10 Apr

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

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Lankan ruling coalition wins elections

SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2010

India kicks off 3G auction

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By Khaled Abdullah

NO: 14694

Tattoos of love and war for Marines

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Kuwait thwarts, bans pro-ElBaradei demo KUWAIT: Kuwaiti security forces yesterday thwarted a demonstration that was called for by a number of Egyptian nationals residing in the country to voice their support for Mohammed ElBaradei as a candidate for the upcoming presidential elections in Egypt. “Security personnel succeeded in controlling the crowd and arrested a number of them,” informed sources told Kuwait Times, adding that the Kuwait prohibits such gatherings on fear it may negatively affect its relations with Egypt.

“Ten Egyptian nationals have been arrested,” sources said. Security men have prevented the gathering from growing opposite to the Shaab Beach af ter the Maghreb prayer. Kuwaiti antiriot police have been placed on high alert as a precautionary measure to prevent members of the Egyptian community in Kuwait from demonstrating.

Security forces were dispatched to various locations known to have large Egyptian concentration. “We won’t permit Kuwait to transform in to an arena for Arab and regional rifts or disputes,” the sources said, adding that authorities will enforce administrative deportation against expats who carry out acts that may harm the coun-

RABI ALTHANI 25, 1431 AH

Barca, Real face off in ‘El Clasico’ PAGE 20

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Israel PM shuns nuclear summit Israel viewed as world’s 6th nuclear power

Mohammed ElBaradei try’s security. The Egyptian community in Kuwait is the largest in number with nearly 500,000 Egyptian nationals working in various sectors.

Also yesterday, Egypt dismissed US criticism of its detention of scores of protesters who rallied earlier this week in Cairo demanding constitutional reforms to allow more open elections.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement released late Thursday that Egyptian elections are an internal matter. “The (US) remarks, without clear justification, shifted from talking about the arrests to other internal political Egyptian issue in an unfamiliar pattern which is not accepted by Egypt,” said Zaki.

He was referring to Washington’s concerns expressed Wednesday by State Department spokesman

PJ Crowley over the arrests.

In his remarks, Crowley called on Egypt to allow its people to determine who will run and win the country’s upcoming elections. Thirtythree protesters were arrested when police beat the demonstrators and violently broke up Tuesday’s gathering. The detained were released the following day without any official explanation.

Zaki said that “Egyptians don’t accept that foreign governments speak on their behalf.” The Egyptian government is very sensitive about foreign reports about opposition demands for reforms to allow an open presidential contest in the polling next year. Egypt’s leading Al Ahram newspaper carried Zaki’s statement splashed across the front Continued on Page 19

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has withdrawn from a nuclear security summit in Washington next week, fearing Muslim delegates will demand Israel give up its assumed atomic arsenal.

Netanyahu, who plans to send a deputy and two senior advisers to the April 12-13 conference instead, pulled out “af ter learning that some countries including Egypt and Turkey plan to say Israel must sign the NPT”, an Israeli official said.

By staying outside the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Israel has not had to forswear nuclear arms nor admit international inspectors to its Dimona reactor, which experts believe has produced plutonium for between 80 and 200 warheads. Netanyahu’s attendance at the 47-country summit would have been unprecedented. Israeli premiers long shunned such forums, hoping to dampen foreign scrutiny on their nuclear secrets.

Continued on Page 19

WEST BANK: A Palestinian demonstrator uses a slingshot to throw stones at Israeli soldiers (not pictured) during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh yesterday. — AP

Iran unveils new centrifuge TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, taunting the United States for trying to halt Iran’s nuclear program, unveiled a new centrifuge yesterday which officials said would enrich uranium much faster then existing models. US President Barack Obama, who is seeking tougher UN sanctions against Tehran, acknowledged that such measures would not necessarily work, but said sustained world pressure could over time prompt Iran to revise its nuclear calculations.

Ahmadinejad, in a speech to mark Iran’s annual nuclear day, called the nuclear arms reduction treaty that Obama signed with Russia this week “a masquerade” hiding his true intentions. “We consider nuclear weapons to be against

humanity,” he said. “Iran’s nuclear path is irreversible. The Iranian nation has reached a new point where no power can deter it from moving full speed ahead to reach peaceful nuclear energy.”

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the latest “third generation” centrifuges had a separation power of 10, six times that of the first generation. The centrifuges Iran uses now are adapted from a 1970s design and have been prone to breakdowns. Tehran is known to have been testing new models for years. It was not immediately clear when the new machines would be introduced into fullscale enrichment, something analysts say would be a significant step.

“This is not unexpected and given what Obama is doing, I think they are really trying to show that they are getting past the sanctions,” said David Albright, director of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.

“They have been buying a lot for their centrifuge program in the past couple of years, or trying to, and have been thwarted many times. They’ve been working on these third generation centrifuges since the early 2000s,” he said.

“The real issue is, are they able to build these in the thousands or ... in the 10s, and when are they going to be installed? The other question is, do they work well?” Western analysts say Iran Continued on Page 19

‘Smoking’ diplomat to leave US Al-Madadi was to meet jailed terrorist PESHAWAR: A Pakistani model presents a creation by students of Iqra University during a fashion show in Peshawar. — AFP

Models defy Taleban Catwalk in Pakistan’s troubled city PESHAWAR: Days af ter bombers tried to storm the US consulate, models defied the Taleban to sashay down a catwalk in Pakistan’s troubled city Peshawar, flashing navels and exposing shoulders.

Organizers said that the private fashion show, arranged by a private university in the northwestern metropolis of 2.5 million, was intended as a stress reliever in a city that has been hard hit by bomb and suicide attacks.

“The situation is very tense. The atmosphere is very stressful and we arranged this show to bring some entertainment and as an opportunity for young people to show their capabilities,” Mohammad Yasir, an organiz-

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er said. “It was a great success. More people came than we expected,” he said.

Trussed up in glamorous confections of gauze and silk, western-style skirts slashed to the knee, towering gladiator heels and millinery, male and female models marched down the runway, shouldering and pouting late Wednesday.

There were bare shoulders, trousers hanging from the hips and tops slashed to well-toned navels — a far cry from the heavy veils, baggy trousers and body-hiding shirts favored by the city’s women in public. Strict security was in force for the event at Deans shopping plaza in the heavily guarded and upmarket Continued on Page 19

rorist attacks, accused of WASHINGTON: A being a sleeper agent Qatari diplomat who researching poisonous sparked a security gasses and plotting a scare on a US plane by cyberattack. joking he was trying to Consular officials freset his shoe on fire quently visit foreigners will leave the United held in the United States to States shortly, a US make sure they are being official said yesterday. treated well. Bradley said Qatar has informed the Qatari diplomats have United States that it made multiple visits to Al“has decided to reasMarri in prison since he sign the diplomat and pleaded guilty. he will be leaving the Mohammed The right to such visits country shortly,” State Al-Madadi is guaranteed by internaDepartment Philip tional agreements, and the Crowley said.

The Qatari diplomat was on his way US Bureau of Prisons had approved to an official visit with an imprisoned this visit by Al-Madadi in advance.

Al-Qaeda sleeper agent when he Questions remained about why a touched off a bomb scare by slipping diplomat on an official trip, like Alinto an airline bathroom for a smoke, Madadi, would apparently flout airline officials said as the diplomat prepared security rules. Law enforcement officials said Al-Madadi later joked that he to leave the US. The diplomat, Mohammed Al- had been trying to light his shoe - an Madadi, was going to pay a consular apparent reference to the 2001 sovisit to the prisoner, said Alison called shoe bomber, Richard Reid.

The US officials who discussed the Bradley, a public relations executive hired to speak for the Qatari Embassy, case did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to and a State Department official.

The prisoner, Ali Al-Marri, a citizen discuss the matter. No explosives of Qatar, is serving eight years after were found on the plane and authoripleading guilty last year to conspiring ties said they don’t think Al-Madadi to support terrorism. Al-Marri was was trying Continued on Page 19 arrested after the Sept 11, 2001, ter-

CHARLESTON: Photo shows Ali Al-Marri at the Charleston Naval Brig in Charleston. Qatari diplomat was on his way to an official visit to Al-Marri, an imprisoned Al-Qaeda sleeper agent, when he touched off a bomb scare by slipping into an airline bathroom for a smoke. — AP

Terrorists threaten WCup JOHANNESBURG: FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke says there has been a terrorist threat to the World Cup, but it will not stop organizers from holding the monthlong football tournament. Valcke commented yesterday on writings in an online magazine which talked about “how beautiful” it would be if a bomb exploded at the match between the United States and England in the city of Rustenburg.

Valcke said FIFA had received information about the threat and World Cup organizers were working at “the highest level of security.” The comments appeared to come from a contributor to a militant e-magazine called “Yearners for Paradise,” not usual sites used by Al-Qaeda and other groups to make threats. In the article, the author says he is not a spokesman for Al-Qaeda. — AP

US Supreme Court judge Stevens quits WASHINGTON: Liberal US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced yesterday he will resign, giving President Barack Obama his second high court appointment and setting up a potential partisan election-year Senate confirmation battle.

Stevens, one of the oldest and longest-serving justices in history, sent a letter notifying Obama of his retirement this summer. Stevens, who turns 90 in 11 days, joined the court in 1975 after being appointed

by President Gerald Ford.

A bruising confirmation battle could sidetrack Democratic plans to focus on the economy and job creation ahead of November’s congressional elections in which Republicans hope to regain control of Congress. In the Senate, which will vote on the nomination, Democrats reacted by praising Stevens and urging Obama to name someone who can carry on his legacy while Republicans promised thorough scrutiny of any nominee.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid voiced confidence that Obama will “name a wellqualified successor” to Stevens. “I encourage my Republican colleagues to join

us in conducting fair, respectful hearings and swift confirmation,” Reid said. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made clear his party would be heard in the confirmation process. “As we await the president’s nominee to replace Justice Stevens ...

Americans can expect Senate Republicans to make a sustained and vigorous case for judicial restraint and the fundamental importance of an even-handed reading of the law,” McConnell said.

The opportunity to make a second appointment to the high court in just two years is a double-edged sword for Obama, a former constitutional law teacher. It gives him a chance to put his stamp on the court but it also is likely to stall his agenda in Congress amid partisan bickering.

Obama has made a series of centrist decisions that have angered not only Republicans but his liberal base as well.

Last year, he named Sonia Sotomayor as the court’s first Hispanic, replacing Justice David Souter. She was confirmed on a largely party-line vote of 68-31. Stevens said in his one-paragraph letter that he would retire one day after Continued on Page 19

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Activists brand privatization ‘unforgivable sin’ Technical committee to set up allowances for civil servants KUWAIT: Adopting the concept of privatization is an “unforgivable sin that violates the Constitution”, according to a number of political activists, who further warned that turning a number of government establishments to the private sector would cause political and security crisis.

“Privatization would damage the future of the country and increases unemployment among Kuwaitis by hurting the chances of youngsters in landing jobs due to inactivity of administrative monitor-

ing,” Al-Watan newspaper quoted the activists as saying during a seminar that was held Thursday evening.

Participants of the seminar titled ‘the social cost of privatization’ which was held at the Labor Culture Institute, urged the relevant authorities to adopt a more rational policy before adopting privatization.

They added that privatization has proven to be a failure and harmful to the country’s national interest, the country’s

economy, and the national manpower.

Furthermore, the activists went as far as describing the adoption of privatization as “an act of dishonesty”, in regards to providing job opportunities.

They pointed out that there are 18,000 unemployed expats in the country which proves the failure of privatization and its threat on the country’s national security.

Meanwhile, a recent meeting for the Civil Service Commission (CSC) resulted in a decision to form a technical commit-

Three citizens safe after fleeing troubled Kyrgyzstan

UNGA President arrives in Kuwait KUWAIT: UN General Assembly President Ali Treiki and the accompanying delegation arrived in Kuwait yesterday on an official visit. The UN official was received by Amiri Diwan Advisor Dr. Mohammad Abdullah Abulhassan. —KUNA

ernment establishments and agencies , in order to attract citizens for work at public facilities and help end the strikes crisis by protecting employees’ rights.

According to Al-Qabas newspaper, the CSC also approved the appointment of 11 officials at four governmental bodies, among which five as undersecretaries at the Kuwait Municipality (Ahmad AlManfouhi, Faisal Al-Jum’ah, Mohammad Al-Otaibi, Abdullah Amadi, and Waleed Al-Jassem), in addition to Yousuf Al-

1st Ring Road’s first phase to end in June

Head of the Cultural Office at Kuwait Embassy in Lebanon Dr. Mona Al-Ghais. —KUNA attendance for undergraduate students.

Al-Ghais said that Kuwaiti students should get approval from their country’s ministry or the cultural office prior to registering in any university abroad.

“The Kuwaiti Cultural Office in Lebanon and the Higher Education Ministry’s delegation repeatedly called on

the Lebanese University to stop the registration of Kuwaitis in the undergraduate and graduate law programs,” she said.

Al-Ghais praised the academic status of Lebanese universities and emphasized that there was a plan to allow the registration in more universities in Lebanon.

She underscored her keenness for interacting with, serving, and providing guidance to Kuwaitis studying in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Kuwaiti Students (NUKS-Egypt), Alexandria branch, will hold a graduation ceremony in honor of Kuwaiti students in Alexandria University on May 7 at one of port city’s hotels.

“Kuwait Ambassador to Egypt Dr. Rashid Al-Hamad will attend the ceremony,” said Vice President of NUKS-Egypt, Alexandria branch, Abdulwahab Mohammed Al-Mogadas.

Chief of the Cultural Center of Kuwait Embassy in Cairo Dr. Awad Al-Enezi and Cultural Attache in Alexandria Dr. Khalifa Behbehani, as well as embassy staffers will also be present at the ceremony, AlMogadas said.

“Invitations have been sent to families of the students as well as professors, and college deans of the University of Alexandria,” he added. —KUNA

An undated picture of traffic jams on a ring road near Kuwait City. —Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat KUWAIT: More than 40 percent of constructions on the First Ring Road project has been completed, according to a senior official who said the first phase of the project will end by June 2010.

“The motorway will be built according to modern construction techniques in a bid to counter traffic jams and provide multiple entrance and exit ways via building high and low level bridges,” Public Works Ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for

Roads Affairs Husain Al-Mansour told Awan newspaper.

The official added that the project was scheduled to be finish by last December, however the end date was pushed back due to various obstacles that faced the construction process, including sites such as the Evangelic Church, the Dewan Jebla Cafe and a number of parks and restaurants, in addition to the parking lot of the Palace of Justice.

The two MPs also met Anne Lauvergeon, the CEO of Areva, a company specialized in nuclear energy.

Kuwait and France signed last January an initial agreement on developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Earlier, Al-Awadhi and AlAnjiri also visited Brussels and met Vice President of the European Parliament Rodi Kratsa and Director for the Middle East and Southern Mediterranean at the European Commission Thomas Del Moral.

The visit, which began Tuesday, concluded late yesterday.

The visit of the two Kuwaiti MPs was in response to an invitation from Science Pro as part of a program signed between the French institute and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science.

Kuwait permitted women to vote in 2006. This trend has already had an impact on politics in the Gulf. Although Kuwaiti Islamists opposed extending the franchise to women, their candidates courted female voters during the 2006 elections. They provided materials geared especially toward women, including cassette tapes of candidates’ speeches for women

KUWAIT: Health Minister Dr. Hilal Al-Sayer recently honored a number of employees for their outstanding performance and dedication to work at the Maternity Hospital.

“We press on their hands and encourage them for the effort they contributed for giving good health services,” Dr. Al-Sayer said during a ceremony held at the hospital for hon-

oring the top staff workers and personnel.

Honoring the exemplary employee is important to encourage other workers to work harder, the minister added.

The ceremony was attended

by Sheikha Awrad Al-Jaber AlSabah, the chairperson of Hayat Foundation for Cancer Patients Care. —KUNA

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Communications is racing against time to repair damaged telephone landline cables in Mishref under increasing pressure from residents of Block 1. A senior ministry official expected residents to have their phones connection back to the service by today, while maintenance works for Blocks 5 and 6 are expected to finish during April 19. “All maintenance operations would be finalized by the end of this month,” affirmed the ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for the Communications Sector Mansour Al-Badr. The official added that the ministry is coordinating with the Central Tenders Committee to finalize the process of placing and awarding tenders for the maintenance works of the landline network for governorates that lack maintenance contractors.

These suburbs include Jahra, Hawally, Farwaniya and Mubarak Al-Kabeer.

in the news Sheikha Fariha off to Morocco RABAT: Sheikha Fariha Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Chairperson of the Kuwaiti Higher Committee for the Ideal Mother Award, will begin today a visit to Morocco to answer an invitation extended by sister of the Moroccan King Mohammad VI, Princess Mariam. Sheikha Fariha will be visiting and partaking in several social and educational activities during her two weeks visit to Morocco.

AFESD re-assigns Al-Hamad as chairman

(From right) Kuwaiti MPs Abdulrahman Al-Anjiri and Dr. Aseel Al-Awadhi attend a lecture in Paris on Thursday evening. —KUNA unwilling to travel to public rallies or other campaign events. These materials and strategies were critical, given that more than 50 percent of the eligible Kuwaiti voters were women. The fact that Islamists polled well in elections and have won the support of many Kuwaiti women bodies well for their continued

political success. Women’s success at the college level has been a political issue, with Islamist politicians claiming that it is unfair and demoralizing for Kuwaiti men to have to compete with female students.

Islamic parties in Kuwait have polled well among women, and young Gulf women have yet to abandon the hijab or other tra-

Furthermore, Al-Mansour indicated that the project’s first phase cost amounted to 28.716 million Kuwaiti dinars; KD17 million of which was allocated only for concrete constructions.

“The works that are currently ongoing include the rehabilitating and diverting of the main sewage drainage network of the area, while diverting the landline phone cables and road detours in a manner that does not disturb the ongoing traffic flow.

Health minister Mishref to regain honors hospital staff landlines April end

MPs address women’s role in politics in France PARIS: Two members of the Kuwaiti National Assembly presented in Paris a paper on the role of Arabian Gulf women in politics in general, particularly in Kuwait.

MPs Dr. Aseel Al-Awadhi and Abdulrahman Al-Anjiri said in a lecture at the Paris Institute of Political Science (Science Po) Thursday evening that women in the Gulf were confidently heading towards getting their rights in all fields.

Al-Awadhi said that women in the Gulf held senior posts in both the public and private sectors in many areas such as the political, legal, economic, and social fields.

She said that women were able to become MPs in Kuwait only four years after attaining their political rights. For his part, Al-Anjiri said that the four women who won seats in the National Assembly were academics, adding that they competed in the elections against male candidates without having a quota system.

Earlier, the two Kuwaiti lawmakers held meetings with CEO of the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, and Editor in Chief of Le Monde Diplomatique newspaper Alain Gresh.

Saqaabi as an assistant secretary general for the Municipal Council.

Furthermore, the CSC approved the appointments of Omar Al-Saied Omar, Sameer Al-Asfour and Abdullatif Al-Badr as undersecretaries in the Ministry of Health. The CSC also sanctioned the appointment of Sheikha Huda Al-Sabah as a general manager for the Social Development Authority, and Mohammad bin Nakhi as an assistant undersecretary for the Ministry of Public Works.

KUWAIT: The three brothers of a senior Kuwaiti official, who were trapped in the troubled Kyrgyzstan region that recently witnessed unrest following the coup that took place there, have managed to leave the region unharmed.

Deputy Chairman of the Municipality Council Shaya AlShaya had earlier confirmed to the local press that his three brothers, named Ahmad, Ali and Mohammad, were staying in a hotel that was attacked and looted by around 4,000 rebels, before they were helped out to another hotel by some Kyrgyz citizens. He added that his three brothers were able to retrieve their passports. The city, which witnessed a coup almost three days ago, was expected to be stormed by around 40,000 supporters for the ousted president.

The three brothers stayed at a hotel in a border city located 37 kilometers away from Almaty city in Kazakhstan before they were helped to flee the troubled region.

The municipal official has been coordinating with the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry’s Undersecretary Khalid Al-Jarallah to help his three brothers out of the troubled region to safety.

His three brothers were in Kyrgyzstan on a business trip that coincided with the unrest, as they managed to keep contacts with Al-Shaya through phone.

Kuwaiti students in Lebanon increase by ten-fold, says official BEIRUT/CAIRO: A Kuwaiti official yesterday briefed Lebanon’s Education and Higher Education Minister Hasan Mneimneh on new decisions made by the Kuwaiti Higher Education Ministry.

Head of the Cultural Office at Kuwait Embassy in Lebanon Dr. Mona Al-Ghais told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that she notified the minister of the reasons that led the ministry to stop the registration of Kuwaiti students in some colleges of the Lebanese University.

“The main reason is the increase of the number of Kuwaiti students studying law during the academic year 2009/2010 by ten-fold, compared to the previous academic year,” she said.

The Kuwaiti official added that the number of students exceeded the number specified by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Higher Education.

“This increase contradicts with the ministry’s policy regarding encouraging students to register in different universities and colleges to benefit from various educational sources,” she stressed.

She indicated that another reason is that the non-scientific colleges of the Lebanese University have a flexible attendance policy that contradicts with the regulations of the Kuwaiti ministry which demand full

tee that would put the frameworks for allowances and salary increases based on job descriptions and the nature of work for employees in the government sector.

The committee was tasked to present this framework before the beginning of next month.

The meeting which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah further discussed the mechanism of improving the work environment at gov-

ditional symbols of patriarchal power. There is, of course, precedent for this type of conservatism among women in other parts of the world and in the Middle East. Images of veiled women holding assault rifles were a powerful propaganda weapon for Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. —KUNA

that readers in Syria knew and followed Kuwaiti publications including Al-Arabi magazine, Aalam Al-Ma’rifa (World of Knowledge), and Aalam Al-Fikr (World of Thought). He said many Kuwaiti cultural publications were distributed around the Arab world, especially in Syria.

Kuwait’s National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters (NCCAL) made great efforts to publish the best books and to distribute them in Arab countries with low costs. More than 100 Syrian publishing houses, as well as public and private universities and cultural bodies are also participating in the event that will conclude on April

KHARTOUM: Abdlatif Y. Al-Hamad, Director General-Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), was re-elected as the chairman of the board for five more years starting from Sept 15, 2010, said a statement. This decision came after the conclusion of the 39th meeting for AFESD’s board of directors which began on April 7 and concluded on Thursday.

Al-Hamad told the press yesterday that AFESD had approved its budget for the fiscal year ending Dec 31, 2009. He also said that the fund would cut around 10 percent of its net profits for 2009 to help support the Palestinian people.

Praise for Kuwaiti cultural activities DAMASCUS: An official at the Union of Syrian Publishers yesterday praised Kuwait’s cultural activities, saying they enriched Arab libraries.

