13 Feb 2010

RI PT IO N BS C SU THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF

24 PAGES

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2010

SAFAR 29, 1431 AH

EPA collects samples near Boubyan Island

Iran supreme leader lauds state rally, warns West

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Atletico eliminate Racing to reach King’s Cup final

Fans grab mementos as fashion bad boy mourned PAGE 14

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Obama to launch charm offensive on Muslim world Clinton among top US officials to attend forum in Doha tomorrow WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama’s charm offensive on Muslim states comes to a weekend forum in Qatar where he will send a video message and his chief diplomat will give a speech, organizers said Thursday.

Obama will deliver his message to the seventh annual US-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend tomorrow with other senior US officials, The Brookings Institution said.

The gathering organized by the think-

tank’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy and Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry brings “leaders from across the Muslim world for an intensive three-day dialogue with key US officials, societal leaders and policy experts,” Brookings said.

“With President Obama determined to turn the page in America’s relations with Muslim communities around the globe, this year’s Forum will examine how to craft more robust partnerships that can help repair the deep divisions our societies,” Brookings President Strobe Talbott

said in a statement.

Talbott, who was a key diplomat in president Bill Clinton’s administration, is also due at the forum, along with Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan and Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry.

Brookings said Clinton will join Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar who doubles as foreign minister, in delivering a speech, but no further details were immediately available.

The chief US diplomat is due to arrive

in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar today, where she will also hold talks with the emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and leave for Saudi Arabia on Monday, the State Department said.

At the 2008 US-Islamic forum, delegates voiced support for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, although some warned against expecting any radical policy change should he win the White House.

A year into his administration, Obama has yet to achieve any significant momentum on stalled peace talks between the

Palestinians and the Israelis, and Muslim audiences are now less receptive to his promise of a “new beginning” with the Muslim world.

The visit to Qatar would complement the Obama administration’s efforts to improve ties with the Muslim world.

In his inauguration speech last year, Obama vowed to seek a “new way forward” with the Muslim world “based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” after eight rocky years under his predecessor George W Bush.

In June 2009, Obama travelled to Egypt to deliver an address aimed at restarting US relations with Muslims worldwide.

“All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time,” he told an audience in Cairo. “The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effor t-a sustained effort-to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.” — AFP

Kuwait eyes ‘security belt’ on Iraq border Iraq election campaign begins amid tension

BILIN: Demonstrators dressed as figures from the movie “Avatar”, wave Palestinian flags during a demonstration against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah yesterday. — AP

Israel moves West Bank barrier at restive village BILIN, West Bank: Israel began rerouting part of its West Bank barrier near a flashpoint Palestinian village yesterday after a top court heard residents’ complaints over land seizures for the controversial project. While Israeli surveyors prepared the new fence outside Bilin, Palestinians and foreign sympathizers demonstrated nearby, vowing not to abandon their fight against a barrier condemned internation-

ally for taking in occupied territory.

An Israeli official said the Bilin work was the culmination of a process begun with a High Court petition filed against the project in 2007 by local Palestinian landowners.

That prompted a to-and-fro with Israel’s Defense Ministry, which revised the route until an April 2009 version was accepted by the Continued on Page 19

KUWAIT/BAGHDAD: Kuwait intends to build a ‘security belt’ on the Kuwait-Iraq boarders in a bid to prevent terrorist infiltrations and put an end to the recurrence of problems with Iraqi families living on the border line between the two countries.

“We want these relations to continue in a good manner and that we establish a security belt for the Kuwait-Iraq borders, which enables the two countries to jointly maintain security of borders, so they (borders) will not be a source of concern to any party nor a point of breach by any terrorist operation,” Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Al-Sabah told reporters while visiting Azayez Farm in Abdali, northern Kuwait, at the invitation of Governor of the Capital Sheikh Ali Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, yesterday.

The minister termed as “excellent” the relations between Kuwait and Iraq, and that they should be invested in a “positive” manner.

Sheikh Mohammad and members of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee had previously visited the Continued on Page 19

Yemen truce holds Protest against Prophet despite rebel attack Mohammad caricature

Fake $15m used to nab smugglers of artifacts KUWAIT: Immigration detectives recently nabbed a gang of smugglers consisted of a citizen, a Jordanian and a Syrian already doing time in Kuwait central prison for a similar crime. All were caught participating in the smuggling of rare Egyptian artifacts, reported Al-Anbaa.

Reports indicate that the Director of Immigration Detectives, Brigadier Abdullah Al-Rasheed, received a tip regarding a citizen’s attempts to sell rare Egyptian artifacts in Kuwait.

A team of specialists were formed and an undercover agent pretended to be interested in purchasing the rare object. He convinced the citizen to sell his artifacts for $10 million instead of the $15 million he had originally asked for. The citizen was caught red-handed exchanging the artifacts for two large

bags filled with forged US currency in Farwaniya. He was immediately arrested when he revealed the rare sculptures. When questioned, he confessed to being in possession of six additional relics, all of which he received from his Jordanian accomplice, who was arrested later as well.

Initial investigations revealed that the second suspect, the Jordanian, was only a middleman between the citizen and a Syrian inmate. It was determined that both of them were members of an international ring of smugglers specialized in the illegal trade of rare ancient artifacts.

Security sources said that central prison authorities have been asked to interrogate the Syrian inmate while the objects are being examined by experts to determine if they are genuine.

This photo made available by World Press Photo in Amsterdam yesterday shows World Press Photo of the year 2009 by Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo, showing women shouting on a rooftop in protest at the presidential election results in Tehran, June 24, 2009. — AP

Shiites fire at interior ministry car

BERLIN: Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan poses during a photocall for his film “My Name is Khan” during the 60th Berlinale. — AFP

Khan film sparks militant Hindu rage in Mumbai MUMBAI: Theatres in Mumbai turned fortresses yesterday for release of a Bollywood film whose star is locked in a duel with a radical Hindu group, sparking worries India’s financial hub is being undermined by parochial politics.

Most cinemas began show-

ing ‘My Name is Khan’ by afternoon after initial reluctance for fear of attacks by the hardline Shiv Sena party.

“This is a slap in the face of the Sena,” said a woman exiting a Mumbai multiplex, giving the thumbs-up sign.

The controversy was sparked Continued on Page 19

SANAA: Shiite rebels shot at an Interior Ministry official and killed a soldier in northern Yemen yesterday, violating a truce announced hours earlier.

Yemen’s government and rebel leader Abdul Malik AlHouthi agreed late on Thursday to a truce that began at midnight (2100 GMT). The truce was welcomed yesterday by Shiite Muslim Iran, which has criticized Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the fighting on the government side.

Interior Minister undersecretary Mohammed AlQawsi, whose car was shot at by rebels, told Reuters minor violations had occurred because not all rebel fighters were aware of the ceasefire, but that the deal still held.

He said rebels had killed one soldier and wounded seven outside the northern city

of Saada.

“There are some small violations here and there, and there have also been some violations by rebels outside the city of Saada,” Qawsi said.

The Yemeni government, which is also battling a resurgent threat from al-Qaeda and a separatist movement in the south, had been exchanging ceasefire proposals with the rebels for several days. Both Houthi’s rebels and the government issued statements late on Thursday calling for an end to the fighting, which the United Nations says has displaced 250,000 people.

Yemeni forces have been battling Houthi’s supporters for more than five years and previous ceasefires have not lasted. Qatar, a Gulf Arab gas producer and regional powerbroker, mediated a ceasefire in 2007 and a peace deal in 2008.

Continued on Page 19

2,000 demonstrate in Oslo OSLO: Around 2,000 people protested in Oslo yesterday over the printing of a blasphemous caricature of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) by a Norwegian newspaper.

Tabloid Dagbladet printed a photo of the cartoon on Feb 3 to illustrate a front page story describing how the Facebook page of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) linked to pages featuring caricatures

of the Prophet. The links were posted by participants to the Facebook group and removed by PST. Holding placards with slogans such as “Show respect to all religions” and “Stop insults against Muslims”, demonstrators passed peacefully through central Oslo.

“I am here because what Dagbladet has done is very Continued on Page 19

National holiday KUWAIT: The National and Liberation Day celebrations will last for four days between Thursday, Feb 25 and Sunday, Feb 28.

Sunday will be taken as compensation for Friday, which is already a weekend. However, some indicate that the holiday may be extended to five days if the cabinet decides that Monday, March 1 is a holiday honor Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) anniversary which will take place on a Saturday. A final decision is expected to be made by the Cabinet during their upcoming weekly meeting, reported Al-Rai.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Kuwait’s new labor law to eliminate kafil problems: ILO Workshop on ILO’s labor report wraps up KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor recently concluded a workshop to respond to the International L abor Organization (ILO)’s report on labor rights in Kuwait.

The workshop, which opened on Feb 7, gathered representatives of the Genevabased ILO including Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the International Labor Standards Department.

Speaking to reporters after the closing ceremony, Doumbia-Henry said Kuwait’s new labor law would mend the loopholes and end the problems of the sponsor system.

She added that during her recent visit to Kuwait’s Chamber of Commerce and

Expat labor forms 70% of Kuwait population Govt to address issue of rising foreign workforce: Official KUWAIT: A Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor official noted on Thursday that foreign labor constitutes 70 percent of Kuwait’s population, stating that the ministry ensures their rights though minor aberrations do exist which could be rectified.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor intends to cooperate with other ministries to address the problem of the

large number of foreign labor in Kuwait, Undersecretary Mohammad Al-Kanderi said.

The new labor law obliges the country to form a supreme authority for house-employed labor through which solutions to many problems could be reached, he explained.

Kuwait has signed seven out of eight international agreements on labor

rights so far, and it is on the verge of signing the last one.

The official said that the ministry hosted an International L abor O rg a n i z a t i o n ( I L O ) w o r k s h o p t o respond to queries related to foreign labor in the country which provided an opportunity for a clearer perspective on these comments, he concluded. — KUNA

Major camel race kicks off today KUWAIT: Under the auspices of His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, the Camel Race, organized by the Kuwait Camel Racing Club, will be held today.

Representing His Highness Sheikh Nawaf at the closing ceremony to hand over the Crown Prince Cup will be Hawally Governor Lieut.

Gen. Abdulrahman AlFaris.

The event will be held at 3:30 p.m. today at the Martyr Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah Track at the Camel Racing Club.

—KUNA

Industry (KCCI) she realized the causes of concern for the KCCI officials over the law ratio of national workforce in the private sector.

“The problem of Kuwaitization could advisably be solved through a tripartite committee made up of the government, employers and employee delegates,” she suggested.

During her stay here, Doumbia-Henry learnt about the concerns of the trade unions over the current privatization policy, noting that there are some sectors which should be excluded from privatization.

Kuwait’s labor market is in need of reforms in order to build the capacity of the national cadres. The Kuwaiti govern-

ment has to ratif y the ILO Convention No. 100 joined by 131 countries so far, she pointed out. Kuwait needs to join the other conventions of the organization.

Foreign laborers particularly the housemaids pose the biggest challenge for Kuwait, she said, noting that their problems usually front-page the local dailies.

The ILO is serious in the combat against human trafficking, Doumbia-Henry said, urging for collective effort by all countries to put an end to “this global menace.”

Meanwhile, ILO’s representative in Kuwait Thabet AlHaroun said the organization strives to get the labor standards applied in all countries of

the world without exception.

“The ILO member states need to dovetail their local labor legislations to the conventions and recommendations of the organization in order to protect the interests of employers and employees alike,” he affirmed. “The issuance of Kuwait’s civil sector labor act is a big stride forward but the legislation needs to be in tune with the ILO regulations,” AlHaroun pointed out. “Article 9 of the law entitles the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor to set up an employment authority which could replace the sponsor system. In so-doing the state, not the sponsor, will be responsible for protecting the interests of employees,” he revealed. —KUNA

Kuwait-Singapore relations praised SINGAPORE: Newly-appointed Singaporean Ambassador to Kuwait, Tan Hung Seng, said yesterday that relations with Kuwait are profoundly-rooted. He added that the two countries have a lot in common because both countries are relatively small with a rather small population.

The ambassador’s remarks were made during the touring exhibit ‘Treasury of the World: Jeweled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals’, hosted by the Kuwaiti Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah (House of Islamic Antiquities).

Tan said that the Arab people are no strangers to Singaporeans and Malaysians. Merchants from the Gulf took trips to the Far East in the 17th and 18th centuries and Singapore is still inhabited by people with origins from Hadhramaut, Yemen, he said.

The exhibition is yet another example of unique relations enjoyed by the two peoples because it takes on the task of familiarizing Singaporeans with Muslim traditions and culture, he added.

Senior officials also stressed the depth of Kuwaiti-Singaporean relations, while attending the exhibit. Singapore’s Acting Minister for Information, Communications and Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, said that the ‘Treasury of the World’ is a sign of important cultural exchange.

Kuwait’s Minister of Information and Minister of

Oil Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said that attending the exhibit has given him the opportunity to hold discussions with some of the country’s officials.

He said he met Singapore’s President, Sellapan Rama Nathan, prime minister, foreign minister and several other ministers, during which he had the opportunity to discuss the means to bolster bilateral relations. The meetings resulted in the signature of a number of joint agreements and memorandums of understanding on cultural, health and economic issues.

Tommy Cole, Curator of the Asian Heritage Museum where the exhibition is being held, added that the exhibition was one of the most comprehensive in this particular era. He said it offers enthusiasts a one-of-a-kind opportunity to observe its possessions.

Showcasing a priceless collection of Indian jewelry from the Mughal era, the exhibition is on display from February 11 until June 27. The exhibition was inaugurated by Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Minister of Oil Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah AlAhmad Al-Sabah with President Sellapan Rama Nathan and the event’s General Supervisor and coowner Sheikha Hessa Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah attending. —KUNA

in the news PAAAFR pressured to allow infected livestock shipment KUWAIT: Officials with the Public Authority of Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) recently found themselves under pressure to allow a contaminated shipment of livestock into the country. Originally the shipment of more than 1,000 sheep was ordered to be returned to its place of origin because it was deemed unsuitable for human consumption, reported Al-Watan. PAAAFR still insists that the shipment be refused access to the country for safety reasons, despite ongoing pressure from ‘people with influence.’

On a separate note, the authority is ready to carry out a number of projects, including signing eight agreements regarding fungal plantation, developing new agricultural areas, countering desertification and establishing national reserves.

All of these projects come as part of the authority’s plans to rehabilitate the country’s land and sea environments, announced PAAAFR chairman Jassem Al-Badr.

Additionally, a project to establish 49 covered parks and playgrounds is planned, along with a project to solve the problem of sand-carrying winds, Al-Badr said.

Teachers refuse longer hours KUWAIT: The Kuwait Teachers Association continued their rejection of the Ministry of Education’s steps to increase school hours in order to meet international standards. The association indicated that the education sector already suffers a great number of problems that need to be addressed while the ministry’s plans remain vague, reported Al-Watan. While the association agreed that committing to international standards would provide stability to the educational process they said that teachers and school directors are already under a lot of pressure.

They urged the ministry to address these issues before introducing longer school hours. Ayedh Al-Sehali the association’s chairman asserted that they will take all means necessary to counter any steps toward increasing school hours.

Security on full alert during national holidays KUWAIT: High-ranking officials at the Ministry of Interior are currently holding several regular meetings to discuss security arrangements for the National and Liberation anniversaries on Feb 25 and 26. Both citizens and expatriates are expected to go out in long ceremonial parades expressing their joy and happiness, said Al-Jarida newspaper.

Senior security sources said that deploying teams of policewomen is being taken into full consideration so that they can respond to women celebrating inappropriately without the embarrassment that policemen might face. The sources added

that the plan includes utilizing all terrain vehicles as police vehicles in order to allow police movement in crowds and traffic.

The sources highlighted that large numbers of police forces will be deployed on streets where the parades usually occur.

Officials have watched videos of previous celebrations to determine how best to avoid past mistakes and deal with particular violations, the sources explained. Authorities plan to cover areas like Sabhan, Jlaiah, Benaider and Salmiya. They added that all kinds of foam will be banned and confiscated immediately.

SINGAPORE: Sheikha Hessa takes a group picture with Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Minister of Oil Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and some officials during her tour of the exhibition.

Dar Al-Athar’s Curator, Sheikha Hessa Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah with officials during a tour of the exhibition in Singapore. — Photos by KUNA

Large turnout at Dar Al-Athar roaming exhibit in Singapore SINGAPORE: Sheikha Moudhi Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah said yesterday that the roving exhibition of Kuwait’s Dar Al-Athar AlIslamiyyah (House of Islamic Antiquities) is proof of Kuwait’s perseverance in times of crisis. Sheikha Moudhi made her statements at the exhibition titled, ‘Treasury of the World: Jeweled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals’.

Currently on display in Singapore until June 27, the mobile museum showcases a priceless collection of Indian jewelry from the Mughal era.

On its first opening day for visitors, the now world-renowned exhibition was well received by spectators.

Sheikha Moudhi recounted how Dar Al-Athar’s Curator, Sheikha Hessa Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, insisted on having the mobile exhibition displayed in Russia while Kuwait was under Iraqi occupation in 1990. Her intention was to send a message to the world that Kuwait

still existed as a nation, she explained.

Before coming to Singapore the

‘Treasury of the World’ display dazzled Moscow and Saint Petersburg, with 560,000 and 140,000 visitors

respectively. She added that the ‘Treasury of the World’ exhibit was one of the most exquisite she had

Some of the priceless item collections of Indian jewelry from the Mughal era on display at the exhibition.

ever visited thanks to the beautiful Mughal items on display. She said she was pleased to know that the exhibition will be made available to the Kuwaiti public at Kuwait’s National Museum in early 2011.

Mark Donalds, an American on a business trip to Singapore, said that his co-workers encouraged him to visit the exhibition. He described the display as “an unexpected state-of-the-art fair that is meticulous and breathtakingly beautiful.” Donalds said that he had been to several Arab-affiliated museums in Egypt, Syria and the UAE, but ‘Treasury of the World’ topped them all. Dar Al-Athar’s tour includes an exhibition in Milan, Canada, South Korea, with a final stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July. The presentation was inaugurated by Kuwait’s Minister of Infor mation and Minister of Oil, Sheikh Ahmad AlAbdullah Al-Sabah. —KUNA

NATIONAL

Saturday, February 13, 2010

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Political calm coming to an end KUWAIT: Following the calm in the relationship between the government and Parliament after the recent National Assembly endorsement of the development plan, tension is resurfacing with some MPs threatening to file interpellation requests against certain Cabinet members, including the minister of information and the minister of commerce.

A grilling against Minister of Information and Minister of Oil Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah is likely

Information minister’s grilling inevitable, says MP Al-Barrak to be submitted to Parliament as early as next week, as their presenters are still aiming for the previously announced Feb 14. deadline so it can be scheduled for the March 2 National Assembly session.

“Contacts between a number of lawmakers are set to take place starting from today (Saturday) in order to

decide on the steps needed to hold the minister accountable for not performing his responsibilities in regards to the so-called Audio-Visual Law,” MP Musallam Al-Barrak was quoted saying to Al-Watan newspaper.

Furthermore, the outspoken lawmaker said that a grilling motion

against the minister “is now due” following the approval of 20 legislators in a recent meeting that addressed certain controversial shows which were broadcasted by a number of satellite TV channels. He added that such shows were deemed as a threat to national unity.

The meeting which Al-Barrak

referred to was held two weeks ago at the diwaniya of MP Faisal AlMislem, during which the objectives and items of the intended interpellation were discussed. The date for submitting the grilling request to the National Assembly was set on Feb 14.

MP Ali Al-Deqbasi was chosen to

present the interpellation request should all attempts to convince the Cabinet to relieve the minister of information from his post fail.

Informed sources said the Cabinet seems unwilling to carry out any reshuffle that includes removing Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah from the the Information Ministry’s helm.

They added that the Council of Ministers is fully convinced with the “soundness of the measures and procedures taken against the violating TV channels.”

“Though the Cabinet fully respect the constitutional right of lawmakers to question Cabinet ministers, it believes that the information minister has the right, as well, to face such a grilling — the option the Cabinet seems more likely to take at this stage,” the sources concluded.

EPA collects samples near Boubyan Island Move to prepare for Boubyan Port construction, says official

KUWAIT: KRCS Chairman Barjas Hummoud Al-Barjas with the assistance team which is heading to Yemen via Saudi Arabia. —Photos by KUNA

Kuwaiti aid convoy heads for Saa’da KUWAIT: Six trucks carrying humanitarian relief aid from Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) left yesterday for Sanaa, capital of Yemen, via Saudi Arabia.

The assistance includes foodstuffs, blankets and medicines with KRCS volunteers accompanying the convoy, KRCS Chairman Barjas Hummoud Al-Barjas told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

“This is the third aid convoy organized by KRCS for victims of the just-ended armed conflict in Saa’da region, northwest Yemen,” Al-Barjas said.

In October 2009, KRCS sent to Yemen two similar convoys consisting of 16 trucks and carrying 320 tons of relief materials.

“Thanks to the support of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the society pursues its humanitarian role in relieving the suffering of the brotherly people of Yemen,” he pointed out.

“The instructions of the political leader-

ship of Kuwait regarding this relief effort materialize the deeply-rooted historical ties between the two nations in all weathers,” AlBarjas affirmed.

He added that the political leadership under His Highness the Amir spared no effort in preventing the spillover of the recent armed conflict on the Yemeni civilians. He also noted that KRCS was striving to translate the relevant instructions of His Highness the Amir into action.

The catastrophe of the internally-displaced people in Yemen requires concerted efforts by the red crescent societies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states as well as the international relief agencies, Al-Barjas affirmed.

The Saa’da insurgency has, since it erupted in June 2004, left 5,000 dead, 45,000 injured and more than 200,000 displaced and living on charity food in tents, before a ceasefire took force last midnight. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Water and soil samples taken near the ship wreckage close to Boubyan Island will be tested as part of preparations for constructing Boubyan Port.

The official announcement was made by Director General of the Environment Public Authority (EPA), Dr Salah Al-Medhi, during a visit to Khour Abdullah (Abdullah Bay).

Al-Medhi said that the purpose of these tests is to determine the environmental condition of the area where two Iraqi fuel tankers sunk in 1991. He added that the tests will determine whether or not the area needs to be treated before constructing the port.

He noted that bids have been made on the project and that one of the conditions of the contract is to remove the two Iraqi fuel tankers destroyed during the 1991 war to liberate Kuwait.

He explained that previous soil and water samples confirmed that the oil and fuel leakage had been contained. However, scouting teams discovered some fuel remaining in the tanks and on the walls of the vessels, he added. AlMedhi said that new samples would reveal whether there was additional pollution, and added that the longer pollutants linger the more difficult and more time will be needed to remove them.

Testing would also determine the soil’s ability to withstand the construction of the port and that the foundation cannot be built over a muddy sea floor, he explained.

The EPA has taken several samples from around the ships and properly photographed and documented the area so that they can compare the sites and pollution levels after the vessels are extracted, he added. Should pollutants be found, he said, the area would need to be rehabilitated in cooperation with an international consulting house.

On a separate note, Al-Medhi said that the EPA routinely carries out testing for pollution, but that their greatest challenge is measuring air pollution. While some areas in Kuwait have very high air quality, others, such as industrial or refinery zones, have very poor air quality, he said.

“This is why we continue to sign agreements with the oil sector as

KUWAIT: Collecting samples near capsized ships in preparation of building the Boubyan Port. a whole, so that the EPA can fully monitor the oil sector,” he asserted.

A proposal to allocate areas close to the borders as heavy industry zones has been made to the Cabinet, he said, and noted that this would reduce pollution in populated areas. Such a move would help contain any emergency because the factories would be far from residential areas, he said.

The Higher Environmental Council met twice in two weeks a precedent - and will be meeting again this month to discuss the implementation of environmental laws and action against factories not conforming to regulations.

He said that First Deputy Premier and Defense Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlSabah, asked the EPA to submit their report before the end of the month on factories found not adhering to environmental regulations. He added that factories will be penalized with temporary closures, and eventually a permanent shutdown, if moves are not made to conform to environmental regulations. —KUNA

KUWAIT: EPA’s Director General Dr Salah Al-Medhi in a group picture with the work team on Boubyan Island. —Photos by KUNA

Maid dies while fleeing sponsor KUWAIT: Kuwaiti trucks laden with humanitarian aid and relief materials left the country to Yemen.

KUWAIT: An Asian maid died after falling from the fourth floor of a building in Shaab when the rope she used to escape from her sponsor’s apartment broke. Police officers and paramedics responded to the emergency but discovered the maid had already died.

Housekeeper suicide threat

Eco-unfriendly factories to be relocated: Official KUWAIT: The Environment Public Authority (EPA) has affirmed that they will give top priority to the safety of residents before recommending a new location for factories located in the southern parts of the country. Reports have suggested that thoughts of relocating the Shuaibah factories to the western territories have been most favored. The environmental affairs com-

mittee of the National Assembly also announced that the Al-Naayem area, near Jahra, is among the areas considered to host the factories, reported Al-Watan.

The EPA has come up with a list of potential areas to relocate the southern factories as a solution to the Um Al-Haiman pollution problem. Head of the Engineering Affairs Department, Mohammad Al-

Enezi, said that these locations are about 50 kilometers away from Al-Naayem, and 70-80km away from Jahra.

The team designated to find the most suitable location for the factories is led

by Al-Enezi himself. He said that during the selection process he will take into account several aspects including if the area is remote and wind direction.

An Asian maid threatened to kill herself with a kitchen knife in her sponsor’s home in Sabah Al-Salem.

She threatened to kill herself in protest of their rejection to give her a raise. Family members were able to talk the maid out of killing herself while police were on their way. After the situation was put under control the sponsor returned the maid to the recruitment agency.

Daughter kidnapping A Kuwaiti man informed Mubarak Al-Kabeer police that two juveniles broke into his home in Qurain and kidnapped his underage daughter. One of them escaped through her room’s window while the other was left behind after sustaining multiple fractures.

Police responded to the emergency and put the kidnapper under arrest.

Investigations revealed that the other kidnapper was actually the girl’s boyfriend. Authorities are still searching for the suspect.

Stabbing A 35-year-old Arab man sustained serious stab wounds during a fight between a group of compatriots in Jeleeb Al-Shuyoukh. He was taken to Farwaniya Hospital in an ambulance and his attacker, who was later identified as his roommate, was put under arrest.

House fire Firefighters saved a Kuwaiti family from their burning home on Failaka Island. They responded to the emergency and stopped it from spreading to any nearby buildings. No injuries were reported from the fire but it did cause severe material damage to the family’s home. An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the fire.

Thieves nabbed Farwaniya Police caught two thieves responsible for 28 thefts in

Farwaniya and Jeleeb. The two admitted to stealing the contents of parked vehicles in the area. One of the thieves denied responsibility for the crimes but later confessed when a cell phone that was reported stolen was found in his possession. He led authorities to his accomplice who also confessed to the crimes. They were taken to the proper authorities.

Policemen rescued Two police officers were nearly killed when their patrol car was struck by a speeding car. The accident occurred on the Fifth Ring Road when the officers stopped their vehicle to investigate a car accident that had just taken place. The officers noticed a car coming toward their vehicle at a high speed and escaped before the collision.

DUI arrest

Road accidents

Jahra police arrested a citizen caught driving under the influence of alcohol on Al-Jahra Road in front of AlJahra Sports Club. A bottle of imported liquor was also found in his possession. It was revealed that the man was on his way back from a suspicious gathering at a campsite. He was taken to the proper authorities.

A citizen sustained severe injuries after his vehicle overturned on Gulf Road opposite Mangaf. Paramedics, police and rescue teams responded to the emergency and brought the injured man to Adan Hospital. He was placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit in critical condition.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian was sent to Farwaniya Hospital’s ICU in critical condition after being hit by a car driven by a Syrian man in Jeleeb AlShuyoukh.

In a separate accident, a 7-yearold child hurt his spine after falling from the all-terrain vehicle (ATV) he was driving in Kabad. He was rushed to Fawaniya Hospital in critical condition.

Stolen car burned Firefighters responded to an emergency call in Ardiya regarding a stolen car that had caught fire. Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames without injury and police are searching for the thief/arsonist. This incident is the sixth of its kind within the past month.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Gaza war fallout sharpens Israeli political divide JERUSALEM: The damage done to Israel’s image by allegations of Gaza war crimes in a United Nations report has ignited a battle between right and left-wing advocacy groups over freedom of expression in the Jewish state.

An Israeli civil rights group is accused of aiding South African jurist Richard Goldstone’s inquiry into the war last year, and there are calls for an investigation by parliament.

Naomi Chazan, president of the New Israel Fund which backs civil rights groups, has been vilified by rightists who accuse her of aiding Goldstone, a Jew who has been called a “traitor”.

In an interview with Reuters, Chazan said she saw a “very, very

dangerous process” under way in Israel, where human rights groups such as hers were increasingly targeted for criticism.

“The very pillars of democratic society are being assailed and we have to be very concerned about that,” said the former left-wing Meretz party legislator.

Goldstone’s report found evidence of war crimes by both Israel and Hamas Islamists in the three-week Israeli offensive in Gaza, in which over 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

But it put most of the blame on Israel, stoking worldwide criticism of the Jewish state’s behaviour in the war. Israel has dismissed the report

as biased and supporters are lashing out at left-wing groups who had a role in Goldstone’s work.

The right-wing group Im Tirtzu (the name means If You Will It in Hebrew-a Zionist motto) said in newspaper and billboard ads that 90 percent of negative references to Israel in the U.N. report were from groups funded by Chazan’s organisation.

Left-wing activists in Israel and abroad, joined by New York-based Human Rights Watch, have rallied behind Chazan, denouncing the criticism of her and the arrests of peace activists at recent protests as “an affront to democracy.”

The strength of the criticism has

also reinforced concerns for supporters of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians that future Israeli governments may struggle to secure a consensus for trading land for peace.

The right wing is well represented in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Peace talks are on hold over disputes about the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Right and left-wing Israelis have been arguing for decades for and against withdrawing from occupied Palestinian land for peace, but the debate has turned nastier, with questions now raised about the very legitimacy of criticising the government.

Erez Tadmor, a director of Im

Tirtzu, denied any intent to muzzle critics and countered that “the ones seeking to limit free speech are the anti-Zionist groups who think they can criticise everyone but be immune to criticism themselves”.

Chazan called his charges “ridiculous” and “pernicious”. She says Israeli human rights groups provided less than 15 percent of the content for Goldstone’s report. Leftists reject charges that they are “anti-Zionist”, saying it is right-wing opposition to a peace with the Arabs that threatens the Zionist dream.

The attacks against her, Chazan said, were part of “a struggle for the soul of Israel” between liberal Israelis and a growing religious and pro-

Jewish settler right wing opposed to a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians.

“This attack on me personally is another very sophisticated way of preventing what should have been done years ago, creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel,” Chazan said.

Parliament this week rejected a motion to investigate the New Israel Fund, and the media have largely ignored the dispute. But it has had an impact with Jews abroad who provide funds.

A separate Israeli legislative probe has been launched into funding for non-government groups, seen as targeting human rights organisations in

particular. Chazan said she would insist that investigators also look at rightist finances.

The English-language Jerusalem Post, meanwhile, has cancelled Chazan’s biweekly column.

Chazan criticised the Israeli government’s refusal to cooperate with Goldstone and said Israel should launch its own investigation into the Gaza war, just as it has scrutinised the results of other conflicts since 1973.

“We need it not only for the world, we need it for ourselves. If you don’t identify your mistakes and correct them, you’re going to repeat them,” Chazan said. “Democratic societies that don’t check themselves don’t last long.” —Reuters

‘Turnout at rallies reflected the nation’s strength’

Iran supreme leader lauds state rally, warns West TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader praised the mass turnout at the governmentbacked rally marking the 1979 Islamic Revolution and warned the West to stop putting obstacles in his country’s path, state Press TV reported yesterday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thanked the “tens of millions” across the country who celebrated Thursday’s anniversary, saying the turnout at rallies reflected the

nation’s strength. During Thursday’s anniversary celebration, security forces clamped down hard on scattered anti-government demonstrations in the Iranian capital. Police clashed with opposition activists, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Groups of hard-liners also attacked senior opposition figures — including the wife of the head of the reform movement.

The massive government rally in central Tehran dwarfed the opposition gatherings, which were far smaller than other outpourings of dissent in recent months.

Still, Thursday’s events showed authorities must rely on fullscale pressures to keep a lid on demonstrations.

Khamenei said Thursday’s rally should be a wake-up call for the “domestic enemies and deceived groups who claim to represent the people.” He blasted the West, saying it was time for “foreign enemies to abandon futile efforts to subjugate” Iran.

“The past 31 years are not enough to awaken a few arrogant and bullying states to their futile efforts to dominate this Islamic nation,” said Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.

The authorities had worried ahead of the anniversary that any significant protests or clashes would be seen as a major embarrassment on a day intended to showcase national achievements and unity.

An array of riot police, undercover security agents and militiamen — some TEHRAN: Under the watchful eyes of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (top-R) and his predeces- hard-line on motorcycles — had fanned sor, the founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, senior cleric Hojjatoleslam Kazem Sediqi out across Tehran on Thursday delivers the sermon of the weekly Friday prayer at Tehran University yesterday. —AFP in what appeared to be the largest deployment since the post-election mayhem. Hardliners and security forces prevented opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, GENEVA: Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin members to use Iran’s appearance next sible reference to Switzerland, which two Zahra Rahnavard, from attendEbadi criticized yesterday the worsening week before the global body’s Human years ago signed a multibillion-dollar nating an opposition gathering. human rights situation in her home coun- Rights Council to highlight abuses in the ural gas contract with Iran.

Hard-liners attacked the car of Ebadi dismissed the idea that economtry and appealed to the international com- country. The review of Iran’s record on another opposition leader, munity to put pressure on the govern- Monday is expected to pit western coun- ic pressure from western countries would Mahdi Karroubi, and smashed ment in Tehran to stop abuses against tries and human rights groups against put effective pressure on the governits windows. opposition groups. But she rejected Tehran’s allies on the 47-nation council. ment.

Karroubi’s son Taghi said “Economic sanctions will ultimately existing economic sanctions or the possi- “They must question the Iranian governhis brother Ali, 36, was bility of military intervention, saying this ment on its human rights violations,” said affect the people,” she said, adding that detained by security forces on would ultimately hurt the Iranian people Ebadi, who has stayed outside of Iran the government was able to circumvent Thursday and “severely beaten since a day before the June elections. The sanctions thanks to support from friendly more than the government. ... almost to death.” Speaking “The human rights situation in Iran is contested results of the vote prompted governments such as China.

