19 Feb 2010

February 19, 2010

Kuwait Times

NO: 14645

INSIDE

Kuwaiti envoy denies row over Gulf title

A successful start to Arabian horse championship PAGES 6 & 7

Gunfire erupts in Niger capital in coup attempt PAGE 12

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GAZA: Masked Palestinian Hamas militants lays a wreath next to a portrait of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh during a rally for his memory in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday. Israel’s foreign minister said Wednesday there was no reason to assume the Mossad assassinated Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai, even as suspicions mounted that the country’s vaunted spy agency made the hit using the identities of Israelis with European passports. — AP

TEHRAN: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Iran Majdi Al-Thefiri said yesterday there is no row among the region’s countries over the appellation of the Gulf.

The ambassador made the remarks to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) in response to recent relevant statements attributed to him by Iran’s official news agency (IRNA).

“The name (of the Gulf) was changed during a political period amid the national conflict in the region at the time, and the circumstances have now changed.

We cannot stop at the issue of appellations. The appellation should not be deemed an issue that could raise sensitivity between us,” he said.

“We don’t have such oversensitivity given that both appellations (the Arabian Gulf and Persian Gulf) are used at several international conferences,” said the top Kuwaiti diplomat.

He added that the GCC member states are not oversensitive over such an issue, urging Iran to follow suit.

IRNA quoted the Kuwaiti ambassador as saying in Bushehr earlier on Wednesday that it was the normal right of Iran to get nuclear power energy for peaceful purposes.

He said even Kuwait and other GCC countries plan to make use of nuclear energy for power generation purposes.

But, he said: “Iran is part of the region so we wish that our relations with it should be within the framework of understanding.” — KUNA

Table turns on Israel Dubai blames Mossad for Hamas commander’s slaying Small plane hits building near FBI office in US PAGE 13

Vonn, White cement superstar status at Games PAGES 61-63

DUBAI/PARIS: France demanded yesterday that Israel explain how a forged French passport came to be used by assassins suspected of killing a Hamas commander in Dubai last month. The case has already caused diplomatic friction between Israel and European allies, with Britain urging Israel to cooperate with efforts to clear up the apparent use of faked British passports.

“We are asking for explanations from Israel’s embassy in France over the circumstances of the use of a fake French passport in the assassination of a Hamas member in Dubai,” the Foreign Ministry said in an electronic news briefing.

Forged British, Irish, German and French documents were used by 11 people named by the United Arab Emirates as suspects. The French Foreign Ministry said it was cooperating with authorities in Dubai in the investigation, and the evidence obtained so far led it to conclude that the passport was forged.

Dubai police directly accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency of orchestrating the hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander as the number of suspects rose yesterday to 18. Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim was quoted as saying he was “99 percent, if not 100 percent” certain that Mossad was behind last month’s slaying of Mahmoud AlMabhouh in a luxury hotel room in Dubai.

The comments which appeared on a newspaper Web Site came as international pressure mounted for Israel to answer questions about possible links to the Jan. 19 killing. The investigation also widened to the United States. Emirates authorities said the alleged killers used fraudulent passports to open credit cards accounts through U.S.-based banks, an official said.

“Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of Al-Mabhouh,” Tamim was quoted as saying by The National newspaper, which is owned by the

government of Abu Dhabi. He told another local paper, Dubai-based Gulf News, that: “All elements strongly indicate the involvement of the Mossad.” Tamim and other Dubai police officials could not be immediately reached for further comment. Israel government spokesman Mark Regev also had no comment.

The international fallout from the murder in a Dubai hotel room showed no signs of easing, with Britain and Ireland summoning Israeli ambassadors yesterday for talks about the case following allegations that European passports were used by the alleged team of assassins. A UAE official, who has close knowledge of the investigation, said at least 18 people — including two women — are now suspected in what Dubai police describe as a highly coordinated operation to kill Al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing. Ten of the men and one woman were identified by Dubai police Monday as members of the group that traveled to Dubai on apparently fraudulent passports — six from Britain, three from Ireland and one each from Germany and France.

Britain has said it will investigate how some of the suspects came to have British passports and how they might have been produced.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said one of the nation’s top diplomats, Peter Ricketts, “explained the concern we have for British passport holders in Israel” during the meeting with Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor.

“He made clear that we wanted to give Israel every opportunity to share with us what it knows about this incident, and we hope and expect that they will cooperate fully with the investigation,” he said, adding he would raise the issue with Israel’s foreign minister when they meet in Brussels in the coming days.

Prosor told journalists he was not able to add additional information to Britain’s request. Israel’s ambassa-

dor to Ireland, Zion Evrony, said he had nothing useful to tell Ireland because he knew nothing confidential about the Dubai assassination.

Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin has said the three Irish passports did have valid numbers but were issued to people with different names than those made public by Dubai.

He said the Foreign Ministry had contacted two people with the same passport numbers and found they had not lost their passports or had any stolen. The assassins apparently had access to pre-2005 passports that lacked biometric information, Martin said.

Also linked to the slaying are two Palestinians in Dubai custody and five others, including one woman who was caught on video surveillance at the luxury hotel where Al-Mabhouh’s body was found Jan. 20, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with standing policies.

The official gave no further details on the Palestinians or the five other suspects. But the official said that some of the suspects used the false passports to open credit card accounts at US banks, but also gave no additional information.

Although no definitive links have been found to the suspects, speculation increasingly pointed to Israel and the Mossad. Names released by Dubai matched seven people living in Israel.

“Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in Israel’s first official comment on the affair on Wednesday, then added: “I don’t know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports.” But that did little to stop speculation of Mossad involvement and a possible national embarrassment if proven true. — Agencies

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he famous American media icon, Oprah Winfrey, who is paid one million dollars a month for presenting a program on American life that is broadcast worldwide, recently said that Egyptians were the ones who build Kuwaitis’ houses, Indians clean their streets, Filipinos raise their kids, Indonesians cook their food and that Americans defend them while they were living like Paris Hilton’, wrote Dr. Wael AlHasawwi in his Al-Rai column.

‘Using the logic, I can tell her that Kuwaitis did not build a state after annihilating an entire people of

Friday, February 19, 2010

Why is Oprah getting at us? natives the way they did with the Native Americans, did not buy free Africans to turn them into right less slaves, as Oprah knows very well, Kuwaitis have not been using Napalm or nuclear bombs against peaceful peoples, they did not build the world’s largest intelligence agency to plot and plan conspiracies and coups against other peoples, Kuwaitis did not invade peaceful countries and devastate them, they never encouraged and supported an aggressor body and helped it continue its injustice to an entire people, it never built prisons overseas to

avoid fair international laws’, he elaborated pointing out that he could go on refuting her statement for ever.

‘The reason why Kuwaitis get help from foreign or expatriate labor was natural enough with a people with such a small population that is enjoying a financial abundance.......what can they send their money on other than its own welfare?,’ he wondered remarking that, nevertheless, these people were grateful for having jobs in Kuwait that provide a source of living for two million expatriates and

their families be them here in Kuwait or back in their home countries. ‘What is so offending for Oprah about this, anyway?’, he added.

He went on criticizing Oprah asking her, as a billionaire who made her fortune from ‘talking’, about what she had done for poor people.

He also explained that Kuwait had more than once expressed its gratitude to the US troops for protecting and defending Kuwait, without revealing that this particular protection had been inevitable whether ‘we liked it or not’ and without highlighting how Saddam

Hussein had been made by the West and how he used to be a double agent who had been given a green light by the US ambassador to invade Kuwait.

‘Nevertheless, I do here urge the Kuwaiti people change our life style, to become more productive, educated and self-dependant, as far as we can. I have to warn those MPs who favor spending without saving any for a rainy day to stop wasting fortunes on useless fishy projects that made our parliament look so silly and ridiculed worldwide’, he concluded.

FRIDAY SPOTLIGHT

Animals deserve a chance to live

By Muna Al-Fuzai

A

n animal can get injured due to different kinds of accidents that take place indoors, on the streets or any neighborhood. I fail to understand those who deliberately torture helpless animals!

Such acts of cruelty amuse them and they have a few laughs at its pain and misery! The overt display of sadist behavior is extremely disturbing, to say the least.

Mostly spoiled youth and children in some local areas are seen engaging in such activities. Why do they do such things? Don’t they have anything better to do? Why aren’t their parents supervising them? Why do we ignore the need to instill the value of practicing kindness towards animals in children?

Now, I need to clarify something. Not everyone in Kuwait mistreats animals, but there are some children who chase dogs or cats and rough them up. Several years ago, a video about some children who burnt some animals alive by pouring oil over them, did the rounds. It was horrifying to watch it! What triggers violence and vulgarity in children? What have those animals done to deserve such an end? Is there an animal that deserves to be stoned, just for fun or because others are doing so?

Animals require attention, and here in Kuwait, I see animals lay dead on the street after being run over by a speeding car. Motorists are not even bothered about halting for a second, pulling over their vehicle to one side of the road and move the body in order to avoid the possibility of more cars running over it again. I know that there are a few animal groups that try its best to provide shelters to some cats and dogs. However, this is not about finding a place for these animals. I believe it is about the need for having more awareness about animal rights in Kuwait. Whether these stupid acts are committed by spoiled brats or not, there is an immediate need to put an end to the heinous practice. We, as responsible adults, have an obligation to advance the cause of animals rights by holding campaigns. We should urge others to respect and accept the fact that animals are not ‘less human.’

They are living things and share our space and joy. A dog, for example has a life span of fifteen to twenty years. So, to care for a dog is a life-long commitment.

So, if a dog is tortured by someone then it probably loses its chance to live longer and happier.

The parents of those kids , who look on joyfully while their children hurt small animals should be ashamed of themselves. And schools don’t teach the need to respect animals, especially the government schools. They are also responsible for disseminating information to the public. All living beings deserve a chance to live without being abused and humiliated. muna@kuwaittimes.net

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Friday, February 19, 2010

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HalluciNations

Consumed consumers!

By Ahmad Saeid

A

gainst all economic theories and all logic, consumers in Kuwait have no voice at all. First of all we have no choice but to consume because we only produce oil. Secondly we have no other amusement other than consuming.

Thus, depriving us from products to consume will be like a punishment to us... not the supplier.

But the issue does not stop at this point, it goes beyond to other dimensions. As ‘loyal’ consumers, we are forced to settle for the quality and prices offered to us by local distributers for a number of reasons. The song lyrics ‘power in the money’ appears to be true in this case... There is not a single authority in Kuwait, or maybe even in the whole world, capable of standing in the way of that power.

The government has been repeatedly accused of tailoring legislations for the benefit of merchants, but I will not go that far. I will rather simply assume that some corporations are becoming increasingly greedy and powerful by the day.

Even the government doesn’t seem to be able, and sometimes willing, to stand firmly against them, especially when it comes to issues like monopoly, price and quality standards of provided services.

The scene in the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ when Will Smith gets busted by

a policeman while he is drawing graphite on a wall and he pretends that the spray paint is just a deodorant represents my impression of government’s anti-monopoly policy. They will take whatever justification they are given in order to not take any action.

Of course, the parliament doesn’t have time for such issues, its members are busy classifying the six billion people on earth into two categories - those who are allowed to enter Kuwait, and those who are not. Now some of you might think that certain MPs are actually representing a family business at the National Assembly instead of representing the public interests, but I will not go this far... I will simply assume that there are people who are seeking their personal interests everywhere, including in the parliament.

One might think “I can always go to court to seek justice there!” which is true... However, you need to be aware that although justice (ideally) cannot be bought for money, the best attorneys in town can be hired for it and they know all the loopholes of every law that exists.

Even the courageous Kuwaiti press is tamed by advertisement cash, and they have little, if any, capacity to criticize business groups and corporations. I don’t even want to start talking about media outlets completely owned by businesses, be it directly or indirectly, so let’s just leave that aside.

Consumers are left defenseless. We have to pay the specified price for the service offered, otherwise we will simply stay without that service or product.

Reserve the desert

Many industries are dominated by only one supplier. In a decent number of other cases, adding more providers didn’t affect prices, nor quality of services, and we simply have to live with that.

Some companies are feeling comfortable in creating ways to channel that flow of oil revenue from government’s everinflating salary budget, through citizens, and then to their pockets and bank accounts.

The most annoying thing of all is that this does not seem to generate a public refusal or resistance. On the contrary, it has successfully produced ‘consumer masochism’ in Kuwait. The rather popular misconception that paying more is another good thing about any product or service is totally beyond my brain’s coherent capacity. It is even somehow more shameful to argue about prices in Kuwait than in other countries. Yet everyone complains that his salary is not enough!

These are some of the effects of corporate dominance on lives of citizens of Kuwait. These effects are multiplied a thousand times in relation to the extremely vulnerable and easily-legally exploitable expat laborers. The longer this thing is kept hidden and not openly addressed the more money, power and influence these corporations will have over things essential for our very survival. An influence that is likely to become particularly dangerous with the recent tendency to ‘give more power to the private sector’. saeid@kuwaittimes.net

IN MY VIEW

Copy and paste ‘culturalists’

By Abdulla Alnouri

A

s expected, Valentine’s Day drew the attention of Islamists who warned against celebrating such a pagan holiday. Regardless, many defied the instruction of those who appoint themselves the country’s micro-managers of morality and celebrated the day anyway. Couples went out on dates, chocolates and flowers were shared and somewhere, lovers were swooned by the romantic sentiments of their significant others. Valentine’s Day was certainly felt in Kuwait. Anyone who doubts this obviously missed Second Ring Road (aka Love Street) and the suicidal attempts at flirting taking place there.

These warnings are a small example, a symptom, of a much larger problem.

Kuwait suffers from a ‘copy and paste’ culture where those who imagine themselves in charge of others’ morality pick and choose what parts of other cultures are acceptable. This inevitably moves our society in a pretty confusing direction. Hollywood movies that portray women as sex objects are acceptable in Kuwait, as long as the actresses don’t kiss anyone. It is acceptable to watch men slaughter and kill each other on the big screen, but not okay for people to dance in public. Starbucks has become almost as much a part of ‘Kuwaiti-ness’ as dishdashas and elongated hijabs, even though the corporation has a long history of being inattentive to Arab culture.

However, mention wanting to get a

Christmas tree to the wrong person in this country and you are likely to get an earful.

There are two big problems with this kind of culture. The first is that it’s contagious. If you get used to having people tell you what is acceptable instead of discovering for yourself what is okay, you too start telling people how to live. The second is that it is lazy. Spoon feeding a society culture does not encourage innovation or creative thinking. No area has suffered more in this regard in Kuwait than the education sector. Development there has been stifled by those afraid to give liberal education too long of a leash.

Globalization has put Kuwait in an interesting position, not a unique one.

Places all over the world have found themselves receive the attention of the worlds’ most powerful nations and cultures because of the wealth of their natural resources. People who react so negatively to the influence of other cultures in defense of their own really do a disservice to their own community. I hate seeing people so eager to share a part of their culture, like religion, with other people without really caring where the other person is coming from.

Perhaps this goes without saying, but these comments are not just directed at a handful of Kuwaitis and Muslims. I have seen plenty of Westerners gawk at the way we live our lives. People have the tendency to forget the level of details and history that go into a person’s culture and personal choices.

Often, I feel like cut and paste ‘culturalists’ care more about the opportunity to complain and advertise their own perspective than they do about making the right choice.

All that aside though, I think Kuwait has done a relatively good job of modernizing while maintaining a unique culture. Compared to Saudi Arabia, where a woman was arrested recently for sitting with a colleague at a Starbucks outlet (again, Starbucks is okay but mixing genders is not), Kuwait is a pillar of tolerance and acceptance. On a trip to Dubai, a local Emirati expressed frustration at how much their culture has been pushed aside by the rush to modernize.

When speaking to others from the area they also told me how much they appreciated Kuwait’s culture of diwaniyas because, for the most part, that kind of community interaction is not as common and open there.

Disrespecting other cultures in defense of one’s own is certainly not a new thing. While we may roll our eyes at the illegality of public dancing and edited films, the reality of the situation is that there are people out there deciding what is and is not okay for us to experience. I can admit that Kuwait has developed well so far but the key part of that statement is ‘so far.’ There is always room for improvement, and encouraging acceptance instead of prescribing morality is a good first step. abalnouri@hotmail.com

F

or people who are clueless of the desert’s nature, the idea of having a wildlife natural reserve would sound funny and the question “What can you reserve in the deserts other than camels?” will surely pop into someone’s head. Having been to Sabah Al-Ahmad Wildlife Natural Reserve in Sabiya, I immediately noticed the difference between that part of the desert and the rest of Kuwait’s desert.

Normally, the desert’s classic appearance is that of miles of light beige colored sand that bores you, if you are driving on a long trip. It will also make you worry about windy days that inevitably produce sandstorms.

However, during my visit to the reserve in Sabiya I noticed that the desert is greener than I have ever seen it. I know it was not a jungle, but it looked beautiful with shades of yellow and purple desert flowers decorating the acres of reserved land. There was a lot of life there, ranging from birds flying over the skies to colorful butterflies hovering between flowers. Not to forget, the animals that are very rarely seen in deserts these days.

The visit to the Sabah Al-Ahmad Wildlife Natural Reserve came on a windy day, but the desert plants kept a firm grip on the sand and play a big role in avoiding a mini sandstorm in that part of the land. I wished that the rest of Kuwait’s desert could be like that reserve.

The secret to all this is to reserve the desert from campers, the litter they leave behind, and their cars that tread all over the desert killing plants in the process. The uncontrolled activities that take place in the deserts play a big role in making our desert pale and lifeless. Even if animals survive the environmental distribution, they face thousands of hunters’ shotguns that hunt for fun and rarely use their catch for anything. I remember finding five falcons shot dead near the Abdaly farm area. They were left there on the ground for no reason whatsoever; other than shooting something for the sake of shooting.

I would like to recognize the work of the people who are in charge of the reserve and applaud them for a job well done. I hope that the government will take a look at the reserve and think what would happen to the environment and the climate of our beloved country, if there were strict laws on regulations that would turn our desert into a giant reserve. We will then be able to see these yellow and purple flowers blossom across our deserts.

Let me know what you think: email me at myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

Abd Al-Rahman Alyan Editor-in-Chief

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Deep excavation in progress Caution: Do not attempt to read this while eating

By Priyanka Saligram Define ‘disgusting’.

Assuming you’re an opinionated and intellectual individual, the first words that may come to your mind are ‘politicians’, ‘hypocrisy’, or even ‘dirty socks’.

Take a minute and imagine the sight of a 45-year-old pot-bellied, balding man sitting next to you on

the flight with a newspaper on his lap, and a finger deep up his nostril, digging slowly with immense concentration while periodically removing his finger to observe at close range what he might have unearthed.

Does that redefine ‘disgusting’?

Apparently, it does not.

Nose-digging is done rampantly in public like scratching one’s chin while trying to make a decision or running your fingers through your hair while thinking something. Anybody who has left his house after being born would have encountered at least 10 strangers in his life,

King Tutankhamen, the Egyptian Pharaoh, had a personal nose-picker - in life and afterlife. This way, nobody could have raised a finger at him and ordered him to stop digging his nose - for the simple reason that he wasn’t; somebody else was doing it for him. who would have been lost in the act of mining gold from their nasal regions.

Interestingly, all 10 strangers would have been members of the male species of humans. Again interestingly, there’s a higher likelihood of only women taking note of this in revulsion.

Nose-digging or nose-picking in layman terms is known as Rhinotillexomania when it becomes less of a mindless action and more of an obsession. In fact, mucophagy is the act of consuming one’s finds.

According to the annals of history, King Tutankhamen, the Egyptian Pharaoh, had a personal nose-picker - in life and afterlife. This way, nobody could have raised a finger at him and ordered him to stop digging his nose - for the simple reason that he wasn’t; somebody else was doing it for him.

While nobody in their right mind would have attempted to understand the dynamics behind this uniquely engaging activity, the undeniable fact of the matter is that it does teach a thing or two about multitasking. Performing a physiological act like breathing combined with a physical activity involving the finger and its muscular tendons does require superior dexterity. But it’s a pity that this has never been able to make it to the list of national sports - despite every country breeding so many players who practice this on a daily basis.

In fact, some cricket and football players unconsciously reach out to their noses for solace on the field when the opposite team is on the brink of winning.

Last year, sometime around September, NFL’s Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones

got caught on camera digging away to combat mortification after Tony Romo got picked off for a touchdown. This video, by the way, was viewed more than 10,000 times on youtube (most likely from other aficionados of the same sport). It is quite remarkable to observe that different countries react differently towards people who fascinate themselves by unconsciously repelling people around them. Countries like Kuwait, and most Asian countries like India, Pakistan and so on express more tolerance towards ‘nosey’ individuals simply because we are more sensitive towards the other person’s feelings - at the cost of our own. But residents of countries like US and UK are known to speak their minds out against anything they perceive as repulsive. Seeing people scrunch their faces in disgust and look away at the sight of their neighbor or someone at a traffic signal blissfully pull out green matter from his cavity and toss it out is not uncommon - but what is rare is watching someone march up to him/her (almost always him) that he shouldn’t be doing it - or hire someone else to do it King Tut-style.

Statistics indicate that over 90 percent of people admitted to excavation but ironically, as easy as it is to spot a picker, it’s equally hard to get one to openly talk about it - except for one - who said that it engenders thought-flow. He said it was relaxing and drew a similarity to reading a thriller while on the pot and elaborated that air felt ‘fresher and cleaner’ - after the gooey obstacles inside the nose were pulled out.

Indian Ayurveda promotes a practice called ‘neti’ - which when performed behind closed doors endorses hygiene.

Water is inhaled through one nostril and exhaled from the other and some yogis (also known as sadhus) used to send a thread from one nostril up the nasal cavity and pull it down the other - almost like a nasal floss. (The main idea behind this was to keep the sinuses clean and ensure that the pathway to the brain was sterile.) It is important to note that the same procedure conducted on Guinness Book of World Records with a green snake instead of a muslin thread was not performed to clean the artist’s nose, though.

So the next time someone tells you to keep your nose out of their business, it would be a smart move to suggest that you’ll do it - provided they promise to keep their fingers out of their nose in public.

priyankasaligram@kuwaittimes.net

Friday, February 19, 2010

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Friday, February 19, 2010

A successful start to Arabian horse championship

By Abdullah Al-Qattan

T

he First Kuwait Arabian Horse National Championship Show began successfully Wednesday and featured the participation of more than 90 competitors just on the first day. The championship, organized by Bait AlArab, witnessed fierce competition among qualified participants who strived for the first place.

The event was held under the patronage of HH the Amir Sheikh

Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and was attended by Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of State for Housing and Development.

A large number of guests, horse and equestrian lovers attended the event. The first day witnessed the participation and competition of Philly horses, where participants revealed the beauty points of their horses in front of the judging committee that comprised four

international judges who evaluated the horses and selected the runner ups based on conformation and trotting.

The judging panel comprised of: Mohammed Mashmoum (Morocco), Mark Terrila (Poland), Ann Nordan (Sweden) and Rinata Shebler (Switzerland).

Commenting on the participation, the show’s director Abdulla Al-Breihi said, “All participating horses have been divided into four main groups based on their gender and age; these

groups are broken down into subcategories where they would compete among each other to select the best horses based on their beauty. On the final day of the championship, the first and second runner up from all categories will be qualified to enter the final competition to select the best four horses in the ‘Hero of Heroes’ contest.”

Al-Breihi took the point further adding that “the competition depends on evaluating the beauty of

the participating horses according to the international rules and regulations; therefore, the supervising committee chose all the judges accredited by the European Conference of Arab Horse Organizations (ECAHO) and with ‘A’ ranking.”

The competition is considered to be the largest of its kind in Kuwait, GCC and the Middle East and began Wednesday. It will last for three days.

A grand finale today will conclude the competition.

Friday, February 19, 2010

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KUWAIT: The First Kuwait Arabian Horse National Championship Show in progress on Wednesday. The images illustrate some of the competitors who took part on the first day of the event. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

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MPs demand ban on Iraqi lawmaker for insulting Caliph Housing panel studies plans for 10 new cities

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The national assembly housing committee yesterday discussed proposals to construct 10 housing cities, each with 20,000 housing units over the next three years to resolve the chronic housing problem, MP The committee will hold its next meeting on March 4 to finalize the various proposals on housing and then send their reports to the national assembly for debate.

Head of the committee MP Ahmad Al-Saadoun said the committee will hold meetings with the ministers of municipality, oil and housing to discuss providing government land for the ambitious housing projects. He said the housing plan will be passed in legislation.

Kuwait has been facing an acute shortage of housing units for citizens due to scarcity of land and

Daifallah Buramia, member of the committee, said.

The proposal also stipulates to set up public shareholding companies to build the cities with each company assigned to build a city. Part of the shares of the companies will be sold in an IPO to citizens, Buramia said.

its highly expensive price. The two factors combined to push the waiting period for a government house to more than 12 years.

The government provides either a house or a plot of land and a loan for all Kuwaiti families against the payment of a symbolic monthly installment over a long period of time.

In another development, hardline Islamist MPs Waleed Al-Tabtabai and Mohammad Hayef yesterday called on the government to ban the entry of Iraqi lawmaker Bahaa AlAaraji for allegedly verbally abusing Islam’s first Caliph Abu Bakr Al-

Siddiq.

MP Hayef said abusing the name of Abu Bakr is like undermining Islam itself while Tabtabai said the Kuwaiti people will not accept the entry of anyone who abuses the companions of the prophet. Aaraji is a member of Muqtada Al-Sadr Shiite group in Iraqi parliament.

The two Sunni MPs however did not say how the Iraqi lawmaker abused Abu Bakr. The news comes following last month’s controversial ban of a leading Saudi Sunni preacher, Mohammad Al-Arefi for allegedly insulting Shiite main cleric Ali Al-Sistani.

407 killed in 61,000 traffic accidents in 2009 KUWAIT: Statistics recently released by the traffic department on accidents that took place in 2009 showed that 407 people, including 152 citizens, 132 Asians, 77 Arabs, 23 stateless people, 18 GCC nationals and 5 of other nationalities, were killed in 2009. Another 670 people were injured in over 61,000 accidents in 2009 compared to only 56,660 in 2008, the planning and research

manager at the traffic department, colonel Waleed Al-Ibrahim told Al-Qabas. He pointed out that in most of the cases the age categories of the killed varied between 21 and 30 years old.

According to him fatalities in this age category were 115 another 88 were in the 31 to 40 age group. Some 67 were aged 11 to 20, and 51 were 41-50; 35 were older than 61, 30 aged 51-61 and 21 aged

one month-10 years old.î Al-Ibrahim added that traffic tickets also rose in 2009 as 3,289,904 tickets had been filed with a total value of KD 30,162,660 in 2009 compared to 2,586,086 with a total value of KD 30,119,680 in 2008. ìAccording to statistics, male drivers committed more traffic violations with 313,000 driving through red traffic light violations; some

1,244,586 speeding tickets were issued and another 31,186 tickets were issued for using mobile phones while driving; another 14 tickets were issued for driving under the influence of alcohol; some 659 tickets were issued for racing and another 36,834 tickets were issued for driving in the opposite directioní, he explained noting that those figures were highly alarming.

Friday, February 19, 2010

crimes Twist to Khaitan Monster case KUWAIT: In a twist to the ‘Khaitan Monster’ case where an Egyptian national had confessed to raping several children, in addition to kidnapping, raping and killing a Pakistani teenage girl, the suspect denied all charges before court during trial. He claimed that he had been brutally beaten by investigators who then coerced him into making false confessions. He added that every time he testified to the public prosecutor, detectives would threaten him with physical assault once he was taken back to jail. Security sources said that the suspect undressed before the judge to reveal torture marks. Also, the suspect told the judge that an Egyptian undercover agent, posing as an Egyptian intelligence agent, had once approached and asked him why he usually walked between residential buildings where children usually played. “I told him it was a shortcut to my workplace, but he reported to the police that I had been eyeing the children. Two days later, the police came to my work place accompanied by the Egyptian and arrested me in connection with murdering a Pakistani girl,” he explained.

Medical error averted A baby boy narrowly escaped a fatal medical error when a pediatrician misdiagnosed him with severe pulmonary infection. The infant actually suffered a mild fever, said the child’s father pointing out that his son had recovered soon and that his respiratory system was healthy. The man explained that when he took his child, suffering from fever, to the Mubarak hospital the doctor on duty requested that a chest X-ray be taken three times. The child, reportedly, did not stay still while the procedure was being conducted.

“Finally, I took the X-ray report back to the doctor who appeared shocked the moment he laid eyes on it,” the father said. He noted that the doctor had said that the child suffered from severe pulmonary infection, and that he had to be immediately hospitalized. “While still in shock myself, I noticed that the X-ray report showed a jaw full of teeth, which implied that it belonged to an older child who was at least seven years old. My child did not grow any teeth yet,” the father said. He noted that the doctor then apologized and told him X-ray technician must have committed an error. “What could have happened if I did not notice the mistake and if my son had received the wrong medication?,” the father questioned.

Deadly Mockery Taking follow up action in the case where a suspect was accused of murdering his two friends in Jahra, detectives learnt that he is mentally ill and that he had occasionally visited the psychiatric diseases hospital’s outpatient department. Preliminary investigations reveal that the suspect was offended by his friends’ mockery and that the infuriated man asked them to stop. However, they continued to laugh at him, which provoked him to grab a knife and stab them both to death before proceeding to the hospital to receive medication, where he was arrested.

Security sources added that traces of blood were found on and inside his car. Further investigations are in progress.

Missing wife A citizen filed a complaint with police stating that his wife, who had just been released from prison, did not return home and that was missing. Police have launched a search for the wife.

Kuwaiti students in UAE get allowance raise

Women bag first gold, bronze medals for Kuwait in Int’l Police Shooting KUWAIT: Two Kuwaiti women earned a gold and a bronze medal on day one of the First International Police Shooting Championship held in the country, under the patronage of His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. Female shooter,

Maryam Al-Rozougi was the first Kuwaiti to add a gold medal to the host nation’s tally in the 10m air rifle category held on Wednesday, while Sarah AlHawal followed adding a bronze in the trap category.

Talking to reporters following her achievement, Al-Rozougi said the win was

hard-fought and that she had received tough competition from the rest of the shooters.

Al-Rozougi presented the valuable win to her country Kuwait, and President of the Kuwaiti and international police sports’ federations Major General Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-

Ahmad Al-Sabah, to her team’s shooters and the Kuwaiti people.

She also expressed gratitude to Sheikh Ahmad and the Kuwait Shooting Club for their support and for having granted her the opportunity to take part in the illustrious global event. — KUNA

SHARJAH: The Kuwaiti Ministry of Higher Education has agreed, in principle, to raise the monthly allowance and financial support for its scholarship students in the UAE, announced Assistant Undersecretary for Scholarships and Cultural Relations Dr. Rashed AlNuwaihidh.

Speaking to KUNA following the annual meeting of Kuwaiti students in the UAE, organized in Sharjah Wednesday night by the Kuwaiti Students’ Club, he said that a specialized Higher Education Ministry committee would be looking into the matter to determine exactly how much the raise would be.

This visit is an opportunity to meet with the students and to understand their problems, so that they can be eliminated, he said.

Asked about providing health care for Kuwaiti students here, Al-Nuwaihidh said that health insurance for Kuwaitis enrolled in Sheikh Zayed University had been approved, and that in cooperation with the Kuwaiti Cultural Office in Dubai, lists of students would be prepared to grant health insurance to all.

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SANAA: Kuwait Red Crescent Society volunteers are seen visiting Saada victims yesterday who are currently undergoing treatment at Thawra Hospital in Sanaa. —KUNA

KRCS volunteers visit Saada victims Worldwide Caution February, 2010 Warden Message, US embassy in Kuwait The Department of State has issued this Worldwide Caution to update information on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world. U.S. citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. This replaces the Worldwide Caution dated July 29, 2009 to provide updated information on security threats and terrorist activities worldwide.

The Department of State remains concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations, and other violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests overseas. Americans are reminded that demonstrations and rioting can occur with little or no warning. Current information suggests that Al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics including suicide operations, assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings, and bombings.

The Middle East and North Africa Credible information indicates terrorist groups seek to continue attacks against U.S. interests in the Middle East and North Africa. Terrorist actions may include bombings, hijackings, hostage taking, kidnappings, and assassinations.

While conventional weapons such as explosive devices are a more immediate threat in many areas, use of nonconventional weapons, including chemical or biological agents, must be considered a possible threat. Terrorists do not distinguish between official and civilian targets. Increased security at official U.S. facilities has led terrorists and their sympathizers to seek softer

targets such as public transportation, residential areas, and public areas where people congregate, including restaurants, hotels, clubs, and shopping areas.

Countries in the region continue to experience varying levels of violence.

On December 8, 2009, Iraqi government buildings in Baghdad were targeted by car bombs. On October 25, 2009, two massive car bombs exploded outside Iraqi government buildings in a heavily secured area of Baghdad, killing more than 150 people and injuring 500 more; prior to that, on August 19, a series of car bombs and mortar attacks occurred in Baghdad, killing at least 77 people and injuring nearly 500. On August 28, 2009, Al-Qaeda operatives were involved in a suicide bombing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia that injured the Saudi Assistant Minister of Security. These events underscore the intent of terrorist entities to continue to target a variety of facilities in the region, including those belonging to local governments and/or where Westerners may be present.

Potential targets are not limited to those companies or establishments with overt U.S. ties. For instance, terrorists may target movie theaters, liquor stores, bars, casinos, or any similar type of establishment, regardless of whether they are owned and operated by host country nationals. Due to varying degrees of security at all such locations, Americans should be particularly vigilant when visiting these establishments.

The violence in Iraq and conflict between Palestinians and Israelis has the potential to produce demonstrations and unrest throughout the region. The armed conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009 raised tensions and sparked demonstrations throughout the world.

SANAA: Volunteers of Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) visited yesterday the Yemenis wounded in Saada, currently undergoing treatment at Thawra Hospital in the capital, Sanaa.

Speaking to KUNA, Hospital Director Ahmad Al-Mansi lauded this gesture, saying that it reflected the depth of relations shared between the two friendly countries and that it deeply moved the victims. KRCS is currently engaged in humanitarian efforts to aid victims in Saada. On his part, Head of the KRCS mission in Yemen, Musaed Al-Enizi, prayed for the victims to recover swiftly, adding that this was an effort to alleviate some of the suffering of the people of Saada. Moreover, he said the Kuwaiti government and people have always stood ready to lend a helping hand. AlEnizi lauded efforts of the Kuwaiti Embassy here, headed

by Ambassador Salem AlZamanan, in assisting the volunteers and facilitating their work —KUNA

Poultry industry in region faces numerous challenges KUWAIT: An expert in the poultry production said yesterday that the poultry industry in the region faces a range of challenges. Walid Al-Saleh said in a press statement that one of the challenges was the administrative aspect being represented in the non-selection of the correct choice of new vaccines for poultry, stressing the importance of early vaccination since the beginning of production. He pointed to the importance of increasing poultry immunity through the developed vaccines, saying that poultry injuries are not necessarily to found in the Kuwait, but knowing the accurate information on the nature of disease scientifically would save the poultry wealth in the country. —KUNA

Kuwaiti socialist stresses need to highlight ‘citizenship’ concept KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti sociologist has asserted the need to highlight the concept of ‘citizenship’ and provide a balanced picture of the nationality concept as well as find a moderate and constructive interaction between citizenship and social deviance.

Dr. Saeed Al-Humaidan said today, in the second monthly seminar of the Association of Kuwaiti Socialists, dubbed (citizenship in the face of social deviance) that the concept of citizenship is among the terms that mostly needs excitement, understanding and embodiment.

He added that, “Citizenship is acquired and not innate and it can

grow and age and die if not nurtured and taken care of,” noting that the Kuwaiti Constitution contains legislation which deals with the citizens’ civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

He pointed to the Articles in Part II of the Constitution (the basic components of the Kuwaiti society), “The articles in this section provide for justice, freedom and equality and are considered the pillars of society, cooperation and solidarity among citizens.” He explained that the state looks after the national economy which is based on social justice and founded on fair cooperation between public and private activity. —KUNA

Kuwait marks national festivals with air parade KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry is poised to hold a vertical flight parade tomorrow in the Arabian Gulf street between the Green Island and Kuwait Towers to mark the country’s national festivals. Kuwaiti helicopters will carry out airdrops on two different sites at mixed heights, attending entertainment performance shows celebrating the annual Hala February Festival, the ministry said in a release yesterday. In the conclusion of the air parade, pictures of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah and Kuwaiti flags are to be flown, it added. Kuwaiti security agencies are doing their best to ensure safe and secure national festivals in the country, a senior security official said. —KUNA

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Slain Hamas leader was mechanic, bodybuilder DAMASCUS: After years spent looking over his shoulder for potential assassins, Mahmoud AlMabhouh w as finally taken dow n by a hit squad in a luxury hotel room in Dubai. The senior Hamas commander, a shadow y figure w ho lived much of his life abroad, had survived attempts on his life

before - including an ambush by Israeli soldiers disguised as farm w orkers. Hamas is blaming Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, w hich never openly discusses its operations, w hile Israel says there w as no reason to assume the Mossad is responsible.

DUBAI: An image grab taken yesterday from hotel surveillance camera footage, released by Dubai police, allegedly shows assassinated Hamas militant Mahmud Al-Mabhuh (encircled) checking into a hotel on January 19, 2010 before his murder the following day. — AFP

Yemen rebels free Saudi soldiers as truce holds SANAA: Yemeni Shiite rebels handed two Saudi soldiers over to mediators yesterday, the defense ministry said, as a fledging truce with the government in the northern mountains moved ahead. “Two of the remaining four Saudi prisoners” were handed over to mediators, a ministry statement said. The mediators will then take the soldiers to the capital Sanaa from where they will travel on to Saudi Arabia, it said. A spokesman for the rebels said they had begun to hand over the remaining soldiers earlier yesterday.

“We have started to hand over the rest of the Saudi soldiers to the ceasefire committee in Saada,” Mohammed Abdul Salam told AFP in Dubai by telephone.

Four committees in north Yemen are charged with implementing the ceasefire between the rebels and the government, which went into effect on Friday. The released soldiers will be received by Saudi Assistant Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan this evening, a Saudi military official told AFP. “We don’t know how many” soldiers will be released, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The rebels on Monday freed the first of the five Saudi soldiers they captured during three months of clashes on the border.

The rebels had complained on Sunday that Saudi Arabia was refusing to release the prisoners it is holding in exchange for the soldiers. Members of the ceasefire committees said that the Yemeni army could deploy along the border with Saudi Arabia tomorrow. “If we finish demining the border area by tomorrow, the army will be deployed in the area,” one of the committee members told AFP on condition of anonymity. The rebels announced their withdrawal from the border area on Tuesday. As well as freeing all prisoners and opening roads in the north, the truce requires the rebels to

withdraw from government buildings, return arms seized from security forces, hand over captured army posts and pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia.

The rebels, also known as Huthis, have been engaged in sporadic fighting with government forces since 2004.

Saudi Arabia joined the fighting on November 4, accusing the rebels of killing a Saudi border guard and occupying two villages inside Saudi territory. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said that more than 250,000 people have fled their homes.

It renewed calls on Tuesday for access to tens of thousands of displaced people in Saada province following the ceasefire. The UNHCR also warned its humanitarian operations might be reduced or suspended if its aid appeals remain unmet. With the truce in place, the UNHCR wants access to Saada province so aid agencies can help the needy, spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a press conference. “Displaced people and those who were trapped by the fighting need urgent and massive support,” Fleming said.

More than 27,000 are now in camps and despite international aid many of the displaced “are fast exhausting their remaining resources,” she added. During a Gulf tour on Monday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern about the plight of those who had fled their homes. “To assist displaced Yemenis, the United States has thus far provided 19.3 million dollars during fiscal years 2009 and 2010. We urge other donor nations to support international relief agencies,” she said. Although the situation in the north is now calm, Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, is still battling Al-Qaeda militants and discontent in the formerly independent south. — AFP

Details were also scarce about what led Al-Mabhouh to become one of the founders of the military wing of Hamas, which has carried out hundreds of attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israelis and rules the Gaza Strip. He was not one of the towering figures of the movement and was little known to the people of Gaza, having left the territory in 1989 to work abroad.

Israel considered him to be the point man in smuggling Iranian rockets into Gaza that would be capable of striking the Jewish state’s Tel Aviv heartland. He also was involved in the 1989 capturing and killing of two Israeli soldiers. Born on Feb 14, 1960 in the Jebaliya refugee camp in Gaza, AlMabhouh was the fifth of 14 children. He dropped out of elementary school, began an apprenticeship as a car mechanic and eventually opened a garage, according to his younger brother, Fayek, who still lives in the camp. “We were a large family, but we were not poor,” said Fayek, speaking after a memorial rally for his brother attended by about 3,000 Hamas supporters Wednesday evening. He also was a keen sportsman who once won a bodybuilding tournament in Gaza, Hamas said.

Fayek said his father frowned on the hobby because he felt sports clubs were a bad influence, and that his brother often had to sneak out of the house to attend practice.

By his mid-20s, Al-Mabhouh had grown increasingly interested in jihad, or holy war, and joined the Gaza branch the Muslim Brotherhood, the pan-Arab movement of which Hamas is an offshoot.

After going to prison for a year in 1986 for weapons possession, he got to know the Hamas movement’s founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. A year later, with the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising, he joined its military wing. His first child, Mona, now 24, was born around this time, followed by Abdel-Raouf, 21; Majd, 11 and Ranim, 7. In 1989, Al-Mabhouh was involved in killing two Israeli soldiers on leave.

Sgt Avi Sasportas was abducted outside the coastal city of Ashkelon, near the Gaza Strip, and shot to death. Cpl Ilan Saadon was abducted the same year while hitchhiking just north of Gaza. His body was found in 1996 buried under a coastal road south of Tel Aviv. The deaths prompted a raid on Al-Mabhouh’s home in the Gaza Strip in which Israeli forces dropped onto the balcony and roof and stormed through the front door, said Hamas. Israeli soldiers disguised as farm workers staged a simultaneous raid on his garage.

But Al-Mabhouh escaped and went into hiding for two months before crossing the border into Egypt, Hamas said. Then he moved to Libya and finally Syria. Despite disappearing entirely from the public scene, Hamas says Al-Mabhouh was still playing a “continuous role in supporting his brothers in the resistance inside the occupied homeland” at the time of his death. The group did not, however, give clear reasons for his presence in Dubai, and he was not traveling with a bodyguard, despite having survived three previous assassination attempts, including the 1989 raids, a poisoning attempt in Beirut two years ago and a bomb planted in his car in Syria.

Another brother, Hussein, said AlMabhouh did not like drawing attention to himself. More than 2,000 Palestinians attended Al-Mabhouh’s funeral on Jan 29 at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, near Damascus. — AP

BAABDA: A picture released by the official Lebanese photo agency Dalati and Nohra shows Lebanese President Michel Sleiman (left) during a meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout at the presidential palace yesterday.

Kohout is on an official visit to Lebanon. — AFP

No peace without solution for Palestinian refugees: UNRWA BEIRUT: Finding a solution to the plight of millions of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East is key to peace in the region, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in an interview yesterday. “UNRWA has no political role, but it does have the moral role of reminding all parties involved and all governments with a say in the peace process that there will be no peace without a fair solution for refugees in line with UN resolutions,” the agency’s Commissionner General Filippo Grandi told AFP. “It is tragic that the international community has not yet found a solution to this problem,” Grandi, who was appointed to the post in January, said on a visit to Beirut.

The fate of refugees is one of the thorniest issues in the stalled Middle East peace process, as Israel rejects Palestinian demands to allow their return to lands they fled in 1948 when the state of Israel was created. The cash-strapped UNRWA provides assistance to about 4.7 million Palestinian refugees, many of whom have settled in camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. “The situation has been the same for 60 years now, and today we speak of fourthgeneration refugees,” said Grandi.

“Without a solution, this will only continue.”

UNRWA remains 100 million dollars short of its budget for 2010, Grandi said earlier this month. Part of the agency’s budget in Lebanon goes to the reconstruction of Nahr Al-Bared, a camp near the northern port city of Tripoli leveled in deadly fighting between the army and AlQaeda-inspired group Fatah alIslam in 2007. The fighting killed 400 people, including 168

Lebanese soldiers, and displaced about 30,000 residents from the Palestinian refugee camp, where Fatah al-Islam was based.

UNRWA has made an appeal for 450 million dollars to rebuild the camp and the surrounding areas but has so far received only 120 million dollars. “The money we have right now covers the reconstruction of only three of eight camp sections destroyed,” Grandi said. “We also need relief funds for the basic needs of the camp residents urgently. What we have now will run dry by May or June.”

On the political and economic fronts, the Lebanese constitution bans Palestinian refugees from obtaining Lebanese citizenship, owning property or entering some professions. Grandi said he has urged Prime Minister Saad Hariri to find “a concrete solution for the legal employment of refugees in Lebanon.” According to UNRWA figures, Lebanon is home to nearly 400,000 refugees, most of whom live in 12 destitute camps across the country.