Head of the union’s Arab and International Exhibitions Committee Dr Mohammad Ghiyath told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), on the occasion of the opening of a book fair in Damascus,

Dr Mohammad Ghiyath

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MPs criticize proposed Constitution amendments Lawmakers look forward to improved Corporate Law

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz receives Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah in Riyadh yesterday. —KUNA

Saudi King receives letter from Amir RIYADH: Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz received yesterday a letter from His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

The letter was handed to the Saudi King by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Dr

Mohammad Al-Sabah at the King’s Ranch in Al-Janadria.

Sheikh Mohammad conveyed greetings from His Highness Sheikh Sabah to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

The meeting was attended by senior Saudi and Kuwaiti officials. —KUNA

in the news Injured Kuwaitis leave New Zealand hospital KUALA LUMPUR: Three Kuwaiti students injured in a car accident in New Zealand on April 6 were released from the hospital, said Kuwaiti Ambassador to Australia and Non-Resident Ambassador to New Zealand Jamal Al-Ghunaim yesterday. The recently released students are Jamal Al-Enizi, Hamza Baqer and Ali AlHarbi. One more Kuwaiti student, Salem Al-Ajmi, remains in the hospital under close medical obserAmbassador vation with severe injuries, Jamal Al-Ghunaim they added. Al-Ghunaim said that the remains of the fifth student who lost his life in the accident, Abdullah Al-Dourssari, is on his way back home. He expressed his appreciation to the New Zealand authorities for their quick and excellent response, as they airlifted the injured to specialized hospitals. -KUNA Citizens urged to avoid Kyrgyzstan, Thailand KUWAIT: Yesterday, the Foreign Ministry urged citizens to avoid traveling to Thailand and Kyrgyzstan due to their current political instability. According to the ministry’s statement, the two countries are currently passing through difficult political situations which may make traveling to the two countries hazardous for Kuwaiti citizens. The Ministry affirmed that it will always put the safety of its citizens at the top of its priorities. -KUNA Expat doctors, nurses to get raise on May 1st KUWAIT: Undersecretary for the Ministry of Health, Dr Ibrahim Al-Abdul Hadi said that pay hikes for expatriate doctors and nurses in the ministry’s health facilities would be paid by the beginning of May, reported AlAnbaa. “Doctors’ rights will not be forgotten,” stressed Al-Abdul Hadi, explaining that the payment delay is due to the large number of beneficiaries. “We are speaking about 11,000 nurses and 5,000 doctors, which means having to study 16,000 files,” he explained. Meanwhile, assistant undersecretary for financial affairs, Abdul Fattah Al-Asmawi said that KD 5 million was allocated for paying bonuses to employees with outstanding performances. He added that the bonuses would be paid in a few days.

MEW tests Khairan for power project KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity and Water is analyzing the soil of Khairan to determine its ability to host the future site of a power plant with a 1500 megawatt production capacity, reported Al-Awan. The construction comes as an attempt to meet the increasing demand on electricity made by new housing and development projects. In the meantime, ministry undersecretaries and senior officials presented their visions regarding the application of the Cabinet’s development plan. Also, the ministry is expected to reintroduce the idea of establishing citizen service centers to all six governorates.

People can refer to the centers in order to finalize their transactions instead of referring to the ministry’s headquarters.

S&P tackles Kuwait’s credit rating KUWAIT: The Chamber of Commerce recently discussed Kuwait’s credit rating with Standard and Poor’s (S&P) during their recent visit to Kuwait, reported AlJarida. Informed sources said that the chamber’s financial and investment committee chairman, Dherar AlGhanim discussed the economic and financial situation of Kuwait with S&P representatives, specifically because their visit came after the approval of the state’s development plan.

KUWAIT: MP Ali Al-Rashid’s comments regarding his intention to propose amendments to the Constitution were met with conflicted responses from his fellow MPs, reported Al-Rai. Al-Rashid stressed the importance of making the proposals and mentioned that the most important amendments he plans to present are those regarding increasing the number of MPs and the number of presenters for an interpellation.

A number of MPs expressed their reservations against Al-Rashid’s comments. MP Dr Faisal AlMislem said that he would reject the amendments if they were the same ones Al-Rashid proposed four months ago. He claimed that the Cabinet is using Al-Rashid as a means to propose the amendments and that he would reject them because they limit the public’s will.

MP Adnan Al-Mutawa said that he would support the amendments if they allowed more freedoms. MP Naji AlAbdulhadi indicated that the amendments should limit the procedures necessary to activate the articles of the constitution and should restructure the executive body so as to reduce the number of ministries. Two MPs, Adnan Abdulsmad and Hassan Jowhar, explained that the timing for such amendments is not suitable.

MP Saleh Al-Mullah said

that the concept of amending the constitution is welcome as long as it provides more freedom and supports constitutional gains. He also agreed that the timing for the amendments is inappropriate. MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan agreed with Al-Mullah on approving the amendments if it meant allowing for more freedoms.

He proposed including the allowance of political parties in order to achieve political stability. Meanwhile, Kuwait Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ahmad Al-Haroun was quoted by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) saying that the Parliament’s financial and economic committee is looking forward to improving the existing corporate bill.

Following the committee meeting on Thursday, the minister said committee members discussed the current corporate law and described it as “outdated and flawed.”

He said that the committee is looking forward to working out the negativities of the old law, which has been enforced for the past 50 years. The minister acknowledged that the new draft law would take Islamic economics into consideration. The government suggested revising the law but the issue never received the proper attention for various reasons, he added. The bill will receive further deliberation for the next couple of weeks, he noted.

KUWAIT: An undated picture of MPs attending a National Assembly session.

—Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Al-Saadoun threatens to grill over Rafale signing KUWAIT: “If the government prefers not having a confrontation with the Parliament it will have to stop the ‘Rafale fighters’ bargain,’” said Development and Reform Bloc (DRB) member MP Jaman Al-Harbash.

Popular Action Bloc (PAB) member, MP Ahmed Al-Saadoun, threatened to file a grilling motion against the first deputy premier and Minister of Defense, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. He said he would do

so within 24 hours of the minister’s signing of the deal. Official sources added that AlSaadoun is coordinating with the DRB in order to coordinate a front against the government if they do sign the agreement.

Campaign nets illegal call centers KUWAIT: A security campaign in cooperation with the Governorates, reported Al-Qabas. The campaign resulted Interior and Communication Ministries against internet in the arrest of 102 residency violators, the confiscation of cafes and illegal international phone call centers was car- 593 PCs and 45 devices used for making illegal internaried out in the Hawally, Jahra and Farwaniya tional calls online.

Accidents Bootlegger held attempt was interrupted by passers-by who A concrete mixing truck overturned on A Bangladeshi man and a Sri Lankan helped the woman as soon as they heard her Ghazali street causing a traffic jam that last- woman were arrested in Jeleeb Al- screams. Police responded to the emered for three hours, reported Al-Watan. The Shuyoukh for selling alcohol, reported Al- gency and arrested the assailant. truck driver was taken to Farwaniya Watan. The arrests were made after the two Hospital with serious injuries. were pulled over for driving suspiciously.

Desperate mother Investigations are underway to determine Upon investigation, police discovered 18 A mother turned her son in to authorities the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, seven plastic bags filled with homemade liquor after being unable to help him out of his drug Asians were badly injured in a car accident inside their car. They were taken to the addiction, reported Al-Rai. A team from the in front of Shaiba Power Plant’s north gate, proper authorities.

Taimaa police station responded to the reported Al-Adan. The Asians were admitwoman’s emergency call and took her son ted to Adan Hospital after a half-lorry truck Bomb found into custody. and a pick-up collided.

Bomb squads deactivated a landmine found by a citizen in Qashaniya, reported AlWoman mugged Public shooting Rai. Jahra police confirmed that the foreign A woman was attacked by a thief while Ahmadi traffic patrol officers arrested object, found by a citizen, was an explosive walking near a shopping mall in Kuwait City, three citizens for being in possession of an and called in bomb squads to take care of the reported Al-Rai. The two struggled over her unlicensed shotgun and 283 bullets, reportmine. A case was opened and the area was purse, which left her with a dislocated right ed Al-Watan. Authorities made the arrests searched for other explosives. shoulder before he escaped with it. After after receiving emergency calls from resishe received medical attention at Amiri dents of Bnaider informing them that gunOfficer assaulted Hospital, the woman filed an official report shots were heard in the area. The arrested An officer at the Abdaly Border checkabout the incident. An investigation in purwere taken to the proper authorities. point was verbally assaulted by a British suit of the thief is ongoing. woman, reported Al-Rai. The woman was Brawl Fugitive nabbed Nine citizens engaged in a brawl in Sabah taken into custody for questioning and later bailed out of jail by an attorney from her Police arrested a 35-year-old citizen in Al-Nassir over previously unsettled disputes, reported Al-Watan. Light weapons country’s embassy. She will be summoned Failaka after an inspection of his ID revealed were used in the fight and paramedics at a later time for further investigation into that he was wanted for a previous moneyrelated case worth KD 200 thousand, brought two of the fighters to a nearby hos- the incident. reported Al-Anba. Additionally, he was pital with stab wounds. The remaining Attempted rape wanted by the state security service of a brawlers were taken into custody and An Asian shopkeeper in Jeleeb Al- neighboring Gulf Cooperative Council referred to the Ferdous police station. A case was opened to investigate the incident Shuyoukh attempted to rape a female cus- (GCC) country. He was taken to the proper tomer inside his store, reported Al-Rai. His authorities. further.

Gulf Film Festival honors actress Hayat Al-Fahad DUBAI: Eminent Kuwaiti actress, Hayat Al-Fahad will be honored at the third annual Gulf Film Festival for her role in ‘Bas Ya Bahr.’ Al-Fahad took pride in the award and said it is evidence of the success of Khaleeji (Gulf) movies.

“Khaleeji artists struggled for a long time to find sponsors for Khaleeji cinema,” she said.

“Our dream came true in Dubai.” Al-Fahad stressed the importance of supporting young artists in the region with such festivals and noted the region’s availability of talented artists.

“The Third Gulf Film Festival made progress by supporting promising artists and giving momentum to an already wellestablished type of art,” she added. The festival opened in

Hayat Al-Fahad Dubai earlier Thursday under the patronage of the Chairman of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, Sheikh Majid bin Mohammed bin Rashid AlMaktoum, and will last till April 14. —KUNA

Kuwait to join EU-GCC dialogue BRUSSELS: The annual political and economic dialogue between the 27-member European Union and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will take place in Brussels next week. The goal of the meeting is to foster cooperation and ties between the two regional groupings, said Kuwaiti embassy sources yesterday.

A large 60-member GCC del-

egation will be in the Belgian capital for the two very significant meetings on Monday and Tuesday.

Kuwait, which holds the current GCC Presidency, will chair the political Dialogue from the GCC side while Spain, which holds the current EU Presidency, will chair the meeting from the European side. The economic dialogue will be chaired by

the GCC’s General Secretariat, which is based in the Saudi capital Riyadh, while Spain will chair the meeting from the EU side.

The meetings will be held on the level of director generals, directors and ambassadors, said embassy sources.

The Kuwait embassy will hold a reception for the GCC delegation on Sunday evening. —KUNA

Arabs laud Kuwait contributions for youth

KUWAIT: 27 players will represent Kuwait in the first-ever field games for the disabled. —KUNA

Kuwait to host 1st games for disabled KUWAIT: Some 27 Kuwaiti athletes will take part in the first international field games for the disabled, an official said yesterday. The championship, to be held in Kuwait on April 22 and last for a week, will also see the participation of 14 countries, said board member of the Kuwaiti Disabled Sport Club Nasser Al-Ajmi, in a press release.

Al-Ajmi, who doubles as chairman of the Kuwaiti delegation, noted that the Kuwaiti team is currently at an internal training camp with ath-

letes having morning and afternoon training sessions in preparation of the event.

The championship will feature the javelin throw, discus throw and shot put, to be held at the Kaifan High School track and monitored by 60 referees. Participating in the championship will be those who are physically and cerebrally impaired as well as the blind. The competition will be held under the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. —KUNA

BEIRUT: The Council of Arab Ministers of Youth and Sports recently adopted in Beirut a range of measures to enhance cooperation among its member states. The final statement, issued at the end of the 33rd session of the council, approved the budget of the Arab Fund for Youth and Sports activities for 2010 involving one million US dollars. The statement praised the member states which filled their quotas for the fund and urging the rest of members to do so. The ministerial session approved Lebanon’s request for paying $50,000 of its quota for the 2010 budget and writing off its debt arrears provided that it will start paying its contributions regularly as of 2011. An agreement was reached to hold the Arab school championship in Lebanon between July 25 and Aug 5, 2010, and set aside $50,000 of the budget of the fund for youth and sports activities in Lebanon, the statement pointed out.

The conferees agreed to strengthen coordination among the Arab ministries of youth and sports, on one hand, the ministries of education on the other while forming national school sports unions.

They also agreed to convene a conference under the title of “role of sports in correcting the behavior of youth in Iraq” between Sept 20 and 25, 2010, according to the statement.

They tasked the technical secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministers of Youth and Sports to

scale up its efforts and increase the activities listed on the website of the council. The session called on the member states of the council to participate actively and at the highest possible level in the Arab games, to be hosted by the State of Qatar between Nov 11 and 26, 2011.

It approved Morocco’s bid to host the 34th session of the council in late January 2011.

It agreed to name the just ended session of the council as “Jerusalem session” as a sign of solidarity with the occupied holy city.

Chairman of the Executive Bureau of the Council Mufid Shehab, of Egypt, and eight members of the Executive Bureau, including Kuwait’s representative, won new four-year terms in office uncontested in a closed-door meeting which reshuffled the council, the statement added.

Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on the sidelines of the session, Moroccan Minister of Youth and Sports Moncef Belkhayat spoke highly of Kuwait for its outstanding contributions to the development of the sector of youth and sports in the Arab countries. “Kuwait plays a pivotal role in backing up the Arab solidarity through promotion of youth and sports activities and capitalizing on the role of youths in realizing the economic development targets in their respective countries,” Belkhayat affirmed.—KUNA

4

INTERNATIONAL

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Family defends Lebanese psychic jailed in Saudi AL-AIN: Lebanese psychic Ali Sibat had just woken from an afternoon nap in a Saudi hotel when the telephone rang. A Saudi man asked if he could make magical talisman for his sister who had marital problems. Sibat, in the kingdom on a pilgrimage, said he’d be happy to help. As soon as he hung up, religious police stormed into his room and arrested him for witchcraft. Now Sibat is on death row, sentenced to be beheaded.

His arrest in 2008 and sentencing the following year has devastated Sibat’s family in the eastern Lebanese village of alAin, who have been struggling to win his release. Last week, they were hit by the news that his execution was scheduled for that Friday, April 2. His 19-year-old son went to a violent seizure from the shock and remains in a hospital. His 15-year-old daughter was thrown into depression and could not go to school. In the end, the execution did not take place, but the family remains in fear.

“It was a shock to all of us,” Sibat’s wife, Samira Rahmoon, 46, said. “We’re all dying a slow death.” Saudi Arabia, which enforces a strict version of Islamic law, arrests dozens of people a year on sorcery charges, and the last known execution came in 2007 with the beheading of an

SAUDI ARABIA: This undated picture released by the office of Attorney May alKhansa, the lawyer of Lebanese TV psychic Ali Sibat, shows Ali Sibat, center, posing for a photograph with his wife at an unknown location in Saudi Arabia, al-Khansa said April 1, 2010 that her client Ali Sibat, who was convicted in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft, could be beheaded this week and urged Lebanese and Saudi leaders to help spare his life. — AP Egyptian pharmacist, according to human rights groups. The charges are often vague — covering anything from fortunetelling to astrology to making charms and talismans believed to bring

love, health or pregnancy. Saudi judges cite Quranic verses forbidding witchcraft, but such practices remain popular as a folk tradition.

In Sibat’s case, the charges seem to center around a

call-in talk show he hosted on a Lebanese satellite station where he would tell fortunes and give advice. His supporters point out that the show was aired from Lebanon, not Saudi Arabia. The

Sibat family’s lawyer in Lebanon, May Khansa, contends the call to Sibat’s hotel room appears to have been a set-up by Saudi religious police to incriminate him.

“Islam prohibits tricking people,” Khansa said. Sibat, 49, a devout Shiite Muslim and father of four, was a 20-year-old tailor when he proposed to Rahmoon, a Sunni Muslim from his home village al-Ain. She said he became interested in astrology from the age of 15 and read many books on the subject.

He later worked as a truck driver until five years ago, when the Lebanese satellite channel Sheherezade hired him to do psychic readings three times a week for half an hour. In the show, titled “The Hidden,” he would take in calls from viewers with problems and offer spiritual solutions, as telephone numbers scrolled across the screen for viewers to call in from Australia, France, Switzerland, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

“There is a tree at the entrance to your house,” he told a female caller in an episode from 2007.

“Dig 30 centimeters deep at the base of the tree and you’ll will find something. Pick it up and throw it in the water. Everything in your household will be fine from then on.” To another caller from Tunisia, whose daughter was ill,

he said, “your daughter has been sick ever since she was born.

Bathe her _ her body must be clean and abluted _ and then read the soura (Quranic verse) of alMomenoon once.” The caller says she doesn’t know how to read.

Anyone else will do, he responds, then lists three other souras that must be read over the daughter before her health improves.

Rahmoon seems unconvinced about her husband’s powers, but insists he did nothing wrong. “I was OK with his new job. He didn’t hurt anyone.”

She stressed that he was a good Muslim, beginning his program by reading an Islamic verse that denies the powers of fortunetellers and emphasizes that “no one knows the unknown but God.” Without his income, the family has been left near destitute, borrowing some $10,000 to make ends meet, she said. Her older son’s fiancee called off the engagement because of Sibat’s imprisonment. Sibat’s 5-year-old daughter Jamal, often cries asking for her father. “I’m worried she will forget him, She was two when he was arrested,” Rahmoon said.

Rahmoun said she has spoken to her husband only once since his arrest — about five months ago.

He told her he was innocent and cried on the phone. She saw Saudi TV footage of him as he was

escorted to jail with his hands and feet chained. “The sight of him was horrifying. He’d become thin as a stick.” “I’m angry. He’s been wronged. The whole world should get on its feet and help him get freed. The Lebanese government should demand his release,” she said, wiping tears with the corner of her yellow headscarf.

Sibat’s case has brought sporadic media attention since his arrest. The report of his imminent execution last week brought a flare of calls in the Lebanese press for his release. Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said last week that he had urged the Saudi government not to carry out the execution. Rahmoun said that she had talked to Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who promised to help. “But nothing has happened,” she said. Hariri, who holds Saudi citizenship as well as Lebanese, has close ties to Saudi Arabia’s ruling family.

Khansa, the lawyer, sent an official letter to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah asking him to pardon her client. Sibat did not practice psychic reading while in Saudi Arabia, she argues. “Many Christians and non-Muslims travel to Saudi Arabia — and I’ve never heard the religious police there arresting them because they drank wine back home,” said Khansa. — AP

‘We have no place for occupiers and oppressors’

Anti-US cleric denounces Iraqi premier at demo NAJAF: An anti-US cleric who is in negotiations to form Iraq’s next government openly pilloried incumbent Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki yesterday in a message to supporters at a major demonstration. Key figures in the move-

ment of Moqtada al-Sadr gathered in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, hailing a “new era” for the group exactly seven years after Saddam Hussein’s ouster.

NAJAF: Supporters of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr wave Iraqi flags as they destroy a symbolic model of a US Army tank during a rally marking the seventh anniversary of the fall of the Iraqi capital to American troops in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Iraq, yesterday. — AP

Nigerians kidnap three Syrians and Lebanese LAGOS: Armed men have kidnapped three Syrians and a Lebanese working in the construction sector in Nigeria’s oilrich southern region, killing a policeman in the attack, police said yesterday.

“About 10 or more kidnappers, all armed with automatic weapons, fired many rounds.

The hoodlums kidnapped four expatriate workers-three Syrians and one Lebanese,” said police spokeswoman Rita Abbey.

“They were working on a construction site in Rivers State,” said Abbey, adding that the kidnappings took place on Thursday.

“One of our policemen attached to the company was killed by the hoodlums,” she added. The assailants escaped into nearby Abia State territory, she said. No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnap and no ransom has been demanded so far, Abbey said.

Nigerian gunmen had on March 31 kidnapped a local employee of French oil group Total on his way to work in the country’s oil hub of Port

Harcourt.

Hundreds of mostly foreign and local oil workers have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta since 2006. Many have been released unharmed, and some

were freed only after ransom payments.

Both Rivers and Abia are states in the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta region, where most kidnappings have taken

place in recent years. Initially, oil workers in the region were targeted for kidnapping but local politicians and their relatives have been increasingly targeted. — AFP

EAST JERUSALEM: Israeli left-wing demonstrators react as fellow policemen force them to leave during the weekly protest against settlements in the mostly Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem yesterday.

The United States promised not to “surprise” key Middle Eastern players with a dramatic change in strategy, following reports President Barack Obama was readying a new peace plan. — AFP

Thousands of Sadrists marched in the streets holding Iraqi flags aloft-and trampling as a mark of disrespect on those of America and Britain, chanting “Yes, yes Iraq, no, no occupation.”

“Those who cling to their posts must not remain,” said Sheikh Hazem al-Araji, delivering a missive directly from Sadr, who has been in self-imposed exile in Iran for the past three years.

“People decided with their votes that the hunger, arrests, terrorism and the Baathists would not return,” he said.

“We are entering a new era which has no place for occupiers and oppressors ... and people who put in jail those who resisted,” referring to Saddam’s Baath party.

The message was deliberately aimed at Maliki, whose forces routed Sadr’s now dormant Mahdi Army militia in the movement’s eponymous Baghdad stronghold Sadr City and the southern city of Basra in 2008, jailing many as a result.

Sadr, who has emerged as a political power broker, has been one of the most vehement opponents of the 2003 US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, cultivating a reputation as a radical cleric.

The Sadrists polled well in Iraq’s general election last month, gaining 39 seats in the new 325-seat parliament, making it a major player in the formation of a future coalition government.

Sadr supporters, however, have rejected the two leading candidates to lead the new government, Maliki and ex-premier Iyad Allawi.

An unofficial “referendum” by the group earlier this month gave the nod to Ibrahim alJaafari, an ex-premier under whom Iraq’s sectarian conflict erupted.

Sadr, whose militia clashed repeatedly with US forces after the invasion of Iraq ordered by George W. Bush and supported

by Britain, is a likely political kingmaker who is currently pursuing religious studies in Iran.

Allawi gained 91 seats in the March 7 election, giving him a two-seat lead over Maliki. But that fell well short of the 163 seats needed to form a government and ushered in possibly months of coalition negotiations.

