the royal wedding,” he said. Exuberant Italian jockey Frankie Dettori, known as “Mr Ascot” for his many triumphs on the great course, leapt from the saddle in his trademark flying dismount after landing the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Rewilding on Wednesday. He had no doubt about the thrill of riding here.

“I’m overwhelmed. It doesn’t get better than this.” But a look into the Ascot archives shows that racing at the big meeting has been distinctly racey at times over the past three centuries. In 1777, a boxing bout was held on the course with a giant prize presented to a winner who beat his opponent so badly that he lost an eye.—Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Salem, steeped in witch tourism, rebrands beyond

Witch figurines displayed in a shop window in Salem. — AP

S

alem-the very name conjures witches.

Witches hanged in the notorious trials of 1692, witch houses and covens, a Salem Witch Museum and the Witch Dungeon Museum. This city of 41,000 souls is so closely identified with its witch history that flying witch logos adorn police cars and firefighter uniforms — and Salem High School’s mascot is, shockingly, a witch. A thriving, modern witch community practices witchcraft and even has a new public relations outfit, the Witches Education Bureau. Tourists flock to the Salem Common during the town’s “Haunted Happenings,” a month-long celebration of Halloween.

In the offseason in this historic Massachusetts seaport, warlock Christian Day holds forth in a quiet, dimly lit room, where visitors who pay $65 for a 30-minute psychic reading watch as he moves his hands in graceful, fluid motions over a sparkling crystal ball.

At a nearby mall, a ghoul dressed in black, his face painted white with fake blood around his mouth, stands near a black coffin, spooking customers for a kitschy thrill near a house of horrors.

These are typical tourist encounters in this historic Massachusetts seaport. But Salem leaders want visitors to know that the city offers a whole lot more, and they’ve rebranded to promote such generic attractions as dining, the Peabody Essex Museum and the Salem Arts Festival, which recently featured “Buckaroo Bonsai” and bellydancing. Tourism officials and business owners hope their unwitchly emphasis on other museums, sunset cruises, exceptional architecture and a rich maritime history will encourage visitors to spend more time and money in Salem. “We estimate that tourists coming in for a day are spending about $90 per person and those

tourists coming overnight are spending over $210 per person,” said Kate Fox, head of the agency promoting tourism that also coordinated the latest rebranding. She said Salem sees an estimated million visitors a year.

“Tourism in Salem is a more than $99 million industry a year and when you look at all the businesses it affects, it’s our largest industry in Salem, so it’s very important, it’s a huge piece of our economic development picture,” Fox said. She said Salem has not set a target for greater tourism revenue. This is not the first time Salem has tried to remake its image. In 2004, Salem businesses could not agree whether the new brand should lead with witchcraft or maritime history, and the process collapsed in the planning stages. In 1925, the Salem Evening News pushed for The Witch City to rebrand in an article that proposed promoting its flourishing tanneries (Blubber Hollow), shoe factories (City of Shoes) and textile industries (Where We Make Your Sheets).

Salem, one of early America’s most significant seaports, was founded in 1626 by a group of fishermen from Cape Ann. Its name is derived from the Hebrew word for peace, “Shalom.” During the American Revolution, Salem became the center for privateering, a form of official piracy that authorized captains of private ships to seize British merchant vessels and confiscate valuables. That created very wealthy sailors who went on to commission the fine architecture of the grand old houses on Chestnut Street, Federal Street and Salem Common.

Salem ultimately became the nation’s busiest port, with its tall ships venturing to exotic locations and bringing back fabulous specimens, artifacts and memorabilia that later formed the nucleus of the nation’s oldest continuously operated museum, the Peabody

Essex Museum. Its maritime dominance in the 1800s also helped Salem produce America’s first millionaires and become one of the nation’s wealthiest cities per capita.

“One of the problems ... is that the witch industry is pretty much a seasonal business,” said Peabody Essex Museum spokesman Jay Finney. “In fact, in Salem they celebrate Halloween for almost an entire month and 100,000 people or more come into Salem looking for that experience.” “But after that, what happens in February? What happens in September? What happens in December? It’s not necessarily a witch story. And so the diversity of attractions, whether it is live theater or restaurants or whatever, we need to be marketing Salem year round,” he said.

Some in Salem hope the new logo, featur-

ing a witch hat that could be interpreted as a sail-with a tagline declaring that the city is “Still Making History” — would make it clear that it offers a lot more than a vibrant wiccan community and witch-related attractions. “We are trying to communicate that Salem is contemporary, it’s current-but since the history we are most known for is the witchcraft trials of the 1692, we are still making history,” Fox said. Sandy Vargas of Houston, who handles investments for a financial services firm, said she recently visited to see the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of “The Scarlet Letter” and areas associated with the infamous 17th century witch trials. She was surprised to find open to visitors the old mansion that inspired Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables.” —AP

Willow Houston sits in her tarot reading room in Salem — AP

Stars

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Aries (March 21-April 19) The film Tuck Everlasting tells the story of a family that becomes immortal after drinking from a magical spring. The two parents and their two sons hide their gift from the world, but eventually a mysterious man in a yellow suit finds out about their secret and stalks them.

At one point in his search, this man has a conversation with a young pastor.

"What if you could be eternal?" he asks the priest. "Without having to face the uncertainty of death. Invincible to disease. Forever young." The priest is rattled. "You speak blasphemy, sir," he protests. "Fluently," replies the man in the yellow suit. You have that mandate right now Aries: to speak blasphemy fluently, as well as any other rebellious diction. It's time to rise up and express the unspeakable, the controversial, the revolutionary.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

There's substantial evidence that the Amazon River used to flow in the opposite direction from what it does now. Ages ago, its currents traveled westward from the Atlantic Ocean toward the Pacific. I'd like you to hold that image firmly in mind as you contemplate a monumental shift of course in your own life. Let it serve as a surprising symbol of what's possible -- as a promise that you could actually manage to reverse a current that may seem immutable.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

In Mark Harris's novel Bang the Drum Slowly, professional baseball players cheat their fans out of money by engaging them in a card game called TEGWAR, which is an acronym for The Exciting Game Without Any Rules.

Judging from your current astrological omens, Gemini, I'd say it's prime time for you to play a more ethical version of this game. Strictly speaking, the game *can* have rules, but they may be changed at any time, and new ones may be added as needed. The object of your brand of TEGWAR is to have as much smart fun as possible without anyone getting hurt.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

"The only way to let your dreams come true is to wake up," said poet Paul Valery. Here's how I think that applies to you right now. You've become too engrossed in the mythic, phantasmagorical feelings of your fantasies, and that's interfering with your ability to muster all of the kick-ass pragmatism and supercharged willpower you will need to actually make your fantasies come to life. In other words, Cancerian, I advise you to snap out of your creamy dreamy haze with a selfinduced wake-up call. Stop floating and start grunting.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

As we began our first session, the 79-year-old Jungian psychotherapist looked at me with mischief in her eyes and said, "Go ahead -- surprise me! What have you got?" I was torn. Part of me felt like rising to her challenge, meeting her dare: I fantasized about telling her such wild versions of my adventures that they would outstrip any tales she'd heard in her long service as a deep listener.

But in the end I chose to tell the truth. I felt it was more important to explore my life's actual mysteries than to entertain her. And that was the first healing she helped me achieve. I suspect a similar test is ahead for you, Leo. Would you rather be honest or impress people?

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

I predict that at no time in the coming weeks will anyone be justified in saying to you, "Your ego has been writing checks that your body can't cash." Nor will anyone have any reason to tell you, "You'd better start running if you hope to catch up with your dreams," or "You may be an old soul but you've been acting like a naive punk." No, Virgo, I firmly believe that none of those accusations will be hurled at you. Why? Because from what I can tell, all of the various parts of your psyche will be in a greater state of collaborative unity than they've been in for a long time. Your alienation from yourself will be at an all-time low, as will your levels of hypocrisy.

Libra (September 23-October 22) I'm brave in some ways, cowardly in others. I've gone parasailing, performed on big stages in front of thousands of people, assisted in the birth of two children, and explored the abyss of my own unconscious. On the other hand, I'm scared of confined spaces, can't bring myself to shoot a gun, and am a sissy when it comes time to be around people who are dying. I imagine that you, too, have areas of courage and timidity, Libra. And I suspect that in the coming weeks you will be called to a challenge in both areas. See if you can transfer some of the nervy power you're able to summon in one sphere to bolster you in the place where you're a wimp.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

The Kinky Dream and Funky Paradise chapter of your astrological cycle has arrived -- a phase when you'll have poetic license to let your imagination run wilder than usual. In fact, it'll be prime time to escape into fantasyland and try on a new identity or two, complete with a host of outlandish nicknames. Your new hip hop name could be Extasy TrixxMaster. Your pro wrestler name could be Velvet Soul Pandora. Your mystic superhero name could be Mountain Wind Storm. Your Irish prostitute name could be Luscious X. Mahoney. Your rock star from the future name could be Destiny Acrobat.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

The coming weeks could be a Golden Age for your perceptiveness. If you're even moderately aligned with the cosmic rhythms, you will be able to discern hidden agendas that no one else has spotted, catch clues that have been hidden, and be able to recognize and register interesting sights you've previously been blind to. To maximize your ability to cash in on this fantastic opportunity, say this affirmation frequently: "My eyes are working twice as well as usual. I can see things I don't normally notice."

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

If you were the star of a fairy tale in which a spell had been placed on you, you would find a way to break that spell sometime in the next seven months. If you were the hero of a myth about a royal child abandoned in the wasteland by your evil nurse and raised by emotionally clumsy but well-meaning gnomes, your exile would soon end; your real parents, the king and queen, would find you after a long search, and your birthright would be restored.

Now translate these themes into the actual circumstances of your life, Capricorn. Are you ready to do what it takes to achieve a healing and restoration that have been a long time coming?

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

What is sacred? The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said it was anything that you cannot or will not laugh at. But I have the exact opposite view. If I'm unable to crack a joke about what I regard as holy, then it's not holy. For me, part of what makes an idea or person or object holy is its power to animate my sense of humor and put me in the mood to play. Where do you stand on this issue, Aquarius? If you're aligned with my view, you will have some wonderful opportunities to commune with the sacred in the coming days.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) In the chorus of my band's song "Apathy and Ignorance," I sing, "What is the difference between apathy and ignorance?" and the other two singers chant, "I don't know and I don't care." I recommend you make that chant your mantra in the coming days, Pisces: "I don't know and I don't care." You really do need to experiment with a mischievous state of mind that is blithely heedless of what anyone thinks about anything. You have the right and the privilege to be free of expectations, precedents, and dogmas. Trust your intuition above all other influences!