Other figures put the number at between 250,000 and 270,000 as the UN does not strike off its list those who emigrate from Lebanon, which has a population of four million. Lebanon, which supports the refugees’ right to return to their homes, absorbs 12 to 15 percent of the cash-strapped agency’s total annual budget, which tops 600 million dollars (442 million euros). Lebanese across the board reject the permanent settlement or full integration of the mainly Sunni Muslim Palestinians, as their naturalization would upset the country’s delicate confessional balance. — AFP

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Suicide bomber kills 11 in Iraq’s Anbar province More violence feared as March 7 vote approaches CAIRO: In this photo released by the Discovery Channel, the mummy of King Tut’s mother, seen through a glass case, is displayed for media during a press conference with Egypt’s top archaeologist at the Egyptian Museum, Feb 17, 2010. — AP

Egypt’s King Tut born of incestuous wedlock CAIRO: Ancient Egypt’s teenage king Tutankhamun was born of an incestuous marriage, scientists said on Wednesday, helping to explain why he limped on a club foot and suffered other deformities and genetic defects. Research including tests on the pharaoh’s mummy, discovered in 1922 in the Valley of Kings, showed that his parents had been siblings and he had only one set of grandparents.

Incestuous alliances were common among Egypt’s royalty, said renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. “A king could marry his sister and his daughter because he is a god, like Iris and Osiris, and this was a habit only among kings and queens,” Hawass told a news conference at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

There has long been speculation about the fate of the king, who died sometime around 1324 BC, probably aged 19. The scientists were presenting more details of DNA tests and CT scans conducted on Tutankhamun and 15 other mummies between 2007 and 2009. On Tuesday, they revealed that he had had malaria, a cleft palate and a genetic bone disease.

“This 21st century medical science allows for a more exact reconstruction of history,” Albert Zink, a German member

of the research team, told Reuters.

Scientists have identified Akhenaten, the “heretic” king who introduced monotheism to ancient Egypt, as Tutankhamun’s father. Akhenaten first married Nefertiti, who was renowned for her great beauty, but had no sons so he then married his sister in an effort to have a son.

Hawass said it would take several months to reveal more details about the identity of the Tutankhamun’s mother.

Scientists are also looking for the mummy of queen Nefertiti but they have identified Ankhsenamun as Tutankhamun’s wife. Two fetuses found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, which was full of treasure, were identified as his offspring.

Depictions of Akhenaten with a bizarre feminine physique were due to the belief that god represented by the pharaoh was androgynous. “The artists used a poem Akhenaton wrote to god saying ‘you are the man ... you are the woman’ as a model for depicting fertility and the source of life,” Hawass said. He ruled out speculation that Tutankhamun and his father suffered from “Marfan syndrome” and another condition that could have led to enlarged breasts. — Reuters

RAMADI: A suicide bomber killed at least 11 people and w ounded 21 yesterday in Iraq’s increasingly turbulent w estern Anbar province, a senior Iraqi army official and police said. A medical source said

Ramadi’s main hospital had received 13 bodies and 26 people had been w ounded. Separately, in the violent city of Mosul in north Iraq a car bomb exploded near a police building, w ounding 24 people.

Al-Qaeda’s local offshoot has threatened to use violence to disrupt Iraq’s parliamentary elections on March 7, for which politicians and candidates are campaigning. A restaurant worker in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, said that bodies littered the scene of the bombing, close to a group of provincial government buildings. Blood stained the ground, and gutted police and army vehicles smouldered nearby.

“A suicide bomber ... attacked the checkpoint of the police and army close to our restaurant. Some of them were killed. I saw around five or six bodies, and helped carry them to cars going to hospital,” worker Hamid Ali said. The mainly Sunni province was at one stage a safe haven for Sunni Islamist insurgents like Al-Qaeda, but tribal leaders turned on militants in late 2006, formed antiinsurgent militias in 2007 with US backing and restored relative calm. A series of blasts in recent months in the

desert province, the nation’s largest, shattered the peace in the run-up to the national vote, seen as a crucial test as Iraq emerges from decades of dictatorship, war and economic decline. Suicide bombers killed more than 25 people in Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, on Dec 30 and seriously wounded their main target, Anbar governor Qassim Mohammed.

Sunni Muslims largely boycotted the 2005 parliamentary election, helping fuel the insurgency. Many Sunni candidates plan to vote in the March ballot, though a ban on some top Sunni politicians for alleged links to Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party has fanned sectarian tension. Iraqi and US officials hope the election will solidify the country’s young democracy, by drawing former insurgents and militias into the political process, before a US military withdrawal due by the end of 2011.

— Reuters

RAMADI: Iraqi security forces inspect the damage at the scene of a suicide attack on a checkpoint near local government offices in the western Iraqi city yesterday. — AFP

Turkish government blasts Norway gives Iranian judiciary over plot inquiry ANKARA: Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government yesterday criticized a top judicial body for removing four prosecutors from an investigation into an alleged anti-government plot. “The functioning of independent justice has been prevented. How can prosecutors now carry out probes freely, without fear?” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told a news conference. “It is a heavy blow on the justice system... It is a shame for democracy,” he said.

A probe has been running since 2007 into an alleged secular network, Ergenekon, accused of plotting political chaos in a bid to prompt a military coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the moderate offshoot of a nowbanned Islamist movement. The central figure now is prosecutor Ilhan Cihaner, who was charged with belonging to Ergenekon after he launched an inquiry into an influential Islamic community and claimed he had come under government pressure to abandon the proceedings.

Rival prosecutors secured Cihaner’s arrest Wednesday, prompting an emergency meeting of the Higher Board of Judges and Prosecutors. The board argued the arrest was a grave breach of a law

stipulating that senior prosecutors can only be investigated and tried by the Court of Appeals. It downgraded four prosecutors, effectively removing them from the probe against Cihaner.

The Court of Appeals and the Council of State backed the decision, also earning a rebuke from Arinc.

Turkey’s chief prosecutor put further pressure on the AKP, saying he was examining whether the government exerts political pressure on the judiciary, a move that could result in a bid to seek AKP’s closure at the constitutional court. In 2008, the AKP narrowly escaped a ban for violating Turkey’s secular system. The judiciary has also infuriated the AKP by blocking arrangements crucial for the party, among them bills that would lift a ban on the Islamist headscraf in universities and facilitate university access for graduates of Islamic high schools. Tensions rose in November when the justice ministry conceded it had wiretapped dozens of senior prosecutors and judges on suspicion they belonged to Ergenekon. Critics of the Ergenekon probe say it has become a government-sponsored campaign to silence opponents. — AFP

ex-diplomat shelter

OSLO: Norway has granted asylum to an Oslobased Iranian diplomat who resigned in January to protest his government’s violent response to opposition demonstrations in Tehran, officials said yesterday.

The Norwegian Immigration Directorate gave Mohammed Reza Heydari and his family permission to remain in Norway as political refugees after going through “all necessary information pertaining to the case,” directorate spokeswoman Bente Engelsand said. She declined to comment further because the Immigration Directorate does not discuss the details of individual cases. Heydari told national broadcaster NRK on Jan. 5 that he quit his consular post at the Iranian Embassy in Norway in protest after eight Iranian demonstrators were killed during a Dec 27 opposition rally in Tehran.

“I couldn’t continue in good conscience,” he told NRK. Heydari could not be reached immediately for comment yesterday.

Jamshid Parvizi, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Norway, said Heydari didn’t quit, but

that his mission for the Foreign Ministry ended in December. He said the embassy has documents proving this claim, but that “it’s not the right time to show that document.” “We think that he (Heydari) is telling lies and that he is an opportunist,” Parvizi said. He alleged that Heydari had claimed he quit so that he could get asylum in Norway, but he wouldn’t speculate about why Heydari would want to leave Iran.

In Norway, political asylum is granted “to protect persons who are persecuted or risk (for example) torture or the death penalty in their home countries,” according to the Immigration Directorate. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called Heydari’s resignation unacceptable and said in January that “he should continue his job either in Norway or the ministry.” June’s disputed presidential election led moderate Iranians to withdraw support from the hardline government. Some members of the government were dismissed following the elections, while others resigned. — AP

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Gunfire erupts in Niger capital in coup attempt French Niger expats told to stay indoors NIAMEY: Smoke was seen rising from the presidential palace amid heavy gunfire in Niger’s capital, Niamey, yesterday in what one intelligence official said was a coup attempt.

Political tensions have been high in the central African uranium exporting country in recent months over President Mamadou Tandja’s extension of his rule, which drew widespread criticism and international sanctions. Witnesses said machine gun and heavy weapons fire erupted in the city at around 1200 GMT and that smoke was rising from the presidential palace. A Reuters witness later saw five injured soldiers at a hospital in Niamey.

An intelligence officer, who asked not to be named, said the violence was a coup attempt that the presidential guard was trying to put down. Police sources said they believed the attackers came from outside the city in armored vehicles. A member of Tandja’s entourage in the palace said that “for now everything is alright”. By 1330 GMT the shooting continued but was less intense, the Reuters witness said. The action was likely to be contained and Tandja retain power, said Control Risks analyst Rolake Akinola.

“It is likely that it happened quickly ... but it goes to show the political crisis is deepening.

LUDWIGSHAFEN: Police officers stand after a rampage in front of the vocational school BBS yesterday. — AFP

Teacher dead in German school attack, man held

NIAMEY: A file photo shows thousands of people demonstrating to ask West African leaders meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, to put pressure on Niger President Mamadou Tandja not to extend his stay in office. — AFP This indicates that there is growing discontent against Tandja, even in the loyalist camp,” she said. “We will see increased political and regional pressure for Tandja to concede (political) ground.” Several major resources firms have operations in Niger. “We got confirmation on the ground that things were heating up, but ... we don’t know if this affects some of our employees,” said an official at one such firm, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tensions high Tandja drew criticism and sanctions after dissolving parliament and orchestrating a constitutional reform in 2009 that gave him added powers and extended his term beyond his second five-year mandate, which expired in December.

The constitutional referendum in August, condemned internationally and at home, eliminated many of the remaining checks on Tandja’s authority, abolished term limits, and gave him an initial three more years in power

without an election.

The constitutional court declared that vote illegal, to which Tandja responded by abolishing the court and replacing its members with his own appointees. West Africa’s regional bloc suspended Niger in October and the United States terminated trade benefits for the country in December, while former colonial power France also criticised Tandja last year. France’s foreign ministry was not immediately able to comment yesterday. — Reuters

Mogadishu arms market booms ahead of battle MOGADISHU: Islamist insurgents and fighters from Somalia’s government forces mingle peacefully at Mogadishu’s main weapons market, but both sides are stocking up ahead of a major government offensive. Civilians have fled the city and many shops have closed down, as the government offensive, supported by African Union troops, is believed to be imminent. For weapons dealer Abdi Hirsi however, business is brisk. His best-selling item is a Chinese handgun, whose market value has appreciated by 25 percent in recent days.

“The Chinese pistol which was going for 560 dollars now fetches around 700,” he told AFP. “I’m talking about a brand new one, complete with sealed packaging and all.” “If you buy a larger quantity, we can bring the price down a bit or make a serious discount on the ammo,” Hirsi said. The young dealer added apologetically that rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers were out of stock since last week. “But I can get some from other merchants if there’s a serious buyer.”

The market is situated in Bakara, a restive northern neighborhood of Mogadishu and the mercantile heart of the Somali capital. An intricate web of narrow alleyways that has chronically provided useful shelter to armed groups, Bakara offers everything from food to textile products, as well as gold, fuel and a vast choice of looted goods. In one corner of the market area is the weapons

MOGADISHU: A file photo shows customers looking at weapons displayed inside the weapons market. — AFP market, which is known in Somali as Irtoogte-”sky-shooters”because dealers and customers habitually test the goods on the spot.

“Testing is essential to verify that the product is operational, we can’t be selling fake guns to people,” said 34-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, another arms retailer.

Irtoogte was officially closed down by the transitional federal government in 2007 and the Shebab-the rebel group sympathetic to Al Qaeda that controls most of the country-also banned it a year later after capturing the area.

Mogadishu’s dealers started con-

ducting their business less openly but for those who can afford it, purchasing an assault rifle is barely harder than buying a mobile phone.

“You can’t display your weapons on the street like before but it is important to carry on and keep looking for customers,” said Mohamed. “The Shebab and the government may confiscate our goods if they see them so we have to keep our commodities in a safe place and deliver directly to the buyer,” he explained. The Skyshooters market also includes repairmen.” They can do a nice job with a lot of things from machineguns to ageing anti-aircraft

weapons. They work for everybody because they are not factionally biased,” said Abdullahi Sheikh Omar, another dealer.

Sheikh Omar deals mainly in the everlasting AK-47, which he explained sells at 650 dollars when new and as little as 150 dollars when used. Landmines are hard to find but available and ammunition comes in many sizes and at generally low cost, such is the extent to which Somalia has been awash with weapons for years.

Mohamoud Abdi, a 23-year-old Shebab fighter looking for a good deal, is disappointed because he can’t find ammunition for the USmade 106mm M40 recoilless rifle, an old but efficient anti-tank weapon.

“The guns are here but there’s no ammunition for the 106. If we were able to use those rifles, the African Union forces would scamper home like the UN troops did in 1995,” he said.

The UN group monitoring the arms embargo on Somalia said in a report a year ago that “as much as 80 per cent of the international investment in building the TFG security forces has been diverted to purposes other than those for which it was intended.” Amnesty International said in a recent report that it believed “the TFG lacks the capacity to prevent the diversion of substantial quantities of its own weaponry and military equipment to other armed groups and to Somalia’s domestic arms markets.” – AFP

BERLIN: Armed police commandos rushed to a school in Germany yesterday, arresting a 23-year-old man after a teacher was killed in the latest in a string of school attacks. The training college in Ludwigshafen, southwest Germany, with more than 3,200 pupils, was immediately evacuated and there were no further injuries, police said, although the attacker apparently assaulted several teachers. “There was one person dead. It was a teacher who was seriously injured and then later died of those injuries,” police spokesman Michael Lindner told rolling news channel N24.

No details were immediately given of how the attack was carried out. Television pictures showed dozens of green-uniformed police at the scene carrying machine guns, along with police helicopters, ambulances and firemen. Security has been tightened at schools across Germany after 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer went on a rampage at his former school last March, killing 15 people before turning his gun on himself in a shoot-out with police.

Since then, there have been several similar incidents that have raised the spectre of another bloodbath. In May, a 16-year-old

girl tried to set her school on fire with Molotov cocktails and attacked a fellow pupil with a knife. A similar attack took place in September, with an 18-year-old boy going on the rampage at his school, lobbing Molotov cocktails and injuring 10 people, before being shot and arrested.

According to police, the latest incident took place at 10:00 am (0900 GMT) and the vast majority of pupils were on their way home an hour later. Shocked pupils were being treated in a counseling centre set up nearby. It was not immediately clear if the arrested man had any connection with the school or the dead teacher.

Lindner said the police would hold a news conference at 3:00 pm (1400 GMT).

Tim Kretschmer’s attack last March at the Albertville Realschule in Winnenden near Stuttgart stunned the country. He killed nine pupils and three teachers then hijacked a van and forced the driver to go 40 kilometres (25 miles) with a gun in his back, telling him what he had done was “fun”. Kretschmer then shot dead three more passers-by in another town before being cornered by police, when he turned the gun on himself. — AFP

Annan advises Kenya’s leaders to clear issues NAIROBI: The African Union panel chaired by former UN chief Kofi Annan yesterday urged Kenya’s feuding leaders to iron out their differences and preserve two years of painstaking progress. “The African Union Panel of Eminent African Personalities expresses its concern at the current political impasse in Kenya and the effect this could have on the implementation of the National Accord,” a statement said.

The panel, under Annan’s leadership, brokered an accord following the violence that erupted after disputed December 2007 elections, leaving 1,500 dead and a quarter of a million people displaced.

The accord resulted in a powersharing deal between the two poll rivals, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, whereby the former kept his job as president and the latter was made prime minister. In its statement, Annan’s panel said the coalition government had achieved progress on key issues such as constitutional, land and electoral reform, since it was formed almost two years ago. “The Panel warns, however, that these achievements could be reversed if the current disagreement is not swiftly resolved,” it said.

Tensions between the premier and the president boiled over at the weekend when Odinga sacked the education and agriculture ministers accused of graft. Kibaki vetoed the move, arguing Odinga was overstepping his prerogatives. Odinga’s detractors charged he was only seeking to undermine Agriculture Minister William Ruto, who is likely to be one of Odinga’s main rivals in 2012 presidential polls.

Kibaki’s critics said the protecting of scandal-ridden officials by the president and his entourage was further evidence that the regime was corrupt. The clash has resulted in threats from Odinga’s party to boycott cabinet meetings and in the government of national unity looking closer to collapse than ever before. Annan’s panel urged the two principals “to meet urgently in order to agree” on the application mechanisms of power-sharing and on a common stance against corruption. Vice Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has urged Annan to return to Kenya and salvage the national accord before it unravels.

On Wednesday, the United States also voiced deep concern over the ongoing row and called for a swift resolution. — AFP

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3 Tesla workers die after plane crashes into US home EAST PALO ALTO: A twin-engine plane carrying three employees of electric car maker Tesla Motors struck a set of power lines after takeoff Wednesday and crashed into a fog-shrouded residential neighborhood, raining fiery debris over homes, sending residents running for safety and killing everyone aboard. But the crash somehow caused no injuries or deaths on the ground despite a wing slamming into a home where a day care center operated. The seven people inside the house, including an infant, all escaped moments before the home went up in flames.

Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said the Cessna 310 either struck a 100-foot (30meter) electrical tower or clipped its power transmission lines and broke apart, dropping debris throughout the working-class Silicon Valley neighborhood.

Federal aviation investigators said they were looking into whether foggy weather played a role in the crash. National Transportation Safety Board investigators will be at the crash site for several days and a preliminary report will be available by next week, said Josh Kawthra, an NTSB investigator.

The city of Palo Alto said most of the city and surrounding area - about 28,000 customers - had no electricity for most of the day because of the crash. A spokeswoman for Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc said its offices were without power but the outage was not affecting the Web site.

Hewlett-Packard Co’s corporate headquarters also were dark, and employees were asked to find other places to work Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. The crash rattled Tesla Motors, one of only a few companies producing and selling purely

electric cars. The identities of the employees were not released. The plane was owned by Doug Bourn of Santa Clara, identified by a Tesla spokesman as a senior electrical engineer at the company. “Tesla is a small, tightly knit company, and this is a tragic day for us,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. The Cessna crashed Wednesday morning shortly after takeoff from the Palo Alto Airport and was bound for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Southern California, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash site was close to Tesla’s headquarters in San Carlos. The occupants of the homes have been accounted for, although authorities can’t be completely sure of the fatality count until crews begin clearing the wreckage, Schapelhouman said.

“Either by luck or the skill of the pilot, the plane hit the street and not the homes on either

side,” he added. “That saved people in this community.” The crash comes at a difficult time for Tesla, which employs 515 people worldwide and just three weeks ago disclosed plans to hold an initial public offering of stock. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said its future business is dependent on the successful rollout of new vehicles.

The two-door Roadster sports car is the only product that the money-losing company currently sells, retailing for $109,000. It has sold about 1,000 since its inception, and its next vehicle the Model S sedan - is due in showrooms in 2012. It has a base price of $57,400, although a federal tax credit could reduce the cost to less than $50,000. Tesla has not said when specifically it plans to go public, nor has it said how much it intends to raise. — AP

Missionaries accused of Haiti child trafficking back in US Children portrayed as orphans while parents still alive

AUSTIN: In this image made from video, smoke billows from a seven-storey building after a small private plane crashed into the building yesterday. — AP

Plane crashes into US tax agency building AUSTIN: A low-flying small plane crashed into a sevenstory building that houses an office of the federal tax agency yesterday, and at least one person was missing, witnesses and officials said. Assistant Austin Fire Chief Harry Evans said two people have also been taken to a hospital. Their conditions were not immediately known.

A law enforcement official said the crash did not initially appear to be the result of a crime or terrorism. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the crash. Thick black and gray smoke was billowing out of the second and third stories of the building yesterday as fire crews using ladder trucks and hoses battled the fire. Dozens of windows were blown out of the hulking black building, which houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service. Vehicles traveling on a nearby highway paused to look. Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who works in the building said she was sitting at her desk when the plane crashed.

“It felt like a bomb blew off.

The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and

ran,” she said. Matt Farney, 39, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, said he saw a low-flying private plane near some apartments and the office building just before it crashed. “I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off,” Farney said, adding that the plane dipped down. “It was a ball of flames that was high or higher than the apartments. It was surreal. It was insane. ...

It didn’t look like he was out of control or anything.” Sitting at her desk about a kilometer from the crash, Michelle Santibanez said she felt vibrations. She and her co-workers ran to the windows, where they saw a scene that reminded them of the 2001 terrorist attacks, she said.

“It was the same kind of scenario with window panels falling out and desks falling out and paperwork flying,” said Santibanez, an accountant.

Fire crews were inside the building battling the blaze and looking for survivors, Evans said. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said the agency was investigating but had no immediate information on the type of plane or how many people were on board. — AP

MIAMI: Eight American missionaries who were charged with child kidnapping in Haiti arrived back in the United States early yesterday after being freed by a judge in the quake-devastated nation. Two of their number remained behind bars and were to face questioning yesterday over the case, which has overshadowed the international relief effort after more than 217,000 people were killed in the January 12 quake. The eight Americans checked in to the Miami International Airport hotel after arriving in the Florida city from Haiti around midnight.

“The eight of them are here. They were brought by the police,” a source at the hotel told AFP. A Haitian judge freed the missionaries without bail on Wednesday though the charges were not dropped-and they were whisked to the airport in a van bearing diplomatic plates to board a US military transport plane for Miami. The American Baptist missionaries from the New Life Children’s Refuge were arrested on January 29 trying to take a busload of 33 children across the border to the Dominican Republic without authorization.

They at first presented the children as quake orphans but it quickly emerged that many of the children still had parents alive. Parents of the children

MIAMI: Missionaries (left-right) Corinna Lankford, Steve McMullen and Drew Culberth (back to camera) get into an elevator together after arriving at Miami International Airport from Port-au-Prince on February 17, 2010. — AFP told reporters they had willingly handed their children over, after being told they would be taken to a school in the Dominican Republic. The missionaries said they only wanted to help, but the case emerged after child protection agencies and humanitarian groups warned that Haiti’s post-quake chaos was fertile ground for human traffickers and those

wanting to exploit children.

The emotionally-charged case drew the attention of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and hindered relief efforts.

Haitian Secretary of State for Public Security Claudy Gassant delivered the release order to the Americans while they stood behind bars. Judge Bernard Saint-Vil allowed them

to leave the country without bail, according to their lawyer Aviol Fleurant. The missionaries’ leader Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter remained in detention in Port-au-Prince because Saint-Vil wants to determine their motives for a trip to Haiti before the quake during which they visited an orphanage in the country’s north, Fleurant said. — AFP

US man tells police he tossed baby off bridge WOODBRIDGE: A man who snatched his infant daughter from the arms of her maternal grandmother while the child’s mother was in court getting a restraining order against him told police he threw the baby off a bridge and into a frigid New Jersey river, prompting a massive search beneath a busy parkway. Search teams, including boats, dogs and helicopters, scoured the area beneath the Garden State Parkway’s Driscoll Bridge in Central New Jersey on Wednesday for any signs of 3-month-old Zara Malani-lin Abdur, who was abducted Tuesday. Authorities suspended the search after dark and planned to resume at daybreak Thursday.

Acting New Jersey Attorney General

Paula Dow called it “an example of a horrific case of domestic violence.”

Authorities say the girl’s father, 21-yearold Shamsiddi Abdur-Raheem, allegedly forced his way into the grandmother’s apartment Tuesday afternoon, striking her in the face, choking her, and forcibly taking the baby, wrapped in a blanket. The 60-year-old grandmother, who police declined to identify, chased after AbdurRaheem and was struck when she tried to stop him by throwing herself in the path of his van. She was treated at a local hospital and released. Abdur-Raheem was arrested four hours after the abduction and allegedly confessed to police that he had tossed the child from the bridge before

driving to consult with his Imam, who then drove him to the home of a relative who called police.

Abdur-Raheem faces charges of kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated assault and child endangerment when he is arraigned in Superior Court. It was not immediately clear if he has retained a lawyer. He was being held at the Essex County Jail on $700,000 bail. The child’s mother, Venetta Benjamin, who has sole custody of the infant, was in a Newark courtroom seeking a restraining order against Abdur-Raheem at the time of the alleged abduction. Her lawyer, Mitchell Liebowitz, said the baby was snatched before the order was served. — AP

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Rights groups outraged over caning of Malaysian women Case fuels concerns over rising capital punishment KUALA LUMPUR: The caning of three Muslim w omen for having illicit sex, the first time the penalty has been carried out under Islamic law in Ma la ysia , drew outra ge from rights a ctivists yesterday. The case has fuelled concerns over rising “Islamisation” in Malaysia, w here religious courts ha ve been cla m ping dow n on ra rely

enforced religious law s that ban alcohol and sex out of w edlock for Muslim Malays. The w omen w ere caned earlier this month at a w omen’s prison outside Kuala Lumpur, the home minister revealed Wednesday, saying they received the punishment w hile they w ere fully clothed and w ere not injured.

SEOUL: About 1,200 pairs of shoes stolen by a South Korean man are on display, waiting for their original owners, at the compound of a police station on February 17, 2010. The 59-year-old man was arrested this week for stealing expensive shoes from funeral homes to sell them through his own second-hand shoe business. — AFP

UN envoy meets Suu Kyi party aides in Myanmar YANGON: The freed deputy of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party met a UN rights envoy in military-ruled Myanmar yesterday and said the release of the Nobel Peace laureate was vital before elections, the opposition said. UN special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana held talks in the former capital Yangon with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), and six other leading party members. Myanmar’s ruling junta freed 83-year-old Tin Oo from house arrest at the weekend. He was detained along with Suu Kyi in 2003 after a pro-regime mob attacked their motorcade, killing dozens of people.

“We had a free discussion with him for one hour. We discussed the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Khin Maung Swe, one of those who attended the meeting with Quintana, told AFP. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect. “We also said that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be involved in the future politics and pointed out that (she) should participate in national reconciliation,” he said. Quintana told the NLD members that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had had no answer yet from the junta, Khin Maung Swe said.

“He asked us about the election and we said that there was no election law and we haven’t met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi so we haven’t decided anything yet,” he added.

Myanmar’s generals have promised to hold elections this year but have not yet set a date, adding to international fears that the polls are a sham designed to legitimize the regime’s hold on power. The NLD won by a landslide in Myanmar’s last

national polls in 1990 but the military prevented them from taking power.

The latest elections are part of a “roadmap to democracy” announced by the junta.

Suu Kyi has been detained for most of the last two decades and her house arrest was extended by 18 months in August after an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house. Among the other NLD members who also attended the meeting with Quintana was Win Tin, a dissident journalist who was Myanmar’s longest serving prisoner until his release in September 2008.

The Argentinian diplomat arrived in Yangon yesterday from the northwestern town of Sittwe and went to the notorious Insein Prison, where dozens of dissidents are held.

On Wednesday, Quintana travelled to a prison in Rakhine state on the northwestern border with Bangladesh and met several political prisoners, sources said. They included Htay Kywe, a prominent student activist serving a 65-year jail sentence for his role in mass protests led by Buddhist monks against the regime in 2007. Myanmar’s generals have also continued a crackdown on dissent launched after the protests three years ago. The United Nations says there are around 2,100 political detainees in the country. Quintana is set to travel to the remote new capital Naypyidaw today, the final day of his five-day trip, to meet Foreign Minister Nyan Win and other officials. The UN envoy is not, however, scheduled to meet reclusive junta leader Than Shwe.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. — AFP

Amnesty International said there has been an “epidemic” of caning in the Muslim-majority country, where many more people have been whipped under civil laws. “The Malaysian government needs to abolish this cruel and degrading punishment, no matter what the offense,” said Asia-Pacific director Donna Guest.

Legal commentators said that the Islamic courts-which operate in parallel to the civil system in Malaysia-were becoming increasingly confident, threatening Malaysia’s status as a secular nation.

“It looks to me as if it is the Sharia courts are trying to assert themselves by imposing this rather medieval punishment,” said Azmi Sharom, from the law faculty of Universiti Malaya. “There’s been more and more debate over the past five years over whether this country is becoming more Islamised, so they could be showing their strength just to make a point.” Activist group Sisters in Islam said it was “shocked” at news of the caning, and that it went ahead even as a caning sentence handed down last year to a Muslim woman caught drinking beer was being reviewed and hotly debated.

“To do this surreptitiously implies that the government wanted to hide this degrading and unjust treatment from public scrutiny,” said Hamidah Marican, executive director of Sisters in Islam.

“This case constitutes further discrimination against Muslim women in Malaysia,” she said, adding that it violated a constitutional ban on whipping women.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Wednesday that two of the women were caned six times while the third woman was given four strokes.

Islamic scholars have said the punishment would have been carried out with a cane that is smaller and lighter then the heavy length of rattan used in the civil justice system for rapists and murderers.

“I hope this will not be misunderstood so much that it defiles the purity of Islam,” Hishammuddin said. “The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in future.”

Islamic authorities triggered uproar last year when they sentenced mother-oftwo Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno to six strokes of the cane after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel nightclub. Her case, which was to have been the first time a woman was caned under Islamic law in Malaysia, is still under review after she was given a last-minute reprieve amid intense media coverage.

Malaysia’s Bar Council said it was “shocking” that the caning of the three women went ahead while the Kartika case was unresolved. “Whipping as a punishment for any offence is anachronistic and inconsistent with a compassionate society,” it said in a statement. Observers say that the dynamic of “political Islam” has escalated since 2008 elections that saw the longserving Barisan Nasional coalition lose unprecedented ground to the threemember opposition alliance. After minority voters deserted the coalition, its lead party the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) is now vying with the conservative Islamic party PAS, an opposition member, for the votes of Malays. — AFP

PAJU: South Korean students of Taesungdong Elementary School wait to participate in a graduation ceremony at Taesungdong freedom village near the border village of the Panmunjom yesterday. Taesungdong is the only South Korean village sitting inside the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. — AP

Two candidates in Philippine elections killed, say police COTABATO: Two more politicians in the Philippines have been assassinated amid rising violence ahead of national elections in May, police said yesterday. The killings on Wednesday saw one victim gunned down outside a church in the central Philippines and the other, a member of the ruling coalition, shot in a southern province that is notorious for its ruthless political culture.

Both men were candidates for mayors in small towns, and bring the number of people reported to have been killed in the run-up to the elections to at least 65.

In one of the incidents, two motorcycleriding gunmen fired repeatedly at Luis Mondia, 55, outside a Catholic church in the central city of Jaro, local police investigator Horizon Villanueva said. After sustaining gunshot wounds to his neck and shoulder, Mondia who was planning to run for mayor of Pulupundan-died hours later in hospital, Villanueva told reporters. In the other killing, gunmen killed Errol Sinsuat, a member of President Gloria Arroyo’s ruling party, as he drove his motorcycle through Cotabato city, local chief of police Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane said.

A policeman who responded to the shooting was also fired upon and wounded, Dangane said. Sinsuat, 38, had been planning to run in the national elections for mayor of Blah Sinsuat, just outside Cotabato City in Maguindanao province. His killing was likely related to politics, Dangane said.

Sinsuat’s killing took place roughly 20

kilometres (12 miles) from a rural area of Maguindanao where 57 people were slaughtered on November 23, allegedly by the private army of a powerful local clan, the Ampatuans.

Andal Ampatuan Jnr allegedly led the massacre to prevent a rival from challenging him in the May elections for the post of Maguindanao governor. Ampatuan Jnr and 197 others, including his father and other members of his family, have been charged with the massacre, which is the country’s worst known case of political violence.

Elections in the Philippines, have long been plagued by violence, with politicians resorting to gunmen to eliminate rivals and intimidate voters.

More than one million unlicensed firearms are believed to be on the streets of the Philippines, on top of the roughly 1.8 million legal ones, according to police estimates. Philippine authorities imposed a gun ban on January 10 in a bid to contain the pre-election violence, apparently with little effect. “Based on pre-election trends we are monitoring, 2010 may be the most violent elections in recent history,” Rommel Banalaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told AFP. Under the terms of the ban, which will last until June 9, civilians with permits to carry guns are forbidden from taking them out of their homes. Politicians are not allowed to have armed bodyguards, a common practice normally. — AFP

Child porn busts hit record in Japan TOKYO: Child pornography cases in Japan have surged almost 40 percent to a new record, police said yesterday, as the government looks to toughen rules against the sexual exploitation of minors. Japan, a relatively low-crime society, is seen as a major global source of child porn. Although producing and distributing it is illegal, possession is not criminalized and online child porn has proliferated. Newly released national police data for 2009 showed that child pornography has surged, especially on the Internet, in the form of still images and videos, with devastating consequences for the victims.

The National Police Agency said law enforcers took action in 935 child porn cases last year, up 38 percent from the previous year, to reach a new record since such data was first compiled in 2000. A total of 411

children fell victim to pornographic exploitation, and 16 parents were arrested for using their children for pornography, police said. In the most shocking cases, the victims were infants as young as one.

In one case, five people, including several mothers and a 46-year-old man, were arrested for allowing the man to sexually abuse girls aged between one and 12 and videotaping the scene. In another case detailed by police, three mothers were arrested for selling porn photos of their daughters aged one to six. The widespread availability of online child pornography in Japan is further fuelling the crime and traumatizing many of the victims for the rest of their lives, experts say.

One woman has reported that she almost fainted when she found her nude pictures, taken years ago by her father, on the Internet. —AFP

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Page 15

Bangladesh under fire from MSF for refugee crackdown Thousands of refugees seek shelter in makeshift camps

KARACHI: A burqa-clad woman walks past Pakistani paramilitary soldiers yesterday. — AFP

Pakistan avalanche kills 20, 30 buried, say police ISLAMABAD: An avalanche killed at least 20 people yesterday in a remote mountain village in northern Pakistan where rescue workers struggled to free another 30 buried under snow and ice, police said. The disaster struck in Kohistan district, which borders Pakistan’s mountainous Northern Areas and is blanketed in snow for most of the harsh winter, hampering efforts to reach the stricken area and help the survivors. Seven people were also killed in a separate avalanche late Monday in the northern district of Chitral, with officials saying the remote location prevented them reaching the area earlier. Police official Mohammad Sadiq said that rescue teams had recovered 20 dead bodies from the Kohistan avalanche about 220 kilometres (138 miles) north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. “We have reports that 30 more people have been buried,” he told AFP by telephone from Dasu, the main town in the area. “The avalanche hit Kundian village... We fear that some women and children were also trapped,” he said, adding that four houses were completely buried and other buildings were badly damaged. Kundian village, about 75 kilometres from Dasu, is cut off with no phone or communication links, police said.

“There is about five to seven feet of snow around the village and in the mountains-rescue workers are facing a lot of

problems,” said Shams Ur Rehman, a police official at the main control room in Dasu.

“One has to travel 50 kilometres on foot to reach this village.

There is no communication system or telephone facility.

Police are there, rescue teams are there, and the government is also sending helicopters to the area,” he added. Late Monday, a huge mass of snow slammed into a road about 150 kilometres away, burying local villagers returning after working at a construction project in the area, local police officer Sahab Nabi said.

“We have recovered four bodies and three are still buried under the avalanche,” he told AFP. Witnesses said people were forced to use spades and their hands to try and rescue the victims as no heavy machinery was able to reach the area, about 70 kilometers east of Chitral town. Frequent avalanches and landslides block roads and leave communities isolated in the mountains of Pakistan, neighboring Afghanistan and in Kashmir, the Himalayan territory divided between rivals India and Pakistan. Last week in Afghanistan, 170 people were killed when massive avalanches of snow crashed onto a crowded road on a treacherous mountain pass in the Hindu Kush, in one of the war-torn country’s worst such natural disasters. This month, avalanches killed 21 Indian soldiers in Kashmir. — AFP

Suspected rebels kill 12 villagers in India PATNA: Suspected Maoist rebels raided a village in eastern India early yesterday and killed at least 12 people in an apparent act of revenge after several guerrillas were captured and turned over to police. Nearly 150 attackers set dozens of mud huts with thatched roofs ablaze, burning to death a family of four in Kasari, a village nearly 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Patna, capital of Bihar state, said U.S. Dutt, an inspectorgeneral of state police.

Seven others were killed when the suspected rebels opened fire on villagers and dynamited some homes, Dutt told The Associated Press. Another five people were hospitalized and one later died from his injuries, said state official Amir Subhani. Three villagers were kidnapped by the attackers, though one later returned to the village, Subhani said. The early morning attack caught most of the villagers as they were sleeping and appeared to be motivated by revenge, Dutt

said. The villagers turned eight suspected rebels over to police earlier this month.

No one immediately claimed responsibility. The raid came two days after a remote police post in neighboring West Bengal state was attacked, leaving 24 police officers dead. The violence highlights the growing power of the insurgents, who are now active in 20 of the country’s 28 states. The rebels have fought for more than four decades in several Indian states, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor.

They frequently target police and government officials, whom they accuse of colluding with landlords and rich farmers to exploit the poor.

About 2,000 people - including police, militants and civilians - have been killed in violence over the past few years. The rebels are also known as Naxals, or Naxalites, after Naxalbari, the village in West Bengal state where their movement was born in 1967. — AP

DHAKA: Bangladesh has unleashed a crackdow n of unprecedented violence against Muslim refugees from neighboring Mya nma r, a report by humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said yesterday. Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities on ea rth, thousands of Rohingyas from Myanmar’s northern “We are seeing what appears to be a violent crackdown which is driving the (unregistered) Rohingya out of the community,” and into makeshift camps, MSF head of mission in Bangladesh Paul Critchley told AFP. Hounded out of local towns by “unprecedented levels of violence,” thousands of refugees have sought shelter in the makeshift camps which surround an official UN-run facility in Kutupalong on the Myanmar border.

MSF’s report said more than 6,000 people have arrived since October, 2,000 of those in January alone.

Bangladesh recognizes 28,000 Rohingya as registered refugees, who live in the official UN camp. This figure is a fraction of the estimated 220,000 unofficial refugees, MSF says. Last week, the European Union passed a resolution calling on the Bangladeshi government to recognize unregistered Rohingya as refugees and extend them support. An EU parliamentary delegation arrived in Bangladesh earlier this month for a factfinding mission in the Rohingya refugee camps, while a UN special rapporteur, Tomas Ojea Quintana, is also investigating.

He visited a prison in Rakhine on the border with Bangladesh on Wednesday where many arrested Rohingyas are believed to have been sent. One local leader in an unofficial Rohingya camp told AFP by telephone that there had been mass arrests and hundreds of deaths due to starvation. One man, Abdul Quddos, 25, told AFP that he had discussed his plight with the EU delegation during a visit on Monday but he was then arrested. He escaped and is now in hiding.

Perceived by the local community as a burden on resources and a threat to the local job market, the Rohingya are “an easy punch ball for unscrupulous local politicians,” MSF’s report said. A separate report by lobby group the Arakan Project, released Tuesday, said local media were running a “xenophobic campaign” against the Rohingya, which had stirred up local resentment.

There are an estimated 700,000 Rohingya in Myanmar, where they are not recognized as citizens and have no right to own land and are forbidden from marrying or travelling without permission.

Bangladeshi local police chief Rafiqul Islam said that a crackdown was underway, but denied reports of police brutality, saying any injuries seen by MSF were due to infighting among Rohingya refugees.

“Registered and unregistered Rohingyas often fight among themselves over getting aid,” Islam said.

“Why should police torture them? We don’t need to do that. When we find unregistered refugees, we do two things: push them back to Myanmar or send to jail. And that’s it,” he said. Police on the border with Myanmar told AFP Tuesday that they had arrested nearly 149 Rohingyas last month as they tried to enter Bangladesh and had pushed back 112. MSF and Arakan’s reports both claim the repatriation policy is illegal. Islam said the crackdown and repatriations were necessary to prevent further mass migration. “If we don’t stop them, the floodgates will open,” he said. — AFP

Ra k hine sta te strea m a cross the border into Muslim-majority Bangladesh every year. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said the country’s estima ted 220,000 unregistered Rohingyas faced brutality from security forces, w ith many threatened by starvation because they can neither w ork nor claim aid.

In this file photo released by the Royal Thai Navy, shirtless Rohingya migrants eat after they were arrested on an island in the Andaman Sea. — AP

Pakistan market bomb kills 12 ISLAMABAD: A bomb attack killed 12 people in a Pakistan market yesterday as Islamabad raised fresh concerns to the United States about knock-on instability caused by a major antiTaleban assault in Afghanistan. The bomb exploded in a remote area under control of rival Islamist militant factions in Khyber, through which NATO supplies its troops in Afghanistan and part of the lawless tribal belt branded by Washington an Al-Qaeda headquarters. The explosion damaged a mosque and a few shops, killing a militant commander and 11 other people in Dars village of Upper Tirah valley, in what security officials said could be a feud between rival Islamist factions.

“Twelve people were killed and more than 30 injured in the bomb blast, we are still not sure about the nature of the blast,” an intelligence officer in the northwestern city of Peshawar told AFP by telephone. “We have confirmed reports that militant commander Azam (Khan of Lashkar-e-Islam) was also killed in the blast,” the officer added.

One local administration official said the bomb exploded as about 80 people were gathered around the mosque, bazaar and cattle market, also near a base of Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant group with some ideological ties to the Taleban.

Lashkar-e-Islam-which means Army of Islam-has staged bombings in the past and is the target of a Pakistani military operation to oust it from Khyber, but intelligence officials blamed warring extremist factions.

“There are two militant groups fighting with each other in Tirah valley. Both of them are attacking each other. There is a possibility that the rival group attacked the Lashkar-e-Islam base,” one intelligence official said. Another official suggested the bombing could be a revival of a feud between Lashkar-eIslam and rivals Ansar-ul-Islam, which means Companions of Islam.

Islamist militants have orchestrated a deadly bombing campaign to avenge

the Pakistan government’s alliance with the United States in the “war on terror”. Their attacks have killed more than 3,000 people since July 2007.

Pakistan’s civilian government yesterday raised fresh concerns to visiting US envoy Richard Holbrooke about Afghan refugees and fighters fleeing a major US-led offensive designed to capture a key Taleban stronghold in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani raised the matter in talks with Holbrooke, who arrived in Islamabad yesterday following talks in Afghanistan.

About 15,000 Afghan, US and NATO troops are conducting Operation Mushtarak (Together) in southern Afghanistan against about 400 to 1,000 Taleban fighters in what has been billed as the biggest assault since the 2001 USled invasion.

The offensive is targeting a major drug-producing area in Helmand province, which borders Pakistan’s insurgency-rife Baluchistan province.

Gilani expressed hope that “Pakistan’s concerns on account of spillover of refugees and militants from Helmand into southwestern Baluchistan and the northwest will be kept in view by the US and ISAF forces,” his office said.

He called for “enhanced coordination and cooperation” with Pakistan’s armed forces to deal with the situation. The United States has hailed the capture in Pakistan of the Taleban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, whose arrest could deal a blow to the militia’s eightyear war in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama’s administration has called on Pakistan to place greater urgency on the fight against extremism as the United States pours 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan to fight Al-Qaeda and Taleban extremists. The involvement in the arrest of Pakistan-suspected by the West of supporting the Taleban in Afghanistan-could also herald a new era in US efforts to persuade Islamabad to move aggressively against Islamist networks. — AFP

Page 16

BUSINESS

Central Asia, Indonesia seen as next growth markets

Islamic finance eyes new regions as hopes for big market in West fading MANAMA: Muslim countries in Central Asia and Indonesia are seen as the next growth areas for the Islamic finance industry after hopes of expansion into Western markets faded and Gulf Arab markets remain fragmented. Islamic banks are struggling to expand within the Gulf Arab region that due to shareholders’ sensitivities, a lack of transparency and national interests has seen hardly any acquisitions, forcing them to look elsewhere for growth. region, and have failed to Investment Bank, said at the Banks have eyed Muslim Islamic bonds have faded. gain traction.

“For many years it’s been Reuters Islamic Banking and minorities in Western The former Soviet countries such as France, the viewed as an area with Finance Summit in Bahrain. republics with Muslim Some of the Islamic banks United Kingdom and potential but realizing that populations and regulators Germany, but without proper potential is a lot more in the UK are seen as mere that are keener to breed the regulatory support these challenging than institutions offsprings of the real estateindustry are seen as an markets will take time to realized”, said Frederick focused business model alternative for Gulf Arab penetrate and earlier hopes Stonehouse, head of strategic Islamic investment houses banks, with regional for Western issuance of M&A at Bahrain’s Unicorn have used in the Gulf Arab delegations flocking to recent Islamic finance conferences held in the Gulf.

The Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) told the summit that Russia is considering adopting its standards.

Central Asian economies are heavily dependant on energy resources such as natural gas, a economic structure Gulf Arab banks will know from home.