Friday on the phone to a She also rejected a military attack deteriorating rapidly,” Ebadi said. “Every widespread protests, leading to clashes reporter outside Iran, Taghi year we are taking a step back, not for- and the arrest of hundreds of dissidents. against in Iran, suggested by more hawkKarroubi said his brother was ward.” Speaking to a packed public meet- She criticized governments that signed ish voices in the West in response to later released and the family ing at the United Nations in Geneva, the economic deals with Tehran without pub- Tehran’s alleged efforts to acquire took him to a hospital. His con2003 Peace Prize winner called on U.N. licly raising human rights issues — a pos- nuclear weapons. —AP dition was serious and he suffered from internal bleeding and a broken army, the brother said.

However, Thursday’s clashes were significantly less violent than previous opposition protest in late December, when eight people died and hundreds were arrested. Authorities also jammed the Internet and mobile phones to disrupt the opposition. In Tehran, Internet speeds dropped dramatically and e-mail services such as Gmail were widely blocked.

Three major international broadcasters condemned Iran over its “deliberate electronic interference” in their broadcasts.

The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America said in a joint statement the jamming began Thursday. They said Iran was broadcasting freely around the world while denying its own people programs coming from the outside.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, which was in charge of security for the rally, issued a statement yesterday echoing Khamenei’s words and saying the anniversary showed the will of the nation could not be defeated and is “strong as steel.” The govBEIRUT: A woman takes a picture of her friend in front of cental Beirut’s martyrs statue where a huge banner ernment has regularly accused bearing a picture of Lebanon’s slain former prime minister Rafiq Hariri is being installed yesterday, two days the US and Britain of fomenting before the fifth anniversary of his assassination. —AFP Iran’s unrest. —AP

Nobel laureate Ebadi decries Iran rights abuses

BEIRUT: A protester from a leftist group shouts slogans during a demonstration in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday. Lebanese and Palestinian protesters rallied against Egypt’s construction of an underground steel wall along the Gaza border. —AP

Raid on arms smugglers in Iraq kills five villagers BAGHDAD: A joint raid by American and Iraqi security forces on suspected weapons smugglers in a village near the Iranian border yesterday has left at least five people dead, the US military and Iraqi officials said. There were conflicting reports following the fire fight between US-backed Iraqi forces and gunmen south of Baghdad. The US military said Iraqi forces killed five suspected militants, while a provincial official said at least 10 civilians were killed.

Iraqi security forces have been under heavy scrutiny following a string of embarrassing security lapses in recent months that have raised questions about their ability to take over as US troops withdraw from the country.

The raid by American and Iraqi troops took place in Ali al-Sharqi, a village north of Amarra, some 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, the US military said in a statement.

The US military said suspected Iranianbacked Kateb Hezbollah fighters opened fire on Iraqi security forces during the raid. It said five militants were killed in the ensuing gun battle.

But Maytham Lafta, a Maysan provincial council lawmaker, said at least 10 people were killed — including two women — and five others were wounded. Lafta identified the dead as

“all innocent people.” A provincial police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, also said 10 people were killed in the raid. The discrepancy in the number of dead could not be immediately reconciled. The US military did not immediately espond to a request seeking additional information.

Conflicting casualty counts are common in the aftermath of attacks in Iraq.

The US military has repeatedly warned of a possible uptick in violence ahead of the national balloting on March 7. The official campaign period kicked off yesterday. Kateb Hezbollah, one of two major Iranian-backed Shiite militias operating in Iraq, has been the target in recent months of a number of joint US-Iraqi military operations. The raids have been carried out primarily in southern Iraq near the Iranian border where militants are believed to smuggle weapons into Iraq.

Iran’s government denies having any links to Shiite extremists in Iraq. But American officials believe the group is either controlled or backed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Brigade, which is believed to train Shiite militants from various Middle Eastern countries. —AP

Armenian president submits deal on Turkey ties to parliament YEREVAN: Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian yesterday submitted two protocols on normalising ties with Turkey after decades of hostility to parliament for ratification, his office said.

“The presidential administration has already sent the protocols to parliament for ratification,” presidential spokesman Samvel Farmanian told AFP. Sarkisian announced this week that he would soon be sending the protocols on establishing diplomatic ties and reopening the ArmeniaTurkey border to parliament for approval.

But he added that the accords must be voted on by the Turkish parliament before Armenia’s parliament will approve them.

Parliament spokesman Goar Pogosian confirmed that the assembly had received the protocols and said that within two days a commission would be established to study them.

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols in October to establish diplomatic ties and reopen their shared border in a historic step towards ending decades of hostility stemming from World War I-era massacres

Sex scandal RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials are rallying around a top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas after a video surfaced showing him in the nude in an alleged sex-forinfluence swap.

The video of Rafiq Husseini has raised an uproar among Palestinians and calls for his resignation. But another Abbas aide, Nimr Hamad, said yesterday that Husseini would remain in his post for now. In the video, broadcast by Israeli TV, Husseini is shown undressing in a bedroom and calling out to an unseen woman, heard off camera, to join him.

A former Palestinian intelligence official who says he secretly took the footage in collusion with the unidentified woman says Husseini demanded sex with her in return for using his influence to solve a family problem.

of Armenians under Ottoman Turks.

The protocols must now be ratified by both countries’ parliaments but the process has stalled as the two sides have traded accusations of trying to modify the landmark deal.

Ankara has accused Yerevan of trying to set new conditions after Armenia’s constitutional court said the protocols could not contradict Yerevan’s official position that the Armenian mass killings constituted genocidea label Turkey fiercely rejects.

Armenia, for its part, is furious over Ankara’s insistence that normalising Turkish-Armenian ties depends on progress in resolving the conflict between Armenia and Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan after ethnic Armenian forces wrested Nagorny Karabakh from Baku’s control in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

The conflict remains unresolved despite years of international mediation. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

Saturday, February 13, 2010

5

Looming NATO offensive raises few Afghan spirits LASHKAR GAH: A NATO offensive is a hard sell to some Afghans, even if it breaks the Taleban’s iron grip on their lives and eventually delivers Western aid.

Thousands of foreign troops, including US Marines and British forces, as well as the largest number of Afghan troops ever involved in a NATO operation, are gearing up to fight in Marjah town in Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province.

One local Taleban commander, Qari Fazluddin, told Reuters some 2,000 fighters were ready to fight in

Marjah, the group’s last big stronghold in the southern province.

People reached by telephonemany Marjah residents are afraid to leave their homes for fear of planted Taleban bombs — are sceptical the NATO campaign can lead to political and economic stability in a country ravaged by war for decades.

Some don’t want change. The Taleban may be brutal but they can also be good business partners.

“Our poppy business is booming under the Taleban. We don’t want the government, we want the Taleban,”

said Abdul Ahmad, a farmer.

“When the government destroys our only income, why should we support it?”

Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s illegal opium, the raw ingredient used to make heroin, an industry Western countries say funds the insurgency against NATO troops and the Afghan government.

The assault, the first since US President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in December, is the start of a campaign

to impose government control on rebel-held areas this year, before US forces start to draw down in 2011.

“We don’t have jets and tanks but we have already planted hundreds of roadside bombs to inflict high casualties on the invading forces,” said Fazluddin, the Taleban commander.

Marjah, an area of lush farmland criss-crossed by canals, has been a breeding ground for both insurgents and poppy cultivation for years. The troops want to take the town soon in an effort to demonstrate the Afghan government’s ability to reinforce its

own security.

Western aid may also flow in the direction of Afghans frustrated by state corruption if the Taleban lose the bastion.

But Safar Khan seemed oblivious to such possibilities.

“I hate both the Taleban and the government for their actions,” he said. “The Taliban force us to give them food and shelter. If we don’t, they beat people to death.”

Still, some pinned their hopes on Afghan and Western forces.

“We want the government and

international forces to drive out the Taleban from our town, so we could live in peace,” said Mohammad Naeem.

That may be the easy part.

Ensuring long-term economic and political support to people in former Taleban bastions may be the best way to ensure the militants do not come back.

“If this operation is a show of force then it is not going to work,” said Haji Usman, a Marjah tribal elder.

“The government needs to bring

all public services that we are looking for-schools, clinics, mosques, electricity and jobs for young boys to get busy instead of fighting for Taleban.”

He said the government must provide alternatives to poppy crops or the farmers may not be willing to cooperate.

That may be wishful thinking.

Over the past several years, the country has consistently managed to produce thousands of tonnes more than the entire global demand for the illegal drug, despite an international effort to stamp it out. —Reuters

First talks since Mumbai attacks

Pakistan and India to hold talks on Feb 25 PYONGYANG: UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe, wearing glasses, listens to hospital officials as he visits Pyongyang Maternity Hospital in Pyongyang, North Korea, yesterday. The hospital is a showpiece institution that foreign visitors to North Korea are often taken to. —AP

UN envoy meets with N Korea’s No. 2 official SEOUL: The highest-ranking UN diplomat to visit North Korea in years met Thursday with its No. 2 official as part of an international push to get the communist government to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks.

UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe sat down with Kim Yong Nam, broadcaster APTN reported from Pyongyang. As head of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, he is second in the chain of command after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Pascoe, making a four-day trip to the North Korean capital, verbally conveyed a message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Kim Jong Il, according to APTN. The message and a gift from the UN chief - -a South Korean citizen — later were relayed to Kim himself, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency reported, without providing details.

Japan’s UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu said he believes Ban’s message was that the international community is working with “one purpose” — to achieve denuclearization of the Korean peninsula

through the six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the US, Russia, China and Japan.

“That is the most important thing, (that) all of us send a unified message,” Takasu told reporters.

“There is no other way than to resolve the nuclear issue through diplomatic means.” As they met in Pyongyang, top nuclear negotiators from North Korea and China held talks Thursday in Beijing for a third day to discuss how to jump-start the sixnation talks aimed at ending the North’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid.

North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan was in Beijing at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, and the two exchanged views on the six-party talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Thursday. Pascoe is expected to leave Pyongyang Friday for Beijing, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. Kim told reporters at a Beijing hotel that he had “a deep exchange of views with (Wu) on issues of interest, including China-North Korea relations, signing of a peace treaty and resumption of the six-party talks.”

He declined to give further details. —AP

SHANGHAI: Chinese activist Feng Zhenghu smiles upon his return to his apartment in Shanghai, China, yesterday. Feng, who spent more than three months camped inside Japan’s Narita international airport as part of a protest, flew home to China and was allowed into the country. —AP

Chinese who camped in Tokyo’s airport back home SHANGHAI: A Chinese activist who spent more than three months camped inside Tokyo’s international airport as part of a protest flew home to China yesterday and was allowed into the country.

Feng Zhenghu arrived on a flight from Narita International Airport, where he stayed from early November until last week to protest China’s refusal to let him return home. Police met him at Shanghai’s airport and escorted him out, first to lunch and then to his home. “I’m so glad to be back in my own home,” Feng told reporters gathered outside his apartment in northern Shanghai.

“Returning home is a basic right of any citizen,” he said.

Feng’s return to China comes

after eight previous attempts since June when Chinese authorities refused to allow him in. Feng, a dissident writer and human rights activist, had angered the local government by supporting student protests and accusing local authorities of wrongdoing. Feng, 55, returned just in time to celebrate the Lunar New Year, China’s biggest holiday, with his family.

He said he planned to return to a “normal life” and had not agreed to any special conditions for being allowed to come back.

“I will do whatever I must do,” he said. “The kind of person that I am, I would not agree to any conditions for returning home.”

Feng’s predicament reflected the Chinese government’s rejection of public dissent. Many activists

have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for nonviolent protests. Scores of others have been forced into exile. But authorities seemed to be striving to handle Feng’s arrival Friday relatively gently, allowing his supporters to gather at the airport and speak with reporters and later allowing journalists to interview Feng at his home. Feng was jailed in 2000-2003 and was detained for several weeks in early 2009. He says he has been monitored and harassed by authorities for supporting Shanghai residents seeking redress in property disputes with the local government.

“Feng is great. He hasn’t done anything wrong but help us fight for justice,” said one of his supporters, Zhou Minwen. —AP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India will soon hold their first official talks since Delhi,” the Pakistani government announced. There was no immediate conthe Mumbai attacks, Islamabad announced yesterday, in a move seen as a sig- firmation of the talks from New Delhi, which last week initiated hopes of a nificant bid to ease regional tensions. “It was decided that foreign secretary thaw in relations since the 2008 Mumbai attacks by proposing talks between level talks between the two countries would be held on February 25 in New the countries’ top foreign ministry officials.

Tensions between the nuclear rivals, which have fought three wars since British partition of the sub-continent in 1947, have fanned instability on their border, in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir and in Afghanistan.

The move towards direct talks has been seen as a result of pressure from the United States, which is keen to keep South Asia trouble-free while deploying tens of thousands more troops into battle against the Taleban in Afghanistan.

US national security adviser James Jones was in Pakistan again yesterday for talks with government and military leaders on regional security.

Pakistan said its side “should raise all the core issues and impress upon India the need for the expeditious resolution through resumption of Composite Dialogue”-a reference to Islamabad’s desire for fully fledged peace talks.

“The prime minister directed the foreign secretary, who was also present in the meeting, that his talks with his Indian counterpart should be result oriented and meaningful,” the prime minister’s office said.

Leaders from both countries, COLOMBO: Sri Lankan lawyers protest outside the Supreme Court in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday. The including the prime ministers, Supreme Court decided yesterday to allow defeated presidential candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka to appeal his have met several times in the past year but only on the sidedetention on Feb. 23. Hundreds of security forces were deployed around the court building. The banner reads, lines of regional conferences.

“Free Gen.Sarath Fonseka Now.” —AP Pakistani analysts and officials had spoken of haggling with India over the framework of the talks, saying New Delhi limited them to counter-terrorism.

India broke off the four-year peace process, or Composite Dialogue that had eased tensions, after Islamist gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008, blaming the carnage on COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s marched outside the court after clergy are concerned about it,” Rajapakse to push for the forLashkar-e-Taiba and “official” Supreme Court agreed yester- the hearing carrying placards the country’s topmost monks mer army chief’s freedom. agencies.

Wickremesinghe also insistsaid in a joint statement. day to hear a challenge to the demanding Fonseka’s release.

It has conditioned a return to “We cannot afford to remain ed on being allowed to meet The island’s influential arrest of defeated presidential peace talks on Pakistan bringing candidate Sarath Fonseka, as Buddhist clergy responded to silent. We wish to have a meet- Fonseka, who is detained at the the perpetrators to justice and opposition parties stepped up a the spreading anti-government ing of all leading Buddhist navy headquarters in Colombo. dismantling militant groups.

Fonseka’s wife says her huscampaign for his immediate protests and said they planned a monks to decide on a course of “It’s a good beginning espemeeting next week to agree on action on February 18,” they band needs medicines on a regrelease. cially when we consider the ular basis for the injuries he The court accepted a petition a collective move to press the said. events of the last one and a half As the court proceedings got received in an April 2006 suiby Fonseka’s wife requesting government to defuse tensions. years,” said Rasool Bakhsh “Serious doubts have been underway in Colombo, the par- cide bomb attack blamed on that his arrest be ruled illegal, Raees, professor of political sciand ordered the state to allow raised in the country about liamentary opposition leader Tamil Tiger rebels. ence at Pakistan’s Lahore An opposition statement the former army chief family democracy and good gover- and former premier Ranil University of Management nance and we as the Buddhist Wickremesinghe met President said Rajapakse promised to take visits and medicines.

Sciences. a decision on the fate of his for“The court granted leave to “I don’t think India can stop mer army commander, but only proceed with the case because it Pakistan from raising other after military investigations appeared, on the face of it, there issues because and Pakistan will into the alleged conspiracy had been a breach of fundamenbe in a position to talk about other against the government. tal rights of General Fonseka,” a issues as well.

The government has yet to court official told AFP. “We may see a broadening of specify the charges Fonseka The court was scheduled to talks and the agenda at a later PARIS: Scientists yesterday unveiled fresh evidence that gas will face, but Defence Secretary reconvene on February 23. stage. That is a natural process of drillers were to blame for unleashing a mud volcano in Gotabhaya Rajapakse-the presiFonseka was arrested on diplomacy,” he said.

Indonesia’s East Java that claimed 14 lives and displaced tens of dent’s brother — said he had Monday, two weeks after being Pakistani officials have sought thousands of people. clearly been plotting a military trounced in presidential electo deflect some US pressure to do In a paper published by the journal Marine and Petroleum coup. tions by the incumbent, more in the fight against AlGeology, a group led by experts from Britain’s Durham The detention of Fonseka President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Qaeda and Taleban, by claiming University said the new clues bolstered suspicions the catastrohas sparked international conHis detention triggered violent that the perceived threat from phe was caused by human error. cern with the United States, the protests in Colombo and other India limits its military capacity to The company being fingered for the disaster, drilling firm European Union and the United parts of Sri Lanka. fight militants.

Lapindo Brantas, replied in the same journal that the “Lusi” mud Nations, among others, asking The defence ministry says An Indian government source volcano was unleashed by an earthquake at Yogyakarta, 280 kiloColombo to ensure that due he is to be court-martialled on said earlier this week that while metres (174 miles) away. process was followed and that unspecified charges of conspirPakistan had taken the “few small Lusi’s mud has been devouring land and homes in Sidoarjo democracy was not undering against the government. steps” needed for talks to district since May 2006, imperilling as many as 100,000 people mined.

A lawyer for Fonseka said resume, it had not gone far through subsidence and inflicting damage at 4.9 billion dollars, As the battlefield architect of they regarded the Supreme enough to merit a return to a full according to an estimate by an Australian expert. the victory over the Tamil Court decision to take up the dialogue.

Durham professor Richard Davies said drillers, looking for gas Tiger rebels last May, Fonseka petition as a major victory.

“Maybe these talks would nearby, had made a series of mistakes. was hailed as a national hero for Hundreds of Fonseka suplead to the resumption of the They had overestimated the pressure the well could tolerate, finally crushing their 37-year porters packed the courtroom, Composite Dialogue. Let us not and had not placed protective casing around a section of open campaign for an independent while police manned barricades prejudge the issue,” the source well.

Tamil homeland. outside. said.

Then, after failing to find any gas, they hauled the drill out But his bid to translate that Anti-riot squads had been US General Stanley while the hole was extremely unstable. By withdrawing the drill, military success into political put on alert after violent clashes McChrystal, overall commander they exposed the well hole to a “kick” from pressurised water power proved his undoing.

Wednesday outside the court of the 113,000 NATO and US and gas from surrounding rock formations. The result was a volFonseka, who quit the milicomplex between Fonseka loytroops in neighbouring cano-like inflow that the drillers tried in vain to stop, he said. tary in November, entered polialists and ruling-party activists.

Afghanistan, also held talks with “We found that one of the on-site daily drilling reports tics as the common opposition Members of the elite Special Pakistan’s chief of army staff states that Lapindo Brantas pumped heavy drilling mud into presidential candidate in the Task Force commandos were General Ashfaq Kayani yesterthe well to try to stop the mud volcano,” Davies said in a press January 26 vote, which was easalso deployed in the city. day, US and Pakistani officials release. —AFP ily won by Rajapakse. —AFP Hundreds of lawyers said. —AFP

S Lanka’s Supreme Court takes up Fonseka’s arrest

Human error to blame for Indonesia’s mud volcano

6

INTERNATIONAL

Saturday, February 13, 2010

US military to spread training in Pakistan WASHINGTON: The US military is planning to set up new training centers inside Pakistan where American special operations trainers would work with Pakistani forces close to the Afghan border battle zone, a senior defense official said.

The new centers would supplement two already operating in Pakistan, and they would be used to accelerate and expand the training of Pakistani forces considered key to rooting out al-Qaeda leaders hiding along the mountainous border, the official said.

The plan would put US forces closer to al-Qaeda and Taleban insurgents, a carefully calibrated expansion of the military role inside Pakistan, where the terrorists are believed planning the next attacks against

the United States. Staffing the new centers will require an increase in the more than 100 US special operations forces in Pakistan for the training effort, but Pentagon officials do not yet know how much of a boost will be needed, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about internal discussions.

US officials see their effort to train Pakistan’s forces, which includes the country’s paramilitary Frontier Corps, its Special Service Group commandos and its Army, as a growing success.

Welcomed by Islamabad, the training has helped repair America’s fragile relationship with the Pakistanis, while also giving elite US special operations forces

better access to the rugged border region dominated by al-Qaeda and its militant allies.

At the same time, the small but growing numbers of American troops inside Pakistan have also become targets. Last week, three US special operations soldiers participating in that low-profile program were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb. They were the first known US military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan’s Afghan border region.

Al-Qaeda’s senior leaders are believed to operate from the mountainous border, and Taleban insurgents also in that area have been directing operations against the US and its allies. Military aid to Pakistan, which could grow to $1.2 billion under the

Obama administration’s 2011 budget plan, is considered key to winning the Afghan war and the ongoing fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban. The planned expansion comes as the Pentagon also prepares to approve millions of dollars in new aid to its coalition partners battling in Afghanistan.

After more than a year of applying pressure on Islamabad, US officials are expressing increased satisfaction with Pakistan’s expanded operations against militants along the border, the defense official said.

As the Pakistani forces have expanded their combat operations toward the border, it has made it more difficult for their troops to trek to existing training centers — one in the Northwest Frontier Province and a

new one in Baluchistan. The plan now is to build a number of smaller training centers in the Northwest Frontier Province, closer to the Pakistani forces.

The official said the creation of new centers will depend on when and where they can be constructed in the difficult mountain region. Combat operations are expected to escalate as the weather improves.

The Pakistan military has more than doubled its presence along the border, the official said, so trying to pull units off the front lines for the training would mean fewer forces on the watch.

US officials have said they hope to train more than 9,000 members of the Frontier Corps and slash their previous four-year

training time by half. The plan to add more trainers may also depend on whether the US can get visas from the Pakistani government — a diplomatic problem in recent months. Pakistan has held up visas for US diplomats, military service members and others, apparently because of hostility within the country toward the expansion of US operations there. Anti-American sentiment has been fueled by the escalating drone missile strikes against Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters, largely through a CIA program that is believed to have tacit approval from the Pakistani government.

US officials decline to discuss the program, which has also sparked complaints that the strikes have killed innocent civilians. — AP

Former US president looking forward to returning to work

Clinton leaves hospital after heart procedure NEW YORK: Former US President Bill Clinton left a New York hospital early yesterday following a successful heart procedure to open a blocked artery in his heart that had caused him chest discomfort. Clinton, 63, had

quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2004 to free up four blocked arteries, and the latest incident comes after he has traveled twice to Haiti to help recovery efforts after a devastating earthquake there.

“President Clinton was released from New York Presbyterian/Columbia this morning in excellent health,” Douglas Band, counselor to Clinton, said in a statement. “He looks forward in the days ahead to getting back to the work of his foundation, and to Haiti relief and recovery efforts.”

Television footage show Clinton, who was president from 1993 until 2001, walking to his vehicle as he left the hospital and later arriving at home in the New York suburb of Chappaqua.

Two stents were placed in one of Clinton’s coronary arteries after tests showed that one of the arteries operated on in 2004 needed to be reopened, Dr. Allan Schwartz, head of

cardiology at Columbia, told reporters. He said there was no indication Clinton had a heart attack or of any damage to his heart. Schwartz said Clinton could resume his “very active lifestyle” and return to work as soon as Monday. Allan gave the president an “excellent” prognosis.

Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, arrived at the hospital on Thursday evening, joining daughter Chelsea.

A senior administration official told Reuters that Secretary Clinton’s departure to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, planned for Friday, was delayed to Saturday but that the delay would not affect her meetings in the two countries. The White House said Clinton told President Barack Obama that he

Bill Clinton

felt “absolutely great” after the procedure. Having stents placed in heart arteries is a relatively quick and routine procedure among patients like Clinton who have suffered from heart disease. Stents are tiny mesh tubes used to prop open heart arteries that have been cleared of blockages via angioplasty. They are now often coated with drugs to help prevent reclogging.

Just before his 2004 surgery, Clinton spoke on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” about his heart blockage: “Some of this is genetic and I may have done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate ... I’ve got a problem and I’ve got a chance to deal with it,” Clinton said. — Reuters

Haiti judge recommends release of US missionaries PORT-AU-PRINCE: The 10 US missionaries charged with kidnapping for trying to take a busload of children out of Haiti should be released from jail while an investigation continues, a Haitian judge said Thursday, giving the Americans their best news since their arrests nearly two weeks ago.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil has the final word on whether to free the missionaries, though he gave the prosecutor-general the opportunity to raise objections. He said he was accepting defense attorneys’ request to provisionally free the Americans while an investigation of the case continues.

It is unclear when the missionaries, most from an Idaho Baptist church group, might be released, and Saint-Vil said it was too early to say whether they would be able to leave this earthquake-crippled Caribbean nation if granted provisional freedom. It is also unclear what bearing releasing the missionaries might have on whether they go to trial.

Saint-Vil on Thursday privately questioned the last of a group of parents who said they willingly gave their children to the Baptist missionaries, believing the Americans would educate and care for them.

“After listening to the families, I see the possibility that they can all be released,” Saint-Vil told The Associated Press. “I am recommending that all 10 Americans be released.” SaintVil said he delivered his recommendation to prosecutor Josephe Mannes Louis Thursday. Louis said he would respond with his own recommendation next week. Haitian government offices are closed Friday for a national day of mourning.

The Americans were charged last week with child kidnapping and criminal association after being arrested Jan. 29 while trying to take 33 children, ages 2 to 12, across the border to an orphanage they were trying to set up in the Dominican Republic.

The following day, group leader Laura Silsby of Meridian, Idaho, told the AP the children were obtained either from orphanages or from distant relatives. She said only children who were found not to have living parents or relatives who could care for them might be put up for adoption.

However, at least 20 of the children are from a single village and have living parents.

Some of the parents told the AP they willingly turned over their children to the missionar-

ies because they could no longer feed or otherwise care for them — the children’s school and many of their homes collapsed in the quake.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had not personally intervened in the case, as the US-based legal team for one of the missionaries, Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas, requested in a Tuesday letter. “We have been very careful not to intervene specifically in this case,” Crowley said. “This is a matter for Haitian authorities to resolve.” Crowley added that Washington was “satisfied with the overall conduct of this case.” The pastor of the Meridian, Idaho, church attended by several of the detainees said he had yet to receive any official word on their release.

“Our confidence continues to remain, both in our faith and in our attorneys that represent our people,” said Pastor Clint Henry, of Central Valley Baptist Church. “Now we wait and pray, believing that in the coming hours we will receive the news we have waited for.” On Wednesday, from behind cell bars in the stuffy, grimy jail where they have been held, the missionaries refused to be

interviewed.

“We’ve said all we’re going to say for now. We don’t want to talk now,” Silsby said. The women were held separately from the men, who shared their cell with nine Haitian men, some of whom played checkers on the cell floor. “We will not talk unless our lawyer is present,” said Paul Thompson, pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Silsby decided last summer to create an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and in November registered the nonprofit New Life Children’s Refuge Inc. in Idaho. After Haiti’s catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, she accelerated the plan and recruited her fellow missionaries. Silsby told the AP she was interested only in saving suffering children.

However, she did not have the Haitian papers required to take the children out of the country, and a Dominican diplomat told the AP he warned her the day the missionaries were arrested that without those papers she could be arrested.

Haitian government officials view the case both as a distraction to the greater issues of earthquake relief and as a matter of national sovereignty. The prospect of child trafficking is taken seriously here, and the

Americans’ case has provided a government widely criticized at home for its response to the quake an opportunity to show it is functioning.

The case has tapped into fears in Haiti that traffickers would take advantage of the chaos immediately after the quake to abduct children. It also has irritated Haitian government officials conducting business out of the same police station used to jail the Americans.

Nearly every government building was destroyed in the quake. Prime Minister JeanMax Bellerive has lamented the fact that journalists are paying more attention to 10 Americans than the 3 million Haitians in need of help.

Before the quake, prospective parents crowded every day outside the US Embassy, waiting to apply for visas for the children they wanted to adopt.

About 1,000 children were legally adopted by foreigners in 2008 — by French parents in nearly half the cases.

Thousands more Haitian children, orphaned and not, leave the country illicitly each year, according to the UN Children’s Fund. They are forced into domestic or agricultural labor, used as sex slaves or sold on the clandestine market for adoption. — AP

UK police investigating Prince Andrew car bump LONDON: British police said yesterday they were looking into a report that Prince Andrew had hit a police officer with his car as he drove into Buckingham Palace.

The incident allegedly happened last week as Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth, headed into a side entrance to the palace in central London.

The officer tried to clear tourists out of his way, the Sun newspaper reported, adding that the prince had failed to stop.

“A uniformed officer was involved in a collision with a vehicle while on duty on Constitution Hill and sustained minor injuries to his arm,” a London police spokesman said.

“The circumstances of the collision are now being examined.”

The officer did not need hospital treatment and no arrest was made, but the Sun said he had complained to his bosses about the prince’s driving.

“The royals tend to drive in quickly because of security risks, but this has left the officer really shaken up,” a police source told the tabloid newspaper. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace confirmed police were looking into the matter.

“It was a minor incident,” the spokesman said, declining to comment further. — Reuters

CIUDAD JUAREZ: Students shout slogans during a demonstration during a visit of Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday. The protesters demanded the president’s resignation after a recent massacre blamed on drug gangs in the city across from El Paso, Texas. Many of the 15 dead were teenagers with no known gang ties. — AP

STOCKHOLM: Defence council Bjorn Sandin (L) and suspect Anders Hoegstroem attend a detention hearing in Stockholm city court yesterday.

Anders Hoegstroem, 34, was arrested in Stockholm for “aggravated theft and damage, as well as illegal trade of a cultural good,” court documents filed by the prosecutor showed today. The former Swedish neo-Nazi leader was arrested over the theft of the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign from the former Auschwitz death camp denies the charges against him, his lawyer said. — AFP

Russia says 20 killed in battle near Chechnya NAZRAN: Russian Security forces said yesterday they had killed at least 20 insurgents in the Ingushetia region of the North Caucasus where Moscow faces a rebel challenge to control its mainly Muslim southern flank.

A police official said the death toll included 10 deaths on Thursday in an continuing operation in a mountainous area near the border with Chechnya. Violence is growing in the patchwork of southern regions- including Chechnya, the site of two separatist wars with Moscow since the mid-1990s, and Ingushetia-that make up the North Caucasus. Islamist militancy overlaps with the activity of criminal groups and clan and ethnic rivalries.

“According to our latest figures around 20 insurgents have been killed, but the number of dead could be higher,” the police official said.

“We are searching the area for the rest of the insurgents.” Local leaders in Ingushetia, with a

population of some 300,000, say poverty and unemployment are fuelling the insurgency, though Russia’s security services say links to al Qaeda also play a part.

Last month Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed former metals executive Alexander Khloponin to head the North Caucasus Federal District, including Ingushetia, to try to target the corruption, unemployment and poverty that is seen threatening an area important to the security of energy transit.

An Ingush police officer stationed close to the site of Friday’s clash said Russian forces had fired at rebel positions from helicopters during an intense battle.

Security measures have been strengthened to prevent the violence from crossing over into neighbouring Chechnya, the region’s President Ramzan Kadyrov said on Thursday. — Reuters

Polish PM wants to change constitution for euro entry WARSAW: Poland’s ruling Civic Platform (PO) wants to change the constitution as soon as possible to prepare the legal framework for euro adoption, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday.

However, initial reaction from the main opposition party, the eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) whose support Tusk needs to amend the charter, suggested that change was unlikely before a parliamentary election due next year.

Tusk also unveiled plans both to reduce the president’s powers to veto laws and to slash the number of deputies and senators as part of a wider reform of the constitution.

Poland’s current constitution stipulates that the country’s central bank has the sole right to issue money and to conduct monetary policy, privileges it would lose inside the euro zone.

“We will be discussing the right moment and how exactly all this should happen, but the fact that we are entering the euro zone is a done deal. And we will be proposing changes to the constitution preparing for this,” Tusk told a news conference. Tusk said he hoped the changes could be accepted during this term but did not specify whether he meant the government’s term, which ends in

2011, or the president’s, which ends this autumn.

In an updated euro convergence plan published earlier this week, the government declined to set a euro entry target date. It was forced to ditch previous ambitious plans to adopt the euro in 2012 because of the global financial crisis.

Polish government officials have recently signalled they see 2015 as the earliest likely date for euro zone entry.

Apart from the lack of political consensus on euro adoption, the government also needs to slash its budget deficit in order to meet tough economic criteria for euro entry.

Tusk’s pro-market, pro-euro government lacks a big enough majority in parliament to amend the Polish constitution and PiS has refused to cooperate in changing the charter. “We are open for a serious debate on constitutional changes but we’re now entering a period of an election campaign and in this Sejm (lower chamber) change in the constitution is impossible,” Krzysztof Putra, a PiS lawmaker who is also a deputy speaker of the chamber, told Reuters.

“The constitution needs to be changed but, for now, Poland is not ready to adopt the euro,” he said. PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has argued that a

flexible exchange rate has helped Poland weather the global crisis more easily than some of its neighbours. This is a view shared by his twin brother, Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski.

Poland faces a presidential election in the autumn and Tusk wants to oust Kaczynski, who has vetoed some government reforms.

Under the package of constitutional reforms proposed by Tusk on Friday, the government would be able to overcome the president’s veto with a parliamentary majority of 50 percent plus one instead of the three fifths now required.

The president would still be elected directly by voters, not by lawmakers as Tusk had previously suggested.

Tusk’s Civic Platform is expected shortly to announce its candidate in this year’s presidential election. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and parliamentary speaker Bronislaw Komorowski are the leading contenders.

Tusk’s proposals would also slash the number of MPs in the lower chamber to 300 from 460 and the number of senators in the upper chamber to 49 from 100. All democratically elected presidents would also sit in the Senate after leaving office. — Reuters

BUSINESS

Saturday, February 13, 2010

British Airways’ new First takes off Airline invests £100m to create classic, understated new experience LONDON: British Airways’ new First took off on February 10, 2010 on a Boeing 777 bound for Chicago, The Windy City.

The airline has invested £100 million in its flagship brand drawing on its rich heritage to create an exclusive experience based on classic design and understated luxury.

The new key features include a 60 per cent wider bed at the shoulders; personal wardrobe; personal electronic blinds; a 15” in-flight entertainment screen; USB port, RCA jack and noise-cancelling headsets; fully integrated ambient and mood lighting; Anya Hindmarch washbag and amenities by D R Harris & Co and a leather bound writing table.

The airline’s Coat of Arms with the motto ‘To fly to serve’ is a core feature, and the 1920s pioneering era of luxury travel is captured through motifs such as Cyril Kenneth Bird’s ‘Care in the Air’ character.

The design of the new cabin is inspired by premium brands like Aston Martin and Jaguar. At the heart of its Quink blue and cream design is an enhanced bed - wider with a new ‘intelligent’ mattress and the finest 400-thread Egyptian cotton bed linen.