It's an excellent time to at least temporarily declare your independence from everything that's not interesting or useful or helpful or appealing.

(Listen to the song for free.)

COUNTRY CODES Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African Republic 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands)0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062 Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland)0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK)0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677 Somalia 00252 South Africa 0027 South Korea 0082 Spain 0034 Sri Lanka 0094 Sudan 00249 Suriname 00597 Swaziland 00268 Sweden 0046 Switzerland 0041 Syria 00963 Taiwan 00886 Tanzania 00255 Thailand 0066 Toga 00228 Tonga 00676 Tokelau 00690 Trinidad 001868 Tunisia 00216 Turkey 0090 Tuvalu 00688 Uganda 00256 Ukraine 00380 United Arab Emirates00976

W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Announcements IFRA annual meeting The 30th Annual General Body Meeting of the Indian Football Referee’s Association Kuwait, (IFRA will be held on Friday, July 8th 2011, at 10 am at the Royal Terrace Restaurant, Salmiya and will be proceeded by the Anuual Thanksgiving Mass at 8:30 am at the St. Thereze Church, Salmiya. All members are requested to be present.

Islamic manuscripts The National Council for Culture, Art and Letters in cooperation with Embassy of Bosina and Hercegovina and Embassy of the Slovak Republic is pleased to invite you to attend the opening ceremony of the Exhibition “Unique Islamic manuscripts, from the University Library of Bratislava - Slovak Republic On Monday 20 June 2011 at 20:00 at Modern Art Museum - Arabian Gulf St. Free orientation classes Kerala Art Lovers Association (Kala), and Mathrubasha Samathi formed Abbassiya regional committee as part of its Free Orientation Malayalam classes. The meeting was held at Kala Center. Kala president Sam Pynummoodu presided over the meeting. P.K. Sashidaran, Joji Iype, Sunny Saijesh, Vinu Kalleli, Johnson George and Prateesh Achary wer shared their experiences with the gathering. They stressed on the fact that this Free Orientation Malayalam classes will be really valuable and worth for the upcoming generation. Salim Raj welcomed the audience and Vikas rendered vote of thanks. For free orientation classes registrations contact Tel. 24317875, 24331598, 24340471,55261634, 55613963, 55977609

Wataniya Telecom tops blood donors in Kuwait

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ased on its Social Responsibility Strategy and emphasizing its support to the community and in its attempts to increase health awareness in Kuwait, Wataniya Telecom has been honored recently by the Central Blood Bank of Kuwait for its generous donation campaign. Wataniya Telecom was on the list of top ten highest contributors in the donation campaigns and helped in saving more than 90 lives in the past year.

An honoring ceremony was held and organized by the Central Blood Bank under the auspices of the Minister of Health Dr Hilal Al-Sayer and was attended by Assistant Manager of Public Relations from Wataniya Telecom Hamad Al-Matar, Assistant Undersecretary for

KUVBS 2011 Mar Thoma Sunday School, Kuwait is organizing the Vacation Bible School (KUVBS 2011) for Students from 17th June - 01st July 2011 at the National Evangelical Church, Kuwait (NECK). Students of age 4 to 17 are participating in the program which is filled with music, activities and learning. Rev. A.Y. Varughese, Vicar of St. James Mar Thoma Church, Kuwait will be the Director.

Rev. Genil Abraham and Rev. Chacko Thomas officiate as Superintendent and Patron respectively. For more details please contact 99489150/ 99006163/99081015.

BAIA Summer Camp now open for registrations 2011 ON STAGE summer camp from 19 June to 06 July.

Last year High School Musical, this year Camp Rock, Tangled, Cars...many more! From Page to Stage in just 3 weeks, through costume design, technicals, acting, singing, dance, music, make-up, film and lighting.

Create a fabulous performance ON STAGE. Discounts available if registered before 01 June. Call 60052087 or mail administrator@baia.com.kw. Full details of all events and courses are available on www.baia.com.kw Summer music festival The National Council of Culture, Arts and Letters in Kuwait proudly presents the Summer Music Festival 2011. The weeklong festival will feature live performances by artists, groups and bands from across the world as well as special workshops. All of the events are free of charge and will be held at the Abdulaziz Hussein Center in Mishref, Kuwait.

The Hoppin’ John String Band performs and teaches music deeply rooted in the ballads, fiddle tunes, and traditions of the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. Comprised of two fiddles, guitar, banjo and bass, this band is sure to bring you to your feet and inspire you to sing along.

Thursday June 16 - Iraqi Maqam workshop - 10:00 am, Traditional Music Night by Ma’youf Traditional Band 8:30 pm.

The maqam workshop will take place in the auditorium of the National Museum. The traditional music night will feature the Ma’youf band, the popular traditional Kuwaiti group and will be held in the space in front of the Kuwaiti Maritime Museum.

Friday June 17 - Closing ceremony: Wa’ad Al Bahry band - 8:30.

Clinical Support Services at the Ministry of Health Dr Qais Al-Dowairi and Director of the Department of Blood Transfusion Services Dr Reem Radwan.

On this occasion, Director of Public Relations at Wataniya Telecom, Abdolaziz Al-Balool expressed his gratefulness and appreciation to the management of Blood Bankand said that “Wataniya Telecom management and all employees are sparing no effort in contributing to this humanitarian and noble deed which is a big part of our social responsibility towards the community.

Al-Balool added saying “This is a very significant achievement that contributes to saving the lives of many people who one day may need some blood

to save their lives or the lives of their loved ones”.

It is worth mentioning that the award ceremony was part of a campaign organized by the Central Blood Bank of Kuwait on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day under the slogan “Paint Kuwait Red” in line with the World’s motto “Paint the World Red”.

The campaign includes a series of events aimed at educating the public to donate blood and at the same time it attracts more donors during the summer season which usually witnesses less numbers of donors in Kuwait.

For more information about Wataniya Telecom’s contributions in the field of social responsibility, please visit our website www.wataniya.com.

NPIS holds literacy week

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ducation plays a very important part in the origin development and perfection of human personality and encompasses every aspect of human life. Keeping in view the significance of education a literacy week. All the classes from class - 1 to IGCSE participated in the event.

Students made speeches on literacy and its effects on the society. They expressed that education is a key to economic progress and prosperity. Plays were also staged, songs were sung, poems were recited, Quiz was held and tribute to the teachers was paid for imparting knowledge to the students.

At the end of the week the Director of the school Anita Bukharey appreciated the efforts of teachers and participants for their interest in promoting the cause of education.

Gayathri Ashokan, noted classical/ Hindustani vocalist and playback singer performing as part of “Swaralayam-2011” mega event organized by Kerala Art Lovers Association (Kala-Kuwait) recently at Indian Central School Auditorium, Jleeb.

W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Ahmadi Music Group stages Desert Song

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he Ahmadi Music Group, directed by Richard Bushman, staged a hugely successful production of The Desert Song by Sigmund Romberg in Kuwait this week. Packed audiences enjoyed the skilled performances of Anna Karadimitrova as Margot, Jumel Trinidad Carvajal as Pierre/The Red Shadow, Don Graybiel as Paul, Hassan Rawas as Benny, Stacy McDonald as Susan, Haytham Abdullah as Ali Ben Ali, Chad Van Heel as Sid El Kir, Alessandra Passalaqua as Clementina, Zuleima Unda as Azuri, Eli Andrade as General Birabeau and a large and enthusiastic chorus of soldiers/Riffs and Army wives/harem girls.

The music was performed by the Ahmadi Music Group Orchestra with dancing routines by Kamara Gray and Sabrina Sciosa.

Information EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription ended on 25 of April 2011. To register it is necessary that Argentinean citizens should come personally at the Argentinean Embassy (Block 6, street 42, villa 57, Mishref) and present the DNI and four personal photos (size 4x4, face should be front on white background). For further information, contact us on 25379211.

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EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Embassy encourages all Australians to register their presence in Kuwait through Smartraveller Online (see link below).

Australians who are registered are asked to update their details. The information provided will assist us in contacting you in an emergency. www.smartraveller.gov.au Kuwait citizens can apply for and receive visit visas to Australia online at www.immi.gov.au. This usually takes two working days. All others visa applications are handled by the Australian Visa Application Centre Tel. 22971110.

Witnessing and certifying documents are by appointment only, please contact the Embassy on 2232 2422.

The Australian Embassy is open from 8.00am to 4.00pm, Sunday to Thursday.

Tracing your family roots

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racing Your Family Roots,” by Christopher Baker at 7 pm will be held on June 21, Tuesday. Each one of us is born with a unique set of ancestors. Whether we realize it or not, our family history will in no small measure influence how we live our lives today. Most of us will naturally know our parents and grandparents but beyond this, things become distinctly hazy. In this talk, Chris Baker will show how he has traced his family tree back in some cases to the 1600s. He will describe the principal sources of information used in his research, the origin of some of the inevitable family myths, and the long-lost cousins he has met on his journey. Chris Baker has been working in Kuwait since 1996. He is a graduate of Imperial College, London and is a chartered engineer by profession. He is currently a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Kuwait University. His career has spanned both industry and academia in the UK, Canada and, of course, Kuwait. His principal hobby, which he shares with his wife Sandra, is researching his family history. He has worked on this on and off since the 1980s and hopes to devote more time to it when he retires.”For more information call: 25335260/80 ext 105 or 104 or 0 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw

The Hoppin’ John String Band

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he Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy invites you to provide press and media coverage of the American bluegrass music group the Hoppin’ John String Band. The US Embassy in Kuwait, in conjunction with the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, arranged the band’s visit as part of a cultural program aimed at bringing Kuwaitis and Americans closer together through music. The Hoppin’ John String Band, comprised of two fiddles, guitar, banjo and bass, performs and teaches music deeply rooted in the ballads, fiddle tunes, and traditions of the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. Through story and song, Hoppin’ John String Band brings alive the experience of the American laborer, farmer and people from all walks of life.

The performance will take place on Sunday, June 19 from 19:30 - 20:30 at Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry.

Embassy

Adharsha Andhra Youth - Kuwait 2nd anniversary grand success

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dharsha Andhra Youth Kuwait a community socio organization which is taking active part of The Telugu people who are living in Kuwait with problems celebrated its second anniversary on 12th June at Souk - Al Watiya function hall, Maliya.