“Kazakhstan will be leading partly because within the region it’s a strong financial player,” said Safdar Alam, head of Islamic structuring at J.P. Morgan.

But bankers also caution that investors might be put off as the Central Asian state’s once-booming financial sector was hit hard MARIETTA: In this Nov. 27, 2009 file photo, Maria Martinez checks by the global crisis with four her sales receipt after checking out at a Wal-Mart in Marietta, Ga. lenders going into default Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said yesterday, its fourth-quarter profit rose 22 last year citing asset quality percent as the world’s largest retailer cut costs and slimmed down its problems and, in some cases, management fraud. inventories. — AP Some also say that the banking markets in these countries are too small to accommodate everyone.

“What’s the size of the wallet there? I think there’s much better home runs to make than that one,” said Simon Eedle, head of Islamic Car use is expanding as “They have concluded DUBAI: Top oil exporter banking at Credit Agricole Saudi Arabia would nearly deals to buy 10 cargoes of the economy and the Corporate Investment triple gasoline imports in gasoline for March, those are population grow.

Banking, adding that he sees Cheap subsidised fuel has March from February due to already done,” one trader North Africa, in particular encouraged maintenance at a refinery on said. Each cargo carries also Egypt and Morocco, as the the Red Sea, oil traders said around 30,000 tonnes, or consumption. The kingdom next markets the industry aims for self sufficiency in over 250,000 barrels. yesterday. should tap.

Traders declined to fuel supply but has struggled State oil firm Saudi Gulf Arab banks are also Aramco and Exxon Mobil estimate the price of the to meet rapidly rising looking to expand into South plan to shut their joint- cargoes, but said the domestic demand.

East Asia that alongside the It plans to build up to 1.6 venture 400,000 barrels per purchasing had bolstered Gulf is the industry’s most day (bpd) Samref refinery at regional prices in the million bpd of additional important region. refining capacity at four Yanbu for about 45 days from physical market.

Unicorn has said it is Seven of the March plants in the kingdom to help mid-March. The plant is the interested in buying the kingdom’s third-largest cargoes were for 91-RON meet domestic demand and stake Dubai plans to divest in gasoline, while three of them boost exports. refinery.

Malaysia’s Bank Islam, and Work to upgrade existing “They have to cover their were for 95-RON gasoline, Bahrain-based Al Baraka refineries has already production shortage from traders said.

Banking Group has said it is Maintenance at the boosted the kingdom’s Yanbu,” said one oil trader. in talks to buy an Indonesian “They also have some pent kingdom’s largest plant, the gasoline supply potential. lender. up demand to cover after 550,000 bpd Ras Tanura Domestic output in the Whereas Malaysia offers concluded in kingdom expanded last year refinery maintenance refinery, strong regulations elsewhere, and strong January. But the kingdom through the start up of the attracting foreign investors, Refining and demand on the Red Sea was still rebuilding supplies Rabigh it is also a very competitive after the work there, traders Petrochemical complex. coast.” banking market with low The joint venture Imports for the next few said. margins.

Strong demand on the between Saudi Aramco and months would likely come in Sumitomo at similar levels, traders said. Red Sea coast, home to the Japan’s Indonesia, on the other Aramco would import commercial hub of Jeddah Chemical started partial hand, is attractive thanks to 82,400 barrels per day of and Islam’s holy cities of operations at the end of its huge Muslim population and Medina, 2008. The plant can pump gasoline in March, they said, Mecca that is underpenetrated nearly triple February contributed to the need for up to 60,000 bpd of highwith banking products. octane gasoline. — Reuters more imports, traders said. imports of 28,333 bpd.

— Reuters

Saudi hikes March gasoline imports on refinery work

Friday, February 19, 2010

Foreigners lift Oman to 15-mth high, Dubai down DUBAI: Foreign buyers pushed Oman’s index to a 15-month high yesterday and most Middle East markets also rose, but Dubai resumed its fall as analysts offered it a grim outlook until the emirate’s debt position becomes clearer.

Orascom Telecom extended losses, weighing on Egypt’s index, while banks and telecoms helped Kuwait rise for a 12th session in 13. Oman climbed 0.8 percent to its highest close since Nov. 6, 2008.

“Volumes have been quite high for the past few days compared to the last couple of months-foreign buyers are coming in,” said Sayed Quadry, vicepresident of business development at Amwal Investment in Muscat.

Raysut Cement climbed 2.1 percent to a 17-week high after its board proposed a 100 percent cash dividend and analysts said Oman companies’ reputation as generous payers was drawing in regional and international funds.

National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) rose 3.3 percent to 1.26 dinars after the lender said a 10 percent capital increase would be priced at 0.5 dinars.

Zain climbed 1.6 percent to a 16-week high ahead of its proposed $9 billion African asset sale.

Dubai’s index fell 0.2 percent, resuming a broader downtrend after a fleeting rally, with property stocks the hardest hit.

“There’s a lack of appetite and that is reflected in the low volumes-Dubai’s debts are a big potential risk, so no one can have a longterm strategy,” said Chamel Fahmy, Beltone Financial regional senior sales trader.

Government-owned Dubai World is trying to restructure billion-dollar debts.

“We won’t see any meaningful inflows from international investors until this issue is resolved.” said Richard Frost, head of research sales at Al-Futtaim HC Securities.

On Wednesday, Fitch Ratings has become the third agency to downgrade a unit of Dubai Holding, owned by the emirate’s ruler, citing a lack of information.

Emaar Properties fell 1.3 percent, while Aldar Properties dropped 2.3 percent, leaving it down 5.3 percent since

reporting a shock quarterly loss.

“I don’t think there are any firm signs of a recovery in the housing market,” added Frost.

E m i r a t e s Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) rose 1.7 percent to a 16-week high as investors bought ahead of a likely dividend payout, helping Abu Dhabi’s index overcome bank and property sector declines.

Etisalat is looking at six markets for acquisitions and new licences.

Air Arabia surged 4.3 percent to 0.98 dirhams.

The low-cost carrier, which reported aboveforecast fourth-quarter earnings, has proposed a 10 percent cash dividend, while its Egypt hub should begin operations in April.

“Air Arabia has delivered a strong operational result in an extremely difficult global aviation environment,” Ian Munro, MAC Capital head of research, wrote in a note to clients.

“We expect the cash dividend payment to act as a strong short term catalyst...we expect the share price to revert towards our target of 1.30 dirhams.”

Orascom Telecom (OT) fell 2.2 percent, declining for a second day since sources said the Algerian government wanted the firm to give up its Algerian unit Djezzy.

“It’s mainly a small panic because there’s no feedback from (OT chairman) Sawiris ... people are selling, waiting to see what’s going to happen to the stock,” said Omar Darwish of CIBC brokerage.

KUWAIT The index rose 0.4 percent to 7,397 points.

DUBAI The index fell 0.2 percent to 1,626 points.

ABU DHABI The benchmark climbed 0.3 percent to 2,767 points.

EGYPT The index fell 1.6 percent to 6,861 points.

OMAN The index climbed 0.8 percent to 6,795 points.

QATAR The measure rose 0.1 percent to 6,917 points.

BAHRAIN The index rose 0.2 percent to 1,506 points.

—Reuters

BUSINESS

Friday, February 19, 2010

Page 17

Beijing’s Treasury holdings fall as it diversifies BEIJING: A decline in China’s declared holdings of US Treasury bills comes as it is trying to diversify its foreign assets. But analysts say Washington’s debt is still the only asset big enough to absorb the trade-fueled flood of cash Beijing needs to invest, and it might be adding to its hoard with secret purchases through banks abroad. A US government report this week showed Chinese holdings of Treasury bills fell by $34 billion in December. That fueled concern Washington might have to pay higher interest to attract creditors to finance this year’s forecast $1.5 trillion budget deficit.

It came as Chinese leaders, facing pressure to pay for social spending and other expenses, are trying to make more money by diversifying their $2.4 trillion in reserves beyond safe but lowyielding Treasurys. A $200 billion sovereign wealth fund launched in 2007 is investing in riskier but more profitable stocks and commodities.

Analysts say the true size of Chinese holdings of US government debt is bigger than

reported but is obscured because Beijing also buys anonymously through banks in Britain, Switzerland and elsewhere. They say such investment might be growing.

“We do not believe that the Chinese are dumping Treasurys,” said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of GaveKal Dragonomics, a Beijing research firm. “What they are doing is diversifying the channels through which they make these purchases so that it is much more difficult for the market to ascertain what they are doing.”

Beijing has long been Washington’s top foreign lender, banking its huge trade surplus in Treasurys and helping to pay for budget deficits.

That is a function of exchange rate controls that require the central bank to buy up dollars that flow in from export sales to keep China’s currency, the yuan, from rising and making its goods uncompetitive abroad.

Economists say Treasurys are the only debt market big and liquid enough to absorb the billions of dollars a month that Beijing must

invest abroad.

“While the value of the US dollar seems uncertain, other alternatives are not easy to find,” UBS economist Tao Wang said in a January report.

Beijing’s reserves are already so vast that Wang estimated last year that if it decided to shift even 5 percent into gold, that would require an amount of bullion equal to the annual production of all the world’s gold mines. China treats details of its reserves as a state secret but analysts estimate two-thirds are in US dollar-denominated assets and the rest mostly in euros and yen.

The US Treasury’s report this week showed China giving up its status as top creditor to Japan, though it was still No. 2 with officially declared Treasury holdings of $755.4 billion.

The figures “suggest that China could be more actively diversifying its currency reserves away from US Treasuries,” said Jing Ulrich, JP Morgan’s chairwoman of China equities, in a report. “In general, China is moving towards more active management for a portion of its foreign reserves.” Chinese

leaders including Premier Wen Jiabao, the country’s top economic figure, have publicly expressed concern about the health of the US economy and appealed to Washington to avoid any steps that might erode the value of the dollar and Beijing’s holdings. Beijing also expressed unease last year about global reliance on the dollar for trade and government reserves and proposed the creation of a new world currency. Some American commentators have suggested China might abruptly sell Treasurys to express its anger at Washington over Taiwan, Tibet or other diplomatic strains. But Beijing has never publicly threatened such a move, which economists say would be expensive and could hurt China by causing problems in a key export market.

The decline in reported holdings also could reflect the global slump in trade after the economic crisis hit in 2008 as well as an end to rules that used to require Chinese companies to bring home nearly every dollar they earned abroad.

China’s politically sensitive trade

surplus, a key driver of foreign reserve growth, narrowed to $14.2 billion in January. That was less than half the global $39.1 billion surplus the same month of 2009.

Beijing added just $28 billion to its publicly disclosed Treasury holdings last year, down from $249.8 billion in 2008. But it said reserves rose by more than $300 billion, suggesting money also might be making its way into Treasurys through other channels.

It took China a decade to accumulate its first $1 trillion in foreign reserves by 2006 but growth skyrocketed as trade boomed and the total passed $2 trillion last April.

It surged to $2.4 trillion by the end of 2009. UBS’s Wang said reserves are forecast to grow by another $400 billion this year.

The government’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund launched in September 2007 has bought stakes in mining, oil and other companies.

But analysts say such spending so far is too small to absorb the flood of money that is flowing into U.S. debt.

“It is clear they are stuck buying Treasurys,” Kroeber said. — AP

Shirakawa: Rules out inflation targeting

BOJ keeps policy on hold, no easing step BEIJING: A man steps out of a branch of Bank of Communications in Beijing yesterday.

China’s Bank of Communications may try to raise four billion USD through a rights offering to strengthen its balance sheet, a report said yesterday. — AFP

BoComm mulls $4bn rights offer HONG KONG: China’s Bank of Communications (BoComm) may try to raise four billion US dollars through a rights offering to strengthen its balance sheet, a report said yesterday.

A massive lending boom

by Chinese banks has left many of them with a reduced capital base.

BoComm, one of China’s biggest lenders, has asked investment banks to submit proposals for the offering in Shanghai or Hong Kong, where the bank is already listed, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

A rights offering typically allows shareholders to buy additional company stock at a discounted price during a set period of time.

If the deal is completed, UK-based HSBC may be forced to spend several

hundred million dollars to maintain its almost 20 percent stake in BoComm, the paper said.

BoComm officials in Hong Kong and Beijing could not be immediately reached for comment.

The bank’s capital adequacy ratio-a key measure of financial strength-was the lowest among China’s six largest publicly traded banks as of September last year, it added.

The country’s banking regulator has told financial institutions to cut back on their loans over concerns about soaring inflation and bubbles developing in the stock and property markets.

In January, China hiked the minimum amount of money that banks must keep in reserve and took other steps that analysts said were aimed at curbing lending. — AFP

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan chief fended off renewed political pressure to do more to fight deflation, saying the government should respect the central bank’s independence if it wants to avoid unsettling financial But BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa yesterday ruled out adopting an inflation-targeting policy, saying focusing on short-term price pressures could prevent sustainble growth.

He also shrugged off calls from some policymakers to step up its government bond buying operation aimed at lowering market rates.

“Monetary policy should aim at achieving sustainable economic growth with price stability. It’s important that the government respects this, in order to ensure market trust,” Shirakawa told a news conference.

The financial markets showed little reaction to Shirakawa’s comments.

The government, hobbled by a ballooning fiscal debt, has been leaning on the BOJ to support the fragile economy even as most other major central banks mull rolling back stimulus steps put in place during the global crisis. The central bank has said it is committed to fighting deflation, but its policy statement issued earlier in the day as well as Shirakawa’s comments shed little light on what it could do in the future. “Its reserved stance towards an inflation target suggests that the BOJ’s opinion may not exactly be the government’s view,” said Takafumi Yamawaki, senior interest rates strategist at BNP Paribas Securities.

“Whether the BOJ and the government stay on a similar wavelength will be one focus point going forward.”

Many analysts expect the BOJ could pump more money into the banking system or offer cheap longer-term funds

markets. Finance Minister Naoto Kan turned the heat up on the central bank this week, saying inflation of 1 percent was the minimum needed for price stability, a goal that has eluded Japan in nine of the past 10 years.

TOKYO: Yukio Kubota, president of the Japanese mobile carrier Willcom, speaks during a press conference in Tokyo yesterday as the company filed for protection with the Tokyo District Court under the corporate rehabilitation law. — AFP to bring down longer-dated interest rates such six-month rates, particularly if the yen rises further and threaten to deepen deflation.

Core consumer prices fell 1.3 percent from a year earlier in December, the 10th month of decline, while the GDP deflator, a broad gauge of price trends, sank to a record 3 percent fall in the

fourth quarter, underlining the growing deflationary pressure in the world’s second-largest economy.

Kan’s call for a minimum of 1 percent inflation was basically in line with the central bank’s view of price stability as annual inflation of 2 percent or less, with 1 percent as an ideal level.

But the mere mention by Kan of such a goal in effect raised pressure on the central bank, which yielded to government criticism by calling an emergency meeting in December to announce it was pumping more cash into the banking system.

With interest rates at 0.1 percent, the BOJ has few conventional weapons left in its policy arsenal. The next BOJ action may be to extend the duration or increase amount of its three-month 10 trillion yen funding operation it introduced on Dec. 1, analysts say. It could also buy more government bonds.

The Japanese yield curve has steepened recently as expectations the BOJ could ease monetary policy further kept shorter-dated yields low, while longer-dated maturities suffer from concern about Japan’s fiscal condition.

The yield spread between five- and 20-year bonds hit a decade high on Tuesday after Kan’s comments on inflation.

BOJ officials have countered criticism that it could be doing more by arguing that the economy will continue recovering as it projected last month without more policy easing.

The BOJ stuck to its economic assessment on Thursday, saying deflation will gradually ease and the recovery will continue. — Reuters

BUSINESS

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Qantas axes first class seats as profit drops 72% SYDNEY: Australia’s Qantas Airways yesterday said it was axing first class from all but a handful of routes in a post-financial crisis overhaul, as half-year profit slumped 72 percent to 52 million US dollars.

Chief executive Alan Joyce said passengers would only be able to fly first class between Australia and London, via Singapore, and between Australia and Los Angeles after demand dropped dramatically in the wake of the downturn.

“Our first class product will remain on key routes,” he told reporters. “It’s a re-balance-there are more business class seats and less first class seats.” The flag-

carrier will reconfigure 29 aircraft and upgrade some planes’ in-flight entertainment at a cost of 400 million Australian dollars (360 million US), leaving first class on just 12 Airbus A380s.

“The reconfiguration is driven by the longer-term trend of what we believe is happening in demand,” Joyce said. “The long-term trend in first class has been for a decline.

Our seat factor (load) in first class has been below 40 percent, so we have plenty of room to cope with all expected future demand,” he added.

The first-half announcement, and failure to pay an interim dividend, sent shares into a tailspin with

Qantas closing down 8.08 percent at 2.73 Australian dollars.

However, Joyce was upbeat despite the steep on-year slump, pointing out that other airlines were booking losses as the world makes a tentative recovery from the downturn.

He added that all sectors of Qantas’ operations, including budget offshoot Jetstar, were in the black, while underlying profit for the full financial year to June was expected to be between 300 and 400 million Australian dollars.

“According to IATA (International Air Transport Association), the world’s airlines

will record net losses of 5.6 billion US dollars in 2010,” Joyce said.

“While the operating environment has been unprecedented and challenging, this result reflects the strength and diversity of our operations,” he added. Joyce also stressed the company’s strong cash position of 3.5 billion Australian dollars and said Jetstar, one of Asia’s top low-cost airlines, had enjoyed a record six months.

Qantas partly blamed weaker demand for the fall in profit, which came despite sharply lower fuel costs and an efficiency drive that pared operating expenses by 11

percent. Analysts said investors were scared off by the decline and the failure to pay a dividend, although the decision to cut back first class seats was welcomed.

“Qantas’ first half result looks to have significantly missed market expectations,” IG Markets research analyst Ben Potter said.

“The lack of an interim dividend may also surprise some analysts, although this is due to increased capital expenditure on aircraft reconfigurations.

“In our view, this move to reconfigure aircraft is prudent given the changing trends in air travel.” — AFP

‘World economy still in a period of transition’

Daimler Q4 net loss disappoints markets

NEW DELHI: In this Sept. 29, 2009 file photo,a man walks in the backdrop of a parked Air India plane at the airport in New Delhi, India. India approved an infusion of $173 million to ailing national carrier Air India yesterday. — AP

Air India gets $173m govt cash injection MUMBAI: India approved a cash infusion for ailing national carrier Air India yesterday, part of an expected $432 million bailout of a company many once considered a proud symbol of the nation. The $173 million injection “would not only ease the cash flow situation of the company but would also preclude borrowings from the markets at a high cost,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement. Other carriers have stumbled in the wake of the global financial crisis — notably Japan Airlines which filed for bankruptcy in January.

Analysts say many of Air India’s problems are homegrown, born of decades of mismanagement and underinvestment.

And some feel the proposed fixes don’t go far enough, largely because political pressures make layoffs difficult. The National Aviation Company of India Ltd. (NACIL), which runs Air India, has agreed to trim costs

by 19.1 billion rupees ($412.7 million) in the fiscal year ending in March. The airline will cull its fleet from 146 aircraft to 105 by March 2011, to save an estimated 9 billion rupees ($194.4 million) in annual maintenance, inventory, personnel and fuel costs, the ministry said. But, unlike Japan Airlines which has said it will lay off 16,000 staff, Air India has not announced layoffs — a politically delicate issue analysts say is necessary for a meaningful turnaround.

Instead, the airline plans to farm off staff to newly created subsidiaries. An attempt to trim performance-linked pay resulted in a five day strike by pilots in September, with some 400 canceled flights.

“I don’t see in the current political environment how you can have layoffs,” said Kapil Kaul, chief executive of the India unit of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, an independent aviation research group. — AP

STUTTGART: German car and truck maker Daimler AG lost euro 352 million ($482 million) in the fourth quarter amid the global economic slump, contributing to a larger-than-expected loss on the year and sending

shares down sharply. The figure announced yesterday compares with a euro 1.53 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2008, which was due in part to charges at Chrysler LLC, with which Daimler was once merged.

Revenue for the OctoberDecember period was euro 21.3 billion, down from euro 23.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. For the full year, the company said it lost euro 2.6 billion, compared with a net profit of euro 1.4 billion in 2008. Revenue was 20 percent lower at euro 79 billion from §98 billion in 2008.

The result was significantly worse than expected by twenty-six analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who predicted a loss of euro 1.7 billion.

Daimler said its management board has recommended that no dividend be paid for the year.

The news sent Daimler shares down 5.2 percent to euro 31.30 in Frankfurt afternoon trading, the worst performer on the DAX index.

Bernstein analysts, however, said the results were not entirely negative considering the economic situation of the last year.

“Daimler’s Q4 only met, rather than beat, official consensus with earnings

“outperform” with a target of §45.

Daimler, based in Stuttgart, was cautiously optimistic, saying that although the economic crisis is not over, it expects growth in emerging economies to help its business. “The world economy is still in a period of transition at the beginning of 2010,” Daimler said in its report. “There is very little hard evidence that a selfsustaining, lasting upswing has actually started.

However, the ongoing solid growth of emerging markets such as China and India is

STUTTGART: Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG, arrives for the company’s annual press conference in Stuttgart, Germany, yesterday. — AP before interest and taxes of euro 599 million versus consensus of euro 624 million, and fell short of the more bullish forecasts, including our own of euro 835 million,” Bernstein said in a note to clients. “We believe Daimler can demonstrate a number of years of incremental improvements as it recovers. We expect Mercedes to be solidly profitable in 2010 and see longer term potential due to further growth in highly profitable emerging markets.” Bernstein rates Daimler stock at

exerting a positive influence.” Despite the glum results and outlook, the company reported positive fourth quarter revenue gains compared to the third quarter in all divisions: MercedesBenz Cars, which includes the luxury brands MercedesBenz and Maybach, as well as the compact Smart brand.

Trucks, vans and buses also reported gains in revenue compared to the third quarter. Daimler is the world’s largest truckmaker with brands including Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, and Mitsubishi-Fuso. — AP

Asda to open more smaller stores as sales growth slows LONDON: Asda, Britain’s No.2 grocer, said it would expand into smaller format stores, open more non-food shops and cut costs to drive growth in tough markets after posting its lowest quarterly sales growth in about two years. Chief Executive Andy Bond said yesterday the chain, owned by US group Wal-Mart Stores Inc, became too focused on promotions in 2009, which clouded its low-price message.

“While we allowed ourselves to be too promotional in 2009, be in no doubt that Asda will return with force to our Every

Day Low Prices model in 2010,” Bond said in a statement.

“That’s what our customers need this year,” he added, saying the prospect of rising taxes and public sector job cuts could make for an “extremely tough” year for shoppers. Asda, which runs 371 supermarkets and 24 non-food Asda Living stores, said sales, excluding petrol, at stores open at least a year rose 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

That was down from 5.6 percent in the previous quarter and is probably the slowest growth rate since the third

quarter of 2007 when the chain-which at the time did not publish precise figuressaid sales rose by a “low single digit” percentage. Data from researchers Kantar Worldpanel earlier this month showed Asda losing share to its main rivals, including industry leader Tesco and smaller chains J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison Supermarkets.

However, that was partly due to bad weather, which hit Asda more than rivals because it tends to operate big stores on the edge of towns and does not also run smaller, convenience stores. — AP

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German unions flex muscles as economy stutters BERLIN: Germany’s powerful trade unions are flexing their muscles, pressing for wage increases and job guarantees just as Europe’s biggest economy struggles to emerge from its worst post-war recession.

Pilots at Lufthansa, Europe’s biggest airline by sales, voted on Wednesday to stage next week what is being billed as one of the most severe strikes in Germany in recent years.

Meanwhile, about 300 easyJet airline cabin crew walked off the job yesterday morning at Berlin’s Schoenefeld airport, causing the cancellation of seven flights.

But it is in the public sector that Germany’s unions are making themselves heard the most, with about 120,000 workers across the

country stopping work in early February in what unions called “warning strikes.”

The industrial action kept buses in their depots, flights grounded, kindergartens closed and rubbish uncollected across Germany, Europe’s top economy.

“In the private sector, unions have seen that the crisis left deep wounds last year and have been more open to cooperation,” said Gernot Nerb from the Ifo institute.

“But in the public sector, the unions have more room to act.”

Talks between unions representing 1.2 million public sector workers collapsed this week and negotiations were set to go into arbitration from yesterday.

The head of the Verdi union

Frank Bsirske called the employers’ offer of a 1.5-percent pay increase over two years “utterly insufficient.” Verdi wants a rise of five percent.

But the demand comes at a tough time, with the recession leaving Germany’s public finances in tatters and putting Berlin in breach of European Union deficit rules for years to come.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s federal government says it will have to borrow over 85 billion euros (115 billion dollars) this year. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warns that spending cuts must be found somewhere.

Data showing zero growth in the fourth quarter suggested that Germany’s recovery may be not as

strong as hoped.

“In the current situation the unions have to be honest what their demands will mean: higher taxes, more debts, higher kindergarten fees and the closure of libraries, theatres and swimming pools,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said this month.

With fears of unemployment rising as government measures including subsidised shorter working hours begin to run out, some unions are compromising on wages in return for job guarantees.

For example automaker Volkswagen this week guaranteed the jobs of 100,000 workers until the end of 2014, with Daimler doing the same for 37,000 at its main site.

And a pilot agreement announced

yesterday between employers and the IG Metall union representing 3.4 million workers in metalworking and engineering industries also saw wage demands take a back seat to job guarantees.

Unions are negotiating with chemicals giant BASF on a similar commitment.

“Since the crisis began, safeguarding jobs has been the unions’ priority number one,” said Reinhard Bispinck from the HansBoeckler Institute.

How much longer this can go on is uncertain, however, as Berlin seeks to balance its budget and as government stimulus programmes run out, and to prepare itself for the long term challenge of an ageing population. — AFP

Dollar rises across board after data, Fed minutes Gold, commodities hit by dollar, IMF LONDON: The dollar rose across the board yesterday as robust US economic data raised the prospect of the withdrawal of monetary stimulus, while some positive earnings results boosted European stocks. The euro

SHANGHAI: In this file photo taken on April 22, 2009, crowd throng the exhibition area of auto companies at the Shanghai International Auto Show on the public opening day in Shanghai, China. — AP

Britain slams into surprise deficit Bad sign for deficit LONDON: Britain suffered its first ever January deficit as a record recession slammed the country’s tax revenues, official data showed yesterday, dealing a fresh blow to the government before a general election.

Public sector net borrowing (PSNB) recorded a deficit of 4.3 billion pounds (4.9 billion euros, 6.7 billion dollars) in January, the Office for National Statistics said in an official statement.

That compared with a surplus of 5.3 billion pounds in January 2009, while analysts had been expecting a surplus of 2.8 billion pounds for last month. January has always seen a surplus since records began in 1993, as the first month of the year is when the government receives taxation receipts from individuals and businesses. “January’s public sector finances were a big disappointment with the PSNB recording its first January deficit ever of 4.3 billion pounds, compared to expectations for a surplus,” said David Page, an economist at Investec Securities in London.

“The shortfall reflected both higher spending and

weaker tax receipts, particularly income tax.”

Britain’s mountain of debt, which comes amid fears over the fallout of Greece’s huge public deficit, is also the consequence of multi-billionpound state bailouts of British banks in the wake of the financial crisis.

Despite yesterday’s surprise data, a Treasury spokesman said the government remained on track to meet its forecast for public sector net borrowing of 178 billion pounds for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the ruling Labour Party are seeking to keep power in a general election that must be held by June.

However opinion polls suggest that despite Britain emerging from its longest recession on record in the fourth quarter of 2009, the main opposition Conservatives will return to run the country later this year. Page said that despite surprising markets, yesterday’s data did not alter the tough challenge ahead for which ever party wins the looming general election. — AFP

Wednesday’s upbeat data on the US housing and industrial sector and evidence that the Federal Reserve had discussed strategies to withdraw some of its emergency stimulus buoyed the dollar.

In contrast, the picture in the euro zone may be deteriorating because of an expected impact on growth from a lingering debt crisis and fiscal austerity measures.

“The ECB (European Central Bank) tightening risks being delayed, and yield differentials are playing in favour of a lower euro/dollar,” said Tom Levinson, currency strategist at ING. The dollar rose 0.3 percent against a basket of major currencies while the euro lost a third percent to $1.3566.

The minutes from the January Fed meeting showed several policymakers wanted to begin selling securities relatively soon to cut back on the central bank’s extraordinary economic support programme.

“It is the FOMC’s commentary on asset sales and the view that policy tightening is likely to precede any decision to start shrinking the

remained under pressure from persistent concerns over Greece’s debt crisis, while a firmer dollar and the IMF’s plan to sell more gold weighed on the metal and other commodities.

ATHENS: A man looks at ‘half-price’ offers in a shop window in Athens yesterday. Europe cornered Greece this week into preparing drastic new action to rein in its bulging deficit and debts, while Athens was immediately hit by a new wave of strikes. — AFP Fed’s balance sheet that makes it difficult to not to be bullish on the dollar,” Lloyds TSB said in a note to clients.

“Admittedly, the timing of a first Fed hike may be some time off, but with the EU and the UK dealing with problems of their own, it is difficult to argue against selling euro and sterling rallies versus the dollar.”

The FTSEurofirst 300 index erased early losses to

rise 0.3 percent on the day.

French insurer AXA almost quadrupled annual net earnings while consultancy Capgemini reported aboveforecasts earnings and Swiss Re swung to a net profit in 2009. The MSCI world equity index fell 0.2 percent after hitting its strongest level in almost two weeks on Wednesday. US stock futures fell 0.15 percent.

Emerging stocks fell half a

percent while emerging Asian stocks lost 0.7 percent.

The premium investors demand to hold 10-year Greek sovereign debt rather than Germany’s rose to a one-week high of around 338 basis points.

Greece, whose debt mountain is set to reach 120 percent of gross domestic product, needs to sell some 53 billion euros in debt this year, including at least 20 billion in April and May, and is looking for EU support to reduce its borrowing costs.

Bund futures fell 23 ticks, but two-year euro zone government bond yields fell as low as 0.958 percent, the lowest since the euro’s inception, due to expectations euro zone interest rates would stay low for longer.

Commodity prices were hit by a combination of a stronger dollar and the International Monetary Fund’s plan for a phased sale of 191.3 tonnes of gold earmarked in its plan to raise new resources for lending. Gold slipped to $1,100 an ounce while oil fell 1.1 percent to $76.48 a barrel.

The Australian dollar fell almost half a percent to $0.8951. — Reuters

Taiwan laptop maker warns of China labor shortages TAIPEI: A leading Taiwanese laptop maker has warned labor shortages in China’s booming coastal cities could affect the supply of computers amid an expected surge in world demand.

Ray Chen, president of Compal Electronics Inc., said the labor situation could also lead to shortages of components ranging from memory chips to hard drives to computer cases, the Economic Daily News quoted him as saying yesterday. He said the labor shortfall could worsen following this

week’s Lunar New Year holiday because many factory workers visiting their home towns might not return to the major coastal manufacturing zones where Compal and other electronics companies produce personal computers. A year ago when the global financial crisis was battering China’s exporters, millions of migrants were told to stay home because there wouldn’t be much work in Guangzhou and other southern cities. Then, as business started picking up during the

middle of last year, factories were caught short-handed.

Many businesses now say they expect labor shortages this year to be worse than previous episodes.

Migrants are finding jobs closer to home as the poor interior provinces become more prosperous and the supply of young laborers is decreasing as an effect of China’s one-child policy. Fewer, meanwhile, are willing to work for sweatshop wages as their parents did. — AP

BUSINESS

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Friday, February 19, 2010

End of cash-for-clunkers spells tough times for carmakers BRUSSELS: The withdrawal of cash-for-clunkers schemes, which buoyed car sales through deep recession last year, marks a rude awakening for an industry crucial to the health of the European economy, analysts said.

The problems facing automakers, who count among Europe’s biggest employers despite heavy job losses amid global restructuring, will be at the heart of talks between European Union industry ministers on Friday in Brussels.

While European sales of new cars in January rose by almost 13

percent from a year earlier, figures for the EU’s biggest market, Germany, painted a rather different picture.

Berlin’s incentives were spent by the end of August and there sales fell 4.3 percent-a note of warning for its neighbours.

This year, Germany’s national car federation forecasts a “normalisation” of sales, dropping back to 2.75-3.00 million vehicles from the 2009 figure of 3.8 million.

“2009 was far better than we imagined thanks to these incentives, a spectacular means through which to support activity

and avoid a complete collapse during the economic crisis,” said Carlos da Silva, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight.

He predicts an overall drop of 11 percent for new car sales across Europe in 2010 as the incentives are unwound.

“The unemployment rate, which will keep rising this year, will have a profound impact on consumption,” warned Bertrand Rakoto, a specialist with RL Polk analysts.

Rising unemployment, now at 10 percent in Europe, is undercutting a modest economic

recovery in Europe and threatens to peg back any progress.

Against this background, the EU industry ministers will be concerned at how to maintain the momentum after the 16-nation eurozone economy managed just 0.1 percent growth in the fourth quarter last year while Germany was flat.

Growth for this year is expected at about 1.0 percent.

Analysts said, however, that while ministers will want to do all they can to help the industry, national concerns are very strong.

The French state is Renault’s

biggest shareholder with a 15 percent stake and it recently warned the company against moving production overseas even as it got help from the government.

“We’re not giving all that money to support the auto sector so that all our factories can leave to go abroad,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also drew anger from some of her European peers in in her battle to protect jobs at Opel factories in Germany, offering massive subsidies to keep the General Motors unit afloat. —AFP

Producer prices increase more than expected

US new weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise WASHINGTON: The number of US workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to 473,000, the Labor Department said yesterday. That compared to market expectations for 430,000.

TAIPEI: Homeless people gather outside a subway station in Taipei yesterday. Seventeen million Asians have fallen into extreme poverty due to the global financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations said. —AFP

Bonus rejig puts paid to City’s spring jobs spree LONDON: Britain’s one-off “supertax” and new longer-term payout systems have put paid to London’s traditional springtime merry-go-round of City bankers moving firms soon after they pocket their bonuses.

Barring exceptional hires, banks may be loath to poach staff before April 6, when Chancellor Alistair Darling’s one-off 50 percent “supertax” on all bonuses over 25,000 pounds is set to expire. Any hire soon after that could also attract scrutiny.

But recruiters still expect this year to be a busy one, after cheap money, a rapid recovery in financial markets and a deluge of rights issues helped many banks enjoy a far better than expected 2009.

“The work in progress and the sentiment coming into 2010 is just a world away from where we were this time last year,” said one senior recruiter who, like the other headhunters contacted

by Reuters, declined to be identified.

But this person added: “It’s not gung-ho, ‘Oh my God, I must have bodies!’ at all.

“It’s very seriously thinking, ‘What we are doing with our business, how are we positioning ourselves?’, with a heavy emphasis on senior people and rainmakers”, the recruiter said, referring to well-connected bankers who pull in lots of business.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has pressed

most big banks operating in London to defer at least threefifths of bonuses if they exceed 1 million pounds ($1.58 million).

That means any new employer has to match several years of future payouts-although the upfront costs will be limited.

“The concept of passing ‘Go’, collecting your bonus, and then being an inexpensive hirerelatively speaking-is now gone,” the recruiter said.

Banks continue to covet senior staff for hot areas such as natural resources and the socalled financial institutions group (FIG) — the team advising banks and insurers that is one of the biggest revenue generators in almost every investment bank. —Reuters

Another report from the department showed prices paid at the farm and factory gate rose a faster than expected 1.4 percent from December after a 0.4 percent gain in December, as higher gasoline prices and unusually cold temperatures helped boost energy costs.

“When you have PPI moving up and still no progress in the jobs situation, that doesn’t bode well for continued improvement in equity prices,” said Alan Lancz, president at Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc in Toledo, Ohio.

US stock index futures added to losses after jobless claims and producer price data, while government debt prices rose.

Last week was the survey week for the employment report for February, which is scheduled for release in early March.

The labor market, hardest hit by the worst recession in seven decades, has lagged the economic recovery that started in the second half of 2009. The economy has lost 8.4 million jobs since the start of the downturn in December 2007.

The PPI report may give investors, who keeping a wary eye on inflation following massive efforts by the Federal Reserve to pull the economy out of its worst slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s, something to worry about.

“The bottom line is that the Fed is going to have some decisions to make at its next meeting, since it seems inflation is now back on the table,” said Lancz.

Fed officials, keeping an eye on how quickly the recovering economy absorbs the excess slack that built up during the recession, have said they are likely to keep interest rates extraordinarily low for “an extended period.”

About three-fourths of the increase in PPI last month was due to a 5.1 percent jump in prices for energy goods, the department said. Energy costs were pushed up by a spike in prices for gasoline, liquefied petroleum and home heating oil. —Reuters

DECATUR: In this file photo taken Sept 2, 2009, visitors admire the Goodyear tire exhibits at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill. Goodyear said yesterday, growing sales in emerging markets pushed profits higher in the fourth quarter. —AP

Stock futures mixed ahead of inflation data NEW YORK: Stock futures were trading in a narrow range yesterday as investors avoid making major predictions before reports on inflation and weekly jobless claims. Overseas markets mostly rose.

Major indexes rose the past two days as investors turned their attention to domestic earnings and economic reports that showed the economy is improving. The Dow Jones industrial average has risen more than 200 points so far in this holiday-shortened trading week. Economists expect newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell modestly last week to 430,000, from 440,000 a week earlier, according to Thomson Reuters.

High unemployment has been one of the biggest obstacles to a strong, sustained economic recovery.

The Labor Department releases its weekly jobless claims report at 8:30 a.m. EST. The department, at the same time, will also release a report on inflation at the wholesale level. Economists expect the Producer Price Index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level, rose 0.7 percent in January following a 0.2 percent rise in December.

Rising energy and food costs likely pushed prices higher.

Without those volatile goods, prices rose 0.1 percent, economists predict.

The Federal Reserve has repeatedly said inflation is not a near-term worry, despite massive spending programs by the government. A lack of inflation has helped the central bank keep key interest rates low in an effort to drive economic growth.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 9, or 0.1 percent, to 10,287. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures dropped 1.60, or 0.2 percent, to 1,098.00, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 1.75, or 0.1 percent, to 1,813.50.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will also draw traders’ attention.

The retail giant reports its quarterly results. Earnings have mostly been better than expected in recent weeks, which has underscored hopes the economy is getting stronger.

Stocks rose Wednesday after Deere & Co. and Whole Foods Market Inc. both reported strong profit, and the government said construction of new homes and industrial production rose more than anticipated in January. This week’s rally comes on the strength of domestic growth, after weeks of concerns about potential overseas troubles derailing a global economic recovery. —Reuters

BUSINESS

Friday, February 19, 2010

Page 21

US investors plunking down cash for homes

Thomas Cottone had his monthly mortgage payments lowered from $1600 to $947 during the ‘Save the Dream’ tour in Columbia, South Carolina.

Cash buys suggest there’s still plenty of money out there despite the bad economy.

And it’s flowing into a market where repo prices in 2009 often remained well below $100,000 or even $70,000.

Cash buyers take advantage in depressed economy nvestors paying cash for houses accounted for one in four US home sales during the past year in Sacramento County and West Sacramento, becoming dominating players in a distressed market and squeezing out scores of first-time buyers, 2009 statistics now show.

Many of these cash buyers are from the Bay Area. They’ve re-established that region’s traditional link to Sacramento real estate and are scoring houses at up to 10 percent off listing prices, local market participants say.

Buying with cash, says local broker associate Jim Swanson, is another Sacramento “gold rush.”

Carey Covey, a Cook Realty agent in Sacramento, said he recently sold a bank repo to a Sunnyvale investor by phone.

“I never met him. He never saw the property,” Covey said. He paid $55,000 — in cash.

Cash buys suggest there’s still plenty of money out there despite the bad economy. And it’s flowing into a market where repo prices in 2009 often remained well below $100,000 or even $70,000.

“There are some people who have money in a 401(k) and want to find better use for it,” said Swanson of Prudential California Realty. “I have clients taking cash out of properties they already own and using that money to buy real estate. I have one cash buyer who planned to use loans, but he had plenty of savings.”

Cash buyers can obtain discounts not available to others, and their purchases seldom fall out of escrow. They have pushed aside first-time buyers who can’t compete.

“I have lists and lists and lists of houses I have looked at and put offers on. Everything has been investors, investors, investors,” said Kimii Carter, a city employee in West Sacramento.

Carter said she made offers on 30 houses south of downtown Sacramento, including a $145,000 bid on a $114,000 listing she wanted for herself and two daughters.

“They said, ‘We already have a cash offer,” Carter said.

“All the buyers will agree. This is what I’m hearing every day,” said Barbara Rohwer Harsch, president of the Sacramento Association of Realtors. For months, first-time buyers have complained of losing bidding wars to investors often paying with cash. But now a year of data prove the pattern. Cash buyers were 26.7 percent of January sales in Sacramento County and West Sacramento, according to SAR. In every month of 2009, cash buyers ranged from 23.7 percent to 27.7 percent of closed escrows, SAR reported. Researchers at La Jollabased MDA DataQuick, which counts more sales than SAR, says the Sacramento County cash-buy

I

percentage is even higher.

“It’s been in the 27 percent to 32 percent range for the past year,” company analyst Andrew LePage said.

Swanson, researching data from Sacramento’s MetroList Services, said cash buyers accounted for 60 percent of January sales under $100,000 in Sacramento County. “One of my clients bought five or six last year. Another bought two,” he said.

Many are in areas devastated by risky adjustablerate loans: North and south Sacramento, Del Paso Heights, North Highlands and Rancho Cordova.

Swanson, too, made a cash buy in 2008, paying $38,000 for a two-bedroom, one-bath home in Del Paso Heights. He spent $14,000 on repairs and then rented it out.

Sacramento general contractor Bruce Morse said he bought four houses and a duplex with cash the past two years. Prices ranged from $50,000 to $120,000. Morse repairs, rents and holds, saying, “This is my retirement plan.

“I had cash from a home equity loan and my aunt lent me some money. My dad lent me a little money,” he said. Morse said paying cash makes it “a little easier dealing with banks. “They just know it’s cash and they don’t have to worry about too much else.”

Analysts have long said banks prefer cash as a quick and easy way to shore up their bottom lines, eroded by defaults across the United States, and particularly in California. Twelve percent of mortgages in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and El Dorado counties are 90 days behind on payments, somewhere in the foreclosure process or related

to a bank repo with a for-sale sign out front, says Orange County analyst First American CoreLogic.

But those not suffering such privations still have plenty of cash, especially in the Bay Area, said Matthew Anderson, partner at Oaklandbased Foresight Analytics, a real estate consulting firm.

“In California, 12 percent unemployment means there’s still 88 percent of the work force that have jobs and incomes, and a lot of people still have quite decent incomes,” he said.

A DataQuick survey of second-home purchases by Bay Area investors last July, August and September ranked Sacramento as their top target. Elk Grove ranked 10th behind Las Vegas, Stockton and other Central Valley markets.

Mike Lyon, head of Sacramento’s Lyon Real Estate, estimates that two-thirds of the Sacramento region’s cash buyers are Bay Area investors. Anderson said investors see this as an “attractive time to be buying, especially if you’re going to turn around and leverage (borrow against) the investment. It’s a cheap time to be borrowing money.”

But that kind of finance is little comfort to buyers like Carter. She’s in escrow on her first house, but it’s smaller than she hoped and not exactly what she wanted.

“I felt I had to take it. It’s my only option,” she said, recounting her many losing bids since November. “It’s really discouraging for somebody trying to buy their first house. It shouldn’t be like this, but it is.” — MCT

Ethelda Lopez stands in the front yard of her Josie Street home in Sunnyvale, California. Her family lost their home through foreclosure on January 19, 2010. She has suffered emotionally while dealing with the foreclosure process, she said. — MCT photos

CAREER

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Changing gears midway he first unconventional mid-life career change tip is to understand that each day you remain at a job you don’t love because the money is good you fall farther behind on your long-term quest for financial freedom: Making a mid-life career change is a lot harder than making a career change when you are young. You’ve got a lot more to lose because you have already worked your way a good bit up the ladder of success at the career you are in today. I’ve known many people who remained in jobs they didn’t like longer than they should have because the job seemed “good enough.”

That’s often a mistake. When workers are forming an assessment as to whether a job is “good enough,” they usually focus on whether the pay and benefits are good.

That sort of analysis passes over the most important matter at issue. Your financial compensation is only part of the total pay package you obtain from the work you do.

More important in a long-term sense is what you learn from doing the job.

R&D Think of yourself as a company named “You, Inc”.

Your paycheck represents your day-to-day profits. The skills you develop are the result of your long-term research and development project. A company that ignores research and development because today’s profits are acceptable is a company with a dim future. If you are missing out on the learning experience that is part of the typical middle-class worker’s complete pay package, you are missing out on something of great significance. Most of us are only in the workforce for 40 to 45 years. So, if you pass up five years of learning while you stick with a “good enough” job, you are falling behind in a big way. Don’t let the financial risks of changing jobs cause you to stay too long at a job that no longer offers much long-term excitement or potential. The financial risks of staying at a job where you are not continuing to learn are often greater than the financial risks of making a well-planned move to something you enjoy more.