British Airways frequent flyer, actress Rachel Weisz, said: “For style, stellar service and complete luxury, it doesn’t get better than British Airways’ new First cabin.” British Airways’ head of customer experience Mark Hassell, said: “We have contemporised First and created an intimate private jet experience onboard. We have resisted gadgets and gimmicks and focused instead on simplicity and quality.

Every feature has been carefully considered and researched to ensure we are giving our customers what they want.”

Each individual suite has its own personal wardrobe, a leather-bound writing desk that converts into a dining table, a new 15” in-flight entertainment screen and a buddy seat to enable customers to dine together. The lighting and electronic blinds can be modified to reflect mood and time of day.

A seat control unit replaces the switches to activate the bed and give the customer precision control over the seat posi-

New British Airways First suite with electronic blind, ambient light and jog seat control

Rachel Weisz and Willie Walsh in BA First Class tion and pneumatic panels to support the head and lumbar positions. A new premium service style has been developed for

cabin crew to ensure world-class service for customers who can eat, sleep and work whenever they want to.

GFH problems offer glimpse into Bahrain offshore banks MANAMA: Debt woes at Gulf Finance House (GFH) offer a rare insight into the fragile state of Bahrain’s offshore investment houses and give a hint that damage is mounting across the sector.

GFH, hit hard by a property market crash in the Gulf region, escaped default on Wednesday when lenders agreed to postpone repayment of a third of a $300 million loan.

But analysts say the group is not yet off the hook as it needs to raise cash through asset sales or receive some outside assistance if it is to avoid further funding difficulties.

“If they manage to sell Khaleeji, this will just give them another six months,” said a Dubai-based banking analyst who declined to be named, referring to the 37 percent stake GFH owns in Bahrain’s Khaleeji Commercial Bank.

Most investment houses in Bahrain relied on booking upfront fees on money raised from investors for real estate projects and private equity proj-

ects, a market which collapsed following the end to a regional property boom late in 2008.

Bankers familiar with the sector say part of their profits also came from booking mark-ups when passing property they bought onto special purpose vehicles, for which they then raised investor money, transactions that lacked transparency.

“It is very hard not to believe the other, smaller ones are in the same situation,” the analyst said.

Bahrain’s offshore banks and investment houses have built up assets of more than $150 billion by catering to the oil wealth accumulated in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region.

“We have the same state of affairs across the region whether the companies are listed or unlisted”, said Mohieddine Kronfol, managing director at Dubai-based Algebra Capital.

“This situation is very common whereby companies have gone out to get short-term funding but then put it into illiquid assets (such as real estate)”, he said.

Consolidation is unlikely to be a way out in a region that rarely sees mergers and acquisitions, as many banks are seen as extensions of the business conglomerates of their founders who see it as a matter of prestige to operate their own bank. Bahrain is a small oil producer that does not have the funds to bail out its offshore banking sector. Bankers say it is the deep pockets of state institutional investors and the many rich family groups of the world’s top oil exporting region which are likely to ultimately be needed to keep the sector afloat.

For such investors, Bahrain’s regime regulatory regime continues to hold appeal. “Bahrain is the hub for this money and it will continue to be that”, said John Abraham, chief executive of Societe Generale’s wealth management office in Bahrain.

The impact of the global financial crisis has taken many quarters to unfold in a region with little corporate or government disclosure and where financial analysts are sometimes intimidated by companies and

regulators protecting the reputation of banks.

Some banks initially embraced public scrutiny, which helped them get investor money at cheaper prices, only to turn off the lights when their public image deteriorated.

Investment house Arcapita, seen alongside GFH as a flagship investment house, began 2009 with a BBB rating from Standard & Poor’s, but this had been cut to BB-/B with a negative outlook on the bank’s high leverage by the time it asked for the rating to be withdrawn in June.

Its acquisition, placement and exit income, which at least since 2005 was the bulk of Arcapita’s revenues, fell in fiscal 2009 to $64 million from $453 million in 2008. Bankers generally credit the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) with being a hands-on regulator that early on sought to prevent speculative excesses, of the sort seen in the region’s business and tourism hub Dubai, from happening in Bahrain as well. — Reuters

7 Stronger economic growth seen

US retail sales rise by 0.5% in January WASHINGTON: Retail sales posted a better-than-expected increase in January, a welcome development that could mean stronger US economic growth in coming months. The Commerce

Department said yesterday that retail sales increased by 0.5 percent last month, the best showing since November and better than the 0.3 percent increase economists had expected.

Excluding autos, sales posted a 0.6 percent reading, also better than expected, with strength coming from a surge at general merchandise stores, a category that includes big national chains such as those owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Strength in consumer spending is important because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. Economists are worried that the spending gains since last summer could falter given the tough times facing many US households and that weakness could derail the fledgling recovery. Economists said that the slightly stronger sales performance in January was a good sign but they still worried that activity could slump in coming months given all the problems facing households.

“We expect that lingering high unemployment, weak income growth, low confidence, tight credit conditions and the continuing need to deleverage will constrain consumption growth for at least this year and possibly well beyond,” said Paul Ashworth, senior US economist at Capital Economics.

The overall economy grew at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the October-December period, the best showing in six years, but the concern is that this growth could slow considerably in coming months as the impact of the government’s stimulus programs begins to fade and unemployment remains stubbornly high. In its annual economic report to Congress, the Obama administration on Thursday forecast that the economy would average 95,900 new jobs per month this year, not enough to make a significant dent in an unemployment rate that now stands at 9.7 percent. The administration’s economists also forecast that Americans’ personal savings would remain high as credit remains tight, another development likely to weigh on spending.

The 0.5 percent increase in retail sales in January followed a 0.1 percent decline in December, a figure that was revised up from an initial report that sales had fallen 0.3 percent during the month. The latest reading was the best showing since sales had surged by 2 percent in November. Sales at auto dealerships were flat in January following a 0.1 percent rise in December. Activity last month was hurt by a series of safety recalls at Toyota. — AP

have 82M Internet users by 2013 and many will have brilliant ideas that can be development. As leaders, it is vital to focus our efforts on fostering and hardnessing those skills. There is also an onus on all of us as individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses and governments, to innovate and increase the availability of Arabic content online.

By doing so we can positively influence the region’s ongoing social and economic development.”

Focusing on innovation and how the Middle East can quickly play catch-up to other markets, Mohammad Gawdat, Google’s Managing Director Emerging Markets delivered a keynote on Google’s 9 Rules for Innovation.

Placing heavy emphasis on the creation of an eco-system that allows creativity to thrive, Gawdat stressed how innovation can only occur through trial and error.

“By providing Internet users with the tools to share information and by supporting them and helping them to grow their projects, the MENA region will be able to highlight their skill to a global audience. Innovation is not possible without the support of

BROOKLYN: Chris Bremner re-stocks plastic containers at a Family Dollar discount store in Brooklyn, New York. Americans backed off from their holiday spending pace in January, but retail sales rose for a third month in a row compared with a year earlier, largely because of higher gas prices, according to figures released yesterday. — AP

MENA thought leaders gather at Google Day Arabia 2.0 to discuss future of Internet innovation DUBAI: Home to a population of 337million, the MENA region is currently grossly underrepresented in the online arena with only 56M Internet users searching in Arabic.

Headlining Google Day. Arabia 2.0, Vinton Cerf, Google’s Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, presented an overall perspective for the future of the Internet and the challenges and prospects for innovation in Emerging Markets and MENA. Addressing more than 100 Clevel executives and government officials from the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Cerf highlighted how the Internet has changed the way we communicate and do business.

“The Internet has permanently altered world trade, reducing barriers to market entry, bringing companies closer to their customers and creating opportunities that reach beyond traditional geographic boundaries. The Internet has created brand new markets and provided endless opportunities to individuals and businesses.

“What we now need is to focus on local examples. The MENA region is predicted to

the private sector and government. Today’s gathering is about opening the debate around the true value of the Internet, it is about encouraging the industry’s leaders to discuss the opportunities available in our market and for us to understand how this region can use the Internet to facilitate economic growth and development,” said Gawdat.

Illustrating the success that can be achieved in the online content development space, Google invited Jeeran, the first Arab web hosting community, to outline how significant the need for user generated content is in the Arab world. Established in 2000, the Jeeran community today has over 1million members and 7 million visits per month, in addition to hosting 800,000 active websites and 112,000 blogs, underpinning the regions high demand.

Hugo Barra, Google’s Product Management Director and Global Product Lead for Mobile-showcasing joined the innovation drive by showcasing Google’s latest mobile innovations. The demonstrations sought highlight the power of the Internet and the ways in which modern day devices are helping people use the Internets.

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2830000 .4470000 .3910000 .2660000 .2660000 .2470000 .0045000 .0020000 .0781130 .7610300 .4020000 .0750000 .7460570 .0045000 .0500000

.2930000 .4560000 .4000000 .2760000 .2760000 .2570000 .0075000 .0035000 .0788980 .7686780 .4180000 .0790000 .7535550 .0072000 .0580000

US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2876000 .4490360 .39237080 .2682660 .2682290 .0528860 .0387850 .2495220 .0370110 .2023420 .0032180 .0061840 .0025230 .0034030 .0042130 .0783410 .7632490 .4067440 .0767320 .7473850 .0062510

.2897000 .4522070 .3964880 .2701660 .2701280 .0532610 .0390590 .2512840 .0372730 .2037730 .0032400 .0062280 .0025400 .0034270 .0042430 .0788410 .7681160 .4096250 .0772210 .7521510 .0062960

US Dollar Sterling pounds Swiss Francs Saudi Riyals

TRANSFER CHEQUES RATES .2897000 .4522070 .2701660 .0772210

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 288.650 Euro 398.200 Sterling Pound 453.610

Canadian dollar Turkish lire Swiss Franc Australian dollar US Dollar Buying

271.540 191.310 271.800 252.440 286.500

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.234 6.191 3.392 2.512 3.881 204.000 37.180 4.175 6.234 8.719 0.301 0.292

Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound Yemen Riyal Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES 56.000 52.610 1.362 210.900 407.810 195.040 6.313 35.902 GCC COUNTRIES 77.014 79.343 750.230 767.000 78.651

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

SELL CASH 256.400 767.460 4.470 273.800 566.700 15.800 53.800 167.800 55.910 401.100

10 Tola

GOLD 1,164.560

37.770 6.210

407.930 0.195 87.350 3.890 202.200

SELL DRAFT 254.900 767.480 4.178 272.300

204.900 52.632 399.500

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Cyprus Pound Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Indian Rupees

Pakistani Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

272.500 8.890 78.740 288.600

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Candaian Dollars

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 454.500 288.600

287.900 276.920 465.430 407.030 272.080 705.655 763.450 78.370 79.015 76.805 406.265 52.665 6.255

3.395 2.505 4.175 6.225 3.185 8.670 5.550

Currency 749.470 3.410 6.200 79.390 77.050 204.930 39.670 2.512 454.500

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash

37.920 6.550 0.034 0.291 0.259 3.310 409.510 0.195 87.350 39.100 4.260 203.700 2.183 49.300 749.650 3.490 6.420 79.820 77.050 204.830 39.670 2.772 456.500 39.700 274.000 6.400 9.100 217.900 78.740 289.000 1.410

Sterling Pound US Dollar

GOLD 210.000 108.000 56.000

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

288.650 3.410 6.200 2.525 4.170 6.270 78.570 77.040 766.900 52.595 456.600 0.0000312 3.250 1.550 409.800 5.750 402.200 276.900

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer rate 288.300 400.300 454.250 273.850 3.230 6.215 52.580 2.512 4.165 6.235 3.398 767.200 78.575 77.000

8

BUSINESS

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Greece must resolve crisis itself: ECB chief economist FRANKFURT: Greece must take further austerity measures and resolve its financial crisis by itself, the European Central Bank’s chief economist said in an interview released yesterday.

The Greek government must “put its own house in order,” Juergen Stark told the magazine Der Spiegel in comments released yesterday, a day after European Union leaders expressed support for Greece at an emergency summit in Brussels.

Austerity measures unveiled by Athens until now “are a strict minimum, which must now be put into practice, and more will be needed given the clear deterioration of the situation,” Stark added in an interview to appear on Monday.

EU heads of state and government pledged to prevent heavily indebted Greece from default and to defend the 16-nation euro-zone from possible fallout from the crisis but announced no concrete measures.

Those are expected following a

meeting of euro-zone finance ministers on Monday. Stark rejected the idea of bilateral aid from countries like Germany for Greece, deeming it “counter-productive or very difficult to reconcile with the principles of monetary union.”

He also slammed a proposal for a pan-euro-zone bond issue to help Athens roll over debt when it comes due this year, saying it would do nothing to resolve the country’s structural problems. Greek debt currently amounts to around 113 percent of its total annual output, and its public deficit is about 12.7 percent of gross domestic product, nearly four times the normally accepted euro-zone limit.

On Thursday, ECB president JeanClaude Trichet raised the question of coordinated loans to Greece, while diplomatic sources said other possible measures were guarantees for Greek bonds or the purchase of Greek debt.

Trichet in a statement also welcomed an EU decision “to take determined and

coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area.”

Next week’s European Union finance minister meeting is unlikely to decide an aid package for Greece, but adverse market reactions could trigger a decision at any time, an EU government source told Reuters yesterday.

EU leaders at their summit on Thursday aimed to keep pressure high on Greece, as well as on Portugal and Spain, to address deficits and imbalances, while they agreed they would step in with loans as a last resort, the source said.

“I wouldn’t expect anything (concrete on financial aid) at the Ecofin next week,” said the source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to make statements about Thursday’s EU summit.

“They (EU leaders) try to keep the pressure on Greece as high as possible, as well as on Portugal and Spain, to do whatever they can now,” the source

said. The reluctance to come up with a financial aid program quickly was based on the fact that leaders felt they had been “fooled” by Greece for years with inaccurate statistics and broken promises, said the source.

“The Greeks have fooled us around for 10 years. That’s why nobody is going to rush in a big aid package quickly,” he said. “The ball is in the Greeks’ court now. They have protests at home, they have presented a program that the market as well as the Commission see critically, they need to build up credibility,” said the source.

“But if the market reacts aggressively, if the pressure on Greek bonds gets huge, then it can go very quickly,” he said.

“The trigger for possible financial aid will be the market reaction, and whether it raises the risk of Greece going bankrupt,” it said. “If there will be anything, it will be credit lines. But for the moment the message is that real financial aid is the last resort.” — Agencies

Greece financial turmoil hits Europe

Euro-zone recovery falters in Q4, German growth flat BRUSSELS: The 16 countries that use the euro barely grew in the fourth quarter, as a modest recovery stalled amid turmoil in financially troubled members such as Greece and a disappointingly flat performance from Germany, the biggest euro economy. The figures lagged well behind

fourth-quarter growth in the United States and raised concerns that Europe could slip back into recession as government stimulus efforts expire and the continent struggles with a government debt crisis in some countries.

Euro-zone gross domestic product grew by only 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2009 from the previous threemonth period, EU statistics agency Eurostat said yesterday.

Export powerhouse Germany turned in zero growth as consumption levels remained weak — reinforcing analysts’ thinking that sustained growth in Europe will have to wait until household spending picks up decisively.

The euro-zone growth figure fell short of expectations for a 0.4 percent increase and stoked worries the euro-zone may dip back into recession.

The euro took a further battering for the euro on currency markets. By late morning London time, the euro was trading at near nine-month lows $1.3535, a full cent lower than where it was when the German figures came out. “Today’s data shows that the recovery in the euro area is a long way off from being self-sustained,” said Jorg Radeke, an economist at the Centre for Economic and Research.

FRANKFURT: A model presents pots at the stand of company Holland Cookware during the consumer Business The third quarter increase of goods trade fair ‘Ambiente’ (Ambience) in Frankfurt/Main, western Germany. The fair takes place from 0.4 percent had encouraged February 12 to February 16. — AFP hopes that the euro-zone recovery would be solid, especially as US growth spiked sharply higher — it was up a quarterly 1.4 percent — during the period and China continues to grow strongly.

However, the recovery in the third quarter now appears likely to have been due to temporary factors like government spending boosts, a build-up in LONDON: Britain’s Financial Services increases would be concentrated on larger banking crisis. “The commitment to a inventory levels and car scrapmuch more aggressive style of supervision Authority said yesterday its running costs firms requiring the most supervision. page schemes that pay people “We recognize that any increases in the and to achieving credible deterrence is will rise by 10 percent next year to pay for to trade in old cars, particularly the more aggressive approach to regula- industry’s costs is unwelcome at a time inevitably going to increase costs,” said in Germany. tion it has adopted in response to the when margins are under pressure in some Daren Allen, partner at law firm DLA A real concern in the marsegments of the industry,” outgoing Chief Piper. financial crisis. kets now is that upcoming ausBritain’s opposition Conservative Party The FSA’s annual funding requirement Executive Hector Sants said. terity programs in places like “However, the overall increases are has said it will abolish the FSA and hand for the year to April 2011 will be 454.7 milGreece, Spain, Portugal and lion pounds ($713.5 million), up from 413.8 necessary to deliver our new intensive its banking supervisory powers to the Ireland will continue to depress Bank of England if it wins an election due million pounds this year, the regulator said supervisory approach.” activity in those countries and The FSA hired 280 new supervisory by mid-year, saying the regulator failed to yesterday. further undermine the overall The FSA, which funds itself by extract- staff last year, boosting its running costs spot problems ahead of the financial crisis. euro-zone recovery.

The FSA’s Sants announced his resiging an annual levy from the firms it regu- by 4 percent, after Sants pledged last “Given the state of the publates, added that nearly two thirds of com- March to bring in a more “direct and intru- nation on Tuesday, surprising markets, and lic finances across many euro panies would pay less next year, as fee sive” style of regulation in the wake of the is to leave by the summer. — Reuters member states, fiscal tightening may be too early in many of those countries struggling to maintain growth,” said Radeke from the Centre for Business and Economic Research. The MADRID: Spanish unions government said it would cut has swelled to an outsized 11.4 cent unemployment. The govEurostat figures clearly showed called yesterday for demonspending by nearly euro 50 bil- percent of gross domestic ernment’s goal is to trim the that the countries most affected strations against a plan to raise lion ($70 billion) over four product as the country strug- deficit to the EU limit of 3 perby the debt crisis are strugthe retirement age, the first years to rein in a deficit that gles with recession and 19 per- cent of GDP in 2013. — AFP gling. Greece, which is in the hint of labor unrest since the midst of a debt crisis that made government unveiled austeriEU leaders to pledge support ty measures to trim a balloonon Thursday, saw its output ing deficit and restore credibilshrink by 0.8 percent. ity on markets rattled by the Portugal’s output was Greek debt crisis. unchanged following two solid Nationwide rallies have quarterly increases, and Spain’s been convened over a twoeconomy contracted by a furweek period, starting ther 0.1 percent as it continues February 23 in about 10 cities to suffer from its property marincluding Madrid, Barcelona ket collapse and near 20 perand Valencia, General Workers cent unemployment levels.

Union leader Candido Mendez The third quarter recovery said at a news conference. in Italy also proved to be shortBesides the proposal to gradulived as the euro-zone’s third ally up the retirement age largest economy shrank by 0.2 from 65 to 67, unions are percent during the period. angry with a government plan France, the euro-zone’s secondto change pension formulas. In largest economy, appears to have most cases that would mean a PARIS: Michelin SA Chief Executive Officer Michel Rollier, center, presents been the main reason behind the smaller pension in a country rise in the fourth quarter the group’s 2009 full year results yesterday in Paris. French tire maker overall where the average one is in the euro-zone, as it posted a Michelin reported a 71 percent drop in earnings last year as auto markets respectable 0.6 percent increase about euro800 ($1,100) a slumped, and said it is ‘vigilant’ for the year ahead. — AP month. Late last month the in output. — AP

British financial services watchdog seeks more funds

ATHENS: Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou arrives at a cabinet meeting in the Greek Parliament in Athens yesterday. — AP

India industrial output jumps on stimulus NEW DELHI: India’s industrial output climbed at its strongest pace in nearly two decades in December, official data showed yesterday, as economic recovery picked up steam thanks to hefty stimulus measures.

Production by mines, factories and utilities rose 16.8 percent in December from a year earlier, the biggest jump since March 1990, according to HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde, and eclipsed forecasts of 12 percent. The strong data was expected to boost arguments for the government to start rolling back the stimulus steps that helped shield the economy from the worst of the global downturn in the budget to be presented at the end of the month.

The surge is “impressive to say the least” and will strengthen the hand of the fiscal and monetary hawks in the Reserve Bank of India and government, said Prior-Wandesforde.

Pressure is growing on both the government and central bank to start unwinding stimulus measures with inflation riding at 7.31 percent, the highest level in 13 months, driven by soaring food prices. Concern is also mounting about India’s fiscal deficit, which at 6.8 percent of gross domestic product is at a 16-year high.

“I would expect some kind of withdrawal of tax cuts in the budget,” saidIndia’s HDFC Bank economist Jyotinder Kaur.

The data showed manufacturing rose 18.5 percent in December from a year earlier, while consumer durables production, including cars and appliances, soared by 46 percent.

The industrial production figure marked a sharp contrast to the same month a year earlier, when output shrank by 0.2 percent, as Asia’s third-largest economy was buffeted by the worldwide financial crisis. “Most of the sectors which

had demonstrated their resilience and capacity to grow have further improved,” Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said.

Mining grew by 9.5 percent while electricity generation climbed by 5.4 percent.

Although the industrial sector represents just over 20 percent of the economy, the numbers bode well for overall growth, economists and the government said.

Government officials say India could log at least eight percent growth in the next financial year starting April 1 as it heads back towards the boom levels of nine percent it enjoyed before the global slump.

“We are well positioned for next year-that is fiscal year 2010-11 — to have growth of over eight percent,” senior government economic planner Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.

“The performance is very much in the direction that we expect of a good revival,” he said.

Earlier in the week, India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said growth could be around 7.75 percent for the year to March 2010. India’s economy expanded by 6.7 percent in the previous financial year. To help India weather the financial crisis, the central bank cut benchmark borrowing costs to record lows while the government pitched in with tax and duty cuts, higher spending and other measures.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry voiced “satisfaction over the strong growth of industrial production” but repeated calls for caution over unwinding stimulus measures.

“The stimulus packages need to be continued for some more months to sustain this industrial growth,” said federation secretary-general Amit Mitra. — AFP

Spanish unions protest austerity

MUMBAI: John Lipsky, First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC speaks during the First International research conference - 2010 in Mumbai yesterday. Organized by the Reserve Bank of India, the international research conference with the theme ‘Challenges to Central Banking in the Context of Financial Crisis’ will deal with a variety of issues that could redefine the role of central banks. — AFP

TECHNOLOGY

Saturday, February 13, 2010

9

It’s hardly ‘magical,’ but iPad may change your life NEW YORK: Only Steve Jobs could make anticlimax seem so fascinating. After the Apple CEO unveiled his company’s most fervently anticipated new product at an invitation-only media event Wednesday, most of the anticipation was left in the bottle. Despite months of hype heralding an entirely novel kind of electronic device, the reality was underwhelming. The iPad resembles a scaled-up iPhone - without the phone. It’s an iPod too big to fit in your pocket and too small in capacity to hold your entire music collection, with a Web browser featuring excellent graphics but tied to a data network (AT&T’s) so slow and spotty its announcement drew groans from people in the audience. Like the iPhone, it’s a closed system, meaning that you can’t use it to run an application that hasn’t been approved by Apple.

(Apple did negotiate an attractive wholesale price for data plans, though - $30 a month for unlimited data, no long-term contract required.) Notable among the iPad’s missing features is a built-in camera for videoconferencing and video chats.

Even netbooks, which got the back of Jobs’ hand during his Wednesday presentation, have those, as well as real keyboards for note-taking, novel-writing, or blog-posting.

Like the iPhone, the iPad has a virtual keyboard that appears onscreen and seems useless for anything other than replying to e-mails in cyber-shorthand.

Wednesday morning, you could track the palpable deflation among those attending Apple’s event by following their Twitter feeds from the auditorium at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center: “Nothing mindblowing yet” ... “Many disappointments so far” ... (and finally) “This crowd is dying of boredom.” That’s not even counting the expectations stirred up by tech pundit Jason Calacanis, who claimed the night before to have been testing a model with two cameras, a built-in video recorder and a solar grid for charging. The iPad, which will be available in 60 days here on planet Earth, has none of those things.

Some tech mavens believed the new device might finally fulfill the promise of the “Dynabook.” This is a device conceived four decades ago by the visionary computer pioneer Alan Kay as a prototypical personal computer (this was before Kay actually conceived the first personal computer at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center). The Dynabook, he wrote in 1972, would be “a tool, a toy, a medium of expression, a source of unending pleasure and

delight.” It would be a device with which musicians could compose and authors write, teachers teach and children learn. It would offer electronic access to the world’s libraries. It would have a high-quality flat screen and a keyboard. It would be less than two pounds.

The iPad is 1.5 pounds, but in other ways it still falls short of the Dynabook, especially in the inadequacy of its keyboard. (Though it will accommodate Brushes, an onscreen painting program available on the iPhone.) It’s still a device better suited to distributing than to creating content. Yet the iPad shouldn’t be judged by how far it falls short of users’ fantasies, much less Kay’s ideal. Apple’s evolution into the world’s premier consumer electronics company has been based not on developing new technologies, but on reconceiving existing technologies to make them infinitely more useful.

The company is especially effective at designing its devices around content.

Miniature hard drives, earphone jacks, and click wheels existed before 2001, but it took the iPod to make your entire music collection portable. Cell phones and music players existed before 2007, but it took Apple to put them together as the iPhone.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the iPad looks like a major refinement in the digital distribution of entertainment and information, an area where others have taken the first imperfect steps.

Start with eBooks. It’s hard to see the iPod as anything but a mortal threat to Amazon.com’s market-leading Kindle reader. Today you can buy a top-of-the-line Kindle, the DX, for $489. For that you get 4 gigabytes of storage, enough to hold (Amazon says) 3,500 books. The Kindle features a 9.7-inch screen of a monochrome gray that the novelist Nicholson Baker described in The New Yorker last year as a “four-by-five window onto an overcast afternoon. ... A greenish, sickly gray. A post-mortem gray.”

For only $10 more, you can have Apple’s entry-level iPad, with four times as much storage, a high-contrast full-color screen - also 9.7 inches diagonally - a dedicated eReader application that looks as if it will be less clunky than the Kindle’s, and Web-browsing capability that the Kindle entirely lacks. It’s reasonable to assume that from now on, every $500 eReader will have to match the iPad’s specifications.

Much of the pre-launch speculation concerned whether Apple’s new device might

rescue newspapers and magazines from the dead end of free online content, which has helped corrode their business model. This remains a promising possibility. Simply converting from free to fee will be a difficult transition unless customers are led to believe they’re buying something new. The iPad could be a key to that, just as Apple’s iTunes Music Store pioneered the transition from free, pirated digital music files to the legal 99-cent song.

Before iTunes and the iPod, digital music consumers had only two choices download songs from the record labels’ own Web sites, or snort up illegal copies from cyberspace. The former were priced exorbitantly, and while the latter were free, they were often atrociously low-quality copies, incomplete files or perilously virusridden. Apple’s model was to charge a reasonable price for something new: Highquality, complete, clean files. If the music industry hadn’t already been decimated by its poor handling of digital technology, iTunes might have saved it from a terrible slump.

The iPad offers the ability to launch integrated audio and video clips along with a news story. That will allow publishers to create a new, modern form of newspaper

and magazine content, thoroughly reported like the best periodical journalism, and enhanced with a you-are-there immediacy something new that publishers can start charging for, whether by the article or by subscription.

But the publishers are going to have to develop the right sort of material. The iPad doesn’t evoke for me Kay’s concept of the Dynabook so much as another technology he has often talked about - the portable book invented by the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, who lived around the turn of the sixteenth century.

Aldus supplanted the huge, expensive Bibles of Gutenberg with editions that could fit in a saddlebag and were cheap enough to risk losing on the road - Aldus, more than Gutenberg, set the book on the path to popular utility. In the same way, the iPad may help reformat the book, the newspaper, and the web to fit our modern, mobile lifestyle to creators, publishers, distributors, and readers alike. Steve Jobs closed his presentation Wednesday by proclaiming the iPad to be “a magical and revolutionary device.”

It’s much less than that, now. But depending on how it’s exploited, eventually it could be much more. — MCT

Airport security is a tech-firm gold rush US ‘aggressively pursue advanced screening technology’ LOS ANGELES: For airline passengers, the attempted Christmas Day attack and a directive by President Obama to pursue advanced screening technology will certainly mean added security procedures

Pilots provide lifeline to scientists on Antarctic SEATTLE: For McChord Air Force Base pilots who ferry cargo and people all over the world, one of the most challenging missions is flying a hulking C-17 to Antarctica to serve the National Science Foundation station there. Weather is the wild card. In less than an hour, skies can turn from blue to milky white as 80-mile-per-hour winds, unforeseen by forecasters, gust across the southernmost continent. “If you take your eye off Antarctica, it can kill you in a heartbeat,” said Lt. Col. Jim McGann, deputy commander of the 62nd Airlift Wing at McChord, which is located south of Tacoma. “The pilots we choose to fly down there are the absolute best, and this really pushes them to their limits as far as their skills and decision-making.”

The C-17 is a support lifeline for National Science Foundation researchers on the Antarctic Continent.

And this season of missions, which began six months ago, is the most ambitious yet. From a base in Christchurch, New Zealand, the McChord crews have transported about 3 million pounds of cargo and some 3,300 passengers from August through early January. By February, as the cold deepens and daylight fades, the McChord crews involved in “Operation Deep Freeze” hope to have completed 62 Antarctic missions.

The flights touch down at McMurdo Station on an island off the continent’s edge. There, a runway has been fashioned out of ice and then sprinkled with a thin layer of snow. “We really don’t notice it too much,” said Lt. Col JW Smith, in a telephone interview from Christchurch. “The only issue is when you taxi, and kind of snowplow.” The flights serve a scientific community that swells to more than 1,000 people in the January summer, the peak of the research season, and shrinks to a few hundred or less during the Antarctic winter.

Much of their focus is on tracking greenhouse gases, ice movements and other studies to help monitor climate change. But there are plenty of experiments in other fields, such as astrobiology, which includes searches for extreme forms of life on Earth for clues to what could exist elsewhere in the universe. Scientists last year, for example, announced the discovery of a microbe in briny water under a glacier. The microbe existed in conditions once thought too dark, cold and depleted of oxygen to sustain life. McChord has been involved in the Antarctic flights since 1966.

But only in the past decade have crews flown the C-17s, which can carry up to 120,000 pounds on the five-hour flight from Christchurch to McMurdo Station. That’s about triple the capacity of the older C-141 Starlifters. The bigger payloads and increased flight frequency have helped the National Science Foundation undertake a major expansion of the Antarctica program. In addition to landing at McMurdo, the C-17s have airdropped supplies to a smaller station at the South Pole. In 2008, they airdropped fuel to help establish a new outpost in the Gamburtsev Mountains. And throughout the history of the McChord support, no aircraft have crashed.

“It would be impossible to do the level of research we’re doing without them,” said Dana Cruikshank, a National Science Foundation spokesman. At McChord, Operation Deep Freeze has emerged as the most coveted mission for McChord aircrews, whose other duties over the years have included carrying cargo to Germany, picking up soldiers in Afghanistan or perhaps flying humanitarian aid missions. They’ve flown to trouble spots in Africa, and also are assisting in the airlift to help Haitian earthquake victims.

Operation Deep Freeze typically requires about 30 or 40 people involved in flying, loading, maintaining and otherwise supporting the C-17s. Some crew are drawn from active-duty ranks of the 62nd Airlift Wing, while others are reservists with the 446th Airlift Wing. The more than 2,000-mile trip from Christchurch to McMurdo crosses a chilly expanse of the South Pacific that becomes clogged with icebergs. Bad weather through the current flight season has resulted in the cancellation of about 25 percent of scheduled flights. That caution reflects the challenges of flying in such a remote part of the world.

When a fully loaded aircraft gets within about 300 miles of Antarctica, the crew passes a point of no return, where there is no longer enough fuel to return to New Zealand. So, they must continue on to McMurdo no matter what the weather. McGann said in February of 2008 a fierce storm blew into Antarctica as he approached McMurdo. The only thing to do was circle, and hope for a break in the weather. He found a hole in the weather to land the aircraft amid 50-mph winds. The plane was unloaded, refueled, and took off in a blizzard that then closed down the runway for several days Another big limitation is the darkness that envelopes Antarctica for much of the year. At the end of August, deep into the southern winter, flights are timed to land during the narrow window of daylight.

The cargo must be speedily unloaded, not only to stay ahead of nightfall but to avoid temperatures that may fall below -50 degrees Fahrenheit. “The less time on the runway, the less the aircraft is exposed to the cold, and the better it seems to function,” said Chief Master Sgt. Jim Masura. “Cold wreaks havoc on hydraulics and electronics, and we just try to get down there, and get out.”

Currently, McChord C-17s do not fly from March through August, the darkest and coldest period. The cold is so intense that the runway can’t be illuminated by battery-powered lights, and using burn barrels is a risky practice that has been employed only for emergency flights. So scientists who arrive on the last flight of the season may have only six weeks of research to do, but they are typically marooned for five months until the flights resume. That could change. In September 2008, McChord pilots successfully landed at McMurdo at night with the aid of night-vision goggles and reflective cones that outlined the runway in a successful demonstration of this flight technology. — MCT

Among those is Syagen Technology Inc, a Tustin, Calif, company with 20 employees that has built an airport screening device that blows air on travelers and then analyzes the cast-off particles to detect explosives.

The Transportation Safety Administration shelved an older version of the device because of maintenance problems. But, company President Jack Syage said, the Christmas attack has renewed interest in the next generation of air-analyzing units.

“Everybody has started to talk about new technology at the airports,” he said.

Other firms, including a small New York company that makes a shoe-scanning device and a Torrance, Calif., venture that builds screeners to take full-body images of passengers, have shifted into high gear in recent weeks to meet the renewed security efforts. And plenty of money is at stake. The Obama administration set aside $1 billion last year in stimulus funds for new security technology for the TSA. About $700 million of that will be spent to improve baggage screening efforts, and $300 million is allocated for technology to detect explosives carried by passengers.

In response to a presidential order this month to “aggressively pursue advanced screening technology” at airports, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her agency would move quickly to deploy new machinery and would work with other government agencies to develop cutting-edge security equipment. Some of the new technology may also come from government scientists. The Homeland Security Department’s science and technology directorate operates a laboratory in New Jersey where technology is developed and tested. For example, scientists at the lab are trying to create a device that, much like trained dogs, can smell explosives. “There are a lot of things we are looking at that are not ready for prime time,” said John S. Verrico, a spokesman for the directorate. “A lot of it may not even work.” Such devices will be added to what analysts call a “layered approach” to airport security. This means that before passengers board an airplane, they must clear a series of security measures and devices such as watch lists, X-ray scanners, metal detectors and full-body image scanners.