Indian Embassy Charge d Affairs Vidhu P Nair, Telugu Church founder Livingston Gadde, Pastor John Somaiah, Arab to AP Services MD Ch. Raja Sekhar, Kalanjali President Murali Manohar, Rak Dance Academy General Secretary Darla Srinivasachary, and Telugu Kala Samithi Ex-Official Bhaskara Reddy were attended as chief gusts for this program and cheered their greetings for their success during the organizations past welfare activities.

During the program there were many cultural activities with songs, play lets, and magic show were entrained the audience. The founder Moka Swami, President Krishna Kumar, Vice President Y. Ravi Kumar,

N. Siva Kumar, Veeraju and other committee members were involved to success this program and expressed their continues hard work to develop the organization by doing the welfare activities.

“I observed all Telugu community in Kuwait are united, integrated and involving among their community to promote Telugu Language, literature, culture and welfare” expressed Vidhu P Nair during the program and promised that he will give full co operation and any necessary help in this regard. Also he stated that being a large Telugu community who are living Kuwait.

The embassy opened a special helping counter with the staff who speak Telugu to help the Telugu community and requested the audience to utilize these facilities.

Livingston Gadde who was the founder of Telugu church in Kuwait in 1971 promised his full co-operation to develop this organization in a success way.

EMBASSY OF BRITAIN The Visa Application Centre (VAC) will be closed on the same dates above. The opening hours of the Visa Application Centre are 0930 - 1630 Application forms remain available online from the UKBAs’ website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk or from the Visa Application Centre’s website: www.vfs-ukkw.com. And also, from the UK Visa Application Centre located at: 4B, First Floor, Al Banwan Building (Burgan Bank Branch Office Building), Al Qibla area, opposite Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City. For any further inquiries, please contact the Visa Application Centre: Website: www.vfs-uk-kw.com E-mail:info@vfs-uk-kw.com Telephone:22971170. The Consular Section will also be closed on the same dates.

For information on the British Embassy services, visit the British Embassy website: www.ukinkuwait.fco.gov.uk ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait.

Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form. All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants. Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed.

TV Listings FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

00:45 Dogs 101 01:40 Untamed And Uncut 02:35 Cheetah Kingdom 03:30 Max’s Big Tracks 04:25 I Was Bitten 05:20 Animal Cops Phoenix 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 My Cat From Hell 10:05 Dogs 101 11:00 Animal Cops Miami 11:55 SSPCA: On The Wildside 12:20 Wildlife SOS 12:50 Clinically Wild: Alaska 13:45 Animal Cops Phoenix 14:40 Daniel And Our Cats 15:30 Echo And The Elephants Of Amboseli 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Farm Life 16:55 Farm Life 17:25 Must Love Cats 18:20 Cheetah Kingdom 19:15 Rats With Nigel Marven 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Karina: Wild On Safari 22:00 Whale Wars 22:55 After The Attack

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

Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Casualty Doctor Who Doctor Who Confidential Eastenders Doctors Last Of The Summer Wine Fimbles Balamory Teletubbies Gigglebiz Fimbles Balamory Teletubbies Fimbles Balamory Teletubbies Gigglebiz Fimbles Balamory Teletubbies Gigglebiz Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Ray Mears’ Northern Wilderness Doctors Eastenders Casualty Last Of The Summer Wine Ray Mears’ Northern Wilderness The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Ray Mears’ Northern Wilderness The Weakest Link Doctors The Planets Survivors Taking The Flak

00:15 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 00:40 Come Dine With Me 01:30 The Home Show 02:20 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 04:00 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 04:50 Daily Cooks Challenge 08:45 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 09:35 Antiques Roadshow 10:25 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 12:05 New Scandinavian Cooking 12:55 Antiques Roadshow 13:50 Cash In The Attic 14:35 Bargain Hunt 15:15 Come Dine With Me 16:05 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 17:45 Indian Food Made Easy 18:10 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 19:00 Antiques Roadshow 19:50 Cash In The Attic 20:35 Bargain Hunt 21:20 Come Dine With Me 22:10 The Home Show 23:00 Masterchef: The Professionals

IMAGINE THAT ON OSN MOVIES HD

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

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 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 People BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today

14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact 16:30 Our World 17:00 Impact 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 World Have Your Say 18:30 World Have Your Say 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 19:30 BBC World News 19:40 Weekend World 20:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 21:30 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 People

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

Cow And Chicken Cramp Twins George Of The Jungle Courage The Cowardly Dog Eliot Kid Ed, Edd N Eddy Ben 10: Alien Force The Powerpuff Girls Chowder The Secret Saturdays My Gym Partner’s A Monkey Ben 10: Alien Force Best Ed 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 Adventure Time 08:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 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 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 Cartoon Network Dance Club 18:45 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 18:55 Best Ed 19:20 Adventure Time 19:45 Cow And Chicken 20:10 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 20:35 Courage The Cowardly Dog

21:00 21:25 21:50 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:15 23:40

The Powerpuff Girls Ed, Edd N Eddy Robotboy Adventure Time Hero 108 Ben 10 Bakugan Battle Brawlers Chowder

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

Backstory World Sport World Report World Report World Business Today Piers Morgan Tonight Anderson Cooper 360 World Sport Ireport For CNN World Report Backstory World Report World Report World Sport The Best Of Backstory World Business Today CNN Marketplace Middle East World One World Sport The Best Of Backstory Piers Morgan Tonight News Stream World Business Today International Desk The Brief World Sport World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East International Desk Talk Asia Quest Means Business CNN Marketplace Africa Piers Morgan Tonight Connect The World

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

Dirty Jobs Surviving The Cut Ultimate Survival Ultimate Car Build-Off Mythbusters How It’s Made How Machines Work Dirty Jobs Ultimate Car Build-Off American Chopper: Senior vs

00:30 00:55 01:45 02:35 03:25 03:50 04:45 05:40 06:10 07:00 07:55 07:58 08:25 08:55 09:45 10:35 11:25 11:50 12:40 13:05

The Gadget Show Mega World Bang Goes The Theory The Future Of...

How Stuff’s Made Scrapheap Challenge Science Of The Movies One Step Beyond Ecopolis Catch It Keep It Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Bad Universe The Gadget Show Bang Goes The Theory Mean Green Machines Catch It Keep It One Step Beyond Weird Or What?

How It’s Made Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Time Warp Surviving The Cut Sons Of Guns Sons Of Guns Ultimate Survival LA Ink Dirty Jobs Ultimate Car Build-Off Mythbusters Extreme Fishing Cake Boss Border Security Time Warp How Machines Work How It’s Made Extreme Engineering Huge Moves Mighty Ships Extreme Fishing

13:55 14:45 15:35 16:00 16:03 16:30 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 20:45 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Sci-Fi Saved My Life Mega World The Gadget Show Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Brainiac Alien Storms How The Universe Works The Gadget Show Sci-Fi Science How Does That Work?

The Gadget Show How The Universe Works The Gadget Show 2012 Apocalypse

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

Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Timmy Time Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Hive Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse The Little Mermaid Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Lazytown Imagination Movers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Timmy Time The Hive Little Einsteins The Little Mermaid Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Handy Manny The Hive Jake & The Neverland Pirates Imagination Movers Lazytown Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso The Hive Little Einsteins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Little Mermaid Handy Manny Timmy Time Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Hive Handy Manny The Little Mermaid Little Einsteins Handy Manny The Hive Jungle Junction The Little Mermaid Timmy Time Jo Jo’s Circus Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

06:00 Kid vs Kat 06:20 Kick Buttowski 06:40 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 07:05 Phineas And Ferb 08:05 American Dragon 08:30 Kick Buttowski 08:50 Kid vs Kat 09:00 Pokemon 11:30 Pokemon Movie: Arceus And The Jewel Of Life 13:10 Phineas And Ferb 13:20 Kid vs Kat 13:30 Pokemon 14:40 Zeke And Luther 15:05 Kick Buttowski

TV Listings FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

15:25 Kid vs Kat 15:35 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 16:00 I’m In The Band 16:25 Suite Life On Deck 16:50 Zeke And Luther 17:40 Phineas And Ferb 18:30 Pokemon Movie: Arceus And The Jewel Of Life 20:10 Phineas And Ferb 20:15 Kid vs Kat 20:40 Phineas And Ferb 21:05 I’m In The Band 21:30 Zeke And Luther 21:50 Phineas And Ferb

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

The Haunted Psychic Witness Autopsy: Most Shocking Cases True Crime Scene Dr G: Medical Examiner Amsterdam Vice The Haunted Mystery Diagnosis Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls FBI Case Files FBI Files True Crime With Aphrodite Jones Who On Earth Did I Marry?

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

Serial Killers I Escaped Death Dr G: Medical Examiner

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

Bondi Rescue Nomads Banged Up Abroad The Best Job In The World Bondi Rescue David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Exploring The Vine Surfer’s Journal Bondi Rescue Nomads Banged Up Abroad The Best Job In The World Bondi Rescue David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Exploring The Vine

By Any Means Market Values Bondi Rescue Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled Banged Up Abroad The Best Job In The World Bondi Rescue David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Exploring The Vine

By Any Means Market Values

00:30 02:15 04:15 06:00 07:45 09:45 11:30 13:30 15:30 18:00 20:00 22:00

The Forsaken-18 Fast And Furious-PG15 The Cottage-18 The Taking Of Pelham 123-18 The Italian Job (2003)-PG15 Signs-PG15 Kiss The Girls-18 The Italian Job (2003)-PG15 Angels And Demons-PG15 Kiss The Girls-18 Unbreakable-PG15 Orphan-18

01:30 The Gray Man-PG15 03:15 Messengers-PG15 05:00 Rugrats Go Wild-FAM 07:00 The Prince And Me 3: A Royal Honeymoon-PG15 09:00 All About Steve-PG15 10:45 2012-PG15 13:30 Harold-PG15 15:15 The Losers-PG15 17:00 Who Is Clark Rockefeller-PG 19:00 She’s Out Of My League-18 21:00 Shutter Island-18 23:30 Let Me In-R

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 South Park 02:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:30 Weeds 03:00 Rita Rocks 03:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 03:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 04:00 South Park 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Will And Grace 06:00 According To Jim 06:30 Family Biz 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Happy Endings 08:30 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 09:00 Rita Rocks 09:30 Will And Grace 10:00 According To Jim 10:30 Happy Endings 11:00 Family Biz 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 13:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 13:30 Will And Grace 14:00 According To Jim 14:30 Community 15:00 Happy Endings 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Family Biz 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Til Death 18:30 8 Simple Rules ...