The second unconventional mid-life career change tip is to not take the “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow” maxim too seriously: There is a good bit of wisdom in the “Do What You Love” maxim. It really is true that the most financially rewarding jobs go to those doing work that so motivates them that they possess the energy to become the absolute best at what they do. All that said, the “Do What You Love” maxim does not address a

T

critical consideration that you must take into account when planning a mid-life career change. When will the money follow? If you don’t get a reliable income stream in place in time, you might not be able to stick it out long enough at the new career to see the benefits of doing what you love ever generate real-world financial profits for you. It is a good idea to aim to do what you love.

Love & do But knowing what you love and developing the courage to chase the dream is not enough. You need to have a plan in place before making a mid-life career change. Not just a career plan. You need a financial plan to protect you from the downside risks you take on in making such a dramatic life transition.

The third unconventional mid-life career change tip is to focus not on work issues but on money issues: There are lots of work issues that need to be taken into account in putting together a plan for a mid-life career change. You need to take tests to learn what sorts of things you are best equipped to do. You need to talk to people now working in the career you hope to enter to see whether jobs in that field are as enjoyable to those on the inside as they appear to be to those on the outside. But no matter how much you do of that sort of thing, you have not done enough to take the risk involved in handing in a resignation from your current job in pursuit of a mid-life

career change. Doing that sort of thing is not enough because, no matter how much you plan, you will never be able to anticipate every possible future development that will affect your job satisfaction years down the road. Jump to a new career without putting a financial plan into place to smooth out both the current and future transitions, and there is a good chance that a few years down the road you will be back in the same sorts of circumstances that caused you to want to make the first mid-life career change. Even

mid-life career change tip is to understand that the real reason for your job dissatisfaction lies within: I, me & myself It’s not a bad boss that caused you to tire of your current career. It’s not a bad corporate culture. It’s not a bad economy. It’s you! There are of course outside forces that play a role in causing you to be dissatisfied in your career. But those outside forces are not usually the primary factor in causing job dissatisfaction, and it is important for you to

Set forth below are unconventional tips for making a mid-life career change. career changes that are successful in the short-term are often not so successful after a number of years pass by. You must explore new career options if you are dissatisfied with the career you are in today. But you must also accumulate the financial resources that will open up options for future changes.

Otherwise, you may find yourself five or ten years from now as dissatisfied as you are today but also five or ten years older. Not good.

The fourth unconventional

understand what the primary factor is if you hope to pull off a successful mid-life career change. God created us with a desire to learn and to grow over time. It is that desire that is causing you to become dissatisfied with a career that no longer provides the challenge it once did. The surprising thing would be if you never felt a need to pursue a mid-life career change.

The fifth unconventional mid-life career change tip is to be wary of quick solutions to the problems causing your

feelings of dissatisfaction: The biggest pitfall to changing careers is that the same frustrations that caused the worker to tire of the career she is leaving will cause her to tire in time of the career she is starting. The common pattern is comprised of three steps: (1) the work is new and thus presents a challenge; during this phase the work is hard but fulfilling; (2) the worker has learned enough to be less anxious but is still learning more; this is the most enjoyable of the three phases of the typical career progression; and (3) the worker has mastered the work and becomes bored with it. It makes perfect sense to seek a new career after mastering an earlier one or finding that one is not suited for the earlier one. The pitfall is that there is a good chance that the old frustrations will recur, this time when the worker is older and has fewer fresh-start options open to her.

Launch The better approach is to gain over time a level of financial freedom that lets one call the shots to a greater extent than the typical employee. This might mean starting one’s own business or joining a start-up company (that one could not otherwise afford to take the risk of joining) or entering a career that offers more challenges than most (and thus provides a more satisfactory long-term level of fulfillment than most).

It is by reducing the extent to which one needs to work for money that one obtains the

best possible long-term assurance of being able to spend one’s time doing soulsatisfying work.

The sixth unconventional mid-life career change tip is to see that what you really need is not career planning alone, but a combination of career and financial planning: Financial planning by itself does not work. For most of us, the idea of accumulating lots of green pieces of paper with pictures of government buildings on the back supplies little motivation. Thus, most of us say that we would like to get around to saving effectively someday, but few of us actually feel inspired enough by the project to follow through on what we say. Career planning by itself does not work. An individual worker simply does not have control over enough of the factors that determine job satisfaction to be able to put together a plan for career change that stands a goodenough chance of solving the problems that are the cause of his dissatisfaction with his current job. What does work?

Career planning combined with financial planning. Build a nice nest egg, and you gain a level of control over your future career decisions possessed by few of today’s middle-class workers.

Acquire a higher level of financial freedom, and all sorts of exciting possibilities open up to you. It won’t matter too much whether one particular new job you choose ends up being the right choice for the long-term or not.

Those who gain significant levels of financial freedom early in life enjoy more opportunities than most others for ever more regardless of what happens with their boss or their company or the economy.

Yes, you need to change careers. But you might want to slow down in your implementation of the plan and make sure that the solution you come up with is one that will serve you well for a long time to come. To make a successful mid-life career change, you need not just a job-change plan, but a money-change plan too.

What you really need is a Life Plan in which you put your savings to use helping you achieve your most important work goals. Use the motivation you feel today as a result of your dissatisfaction with your current job to drive your future saving efforts, and the next time you feel a need to make a mid-life career change (and there is a good chance that there will indeed be a next time), you will be in far better shape to pull one off quickly and successfully.

— www.passionsaving.com

TECHNOLOGY

Friday, February 19, 2010

Page 23

Get the buzz on Google Here’s all you need to know about Google’s latest offering he world’s No 1 search engine Google has rolled out another app that will expand its Web presence.

Called Google Buzz, the feature will pit it against social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Google Buzz will allow users to quickly share messages, Web links and photos with friends within its popular email service Gmail. Google Buzz comes after the company’s several not-so-successful attempts to strengthen its position in the hotlycontested social networking space.

Here’s looking into what all Google Buzz will do for users.

As soon as Google Buzz service becomes active in a user’s Gmail account, they can find a tab for Buzz below their inbox. On clicking the tab, users can read status updates, photos and video. Buzz updates will also show up directly in user’s inbox as well as in a tab within Gmail.

According to Buzz product manager Todd Jackson, “You can open an item to comment directly because it’s a “live object with an open connection to the server that gets updates in all time.”

According to Google, 40 people whom users talk to through Gmail and Gchat will be automatically added as friends. Buzz uses information from the existing email accounts of users to

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automatically show updates and media from people they talk to regularly.

However, it will also allow users to share information privately if they want.

Status messages that users publish on Google Buzz and flag as viewable to everyone will be automatically indexed

by Google’s search engine and be available within Google’s recently launched real-time search results.

Google said users can also keep messages private by sharing only with customized groups of friends and colleagues. Like other social services, Buzz allows users to post status updates that include text; photos from services like Google’s Picasa and Yahoo’s Flickr; videos from YouTube; and messages from Twitter. Analysts say many of its features mimic those of Facebook.

This means Buzz will eliminate the need for people to visit sites like Twitter to post updates or see those sent by people they have selected to follow.

According to Jackson, Buzz goes beyond status updates by letting people “pull in” images, video or other data from websites including Picasa, Flickr, Twitter and Google Reader.

Google Buzz will also pull in updates from outside your immediate group, such as an active conversation involving some friends and some

people you aren’t following. However, though users can view Twitter messages within Buzz, they will not be able to publish new messages to Twitter’s service.

Google executives said that Google Buzz is currently not able to display messages that originated on Facebook, the world’s No 1 social network with 400 million active users. Buzz is also tailored to work on smartphones. Buzz will be available on mobile devices including Apple Inc’s iPhone and those that run on Google’s Android software.

The program automatically includes contacts that a user frequently emails.

Google also introduced an updated version of its Mobile Maps, which can show the location of people posting items on Buzz. The location feature also finds businesses and other locales to help users identify where they are.

Google’s buzz also lets users publish their ideas to the world or just to their closest friends. This means each update can be set to either a small group of friends or to the entire world.

User’s private updates will be directed to Buzz followers while public updates will reflect on user’s Google Profile page. www.infotech.indiatimes.com

Social fretworking: Meant to vent ocial networking sites let you live your life live, online — you can make friends (even buy some), have someone to chat with at any given moment, share photos, discuss the guy you saw at the mall, broadcast every moment of your life. But you can’t crib too much about other people, or vent your anger, because they’re probably all online on the same site. Your boss, your boy/girlfriend, parents, colleagues, friends, friends of friends, they’re all watching.

So where do you go when you want to ‘share’ the bad stuff with the world?

There are many anti-social networking sites that let you vent your anger or frustration, and/or share your deepest, darkest secrets. Sites like hatebook, confessmail, etc, are called ‘paradoy websites’ and ‘anti-social’ by others. More than 20 such websites are listed on mashable.com, a

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website that monitors social media. Here are some: Confessmail.com This website displays peopleís confessions. But the deal is that you have to mail your confession on a postcard to the address given on the website, and it has to have some great visuals to support it. In case you want to respond to a confession, you have to send it to them through snailmail on a postcard as well.

Confessions4u.com If just a postcard won’t do, you might like this. From secrets to confessions, you can write as much as you want. To write secrets, you need to register, but not to read them.

So you can enjoy reading someone else’s dark realities, and maybe offer some helpful suggestions too! But there’s a hitch here — the website lets people see your ‘locked’ email address for a lifetime membership fee of £13.99.K.

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BEAUTY

Friday, February 19, 2010 ne of the biggest telltale signs of age is the skin on your hands. In the effort to fight the signs of aging, too often are the hands left out of the mix.

What good is it to use the latest anti-aging serums on your crow’s feet and wrinkles, when your hands give away your true age? By practicing proper hand care, your entire body can age gracefully.

It is virtually impossible to go through the day without using your hands. From writing to driving and greeting others with a friendly handshake, the hands are one of the most used body parts. Like anything that is used frequently, daily wear and tear give off very visible signs. You don’t have to technically be “old” to have oldlooking hands.

Take a look at the skin on the back of your hands. Do they look dry, thin, wrinkled, veiny or dull?

These are the most common signs of hands that have been neglected.

And, no, putting on regular lotion once in a while doesn’t qualify as proper hand care. If you really want to keep your hands looking youthful and fresh, there are some steps you’ll need to take and isn’t difficult to do.

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Moisturize Hands that are dry tend to look ashen and dull and can give off the appearance of looking older than they really are. Keeping your hands constantly moisturized is the biggest step you can make to improve the condition of your hands. Use hand creams and lotions designed for the skin on your hands as opposed to regular body lotion.

Hand care products that contain oatmeal, shea butter, cocoa butter and other natural ingredients are ideal for maintaining proper hydration.

Banana mask for oily skin

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his is a soothing face mask and great if you have bananas around the house.

Ingredients: 1 banana, preferably ripe (you can keep ripe bananas in the freezer. Let it thaw before using) 1 tbsp honey An orange or a lemon Preparation: Mix the banana and honey together. Add a few drops of juice from an orange or a lemon. Apply to face for 15 minutes before rinsing with a cool washcloth or a steaming warm washcloth. —About

Exfoliate Just like your face, your hands build up layers of dead, flaky skin.

Invest in a special hand exfoliating cream or use cornmeal as a scrub to gently slough off dead skin cells.

Massaging your hands with a homemade blend of lemon juice, glycerin and rose water will also help keep the skin on your hands looking vibrant.

Protect Sun damage can also happen to your hands so it’s important to include them in your sun care.

Apply sunscreen to your hands as well as the rest of your body when you plan to be outdoors for an extended period of time. If you are a commuter, carry sunscreen with you and apply them liberally to your hands. When driving, hands on the steering wheel are at the mercy of the sun’s rays through the windshield and side windows so protecting them on a daily basis will prevent premature aging. In addition to protecting your hands from the sun, keep them from other damaging environmental elements and pollution by wearing gloves while doing activities like gardening and washing dishes. When drying your hands pat them, don’t rub.

— www.carefair.com

BEAUTY

Friday, February 19, 2010

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Dark under eye circles treatment

ost women over thirty will at some point wonder how to get rid of under eye circles. There are three ways to attack the problem of dark under-eye circles: prevention, topical application and cosmetic restoration. Holistic prevention, while being the easiest solution for some people is also the least effective for most.

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What causes under-eye circles & darkness Dark circles under the eyes tends to be a genetic issue and practically unavoidable if dark under eye areas run in your family.

But for people whose genetic background doesn’t predispose them to dark circles, the easiest solution may be to get some sleep and drink a lot more water. One of the first signs of fatigue or dehydration is dark circles that appear under the eyes. The undereye skin is thin, with a membrane that runs between a fatty layer and the outer layer of skin we see.

When your body needs water, it shows up around the eyes first.

Drinking liquor causes dehydration, as does over consumption of sugar and caffeine.

Stress also causes under eye puffiness. Diet can impact your face too, especially if you have food allergies, and sulfites in wine can wreak havoc on the delicate skin around your eyes. So, once again, the answer nobody wants to hear: you might be able to banish undereye circles from within by taking care of your health.

Natural home remedies for dark under eye circles But home remedies can only do so much. If your dark under eye circles don’t budge even after a

long nap and eight glasses of water a day, it’s time to go the cosmetic or make up route. There are lots of options here, some more useful than others. Moisturizers are helpful mainly in that if you have lines around your eyes, the shine from the moisturizer will help lessen them and create a lighter look. Look for moisturizers with natural ingredients such as avocado oil, sesame, Vitamin K and Vitamin E. Moisturizer also works well as a base for under eye makeup like concealer because it smoothes the skin and makes it easier to apply a tinted cosmetic.

There are no make-up secrets here: moisturizer will help other makeup keep from caking.

Best beauty product to hide dark eye circles The best beauty product for under eye circles is concealer, and most makeup artists agree that it’s important to use one with a slight golden color, as yellow tones counteract dark ones. Chamomile has long been known as a natural remedy for skin, and some concealers contain this ingredient which can help cure as it covers.

Concealer is great for dealing with dark circles as long as you get the right shade and apply it correctly.

Some women make the mistake of choosing a concealer that’s too light: then you wind up with reverse-raccoon eyes, where the whiteness under your eyes looks strange and somewhat alien. The ideal concealer is usually a shade lighter than your foundation. To some extent, the area under the eyes is somewhat shadier than the rest of your face because the eye sockets naturally are somewhat receded into the face. If your concealer is too light, your eyes

Look years younger by removing those unsightly circles will disappear in the glare.

Non surgical and surgical treatments to correct puffy under eyes If you’re tired of trying to erase your circles with eye cream, you may be looking for a treatment or even a cure. Looking tired all the time can affect your morale as well as the way people treat you. There are non-surgical options to eliminate puffy or dark undereye areas: injections performed by cosmetic surgeons can fill the hollows, and need repeating every three or four months. A really good ocularfacial surgeon can tighten the skin of the eyelids, reducing the puffiness and eliminating the dark circles for years to come. Called blepharoplasty, eyelid surgery can get rid of dark circles, puffy upper or lower eyelids and hollow, tired looking eyes. If you go this route,

make sure to find a specialist who has done thousands of eyelids, ask to see before and after pictures and check with the local

medical board to check the surgeon’s history with other patients.

—www.freebeautytips.org

HEALTH

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Massage: Get in touch with its many health benefits assage is no longer available only through luxury spas and upscale health clubs. Today, massage therapy is offered in businesses, clinics, hospitals and even airports. If you’ve never tried massage, learn about the possible health benefits of massage and what to expect during a massage therapy session.

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What is massage?

Massage is a general term for pressing, rubbing and manipulating your skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments. Massage therapists typically use their hands and fingers for massage but may also use their forearms, elbows and even feet. Massage may range from light stroking to deep pressure techniques.

There are many different types of massage, including these common types: Swedish massage. This is a gentle form of massage that uses long strokes, kneading, deep circular movements, vibration and tapping to help relax and energize you.

Deep-tissue massage. This massage technique uses slower, more forceful strokes to target the deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue, commonly to help with muscle damage from injuries.

Sports massage. This is similar to Swedish massage but is geared toward people involved in sport activities to help prevent or treat injuries.

Trigger point massage. This massage focuses on trigger points, or sensitive areas of tight muscle fibers that can form in your muscles after injuries or overuse.

Benefits of massage Massage is generally considered part of complementary and alternative medicine. It’s increasingly being offered along with standard treatment for a wide range of medical conditions and situations.

While more research is needed to confirm the benefits of massage, some studies have found massage helpful for: Stress relief • Managing anxiety and depression • Pain • Stiffness • Blood pressure control • Infant growth • Sports-related injuries • Boosting immunity • Cancer treatment Beyond the benefits for specific conditions or diseases,

A soothing massage can help you unwind, but that’s not all.

Explore the possible health benefits and risks of massage therapy, plus what to expect. some people enjoy massage because it often involves caring, comfort, a sense of empowerment and creating deep connections with their massage therapist.

Despite its benefits, massage isn’t meant as a replacement for regular medical care. Let your doctor know you’re trying massage and be sure to follow any standard treatment plans you have.

Risks of massage Massage is generally safe as long as it’s done by a trained massage therapist. But massage isn’t appropriate for everyone.

Discuss massage with your doctor first in cases of: • Unexplained pain or other symptoms • Burns or open wounds • Cancer • Blood clots • Fractures • Rheumatoid arthritis • Severe osteoporosis • Pregnancy Some forms of massage can leave you feeling a bit sore the next day. But massage shouldn’t

be painful or uncomfortable. If any part of your massage doesn’t feel right or is painful, speak up right away. Most serious problems come from too much pressure during massage.

In rare circumstances, massage can cause: • Internal bleeding • Nerve damage • Temporary paralysis • Allergic reactions to massage oils or lotions What you can expect during a massage You don’t need any special preparation for massage. Before a massage therapy session starts, your massage therapist should ask you about any symptoms, your medical history and what you’re hoping to get out of massage. Your massage therapist should explain the kind of massage and techniques he or she will use.

In a typical massage therapy session, you undress or wear loosefitting clothing. Undress only to the point that you’re comfortable. You generally lie on

a table and cover yourself with a sheet. You can also have a massage while sitting in a chair, fully clothed. Your massage therapist should perform an evaluation through touch to locate painful or tense areas and to determine how much pressure to apply.

If you want, your massage therapist may use oil or lotion to reduce friction on your skin. Tell your massage therapist if you might be allergic to any

ingredients. A massage session may last from 15 to 90 minutes, depending on the type of massage and how much time you have.

No matter what kind of massage you choose, you should feel calm and relaxed during and after your massage. Pain that’s more significant than momentary discomfort could indicate that something’s wrong.

If a massage therapist is pushing too hard, ask for lighter pressure.

Occasionally you may have a sensitive spot in a muscle that feels like a knot. It’s likely to be uncomfortable while your massage therapist works it out.

But if it becomes painful, speak up.

Finding a massage therapist Massage can be performed by several types of health care professionals, such as a physical therapist, occupational therapist or massage therapist. Ask your doctor or someone else you trust for a recommendation. Most states regulate massage therapists through licensing, registration or certification requirements.

Don’t be afraid to ask a potential massage therapist such questions as: Are you licensed, certified or registered?

What is your training and experience?

How many massage therapy sessions do you think I’ll need?

What’s the cost, and is it covered by health insurance?

Use massage as another health care tool Brush aside any thoughts that massage is only a feel-good way to indulge or pamper yourself. To the contrary, massage can be a powerful tool to help you take charge of your health and well-being, whether you have a specific health condition or are just looking for another stress reliever. You can even learn how to do selfmassage or to engage in massage with a partner. www.mayoclinic.com

HEALTH

Friday, February 19, 2010

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Easy start running plan Run for 30 minutes in just 10 weeks his is the running plan I used after giving up smoking. Although it looks easy I found that I was getting breathless quite quickly. The trick is to start slowly, stick to the plan and keep at it. If you have a break don’t give up, just go back a stage or two and you’ll soon recover.

It can be tempting to reduce the walk recovery period, but this just makes it harder and more likely you’ll be too tired to continue! The important part of this plan is to take it slowly and carefully to minimize the risk of injury.

Since you’re just starting to run, muscles, ligaments and the cardiovascular system are unused the sorts of demands being placed on them and they take time to adjust, recover and strengthen.

Don’t push too hard to soon.

That doesn’t mean stopping because you’re a bit breathless or its hard work, just be sensible and don’t rush.

Unfortunately I made all of the above mistakes such as skipping stages, cutting back the recovery period, giving up and then resuming at the same level. I managed to pick up some injuries, take a hard fall and lose motivation as a result,

The importance of stretching

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but am getting better at being sensible now. The following running plan uses a one and two day break period. For example run Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Rest on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday when a gentle walk can often be beneficial although remember these are rest days.

If any week is particularly tiring, just repeat it the following week instead of pushing to step up to the next stage.

Week 1: Run 2 minutes, walk 4 minutes. Repeat 5 times Week 2: Run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes. Repeat 5 times Week 3: Run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes. Repeat 4 times Week 4: Run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes. Repeat 3 times Week 5: Run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat 3 times Week 6: Run 9 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat 2 times then run 8 minutes 1 time Week 7: Run 9 minutes, walk 1 minutes. Repeat 3 times Week 8: Run 13 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat 2 times Week 9: Run 14 minutes, walk 1 minutes. Repeat 2 times Week 10: Run 30 minutes.

Repeat once and celebrate! www.beginrunning.com tretching is so often something people neglect to do at the end of a training session because they are too tired to do anything else. Or when they do, they just rush through each stretch and so don’t get the full benefit of each one.

We stretch to improve our flexibility.

Flexibility is the range of motion that is available to a joint or joints. Flexibility is important because: • It improves muscle balance around a joint, thus improving posture • It reduces the chance of injury when playing a sport or in every day activities • It increases the blood and nutrient supply to muscles and cartilage, thereby also reducing muscle soreness after training.

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Stretching correctly Stretching should not be done as a warmup to an activity as you could injure your muscles if stretching them when they are cold. At least 3 to 5 minutes of cardiovascular training is recommended to warm up the muscles sufficiently. Each major muscle group should be stretched slowly and with control, holding each stretch for 1 to 3 sets of 10 to 60 seconds. Hold each stretch at the point of mild tension or tightness, not to the point of pain.

It is important to stretch after doing any physical activity. When muscles perform any exercise, they tighten and shorten as a result.

Stretching them out helps to restore and improve their length. When doing strength training, you could stretch each muscle group directly after performing each set.

When not to Stretch: • Following muscle strains or ligament sprains • When joints or muscles are infected, inflamed or hurt • After a recent fracture • When sharp pains are felt in the joints or muscles. www.bodyandmind.co

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PETS

Friday, February 19, 2010

Hearts For Horses volunteer Cindy Lane pets Butterfly. Butterfly was rescued from a neighborhood in Parkland, Florida. — MCT

Group aims to save abused and neglected animals A

sweet-natured mare, Butterfly was hard not to love. But her owner apparently found her hard to feed. Last month, Butterfly became the first horse rescued by Hearts for Horses Inc, a nonprofit group founded in November by Coconut Creek resident Cindy Lane. A lifelong equestrian, Lane, 49, and her daughter Savanna, 20, are on a quest to stop horse neglect, abandonment and abuse.

“It’s not just Butterfly,” Lane said. “A lot of horses out there are skin and bones.” For Butterfly, a 26-year-old quarterhorse, the rescue came too late. “Love of my life,” Lane said wistfully, recounting Butterfly’s last days. “I was going to keep her. Sweetest horse I have ever met on the planet. We had her for five days.”

With the recession in full swing, horse neglect is on the rise, say equine experts. No one keeps statistics on how many of the nation’s 10 million horses are abandoned or neglected, but anecdotal reports show the number is on the rise, said Scott Beckstead, an Oregon-based equine protection specialist for the Humane Society of the United States.

“We know that because of the economy, neglect cases are up,” Beckstead said. Equally

About 100,000 horses are taken across US borders every year to be slaughtered. alarming, about 100,000 horses are taken across US borders every year to be slaughtered. In an effort to help, horse lovers have formed more than 400 rescue groups nationwide and that number continues to grow, Beckstead said.

“More people are setting up nonprofit organizations dedicated to horse rescue and welfare to help horse owners take proper care of their animals,” he said. “There are also groups that form to provide a sanctuary for horses and facilities where horses are taken in and cared for and adopted back out to good homes.”

Lane, a horse owner by the age of 8, also wants to provide a safe haven for horses. With

help from community donations and volunteers, she hopes to expand her 3-acre property by building another barn so she can help more horses in need. She’ll take them in, no questions asked. Her two latest arrivals are chestnut thoroughbreds, former racehorses abandoned by their owner.

Both would be free to a good home. One cannot be ridden because he was raced too hard, too many times. Lane would like to keep the 7year-old geldings together, if possible. One had the racing name Speed and Heart. The other raced under the name Waterville. Lane’s goal is to fatten them up so their ribs don’t show. It’s

hard to plump up a thoroughbred, Lane said. It’s also difficult to find a home for a horse that can’t be ridden.

But Lane is all about beating the odds.

Matthew Seacrist, who runs Second Chance for Horses Rescue in Parkland, Florida, welcomes the help. “Horse rescue is a lot of work,” said Seacrist, who formed his nonprofit group two years ago. “If it weren’t for us, these horses wouldn’t have a home.”

Seacrist has 12 horses available for adoption, but his phone’s not ringing. He blames the economy. “No one is adopting horses,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone can afford it. And my adoption fees are $400 and $500.” Finding good homes for the horses is the biggest challenge, said Jennifer Swanson, co-founder of Pure Thoughts, a rescue group in Loxahatchee and Wellington, Fla. In the past eight years, Swanson’s group has helped rescue more than 1,500 horses, she said. For now, Lane hopes to spread the word about Hearts for Horses. “I want the community to know that there is a place that these horses can go where they will be well-fed and cared for,” Lane said. She doesn’t want to lose another Butterfly. — MCT

relationships

Friday, February 19, 2010

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Sweat hearts: Healthy relationships forged with sweat, exercise

n Valentine’s Day, you can say it with chocolates, you can say it with flowers and you can say it with fitness - in a workout built for two.

There’s nothing more romantic than sweating together, says Dr Belisa Vranich, a New York-based clinical psychologist and author of “Get a Grip: Your Week Mental Two Makeover”.That’s because sweat emits pheromones - a chemical signal that triggers a natural, extra-loving feeling, notes Vranich, who specializes in sports, fitness, sex and relationships. This is why one of her first homework assignments for the couples she treats is to send them off to the gym.

Some couples are able to go beyond simply working out together. They’ve found sports that require an intimate interaction of reading each other’s thoughts and feelings and body language. Jimmy and Edie Gray of Colleyville, Texas, fit that bill. Married seven years, the couple love tandem kayaking so much that they bought Paddle Bound River Outfitters in Colleyville six years ago as a part-time business.

“It’s an excellent upperbody and abdominal workout,” says Edie, 36, who works as a nurse during the week. “But we enjoy it so much it doesn’t feel like we’re exercising.” The couple will take their children, Emily, 6, and Jamie, 12, out with them during the weekends. But during the week, while the kids are at school, they slip off to paddle on the water and watch the sky together.

“A true testimony of any marriage is whether two people can paddle the same canoe, because it takes some co-ordination,” says Jimmy, 39, a firefighter. “You have to communicate really well,” adds Edie. “You have to set your sights on where you want to go and stay on course. Some people struggle with that. But it’s always come naturally to us. We love it.”

or Mark, 51, are competing against someone, they’ll warm each other up. If there’s a No 2 rule, it would have to be that couples have to have a sense of humor and “be nice,” she says.

“Sometimes the guy will be better than the gal, or the gal is way better than the husband. It has to be about having fun and getting better and enjoying the time that you have together.” And sometimes couples just surprise themselves.

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Tandem bikes Warren and Audre Casteel of Plano, married for 29 years, didn’t start out riding a tandem bike. Both longtime bikers, they rode individually, but Warren, 56, would inevitably get ahead of Audre, 59. He would circle back to check on her, and she would complain that it was condescending of him to do

Warren (right) and Audre Casteel, pictured at White Rock Lake, like to ride a tandem bicycle together. —MCT that. They didn’t like the friction but couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

Then 17 years ago, when they were at Plano Cycling and Fitness waiting for one of their bicycles to be repaired, Warren recalls a person at the store saying, “‘Hey, while we’re working on this bicycle, why don’t you ride this tandem?’ We rode the tandem and we liked it so much we bought one the next day and ultimately had a

custom tandem made.”

They seemed to quickly find a common speed that worked for both of them.

Warren says it was a relief to have Audre right there with him and know she was safe.

Still, after joining DATES, the Dallas Area Tandem Enthusiasts, they’ve noticed that it’s not for everyone.

“Some of the people who are very competitive don’t do too well on the tandem,” Warren says. “One couple,

they would dispute because he was faster, and she would end up walking up the hill while he rode.” But it works for the Casteels. “It gives us the opportunity to be together,” he says.

Tennis While tandem biking was love at first ride for the Casteels, many couples will try a number of different sports before they find the right fit. Michelle and Mark

Fitch of Dallas started out as tandem-bike riders before switching to tennis. The couple, married 22 years, play doubles as partners at T Bar M Racquet Club and enjoy the opportunity to meet other couples.

They are on the court daily, but are careful to observe what Michelle refers to as their No 1 rule. “We don’t play against each other competitively,” says Michelle, 48. But when she

Give romance a sporting chance Dr Belisa Vranich, a clinical psychologist, author, speaker and member of the Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute, offers these do’s and don’ts for keeping the romance in your sport:

ballroom dancing doesn’t work out, that doesn’t mean you’re not meant to be a couple - it just means that one or both of you might lack a natural rhythm or dislike the activity.

Do Be willing to try something new. If one sport or exercise doesn’t work, keep trying.

Do Have a sense of humor.

Many things you try may look silly.

Do Accept that many men and women communicate differently and that it might take time to learn read each other’s nonverbal signals or learn to encourage each other the way that each of you needs to hear it.

Don’t Be competitive or worry about what others think.

This is not about winning or losing, but about the two of

Don’t Make it a deal-breaker if you can’t read each other’s cues right away, or if one partner (usually the guy) is

Don’t Confuse a sport that’s a bad choice with a problem in your relationship.

If

you communicating sharing.

and

not as comfortable with extended face-to-face contact; this can take time.

Do Remember that what makes a couple work is often not how alike you are, but how many activities you enjoy together.

Don’t Lose heart if you can’t find a sport to share. Going to the gym, and doing separate exercises can do wonders for a relationship too.

Da ncing Three years ago, Greg Thrash, knowing how much his wife loved to watch dancing shows on television, teamed up with their sons to buy Laura a one-month gift certificate to ballroom dance classes for Mother’s Day. The Rowlett couple, both 45 and married for 22 years, started their lessons with Margaret Kochan at A Dance to Remember in Rockwall and never looked back.

“We got addicted to it,” Greg says. They like the strong exercise element - the way the dancing works certain muscles and aids cardiovascular fitness. They practice routines at their gym in the morning before heading off to work at the family business that they own and run together, Artco Leaded Glass in Rowlett, Texas.

Dance has provided an avenue for them to become closer. Greg confesses to a particular fondness for the Latin and the “more romantic” dances, and Laura agrees.

“There are some couples that feel a little bit more timid than others, and we just totally embrace all of it,” Laura Thrash says. “We don’t mind putting our hips together for the tango.” It has, she says, proved a winner of a gift for both of them and one that they will be enjoying through Valentine’s Day and beyond.

“I knew I would love it, and it surprised me at how quickly he picked it up,” she says. “You rely on your partner quite a bit.

He leads you into every move. You have to know how to read him through his eyes and through his body movement. You come to rely very heavily on him. You put your life in his hands to hold you and not drop you, and he’s excellent in those respects.

I couldn’t have a better partner really - in dance, in business, in marriage, in everything.” —MCT

FOOD

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Friday, February 19, 2010

By Sawsan Kazak Creamy and green , avocados give a rich flavor to any dish. Their distinctive texture and flavor give well to dips and salads. High in nutrients, this fruit is great to lower cholesterol and get your fix of Omega 3 acids.

Try the following recipes and utilize the taste of the avocado.

Please send your suggestions to: sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

Avocado Face Mask ace masks are a great way to clean your pores, help with acne, soothe dry skin and simply relax. The next time you want to pamper yourself and your skin, head to the produce section of your grocery store. This fast and simple avocado face mask is perfect for dry sunexposed skin.

Step 1 Mash the avocado with a fork until creamy.

Avocados naturally contain a deep penetrating vegetable oil that is perfect for dry skin care.

Maybe the most important element of avocado is that it is a good source of potassium, which is known as the youth mineral, so whether you are eating avocados or making a face mask, they can help your skin maintain its healthy and beautiful glow.

Step 2 Add 1 tbsp. of all natural honey to the avocado mash. Honey has the ability to kill germs on the skin and can reduce swelling and inflammation, giving the skin a taught and youthful appearance.

Step 3 Stir in the natural yogurt. Yogurt is a natural and gentle cleanser and is used in many skin care

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Avocado milkshake 1 liter milk 2 - 3 halved and peeled avocados 1/2 cup sugar Blend on medium for 3 to 5 minutes until creamy and smooth.

products. Yogurt also contains lactic acid, which soothes and softens the skin while tightening wrinkles and refining pores.

Step 4 Peel and slice two pieces of cucumber to place over your eyes. With natural gentle astringent properties, cucumber is the perfect addition to your avocado face mask, as it cleans, nourishes, hydrates and helps reduce

circles underneath the eyes.

Step 5 Wash your face gently with warm water and pat dry. Apply a thin layer of the avocado face mask to your face and neck. Place the cucumber slices over your eyes and relax. Allow the mask to set for at least 15 minutes before rinsing thoroughly with warm water, and again, patting dry. www.ehow.com

FOOD

Friday, February 19, 2010

Zesty avocado dip 1 med. ripe avocado 1 cup sour cream 1 (56 oz) pkg green onion dip mix 1 tbsp lemon juice Carrot slices, cucumber rounds, broccoli flowerets; red and yellow pepper strips, green beans and radishes In food processor, blend avocado with sour cream, green onion dip mix and lemon juice until smooth. Transfer to small bowl.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until serving time.

Serve dip with prepared vegetables.

Makes 4 servings, about 2 cups dip.

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Apple avocado salad 1 (10 ounce) package Baby Greens 1/4 cup Red Onion, chopped 1/2 cup Walnuts, chopped 1/3 cup Blue Cheese, crumbled 2 teaspoons Lemon Zest 1 Apple peeled, cored and sliced 1 Avocado peeled, pitted and diced Dressing: 4 Mandarin Oranges, juiced 1/2 Lemon, juiced 1/2 teaspoon Lemon zest 1 clove Garlic, minced 2 tablespoons Olive Oil Salt to taste In a large bowl, toss together the baby greens, red onion, walnuts, blue cheese, and lemon zest. Mix in the apple and

avocado just before serving.

Dressing: In a container with a lid, mix the mandarin orange juice, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, olive oil, and salt.

Drizzle over the salad as desired.

Turkey and avocado 2 rounds Armenian cracker bread 4 or 5 ripe avocados 1/2 cup sour cream 2 tsp lemon juice 1 cup alfalfa sprouts 1/2 tsp garlic salt 1 lb thinly sliced deli type turkey Hold each round of cracker bread under a gentle spray of cold water for about 10

seconds on each side.

Place between clean, damp towels. Let stand until soft and pliable, about 1 hour.

Check after about 1/2 hour and sprinkle additional water on spots that may still seem dry.

Mash the avocado with sour cream, lemon juice and garlic salt. Spread avocado mixture on rounds of softened Lavosh (divide

evenly). Lay thin slices of turkey over avocado and sprinkle with sprouts. Roll each sandwich snuggly and wrap in Saran. When ready to serve, slice about 1 inch off each end (the cook may nibble) and slice the roll into 16 slices. This will serve 8. This may be made as far ahead as the night before for lunch or the morning of for dinner.

Avocado and crab meat soup 8 oz (one can) of crab meat.

4 avocados, peeled and seeded.

1 medium onion, finely chopped.

4 cups of chicken stock.

2 cups of heavy cream.

4 tablespoons of butter.

1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour.

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder.

Salt and pepper, to taste.

Mash together the avocados and crab meat. SautĂŠ the chopped onion in the butter. Add the all-purpose flour, garlic powder and chicken stock, then whip until smooth. Add the avocado/ crab mixture to the liquid and simmer for twenty minutes. Add the cream and salt and pepper.

THEY ARE THE 99!

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

One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost. His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life.

Now, his luck is about to change - the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power. Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world. A force known as ... the 99!

THE STORY SO FAR : Fattah, Samda, and Jabbar travel from the 99 Steps Foundation to the Retreat, the

www.the99.org

remote Himalayan sanctuary for Noor Stone-wielders. But as they’re talking with

The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2010, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mubdia the Creative, a tiger wanders onto the street!

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TRAVEL

Friday, February 19, 2010

The Navy’s been a big part of San Diego for decades

When deciding the better getaway, San Francisco versus San Diego, one attraction in San Francisco, California, is the Golden Gate Bridge, as seen at dawn.

Riders check out the new Lego Technic coaster at Legoland California in Carlsbad, near San Diego. — MCT photos

ince World War I, the Navy has been big in San Diego, so big, in fact, that locals and tourists alike tend to take it for granted. But the Navy’s footprint here is well worth examining.

Even without setting foot on Naval Base San Diego (the largest Navy base on the West Coast, with more than 50 ships and 20,000 military personnel), a visitor, whether hawk or dove, can spend hours or days looking at publicly accessible Navy spots.

Beyond the history lessons they tell, they include dramatic views, serious weaponry, historic hardware and architecture, bike paths, playgrounds and, yes, ballet lessons.

-USS Midway Museum, (619) 544-9600, www.midway.org, on the Embarcadero downtown, served as an aircraft carrier from 1945 to 1992. When commissioned, it was among the largest ships in the world, 1,001 feet long and 258 feet wide. (Mileage?

260 gallons per mile.) By the time it was retired, it had served longer than any other aircraft carrier, housing about 4,500 sailors at a time. Since 2004, it’s been open to the public as a museum. Its 4-acre flight deck _ a fine place to be at sunset _ holds about two dozen aircraft, some of which you can climb into. Three flight simulators and dozens of exhibits are arrayed in the belowdecks space of the behemoth ship. At $18 per adult, it’s not cheap. But the audio tour allows welcome independence as you roam the vessel. And unless you enlist, how else are you going to get on the deck of an aircraft carrier?

-Liberty Station (www.libertystation.com) in Point Loma housed 1.75 million sailors in its years as a naval training center from 1923 to 1997. At one point during World War II, 33,000 sailors lived on-site. But now it’s gone civilian. With its most significant Spanish Revival buildings preserved and adapted, the 361-acre complex has been redeveloped as a new neighborhood, with more than 20 restaurants and 125 acres of open space, including a grass-fringed esplanade for walkers and cyclists, two playgrounds, basketball courts and ball fields. There’s also the nine-hole public Sail Ho golf course.

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Historic buildings now house retailers, offices and a clutch of arts organizations (including the San Diego Watercolor Society and the San Diego Ballet). New buildings include a residential area and two familyfriendly hotels (Homewood Suites by Hilton and Courtyard by Marriott).

The complex stands just a mile or two from the airport, convenient to the waterfront, downtown and Point Loma.

Meanwhile next door, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot remains in business. For info on the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Command Museum, call (619) 524-6038.

-Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, on Catalina Boulevard, www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/ftrosecrans.asp, must be among the most spectacularly sited graveyards in California. The 77.5-acre spot sits atop Point Loma, neighboring various mysterious contemporary Navy operations, looking down upon San Diego Bay and the runway of Naval Air Station North Island.

Many cyclists include it on their rides, especially in the morning when traffic is thinner.

As of the end of fiscal 2008, 96,626 veterans and their loved ones were at rest here. Just south of the cemetery, you reach Cabrillo National Monument, 1800 Cabrillo Memorial Drive, (619) 557-5450, www.nps.gov/cabr, which includes more spectacular views, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse (1855), and a visitor center where rangers can tell you how Juan Cabrillo found his way here in 1542.

This spot is good for watching gray whales in January and February. And any day of year, between 9 am and 4:30 pm, you can follow the road down to the water’s edge to hike along surf-lashed bluffs and tide pools. Entry to the monument: $5 per car.

-OK, maybe doves and those with sensitive ears won’t be interested in this option. But the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar stages a yearly air show. In 2010, the MCAS Miramar Air Show ( www.miramarairshow.com) will run Oct. 13, and tickets go on sale in May. For info on the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum at MCAS Miramar, call (858) 693-1723 or check www.flyingleathernecks.org.

—MCT

Friday, February 19, 2010

TRAVEL

Page 35

America’s

Kirk is the one who made the plaster casts of animal iamond drips of moisture cling to the tips of tracks on display in the Hoh Rain Forest visitor center. branches, and a soft drizzle eases from a thick quilt She carried a sack of plaster into the rain forest while of clouds overhead. staying in remote cabins by herself to work on the book, “This is girlie rain!” scoffs Jon Preston, as he heads going out to cast footprints nightly after dinner. deeper into the rain forest.

In a too-busy world, she finds the stately pace of the He ought to know. Lead rain-forest interpreter for rain forest a welcome reset button. Time on a grand scale Olympic National Park, Preston knows wet when he sees is on display here, in trees standing sentinel for centuries, it, in a place that can get 12 feet of rain a year. and the cycle of decay and renewal Preston poured more than 24 relentlessly under way in the rain inches of rain out of his rain gauge forest’s mild climate. at the Hoh in January , more than 4 SOME OF THE RAINIEST The trunks of fallen trees act as inches above average, and he wasn’t PLACES IN THE WORLD nurse logs for the next generation of the only one who got a good trees. Seedlings root in the nutrients soaking. Other areas on the (Average annual rainfall, in inches) and moisture of the decaying wood, Olympic Peninsula got socked with Lloro, Colombia: 524 above the hurly-burly competition of 170 to 200 percent of average Mawsynram, India: 467 the forest floor. rainfall in January.

Mt. Waialeale, Kauai: 460 “It’s the changing of the guard.

Here in the Hoh, all that ... and in the Lower Forty-eight: Each organism there has a finite moisture is sopped into mosses and Hoh Rain Forest, Wash.: 137 amount of time, but the flow of life is other epiphytes , plants growing on Forks, Wash.: 117 unending,” Kirk says. “It is healing to top of other plants , that pad the Quileute, Wash.: 101 us in these tumultuous times, it’s big-leaf maples.

Mobile, Ala.: 66 peaceful to us. You surround your In the winter rainy season, Miami, Fla.: 58 own self-importance in that great web Preston likes to knock on the trunk of life, and you are not so dang selfof a Sitka spruce to hear its fat, important anymore.” resonant voice. “Sounds like a ripe This, Jerry King knows from long experience. melon, it’s so full of water,” he says, rapping a giant He’s a lifelong resident of Forks, Wash., which spruce looming by the trail. Facing west, and with no proclaims itself the rainiest city in the Lower Forty-eight. mountains between this low-elevation forest and the His family has kept a volunteer observation station for the Pacific, westerlies barrel across a vast fetch of the sea, National Weather Service in his back yard for three bringing storm after storm. generations , and his rain gauge has been getting a “The atmosphere is a wild ballet,” Preston says. “We workout lately: get it all: Pineapple express. Frontal system after frontal Forks saw 5.3 inches of rain on Jan. 11, the wettest system, lined up on the Pacific like a platoon of soldiers. day that month. His daily weather report for the trailer Mid-latitude cyclones.” park he owns with his wife, Margaret, is a dismal diary, Trees can grow to epic heights, towering more than starting with “Damaging wind, heavy rain,” on New Year’s 200 feet and living more than 500 years. Rain begets Day. more rain: Moss moves water by osmosis, cell by cell, “Cloudy and rain,” he wrote on the 2nd. “Cloudy, rain until its green tips glisten with drops with nowhere else heavy at times,” reads his note for the 8th. “Heavy rain to go, and fall to the ground. Moss rain. all day,” he wrote on the 11th. On it goes.

Cloaked and draped in green, and glazed with Margaret, a native of Scotland, raises an umbrella moisture, every surface is wet and alive with something , overhead in their yard as she takes out their dogs on a or decaying to make way for the next generation of life.

“I like the intricacy of all the lives of various kinds, the recent afternoon , actually a dry day for Forks, with less than an inch of rain. “She’s a sissy,” King says, teasing as hidden realms and wheels within wheels,” says Ruth Kirk, 85, of Lacey, Wash., co-author of “The Olympic Rain she raises her bumbershoot. “She’s from the British Isles.”

Forest, An Ecological Web,” the classic text on the — MCT forest’s ecology.