“We want a government that fights unemployment and which brings us security, public services and a better life,” a woman at the protest told AFP. Friday marked seven years since a giant bronze Saddam statue was pulled to the ground with the help of US Marines in Baghdad’s Firdos Square, an iconic image that signalled the end of his dictatorial rule. — AFP

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s electoral commission official Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah (R) shakes hands with former US president Jimmy Carter in Khartoum yesterday as election monitors from his Carter Center prepare for the three-day process. The Sudanese will head to the polls starting April 11 for the first multi-party elections in more than two decades, with President Omar Al-Beshir scrambling to maintain credibility after an opposition boycott. — AFP

Security high for Sudan elections KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces, UN peacekeepers, international organisations and the people of Sudan have all boosted security measures ahead of the nation’s first multi-party elections in 24 years.

Embassies in the Sudanese capital have advised their citizens to adopt “precautionary measures,” like stocking food, filling their cars with gasoline and making sure they have alternative energy sources in the event of demonstrations that could overshadow Sunday’s polls.

“We have planned for more than 100,000 police officers to supervise the elections (in North Sudan),” General Mohammed Ahmed Ali, in charge of election security, said earlier this week.

The security forces are increasingly visible in Khartoum, amid rumours that some residents have left the city as a precautionary measure.

“During the past three (days), movement out of Khartoum has greatly increased,” said Youssif Dufaalla, who heads a transport company.

“Normally we have 20 coaches a day on the roads, but since Wednesday we have gone up to 50,” he said. “I am returning to my birthplace in Wad Medani because I am uncertain that Khartoum will be safe, said Moutawakil Hassan Sharif, a 27-year-old student, referring to a city about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) south of Khartoum.

“I anticipate a lot of election-related disorder,” he added. Sudan, Africa’s largest country, holds multi-party legislative, local and presidential elections from Sunday to Tuesday, the first in the impoverished, war-ravaged nation since 1986.

Many observers fear the polls will re-ignite a new wave of violence in a country emerged from

more than two decades of civil war between the north and south in 2005, and which is still prey to conflict in the western Darfur region.

South Sudan is plagued by spiralling tribal violence, and the pre-election situation has been tenuous in the towns of Bentiu and Malakal, in the far north of the territory, and in the Jonglei state, according to witnesses.

The United Nations “blue helmets will ensure safety in areas where the threats of armed conflict are present,” said Haile Menkerios, a UN special representative in Sudan.

The United Nations has nearly 10,000 soldiers and police officers in south Sudan and in border regions. “Also, our troops will help ensure that these conflicts do not create an atmosphere where the populace are not able to exercise their voting rights,” he said at a recent news conference in Khartoum. In Darfur, where a state of emergency is in force, there have been violent clashes over the past few months between rebels and the army in Jebel Marra, and between rival Arab tribes in the towns of Kass and Nertiti.

The Darfur rebels oppose the elections, but have not threatened to derail them in a region prone to endemic insecurity.

European Union election monitors were withdrawn from Darfur for security reasons, officials from the observer group said. “We are ready for any eventuality ... We did not put our protection mandate in parentheses because of the elections,” a UN spokesman in Darfur, told AFP. The Sudanese Red Crescent is on a state of alert for the elections, and has already mobilized some 15,000 volunteers nationwide to cope with emergencies, an official told AFP. — AFP

US says relationship with Israel ‘fine’ ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: US President Barack Obama’s administration believes the Israeli delegation to next week’s nuclear security summit in Washington will be “robust,” despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decision not to attend, a top official said yesterday.

“We obviously would like to have the prime minister but the deputy prime minister will be leading the delegation and it will be a robust Israeli delegation,” US National Security Adviser General Jim Jones told reporters on Air Force One while returning with Obama from Prague where the president signed a nuclear arms limit agreement with Russia.

Jones said the relationship between the US and Israel is

“ongoing and fine and continuous.”

Netanyahu withdrew from the summit, fearing Muslim powers would use it to demand that Israel give up its presumed nuclear arsenal.

The prime minister decided to cancel “after learning that some countries including Egypt and Turkey plan to say Israel must sign the NPT,” an Israeli official said yesterday.

By staying outside the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel has avoided having to pledge not to seek nuclear weaponry and to admit international inspectors to its Dimona reactor, widely assumed to have fueled the region’s sole atomic arsenal. Jones said the administration had made no decision on a new Middle East peace

strategy, although he said there had been a meeting on the issue involving former national security advisers.

“We have not taken any decisions to jumpstart any dramatic shift in our strategy,” Jones said.

“I think we should say, to make clear, that we don’t intend to surprise anybody at any time.”

Jones said the United States remains committed to “our unqualified pledge” to Israel’s security, as well as to “the emergence of a new Palestinian state that has legitimate claims on sovereignty.”

“We will be a full-time player and we will do everything we can to bring this about so that all sides are satisfied,” he said. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

Saturday, April 10, 2010

5

Australia blocks Afghan, Sri Lankan asylum seekers SYDNEY: Australia yesterday stopped accepting new Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers as it cracks down on peoplesmuggling to thwart an influx of boatpeople.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the government would temporarily suspend processing of all new visa applications from asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, as a boat carrying would-be refugees sank offshore.

“The decision has been made in the light of the changing circumstances in both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan,” Evans told a press conference.

“The changes we are announcing today send a strong message to people smugglers that they cannot guarantee a visa outcome for their clients, and a message to those

seeking to employ people smugglers that they may find themselves not to be refugees and returned to their country of origin.”

The government said Sri Lanka was rebuilding after decades of conflict while the situation in Afghanistan, which is beset by a violent insurgency, was nevertheless changing and security improving in parts.

Evans refused to speculate on whether the changes would stem the flood of desperate asylum seekers who make their way to Australia, often in rickety boats which embark from Indonesia or elsewhere in Asia.

“We still expect boats to arrive,” he said, but added that the administration hoped it would have an impact on people smuggling “over time”.

The senior representative of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Indonesia, Manuel Jordao, has described people smuggling as “totally out of control”.

Thousands of asylum seekers would rather take their chances and sail to Australia than wait for their case to be dealt with via official channels, he told the Sydney Morning Herald in remarks published Friday.

Australia is struggling to accommodate the increased numbers of illegal arrivals, mostly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, who are placed on the remote Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island as they are assessed.

More than 1,800 boat people have arrived on the island in the past three

months, with fears that 2010 will be the biggest year yet for unauthorised sea arrivals, topping the 5,000 or so who arrived in 2001.

In the latest dramatic incident, the Australian navy intercepted about 70 more asylum seekers yesterday, rescuing from the water some who jumped overboard when their boat began to sink. All are now on Christmas Island.

The issue is a political problem for the centre-left Labor government, which is expected to call an election later this year and whose popularity in opinion polls has fallen as the number of illegal boats has mounted.

Under the changes, the situation for asylum seekers from Sri Lanka will be

reviewed after three months and for those from Afghanistan after six months.

Claims from the 2,166 people now on Christmas Island or en route to that facility will be processed, but new arrivals, who will undergo health and security checks while in detention, will for now be unable to apply for asylum.

The UNHCR was not yet commenting on the new policy but refugee and rights groups attacked the changes, saying they could leave people floating in administrative limbo for years.

The Australian Human Rights Commission said they could lead to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, including children and families already in distress, on overcrowded Christmas Island.

“We have real concerns that this policy shift could lead to arbitrary detention and take Australia down a path that is at odds with our international human rights obligations,” commission president Cathy Branson said.

The government said its changes were consistent with the its international obligations but rights group Amnesty said the decision failed to meet Canberra’s duties required under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

“Sadly, it appears that the government has caved into political pressure and is now attempting to override the rights of the most vulnerable to score political points,” Amnesty Australia’s Andrew Beswick said. — AFP

Victory to further strengthen Rajapakse’s grip on power

Lanka ruling party wins parliamentary election COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s ruling party cruised to victory yesterday in parliamentary elections but fell short of the two-thirds majority that would have allowed President Mahinda Rajapakse to amend the constitution. Rajapakse’s

BANGKOK: Thai soldiers leave the compound of the Thaicom station after it was seized by the Red shirt protesters in Pathum Thani, on the outskirts of Bangkok, yesterday. Thai security forces used tear gas and water cannon against anti-government protesters who stormed a television station on the outskirts of Bangkok, an AFP reporter witnessed. — AFP

Thai protest TV back on air after confrontation BANGKOK: Thai protesters stormed a satellite station yesterday, overruning an army barricade and forcing their TV channel back on air in the first major confrontation in a three-day state of emergency.

Security forces fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who climbed over rolls of barbed wire and forced open the gate of the compound, holding it for about three hours in defiance of an emergency decree on the 27th day of anti-government street protests seeking new elections.

Most of the soldiers pulled back from the Thaicom Pcl satellite station about 60 km (35 miles) north of Bangkok, leaving the grounds in control of the “red shirts” protesters, supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

Authorities entered the station a day earlier and seized equipment that took their People Channel channel off air, saying it was inciting violence. Other channels were not affected.

The broadcasts resumed after talks between police and protest leaders, prompting the crowd to disperse. But it was not immediately clear how long the broadcasts would stay on. The government has said the channel incites violence.

“We have won a small victory, getting the protest broadcast again. But we are still fighting the big battle against the government, propped by the elite,” Weng Tojirakan, a protest leader, told Reuters.

He said the red shirts had no immediate plan to march anywhere else. “We will have to meet and discuss how to step up the fight.”

The protesters, who briefly besieged parliament on Wednesday, seized guns, batons, shields, bullets and tear-gas cannon from police and soldiers and displayed them at the station. A Reuters photographer earlier saw a policeman hitting a protester with the end of a rifle in the commotion.

Fourteen protesters, three police and a soldier were wounded, a medical centre said. One red shirt suffered a gunshot wound, most likely from a rubber bullet. Others had minor scrapes.

Many investors doubt even a violent impasse will derail a rebound in Southeast Asia’s secondbiggest economy and one of the world’s fastestrebounding emerging markets. Thai stocks are up 76 percent over the past 12 months, Asia’s thirdbest performer.

“We are not so concerned about the political situation in Thailand,” high-profile emerging market investor Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd in San Mateo, California, told Reuters. Frequent protests, vio-

lent riots, airport blockades and three changes in government in the past 19 months have dented consumer spending, economists say, but the prospect of prolonged strife is already priced into Thailand’s relatively cheap stock prices.

Despite the latest escalation of a five-year political crisis, foreigners bought $1.8 billion in Thai stocks between Feb. 22 and Wednesday, often citing Thailand’s relatively low stock valuations and robust economic rebound.

Even if Thailand faces new elections-and more protests few expect a big shift in fiscal and monetary policies. Five out of six economists surveyed

by Reuters this week said they expected an interest rise in June regardless of the latest unrest, the same prediction they have made for several months. “We have been investing in Thailand for almost 15 years or more. And we think that this kind of change in the Thai political environment has happened many times before,” Mobius said.

The stock market ended up 0.7 percent yesterday. The local baht currency also recovered from early weakness.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had said he will not order a crackdown on the mostly rural and working-class protesters who have also ignored orders to leave Bangkok’s main shopping district since Saturday.

Abhisit faces pressure to either compromise and call an election he could easily lose, or launch a crackdown that could stir up even more trouble.

Most analysts doubt the authorities will use force to remove protesters from the shopping area-a politically risky decision for Abhisit as his 16-month-old coalition government struggles to build support outside Bangkok.

Thousands of protesters remained at their main encampment near the upmarket department stores as hundreds of police entered police headquarters nearby. The reinforcement agitated some protesters who went to block gates of the police headquarters.

Protesters were dancing and singing to live music as night fell. Others were shopping for “red shirt” souvenirs or gathering in small groups for dinner at roadside stalls while protest leaders took turns to make fiery speeches on stage.

“A crackdown is very unlikely in the next few days unless some group does something crazy, like a serious bomb attack or an attempted attack on important figures,” a senior military source, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Much of Bangkok was calm and life went on as normal. But two of Bangkok’s biggest shopping plazas remained shut by the protests after closing on April 3. — Reuters

TOKYO: Amnesty International Japan members protest against executions in China outside the Chinese embassy in Tokyo yesterday. China has executed three convicted Japanese drug smugglers, just days after another Japanese citizen was put to death for the same offence. — AFP

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) won 46 seats. “This is a huge endorsement of the work of the president,” Rajapakse’s spokesman Chanderapala Liyanage said.

“The party has won parliament very comfortably,” Liyanage told AFP, predicting that it would secure at least 24 of the undeclared seats, leaving it just nine seats short of a twothirds majority.

“No party has ever got this much,” he added.

Thursday’s vote was the first parliamentary ballot since government forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels in May, leading to a surge in Rajapakse’s popularity. But it was marked by a record low turnout and numerous cases of voter intimidation that resulted in fresh voting being ordered in two of the island’s 22 electoral districts.

The re-poll means 16 seats will only be declared on April 19, along with another 29 that are distributed on a proportional representation system.

The widely expected victory will further strengthen Rajapakse’s grip on power just three months after he won a second term as president by an emphatic margin.

His main political rival, former army chief Sarath Fonseka, contested Thursday’s poll from behind bars but his party secured just five seats. Fonseka was arrested just weeks after the presidential vote and is facing court martial. The main Tamil National Alliance won 12 seats. Rajapakse had been hoping for a two thirds majority that would allow him to tinker with the constitution, which currently limits presidents to two successive terms.

“I want a very strong parliament to develop the country,” he told reporters as he cast his ballot Thursday in a southern constituency where his son Namal was the ruling party candidate. The opposition UNP was non-committal about the outcome. “We are not challenging the legality of those who are elected,” UNP spokesman Tissa Attanayake told reporters. “But we must stress that there were serious violations in the run-up to the elections.” For many Sri Lankans, it was the first legislative poll in which they could vote without fear of Tamil Tiger violence and suicide attacks.

Analysts said the record low turnout of less than 55 percent would take the shine off the ruling party’s victory.

“People have sent a message,” said political analyst Victor Ivan. “They are fed up with politicians and their deception. That is why nearly half of the electorate did not bother to vote.” Human rights campaigner and political analyst Nimalka Fernando said the low turnout would undermine the new government’s position.

“The result does not give moral authority to the government because half of the electorate did not vote,” Fernando said. “With the legitimacy undermined, the government will not be able to go for any sweeping reforms.”

Sethmini Chathurika, 28, said she had voted for Rajapakse’s party because it had succeeded in ending the conflict with the Tamil Tigers. — AFP

United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) secured 117 seats in the 225-member assembly with another 45 seats left to be declared, results released by the Elections Commissioner showed.

COLOMBO: A supporter of the ruling coalition waves the national flag as he waits along with others for his local leader Wimal Weerawansa, portrait seen pasted on car, to come out of the counting center, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday. — AP

Zardari on cusp of losing major powers ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, unpopular and tainted by corruption, was yesterday on the threshold of losing much of his power as constitutional reforms move through parliament.

In a unanimous vote of lawmakers present, the lower house of parliament late Thursday approved a 102-clause bill that reverses moves by successive military rulers to weaken Pakistan’s 1973 parliamentary constitution.

The bill will move Monday to the upper house of parliament, or senate, where it is easily expected to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority, then pass to Zardari to sign and pass into law.

The package reverses sweeping powers amassed by former military dictators Pervez Musharraf and Zia ul Haq and could ease political instability in the nuclear-armed country on the front line of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda.

The amendments will effectively make Zardari a titular

head of state who can only formally appoint heads of the armed forces, dissolve the national assembly and appoint provincial governors on the advice of the prime minister.

The bill’s formulation and passage has been hailed as a rare feat of cross-party consensus in the fractious and bitter world of Pakistani politics, but analysts warn that it has little practical benefit in a country crippled by problems.

There is major unemployment and inflation. Millions live below the poverty line, suffer debilitating electricity cuts which stifle businesses and make life unbearable in the summer when temperatures top 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

Insecurity is rampant, particularly in the northwest and semi-autonomous tribal belt, which Washington calls a stronghold of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters blamed for bomb attacks that have killed 3,200 people in less than three years. “The real test of the par-

liament starts now,” senior lawyer and rights activist Ikram Chaudhry told AFP. “There is hardly anything tangible for the people of Pakistan,” he added.

“The common man is being crushed by the loans governments have been taking from the IMF and other institutions.

The government must rid of these loans by selling state assets so that it can give relief to people,” he said.

Analysts also emphasise that real power in Pakistan lies with the military, which has ruled the country for more than half its 63-year existence and has made and broken countless civilian governments stronger than Zardari’s.

Although the reforms make no changes to Zardari’s immunity in office, the supreme court is putting pressure on the government to reopen scores of graft cases at home and abroad, after it scrapped an amnesty shielding politicians. Tainted by corruption allegations, Zardari is nicknamed “Mr Ten Percent” and spent 11 years in jail on

charges ranging from corruption to murder, although he was never convicted on those charges. “Challenges will remain,” said political analyst Jafar Ahmed, head of Pakistan studies at Karachi University.

“It remains to be seen how the judiciary acts on the issues relating to corruption. This will remain the main issue,” he told AFP. Zardari began renouncing his powers last year by relinquishing control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, although again, the power rests entirely with the military.

“Most of the changes brought about by the 18th amendment are welcome but few benefit the citizens directly and more relate to the concerns of politicians,” said columnist and supreme court lawyer Anees Jillani.

“Making education free and compulsory up to the age of 16, and access to (public record) information, as fundamental rights are welcoming developments. — AFP

6

INTERNATIONAL

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Obama says Karzai must remain ‘critical partner’ WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama says Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai remains “a critical partner” with the United States in the fight against terrorism despite Karzai’s harsh recent criticism of the West.

In an interview published yesterday, Obama said he still thinks Karzai is committed to giving his government greater

legitimacy by helping its people and rooting out corruption. He said that if the US is to ensure that Afghanistan is not a haven for extremist organizations, it must succeed on military and civilians fronts there, and Karzai “is going to be a critical partner in this effort.” Karzai has infuriated the White House with accusations that the United Nations and the international

community interfered in last year’s fraudtarnished presidential election in Afghanistan. The White House suggested that it could even cancel Karzai’s planned visit to the White House on May 12 if such troubling comments continued. But the tone seems to be softening.

“We have gotten through this period,” James Jones, Obama’s national security

adviser, told reporters traveling back from Prague with the president on Air Force One. Jones said that Obama wrote and had delivered a thank-you note to Karzai for hosting him on short notice during the US president’s trip to Afghanistan on March 28. The note made no mention of the recent controversies. Obama pledged in

his note to continue a common effort with Karzai to make Afghanistan a success, Jones said.

The national security adviser said the note, combined with assurances that Karzai has given to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he did not intend to damage the relationship, means White House officials consider the matter

behind them.

Jones said there is no change in the plan for Karzai to visit the White House.

In his interview with ABC News, Obama was asked if Karzai is a partner now. Said Obama: “I think he has been a partner, but I think that he has his own domestic politics that he has to deal with.” — AP

‘No chance of finding survivors under so much mud’

Workers race to unearth victims of Brazil mudslide NITEROI: Rescue workers raced against the clock yesterday to unearth as many as 200 people feared buried in a mudslide near Rio de Janeiro, as the death toll from massive floods in the region rose to 182. More than 24 hours

after a hillside suddenly collapsed, 16 bodies had been recovered from tonnes of earth that swept away dozens of homes in Morro do Bumba, a slum built on a landfill in this city across the bay from Rio.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Damaged vehicles are seen after a landslide in Niteroi, outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, yesterday. Crews pulled at least 17 bodies from the debris at the site as more rain fell early yesterday in Rio, threatening more slides. — AP

US aircraft crash kills four KABUL: Three US troops were among four killed in an aircraft crash in Afghanistan, the military said yesterday, in a fresh setback to foreign forces in the increasingly deadly fight with the Taleban.

The US Air Force CV-22 Osprey, which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane, came down in Zabul province in the restive south of the country, where most of the fighting in the eight-year insurgency has been concentrated.

“The cause of the crash is unknown at this time,” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement after the Taleban claimed that they shot down the distinctive tilt-rotor aircraft near Qalat city.

A civilian employee also died in Thursday night’s crashthe third in recent weeks involving a NATO helicopterwhile an unspecified number of service personnel were injured.

Mohammad Jan Rasool Yar, spokesman for the governor of Zabul, said a technical fault caused the crash.

Some 151 foreign troops have now died in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP toll, with most deaths caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Civilians are also caught up in roadside bomb attacks. Three people were killed and five wounded on Friday when their van hit an IED intended for US and Afghan forces in western Herat province, police said.

The US military has said the increasingly sophisticated devices killed 322 coalition soldiers and wounded 1,813 in 2009 — double the number in the previous 12 months.

Eighty-one US and NATO troops were killed by IEDs between January and March this year, according to Pentagon figures.

Lieutenant General Michael Oates, head of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organisation, told reporters in Washington he expected casualty rates to decline as new technology and more troops are sent to Afghanistan.

The number of foreign troops in Afghanistan is expected to swell from 126,000 to

150,000 in the coming months, as part of a major offensive against the Taliban in the south.

But the international community is also battling a war of words with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that has strained already fragile ties, as a major peace conference and key meeting with foreign diplomats loom in the weeks ahead.

Karzai has caused consternation, particularly in Washington, for claiming that foreign powers

orchestrated the massive fraud in last year’s elections that returned him to power.

He also said that US and NATO troops risked being seen as an occupying force, potentially legitimising the Taliban insurgency, and reportedly claimed that he would join the Taleban if lawmakers did not back his electoral reforms.

Three US lawmakers on Thursday urged President Barack Obama to set a flexible

timetable for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan, questioning Karzai’s suitability as a partner and his commitment to much-needed reforms.

A planned military “surge” to tackle the insurgency is designed to bring a quick end to the conflict, which has been increasing in intensity since the US-led military action to oust the hardline Taliban from power in late 2001. — AFP

South African white supremacist laid to rest VENTERSDORP: Hundreds of mourners sang South Africa’s apartheid-era anthem at yesterday’s funeral of a white supremacist killed in what has been described as a wage dispute with two young black farmworkers.

Camouflage-clad men carrying pistols and little girls in their Sunday best gathered in the country’s northwest to mourn Eugene Terreblanche, whose body was brought into the church in a closed coffin covered in red and white flowers. Terreblanche’s death has not sparked wider violence. South African leaders acknowledged that racial tensions remain 16 years after apartheid ended, but have played down any threat to the World Cup that starts in June, the first time football’s premier tournament will come to Africa. White militants who considered Terreblanche their leader say his death proves whites aren’t safe under majority rule. Black leaders say controlling crime — whether its victims are white or black — is a priority in a country with one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world.

Terreblanche’s coffin was draped with a flag — red, black and white, with a Nazi-like symbol in the center — representing the white supremacist movement he led. Two men wearing the group’s military-style uniform guarded the coffin.