Despite the advanced wizardry of today’s security devices, some terrorists might already be devising ways to skirt them.

“Even though it is a layered approach, it is fairly predictable,” said Steve Vinsik, a vice president at Unisys Corp., one of the many larger companies also involved in the rush to improve airport security.

The Pennsylvania firm won a contract last month to design and manage a security system for Los Angeles International, LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys airports. Unisys evaluates and coordinates the use of different technologies, but Vinsik said he believes more money should be spent to train and dispatch airport security agents. “At the end of

at airports. So for high-tech companies, the increased focus on airport security means new opportunities to land hefty government contracts.

TUSTIN: Paul Chaney, Syagen test engineer, works at one of several different airport security portals at the company’s Tustin, California, office. —MCT the day, there is no computer system that is going to replace that,” he said. Still, small and large technology companies see the heightened concern about airline security as a chance to turn a profit.

Michael Goldberg, president of IDO Security, a New York com-

pany with 11 employees, was thrilled last month when the TSA issued a “request for information” on devices that screen shoes for weapons and explosives.

The request means the TSA wants to gather information about the technology on the market,

with an eye toward eventually ordering the devices. About nine years ago, a man on a flight from Paris to Miami tried to ignite an explosive hidden in his shoes.

Goldberg submitted to the TSA information on his invention, the Magshoe, a step-on device that

screens shoes while they’re still on passengers’ feet. The units, priced between $5,000 and $7,000 each, can detect metal and metal compounds in explosive material.

The Magshoe is already in use at airports in Israel and will soon be deployed in China. — MCT

Toyota starts repairs BRUSSELS: Japanese automaker Toyota has started repairs at its European dealerships of cars recalled due to faulty accelerator pedals, a company spokesman said yesterday. “We started an information campaign on Tuesday and contacted clients to invite them to get in touch with the dealerships in order to get the fix done,” said Etienne Plas, Brusselsbased spokesman for Toyota Motors Europe.

“The procedures are different in each country. In some Toyota alerts the client, in others Toyota alerts the authorities who take charge of communication,” he said. Owners of the potentially faulty vehicles should contact a participating dealership and make an appointment for the work to be done, he added.

“The work takes half an hour, and all our dealerships will be working flat out to respond to the demand,” the Toyota spokesman said.

Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, has had its reputation for reliability tarnished by having to announce a series of recalls for accelera-

tor and brake problems on a whole range of their cars.

Altogether over eight million cars have been recalled worldwide. In the latest instance this week Toyota called in more than 50,000 of its best-selling Prius hybrid models in Europe to fix a brake problem.

Almost two million cars have been recalled in Europe including also AYGO, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, Avensis and RAV4 models, covering various periods going back to February 2005.

The main problem, jamming accelerator pedals, first appeared in Europe back in

2008 but “the problem has caused no accidents in Europe,” Plas assured.

Toyota Europe is telling drivers there is no urgency in getting the modification done on the car pedal if no problem has presented itself, but owners are advised to get it done. — AFP

MICHIGAN: A shim is placed in a CTS accelerator pedal for a 2010 Toyota Matrix at McInerney Toyota in Clinton Township, Mich. — AP

HEALTH & SCIENCE

10

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Pricey scans don’t have impact on breast cancer Research shows adding MRI scan does not improve outcome LONDON: Expensive extra scans using MRI on breast cancer patients make no difference to the number of patients who have a repeat operation, scientists said yesterday, and raising questions about whether the scans are worth it. A study of

1,623 women with breast cancer found that those who have a conventional triple assessment of their cancer are no more likely to be told they need a repeat operation than those assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well.

JAKARTA: A rare 12-year-old Sumatran tiger named “Trenggani” swims in the water within its enclosure at Ragunan Zoo yesterday. —AFP

Clock ticks for China’s tigers in symbolic year HONG KONG: In the rugged hills of southern China, conservationists are battling to save the critically endangered South China tiger, an initiative given extra impetus as Chinese celebrate the Year of the Tiger.

Once widespread across China, even roaming down to densely populated areas like Hong Kong into the 1940s, South China tigers have been steadily decimated by mass deforestation, poaching and “anti-pest” campaigns instigated by Chairman Mao Zedong from the 1950s to rid the countryside of the cattle-raiding “vermin”.

While sporadic sightings, including hoaxes, are reported in the mountainous borderlands of China’s rapidly developing provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi, none have been seen or captured in the wild for the past 30 years or so. All that remain are around 90 captive specimens, derived from just six wild-caught founders in the 1950s. The last of their kind, these tigers have nevertheless suffered from low genetic diversity, dismal caged conditions and a tainted lineage from hybridization with other tiger subspecies.

“The tigers have blood ties with each other,” said Chen Daqing, director of the Suzhou South China Tiger conservation base in eastern China which has 14 tigers under

its care. “So such inbreeding has greatly interfered with the natural reproduction and growth of the South China tiger. This has led to a low breeding rate and also a higher death rate of their fetus.” While the situation remains dire for the only indigenous tiger subspecies in China, some hope the new lunar year, the Year of the Tiger, will spur fresh conservation initiatives and government funding.

Can they come roaring back?

Plans are afoot to establish a 160 square km (16,000 hectare) fenced reserve in southern China’s Jiangxi province, where tigers can roam and hunt in a natural, yet controlled environment-with the ultimate aim of full introduction into the wild. But sources familiar with the project say bureaucratic red-tape and internal politics within China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA) that have stymied approval and funding from Beijing, compounded by the tricky task of relocating thousands of villagers from their area.

Wang Weisheng, the SFA’s director of conservation, wouldn’t comment when contacted by Reuters for clarification of the project’s status or when it might be approved.

Besides its ecological role as a predator, the

South China tiger has been historically revered as a Chinese cultural symbol, yet tiger conservation initiatives have never enjoyed much state support, a far cry from the abundant funding and reserves devoted to the iconic giant panda, experts say.

Save China’s Tigers, a conservation group which breeds a small batch of tigers in a South African game reserve, is hoping some of its cubs can soon be “rewilded” from the African bush to the misty, bamboo-clad hills of their homeland. “We don’t want to miss this significant year to show that tigers can return back to China,” said Li Quan, the head of the group which has successfully bred five tiger cubs from the two pairs they first took to South Africa in 2003.

For now, the precarious state of the species means every birth or death tips the scale towards survival or extinction. Quan, who lost a healthy male cub to a predatory bird last December, wrote of the ordeal in a recent book. “This is one of the worst fears I hold and in fact I often have nightmares about this,” she wrote in the “South China Tiger Diaries”: “The number of South China tigers is too small for us to take such total risks of losing them to natural hazards.” —Reuters

Medicines not working?

There’s an app for that LONDON: Need to check your blood glucose level? There’s an iPhone app for that-just one example of drugmakers going high-tech to improve their performance. By using smart gadgets to monitor patients in real time, pharmaceutical companies believe they can improve clinical outcomes and establish the cost-effectiveness of treatments. The result, according to a report on Thursday from Ernst & Young, will be a host of new collaborations between pharmaceutical companies and businesses in non-traditional areas such as computing, telecoms and even retail.

A few such tie-ups are already happening.

Novartis, for example, signed a $24 million deal last month with US-based Proteus Biomedical to create “smart pills” that can transmit data from inside the body to monitor patients’ vital signs and check they have taken medicines as prescribed. Bayer is connecting its glucometer for diabetic children to Nintendo’s video-gaming consoles to promote consistent blood sugar testing.

And Johnson & Johnson’s Lifescan unit has an iPhone application that lets users upload readings from their connected blood glucose monitors to their Apple phone. “We will see multiple types of collaborations in future,” Patrick Flochel, Ernst & Young life sciences leader for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa, told Reuters. “This movement will be driven by a focus on outcomes, which pharma companies are more and more having to commit themselves to.”

Drug delivery Non-pharma companies are looking on eagerly. Hans Hofstraat, head of healthcare partnerships at electronics group Philips, says drug

delivery is one area where tech companies can clearly help. The Dutch group is working on ultrasound-mediated delivery systems and has an intelligent pill, or iPill, that can target medicines to the right point in the digestive tract.

“We are not a pharma company but we would like to interact with pharma companies to provide solutions,” he told an Economist pharmaceuticals conference.

Mobile phone company Orange, a unit of France Telecom, has similar ambitions. Its focus is on patient communication and chronic disease management, Michael Reilly, director of Orannge Healthcare UK, told the same meeting. Big drugmakers have traditionally relied on a few blockbuster medicines to bring in cash. But the old business model is breaking down, and companies are diversifying into new areas such as consumer health, as well as cutting costs and forging more flexible alliance with small biotech companies.

The revised model is sometimes dubbed “Pharma 2.0”. But coming up next, Ernst & Young argues, is “Pharma 3.0”, in which pharmaceutical companies will increasingly look to sell ancillary products and services linked to their medicines by working with IT and other companies. The new era poses some notable challenges, not least the cultural gap between fastmoving technology companies, with rapid innovation cycles, and a more ponderous drugs industry, where bringing a new product to market typically takes 10 years or more. The prize, however, is worth fighting for. By monitoring clinical data and ensuring that patients take the right medicines at the right time, drug companies should be able to demonstrate their products really work, ensuring reimbursement by governments or insurers and helping to justify high prices. —Reuters

“Our results have important implications in routine clinical practice for the appropriate use of health-service resources and patient burden on health services,” said Lindsay Turnbull of Britain’s Hull University and Hull Royal Infirmary, who led the study. “MRI is an expensive procedure.” Turnbull said that since the use of MRI scans in breast cancer patients is similar in many countries worldwide, her findings should be taken into account by all health authorities.

“We believe that our findings are generalisable to all healthcare providers, and show that MRI might not be necessary in this population of patients in terms of reduction of reoperation rates,” she wrote in the Lancet medical journal. Siemens, General Electric and Philips Electronics are among the major makers scanning technology like magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET).

The industry has drawn some criticism in the United States where use of expensive scans has risen sharply in recent years. Critics say many scans are unnecessary and often don’t improve results.

Turnbull’s study took place in 45 centers across Britain where the 1,623 women were all given a standard triple assessment-a clinical examination, an x-ray or ultrasound image of the breast, and lab tests to assess the tumor’s pathology-and then received either MRI or no further scans.

The researchers found 19 percent in the MRI group needed reoperation versus 19 percent of those who had no MRI. Yet while the outcomes for patients were virtually the same, the costs-both in terms of hospital resources and patient time — were higher for those who had MRI scans, they said. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, accounted for around 16 percent of all female cancers.

It kills around 519,000 people globally each year, but the World Health Organization says survival rates vary widely from more than 80 percent in the United States, Sweden and Japan to under 40 percent in low-income countries. The researchers said their findings should benefit Britain taxpayer-funded National Health Service (NHS) since they show MRI might be unnecessary in some scenarios and “could assist in improved use of NHS services.” —Reuters

NEW DELHI: A detail of a pansy flower is seen at the Mughal Gardens of the Presidential Palace yesterday. —AP

Older mothers can pay five times more for IVF babies SYDNEY: Older women can end up paying more than five times as much as younger women to successfully have an IVF baby, according to an Australian study.

Researchers from the University of Sydney set out to examine a boom in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproduction techniques amid a debate on whether the government should subsidize such treatments. They found that the cost per live birth from IVF increases with maternal age and the number of treatments, with the study finding that maternal age had the greater effect.

The price per baby ranged from A$27,373A$31,986 ($24,310 to $28,407) for women aged 30-33 on their first and third IVF treatments compared to $130,951-$187,515 (US$116,300 to $116,300) for women aged 42-45 on their first and second IVF attempts.

“This evidence may help decision-makers target the use of IVF services conditional on societal willingness to pay for live births and equity considerations,” said researcher Alison Griffiths in a statement. The government-funded study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, found from 2002 to 2003 there was a 16 percent increase in the use of assisted production technology, or ART, services among Australians compared

with an increase of 13 percent among Europeans and 6.5 percent among Americans.

IVF expert Dr Edmond Confino, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the Australian study confirmed other research of the past 20 yearsnamely, that the cost to produce a baby with IVF increases with a woman’s age. But he voiced concerns that research emphasizing poor outcomes in older women could lead to discrimination against women and prompt policy makers to cap the age for women eligible for government or other assistance.

“In other words, they will say it is not economical to provide you with IVF coverage if you are say 38 and above because that’s the age when it becomes very expensive,” Confino told Reuters Health. But Griffiths said in Australia only 9 percent of women starting IVF in 2002 were aged 42 to 45, “which means that the total financial impact of IVF for this age group would be expected to be substantially lower than for younger women.” She added that if the government started restricting age on IVF, some couples may opt to have “more embryos transferred per cycle earlier, leading to higher costs and potentially poorer outcomes due to multiple births.” —Reuters

Stuttering linked to faulty genes WASHINGTON: Stuttering, a speech problem that stigmatizes millions worldwide and has stumped scientists for centuries, could be caused by defects in three genes, a landmark study showed this week. “People have speculated about the cause of stuttering for thousands of years and finally, we know at least some of the cause,” Dennis Drayna, a geneticist and senior author of the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, told AFP. Drayna was part of a team of scientists from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) who analyzed the genes of 123 Pakistanis who stutter and 96 who do not, along with the genes of 550 people from the United States and England, around half of whom stuttered.

Some of the Pakistani study participants had been part of an earlier study that found that people who stutter-a speech disorder in which a person repeats or prolongs sounds, syllables or words, disrupting the normal flow of speech-had a mutation in a gene known as GNPTAB. The new study

found stutters had both the same GNPTAB mutations but also mutations in two other genes called GNPTG and NAGPA. People who did not stutter did not have the mutations.

The three genes play a role in steering enzymes to a cell structure called the lysosome where the enzymes break down and recycle cellular components. Mutations in GNPTAB and GNPTG are already known to play a key role in two forms of mucolipidosis, a rare disorder where improperly recycled cell

components accumulate in the lysosome and cause joint, skeletal, heart, liver, spleen and motor-system problems, along with developmental and speech problems.

NAGPA, which is also linked to the lysosome, was associated for the first time in this study with a disorder in humans-stuttering. The study is the first to “pinpoint specific gene mutations as the potential cause of stuttering, and by doing so, might lead to a dramatic expansion in our options for treatment,” said James

Battey, director of the NIDCD. Drayna explained: “The mutations found in the study are in genes associated lysosomal disorders. “A recent exciting development in lysosomal disorders is enzyme replacement therapy, where you simply give back the enzyme that is defective to people with the disorder,” he told AFP. “So we now have the exciting possibility that in future, we could also use enzyme replacement therapy to correct stuttering,” he said.

Danes less fearful of climate change now than two years ago COPENHAGEN: Residents of Denmark, the host country of December’s UN climate change summit, are less afraid of the impacts of climate change now than they were two years ago, according to a poll published yesterday. A Gallup poll published in yesterday’s Berlingske Tidende daily indicated 60 percent of those surveyed feared the consequences of climate change. That proportion was 75 percent in 2008. The poll was conducted on 1,186 Danes over 18 years of age on February 9 and 10.

Quoted in the newspaper, Denmark’s climate and energy minister Lykke Friis

said the change could be explained by “the recent critics (in the media) of the UN climate change panel.” Friis was referring to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who was forced to admit in January that it had made a mistake in a landmark 2007 report. The report made the erroneous claim that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035 and the Nobel-winning panel faced fierce criticism over the mistake. The poll also suggested 50 percent of Danes now think climate change is mainly due to human activity, against 59 percent in 2008. —AFP

The findings will also reassure parents of children who stammer, and help to remove the stigma associated with the speech problem, Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation, told AFP. “The findings of this study say this is biological.

That will lift a burden of guilt from parents’ shoulders,” Fraser said. “Every day, we get hundreds of calls from parents and the first question mothers and fathers ask is: ‘Did we cause our child’s stuttering?’ or ‘What did we do wrong?’ This will reassure them,” Fraser said.

“And for adults who stutter, it will lift a stigma, because people won’t be able to say things like ‘It’s all in his head’ anymore,” she said.

But, she added, therapists will have to continue to focus on the cognitive behavior therapies and speech tools they use now to help stutterers, as “any gene therapy for stuttering is a long way off.”

Researchers at the University of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan; the Hollins Communications Research Institute in Virginia, and other research institutes that, like NIDCD, are part of the US National Institutes of Health, also took part in the study. —AFP

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Sandra Bullock is happy to be

Hollywood’s worst actress he 45-year-old star - who has been nominated for the Worst Actress honor at the forthcoming Razzie Awards for her performance in ‘All About Steve’ insists the ceremony, which salutes the worst film offerings every year, is just as important as the Academy Awards and will be attending both events. Sandra - who is up for Best Actress for her role in ‘The Blind

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Side’ at the Oscars - is quoted by website Absolute Now as saying: “I think it’s brilliant. It’s exactly the way it should have happened because it’s a great leveler. If you don’t show up for something like the Razzies then you’re a little hypocritical. You can’t just show up for the good stuff.” Although she plans to attend both ceremonies, Sandra is more nervous about going to the

Razzies - because she doesn’t know what to wear. She added: “You gotta show up for everything. I can’t wait to go to the Razzies or the Oscars. In a way I’m less nervous about the Oscars because I just don’t know what I’m going to wear to the Razzies. It’s a big night!” The screen beauty - who picked up an award for Best Actress in ‘The Blind Side’ at the

Golden Globes last month - claims she is “more comfortable” with her work being criticized than praised.

She said: “I’m more comfortable with criticism than I am with goodwill, because I’m more familiar with it, and I’ve made friends with it.

And the Razzies are a great honor.”

The Razzies take place on March 6, the day before the Academy Awards.

he eccentric singer claims she always felt like a “freak” because her school’s strict rules forbade cosmetics, so she used to indulge in her desire to dress up before going to sleep. She explained to WWD: “When I was young, I felt like a freak in school - and I had to put my make up on when I got home before I went to bed because I wasn’t allowed to wear make-up in school. “When I walked around the corner and saw Boy George in the window of a MAC store, I said, ‘I feel just like that!’ Why is that attitude nowhere else? And RuPaul, and Pamela Anderson....I said, ‘Gosh, I feel just like that.’

“That’s why I think MAC is so important; they cater to that inside of you that feels like a freak sometimes, that wants to raise your freak flag.” The ‘Paparazzi’ star who is fronting a new campaign for the MAC Aids Fund - has also claimed she used to be incredibly insecure and has only learned to have confidence in herself through the support of her fans. She told the ‘Today’ show: “I was so insecure for so long and my fans have believed in me so much that I have become this confident woman I want to bring back to them. “I try in my own way to be a spokesperson and say, ‘Its OK if you don’t feel like a winner, or you’re a loser’. I wanted to win at the Grammys for my fans because you want to be everything they imagine you to be. “

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Charlie Sheen and wife Lindsay Lohan Brooke Mueller reunite denies Ronson hit he ‘Two and a Half Men’ star - who was arrested for allegedly her threatening Brooke - was

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he 23-year-old actress took to micro-blogging website twitter to blast suggestions her on/off girlfriend has ever been abusive to her. She tweeted: “This is become a bit much*Samantha R never raised a hand to me, I’ve never said she did* Enough is Enough. Focus on other more important... World issues (sic).” Samantha, 32, then thanked Lindsay for refuting the claims. She wrote on twitter: “Thank you for clearing that up.

The high road was giving me a nose bleed! “To ANYONE who perpetuates this rumor accusing me of being violently abusive after Lindsay has denied it: I WILL take legal action. (sic).” Lindsay and Samantha had a diffi-

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reunited with his spouse after a judge modified a restraining order and allowed the couple to work out their differences. The order was put in place after Sheen was charged with felony menacing and misdemeanour charges of thirddegree assault and criminal mischief, has been lifted on the condition the 44-year-old actor does not drink alcohol, is in possession of guns or harasses his wife. Brooke’s attorney, Yale Galanter, said the couple had hugged and kissed in Pitkin County Courthouse after the hearing before leaving separately.

However, they both planned to return to their Los Angeles home. Galanter said: “I can tell you, Brooke very badly wanted to have contact with Charlie. There are many children’s issues that she wanted to communicate with him about. “Brooke’s desire was to get the order modified so they could have contact and communicate because of their children. Judge Boyd was gracious enough to grant that and now Charlie and Brooke are on their way back to Los Angeles to continue their lives.” The couple who married in 2008 and have ten-month-old twin boys, Max and Bob - are keen to rebuild their marriage, and have asked prosecutors to drop the case. They have not cohabitated since the temporary restraining order was put in place following Sheen’s arrest. The actor is due back in court on March 15.

Lady Gaga only wore make-up to bed he actor worked with the troubled filmmaker - who is currently under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting possible extradition to America over his conviction for statutory rape 30 years ago - on ‘The Ghost Writer’ and hopes the director will be treated well by authorities.

He said: “Roman is iconic in the world of filmmaking. His vocabulary is pure cinema. He knows the medium so well.

But he carries so much baggage from his own life that you find him even more intriguing and captivating. “There’s a sadness to the whole situation. What happened years ago was wrong in every way. I just wish him the best and hope that he finds closure for this time in his life. We got on beautifully together although I can’t say I know him that well even though I certainly knew his history. “My heart goes out to his family, to his wife and his children. I hope this chapter can be closed quickly and that justice will be served with some dignity and compassion.”

The 56-year-old star also spoke about his early interest in acting, claiming it stemmed from his duties with the local Catholic church. He explained to Parade.com: “Growing up in Ireland, the Catholic religion was central to my life. I was in the choir and I was also an altar boy. The sheer spectacle of the mass had a profound effect on my life. Actually, helping serve mass and singing were my first performances — and, of course, I was in costume. I believe that’s why I’m an actor! I suddenly figured it out!” Roman was taken into custody at Zurich airport last September at the request of US authorities, who are still attempting to sentence him for the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

he 20-year-old actor - who plays the title character in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise - was paid a staggering £25.6 million last year according to a list of the top 40 earners by Vanity Fair magazine, making him the most bankable actor in Hollywood - though not worth as much as leading directors.. ‘Transformers’ movie maker Michael Bay at number one, with £79 million, and Steven Spielberg, 63, with £53 million, second. Roland Emmerich, James Cameron and Todd Phillips took the remaining places ahead of Daniel, who was sixth in the list. Daniel - who has already used some of his earnings to build up a property portfolio in Britain and the US - also beat his co-star, Emma Watson, 19, who made £20 million. The British actress - who plays Harry’s friend Hermione Granger in the movies - was one of only two women to make the list, with ‘Charlie’s Angels’ beauty Cameron Diaz ranked twentieth. The Hogwarts actors and actresses are also set to have another couple of years worth of money heading their way with the next two films which will be released in November and July 2011. The list of Hollywood earners was made based on factors such as up-

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front fees, box office gross percentages and other estimated revenue streams. Other top stars to make the list included Ben Stiller in seventh place, Tom Hanks in eighth, Adam Sandler in the tenth spot and Denzel Washington a place behind him. Daniel and Emma’s co-star Rupert Grint placed fifteenth in the list, while debt-ridden actor Nicolas Cage was ranked in seventeenth position.

Pierce Brosnan intrigued

by Polanski’s ‘baggage’

Daniel Radcliffe is T highest paid actor of

Jessica Alba tells her daughter not to eat vegetables he ‘Valentine’s Day’ actress says Honor Marie - her 19month-old child with husband Cash Warren - is so stubborn the only

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way she can get her to tuck in at mealtimes is by forbidding her from doing so. Jessica explained: “She likes to do everything her way. She loves saying ‘no,’ it’s her favorite word. “Now, she won’t eat unless I tell her not to eat. I have to use reverse psychology. I’m like, ‘Don’t eat your vegetables!’ And she looks at me and, in defiance, eats her broccoli.” Jessica, 28, decided to call her daughter Honor after a friend expressed a liking for the name if she ever had more children. She explained on US TV show ‘Live with Regis and Kelly’: “I told my girlfriend that I was pregnant early on, and she was like, ‘I’m not having any more kids but if I was going to have one, I would name her Honor.’ It was just random and it stuck with us. We liked it.” Earlier this week, Jessica revealed Honor is a “bully” who wouldn’t share her toys during a recent holiday. She said: “We realized on a trip that my daughter is a bully.

She would steal her girlfriend’s toys and push her and pull her hair for a stroller or a baby doll or a purse.”

—Bang Showbiz

SPECTRUM

Saturday, February 13, 2010

13

Is this the world’s most romantic word ever? mour”, the French word for love, has been voted the most romantic word in the world in a pre-Valentine’s Day survey of language experts. It narrowly beat “amore”, the Italian word for love, although Italian was named the world’s most romantic language. Italian words also dominated the top places in the list of most romantic words.

“Belissima”, which is both Italian and Spanish for “very beautiful”, was voted the third most romantic word, while “tesoro”, which is both Italian and Spanish for “treasure” (as in “Mi tesoro” / “My treasure”) came fourth.

The survey was conducted

by London-based Today Translations which polled over 320 of its linguists. After Italian, they found the secondmost romantic language was French, which was way ahead of Spanish and English in joint third place. In the same poll, the firm asked its linguists to pick the least romantic-sounding way to say, “I love you” in any language. The winner was Japan’s “watakushi-wa anatawo ai shimasu”, ahead of the Welsh “rydw i’n dy garu di” and “qaparha”, which, the firm noted, is Klingon, as spoken in the Star Trek universe. — Reuters

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Eileen and Harry Beardmore walk to their house from the Pennsylvania National Guard Humvee that brought them home af ter Eileen received treatment in a Pittsburgh hospital, Thursday, Feb 11, 2010. — AP

Indiana-made Humvee may soon be an Army relic rmy Staff Sgt Tom Davis never saw the bomb that destroyed his hulking Humvee as he rounded a corner in Ramadi just a week into his second tour in Iraq in 2006. Davis lost a leg and broke his back and both arms and can no longer walk or work. He’ll never know whether he would have been less severely injured if he’d been in a different vehicle. But his experience, and those of thousands of other Americans wounded in bomb-shredded Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, foretold what now appears to be the official demise of the hulking all-terrain vehicles that came to symbolize the US military as much as the rugged Jeeps they replaced.

The Army provided no new money for the Humvee in the service’s recent budget proposal. Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, an Army spokesman, says the 2,620 vehicles ordered from Mishawaka, Indianabased AM General will be the last as the Army moves on to newer designs.

Unless the decision is reversed, the Humvee will end a remarkable 30-year run that extended beyond the battlefield into American popular culture.

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, dubbed the Humvee by soldiers, got its start when the Army began looking to replace the latest version of the Jeep in the late 1970s. AM General won a prototype contract in 1981 and the company, a spinoff of Jeep, created the boxy vehicle that was more than seven feet wide and made up in utility for what it lacked in aesthetics. Since 1985, AM General has produced 240,000 Humvees.

The vehicle attracted attention during the 1991 Gulf War, but not just in the war zone. Then-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger became so enamored that he persuaded AM General to make a civilian version, and it became a must-have status symbol for car lovers until rising gas prices and the recession sent sales plummeting.

“Everybody points at a Hummer,” said Eric Sitterle, who serves on the board of Hummer Club Inc, the vehicle’s fan club. The group organizes off-road events all over the United States. “It’s the most exciting thing you’ve ever been on - at three miles per hour.” Few would use the word “exciting” to describe the military Hummer.

It was developed as a light utility vehicle and not intended as an armored car,

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said James Atwater, assistant curator at the US Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis, Virginia. The lumbering, low-riding vehicles became an easy target for insurgents, who attacked US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with increasingly powerful improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, hidden along roadsides. A mounting death toll from IEDs - more than 1,700 in Iraq alone as of January 2010 - sparked calls for better protection for soldiers. The Army ordered armored versions of the Humvee, but “there were shortcomings when you added armor to a vehicle like this that’s not designed from the ground up for that,” said Atwater.

Davis said the Humvees were fine during his first deployment in 2003. “We rode in the back of the open Humvee at night because the IEDs weren’t a real threat,” he said. But that began to change. The powerful IED that detonated under the passenger seat of his Humvee in 2006 hurled the vehicle two stories into the air, killing the vehicle’s gunner and badly injuring Davis.

“Maybe if I’d been in a Bradley, I wouldn’t have been hurt as much,” said Davis, 32, a father of four.

Cummings, the Army spokesman, said the Army is moving to the larger and more heavily armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs. The Army budget released last week still includes $989 million for maintaining the existing Humvee fleet. And Atwater said he thinks the Army will still use Humvees for missions on which it is impractical to drive a massive MRAP, which has huge tires more often seen on trucks in demolition derbies. AM General, the sole manufacturer of the Humvee, says it is talking with the Army and hopes to maintains vehicle production into 2011. Congressional representatives including Indiana Democrat Joe Donnelly, who represents the area, have pledged to try to maintain a military role for the Humvee.

The Army purchases more than half the Humvees AM General produces, but the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy also buy some. AM General also makes the Humvee’s civilian counterpart, the H2 Hummer, as a contract assembler for General Motors. Hummer sales peaked at 71,524 in 2006 but dropped to 9,046 in 2009. GM plans to sell the brand to a Chinese company.— AP

A seller arranges a shop window with plush Valentine’s hearts at a shop in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, yesterday.

Bulgarians, who traditionally celebrate grape growing on February 14, begun to mark also Valentine’s Day since the Communist rule collapsed in the Balkan country in 1989. — AP

Counting to 10 is hard for Oscar’s best picture t used to be that picking a best-picture Oscar winner was as easy as one, two, three. Academy members would open their ballots, choose a favorite, and the nominee with the most votes would take home the top Academy Award. Not this year. It turns out that counting to 10, as in this year’s expanded list of 10 best-picture nominees, is a lot more complicated.

Final Oscar ballots went out Wednesday to the 5,777 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Members were asked to mark their singular favorite in each category except best picture, where they were to rank the 10 nominated films according to their preference. Their favorite film gets a one, their second favorite a two and so on.

Accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm that has tallied Oscar votes for the past 76 years, then employ an old-school method to determine support for the films in the running.

The system is also used in some municipal elections nationwide and to determine Oscar nominees each year.

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Here’s how it works: Rick Rosas and Brad Oltmanns, partners at Price waterhouseCoopers, meet in a windowless room in a secret

“Avatar” in the first position, another for those ranking “The Hurt Locker” first, another for those listing “Up in the Air” as their first choice, and so on.

remaining stacks according to the film listed in second place on each of those ballots.

Still with me? “It will effectively be an instant-runoff type

ence.” Um, yeah.

Rosas and Oltmanns will keep redistributing votes from films with less support to those with more support until one film collects something like 2,889 ballots (if all 5,777 ballots are completed and

PricewaterhouseCoop ers partners Rick Rosas (right) and Brad Oltmanns wheel final Oscar ballots for 82nd Academy Awards through the lobby of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California. — AP

location with the completed Oscar ballots. They separate the paper ballots into stacks based on the film listed in first place on each one. So, there will be a stack of ballots listing

The smallest stack will belong to the film with the fewest first-place votes. That movie is then eliminated from contention, and its votes are redistributed among the

election,” Rosas said, “where we’ll sort through the voters’ first preferences, and then we’ll be looking to determine which film has a 50 percentplus-one vote majority prefer-

returned) - or 50 percent of the electorate, plus one - in its stack. It could take several rounds of redistribution to reach that number, and the nominee that does will be the best picture winner. It may be complicated to understand, but Oltmanns said it’s a worth-

while system when picking one winner from 10 nominees.

Otherwise a film could win the top prize with just 11 or 12 percent of the overall vote. “It might be unlikely, but mathematically it would be possible,” he said. “When you have 10 contenders for one particular award, the advantage of the preferential balloting system is it really gauges the depth of support among all the people that are voting, or most of the people that are voting.” And forget what you may have heard about a film with more second-place votes winning the best picture Oscar, Rosas said.

“The key is to have the highest number of first-place votes. That will always be the case, because that gives you the highest probability of winning,” he said. “Voters’ second- or third-place preference or choice may never come into play, depending on what their first was.” The counting begins after 5 p.m. March 2, when all ballots are due back to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Luckily, all we have to do is watch when the results are revealed at the Academy Awards on March 7. — AP

Dennis Hopper’s divorce Berlin warms up for battle gets unpleasant ‘Metropolis’ return C B ivil war is raging at the house of cancer-stricken actor Dennis Hopper, who is seeking a divorce from his fifth wife so that he can spend more time with their 6-year-old daughter in what could be his dying days. Hopper, 73, who is undergoing chemotherapy for advanced, metastasized prostate cancer, filed declarations along with his children, doctors and assistant in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday to support his divorce petition.

The director and co-star of “Easy Rider” filed for divorce from Victoria Duffy, 42, Jan. 14, and said in a subsequent statement that he wanted to spend “these difficult days surrounded by my children and close friends.” The divorce battle is largely a tug-of-war over the couple’s daughter, Galen. A Los Angeles judge on Thursday awarded Hopper daily visitation rights to Galen after the actor claimed Duff y had taken her away from him for extended periods.

The judge also issued a restraining order against Duffy, saying she must stay 10 feet away from Hopper and his adult children, and barred her from entering Hopper’s main residence. The latest batch of court documents details a lot of screaming and shouting among the inhabitants of the counterculture icon’s five-home compound in the coastal Los Angeles

Dennis Hopper suburb of Venice, with Duffy cast as the villain.

She is variously described as “extremely volatile” “insane and out of her mind,” and “inhuman.”

Her husband of 13 years, meanwhile, has shrunk to 120 pounds and vomits after taking his medication, according to the papers.

“A living hell” “Victoria has made my father’s life a living hell over at least the last six months,” said a deposition from Henry Hopper, the actor’s 19-year-old son with his fourth wife. The teen, also an actor, was accused by Duffy last year of stealing some of his father’s priceless artworks. She changed the locks at the compound to keep him out. They were later found in a basement where they had long been in storage, the documents said.

For his part, Dennis Hopper said he spent Christmas “in utter

distress” after Duffy spirited their daughter Galen to Boston.

“This malevolent act ... has caused me to miss what may very well be my last Christmas with my daughter Galen,” Hopper said in his filing. The declarations come on the heels of Duffy’s own responsive declaration in which she depicted her husband as an abusive, gun-toting pot-smoker. She also claimed that he did not want a divorce but was being pressured by his three adult children. particularly his eldest daughter, Marin, 47.

Hopper, according to Duffy, was “more often than not incapable of handling his legal and financial affairs.” Not true, countered Hopper, with supporting documents from two doctors who determined that he was fully competent. He said he filed for divorce “clearly and deliberately, without any pressure or influence exerted upon me by any other person.”