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Washington state’s Hoh Rain Forest revels in wet, ‘wild ballet’

Drops of water are released from plants that act like sponges in the Hoh rain forest in Olympic National Park. —MCT

Jon Preston, the lead rain-forest interpreter for Olympic National Park, explores the stump of a 400-year-old Sitka spruce in the Hoh Rain Forest just west of Seattle, Washington. The forest here averages about 137 inches of rain in a year.—MCT

BOOKS

Page 36

Friday, February 19, 2010

One on one with author Amy Dickinson Q: Describe your latest project.

A: My book is called The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter, and the Town That Raised Them. It is an affectionate memoir of my years as a single mother raising my daughter, Emily, and of the women in our lives who helped and supported us in our hometown of Freeville, New York.

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Q: What fictional character would you like to date, and why?

A: I would like to date Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby. He is a sharp observer with a keen sense of impending doom, which comes in handy when dating someone like me.

Q: What’s the strangest or most interesting job you’ve ever had?

A: I once worked renting mopeds to tourists on a small island. I also worked as a lounge singer.

Q: Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.

A: “The last good kiss I had was years ago.”James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss Q: How do you relax?

A: TV. Doritos. Couch.

Q: Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

A: My daughter, Emily, and I have made repeated pilgrimages to Emily Dickinson’s house in Amherst, Massachusetts. For some reason (probably related to our presence), the house is always closed when we get there, so we walk around and look in all the windows.

Q: What is your astrological sign? If you don’t like what you were born with, to what sign would you change and why?

A: I’m a Scorpio. Scorpios are supposed to be opinionated big mouths, so I guess I fit my sign. I’d rather be a Libra, however. Libras have a more balanced reputation. Libras

eplacing the late Ann Landers, Amy Dickinson has made a career out of helping others through her internationally syndicated advice column “Ask Amy” which appears in more than 150 newspapers worldwide. Readers love her for her honesty and for the fact that her motto is “I make the mistakes so you don’t have to.” In The Mighty Queen of Freeville, she shares those mistakes and her remarkable story.

are awesome. And attractive.

Q: What is your idea of absolute happiness?

A: Riding through the countryside in my husband’s truck, looking at the moon.

Q: What is your favorite indulgence, either wicked or benign?

A: I like the occasional cigarette. I guess it’s not an indulgence, more of a failing, but I’d rather smoke a cigarette than get my nails done.

Q: Why do you write?

A: I am congenitally lazy and need to do work I can perform while reclining.

Q: Share an interesting experience you’ve had with one of your readers.

A: Because I am an advice columnist, my readers have constant access to me. I occasionally spot one of them on the crosstown bus, reading my column, and I love that.

Q: Name the best television series of all time.

A: 30 Rock is the best television series of all

time because it’s a television series about a television series and they get all the details exactly right.

Q: Who’s wilder on tour, rock bands or authors?

A: Authors are too insecure and poor to trash hotel rooms.

Q: On a clear and cold day, do you typically get outside into the sunshine or stay inside where it’s warm?

A: I’m an outside girl.

Q: Talk about your vision of the ideal life.

A: I am happy to say that I am leading it. It’s a balance between country and city, family and work, and if you get it right, you’ve really got it right.

Q: Do you read blogs? What are some of your favorites?

A: I don’t read blogs. I can barely tolerate my own thoughts and don’t have much room for others’.

Q: Dogs, cats, budgies, or turtles?

A: Dogs, cats, budgies, and turtles.

Q: Recommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise.

A: Five books I read with my daughter:Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder Little Women by Louisa May Alcott The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee — Powell Books

Don’t miss these hilarious essay collections by funny, witty women I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies)

By Laurie Notaro ere are more scathingly funny tales from the wild side!

Laurie Notaro survived the debauched ride of her twenties and the bumpy road to matrimony. Now she’s ready to take on the thirtysomething years . . . and almost middle age has never been more hilarious.

Laurie is married, mortgaged, and now— miraculously— employed in the corporate world, discovering that bosses come in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of mental stability. After maxing out her last good credit card at Banana Republic, she’s dressed for success and ready to face the jungle: surviving feral, six-foot-plus Gretchen (“Three Thousand

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Faces of Eve”) before battling the overbearing, overstuffed (in way-too-small pants) new mom Suzzi, who ruthlessly cancels Laurie’s newspaper column and learns that payback can be a bitch.

Laurie also explores the backstabbing world of preschoolers at a Halloween party, the X-rated madness of a family trip to Disneyland, and the pressure from her QVC-addicted mother and the rest of the world to reproduce. But while losing more friends to babies than to booze, she realizes there’s a plus side: at least for a couple of months she gets to be the thinner friend.

I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies) is Laurie Notaro at her deliciously quirky best. Can a woman prone to what her loved ones might term “meltdowns” (she considers them “Opportunities to Enlighten”) put a smile on her face and love everybody? Take a guess.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

By Mary Roach tiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.

For two thousand years, cadavers-some willingly, some unwittingly-have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuriesfrom the anatomy labs and humansourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors’ conference on human composting. In

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her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

BOOKS

Friday, February 19, 2010

Page 37

Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog

Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside

By Katrina Firlik atrina Firlik is a neurosurgeon, one of only two hundred or so women among the alpha males who dominate this highpressure, high-prestige medical specialty. She is also a superbly gifted writer-witty, insightful, at once deeply humane and refreshingly wry. In Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, Dr. Firlik draws on this rare combination to create a neurosurgeon’s Kitchen Confidential-a unique insider’s memoir of a fascinating profession.

Neurosurgeons are renowned for their big egos and aggressive self-confidence, and Dr. Firlik confirms that timidity is indeed rare in the field. “They’re the kids who never lost at musical chairs,” she writes. A brain surgeon is not only a highly trained scientist and clinician but also a mechanic who of necessity develops an intimate, hands-on familiarity with the gray matter inside our skulls. It’s the balance between cutting-edge medical technology and manual dexterity, between instinct and expertise, that Firlik finds so

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I Feel Bad About My Neck

By Lauren Allison and Lisa Perry

ith her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally . . . , Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble,and Crazy Salad, discusses everything-from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do. Oh, and she can’t stand the way her neck looks. But her dermatologist tells her there’s no quick fix for that.

Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years (“I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White House that the President did not make a pass at”) and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton-from a distance, of course. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.

Utterly courageous, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a book of wisdom, advice, and laugh-outloud moments, a scrumptious, irresistible treat.

ou know that overprotective PTA mom who needs to be resuscitated after she finds out you fed her son a hotdog? Or that couple who sends out the annual holiday letter about how their little Timmy came up with an alternative to fossil fuels while you’re proud of simply replacing the lint catcher in your dryer once a year? You’ll meet them again in Lauren Allison and Lisa

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an a suspense novelist begin a double life as a weekly humor columnist? Just ask Scottoline (Look Again, 2009, etc.), who collects some 70 “Chick Wit” columns she wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Such a venture is not a huge stretch for a writer whose novels of legal suspense have always depended as much on witty dialogue as on mysterious plots. Scottoline’s choice of topics is impressively broad: movie-theater candy, expensive bras, Valentine’s Day, the upside of interrupting (“I would never be so rude as to not interrupt a friend. How else would she know I was listening?”), the sensual joys of hot flashes and the dream of getting tattooed.

As both her choice of topics and her title make clear, men like Thing One and Thing Two, her ex-husbands, form no part of the target audience of this “mix tape for moms and girls.”

Scottoline’s ticsher promises to get “back to the point,” her wild exaggerations, her sententious kickers-will prevent all but her most ardent fans from trying to read this compilation at a single sitting.

Her habit of referring to her nearest and dearest by epithets (“Mother Mary,” “Daughter Francesca,” “best friend Franca”) inhibits the growth of intimacy. Though she’s touchingly matter-of-fact on the death of her beloved dog, more formal occasions for serious wisdom like a graduation speech or a reflection on mortality take her out past her depth. When she sticks to homely observations on Starbucks, cougars, or realestate ads, however, she’s shrewd, tart, sensitive and hard to resist. Proof that a successful genre novelist can also succeed in an apparently remote field.

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The Woman Who Is Always Tan and Has a Flat Stomach: And Other Annoying People

By Nora Ephron

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By Lisa Scottline

appealing-and so difficult to master.

Firlik recounts how her background as a surgeon’s daughter with a strong stomach and a keen interest in the brain led her to this rarefied specialty, and she describes her challenging, atypical trek from medical student to fully qualified surgeon. Among Firlik’s more memorable cases: a young roofer who walked into the hospital with a three-inch-long barbed nail driven into his forehead, the result of an accident with his partner’s nail gun, and a sweet little sevenyear-old boy whose untreated earache had become a raging, potentially fatal infection of the brain lining.

From OR theatrics to thornyethical questions, from the surprisingly primitive tools in a neurosurgeon’s kit to glimpses of future techniques like the “brain lift,” Firlik cracks open medicine’s most prestigious and secretive specialty. Candid, smart, clear-eyed, and unfailingly engaging, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe is a mesmerizing behind-thescenes glimpse into a world of incredible competition and incalculable rewards.

Perry’s laugh-out-loud compendium.

Allison and Perry take on soccer moms, video dads, rabid gardeners, and grating couples in this collection of short, punchy essays.

Less-than-perfect moms and dads everywhere will be sure to relate to the authors’ portraits of the most annoying people around! Psychologist Lisa Perry and business owner Lauren Allison teamed up in 2003 to give “nonmotivational” seminars to women’s groups across the United States.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake

Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea

By Sloane Crosley

By Chelsea Handler

ry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions-or perhaps because of them.

Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character that’s aiming for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. I Was Told There’d Be Cake introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.

hen Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power — vodka. You would too if you found out that your boyfriend was having an affair with a Peekapoo or if you had to pretend to be honeymooning with your father in order to upgrade to first class.

Welcome to Chelsea’s world — a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense.

In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous.

Whether she’s convincing her thirdgrade class that she has been tapped to play Goldie Hawn’s daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her...only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations. Are You

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There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today. —bn.com

CHILDREN

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Sudoku for Kids

Friday, February 19, 2010

Solution

CHILDREN

Friday, February 19, 2010

Page 39

Internet in the Jungle W

hy are you looking so sad?”

Ullu, the wise old owl, asked Kabbu, the white pigeon.

“You too would look sad if you were going to lose your job,” snapped Kabbu.

Kabbu was the head of the Postal Department of their jungle Olango, which was the biggest and most prosperous jungle around. Kabbu and his fleet of 21 pigeons carried letters, parcels, money orders, postal orders, etc., from Olango to the other jungles and back. Their fleet was considered the smartest, fastest and easily the most efficient in all of Jungledom. Kabbu’s Postal Department had won several awards for the quality and the efficiency of its service.

“Who told you that you are going to lose your job?”

“No one has to tell me. It is pretty obvious. Have you heard of the Internet?” Kabbu demanded.

“Is... is it some new kind of net the humans have designed to trap us?” Ullu made a wild guess.

“Ha! You are supposed to be wise, but your wisdom seems to be all outdated. To put it simply, the Internet is a way for all the computers to talk to each other. Sitting in one corner of the world, we can be in touch with anyone anywhere through the great power of the Internet. We can also access every imaginable piece of information using the Internet. It has already come to Olango in a big way. Our King, Cybersher, has the latest computer with an Internet connection. He spends the whole day surfing the Net. He has also made many friends in cyberspace and chats with them for hours. His wife, Sherni, is quite upset with him. He refuses to take her shopping and doesn’t help with their cub, Chhotu’s, homework. The other day, when Cybersher’s mother-in-law came for a visit, turned out to be the last straw. Do you know what he did? He refused to even greet her with a roar because he was so busy on the Net! When Sherni complained, Cybersher said, “I am now a netizen — a citizen of the Net. Cyberspace is my world and the World Wide Web my universe!”

Ullu’s head started spinning after listening to Kabbu’s long description of Cybersher’s new fascination. All these strange words were getting too much for him: Internet, cyberspace, surfing and netizen!

“Tell me Kabbu, where does your job fit in to all this?” Ullu asked.

“Cybersher is now sending e-mail all over Jungledom. And he is also encouraging the other animals to do the same. He is planning to open Cyber Cafes where the animals can sit and surf the Net as well as send Email. Now, tell me if everyone starts sending e-mail what are my boys and I supposed to do?”

“Wait, wait,” Ullu said. “Now what is Emale? I have heard of male and female, but I have never heard of an Emale.”

“No, no. e-mail stands for electronic mail. And the word is spelt as e-m-a-i-l, not E-m-a-l-e. It is used for sending letters from one computer to the other.

It takes only seconds for the letter to go and hardly costs anything.”

“Sounds too good to be true.”

“It is true. That is why I am moping.

And you know what my mail is now called? It has been nicknamed Snailmail, because it’s so slow when compared to e-mail!” Kabbu said in a low voice, and

with a sad flutter of his wings, he flew away.

Ullu sat in deep thought. He was the seniormost citizen of Olango and was treated with a lot of respect by Cybersher. He decided to go and meet Cybersher and have a little chat with him.

He found Cybersher sitting in front of a computer, his paw on a small funnylooking thing that he kept moving up and down.

“What is this?” Ullu asked, pointing to the device.

The king looked up. “Hello, Ullu!

Ullu repeated to Cybersher his conversation with Kabbu.

“Well, Kabbu’s concern is for real. In this age of high speed and efficiency, there is little scope for age-old methods.

Why should I depend on Kabbu and his fleet who will take days to deliver a message when I can send it in seconds on the Internet? And, moreover, while email is almost free, Snailmail costs money.”

“But, King, what happens now to Kabbu and his team?”

“They will have to develop some new skill. The Internet is the future and

“Ullu, I never considered myself as merely a carrier of letters. I was much more than just a messenger. I was almost a member of each and every family I visited. I clearly remember the day I carried a letter for Goru, the Gorilla. Since he couldn’t read, I read it out to him. It was from his son-in-law, informing him that he had become a grandfather. Goru jumped up beating his chest and yelling with joy! The sound of his excitement still echoes in my ears.

Those days everyone used to keep waiting for me. And whenever I brought good tidings, I would get something

“Cybersher is now sending e-mail all over Jungledom. And he is also encouraging the other animals to do the same. He is planning to open Cyber Cafes where the animals can sit and surf the Net as well as send Email. Now, tell me if everyone starts sending e-mail what are my boys and I supposed to do?”

How are you? This is a mouse.” “Wha... a mouse? It hardly looks like one. And even though you are squeezing the life out of it I can’t hear the slightest whimper. Is it dead?”

“Ha, ha!” Cybersher roared with laughter. “It is not a real mouse, Ullu,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes, “it is a computer mouse!”

“Oh!” Ullu sat down and watched Cybersher surf the Net. After some time, Ullu softly asked, “King, can you spare a few minutes for me? I have to discuss something very important.”

“What is it?” Cybersher asked without even looking up from the computer.

“It is about Kabbu, but I think it concerns all of us.”

Cybersher shut down his computer and, turning towards Ullu, snapped, “Okay, come out with it.”

e-mail is its most useful feature. I want the entire jungle to march in tune with the times and not lag behind. Just for the sake of twenty-odd pigeons I can’t deny my jungle, Olango, the benefits of technology.”

“But King, new and old technology can live together, side by side, can they not? When the airlines were created, people said that would be the end of the railways. But even after almost a century, the railways continue to thrive.

When TV was invented, everyone predicted the death of cinema. But both now coexist happily.”

“Whatever you might say, Ullu, email will render Snailmail utterly useless. It is better that Kabbu and his team start looking for other jobs!”

Cybersher dismissed Ullu with a wave of his hand and returned to his computer.

A year later, Kabbu was sitting with Ullu talking about the good old days.

special to eat. And when I brought bad news, the animals would pour their hearts out to me and feel relieved. Ullu, would you believe it, I also used to do matchmaking!”

“Really?”

“Of course. I am responsible for getting Biggy the elephant’s daughter married. Lambu, the Giraffe, too, was having a tough time finding a suitable match for his son, Danthal. After some scouting, I got Danthal a beautiful and talented bride from Pitara Jungle.”

Kabbu looked up sadly at Ullu, “Now, all that is over. I have become useless, no one needs me anymore.”

Just then they saw Bony, the Horse, running at full speed.

“What’s happened Bony, where are you going?” asked Ullu.

“I heard there’s been an accident near Cybersher’s cave. I am rushing there.” “Accident! Come, let’s go,”

Kabbu said and flew towards the cave along with Ullu.

They found Cybersher pacing up and down, a worried expression on his face.

“My son, Chhotu, has fallen from a rock and hurt his head very badly. He needs to be operated upon by Dr. Large, the best neurosurgeon in Jungledom, who is based in Pitara Jungle, quite far from here.” “Why don’t you send him an e-mail?” suggested Ullu.

“I can’t. The entire computer network of our jungle crashed because of the thunderstorm and lightening from last night. I had sent for the computer engineer, but he said it would take him at least three days to repair the damage.

And I can’t wait for three days. Chhotu needs immediate attention!”

“That’s no problem, king, I will go and get Dr. Large,” Kabbu offered.

“Really... w...will you go right away?”

Cybersher asked, his eyes lighting up with hope.

“Of course! During my heyday, it would take me eight hours to fly to Pitara. I would fly for eight hours, rest for four, collect all the mail and fly back, all in a span of around twenty hours. But king, this is an emergency! Our Chhotu’s life is at stake. I’ll try to get Dr. Large in half the time,” Kabbu said, and without waiting for the King’s response, he flew off on his mission.

Cybersher and his well-wishers spent the time looking at their watches and keeping an eye on the condition of the cub. With each passing hour, the wails of Sherni grew louder as she watched her cub’s life slowly ebb away.

Eight hours later, they heard a flutter of wings.

Cybersher looked up. Kabbu was flying towards them looking dirty, tired and sweaty.

“Wha...what happened? Where is Dr. Large?” Cybersher asked. Kabbu pointed in the direction in which he had come and collapsed on the ground.

Cybersher looked up. Dr. Large was approaching, his medical kit clutched firmly in his strong trunk.

An hour later, Dr. Large came out wiping his hands. Cybersher and Sherni rushed forward, their faces anxious.

“There is nothing to worry about.

The cub is safe. Another hour’s delay would have proved fatal. You should thank your postman, Kabbu. I think he has done a fantastic job. I was somewhere in the middle of Pitara Jungle attending to a patient when he landed in front of me. He didn’t allow me to waste even a minute. I told him, ‘You have just come after such a long and tiring journey. Rest for a couple of hours and then we’ll go’. But he just wouldn’t listen. ‘No, doctor, a young life is at stake. Even a moment’s delay can prove costly’, he said. King, you should really be grateful to him for saving your son’s life.”

Later, Cybersher told Kabbu, “My dear friend, I don’t know how to thank you for what you have done for me and my family. Even though you lost your job because of my decision, instead of feeling angry you paid me back by saving my son’s life. You have proved once and for all that though technology has made life easier and more fun in many ways, we can’t always rely on it.

The only thing we can rely on is the will power and the spirit of creatures like you! And you, not technology, are the hero of the day!” — pitara.com

OPINION

Page 40

Friday, February 19, 2010

Dogs used as weapons The number of dangerous dogs seized by police in London has soared as young people increasingly use them - rather than knives - as ‘weapons’

By Rowenna Davis

T

easer is a 65 kg staffordshire terrier cross-breed, flanked like a horse and with a head the size of a rugby ball. It lives in a small flat in Somers Town, a working class area near Euston station in central London, and local kids on the housing estate often knock and ask to walk it, amazed that the 22-year-old owner, CJ, can make it sit and give paw. Many of the kids have their own dogs - staffie crosses, rottweilers, and illegal pit bulls - and the numbers are multiplying as they are bred with other dogs on the estate.

“It’s a status thing - one or two people get them and then everyone’s got one,” says CJ. “Kids think I’ve got a pit and I’m a hard man, but they’re the ones running around estates being pulled on leads. [The dogs] keep spreading because they’re so easy to get. Just go on to the Internet and type in ‘pit bull puppies’. It’s not surprising everyone I know has a dog.”

Yet a growing number of dog owners are irresponsible. In London, the number of dogs seized by the police under the Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) soared from 263 in 2006-07 to 719 in 2008-09. So far this year, 1,000 dogs have been confiscated - a fourfold increase in three years. The act allows dogs to be seized because they are illegal, dangerously out of control, or if they are used to threaten or intimidate someone. So legal breeds, such as staffordshires, can be seized under the act. Pit bull-type terriers, Japanese tosas, and the dogo argentino and fila brasileiro mastiffs are all illegal breeds, but many owners get around the rules by mixing illegal breeds with staffordshires and calling them crosses.

The increase in seizures in London has been driven by a crackdown and the opening of a Metropolitan police Status Dogs Unit (SDU) last March, but national data suggests there has also been an increase in violent dogs on the street. According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of dog owners prosecuted for causing injury rose by 50 percent between 2003 and 2007. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) says that calls about dog fighting have increased massively over the last few years, with two-thirds of complaints now directly connected to young people using dogs as “weapons” in streets and parks.

High-profile attacks A series of high-profile attacks have focused public attention on this issue.

Last February, a baby died in south Wales after being attacked by a staffordshire bull terrier and a Jack Russell. In November, four-year-old John Paul Massey was mauled to death by a pit bull in Liverpool. And just before Christmas, a guide dog was viciously attacked by another dog, whose young owner was walking it unleashed by in north London. CJ says that walking without a lead is too often used as a sign of power and control on the street. “I’m always paranoid that some dog off a lead is going to attack Teaser,” he says.

David Grant, director of the RSPCA’s Harmondsworth hospital in north London, picks up the pieces of irresponsible dog ownership every day.

His hospital is full of emaciated staffies that have been abandoned - often in the hospital’s reception - by young men who don’t want to give their names or pay veterinary bills. Many of the dogs are sick, as their owners haven’t had the money or the knowledge to apply for vaccinations. In the worst cases, dogs have been abused by irritated owners or been forced to fight.

In 40 years of practice, Grant, whose veterinary operations were seen by millions on the BBC’s Animal Hospital television series, says it has never been so bad, and he has started documenting the worst cases. His computer now contains hundreds of images of dogs that have been shot, stabbed or burnt.

“A typical problem owner will be from an inner-city estate, unemployed, without any educational achievements,” he says. “Young males predominate, although the fighters often register the dog in a girlfriend’s name.” Names such as Terror, Chaos, Killer, Ice and Asbo often tell a dog’s story, says Grant, as does evidence of harnesses accessories often used to glamorise dogs before gang fights.

But Grant is keen not to

sensationalise or oversimplify. He wants to distinguish between “fashion dogs”, which are simply part of a craze, and “status dogs”, which are bred for offence and defence. “Fashion dogs tend to be staffie crosses that are naturally good-natured, turning nasty only when they suffer abuse, or neglect when their owners get bored,” he says. “Status dogs, on the other hand, are bred to intimidate. At the worst level, gangs will use them for mascots, muggings, safeguarding territory, and fighting enemies and other dogs.”

Grant, along with dog wardens and police officers, has repeatedly drawn attention to the parallels between dogs and knives. Both are carried by young people in areas where crime is high, often for defence. In some cases, even parents have been known to encourage their children - particularly girls - to walk with dogs as a means of protection.

However, unlike for possession of knives, a young person will not face five years’ imprisonment for having a dog.

Dog dealing But if fear and fashion are multiplying dog numbers, so is the potential money that unemployed

young people can make from “dog dealing”. Staffordshire puppies and their crosses can sell for £400-£500 each, and with an average litter size of eight and a bitch able to produce two litters a year, an owner can earn up to £8,000 annually from a single dog.

From his municipal housing flat in north London, Dion, 24, supplements his living by dealing dogs. He’s got a few scars from violent dogs he’s owned in the past, but now he’s got just one, a mixture of a staffie-pit cross and a presa canario. “My dog has had her first litter and two generations of grandchildren,” he says. “I wanted to keep the bloodline going. The money’s not the priority though - I’ll sell them for half of the £350 I could get when I know they’re going to a good home.”

Security is another reason Dion hangs on to his dog. He says: “My dog attacked my stepdad once - for good reason. He was a bit of an alcoholic, and when my sister got scared of him once she screamed and the dog went straight for him and shredded his forearm before he could hurt her. It’s another reason to feel safer.”

According to Sergeant Ian

McParland, chief officer at the SDU, simply banning more dogs under the DDA is not the answer. The problem is not genetics, but upbringing, he says.

Most dogs can become aggressive or peaceful, depending on how they’re raised, he says. “You could go on banning breeds until the cows come home and it won’t make a difference,” McParland says. “We’re almost fortunate that the status dog of choice, the pit bull terrier, is illegal. I don’t know what we’d do if akitas, German shepherds and rottweilers started becoming fashionable [as status dogs].

Akitas were used by Samurai warriors.”

He points out the threat posed by selective breeding. “Breeds are getting more dangerous,” he says. “If you’ve got a nasty dog and your mate’s got a nasty bitch, they’re the ones you’re going to breed.”

Mixed response So far, local authorities’ response to the problem has been mixed. Last month, the London borough of Harrow proposed vetting and chipping all dogs owned by people waiting for social housing. Anyone with a dog that it suspected of being used for fighting would be refused a tenancy, though deputy council leader, Susan Hall insisted that this would be a last resort.

“We will work with the RSPCA and police to make sure that people in council properties don’t keep dogs that are a menace to others,” she said.

In south London, Wandsworth council is already piloting a program that will see residents threatened with eviction if they fail to keep their dogs responsibly. Other London councils employ specialist dog wardens who are on call to answer residents’ problems; others simply slide dog issues into the files of the resident environment officer.

In Liverpool, following the death of John Paul Massey, councillors voted for an amnesty on illegal dogs, free microchipping, and tougher rules on leads and muzzling. They are also investigating a dog registration scheme. According to Grant, it will take more than punitive measures to curtail irresponsible dog ownership.

“A lot of the time I feel as sorry for the owners as the dogs,” he says, “These young men have been on a conveyor belt of social deprivation since the day they were born, and we’re at the end of it, trying to pick up the pieces.

They’ve had no upbringing, and they’ve got no educational qualifications and no prospects. Society has let them down.

We need to address the root causes if we’re going to solve these problems.”

Back on estates in north London, young people are talking in breeds, bloods and lineages. Videos of dogfights recorded on mobiles are changing hands, and an old cage for dog fighting sits in a garage. Talking to CJ, it is clear that owning dogs is a way of life. But it is one that he wants out of. “I want to take my life out of the city so that she’s safer,” he says, play-fighting with Teaser. “There are so many kids in London with dogs these days, and they all want beef [trouble]. At the end of the day, I love dogs more than people. I’d move to the country to keep her safe.”

NOTE: some names have been changed. — Guardian

ANALYSIS

Friday, February 19, 2010

Page 41

Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy give a press conference after a European Union summit focused on supporting debtladen Greece and preventing contagion throughout the rest of the eurozone on Feb 11, 2010 in Brussels. – AFP

No democracy in eurozone?

Nation states have been superseded by greater forces. Greece’s people are now seeing the naked disregard for their will.

By Gary Younge

F

or a candidate who campaigned on the slogan of change, Barack Obama’s devotion to continuity has been little short of remarkable.

The two principal issues that underpinned his election victory in 2008 were the economy and the war in Iraq. In both instances, he kept the people George Bush had selected to execute failing policies and instructed them to create success. The electoral map and America’s image in the world were indeed changed by Obama’s victory. But the key personnel - US defence secretary Robert Gates and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke - remained exactly the same.

Shortly before Christmas this strategy seemed on the verge of coming unstuck when Democrats and Republicans threatened to derail the nomination of Bernanke to his second term. Democratic senator Jeff Merkley argued that while the Fed chairman had “shown himself to be quite adroit with the fire hose”, he was also among those responsible for the fire. “For many years I held the Federal Reserve in very high regard,” said Republican senator Richard Shelby. “I fear now, however, that our trust and confidence were misplaced.” It took Obama’s intervention to rescue the nomination and secure a comfortable victory for Bernanke on the Senate floor.

The fact that there was much populist grandstanding in all of this should go without saying. Nor is that necessarily a bad thing. This is politics in a democracy. Elected officials have to explain themselves to

the voters. This was their chance to make a man who gave billions of public money to bankers, and makes decisions that directly affect their constituents’ livelihoods, accountable for his actions. At the very least, he should have been fighting for his job.

In a more just world, he would have been fired.

In this most crucial of ways, America’s old and at times creaky system of governance is far superior to the European Union’s newer one.

For in the US there is at least the pretension to democratic control over the economy. One would not want to over-exaggerate the case. At the end of the day, the bankers and speculators are in charge on both sides of the Atlantic. When it comes to making enemies, Obama clearly feels he has more to fear from the markets than he does from the electorate.

But even in its limited scope the case is worth making. For the issue here is not the outcome but the process. In the US the public has the power to hold officials who set economic policy accountable. This is an important principle. The levers of democratic control may be rusty and well hidden. But they do at least exist. A system set up more than two centuries ago made sure of that.

Unaccountable Meanwhile, the system set up in Europe less than 20 years ago expressly denies it. The president of the European Central Bank is appointed by democratically elected governments but is accountable to none of them. The ECB publishes neither the minutes of its meetings

nor its voting record, and sets its inflation targets and interest rates without any democratic consultation.

These are not the primary reasons for the current crisis that has befallen the eurozone. But they do explain why the current Europe-wide response to the crisis is so problematic and risks sparking widespread social unrest.

The problem is at its most acute and most obvious in Greece, which has suffered a market assault by speculators who fear its huge public debt might cause it to default. These concerns are not unreasonable. One in four Greek workers is employed by the state, and it is estimated that public debt is well over 100 percent of the nation’s GDP. But the Greeks, who live in the second poorest nation in the eurozone, do not seem to be overly upset by this. In October the Socialists won elections with a clear majority, promising to make the rich pay more tax, award above inflation pay rises for government workers and provide more support for the lowpaid and pensioners.

Whether this was a wise choice or a sustainable set of policies is not the issue. Democracy is not predicated on the idea that voters will make good decisions but that the people have the right to make their own decisions and live with the consequences. The trouble is that in the eurozone the Greek electorate doesn’t matter that much.

The prospect of Greece going broke poses a threat to the credibility of the entire eurozone. So in a bid to defend the currency - not the people Germany and France, the eurozone’s

two biggest economies, have rather reluctantly made it clear that they would be prepared to bail Greece out.

But their help comes at a price. They are demanding massive government sector lay-offs, and cuts in state pay, pensions and other benefits. In other words, the very things that the Greeks have just voted for are about to be systematically dismantled.

In the run-up to the elections the eventual winner, George Papandreou, said: “People are feeling more and more powerless, so we as Socialists, I think, need to say democracy is again at the centre of our policies, giving the citizen a voice.” As far as the ECB is concerned, those voices might as well be howling at the moon. The Greeks can take to the streets - and in all likelihood they will. But the question then arises as to whom shall they make demands and how would they ensure that they were enforced if they were met.

Democratic deficits It is no small irony that the three countries (Portugal, Spain and Greece) that saw EU membership as a means of cementing democracy after rightwing dictatorship should have their leaders dictated to on economic policy by unelected officials and foreign leaders. This is no local matter. It is an explicit manifestation of the problem of neo-liberal globalisation: the fundamental dislocation between politics and power. Nations hold elections, people vote, representatives are sworn in.

All the trappings of democracy remain. Yet the primary unit of democratic engagement - the nation state - has been superseded by bigger,

more powerful forces.

What makes the EU and the ECB so remarkable is that these democratic deficits have been such an explicit part of the project. The issue is not the failure to match economic and monetary union with political union. It is the naked disregard for democratic engagement in the entire system that in no small part explains why voter turnout in EU elections has plummeted by more than 30 percent in the last 30 years.

Whenever people vote no to a phase of integration - as they did in Ireland two years ago - the EU simply orders them to vote again until they produce the right result. Once they vote yes there is no turning back.

“What democratic control do European citizens possess?” asks Sue Wright in her 2000 book, Community and Communications.

“Voting out the European parliament changes nothing because it has little power.

Voting out national parliaments would have a secondary effect on the EU, but the European voters could not co-ordinate their action on this, and at the present time, are unlikely to censure national governments for such a purpose. For populations able to remove their own governments when they are dissatisfied with them, this lack of control is experienced as undemocratic.”

So there will be no hearings on Greece in Brussels. Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the ECB, will face no cross-examination by elected representatives. Nor need he fear for his job. There will be no populism because the population does not count. — Guardian

LifestyLe

Page 42

friday, february 19, 2010

Richard Hamilton: A masterclass from the father of pop art

ut it isn’t any more, and one way to remind yourself both of its great age and of its move to the establishment mainstream is to consider the case of Richard Hamilton, the artist most regularly described as its “father”. For one thing, there is his face. Crikey, what a face. He looks like Abraham as depicted by a children’s bible: the sprouting white hair, the magnificent high forehead, a set of teeth that resemble leaning tombstones in a crowded churchyard. For another, there is the fact that Hamilton will soon be the subject of a big new exhibition at London’s Serpentine Gallery, one of 10 or 12 similar shows - he forgets how many exactly - that will take place around the world this year. Does all this attention still surprise him?

Hamilton considers a moment, and then says, with mock indignation: “It’s getting a bit out of hand, actually.” A low chuckle. “It’s funny because, in the past, my exhibitions haven’t by any means been greeted with praise. When I showed at the Tate in 1992 almost every critic hated it. At Christmas there was a thing in the newspaper: what’s the worst exhibition of the year? I won! I suppose it’s just that people are coming to realise that I’ve done some quite serious things over the past, you know, 50 or 60 years.

That, and the fact that I’ve lived longer than all my peers. Joseph Beuys and John Latham are dead.

Robert Rauschenberg is dead. Jasper Johns is alive, but when do ever hear about him?” From the corner of the room comes a smaller voice: “Jasper’s younger than you, Richard.” This is the painter, Rita Donagh, Hamilton’s wife, who acts as his handbrake when the need arises.

We are sitting in a gleaming white box of a room at the Serpentine Gallery: me, Hamilton and Donagh, a woman even more amazing to look at than him. She has spectrally pale skin and long grey-white hair, and is wearing black dungarees. She is straight out of Paris Vogue. Later Hamilton tells me that, even after several decades together, he still tells her every day that she is beautiful, and I must say: you can’t blame him. Anyway, they are a talented and single-minded couple, these two, and they have known an awful lot of famous people - the Beatles, Rene Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, take your pick - and yet the miracle of it is that they are not remotely precious, grand or prickly.

As I am about to find out.

Hamilton hands me a colour copy of a piece of new work that will hang at the Serpentine. It is a political piece, and consists of two maps: one of Israel/Palestine in 1947, one of Israel/Palestine in 2010, the point being that, in the second map, Palestine has shrunk to the size of a cornflake. I hold the image in my hands, and give it the attention befitting a new work by an artist of Hamilton’s reputation. In other words, I look at it very closely, and I notice something: on these maps

B

Richard Hamilton at the Serpentine Gallery in London. —Guardian Israel has been spelt ‘Isreal’. Slowly, my cogs turn. Hamilton loves wordplay. One of my favourite pieces of his is a certain iconic French ashtray subtly tweaked so that it says, not “Ricard”, but “Richard”. So presumably this, too, is a pun. But what does it mean? Is-real? Hmm. This must be a comment on the country’s controversial birth. Either that, or he wishes to suggest that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a nightmare - can it be real? - from which we will one day wake up. How clever.

“So what are you up to here?” I ask. “Why have you spelled Israel like this?”

Hamilton peers first at me then at the image. “How is it spelled?” he asks. I tell him how the word should be spelled and how he has spelled it.

There is a small silence. “Oh, dear,” says Hamilton. Rita Donagh

gets up from her seat and comes round to look at the image over my shoulder. “Oh, dear,” she says. The misspelling is, it seems, just that: a mistake. It’s my turn now. “Oh, dear,” I say. “I’m so... sorry.“ My cheeks are hot. Hamilton looks crestfallen. Donagh looks worried.

“Can you change it?” I say, thinking that Hamilton works a lot with computers these days. “Not very easily,” he says. Oh, God. On the nerve-wracking eve of his new, big show, I have just told the 88-year old father of pop art that there is a mistake in one of his prints (this one is an inkjet solvent print). Why? Why did I do this? And how on earth will our conversation recover?

After a moment of perplexity, though, Hamilton starts to laugh.

“Oh, well!” he says. “I’m sure there’s some way of sorting it out.

Not to worry!”

Fame Despite his huge influence, Hamilton is not famous in the way that, say, David Hockney is famous.

No one is going to ask Richard Hamilton to edit the Today programme. But you will recognise his most famous work even if you can’t quite put a name to its creator: his 1956 collage, Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? in which a naked woman sits on a G-Plan sofa wearing a lampshade; his paintings of Mick Jagger, and the art dealer Robert Fraser, in handcuffs following a drug raid (the Swingeing London series, completed between 1967 and 1972); his images of an IRA hunger striker (The Citizen series of 1981-3); his 2007 inkjet print, Shock and Awe, in which Tony Blair is done up as a cowboy, with double holster and boots. Or perhaps you own a copy of

the Beatles’ White Album, the sleeve of which he designed.

Part of the difficulty is that he is so hard to categorise. A lot of his work could easily be described as pop art - the bright colours, the iconic images, the found objects - but he is also much more political than, say, Warhol, and he is a brilliant draughtsman, one who spent 50 years illustrating Joyce’s Ulysses (these enthralling prints were shown at the British Museum in 2002, and will probably never be bettered; he is to Joyce what Tenniel is to Alice in Wonderland). Even Hamilton seems unsure. “What I always say is: I do whatever I feel like. People don’t seem to understand that an artist is free to do whatever he wants, and I’ve always relished that possibility.”

It was his friend Marcel Duchamp who made him realise this.

“Duchamp was truly iconoclastic.

This meant that he denied himself, that he knocked his own ideas out of the window. I thought: I should do the same - be careful, as he was, of repeating myself. In art, it’s the mind, not the eye that should be active.”

Hamilton had long been a fan of Duchamp; in 1960 he published a transcription of the notes in the artist’s Green Box (1934) and in 1965 he reconstructed his Large Glass (1915-23) which had been smashed to pieces in 1926. But they didn’t meet until later. “It was at a dinner party in Paris, at the house of the artist Bill Copley. I thought it was going to be a big party, but the guests were me, Rene Magritte and his wife, and Marcel and his wife. I didn’t have two £5 notes to rub together at the time.” What was Duchamp like?

“Oh, he was the most charming person imaginable: kind and clever and witty. Eventually I became one of the family. His wife, Teeny, was fond of me. We were fully bonded. If I was with them in Paris, then I was with them all the time. When the first ‘green book’ came off the press he wrote me the most beautiful letter I’ve ever received. ‘Your labour of love has produced a monster of veracity,’ it said.”

His life Hamilton was born in Pimlico.

His father worked as a driver for Henley’s, the West End car showroom. It was very far from being an “artistic” background. “I suppose I was a misfit. I decided I was interested in drawing when I was 10. I saw a notice in the library advertising art classes. The teacher told me that he couldn’t take me these were adult classes, I was too young - but when he saw my drawing he told me that I might as well come back next week. I used to follow him round like a dog. He was terribly kind to me, and by the time I was 14 I was doing big charcoal drawings of the local down and outs.” At 14 he entered a children’s art competition.

Although his entry had mistakenly been ignored, the man who was to give out the prize was a Royal Academician who looked at his pictures and, admiring them, spoke

LifestyLe

friday, february 19, 2010

Page 43

to Sir Walter Russell, the keeper of the Royal Academy School. Two years later he enrolled there.

In 1940, however, the school closed because of the war. Hamilton became a draughtsman at an engineering company. By the time he returned to the school he was in his 20s; the Royal Academy had changed completely. “It was run by a complete mad man, Sir Alfred Munnings, who used to walk about the place with a whip and jodphurs. It was scary. One of my teachers said my work was looking quite like Cezanne. Oh, good, I thought. Then he said: ‘Augustus John knocks spots off Cezanne.’ Well, of course, I roared with laughter. He went red in the face. One day he asked me if I’d visited the Picasso exhibition. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It was wonderful.’ But he got more and more furious. ‘They’re not even good honest Frenchmen,’ he said. ‘They’re a load of fucking dagos.’ What could you do? It was an absolute joke!”

A few weeks later Hamilton received a note informing him that

Richard Hamilton invented the term ‘pop art’ 53 years ago, and, from his 60s Swingeing London series to Tony Blair as a cowboy, he has been ahead of the curve ever since. the president did not believe he was profiting from his instruction. His studentship was terminated, and he was dragged “kicking and screaming” to National Service.

Being a “veteran”, however, had its uses. When he was accepted by the Slade he was now eligible for a grant.

It was at around this time that Hamilton met Nigel Henderson, later a leading light in the Independent Group of artists to which Hamilton would also belong. It was Henderson who introduced Hamilton to Duchamp’s Green Box,

and to D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s 1917 book On Growth and Form which, for Hamilton, was to become a key text (the book advocates structuralism as an alternative to the survival of the fittest in governing the form of species). In 1956 Hamilton created Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? for the catalogue of This is Tomorrow, the Independent Group’s historic exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. The show was a quasi-anthropological, semi-ironic look at the mass-market imagery of the post-war age.

In 1957 Hamilton wrote a note to the brutalist architects Alison and Peter Smithson, who had also contributed to This Is Tomorrow; they were in talks about the idea of another exhibition on similar lines. It was in this note that he coined the phrase pop art. “Pop art,” he wrote, “is Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low Cost, Mass Produced, Young (aimed at youth), Wicked, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business.” It was almost as though he had looked into a crystal ball, and seen Andy Warhol, in his fright wig, staring back at him. But

the letter was not intended to be a manifesto. “I just listed the things I thought were most interesting,” says Hamilton.

“He [Peter Smithson] didn’t even answer it. When he was asked about it later he denied receiving it.” What about Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? How does he feel about this supposedly seminal work now?

“I’m rather bored with it but it’s a nice little earner!”

The beginning of big things After this, Hamilton’s career took off. He was able to give up teaching (he had worked alongside Victor Pasmore at Newcastle University, where Rita was “a favourite student of mine”, though they did not marry until 1991) after Robert Fraser, aka Groovy Bob, then the most celebrated dealer in London, took him on. “We did three exhibitions, then the famous drug bust took place, the gallery closed, and his cheques bounced. But when the gallery was still open, it was terrific.

He had these parties where you became acquainted with the Beatles and Mick Jagger. It was Fraser who suggested me as a designer for the Beatles’ new album. I remember that Paul [McCartney] rang me. He was

running the show then. So I went to see him. I was sitting there in an outer office, and it was quite amusing at first because it was full of girls in short skirts and long boots. But then I thought: I’ll give him five more minutes.

Anyway, finally, he was ready. He wasn’t sure about my idea at first but in the end he was very helpful. He gave me three tea chests full of photographs to use in the collage for the poster inside.” How much was he paid? “I was surprised how little we got! I remember Peter Blake telling me he’d only been given £200 for Sgt. Pepper. I couldn’t remember what I’d been paid, but Peter said: You only got 200 quid, too. I thought that was a bit mean.” He thinks it’s possible that Yoko Ono was an admirer of his. Or maybe not. “I did contribute my bottom to her bum pic [he means her Film No. 4, better known as “Bottoms”] - not that I would recognise it now. That was our relationship: I was just a bum to her.”

He laughs.

In the 1970s he and Rita moved to North End, the Oxfordshire farm where they still live and keep their studio. His work began to grow more political, though he also moved briefly into industrial design (he loves computers, and designed two).

It seems pretty obvious to me that Steve McQueen’s film about Bobby Sands, Hunger, was inspired, at least in part, by Hamilton’s paintings of the blanket protesters [the Citizen series], and you can see his influence in most contemporary art, whether the artist in question is aware of it or not (though Damien Hirst calls him “the greatest”).

Hamilton admires Hunger but he has little time for the other Young British Artists. He can’t imagine a conversation with Tracey Emin lasting more than five minutes - too tedious! - and though he was quite interested in Hirst’s sharks, his paintings bore him half to death. He believes that this generation is “ignorant... they have no understanding of art history. [Their work] is a waste of time. So much of what they’re doing has already been done, and not only by Duchamp, even. You think: you’re 50 years too late, mate.” Don’t even get him started on Sarah Lucas and her antics with cigarettes.

He’s tiring a little now. I wonder: is he surprised still to be working?

Not really. Partly, as he has told me, the drive for reinvention has kept him going. But sometimes it has been anger. His paintings of the Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell disguised as the Phantom of the Opera in 1964 were the result of fury: “When he refused to get rid of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, I thought: the bastard!” And so, too, are his most recent works. The Hutton inquiry left him “angrier than I would like to be”.

He shows me another piece that will appear at the Serpentine. It’s a medal of dishonour, commissioned by and first shown at the British Museum in 2009. The face on the metal disc is that of Alastair Campbell. Above his head is a Latin inscription. “That’s the nearest we could get to the word ‘whitewash’ in Latin,” says Hamilton, a bony finger tracing its outline. “And that, I’m afraid, is absolutely the product of my anger.” He sounds fierce, but when I look at his face, he is smiling, kindly as ever. —Guardian

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Friday, February 19, 2010 CROSSWORD 905

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

ACROSS 1. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

4. In bed.

8. A protocol developed for the internet to get data from one network device to another.

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

12. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for aviation and spaceflight.