The some 500 people in the church rose and sang Die Stem, an Afrikaans song that was the national anthem during the apartheid era. One verse of the

VENTERSDORP: The Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) flag is seen on the coffin of AWB leader Eugene Terreblanche during his funeral at a church in Ventersdorp yesterday. — AFP song, which translates to “The Call,” is a verse in the modern, multi-lingual national anthem, Nkosi Sikeleli Africa. The oneand-a-half hour service also included hymns, Bible readings and impassioned rhetoric. A motorcade then wound its way to Terreblanche’s farm, where he was to be buried within sight of the largely disused farmhouse where he was killed. Mourners on motorcycles, in cars and trucks — some of them flying the group’s flag — followed the white hearse carrying the coffin.

Several mourners linked Terreblanche’s death to the fiery rhetoric of a top member of the African National Congress. In recent weeks, Julius Malema, leader of the ANC Youth League, has been reviving an anti-apartheid era song that refers to killing white farmers.

Among the speakers at the service was Steve Hofmeyr, a wellknown Afrikaans singer, who accused Malema of hate speech and government of failing to control crime. “Our government’s paralysis here will afford us many sad days like this, black and white,” he said. Malema says the song has nothing to do with Terreblanche’s death. While the ANC insists the song is part of its heritage, following Terreblanche’s death it asked its members to refrain from performing anti-apartheid anthems that could be divisive.

Also among the mourners was Bojosi Isaac Medupe, a black minister who said he visited Terreblanche in prison after the white leader was convicted of beating a black farm worker so badly the man was left brain damaged. — AP

Firefighters said there was virtually no chance of finding survivors under so much mud.

Officials said at least 182 people have been killed in the state of Rio de Janeiro since Monday when the heaviest rains in half a century unleashed floods and mudslides that tore through the metropolitan area’s precarious hillside slums, or favelas.

Niteroi has been the hardest hit with at least 107 dead, compared to 55 in Rio, according to the civil defense authorities.

Civil Defense officials said that at least 161 people had also been injured in the weather chaos of the past four days, and the state of Rio reported that 14,000 people have been forced to move due to the heavy rain.

The federal government opened a fund with 113 million dollars to aid municipalities in Rio state affected by the floods and mudslides, the state’s governor Sergio Cabral.

“Our main concern right now is to save lives,” Niteroi mayor Jorge Silveira told cable channel Globo News, adding that the other priority was to “diminish the possibility that these types of events are repeated.” To do that, people had to be moved from high risk areas like Morro do Bumba, he said. How many people really were swept away in Morro do Bumba is unknown. Firefighter chief Colonel Pedro Machado told AFP earlier Thursday that “based on the testimony of witnesses, some 200 people were buried under the rubble.”

Nevertheless, the commander of the 12th military police battalion in Niteroi, Rui Franca, said, “It is impossible to make a rational estimate of the number of people buried because there is no relief map of the area.”

In the night, the rescue teams cleared the mountain of mud under the blaze of half a dozen floodlights amid a heavy rain that made the already perilous work more difficult.

Despite the risk of new mudslides, some 150 people worked through the night, with the help of eight excavators, as a stream of trucks came and went loaded with debris.

Twenty-five people, including eight small children, were pulled out alive on Thursday after spending hours buried under mud and debris, fueling the hopes of anxious relatives desperate to find their loved ones. But firefighters said there was little chance of finding survivors after part of the hillside fell away and swallowed everything in its path, including 50 houses, a day-care center and a pizzeria.

Cabral, the Rio governor, said the situation was an “ecological and human catastrophe,” on a visit to the slum.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” he said, estimating that clearing operations would last two weeks. An angry mob in the neighborhood near Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer smashed one of the trains that takes tourists up to the gigantic statue, upset over the death of three locals, the Agencia O Dia reported. The crowd said the company that owns the tourist trains was responsible for diverting a sewage canal towards the shanty town four years ago that channeled much of the flood water over the past days. The company director rejected the charges.

Back in Niteroi, Sabrina Carvalho de Jesus, 26, a hospital worker, escaped with her life when the earth began to move, but her grandfather, mother and six-year-old son were buried.

“Honestly, I don’t hold out hope any more,” she said of her missing loved ones. — AFP

BISHKEK: Kyrgyz interim leader Roza Otunbayeva looks at a patient injured during the April 7 anti-government riots in a Bishkek hospital yesterday. Thousands massed in Kyrgyzstan’s capital yesterday to honour scores of people killed in the uprising that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev who said the new leadership had “blood on their hands”. — AFP

Kyrgyz victims mourned, American base fate on hold BISHKEK: Thousands of grieving, angry mourners flooded the capital’s main square yesterday to honor victims of Kyrgyzstan’s revolt — with many blaming the country’s absent president for ordering security forces to fire on those protesting his government. Flights, meanwhile, resumed at the US Manas air base in this Central Asian nation after being halted Wednesday during the uprising.

Manas is a key support center for the international military campaign against the Taleban in Afghanistan.

Covering their eyes and folding their hands in prayer, families and friends sobbed for the lives that were lost in the sprawling Ala-Too Square, where protesters were shot dead at an opposition rally as some stormed the main government building in Bishkek, the capital. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the capital to seek support in his clan’s southern power base, was often a focus of their anger.

“We grieve over our heroes. They are real heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the future of Kyrgyzstan,” said Khatima Immamaliyeva, a 44-year-old office worker holding a red carnation and crying. “Bakiyev must bear responsibility for the deaths.” Another mourner, 26-year-old Azimbek Sariyev, said “my friend Talas perished. I hope he hasn’t died for nothing. We have ousted Bakiyev, and won’t allow the rulers to mock us.” At least 76 people died in the violence and more than 1,400 were injured, the Health Ministry reported Friday. That figure included 67 people injured overnight in clashes between looters and security forces.

In an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press, US Central Command spokesman Maj. John Redfield said normal flights had restarted at Manas as of Friday afternoon. Some 1,100 troops are stationed there, including contingents from Spain and France, in support of NATO operations in Afghanistan.

Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the opposition’s self-declared interim government, said yesterday the base agreement will be continued at least for the near future. Opposition figures in the past have said they wanted to close the US base, located at the international airport serving the capital.

The status of the base has been a significant strategic question since the uprising Wednesday.

“We have no intentions whatsoever to deal with the American base now. Our priority is the lives of

the people who suffered. A top priority is to normalize the situation, to secure peace and stability,” Otunbayeva said as she visited a Bishkek hospital yesterday that had treated many wounded.

She also said the interim government would not negotiate with Bakiyev, whose regime the opposition has accused of corruption.

Kyrgyzstan also hosts a Russian military base and is the only nation where both Cold War foes have bases. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the revolt in Kyrgyzstan before signing an arms treaty in Prague on Thursday.

Michael McFaul, Obama’s senior director for Russian affairs, emphasized that the US did not view the conflict as any kind of proxy struggle between the US and Russia. “The people that are allegedly running Kyrgyzstan ... these are all people we’ve had contact with for many years,” McFaul said. “This is not some anti-American coup, that we know for sure. And this is not some sponsored-by-the-Russians coup, there’s just no evidence of that.” In a sign that Russia may lend its support to the opposition, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called Otunbayeva on Thursday. Any suggestion that Russia is backing the new leadership would add to the pressure on Bakiyev to step down.

The deputy head of the interim government, Almazbek Atambayev, flew to Moscow on Friday to talk with unspecified Russian government officials.

Bakiyev, who fled the northern capital for his stronghold in the south, told a Russian radio station on Thursday that “I don’t admit defeat in any way.” But he also said he recognized that “even though I am president, I don’t have any real levers of power.””What has taken place is a veritable orgy carried out by armed groups and I do not believe this is a defeat for me,” Bakiyev said.

He spoke from southern Jalal-Abad region, where Bakiyev’s popularity is said to remain high — raising concerns he might try to secure his survival by exploiting the split between the more urban north and rural south. Since coming to power in 2005 amid street protests known as the Tulip Revolution, Bakiyev had ensured a measure of stability. But the opposition said it came at the expense of democratic standards and accused Bakiyev of enriching himself and his family, just like the former ruler he overthrew. — AP

Smoke, fear of fire push rescuers from US mine MONTCOAL: Rescue teams trekked far enough into a ruined coal mine early yesterday to see that no one had used a chamber where four missing miners could have sought refuge, further dimming hopes of anyone else surviving an explosion that killed 25. The teams encountered smoke and, fearing fire, had to turn back before they could check a second chamber — the last chance for the four miners’ survival. It was the latest gut-wrenching setback in a rescue effort that started with only the slimmest likelihood of finding anyone alive after Monday’s blast, the worst US mine disaster in two decades.

It was the third time since the explosion at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch mine that rescuers had to pull back after making their way about 1,000 feet (300 meters) below the surface and about five miles (eight kilometers) into the massive coal mine. The teams had to scramble back to the surface during their previous attempts because of dangerous gases that could set off another explosion or fire.

“We had a long night and we had a difficult night,” Gov. Joe Manchin said. Manchin said res-

cuers carried with them four extra oxygen packs, just in case.

But even before they went back underground, officials started using words like “recovery” and “bodies” more frequently. As crews waited for another hole to be drilled so a camera could be dropped to check on the final refuge chamber, more details

emerged about an extensive list of safety violations at the mine.

Federal regulators issued evacuation orders for all or parts of the Upper Big Branch mine more than 60 times since the start of 2009, according to a report prepared for Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. — AP

MONTCOAL: West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin (L) looks on as Kevin Stricklin (R) of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, tells reporters that rescuers had to pull out the Upper Big Branch Mine after smoke from a fire was discovered while searching for four missing miners yesterday in Montcoal, West Virginia. — AFP

BUSINESS

Saturday, April 10, 2010

7

Greece gets EU-IMF hand of help in its dark hour ATHENS: The European Union told Greece it stands ready with a debt lifeline in its hour of need yesterday amid a market conviction that a crescendo is near.

“The Greek government is courageous and is breaking with the past. We would be ready to intervene if the Greeks ask us to,” EU President Herman van Rompuy told interviewers from Le Monde, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, El Pais and De Standaard.

“This aid plan will only be credible once it is put into operation,” he said, two weeks after European leaders agreed to secure EU and IMF funding for Greece if it is unable to borrow at a low enough rate on the open market. Germany also said that the EU-IMF rescue scheme could be activated quickly, but government spokesman Michael Offer again stressed that Greece could solve its problem by focusing on budget cutbacks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the EU was ready to activate its rescue scheme “at any time to come to Greece’s aid” in remarks after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Analysts said that the way the crisis has evolved, and culmination in a rescue, could have profound implications for the credibility of the European Central Bank and by ricochet for the

fundamental nature of the eurozone it underpins. Meanwhile, the deadly squeeze on Greek borrowing costs eased slightly from a record high point above 7.5 percent on Thursday, which Greek newspapers described as “Black Thursday”.

The pro-government newspaper Ta Nea said: “Black Thursday on the markets and pressure for an approach to the IMF (International Monetary Fund).” The paper said in a headline: “Lifebelt from (ECB head) Trichet against the tsunami of the spreads,” in a reference to a big increase in the gap between how much Germany pays to borrow funds and the rate Greece must now offer.

The liberal newspaper Kathimerini said: “The situation is particularly critical, the government must weigh up making use of the EU-IMF support mechanism.”

The EU-IMF scheme has been highly contentious from the outset, and so far vague on detail, mainly because of reticence by Germany to bail Greece out. Van Rompuy said: “Discussions are under way to fix the technical modalities and make the mechanism concrete.

The meeting of eurozone finance ministers in mid-April will be able to resolve any outstanding problems.” Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou also spoke

ATHENS: A customer receives euro notes in a counter at the Bank of Greece headquarters in Athens. Greece’s borrowing costs spiked higher for a third day Thursday, intensifying the country’s debt crisis and suggesting a eurozone rescue program is providing little support. — AP along this line, remarking that the market borrowing rates “do not reflect the real situation of

the economy or the efforts and results already obtained by the Greek government.”

He said: “But with time, I believe that the markets and our European partners will take

account of these results.”

Market analysts took the view earlier yesterday that the end game of the crisis was near, but disagreed over whether an EUIMF rescue or part debt default were the most likely outcomes.

The rate demanded by investment funds to buy Greek government 10-year debt fell to 7.204 percent, having surged above 7.50 percent on Thursday to reach the highest level since Athens adopted the euro in 2001.

Greece has to find around 11.5 billion euros by next month to cover its debts, and markets remain skeptical over whether it will be able to achieve massive budget cutbacks imposed by the EU. The remarks from Van Rompuy, Berlin and Paris signal that the European Union and eurozone bodies are now opting for a rescue as the leastbad next step. Germany is reticent about such help for several reasons to do with safeguarding the credibility and stability of the entire eurozone, and therefore of monetary conditions in Germany.

Analysts are already debating if a rescue could mark a decisive step in a crisis which has turned the eurozone from a convergence project based on tough rules towards towards a cooperative compromise in which the weak can count on help from the strong. UniCredit chief

economist Marco Annunziata warned that the ECB had suffered by “becoming embroiled in political discussions that sometimes defy logic,” and said the bank was at threat of “further damaging its credibility.”

Many observers said they felt that the ECB had made two surprising U-turns, notably on the bank’s opposition to IMF support. Barclays Capital economist Thorsten Polleit said that “there is of course political pressure now, and Greece may be a precedent.” ING senior economist Carsten Brzeski also said that the head of the ECB Jean-Claude Trichet “had a few weak moments and did not really succeed in convincingly explaining the ECB’s U-turn.”

German business daily Handelsblatt commented that “the ECB is demonstrating that it is following political aims rather than the stability culture of its founders.” A Bundesbank note quoted by the Financial Times on Thursday dubbed the IMF an “Inflation Maximizing Fund.” Handelsblatt editor-inchief Gabor Steingart said yesterday that “Trichet wants to save Greece ... but above all he wants to avoid a row with politicians.

“Yesterday he kissed inflation and for the spirit of the (German central bank) Bundesbank, this was the kiss of death.” — AFP

Stocks, commodities advance on US data Euro recovers on Greek aid move speculation LONDON: World stocks and commodities rose yesterday as stronger US retail sales boosted optimism about the economic recovery, while the euro recovered on speculation that debt-stricken Greece may soon receive help.

SHANGHAI: An investor checks index figures at a stock brokerage in Shanghai yesterday. Asian stock markets were mostly higher yesterday ahead of the region’s first peek next week at first quarter economic growth numbers. — AP

Oil up above $86 on signs of stronger US economy NEW YORK: Oil prices rose above $86 a barrel yesterday on a weaker dollar and after robust US retail sales in March pointed to growing consumer demand in the world’s biggest energy market. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for May delivery was up 84 cents to $86.23 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 49 cents to settle at $85.39 on Thursday. “The oil market is behaving the same way as we have seen during the past several weeks: ‘one step back, two steps forward,”’ said a report from Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

“Supported by benign equity markets, sustained bullish sentiment and a slightly weaker US dollar, the oil price recouped the losses of the previous two days.” Discounter Target Corp, department store Macy’s Inc, clothier Gap Inc and Victoria’s Secret parent Limited Brands Inc posted Thursday double-digit increases in March sales that beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

Overall, sales in stores open at least a year rose 9 percent in March, based on an index of 31 retailers compiled by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Oil had bounced between $69 and $84 for about nine months before spurting to above $87 earlier this week. “The strong retail sales are a part of the positive economic news coming out of the US over the last few weeks,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “That’s what’s been supporting the break out in oil prices.” Crude was also boosted by investor expectations that China might allow its currency to rise, which would make dollar-based commodities such as oil cheaper for investors with yuan and might increase demand.

A softer dollar also helped push oil prices higher by making crude cheaper for investors holding other currencies. The euro rose to $1.3404 in European trading yesterday from $1.3353 late Thursday in New York, while the British pound rebounded to $1.5357 from $1.5274. In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil added 2.07 cents to $2.2489 a gallon, and gasoline gained 1.34 cents to $2.3117 a gallon. Natural gas rose 3.9 cents to $3.948 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude was up 96 cents at $85.77 on the ICE futures exchange. — AP

China passenger car sales up 63% SHANGHAI: China’s passenger car sales jumped 63 percent in March from a year earlier as manufacturers scrambled to meet strong demand driven by tax cuts and government subsidies, a state-affiliated industry group reported yesterday.

Passenger car sales rose to 1.26 million vehicles in March, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The figures show sustained growth for automakers in a market that bounced back from a slowdown in late 2008-2009 as the government pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into economic stimulus.

Weak sales in the United States and a surge in car purchases by newly affluent Chinese buyers helped to make this the world’s largest auto market last year, when total vehicle sales jumped 45 percent over 2008 to 13.6 million units.

The US market is recovering but cannot match growth in

China, where many are still buying their first cars. Demand for bigger cars is growing as families that bought small cars the first time trade up to better, larger vehicles. Sales in the US climbed 24 percent in March compared to the same month a year earlier, according to figures compiled by AutoData Corp.

China’s auto industry does not release comparable monthly sales data adjusted for annual rates. The Chinese industry group said total vehicle sales rose 56 percent in March from a year earlier to 1.7 million units, bringing sales for the first three months of the year to 4.6 million. “Passenger car sales turned out to be even better than earlier market estimates,” said Rao Da, general secretary of another industry group, the Shanghai-based China Passenger Car Association, which released separate data showing similar trends.

“We are confident that China’s vehicle sales will sur-

pass 17 million units this year, growing by about 25 percent,” he said. China’s searing growth has buoyed foreign automakers like General Motors Co. and Toyoto Motor Corp as they weather languid sales in their saturated home markets. GM reported earlier that its sales in China jumped 68 percent in March over a year earlier to a new monthly record of 230,048 vehicles. First quarter sales surged 71 percent to 623,546 units. Ford Motor Co. said first quarter sales jumped 84 percent to a record 153,362 units.

Toyota Motor Corp’s sales in China rose 33 percent in March from a year earlier to 61,200 units, lagging the market and its rivals but still growing despite its massive recall problems in other markets. China’s domestic automakers, who tend not to release sales data on as regular a basis, are also generally enjoying strong growth, and running double shifts to meet demand. — AP

Yu said any aid to Greece would likely trigger a relief rally in the euro, which has fallen more than 6 percent against the dollar so far this year on the back of the Greek debt crisis. The single currency gained 0.4 percent versus the dollar at $1.3405.

Global equities measured by the MSCI All-Country World Index advanced 0.5 percent, snapping a two-day losing run.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rebounded 1.1 percent after posting its biggest one-day decline in six weeks, while Greece’s share benchmark put on 0.8 percent. Earlier, Asian stocks outside Japan edged closer to a 22-month high. The positive US economic indicators also boosted commodity prices, with oil snapping two days of losses to trade above $86 a barrel, while copper prices gained 0.9 percent. Gold rose 0.4 percent, extending its gains to a fifth day and heading for its biggest weekly rise since early January.

GREEK CURVE STILL INVERTED The premium investors demand to buy Greek government debt rather than euro zone benchmark German Bunds was at 413 basis points, down from Thursday’s high of 465 basis points. The still elevated yields reflected continued fears Greece would face a liquidity crunch. The Greek 2/10 yield curve remained inverted with two-year bond yields above those of 10-year bonds, signaling worries of a near-term liquidity crisis.

Investors dumped Greek assets on Thursday, betting the country would have to ask the European Union and International Monetary Fund to implement a support package, even as Athens sought to reassure markets it was not at risk of going bankrupt. Yields on 10-year benchmark US Treasuries were steady at 3.89 percent, while those on 10-year Bunds were up 1 basis points at 3.122 percent.

The yen slipped broadly as traders trimmed long positions in the Japanese currency on the view that its rise the previous day on talk of a yuan revaluation in the near term was overdone.

The dollar was up 0.2 percent against the yen at 93.52.

Spot yuan was flat against

the dollar, showing no sign that a revaluation was imminent after closing at its high-

Greece’s borrowing costs eased, though they remained at elevated levels.

“People are buying the euro on speculation the IMF may step in,” said Geoffrey Yu, currency strategist at UBS in London.

est level since October on Thursday on a New York Times report that China was

close to announcing a policy shift. China’s central bank fixed the yuan’s daily mid-

point, or reference rate, at a level almost the same as the previous day. — Reuters

8

BUSINESS

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Kempinski’s Annual GCC Road Show arrives in Kuwait KUWAIT: Luxury travel trends dominated by a greater focus on unique experiences and one-of-a-kind destinations are keeping the hospitality business buoyant in the GCC, said Kempinski Hotels. The luxury hospitality group arrived in Kuwait City on April 8, the last stop on a GCC-wide road show aimed at strengthening the group’s business ties with travel trade partners in the region.

From Amman to Andalucia, a Kempinski Hotels team representing 16 of the luxury operator’s most distinctive properties from across the region and the world visited trade partners across the GCC as part of the road show, which kicked off in Saudi Arabia, taking in three key cities in the Kingdom Jeddah on April 3, Riyadh on April 4 and Dammam on April 5 - then moving to Bahrain on April 6, and Doha, Qatar, on April 7, before the final stopover in Kuwait.

“Discerning guests seeking more rewarding travel experiences is one of the key trends that have emerged in luxury travel post recession. Guests are seeking out distinctive properties that make a great base from where they can enjoy any destination whether new and exotic, or continually fascinating. The location and landmark status of our properties places us in a strong position to leverage this trend and last year’s healthy figures prove that we continue to maintain this advantage,” said Samer Achcar, Director of Global Sales Middle East and Africa, Kempinski Hotels.

“Our travel trade partners play a key role in communicating and recommending our leading status among leisure and business travelers, and the good relationships we have built over the years are integral to our future success. The annual road show plays a strategically important role in strengthening these relationships, and showcasing our most popular destinations as well as rising and upcoming stars. Our aim is to excite and entice our invaluable regional travel and trade partners to continue to recommend us to their clients,” added Achcar.

Inspiring destinations Regional jewels to be showcased during the road show include landmark city hotels such as the lavish Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and distinctive Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, UAE, as well as the charming Kempinski Hotel Amman in Jordan’s sunny capital city and the relaxing resort property including Kempinski Hotel Ajman, UAE. Panoramic properties such as the Kempinski Hotel Barbaros Bay Bodrum, perched on a cliff overlooking Turkey’s glittering Aegean Sea, also continue to attract large numbers of GCC and Western tourists looking to enjoy the best of the East and West, while the atmospheric Ciragan Palace Kempinski poised along the Bosphorus in Istanbul, remains a firm favourite among visitors looking to experience the pomp and glamour associated with the lives of the Ottoman sultans.

Other awe-inspiring properties such as Grand Hotel Kempinski Geneva, Switzerland - looking out across Lake Geneva and the snowy peak of Mont Blanc, and the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich, Germany - which boasts 303 rooms and suites, each uniquely and individually decorated - remain among the favorite European properties for outbound GCC guests keen on summering in pleasant climes. Lovers of more eclectic and exotic European destinations can close to explore the fascinating city of Budapest whilst staying at the modern masterpiece that is Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest - the epitome of contemporary elegance and comfort in the Hungarian capital.