19:00 Outsourced 19:30 Modern Family 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Funny Or Die Presents 22:30 Eastbound And Down 23:00 South Park 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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

White Collar Burn Notice The Good Guys Bones Burn Notice Good Morning America Detroit 1-8-7 Emmerdale Look-A-Like The Good Guys The Martha Stewart Show The View White Collar Bones Live Good Morning America The Bachelor The Ellen DeGeneres Show One Tree Hill Drop Dead Diva Off The Map Big Love The Good Guys The Cape

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00

Criminal Minds The Good Guys White Collar Burn Notice Bones Surface Criminal Minds 30 Rock Look-A-Like The Event The Good Guys White Collar Burn Notice 30 Rock Look-A-Like The Event Criminal Minds 30 Rock Look-A-Like Covert Affairs Drop Dead Diva

20:00 Off The Map 21:00 Big Love 22:00 The Good Guys

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:30 17:30 19:00 20:45 23:00

El Mariachi-PG15 District 13: Ultimatum-18 Fear Island-PG15 Star Trek 10: Nemesis-PG15 I, Robot-PG15 No Escape-PG15 Alatriste-PG15 I, Robot-PG15 Annihilation Earth-PG15 The Ruins-R XXX-PG15 From Within-PG15

00:00 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid-PG 02:00 Mr. Baseball-PG 04:00 Keeping The Faith-PG15 06:15 The Ramen Girl-PG15 08:00 Born Yesterday-PG15 10:00 Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past-PG15 12:00 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs-PG 14:00 The Perfect Score-PG15 16:00 The Elder Son-PG15 18:00 Someone Like You-PG15 20:00 The Ugly Truth-PG15 22:00 The Broken Hearts Club-18

01:30 04:30 06:45 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

Beloved-18 The Informant!-PG15 The Soloist-PG15 Phoebe In Wonderland-PG Whip It-PG15 Rudy-PG The Brothers Bloom-PG15 Tuck Everlasting-PG Against The Ropes-PG15 The Reader-18 In America-18

UNBREAKABLE ON OSN ACTION HD

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Information FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines

Arrival Flights on Friday 17/6/2011 Flt Route

Time

RJA JZR MEA THY ETH UAE DHX ETD MSR FDB GFA QTR JZR THY KAC JZR JZR BAW KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA MEA JZR JZR MEA IYE MSR JZR KAC RBG KAC MSR UAL RJA FDB OMA KAC KAC BBC KAC JZR QTR JZR JZR MLR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR ABY ALK

642 AMMAN 267 BEIRUT 406 BEIRUT 772 ISTANBUL 620 ADDIS ABABA 853 DUBAI 370 BAHRAIN 305 ABU DHABI 614 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 211 BAHRAIN 138 DOHA 207 DAMASCUS 770 ISTANBUL 544 CAIRO 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR 541 CAIRO 206 ISLAMABAD 302 MUMBAI 332 TRIVANDRUM 53 DUBAI 678 MUSCAT / DUBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 132 DOHA 125 SHARJAH 619 LAR 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 165 DUBAI 121 BAHRAIN 408 BEIRUT 825 SANAA 623 SOHAG 509 LUXOR 618 DOHA 3553 ALEXANDRIA / SOHAG 672 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 640 AMMAN 57 DUBAI 645 MUSCAT 546 ALEXANDRIA 552 DAMASCUS 43 DHAKA 787 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 134 DOHA 201 DAMASCUS 535 CAIRO 403 COLOMBO / DUBAI 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 239 AMMAN 127 SHARJAH 227 COLOMBO / DUBAI

0:05 0:35 0:45 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:55 4:10 4:40 5:15 6:10 6:30 6:35 7:10 7:15 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:00 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:20 9:30 9:35 10:55 11:10 11:15 11:35 12:05 12:10 12:30 12:55 12:55 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:50 14:00 14:30 14:35 14:40 15:00 15:10 15:15 15:45 15:50 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:35 17:40 18:00

JZR KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC AIC JAI KAC JZR FDB OMA VOS MEA KAC SVA DHX GFA FCX QTR UAL UAE JZR JZR MSR DLH SAI JZR KLM JZR

177 166 502 542 213 744 674 102 774 575 572 562 787 61 647 81 402 786 506 372 217 304 136 981 859 135 185 612 636 441 539 447 481

DUBAI PARIS / ROME BEIRUT CAIRO DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO DAMMAM DUBAI NEW YORK / LONDON RIYADH CHENNAI / GOA MUMBAI AMMAN RIYADH DUBAI MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT JEDDAH JEDDAH BAHRAIN BAHRAIN RIYADH DOHA BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT LAHORE / KARACHI CAIRO AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN SABIHA

Airlines LZB JZR AXB DLH AIC PIA MEA THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR THY JZR JZR RJA GFA KAC VOS JZR BAW FDB JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC

Departure Flights on Friday 17/6/2011 Flt Route 7788 VARNA / SOFIA 540 CAIRO 390 KOZHIKODE 637 FRANKFURT 982 AHMEDABAD / CHENNAI 206 LAHORE 407 BEIRUT 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 615 CAIRO 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 508 LUXOR 164 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 545 ALEXANDRIA 94 DUBAI / KANDAHAR 120 BAHRAIN 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 177 FRANKFURT / GENEVA 671 DUBAI 117 NEW YORK 551 DAMASCUS 256 BEIRUT 787 JEDDAH

18:00 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:05 19:15 19:25 19:25 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:50 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:15 20:20 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:05 23:30 23:35 23:50

Time 0:05 0:20 0:25 0:40 1:05 1:10 1:45 2:15 2:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 5:00 5:10 5:55 6:55 7:00 7:10 7:40 8:00 8:20 8:25 8:40 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:10 9:10 9:25

KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA IRA JZR MEA KAC JZR JZR KAC MEA KAC IYE MSR RBG JZR MSR RJA FDB UAL KAC OMA KAC KAC BBC JZR KAC QTR KAC JZR JZR ETD MLR UAE GFA ABY JZR SVA ALK JZR KAC KAC JAI FDB JZR KAC KAC OMA MEA SVA DHX GFA KAC QTR KAC KAC FCX JZR JZR UAE UAL KAC MSR SAI

617 DOHA 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 618 LAR 200 DAMASCUS 405 BEIRUT 541 CAIRO 212 DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO 238 AMMAN 103 LONDON 409 BEIRUT 501 BEIRUT 825 DOHA / SANAA 624 SOHAG 3554 ALEXANDRIA 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 641 AMMAN 58 DUBAI 982 BAHRAIN 561 AMMAN 646 MUSCAT 785 JEDDAH 673 DUBAI 44 DHAKA 480 SABIHA 773 RIYADH 135 DOHA 743 DAMMAM 786 RIYADH 538 CAIRO 304 ABU DHABI 404 DUBAI / COLOMBO 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 128 SHARJAH 184 DUBAI 511 RIYADH 228 DUBAI / COLOMBO 134 BAHRAIN 283 DHAKA 361 COLOMBO 571 MUMBAI 62 DUBAI 528 ASSIUT 343 CHENNAI 351 COCHIN 648 MUSCAT 403 BEIRUT 507 JEDDAH 373 BAHRAIN 218 BAHRAIN 381 DELHI 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 102 DUBAI 502 LUXOR 554 ALEXANDRIA 860 DUBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 411 BANGKOK / MANILA 613 CAIRO 442 LAHORE

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

9:35 9:40 9:50 10:00 10:15 10:20 10:20 10:20 11:55 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:30 12:35 13:00 13:05 13:10 13:35 13:40 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 14:45 15:00 15:05 15:10 15:55 16:00 16:05 16:15 16:25 16:35 16:40 17:35 17:40 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:35 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:50 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:55 22:00 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:40 23:40 23:50 23:59

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

ACCOMMODATION Separate room available for Indian bachelors in old Riggae. Sector-1, St.-1, Jadda-3. Contact: 97525930.

(C 3447) 16-6-2011 Sharing accommodation with Kerala family from July 4, for decent couples or working ladies, near Ruchi Restaurant, Abbassiya.

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Contact: 97769931. (C 3441) Fully furnished flat of 1 bed, hall available from June 20, 2011, to share a practicing Muslim person or family, located in Abbasiya near German Clinic. Contact: 99430379. (C 3445) Sharing furnished accommodation available in Salmiya behind Hadi Hospital, preferred nurses, lady doctor, teacher or working in saloon. Contact: 66373409.

15-6-2011 Sharing available (bath attached) for family in a dou-

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FOR SALE PC Compaq Pentium 4, RAM 256MB, HD 40 GB, DVD-CD Writer, Windows XP Professional with 15� LCD Neovo, excellent condition.

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(C 3448) 16-6-2011 Chevrolet Optra, model 2006, silver while color, 4 cylinder, insurance up to June 2013, price KD 1300/-.

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MATRIMONIAL Tamil Muslim girl, MCA, 25 yrs from Tamil Nadu, seeks alliance from professionally qualified, Tamil Muslim boys working in Kuwait. Contact Email: sha_kwt@yahoo.com (C 3446) 15-6-2011 Keralite Christian Anglo Indian boy B.E, 27 yrs, 175cms, working with MNC Bangalore invites suitable proposals (caste no bar).

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No: 15122

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Red Sox beat Rays ST PETERSBURG: Pitcher Josh Beckett allowed only an infield single in the third inning by Reid Brignac as the Boston Red Sox blanked the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0 on Wednesday. Kevin Youkilis hit a three-run homer and that was plenty for Beckett (6-2). Beckett struck out six, walked none and retired the last 19 batters. Brignac set down eight straight batters before Brignac hit a slow roller up the third-base line and easily beat Youkilis’ throw. Youkilis homered off Jeremy Hellickson (7-5) in the seventh, ending the rookie right-hander’s streak of consecutive innings without allowing a run at home at 24.

Yankees 12, Rangers 4 At New York, Mark Teixeira hit two-run homers from each side of the plate as New York connected five times to romp past Texas. Robinson Cano and youngsters Eduardo Nunez and Ramiro Pena homered as New York handed Texas its season-high fourth straight loss. Cano also connected Tuesday night when the Yankees routed the AL champion Rangers by the exact same score. Teixeira homered from the right side in the first after Ivan Nova (64) gave up two quick runs to Texas. The Yankees first baseman tied Chili Davis and Eddie Murray for most times homering from both sides of the plate all-time with 11.

Nationals blank Cardinals 10-0 Phillies sting Marlins with extra-inning victory PHILADELPHIA: Carlos Ruiz’s RBI single to center with two outs in the 10th inning gave the Philadelphia Phillies a 5-4 comeback victory over the Florida Marlins on Wednesday and a sweep of a doubleheader. Ryan Howard was hit by reliever Mike Dunn’s first pitch of the 10th. Two outs later, Domonic Brown walked and Ruiz laced an 0-1 pitch from Dunn (4-5) past diving shortstop Hanley Ramirez to score Howard and extend the Phillies’ winning streak to six games.