13. Any of numerous hairy-bodied insects including social and solitary species.

14. At a great distance in time or space or degree.

15. Used of a single unit or thing.

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

18. Make secure by lashing.

20. A radioactive element of the alkali-metal group discovered as a disintegration product of actinium.

21. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

22. A river of southwestern Africa that rises in central Angola and flows east and then north (forming part of the border between Angola and Congo) and continuing northwest through Congo to empty into the Congo River on the border between Congo and Republic of the Congo.

25. (usually followed by `to') Having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something.

27. An accountant certified by the state.

28. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

29. The syllable naming the fourth (subdominant) note of the diatonic scale in solmization.

31. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

33. A piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep.

34. Food mixtures either arranged on a plate or tossed and served with a moist dressing.

37. A French abbot.

39. A Loloish language.

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

44. A Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism.

47. Rock that in its molten form (as magma) issues from volcanos.

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

51. Acquire or gain knowledge or skills.

53. A light touch or stroke.

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

55. A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

56. Leaf or strip from a leaf of the talipot palm used in India for writing paper.

DOWN 1. (British slang) Cafe.

2. Any culture medium that uses agar as the gelling agent.

3. United States writer of poems and plays about racial conflict (born in 1934).

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

5. A Japanese cheer of enthusiasm or triumph.

6. The compass point midway between east and southeast.

7. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

8. A metallic element of the rare earth group.

9. Of or like a cecum.

10. The state prevailing during the absence of war.

16. German tennis player who won seven women's singles titles at Wimbledon (born in 1969).

19. An informal term for a father.

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

24. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

26. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

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

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

35. Jordan's port.

36. A gonadotropic hormone that is secreted by the anterior pituitary.

38. Any of various units of capacity.

40. (Islam) The man who leads prayers in a mosque.

41. Rounded like an egg.

42. A small cake leavened with yeast.

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

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

48. A rapid bustling commotion.

50. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

52. A state in New England.

Yesterday’s Solution

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Friday, February 19, 2010

COUNTRY CODES

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY Aries (March 21-April 19) I personally don't believe we're living in the worst of times, although I know many people who do. While there are indeed reasons to despair, our current state of affairs is actually in many ways quite glorious. And our struggles are puny compared to those of the generation that lived through the two World Wars and the Great Depression. Having said that, I think it's fine to believe that civilization is in a terrible mess if it motivates you to shed all your trivial distractions and inessential wishes so as to dedicate yourself to living an exciting, generous life that's rich with love and meaning. Now is a prime time for you, Aries, to dedicate yourself to such a path.

Ta u r u s ( A p r i l 2 0 - M a y 2 0 ) Throughout 2010, you're most likely to be consistently in the right place at the right time if you cultivate an amused skepticism toward what's in vogue. In fact, I suspect that only one trend will be of any use to you at all. You heard me correctly, Taurus: Of all the fashionable obsessions that may tempt you, just one will be in sweet alignment with your authentic needs. And guess what? Right now happens to be the perfect moment to get hooked up with it.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) When I was lead vocalist in the band Tao Chemical, I sang a tune whose chorus went as follows: "I want the truth / the whole truth / nothing but the truth / I want the truth / Don't beat around the bush." Shortly after we started performing the song, my girlfriend broke up with me. And she felt free -- given what I proclaimed in those lyrics -- to share with me every excruciating detail about her new relationship. It was painful, and I felt tempted to forswear the song and never utter those brave words again. But I was ultimately glad I didn't weaken. To this day, I prefer knowing the full facts. Now I'm recommending to you, Gemini, that you pledge yourself to the same intention in the coming weeks.

It should be much easier for you than it initially was for me. Most of the truths rushing in will be interesting and enlivening, with just a little angst mixed in.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) "Jane Austen was the spinster daughter of a clergyman who led an uneventful life," wrote Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The Guardian. "She just happened to write half a dozen flawless masterpieces, which came perfectly formed, not from experience but from imagination." Most of us don't have anything close to the inconceivably potent imagination that Austen possessed. But I believe 2010 will be a year when you can access at least a portion of that wondrous capacity. You'll be able to fantasize about vast possibilities in exquisite detail. You will have great skill at smashing your way free of limiting expectations through the power of your expansive vision. And the coming weeks will be a time when it should all kick into high gear.

L e o ( J u l y 2 3 - Au g u s t 2 2 ) Of all the symbols in the world, the swastika is the most horrendous. As the logo for Hitler's Nazi movement, it will forever smack of evil. But it didn't used to be that way.

In many cultures throughout history, from the Greeks to the Hindus to the Native Americans, the swastika was a representation of the sun's path across the sky, and was regarded as highly auspicious, even a good luck charm. Can you think of a more modest equivalent of this phenomenon in your own life, Leo? A formerly wonderful thing that got spoiled somewhere along the way? The coming weeks will be a good time to determine whether you could redeem and rehabilitate it.

Vi rg o ( Au g u s t 2 3 - S e p t e m b e r 22) I need a break from watching you work your psyche to the bone.

At least for now, I'm not willing to indulge you in your inclination to do your duty so exhaustively that you suffer. And as much as I admire your drive to get things perfect, I cannot in good conscience encourage you to do that, either. It is therefore with a sense of relief that I counsel you to take at least a week off from the behavior I described. Instead, try playful, messy experiments that are in service to your own needs. Be a freewheeling explorer, a wandering improviser.

Libra (September 23O c t o b e r 2 2 ) "Whatever gets in the way of the work," wrote poet Jason Shinder, "is the work." His counsel will serve as a good reminder for you if you meet with obstacles in the coming days. If you ever catch yourself thinking, "Damn! I'd be making such good progress if it weren't for these inconvenient complications," consider the possibility that the inconvenient complications aren't distractions, but rather crucial clues; they're not pains in the assets, but medicinal prods that point the way to the real opportunities.

Scorpio (October 23-November 2 1 ) Have you ever watched the TV show "The Office"? If so, you may remember when Darryl from the warehouse was going out with customer service rep Kelly. "You need to access your uncrazy side," he told her at a turning point in their relationship. "Otherwise, maybe this thing has run its course." I'd like to invite you to do the same, Scorpio: Tap into, draw up to the surface, and abundantly express your uncrazy side. I predict that you will have a whole lot of fun if you do, thereby proving that you don't need to be marinating in chaos and torment in order to experience high adventure.

Sagittarius (November 22D e c e m b e r 2 1 ) The game you've been enmeshed in has reached a sticking point, or soon will. I recommend that you call for a suspension of action. If that's not possible, hide from the other players for a while, or jokingly tell them you have to excuse yourself because it's time for your regular bout of cleansing escapism.

Then, during the break, scour your brain free of clutter so you can gain a more dispassionate view of your own strategy. I also suggest that you seek the advice of a smart and impartial observer. If all goes well, you'll be able to return to the fray refreshed within ten days.

Capricorn (December 22Januar y 19) Being scrupulously ethical can be taxing and timeconsuming. It involves high levels of ongoing self-examination, which many people are too selfish and lazy to bother with. On the upside, pursuing a path with integrity ultimately reduces one's suffering. It also attracts the kind of assistance that is most likely to aid and abet one's quest for liberation. As a bonus, it makes it unlikely that one will be a cockroach in one's next incarnation. I'm bringing this up, Capricorn, because I'm sensing that you're about to be tempted to be less than your best self. Please don't succumb.

Aquarius (January 20Febr uar y 18) "The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable," said renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith. If that's true, I'm doubling the damage to my dignity by using astrological analysis to make an economic forecast in this horoscope. But that's OK. My job is to report the raw truth as I see it, not worry about my reputation or social status. And the raw truth as I see it is that you are more likely than all the other signs of the zodiac to prosper in 2010, even if the economy as a whole continues to limp along.

The next four weeks will be an ideal time to launch a master plan to take advantage of this potential.

Pisces (Febr uar y 19-March 20) Historians trace the origin of Poland as a nation to the year 966. It mostly thrived for hundreds of years, but was extinguished in 1795, when three imperialistic invaders -- Russia, Prussia, and Austria -- claimed different parts of it as their own. Throughout the 19th century, when there was no Poland, the Poles fought to restore self-rule. Their dream came true on November 11, 1918, when Poland once again became an independent nation. I regard the phase you're now in, Pisces, as having certain similarities to the state of the Polish people in October 1918.

Congratulations in advance for the imminent return of your sovereignty.

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Holland (Netherlands) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Ibiza (Spain) Iceland India Indian Ocean Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345 00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689 00241 00220 00995 0049 00233 00350 0030 00299 001473 00590 001671 00502 00224 00592 00509 0031 00504 00852 0036 0034 00354 0091 00873 0062 0098 00964 00353 0039 00225 001876 0081 00962 007 00254 00686 00965

Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liberia Libya Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Majorca Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nepal Netherlands (Holland) Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Nigar Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Ireland (UK) North Korea Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts Saint Lucia Saint Pierre Saint Vincent Samoa US Samoa West San Marino Sao Tone Saudi Arabia Scotland (UK) Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Toga Tonga Tokelau Trinidad Tunisia Turkey Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay

00996 00856 00371 00961 00231 00218 00370 00352 00853 00389 00261 0034 00265 0060 00960 00223 00356 00692 00596 00222 00230 00269 0052 00691 00373 00377 00976 001664 00212 00258 0095 00264 00977 0031 00599 00687 0064 00505 00227 00234 00683 00672 0044 00850 0047 00968 0092 00680 00507 00675 00595 0051 0063 0048 00351 001787 00974 0040 007 00250 00290 001869 001758 00508 001784 00684 00685 00378 00239 00966 0044 00221 00284 00232 0065 00421 00386 00677 00252 0027 0082 0034 0094 00249 00597 00268 0046 0041 00963 00886 00255 0066 00228 00676 00690 001868 00216 0090 00688 00256 00380 00976 0044 00598

WHAT’S ON

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Christian College Chengannur - Alumni - annual get-together 2010 he Christian College Chengannur, Alumni Association-Kuwait Chapter (CHRISCCAA), celebrated its 7th Annual family Get-together on February 11th, Thursday from 8pm in United Indian School Auditorium, Jleeb Al Shoyoukh.

The public meeting started with a silent prayer and General Secretary Sunil Thomas warmly welcomed the gathering.

CHRISCAA President, Mathew Alexander delivered the inaugural address. The cultural program of the

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he St Peter’s C S I Church J32 Group given a farewell to its Outgoing Church Priest, Rev Jacob T Abraham and Family as they are transferred to another Church in Kerala, India and also given farewell to another group member, David Cherian and Family, who are leaving Kuwait to settle down at his native place Kottayam. This Ceremony took place on the occasion of the J32 Groups Second Anniversary Celebration and was presided over by Moncy.

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alumni members was a colorful and splendid show of talents. Solo dance performances by Ms. Benitta and Ms. Mariam Panicker, Group dances by Liya, Grace, Tessa, Vanessa, Jonathan, Varsha and Mekha, Hannah, Ginu and Jeffy were really breath taking. Solo songs were sung by Jacob Vellore, Nikhil Varghese and Ben Jacob. Group songs by Mekha, Nekha and Liya, Grace, Tessa and Vanessa were melodious. Master. Rick Mathew Philip presented a fantastic

violin recital. Ms. Binsu Mathew presented a song in Key board.

CHRISCCAA Melodies presented their maidan performance by presenting “Madhuram Malayalam” directed by Jacob Vellore and Music by Blessen Scaria.

Mathew Alexander and Sunil Thomas presented “Masking the Product show” which kept it’s suspense till the end.

12th grade students were given a farewell by presenting “mementos”.

Introduction of new members were done

by Idicula Mathew. Prizes for the picnic events winners were also distributed. All the participants of cultural program were given prizes. Vice president George Mathew presented the vote of thanks.

The program was well compeered by Joint Secretary Mrs. Rachel Thomas.

Then there was a delicious “Kerala Style” dinner served in the traditional plantain leaves. It was really an unforgettable event for all participated and attended.

St Peters bids farewell

FOKE Farwaniya unit organized family get-together riends of Kannur Farwaniya unit organized a family get-together at Echo restaurant, Farwaniya on 12th February 2010. The day long function aimed to bring close interaction with all FOKE members on Farwaniya unit, began with a patriotic song

by FOKE children. Unit Secretary Sri Ravi Kappadan welcomed the gathering. Convener Sri Sunil Kumar K. C gave the presidential

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speech. Function was officially inaugurated by lighting the lamp. FOKE General Secretary Sri Jayan TV, Vice president Anil Keloth, Ladies wing chairperson Smt Ambika Soorya Narayan and Convener Smt Anita Somraj gave facilitation speech. Get-together provided an opportunity for all to introduce with the other members and to know various activities of the association and its charity

works. Certificates for the ladies wing members who participated in Lulu India fest were also distributed on the occasion. Later a variety of fun filled games for the children were arranged. Song and dance by FOKE children added colors to the function.

Children of all ages participated in various fun games. Gifts were given to all the children who attended the function. A

sumptuous lunch was also arranged for all the members. Large number of families and children participated in the program. The day was full of entertainment and active participation by all the members of FOKE Farwaniya unit. Unit Joint Secretary Sri Girimandiram Shasikumar gave vote of thanks to all who participated and made the event successful.

WHAT’S ON

Friday, February 19, 2010

Greetings

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Galore of taste: Food Festival 2010 he premises of Canadian School was buzzing with a lot of activities under one roof—there was a lot of aroma rising into the air. Whether you were a serious foodie or someone who just appreciated good food there was more than enough at the festival to ensure that you, and your friends and family, had a great time. There was a wonderful festival atmosphere - and you could definitely see the co-operation and family atmosphere among all the parish members -young and old alike. It was the Food Festival of Our Lady of Arabia Parish, Ahmadi.

At 8.30 am the food festival was inaugurated by His Lordship, Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait, Bishop Camillo Ballin MCCI by lighting the traditional lamp along with Father Mathew Francis OCD, The Vicar General of Kuwait. The Parish Priest, Fr. Andrew Francis OFM Cap was also present during the occasion. The Assistant Parish Priest of Our Lady of Arabia, Ahmadi, Fr John Harry D’Souza was also present. There were lot of distinguished guests .

Titus from Bahrain Exchange was also present. It officially started at 10.a.m. There was a variety of food from not only all the major corners of India but also from the Philippines and Sri Lanka. If you had the tasty and hot dosa from Kerala, there was also Dal Vada from Tamil Nadu, Chapatti and Chana Masala from the northern part of India and fried rice from the Eastern part of India. All the dishes like appams, vadas, French fries, cutlets were popular among all the people who enjoyed the whole day out talking and joking with their friends. Each community whether they were from the Philippines or India, Sri Lanka or from the Arab world enjoyed the cuisines of their friends. A special word of thanks to members from the other parishes ie Holy

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This brings a wish for all The best a day and year Can bring, for someone Who should always have The best of everything!

Have a Happy Birthday And a wonderful year ahead! Best wishes from Mommy ,Daddy and Pooja!!!

Thanking you Pooja

Announcements TODAY Indian Lawyers Forum: Indian Lawyers forum, (ILF) the Association of Indian Lawyers & Law Graduates in Kuwait to conduct its annual programme & get together today 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 20 Islamic courses: Under the auspices of KIG Education Board, Islamic courses will be conducted for students from 8th to 12th standard on Saturdays at IPC Khaitan Branch. The first class of this kind shall be conducted on coming Saturday 20th February, 2010 from 8 am till 12 noon. Well trained instructors will conduct classes with the aid of multimedia and syllabus made for the over all development of the students with Islamic Orientation includes various Islamic studies, Quran, Hadees and Fiqh. For more details parents are requested to contact Abdurazack Nadvi 97261957/65597389.

FEBRUARY 23 Lecture on diabetes: Correlation between diabetes and obesity by Dr. Dhari Al-Own. What is the definition of obesity? What are its side effects, how can one calculate his BMI (Body mass Index? How can we calculate our calorie requirements? And how can we avoid obesity and diabetes? In his 20-minute presentation, Dr. Dhari will answer all this questions and many more.

When? Tuesday February 23rd at 7pm at AWARE. FEBRUARY 24-27 Islamic seminar: Kuwait Kerala Islahi Centre is organizing a 4 day-long Islamic Seminar at Farwaniya Garden Ground starting from February 24 to 27 and will be under the patronage of His Excellency Deputy Prime Minister for Legal Affairs, Minister of Justice and Awqaf & Islamic Affairs Advisor Rashid Abdul Mohsin Al Hammad. Assistant Undersecretary for Cultural Affairs Ibrahim Al-Saleh, Advisor for Minister of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs Shaikh Jassem Muhammed Al Farhan, Director of Department of Justice Salem Abdullah AlHassan, Shaikh Yousuf Shuaib and Shaikh Khalid Sinan from Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs will be attending the Islamic Seminar Inauguration program. Indian Ambassador Ajay Malhotra will be inaugurating Exhibiton, Vision-2010 on Feb 24. All are invited to attend this program with your families and friends.

Standing from left to right: His Lordship Vicar Apostollic of Kuwait Bishop Camillo Ballin lighting the traditional lamp, with Fr. Mathew Francis OCD, Mr. Titus, (Bahrain Exchange) and Parish Priest of Our Lady of Arabia, Ahmadi Family Cathedral Parish , City and St Therese Parish , Salmiyah . All these items were prepared at home by the various members of the Associations of the Parish and here a special mention goes to all the dynamic members of the Parish Council who under the constant guidance of the Parish Priest Fr.

Expats Football Federation Kuwait

PAWS 2010 dogs show AWS are happy to announce their first event of 2010 will be the 5th Annual Paws for the Cause Dog Show in the beautiful British Embassy Gardens on 5th March 2010.

Registration is now open for entry into the Dog Show. The gate will open at 11am and the show will close at 4pm.

This year will be bigger and better than ever with 9 categories in all including the new category best Rescue dog. Whether your dog is the most obedient, can do the best trick or just simply looks adorable or is getting on a bit then there will be a category for you. There is even the most mysterious heritage category for those with a questionable pedigree! It’s a lot of fun and very light-hearted so why not see if your Mutt has a little bit of star quality.

Alternatively you may just want to come and show off your pampered pooch and watch the show. The choice is yours. As well as the Dog Competitions there will be a Military Dog Display and stalls offering refreshments including a BBQ and tea and cakes so you can enjoy a tasty lunch in the gardens. Other stalls include pet products, a bookstall, Bric a Brac, bouncy castle, face painting and many more.

Dog Classes are already filling so hurry and get your application in.

And remember You do not need a dog to come along and enjoy a fun-filled family day.

This promises to be a great day out for the whole family so if you wish to attend then visit our website at www.paws-kuwait.org to download the application form.

Completed registration forms can then be left at The Cutting Edge Salon, Salmiya 25718001 or Soho Salon Fintas, 23902077.

Please ensure your form, with correct admission fee, is placed in a sealed envelope at either salon. Registration closes March 2nd.

There will unfortunately be no admittance to you or your pets to the British Embassy on the day without pre-registration. No ‘walk-ins’ by un-registered guests can be permitted.

PAWS-Protecting Animal Welfare Society, Kuwait is affiliated to KEPS, Kuwait Environmental Protection Society, WSPA, World Society for the Protection of Animals, The RSPCA International and MENAW, Middle East Network for Animal Welfare E-mail at pawsq8@yahoo.com Tel: 99440089

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Andrew Francis OFM Cap and Assistant Parish Priest Fr. John Harry D’Souza OFM Cap worked very hard to make it a memorable day for one and all. Besides food, there were also game stalls and a free medical camp. Indeed it was a memorable day for one and all.

Kick’s off with Asian Football League Kuwait tarting today, at the Shuwaikh Fire Station Ground at 4:00pm with the Grand Opening Ceremony!

Along with the League Matches!. A 11 a side league tournament which will last for 3 months.

Allowing Indian teams, Napali teams, Sri Lankan teams, Pakistani teams, Thailand teams and Bangladeshi teams to participate in this League and

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find out who will the the Asian Football Champion for the Season One Addition.

League will be held During the Weekends, Friday Evenings. Squad 11+5+Team Coach+Team Manager. Games will be played on Grass Grounds & Under Flood Lights 60min game with a 5min break between.

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Friday, February 19, 2010

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

FLIGHT SCHEDULE

“IN CASE YOU ARE NOT TRAVELLING, YOUR PROPER CANCELLATION OF BOOKINGS WILL HELP OTHER PASSENGERS TO USE SEATS”.

Arrival Flights on Friday 19/02/2010 Airlines Flt Route Jazeera 0263 Beirut KLM 0447 Amsterdam/Bahrain Wataniya Airways 1129 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 2103 Beirut Gulf Air 211 Bahrain DHL 370 Bahrain Turkish A/L 1172 Istanbul Emirates 853 Dubai Etihad 0305 Abu Dhabi Qatari 0138 Doha Ethiopian 622 Addis Ababa/Bahrain Jazeera 0637 Aleppo Falcon 201 Dubai Jazeera 0503 Luxor Jazeera 0527 Alexandria Jazeera 0529 Assiut British 0157 London Kuwait 412 Manila/Bangkok Kuwait 206 Islamabad Kuwait 352 Cochin Jazeera 0161 Dubai Kuwait 382 Delhi Kuwait 302 Mumbai Kuwait 676 Dubai Kuwait 284 Dhaka Kuwait 362 Colombo Emirates 855 Dubai Arabia 0121 Sharjah Qatari 0132 Doha Etihad 0301 Abu Dhabi Kuwait 344 Chennai Wataniya Airways 1121 Bahrain Gulf Air 213 Bahrain Jazeera 0447 Doha Jazeera 0165 Dubai Jazeera 0425 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 1021 Dubai Jazeera 0113 Abu Dhabi Middle East 404 Beirut Iran Aseman 6521 Lamerd Egypt Air 810 Cairo Kuwait 672 Dubai Jazeera 0171 Dubai Wataniya Airways 2301 Damascus Nas Air 745 Jeddah Jazeera 0525 Alexandria Jazeera 0257 Beirut Wataniya Airways 2001 Cairo Saudi Arabian A/L 500 Jeddah Kuwait 552 Damascus Jazeera 0457 Damascus Qatari 0134 Doha Kuwait 548 Luxor Kuwait 545 Alexandria Kuwait 678 Muscat/Abu Dhabi Royal Jordanian 800 Amman Jazeera 0173 Dubai Emirates 857 Dubai Kuwait 118 New York Gulf Air 215 Bahrain Saudi Arabian A/L 510 Riyadh Etihad 0303 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 0493 Jeddah Jazeera 0239 Amman Arabia 0125 Sharjah Jazeera 0367 Deirezzor Wataniya Airways 2101 Beirut

Time 00:05 00:10 00:25 00:50 01:05 02:15 02:15 02:35 03:00 03:25 03:30 05:05 05:25 05:35 06:10 06:30 06:40 06:45 07:40 07:40 07:45 07:50 07:55 08:10 08:15 08:20 08:30 08:55 09:00 09:35 10:35 10:45 10:45 11:00 11:05 11:10 11:20 11:20 11:55 12:35 12:55 13:25 13:35 13:35 14:00 14:05 14:10 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:00 15:15 15:30 15:30 15:40 16:05 16:55 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:15 17:30 17:35 17:40 17:45 17:50

Srilankan United A/L Wataniya Airways DHL Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Indian Kuwait Jet A/W Oman Air Jazeera Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Middle East Qatari Emirates KLM Wataniya Airways Jazeera Jazeera Global Jazeera Jazeera Tunis Air Pakistan Lufthansa Wataniya Airways

227 982 2003 473 1025 502 542 674 0177 618 786 614 744 774 575 104 572 0647 0459 2103 217 402 0136 859 0445 1129 0449 0429 081 0117 0185 327 239 636 1029

Colombo/Dubai 18:05 Washington DC Dulles18:15 Cairo 15:20 Baghdad 18:30 Dubai 18:40 Beirut 18:45 Cairo 15:50 Dubai 18:55 Dubai 18:55 Doha 18:55 Jeddah 19:10 Bahrain 19:20 Dammam 19:25 Riyadh 19:30 Chennai/Goa 19:30 London 19:35 Mumbai 20:05 Muscat 20:20 Damascus 20:40 Beirut 20:55 Bahrain 21:05 Beirut 21:20 Doha 21:35 Dubai 21:40 Amsterdam 21:55 Bahrain 22:00 Doha 22:10 Bahrain 22:15 Baghdad 22:20 Abu Dhabi 22:25 Dubai 22:40 Tunis 23:10 Islamabad/Sialkot 2320 Frankfurt 23:30 Dubai 23:45

Departure Flights on Friday l9/2/2010 Airlines Flt Route Time Jazeera 0528 Assiut 00:05 India Express 390 Mangalore/Kozhikode 00:30 United A/L 981 Washington DC Dulles00:40 Indian 982 Ahmedabad/Chennai 01:05 Pakistan 206 Peshawer/Lahore 01:10 Bangladesh 044 Dhaka 01:15 Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt 01:20 KLM 0447 Amsterdam 0125 Turkish At 1173 Istanbul 03:15 DHL 371 Bahrain 03:15 Emirates 854 Dubai 03:50 Etihad 0306 Abu Dhabi 04:10 Ethiopian 622 Addis Ababa 04:15 Qatari 0139 Doha 05:00 Wataniya Airways 1020 Dubai 07:00 Jazeera 0164 Dubai 07:00 Jazeera 0524 Alexandria 07:20 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 345 Alexandria 08:30 Jazeera 0256 Beirut 08:35 Kuwait 677 Abu Dhabi/Muscat 08:40 British 0156 London 8:55 Kuwait 671 Dubai 09:00 Kuwait 551 Damascus 09:10 Kuwait 547 Luxor 09:15

Jazeera Jazeera Arabia Emirates Qatari Ftihad Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Kuwait Jazeera Kuwait Wataniya Airways Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait Middle East Kuwait Iran Aseman Kuwait Egypt Air Wataniya Airways Kuwait Nas Air Jazeera Wataniya Airways Jazeera Kuwait Saudi Arabian A/L Kuwait Kuwait Royal Jordanian Qatari Kuwait Gulf Air Etihad Emirates Arabia Jazeera Kuwait Saudi Arabian A/L Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Global Jazeera Wataniya Airways Srilankan Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Jet A/W Oman Air Gulf Air DHL Kuwait Middle East Kuwait Jazeera Falcon Kuwait Qatari Kuwait Emirates KLM Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

0456 0170 0122 856 0133 0302 2002 214 165 0172 541 2100 0492 0366 0238 103 405 501 6522 785 611 1024 673 746 0176 2102 0458 617 501 773 613 801 0135 743 216 0304 838 0126 0262 543 511 0184 0116 0448 082 0428 1128 228 1028 283 331 571 0648 218 171 675 403 203 0188 102 381 0137 301 860 0445 0480 0526 0502 411

Damascus Dubai Sharjah Dubai Doha Abu Dhabi Cairo Bahrain Rome/Paris Dubai Cairo Beirut Jeddah Deirezzor Amman London Beirut Beirut Lamerd Jeddah Cairo Dubai Dubai Jeddah Dubai Beirut Damascus Doha Jeddah Riyadh Bahrain Amman Doha Dammam Bahrain Abu Dhabi Dubai Sharjah Beirut Cairo Riyadh Dubai Abu Dhabi Doha Baghdad Bahrain Bahrain Dubai/Colombo Dubai Dhaka Trivandrum Mumbai Muscat Bahrain Bahrain Dubai Beirut Lahore Dubai Bahrain Delhi Doha Mumbai Dubai Bahrain/Amsterdam Sabiha Alexandria Luxor Bangkok/Manila

09:25 09:30 09:35 09:40 10:00 10:20 11:30 11:40 11:45 12:00 12:10 17:05 12:15 12:20 12:25 12:30 12:55 13:00 13:35 13:40 13:55 14:25 14:30 14:53 15:05 15:10 15:30 15:35 15:45 16:10 16:20 16:25 16:30 16:40 17:55 18:00 18:10 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:30 18:35 18:40 18:50 18:50 19:00 19:15 19:15 19:30 20:15 21:00 21:10 21:20 21:55 22:00 22:10 22:20 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:30 2235 22:45 22:50 22:55 23:00 23:25 23:50 23:55

CLASSIFIEDS

Friday, February 19, 2010 66176090. (C 20349)

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya near Classic typing center, for a bachelor.

Contact: 66829585. (C 20355) Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya CAC, separate bathroom, spacious room ready for occupancy. Call: 99412951.

(C 20358) Accommodation available for Indian bachelors, central A/C, big room, near UAE Bank building, old Riggae.

Contact: 99709823. (C 20356) Furnished sharing accommodation available in Mangaf Block 3, for working ladies & executive bachelor, two bathrooms, internet connection.

Contact: 67008764, 99468018. (C 20359) One furnished room available near Indian Central School, Abbassiya, for decent bachelor or small family from 25th Feb. Indians only, reasonable rent. Contact: 99764178.

(C 20360) 19-2-2010 Sharing accommodation available for single girls.

Contact: 97527233.

(C 20348) Sharing accommodation available for Christian couples or working ladies in Abbassiya. Please contact: 66538532. (C 20347) Sharing accommodation available in Salmiya behind Appolo, for Indian bachelors. Contact: 97961405/

Sharing accommodation available for executive bachelor/ couples/ visiting family (preferred Christian) in a 3BHK, 2 bathroom centralized A/C flat near Shara Amman, Salmiya.

Interested may please call 66624123. (C 20346) Rent for a single family, new building C-A/C, attached bathroom, water & electricity charge is free, rent KD 90, location is near Abbassiya Indian Integrated school & Bharatia Vidya Bhavan.

Contact: 66548128. (C 20350) Room in C-A/C flat with separate bathroom in Sharq near Mughal Mahal restaurant for working ladies from March 1st. Please contact: 99567689 or 55197093.

(C 20345) To let, a spacious furnished room in a flat, to a decent executive bachelor, rent KD 75, payable from March 2010. Independent toilet & to avail kitchen facility.

Location B始neid Al Gar. Call 97407275 for more details.

18-2-2010 There is accommodation available for one Keralite bachelor near United Indian School, Abbassiya.

Contact: 24348576, 66288012.

(C 20344) 17-2-2010 Sharing accommodation furnished one room available in Sharq CA/C, 2 bathrooms, for Indian couple or 2 working ladies or one executive bachelor. Rent KD 100.

Contact: 99849490. (C 20340)

Page 49

Sharing accommodation available for bachelors or a small family Goan or Mangalorean to share with a small Mangalorean family.

Two bedroom flat, window A/C near Rashid hospital Shara Amman. Contact: 66132003 or 94969047.

(C 20338) 16-2-2010

FOR SALE

19-2-2010

BMW 740i black 1996 model, 220,000 kms with beige leather seats in good condition.

Contact: 97201151.

(C 20353)

Looking for home nurse to take care of old Kuwaiti male. Salary 150 KD, send your CV immediately to fax: 24836310 contact Mob: 97687707. (C 20343)

Furniture with household items 2 dish antenna two bedroom flat with two toilets central A/C near City Center, Salmiya with land line telephone transferable rent. Contact: 97201151.

(C 20352) 18-2-2010

Required English speaking nanny/maid. If interested, please contact 99824597.

(C 20339) 16-2-2010

Magna 2002 model excellent condition, company maintained.

Contact: 99928863, 24344176.

(C 20333)

RC girl 24/165, BTech, born and brought up in Kuwait, worked with Wipro as software engineer for 2 years, currently employed in a nationalized bank in India, invites proposals from parents of professionally qualified and well-settled boys. Contact email: frmprop@gmail.com (20354) 19-2-2010

Pajero 2001 model, green and silver, good condition, price KD 1950, and Out Lander red color 2003, price KD 1650 only. Phone: 99980087, 66052331.

(C 20332) 15-2-2010

SITUATION VACANT Required cook for house, good experience on all kinds of continental food , good salary, part time or full time. Contact: 66519719, 23901053. (C 20357)

MATRIMONIAL

Seeking alliance for a Keralite RC 27, 152 cm Palai Dioces working staff MoH in Jahra (GNM) looking for alliance preferably working in Kuwait from Kottayam district. Email: sthomas@qnetstaff.com (C 20337) 17-2-2010

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists: Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 5622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 5752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 5321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 5739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 5757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 5732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 5732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT): Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz

4555050 Ext 510 5644660 5646478 5311996 5731988 2620166 5651426

General Practitioners: Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi Dr. Yousef Al-Omar Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem Dr. Kathem Maarafi Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae

4555050 Ext 123 4719312 3926920 5730465 5655528 4577781 5333501

Urologists: Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 2641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 2639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 2616660

Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 5313120 Plastic Surgeons: Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari Dr. Abdel Quttainah

2547272 2617700 5625030/60

Family Doctor: Dr Divya Damodar

3729596/3729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

2635047 2613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians: Dr Adrian Harbe Dr. Verginia s.Marin Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly Dr. Salem soso

3729596/3729581 572-6666 ext 8321 2655539 5343406 5739272 2618787

General Surgeons: Dr. Abidallah Behbahani 5717111 Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer 2610044 Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher 5327148

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra Dr. Mobarak Aldoub Dr Nasser Behbehani

5728004 5355515 4726446 5654300/3

Paediatricians: Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed Dr. Zahra Qabazard Dr. Sohail Qamar Dr. Snaa Maaroof Dr. Pradip Gujare Dr. Zacharias Mathew

5340300 5710444 2621099 5713514 3713100 4334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada) 5655535

2639939 2666300

Endocrinologist: Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman 5339330 Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 5658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 5329924 Physiotherapists & VD: Dr. Deyaa Shehab Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

5722291 2666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi 5330060 Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah 5722290

Dentists: Dr Anil Thomas Dr. Shamah Al-Matar Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

3729596/3729581 2641071/2 2562226 2561444 2619557 2525888 5653755 5620111

Internists, Chest & Heart: Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Mousa Khadada

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman 2636464 Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly 5322030 Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali 2633135

Neurologists: Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri 5633324 Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan 5345875

Internist, Chest & Heart: DR.Mohammes Akkad 4555050 Ext 210 Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Tel: 5339667 Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Consultant Cardiologist Tel: 2611555-2622555

Page 50

Friday, February 19, 2010

TV Listings Orbit /Showtime Channels

00:00 Ashes to Ashes 01:00 Prison Break 02:00 Knight Rider 03:00 Dawsons Creek 04:00 Prison Break 05:00 One Tree Hill 06:00 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 07:00 Ashes to Ashes 08:00 Without a Trace 09:00 Ghost Whisperer 10:00 Knight Rider 11:00 Dawsons Creek 12:00 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 13:00 One Tree Hill 14:00 Knight Rider 15:00 Prison Break 16:00 Without a Trace 17:00 Ghost Whisperer 18:00 Ashes to Ashes 19:00 Tess of the D’Urbervilles 20:00 Without a Trace 21:00 Survivor 22:00 Inside the Actors Studio 23:00 Rescue Me

00:50 Animal Cops Phoenix 01:45 Saba and the Rhino’s Secret 02:40 Untamed & Uncut 03:35 Austin Stevens Adventures 04:30 Animal Cops Philadelphia 05:25 Animal Cops Phoenix 06:20 Lemur Street 06:45 Monkey Business 07:10 RSPCA: On the Frontline 07:35 Vet on the Loose 08:00 Wildlife SOS 08:25 Pet Rescue 08:50 Animal Precinct 09:45 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 10:10 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 10:40 RSPCA: On the Frontline 11:05 Animal Cops Phoenix 11:55 Corwin’s Quest 12:50 Wildlife SOS 13:15 Pet Rescue 13:45 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 14:10 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 14:40 Saba and the Rhino’s Secret 15:35 Lemur Street 16:00 Monkey Life 16:30 Pet Rescue 16:55 Vet on the Loose 17:25 Wildlife SOS 17:50 RSPCA: On the Frontline 18:20 Animal Cops Philadelphia 19:15 Night 19:40 Night 20:10 Natural World 21:10 Animal Cops Phoenix 22:05 Untamed & Uncut 23:00 Night

00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00 03:00 03:50 04:20 04:50 Apollo 05:35 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 11:15 12:15 13:15

Lead Balloon Lead Balloon Little Britain Coast Terry Jones’ Barbarians Green Green Grass Carrie & Barry Jack Dee: Live At The Coast Bargain Hunt Balamory Tweenies Fimbles Teletubbies Yoho Ahoy Tommy Zoom Balamory Tweenies Fimbles Teletubbies Yoho Ahoy Bargain Hunt Coast Terry Jones’ Barbarians The Weakest Link

14:00 14:30 15:00 15:45 16:15 16:45 17:15 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 21:00 21:45 22:15

00:05 00:30 01:20 01:45 02:10 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:28 05:15 05:45 06:10 07:00 Went 07:30 Went 08:10 09:00 09:25 09:45 10:30 11:30 12:20 13:00 Went 13:30 Went 14:00 14:45 15:40 16:05 16:30 16:50 17:10 18:00 Went 18:30 Went 18:50 19:40 20:10 20:40 21:05 21:35 22:00 22:45 23:40

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15 15:00 17:00 15 19:00 21:00 23:15

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 13:25

Eastenders Doctors Bargain Hunt Cash In The Attic Blackadder Goes Forth Red Dwarf (re-mastered) The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Jam & Jerusalem Jam & Jerusalem Antiques Roadshow The Weakest Link Doctors Judge John Deed

Glamour Puds Masterchef Goes Large Cash In The Attic Usa Hidden Potential Living In The Sun Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me The Naked Chef Glamour Puds Cash In The Attic Usa Hidden Potential Living In The Sun The Week The Women The Week The Women Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic Usa Hidden Potential Rhodes Across India Rhodes Across India Living In The Sun Antiques Roadshow The Week The Women The Week The Women Rhodes Across India Rhodes Across India Daily Cooks Challenge Daily Cooks Challenge Cash In The Attic Usa Hidden Potential Antiques Roadshow The Week The Women The Week The Women Living In The Sun Daily Cooks Challenge Daily Cooks Challenge Masterchef Goes Large Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Living In The Sun What Not To Wear The Naked Chef

Killing Me Softly - 18 Elite Squad - 18 Iris - 18 Heights - PG 15 Return To Rajapur - PG 15 Last Orders - PG When We Were Kings - PG Teknolust - PG 15 L’age Des Tenebres - PG Pavilion Of Women - 18 Unfaithful - 18 Jennifer Eight - 18

Untamed & Uncut Miami Ink Street Customs 2008 American Chopper The Kustomizer Mythbusters How Does it Work Ultimate Survival Extreme Engineering The Kustomizer Street Customs 2008 How Do They Do It? Mythbusters Ultimate Survival Destroyed in Seconds Destroyed in Seconds How Do They Do It? How Does it Work

13:50 14:15 15:10 16:05 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00

Fifth Gear American Chopper Miami Ink Mythbusters Ultimate Survival Destroyed in Seconds Destroyed in Seconds Street Customs 2008 How Do They Do It? How Does it Work Fifth Gear Fifth Gear American Chopper Street Customs

00:40 01:30 02:20 03:10 04:05 World 05:00 05:55 06:20 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:50 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

Dr G: Medical Examiner Fbi Files A Haunting Dr G: Medical Examiner Crimes That Shook The Forensic Detectives Real Emergency Calls Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghosthunters Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Csu Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Diagnosis: Unknown Solved Mystery Er Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Csu Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Diagnosis: Unknown Solved Mystery Er Undercover Fugitive Strike Force

00:40 Man Made Marvels China 01:30 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 02:20 The Future of...

03:10 Mission Implausible 04:00 Beyond Tomorrow 04:50 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 05:45 How Does That Work?

06:10 Mean Green Machines 06:40 One Step Beyond 07:10 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 08:00 Scrapheap Challenge 09:00 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 10:00 The Future of...

10:55 How Does That Work?

11:20 Stunt Junkies 11:50 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 12:45 Mean Green Machines 13:10 One Step Beyond 13:40 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 14:35 The Future of...

15:30 The Electric Garage 16:25 How Does That Work?

16:55 Scrapheap Challenge 17:50 Brainiac 18:45 Man Made Marvels China 19:40 Sci-Fi Science 20:05 Sci-Fi Science 20:30 Weird Connections 20:55 Weird Connections 21:20 How It’s Made 21:45 How It’s Made 22:10 Mythbusters 23:00 Sci-Fi Science 23:25 Sci-Fi Science 23:50 Weird Connections

00:15 Streets Of Hollywood 00:40 E! Investigates 01:30 25 Most Stylish 02:20 Sexiest 03:15 THS 05:05 Dr 90210 06:00 THS 07:45 25 Most Stylish 08:35 E! News 09:00 The Daily 10 09:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 09:50 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 10:15 THS

11:30 THS 12:00 E! News 12:25 The Daily 10 12:50 Perfect Catch 13:40 30 Most Outrageous Celebrity Feuds 15:25 Behind The Scenes 15:50 Behind The Scenes 16:15 E!es 17:10 Leave It To Lamas 17:35 Leave It To Lamas 18:00 E! News 18:25 The Daily 10 18:50 Streets Of Hollywood 19:15 Battle Of The Hollywood Hotties 19:40 THS 20:30 THS 21:20 Kendra 21:45 Kendra 22:10 E! News 22:35 The Daily 10 23:00 Dr 90210 23:50 Battle Of The Hollywood Hotties

00:00 01:00 Flay 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 Boome 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 Boome 19:30 Boome 20:00 20:30 21:00

Chopped Throwdown With Bobby Food Network Challenge Iron Chef America Throwdown With Bobby Teleshopping Giada At Home Giada At Home Barefoot Contessa 30 Minute Meals 30 Minute Meals Rescue Chef with Danny Tyler’s Ultimate Tyler’s Ultimate Barefoot Contessa Barefoot Contessa Giada At Home Giada At Home 30 Minute Meals 30 Minute Meals Barefoot Contessa Barefoot Contessa Grill It! with Bobby Flay Grill It! with Bobby Flay Barefoot Contessa Barefoot Contessa Tyler’s Ultimate Tyler’s Ultimate Rescue Chef with Danny Rescue Chef with Danny Grill It! with Bobby Flay Grill It! with Bobby Flay Barefoot Contessa

00:00 PGA Tour Highlights: AT&T Pebble Beach National ProAm 01:00 Inside the PGA Tour 01:30 Champions Tour Highlights The ACE Group Classic 02:30 PGA Tour: Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun Rd. 1 Cancun, Mexico 04:30 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball UCLA at Washington St. 06:30 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Cal at Oregon St. 08:30 The Golf Channel 09:30 Golf Central International 10:00 The Golf Channel 11:30 Inside the PGA Tour 12:00 Gucci Masters Rolex Top 10 Paris, France 14:00 Golf Central International 14:30 ICC Cricket World 15:00 World Sport 2010 15:30 PGA Tour: Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun Rd. 1 Cancun, Mexico 17:30 Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping Zurich, Switzerland 18:30 Dream Team 19:30 Champions Tour: Allianz Championship Rd. 1 Boca Raton, FL 21:30 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball UCLA at Washington St. 23:30 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Cal at Oregon St.