Moreover, said his personal physician David Agus, “It is my belief and recommendation that the less Mr Hopper has to do with his estranged wife at this time, the more likely he is to have his life extended.”

Hopper’s domestic life has never been dull. One of his marriages included an eight-day union with Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas in 1970. Phillips later told Vanity Fair that she was subjected to “excruciating” treatment. — Reuters

erlin got set yesterday for the first full showing in 83 years of Fritz L ang’s silent sci-fi classic “Metropolis” after key scenes thought lost for ever sensationally turned up in 2008. Lang’s vision of a futuristic urban society was due to be beamed onto a screen at the historic Brandenburg Gate last evening, marking a highlight in the Berlin Film Festival, which opened Thursday. And as the 1927 film is silent, an orchestra was set to perform Gottfried Huppertz’s score at a simultaneous gala screening in a theatre across town, re-creating how Berliners experienced the original eight decades ago.

Last morning, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Frank Strobel was put through its paces in a dress rehearsal.

A parallel performance was planned at the Frankfurt Alte Oper opera house with the Staatsorchester Braunschweig under the direction of Helmut Imig. “Just about no other German film has inspired and influenced film history as greatly,” Berlinale head Dieter Kosslick said.

“We are especially pleased and honored to be able to present the reconstructed original cut of this legendary and seminal film classic at the festival’s

60th anniversary.” At the time the most expensive movie ever made, Lang’s two-and-half-hour vision of a 21st century dystopia was a flop when it first came out, panned by critics and

boss rebels and falls in love with a proletarian prophet, while a scientist called Rotwang causes mischief with a Frankenstein-like “Maschinenmensch” (“machine person”).

British actors Olivia Williams and Ewan Mcgregor pose at the photo call for the film ‘The Ghost Writer’ at the International Film Festival Berlinale in Berlin, Germany yesterday. — AP moviegoers alike despite his groundbreaking techniques. It is set in a teeming, towering city of the future where a downtrodden working class slaves away on immense machines while the sons of the rich idle away their time in luxury and decadence.

But the son of the city’s

Science fiction writer HG Wells said at the time it gave “in one eddying concentration almost every possible foolishness, cliche, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general served up with a sauce of sentimentality that is all its own.” —AP

SPECTRUM

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fans grab mementos as fashion bad boy mourned F

pioned him when he was struggling as a young designer. Meanwhile retailers reported a rush to buy

File photo shows British model Naomi Campbell, designer Alexander McQueen and model Kate Moss arriving for the ‘Black’ charity auction and fashion show in London. — AFP

a bombshell into preparations for London Fashion Week, where models are preparing to take to the catwalks from

Jordin Sparks models a Badgley Mischka design.

next Friday with the AutumnWinter collections. “The shocking news of (McQueen’s) apparent suicide

casts a deathly veil of sorrow over the fashion world,” wrote Daily Telegraph fashion editor Hilary Alexander, who cham-

McQueen wares. “Just after the news broke all of our Alexander McQueen stock started flying off the shelves.

Initially the signature skull print scarves were the most popular items,” said Kate Brindley of top London store

Liberty’s. “But now we’ve seen a surge in sales of the more serious fashion items like the dresses and tailoring,” she added. Selfridges department store in London said it had seen a “very significant and immediate uplift” in sales.

“We full expect customers to want to buy something by him-anything-to keep as a memento, but also as a genuine tribute to his craft and spirit,” said Selfridges’ buying director Anne Pitcher. From a humble background, McQueen rose to become one of Britain’s most lauded fashion designers. A four-time winner of the British designer of the year award, he designed for Givenchy and was creative director of his own label which was bought out by Gucci.

German couture legend Karl Lagerfeld was one of the first to pay tribute to him,

telling AFP: “There was always some attraction to death, his designs were sometimes dehumanized. “Who knows, perhaps after flirting with death too often, death attracts you,” he added.

Media repor ts said McQueen’s mother Joyce died on February 2, and in a comment on his Twitter page Sunday he wrote that he had had an “awful week, but my friends have been great, but now I have to somehow pull myself together.” The Times newspaper reported that his mother was to be buried yesterday. McQueen’s close friend and fashion icon Isabella Blow killed herself three years ago at the age of 48. Suffering from cancer and depression, she died of a drug overdose after telling friends she was going out shopping. — AFP

Ladies

Heidi Klum models a John Galliano design.

ents of his generation.” “In such a short career, Alexander McQueen’s influence was astonishing-from street style, to music culture and the world’s museums. His passing marks an insurmountable loss,” she added in a statement.

In New York, his death caused shock as the AutumnWinter 2010 Fashion Week opened. McQueen was not taking part in New York Fashion Week, which opens the season before shows in London, Milan, then Paris.

“It’s horrible news. It’s so sad to be in such a state of despair. Such a great talent, such poetry-it’s horrific,” New York fashion doyenne Diane von Furstenberg, head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, told AFP. In London the news threw

in Red

ashion fans rushed to grab British designer Alexander McQueen’s clothes and accessories as mementos yesterday, retailers said, as the fashion world reeled from his shock death.

His apparent suicide Thursday at the age of only 40 cast a shadow over the start of New York Fashion Week, a gloom likely to extend onto the London catwalks next week. Tributes continued to pour in for the enfant terrible of fashion, who hanged himself at his London home after his mother died last week, and a day before her funeral, according to media reports.

“He brought a uniquely British sense of daring and aesthetic fearlessness to the global stage of fashion,” said US Vogue editor and queen of fashion Anna Wintour, calling him “one of the greatest tal-

Joan Collins models a Stephane Rolland design.

(Above) Kristin Chenoweth models a Daniel Swarovski design.

(Left) Kim Kardashian models a Marchesa design.

Kimora Lee models her own design.

Dara Torres models a Rachel Roy design.

Celebrities model fashion from the Heart Truth Red Dress Collection during the fall 2010 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York on February 11, 2010.

— AFP

WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy birthday appy birthday to Salah Afefy! Many, many happy returns of the day!

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Best wishes from Elizabath, Lisil, Deena, Evalin, Hassan, Maryam, Meena, Rugaya, Saima, Habeeba, Jakey, Liyak, Rabia, Abu Misary.

KFH launches ‘Bon Appetit’ promotion for card-holders iming to provide clients with not only best-of-class banking services, but also special promotions and discounts that enrich their banking experience and strengthen the bonds with their bank, Kuwait Finance House (KFH) launches a new series of promotions, named “Bon Appétit” that is espe-

A

Mohammad Fouzan cially tailored to all KFH Credit and Prepaid “Visa and MasterCard” cardholders. The campaign runs from Feb 11 to June 30, 2010.

“Our clients can now celebrate their special occasions with our fantastic discounts”, commented Mohammad Al-Fouzan, Assistant General Manager, Banking Sector. “Marking the arrival of the National and Liberations Days and the start of the festive season, we’ve released this unique promotion so that our clients would have the chance to dine out with their

friends, families or relatives at any of the 100 participating restaurants whilst enjoying the amazing discounts up to 20 percent”, he added.

Many international, prominent restaurant chains and cafes have taken part in this promotion to offer special discounts to KFH wide customer base. “Our clients can choose their favorite restaurant from the long list of participants to experience the best of Turkish, Lebanese, Chinese, Iranian and multi cuisine”, said Al-Fouzan.

“It’s just the first step toward more exciting promotions that we constantly try to provide in response to their loyalty and trust. Our customers are and will remain our priority, and with the introduction of this new promotion we are making sure their needs are being met.”

Al-Fouzan went on to say: “I would like to thank our restaurant partners for their support and valuable participation in the ‘Bon Appétit’ program and for the exclusive discounts they’ve specially tailored for our clients”. He concluded by saying that all KFH Credit and Prepaid Cards are the safest way to pay inside Kuwait and round the world, as they were issued using the advanced Chip technology that prevents fraud transactions on the cards, making them the ideal option of payment anywhere, anytime.

Doha Bank and UNESCO sign environmental alliance oha Bank and UNESCO signed a partnership agreement on February 4, 2010 at UNESCO Headquarters, West Bay, Doha, Qatar which was attended by R Seetharaman, Doha Bank Group CEO; Dr Hamed Al-Hammami, UNESCO Representative in the Arab States of the Gulf and Yemen, Director of UNESCO Doha; Dr Benno Boer, UNESCO’s Ecological Science Advisor in the Arab Region; Mark Sutcliffe, UNESCO’s Project Assistant - Natural Sciences, Saleh Souror, Secretary General of the National Commission, Doha Bank Management, other guest and dignitaries.

Doha Bank and UNESCO decided to work together as a team in various environmental programmes by which both institutions can orchestrate together a partnership in greening the environment and actively promote the “green” culture. Eco-schools initiative will be developed in response to the need to involve young children in environmental projects and make them environmental advocates at a young age. The project aims to increase students’ awareness on environmental and related sustainable development issues.

Other projects include Waste Management, Beach Clean-up and Tree Planting amongst others.”

Sheikh Fahad Bin Mohammad Bin Jaber Al-Thani, Doha Bank’s Chairman said that, “Doha Bank and UNESCO Partnership will further strengthen Doha Bank’s mission and vision to protect our environment and reduce our carbon footprint towards achieving carbon neutrality. Doha Bank continues to develop more energy-efficient products and services. Our leadership and contribution in this field has garnered the Best Green Bank in the Middle East, Best Public Awareness Campaign from Qatar Today and getting recognized by the government for our active participation in Qatar Green and Clean projects which clearly reflects our dedication and commitment to the environment. We have redefined our goals and objectives towards a greener path and taken proactive measures in addressing the global warming and climate change issues.”

Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jaber Al-Thani, Managing Director said “Doha Bank has been a leading bank in Qatar and

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was the first to converge banking, technology, environmental and social responsibility into customer centric innovative products and services, we were the first to introduce all electronic services in the market and enjoy a variety of accolades. We have the Green Accounts which promotes the concept of paperless banking and can greatly reduce petroleum-related carbon emissions, Go Green Credit Cards made from eco-friendly materials and contributes 1 percent of your spend towards a green cause, Doha Sooq for online shopping, DFast ERemittances and DB Remit for online fund transfers and Doha Green Bank website, a green portal which creates public awareness on a wider scale.”

versity loss by this date. Together with Doha Bank we will pay special attention to issues regarding the environment in Qatar, based on two of the strongholds of UNESCO: the natural sciences and education, continuing to play our part towards achieving this goal.”

R Seetharaman, Doha Bank Group CEO, said “Doha Bank is proud to have UNESCO, an international organization, as our partner in Doha Bank’s drive towards greening and cleaning Qatar. The partnership will have a positive contribution to the environment through the collaboration of education, science and culture to further promote social and environmental responsibility. As a forward-thinking and socially responsible bank, we con-

ly. The need to develop environmentally and economically sustainable businesses is becoming stronger, so that the globe remains a healthy place to live for everyone.

We need to strive towards investing in approved and UN-compliant clean energy carbon credit programs.

Investments made now in clean energy projects represent the future and will be a hedge against possible oil-deflation prices as well as profit-generating on their own account.” he added.

Dr Benno Boer, UNESCO’s Ecological Sciences Advisor in the Arab Region said, “Doha Bank and UNESCO jointly supported the Doha Green Conference, which took place in Doha, Qatar, at the Movenpick towers in December

Dr Hamed Al-Hammami, UNESCO Representative in the Arab States of the Gulf and Yemen, Director of UNESCO Doha said, “We have had an ongoing dialogue between UNESCO and Doha Bank since several months now because we believe that these kinds of cooperation with the private sector are an absolutely essential element in our overall strategy to generate good and fast progress within the mandate of UNESCO. It is also worth noting that this year is the UN-declared International Year of Biodiversity, which marks the 2010 Biodiversity Target aiming to significantly reduce the rate of biodi-

tinue to embrace sustainable business practices to satisfy customers and promote strong environmental stewardship. Even from within the organization, we have taken measures to instill the value of green culture among the staff through various eco-related activities. Doha Bank also arranges green activities that include the Annual Al Dana Green Run, Green Quiz, Green Seminars and Conferences, Recycling, Beach Clean-up, Tree Planting and more. These are small steps which will make big difference.”

“We must do our part to conserve the ecological balances global-

2009, together with their partners, the Friends of the Environment Centre and Sesam, and UNESCO’s National Commission. Together with Doha Bank, we will continue focusing on urban environmental issues, and towards the development of models and good practices.

We believe in the empowerment of young people and that their environmental creativity will lead to good results and the continuous enhancement of our common environment. We are looking forward to generating visible and measurable long-term impact together with our trusted partners, and we encourage others to join us.”

Wataniya sponsors ʻGulf Runʼ in Bahrain R

unning support and safety measures during the exotic cars racing, Wataniya sponsored the fifth annual tournament of the Gulf Run event which took place in Bahrain.

The event is designed mainly for car enthusiasts. It took off at the 360 Mall on January 15 with a car show and a raffle. Cars were on display for car admirers and a raffle draw was conducted in which the funds collected were donated to AlHayat Charity Foundation.

On January 28 and 29 the race took place at Bahrain International Circuit. Kuwaiti and nonKuwaiti racers participated in the run and fans all over have traveled to Manama, Bahrain to take part and witness this exciting event. Wataniya has offered its customers who are taking part in the race special roaming rates when calling friends and family through their Wataniya line.

“Gulf Run was marked with great success; the Kuwaiti racers and audience were very much proud and pleased by Wataniya’s presence at the

I

Announcements

FEBRUARY 19

n our Beautiful VIP Spa Room, Cleopatra Milk and Rose Petal Bath, Elemis Skin Specific Facial or Swedish Massage is the best way to pamper yourself and your loved one. This offer is valid from February 7 till February 21.

Indian Lawyers Forum: Indian Lawyers forum, (ILF) the Association of Indian Lawyers & Law Graduates in Kuwait planning to conduct its annual programme & get together on 19-022010 Friday evening 6 pm at Hidine Restaurant Auditorium (Tel: 24312505) at Abassiya.

Professional presentation, orchestra & variety entertainments arranged. All Indian lawyers & Law graduates with their families are cordially invited to attend the functions. For more information please contact. 97203939, 97260159 email: advpanicker@gmail.com FEBRUARY 26

he American Embassy will be closed tomorrow in observance of President’s Day, a National Holiday in the US. The Embassy will reopen for normal business on Monday, February 15, 2010. Regular working hours are 8:00 am - 4:30 pm, Sunday to Thursday. The Embassy’s telephone number is 2259-1011, fax number 2538-0282.

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EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya is happy to inform the general public and visitors to Kenya of a reduction in the cost of tourist visas by 50%, continuing through all of 2010. Additionally, in recognition of the family travel segment, Kenya is giving a complete waiver of visit fees to children aged 16 years and below. Visitors are urged to take this opportunity and experience unique Kenyan beach holidays on palm fringed, sandy beaches, safaris in the country’s famous national parks, and activity based tourism. For more information contact the Kenya Embassy located at Surra, block 6, Street 9, Villa No.3. Tel. 25353314/ 25353362 or visit the Mission’s websites www.kenyaembkuwait.com & www.magicalkenya.com. Official timings are 8:00 am 4:00 pm, Sundays through Thursdays.

EMBASSY OF INDIA

*Saturday, February 27th Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, Germany 2005 Director: Mark Rothemund Genre: Drama | 127 min | English Subtitle Rated: 15+ The Final Days is the true story of Germany’s most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to life. Sophie Scholl is the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. Using historical records of her incarceration, the film re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl’s life: a journey from arrest to interrogation, trial and sentence in 1943 Munich. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to her comrades, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility that is both haunting and timeless .

Contact via: screenings@cinemagics.com; or join our Facebook’s group “Cinemagic Kuwait.

• Screenings will be canceled when confronted with very bad weather.

• Screenings will take place at our location in Old Salmiya, above LG Electronics.

Movenpick announces Valentine’s Day special

EMBASSY OF US

The Embassy of the Republic of Serbia, in observance of the Statehood Day of the Republic of Serbia, will be closed to the public on Monday 15th February and Tuesday 16th February 2010.

*Today SURPRISE FILM Contact via: screenings@cinemagics.com; or join our Facebook’s group “Cinemagic Kuwait.

■■■■■■■ *Thursday, February 25th Corpse Bride, USA 2005 Director: Tim Burton Genre: Animation | Drama | 80 min | English Subtitle Rated: PG 13 Set back in the late 1800s in a Victorian village, a man and woman by the names of Victor Van Dort and Victoria Everglot are betrothed because the Everglots need the money or else they’ll be living on the streets and the Van Dorts want to be hight in society. But when things go wrong at the wedding rehearsal, Victor goes into the woods to practice his vows. Just as soon as he gets them right, he finds himself married to Emily, the corpse bride. While Victoria waits on the other side, there’s a rich newcomer that may take Victor’s place. So two brides, one groom, who will Victor pick?

Embassy information

EMBASSY OF SERBIA

Cinemagic’s schedule

■■■■■■■ *Saturday, February 20th Requiem For A Dream, USA 2000 Director: Darren Aronofsky Genre: Adventure | Mystery | 102 min | English Subtitle Rated: 18 Drugs. They consume mind, body and soul. Once you’re hooked, you’re hooked. Four lives. Four addicts. Four failures. Doing their best to succeed in the world, but failing miserably, four people get hooked on various drugs. Despite their aspirations of greatness, they succumb to their addictions. Watching the addicts spiral out of control, we bear witness to the dirtiest, ugliest portions of the underworld addicts reside in. It is shocking and eye opening but demands to be seen by both addicts and non-addicts alike

15

race. Our participation in sponsoring Gulf Run is based on our strategy that urges us to get involved in similar events.” Stated Abdolaziz AlBalool, Wataniya PR and Media Manager. He added saying that “Our main aim is to encourage Kuwaiti people to stay active and take part in a variety of high-spirited sports.”

Being present at the Gulf Run has positively contributed to Wataniya’s brand image and increased the awareness of Wataniya being a Kuwaiti Telecom provider that looks after its customer’s safety and protection whenever.

The Gulf Run was first created in 2005 by a group of young Kuwaitis’ who wanted to practice car racing in a professional and secure environment. They wanted to avoid street racing, reduce car accidents, and prevent spreading fear among public, therefore, they rented the world renowned Bahrain International Circuit to be able to achieve their goal, strengthen their driving skills and learn the capability of their cars.

IOC fest ’09 winners: Indian Overseas Congress, Kuwait is conducting it’s 16th Annual day celebrations on Friday, 26th February 2010 at Indian Central School Auditorium, Abbassiya. Various Senior Congress leaders from Kerala including K.C Joseph MLA, E.M Augasthy Ex. MLA, V.D Satheeshan MLA will be attending the function.

IOC as an organisation of equally minded people from India, have been anchored with a vision of imparting the spirit of economically prosperous, socialy just, politically united and culturally Harmonious India to the expatriate Indian Community. The uncomparable public speeches of V.D Satheeshan, E.M. Augusthy and KC Joseph will be memorable talks to the Congressmen in Kuwait.

Since few years LOC is conducting Arts festival for all the Indians in Kuwait. More than one thousand participants from all States of India are participating in various competitions organised. every year. The winners of IOC Fest ‘09 will be awarded with prizes and certificates at the function. Various committees under the leadership of M.A Hilal, Somu Mathew Geevarghese Abraham, Raju Zakarias, K.J. John, John Abraham, Tony Mathew, Adv. John Thomas, C. Ramachandran, Thajudeen, Alex Bino Joseph, Varghese Mamparampan, Shaji Kavalam, are actively working to make this a memorable event among the Indians in Kuwait. IOC requests all the IOC Fest ‘09 winners to contact Tony Mathew (66853100) or Raju Zakarias (99234968).

The Embassy of India has further revamped and improved its Legal Advice Clinic at the Indian Workers Welfare Center, and made the free service available to Indian nationals on all five working days, i.e. from Sunday to Thursday every week. Kuwaiti lawyers would be available at the Legal Advice Clinic daily from Monday to Thursday, while Indian lawyers would be available on Sundays. Following are the free welfare services provided at the Indian Workers Welfare Center located at the Embassy of India: [i] 24x7 Helpline for Domestic Workers: Accessible by toll free telephone no. 25674163 from anywhere in Kuwait, it provides information and advice exclusively to Indian domestic sector workers (Visa No. 20) as regards their grievances, immigration and other matters. [ii] Help Desk: It offers guidance to Indian nationals on routine immigration, employment, legal, and other issues (Embassy premises; 9 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4.30 PM, Sunday to Thursday); (iii) Labour Complaints Desk: It registers labor complaints and provides grievance redressal service to Indian workers (Embassy premises; 9 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4.30 PM, Sunday to Thursday); (iv) Shelters: For female and male domestic workers in distress; (v) Legal Advice Clinic: Provides free legal advice to Indian nationals (Embassy premises; Kuwaiti lawyers 3 PM to 5 PM, Monday to Thursday; Indian lawyers 2 PM to 4 PM on Sunday); and (vi) Attestation of Work Contracts: Private sector worker (Visa No. 18) contracts are accepted at the Embassy; 9 AM to 1 PM; Sunday to Thursday; Domestic sector worker (Visa No. 20) contracts are accepted at Kuwait Union of Domestic Labor Offices (KUDLO), Hawally, Al-Othman Street, Kurd Roundabout, Al-Abraj Complex, Office No 9, Mezzanine Floor; 9 AM to 9 PM, Saturday to Thursday; 5 PM to 9 PM on Friday.

EMBASSY OF PHILIPPINES The Embassy of the Philippines wishes to inform the Filipino community in the State of Kuwait, that the recent supreme court decision to extend the registration of voter’s applies only in local registration in the Philippines under Republic Act no. 8189 and does not apply to overseas voters which is governed by Republic Act no. 9189, hence it has no impact on the plans and preparations on the conduct of overseas absentee voting. The overseas absentee voting for presidential elections will start on 10 April 2010 and will continue uninterrupted until 10 May 2010 daily at the Philippine Embassy. Registered overseas absentee voters are advised to schedule their days off in advance to avoid complications in their schedules. Qualified voters are encouraged to get out and vote.

Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

SPECTRUM

16 CROSSWORD 899

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Calvin Aries (March 21-April 19) The spoken word is a

wonderful thing. It helps us to understand where we are going—why and how to get there. You are lucky today in relationships and finances. This is a wonderful time to nurture or deepen your relationships. The finances you have accumulated now show off your capability to choose the right investments—you will be pleased with the results of your investments. Don’t be too surprised if, this afternoon, you are selected to do some lecturing, guiding or teaching.

This afternoon you may enjoy the time you have to volunteer for others.

Perhaps you could buy a red carnation for each of the little old people at your nearby nursing home. Let others know they have not been forgotten.

You share this evening with a loved one.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Your concentration in the

work place is commendable; particularly with the distractions that this day holds. There are deadlines to meet, people to see and questions to be answered.

You are intent on completing unfinished business.

Prophetic insights are presented to you today. You are optimistic about your relationship with others as well as your financial outcome now. After work you may want to travel in order to see a loved one but the weather may stop you; fortunately, there is phone and there is Internet. Consider a conversation without shortcut words or symbols while talking to a loved one over the Internet. It is important to be clear. A phone call may be the workable solution. It might be fun to send a card or small gift in that card; thinking of you.

Pooch Cafe

ACROSS 1. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

4. Marked by lack of intellectual depth.

8. System of measurement based on centimeters and grams and seconds.

11. A colloid in a more solid form than a sol.

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

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

14. An ugly evil-looking old woman.

15. A writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry).

16. Artists or writers whose ideas are ahead of their time.

17. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

19. Type genus of the Caricaceae.

21. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

24. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

25. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

27. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

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

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

33. The cry made by sheep.

34. 100 agorot equal 1 shekel.

38. An important seaport on the Island of Cebu in the Philippines.

41. Large brownish-green New Zealand parrot.

42. Set down according to a plan.

44. A periodic paperback publication.

45. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

46. Someone who is morally reprehensible.

48. Either extremity of something that has length.

49. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

50. (Sumerian) Water god and god of wisdom.

51. A silvery soft waxy metallic element of the alkali metal group.

DOWN 1. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

2. A small ball with a hole through the middle.

3. Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves.

4. Former measure of the US economy.

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

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

7. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

8. Type genus of the Caviidae.

9. Used especially of fruits.

10. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

18. Tall East Indian cedar having spreading branches with nodding tips.

20. A narrow zigzag ribbon used as trimming.

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

23. (British colloquialism) An excavation.

26. Being ten more than one hundred ninety.

29. On a ship, train, plane or other vehicle.

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

31. One of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian belief.

35. Wild or seedling sweet cherry used as stock for grafting.

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

37. Large genus of tropical subshrubs or herbs some of which yield fibers of mucilaginous substances.

39. One of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof.

40. Large sweet juicy hybrid between tangerine and grapefruit having a thick wrinkled skin.

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

47. A light strong brittle gray toxic bivalent metallic element.

48. A state in midwestern United States.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) To you, work is the greatest place to increase your friendships. Though you may prefer to be around old friends, you certainly will not close the door on making new ones. However you deal with people today—interacting one-on-one, leading a group towards a common goal, convincing others in a sales or public relations effort—you will be a winner. Everyone will feel the warmth of your understanding. It will be genuine and it will be appreciated. Avoid taking the heat for someone else’s problems today. This is a great time to be with others and to work together. You may be able to enjoy and value your own life situation at this time. You may soon see the family circle increase in numbers through marriage or new birth.

Non Sequitur

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Any kind of work that requires precise thinking and concentration will be successful today. Do not however, let all this concentration isolate you from others. Fire up the office jokester for a short while this afternoon and enjoy. A meeting brings about a great opportunity to charge your batteries with a two-way flow of conversation. Negotiations are successful. There is also a chance to gain some insight into a puzzling current affair this afternoon.

Later today, you are likely to find a special gift for someone you love. Avoid extravagance as a way to gain approval; you will be pleased with the results of your attention. Tonight you will find yourself in the mood to make phone calls, write letters and tend to a few chores before weekend begins.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Today you may fall under the heavy burden of responsibility—you will probably have to work hard to feel that you have made any headway this morning. However, this time also marks a period when many projects are ended—especially large ones. You have tremendous drive and a positive attitude to see you through most of the challenges you encounter. Your fuel tank may be full but you should be practical in its use. Try to engage in projects that need to be finished before starting another one, for this will surely help you to feel a sense of accomplishment. This afternoon, there may be an opportunity for a warm talk with a very special person in your life. Ideas and goals may be the main topic—you are helpful to each other. Take time to listen.

Zits

Virgo (August 23-September 22) This is a stimulating day, full of good communication. It is not a good day for going off half-cocked. You could run into opposition. You display an urge to be recognized by co-workers for hard work. There is a possibility that your work as a whole will come under review and you may feel that you need to have more self-assuredness in your presentations. Others, however, will sing your praises. Make sure you are on solid ground before you express any opinions of others. You have a love of life today that manifests itself in good cheer. This is a time when relationships are good.

There is an aspect of good fortune. Expressing affections should come easily and can do much good for your disposition. Enjoy part of the evening out-of-doors.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Change can be hard to contend with, but sometimes it is necessary. To ignore the unexpected events of today is to set you up for accidents and disruptions you cannot control. It is better to control change than to have change control you. You may spend a great deal of time, effort and worry balancing commitments. Considering the day, it may be a good idea to reassess your goals and look at changes that could be made in the future so as not to risk a repeat of the same problems. There is an air of seriousness to your dealings with partners. In addition, you may be concerned more about the future of business and romantic associates. Travel to new or unexplored places is a possibility today. This marks an extremely creative period in your life.

Mother Goose and Grimm

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) There could be

difficult times at work today but you are hard working.

Perhaps you discover some sort of obstacle in your path this day. A complete failure of a project started with great expectations is possible. Perseverance is crucial in this fortunately, short period. You will be successful. You become strong in many areas of your life. You take control as you see yourself in more profound ways. Now is the time to smooth out any problems with legal issues, educational pursuits or travel problems. Your intuition is strong but you also have a strong urge to check things out before making a decision. This is why, most of the time, your decisions are correct. This can be frustrating to young people that need to make mistakes.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You may find yourself feeling a certain contrariness today—an urge to disapprove of or disagree with everything and everybody around you. Any kind of restriction on you will make you feel rebellious—you may have a wild yen to jump the fence into some new and wild adventure; this however, is a very short-lived time. Personal involvements are electric today—it may be difficult to concentrate on current business projects. Taking your breaks and guiding yourself with some note taking and budgeting your time, will all be helpful in getting you through this time successfully. This afternoon you may have a real feeling that you have found your ideal mate. This evening there is time to show a loved one just how much you care.

Yesterday’s Solution

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) In the

yester

Yesterday’s Solution

to

INTERNATIONAL CALLS Kuwait Qatar Abu Dhabi Dubai Raas Al Khayma Al-Shareqa Muscat Jordan Bahrain Riyadh Makkah - Jeddah Cairo Alexandria Beirut Damascus Allepo

00965 00974 009712 009714 009717 009716 00968 009626 00973 009661 009662 00202 00203 009611 0096311 0096321

Tunisia Rabat Washington New York Paris London Madrid Zurich Geneva Monaco Rome Bangkok Hong Kong Pakistan Taiwan Bonn

0021610 002127 001212 001718 00331 004471 00341 00411 004122 0033 00396 00662 00852 0092 00886 0049228

Word Sleuth Solution

work place—demands, whether they come from you or others, will progress along quite nicely, especially if you make sure there are no questions or misunderstandings. Domestic affairs are really where your mind is focused now. You show a great deal of interest in family matters as well as an interest in the motivations and desires of friends. Family matters in your general living environment may receive most of your attention today. You may take on a financial burden if you decide to rescue someone—taking a second job will speed the process of elimination.

Peaceful solutions are available to most any situation that arises today. More than sweet things are exchanged between you and your loved one tonight.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Before you leave for work this morning, there are things between you and a loved one that need discussing. Be honest, state the facts, remove the emotions and you will be pleased at the positive results. Understanding comes easily. You make all the details clear. No one should misunderstand anything you say. Lunch with a co-worker may include a conversation about strong, life-long beliefs. Go with the flow or take a step back and see where the conversation is moving. It may not be advantageous to get into any disputes. Exert a little effort to ask questions that will help this person think through his or her beliefs— careful. Work moves along quite quickly and before you know it—it is time to head for home. Romance is possible tonight.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You are stirred and you ready to put your problem-solving abilities to work. Friends or co-workers, in whom you relate on a social basis, may be mentally preoccupied today—do not take it the wrong way. If you are planning to change jobs . . . now is the best time to do the research.

Find something in which you will be able to express yourself and have contact with the outside world. Four walls may not be your cup of tea. If you are not looking for a new job—a raise or promotion may be in order soon.