The Phillies scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a single by Shane

Dodgers dropped a season-high eight games under .500. This was the first time they were swept in a three-game series at home since June 12-13, 2010, by the Angels. Travis Wood (5-4) allowed one run, five hits and five walks over six innings.

Rockies 6, Padres 3 At Denver, Jhoulys Chacin scattered three hits over six innings and Seth Smith hit a tiebreaking single as part of a five-run sixth to lift Colorado over San Diego. Chacin (8-4) gave up a solo homer to Rob Johnson, as he

Mets 4, Braves 0 At Atlanta, Dillon Gee combined with three relievers for a two-hit shutout and Angel Pagan hit a two-run homer as New York blanked Atlanta. Gee gave up one hit in four innings but did not return following a rain delay of 1 hour, 11 minutes. The delay cost Gee, who is 7-0, a chance to become the first Mets rookie to win his first eight decisions. The Mets have won nine of 13, including the first two games of the series. The lefthanded hitting Pagan pulled a two-run homer off Tim Hudson in the fourth.

Blue Jays 4, Orioles 1 At Toronto, Ricky Romero struck out 12 batters and gave up three hits in eight-plus innings as Toronto beat Baltimore for the 16th straight time at the Rogers Centre.

Adam Lind, Yunel Escobar and Juan Rivera each hit home runs. Romero (6-6) matched his career high for strikeouts.

He was charged with an earned run after Matt Wieters hit an RBI single off reliever Frank Francisco in the bottom of the ninth.

Indians 6, Tigers 4 At Detroit, Orlando Cabrera had three hits, including a go-ahead double in the fifth inning as Cleveland beat Detroit. Cleveland (36-30) pulled back ahead of Detroit (37-31) at the top of the AL Central by a percentage point.

The Indians entered having lost 15 of 20, but they broke through with four runs in the fourth inning after not scoring more than one in any of their previous four games.

Fausto Carmona (4-8) pitched five innings, allowing four runs on eight hits. Cleveland’s bullpen then held Detroit hitless, and Chris Perez pitched the ninth for his 17th save.

Brewers 9, Cubs 5 At Chicago, Rickie Weeks homered and doubled twice as Milwaukee took sole possession of the NL Central lead. Milwaukee moved one game ahead of St Louis in the division on a night when heavy rain delayed the start by 1 hour, 42 minutes. Ryan Braun doubled twice, singled and scored three runs for the Brewers. Corey Hart also had three hits. Hart, Casey McGehee, Yuniesky Betancourt and Jonathan Lucroy each drove in two runs. After wasting terrific starts by Randy Wolf and Yovani Gallardo while losing the first two games of this series by one run, Milwaukee overcame a shaky effort by Chris Narveson (4-4).

Twins 4, White Sox 1 At Minneapolis, Carl Pavano kept up his recent surge with a six-hitter for Minnesota in a victory over Chicago.

Pavano (4-5) walked three, struck out five and recorded six one-pitch outs against the free-swinging White Sox, who had won nine of their previous 13 games. The righthander is 2-0 with a 1.44 ERA over his last three starts, and the Twins have won 10 of their last 12 games. Delmon Young’s two-run single capped a three-run second inning against Gavin Floyd (6-6), who also went the distance and allowed 11 hits.

Athletics 2, Royals 1 At Oakland, California, Josh Outman allowed four hits over seven innings as Oakland gave new manager Bob Melvin his first home victory by beating Kansas City. Cliff Pennington and Daric Barton had RBI singles off starter Luke Hochevar (4-7), who took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning before it all fell apart. The scuffling A’s had lost three straight and 13 of 14 in a streak that began under Bob Geren. Melvin improved to 2-4 since taking over for the fired Geren.

Mariners 3, Angels 1 At Seattle, Carlos Peguero’s two-out groundball in the seventh inning ricocheted off second base, over the head of Angels shortstop Erick Aybar and into center field to score a pair and help give Seattle a win over Los Angeles.

Erik Bedard (4-4) threw seven shutout innings and Seattle salvaged the finale of the three-game series. Seattle loaded the bases against Ervin Santana (3-7) on a double

by Chone Figgins and intentional walks to Ichiro Suzuki and Justin Smoak. On the seventh pitch, Peguero dribbled his grounder back up the middle for a two-run single that broke a scoreless tie. Brandon League pitched the ninth for his AL-leading 19th save in 22 chances. — AP

St. Louis to its fifth straight win. Albert Pujols made two errors at third base, leading to two unearned runs, as the Cardinals lost their season-worst fifth in a row. Jayson Werth and Danny Espinosa homered and Ryan Zimmerman had his second RBI in as many nights since returning from the disabled list.

Morse drove in three runs and has 11 homers in his last 36 games. Hernandez (4-8) struck out six and walked none in the ninth shutout of his 16-season career. Jon Jay was the only St. Louis hitter to reach second base, doubling in the fifth.

MINNEAPOLIS: Minnesota Twins’ Tsuyoshi Nishioka (top) of Japan, jumps over photographers as he makes his entrance onto the field for a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox yesterday in Minneapolis. Nishioka came off the 60-day disabled list on Wednesday, June 15, after recovering from a broken left leg. — AP Victorino to tie it. Ryan Madson (3-1) pitched a scoreless 10th for the Phillies, who have won nine of 11. The Marlins had two on with two outs in the 10th, but Madson struck out Mike Stanton. In the opener, Jimmy Rollins hit a three-run homer and Wilson Valdez had a three-RBI triple for Philadelphia in an 8-1 win. Kyle Kendrick (4-4) allowed one run and five hits over seven innings in the first game.

Reds 7, Dodgers 2 At Los Angeles, Scott Rolen had three hits and drove in three runs to lead Cincinnati to its first three-game sweep of Los Angeles since 2004. Rolen hit two RBI doubles and added a run-scoring single. Ryan Hanigan and Fred Lewis both drove in two runs. The

lowered his ERA to 2.81. He had seven strikeouts and walked two to pick up his third straight win. The Rockies had seven singles in the sixth inning, including five straight.

Smith, Ty Wigginton and Charlie Blackmon all had RBI singles, while pinch-hitter Ryan Spilborghs added a two-run base hit up the middle. The seven hits equals a season high for an inning and allowed the Rockies to take two of three in the series. Chris Denorfia drove in two runs for San Diego, including a two-out RBI single in the ninth.

Nationals 10, Cardinals 0 At Washington, Livan Hernandez pitched a three-hitter, and Michael Morse homered twice and doubled to lead Washington past

Pirates 7, Astros 3 At Houston, pinch-hitter Xavier Paul doubled, then stayed in the game and hit a tworun homer and a single as Pittsburgh moved over .500. At 34-33, this is the first time the Pirates have been over the break-even point so late in a season since Aug 15, 1999, when they were 59-58. Neil Walker tripled and drove in three runs for the Pirates. Paul batted for starter Charlie Morton (7-3) in the sixth and doubled to start a three-run burst that put Pittsburgh ahead 5-3. Paul went to play right and connected the next inning for his first home run of the season and second of his career.

Giants 5, Diamondbacks 2 At Phoenix, San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner went six innings and got enough run support in San Francisco’s win over Arizona. Bill Hall singled home the go-ahead run in the sixth with his first hit since joining the Giants four days ago and later doubled.

The Giants beat Arizona for the fifth straight time. Willie Bloomquist and Chris Young hit solo homers, ending Bumgarner’s 10-start string without allowing a homer. The 21year-old lefty entered the game with the fifth-worst support in the majors (2.65 runs per game). — AP

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Sticky start for women’s World Cup album BERLIN: Sport sticker album company Panini said yesterday it has been beset with a number of embarrassing teething problems with its first-ever edition for the women’s World Cup, but insisted it was a success. The task of assembling photos and data on the 16 teams in the competition, hosted by Germany and held between June 26 and July 17, proved tougher than expected, Panini Germany spokeswoman Christine Froehler said.

Mexico’s football federation, for example, mistakenly sent Panini pictures of its

men’s team, while the album has the same photo for two North Korean players, Jon Myong Hwa and Kim Kyong Hwa, she said.

But the company, headquartered in Italy, said that its gamble on the event had paid off, having already sold 4.5 million packets of stickers to wholesalers. It is even printing one million more to meet strong demand. “It is a great success,” Froehler said. Unlike for men’s competitions, the 40-page official FIFA album, on sale only in Germany for two euros

($2.83), with a pack of five stickers costing 0.60 euros, has no data on how much the players weigh. Germany is hoping the event will be as successful as the men’s competition in 2006, credited with boosting the country’s image abroad and helping Germans get over a postwar unease about overt displays of national pride.

Some 670,000 tickets or around 75 percent of those on offer have been sold so far, the head of the organisers’ committee, former Germany star Steffi Jones, said in Frankfurt on yesterday.”I am very

happy. The facts show that we are very well prepared,” Jones said. “We are on track to meet our target of selling 80 percent.” Around 10 percent of the tickets were sold in 50 other countries including Tanzania, Bolivia, Fiji and Lebanon, she said. The opening match of 32 takes place on June 26 in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium as hosts Germany, hoping for their third successive title, take on Canada. Some 153,000 tickets have been sold for the July 17 final in Frankfurt. — AFP

Barcelona warn Real not to cross the line BARCELONA: Barcelona yesterday warned their great rivals Real Madrid they would be forced to sever ties between the clubs if Real continue to “cross the line” of sportsmanship. “Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are ancient institutions with many supporters and aficionados,” said Barca president Sandro Rosell during a press conference. “(But if) the line is crossed, we would be forced to break off our institutional relations, which we do not wish to do in any form.” Rosell heralded “the best season in the history of the club,” at the end of a campaign in which Barca won their third successive Spanish league title and defeated Manchester United in the Champions League final.

He then turned his attention to Real, and particularly the spiky exchanges between the clubs that accompanied their series of four matches in the space of 18 days in April and May. “Real Madrid crossed the line of acceptable sporting rivalry by making accusations against our club without any foundation,” he said.

“The rivalry will continue next season but we will not allow them to go beyond the bounds of sportsmanship.” Rosell referred to “numerous provocations” stemming from the Madrid-based press and from both the club itself and the Real coach, Jose Mourinho. Mourinho was handed a five-game ban by UEFA after he made allegations of favouritism towards Barcelona following Real’s 2-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal tie.