The Wackness on Show Movies

00:00 Even Stevens - U 00:30 New Adventures Of Ocean Girl - U 01:00 Fat Dog Mendoza - U 01:30 Tales From The Cryptkeeper - U 02:00 Ned’s Newt Marathon - U 07:00 Corduroy - U 07:25 Titch - U 07:40 The Tidings - U 07:55 Rupert - U 08:20 Boo And Me - U 08:25 New Adventures Of Madeline - U 08:50 New Adventures Of Madeline - U 09:15 Max And Ruby - U 09:40 Max And Ruby - U 10:05 Babar - U 10:30 Babar - U 11:00 Cyberchase - U 11:30 Cyberchase - U 11:55 The Fairly Oddparents - U 12:30 The Fairly Oddparents - U 12:45 Pelswick - U 13:15 Pelswick - U 13:40 Fat Dog Mendoza - U 14:05 Fat Dog Mendoza - U 14:30 Birdz - U 14:55 Birdz - U 15:20 Beverly Hills Teen Club 15:45 New Adventures Of Ocean Girl - U 16:10 Sabrina The Animated Series - U 16:35 Pelswick - U 18:40 Boo And Me - U 18:45 New Adventures Of Ocean Girl - U 19:10 Ace Lightning - U 19:35 Rescue Heroes - U 20:00 Inspector Gadget’s Last Case - U 21:30 Ace Lightning - U

01:25 03:25 05:00 06:50 08:35 10:15 11:55 13:30 14:55 16:40 18:25 20:30 22:00 23:35

Knightriders Bar Girls Youngblood No Man’s Land The Hillside Strangler Master Of The World A Green Journey Miracle Beach Hennessy Cooley High The Russians Are Coming Teen Wolf Bulletproof Kid Galahad

00:00 Rita Rocks 00:30 New adventures of old Christine 01:30 The Colbert Report 02:00 The Tonight Show With Conan OBrien 03:00 Family Guy 03:30 Entourage 04:00 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 05:00 Rita Rocks 05:30 The Tonight Show With Conan OBrien 06:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 07:00 Home Improvement 07:30 The Simpsons 08:00 Coach 09:00 The Colbert Report 09:30 Drew Carey Show 10:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 10:30 Frasier 11:00 All of us 11:30 Eight Simple Rules 12:00 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 13:00 New adventures of old Christine 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 Two and a half men 20:00 The Tonight Show With Conan OBrien 21:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Cougar Town 22:30 Entourage 23:00 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 Show

What’s Good For You 10 Years Younger Look A Like The Ellen Degeneres

Page 51

Friday, February 19, 2010 03:00 The Monique Show 04:00 Huey’s Cooking Adventure 04:30 Fresh 05:00 The Best of Jay Leno 06:00 GMA LIVE 08:00 GMA Health 08:30 What’s the Buzz 09:00 What’s Good For You 10:00 Jimmy Kimmel 11:00 The View 12:00 The Ellen Degeneres Show 13:00 Chef’s Table 13:30 Fresh 14:00 What’s Good For You 15:00 GMA LIVE 17:00 GMA Health 17:30 What’s the Buzz 18:00 Look A Like 18:30 10 Years Younger 19:00 The View 20:00 The Ellen Degeneres Show 21:00 Jimmy Kimmel 22:00 Jay Leno 23:00 The Monique Show

08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 09:55 10:10 10:30 10:50 11:15 11:40 Pooh 12:05 12:15 12:55 13:05 13:30 13:50 14:10 14:30 14:55 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:00 Pooh 17:25 17:35 18:00 18:25 18:50 19:00 19:10 19:35 20:00 20:15 20:40 20:50 Pooh 21:00

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Special Agent Oso Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Imagination Movers Chuggington Chuggington Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Imagination Movers My Friends Tigger and Chuggington Special Agent Oso Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Little Einsteins Imagination Movers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jo Jo’s Circus Jo Jo’s Circus Higglytown Heroes Higglytown Heroes My Friends Tigger and Chuggington Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Chuggington Chuggington Imagination Movers Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Handy Manny My Friends Tigger and

08:00 Rat - PG 10:00 Down To Earth - PG 15 12:00 King’s Ransom - PG 15 14:00 Ghostbusters II - PG 16:00 Futurama: Bender Big Score - PG 15 18:00 How To Lose Friends And Alienate People - PG 20:00 Trainwreck: My Life As An Idiot - R 22:00 Mallrats - PG 15

18:30 Dallas Divas And Daughters 19:00 Running In Heels 19:30 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 20:00 Split Ends 21:00 Clean House 22:00 Dress My Nest 22:30 Style Her Famous 23:00 Ruby

01:00 01:04 01:35 02:00 02:45 05:00 05:04 08:00 08:04 08:35 13:00 13:04 13:50 16:00 16:04 16:35 18:00 18:45 19:00 20:00 20:04 20:35 23:00 23:45

00:00 Barbie As The Island Princess - FAM 02:00 First Kid - PG 04:00 Bedtime Stories - FAM 06:00 D2: The Mighty Ducks PG 08:00 Barbie Diaries - FAM 10:00 Bedtime Stories - FAM 12:00 Born To Be Wild - FAM 14:00 First Kid - PG 16:00 House Arrest - FAM 18:00 Bolt - FAM 20:00 Curious George: Follow That Monkey - PG 22:00 Born To Be Wild - FAM

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 Look 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 Clock 13:30 Clock 14:00 15:00 16:00 Look 17:00 Look 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Bones Dollhouse Parkinson Sex and the City Sex and the City The Murdoch Mysteries Ally Mcbeal Emmerdale According to Jim Parkinson That Mitchell and Webb The Murdoch Mysteries Ally Mcbeal Hotel Babylon Emmerdale According to Jim Turn Back Your Body Turn Back Your Body Bones Dollhouse That Mitchell and Webb That Mitchell and Webb According to Jim According to Jim Hotel Babylon Burn Notice Burn Notice Breaking Bad Sex and the City

The Other Boleyn Girl on Super Movies

End Of Programming

The Wackness - 18 Jolene - 18 Honeydripper - PG 15 Not Easily Broken - PG 15 The Nanny Diaries - PG 15 All Roads Lead Home - U Leatherheads - PG 15 How She Move - PG 15 The Nanny Diaries - PG 15 Step Brothers - PG 15 Valkyrie - 18 Beowulf - PG 15

01:00 Mulberry Street - 18 03:00 Resident Evil 3 - 18 05:00 Planet Of The Apes - PG 15 07:00 The Hideout - PG 15 09:00 Solo - PG 15 11:00 Outpost - 18 13:00 Universal Soldier: The Return - 18 15:00 Solo - PG 15 17:00 House Of Fallen - PG 15 19:00 Feast 2 - 18 21:00 Doomsday - 18 23:00 Dead And Gone - R

00:00 Futurama: Bender Big Score - PG 15 02:00 How To Be A Player - 18 04:00 Girl’s Best Friend - PG 15 06:00 Tortilla Soup - 18

01:30 Premier League World 02:00 Barclays Premier League Highlights 03:00 Futbol Mundial 03:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 04:00 Premier League 06:00 Premier League Classics 06:30 Premier League Classics 07:00 Dubai International Racing Carnival 11:00 Premier League Classics 11:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 12:00 Premier League World 12:30 Premier League 14:30 Premier League 16:30 Barclays Premier League Highlights 17:30 Futbrasil 18:00 Scottish Premier League Highlights 18:30 Premier League 20:30 Goals Goals Goals 21:00 Premier League World 21:30 Live Barclays Premier League Preview 22:30 Dubai International Racing Carnival

02:00 Dubai International Racing Carnival 06:00 Futbol Mundial 06:30 Live One Day International Cricket 14:30 Futbol Mundial 15:00 Premier League Darts 19:00 Live Super 14 21:00 Live Super 14 23:00 Live Super League

00:00 World Sport 01:00 Scottish Premier League 01:30 Weber Cup Bowling 02:30 Premier League Darts 06:30 World Sport 07:00 Portugol 07:30 Goals Goals Goals 08:00 Premier League World 08:30 European Tour Weekly 09:00 World Sport 09:30 Live Super League 11:30 Barclays Premier League Highlights 12:45 Live Super League 15:00 European Tour Weekly 15:30 World Sport

01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 19:00 20:00

UFC 110 Countdown Bushido UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC The Ultimate Fighter NCAA Basketball Drambuie Pursuit UAE National Race Day FIM World Cup Bushido WWE ECW WWE Vintage Collection NCAA Basketball Bushido NCAA Basketball UFC 110 Countdown WWE SmackDown

01:00 03:00 05:00

The Invasion - PG 15 Wonderful World - PG 15 Snowglobe - PG

07:00 Sicko - PG 15 09:00 Over Her Dead Body - PG 11:00 Sydney White - PG 15 13:00 Yes Man - PG 15 15:00 Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium - FAM 17:00 All Hat - PG 15 19:00 The Secret Life Of Bees 21:00 Bride Wars - PG 15 23:00 The Other Boleyn Girl

01:00 Point Blank 02:30 The Screening Room 02:55 The Screening Room 03:20 Adam’s Rib 05:00 Cannery Row 07:00 The Screening Room 07:30 The Screening Room 08:00 Angels with Dirty Faces 09:35 Echoes of a Summer 11:15 The Time Machine 12:55 Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm 15:00 2001: A Space Odyssey 17:15 Butterfield 8 19:00 The Unsinkable Molly Brown 21:10 Beau Brummell 23:00 10 Rillington Place

00:40 01:30 02:20 03:10 04:00 04:55 05:50 06:40 07:30 08:20 09:10 10:00

Mega Movers Carlos the Jackal Terror Strikes Moscow Decoding the Past Deep Wreck Mysteries Cities Of The Underworld Modern Marvels Mega Movers Carlos the Jackal Terror Strikes Moscow Decoding the Past Deep Wreck Mysteries

10:55 11:50 12:40 13:30 14:20 15:10 16:00 16:55 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:55 23:50

Cities Of The Underworld Modern Marvels Mega Movers Carlos the Jackal Terror Strikes Moscow Decoding the Past Deep Wreck Mysteries Cities Of The Underworld Modern Marvels Mega Movers Carlos the Jackal Terror Strikes Moscow Decoding the Past Ax Men 2 Tunnellers The Universe

00:00 Clean House 01:00 Peter Perfect 02:00 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 02:30 Running In Heels 03:00 How Do I Look?

04:00 Split Ends 05:00 Dr 90210 06:00 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 06:30 Area 07:00 How Do I Look?

08:00 Style Star 08:30 Style Her Famous 09:00 My Celebrity Home 10:00 Style Star 10:30 Dress My Nest 11:00 Peter Perfect 12:00 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

13:00 Ruby 14:00 Clean House 15:00 Clean House Comes Clean 15:30 Dress My Nest 16:00 How Do I Look?

17:00 Split Ends 18:00 Dallas Divas And Daughters

Code Hip Hop Us Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Code Playlist Code French Only Playlist Code Urban Hit Playlist Code Africa Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Trace Video Mix Code New Playlist Club 10 Playlist

00:00 Globe Trekker - U 01:00 Angry Planet - U 01:30 The Thirsty Traveler - U 02:00 Essential - U 02:30 Croissants In The Jungle 03:00 Raider Of The Lost Snow 03:30 Skier’s World - U 04:00 Julian And Camilla’s World Odyssey - U 05:00 Globe Trekker - U 06:00 Swiss Railway Journeys 07:00 The Thirsty Traveler - U 07:30 Angry Planet - U 08:00 Globe Trekker - U 09:00 Essential - U 09:30 Rudy Maxa’s World - U 10:00 Distant Shores - U 10:30 Distant Shores - U 11:00 Chef Abroad - U 11:30 Entrada - U 12:00 Planet Food - U 13:00 Globe Trekker - U 14:00 Chef Abroad - U 14:30 The Thirsty Traveler - U 15:00 Taste Takes Off - U 15:30 Entrada - U 16:00 Croissants In The Jungle 16:30 Essential - U 17:00 Globe Trekker - U 18:00 Skier’s World - U 18:30 Floyd Uncorked - U 19:00 Chef Abroad - U 19:30 The Thirsty Traveler - U 20:00 Globe Trekker - U 21:00 Globe Trekker - U 22:00 X-quest - U 23:00 Angry Planet - U 23:30 Photoxplorers - U

02:00 Vh1 Rocks - U 02:30 So 80’s - U 03:00 Greatest Hits - U 04:00 Vh1 Music - U 07:00 Chill Out - U 09:00 Vh1 Hits - U 11:00 Vh1 Music - U 13:00 Aerobic - U 14:00 Top 10 Fresh And New - U 15:00 Music For The Masses - U 16:00 Vh1 Pop Chart - U 17:00 Vh1 Music - U 19:00 Music For The Masses - U 20:00 Vh1 Music - U 21:00 Vh1 Viewer’s Jukebox Rock - U 22:00 Vh1 Viewer’s Jukebox Rock - U 23:00 Top 10 Fresh And New - U

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Eva Mendes in therapy va Mendes has regular therapy sessions. The stunning actress visits a therapist once a week and believes it is key to finding happiness because she talks about her problems with someone who’s not directly involved in her life. She told In magazine: “It’s great when there’s a person who doesn’t have an emotional connection to your life and does everything to make you feel better.” The 35-year-old beauty - who has been dating Peruvian film-maker George Augusto since 2002 - also

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revealed she adores being in a relationship. She said: “I’m addicted to love.” In 2008, Eva went to Utah’s Cirque Lodge rehab clinic for an undisclosed addiction, after deciding herself she needed “professional support”. Her spokesman said: “Eva has been working hard for the past year and made a positive decision to take some much needed time off to attend to some personal issues that, while not critical, she felt deserved some outside professional support.”

Moore admits she cries ‘at everything’

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Bullock finds lost dog andra Bullock and her husband have been reunited with their lost dog. The ‘Blind Side’ actress and Jesse James are delighted after they received a call to say someone had their beloved pooch Cinnabun, who went missing three weeks ago. Jesse tweeted: “Some lady just called n said she has Cinnabun, Didnt no she was missing. Said she will bring her in 20 min. This better be real... (sic)” An hour later he added “Woooooo Hooooo!!!! It’s Her!!! “So happy!

Thanx Everyone for all the help She looks like she hz had quite the Adventure! (sic)” Jesse and Sandra were initially cautious when they were informed the dog had been found by a woman called Rosaura because they had experienced several false alarms in their attempts to track down their pet.

Jesse explained: “We got a call from a girl by the name of Rosaura in Los Angeles saying she had Cinny. We were

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cautiously optimistic. She said she’d bring Cinnabun to us, and everyone at the shop was really anxious for her to get here to see if it was, in fact, Cinny.”

The ‘Motorcycle Mania’ host has revealed Cinnabun is “in good shape”, but insists the couple are taking no chances on her going missing again. He wrote on his blog: “Maybe a few pounds thinner than when she left.

We’re taking her to the vet to get her all checked out and chipped, and GPS’d, and live-tracked by Google Earth... the works. We don’t want to lose this little girl again!” As well as Sandra and Jesse, the couple’s other dog, Mr. T, was delighted to have his friend back.

Jesse added: “A big thanks to Rosaura in Los Angeles who found her and brought her back. West Coast thanks to you all, and a special thanks from Mr. T who is happy to have his little buddy back. Let the barking, wrestling and bone chasing begin!”

Sheen to go to rehab harlie Sheen has been urged to go to rehab. The ‘Two and a Half Men’ actor - whose wife Brooke Mueller is currently in a rehabilitation clinic - has reportedly started drinking alcohol again after years of sobriety, but is refusing to seek help or admit he has a problem. A source told Radar Online: “Charlie’s TV contract is up for renewal. He doesn’t think he has a problem and he’s not going into rehab. “Many people believe Charlie is simply in denial about his own problems.

People close to him have urged him to enter rehab and get help again. But it just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.”

According to friends of the star - who has 11-month-old twins Max and Bob with

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emi Moore has admitted she cries “at everything”. The 47-year-old actress has confessed she gets very teary over the smallest of things, including heart-warming television adverts. She is quoted as saying: “I cry at everything. Even if I am happy. Even at commercials on television. I can’t help it. Ashton doesn’t mind, but I do tend to cry at anything.”One person who is unlikely to make Demi cry is her husband Ashton Kutcher. The 32-yearold actor recently revealed his secret to being a good husband - good manners.

He said: “My brother had a heart transplant when he was 13, and my parents were at the hospital a lot so I went and I stayed at a friend’s house.

And his mother was this really wonderful, wonderful woman that sort of taught me a bunch of things like table manners and how to treat a woman pulling out her chair, opening the door for her. “So while my brother was in the hospital, I basically learned etiquette and how to use it when you’re dating a woman.”

Brooke - he has been drinking heavily for several weeks and was accompanied by a sober coach when he had dinner on Christmas Eve with his wife, a day before he allegedly attacked her. The source said: “The reason he had a sober coach with him is because he had already fallen off the wagon.” It was reported that Brooke had entered a

rehab facility last week - a day after a court hearing which saw terms of a restraining order against Charlie relaxed so they could be together again - because she was drinking heavily and had been smoking crack cocaine. The restraining order was put in place after Charlie was charged with felony menacing and misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault and criminal mischief following the incident on Christmas Day, and was lifted on the condition the 44-yearold actor does not drink alcohol, is in possession of guns or harasses his wife.

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DiCaprio understands why actors go ‘nuts’ eonardo DiCaprio understands why some actors go “nuts”. The ‘Sutter Island’ star - who has been acting since he was 15 but hit worldwide stardom when he starred in 1997’s ‘Titanic’ - says it’s important to keep grounded when experiencing fame and success because it can be taken away very

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quickly. He said: “Just because you’ve done a good performance once, doesn’t mean you’re always going to be good. That’s why some of the greatest actors in the world have gone a little bit nuts. They’re saying to themselves, ‘What happened? You used to love me?’

It’s an easy trap to fall into. You just

have to realize that when you’re hot, you’re hot, and when you’re not, you’re not.” The 35-year-old heartthrob says his friends help him stay down-to-earth as they won’t let him act like a star. He told parade.com: “I know this is going to sound lame, but one of my favorite things is hanging out with my

friends. They take me away from the world of show business and keep me grounded. It brings me back to who I am. When I didn’t want to go out in public after all the craziness surrounding ‘Titanic’, they sort of pushed me out the door.

They were like, ‘Are you going to hide out like a little hermit?’ “

Kardashian splits from Disick ourtney Kardashian has reportedly split from Scott Disick. The 30year-old socialite is said to have ended her romance with the father of her twomonth-old son Mason because she felt “trapped” and was growing increasingly frustrated with

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wan McGregor got a “rush” when he had his first full-frontal exposure. The ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ actor - whose manhood has been exposed in several films including ‘Trainspotting’, ‘The Pillow Book’ and ‘Velvet Goldmine’ says he felt quite powerful when he stripped off for a play in drama school. He said: “I remember getting a kind of rush out of that first time, a slight feeling of power about it, you know?” Ewan who has three daughters with wife Eve Mavraki - also revealed he enjoys “kissing boys” in his movies as he likes to feel challenged as an actor. Talking about kissing Jonathan Rhys Meyers in ‘Velvet Goldmine’, Ewan told Out

McGregor nudity ‘rush’

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magazine: “I remember when I kissed Johnny. It was just a rush at the end of the day. It was just an electrical moment, because you look around and some of the British electrician guys - who are all mainly closeted homosexuals, I think were sitting around going ‘F**k, no.’ But I like kissing boys on screen. As a straight guy, it’s quite an interesting proposition.

Anything on a film set that takes you by surprise like that, that gets your blood up, is good. “I’m always interested in playing different people, in different situations. It doesn’t matter to me whether someone is in love with a man or a woman. I find the idea of love and romance interesting. I’m a sucker for it. I like playing someone who’s falling in love because I like the sensation of it.”

him. A source told In Touch magazine: “Kourtney resents Scott for his behavior. They fight about almost everything when they’re together. “From what I’ve seen, when Kourtney has needed help, she has had to ask.”

To make matters worse, Scott who was accused of cheating on Kourtney before she fell

pregnant - was said to be upsetting Kourtney with his frequent quips about her weight, after she struggled to lose the pounds she gained during pregnancy. The source added: “To him, it’s joking, but to her it’s taunting. She is really trying to lose it, but it isn’t coming off as fast as she’d like.”

Brosnan taught Pattinson to cope with fans

ierce Brosnan taught Robert Pattinson how to cope with gawping fans. The ‘Twilight’ heartthrob worked alongside the James Bond actor in new movie ‘Remember Me’ and says he was impressed with Pierce’s reaction to all the attention they received when they went for dinner. He said: “He’s totally recognizable, and he makes no effort to tone it down. Some people were glancing over at us in the restaurant, and he just went over and introduced himself. And it does work. It dissipates all the attention.”

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“But me? I just crawl under the table.”

However, Robert, 23, struggles to cope with that side of fame and is still amazed when his movie sets are mobbed by fans.

He added to America’s Vogue magazine: “Everybody knows where everybody is.

The twitter thing is unbelievable. “When filming ‘Remember Me’, it was the most ridiculous experience. You’re trying to stay in character and you’re trying to walk down the street, but all those people keep reminding you that you’re not this character.”

Beyonce: Privacy is the key for happy marriage eyonce Knowles believes she has a happy marriage because they try to keep it as private as possible. The ‘Halo’ singer married hip-hop superstar Jay-Z in a secret ceremony in 2008 but both are reluctant to speak about their home life because they think it will add extra pressure. She said: “Jay and I have always been very discreet when it comes to our relationship.

Even after we got married nothing changed about that. I think that saved us a lot of trouble.” The 28year-old beauty - who publicly thanked her spouse when she won a record six Grammys at last month’s ceremony - also revealed she was

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initially “scared” when she was regarded as a role model for young women but is now embracing it. She told Germany’s FHM magazine: “The thought scared me at first. But now I think my music is more than just performing, dancing and shooting videos. I try to show women that we need to be there for each other and support each other and that you have to work to reach your goals.” But one thing still worries Beyonce - falling over on stage. She said: “The only thing I really worry about is falling over! I always perform in high heels and sometimes the choreography is really exhausting and complicated.”

Lady Gaga doesn’t own a house he ‘Poker Face’ singer claims to be so dedicated to her career, she uses all of her money to fund her elaborate stage sets and improve her musical skills. She said: “I live right here in the moment. I live on stage. I don’t own a house, I don’t spend money on those things. “I live out of a suitcase and I make music and art and I spend every dollar that I make on stage - that’s it.” The star is so focused on her work, she rarely takes time off but says her idea of a treat when she isn’t working is a bowl of pasta. She explained to more! magazine: “I don’t have that many days off.

But Sundays used to be the day my family would always make fresh food at home. So sometimes I like to let myself eat what I want on a Sunday.

“I’m on a very strict healthy pop star diet. I don’t eat bread, just vegetables and salad and fish.

Eating like that is much better for me anyway but on Sundays I sometimes eat pasta.”

—Bang Showbiz

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Lifestyle

Actor Anthony Hopkins shows his talent on canvas

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Queen Rania of Jordan speaks with TV presenter Antonella Clerici on the stage of the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo, during the 60th Italian Music Festival on February 17, 2010. — AFP

‘Messenger’ director eyes Kurt Cobain movie T In 2005, writer-director Gus Van Sant made the fictional rockand-roll drama “Last Days,” which echoed Cobain’s drugaddicted final trajectory. Benioff did first-hand research with Cobain’s old friends in Aberdeen and Seattle to inform the drafts of his Universal script.

Moverman and his “Messenger” co-writer Alessandro Camon scored Oscar nominations for their original screenplay. Woody Harrelson also earned a nomination for his supporting role as a soldier who delivers the news of comrades’ deaths to their families.

Moverman has also co-written the scripts for “Married Life,” “Jesus’ Son” and “I’m Not There.”— Reuters

Kurt Cobain

he rookie director of the Oscar-nominated drama “The Messenger” is in negotiations to rework the screenplay for Universal Pictures’ untitled Kurt Cobain project. Oren Moverman is also set to direct the film about the late frontman of grunge group Nirvana. Screenwriter David Benioff (“Brothers”) first took on the project in 2007. Material on Cobain’s life, music and 1994 suicide will come at least partially from Charles R. Cross’ 2001 biography, “Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain.” Universal originally purchased the life rights of both Cobain and his widow, Courtney Love, who had already optioned the film rights to the Cross book.

etter known for his creativity on the screen, Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins has extended his artistic talent to the canvas, unveiling 50 acrylic and ink paintings in London this week.

Jonathan Poole, exhibition organizer, said the Oscar-winning actor was encouraged to pursue his talent by his third wife, Stella Arroyave, and paints every day in a studio at his Malibu home. “His wife Stella saw some of his drawings on his scripts and then pointed out to him that these are rather good and why don’t you take it up, obviously not professionally but properly and he did. And therefore he is in full force now, painting away,” Poole told Reuters Television.

A limited edition print of a painting inspired by his wife is on display and can be bought for 1,150 pounds ($1,802) with the actual canvas hanging in Hopkins’ home. Bold and colorful in style, many of the pieces are portraits with eyes that capture the visitors’ attention. Hopkins, 72, who won an Oscar for best actor in 1992 for his role as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs”, has been painting since about 2002 and Poole adds he is completely self-taught.

“I think most people have this ability.

Whether they use it or not is up to them.

He most certainly does, because he is very excited when he’s actually painting and I think that actually comes out in his paintings,” said Poole. Poole said Hopkins uses a palette knife rather than the traditional brush in his creations, which are generous in texture and color.

“Bold, vivid and very abstract, especially with his masks. It’s very hard to pinpoint just one title, but you can see that the eyes, he is very interested in eyes. In his words: you see the world from your eyes, in your eyes,” he said.

This is the first collection of artwork by Hopkins to be shown in Europe although he has had exhibitions in Canada and the United States. The exhibition was unveiled at London’s Gallery 27 on Feb 16 and will run until Feb. 20 before it is moved to The Dome in Edinburgh in March then onto Wales. — Reuters

The martial arts grannies of Kenya’s Korogocho slum t the age of 60, 80 or maybe 100, the karateka grandmas of Korogocho slum are learning the rudiments of martial arts in order to survive in one of Kenya’s most dangerous shanty towns.

Only a dozen or so kilometers (eight miles) from the heart of the capital Nairobi, Korogocho’s residents-all 155,000 of them-are crammed into an area measuring just 1.5 square kilometers.

Most of the young people here survive by scavenging what they can from the giant rubbish heap at neighboring Dandora.

Even venturing into one of the main streets in broad daylight to queue at a water point is a calculated risk. So, in this sun-baked universe of mud bricks and rusting corrugated iron, devoid of vegetation, the mat of the “Streams of Hope and Peace” association looks like a haven of tranquility and optimism. A plastic cover gives some shelter from the sun and the corrugated iron has been painted in bright colors.

Inside, about 20 elderly women, barefoot and clad in shapeless dresses and headscarves, are sitting in a circle on a mat encouraging one of their number who is hitting a punchbag yelling Noooooooooooo! The blows lack force,

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but according to the women’s teacher Sheila Kariuki, that’s not the crucial thing.

“You don’t need to hit hard to be accurate,” says Kariuki, a youngster by comparison to her charges at 29.

“Accuracy is the key to the technique.”

She demonstrates the vulnerable points on a young man acting as guinea pig for the class: the nose, chin, collarbone, and of course the genitals.

This self-defense group began in 2007 as way of fighting back at the young bandits of Korogocho who took to raping women three or four times their age.

“Every time the boys make a robbery, they will ask the grandmas to sleep with them,” explains Mary Wangui, 73, who was one of the oldest pupils and is now a teacher. “Young men believe that young girls are all infected with Aids, so they’d rather go to the old ones because they know we don’t have any more partners.”

The undisputed star of this particular group is Gladys Wanjiku, who thinks she must be “about 100”-an idea that seems surprising when you see her hit the punchbags with measured, confident blows.

If a man with evil intent comes close, “I will hit him,” she says, smiling

Photo made on January 30, 2010 shows elderly women, residents of Nairobi’s Korogocho slum, learning the rudiments of martial arts in order to survive in one of Kenya’s most dangerous shanty towns.—AFP confidently. Fortunately, she has been spared attack-”I pray so much for them not to come,” she explains-but “if a young man wants to rape me, now I know where to hit.” She likes the practice. “I feel so much better, and my body feels so light

after the training.” Kariuki, who holds her classes on a voluntary basis, was herself trained by an American woman the selfdefense techniques developed by US feminists from the 1970s. She in turn teaches her elderly students “a mixture of

karate, kung-fu and taekwondo.” The group, which has no public money or donations, meets around once a week in a room provided by a charity. Another class is for younger women aged up to 30.

Kariuki harbours no illusions about the chances of Kenyan police providing protection, and so also trains the women how to negotiate and how to overcome their fear. “I teach them to yell, which is the opposite of screaming,” she continues. “When you yell, you are in control, relaxed, telling the world that you don’t like what these young boys are doing to you, and telling them to stop.”

“The police help but their number is very few,” she adds. “Our program does make a difference. We have testimonies of old women now able to defend themselves using verbal or physical techniques.”

All the women in this class live alone, usually in a rudimentary oneroom brick shelter protected, at best, by a little lock. There’s no running water, and electricity is patchy. If anyone tries to harass her, says 70-year-old Joyce Wanjiru, “I will use the negotiation scheme and afterwards I will yell to attract attention.”— AFP

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‘My life,’ signed by Casanova, enters French library A manuscript written by the 18thcentury libertine Giacomo Casanova is displayed at the French culture ministry in Paris, yesterday.

—AP

French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand, center, Hubertus Brockhaus, right, former owner of the manuscript, and Bruno Racine, left, President of the French National Library, view Casanova’s manuscript, yesterday.

—AP

rare manuscript by the 18th-century libertine Casanova, recalling his sexual conquests and many adventures, has entered the collection of France’s National Library, the institution said yesterday. The French manuscript of “The Story Of My Life” forms the core of 3,700 precious pages acquired by

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the state library, an official told AFP, calling it the collection’s “biggest heritage acquisition” ever.

Specialists say it is the only surviving manuscript by Casanova, a Venetian adventurer and womanizer whose name has become synonymous with seduction due to his own accounts

of his affairs, written in French from the 1780s. The museum said an anonymous patron spent seven million euros (9.5 million dollars) to help the library acquire the manuscripts from the heirs of a German publisher who acquired them in the 19th century. — AFP

Vietnam’s calligraphers offer stroke of New Year luck W

ith thick brush strokes of red paint, Lai An Khanh writes a Chinese character on yellow cloth. “Happiness,” it reads. Khanh and other Lunar New Year calligraphers in Vietnam sell the characters to passing homeowners who believe the uplifting words will help bring them good luck in the Year of the Tiger, which began Sunday. But the words”peace” and “prosperity” are also popular-could just as easily apply to the calligraphers themselves. They say their hobby, rooted in the country’s Confucian tradition, has brought them a more righteous and stable life.

“For me, calligraphy is my medicine,” says Khanh, 59, sitting on a mat outside Hanoi’s centuries-old Temple of Literature, the site of Vietnam’s first university. The former construction worker says he began the study of handwriting after he was diagnosed with cancer a decade ago, a diagnosis that also led to mental instability. “I have become more stable,” he says. “Learning calligraphy teaches you how to be calm.” His cancer is now in remission. Nguyen Van Thuan, 55, a retired university teacher, came to calligraphy by a less dramatic route but has similar feelings.

“Knowing calligraphy teaches you how to live beautifully,” he says. “I am sure that calligraphers are not about to go into the street and swear at each other.” Six brushes of varying size are lined up next to pots of ink beside him. The calligraphers sit and paint side-by-side for more than 100 meters (yards) along the tree-shaded temple wall where their finished works hang.Their numbers have grown markedly

since the Lunar New Year calligraphy tradition was restored 15 or 20 years ago, said Hoang Anh Diep, 53, the only woman among them.

They set up in early February and will stay for about one month, through the first days of the new year, she said. Known locally as Tet, the Lunar New Year is Vietnam’s most important annual festival.

Many of the calligraphers belong to the same hobbyists’ club, said Diep, wearing a traditional conical hat and ao dai slit skirt. The retired literature teacher said she began studying Chinese calligraphy four years ago.

Used for centuries in Vietnam, Chinese script has been replaced by Latin-based writing for about 100 years but Khanh said the traditional characters are still treasured. The respect for Chinese writing contrasts with the wariness with which Vietnamese in general regard their giant neighbor, which occupied Vietnam for about 1,000 years. “Ancient things are more precious, and Confucianism is eternal,” says Khanh, who has a faint grey beard.

“If you enter a house where many ancient characters are displayed, you feel that family is different from one with a modern lifestyle.” A special word in the house can bring a family luck for the rest of the year, says Diep, the female calligrapher.

“People always ask for words like ‘peace’, ‘prosperity’, ‘happiness’, ‘talent’,” she says. Thuan said the words also act as a source of moral inspiration for a family. Tran Dinh Huong, 72, asked a calligrapher for “happiness” because his niece will soon be married.—AFP

File photo shows a calligrapher folding a hanging paper outside the Temple of Literature in downtown Hanoi ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, or ‘Tet’.—AFP

The seating arrangement is planned for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards to be held at The Royal Opera House in London, yesterday. The annual awards will take place Sunday.—AP

Bosnian film ponders strict Islam’s place in West powerful Bosnian drama examines how people living in a Westernised, multi-cultural society and those observing a strict interpretation of Islam can co-exist, if at all. “On the Path,” which had its premiere at the Berlin film festival yesterday, is essentially a love story between Luna and Amar, both Muslims by birth who are living what would seem a typical life for a young Sarajevo couple. But they grow apart when Amar, who loses his job, joins a Muslim commune on an isolated island where his faith is revived.

He adopts a radically more orthodox approach towards religion, his relationship and life in general. Amar quits drinking alcohol and smoking, refrains from sex before marriage and suggests that the couple’s inability to conceive a child may be God’s punishment for a sinful lifestyle. Luna cannot get to grips with the changes in the man she loves, and tensions come to the surface when she witnesses a Muslim friend of Amar’s marrying a young girl, his second wife, which she says is against the law. God’s law, Amar replies, is above that of Bosnia’s, raising another of the film’s key issues.

Amar, director Jasmila Zbanic said in a recent interview, “slips into something that could be

A

described as a more radical religion, he is attracted by the ideas of Wahhabism.” The number of followers of the puritanical Sunni Muslim Wahhabi sect has grown in Bosnia in recent years, partly under the influence of Islamic foreigners, some of whom remained after fighting alongside Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-95 war. The phenomenon hit the headlines this month when police raided a Bosnian village which is home to Wahhabis, made seven arrests and seized weapons and ammunition.

Film does not judge On the Path is careful not to take sides. “I wasn’t interested to follow that process in some documentary way but was rather interested in a love story, in a universal subject of what happens when a partner suddenly changes, what is the way we react to this,” Zbanic told Reuters. Amar is confident his path to piety is the correct one that brings him peace and comfort, while Luna reacts in a way more recognizable to most Western audiences, questioning the changes in Amar and challenging him to return to her way of life. Most characters are still scarred by the war and some appear to be turning to conservative Islam to help them cope. —Reuters

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Fashion

MICHAEL KORS o long, miniskirts. The up-to-there trend gave way to longer hemlines at New York Fashion Week. There were more pants, too, than in recent seasons when the dress ruled the runways. Even designers who showed shorter dresses paired them with legwarmers for a less leggy look. On Wednesday, Oscar de la Renta showed long slim skirts for daytime, while Michael Kors had the slim shape just below the knee as well as more free-flowing knits that grazed the floor. The old saying that hemlines go up in a good economy and down in a bad one is not always the case, but many did see the longer hemline as a reflection of the Great Recession.

“There’s a general growing up of fashion after a very difficult year,” said Joanna Coles, editor in chief of Marie Claire magazine. “Women don’t want dressing up to be so complicated. The hemline dropping is part of that.”

S

OSCAR DE LA RENTA

MICHAEL KORS Here’s the recipe for glamour: a hearty serving of luxe cashmere, slim bodysuits, long skirts and crisp coats, with a few furs tossed in and a dash of sparkle. Add a little Michael Kors sizzle. Kors is a favorite among the stylists, editors and retailers at the Bryant Park tents because he makes aspirational clothes-they look so rich and luxurious but they’re also relatable.

There was nothing cryptic in his sporty-chic message for his fall collection, presented Wednesday with fans Molly Sims and Laura Linney in the front row. Sims took nine photos of outfits she wants, including the slouchy cashmere sweatpants with belts and the slinky gold beaded gown with a mermaid hem. “It was so yummy,” said celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe. “Michael really makes women look beautiful. Everyone wants to jump in the clothes from that show.”

OSCAR DE LA RENTA Oscar de la Renta has always catered to that well-heeled globe trotter, but did we know she was an international woman of mystery-maybe even a spy?

The fall collection had the underlying vibe of a Cold War espionage novel.

His favored print, in

Continued on next page

MARCHESA

TORY BURCH

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Fashion Continued from previous page fact, was called Astrakhan, the name of a Russian province. It’s a velvetlike fur unique to the lambs of that region. The designer also made good use of his signature embroideries on a gray organza gown with a chiffon ruffled collar, and rich colors. He did, however, tone down the volume that often comes with his clothes. Instead the skirts were long and lean, the gowns slinky with an old Hollywood glamour to them. It would serve a Rita Hayworth-type starlet to wear the finale gown that had a platinum satin wrap-style top with a plunging neckline and a crinkled lame skirt.

MICHAEL KORS

MARCHESA With any luck, the Hollywood stylists attending New York Fashion Week in search of red-carpet styles made a pitstop at the Marchesa presentation. They could have just stopped at the silver bugle-bead column gown with a sheer bodice decorated with a delicate leaf pattern and be done with their work. (The oversized bow on one shoulder looked as if it were floating because of the illusion of the body-colored tulle.) Other award-show contenders were a sculpted dress with alternating tiers of black tulle and white crepe that looked like unfurling petals with a beaded waistline holding the imagined bouquet together, and a red strapless number with tight fabric flowers on the bodice that turned into fanlike tiers on the A-line skirt.

Asked which one she’d like to see on a star, designer and co-founder Georgina Chapmanwearing a white cocktail dress she just whipped up with some extra embroidery-said she’s like to see them all on the red carpet.

TORY BURCH Tory Burch’s city-meets-country look, with sequin-covered tops and dresses, paired with slick waxed cotton jackets and lug-sole boots-high heel ones, of course-packed everything for a weekend getaway very nicely. “First I’d put on the long gray Tshirt, then they chunky gray tights, the striped sweater, that cape-vest, men’s trousers-this is a lot at once, mind you-the gray knit cap and the wedge lace-up boots.

I’m ready for fall,” said Stephanie Solomon of Bloomingdale’s. Burch, in her notes handed out the editors, retailers and stylists, said she used a palette with lipstick red, cobalt blue as well as must-have caramel, gray and black that remind her of Picasso’s

“Mosqueteros” exhibit and Gerhard Richter’s abstract paintings. “We are constantly inspired by fashion, art and the way these two worlds influence each other, Burch said in her notes. It’s that young woman who’s an art enthusiast that served as her muse.

NARCISO RODRIGUEZ Narciso Rodriguez has a distinct look that makes his designs easy to identify: They are structured, architectural, minimal and usually a little tough. Oh, and chic. As a brand, having that sort of signature has to be a good thing, but you have to wonder if a designer-a creative person by nature-feels stifled by it.

For his fall collection, Rodriguez seemed to stretch his muscles a little. The silhouette, for one, was looser, and there was much more use of draping-even some sequins. A handful of dresses had a swath of fabric positioned diagonally across the body that could risk comparisons to a beauty queen’s sash. Almost everything had an asymmetrical bent, especially around the neckline. Those keyhole slashes were pretty sexy, too. One textured black-silk dress with a zip-up front was paired with a cropped, slate-wool jacket with black sleeves, hitting the whole contrasting-sleeves trend that all the designers must have agreed to in a secret meeting.

WILLIAM RAST

WILLIAM RAST William Rast, the contemporary fashion label by Justin Timberlake and longtime friend Trace Ayala, marched a parade of biker styles down the runway in a collection dubbed “New America.” It was a combination of denim, leather and military styles largely inspired by the sights, sounds and people you’d see on the open roads between the Mississippi River and the West Coast, Timberlake said. Somehow, Timberlake and Ayala got the message from the other designers in New York that layers, fringe and those contrasting sleeves-interpreted here as a sweatshirt with leather fringe sleeves and, for men, a denim jacket with black leather sleeveswould be key looks. Other takeaways from the show: a zip-up leather jumpsuit, officer coats and the snakeskin treatment on jeans.

When it was time to take the bow, Timberlake did an exaggerated wipe of the brow for the cameras-and in front of Jessica Biel. — AP

Alexander McQueen’s label will go on, luxury group says rench luxury group PPR said yesterday that it will maintain Alexander McQueen’s label after the British designer committed suicide last week. “This would be the best tribute that we could offer to him,” said Francois-Henri Pinault, president of the group, at a meeting in Paris to present company results.

The flamboyant 40-year-old McQueen, one of Britain’s most lauded designers, hanged himself in his London apartment on February 11 after leaving a note.

He was said to have been emotionally distraught after his mother died on February 2 and had posted Twitter comments a few days before his death about his “awful week.” Pinault said in Paris that the decision to maintain the label was taken quickly after the announcement of McQueen’s death and that the fashion house continued to hold

F

“very important potential.” The label Alexander McQueen is part of the Gucci group, owned by PPR, and has 11 boutiques from New York to London. It employs 180 people worldwide.

Gucci Group chief executive Robert Polet said McQueen had acquired solid brand recognition over the past years. McQueen’s team of creators will finish work on a new collection that will be presented in Paris on March 9, he said. Pinault opened the meeting on Thursday by paying an emotional tribute to McQueen, saying he had lost a “friend” and describing him as “highly sensitive” and “a unique individual whom we are missing terribly.”

From a humble background, McQueen rose to become one of Britain’s most acclaimed names in fashion, becoming the chief designer

for Givenchy in 1996 before moving on to his own label. Gucci bought a majority stake in his label in 2001 but McQueen retained creative control and went on to win four British designer of the year awards.

According to Gucci, the label went into profit in 2007, but it is considered a lightweight in comparison to the group’s leading brands, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.

Over the past days, sales of McQueen’s clothes and accessories have surged, as fashion fans rush to grab mementos. Flamboyant US pop star Lady Gaga was a McQueen fan and had recently donned his towering lobster claw shoes for one of her music videos. At a British awards show on Tuesday, she took to the stage to perform her song “Telephone” and told the audience: “This is for Alexander McQueen.”— AFP

French luxury goods group PPR chief executive FrancoisHenri Pinault pays homage to British designer Alexander McQueen on February 18, 2010 during a press conference in Paris to announce the 2009 results. — AFP

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FIFA honors survivor of first World Cup LA PLATA, Argentina: At 100, Francisco Varallo remembers everything: the thud of the heavy leather ball, playing while injured because substitutions were not allowed and, more than anything, the game that got away. Varallo, the last survivor of the first World Cup final, marked his 100th birthday last week in his hometown near Buenos Aires by recalling the 1930 clash between his country and neighbouring Uruguay. “Never in all my years have I been honoured this way,” Varallo said, smiling, as tears rolled from his eyes, after entering the theatre in La Plata where hundreds of people had

gathered to pay tribute to him on Friday.

As a burly forward with a powerful right shot that won him the nickname “the little cannon”, Varallo was the youngest player to compete in the first World Cup when he played for Argentina in the tournament in Uruguay at the age of 20. As the theatre lights dimmed, black-and-white images of the first World Cup were projected on to a screen.

European players in top hats and blazers were shown arriving at the Montevideo docks after a 15day journey aboard a steam boat.

Pictures showed tango great

Carlos Gardel meeting the Argentine team in the dressingrooms, and the Centenario Stadium where Varallo’s Argentina lost the final against Uruguay 4-2.

Varallo made his first-team debut at 14, helped his home team Gimnasia de la Plata to win the only title in their history in 1929 during the amateur era, and transferred a year later to Boca Juniors, where he remained for the rest of his career.

At Boca, Varallo held the goalscoring record of 181 from 1939, when he retired, until 2008 when he was overtaken by striker Martin Palermo. During the World Cup

match against Chile he injured his knee and could not take part in the semi-final but he came back during the final. “I played my heart out in the second half and I could feel it in my knee. We were down to 10 men and as the match went on, another was injured, and another,” Varallo told the FIFA website in a recent interview remembering how close Argentina came to winning the first World Cup. “I aggravated my injury when hitting the bar with a shot that could have won it for us. I couldn’t even walk. From that point on they (Uruguay) started to get stronger and, with all due respect to my

team mates, we weren’t gutsy enough. How I cried that day. Even now when I look back it still makes me angry,” he said. Varallo has been awarded the FIFA order of merit, the highest honour handed out by soccer’s ruling body and one that has previously gone to Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Moore. “It was only fair for football fans to know that you honour this sport and this passion,” Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona told Varallo on Friday as he gave him a striped blue-andwhite Argentina team shirt with “Varallo” and the number 100 printed on the back. — Reuters

India score dramatic win over S Africa CALCUTTA: India claimed a dramatic win in the dying minutes of the second test against South Africa yesterday, squaring the series 1-1 and retaining top spot in the test cricket rankings. India won by an innings and 57 runs, with that big margin disguising the nerve-racking ending to the test as the visitors got within touching distance of forcing a draw, losing the last wicket with only 13 minutes of play remaining.

South Africa’s Hashim Amla, named man of the match and man of the series, remained unbeaten on 123.

He lost his more accomplished batting partners at regular intervals on the final day, but shared some dogged, timeevaporating stands with the tail enders to push his team toward a draw that would have delivered a series victory and that No.1 spot in the rankings.

Harbhajan Singh (5-59) claimed the final wicket, trapping Morne Morkel lbw, prompting the Eden Gardens crowd to erupt in celebrations. Last man Morkel had hung on valiantly, facing 60 balls as he and Amla batted for 76 minutes in their brave but ultimately fruitless 10th-wicket stand.

South Africa scored 290 in its second innings after 296 in its first, compared to India’s 643-6 declared in its sole innings.

After the spontaneous celebrations among the India players ended, many made their way to congratulate a disconsolate Amla, who batted throughout the final day and faced 394 balls in his innings. He finished with an aggregate of 490 runs across three innings in the two tests, only being dismissed once.

South Africa, aided by regular rain intervals on day four as it sought to grind out a draw, resumed the final day at 115-3. With time at the crease counting for more than runs, South Africa’s very patient innings received two setbacks in the opening

Harbhajan guile trumps Amla defiance

Scoreboard CALCUTTA: Final scoreboard of the second cricket Test between India and South Africa at the Eden Gardens yesterday:

CALCUTTA: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (left) and South African counterpart Graeme Smith share the series trophy during the prize distribution ceremony during the awards ceremony during the final day of the second Test match between India and South Africa at The Eden Gardens Stadium yesterday. — AFP session, as Ashwell Prince and A B de Villiers both fell.

Prince (23) was beaten in the flight by a Singh delivery that dipped, and he ballooned a catch to Ishant Sharma at mid-off. That was soon followed by the removal of de Villiers, who didn’t pick Amit Mishra’s googly, played down the wrong line and was out for a clear lbw.