You might want to scan the company for which you are already working and find the department or job you think might be right for you. Write up a paragraph of how you might improve or upgrade that area and submit it for your presentation.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

17 97879611. (C 20306)

Flight Schedule Arrival Flights on Saturday 13/02/2010 Airlines Flt Route Time Jazeera 0263 Beirut 00:05 KLM 0447 Amsterdam/Bahrain 00:10 Wataniya Airways 2103 Beirut 00:50 Gulf Air 211 Bahrain 01:05 Turkish A/L 1172 Istanbul 02:15 DHL 370 Bahrain 02:15 Emirates 853 Dubai 02:35 Etihad 0305 Abu Dhabi 03:00 Qatari 0138 Doha 03:25 Ethiopian 622 Addis Ababa/Bahrain 03:30 Jazeera 0637 Aleppo 05:05 Jazeera 0503 Luxor 05:35 Jazeera 0527 Alexandria 06:10 Kuwait 416 Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur 06:25 Jazeera 0529 Assiut 06:30 British 0157 London 06:40 Kuwait 412 Manila/Bangkok 06:45 Falcon 201 Bahrain 07:00 Kuwait 204 Lahore 07:35 Jazeera 0161 Dubai 07:45 Kuwait 302 Mumbai 07:55 Kuwait 344 Chennai 08:10 Kuwait 676 Dubai 08:10 Kuwait 362 Colombo 08:20 Kuwait 332 Trivandrum 08:25 Emirates 855 Dubai 08:30 Qatari 0132 Doha 09:00 Arabia 0121 Sharjah 09:05 Etihad 0301 Abu Dhabi 09:35 Gulf Air 213 Bahrain 10:45 Wataniya Airways 1121 Bahrain 10:45 Jazeera 0447 Doha 11:00 Jazeera 0165 Dubai 11:05 Jazeera 0425 Bahrain 11:10 Wataniya Airways 1021 Dubai 11:20 Jazeera 0113 Abu Dhabi 11:20 Middle East 404 Beirut 11:55 Egypt Air 610 Cairo 12:55 Mahan Air 5066 Mashad 12:55 Jazeera 0171 Dubai 13:05 Kuwait 672 Dubai 13:25 Wataniya Airways 2301 Damascus 13:35 Kuwait 786 Jeddah 13:55 Egypt Air 621 Assiut 13:55 Nas Air 745 Jeddah 14:00 Global 064 Najaf 14:00 Jazeera 0257 Beirut 14:10 Wataniya Airways 2001 Cairo 14:20 Saudi Arabian A/L 500 Jeddah 14:30 Kuwait 552 Damascus 14:35 Jazeera 0457 Damascus 14:45 Qatari 0134 Doha 15:00 Kuwait 284 Dhaka 15:10 Kuwait 774 Riyadh 15:25 Royal Jordanian 800 Amman 15:40 Jazeera 0173 Dubai 16:05 Mihin Lanka 403 Colombo/Dubai 16:40 Iran Aseman 6791 Mashad 16:45 Bahrain Air 344 Bahrain 16:50 Global 061 Baghdad/Najaf 16:50 Emirates 857 Dubai 16:55 Kuwait 118 New York 16:55 Gulf Air 215 Bahrain 17:05 Etihad 0303 Abu Dhabi 17:15 Cargolux 792 Luxembourg 17:15 Saudi Arabian A/L 510 Riyadh 17:15 Jazeera 0493 Jeddah 17:30 Jazeera 0239 Amman 17:35 Arabia 0125 Sharjah 17:40 Jazeera 0433 Mashad 17:45 Thai 519 Bangkok 17:45 Wataniya Airways 2101 Beirut 17:50 Kuwait 548 Luxor/Sharm El Sheikh 17:55 Srilankan 227 Colombo/Dubai 18:05 United A/L 982 Washington Dc Dulles 18:15 Jazeera 0427 Bahrain 18:15 Wataniya Airways 2003 Cairo 18:20 DHL 473 Baghdad 18:30 Wataniya Airways 1025 Dubai 18:40 Kuwait 542 Cairo 18:50 Kuwait 674 Dubai 18:55 Kuwait 618 Doha 18:55 Kuwait 174 Geneva/Frankfurt 19:00 Jazeera 0177 Dubai 19:05 Kuwait 614 Bahrain 19:20 Iran Air 607 Mashad 19:20 Kuwait 1794 Medinah 19:25 Kuwait 1794 Jeddah 19:25 Syrian Arab A/L 341 Damascus 19:30 Kuwait 104 London 19:35 Kuwait 562 Amman 19:40 Singapore A/L 458 Singapore/Abu Dhabi 19:45 Saudi Arabian A/L 3500 Jeddah 20:00 Jet A/W 572 Mumbai 20:05 Wataniya Airways 1201 Jeddah 20:15 Oman Air 0647 Muscat 20:20 Egypt Air 618 Alexandria 20:35 Jazeera 0459 Damascus 20:40 Jazeera 0343 Sanaa/Bahrain 20:55 Kuwait 788 Jeddah 20:55 Indian 993 Chennai/Mumbai 21:05 Gulf Air 217 Bahrain 21:05 Middle East 402 Beirut 21:20 Qatari 0136 Doha 21:35 Emirates 859 Dubai 21:40 KLM 0445 Amsterdam 21:55 Kuwait 502 Beirut 22:00 Jazeera 0449 Doha 22:10 Jazeera 0429 Bahrain 22:15 Jazeera 0117 Abu Dhabi 22:25 Jazeera 0185 Dubai 22:40 Egypt Air 612 Cairo 22:45 Egypt Air 606 Luxor 23:00 India Express 395 Kozhikode/Cochin 23:15 Lufthansa 636 Frankfurt 23:30 Ariana 405 Kabul 23:35 Bangladesh 043 Dhaka 23:40 Wataniya Airways 2201 Amman 23:40 Wataniya Airways 1029 Dubai 23:45 Wataniya Airways 1129 Bahrain 23:55

Departure Flights on Saturday 13/02/2010 Airlines Flt Route Time Egypt Air 607 Luxor 00:01 Jazeera 0528 Assiut 00:05 Shaheen Air 442 Lahore 00:15 United A/L 981 Washington Dc Dulles 00:40 Indian 576 Goa/Chennai 00:50 Pakistan 216 Karachi 01:10 Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt 01:20 KLM 0447 Amsterdam 01:25 Kuwait 283 Dhaka 02:55 DHL 371 Bahrain 03:15 Turkish A/L 1173 Istanbul 03:15 Emirates 854 Dubai 03:50 Etihad 0306 Abu Dhabi 04:10 Ethiopian 622 Addis Ababa 04:15 Qatari 0139 Doha 05:00 Jazeera 0164 Dubai 07:00 Wataniya Airways 1020 Dubai 07:00 Wataniya Airways 2000 Cairo 07:30 Jazeera 0112 Abu Dhabi 07:35 Jazeera 0446 Doha 07:40 Gulf Air 212 Bahrain 07:45 Wataniya Airways 1120 Bahrain 07:50 Jazeera 0422 Bahrain 07:55 Wataniya Airways 2300 Damascus 08:10 Kuwait 785 Jeddah 08:20 Jazeera 0256 Beirut 08:35 British 0156 London 08:55 Jazeera 0170 Dubai 09:00 Kuwait 671 Dubai 09:00 Kuwait 551 Damascus 09:10 Jazeera 0456 Damascus 09:25 Kuwait 101 London/New York 09:35 Arabia 0122 Sharjah 09:35 Emirates 856 Dubai 09:40 Kuwait 547 Luxor/Sharm El Sheikh 09:55 Qatari 0133 Doha 10:00 Global 063 Najaf 10:00 Etihad 0302 Abu Dhabi 10:20 Wataniya Airways 2002 Cairo 11:30 Gulf Air 214 Bahrain 11:40 Kuwait 165 Rome/Paris 11:45 Jazeera 0342 Bahrain/Sanaa 11:50 Kuwait 541 Cairo 12:00 Global 062 Baghdad 12:00 Jazeera 0172 Dubai 12:00 Jazeera 0432 Mashad 12:05 Kuwait 773 Riyadh 12:05 Wataniya Airways 2100 Beirut 12:05 Jazeera 0492 Jeddah 12:15 Jazeera 0238 Amman 12:25 Middle East 405 Beirut 12:55 Egypt Air 611 Cairo 13:55 Mahan Air 5065 Mashad 14:15 Wataniya Airways 1024 Dubai 14:25 Kuwait 673 Dubai 14:30 Kuwait 561 Amman 14:35 Kuwait 1793 Jeddah 14:50 Egypt Air 622 Assiut 14:50 Kuwait 1793 Medinah 14:50 Nas Air 746 Jeddah 14:55 Jazeera 0176 Dubai 15:05 Wataniya Airways 1200 Jeddah 15:10 Jazeera 0426 Bahrain 15:25 Jazeera 0458 Damascus 15:30 Kuwait 617 Doha 15:35 Kuwait 787 Jeddah 15:50 Saudi Arabian A/L 505 Jeddah 16:00 Kuwait 501 Beirut 16:10 Kuwait 613 Bahrain 16:20 Royal Jordanian 801 Amman 16:25 Qatari 0135 Doha 16:30 Bahrain Air 345 Bahrain 17:35 Mihin Lanka 404 Dubai/Colombo 17:40 Iran Aseman 6792 Mashad 17:45 Gulf Air 216 Bahrain 17:55 Etihad 0304 Abu Dhabi 18:00 Emirates 858 Dubai 18:10 Arabia 0126 Sharjah 18:20 Jazeera 0262 Beirut 18:25 Saudi Arabian A/L 511 Riyadh 18:30 Kuwait 543 Cairo 18:30 Jazeera 0184 Dubai 18:35 Jazeera 0116 Abu Dhabi 18:40 Wataniya Airways 2200 Amman 18:40 Cargolux 792 Hong Kong 18:45 Jazeera 0448 Doha 18:50 Jazeera 0428 Bahrain 19:00 Thai 520 Bangkok 19:05 Wataniya Airways 2102 Beirut 19:05 Kuwait 285 Chittagong 19:10 Srilankan 228 Dubai/Colombo 19:15 Wataniya Airways 1028 Dubai 19:30 Jazeera 0512 Sharm El Sheikh 19:50 Kuwait 361 Colombo 20:00 Kuwait 1541 Cairo 20:05 Iran Air 604 Isfahan 20:20 Syrian Arab A/L 342 Damascus 20:30 Kuwait 331 Trivandrum 21:00 Wataniya Airways 1128 Bahrain 21:00 Jet A/W 571 Mumbai 21:10 Saudi Arabian A/L 9611 Jeddah 21:15 Oman Air 0648 Muscat 21:20 Jazeera 0240 Amman 21:25 Egypt Air 619 Alexandria 21:35 Singapore A/L 459 Abu Dhabi/Singapore 21:45 Gulf Air 218 Bahrain 21:55 DHL 171 Bahrain 22:00 Kuwait 675 Dubai 22:10 Middle East 403 Beirut 22:20 Jazeera 0188 Dubai 22:30 Falcon 102 Bahrain 22:30 Qatari 0137 Doha 22:35 Kuwait 301 Mumbai 22:45 Emirates 860 Dubai 22:50 KLM 0445 Bahrain/Amsterdam 22:55 Kuwait 205 Islamabad 22:55 Jazeera 0480 Sabiha 23:00 Jazeera 0526 Alexandria 23:25 Egypt Air 613 Cairo 23:45 Jazeera 0502 Luxor 23:50 Kuwait 411 Bangkok/Manila 23:55

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available in 2 bedroom/bathroom C-AC flat in between Tunis & Al Muthanna streets in Hawally with balcony and bathroom.

Contact: 99380453. (C 20328) Sharing accommodation available for Keralite couples with Keralite family near Integrated Indian school, from 1st March onwards. C-AC, 2 bedroom 2 bathroom flat. Please contact: 66750390.

(C 20327) Big room available in Salmiya with two bedroom flat for Indian bachelor. Contact: 99613251.

(C 20324) Furnished room available for two bachelors or single family with Keralite bachelor in Jeleeb Shouyokh opp German clinic.

Call: 66475154. (C 20325) 12-2-2010 Room for rent in flat in Khaitan near Pakistan International School for family or couples or working ladies with a Pakistani family. Call 99322585. (C 20321) Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya for executive bachelors or a couple in a new CAC building with 2 spacious bedrooms, hall, kitchen, 2 toilets, near Integrated School, Noor supermarket building.

Interested call: 66752359/ 24338481/97635928 (C 20320) Furnished sharing accommodation available in a central A/C flat for working ladies with a Keralite family staying in Salmiya, Amman Street, near Apollo hospital, flat having Internet facility.

Contact: 97919485.

(C 20319) One room sharing accommodation available for a bachelor in double bedroom window A/C flat with Indian Mangalorean Hindu family, near Salmiya garden and Caesars takeaway. Contact: 55964524. (C 20318) Sharing accommodation available for a bachelor (south Indian) very near to Indian Community School (senior) Salmiya. Please contact: 66780615.

(C 20317) 11-2-2010 Accommodation available for decent non-smoking bachelor in 2 BR CAC flat near Integrated School, Abbassiya.

Contact: 66005134. (C 20315) Single room A/C (good) available in Beneid Al Gar for decent working ladies, very near to Al-Salam hospital.

Please contact:

Sharing accommodation available at Abbassiya for couple or working ladies with Keralite couple from March 1st, rent KD 75. Call: 66525579. (C 20308) Sharing accommodation available at Maidan Hawally next to Bhuamarah Clinic near petrol pump, 4th Ring Road end 2 bedroom central A/C flat with all facilities one bed room available on rent only for Indian working ladies or families. Contact: 99325130. (C 20311)

REQUIRED

Filipinas Article 18 Transferable Visa

To work for a

major company Tel: 97300381

Sharing accommodation available in a C-A/C building for a small family or two working ladies in Abbassiya near Integrated Indian School & Bharathia Vidhyabhavan.

Contact: 97846304/24346984. (C 20312) Sharing accommodation available in one big room with separate bathroom for family, couple or working women in new C-A/C spacious two bedroom flat.

Walkable distance to Avenues and next to Future Pharmacy in old Riggae.

Contact: 55114836, 55871869. (C 20305) There is one bachelor accommodation available for one Keralite Christian bachelor near Abbassiya United School Abbassiya.

Contact: 24348576, 66288012. (C 20316) 10-2-2010 Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya, two bedroom, two bathroom flat.

Tel: 55845280. (C 20302) Accommodation available in Abbassiya for family/ bachelors from 1st March in a two bedroom spacious flat close to Hi-Dine and paradise hotel.

Mob: 94046540/66558927.

(C 20303) Available for single executive a big furnished room for immediate occupancy, rent to start from March 2010, in Bneid Al Gar area, Indians preferred.

Contact: 60046720. (C 20304) 9-2-2010

CHANGE OF NAME I, Sumitra Boby became Muslim, married to Abdul Mubeen Mulla, my Passport No. F 4123443. I change my name to Nawal Abdul Mubeen Mulla.

12-2-2010

FOR SALE Household items, couch, throw rug 1 cabinet, stove, etc, ATV-50cc Eton runs good. Call day or night 67039015. ( 20329) 12-2-2010

Toyota Camry XLi, model 97, in excellent condition, regd up to Jan 2011. Asking Price KD 1,100. Contact 67056666 for inspection.

Pajero io, model 2002, km 110,800, 5 doors, 4WD, full options with new 4 tyres, lady driven, super condition, KD 1,550.

Contact: 55637587. (20314) Nissan Sunny, 4 cylinders, model 2009, silver color, done KM 14,000, excellent condition. Price cash KD 2,900. Contact: 55107856.

(C 20309) Honda Accord, 1998 model (new) 120,000 mileage, full options (sunroof, alloy wheels, cruise control, CD).

Price KD 1,250. Contact: 55522942. (C 20307) Alum kitchen cabinet 2+1, clean sofa set, Ikea dining table with 6 chairs, white color, cupboard, storage selves, boys cricket pads unused. Contact: 65980247.

(C 20310) 10-2-2010 Toyota Camry 2004 Grande, lemon gold color, very low mileage, excellent condition, full options. Price KD 2,650.

Contact: 99971326. (C 20301) 9-2-2010 Two bedroom flat furniture, sofa set, beds, cupboards, dressing tables etc in Sharq. Contact: 66479253.

(C 20292) 7-2-2010

MATRIMONIAL Proposals are invited for a Pentecostal boy (TPM), B.Sc-PGDCA, 29, 180cm from every Christian denominations. Email: proposalsin09@yahoo.com (C 20322) 11-2-2010 Looking for a suitable alliance from the parents of a born again girl, who is interested to serve the “Lord� in the ministry. Email: bcmchira@yahoo.co.in (C 20313) 10-2-2010 Seeking suitable marriage proposal from Roman Catholic girl, age 25, height 162cm, weight 62kg, fair, Dip. in computer applica-

No: 14639

tion, Kannur. Working in Kuwait as data entry operator. Invites proposals from Roman Catholic Keralite boys only in age between 27 to 30 years. Preferably working in Kuwait. Salary should be as per family status. Email: arvi_jose@rediffmail.com (C 20300) 9-2-2010

SITUATION WANTED Indian female (MBA in HR), 10 years experience in HR/Administration, specializing in recruitments, PMS, MIS Reports & Admin functions. Well versed in computer applications. Please contact: 66634322. (C 20283) 10-2-2010 Indian maid seeking job on full-time or part-time basis preferably in Riggae. Contact: 99515956.

8-2-2010

ent in English, Hindi and Arabic, good relationship with 40 embassies prefer embassies intl. companies.

Contact: 55198931.

(C 20289) 7-2-2010 Indian female (MBA in HR), 10 years experience in HR/Administration, specializing in recruitments, PMS, MIS reports & Admin functions. Well versed in computer applications. Contact: 66634322. (C 20283)

LOST Policy No. 630001104 issued by State Life Gulf Zone life of Mr. Mohammad Akhtar has been lost. Anyone who finds should contact State Life Kuwait within one month from this date.

Phone No: 22452208/9.

(C 20323) 11-2-2010 SITUATION VACANT

Indian male, B.Com, MBA (finance) having four years Kuwait experience in accounting and investment seeking part-time job after 4:00 pm, fluent in English Arabic and Hindi with typing skill, proficient in MS-Office & Tally. Contact: 55492163, email: tvnasir@yahoo.co.in (C 20291) A Srilankan looking for work as messenger or driver. 11 years in Kuwait, flu-

Need urgent part-time babysitter in Al Muthanna Complex Kuwait City. Call 66809431, 55145707.

(C 20298) Live-in Indian driver with transferable residence and driving license required for an Indian family. Please call 22406645, 22410672/3.

(C 20296) 8-2-2010

TV PROGRAMS

18

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Orbit / Showtime Listings 10:30 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:00 14:20 14:45 15:10 15:35 16:00 16:25 16:45 17:00 17:25 17:50 18:10 18:35 19:00 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:15 23:40

13-02-2010 AMERICA PLUS 00:00 Ashes to Ashes 01:00 Life on Mars 02:00 Knight Rider 03:00 Dawsons Creek 04:00 Life on Mars 05:00 Inside the Actors Studio 06:00 Tess of the D’Urbervilles 07:00 Ashes to Ashes 08:00 Without a Trace 09:00 Survivor 10:00 Knight Rider 11:00 Dawsons Creek 12:00 Tess of the D’Urbervilles 13:00 Inside the Actors Studio 14:00 Knight Rider 15:00 Life on Mars 16:00 Without a Trace 17:00 Survivor 18:00 Doctor Who 19:00 Heroes 20:00 Hotel Babylon 21:00 Saving Grace 22:00 Inside the Actors Studio 23:00 Rescue Me

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

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

00:05 00:30 01:00 01:20 01:45 02:10 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:15 05:45 06:10 07:00 08:00 08:50 09:40 10:30 11:20 12:15

Animal Cops Phoenix Earthquake: Panda Rescue Untamed & Uncut Night Night Animal Cops Miami Animal Cops Phoenix Lemur Street Monkey Business RSPCA: On the Frontline Vet on the Loose Lemur Street Pet Rescue The Planet’s Funniest Animals The Planet’s Funniest Animals Animal Precinct Aussie Animal Rescue Miami Animal Police Animal Cops South Africa Vet on the Loose Pet Rescue The Planet’s Funniest Animals K9 Cops K9 Cops K9 Cops K9 Cops K9 Cops Xtremely Wild Xtremely Wild Up Close and Dangerous Up Close and Dangerous Crime Scene Wild Untamed & Uncut Untamed & Uncut Animal Cops Miami

Holby Blue Coast The Ship Hustle Holby Blue Coast Bargain Hunt Balamory Tweenies Fimbles Teletubbies Yoho Ahoy Tommy Zoom Balamory Tweenies Fimbles Teletubbies Yoho Ahoy Tommy Zoom Balamory Cash In The Attic Cash In The Attic Eastenders Eastenders Eastenders Eastenders Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Bargain Hunt Bargain Hunt Cash In The Attic Cash In The Attic The Weakest Link Holby City Holby City Doctor Who Little Britain Little Britain Green Green Grass Massive

The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook Masterchef Goes Large Masterchef Goes Large Cash In The Attic Usa Hidden Potential Living In The Sun Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Boys’ Weekend The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook Cash In The Attic Usa Hidden Potential Living In The Sun What Not To Wear Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Living In The Sun

00:15 Streets Of Hollywood 00:40 E!es 01:30 25 Most Stylish 02:20 Sexiest 03:15 THS 05:05 Dr 90210 06:00 THS 07:45 Extreme Hollywood 08:35 E! News 09:00 The Daily 10 09:25 THS 11:05 Kendra 11:30 Kendra 12:00 E! News 12:25 The Daily 10 12:50 Behind The Scenes 13:15 Behind The Scenes 13:40 Perfect Catch 14:30 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:25 15 Unforgettable Hollywood Tragedies 17:10 Behind The Scenes 17:35 Behind The Scenes 18:00 E! News 18:25 The Daily 10 18:50 Kendra 19:15 Kendra 19:40 THS 20:30 THS 21:20 Leave It To Lamas 21:45 Leave It To Lamas 22:10 E! News 22:35 The Daily 10 23:00 Perfect Catch 23:50 Wildest TV Show Moments

Donkey Punch on Show Movies 13:05 13:55 14:45 15:35 16:00 16:25 16:50 17:15 17:40 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:45 20:30 21:20 22:05 22:30 22:55 23:20 23:45

Living In The Sun Living In The Sun Living In The Sun Cash In The Attic Usa Cash In The Attic Usa Cash In The Attic Usa Cash In The Attic Usa Cash In The Attic Usa Cash In The Attic Usa Saturday Kitchen Saturday Kitchen Living In The Sun Coleen’s Real Women 10 Years Younger The Clothes Show It’s Not Easy Being Green Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me

01:15 02:45 04:30 06:30 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 PG 15 21:00 23:30

Le Passager De L’ete - PG 15 People I Know - 18 Arlington Road - 18 West Side Story - PG 15 Arlington Road - 18 Girl With A Pearl Earring - PG The Sun Also Rises - PG The Truman Show - PG 15 Max - PG 15 I Love You, I Love You Not -

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

Untamed & Uncut Miami Ink Street Customs American Chopper Chop Shop Mythbusters How Stuff Works Ultimate Survival Smash Lab Brainiac Mythbusters How Stuff Works Street Customs Biker Build-Off Wheeler Dealers Wheeler Dealers American Chopper Street Customs Building the Future Man Made Marvels Asia LA Hard Hats How Stuff Works Destroyed in Seconds Destroyed in Seconds Storm Chasers Ultimate Survival Extreme Fishing with Robson

00:40 01:30 02:20 03:10 04:05 05:00 05:55 06:20 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:50

Sophie’s Choice - 18 I Want You - 18

River Monsters Swamp Loggers

Dr G: Medical Examiner Fbi Files A Haunting Undercover Fugitive Strike Force Forensic Detectives Real Emergency Calls Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghosthunters Forensic Detectives Fbi Files

09:40 10:30 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:40 15:30 16:20 17:10 18:00 18:50 19:40 20:30 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:50

Undercover Forensic Detectives Forensic Detectives Fbi Files On The Run Fugitive Strike Force Royal Inquest Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Undercover Forensic Detectives Forensic Detectives Fbi Files On The Run Fugitive Strike Force Royal Inquest Solved True Crime Scene

00:15 Weird Connections 00:40 China’s Man Made Marvels 01:30 Super Comet: After the Impact 02:20 Sci-Fi Science 02:45 Sci-Fi Science 03:10 Weird Connections 03:35 Weird Connections 04:00 Beyond Tomorrow 04:50 NASA’s Greatest Missions 05:45 How Does That Work?

06:10 Mean Green Machines 06:40 One Step Beyond 07:10 Super Comet: After the Impact 08:00 Scrapheap Challenge 09:00 Robotica 10:00 The Future of...

10:55 Thunder Races 11:50 Thunder Races 12:45 Thunder Races 13:40 Thunder Races 14:35 Thunder Races 15:30 Thunder Races 16:25 How Stuff’s Made 16:55 Weird Connections 17:20 Weird Connections 17:50 Mighty Ships 18:45 Download: The True Story of the Internet 19:40 How It’s Made 20:05 How It’s Made 20:30 Robocar 21:20 Sci-Fi Science 21:45 Sci-Fi Science 22:10 The Future of...

23:00 Mythbusters 23:50 Mythbusters

00:00 00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:45 03:10 03:35 04:00 04:25 04:45 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:00

Mulan II Phineas & Ferb Replacements Kim Possible Sonny With A Chance Hannah Montana Jonas Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Fairly Odd Parents Replacements Phineas & Ferb Famous Five Fairly Odd Parents Jonas Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Motocrossed Hannah Montana The Suite Life of Zack & Cody The Suite Life of Zack & Cody The Replacements Phineas & Ferb Replacements Kim Possible Sonny With A Chance Hannah Montana

My Friends Tigger and Pooh Handy Manny Special Agent Oso IMAGINATION MOVERS Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Brandy & Mr Whiskers Fairly Odd Parents Hannah Montana I Got A Rocket Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas & Ferb Little Einsteins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Fairly Odd Parents Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance

00:00 Chopped 01:00 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 01:30 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 02:00 Iron Chef America 03:00 Iron Chef America 04:00 Iron Chef America 05:00 Teleshopping 05:30 Teleshopping 06:00 Teleshopping 06:30 Teleshopping 07:00 Teleshopping 07:30 Teleshopping 08:00 30 Minute Meals 08:25 30 Minute Meals 08:50 Giada At Home 09:15 Giada At Home 09:40 Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger 10:05 Rescue Chef with Danny Boome 10:30 Rescue Chef with Danny Boome 11:00 Barefoot Contessa 11:30 Barefoot Contessa 12:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics 12:30 Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics 13:00 Nigella Express 13:30 Nigella Express 14:00 30 Minute Meals 14:30 30 Minute Meals 15:00 Rescue Chef with Danny Boome 15:30 Rescue Chef with Danny Boome 16:00 Giada At Home 16:30 Giada At Home 17:00 Giada At Home 17:30 Giada At Home 18:00 Chefography 19:00 Nigella Express 19:30 Nigella Express 20:00 Chefography 21:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back to

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Wish You Were Here Lord of the Flies Crooked Hearts Cohen & Tate I Could Go on Singing Hennessy Napoleon Mr. Accident Buona Sera, Mrs.campbell Death Rides a Horse The Burning Bed Lost Brigade Broadway Danny Rose Signs of Life Sometimes They Come Back

16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 How I met you mother 00:30 Two and a half men 01:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 01:30 The Colbert Report 02:00 The Tonight Show With Conan OBrien 03:00 Cougar Town 03:30 Entourage 04:00 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 05:00 How I met you mother 05:30 The Tonight Show With Conan OBrien 06:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 07:00 Home Improvement 07:30 Note from the underbelly 08:00 Coach 08:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 09:00 The Colbert Report 09:30 Drew Carey Show 10:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 10:30 Frasier 11:00 Seinfeld 11:30 After You’ve Gone 12:00 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 13:00 Two and a half men 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 14:00 Home Improvement 14:30 Note from the underbelly 15:00 Coach 15:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 George Lopez 17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 17:30 Frasier 18:00 After You’ve Gone 18:30 Seinfeld 19:00 How I met you mother 19:30 Gary Unmarried 20:00 The Tonight Show With Conan OBrien 21:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Bored to Death 22:30 Entourage 23:00 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

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What’s Good For You 10 Years Younger Look A Like The Ellen Degeneres Show The Monique Show Chef’s Table Fresh The Best of Jay Leno GMA LIVE GMA Health What’s the Buzz What’s Good For You Jimmy Kimmel The View The Ellen Degeneres Show Chef’s Table Fresh The Martha Stewart Show Parenting Job Club GMA Weekend Live GMA Health What’s the Buzz Downsize Me The View The Ellen Degeneres Show Jimmy Kimmel Jay Leno The Monique Show

00:00 Donkey Punch - 18 02:00 After Sex - R 04:00 College Road Trip - PG 06:00 Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea - FAM 08:00 A Plumm Summer - PG 15 10:00 Drawn - PG 15 11:30 The Prestige - PG 15 14:00 Red Riding 1974 - PG 15 16:00 A Plumm Summer - PG 15 18:00 Frozen River - U 20:00 Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead - 18 22:00 Prom Night - PG 15

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The Marsh - 18 Ninja Cheerleaders - PG 15 The X Files - PG 15 The Great White Hype - PG 15 Spy Game - 18 Batman: Gotham Knight - PG H.i.t. - PG 15 Spy Game - 18 Loaded - PG 15 Anatomy - 18 Vacancy 2: The First Cut - 18 Crazy Girls Undercover - 18

Mo’ Money - 18 Spring Breakdown - 18 Kingpin - PG 15 The Salon - PG 15 Black Knight - PG 15 The Utopian Society - PG 15 City Slickers - PG 15 Coneheads - PG

Mo’ Money - 18 The Foot Fist Way - PG 15 Killer Bean Forever - PG 15 Mumford - R

00:00 Dinotopia Quest For The Ruby Sunstone - FAM 02:00 The Ant Bully - FAM 04:00 Little Hercules In 3-D - PG 15 06:00 Olsen Twins: Passport To Paris - FAM 08:00 Zorro Return To The Future FAM 10:00 Little Hercules In 3-D - PG 15 12:00 Alexander The Great - FAM 14:00 The Ant Bully - FAM 16:00 Happy Feet - PG 18:00 Andre - PG 20:00 Felix 1 - FAM 22:00 Alexander The Great - FAM

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Burn Notice Burn Notice Turn Back Your Body Clock Turn Back Your Body Clock Sex and the City Sex and the City According to Jim According to Jim Ally Mcbeal According to Jim According to Jim Turn Back Your Body Clock Turn Back Your Body Clock That Mitchell and Webb Look According to Jim According to Jim Ally Mcbeal Hotel Babylon According to Jim According to Jim Every Body Loves Raymond My Name is Earl Burn Notice Burn Notice That Mitchell and Webb Look 24 Emmerdale Coronation Street Law & Order Life Law & Order: Criminal Intent In Treatment In Treatment Sex and the City Sex and the City

01:00 Goals Goals Goals 01:30 Brazilian League Highlights 02:00 Premier League World 02:30 Barclays Premier League Highlights 03:30 Futbol Mundial 04:00 Premier League 06:00 Premier League Classics 06:30 Premier League Classics 07:00 Barclays Premier League Highlights 08:00 Futbol Mundial 08:30 Premier League 10:30 Premier League 12:30 Barclays Premier League Highlights 13:30 Premier League 15:30 Live Scottish Premier League 17:30 Premier League World 18:00 Portugol 18:30 Futbrasil 19:00 Premier League Classics 19:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 20:00 Scottish Premier League 22:00 Barclays Premier League Highlights 23:00 Premier League

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Juno - PG 15 Freak Dog - PG 15 Gashole - PG Juno - PG 15 Tribute - PG 15 Things That Hang From Trees Diamonds Pt 1 - PG 15 Eagle Eye - PG 15 Australia - PG Racing Daylight - PG 15 Street Kings - 18 Elizabeth: The Golden Age Rachel Getting Married - PG¡

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2010 Now, Voyager Zebrahead The Screening Room The Screening Room A Patch of Blue The Comedians 2010 Bachelor in Paradise Skyjacked Where Eagles Dare Grand Prix Angels & Insects

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Mega Disasters Dinosaur Secrets Prehistoric Mega Storms Monsterquest Conspiracy?

UFO Files The Universe Mega Disasters Dinosaur Secrets Prehistoric Mega Storms Monsterquest Conspiracy?

UFO Files The Universe Mega Disasters Dinosaur Secrets Prehistoric Mega Storms Monsterquest Conspiracy?

UFO Files The Universe Mega Disasters Dinosaur Secrets Prehistoric Mega Storms Monsterquest Giants: Friend or Foe? Bloodlines: The Dracula

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Clean House Peter Perfect Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane The Dish How Do I Look?

Split Ends Dr 90210 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Area How Do I Look?

Style Star Style Her Famous Clean House

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What I Hate About Me Ruby Ruby How Do I Look?

Clean House How Do I Look?

01:00 01:04 01:35 02:00 02:45 05:00 05:04 08:00 08:04 08:35 11:00 11:45 13:00 13:04 13:50 14:00 15:00 15:15 16:00 16:04 16:35 18:00 20:00 20:04 20:35 21:00 22:00 23:00 23:45

Code New Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Code Playlist Code RNB Playlist Club 10 Playlist Code Urban Hit Playlist Focus Guest Star Playlist Code French Only Playlist Urban Hit Code Africa Playlist Trace Video Mix Legend Club 10 Playlist

00:00 Globe Trekker - U 01:00 Angry Planet - U 01:30 The Thirsty Traveler - U 02:00 Globe Trekker - U 03:00 X-quest - U 04:00 Angry Planet - U 04:30 Travel Today - U 05:00 Globe Trekker - U 06:00 Swiss Railway Journeys - U 07:00 The Thirsty Traveler - U 07:30 Angry Planet - U 08:00 Globe Trekker - U 09:00 Essential - U 09:30 Essential - U 10:00 Inside Luxury Travel-varun Sharma - U 11:00 Journey Into Wine- Australia U 11:30 Journey Into Wine- Australia U 12:00 Feast India - U 12:30 Travel Today - U 13:00 Globe Trekker - U 14:00 Planet Food - U 15:00 Chef Abroad - U 15:30 Chef Abroad - U 16:00 Floyd Uncorked - U 16:30 Essential - U 17:00 Globe Trekker - U

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(p) Vh1 Pop Chart - U Boogie Night - U Vh1 Music - U Chill Out - U Smooth Wake Up - U Vh1 Music - U Vh1 Weekly Album Chart - U Top 10 Robbie Williams - U Music For The Masses - U

01:00 Premier League Darts 05:00 World Sport 05:30 Premier League World 06:00 European Tour Weekly 06:30 World Hockey 07:00 Goals Goals Goals 07:30 Super 14 09:30 Live Super 14 11:30 Live Super 14 13:30 World Sport 14:00 Super League 16:00 Barclays Premier League Highlights 17:00 Futbol Mundial 17:30 World Sport 18:00 Live Super 14 20:00 Live Super 14 22:00 Premier League Darts

00:00 Super 14 02:00 Super 14 04:00 Super League 06:00 Goals Goals Goals 06:30 World Sport 07:00 Premier League Darts 11:00 World Sport 11:30 European Tour Weekly 12:00 Live PGA European Tour 16:00 Dubai International Racing Carnival 20:00 Barclays Premier League Highlights

Elizabeth: The Golden Age on Super Movies

Star Listings (UAE Timings) STAR Movies 20:35 Sandlot: Heading Home 22:15 VIP Access 22:45 The Preacher’s Wife 00:50 Mafia!

02:15 Someone Like You 03:50 Sandlot: Heading Home 05:30 The Preacher’s Wife 07:35 Mafia!

09:00 Someone Like You 10:35 Dr. Dolittle 2 12:05 Nightwatch 13:40 Shining Through 15:50 Happy Texas 17:30 Swimfan 18:55 Watching The Detectives STAR World 20:00 American Idol 21:00 [V] Tunes 22:00 [V] Tunes 23:00 [V] Tunes 00:00 Greatest American Dog 01:00 [V] Tunes 02:00 [V] Tunes 03:00 [V] Tunes 04:00 American Idol

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Painkiller Jane Greatest American Dog The Simpsons The Bold And The Beautiful The Bold And The Beautiful The Bold And The Beautiful The Bold And The Beautiful The Bold And The Beautiful Kyle XY American Idol [V] Tunes Painkiller Jane The Simpsons According To Jim According To Jim According To Jim Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

American Idol Rules Of Engagement Rules Of Engagement Australia’s Next Top Model

Granada TV 21:00 Essex Wives 22:00 Northern Lights 23:00 Essex Wives 00:00 Life Begins (Series 1)

01:00 Football Saved My Life 02:00 Big Bad World (Series 1) 03:00 Hunting Venus 05:00 Northern Lights 06:00 Emmerdale WEEKEND OMNIBUS 07:30 Undercover Customs (Series 2) 08:00 Northern Lights 09:00 Revenge TV 10:00 Beyond Boiling Point 10:30 City Cabs (Series 1) 11:00 Come Dine With Me (Primetime Series 1) 12:00 The Colour Of Money 13:00 Don’t Try This At Home (Series 2) 14:00 Prime Drama: Prime Suspect (Series 7) 16:00 Come Dine With Me (Primetime Series 1) 17:00 The Colour Of Money 18:00 Don’t Try This At Home (Series 2) 19:00 Prime Drama: Prime Suspect (Series 7) Channel [V] 22:00 The Playlist 00:30 Double Shot 01:00 Loop

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[V] Plug Keys To The VIP Backtracks [V] Tunes [V] Plug Double Shot Videoscope [V] Countdown [V] Tunes Loop Backtracks [V] Special [V] Countdown

FOX New s 00:00 Happening Now 02:00 The Live Desk 04:00 Studio B with Shepard Smith Live 05:00 Your World with Neil Cavuto 06:00 Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck 07:00 Special Report with Bret Baier 08:00 The FOX Report with Shepard Smith 09:00 The O’Reilly Factor 10:00 Hannity 11:00 On the Record with Greta Van Susteren 12:00 The O’Reilly Factor

13:00 Hannity 14:00 On the Record with Greta Van Susteren 15:00 Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck 16:00 Fox Report 17:00 Special Report with Bret Baier 18:00 Hannity (repeat) 19:00 The O’Reilly Factor (repeat) 20:00 FOX and Friends Saturday 21:00 FOX and Friends Saturday 22:00 FOX and Friends Saturday 23:00 Bulls and Bears 23:30 Cavuto On Business National Geographic Channel 20:00 Megastructures -Sinking A Destroyer 21:00 History’s Secrets -The Secrets Of J. Edgar Hoover 22:00 Naked Science -Hawking’s Universe 23:00 Theme Week -ShowReal Asia : Hiss Of Death 00:00 Locked Up Abroad -Mexico Or Bust 01:00 Helicopter Wars -White Out 02:00 Ground War -Battle Machines 03:00 Nat Geo Junior -Camels, Courts & Concubines : Trade Winds S1-3 04:00 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet -

Cow Cuisine 8 04:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Daily Bread 3 05:00 Mother Warthog 06:00 Built For The Kill -Swamp S1-6 07:00 Engineering Connections -Hms Illustrious 08:00 World’s Toughest Fixes -Atom Smasher 09:00 ABOUT ASIA -Cooking The World : Thailand:The Delights Of Thai Cuisine 1 09:30 ABOUT ASIA -Word Travels : Thailand 10 10:00 ABOUT ASIA -Megastructures : The Canton Tower 11:00 Meet The Natives -2 12:00 Helicopter Wars -White Out 13:00 Ground War -Battle Machines 14:00 Big Melt -The Living Edens : South Georgia Island: Paradise Of Ice 15:00 Beneath Easter Island 16:00 Ground War -Battle Machines 17:00 Helicopter Wars -White Out 18:00 Big Melt -The Living Edens : South Georgia Island: Paradise Of Ice 19:00 History’s Secrets -The Secrets Of J. Edgar Hoover

NEWS

Saturday, February 13, 2010

19

Obama, Dalai Lama to meet despite China ire

A footage shot by the Pakistani news channel Express News, Pakistani Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud meets press in Islamabad, Pakistan. In the early months of his presidency, President Barack Obama’s national security team singled out one man from its list of most-wanted terrorists, Baitullah Mehsud, the ruthless leader of the Pakistani Taleban. He was to be eliminated. — AP

US widens strategy on assault of terrorists Taleban chieftain Mehsud ‘to be eliminated’ WASHINGTON: In the early months of his presidency, President Barack Obama’s national security team singled out one man from its list of most-wanted terrorists, Baitullah Mehsud, the ruthless leader of the Pakistani Taleban. He was to be eliminated.