The Portuguese’s appeal against the sanction will be heard on July 29. The radio station Cadena Cope also made doping allegations against the Catalan club, drawing attention to the “suspicious reputation” of some of its medical staff. Several Barcelona players subsequently underwent unscheduled doping tests at the request of UEFA, European football’s governing body. According to Rosell, the accusations against his medical staff and players “were premeditated and miserable,” as “the club is an example of conduct for millions of people, particularly children”. — AFP

Eto’o eyes EPL ROME: Samuel Eto’o said yesterday he was considering a move from Inter Milan to the English Premier League (EPL). “The Premier League is an idea I’ve been thinking about for some time,” Italian media reported Eto’o as saying in a television interview in Cameroon. “The question is deciding on the right club. I’ve had offers from top teams but I still have to see if I’d be able to integrate into the sides.” The Cameroon striker’s remarks are likely to cause consternation in Milan, coming after similar comments from Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder and the reported imminent departure of coach Leonardo to take up a director’s position at Paris St Germain.

Eto’o, who has three years left on his contract, said his choice would not be based on financial reasons. “I have a month’s holiday to decide what to do,” said the former Barcelona striker, who scored 37 goals in all competitions in his second season in Italy. “I’m 30 and it’s my last big chance so I want to be certain whether I should stay or go. “The next transfer won’t be about proving myself or earning an extra 100 or 200,000 euros more.

Throughout my career, I’ve always thought first about being happy in the city I’m in, playing in a good club and enjoying myself.” Last week, Sneijder admitted he was not sure of staying at last season’s Champions League winners after a disappointing second season at the San Siro when Inter failed to win the scudetto for the first time in six years. —Reuters

MONTEVIDEO: Juan Olivera, of Uruguay’s Penarol (center), fights for the ball with Durval, of Brazil’s Santos at the Copa Libertadores final first leg soccer match in Montevideo, Uruguay. — AP

Santos, Penarol draw in Libertadores final 1st leg Draw fails to dampen wonderful Centenario atmosphere MONTEVIDEO: Penarol were held 0-0 by Santos in a highly charged first leg of the Libertadores Cup as the great rivals relived a South American classic at the Centenario on Wednesday. Uruguayan side Penarol had a goal by substitute striker Diego Alonso disallowed four minutes from time for offside, a decision shown to be correct by television replays. Brazil teenager Neymar created the first good chance for Santos when he made a diagonal run into the box and laid the ball off to defender Alec Sandro but his low shot was saved by Sebastian Sosa.

Neymar showed some of the trickery that has made him the most exciting prospect in Brazil but Penarol mostly managed to control his attacking runs. Santos might have scored with quarter of an hour to go, but striker Ze Eduardo put his free header just wide of the far post from Sandro’s cross. Penarol’s veteran left back Dario Rodriguez put a lob just over the bar

late in the first half in one of the home side’s clearest chances minutes after fellow defender Guillermo Rodriguez headed straight at the keeper.

CRACKLING ATMOSPHERE The match started in an electric atmosphere as Penarol set out to relive their glory years when they won the trophy five times between 1960, when the competition was first held, and 1987 when present coach Diego Aguirre scored the winner.

The crowd of more than 60,000 was almost all in place more than an hour before kickoff, creating a sea of black and yellow everywhere in the famous stadium, venue of the first World Cup final in 1930 won by Uruguay.

It was punctuated only by a packed enclave of while clad Santos fans in one corner, the expectations high of seeing their team win the trophy for the third time and first since their Pele-inspired vic-

tories in 1962 and 1963. With Penarol poised to clamber out of the tunnel onto the pitch at the beginning, the crowd erupted with fire crackers, Roman candles, smoke bombs and incessant chanting, the smoke only clearing in time for the kickoff.

“In a final what you most look for is the result,” a disappointed Aguirre told Fox Sports. “But I think the draw is okay.” “We dominated the whole match, created more than Santos. I think in Brazil they’ll be strong there but we’re Penarol and we’re going to have to win away,” the Uruguayan side’s striker Alejandro Martinuccio said defiantly. “I hope I can get a goal over there in Brazil. It would be lovely to win the trophy,” Martinuccio, who had a late chance blocked by defender Durval. Durval was confident Santos would be champions if they recreated the same type of performance in Brazil. “If we play as well as we did today we will be champions,” he said. — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Russian fans boycott games over ‘Caucasus bias’ MOSCOW: Moscow and Saint Petersburg football fans have staged a series of unprecedented walkouts from games in protest at perceived bias by the Russian authorities towards Northern Caucasus sides. Fans of the Moscow giants Spartak and CSKA, usually united only by mutual hatred, have joined together to condemn what they consider to be preferential treatment of Caucasus sides by the Russian Football Union (RFU).

Meanwhile, Lokomotiv Moscow supporters joined the protest movement of their city rivals, also staging a walkout just after the one-hour mark of Tuesday’s home match against Spartak Nalchik.

Teams from the Russian Northern Caucasus have seen an unprecedented influx of investment and new players under owners-with clear Kremlin support-keen to promote the conflict-torn region as stable and successful.

Anzhi-a team from the Dagestan city of Makhachkala better known for Islamist attacks than football-is currently third in the Russian premier league, thanks not least to the arrival of Brazilian star Roberto Carlos. Terek Grozny from the war-torn Chechen capital hired Dutch legend Ruud Gullit to be its coach although his tenure this week ended in disaster when he was sacked by the region’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov after just 147 days at the helm. But hard-core Moscow fans claim the success has been helped by the Russian authorities turning blind eye to financial irregularities at the clubs and even referees showing more sympathy to the Caucasus sides.

“The matches of the teams from the Northern Caucasus region often have unsportsmanlike nature,” the Spartak and CSKA fans statement said. “This fact is unofficially recognised by all of those

Sports extras FIFA donates $6 million to Japan TOKYO: FIFA will donate about $6 million in aid to help Japanese football recover from the damage of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, Japan’s football chief said yesterday. Of the sum, $4.5 million will help JLeague clubs, including champions Kashima Antlers, repair stadiums and training facilities damaged by the 9.0-magnitude quake, Japan Football Association president Junji Ogura said. Football’s world governing body will also give the remaining $1.5 million to build or repair training grounds in the worst-hit northeastern prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, Ogura told a news conference. FIFA will also donate balls, shirts, boots and other football equipment worth $500,000 to some 15,000 children in the disaster-hit areas through official sponsor Adidas, he added. Ogura requested such help when FIFA president Sepp Blatter visited Japan in late May. “I am grateful for the answer. We feel much obliged,” he said. “I will listen to what they actually need in the disaster areas.”

McClaren unveiled as Forest manager LONDON: Former England head coach Steve McClaren was unveiled as the new Nottingham Forest manager yesterday. The 50-year-old, who as assistant to Jim Smith helped lead East Midlands rivals Derby to promotion to the Premier League in 1996, returns to English club management after a five-year absence. His brief tenure as England manager ended when he was sacked a day after a 3-2 defeat by Croatia at Wembley in November 2007 scuppered the team’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008.

He then moved to the Netherlands, guiding Twente to second place in the Dutch league in 2009 before leading the unfashionable side to the title the following year. He then joined Bundesliga team Wolfsburg but failed to match that success and was sacked by the German club four months ago. “I was successful before England and after, so I don’t have to answer to anyone,” said McClaren, who agreed a three-year contract on Monday to succeed Billy Davies, who was sacked the previous day.

West Ham, Nolan ink deal LONDON: Kevin Nolan confirmed yesterday that he has signed a five-year deal with relegated West Ham United after leaving Newcastle United. The 28-year-old, who played under Hammers manager Sam Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers, has joined the Championship side for an undisclosed fee, believed to be up to £4 million ($6.4m). “Having the chance to link up with Sam again is a massive thing,” said Nolan on the West Ham website.

“West Ham have shown a certain hunger and desire to make sure that I became their player.”

who have a link to Russian football.” “In recent years the regular laws and rulesthat are obligatory for the entire Russian football community-have been ignored by the teams from the Caucasus region and their supporters.” The fan-activists called all of their clubs’ supporters to boycott the away matches of their favourites against the Caucasus sides, saying that visiting the region may be dangerous for the away teams’ fans.

The fans associations also blamed the police in the Caucasus region for doing nothing to protect the visiting fans from the assaults of local supporters.

Increasing racial tensions in Moscow have been linked to football, with unprecedented race riots last year sparked by the murder of a hard-core Spartak fan by a resident of the Northern Caucasus. Compounding the fans’ anger, RFU president Sergei Fursenko has

recently spoken of his desire to work out a new law that would regulate almost every aspect of the fans’ behaviour ahead, during and after the football match.

His initiative also caused loud debates among fans and another wave of criticism of the RFU for their unwillingness to discuss the law statements with the country’s football lovers before bringing the matter before parliament. On June 7, a huge crowd of fans walked out in protest against the RFU’s initiative during the Euro-2012 qualifier with Armenia at Saint Petersburg’s Petrovsky stadium, leaving the national team with a reduced support. Fans in the Volga city of Samara joined the protests by walking out on Tuesday a with Kuban Krasnodar, in a message to the RFU that not only Moscow and Saint Petersburg are unhappy with their policy. — AFP

End of an era?

Germany dump Ballack BERLIN: Michael Ballack, a towering figure in German football for the past decade, is no longer part of the national squad after 98 appearances for his country, the national federation (DFB) said yesterday. “I have discussed things openly with Michael Ballack, most recently in our meeting at the end of March 2011 and in numerous phone calls since then,” coach Joachim Loew said. “With the Euro 2012 season about to start the time has come for me to make a clear statement.” The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich midfielder, 34, has not played for Germany since the national side lost 1-0 to Argentina in Munich in a March 2010 friendly.

In terms of performance at least, his absence has not been felt. Injured in a brutal tackle by Portsmouth’s KevinPrince Boateng in the FA Cup final, Ballack played no part in the World Cup last year, when Germany played some of the best football of the tournament to finish third. And in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2012 hosted by Poland and Ukraine, Germany are sitting pretty at the top of their qualifying group with a 10-point lead, virtually assuring a berth for the Germans-and no thanks to Ballack.