India’s victory push gained further momentum in the middle session when Singh’s slider pushed JeanPaul Duminy (6) back on his crease, and he played for the nonexistent spin and was out lbw. Dale Steyn (1) went in similar fashion, playing and missing at a Singh delivery that rapped him on the pad and was plumb lbw.

At 180-7, South Africa looked like folding, but Wayne Parnell (22) was resolute in his defense, sticking with Amla for 101 minutes. He finally went soon after tea, delivering a catch to Singh at short mid-

on off the bowling of Sharma.

Paul Harris (4) took up the role of support act, and held out for 36 minutes before edging a Sharma delivery to substitute fielder Dinesh Karthik at third slip.

That brought to the crease Morkel (12), who batted with such unusual assurance for a No.11 that Amla made little attempt to farm the strike, and the paceman responded well before playing outside the line on the final delivery.

India was without paceman Zaheer Khan on the final day, due to a leg injury suffered on Wednesday. There was a post-match change in the scoring, with five penalty runs being added to the extras and four runs taken off Amla’s total. That came as a result of Virender Sehwag deliberately kicking the ball over the boundary rope to prevent Amla taking a three late in an over and thereby retaining strike for the start of the next. — AP

South Africa 1st innings: 296 (Hashim Amla 114, A. Petersen 100; Zaheer Khan 4-90, H. Singh 3-64) India 1st innings: 643-6 decl. (V. Sehwag 165, V. Laxman 143 not out, M. Dhoni 132 not out, S. Tendulkar 106; M. Morkel 2115) South Africa 2nd innings (overnight 115-3): G. Smith lbw b Mishra 20 A. Petersen c Badrinath b Harbhajan 21 Hashim Amla not out 123 J. Kallis c Dhoni b Mishra 20 A. Prince c Sharma b Harbhajan 23 AB de Villiers lbw b Mishra 3 JP Duminy lbw b Harbhajan 6 D. Steyn lbw b Harbhajan 1 W. Parnell c Harbhajan b Sharma 22 P. Harris c sub (Karthik) b Sharma 4 M. Morkel lbw b Harbhajan 12 Extras: (b6, lb5, nb18, w1, pen5) 35 Total (all out, 131.3 overs) 290 Fall of wickets: 1-36 (Smith), 2-54 (Petersen), 3-111 (Kallis), 4-158 (Prince), 5-164 (de Villiers), 6-172 (Duminy), 7-180 (Steyn), 8-250 (Parnell), 9-264 (Harris), 10-290 (Morkel).

Bowling: Zaheer 6-0-32-0, Harbhajan 48.3-23-59-5, Sharma 25-5-84-2 (nb9, w1), Mishra 40-12-78-3 (nb9), Sehwag 10-220-0, Tendulkar 2-1-1-0.

India won by an innings and 57 runs; series drawn 1-1 Toss: South Africa Umpires: Ian Gould (ENG) and Steve Davis (AUS) Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM) — AFP

DUBAI: England’s cricket team captain Paul Collingwood (left) and Pakistan’s cricket team captain Shoaib Malik pose with the World Call T20 trophy on the eve of their challenge at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium yesterday. – AFP

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Montpellier live dream season PARIS: Surprise package Montpellier will extend their colourful president’s dream if they win at strugglers St Etienne in Ligue 1 today. The club garbage collection company chairman Louis Nicollin founded in 1974 can move level on 51 points with leaders Girondins Bordeaux, whom they visit on March 7, if they get a sixth successive win in the league. Bordeaux will not play next weekend as the French League agreed to postpone their game against Auxerre to give them some rest before their Champions League last-16 first leg at Olympiakos on Tuesday.

Should Montpellier, back in the top flight this season after a long spell in the second division, lose at St Etienne, they would stay second as they lead third-placed Lille, who visit Stade Rennes on Sunday (2000), by four points.

“It is a huge surprise... The players surprise me a lot...

We get good results with a beautiful game. They make me proud,” the portly Nicollin, a familiar face in French soccer, told France Football this week. “It’s the talk of the town... I have to pinch myself to make sure it is true. What makes me laugh is that we’re bugging everybody. I say to myself that not all our opponents will be able to catch up with us.

We’ll end the season on 12th place at worst but it would be really stupid... For now, the

dream goes on,” he added.

Since Nicollin, whose company collects waste in many French towns, founded the club more than 35 years ago, Montpellier finished a best-ever third in 1988, two years before they lifted the French Cup. But after five seasons in the lower division, he cannot quite imagine Montpellier vying for the title.

“The title? Don’t get too carried away. A European qualification would be beautiful. I am only familiar with the Champions League via the stickers (Michel) Platini sends to me,” joked Nicollin, a close friend of the UEFA president.

Montpellier attracted players such as Eric Cantona, Colombia’s Carlos Valderrama and Cameroon’s Roger Milla in the late 80’s, when 1998 World Cup winner Laurent Blanc was in the early stages of his career at the club. They now bank on their youth academy with promising youngsters such as defender Abdelhamid El Kaoutari or forward Karim Ait Fana.

“They are all under two or three-year contracts and I am the boss,” Nicollin warned.

The Montpellier chairman was banned for two months this season for using threatening language in an outburst directed at Auxerre midfielder Benoit Pedretti. “I am what I am: a guy who collects garbage... That’s how I speak,” he said. —Reuters

French Preview

Relegation enters Wolfsburg vocab MUNICH: The word ‘relegation’ has entered the vocabulary of German titleholders VfL Wolfsburg after a 12-match winless run in one of the worst performances by a reigning Bundesliga champion.

Wolfsburg will attempt to end their dismal sequence which has included 10 games in the Bundesliga on Sunday when they host third-placed Schalke 04, their third game in a row against a team from the top three.

Leaders Bayer Leverkusen, unbeaten after 22 league games, have a tough assignment at sixthplaced Werder Bremen on Sunday while Bayern Munich, winners of their last 13 in all competitions, are at relegationthreatened Nuremburg on Saturday. Wolfsburg have dropped to 12th with 25

points from 22 games and are only eight points clear of Hanover 96, who are 16th and occupying the relegation playoff place.

Coach Armin Veh was fired last month and has been replaced by LorenzGunther Kostner, who has been told he will keep the job until the end of the season. “There is still no acute danger but we are not y e t complacent.

We still need at least three wins in 12 games,” Wolfsburg General Manager Dieter Hoeness told the Bild newspaper. Playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic was more blunt. “We’re in the middle of the relegation fight,” he told the Welt newspaper.

Nuremburg were the last reigning champions to be relegated, succumbing in 1968/69 having won the title the year before. —Reuters

German Preview

MONTPELLIER: Montpellier defender Mapou Yangambiwa (left) vies with Grenoble defender Sandy Paillot (right) during the French L1 football match Montpellier vs Grenoble on Feb 13, 2010 at the Mosson Stadium in southern France. —AFP

Rooney adulation will stop at Goodison Park Free-scoring striker plays at former club Everton vLONDON: Although Wayne Rooney is now being feted as one of the greats of the game after his San Siro Champions League master class, the adulation will come to a shuddering halt at Goodison Park tomorrow. Rooney’s double in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over AC Milan took his seasonal tally to a career-best 25 and had manager Alex Ferguson purring that he was now right up among the world’s elite strikers.

England boss Fabio Capello also knows that the national team’s World Cup prospects rely squarely on Rooney being fit and on form in South Africa.

When Rooney wears white in June even Everton fans will cheer him on but on Saturday, wearing red, the man who electrified Goodison Park as a 16-year-old will get a different kind of welcome when Everton host United in the Premier League. It is almost six years since Rooney left Everton to

MILAN: Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney heads the ball to score against AC Milan during their UEFA Champions League round of 16 match on Feb 16, 2010 at the San Siro stadium. —AFP join United but, judging by the pages of the Liverpool Echo in recent days, the scars left by his “betrayal” have yet to heal.

When the newspaper carried a

column asking if it was time to forgive the former local hero it was swamped with replies, most offering an emphatic and colourful “no”. Many fans are

English Preview

still raging that Rooney kissed his United badge in front of them last season, celebrates goals against them with gusto and that he criticised David Moyes, the Everton manager who gave him his break, leading to the payment of libel damages from Rooney’s autobiography publisher. However, recent apologies and comments from the player that Everton remain a “big part of my and my family’s life” may have softened some critics.

While Rooney’s role is central to Everton’s fans, United are more interested in the bigger picture as they seek to close Chelsea’s one-point Premier League lead. They have lost to The Toffees in the league only once home or away in the last 15 years but will have to work for their points against an Everton side who did them a favour earlier this month by beating Chelsea 2-1. —Reuters

Inter’s Eto’o struggles to convince Mourinho MILAN: Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto’o will be careful what he wishes for this weekend given a starting spot against Sampdoria tomorrow might hit his chances of facing Chelsea in the Champions League next week. The Cameroonian has only been a partial success at the Serie A leaders since swapping clubs with Barcelona’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic in July.

Injuries, the African Nations Cup and Inter signing fellow forward Goran Pandev in January have all limited his recent

opportunities and it is now unclear whether coach Jose Mourinho sees Eto’o as his first-choice striker.

“Today it’s not easy being one of my

Italian Preview forwards given how well the others are doing, Eto’o shouldn’t think he has a red carpet waiting for him. He has to be 100 percent physically,” Mourinho told

reporters recently. The coach could rotate his tired squad for tomorrow’s home match with one eye on Wednesday’s last 16 first leg clash with former side Chelsea, meaning a return to the lineup for Eto’o would not necessarily lead to a start in the Champions League. Pandev has netted three times in Serie A since pairing up with fellow in-form striker Diego Milito, settling in better than Eto’o despite the Cameroonian’s eight league goals. —Reuters

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Nalbandian struggles to second win on comeback trail BUENOS AIRES: David Nalbandian faced the tough realities of returning to the circuit from a nine-month injury absence in a 6-7 6-4 7-6 win over Spaniard Daniel Gimeno Traver at the Buenos Aires Open on Wednesday. The former world number three, winner in Buenos Aires in 2008, played through the pain of a muscle tear in his right leg early in the second set and may have to pull out of the tournament, his first since hip surgery in May. “I felt something in my abductor (muscle). ... My trainer said perhaps

I should not play on but I can’t do that in Buenos Aires with this crowd that gives me so much support,” Nalbandian said in a courtside interview.

Had he been playing anywhere else he would have pulled out on the spot, Nalbandian told a news conference later. “The plan is to wait and see how it evolves. I really want to play on but we’ll wait and see,” he said. He faces Spaniard Albert Montanes in Friday’s quarter-finals. The first signs that Nalbandian would struggle on

Wednesday came when he gave away a first break of service from 40-0 up in the fifth game as he lost seven points in a row.

Nalbandian broke right back but gave away another break when he was serving for the set at 5-3. The 28-year-old Argentine, who beat the same opponent in two sets in the same round last year, was never in front in the tiebreak, which he lost 7-5. Nalbandian suffered the twinge early in the second set and had courtside treatment but said that in a way it helped him to improve his

game because he had to take risks.

He pulled off some of his best shots, notably his trademark angled drives, to get himself out of trouble.

However, he made hard work of wrapping up the second set. He smashed wide of the line with Gimeno Traver at his mercy when 40-30 up and had to negotiate a break point before the Spaniard hit a crosscourt drive wide. Gimeno Traver, ranked 80, saved a match point in the third set at 5-3 down and Nalbandian had to come from behind to force the deciding

tiebreak. The 24-year-old Spaniard, who upset third seed Nicolas Almagro in the first round, fended off two more match points before the Argentine clinched it 9-7.

Nalbandian will now play Montanes, who beat fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar 6-3 6-2. Second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Brazilian Marcos Daniel 6-2 6-4 in the late match on centre court. Top-seeded fellow Spaniard David Ferrer was scheduled to meet Frederico Gil of Portugal in the second round yesterday. — Reuters

Roddick beats Blake in thriller at Memphis Sharapova cruises into quarter-finals

DUBAI: Israel’s Shahar Peer returns to China’s Li Na during their WTA Dubai Tennis Championships quarter-final match yesterday. — AFP

Peer increases security dilemma with 4th win DUBAI: Shahar Peer, the first Israeli woman ever to compete in the United Arab Emirates, further increased the security headaches by continuing her inspired run of success to a fourth victory and a semi-final place in the Dubai Open yesterday.

Peer extended her career-best sequence to a victory over Li Na, the world number ten from China, who retired while trailing 5-7, 0-3, increasing the possibility that the Israeli will now be scheduled on to the centre court for the first time.

That might afford less protection for Peer than the secluded, tree-lined, limited access outside court on which she has so far played. And with the political fall-out from last month’s Dubai assassination, and the finger being pointed at Israeli agents, the temptation will be not to take this risk. At the same time, with Venus Williams a favourite to win her quarter-final against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the same half, there will be pressure for new plans to be considered.

About 5,000 people have bought centre court tickets for semi-finals day expecting to see one of the world’s leading players - and Williams, the five times former Wimbledon

champion, is the only big name left in the tournament.

“We have to take it day by day,” said tournament referee Alan Mills. “The tournament has said that security is paramount. And it is the security and police who dictate what happens. “So we will have to wait and see. We have already said - if she gets to the final, where are 5,000 people going to sit? It’s something that they have obviously got in hand.”

It emerged later that organisers were considering placing Peer on an outside court yet again, even for her semi-final. The plan is that she will play on court two, where it is possible for spectators seated behind adjoining courts to see, perhaps enabling 1,000 people to watch. “I’m the only player that hasn’t played on centre court,” said Peer, who has been accompanied to breakfast by bodyguards. “But whatever will be, will be. I’m not controlling it. I’m doing what I’ve been told, and wherever I need to play, I’ll play on.”

Asked if it would be a disadvantage not to have played on centre court if she eventually gets there, Peer answered: “I guess not, because I am winning. But

you know like I said I’m doing what I’ve been told. I’m not involved in the schedule. I’m just getting the schedule after when my coach is telling me when I’m playing on which court, and I’m getting ready for the match.”

Mills said he had never come across anything quite like this situation. The former Wimbledon referee observed: “I remember when we had the problems with apartheid and flower bombs were thrown at events - that was the nearest we have come with the politics involved.” The dynamic effect of this unprecedented situation upon steely-minded Peer is shown by her results.

First she beat Yanina Wickmayer, the 13th seed, then Virginie Razzano, last year’s runner-up, followed by Caroline Wozniacki, the world number three, and now against Li she overcame an opponent against whom she had lost both previous encounters.

Peer’s progress has also lent colour to a bit of sporting history being played out against a violent political background, but which also according to local hopes could eventually play a part in the Olympics coming to the Middle East. — AFP

MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Topseeded Andy Roddick snapped a three-match losing streak to fellow American James Blake with a 6-3, 4-6. 7-6 (3) victory in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships on Wednesday night.

Blake broke Roddick’s serve in the 10th game of the third set to pull even at 5-5. Both then held serve sending the match to the tiebreaker. He went up in the tiebreaker when he broke serve on the fourth point as Blake hit a backhand wide down the line. Blake would end up with three unforced errors off the backhand in the tiebreaker.

“Whoever won was going to be pretty darn wellprepared for the rest of the tournament and feel good about their chances,” Blake said. “It’s tough to swallow.

“It just didn’t go my way on a couple of points,” Blake said of the tiebreaker. “A couple of missed backhands,

and he kept the pressure on me the whole time.” As usual, Roddick used a strong serve, recording 22 aces and converting 75 percent of his first serves. “I served well in the tiebreaker,” Roddick said. “I served smart in the tiebreaker.” Roddick, the defending champion, was the only one of the top four seeds in the tournament to make it out of the first round.

No. 2 seed Fernando Verdasco lost Tuesday night.

Third-seed Radek Stepanek and Tommy Haas, the fourth seed, lost earlier Wednesday.

Haas of Germany lost to Belgium’s Xavier Malisse 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Haas, a three-time winner in Memphis, struggled with his service game, putting 59 percent of his first serves in play and committing eight double faults. Stepanek to Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-6 (5), 7-5. In other matches, Americans sixth-seeded John Isner and Sam Querrey, seeded eighth, won their matches. Isner was pushed

to three sets by Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in a 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 victory, while Querrey beat fellow American Rajeev Ram 6-2, 63.

In the Cellular South Cup, the women’s draw of the tournament, top-seeded Maria Sharapova was an easy winner in her second-round match, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-1, 6-1. Secondseeded Melanie Oudin of the United States defeated countrywoman Lilia Osterloh 6-2, 6-1, and No. 3 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia and Petra Kvitova, the fifth seed, also won. Kanepi dropped the first set to Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic before rallying for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory. Kvitova of the Czech Republic was a straight-set winner over Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands, 6-4, 7-5. Seventh-seeded Vania King of the United States lost to qualifier Sophia Arvidsson of Sweden 3-6, 64, 6-2. — AP

MEMPHIS: James Blake (left) shakes hands with Andy Roddick following their match at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championship tennis tournament Wednesday. Roddick defeated Blake 6-3, 4-6, 7-6. — AP

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Clinical Lingers time it right again World champs China settle for curling split VANCOUVER: Reigning world champion C h i n a rebounded from a morning loss with an evening victory Wednesday in the Olympic women’s curling tournament, while Sweden and Switzerland remained unbeaten in men’s play.

The Chinese women scored two points in the 10th to force an extra end before losing 5-4 to Britain, then returned to beat Switzerland 8-6.

The Chinese are a serious medal contender, but their coach and team leader aren’t willing to call them favorites - mainly

VANCOUVER: China’s Yin Liu (left) and Qingshuang Yue sweep in a match against Switzerland during the round robin session 3 of women’s curling at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Wednesday. – AP because the players are far less experienced than most of the nations in the deep, wide-open field. “Hey, we lost the first one last year at worlds and won the world championship. It’s all good,” said Dan Rafael, China’s Canadian-born coach. “We didn’t expect to go undefeated here anyway.

There’s no chance of that.”

Defending gold medalist Sweden needed an extra end to defeat Denmark 8-7 in the morning and beat Britain 6-4 in the evening.

Sweden sits atop the women’s standings, having won each of its first three matches.

Canada and Germany are also unbeaten, having won their first two.

The host Canadians staved off an upset bid by Japan, with skip Cheryl Bernard scoring two on her final throw for a 7-6 win in the morning. The tense ending briefly silenced the raucous home crowd. “We have to be sharper than that,” Bernard said. —AP

WHISTLER: Austrian b r o t h e r s Andreas and Wolfgang Linger produced a perfect piece of timing to defend their Olympic luge doubles title on Wednesday. The Lingers, one of four sets of siblings in the last luge event, jumped for joy after edging out Latvians Andris and Juris Sics to land Austria’s first gold medal of the Games. It was a close-run thing, however, with just a slither of ice separating the podium places.

The Lingers’ winning margin was 0.264 seconds and Germany’s Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch, who took the bronze medal, were less than a tenth of a second away from silver after a storming second run lifted them up from fifth. “It’s just great to win four years after Turin,” 28-year-old Andreas, one year older than his brother, told reporters. “There was a lot of pressure to come here as reigning champions. “For sure, we will have a little party, maybe it will become huge,” his brother added.

The Sics brothers were happy with silver, despite going so close to winning

Latvians just miss out on first gold

WHISTLER: Andreas Linger (right) and Wolfgang Linger of Austria celebrate their gold medal win after the final run of the men’s doubles luge competition Wednesday. – AP their country’s first Winter Olympic gold. “It’s perfect,” Andris Sics, whose brother got them involved in luge after getting caught sliding down the local track on a plastic sledge as a nine-

year-old, told reporters.

“Always you want to be first but second place for small Latvia is wonderful. We trained hard and got in the top three.”

The Lingers’ sense of

timing was impeccable as they became the first team to win consecutive Olympic golds in luge doubles since Germans Hans Rinn and Hans Brandner in 1980.

They were doubles world

champions in 2003 but faded into obscurity before returning to the top of the podium at the 2006 Olympics when Wolfgang competed with metal pins in his leg after fracturing his left ankle in a crash.

One victory from eight World Cup races this season was hardly champion form but they responded on a Whistler course reduced to the junior start with two perfect runs.

Noisy celebrations at the finish where Austrians unfurled a large flag and rang cow bells and Canadians pranced around bare-chested were a stark contrast to the sombre mood in which the luge events began after the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili.

The Georgian slider died after a horrific crash on Thunderbird corner and there was a reminder of just how dangerous the sport can be in Wednesday’s first run.

Austrians Tobias and Markus Schiegl lost control at the same point where Kumaritashvili met his death and smashed heavily into the inside wall before sliding over the finish line but they escaped uninjured. —Reuters

Sweden open title defence with win VANCOUVER: Reigning gold and silver medallists Sweden and Finland got their defences off to rousing starts by winning their opening matches at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics yesterday. Sweden threw a blanket over the Germany’s offence winning 2-0 while Finland got its firepower untracked with an impressive 5-1 rout of Belarus. In the first marquee matchup of the men’s hockey tournament, the Czech Republic triumphed over Slovakia 31 in an emotionally-charged matchup.

Wednesday’s games also marked the return to North America of two European superstars, Peter Forsberg of Sweden and Czech Jaromir Jagr, after two years away. Forsberg made a forced exile from the National Hockey League while Jagr’s was by choice as he now plays in the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia. Former Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers star Jagr won the battle of the NHL exiles with a goal and an assist for the Czechs who have medalled in two of the last three Winter

Games since 1998, winning gold in Nagano and bronze in Torino.

“It always a big rivalry against Slovakia,” Jagr said. “They have so many good players who can score goals. “I remember the last Olympics in Turin they beat everybody and they won four straight games and then we beat them in the playoff. They are a pretty good team.”

Mattias Ohlund scored on the powerplay and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 shots for Sweden who are trying to become the first country to win backto-back gold since the Soviet Union in 1984 (Sarajevo) and 1988 (Calgary).

“It felt important to get a good start,” Lundqvist said.

“Heading into the game, I was nervous. It always feels good to have a shutout.”

The 36-year-old Forsberg, who has battled foot, back and groin problems, played on the powerplay and made some impressive passes but isn’t as fast as he used to be. “I was nervous in the beginning,” said Forsberg, who had no shots in 12:57 minutes of playing time. “It is great to be back. I don’t think I will ever be healthy

VANCOUVER: The Slovakia men’s ice hockey team gathers at the net before the start of a preliminary round game against Czech Republic Wednesday. —AP again. I am just going to do my best and see how it goes.” Forsberg, who last played in the NHL in 2007, is seeking to become just the seventh player to win three gold medals. He captured gold in 2006 in Turin and 1994 in Lillehammer.

Finland’s Teemu Selanne, playing in his fifth Olympics and wearing a plastic face mask to protect a broken jaw, equalled the all-time Games record for most points as Finland routed Belarus. Selanne

earned an assist on Finland’s opening goal for his 36th career point to tie him with three others, including the legendary Valeri Kharlamov of the former Soviet Union. “This is my fifth Olympics and everyone has been very special,” the 39-year-old Selanne said. “It has been fun.”

Finland is the reigning Olympic silver medallists and they also won bronze medals at the 1994 Lillehammer Games and the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

The Czech-Slovak games lived up to its billing and it was just the third meeting between the two since they started taking part in the Olympics separately in 1994. Despite his two years away, Jagr didn’t skip a beat and was a threat to score each time stepped on the ice.

He scored on a partial breakaway late in the second period by beating Slovakia’s goaltender Jaroslav Halak with a perfectly placed shot through the legs. —AFP

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Vonn thunders to gold Bjoergen wins first gold in cross-country WHISTLER: Marit Bjoergen finally earned her first Olympic gold Wednesday by winning the individual classical sprint to complete her medal collection and add the only major cross-country skiing title she was missing. “I’m very glad I came to the start today,” said the 29-year-old Bjoergen, who contemplated skipping the sprint to save her energy for other events. “This is the biggest thing I’ve ever experienced.”

Bjoergen pulled away from Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland and

WHISTLER: Norwegian gold medallist Marit Bjoergen celebrates during the medal ceremony for the Cross Country Women’s sprint event Wednesday. —AFP Petra Majdic of Slovenia in a frantic finish to cross the line in 3 minutes, 39.2 seconds and end Norway’s gold-medal drought in cross-country skiing.

Kowalczyk won the silver medal, and Majdic overcame a rib injury that forced her to ski in grueling pain to take the bronze.

Kikkan Randall of the United States, who won silver in the sprint at last year’s world championships when it was a freestyle event, was eliminated in the semifinals. Bjoergen left both Salt Lake City and Turin with a silver medal, and after taking bronze in Monday’s 10K freestyle race the four-time world champion finally secured the top prize. It was enough to set off an immediate stream of tears as she embraced teammate Astrid Jacobsen in the finish area, before she started jumping up and down, holding her skis and poles aloft. “It’s been a dream for me for a very long time,” she said. —AP

WHISTLER: An emotional Lindsey Vonn hurtled down the mountain on Wednesday to become the first US skier to win the Olympic women’s downhill title. The 25-year-old world champion made a golden start to her “Vonncouver Games” with the stars and stripes on her ski suit, shrugging off her shin injury to beat team mate Julia Mancuso by a hefty 0.56 seconds.

Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl was a distant third, matching the achievement of her mother Traudl Hecher who took downhill bronze medals at the 1960 Squaw Valley and 1964 Innsbruck Games.

“It’s incredible, one of the most emotional moments in my life,” Vonn said of her first medal in three Olympics.

“To come into the finish area and see my name and Julia’s up there was amazing.”

Sweden’s Anja Paerson had the silver within her grasp when she crashed heavily off the final jump, flying 58 metres through the air before landing hard on her rear and ending up face down. Vonn gasped, covered her mouth and looked away. Paerson was

Sweden’s Paerson crashes off final jump

WHISTLER: Gold medal winner USA’s Lindsey Vonn celebrates during the flower ceremony for the Women’s downhill Wednesday. —AP helped off the piste by doctors, one of several fallers. A Swedish team official said the Olympic slalom champion had a bruised left calf but nothing broken.

With the sun shining and clear skies replacing the fog and snow that hit the

schedule earlier in the week, Vonn blew kisses to her family and friends in ‘Vonncouver’ hats as she watched rivals fall or fail to match her time. “I knew what I had to do, I knew what type of run I needed to take. I had to attack and I did that,” she added. “I made it

down. It’s awesome, it’s all I ever wanted.”

Vonn had won five out of six World Cup downhills this season and had the perfect setting to show once more that she was in a class of her own despite the injury that had threatened her participation in the Games.

Germany’s Maria Riesch, Vonn’s best friend and main rival, failed to produce her best and finished well out of the medals, more than two seconds slower. Czech Klara Krizova was the first skier out of the starting hut and set the tone for what was to follow when she snagged a gate and fell. Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin went out in tears after ending up in a crumpled heap after flying off the final jump. She was followed by Italian Daniela Merighetti, plunging headfirst at the same place.

Vonn, who had complained to reporters after training on Monday that the Franz’s run was too bumpy, had to follow them down but there was never any doubt about her steely determination and poise.

She was already 0.43 seconds quicker than Mancuso, the reigning Olympic giant slalom champion who was waiting at the finish with a glittering tiara in her hair and tears in her eyes, at the second intermediate and 0.83 at the third. Romania’s Edith Miklos was a late faller and had to be winched off the mountain by helicopter, the sound of rotors drowning out the cowbells as Vonn celebrated. —Reuters

Russians finish 1-2 in men’s cross-country WHISTLER: Nikita Kriukov edged teammate Alexander Panzhinskiy in a photo finish Wednesday to give Russia its first gold medal of the Vancouver Olympics with victory in the men’s individual classic cross-country sprint. By pushing the pace so ferociously from the outset and finishing in 3 minutes, 36.3 seconds, the pair negated Norway’s notorious closers, including bronze medalist Petter Northug, who was 9.2 seconds behind. Kriukov insisted there was no agreement between the Russians to race side-by-side, saying only that they were both following instructions not to hold anything back.

“Our coach warned us that there were going to be three Norwegians racing with us and we really needed to get ahead. And then I saw Alexander speed up at the first elevation and I tried to keep up.” So did the Norwegians, to no avail.

“I tried to close the gap,” Northug said. “They went really fast and I didn’t have the power over the last hill to catch them.” Northug

was slowed down when he had to alter his line to avoid the pileup when Alexey Poltaranin of Kazakhstan lost control on a downhill turn more than halfway through the race and fell, taking out Norway’s Oeystein Pettersen.

The Russians were alone entering the stadium and traded places with each push of their poles before each bent his right knee and scooted his left ski across the finish line.

They collapsed in a heap together, then smiled as they awaited the judge’s review. When the winner was announced, Kriukov and Panzhinskiy grabbed a flag to celebrate together. They held the flag between them, trotting down the track-side stands in triumph, their skis and poles held high on either side.

“It was really unbelievable. Nikita is my roommate and we’ve trained together many years,” Panzhinskiy said. “It really is a dream for us to be together on the podium.” Norway’s Ola Vigen Hattestad finished fourth, Poltaranin fifth and Pettersen sixth. Northug, the World Cup leader who was expected to dominate the Vancouver Games,

WHISTLER: Russia’s gold medal winner Nikita Kriukov (left) and silver medal winner Russia’s Alexander Panzhinskiy react during the medal ceremony for the Men’s individual classic sprint Cross Country final Wednesday. —AP gained a measure of redemption for his performance in the 15K, when he quickly realized he didn’t have the skis or stamina to challenge the leaders and settled for 41st place.

Norway failed to win a cross-country gold medal in Italy, and 24-year-old Northug the best

Norwegian skier since the great Bjoern Daehlie - was facing enormous pressure to end that drought in Vancouver.

Instead, teammate Marit Bjoergen took care of that, winning the women’s individual cross-country sprint just minutes before. “I have to be happy. For the last two years, sprint was not my

thing, but now I have a medal,” said Northug, the heavy favorite in the 30K pursuit and the anchor on the powerful Norwegian relay team. Swedish skier Emil Joensson, one of the favorites in this race, didn’t make it out of the semifinal round at sunsplashed Whistler Olympic Park. —AP

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Gravity-defying White defends halfpipe gold Snowboarder dazzles with tricks

Wang remains invincible VANCOUVER: Favourite Wang Meng of China enhanced her i n v i n c i b l e reputation when she retained her Olympic women’s 500 metres short track speedskating title on Wednesday. Canada’s Marianne St Gelais drew deafening cheers from the home crowd as she celebrated her 20th birthday with a silver medal and Italy’s Arianna Fontana picked up the bronze.

“I’m still the rookie but I just made a name for myself,” a tearful St Gelais told reporters after cheering team mates greeted her with a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’.

VANCOUVER: Snowboarding superstar and defending champion Shaun White won the Olympic men’s halfpipe gold Wednesday, dazzling the judges with his tricks - including the gravitydefying Double McTwist 1260. White scored 48.4 out of 50 in his second run after 46.8 in his first, which was in itself enough to seal the title.

Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen took silver with a score of 45.0 and Scott Lago of the United States won bronze with 42.8. Hot favourite White had the luxury of starting his second run knowing he was already Olympic champion - the same situation he faced in Turin in 2006 - after dominating the competition.

When it was clear he had won, White stood at the top of the halfpipe with his arms aloft before setting off again to wow the crowd of 4,400 under the lights at Cypress Mountain.

Speaking about his first run, White said: “Gosh, all I remember was the last hit. Everything was such a blur.”

When asked why he attempted even more tricks in the second run, White said: “I just felt like I didn’t come all the way to Vancouver not to pull out the big guns. I put down the tricks I’ve worked so hard on.”

“It was the savvy thing to do.

Saucy. Keep it weird,” he added. “My coach said at the top. Don’t do this unless you’re gonna stomp it.” White said his second Olympic gold felt special. “It’s right there with it. To come back to the Olympics is one thing. To win it is even better. I’m getting better at this sport thing.”

Speaking about the Double McTwist he said: “(I was thinking) I’m so excited, my hands are shaking.

Normally I can’t even land it.”

The American first landed his unprecedented Double McTwist 1260, an inverted aerial in which he flips head over heels twice while spinning 3 1/2 times and holding the board, to win gold at last month’s Winter X Games - adding to his huge haul of medals. White went last in the final due to finishing top of qualifying and in

VANCOUVER: Olympic champion Shaun White of the USA celebrates after the men’s snowboard halfpipe final Wednesday. —AP his two devastating displays the man known as the “Flying Tomato” put himself out of reach of his competitors.

Silver medallist Piiroinen said: “I think it’s impossible to beat Shaun” but added it was “one of my dreams to compete here and get a medal.”

Bronze medallist Lago described it has the best day of his life. “I couldn’t be any happier. It was a dream of mine.” Commenting on the long road to the Olympics, he said: “Twenty-one

broken bones. Multiple concussions.

Not going out at home. It’s awesome.”

One of the stellar names at these Olympics, 23-year-old White was seen as almost unbeatable at these Games having last month won his third consecutive gold in the X Games superpipe. The field was missing US snowboarders Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis, both of whom were potential challengers to White’s crown but were injured before the Games.—AFP

Davis wins another gold in men’s 1,000 Speedskater buries feud with rival VANCOUVER: China’s Wang Meng reacts after winning the gold medal in the women’s 500 m short track skating competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Wednesday. – AP Starting from the favoured inside position, Wang led from the start and crossed the line with several metres of daylight between her and the rest of the field, having taken her foot off the gas before the finish line when she knew she had won. Rivals had said before the competition that it would take a mistake from Wang for anyone else to take gold, and were really just fighting for the two other medals. They were right. It looked too easy for the distance’s four-times world champion, although she seemed to show signs of nerves when she was cautioned for a false start after the race had already been re-started once following a first-turn crash.

“My coach and I worked on a strategy that I would concentrate on my start and not worry too much about being perfect for the entire race, I’m ecstatic,” Wang told reporters after draping a Chinese flag over her for a lap of honour. While Wang kowtowed on the ice to thank her coach, team mates and leaders of her country, a beaming St Gelais, who got the better of more fancied compatriot Kalyna Roberge in their semifinal, lapped up the screams of joy from the home fans. The raucous atmosphere at the packed Pacific Coliseum was in stark contrast to the previous day’s more demure mood for the men’s figure skating in the same arena. —Reuters

VANCOUVER: US star Shani Davis became the first man to win back-to-back Olympic 1,000metre speedskating titles with a sizzling last lap Wednesday and then showed his long feud with US rival Chad Hedrick is over. Davis, who became the first black Olympic champion in an individual event when he took 2006 gold at Turin, won in 1min 08.94secs, defeating 500m champion Mo Tae-Bum of South Korea by .18 of a second, with Hedrick third in 1:09.32. “In 2006, I was on the offensive. I was attacking,” Davis said.

“Now I was on the defensive. People had a lot of motivation and courage. I had to weather the storm and I was able to do it. It was a great performance.”

Davis and Hedrick jointly held the American flag for a celebration skate four years after a bitter spat when Hedrick accused Davis of being selfish and unpatriotic for not racing with him on the US team pursuit squad at Turin.

“We put everything Shani and I had in 2006 behind us,” Hedrick said. “All that stuff was done before. That’s old news. I hope people will look at us in a different light, as good athletes not who wants to pick a fight with who.”

Davis, angry in Turin that

VANCOUVER: Gold medallist USA’s Shani Davis skates during the men’s 1000 m race at the Richmond Olympic Oval Wednesday. —AP Hedrick would offer praise only after defeats, was pleased to have a bonding moment with his old foe. “I think it’s a good thing,” Davis said. This time, Hedrick paid tribute to Davis in profound fashion.

“He dug deep to find something special to win that race,” Hedrick said of

Davis. “He skated a great race.

That guy is untouchable in the 1,000.”

Davis, who set the world record of 1:06.42 last March in Salt Lake City, became the first man to defend Olympic speedskate gold since Norway’s Johann Olaf Koss won the 1,500 m in 1992 and 1994. Davis did it

by overtaking Mo with a final 400m lap of 26.93 seconds. Only Hedrick, at 26.80, had a faster final charge. Davis said a shock third-place finish in the event at last year’s worlds on the same ice motivated him. “Knowing that feeling, I wanted to get everything out of my system and leave

it all on the track,” Davis said. “I’m just determined.

I was very motivated. I tried my hardest to bring it home on the curves.”

Hedrick will challenge Davis again for gold in tomorrow’s 1,500, where Davis is world champion and world record-holder but Hedrick will count upon another last-lap charge. “I knew with the slow ice I had the chance to make up the distance. I hung in there,” Hedrick said. “A lot of sprinters had a tough time on the second lap. My consistency brought me into the race and got me a medal.”

Hedrick skated alongside Mo in the fourthto-last group and nearly overtook the Korean, who had a second gold in his grasp until Davis’ late heroics. “I feel a little unhappy because I didn’t win the gold but I did the best I could,” Mo said.

“That last lap, I knew he was the champion.” Davis knew Mo’s time was the one to beat when he lined up in the outer lane of the last pairing. Davis was off the pace after the first 200 m in 16.73 and still back after reaching 600m in 42.01. Mo won South Korea’s first Winter Olympic gold medal outside of short-track speedskating by taking the 500 m title Monday on his 21st birthday. —AFP

www.kuwaittimes.com

Newcomer fires Mavs over Suns WINDERMERE, Florida: Tiger Woods jogs near his home Wednesday. —AP

Tiger Woods to apologize, discuss future MARANA, Arizona: Tiger Woods will speak publicly today for the first time since his bizarre Thanksgiving night car accident, beginning what his agent called “the process of making amends” for the sex scandal that sent him into hiding for three months. “Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future and he plans to apologize for his behavior.

While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between he and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him,” Mark Steinberg said in an email Wednesday. “He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends and that’s what he’s going to discuss.” However, Steinberg said Woods will not take any questions from a small group of media.

“This is not a press conference,” he said.

It will be Woods’ first public appearance since Nov 27, when he crashed his sport utility vehicle into a tree outside his Florida home. Woods’ only comments since then have been made through his website. Woods is to speak at 11 am EST (1600 GMT) today from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, home of the PGA Tour. There was strict control over the appearance, typical of Woods’ career. Steinberg described the gathering as a “small group of friends, colleagues and close associates,” who will listen to Woods apologize as he talks about the past and what he plans to do next. He said three wire services have been invited - AP, Reuters and Bloomberg and he asked the Golf Writers Association of America to recommend pool reporters. Only one camera will be in the room to provide live coverage via satellite. Steinberg said other writers with proper credentials could watch from a hotel ballroom more than two kilometers away.

“The first time out, he’s better controlling it,” fellow player Padraig Harrington said from the Match Play Championship in Arizona. “Over time, there will be questions. At the moment, the best thing is a more controlled environment and gradually ease his way back into it.” The timing is peculiar. The appearance will take place during the third round of the Arizona tournament, sure to steal attention away from the first big event of the year.

The tournament is sponsored by Accenture, the first sponsor to drop Woods when he became embroiled in the sex scandal.

“He’s got to come out at some point,” Irish golfer Rory McIlroy said. “I suppose he might want to get something back against the sponsor that dropped him. No, I don’t know. It just went on for so long. I’m sick of hearing about it. And I’m just looking forward to when he’s getting back on the golf course.” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he did not think Woods’ appearance was going to undermine the World Golf Championship event.

“We have tournaments every week,” Finchem said.

“I think it’s going to be a story in and of itself. A lot of people are going to be watching golf this week to see what the world of golf says about it, my guess is.

So that will be a good thing.” —AP

Heat lose Wade but down Nets DALLAS: Dallas newcomer Caron Butler started a key third-quarter run that led to the Dallas Mavericks’ 107-97 win over the Phoenix Suns in Wednesday’s clash of two NBA Western Conference contenders. Butler, acquired from Washington in a seven-player deal Saturday, scored 15 points and hit a jumper to open a 16-4 run in the third.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points for Dallas, which maintained a one-game lead in the Southwest Division.

Amare Stoudemire, mentioned in trade rumors in recent days, had 30 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns, who had their five-game road winning streak snapped.

NBA standings

Jazz 98, Hornets 90 In New Orleans, Paul Millsap scored 24 points on 11 of 13 shooting as Utah downed New Orleans. Carlos Boozer scored six of his 16 points in the last 3:06, and added 15 rebounds for the Jazz, who crept within one game of Northwest-leading Denver. The Hornets were led by rookie Darren Collison, who had 24 points and nine assists.

Magic 116, Pistons 91 In Orlando, Florida, Dwight Howard had a season-high 33 points and added 17 rebounds to help Orlando beat Detroit. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year added seven blocks in a dominating performance. He was also 11 for 13 on free throws - a refreshing change from his normal woes. Vince Carter finished with 20 points for the Magic. Detroit was topped by Richard Hamilton’s 36 points.

Grizzlies 109, Raptors 102, OT In Toronto, Rudy Gay scored eight of his 29 points in overtime to help Memphis edge Toronto and snap a five-game losing streak. Zach Randolph had 24 points and 11 rebounds for Memphis. Chris Bosh had 32 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto, which lost its first home game in nine.

Hawks 110, Clippers 92 In Los Angeles, Al Horford scored a career-high 31 points in his 200th NBA game and Atlanta handed Los Angeles its sixth straight loss. Josh Smith had 20 points and nine rebounds, and Joe Johnson added 18 points for Atlanta. Chris Kaman had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers, who are winless in five games since Kim Hughes replaced Mike Dunleavy as head coach.

NEW YORK: New York Knicks’ David Lee (center) is defended by Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose and Brad Miller during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday. The Knicks lost the game 115-109. —AP Rockets 127, Bucks 99 In Milwaukee, Trevor Ariza hit a career-high six 3-pointers, scoring 22 points and lifting Houston to a comfortable win over Milwaukee. In all, Houston hit 16 shots from beyond the arc - one short of the franchise record.

Shane Battier was 6 of 6 from 3point range, one short of his career high, and finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The 127 points was a season high for the Rockets, who also shot a seasonbest 57.5 percent from the field.

Rookie Brandon Jennings scored 13 points for Milwaukee.

Spurs 90, Pacers 87 In Indianapolis, Tony Parker came back from injury to score 28 points and lead San Antonio to a tight victory over Indiana. Parker has missed the final game before the All-Star break with a strained hip flexor. Tim Duncan had just eight points on 4-for-23 shooting, but had 26 rebounds and five assists for the Spurs. Danny Granger scored 23 points for Indiana.

Bulls 115, Knicks 109 In New York, Derrick Rose

scored 27 points as Chicago downed New York. Luol Deng added 23 for the Bulls, wh ocame from 15 points down to move above .500 at 27-26 and hand the Knicks their fifth straight loss. Al Harrington scored 27 points for New York.

Heat 87, Nets 84 In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Miami overcame the early loss of All-Star MVP Dwyane Wade to beat New Jersey for its season-high fourth straight victory. Wade strained his left calf in the first quarter and did not return. He finished with eight points, snapping his streak of 148 straight games in double figures, the second-longest active streak in the NBA behind LeBron James (255). Michael Beasley had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat, while Brook Lopez had 26 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets.

Warriors 130, Kings 98 In Oakland, California, C J Watson scored a career-high 40 points as Golden State routed Sacramento. Watson scored 23 points in the first half, matching his

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L Pct Boston 33 18 .647 Toronto 29 24 .547 Philadelphia 20 33 .377 New York 19 34 .358 New Jersey 5 49 .093 Southeast Division Orlando 37 18 .673 Atlanta 34 18 .654 Miami 28 27 .509 Charlotte 26 26 .500 Washington 18 33 .353 Central Division Cleveland 43 11 .796 Chicago 27 26 .509 Milwaukee 24 28 .462 Detroit 19 34 .358 Indiana 18 35 .340 Western Conference Southwest Division Dallas 33 21 .611 San Antonio 31 21 .596 Houston 28 25 .528 New Orleans 28 26 .519 Memphis 27 26 .509 Northwest Division Denver 35 18 .660 Utah 34 19 .642 Oklahoma City 31 21 .596 Portland 32 24 .571 Minnesota 13 42 .236 Pacific Division LA Lakers 42 13 .764 Phoenix 32 23 .582 LA Clippers 21 33 .389 Sacramento 18 36 .333 Golden State 15 38 .283

GB 5 14 15 29.5 1.5 9 9.5 17 15.5 18 23.5 24.5 1 4.5 5 5.5 1 3.5 4.5 23 10 20.5 23.5 26

season high for a game, and made 15 of his first 16 shots. He also had seven rebounds and six assists.

Stephen Curry had a career-best 15 assists for Golden State to complement 24 points and six rebounds. Tyreke Evans had 17 points and 10 assists for the Kings.

Wizards 108, Timberwolves 99 In Washington, Andray Blatche, a last-minute substitution for Antawn Jamison, scored a career-high 33 points and had 13 rebounds for Washington in the win over Minnesota. The Wizard traded Jamison to Cleveland after the game in a three-team swap that sent Drew Gooden to the Los Angeles Clippers. Washington received Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a 2010 firstround draft pick and the rights to Emir Preldzic, who was selected in the second round of last year’s draft from Cleveland. The Wizards also received forward Al Thornton from Los Angeles. Cleveland received guard Sebastian Telfair from the Clippers. Al Jefferson led Minnesota with 18 points. —AP