Lovers of the sun-and-sea lifestyle heading to Spain’s glorious Costa Del Sol can relax in enchanting Andalucia at Kempinski Hotel Bahia Estepona resort, famed for its scenic views across to Africa and lush gardens with three refreshing outdoor pools in their midst. Resort-revelers can also head to north-eastern tip of Africa, to the fascinating Djibouti Palace Kempinski, where you can

Ulrich Eckhardt

Samer Achcar

indulge in underwater sports, visit volcanoes and salt lakes in the vicinity, and swim with whale sharks, while enjoying an impeccable level of luxurious service at the hotel.

New places of discovery Last year’s additions to the Kempinski family - Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta and Kempinski Hybernska Prague - will also be putting in an appearance during this year’s GCC road show. A national icon since the 1960s, the revival of the Hotel Indonesia under Kempinski management, offers guests a taste of tropical paradise whilst staying at a remarkable heritage property. The Baroque beauty Kempinski Hybernska Prague continues to attract guests wishing to enjoy incomparable comfort whilst staying in one Europe’s most inspiring modern capital cities, Prague. Kempinski will also showcase two of its newest properties set for 2010 openings during the GCC road show - the chic Egyptian boutique property Kempinski

Nile Hotel in Cairo and the Siam Kempinski Hotel - a luxurious oasis in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand.

Due to open in mid-2010, Kempinski Nile Hotel is strategically located in the lively Garden City district of Cairo, along the banks of the Nile. The 191-room boutique style hotel, whose interiors are designed by world-renowned French designer Pierre Yves Rochon, combines the warm, charming atmosphere and service culture of Europe blended with Egyptian lavishness and authenticity. A decadent spa, roof top pool, 10 restaurants, and easy access to ancient architectural wonders make this property a highly desirable destination.

Located directly behind Siam Paragon shopping mall in the Thai capital, and shoppers’ paradise, Bangkok, the Siam Kempinski Hotel is set to open in the second quarter of 2010. With 303 rooms including 42 suites as well as 98 serviced residences,

Piracy hits Puntland’s economy, brings vices Donors shun Puntland’s $20 million anti-piracy plan NAIROBI: Piracy off the coast of Somalia has damaged livestock exports and the fishing industry in semi-autonomous Puntland, bringing vices like alcohol and prostitution, the region’s president said. A cash bonanza from millions of dollars Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole said that piracy had emerged as an industry for a wide range of people, including brokers and facilitators, disrupting the region’s traditional economy. “They have disrupted our economy, which traditionally is based on livestock export and fisheries.

No one is fishing on the waters now,” he said in the interview conducted late on Thursday.

“They have

spoiled the cultural and religious values, and introduced drugs, alcohol and prostitution.”

Somalia’s economy is based almost entirely on remittances, livestock exports to Gulf Arab countries and donor inflows. But the threat of hijackings in the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden has deterred livestock traders from crossing the waterway, hitting trade volumes. Farole rejected accusations by the

in ransoms has filled pirate coffers and led to an influx of gleaming cars, new villas and luxury goods into Puntland, which declared itself independent in the early 1990s when the Horn of Africa nation was plunged into anarchy and civil war.

United Nations that pirates may be collaborating with officials in Puntland and criticized the lack of aid from foreign powers to help the region fight piracy. He said his government’s $20 million plan to train a 600strong anti-piracy force and put dozens of speedboats on 80 coastguard stations had failed to attract donor attention.

“We brought this plan to many organizations including governments and the

(United Nations).

Everybody appreciated it but up to now we have not got any assistance,” Farole said. The northern region has been relatively peaceful compared with southern Somalia. But Farole, who was in Kenya to meet with donors, said prisons were stretched to their limits with 264 arrested pirates and Puntland needed assistance to increase its jail capacity.

Australia’s Range Resources and partner

Africa Oil Corp are exploring for crude oil in Puntland and Farole said there was a “good prospect” that their efforts would yield results.

Somalia has no proven oil reserves but a joint World Bank/UN survey of northeast Africa 16 years ago ranked it second only to Sudan as the top prospective producer.

Geologically-similar formations in Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, hold nearly 4 billion barrels. — Reuters

Al Shabab, Al Azraq customers attend opening of American Eagle Outfitters KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the leading bank in Kuwait and the highest rated in the Middle East, invited all of their Al Shabab and Al Azraq customers to the opening of the American Eagle fashion store in The Avenues on the 25th of March.

American Eagle Outfitters’ debut brings the best in casual and affordable fashion to the young population of Kuwait, which is in line with NBK’s mission to constantly provide the best offers and services for our customers throughout the years.

Al Shabab and Al Azraq customers received a free in-store gift upon presenting their ATM card.

American Eagle Outfitters is a leading lifestyle apparel brand for men and women aged 15 to 25 years of age.

As well as AE Jeans, its signature denim collection, American Eagle Outfitters offers a broad collection of fashion knit tops, graphic tees, fleeces, shorts, as well as accessories such as footwear, jewelry, belts and swimwear.

The AE collection offers the highest quality soft, comfortable fabrics, featuring on-trend styles and great value.

Also available at the new stores is the latest collection from aerie, the

comfortable loungewear and intimates brand by American Eagle Outfitters.

“Our customers got the first peek at American Eagle fashions”, stated Ebtihaj Al-Roumi Executive Manager Consumer Banking Group, further stating that “Everyone who has an Al Shabab or Al Azraq

account was invited to join us and was entitled to a special gift upon presentation of their card.”

Al Azraq and Al Shabab are youth accounts from NBK that caters to the various financial needs of the youth in the country.

The accounts are for customers in the age group of 12-23 years. Al Shabab

and Al Azraq offers custom made financial packages to suit the requirements of the students during their high school and college years. The account has encouraged the culture of saving and regularly rewards customers with highest savings with some of the best prizes in the country.

Ebtihaj Al-Roumi

N Korean parliament focuses on economy SEOUL: North Korea denounced President Barack Obama’s new nuclear strategy as “hostile” and vowed to continue building and expanding its atomic arsenal yesterday as the country’s rubber-stamp parliament held an annual session focused on rescuing and revitalizing the tattered economy. The Supreme People’s Assembly meets once a year in Pyongyang to approve bills vetted by the ruling Workers’ Party in rare gatherings closely watched for clues to changes in the regime’s power structure.

Last year’s gathering marked leader Kim Jong Il’s triumphant return to the public eye after months out of sight amid rumors he had suffered a stroke in 2008. However, there was no sign yesterday of Kim who has skipped legislative sessions in the past - in reports issued by the official Korean Central News Agency.

State TV did not show any footage from the session presided over by North Korea’s premier, and Kim’s name was not among a list of key participants mentioned in the report.

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said Obama was no better than the Bush administration, “hell-bent on posing a nuclear threat” to North Korea, and refused to give up its nuclear weapons. “As long as the US nuclear threat persists, the DPRK will increase and update various type nuclear weapons as its deterrent in such a manner as it deems necessary in the days ahead,” KCNA quoted an unnamed ministry spokesman as saying.

DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Washington and other regional powers have been trying to coax Pyongyang back to talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons program after the regime abandoned the disarmament-for-aid talks last year. North Korea had shown a willingness in recent months to return to the negotiating table but the ministry said Obama’s new policy “chilled the hardwon atmosphere for the resumption of the talks.”

At parliament, the most important

item on the agenda involved “stepping up the technological upgrading and modernizing of the national economy,” KCNA said. Legislators discussed plans for economic development, the state budget, constitutional revisions and personnel appointments, it said. The report listed statistics and economic policy changes in detail, but was mum on which particular clauses in the communist regime’s socialist constitution were revised. The session follows a series of measures aimed at clamping down on the private markets that have flourished in recent years.

Late last year, the North redenominated its currency as part of efforts to lower inflation and reassert control over the nascent market economy.

But the move reportedly worsened the country’s food situation as markets closed and many North Koreans were angered and left with piles of worthless bills. North Korea also is feeling the pinch from tightened UN sanctions for its nuclear defiance last year, including testing an atomic bomb. — AP

unique landscaped gardens, multiple swimming pools and outstanding water features, as well as extensive meeting facilities, Siam Kempinski Hotel is a much-awaited addition to the hospitality landscape of the Asian City of Angels. Upcoming regional prospects The GCC region in particular can look forward to several other exciting new prospects in the region, due to be launched over the coming three years. Set to open in a few weeks, Kempinski Residences & Suites, Doha, will be Kempinski’s first Residence Property to open in the Middle East and Africa Region. Located at the heart of Doha’s central business district, West Bay, the 62-floor Residence tower is one of the tallest in the capital city, boasting 370 luxury serviced residences for short-, mid-, and long-term rental, and stunning sea views.

Facilities include two indoor swimming pools, an extensive gym area with state-ofthe-art fitness equipment, male and female steam rooms, treatment rooms and a day care center for kids. Additionally, the residence tower hosts various restaurants and cafes including an all day dining restaurant, a high-end gourmet shop and café, a bar at the leisure area as well as twenty-four hour room service.

A second Hotel & Residences property located on the West Crescent of Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, Kempinski Hotel & Residences Palm Jumeirah, will open in just a few months. Boasting 244 luxury suites, penthouses and villas offering striking views over the Palm Jumeirah lagoon and the Dubai skyline in the distance, or uninterrupted views of the Arabian Gulf, Kempinski Hotel & Residences Palm Jumeirah will surely be one of the most coveted addresses in Dubai.

A number of restaurants, leisure facilities including a spa, gym, beach club, business centre, boardroom and multifunctional meeting room, water sports and shopping facilities, and a comprehensive and thoughtful selection of services including 24-hour concierge services, valet and car wash,

maid and baby-sitting services, as well as shopping assistance and delivery services, will create a complete luxury lifestyle offering.

The property is Kempinski’s first beach resort in Dubai and will be complemented by the Emerald Palace Kempinski Palm Jumeirah Dubai which is due to open in 2011. The two properties fit perfectly with the company’s vision of having only unique properties in its portfolio, especially in a destination such as Dubai where everything is done par excellence. This project has been one of the most successful in the UAE, achieving some of the best yield rates within properties on the Palm.

Scheduled to open in 2012, Kempinski Hotel, Riyadh will boast an upscale commercial tower with 300 luxury guest rooms and suites, two restaurants, three cafés, conference facilities, ballroom for up to 2000 guests, two spas and separate wellness centers for men and women, selected boutique style retail outlets, Manhattanstyle smart apartments and offices in addition to state-of-the-art business facilities with the aim of leading the luxury hospitality market in Riyadh in both, leisure and corporate segments. Meanwhile, the Kempinski Hotel, Jeddah, boasts fantastic view of the Red Sea and is set to be the first green intelligent hotel building in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, when it opens in 2012. The 240-metre high tower hotel aims to be the finest address for leisure travelers in Jeddah featuring first class facilities including 250 luxury guest rooms and suites, 71 serviced apartments, two restaurants, a stunning spa, fitness centre, swimming pool and a 1000 square meter ballroom. Moreover, corporate guests can avail themselves of the advanced business and meetings facilities including fully equipped modern meeting rooms, VIP offices and business suites. A separate announcement release on the new Kempinski property due to open in Bahrain is expected to follow shortly.

The Smartphone Revolution

By Khaled Kefel he Middle East, particularly the GCC, is widely known for its high dependency on mobile phone usage and increasing numbers of smartphones.

Accompanying this trend is a need to deploy higher speed mobile and wireless broadband technologies that will essentially tie in the existing drive for a diversified and privatized economy, and will embody the growing trends of obtaining more enterprise applications.

According to the latest research by International Data Corporation (IDC), 2010 is a year that marks significant developments within the Middle East with broadband penetration at 3%. There are a couple of factors driving the growth, consumers choosing to join businessmen and use smartphones leading to an increase in mobile traffic used for internet-based services such as social networking, locationbased services, navigation/local search, instant messaging, along with other applications.

The use of such technologies has undoubtedly created new opportunities for telecommunications operators as they can build more partnership promotions with smartphone makers that aim at increasing data traffic across their networks. In 2010, the role of mobile services is crucial. The region is experiencing more developments and advancements in mobile technologies, and there are continued investments across the telecommunications’ broadband infrastructure, which paves the way for more activity across the region.

The continuing rise of smartphone sales indicates the growing importance of developing more content for mobile use.

Consumers as well as corporate companies are realizing the rise in smartphone use.

The growing sales have signalled a continuous demand by consumers to use their smartphones for personal and business purposes, as well as accessing more applications that include popular social networking websites such as Twitter, and Facebook.

With more smartphones in demand, there is a need to create more mobile news content. Companies as well as media conglomerates are responding to the growing trend of relying heavily on smartphones as a primary source of obtaining news and information. Examples of these are news media giants CNN, and BBC, who have developed more smartphone friendly applications for visitors of their websites to receive a range of up to date content including news roundups, weather forecasts, and commenting on published articles.

The GCC Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) market is also experiencing vibrant growth - higher than Latin America, UK, US and Canada - providing the need for SMEs to secure more efficient mobility services to react promptly to customer enquiries. The Middle East, in-line with global market trends is quickly shaping up and is witnessing the impact that SMEs have on national economies.

A recent study that was conducted by HSBC on SME growth indicates that the GCC has a flourishing SME economy with 47% predicting growth over the next six months. Sustaining a competitive edge is critical in an increasingly fast paced environment. Key to that success will be the ability for SME employees to react promptly and operate effectively wherever they are - at home, in the office or traveling -

T

Khaled Kefel Safe in the knowledge that that their communications are reliable and more importantly secure.

At Research In Motion (RIM), we have recognized this fact as an important one for SMEs - the ability to operate seamlessly regardless of location. To address this need we have recently introduced BlackBerry(r) Enterprise Server Express, a version of our server software for SMEs that in conjunction with a BlackBerry smartphone provides allows SMEs to experience the same benefits as a large enterprise for mobility services.

Having the ability to communicate in multiple ways enables employees to keep in touch with their audiences using the medium they prefer. In fact, the two most popular ways for SMEs in the UK to communicate with their stakeholders are email and voice calls. According to the Ipsos MORI survey, 41% of SMEs cite being fast to react to customer queries as the most critical aspect to being successful with customers.

Companies across the region have realized the benefits of enterprise mobility through reduced response time, providing quicker decision making processes, receiving continuous updates, having better collaboration between employees, creating more productivity, and helping to enhance better quality of work. An increasingly widespread network of high bandwidth and decreased latency in the Middle East translates to better reliability for mobile devices and offers a compelling reason for the growing presence of BlackBerry smartphones in Middle Eastern workplaces.

With SMEs in the Middle East bucking the global trend and enjoying significant growth here, during 2010 it’s predicted that these companies will be embracing smartphone technology to improve the service they offer to clients and employees alike. The smartphone revolution has begun, and the industry here is in a pivotal position to provide the support and education needed for the already vibrant SME community to continue evolving beyond the rate of its global counterparts.

TECHNOLOGY

Saturday, April 10, 2010

9

Apple unveils iAd platform

2010 Peugeot 308 CC launched in Kuwait KUWAIT: KAICO (Kuwait Automotive Imports Co WLL) Al-Shaya & Al-Sager, exclusive distributor of Peugeot Vehicles in Kuwait has proudly revealed the all new 2010 Peugeot 308 CC. Peugeot pioneered the concept of “folding roof cars” way back in the 1930s with its elegant 401, 601 and 402 “Eclipse” models, and today continues this with the 207 CC and now the new member to the family, the 308 CC. Compared to the Peugeot 307 CC which it replaces, the 308 CC is longer, wider and has a larger front and rear track to improve its overall dynamic performance. The extra length and width also benefits the occupants by increasing the passenger space compared to the 307 CC. AN ATTRACTIVE DESIGN With its balanced forms, both in coupÈ and cabriolet configurations, the 308 CC cuts an elegant figure: modern and dynamic, with a graphic style emphasized even further by light reflecting contours - an exceptional vehicle with a strong temperament that clearly shows its allegiance to the world of prestige coupÈ cabriolets; Low-slung, with an aerodynamically positioned front windscreen, a deeply profiled lower front panel, Generously sculpted sides with chrome bead decorating the windows, prominent haunches, an original boot lid and spectacular LED rear lights featuring curtain of red light technology, the 308 CC is certainly not lacking in personality.

The exclusive passenger compartment has an undeniable personality, creating the impression of a “Grand Touring” car. The sculpted front seats with their integral head restraints have an inbuilt “Airwave” warm air diffuser which provides warm air around the occupant’s neck. The rear seats mirror this distinctive design and offer rear accommodation that is surprisingly generous foray cabriolet.

The door panels also have an exclusive design, incorporating an elegant and robust metallic inner door handle. The sports steering wheel, special finish of the instrument panel and the black lacquer centre console complete this stylish up-market theme. In terms of the “sporty” or “haute couture” feel of the car, the 308 CC is trimmer with Dynamic fabrics, leather or the exquisite “integral leather” trim.

This now extends to the entire passenger compartment which is rare in this segment. In Black, Vintage or Beige, the attractive interior trims differ according to the range of body colors: fashionable Pearlescent White, subtle Terre d’ombre (dark brown) with an orange spangled effect, and also the established favorites red, black and grey are available.

POWER Peugeot 308CC is powered by 1.6L , 140 HP TURBO, 4 speed tiptronic gear (0-100 km in 11.1 sec),combines top-of- the range performance with reduced fuel consumption. Powerful and with plenty of torque available at low engine speeds, they give the 308CC incredible flexibility and optimize the balance between drivability and fuel consumption.

A TYPICAL CC SPECIFICATION Meticulously designed to enhance the dayto-day comfort and convenience of its occupants, the 308 CC offers a multitude of “everyday” benefits oriented to the best coupé cabriolet lifestyle.

A fully automatic retractable roof Taking centre stage, the fully automatic retractable roof can transform in 20 seconds and its operation can be viewed on the colour display, turning the car into a dynamic coupé or an elegant cabriolet according to the mood of its occupants.

In harmony with the seasons...

The cabriolet configuration can even be enjoyed in cold weather, whether it’s making the most of early spring, saying no to winter or driving with the roof down in beautiful snow

bound landscapes.

Peugeot offers all these pleasures to the occupants of the 308 CC, thanks to its protective architecture, its intelligent air conditioning (which adapts its operation to the cabriolet body shape), heated seats, its wind stop and... its remarkable “Airwave” system built into the front seats, which acts like a scarf by diffusing warm air that can be adjusted for temperature, flow and direction.

Excellent vibration damping: Inside the 308 CC an excellent structural rigidity reduces any vibrations that might affect steering, rear vision or seat comfort. This is the result of carefully placed structural reinforcements: through specific dampers and structural bracing... In short, the 308 CC offers a highly rigid structure and excellent vibration damping demonstrating Peugeot’s coupé cabriolet expertise.

Further typical CC features and equipment testifying to the ability of the 308 CC to anticipate its occupants’ needs include-automatic remote-control locking of interior storage compartments (glove box and storage under the central armrest); Deadlocking of doors and selective unlocking (practical for parking “open”); Centralized control of all four windows; The special “rear seat access” function with electrically-operated seats; LED courtesy lighting in the door mirrors; and not forgetting a usable boot with dedicated storage spaces (including one under the boot carpet for the optional wind stop), laid out to resemble a presentation box. Its capacity (VDA method) is 403 dm3 in the coupé configuration and 226 dm3 under the wind stop in the cabriolet configuration (or 465 liters and 266 liters respectively in “liquid” equivalent).

INTERIOR An indispensable ingredient of comfort and convenience inside the car, the low interior noise levels of the 308 CC in its coupé configuration will clearly set the vehicle apart from its competitors.

SAFETY: A real sensation of tranquility in the passenger compartment...5 EuroNCap stars for adult protection The 308 CC is designed to create a real sensation of tranquility in the passenger compartment... with 6 air bags, ABS, EBFD, ESP, rear sensor, stylishly covered rear rollover bars. The structure is robust and designed to withstand and dissipate front and side impact energy. It is also supplemented by innovative and intelligent means of restraint that the cabriolet body shape dictates. They include a chest/pelvis side airbag built into the front seats and exclusively a side head airbag which is a world first, guaranteeing effective protection of all vital parts of the body regardless of seat position. Within a few milliseconds of the risk of a rollover being detected (less than the time taken to blink an eye), rear active “pop-up” pyrotechnic roll-over protection bars create a passenger survival cell with the strengthened windscreen pillars designed for this eventuality.

STABILITY The 308 CC combines motoring enjoyment with efficient road holding... The wide wheel tracks, the lowered ride height and high-performance suspension specially developed for this body style give the 308 CC excellent potential, together with a real sense of security for the driver. The large 302x26 mm disc brakes are an equal match to the performance of the engines. This is combined with an ESP system that watches over the occupants at all times.

Fumio Tone , GM of KAICO highlighted that the 308CC would attract many young singles and small family buyers in Kuwait who want a compact premium, sporty, stylish cabriolet. He invited all to take a test drive and compare this model before purchasing any new car.

India kicks off 3G auction NEW DELHI: India’s mobile phone firms began bidding yesterday to provide superfast third-generation (3G) services in the booming cellular market-a sale expected to reap the government billions of dollars. The auction of 3G spectrum will propel India firmly into the Internet era where rolling out landline broadband networks has been costly and will heat up the battle for customers in the world’s fastest-growing mobile market.

Leading Indian operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance and foreign-backed Vodafone Essar and Tata DoCoMo are among the companies bidding in the 3G auction, the largest such sale globally in recent years, “The auction has started and it is going smoothly,” a telecom ministry official, who declined to be identified said. The government has budgeted to bring in at least 350 billion rupees or

eight billion dollars from the selloff of 3G airwaves and a follow-on auction of broadband wireless access spectrum that could take days or even weeks.

“The major operators will bid aggressively. It will be very important for them to win 3G slots to retain their high-end subscribers,” Kunal Bajaj, analyst at consultancy BDA Connect said. The reserve price has been set at 35 billion rupees or 789 million dollars for each of the three pan-India 3G licenses across 22 zones while the floor price for broadband spectrum that will begin two days after the 3G auction ends is 17.5 billion rupees. Only two broadband slots will be up for sale.

There are a total of nine operators bidding for 3G spectrum in the country of 1.2 billion people.

But analysts expect the bidding to go much higher because of the

severe crunch for spectrum-the airwaves that carry mobile traffic — in the congested mobile market which has over a dozen players.

“The bids should be double (the base price),” forecast Romal Shetty, executive director for telecommunications at KPMG’s Indian unit. 3G allows mobile phone users to surf the Internet, video conference and download music, video and other content at a much faster pace than the current second-generation or 2G service.