In his place Philipp Lahm has captained the side, leading to a war of words between the Bayern Munich defender and Ballack, who has repeatedly indicated that he saw leading the team as his right. “I am captain of the national side,” he insisted last June. But in Germany’s first match after the World Cup, against Azerbaijan in September, Loew did not pick Ballack, despite him being fit again. He also played no part in games this year against Azerbaijan, Austria and Uruguay. “Recent months have shown that lots of young players with promising futures have appeared on the scene. Since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the development of the national team has been absolutely positive,” Loew said. “Michael Ballack was for

Germany’s captain Michael Ballack a decade a very important leading player in the national side and contributed enormously to the great successes of the team after the 2002 World Cup,” added Loew, coach since 2006. “He shaped an era and as captain always put himself at the service of the team, as I was able to witness at close quarters at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008.”

Father-of-three Ballack, who, unlike most of his team-mates, grew up in communist East Germany, has scored 42 goals for his country, having made his debut against Scotland in 1999.

He missed the 2002 World Cup final against Brazil because of suspension, a match Germany lost. Ballack played for

Bayern Munich from 2002 and 2006 before moving to Chelsea for a fouryear stint at Stamford Bridge. Last season he returned to Bayer Leverkusen, but fractured his leg in only his third game back and only played 17 times.

The team though came second in the Bundesliga, giving Ballack Champions League football to look forward to next season. The DFB said it hoped that Ballack would take part in a friendly against Brazil in Stuttgart in southwest Germany on August 10 for what it called a “worthy farewell” and 99th appearance-and as captain. But, according to AFP subsidiary SID, Ballack will refuse to play. — AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Big four get fit for Wimbledon LONDON: Champion Rafa Nadal and the three other leading men’s contenders charge into Wimbledon with major expectations despite all battling minor fitness issues in the run-up to the grasscourt grand slam. World number one Nadal has not lost a match at the All England Club since the 2007 final, ripping away six-times champion Roger Federer’s aura of invincibility on the south-west London lawns in the process.

But next week will be the first time the Spaniard will actually walk out as defending champion having missed the 2009 event through injury. His tired display when losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Queen’s last week showed his sixth French Open title had taken its toll on his fitness and he will hope to have recharged his batteries after heading back to Mallorca for golf and fishing. Third seed Federer, beaten yet again by Nadal in the Roland Garros final this month, skipped the Halle grasscourt tournament with a groin problem and Serbian world number two Novak Djokovic missed Queen’s with tendinitis in his knee.

Fourth seed Andy Murray triumphed at Queen’s on Monday after battling an ankle problem picked up in Paris but despite a few weary limbs, it is difficult to look past the quartet. “You’ve got to start with the top four,” Brad Gilbert, a former top 10 player and once coach to Andre Agassi and Murray, said when asked who would be holding aloft the trophy on July 2. “They kind of separated themselves. I mean, Rafa’s played tremendous, Fed’s got a track record, Djokovic has been on fire this year, and Murray just won Queen’s. “Some guys could make some runs, but winning this tournament will be one of those four guys for sure.”

Nadal and Federer have won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon every year since 2003 and have played each other in three finals, one of them a spine-chilling epic in 2008 which Nadal edged in near darkness. For the first time since their duel domination began, however, Swiss Federer is not one of the top two seeds. Nadal heads to London not just defending his title but clinging to the world number one spot by his fingertips, with Djokovic hot on his tail after a run of 41 straight wins in 2011 which was ended by Federer in a French Open semi-final classic.

MUSCLE-BULGING Federer, whose elegant tennis down the years at Wimbledon has been in such stark contrast to the musclebulging power of Nadal, will aim to prove that at 29 there are still a few golden chapters left in his career. Then there is Murray, Britain’s best player in living memory who has continually fluffed his lines with the big prizes tantalisingly close despite his sublime skills. Sweden’s Robin Soderling and three-times runner-up Andy Roddick may shine and fans thronging the grounds can expect entertaining cameos from the likes of acrobatic Frenchman Tsonga and iron-wristed Tomas Berdych, last year’s beaten finalist. But as they proved at Roland Garros by making the last four, Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and Murray are a class above the rest.

Nadal displayed the depth of his mental fortitude in Paris. Out of sorts to start with, he almost lost to John Isner in the first round and looked anxious before his game caught fire. The 25-year-old then took his grand slam singles title tally to 10 compared to Federer’s record of 16. “I am very confident. I’m going to be there with high motivation and hopefully in perfect performance physically,” Nadal said of Wimbledon. Federer, overpowered by Berdych in the quarter-finals a year ago, said recently he was playing “pressure-free” for the first time in his illustrious career and now has his eye on a seventh title to match the modern-era record of American Pete Sampras.

“Wimbledon for me is always the number one goal in the season,” Federer said after pushing claycourt king Nadal hard in the French Open final. “This is where it all started for me back in 2003. That’s why I always really enjoy coming back.” Of the top four, only Murray is without a grand slam title. The Briton, trounced by an inspired Djokovic in the Australian Open final in January, was magnificent in winning the Queen’s title but knows ending his country’s 75-year wait for a men’s grand slam champion will be much tougher.— Reuters

Li Na to spark Chinese tennis boom EASTBOURNE: First came the Russians.

Now, women’s tennis is preparing for a Chinese boom after Li Na’s historic win at the French Open. Anna Kournikova’s success in the late 1990s inspired a succession of Russians to follow in her footsteps, and according to the WTA tour’s chief marketing officer Andrew Walker, Li Na’s win could have a similar effect in China. “It’s the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential of the China market for women’s tennis,” Walker told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. “No question, it will inspire in China many young girls to pick up a racket who might not otherwise have done so.

“I think we’re all very optimistic that it’ll have a domino effect in terms of continuing the growth of the women’s game in

China at a much faster speed.”

There are two Chinese players in the top 50 of the women’s game compared to 11 Russians, but the rankings could have a very different look in 10 years’ time. The 29-year-old Li became the first player from China to win a Grand Slam singles title when she beat Francesca Schiavone in the French Open earlier this month. The match was watched by 116 million people in her home country, making it the most-watched sporting event in China this year and the most-watched tennis match ever in the country.

Li is already one of the biggest sports stars in China, on a level with basketball player Yao Ming, and the WTA knows her success could have a wide-reaching impact

on the game globally. “No question, it’s great news in terms of growing the game not only at the grassroot level, but in terms of attracting investment from Chinese brands as well as multinational brands into women’s tennis,” Walker said.

The WTA already has two tournaments based in China. More could follow, according to Walker. Li hasn’t yet experienced the impact of her win in person. She stayed in Europe after winning Roland Garros, and said she turned off her phone and didn’t look at the Internet because “people (were) a little bit crazy about the winner.”

Following her first-round win at Eastbourne on Tuesday, she joked that she might never go back if she wins Wimbledon, which begins Monday. —AP

EASTBOURNE: Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova plays a return to US’s Venus Williams (inset) during their quarterfinal single tennis match at the Eastbourne International grass court tournament yesterday. — AP

Hantuchova ends Williams sisters run Slovak secures a gritty 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory EASTBOURNE: Daniela Hantuchova ended the Williams sisters’ run at the Eastbourne grasscourt event yesterday as she finally triumphed after ten losses in her career series with Venus. The Slovak who had won just two sets previously against the American holder of five Wimbledon titles, secured a gritty 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 quarter-final victory to send Venus out a day after her sister Serena lost to top seed Vera Zvonareva. “I felt I came out and played well early in the match,” said the winner.

“The wind picked up and made things tough for both of us. It was then about who had the mentality and I came through. “I’m feeling really good.

My form is good.” Hantuchova, ranked 25th, laboured for two hours, 23 minutes after a delayed start due to rain in

the area. The Slovak who played last week’s Birmingham final, won her 27th match of the season and heads into a semi-final against either fifth seed Petra Kvitova or Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska. The pair played their first match a decade ago and last met in Miami in March, where Williams won after coming back from a 1-6 first set.

Williams, her ranking down to 33rd, was playing an event for the first time in five months after an abdominal injury which forced her to quit a match at the Australian Open in January. Her sister Serena came back this week after almost a year off court due to two operations on a cut foot last year and a February surgery to remove blood clots from her lungs. Hantuchova, 2004 Eastbourne runner-up, won the opening set in 39 minutes from two breaks

and a 5-2 lead. After claiming the first, she led 4-2 in the second and looked to be cruising before Williams laid on a fightback to eventually square the match.

In the third the Slovak got off to a break in the opening game, only to lose it in the fourth. But the 28-year-old fought on to break Williams straight back before repeating the effort and serving out the win on her first match point. Men finally completed three leftover second-round matches topped by rain on Wednesday. Janko Tipsarevic, the number three and last seed remaining, beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), Belgian Olivier Rochus stopped Argentine Carlos Berlocq 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3) and Japan’s Kei Nishikori beat German veteran Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.— AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Unpredictability the watchword at Tigerless Open BETHESDA: Widely regarded as the toughest major to win, the US Open which started at Congressional Country Club yesterday is also one of the most unpredictable of all time with regard to a likely champion. Former world number one Tiger Woods has lost the firm grip he once enjoyed at the top and he is a conspicuous absentee this week while he continues to recover from his left knee and Achilles tendon injury.

Even his presence would have made no difference to the year’s second major being wide open for the taking and world number three Martin Kaymer believes up to 40 players in the 156strong field are genuine contenders for the title.

“Probably 10, 15 years ago there were only 10 or 12 players who could win but now it’s so spread out,” German Kaymer told reporters while preparing for yesterday’s opening round. “We have had 10 different winners in the last 10

majors that we’ve played so it’s very open at the moment. It can be anybody this week - 30 to 40 players is my guess.”

Seven of the last eight major champions have been first-time winners and neither British world number one Luke Donald nor his second-ranked compatriot Lee Westwood have yet lifted a grand slam title.

“Golf is in such a good position at the moment because it’s so volatile you can get a different winner every week,” said Englishman Westwood, who is twice a runner-up in majors and three-times a third-place finisher. “It’s part of the challenge of the game at the moment. If I could pick out a favourite, I’d be working for (bookmakers) Paddy Power or BetFred or something like that.” The list of potential champions on the 7,574yard Blue Course at Congressional this week includes richly talented young guns, ice-cool veterans and US Open specialists. Kaymer, who won his first

major at last year’s PGA Championship, will certainly fancy his chances, as will the in-form American trio of Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar.

LESSONS LEARNED Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa now knows he can triumph at the highest level while Britain’s Rory McIlroy and Americans Dustin Johnson and Nick Watney will hope to build on lessons learned after relinquishing 54-hole leads in the last three majors. Britain’s Graeme McDowell does not plan to surrender the US Open crown he claimed last year at Pebble Beach without a fight while American Bubba Watson and Englishmen Paul Casey and Ian Poulter each have the self-belief needed to win a major.