Mehsud was Pakistan’s public enemy No 1 and its most feared militant, responsible for a string of bombings and assassination attempts. But while Mehsud carried out strikes against US forces overseas and had a $5 million bounty on his head, he had never been the top priority for US airstrikes, something that at times rankled Pakistan. “The decision was made to find him, to get him and to kill him,” a senior US intelligence official said, recalling weeks and months of “very tedious, painstaking focus” before an unmanned CIA aircraft killed Mehsud in August at his father-in-law’s house near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

It was not the first airstrike on Obama’s watch, but it marked the first major victory in his war on terrorism, a campaign the administration believes can be waged even more aggressively than its predecessors. Long before he went on the defensive in Washington for his handling of the failed Christmas Day airline bombing, Obama had widened the list of US targets abroad and stepped up the pace of airstrikes.

Advances in spy plane technology have made that easier, as has an everimproving spy network that helped locate Mehsud and other terrorists. These would have been available to any new president. But Obama’s counterterrorism campaign also relies on two sharp reversals from his predecessor, both of which were political gambles at home. Obama’s national security team believed that the president’s campaign promise to pull US troops out of Iraq would have a side bene-

fit: freeing up manpower and resources to hunt terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Intelligence officials, lawmakers and analysts say that approach is showing signs of success. Obama also has sought to reach out to Islamic allies and tone down US rhetoric, a language shift that critics have argued revealed a weakness, in an effort to win more cooperation from countries like Yemen and Pakistan. For example, though Pakistan officially objects to US airstrikes within its border, following the Mehsud strike, the US has seen an increase in information sharing from Pakistani officials, which has helped lead to other strikes, according to the senior law enforcement official. He and other current and former officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

Pakistan’s cooperation is key to US counterterrorism efforts because much of the best intelligence still comes from Pakistan’s intelligence agency. Ensuring that cooperation has been a struggle for years, in part because Pakistan wants greater control over the drone strikes and its own fleet of aircraft, two things the US has not allowed.

“The efforts overseas are bearing fruit,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, a strident critic of Obama’s domestic counterterrorism policies who said Obama has at times shown himself even more aggressive than Bush in his use of force overseas. “I give them generally high marks for their efforts to capture and kill terrorists in Pakistan, and they’re pushing the envelope in Yemen.” CIA drones, the remote-controlled spy planes that can hunt terrorists from miles overhead, are responsible for many of the deaths. Drone strikes began increasing in the final months of the Bush administration, thanks in part to expanded use of the Reaper, a newer generation aircraft

with better targeting systems and greater, more accurate firepower.

Obama has increased their use even further. A month after Mehsud’s death, drone strikes in Pakistan killed Najmiddin Jalolov, whose Islamic Jihad Union claimed responsibility for bombings in 2004 at US and Israeli embassies in Uzbekistan. Senior al-Qaeda operatives Saleh Al-Somali and Abdallah Sa’id were killed in airstrikes in December. And Mehsud’s successor at the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, died following an attack last month. Intelligence officials and analysts say the drawdown of troops in an increasingly stable Iraq is part of the reason for the increase in drone strikes. The military once relied on drones for around-the-clock surveillance to flush out insurgents, support troops in battle and help avoid roadside bombs.

With fewer of those missions required, the US has moved many of those planes to Afghanistan, roughly doubling the size of the military and CIA fleet that can patrol the lawless border with Pakistan, officials said. “These tools were not Obama creations, but he’s increased their use and he has shifted the US attention full front to Afghanistan,” said Thomas Sanderson, a defense analyst and national security fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Obama administration has also benefited from stepped-up cooperation with officials in Osama bin Laden’s ancestral homeland of Yemen. Authorities there killed 30 suspected militants in airstrikes in December closely coordinated with US intelligence agencies. Yemen has had a sometimes rocky relationship with the US and was perceived to have an on-again-off-again approach to fighting terrorism, but officials in Washington are cautiously optimistic about a newly strengthened relationship. — AP

Protest against Prophet Mohammad caricature Continued from Page 1 offensive to us,” said Kashif Aurangzev, a 34-year-old taxi driver. “This is a big attack on Muslims, it goes against our religion,” said Kamran Naveeb, a 25-year-old student.

Police said around 2,000 people attended the heavily guarded demonstration, which was boycotted by Norway’s main Muslim organization for fears it could turn violent.

Dagbladet printed a picture of one of the

cartoons, representing the Prophet (PBUH) as blasphemous, drawn by an Israeli West Bank settler in the 1990s.

“It was an illustration to our news story,” said Lars Helle, Dagbladet’s acting editor-in-chief. “Our critics can of course criticize us for publishing the cartoon. It’s their right according to free speech.

“They have the right to protest, but it was not a provocation, it was not meant as a provocation, it was meant as an illustration to a news story,” he told Reuters.

Norway was one of the countries at the centre of the Mohammad cartoon controversy in 2005-2006 that led to street protests in the Muslim world and torching of Nordic embassies.

In January 2006, the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet printed 12 caricatures of Mohammad that were first published in the Danish daily JyllandsPosten in September 2005. That led to the torching of the Norwegian embassy in Damascus, Syria. — Reuters

Yemen truce holds despite rebel attack Continued from Page 1 The rebels, from the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, have long complained of social, religious and economic discrimination in a country with a Sunni Muslim majority. Yemen’s many challenges have raised fears in the West and Saudi Arabia that it may become a failed state, allowing al Qaeda to use it as a base for attacks in the region and beyond.

In December it emerged that a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US-bound airliner had links to Yemen, which borders the world’s No 1 oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and

sits at the entrance to Red Sea international shipping lanes.

Saudi Arabia was drawn into the conflict in November when the rebels seized some Saudi territory, complaining that Riyadh was letting Yemeni troops use its land for attacks against them.

Riyadh declared victory over the rebels last month, two days after they themselves offered a truce and said they had quit Saudi territory. The rebels say Saudi airstrikes have continued. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, and its ruling family and religious establishment enforce a strict form of

Sunni Islam. Its involvement in Yemen has drawn criticism from Iran, which shares the rebels’ Shiite Muslim faith. Yemeni officials have accused Iran of backing Houthi’s rebellion, but comments from an Iranian official yesterday suggested the latest truce was supported by all sides.

“Iran has always been in favor of an end to military conflicts and peaceful solutions, and sees that as a step towards strengthening national unity in Yemen,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by Iran’s ISNA news agency. — Reuters

Israel moves West Bank barrier at restive village Continued from Page 1 court, despite lingering objections from Bilin and from a neighboring Jewish settlement, Modiin Illit. “Construction work to measure and alter the security fence in Bilin began in accordance with the directives of the High Court of Justice,” an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

Israel credits the barrier-a network of fences interspersed with concrete walls, projected to be 720 km (450 miles) long

when complete-with stemming Palestinian suicide bombings that peaked in 2002 and 2003.

But Palestinians condemn the project for looping around settlement blocs in the West Bank, where they want to set up a state. With its weekly and often violent protests, Bilin has become a symbol of the struggle. “This is an achievement and a victory for the popular resistance, but this is not enough — 2,300 dunam (575 acres) were confiscated from Bilin’s land, 750

dunam (188 acres) were regained,” said demonstrator Iyad Bornat about the rerouting. A non-binding ruling by the World Court in 2004, which Israel rejected, said the barrier was illegal. Israel says the project could be demolished altogether should peace prevail.

The prospects of that happening look dim given the diplomatic deadlock over Israel’s refusal to halt all settlement construction and the Palestinians’ internal divisions. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: The White House announced on Thursday that President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama would meet on Feb 18, despite China’s warning that such talks could hurt alreadystrained Sino-US relations.

In a swift response, Beijing urged Obama to “immediately” scrap the planned White House meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, China’s state news agency Xinhua said.

The Dalai Lama’s visit is likely to set off a new round of sniping from Beijing, already at odds with Washington over issues from trade to currencies to US arms sales to Taiwan.

But the Obama administration is ready to weather China’s displeasure over the Dalai Lama and expects its response to be no worse than in the past, “which is to criticize it and then we move on,” a senior US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The Dalai Lama is an internationally respected religious leader and spokesman for Tibetan rights, and the president looks forward to an engaging and constructive dialogue,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Mindful of Chinese sensibilities, Obama had held off meeting the Dalai Lama, until after the president first saw Chinese leaders during a trip to Asia in November, a delay that angered some US lawmakers and human rights groups. But the White House made clear in recent days it would shrug off China’s opposition and go ahead with the visit. All that was left was to set the date for the meeting with the Dalai L ama, whom Beijing regards as a dangerous separatist responsible for fomenting unrest in Tibet.

Tensions over the Dalai Lama and oth-

er issues have raised worries China might retaliate by obstructing US efforts in other areas, such as imposing tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

But Gibbs insisted the relationship between the United States and China-the world’s largest and third-biggest economies-is “mature enough” to find common ground on issues of mutual interest despite disagreements on other topics.

He said Obama, for example, has not been shy about talking to the Chinese about US concerns over their currency and problems with Internet freedom. “We know that two countries aren’t going to agree on everything,” Gibbs said.

Despite that, the senior US official said the administration was braced for possibly months of “coolness” from China “but it’s not going to overwhelm the relationship, nor is it going to be long term.”

Adding to the latest friction, Obama vowed last week to address currency problems with Beijing and to “get much tougher” with it on trade to ensure US goods do not face a competitive disadvantage. China is the single biggest holder of US Treasuries, owning at least $776.4 billion in US government debt at the end of June 2009, according to statistics from Washington.

Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister of the United Front Work Department of China’s ruling Communist Party, said last week such a meeting “would damage trust and cooperation between our two countries, and how would that help the United States surmount the current economic crisis?”

Previous US presidents, including Obama’s predecessor, George W Bush,

have met the Dalai Lama, drawing angry words from Beijing but no substantive reprisals.

In keeping with past practice, Obama will deny the Dalai Lama the trappings of an Oval Office visit, sitting down with him in the Map Room, a distinction that will signal to Beijing the Tibetan monk is not being received as a political leader.

The Dalai Lama has said he wants a high level of genuine autonomy for his homeland, which he fled in 1959. China says his demands amount to calling for outright independence. China recently hosted talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama but they achieved little. The United States says it accepts Tibet is a part of China but wants Beijing to sit down with the Dalai Lama to address differences over the region’s future.

Beijing is already irate over US proposals last week to sell $6.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan, the island China treats as an illegitimate breakaway province.

China has vowed to impose unspecified sanctions against US companies selling arms to Taiwan and curtail militaryto-military contacts. But the senior US official played down any Chinese retaliation, saying its response to the arms sale “has been roughly in the range that we anticipated.”

Senior Chinese military officers have proposed their country will boost defense spending and possibly sell some US bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of proposed arms sales to Taiwan.

Despite that, US officials said on Thursday China had cleared a US aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, to visit Hong Kong next week. The visit would mark a concession from Beijing. — Reuters

France does not believe Iran’s nuclear claim PARIS: France does not believe Iran’s claim that it is capable of enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels, the country’s foreign minister said yesterday. Bernard Kouchner told Europe 1 radio that the “Americans don’t believe, not any more than us, that Iran is currently capable of enriching uranium to 80 percent.” But Iran’s claim “adds to the dangerousness” of the situation, he said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this week that Iran has

the capacity “to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent” but that it doesn’t intend to build a bomb. A 90 percent-plus level is needed for a weapon. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Iran’s leadership has made a series of statements about its nuclear prowess based on politics, not physics. “We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching,” he said in Washington.

Still, the Obama administration said

such claims were still disturbing and fed fears that Iran’s long-term goal is to make nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is for energy and medical isotopes. France has joined the United States in pushing for a new, fourth round of sanctions against Iran for defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment. Kouchner said France is working now to persuade China, Brazil and other UN Security Council members to back new measures. — AP

Khan film sparks militant Hindu rage in Mumbai Continued from Page 1 by the film’s hero Shah Rukh Khan’s recent criticism that no Pakistani cricketers had been picked for the Indian Premier League.

Thousands of police in riot gear were deployed to protect cinemas with plainclothesmen also inside the halls. Police detained 2,000 Shiv Sena members as a precaution, and beat back protesters outside some theatres.

Protests also spread to some other Indian cities. Analysts and politicians have warned the Sena’s tactics may hurt Mumbai’s image as a cosmopolitan city and its efforts to model itself as an international financial centre like Dubai or Singapore.

Mumbai is also home to the Bollywood film industry.

Shiv Sena, which runs the Mumbai municipality, draws political sustenance

from hardline Hinduism and an ultranationalism that includes strident opposition to Pakistan.

“I came to see the movie because it’s been so controversial, and because I am a huge fan of Shah Rukh Khan,” said Subhash Kandrep who was waiting for the first show at Inox in Mumbai.

“I don’t see why a movie should not be shown just because some people are protesting over what Khan said.”

The Sena, which upholds the rights of Mumbai’s indigenous Marathi community, has in recent weeks also turned its ire on industrialist billionaire Mukesh Ambani and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar for remarks the Sena perceived as being anti-Mumbai. The Sena’s stance has triggered a heated debate across the country, with politicians, film stars and businesses weighing in.

Khan, arguably Bollywood’s most successful star, plays an autistic man subject to

racial bias in the United States after the Sept 11 terror attacks.

He kept up a torrent of tweets through the night from the Berlin film festival where his movie is showing. It was ironic, he said, that a film made for peace “has led to so much angst in my own house. My city.

My country. Am I political or politically incorrect?”

Trade analysts say about 1.2 billion rupees ($26 million) is at stake, with Mumbai and Maharashtra state typically accounting for more than a quarter of a Bollywood film’s revenues.

The skirmish in Mumbai comes as local politics have also rattled other cities in India, including the IT hub of Hyderabad, home to Indian operations of multinationals including Microsoft and Amazon, which has been repeatedly shut down over protests for the creation of a new state carved out of Andhra Pradesh state. — Reuters

Kuwait eyes ‘security belt’ on Iraq border Continued from Page 1 border areas near Iraq to have a firsthand account about the situation on the ground.

This visit was “important and necessary. Everybody saw and was convinced that this area must be secured,” he said.

Sheikh Mohammad added that the MPs were briefed about repeated problems occurring on common borders with Iraq, “particularly with (Iraqi) families living on the border line.” He proposed the MPs’ visit to see the nature of these infringements.

He foreign affairs minister said that Iraq understood these issues “and we are in an agreement in principle that the border area should be secured.”

Also yesterday, official campaigning for Iraq’s March 7 general election started yesterday in a heated political atmosphere underscored by the angry reaction of a leading Sunni MP banned as a candidate.

Party activists pasted posters across Baghdad, adding to those that had been placed illegally at prominent billboard sites across the capital in recent weeks in an attempt to steal a march on others.

The run-up to the campaign has been dominated by the legacy of executed Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Arab former elite which continues to loom large, almost seven years after the dictator was ousted in a US-led invasion. A row over candidates accused of ties to Saddam’s outlawed Baath party has left key members of the country’s dominant Shiite majority anxious to extinguish every trace of his influence, fanning tension among Sunnis.

An integrity and accountability committee announced late Thursday that 28 of 177 candidates banned from the vote for alleged Baathist links would be allowed to stand after all, a small proportion of more than 500 originally blacklisted.

Two Sunni parliamentary stalwarts, Saleh Al-Mutlak and Dhafer Al-Ani from the secular Iraqiya list of former prime minister Iyad Allawi, are among those who have been excluded.

“This is the coup de grace of the political process and the suicide of democracy in Iraq,” Mutlak said in a television interview. “I don’t think this measure will help the turnout but they will not succeed in splitting us from our people,” he added.

Iraqiya posters featuring Mutlak could still be seen in Baghdad yesterday.

Allawi and fellow secular list leader Jawad Bolani, currently the interior minister, are both trying to unseat Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, a Shiite. They were the worst affected by the ban.

A panel of judges had previously said barred candidates could stand on condition that their cases be examined after the polls and would eliminate them if they were found to be Baathists, but this ruling was reversed. The vote, the second parliamentary ballot since Saddam was toppled, is seen as a test of reconciliation between the population’s Sunni minority and the Shiite majority now represented by Maliki’s government.

However, the apparent lack of national unity was highlighted outside Baghdad, with several provincial council leaders demanding the sacking of public sector workers whom they say are Baathists. In the central province of Karbala, lists of

people to be fired from their jobs have been drawn up.

“We started to form an accountability and justice committee, following public demand, and we will implement the law by eliminating Baathists from the departments of the province,” said Karbala Governor Muhammad Al-Mussawi.

“We will inform the department directors, giving them a list of names who were part of the Baath party and providing supporting evidence,” he added.

The deputy governor of Babil province, a brigadier general in Saddam’s army, has been told to stop work and has been put on leave.

And in Dhi Qar province, three highranking officers from the security forces have been sacked, a provincial council official said. “Two of them were colonels in the former Iraqi army, and the third was a lieutenant colonel in the police,” the official said. “They were active members in the Baath party.”

The election is seen by Washington as a crucial precursor to a complete US military withdrawal by the end of 2011.

There are currently 107,000 US troops in Iraq, but the number is scheduled to fall to 50,000 by August when all American combat soldiers are due to pull out.

Around 19 million people have the right to vote, including 1.4 million Iraqi citizens now living abroad in 16 countries, according to election organizers.

A total of 6,500 candidates will contest the ballot in an election that will feature 10,000 polling stations and 54,000 ballot boxes, according to Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC). — Agencies

SPORTS

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

KMSC confirms route and timetable for Kuwait rally New Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X for Mufeed Mubarak KUWAIT: The Kuwait Motor Sports Club (KMSC) has confirmed the official timetable and revised format for the 2010 Kuwait International Rally, the second round of this year’s FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), which takes place on March 4-6. The event will run under the patronage of His Excellency the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and under the presidency of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Dawood AlSabah, President of the KMSC and chairman of the organizing committee.

Clerk of the course Walid Mihyar has now finalized changes to the special stages in the Kuwaiti desert and has confirmed that teams will tackle 14 timed tests over a competitive distance of 250.92km in a total route of 714.74km.

“We have made changes and improvements to the stages that were used last year and special stages make up just over 35% of the total distance of this year’s route,” said Mihyar.

Competitive action will get underway with a timed 3.5km super special stage from 15.30hrs on Thursday, March 4th and the second section of leg one will include a further seven stages on Friday, March 5th. Teams will tackle the heavily-revised 34.72km Al-Salmi and completely new 33.16km Al-Atraff stages from 08.56hrs and 10.19hrs, before they are permitted to carry out refueling before the 12km Shooting Club special, half of which is new. The difficult format means that crews will be forced to run for three stages and over 79km against the clock without service assistance.

The service area and rally headquarters will be based at the Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex for a second year

and a regroup and service stop will precede repeat runs through the three stages on the Friday afternoon, before the first cars finish the leg from 17.39hrs. The second leg takes place on Saturday, March 6th and features two runs through three more special stages and a repeat of Thursday afternoon’s super special. The 13.50km Sulibikhat special gets the day underway from 08.56hrs and is followed by runs through the improved Al-Metlaa stage and a modified Shooting Club special.

Teams then return to the service park for regrouping and service and this is followed by repeat runs through the three desert stages and the final 3.5km super special stage from 15.45hrs. Surviving teams then transfer to the Kuwait Towers for the official finish podium from 17.00hrs. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti driver Mufeed Mubarak has confirmed that he will tackle his home event in a new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. Mubarak teamed up with new co-driver Meshal Al-Nejadi in the recent Qatar International Rally to claim a fine ninth overall.

Three of the drivers who finished ahead of the Kuwaiti in the final classification were not registered for the FIA Middle East Rally Championship and Mubarak now holds sixth position in the Drivers’ Championship heading to the second round in Kuwait. The closing date for entries is next Wednesday (February 17th).

Further details are available from the Kuwait Motor Sport Club, PO Box 29, Salmiya, 22001 Kuwait, Tel: + (965) 253 55511 and 253 55522, Fax: + (965) 253 55566, E-mail: admin@q8racing.com or q8racingclub@yahoo.com, www.q8racing.com.

TORONTO: Patrick Marleau No 12 of the San Jose Sharks skates during in a game at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. —AFP

Marleau shootout goal lifts Sharks past Wings Nabokov makes career-high 50 saves

Cricket edges closer to Olympic roster VANCOUVER: Cricket has taken a major stride towards potential inclusion in the Olympics after Games chiefs Thursday voted to recognize the governing International Cricket Council (ICC).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), meeting in Vancouver, also said it would recognize the federations of sport climbing and power boating.

“They are recognized federations by us, which now means that they can take part in IOC events,” said IOC director of communications Mark Adams, adding it could be seen as a first step towards becoming Olympic sports. Cricket was granted the status of a “recognized” Olympic sport in 2007, for sports not in the Olympic program but which confirm to certain criteria such as

universality, for a two-year period, pending a decision on making the move permanent.

In reaction to the decision ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat, said: “The ICC is extremely proud of the recognition given to our great sport by the IOC which we always considered to be our first step in becoming a part of the Olympic family. “At this stage no consideration or decision has been made regarding participation or applying for approval to participate in the Olympic Games.”

Cricket was part of the 1900 Olympics in Paris and has not appeared since, but it is set to feature at this year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, and has been in the Commonwealth Games as recently as 1998. Recent additions to the Olympic sports roster include golf and rugby sevens.— AFP

DETROIT: Patrick Marleau scored the game-winning goal in a shootout to give the San Jose Sharks a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

After neither team converted during five attempts in the shootout, Marleau stepped up to help the Sharks beat the Red Wings for the first time in four games this season. The win moved San Jose (40-12-9) into a tie with the Eastern Conferenceleading Washington Capitals for the NHL’s lead in points.

Goaltender Evgeni Nabokov led the effort with a career-high 50 saves to repel an aggressive Detroit (27-21-12).

“Two points is two points, I don’t care who it is against,” Nabokov told reporters. “There are so many good teams and getting the points is what counts.

(Detroit) was shooting from everywhere and coming to the net and battling. It was great for our ‘D’ to defend that.” Johan Franzen gave the Red Wings a 10 lead at 12:13 in the first period, but Joe Thornton responded with a tip-in 25 seconds later and Dwight Helminen put San Jose in front with 10 seconds left in the first.

Both teams went scoreless in

the second before Detroit center Jason Williams equalized at 12:55 in the third to force overtime. The Red Wings lost their fourth straight as they battle for a playoff spot in the Western Conference after making the Stanley Cup finals last year.

“When you lose in a shootout and your team doesn’t play well, those are the tough ones. I didn’t feel that way tonight,” said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. “We had every opportunity to win the game tonight.”

Playing without defenseman Niklas Kronwall, sidelined with a knee injury, Detroit welcomed forward Tomas Holmstrom back from his own knee injury and he recorded an assist. Franzen, a third player to suffer a knee injury in the Red Wings camp, continued his successful rehabilitation from a 55-game absence with a solid performance in only his second game back.

The Sharks have now won four of their last five and have avoided being swept in a season series by Detroit for the first time since the 1996-97 season.

In the teams matchup nine days earlier, San Jose took a 2-0 lead in the first but still managed to fall 4-2. —Reuters

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings on Thursday.

Ottawa 6, Washington 5; Carolina 4, Buffalo 3 (OT); Boston 5, Tampa Bay 4; Vancouver 3, Florida 0; San Jose 3, Detroit 2 (SO). SO = Overtime Win. SO = shootout win.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA PTS New Jersey 36 20 3 155 137 75 Pittsburgh 36 22 2 190 172 74 Philadelphia 30 25 3 170 156 63 NY Rangers 26 27 7 153 165 59 NY Islanders 24 28 8 151 186 56

Ottawa Buffalo Montreal Boston Toronto

Northeast Division 35 22 4 173 172 32 18 9 163 151 29 26 6 160 167 26 22 11 146 152 19 30 11 162 204

74 73 64 63 49

Washington Tampa Bay Atlanta Florida Carolina

Southeast Division 41 13 7 244 173 26 22 11 154 172 25 24 9 175 187 24 27 9 153 174 23 30 7 163 192

89 63 59 57 53

83 69 66 61 59

Northwest Division 36 21 2 188 143 34 19 6 176 154 29 23 9 153 155 29 26 4 163 173 19 35 6 150 204

74 74 67 62 44

Vancouver Colorado Calgary Minnesota Edmonton

Pacific Division San Jose 40 12 9 203 150 89 Phoenix 37 19 5 166 153 79 Los Angeles 36 20 4 182 166 76 Dallas 27 21 12 172 186 66 Anaheim 29 24 7 169 183 65 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L).

S Africa chasing rare series victory in India

Kuwait skeet shooters set for police championship KUWAIT: Kuwaiti skeet shooter Mishfi AlMutairi asserted yesterday his readiness along with all other female and male skeet shooters to take part in the police first international skeet shooting championship that is to be launched next Tuesday. AlMutairi, who is going to compete in the double trap contest, said in a press statement that the team’s target is to live up to the name of Kuwait and the Interior ministry to which they belong in this prestigious gathering that is held for the first time under the sponsorship of the international police federation.

He added that the team that is composed of him, skeet shooter Fuhaid AlDaihani alongside four other skeet shooters will do their best in order to win medals, especially in the presence of a galaxy of best skeet shooters from various world countries in what makes their mission somewhat difficult. He also noted the great support lent to the participating skeet shooters by the head of the police sports federation Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf, the head of the Kuwaiti skeet shooting club Sheikh Salman Al-Hummoud Al-Sabah and their efforts to ease any troubles facing the Kuwaiti players.

In the same vein, the championship’s organizing committee announced that the participating delegations started to arrive in Kuwait and they are Kazakhstan,

Western Conference Central Division Chicago 39 15 5 189 138 Nashville 32 22 5 164 165 Detroit 27 21 12 155 163 St. Louis 26 25 9 155 169 Columbus 25 27 9 159 194

Smith sustains injury in training

Maj General Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Kirghizstan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, pointing out that the other delegations that reach up to 40 will arrive later.

The committee added that these teams started to conduct their exercises at the tracks of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex in preparation for competing in the championship.

It also said that vice-president of the

Shooter Mishfi Al-Mutairi supreme organizing committee of the championship General Sheikh Ahmad AlNawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah issued instructions to the effect of adding another hotel to the accommodation facilities to absorb

the additional players of the participants and to host the meetings of the general assembly of the police international federation due to be held on the championship’s sidelines. — KUNA

KOLKATA: South Africa aim to carry their good form into the final test against topranked India starting on Sunday after taking a 1-0 lead in the two-match series. South Africa won the first test by an innings and six runs, firing India out in under four days in Nagpur for a winning start to the high-profile series between the world’s top ranked teams.

“This is the one thing that we really want to tick off as a team you know, to win here in India,” South Africa captain Graeme Smith said after handing India their first test defeat at home in almost two years. Left-handed opener Smith sustained a knock on his little finger at training on Friday and scans have revealed ligament damage. “The medical team is confident that the swelling will subside in the next 24 hours and Smith will put his finger to the test at Saturday’s practice... after which a decision will be taken on his fitness to play in the second test,” a team statement said.

South Africa almost achieved a rare series victory in India on their previous visit two years ago when they won the second test before India squared the series in Kanpur.

“It’s hard work to win here. You need to be really clinical in terms of the game plan,” Smith said. South Africa will take back the number one ranking if they win the series.

Their only test series victory in India came in

2000. Dale Steyn took a match haul of 10-108 to rout India in Nagpur after Hashim Alma made 253 not out and Jacques Kallis hit 173 to guide the tourists to an imposing first innings total of 558-6 declared.

IMPORTANT ABSENCES India’s batting suffered in the absence of the experienced Rahul Dravid, Vangipurappu Laxman and Yuvraj Singh due to injuries, despite Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar scoring centuries. Number three batsman Dravid (jaw) and Yuvraj (wrist) were ruled out of the entire series. Laxman (finger) was declared fit on Thursday and his return is expected to bolster the middle-order as India hope to square the series to hold on to the number one ranking.

“We were outplayed by South Africa in all departments of the game,” captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said after India’s 14-match undefeated streak was snapped at Nagpur. India included one-day specialist Suresh Raina and made two other changes to the squad for the second test in a move to strengthen their batting. The tourists expect the pitch at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens to assist spin, India’s traditional strength. South Africa were beaten in three days in Kanpur in the deciding test in 2008 on a pitch that subsequently came up for an official inquiry by the International Cricket Council. —Reuters

SPORTS

Saturday, February 13, 2010

21

GURGAON: New Zealand’s Mark Brown tees off during the Avantha Masters 2010 in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi. — AFP

Lane takes clubhouse lead at Avantha Masters GURGAON: England’s Barry Lane posted a five-under-par 67 for a two-day total of 10-under-par 134 and the clubhouse lead after heavy rain forced play to be abandoned at the inaugural Avantha Masters yesterday. A total of 36 players will return to the DLF Golf and Country Club to complete their rounds early Saturday before the start of the third round.

Taiwan’s Chan Yih-shin is also currently lying in joint-first place with England’s John Parry on 10-under-par at the event which is co-santioned by the Asian and European tours. Chan was three under through 17 holes of his second round when play was suspended and eventually abandoned due to inclement weather. Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing, who managed to complete his round,

added a 68 to his opening 67 to take a share of fourth place alongside Scotland’s David Drysdale and Australians Andrew Dodt and Darren Beck on 135.

Thailand’s Kwanchai Tannin matched his opening 68 with another 68 to take a share of eighth place with India’s Rahil Gangjee and Korea’s Lee Sung on 136.

Lane, who opened with a 67, made steady progress with three birdies over his open-

ing nine holes in the morning. After making the turn in 34, the veteran Englishman mixed three birdies against a lone bogey on the par-four fifth to cruise home with another 67.

“It can be hard work being an old man out here and these young guys are bombing it past you at times but it is nice to know that I can still play and compete out here,” said Lane who will turn 50 in June.

“It has just been the short game and the putting but hopefully it’ll get better,” he added. Meanwhile Lam who is no stranger to success having won his maiden Asian Tour title in 2008, continued to stay in the hunt for his second win on the Asian Tour despite enduring a mixed day where his card was marked with six birdies, four bogeys and an eagle.

“I haven’t had one of these days for a

Refreshed Roddick rolls on in San Jose SAN JOSE: Andy Roddick moved closer to a fourth title at the SAP Open with an easy 6-3 6-2 win over second-round opponent Leonardo Mayer on Thursday. The top-seeded American, who last won the title here in 2008 after triumphs in 2004 and 2005, took just 75 minutes to book his place in the next round in San Jose. Roddick made 36 of 42 points on his service and never faced a break point against the Argentine.

“Luckily the court here is helping out a little,” Roddick told the Mercury News.

“I’m able to mix it up a little bit more. My first serve was 74 (percent) last night and 73 percent tonight. I’ll take that.”

Looking to rebound from his quarter-final defeat by Marin Cilic at the Australian Open where he was bothered by an injured shoulder, Roddick has yet to drop a set in San Jose. Roddick is an impressive 30-5 all-time in San Jose where he feels right at home. “I was comfortable out there tonight,” he said. “I was able to kind of move the ball around a little bit more. That just comes with getting matches in.” In the next round he will take on Tomas Berdych from whom he has won four of six matches.

In other action, American Sam Querrey reached his second straight SAP Open quarter-finals with a 6-4 6-4 win over Taylor Dent. “It feels good,” Querrey told reporters. “I come to tournaments like this expecting to win.

I’m working harder off the court. I’ve paid my dues, I’ve created this.” Unseeded American Michael Russell reached his first ATP quarter-final with a gritty victory against Xavier Malisse.

Russell and Querrey will meet in the quarters.

Meanwhile, Ricardas Berankis defeated Bjorn Phau 7-6 6-3 and secondseeded Fernando Verdasco overcame Benjamin Becker 7-5 6-2. —Reuters

while. It just seems like I’m either hitting it really close to the pin or getting a bad break and landing myself in trouble.

Hopefully the birdies will continue to come and eliminate the couple of loose shots that I’ve made,” he said. After enjoying two top-10s on the Asian Tour season, Dodt is now keeping his focus on securing his maiden Asian Tour title after his second round of 68. — AFP

Djokovic cruises into Rotterdam semi finals Quarter-final opponent Mayer pulls out injured ROTTERDAM: Serbian top seed Novak Djokovic qualified for the semi-finals of the World Indoor Tournament on Thursday after his next opponent Florian Mayer withdrew injured.

Djokovic beat Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 6-4 6-2 in the second round and would have faced Mayer in the quarter-finals

Tennis

ROTTERDAM: Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland during their second round tennis match at the ABN Amro World Tennis tournament in Rotterdam. — AP

Zvonareva advances to semis in Pattaya PATTAYA: Top seed Vera Zvonareva withstood a strong second-set challenge from Austrian left-hander Sybille Bammer yesterday to advance to the semi-finals of the Pattaya Open, winning 6-0, 7-6 (7-5). Kazakh Sesil Karatantcheva reached her first career semi-final, taking three hours 23 minutes to overcome Russia’s Ekaterina Bychkova 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in a match that included a massive 41 break points.