The auction is being carried out using Internet-based bidding with each contender having a password to obtain access to the sale process. One government official told India’s Economic Times newspaper the 3G auction could last 15 to 20 days while the subsequent broadband sale could prolong the process to 45 days. — AFP

CUPERTINO: Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed off a new smartphone operating system on Thursday that features an advertising platform to compete with Google’s, and revealed stronger-than-expected sales of 450,000 units for the iPad. The iPhone 4.0 software will be available on Apple’s hugely popular smartphone this summer, complete with a number of upgrades, including a long-awaited multi-taskingcapability that allows the use of several applications at once.

A version of the iPhone’s operating system is also used on the iPad, and the latest generation of software will come to Apple’s new tablet computer this fall. The new advertising platform for the iPhone and iPad- dubbed iAd-marks Apple’s first foray into a small but growing market, and is sure to please the thousands of application developers who make their living off those devices, providing them with a new revenue stream.

The iPad’s early sales impressed analysts, many of whom expect 1 million units to be sold in the quarter ending June, and roughly 5 million in 2010, though estimates vary widely. “We’re making them as fast as we can. Our ramp is going well, but evidently we can’t quite make enough of them yet so we’re going to have to try harder,” Jobs said, noting iPad sellouts at Best Buy stores. The electronics giant has staked its reputation on the 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet, essentially a cross between a smartphone and a laptop. It is helping foster a market for tablet computers that is expected to grow to as many as 50 million units by 2014, according to analysts.

“I think it’s pretty impressive, five days almost half a million units, and it shows there’s still pretty good momentum behind the first day,” said Gartner analyst Van Baker.

Despite critics who question whether a true need exists for such a gadget, analysts expect Hewlett-Packard, Dell and others to trot out their own competing devices this year. Since the iPad went on sale on April 3, users have downloaded 600,000 digital books and 3.5 million applications for the device, Jobs said. There are already 3,500 apps available for the iPad. “It was above my expectations, frankly,” said Joe Clark, managing partner of Financial Enhancement Group, referring to iPad sales. “The day the original Apps Store launched it was a game change for the iPhone and it will do the same eventually for the iPad.” At a media event at the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters, Jobs said Apple had so far sold more than 50 million iPhones, the smartphone that competes with Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Motorola’s Droid. That implies that the company sold 7 million or more devices in the March quarter, which would be above many analysts’ forecasts.

MOBILE AD WAR Apple is expected to launch the fourth-generation model of its iPhone, which was introduced in 2007, later this year.

Pancreatic cancer survivor Jobs, looking thin but energetic, introduced the iAd mobile platform, which he said had the opportunity to make 1 billion ad impressions a day on tens of millions of Apple mobile device users. IAds will allow applications developers to use advertisements in their apps, pocketing 60 percent of the revenue.

Apple will sell and host the ads.

Jobs harshly criticized the current manner and look of mobile advertising, particularly search ads. He promised that iAds will foster more engaging advertising that will not pull users away from the content within apps.

NEW ARENA Tim Bajarin, president of consulting company Creative Strategies, said it was a dramatic shift in thinking about the delivery of mobile ads, and an obvious move by Apple to set itself apart from Google Inc, which made its name on search ads. “It’s very clear that Jobs believes that ads in the context of apps makes more sense than generic mobile search,” he said.

Apple’s entry into the mobile ad arena had been widely expected. This year, it paid $270 million for Quattro Wireless, an advertising network that spans both mobile websites and smartphone applications.

Google, which already sells advertising on smartphones, agreed to buy mobile ad firm AdMob late in 2009. — Reuters

New iPhone software to include multi-tasking

CALIFORNIA: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces iAd, part of the new iPhone OS4 software, during an Apple special event in Cupertino, California. — AFP

Audi to climb mountain course without a driver SAN JOSE: It can traverse rough terrain, accelerate quickly and negotiate sharp turns like other high-performance sports cars, but there’s one thing that sets this Audi coupe apart: It doesn’t need a driver.

The car, named Shelley, is the latest creation by Stanford University researchers who are developing technology that could help make driving safer and one day allow ordinary vehicles to drive on their own.

The self-driving car will face its biggest test this fall at Colorado’s Pikes Peak, home of the world-famous International Hill Climb that has bedeviled professional drivers with its steep grades and treacherous switchbacks since 1916.

Automotive researchers have already designed experimental vehicles that can drive long distances or navigate city streets without a driver. With Shelley - named after Michelle Mouton, the first woman to win the Pikes Peak race - the Stanford team is developing a car that can drive at high speeds under extreme conditions.

“What we’re trying to do is create an autonomous race car, an autonomous rally car, so a car that can drive itself up to the very limits of handling,” said Christian Gerdes, a

Stanford engineering professor who directs the university’s Center for Automotive Research. It may be years before someone can send the minivan out to pick up the kids from soccer practice, but autonomous car technology has already led to features such as automatic parallel parking and adaptive cruise control, which lets a car handle stop-and-go traffic on its own.

The US Department of Defense has been developing driverless technology that allows unmanned vehicles to perform military missions without endangering soldiers.

Its research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, has been sponsoring autonomous vehicle contests since 2004 with the goal of making one-third of the military’s ground combat vehicles driverless by 2015.

Volkswagen AG, which makes Audi vehicles and is working with Stanford on the Shelley project, has set a goal of creating fully autonomous vehicles by 2028, said Marcial Hernandez, a senior engineer at Volkswagen’s electronics research lab in Palo Alto.

“You’re tired at the end of the day. You just want to relax on your way home. Push the button, and the car gets you home,” Hernandez said. “It’s

really about the car knowing how to drive.” Shelley is an Audi TTS that has been equipped with GPS receivers and can be programmed to follow any route using a digital map. The research team has developed computer algorithms that let the car make real-time adjustments to the terrain and calculate how fast it can go without spinning out of control.

That technology could one day be used to create smarter cars that help motorists avoid accidents when they’re driving fast, said Stanford’s Gerdes. “We hope this will be inspiration for future safety systems, for cars that will help a drivers drive up to the capabilities of the car,” Gerdes said. “So if you’re suddenly on a slippery road, the car should be able to react and keep you safely in the lane, pointed in the direction you want to go.”

At Pikes Peak, Shelley will climb 4,721 feet up the 14,110-foot mountain on paved and gravel roads as it covers the 12.4-mile race course and its 156 turns at high speeds. The feat has never attempted by an autonomous vehicle. Nearly 200 cars, trucks and motorcycles are expected to take part in the 88th annual “Race to the Clouds” on June 27, but

Shelley will have the road to itself when it attempts the course in September. Once the team hits the start button, Shelley will be making all the driving decisions on its own.

“This really represents the ultimate challenge,” Gerdes said. Shelley is the latest autonomous car designed by Stanford’s automotive research center, which is working with major automakers and Silicon Valley tech firms to develop car technology. In 2005, Stanley, a driverless Volkswagen Touareg SUV, won the $2 million top prize in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Grand Challenge, a 132-mile autonomous car race through the Mojave Desert.

Two years later, Stanford’s Junior, an autonomous Volkswagen Passat Wagon, won $1 million when it placed second in DARPA’s Urban Challenge, a city driving contest that requires cars to follow traffic laws and avoid other vehicles. Shelley has already reached speeds of 130 mph (209 kph) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

In May, Gerdes’ team plans to take Shelley to El Mirage Dry Lake in Southern California and attempt to break the world record for fastest autonomous land vehicle. — AP

X-cite by Alghanim launches Ultra Slim Wansa LCD TVs KUWAIT: Wansa has launched in Kuwait its range of Ultra Slim LCD TV’s at All Xcite by Alghanim Electronics stores.

Boasting a thickness that is slightly more than an inch, these high tech televisions also feature Full HD TV’s.

The energy efficient Ultra Slim LCD TV’s has an optimal power control function that reduces power consumption of up to 30%. The feature rich TV set also has multiple input capability including 3 HDMI inputs.

This is the first time that Wansa has introduced a product in this niche segment.

The Ultra Slim LCD is positioned to meet the needs of those customers who want

an elegant sophisticated looking product that does not compromise on the performance.

In fact the Wansa Ultra Slim LCD series is a master performer that boast of mega contrast ratios. The high speed graphics engine ensures crisp crystal

clear picture quality.

As a special limited period launch offer X-cite by Alghanim Electronics is giving away a 19” LCD TV free with the purchase of either the 42” or 47” model.

(The offer is valid from till 11th April only).

HEALTH & SCIENCE

10

Saturday, April 10, 2010

US consumers aim to spend less on beverages NEW YORK: Most US consumers plan to drink about the same amount or less this year, costing beverage companies about $8 billion in sales, according to a study release yesterday. About 74 percent of consumers surveyed said they planned to spend the same or less on soft drinks, according to the study by the business advisory firm AlixPartners.

For carbonated sodas, about 25 percent planned to spend less, while only 18 percent said they planned to spend more.

Eco-friendly is least important attribute for drinkers The trends were similar for other soft drink categories, including bottled teas and sports and energy drinks. Only bottled juices and coffees saw the number of consumers planning to spend more outweigh those who planned to cut back, according to the survey of 1,000 US consumers. When it comes to alcoholic drinks, the study conducted in February found that 89 percent plan to

spend the same or less.

These patterns could further add to the struggle of beverage giants CocaCola Co and PepsiCo, which have both grappled with weak soft drink sales in North America, as well as global beer, wine and spirits players. “There is a meaningful number of consumers who are planning to spend less and there is a meaningful amount of revenue and prof-

it dollars that are up for grabs,” said David Gar field, a co-leader of AlixPartners’ consumer products practice and author of the study.

Given tepid demand, rising consumer frugality and little wiggle room on pricing, Garfield said it was important for global beverage companies to improve their cost structures. “Otherwise, a number of industry players could be in

serious financial jeopardy quite soon.

It’s literally become a matter of survival,” Garfield said. He declined to discuss individual companies but said large players-which include Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Diageo-tend to have greater scale and therefore their costs represent a smaller percentage of total revenue.

“The winning companies are the

ones that recognize they have to continue to drive cost reduction and efficiency while fighting for their portion of the demand curve,” he said. As drink companies battle for market share, they have introduced a bevy of new products, touting health and functionality, among other attributes. When it comes to choosing drinks, AlixPartners found that being environmentally friendly is the least important attribute for consumers, with taste, price and quality topping the list. — Reuters

Astronauts take first spacewalk ‘Remember, space is like chocolate. Go get a big bite’ CAPE CANAVERAL: Two spacewalking astronauts disconnected an old empty ammonia tank outside the International Space Station yesterday and got a new one ready to put in its place. It was the first of three spacewalks planned for Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson, members of space shut-

tle Discovery’s visiting crew. “Remember, space is like chocolate. Go get a big bite,” astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger radioed from inside as the spacewalkers floated out. Anderson quickly disconnected the old tank’s ammonia lines, noting with relief that nothing leaked out.

In this image made from video and released by NASA, astronauts Rick Mastracchio (top) and Clay Anderson are seen exiting the hatch for the first spacewalk on the International Space Station yesterday. — AP

Acting out while asleep: A strange sleep disorder During the day, L awrence Neumann was a mild mannered man, considerate, kind and loving to his wife of many years, Bonnie. In the middle of the night, as they tried to sleep, he became someone else, screaming obscenities, grunting, kicking, punching Bonnie in the arm, violently hurling himself out of bed.

For 16 years, this couple from Streator, Illinois, more than 80 miles southwest of Chicago, had no idea what was happening or why night after night. The local doctors they consulted were at a loss to explain the strange symptoms. “Nobody seemed to know anything about it,” said L awrence, 73, now retired from a concrete block business.

Relief came at long last nearly two years ago in the form of a diagnosis from a neurologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Lawrence had a little known condition, REM sleep behavior disorder, in which people act out their dreams, unconsciously, during sleep. That diagnosis was a turning point, since the condition is easily treatable.

Nine out of 10 people who suffer the disorder are men.

The vast majority are age 50 or older, although new research is finding a higher prevalence of the disorder in younger adults as sleep problems gain more attention, according to Dr Bradley Boeve, a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic and a leading expert on this condition. “Several patients we’ve seen, their spouse will describe first encountering this on their wedding night,” he said.

Estimates suggest one in every 200 adults has the strange affliction, caused by a

dysfunction in a part of the brain that suppresses muscle activity while people are in REM sleep, a dream-filled phase of slumber. The prevalence of REM sleep behavior disorder might be much higher in seniors. Notably, 9 percent of 2,300 adults age 70 to 90 surveyed in Olmstead County, reported symptoms consistent with the diagnosis.

“Even if only half actually have it, that’s still 4 to 5 percent - and that makes it pretty common,” Boeve said.

A growing body of research suggests the condition is a precursor to Parkinson’s dis-

ease and Lewy body dementia in up to 25 to 50 percent of patients. Why this is so is not yet clear, but neurons in adjacent areas of the lower brain stem appear to be implicated, according to Dr Carlos Schenck, one of the physicians who first described REM sleep behavior disorder.

Scientists are monitoring patients closely and hoping that someday drugs will become available to prevent neurodegenerative disorders from developing after the first signs of REM sleep behavior disorder appear.

Asked about patients,

Larry Neumann (right) who has REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, and his wife Bonnie, pose for portrait at their son’s house in Oak Park, Illinois. — MCT

Schenck described men who have jumped through windows while asleep, strangled their bed partners, smashed into dressers, knocked themselves unconscious, and given their wives black eyes.

Typically, their experiences are eerily similar: men dream they’re being chased or hounded by large insects, animals or threatening people and have to defend themselves, Schenck said. Almost inevitably, the dreams are colored by violence and aggression.

One of Schenck’s patients is Cal Pope, 85, of Circle Pines, Minn, who had seen 400 men go down on a ship in the South Pacific in World War II. “I was sure he was reliving that,” said his wife, Rowena, 81, who would watch Cal kick the wall fiercely and threaten to crush people’s heads in the middle of the night. It took nine years for Pope to get a proper diagnosis and treatment.

One night, Rowena watched in horror as her husband got down on all fours, roaring like a lion. “I was chasing other lions around,” Cal remembered, adding that he was frequently “completely worn out in the morning” after nightly episodes. To be evaluated, patients need an expert sleep study, with electrodes placed on their arms and legs to track movements during slumber, said Dr Alon Avidan, an associate professor of neurology at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. A videotape will capture the patient’s activities and other conditions, such as sleep apnea, that can cause similar symptoms. Also, coffee, and certain anti-depressants can serve as triggers for REM sleep behavior episodes. —MCT

Next, Mastracchio unbolted the new tank in Discovery’s payload bay, so that he and Anderson could lift it out and hand it over to a robot arm.

The actual swap-out of the two tanks was going to take place during the second spacewalk Sunday, with the entire job finally wrapping up on the third outing Tuesday.

“OK, Clay, ver y, ver y slow as you know,” Mastracchio told Anderson as they gently hoisted the new 1,700-pound (771-kilogram) tank.

The tank got hung up on a bolt, and Anderson tried to free it with a pry bar. “Go nice and easy, Clay,” Mastracchio urged.

Anderson yanked several times with the pry bar and still the tank was stuck. “We got it!” he called out when the tank finally came free.

Earlier, there were a few tense moments when Mastracchio reported that he bumped a large V-shaped bar in the shuttle payload bay and it was sliding around. He said it did not appear to be off its mooring.

Mission Control later said engineers were “pretty convinced” it was normal for the clamp to move around a little, but just to be safe, warned the spacewalkers to stay away from it.

The V-shaped bar serves as a guide for the cargo carrier that flew up on Discovery and was attached to the space station Thursday. The compartment was unloaded by some of the 11 astronauts inside, as the spacewalk unfolded 215 miles (346 kilometers) up.

Besides the tank replacement job, Mastracchio and Anderson had to collect a science experiment from the front porch of the space station’s Japanese lab and replace a failed station-positioning device. Mastracchio and Anderson were supposed to do some battery work on the far left end of the space station, along the sprawling power truss. But NASA canceled the task this week because of concer n the two might get shocked.

The work instead will be carried out on the next shuttle flight, once the spacesuits are better protected.

Discovery and its crew of seven are supposed to remain at the space station until next Friday. But they likely will spend an extra day there because of the failure of the shuttle’s main antenna. NASA wants the shuttle astronauts to inspect their ship for any signs of micrometeorite damage before they depart.

That way, all the laser images can be transmitted to Mission Control through the station. That would stretch the shuttle mission to 14 days, with a landing on April 19.

Late Thursday, Mission Control informed the astronauts that the shuttle seems to have weathered Monday’s liftoff well and that there is no need for another inspection to check for launch damage.

The sur vey that’s planned before Discovery undocks will be looking for any potentially dangerous impacts from space junk.

Only three shuttle missions remain af ter this one to wrap up space station construction. — AP

BERLIN: Elephant Shaina Pali eats an apple in a pool at the zoo yesterday, after the elephant swimming season officially kicked-off. —AP

health briefs Regulators looking at antibacterial agent in soap WASHINGTON: The US Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it was reviewing the safety of triclosan, a widely used antibacterial agent found in soap, toothpaste and a range of other consumer products. The agency stressed there are no grounds to recommend any changes in the use of triclosan but said some recent studies merited a closer look.

FDA turns attention to radiation therapy devices CHICAGO: The US Food and Dr ug Administration said on Thursday it has received nearly 1,200 complaints in the last decade about devices that deliver radiation treatments to cancer patients and has called on manufacturers to help improve safety.

The FDA sent letters to 93 makers of radiation treatment devices, urging them to attend a workshop to address concerns about patient exposure to excess radiation from medical treatments and procedures.

Nanovaccine helped mice overcome type 1 diabetes CHICAGO: An experimental vaccine containing tiny molecules of an immune-system protein was able to reverse type 1 diabetes in mice, raising hope that it might work in people, Canadian researchers said on Thursday. Type 1 diabetes is caused when certain white blood cells, called T cells, go

haywire and begin attacking insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Lung damage in cotton workers partly reversible NEW YORK: Workers in the cotton textile industry often develop chronic coughs and other respiratory problems, but a new study suggests that their lung function typically improves after retirement. Working with cotton exposes people to dust and endotoxin, a substance produced by bacteria that can trigger inflammation in the airways. It’s known that workers in the industry have increased rates of breathing problems, including chronic cough and chronic bronchitis-persistent inflammation in the lungs that causes symptoms like breathlessness and wheezing. However, it has been unclear whether those effects are at least partly reversible.

Hyperthyroidism ups adults’ stroke risk NEW YORK: Young adults with overactive thyroids are at increased risk of stroke, a new study suggests. But because a young person’s overall likelihood of having a stroke is small-less than 1 percent of individuals with normal thyroid function in the current study had strokes over a five-year period - the risk of stroke associated with hyperthyroidism in young people remains small.

Brain scans reveal signs of premature Alzheimer’s Findings may help with early detection, prevention CHICAGO: People with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease often have clumps of a toxic protein in their brains even though they are perfectly healthy, researchers said on Monday. They said the findings could lead to new ways to identify people most likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, when there is still time to do something about it. “The hope is to one day be able to diagnose very clearly the Alzheimer’s disease process before any symptoms occur, when the brain is still healthy.

Then the treatments would have the best chance of success,” said Lisa Mosconi of New York University Langone Medical Center, whose study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team wants to continue to follow the people in the study to see whether they develop dementia, and they want to replicate the

findings in a much larger study. Several teams have been working on better ways to detect early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in hopes of developing drugs that can fight it before it causes too much damage. Current treatments cannot reverse the course of Alzheimer’s, a mind-robbing form of dementia that affects more than 26 million people globally.

Mosconi’s team used an imaging technique called positron emission tomography or PET with a fluorescent dye called Pittsburgh Compound B that lights up clumps of a protein called beta amyloid that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The team imaged the brains of 42 people with an average age of 65, all with healthy brain function. Of these, 14 people had mothers who had Alzheimer’s; 14 had fathers with the disease; and 14 had parents with healthy brain function. —Reuters

TACOMA: Staff biologist Andy Goldfarb plays with Nah Fun (right) and Chai Li in the Asia Day Room at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.

The two leopards recently arrived from Thailand’s Open Zoo and will go on exhibit next week. — AP

SPECTRUM

12

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Amanda Seyfriedʼs ergie has confessed she cheated on her boyfriends when she was younger. The Black Eyed Peas singer - who is married to actor Josh Duhamel - admits she wasn’t completely faithful to the guys she dated when she was at school. She said: “When I was younger, I used to be the cheater. But I’m not talking about going all the way - I wasn’t doing that in high school!” “I’d have boyfriends and then spring break would come around and I’d be a little bit naughty.” Even though she struggled with commitment when she was a teenager, Fergie is completely committed to Josh who she tied the knot with in January 2009 - and has never been happier.

Speaking about being a wife, she added to America’s Elle magazine: “You grow a deeper love for each other, besides the initial lust and falling in love and all of that. You come to know each other a lot better, you grow together and it makes you love each other that much deeper. “I’m a relationship girl, a romantic.”

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No more surgery for Liz Taylor

uld o w m a Grah r e h t ork a w e n H a h t p she has e e l s rries if if she o r w r e e v r e rath at she n akes her happie said: “I sists th

ess in s. She se it m -old actr lined up becau her loved one love sleeping r a e -y 0 st cts he 4 o with fun. I ju p and d vie proje nd time few mo relax and spe etimes. It’s so d and wake u . I don’t e x m is able to ot working so riven to succe . I want to rela ve been d in ha en I k p is li e r e e le n g ly s o e n e lo other very nt to definit erica, e on’t care. I wa “It’s funny. Th t it is to have sing m A In cu in. rtan ay. tId e, not fo w impo every d ing. Bu someth ave to get up e I realized ho eople around m y movie... just r h r p want to siness, the mo ormal, healthy oing to see eve e happiness in u n sg y a lw admita ch I valu in the b my life. Have t how mu ess.” Despite r’ star me, no ti in g n e s ti g th a in ll a e th alu pin usiness been ev our hap ‘Hangov on the b lly happy. I’ve takes away y on work, the feels destined n a s e being re o be too drive her attention re because sh an website: “I T eti all my life. doesn’t focus she will ever r to The Scotsm eling that this d k e e h in d s d st a fe th a g to do n ’t e ti doesn r career. Sh n. It’s ju have a desire g it. o e h ti s a in ts m e I r h in o e te insis h d k e it li d p kee nue w t feel e and to conti t of persistenc be doing. I jus ol, so I have to your fate and tr ’s lo n to it o a c d e e e k y m l li hav pos beyond ay I fee I’m sup is what it feels like it’s ut in another w ang Showbiz b B d this, an make choices, ns to you.” — e “You do tiny, what happ s your de

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he stunning actress admits she’s quite casual when it comes to style and relies on her ‘Mamma Mia!’ co-star, Dominic Cooper, to help her look good. She said: “I love Stella McCartney and Alexander Wang. But I’m more likely to buy leggings than an elaborate lowcut piece. They both make casual clothes that have something extra going on, which is what I want. I also like Calvin Klein and I love Prada bags. Actually, Dominic bought me a gorgeous bag. He knows a lot about fashion. He’s very stylish.” Amanda looks good in most design-

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endra Wilkinson would let her son attend parties at the Playboy Mansion when he is older. The 24year-old former Playmate - who gave birth to Hank Jr in December - admits she would be happy for her child to attend the notorious bashes thrown by her former boyfriend Hugh Hefner, because she doesn’t think they are as wild as they are perceived. She said: “The Playboy parties aren’t bad. The ones on TV are the bad parties - the real parties are classy and fun.” The blonde beauty, who is married to American footballer Hank Baskett, also revealed she won’t worry about her son when he starts dating until he decides he wants to settle down.