McIlroy, four ahead going into the final round of this year’s Masters before tumbling out of contention with an 80, recognises what is now possible with 14-times major winner Woods having

lost the aura of dominance he once wielded. “Every time you have Tiger in the field, you’ve got to think he’s going to have a good chance,” said the 22year-old Northern Irishman. “To have one of the main contenders not here gives the rest of us a little bit more of a chance.”

As ever at a US Open where ‘plodding’ rather than ‘birdie hunting’ is the name of the game, the ability to minimise errors and stay patient on slick greens and tight fairways flanked by thick, graduated rough will be defining traits in the make-up of this week’s champion. “If you’re hitting it long and straight, it favours you here,” said Englishman Donald, who claimed his third PGA Tour victory at the WGCAccenture Match Play Championship in February. “But it’s the same every week.

“I think US Opens are all about controlling your golf ball, hitting fairways and hitting greens, as well.” —Reuters

Splashdowns abound at US Open’s terrible 10th Westwood, Kaymer would go on to bogey 11

BETHESDA: Ryan Palmer reacts to his approach shot to the fourth green during the first round of the US Open Championship golf tournament in Bethesda yesterday. —AP

American Palmer sets early pace at US Open BETHESDA: American Ryan Palmer birdied the tricky par-three 10th hole to grab an early one-shot lead in the US Open first round at Congressional Country Club yesterday. Palmer, beaten

by PGA Tour rookie Keegan Bradley in a playoff for last month’s Byron Nelson Championship, hit his tee shot over the pond guarding the front of the green to four feet and coolly knocked in the putt to get to three under overall.

That left him a stroke in front of fellow Americans Chez Reavie and Jeff Overton, and Swede Johan Edfors in the year’s second major. Reavie, who teed off in the first group of the day at the par-four first, had completed 16 holes, Ryder Cup player Overton 10 and US Open qualifier Edfors 12. Holder Graeme McDowell of Britain, who clinched last year’s title by one shot at Pebble Beach, was among a cluster of eight players knotted at one under. The Northern Irishman shrugged off a bogey at the first, where he was bunkered off the tee and with his approach, to claw his way into contention with birdies at the second and sixth.

Also at one under were 2009 PGA Championship winner Yang Yong-eun of South Korea, 2009 British Open winner Stewart Cink of the US and emerging Australian talent Jason Day. Yang had completed 13 holes, Cink five and the 23-year-old Day 12. British world number one Luke Donald, playing in a high-profile pairing with second-ranked Lee Westwood and third-ranked Martin Kaymer, was six strokes off the early pace after squandering a sizzling start. Donald, who claimed his third PGA Tour victory at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February, birdied the difficult 10th and 11th after teeing off on the brutal back nine first to share the early lead. —Reuters

BETHESDA: The terrible 10th hole bared its teeth for early back-nine starters in yesterday’s first round of the US Open, with Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa among those whose opening shot found a watery grave. The 218-yard par-3, over the lake adjacent to the 18th green at Congressional Country Club was a tough enough way to start a major championship before rain and a front left pin placement added to the adventure. In all, seven players from the first eight groups saw their tee shots splash down in front of the green.

Through the first 11 groups, it ranked third among the course’s toughest holes and helped make the 11th the day’s hardest hole.

“Incredibly difficult start,” warned South African Ernie Els, the 1997 US Open winner at Congressional. “You have to be on right from the go. It’ll be interesting to see how the guys cope.”

The feature pairing of World No 1 Luke Donald, second-ranked English compatriot Lee Westwood and Germany’s third-rated Martin Kaymer proved the most successful of the early groups at the tricky 10th. Donald found the precious-little room between the water and cup and sank a five-foot birdie putt. Kaymer bounded his tee shot to six feet and birdied as well. Westwood was safely to the back center of the green and two putted for par.

Westwood and Kaymer would go on to bogey 11 while Donald birdied it.

“It’s certainly a challenging start,” Donald said. “I would have preferred to tee off one early on. It’s not too often you begin on a par-3. It’s just a different kind of feel. It’s something you just have to deal with.” American Marc Turnesa took a double bogey in the opening group and German Marcel Siem found the lake next, followed by Frenchman Thomas Levet. Heath

BETHESDA: Y E Yang, of South Korea, hits from a sandtrap to the 12th green during the first round of the US Open Championship golf tournament in Bethesda yesterday. —AP Slocum’s tee shot rolled off the top of the front bank and into the water from the fourth group in a steady rain even as Germany’s Nicolas Colsaerts managed the day’s first birdie at the 10th.

Even with an extra 10 feet of height and distance beyond the surface of the water needed to escape rolling down the hill to a wet fate, some players were ready to challenge the front pin.

Stewart Cink nearly aced his tee shot on the first bounce but settled for a birdie and another on the 11th, the American solving the hardest holes for an early edge. Ireland’s Padraig Harrington was safely over and parred 10 as well. Angel Cabrera, the Argentine star who has won a Masters and a US Open, nearly earned his nickname, “El Pato” or “The Duck”, by finding the water but found the thin front

fringe and escaped with a par, joining Cink and Harrington in the first group without a ball in the water.

But Ishikawa and American Anthony Kim made it six players in six groups in the lake, the Japanese teen star finding the water on the fly while Kim rolled six feet down the front slope. Both opened with double bogeys, Kim spending several moments staring at the hillside from the green. South Korean Yang Yong-Eun, the first Asian man to win a major from his 2009 PGA Championship triumph, showed Kim and Ishikawa how it was done as a fine mist rose from the lake, bouncing pin high and rolling in a birdie putt. After the world’s three top players went through, Webb Simpson just missed the top of the slope but escaped with only a bogey.—AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

Bruins skate away with Stanley Cup Bruins thrash Canucks 4-0 VANCOUVER: Home ice had been the big advantage in the NHL finals so Boston Bruins’ Nathan Horton brought some of his own to Vancouver for Game Seven and watched his team skate away with a 4-0 win over the Canucks and the Stanley Cup on Wednesday. Horton, who was knocked out of the finals by an illegal late hit from Canucks’ Aaron Rome in Game Three, travelled with his team to the west coast for the decider and was spotted by TV cameras prior to the opening faceoff pouring water on the Rogers Arena where they had lost three times.

“I can’t take credit (for the idea), but I put it on. I was trying to be sneaky about it, but they saw me,” Horton told the Toronto Sun. “It’s from our Garden ice back home. We wanted to put it on their ice and make it our ice.” But Bruins hardly needed any luck, using the same formula for success they had used in Boston, grabbing the lead then riding the netminding of Tim Thomas to victory and the Bruins first Stanley Cup since 1972.

Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand each scored two goals for the Bruins while Thomas claimed the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoffs most valuable player turning away all 37 shots that were fired at him to notch his second shutout of the finals. “Tim Thomas in these playoffs just totally dominated,” praised Boston coach Claude Julian. “That’s the sign of a great goaltender. “He was on top of his game from start to finish and especially in this final round. He was outstanding every game. “I know everybody expected him to have an average game at some point. Never came. “He was in the zone, focused, never let anything rattle him and never questioned his style of play.”

HOME ICE ADVANTAGE Until Game Seven home ice advantage had been the one consistent in a hard-hitting and occasionally ill-tempered series that has seen wild swings in momentum with both teams holding serve in their own building. But the series had also swung in favour of the team that scored the first goal in each game and this time it was the Bruins who drew first blood.

“Scoring that first goal has always been important for our hockey club,” said Julian. “Certainly when we scored that first goal, it did give us confidence because we hadn’t scored here that much and now in

VANCOUVER: The Boston Bruins pose for a photograph with the Stanley Cup following their 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday, June 15, 2011. —AP Game Seven, you’re playing with the lead. “We’re a team that’s done a pretty good job of playing with the lead. “Before we went out for the third period, everybody in there was telling each other that there is no way in the world that we could let up for a second, that we had to play a full 60 minutes.”

Having ended a 39-year title drought, the Bruins will return home to a celebration on Thursday and a Stanley Cup victory parade, which Boston knows how to do with the NFL New England Patriots, NBA Celtics and MLB Red Sox all having won titles the last decade. “I would have rather won as a player but this

is second best, this is incredible, said Bruins president Cam Neely, who played for the Bruins 10 years as player but never hoisted the Cup.”It’s been a long time coming for our fan base, they deserve it, ownership deserves. “They’ve been waiting for this, it’s a special moment for everyone involved.”— Reuters

Vancouver licks its wounds as riot dims Olympic glow VANCOUVER: Vancouver cleaned up yesterday morning after a riot swept through the downtown area after the city’s team lost the National Hockey League championship, and officials began the more difficult task of trying to rebuild the city’s international reputation.

Boarded-up store windows and scorched pavement where cars including two police vehicles-were burned offered evidence for morning commuters of the rampage the night before by several hundred, mostly young and drunk, people.

On a board over a window at the Hudson’s Bay department store, someone had painted: “On behalf of my team and my city I’m sorry.”

The violence began to erupt in the closing moments of the game that saw the Vancouver Canucks lose 4-0 to the Boston Bruins in the deciding seventh game of the Stanley Cup series that Vancouver had been favored to win.

The immediate financial damage of the vandalism was still being calculated but news reports of the incident dented the positive image the Pacific Coast city built last year when it hosted the Winter Olympic Games.

Police have not disclosed the number of arrests or injuries. There were no reports of fatalities, although a man was badly hurt when

he fell from a bridge close to where the violence occurred. Thousands of people had jammed into the heart of downtown Vancouver in the hopes of celebrating the Canucks’ first Stanley Cup win, just as they had when Canada’s men’s hockey team won the gold medal at the Olympics last year. But instead of a street party, the ugly scenes brought back memories of a riot that erupted when Vancouver lost the Stanley Cup finals in 1994 and groups of mostly young men threw bottles, attacked parked cars and smashed store windows.

“There was a group of people fully intending to make this into a 1994 event,” Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters, saying that a group of “angry young men” had decided to disrupt an otherwise peaceful event. City officials had expressed confidence that post-game activity would not become a repeat of the 1994 mayhem because of the city’s Olympic experience.

But police quickly lost control of events even after firing tear gas and pepper spray. A Reuters reporter saw at least a half dozen cars burning or destroyed by fire. Many more had been overturned or had their windows smashed by people jumping on them. Several stores were looted or damaged. —Reuters

VANCOUVER: A burnt out car lies upside down in the street after the Vancouver Canucks were defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver on Wednesday, June 15, 2011. —AP

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011

End of an era as Germany dump Ballack Page 60

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Violence erupts as Boston Bruins grap Stanley Cup Page63