She now plays Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, who defeated Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-1, 6-4 to reach the Pattaya semi-finals for only the third time in 17 attempts. Zvonareva will face fourth seeded Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova, who defeated Germany’s Tatjana Malek 7-6 (7-4), 61. “I think I came out and played very well, very consistent in the first set and I think she (Bammer) was struggling to find her rhythm a little bit,” said Zvonareva.

“I was very precise with my shots and my level of concentration was very good. And then second set, she knew she had to be a little bit more consistent and go for her shots a little more.” Bammer had played two grueling matches in the last two days, and struggled in the opening set as many

of the points featured lengthy rallies.

She faced an uphill task after Zvonareva broke to lead 2-0 and failed to convert four game points before the defending champion broke again to lead 4-0 when Bammer missed the easiest of smashes.

Zvonareva then dropped just one point in the final two games of the set, running in to reach a dropshot and hitting a winning pass to clinch the set.

After a brief break, fifth seeded Bammer returned to court in a more positive frame of mind. She broke to lead 2-1 when Zvonareva double-faulted and, although she allowed the Russian to level at 2-2, Zvonareva made a forehand error on break point in the next game and allowed Bammer to once again take the lead.

Bammer, though, failed to serve out the set at 5-4, beginning the game with two serves that failed even to reach the net, hitting a further doublefault to fall behind 0-40 and then making a forehand error as Zvonareva broke to love. Bammer also missed another opportunity to take the match into a third set when she served at 54 in the tiebreak. She lost both points, and the match ended when the umpire over-ruled the line judge and called Bammer’s return long. — AFP

but the German pulled out with a hamstring injury after beating Tommy Robredo on Wednesday.

“It is never the best way to get a win like this and I feel sorry for Florian,” Djokovic told reporters. World number two Djokovic dominated on serve against Chiudinelli but needed more than a dozen break

chances to see off the Swiss in a match lasting 90 minutes. “I played conveniently and dominantly from the start on my own service game, and had many opportunities on his, however, I was less successful. I used the ones I needed.” he added.

Russian second seed Nikolay Davydenko displayed a solid baseline game to overcome Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-3 6-2. “Everything was good today about my performance, though I still don’t feel comfortable on this surface and with the balls we are playing with,” Davydenko told reporters.

Russian sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny beat Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan 6-4 6-4 to set up a quarter-final with Gael Monfils.

The Frenchman, seeded four, beat Dutch wildcard Thiemo de Bakker 6-3 6-2. — Reuters

American Oudin races into quarters at the Paris Open PARIS: American Melanie Oudin thrashed experienced Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-1 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at the Paris Open on Thursday. The teenager, who had dropped just three games in her first round annihilation of Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, breezed past her 31-year-old opponent in just over an hour.

Oudin’s return of serve was superb as she stormed through the first set losing just one game.

The world number 53 was almost as impressive taking the second set.

The 18-year-old, who reached the last eight at the US Open, now faces Hungary’s Agnes Szavay who beat Croatian Petra Martic 6-2 6-4. Oudin’s win sets up the possibility of a semi-final meeting with top seed and world number seven Elena Dementieva. The Russian must first get past Germany’s Andrea Petkovic who dashed French hopes of a quarter-finalist when she battled past fifth seed Aravane Rezai 6-3 3-6 6-3.

On the other side of the draw, Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic booked her place in the last eight with a 7-5 6-2 win over fourth seed Francesca Schiavone.

Safarova broke the Italian at 5-5 in the first and then held to take the set. The Czech broke Schiavone immediately in the

second set before going on to triumph 7-5 6-2. “I wanted to push her back into the trenches,” said Safarova. “I really had to give 100

percent to win this match. It was pretty tight and difficult, so I’m glad to have made it through.”

Her next opponent will be sixth

seed Shahar Peer of Israel who cruised through with a 6-4 6-3 win over Croatia’s Karolina Sprem. — Reuters

PARIS: US tennis player Melanie Oudin hits a return to her Swiss opponent Patty Schnyder during their 18th WTA Paris Indoors Open tennis event at the Coubertin stadium in Paris. — AFP

22

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Russian Terenteva tests positive, reprimanded First doping case in Vancouver VANCOUVER: Russian ice hockey player Svetlana Terenteva became the first athlete to test positive at the Vancouver Olympics but escaped a ban as she took the substance before the Olympic period, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday. Terenteva used a light stimulant contained in an over-the-counter nose spray that is not banned in out-ofcompetition tests but was still in her body when tested in Vancouver ahead of the Feb. 1228 Games, IOC Vice President Thomas Bach said.

“This is the first doping case for Vancouver,” Bach told an IOC session. “This case concerns an athlete who took a light stimulant even before the period of the Games, a light stimulant which is usually not prohibited out of competition but during the Games.” The IOC said in a statement she had tested positive for tuaminoheptane, a prohibited substance ‘in competition’ but not ‘out of competition’ on Feb. 6 in a urine sample.

“During the hearing, the athlete admitted that she had used Rhinofluimucil under pre-

scription to cure a bad head cold in January, but that she had stopped using it on Feb 4 2010, as she knew the substance would be prohibited during the period of the Olympic Games, starting on Feb. 4 2010,” it said.

The IOC said the prohibited substance would not have affected her performance as it would have been completely out of her system by the time of her team’s first game on Feb 14. This is her first anti-doping rule violation. “This makes this case very special because she took it outside the period of the Games but it was still in the body during the Games period.

She was very open and cooperative at the end of the disciplinary commission, (and said) that there was a violation of the rules,” Bach said. Bach said the commission chose to reprimand the athlete, considering it a “very special case”.

“With regard to the consequences we thought that it would be fair to issue a reprimand for this special case rather than sending the athlete home and disqualifying her which seemed too severe in this very special case,” he said. — Reuters

Furlong poised to finish the marathon journey VANCOUVER: When John Furlong began his 14-year dream of bringing the Winter Olympics to Vancouver he had no grandchildren. He now has nine. It was journey started with a lifelong friend but one the Vancouver Games chief will finish alone after his mentor Jack Poole passed away just hours after the Olympic flame was lit at ancient Olympia last October.

When the eloquent Irish immigrant watches the Games cauldron spring to life on Friday it will mark the end of an Olympic marathon, a grueling test of physical and mental endurance that few have had the strength or determination to see through.

“This last year is a pretty meaningful year because it has been a very long journey and my whole family has changed,” Furlong said. “I had no grandchildren and I now have nine. It has been a transformation personally. “It’s a long time, a long journey.

“With a Games you have it on the pillow at night and it’s sitting there when you get up. You don’t get to put it aside.”

Furlong once described the enormous task of organizing an Olympics as something akin to steering a super tanker. But his hand has remained steady on the tiller, navigating the multi-billion project safely through the worst economic storm since the Great Depression. He is now set to deliver a Games on budget.

There was little in Furlong’s resume to hint that the man from Tipperary possessed the skills, fortitude and charisma to survive a job that had crushed so many others. He arrived in Canada in 1974 and held a variety of jobs including teaching and operating a city-run recreation department.

MAGNETIC PERSONALITY Furlong does not have the magnetic personality of 2002 Salt Lake City chief Mitt Romney or 2012 London Olympic CEO Sebastian Coe or the steely charm of 2006 Athens Games saviour Gianna Angelopoulos. A political novice, Furlong appeared ill-equipped to deal with local and provincial leaders never mind crossing swords with the politically savvy members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Yet he managed to avoid the scandals and infighting that plagued Olympic organizing chiefs in Salt Lake City, Athens and Sydney.

The president and chief operating officer for the Vancouver 2010 bid, Furlong later moved into the role of CEO of the organizing committee and his appointment did not receive widespread approval. But like any Irishman who captained Gaelic football teams at the highest level Furlong does not lack grit or fear a fight. “When I became CEO, there were a lot of people who were asking what it takes to be a leader of something like this,” said Furlong. “I had a very different viewpoint. “I never saw this about one person’s leadership, I saw this about pulling together a compelling team of people.

“It’s been an amazing thing, we’ve discovered that no matter what comes your way if you’ve got good people, a good team and a good focus and a good vision you can overcome anything.”

What Furlong lacked in experience he more than made up for with a tireless work ethic and consummate leadership skills. On the day he was appointed VANOC CEO, Furlong took his team to see a movie the movie “Miracle” an inspiring film about the United States hockey team’s gold medal win at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games that became known as the “Miracle on Ice. After travelling 1.2 million miles around the world promoting the bid, Furlong has logged thousands more criss-crossing Canada, beating the drum for a Winter Games that he hopes will bring together a country where some provinces are closer to Britain than Vancouver. “I want this to touch lives,” Furlong said. “As a boy I wanted to be in the Olympic Games. I wanted to carry the flag. It never happened for me. “I competed at a high level and I never made it. “This to me was a chance to catch up with that dream.” — Reuters

VANCOUVER: Patrick Deneen of the USA jumps during the training session of the men’s moguls at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. — AP

Bjorndalen eyes record medal haul WHISTLER: Biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen will be seeking redemption at the Vancouver Games in his bid to become the most decorated Winter Olympian ever. The 36-year-old Norwegian has won nine biathlon medals and needs four more in Vancouver to surpass the record of compatriot cross country skier Bjorn Daehlie. But Bjorndalen’s first priority will be returning to the top step of the podium after a disappointing performance in Turin four years ago.

Widely regarded at the best biathlete ever, Bjorndalen won the 10km Sprint in the 1998 Nagano Games and struck gold four times at Salt Lake four years later. Though his haul in Turin was only two silvers and a bronze, Bjorndalen looks ready to revert to his golden form in the sport which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.

He has won six individual golds at the last three world championships, was twice overall World Cup champi-

on and has been in outstanding form this season.

LAST EVENT Bjorndalen and compatriot Emil

Olympics Hegle Svendsen, 24, have won seven of the eight World Cup races they have entered and they skipped the last event in Italy to fine-tune their Olympic preparations. Germany’s

Michael Greis upstaged Bjorndalen in Turin by claiming three golds, but the 33-year-old soldier has slipped in the standings in all disciplines this season. “Winning three gold medals in Turin, that was a big moment for me,” he said. “I do not feel any pressure because of it and I will be very happy if I travel home with a medal this time.”

France’s 12.5km pursuit champion Vincent Defrasne has also struggled this season. “We have a good chance,”

his coach Siegfried Mazet said. “But there are so many good teams, like Austria, Norway and Russia.

We will do our best but we also need them to make mistakes in order for us to win. On the women’s side, World Cup leader Helena Jonsson of Sweden should be well-rested after missing the last three World Cup events but she faces stiff competition from 23-year-old Magdalena Neuner of Germany, the overall World Cup winner in 2008. — Reuters

Heiden has soft spot for 10,000 meters gold

VANCOUVER: Canada’s Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison practice their routine for the figure skating pairs competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. — AP

Vonn pleased with progress Vancouver hoping for bums on seats WHISTLER: Olympic downhill favourite Lindsey Vonn’s shin injury is improving and she may be able to race through the pain, the American said on Thursday.

A day after holding a news conference to describe the “excruciating pain” of her week-old injury, Vonn was in her skis at the start area of the downhill course having warmed up for a training run. Although fog and snow led to the cancellation of the run after just two skiers had gone, Vonn, who took painkillers before going up the hill, was pleased with the progress of her injury. “I was really happy to be back on snow today even if it was for only one free ski run,” Vonn said on Facebook.

“My shin was still very painful, but I feel like the injury is finally progressing a bit. The pain level has gone down from a

sharp debilitating pain to something that I feel I may be able to grit my teeth through. So that really puts a smile on my face,” she said. “I won’t know the full extent of what I am dealing with until I actually get on the downhill course,” she said. Vonn was pleased with the cancellation of the session which provided extra time for her bruised muscle to recover. “Generally I am disappointed when a training run is cancelled, but in this situation I definitely welcome the extra day to heal,” she said.

The American is scheduled to train yesterday for the super combined but the bad weather in Whistler could threaten that session as well. Vonn’s husband, former US Olympic skier Thomas who works closely with his wife, said further cancellations would not be a problem. “A

couple of days could help Lindsey,” Vonn said, adding that she had come through her free ski warm-up well. “It has been a good day for her. There is pain there for sure but I followed her down and she came through it well,” he added. “It has been a positive day and things are getting better, day-to-day.”

Twice on Thursday organizers sent down skiers but on each occasion the run was halted after just one woman had descended. Italian Lucia Recchia tentatively completed the first descent before the run was halted for around 25 minutes. Then American Stacey Cook went down and suffered a heavy crash into the safety fence. Cook was taken by helicopter to a medical facility but was released in the afternoon with no reported injuries. — Reuters

VANCOUVER: Tickets for events at the Vancouver Games are still available but organizers believe they will avoid a past Olympic problem-empty seats left by people or sponsors who decided not use the tickets they had.

“The first step is to sell every ticket... and we believe we will achieve that,” Dave Cobb, Executive Vice President of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), said on Thursday. Venues at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games were blighted by empty seats caused by corporate sponsors not using allocated tickets.

Organizers have moved to avoid a repeat this time.

VANOC was the first organizing committee to set up its own system to allow tickets to be resold at market rates by people who no longer needed or could not use their seats. “We hope that is shifting tickets into people’s

hands that will use them, whereas in previous Games maybe they wouldn’t (have been resold),” Cobb said. More than 1,000 tickets are being resold daily via VANOC’s www.Vancouver2010.com website, while Olympic sponsors who get special access to tickets are being pressured to make available or donate those they do not plan to use. “We are confident it was everything we can do, but at the end of the day we can’t force somebody to go sit in a seat,” Cobb said.

REAL CANADIANS Organizers have been trying to keep details of opening ceremony a secret, but dress rehearsals open to invited members of the public have led to some Internet leaks.

After urging people not to spoil the surprise, VANOC officials hinted the

opening ceremony and the Olympics as a whole will try to show a side of Canadians the rest of the world does not know or confuses with being an American.

“We’re your neighbor, and often people think we are you. People here us talking, or see our athletes, or see our performers and think we’re you,” VANOC chief executive John Furlong told a reporter from the United States.

The VANOC news conference was their last before the start of the Games and gave organizers time to reflect on the years of preparation since Vancouver was awarded the event in 2003.

“I (hope the Games) will be a very human experience, and people who visited here will go home thinking we did a good job and we’re a pretty good group of people and they had a good time,” added Cobb. — Reuters

VANCOUVER: Eric Heiden has a favorite among the five gold medals he won at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics and it makes him a fan of Dutchman Sven Kramer at the Vancouver Games.

“To me the best skater is the one who wins the 10,000 meters,” American Heiden told reporters at the Richmond Olympic Oval on Thursday. “The endurance, the technique, the power, it’s all there.

I really identify with a skater like Sven Kramer because he’s got it all. “My gold medal in the 10,000 meters is definitely the one I am most proud of. It’s the toughest race, it’s the best race. It was the final race of the 1980 Olympics and I broke the world record.

That was something to be really happy about.”

Heiden, a physician who now serves as the US speed skating team’s medical director, won every event in Lake Placid from the 500 meters sprint, through the 1,000, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters races.

“At the time I didn’t appreciate it. It seemed like a really natural progression of my career at the time,” Heiden said. “Over the years I have thought about it and now I do realize that it is probably something that will never be done again.

“It’s been 30 years and it still doesn’t feel all that long ago to me. And still, I have done a lot since then. I had a cycling career I am quite proud of.

I’m very proud to be a physician now. There has been more in my life than just the medals.” Heiden said he sometimes talks to the skaters about his racing days.

“I can talk to them about the pressure and how to deal with the Olympics as far as what to expect, but if I see something on the ice, something technical, I go through the coach. You don’t want to break that bond between a skater and a coach.” — Reuters

Saturday, February 13, 2010

SPORTS

23

Arsenal need to ‘toughen up’

MUNICH: Munich players Arjen Robben, Mario Gomez and Franck Ribery (left to right) celebrate after Ribery scored during the German soccer cup DFB Pokal, quarterfinal match between FC Bayern Munich and Greuther Fuerth on Wednesday, Feb 10, 2010. — AP

Mystery bug hits Bayern players BERLIN: Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal on Thursday ordered some of his squad to train separately after a mystery stomach bug struck down a number of the Bavarian club’s players. “We have a virus in the dressing room,” the 58-year-old Dutchman said. “It’s bad for us...we expect more cases within the coming weeks,” he added.

As a precautionary measure, van Gaal told the infected players to train away from the rest of the first team. It comes as the German giants gear up

to face Italian side Fiorentina in the Champions League next Wednesday. Bayern were already missing five players in their German Cup quarterfinal on Wednesday against second division Fuerth including defender Daniel van Buyten and goalkeeper Joerg Butt.

Both, however, are expected to recover in time for the game against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday as the Munich club chase their ninth straight league win. — AFP

Harmonious Brazil can win World Cup: Scolari RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil will win the World Cup in South Africa because the squad have the same strong bond as their 2002 title-winning side, former coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. “I fully believe that Brazil will be in the final and will win that final,” said the former Chelsea manager, who steered Brazil to their record fifth title in Japan and South Korea. “From what I’m told by some players and some people in coach Dunga’s staff, the atmosphere (in the squad) is very similar to that of the national team in 2002,” Scolari told Reuters in an interview.

“And people see that in the competitions and games that Brazil have played. It’s a great advantage for Brazil to win another World Cup,” he said from Tashkent where he coaches Uzbekistan club Bunyodkor. The 61-year-old Brazilian built what came to be known as the “Scolari Family” for the Asian World Cup after they flirted with failing to qualify for the first time in 2001. Scolari supported Dunga in his efforts to keep a committed group of players even if he has to leave out big names that the media and fans clamor for. Just as in 2002, when Scolari resisted pressure to call up Romario, the striker who was a key member of Brazil’s 1994-title side in the US, so Dunga has left Ronaldinho out of his squad for the last scheduled warm-up against Ireland in London next month.

“Dunga built a reasonably new Brazil team, he had its command, there was friendship, he created an atmosphere and I know how important it is to have such an atmosphere in the national team because you can achieve much more than you imagined,” Scolari said. “What I have to say to Dunga is to continue his work as he is doing it,” he added.

MISSING CUP After two successive World Cups, having steered Portugal to fourth place in the Germany finals four years ago, Scolari is tempted to accept at least one of the invitations he has had to South Africa to commentate for a Brazilian or Portuguese television broadcaster. His two former teams, Brazil and Portugal, clash in their final Group G match in Durban on June 25 and he is sure they will have both secured their berths in the knockout phase by then.

“With the two qualified I won’t need to support one or the other,” said Scolari, who gave debuts during his time at the helm to the two countries’ top players, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo. Scolari named Brazil’s arch-rivals Argentina as one of the favorites in the tournament despite Diego Maradona’s difficulties as their coach. “I don’t know why it’s on my mind, but if Argentina sort out their team just a little, if they get a definite organization, I think that with (Lionel) Messi and (Carlos) Tevez, who is playing very well, they could be one of the big surprises of the World Cup,” he said.

Portugal, whom he steered to second place at Euro 2004, should at least be able to repeat their fourth-place finish of 2006, added Scolari who holds a record of 11 successive matches unbeaten at World Cups as a coach-seven with Brazil and four with Portugal. Scolari said he had quickly got over his sacking by Chelsea midway through last season and had only good memories of his time in the Premier league.

“I would say today that, really, the best championship in the world is the English. I watch games and they are spectacular,” he said. —Reuters

Eriksson steps down as Notts County director LONDON: Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has resigned as Notts County’s director of football following the League Two (fourth division) club’s takeover. Eriksson, who has accepted the honorary title of joint life president, is now free to accept other roles with renewed speculation that he could be taking part in the World Cup later this year as either the coach of Nigeria or North Korea. Jim Rodwell, the club’s new chief executive, was quoted as saying by the BBC: “He has agreed to stay on as joint life president which is a less hands-on role but it gives people an idea of how honourable Sven has been to deal with.” Rodwell added that the role occupied by Eriksson would not be filled in the short to medium term but he praised the Swede’s contribution to the Midlands club. Eriksson, who has also had spells as manager of Mexico, Manchester City and Lazio among others, unexpectedly moved to Meadow Lane last year with the club’s former owners aiming to take England’s oldest Football League team back

to the top flight after years in the doldrums.

But the grand plans hatched by owners Munto Finance failed to get off the drawing board and the club was bought out by Peter Trembling for one pound in December. On Thursday, Trembling issued a statement on the club’s website (www.nottscountyfc.co.uk) which read: “I am delighted to announce that the search for investment into this football club has concluded and last night I signed over my 90 percent shareholding in the club and hence the ownership to a new consortium.” Trembling, who has resigned as chairman with immediate effect, said the consortium would outline their plans for the Midlands club at a news conference on Monday. He also told Sky Sports News on Friday that he was planning to sue Munto Finance after they “left the club in a real mess, a real hole.” County are seventh in League Two, occupying the last playoff spot, and visit Premier League club Fulham in the FA Cup fifth round on Sunday. — Reuters

LONDON: Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas admits his young team-mates will have to show more maturity if they want to end the club’s five-year wait for a major trophy. The Gunners are still in the Premier League title race after beating Liverpool 1-0 on Wednesday, but that result was preceded by dispiriting defeats against Manchester United and Chelsea which exposed Arsenal’s lack of killer instinct.

Arsene Wenger’s side, who trail leaders Chelsea by six points, dominated possession for long periods in both those losses without ever looking like delivering a knockout blow to their opponents.

That failing was put down to a lack of experience by Wenger but Fabregas, 22, believes it is time for Arsenal’s youngsters to grow up. “As a team, we need to be stronger,” Fabregas said. “We can’t hide behind people saying we are too young or we have injuries. We just have to compete. “People say you must learn from your mistakes, but you learn how to play football when you are 12, 13, 14, 15.

You don’t learn these things when you are 25.

“Of course, you can still improve, always improve, but the basics must be there. “If you play for Arsenal, it is because you have to have these attributes. That is why I do not believe age is an excuse.”

Compared to United and Chelsea, Fabregas’s team have a favorable run-in with no more fixtures against ‘big four’ rivals.

But the Spain midfielder knows they will still face several intensely pressurized matches if the title race goes down to the wire and he concedes that the Gunners need to learn the art of winning when the stakes are highest.

“In the past few years, we have been doing very well, but whenever it comes to important moments, maybe we haven’t been up where we need to be,” he added. “We have always tried to play our football, but the goals we have conceded lately have come from defensive mistakes. “We can keep playing the same style of football, but it is the mentality that will determine whether you win trophies or not. We need an extra edge in these big games. “We want to do well and get better and better, that is for sure. But, remember, these are teams that have won things recently and, in terms of winning trophies, are more advanced than we are.”—AFP

LONDON: Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger shouts as he gives instructions to his players during a Premier League soccer match against Liverpool at the Emirates stadium, in London. — AP

Pardew takes ‘no pleasure’ in Portsmouth misery LONDON: Southampton manager Alan Pardew insists he wants local rivals Portsmouth to emerge unscathed from the cash crisis that threatens their existence. Pardew’s League One outfit host Portsmouth in an FA Cup fifth round tie today that offers the beleaguered Premier League team a welcome chance to concentrate on playing matters rather than their perilous financial situation.

Portsmouth, who won the FA Cup in 2008, were given a seven-day stay of execution from a winding-up order this week but the future of the Fratton Park club remains far from secure. It is a situation all too familiar to many at Southampton as they were hours from going out of business last year after falling into administration following relegation from the Championship. Under new ownership, Southampton have got back on track and have already secured one Wembley appearance this season in next month’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final against Carlisle.

But, while many Southampton will relish taunting their Portsmouth counterparts this weekend, Pardew takes no pleasure in the ongoing drama along the south coast. “They are our local rivals and we are pleased they are still here with us, they had a big day in court on Wednesday and we are pleased it went well because we’ve been in that position,” he said. “I have a lot of sympathy for the players and staff there. Some of the players I know very well because I managed them - Hayden Mullins, Hermann Hreidarsson, David James.

“We are not going to be smug about that situation because we were in it not six months ago.

We’ve come out the other end of it because our owners, who bought the club, have ambitions to go forward. I hope the scenario is the same for them in six months. “I want that club to survive and come through, and I want us to be better than them and we are working towards that.”

Many pundits believe Southampton will spring a surprise and defeat Portsmouth in the first derby meeting between the clubs in five years.

But Pardew brushed aside those predictions and insisted Portsmouth were still the favorites.

“You see these classic FA Cup games when the pitch is poor and a big side slips up. But the pitch is perfect so there’ll be no excuses for them, it’s the perfect platform for them and they should win,” Pardew added. “About six weeks ago would have been a better time to play them.

When you have such turmoil off the pitch as a group you come together and want to fight the world. “They are beginning to get that, they are playing well without getting the results and we are taking them on at their most angry.” -—AF

LONDON: David Maples a fan of English Premiership soccer team Portsmouth FC waves flags outside the High Court in London as his team face a winding up petition from the British tax authorities over unpaid taxes. — AP

8 former champions spice African line-up JOHANNESBURG: The 2010 African Champions League kicks off this weekend with three-time winners Raja Casablanca of Morocco among eight former title holders in action. Club African and Esperance of Tunisia, Algerian duo JS Kabylie and Entente Setif, Asante Kotoko of Ghana, Egyptian outfit Ismailia and Orlando Pirates of South Africa are the other former champions with first round assignments.

All are taking the first step on a journey that will involve 16 fixtures if they

go all the way, with the winner collecting a 1,5-million-dollar cheque and securing a place at the year-end FIFA Club World Cup. Defending champions Tout Puissant Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo are among eight clubs who have received byes into the second round of a competition first staged 45 years ago.

And the determination of the Congolese ‘Crows’ from the southern city of Lubumbashi to retain the trophy is reflected in the announcement that a 10-

million-dollar budget has been allocated for the title defense.

The other seven sides automatically through to the second round include AlAhly of Egypt, African champions a record six times and inevitable favorites to raise the cup come November. ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast and Union Douala of Cameroon are among the teams who skip the first round, the former on merit and the latter because the Sao Tome e Principe champions withdrew without explanation.— AFP

Matches on TV (local timings) Italian League AS Roma v Palermo.......................20:00 Aljazeera Sport +1 Sampdoria v Fiorentina..................22:45 Aljazeera Sport +1 Spanish League Xerez CD v Real Madrid................22:00 Aljazeera Sport +2 Villarreal v Athletic de Bilbao........0:00 Aljazeera Sport +2 German Bundesliga Bayer 04 v VfL Wolfsburg..............17:30 Premiere Start

VFL Bochum v Hoffenheim...........17:30 Premiere Sport 1 Premiere Start Hannoverscher v Werder Bremen...17:30 Premiere Sport 1 Premiere Start Hertha Berlin v FSV Mainz 05.......17:30 Premiere Sport 1 Premiere Start VfB Stuttgart v Hamburger............17:30 Premiere Sport 1 Premiere Start Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund20:30 Premiere Sport 1 Premiere Start

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England’s WCup plans rocked by Cole injury Capello, Ancelotti mull options LONDON: Fabio Capello is facing his first serious injury problem as England coach with the World Cup just four months away after Ashley Cole was ruled out for the rest of the season with a broken ankle. His injury has also caused huge concern for Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti as his side maintain their chase for the Premier League title.

The 29-year-old Chelsea left back suffered the injury in an accidental collision with Everton’s onloan United States striker Landon Donovan at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

The players were due to be on opposing sides when England face the US in their opening World Cup match in South Africa on June 12. “It is bad news about Ashley,” Capello told reporters. “He’s a really important player. As a left defender he is very good and dangerous going forward. I hope it won’t be too tough for him.” Cole, with 77 caps, was Capello’s automatic first choice on the left side of the defence, but the England coach could now be forced to call up understudy Wayne Bridge.

However, that situation is complicated because of the off-field problems surrounding Bridge and his former Chelsea team mate John Terry. Terry was replaced as England captain last week following allegations in the British media that Terry had an extra-marital affair with the former girlfriend of Bridge, who joined Manchester City last year.

Roberto Mancini told a news conference on Friday it was important for Bridge to play for England.

“Ashley Cole’s injury for England is a problem,” said Mancini, “but we have a good player here in Wayne Bridge who can play for the national team.

“I think its important for him to play for England and if he is picked, he should play. It’s very important for his career that if he can play in the World Cup, he should play.” Capello does have other options for the position including Aston Villa’s Stephen Warnock or James Milner, Leighton Baines of Everton or Gareth Barry and Joleon Lescott of Manchester City. Cole is in a race against time to be fit for the World Cup. The Premier League season ends on May 9, with the FA Cup final on May 15 and the Champions League final on May 22. England also have a World Cup warm-up game against Mexico on May 24 and a planned friendly with Japan in late May in Austria before Capello names his World Cup squad on June 1. Chelsea coach Ancelotti must also decide on who will replace Cole as his team maintain their push for the league title. Ancelotti can call up Yuri Zhirkov or Paulo Ferreira, but told reporters on Thursday: “We are very disappointed because he is a very important player.

Now we have to do our best to get him recovered quickly.” — Reuters

SANTANDER: Racing de Santander’s Jose Angel Crespo (left) vies for the ball with Atletico de Madrid’s Jose Antonio Reyes (right) during the second leg of a semi final Copa del Rey soccer match at the Sardinero stadium on Thursday Feb 11, 2010. — AP

Atletico eliminate Racing to reach King’s Cup final MADRID: Atletico Madrid set up a King’s Cup final against Sevilla when they went through 6-3 on aggregate despite conceding two late goals to lose 3-2 at Racing Santander in their semifinal second leg on Thursday. Atletico thrashed Racing 4-0 at the Calderon in

last week’s first leg but were rocked in only the second minute in Santander when defender Juan Valera headed into his own net from a corner.

Valera made amends six minutes later when he burst into the penalty area and pressured Jose Moraton into

diverting a Jose Antonio Reyes freekick past goalkeeper Mario Fernandez.

Atletico midfielder Jurado snuffed out any hopes of an unlikely Racing comeback shortly after halftime when he exchanged passes with Sergio Aguero and curled the ball into the bot-

tom corner with the outside of his right foot.

Christian Fernandez was shown a straight red card with just over 20 minutes left after catching Atletico substitute Ibrahima Balde in the face with a forearm and late goals from Racing

strikers Xisco and Mohamed Tchite were mere consolations. Sevilla, the 2007 King’s Cup winners, won last week’s first leg at home to Getafe 2-0 and hung on to clinch a 2-1 aggregate win after losing 1-0 in Madrid on Wednesday. —Reuters

NBA results/standings NBA results and standings on Thursday.

Cleveland 115, Orlando 106.

CLEVELAND: Cleveland Cavaliers’ Delonte West (13) loses control of the ball under pressure from Orlando Magic guard Jameer Nelson (14) in the third quarter in an NBA basketball game on Thursday, Feb 11, 2010, in Cleveland. — AP

Cavs tie franchise record CLEVELAND: LeBron James put up 32 points and 13 assists to propel the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 115-106 win over the Orlando Magic on Thursday, matching a franchise record 13th successive victory. The league’s reigning MVP spearheaded the fourth-quarter surge which decided the game. The Cavaliers trailed by two with 7:31 left before James scored or assisted on five straight baskets during an 11-0 run that sunk the Magic. Cleveland (43-11) matched the win streak it set last season while winning a second straight against Orlando (3618) in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Final.

“It’s definitely fun when you get one of the best teams in your house or when you play against one of the best teams,” James told reporters. “You want to try to see where you match up and you want to see if that winning streak is really valid. It was a great game by both teams.” Dwight Howard had 19 points and 11 rebounds while Rashard Lewis added 19 for the Magic, who trailed for the majority of the first half before turning the game into a nip-and-tuck affair.

Orlando topped the Cavaliers 4-2 in the best-of-seven playoff series last May but currently trail their NBA-best foe by seven games.

NEW FACES Personnel changes to both teams this season have altered the match-up. With 7footer Shaquille O’Neal in the middle, Cleveland has a presence to contend with Howard. The two big men have developed a bit of a contentious rivalry. O’Neal was in

boost in his return to action after being sidelined for nine games with injury.

“Delonte was terrific. He did a nice job running the team,” said Cavaliers coach Mike Brown. “He hit some big buckets to keep us in the game when it was close.” The Magic fell behind by 14 points in the first

Cavaliers secure 13th successive victory foul trouble for most of the night and tallied just 10 points but young forward JJ Hickson had a breakout game with 20.

Guard Delonte West also gave the team a

quarter but lit up the scoreboard for 40 in the second to draw close. Orlando led by as much as seven in the third but the lead quickly evaporated with a string of

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT Boston 32 18 .640 Toronto 29 23 .558 Philadelphia 20 32 .385 NY Knicks 19 32 .373 New Jersey 4 48 .077

GB 4 13 13.5 29

Cleveland Chicago Milwaukee Detroit Indiana

Central Division 43 11 .796 25 26 .490 24 27 .471 18 33 .353 18 34 .346

16.5 17.5 23.5 24

Orlando Atlanta Charlotte Miami Washington

Southeast Division 36 18 .667 33 18 .647 26 25 .510 26 27 .491 17 33 .340

1.5 8.5 9.5 17

Western Conference Northwest Division Denver 35 18 .660 Utah 32 19 .627 Oklahoma City 30 21 .588 Portland 31 24 .564 Minnesota 13 40 .245

2 4 5 22

Pacific Division 41 13 .759 31 22 .585 21 31 .404 18 34 .346 14 37 .275

9.5 19 22 25.5

Southwest Division Dallas 32 20 .615 San Antonio 30 21 .588 Houston 27 24 .529 New Orleans 28 25 .528 Memphis 26 25 .510

1.5 4.5 4.5 5.5

LA Lakers Phoenix LA Clippers Sacramento Golden State

Cleveland three-pointers.

Bryant to miss All-Star game Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson won’t play in the All-Star game on Sunday, the NBA said Thursday. Bryant, who has missed three games with a left ankle injury, will be replaced by Dallas point guard Jason Kidd on the Western Conference roster. Iverson’s place in the Eastern Conference will be filled by New York forward David Lee. Bryant missed his third consecutive game on Wednesday, although the Lakers won at Utah without him.

Bryant sprained his ankle on January 29 in Philadelphia, and the injury was aggravated days later when teammate Lamar Odom stepped on his foot in a game. Iverson missed his fifth straight game for the 76ers on Wednesday to be with his sick daughter. Kidd will be making his 10th All-Star appearance, while Lee is a firsttime All-Star. The coaches will decide which players will replace Bryant and Iverson in the starting lineups. Orlando’s Stan Van Gundy will coach the Eastern Conference team for the midseason exhibition while Denver’s George Karl will coach the West. — Agencies