She told Now magazine: “I’m happy for him

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er clothes as she is blessed with an enviable figure but says she has to work hard to maintain it. The blonde beauty told LOOK magazine: “I love to work out. I like it when my body is tight and when I feel good. I’ve been doing it since I was young and I have a big obsession with exercise and wellbeing. I guess it was always in me, but there’s pressure to be a certain way, regardless of my profession. Nobody ever makes me think about losing any pounds, but I don’t weigh that much to begin with as a I have a small frame.”

Jennifer Hudson loves her new slimmer look

Kendra Wilkinson has party plans for son

Fergie was a cheater ame Elizabeth Taylor is refusing to undergo any more surgery. The 78-year-old screen legend - who has had numerous operations in the past 25 years for several health problems - has decided she doesn’t want to go under the knife to receive treatment for Scoliosis, a painful curvature of the spine. The condition has left her wheelchair-bound and with crippling neck pain, but after three visits to a Los Angeles hospital this year she has decided enough is enough. A source close to the star is quoted as saying: “I won’t go so far as to say she has given up but she is adamant she can’t face another operation.

Some mornings her neck is in such acute pain she is barely able to lift her head.

“She spends most of the day sitting in a chair with her head slumped on her shoulder. It’s the only position in which she feels anything like comfortable.” Over the years Taylor has had both her hips replaced, several operations on her back, beaten a brain tumor, undergone surgery to treat congestive heart failure, had a stroke and has suffered from diabetes, pneumonia, osteoporosis and skin cancer.

The ‘Cleopatra’ star - who has been married eight times - took to her twitter page last year to tell her fans how her open heart surgery went. She wrote at the time: “Dear Friends, My heart procedure went off perfectly. It’s like having a brand new ticker. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes... I know they all helped.

Love you, Elizabeth (sic).”

boyfriend gives her fashion tips

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to bring girls home, too. But when it comes to a point where he says to me, ‘Mom, I’ve got a girlfriend and I’m in love with her,’ I’ll be like, ‘Who is this b***h?’ The girl has to win my heart, not his!” Despite having a new baby in her life, Kendra insists she and Hank still make time for fun, both with and without each other. She explained: “I just went away to New York for three days and Hank took care of the baby while I was there. He sent me pictures of his poops every day! “We make time for romance. It’s not going out for fancy dinners, it’s just simple things like a slap on the butt or something like that. “I can’t really go out and go full-on crazy any more, but I’m not going to stop living my life.”

he Oscar-winning actress has managed to shed 60lbs following the birth of her son David Otunga Jr last August and her Los Angeles-based trainer Harley Pasternak admits they had an unusual goal for her to aim for.

He said: “Our goal was to bounce quarters off her butt. I think she looks fantastic. She loves the way she looks but she feels really great.” Harley also claims Jennifer - who was recently announced as the face of Weight Watchers - is so motivated she will often exercise without him asking. He told People magazine: “Unprompted, she’ll start running when I’ve just asked her to walk!” Recently the ‘Sex and the City’ actress admitted she loved joining Weight Watchers and felt like it changed her life for the better. She said: “I decided to do Weight Watchers. I feel like I’ve conquered the world. It’s a lifestyle change, not a diet. I don’t really diet as such. I actually get up and work hard every day. “I make sure I eat right and just make sure I stay focused. It is about being consistent and sticking with it.”

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Kirstie Alley has fun piling on the pounds he 59-year-old actress - whose weight has fluctuated over the years - recently piled on the pounds again and while she didn’t like the results, she had lots of fun doing it. She said: “It was the greatest thing in the world getting fat. Every meal out was an event.

We’d go to Italy and have pasta, truffles and dessert and then plan the next incredible meal. It was a happy-go-lucky time. I never had so much fun.”

However, when Kirstie who proudly displayed her 75lbs weight-loss in 2006 by wearing a bikini on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ tipped the scales at 230lbs, she felt “disgusted”. She told Ladies’ Home Journal

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magazine: “It was insane.

I’m disgusted with myself! I let myself down and, worse than that, I let other people down. People were looking up to me for losing all that weight and then I went and got all chub on them.”

Despite her ever-expanding figure, the ‘Look Who’s Talking’ star admits she was in denial about how bad she looked. She said: “When we get fat, we fool ourselves with every kind of lie imaginable. By 2008, my weight started creeping up and I said, ‘Oh, I still look good at 150. I still look good at 155. I still look okay at 165. Some of my clothes still fit at 175. And nobody was saying ‘You’re fat.’ I was like a bank robber who was getting away with it.”

SPECTRUM

Saturday, April 10, 2010

13

Tattoos of love and war for US Marines in Afghanistan orporal Jones Kendall twists around to read the tattoo in gothic script on his bicep: “Father please forgive me if I have to send them to you Lord”. “This one is for the Taleban,” he grinned.

In Marjah, where thousands of troops are deployed on the frontline against the Taleban in southern Afghanistan, the body art etched across Kendall’s back, arms and torso pay homage to the celestial powers he prays will keep him alive.

On his muscular back is Saint Michael the archangel. “Be my protection against the wickedness and snares of devil,” reads the inscription. For many Marines, frescoes on skin narrate their lives as soldiers and as men, exorcise their fears, honor their comrades and proclaim their loves. Kendall got his first tattoo, the acronym of the US Marine Corps, or USMC, etched on to his arm when he was a 17-year-old in California. In the last three years, he has acquired another four.

USMC is the most popular tattoo for a Marine-often the first, sometimes the last-a rite of passage and affirmation of membership in the corps. “I was sent to Fallujah in 2007,” says Kendall of the infamous bastion of resistance in western Iraq where scores of American troops were killed in bitter fighting after the US-led invasion. “I guess I just didn’t want to die,” he said.

Before leaving Louisiana and shipping out to Afghanistan, he got the Saint Michael for the same reason: “Because I don’t want to die.”

His chest is tattooed with “My judge is God” and his back “Sometimes I wanna drop a tear, but no emotion from a king”.

Kendall’s wife is seven months pregnant and his child will be born before he is due to ship back to the United States in July. Tattoos are an integral sub-culture in the US Marines but commanders have been preoccupied over the extent to which they should limit a phe-

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In this file photo, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, Sergeant Paul Williams, 20, of Fostoria, Ohio, poses to show his tattoos, including two bull dogs (or “Devil Dogs”, a nickname used by US Marines to address each other which was allegedly given to them by the Germans in the First World War), and lyrics from the Dire Straits song Brothers in Arms “Through these fields of destruction/baptisms of fire/I’ve witnessed all your suffering/as the battle raged higher”, for a portrait at the entrance to a bunker at a base in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. —AFP nomenon considered offensive in some cultures, particularly among the conservative Afghan Muslims.

With the United States leading a counter-insurgency strategy trying to win over Afghans and keep the Taleban at bay to bring a quick end to the nine-year war, the general rule is that tattoos should be hidden under uniforms. The Marine corps

Malawi folks serenade Madonna at orphanage

website warns: “The growing trend of excessive tattoos limits worldwide assignability of Marines and detracts from one of the most visible hallmarks of our corps-our distinguished appearance.”

Tattoos are banned if deemed sexist, racist, eccentric or “offensive in nature,” associated with drug use, or “vulgar or anti-American” in

illagers serenaded US pop star Madonna late Thursday at an orphanage she bankrolls that caters for 8,000 orphans in impoverished Malawi. A local band and a choir sang songs praising Madonna as she visited the centre in Namitete, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Malawi’s administrative capital Lilongwe.

She was accompanied by her biological daughter Lourdes and Mercy ‘Chifundo’ James, who was adopted by Madonna last year from the poor southern African nation.

Yacinta Chapomba, director of the Consol homes orphanage centre which is financed by Madonna, said the villagers view the pop diva as their mother for constructing the centre which is complete with a 2,000 capacity hall.

“We are grateful to you for your kind gesture,” she told Madonna.

“The people of this area take you as their mother.” Some 8,000 orphans and vulnerable children come to the centre to learn, get fed and clothed. Some old men and

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women also come here to eat lunch.

Madonna’s charity Raising Malawi benefits some 25,000 orphans throughout Malawi, where there are over a million orphans due to parents dying of AIDS. “I am happy my small contribution has lifted the lives of many,” Madonna told the cheering villagers. “It pains me as a mother to see children suffering because they can’t get food or clothes. I want to use what I have to make the world a better place where everyone will enjoy life.”

She said she would visit Malawi, calling it “my second home, “ twice a year. Madonna first visited Malawi in 2006 to controversially adopt David Banda, who is now four.

She adopted her second Malawian child Mercy, also four, last year. Madonna, who arrived on Monday to lay the first brick for a 15-million-dollar academy she is building in Malawi, was expected to leave yesterday. — AFP

s a younger man, Taiwan’s Lin Yuchun sang for hours on end, trying to get his mind off the sneers he endured because of his portly figure. The roundfaced soprano with the bowl haircut never imagined his voice would one day transform him into an international sensation. But now, he is being compared to Britain’s Susan Boyle, the plain-looking 48-year-old who shot to stardom after singing “I Dreamed a Dream” on “Britain’s Got Talent.” Lin’s Whitney Houston-like rendition of “I Will Always Love You” on Taiwan’s “Avenue to Stardom” talent show last Friday has already racked up some 1.3 million views on YouTube, and the number is climbing fast. For the 24-year-old with the disparaging nickname of “Little Fatty,” the event has been a life-changer. “I now have more confidence in pursuing a singing career,” Lin told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “You don’t have to be a good-looking man or woman to succeed. Just be yourself and try your best.”

Lin said he had long suffered from a lack of selfconfidence because of his plain looks and rotund figure.

“Being fat draws a lot of mockery in our society,” he said. To cope with the pain of his exclusion, he locked himself in his room and sang along with the songs of Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. But the artist who really grabbed him was Houston - particularly the song “I Will Always Love You,” from the soundtrack to the 1992 film “The Bodyguard.” “I played it again and again even though my parents couldn’t stand it any more and asked me to stop,” Lin said. Lin has had a bumpy start to stardom. After graduating from college last year, he

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failed to make much of an impression on another Taiwanese talent show, where judges criticized both his looks and his highpitched voice.

In this undated photo released by Talented Star training school, music shop employee and singer Lin Yu-chun poses in Taipei, Taiwan. — AP “One said I should instead pursue the career of a comedian, and another questioned whether it was right for a man to sing soprano,” he said. Now all that is behind him. “(The show) has reinvigorated me,” he said. Still, Lin said, he is doing his best not to let his new found fame go to his head. “I’m trying not to be overwhelmed,” he said. — AP

Spas and volcano tourism

The scenic route to Iceland recovery t’s post-apocalyptic,” Elouise Carden exclaimed as she basked in steamy, glimmering turquoise water against a backdrop of jet-black volcanic rock. The 28-year-old Londoner and her husband Daniel are among the thousands of tourists who have flooded into Iceland this year, drawn by whale safaris, geo-thermal spas such as this one-and a highly favorable exchange rate. Still struggling to overcome the deep crisis that set in when its major banks collapsed in late 2008, Iceland is hoping the recent surge in tourist numbers will help put it on the route to recovery.

The small, north-Atlantic island just below the Arctic Circle abounds with natural beauty, from myth-like volcanic landscapes and geysers shooting jets of hot water and steam into the air, to the nearround-the-clock daylight in summer that keep Reykjavik’s vibrant clubs and bars rocking through the night. And with the Icelandic krona

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US Pop Star Madonna (second right) holds her Malawian adopted daughter Mercy James (second left) as she is flanked by her biological daughter Lourdes (right) and by the director of Mphandula Child Care Centre Yacinta Chapomba (left) during a visit to the centre on April 8, 2010 in Lilongwe. — AFP

content. Tattoos on the head and neck are prohibited, and officers are limited to a maximum of four tattoos visible in standard shorts and Tshirt. Sergeant Paul Williams is only 22 years old, but his back is already a memory board honoring Marines who have fallen in America’s wars.

“Four of my guys were killed in Iraq,” he said. “Marines are still

getting killed. It’s the least I could do to honor their memory.” Inked into the skin with needles is a pair of boots with an M-16 and a helmet on top-the standard memorial to fallen US service personnel-with two dogs standing guard. Written above is: “Through the fields of destruction, baptisms of fire, I’ve witnessed you suffering as the battle rages higher” from the Dire Straits song, “Brothers In Arms”.

Likewise Corporal L orenzo Robles’s body reveals more than an interview could about this 22-yearold from Anaheim, California.

On his shoulder is written the Marines’ motto “Semper Fidelis,” Latin for “always faithful”. On the other is a ghetto blaster showing his passion for music. On the torso, an ode to “Jacqueline”-his mother who died in 2005. And on his back “muerte vendra”-or “death will come”. “People are afraid of death. I figured out it will help me,” he explained, scratching behind his ear where he had another tattoo removed.

Corporal Daniel Andersen has the Latin adage “Si vis pacem para bellum” (if one wants peace, prepare for war) written on his arms. “I feel Afghans looking at them sometimes.

They are curious about it, but don’t say anything,” he said. His right shoulder is decorated with an eagle, a globe and an anchor, the Marines emblem.

“I plan more tattoos and I don’t care about tattoo policy. It’s my body, these regulation rules are stupid,” he said.

Marines may not get kicked out for tattoos, but body art can dim career prospects. Major Billy Ray Moore says he has warned young Marines that tattoo overkill can limit their chances of becoming officers or instructors. “One day, a Marine had a naked girl tattooed on his shoulder,” said Moore. “We gave him the choice: being expelled or remove the tattoo. He came back later. He’d added a towel on the girland was kept.” — AFP

Taiwan singer conjures up Susan Boyle comparisons

at rock-bottom-the currency has shed over 50 percent of its value in 18 months, from 70 kronur to the euro, to a current 172 kronur-an exotic getaway to Iceland has become increasingly affordable.

Going to Iceland “is really getting popular at home,” said Elouise, who flew in for a romantic weekend. “People realize it’s less expensive. We were even quite worried when we saw the long line at the entrance” to the Blue Lagoon spa, which lies some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Reykjavik, she said. As worldwide tourism figures were dragged down by the global downturn in 2009, the Blue Lagoon and the rest of Iceland saw its own tourist trade boom. Visitor numbers jumped 12 percent last year to around 1.23 million people, or about four times Iceland’s population, with German, French and British visitors topping the list, and the trend was set to continue this year. The financial crisis brought a double windfall for the island’s tourism sector, with

Tourists stand in the Blue Lagoon outside Reykjavik in this file photo. — AFP low prices attracting foreigners while Icelanders hit by the crisis and the staggering cost of foreign currency, have increasingly decided to holiday at home.

Even Mother Nature appears to be working to pad the coffers of Iceland’s tourist industry. L ast

month a minor volcanic eruption turned a previously deserted part of the country into a major attraction, with visitors flocking to catch a glimpse of the still gushing lava.

“I hope the eruption continues for a while since it’s very good for business,” rejoiced Ingi Thor

Jakobsson, who manages a hotel near the glacier Eyjafjallajokull, where the Fimmvorduhals volcano erupted on March 21.

Up until a year and a half ago, Iceland figured among the world’s wealthiest nations thanks to a booming finance sector, but since the banking bust tourism has emerged as one of its only likely saviors.

Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson even used a drawn-out clash with Britain and the Netherlands over compensation for losses linked to one of Iceland’s failed banks, to put in a good word for the tourist industry.

“I call on our British and Dutch friends to come and join the tourism boom we’re experiencing in Iceland right now,” he said recently. “Help us get our money back!” Crowned the “best-value destination for 2010” by Lonely Planet guidebooks, there is no question Iceland is brimming with bargains, with finger-licking fresh fish dinners on the menu for less than 1,500 kronur (10 euros). —AFP

Review

Doors documentary will not light your fire om DiCillo’s “When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors” means to answer the more loony flights of fancy taken by Oliver Stone in his 1991 Doors biopic, but in the process, it creates a formal exercise in redundancy, offering no new insights into the much mythologized rock band. The documentary does boast unseen archival footage of Doors band members Jim Morrison, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore rehearsing, performing, hanging out backstage and, in the case of singer Morrison, defining, for better and worse, the rock-star template that some musicians still follow to this day.

Die-hard fans also will revel in seeing several scenes from “HWY,” an experimental film Morrison made with friends in 1969 out in the Southern California desert. We watch The Lizard King driving and crashing a

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‘66 Mustang fastback, covering a dying coyote with a blanket and lending his camera-ready charisma to the role of aimless drifter.

That home movie footage is more revelatory than anything else in DiCillo’s film, which rehashes the band’s well-chronicled, boom-to-bust history in rote fashion. DiCillo (“Living in Oblivion”) inserts the same 1960s news clips that we have seen a million times - President John F Kennedy, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, and Kennedy’s brother Robert Kennedy being shot; Vietnam; civil-rights marches - to let us know that, yes, the decade was tumultuous. DiCillo constantly fudges with the timeline, though, in a pointless effort to have The Doors’ music directly comment on the major news events. Instead of “The Wonder Years” montages, the movie would have benefited enormously from new interviews

with the surviving band members.

Perhaps legal entanglements prevented that from happening.

Densmore has sued Krieger and Manzarek successfully over the years for using the band’s name and logo in new incarnations.

Undoubtedly, the trio would have had some interesting (and conflicting) things to say about The Doors’ legacy, but their thoughts might not have jibed with the kind of reductive myth-making that DiCillo seeks with his movie.

Johnny Depp provides the narration, dutifully reading the bland script and trying to lend a measure of soulfulness to the textbookquality words.

But, with all due respect to Depp’s trademark cool, the movie’s mojo rises only when the music takes over. In this regard, DiCillo does succeed in explaining why The Doors’ timeless blend of classical, blues, Eastern music and pop continues to resonate

with new generations of listeners.

The personality cult that has grown around Morrison’s selfstyled Dionysus image has played a part in maintaining interest. As the movie notes, toward the end, fans came to the band’s infrequent concerts not for the music, but for the “spectacle.” “It didn’t seem like actual entertainment,” complains one paying customer, following The Doors’ infamous 1969 Miami concert, after which Morrison was charged with a felony count of lewd and lascivious behavior. As bogus as the charge might have been, there’s little disputing the concertgoer’s point.

“When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors,” a Wolf Films/Strange Pictures release, is rated R for some sexual content including references, nudity, drug material and language. Running time: 85 minutes. Two stars out of four. — AP

SPECTRUM

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Oprah Winfrey plans shows on her network alling her new venture “the network built on great intentions,” Oprah Winfrey says her sleeves are rolled up to make the Oprah Winfrey Network “all that I know it can be.”

What will those great intentions look like? Speaking to media buyers Thursday at a presentation by partner Discovery Communications, Winfrey filled in a few of the gaps that have left people wondering just what her round-the-clock network will be since she announced it in January 2008.

She took her audience through a dozen or so new shows planned for OWN after its launch next Jan 1, and offered reassurance that she would be appearing on the 24hour network she’ll also be guiding from behind the scenes. After reigning in daytime for a quarter-century, she moves to nights to host a show called “Oprah’s Next Chapter” that will release her from the confines of a studio and talk-show format for conversations and travel around the world.

“I’ll do it anywhere, I’ll do it anytime, with anybody I want,” she summed up saucily.

Expected to air two or three nights a week, “Oprah’s Next

Creative Mind,” on which the world’s top talent take viewers inside their creative

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Oprah Winfrey chairman of OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, is joined by singer Will.i.am as she announces the new original programming for the channel’s Jan 1, 2011 launch to members of the advertising and media communities. — AP

Chapter” is scheduled to premiere in late 2011. That will be shortly after Winfrey lays to rest her weekday syndicated talk show at the close of its 25th season, a milestone she had said “feels right in my bones” when she made her plans official on the air last November.

A joint venture of Winfrey’s Harpo Inc and Discovery Communications Inc, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network

will replace the Discovery Health Channel and be available in approximately 80 million homes. Winfrey, 56, said her network is “a dream that I’ve been carrying around for years,” explaining that with OWN she meant to “take what I’ve established in daytime inspiring people and giving them hope and new cars - and build on that, 24-7.” The network will also show her in “Behind the Scenes: The

Oprah Show Final Season,” a “docuseries” that gives viewers an intimate look at the final season of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Judging from the sample clip, this show will let it all hang out. Winfrey is seen with her staff preparing for a show dressed down, sans makeup, her hair in rollers.

She had other shows to tout: “Visionaries: Inside the

process, offering an opportunity to see how they bring their art to life. Included on the roster are Academy Award-winning director James Cameron, photographer Annie Leibovitz and performer will.i.am, founding member of the Black Eyed Peas, whom she welcomed to the stage.

“Your Own Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,” which, co-produced with reality TV giant Mark Burnett, will mount a nationwide search to discover the next big TV personality.

“Gayle King Live!” will bring to TV the radio show of Oprah’s best friend.

- “Why Not? With Shania Twain” is a reality show chronicling the trials and triumphs of the hot-selling country music star. (Joining Winfrey on stage, Twain summarized her late-gained philosophy of life: “If I can’t find three reasons not to do it, I say, ‘Why not?”‘). These new series join a slate of previously announced shows including: - “Breaking Down the Bars,” billed as a prison show whose women inmates have a shot at rehabilitation and atonement.

- “Enough Already” will send home-organization guru Peter Walsh on a quest to help people declutter their lives.

- “In the Bedroom with Dr Laura Berman” aims to help couples with their relationships and sex lives.

- “Inside with Lisa Ling” reports on unexpected people from far-flung locations.

- “Kidnapped by the Kids” enables kids to take drastic steps to reclaim Mom and Dad from a routine of too much work and not enough attention for their youngsters.

- “The Miracle Detectives” sets a believer and a skeptic

n her new VH1 reality dating show, Rozonda Thomas, better known as Chilli from the groundbreaking hip-hop group TLC, does not lounge in bubble baths or hand out fake bling to her suitors. Instead, the 39-year-old singer and mother meets bachelors at black-tie affairs and confers with a dating expert, as well as her 12-year-old son.

The cable network synonymous with “Flavor of Love” and its sleazy spin-offs is trading trampiness for fabulousness with a new slate of series starring seemingly well-adjusted rich and famous black Americans. VH1 executive vice president Jeff Olde admits that the shift from oh-no-they-didn’t fare to more mature material is totally intentional.

“We constantly have to evolve and tell our audience different stories,” he says. “I love that we’ve been able to get more diverse with our audience by in large part attracting African-American women to the network. We got them in the door with some shows, and now I’m excited about where we’re going and how we’re telling them different kinds of stories.” With an April 11 debut, “What Chilli Wants” will be partnered on Sundays with “Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business,” focusing on sibling R&B singers Ray J and Brandy Norwood as they attempt to relaunch their music careers, and “Basketball Wives,” starring Shaquille O’Neal’s exwife, Shaunie O’Neal, and five other women with romantic links to basketball players. For the notoriously trashy VH1, it’s not reality as usual. While cat fights will flare up with the “Basketball Wives” and Chilli promises a tiff with her sassy matchmaker on “What Chilli Wants,” these new shows certainly are not selling buzzworthy moments akin to “Flavor of Love” contestants spitting on each other or suddenly defecating on the floor.

“I watched ‘Flavor of Love’ myself,” attests Chilli. “It was definitely one of the shows I thought was interesting, but it made sense for Flav to do it just that way. For me, I wanted to do my show in a way that I would be comfortable with, and I was very happy that VH1 was on the same page with me. They did have a formula that has been working for them.” Olde dismisses any past criticisms of “Flavor of Love” and its offspring, mostly produced by 51 Minds Entertainment, by calling the franchise ignited by black rapper Flavor Flav and his multiracial harem “big fun romantic comedies.” (Olde confirms that “I Love Money 3,” featuring murder suspect and suicide victim Ryan Jenkins, as well as the Jenkins-free “I Love Money 4” will not air.)

Instead of lewd antics from “Flavor of Love” standout Tiffany “New York” Pollard or that toxic spill of “Charm School” women, the network is now interested in transformative experiences from celebrities, such as third season “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino or rapper Sandy “Pepa” Denton from Salt-N-Pepa. The evolution is already proving successful. Premieres earlier this year of “Fantasia for Real” and “Let’s Talk About Pep” topped that same week’s third season debut of “Celebrity Rehab” and episodes of the seedy dating shows “For the Love of Ray J” and “Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair,” which starred “I Love New York” reject Frank Maresca searching for love from his parents’ basement. —AP

Girls present the Spring/Summer Barbie Kids Apparel Collection during the Barbie Fashionistas Fashion Show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yesterday. —AP

VH1 changing tone with new black reality shows

Barbie Fashion Show

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Rufus Wainwright’s tales of women and death S-Canadian artist Rufus Wainwright returns to the solitude of the piano for his latest album, saying the instrument became “a kind of cocoon” as he worked on the music while his mother battled hopelessly against cancer. “All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu,” a stripped-down record haunted by his mother’s death, releases ahead of the London opening of his debut opera, “Prima Donna”, the story of an ageing soprano in 1970s Paris.

At 36, the singer/songwriter has cemented a unique reputation on the pop-rock scene thanks to an intense voice and a penchant for theatrical arrangements. An eclectic musician, he has produced a tribute concert to Judy Garland, put Shakespearean sonnets to song for theatre group Berliner Ensemble as well as penning his opera which debuted in Manchester last summer.

But for the creative dynamo, 2010 began with a tragedy after the demise of his mother, Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle. “I finished the album and she died about three weeks later, so her death was always looming,” Wainwright told AFP. “The piano

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became a kind of cocoon or an egg, a nest where I could just be by myself.” The album, whose title refers to Louise Brooks (“the personification of the femme-fatale”), has an intensity reminiscent of American torch songs.

“All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu” could also have been titled “Five Intense Chicks”, he said, “because there are all these women in my life and my imagination and they’re all on this album: my mother, my sister, Lulu, Shakespeare’s dark lady and prima donna.”

The record’s release precedes the London launch of a new production of his opera, which will premiere at Sadler’s Wells theatre April 12.

“Operas have always come to my rescue emotionally whenever I’ve been in the most difficult of times,” he said. “I treat it as a bit of religion and this is my chance to add to that religion, to write about those gods and create new ones.” Wainwright said however that his first foray into opera shattered some illusions about classical music. “I was struck by how rigid and how cold and intense it is,” he said.

“Prima Donna” was originally commissioned

In this file photo, Canadian-US singer and songwriter Rufus Wainwright poses. — AFP

by the Met, but when the prestigious New York institution saw that the opera was in the language of Bizet, it cancelled.

“It doesn’t sound good in English. I’m a big fan of French opera,” said Wainright, who is a self-confessed admirer of the 19th-century French composer Jules Massenet. “It feels like there’s a lot of room available in that world for new work,” added the artist. After London (April 12-17) and then Toronto (June 14-19), “Prima Donna” will play in the country of its native tongue.

Although Wainwright admits that writing an opera allowed him to “fall back in love with pop,” he is keen to repeat the experience. “I think the next time I’d like to actually clear the deck and really concentrate fully on an opera, probably stop pop for a while, like five years,” the singer said. Wainwright also hinted he is thinking of adapting the Marguerite Yourcenar novel “Memoirs of Hadrian.” “I’ve been thinking about writing a little bit, just because all the composers wrote. I love Berlioz’s writings and Wagner’s pretty interesting too, frightening but interesting still.” — AFP

on the trail of amazing events that couldn’t possibly have happened - or could they?

“Oprah Presents: Master Class” spotlights intriguing personalities hand-picked by Oprah (including Bono, Simon Cowell, Lorne Michaels and Condoleezza Rice) who share their stories, insights and lives.

- “The Swell Life” takes a look inside the family of former competitive surfer Izzy Paskowitz, his wife Danielle and their three children (one of whom is autistic), as well as their surf school business.- “Searching” puts search specialist and genealogist Pam Slaton on the trail of the person who can complete another person’s “life story.” — AP

Tributes flow in for British punk pioneer McLaren unk icon Johnny Rotten and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood led tributes yesterday for pop culture pioneer and Sex Pistols exmanager Malcolm McLaren after his death from cancer aged 64. McLaren died Thursday in a hospital in Switzerland following a fight against mesothelioma, a cancer that most commonly affects the lungs, his girlfriend Young Kim said. Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon led tributes to his ex-manager, issuing a statement signed Johnny Rotten, his stage name when he performed with the band.

“For me Malc was always entertaining, and I hope you remember that. Above all else he was an entertainer and I will miss him, and so should you,” he said. Kim, who was McLaren’s partner for 12 years, said she was by his side when he died, as was Joseph Corre, his son with former partner Westwood, and his step-son Ben Westwood. “He was a great artist who changed the world,” said Kim in a statement.

“Everything he did-his

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named Sex, selling fetishinspired outfits, but Westwood said she had not been in touch with McLaren for a long time. “When we were young and I fell in love with Malcolm, I thought he was beautiful and I still do,” she said in a statement, adding: “The thought of him dead is something really very sad.”

McLaren, a one-time art school student, began to manage the Sex Pistols in 1975, bringing Lydon on board as frontman after spotting him in a torn Pink Floyd T-shirt and green hair.

The band released “God Save the Queen” in 1977, the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee. Its provocative lyrics (“God save the queen/her fascist regime (and) there’s no future/in England’s dreaming”) propelled it to the top of the pop charts, despite the BBC banning it from its airwaves.

It was followed later in the year by the quartet’s only official studio album, “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.” The Sex Pistols embarked on a US tour in 1978, only to split

British impresario and self-publicist Malcolm McLaren (right) poses upon arriving at the Festival Palace for the premiere of US director Richard Linklater’s film ‘Fast Food Nation’ at the 59th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, Southern France, in this file photo. — AFP shop on the King’s Road (in London), his fashion, the music he created, the bands he managed... were expressions of his art,” added the 38-year-old. McLaren was a leading figure in the punk rock scene. As well as the Sex Pistols, the seminal British punk rock band of the 1970s, he managed other acts including the New York Dolls and Bow Wow Wow. Corre described his father as the “original punk rocker” who had “revolutionized the world”, adding: “He’s somebody I’m incredibly proud of. He’s a real beacon of man for people to look up to.” News reports said his remains would be flown back to his native London for burial in Highgate cemetery, in the north of the capital.

Westwood remembered her former partner as “a very charismatic, special and talented person.”

The pair set up a boutique on the King’s Road in London’s hip Chelsea district in the 1970s which they

up after a gig in San Francisco. The band fell out with McLaren, and he later lost a court case over royalties. After his time with the Sex Pistols, McLaren continued to work on music, film and art.

Later projects included composing a theme tune for airline British Airways, BBC radio shows and last year he exhibited his art in Britain and the US. He split his final years living between New York and Paris, according to his girlfriend. Film-maker Julien Temple, who directed the Sex Pistols movie “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle,” called McLaren “an incredible catalyst,” adding: “At that time to be in the room with him was just to be bombarded with energy.

“He was an amazing teacher. Teachers are lucky to inspire one or two people in their class, but Malcolm really inspired generations across the world. He was a phenomenal force to be reckoned with in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.”

— AFP

15

WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Kuwait rallies behind K’s Path animal shelter

Embassy information EMBASSY OF ITALY The Embassy of Italy informs the public that it will be closed for festivities today, tomorrow and April 25 and that the Consular/Visa section will remain closed, for technical reasons on April 6, 2010.

EMBASSY OF UKRAINE The Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait informs that it has started updating the information about Ukrainian citizens, who live and work in Kuwait. In this connection, we are asking you to refer to the Embassy and update your file in consular register in order not to be excluded from it.

For additional information please call: 25318507 ext.106 or visit the embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait (address: Hawalli, Jabriya, bl.10, str.6, house 5). The consular section of the Embassy open every day from 09:30 till 14:30 except Friday and Saturday.

EMBASSY OF INDIA

ollowing the devastating fire at the K’s Path animal shelter on March 22, dozens of Kuwaiti and expat volunteers and supporters have been working at the site in Wafra to try and get the facility rebuilt.

Leading logistics provider Agility also offered their help to the operation. About 37 Agility employees volunteered 400 hours after work to help in clearing up and demolishing the damaged remains of the facility.

Dalal Al-Rushaid who has been out to the shelter several times since the fire says, “The day I heard about the fire, I rushed straight over there to help in any way I could. I have been back at every available opportunity because I want to see the shelter rebuilt as quickly as possible”.

Asked why she chose to volunteer for K’s Path, Dalal’s response was, “Animals are God’s creatures on earth, and they have rights and needs just like us. We should all be helping them.”

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Many animal lovers also put their skills to use with the dogs that are still being homed on the farm in Wafra. Dogs were walked, bathed, fed and given lots of love and care by the dedicated volunteers who made the long journey out to help look after the dogs that have had been through so much. A large number of volunteers were also helping to care for the ani-

been truly supportive and caring to the plight of these animals.”

Ramez Adel, a long time supporter and volunteer explains, “I was really saddened by the news of the fire and the loss of animals’ lives. I was feeling really upset about it, but I felt that I can help by visiting the shelter on a daily basis, walking and playing with the dogs and helping to relieve

mals that are being temporarily homed at the Royal Animal Hospital. K’s Path volunteer coordinator, Lynda Dryden, says, “I have been so impressed and grateful for the number of calls of help and also the number of young Kuwaitis that have been so willing to help the animals. Everyone has been pitching in and helping out wherever needed. Everyone has

their stress. I was so happy to see so many people fostering these wonderful animals, making donations and helping to rebuild the shelter again”. Adel goes on to say, “K’s Path has done so much over the years to raise awareness of not only animal welfare, but environmental issues also.”

Ayeshah Al-Humaidhi, Executive Director of K’s Path

was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, “The sheer number of volunteers that have turned up to help with care of the animals as well as demolition has been tremendous. We certainly owe them a debt of gratitude.

Individuals have showed up both in Wafra and RAH prepared to do anything. Men have turned up with a tool box and shovel asking how they can help. The show of support has brought tears to our eyes at times so thank you to all of you that have put aside time to help.”

“The work, however, is still not over. In addition to the remaining demolition work to be done, then the rebuilding, there are still other projects at the shelter that need attention. A second corral needs to be built for the donkeys, so if there are any strong men and women who would like to come along and help dig holes and get the fence up, we would love to see you there on Friday or Saturday, or both.”

English Tea Lounge delights sea-food lovers n its never ending quest to cater to the most diversified tastes, The English Tea Lounge available at the Sheraton Kuwait and at the Avenues Mall, is holding an exclusive “Salmon & Prawns” promotion” ranging from salmon crepe rolls, salmon quiche to scrumptious Kunafa wrapped fried prawns. For dessert lovers, the three layered stand also includes an array of mini sweet delights not to mention, the English Tea Lounge’s signature scones served with all condiments.

For those seeking a moment of respite from the fast pace of life, The English Tea Lounge is your choice. Whether its morning or afternoon coffee or herbal infusions, the sophisticated luxury is authentically English to the last detail. The menu is simple yet refined, dedicated to the traditions of English Tea drinking. Hot savories, tartlets, pastries, fondue not to mention the traditional English scones, are served in an atmosphere that is reminiscent of an English country house with soothing sounds of the harp to unwind your soul.

I

Lavanya Jeyakumar

Vijay Anant

Mohsin Mustafa

Nasmah Maqsood

Wimansa Chathurangi Batugedra

Cyril Joy

Shubhangi Singh

Harikrishna

S Pavithraa

Gokul Raj

Alan James Kanjirathinkal

Rahul Ravindran

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

EMBASSY OF PHILIPPINES The Embassy of the Philippines wishes to inform the Filipino community in the State of Kuwait, that the recent supreme court decision to extend the registration of voter’s applies only in local registration in the Philippines under Republic Act no.

8189 and does not apply to overseas voters which is governed by Republic Act no.

9189, hence it has no impact on the plans and preparations on the conduct of overseas absentee voting. The overseas absentee voting for presidential elections will start on 10 April 2010 and will continue uninterrupted until 10 May 2010 daily at the Philippine Embassy. Registered overseas absentee voters are advised to schedule their days off in advance to avoid complications in their schedules. Qualified voters are encouraged to get out and vote.

GIS bags gold medal in 2009 IAIS exams he students of Gulf Indian School have brought success and glory with yet another stupendous result in the IAIS - a diagnostic test jointly organized by Macmillan India Ltd and Educational Assessment Australia of the University of South Wales, Australia. GIS scored 16 high distinctions and 160 distinctions. Twelve students were awarded medals for securing the highest grades across Kuwait in IAIS 2009 in different categories.

T

IEI holds general meeting he Institution of Engineers (India) Kuwait Chapter held their 16th Annual General Meeting on March 29, 2010 at the premises of Holiday Inn down town. Chairman Joseph Panicker welcomed the members and thanked them for their support to the committee. He thanked Kuwait Society of Engineers, Indian Embassy, Jabriya Indian School and all well-wishers who supported IEI, Kuwait chapter in all its endeavors. Sushant Chakarvarty General Secretary being out of station due to some work assignment authorized Treasurer to present the Annual General Secretary’s report in his absence and Engr. Rishab Nath Jain the

T

Treasurer presented audited accounts.

Election was announced for the new Executive Committee of IEI Kuwait Chapter for the year 2010-2011. Syed Masih Haider Zaidi was elected unanimously as the Chairman second time and the following members were declared elected unanimously by the Election council. Mohammad Fareedul Haq Imadi as General Secretary; D M Tripathi as Treasurer; Joseph Panicker as Ex- Officio Chairman; and Sushant A Chakravarty as ExOfficio General Secretary. Abby E Chandy presented the vote of thanks. Dinner was served at the end of the program.

The medal winners are as follows: 1. Lavanya Jeyakumar (Class IV) - Computer Skills 2. Vijay Anant (Class V) - Computer Skills 3. Mohsin Mustafa (Class VI) - Science

4. Nasmah Maqsood (Class VII) - English 5. Wimansa Chathurangi Batugedra (Class VII) - Science 6. Cyril Joy (Class VII) - Computer Skills 7. Shubhangi Singh (Class VIII) - Science, Math and Computer Skills 8. Harikrishna (Class IX) - Computer Skills 9. S Pavithraa (Class IX) - Science 10. Gokul Raj (Class IX) - Science 11. Alan James Kanjirathinkal (Class X) - Computer Skills 12. Rahul Ravindran (Class XII) - English The GIS family congratulates the students on their commendable performance.

CAT finalists honored ceremony to recognize the young talent in Professional Accountancy was organized in ISCP. This was graced by the Director of British Council (Kuwait) Stephen Forbes as the Chief Guest who awarded the shields to CAT Finalists on successful completion of their Certified Accounting Technician Course under the one year Fast Track program. The ceremony was attended by distinguished commercial personalities and parents of the awardees to congratulate and encourage on the way to their career in Business and Finance.

The awardees were Aiman Farrukh, Mehwish Javed, Umair Saeed, Mubashir Hussain, Fatima Amin, Hassan

A

Mehmood, Saad-ul-Hassan, Ammar Raza, Zeeshan Naeem and Anwar Masood. The Principal of the School Anjum Masood focused the importance of financial literacy in his address and appreciated the role of the faculty and the devotion of successful students. The Guest Speaker Mohammad Sadiq (Director Sales - OTIS) highlighted the growing demand of Business Education in the region. The chief guest admired the efforts in promoting the quality education and assured his full co-operation on behalf of British Council. The owner of the school Abdullah Rashid AlHuffaiti presented souvenirs to the chief guest and the guest speakers.

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

SPECTRUM

16 CROSSWORD 954

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Calvin Aries (March 21-April 19) You may show an interest more in cultural or literary affairs soon.

This may mean your co-worker friends are encouraging you to attend some function that they enjoy. A popular performance or educational or yoga class is the talk of the day. You are apt to obtain financial benefits through the simple power of attraction. This is a very lucky day for making plans or decisions and discovering answers to just about any problem you may discover. You are able to share your thoughts with superiors and you should feel successful and able to cope with most situations at this time. A guide or older person will give you advice if you need it. Plans are in the making for an exciting weekend. It could be time to take that helicopter ride!

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You could be spreading yourself too thin with regard to time and work. When this occurs you may have the tendency to take the stress out on yourself. This could be in the form of food or in rebelling against responsibilities in general.

There is a chance that you could make some wrong choices today, in particular as they affect your professional life. Take your noon break away from your desk! This will help relieve frustrations. It may be good to set aside time for a little rest and relaxation this afternoon. Your taste in art is enhanced. You may agree to take a walk with a family member after work for exercise and enjoy building upon the relationship. Maintaining good relationships with loved one/s is the perfect way to promote a smile.

Pooch Cafe

ACROSS 1. 100 pyas equal 1 kyat.

4. Divulge information or secrets.

8. Counting the number of white and red blood cells and the number of platelets in 1 cubic millimeter of blood.

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

12. English monk and scholar (672-735).

13. The syllable naming the sixth (submediant) note of a major or minor scale in solmization.

14. A wad of something chewable as tobacco.

16. An edge tool used to cut and shape wood.

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

18. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

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

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

25. The United Nations agency concerned with civil aviation.

26. Any of various strong liquors distilled from the fermented sap of toddy palms or from fermented molasses.

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

32. Soreness and warmth caused by friction.

35. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

41. The content of cognition.

44. A member of a Mayan people of southwestern Guatemala.

45. (Scotland) A small loaf or roll of soft bread.

47. A defensive missile designed to shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.

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

49. Relating to the Urdu language.

50. An enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of many body compounds (e.g., epinephrine and norepinephrine and serotonin).

51. A nonmetallic largely pentavalent heavy volatile corrosive dark brown liquid element belonging to the halogens.

DOWN 1. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

2. A member of an extinct North American Indian people who lived in the Pit river valley in northern California.

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

4. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or BB gun.

5. A unit of length of thread or yarn.

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

7. A shop where a variety of goods are sold.

8. Group of people related by blood or marriage.

9. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

10. Of or relating to or characteristic of the Republic of Chad or its people or language.

15. A city in east central Texas.

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

22. A bottle with a stopper.

23. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

24. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

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

28. Being ten more than one hundred ninety.

29. Unknown god.

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

33. Relating to the deepest parts of the ocean (below 6000 meters).

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

36. Toward the mouth or oral region.

37. (Babylonian) God of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools.

38. (Islam) The man who leads prayers in a mosque.

39. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

40. Projectiles to be fired from a gun.

42. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

43. To make a mistake or be incorrect.

46. A soft yellow malleable ductile (trivalent and univalent) metallic element.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Your management abilities are in high focus and you use them to express your talents in turning negatives into positives. This may mean emotions as well as budgets. Your suggestions in the work place will help to make a positive difference today. This afternoon you and friends are learning some new work technique. This could mean you are learning to work on the plumbing in the house or learning to change the oil in your vehicle. Friends are our only true riches and the satisfaction that comes from accomplishing things in cooperation with others is something no one can take away from you. These are the things you will enjoy today either at work or away from the work environment. Domestic and personal needs come to your attention this evening.

Non Sequitur

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Stay on track with your work and keep your attention focused this morning.

There will be interruptions from co-workers today. You will, however, be persuasive with others in speech and communication. Any question about procedure will go your way. This afternoon is the time to push your ideas—just make sure you have proof or examples of how your ideas can work. Others will listen and praise you for having put everything together so well. You can be a vital force for good in the community at this time. You could also inspire and help to mold young people through volunteering in a community organization. Young people can bring you as much joy and respect as you give to them, especially through your acknowledgment of their individuality.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You begin a self-improvement program today. You’re more energetic and competitive than usual. You have plenty of initiative to put your plans into action. Emphasize your personality, skill or productivity, not your foolishness or reckless daring. You tend to be more sympathetic and understanding toward those in need. You are sensitive to beauty and aesthetic imagination and you may enjoy some quiet meditation for stress relief this afternoon. You may cherish a secret romance. Your activities involve art, music, hospitals, institutions and places of retreat. This afternoon there is a high probability that you will be on the winning team! You can come in first in sports, a contest, or perhaps, an election. Become a pioneer—learn a new skill.

Zits

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Today you concentrate on organizing your desk, your duties and your organization skills. Perhaps this is a time for serious thinking, getting down to the essential thoughts. Studies of all kinds are in order now.

Today is a blessing in disguise. A desired opportunity will come to you if you are patient. Stay centered! This afternoon some new information received from a sibling or neighbor helps to broaden your understanding of some sensitive situation from the past. Don’t take this lightly—react with concern. People find you fascinating and charming. The work you have been doing on stress relief techniques is working; you may find a healing in process. A romance or deepening of an ongoing relationship may now seem ideal.

Libra (September 23-October 22) You want to be recognized by co-workers for your hard work. There is a possibility that during this time, work as a whole will come under scrutiny—you receive positive recognition. This is helpful in making you feel secure in the professional realm. In-depth discussions and probing conversations find you at your mental best. Your analytical abilities are at a high point now. This is a great time to be with others and to work together. It is important not to let personal, especially romantic relationships, interfere with your work. For the most part, you should try to merge both work and pleasure in the best productive way possible. Do not worry too much about how others think of you or your abilities. This is a good time to get things done.

Mother Goose and Grimm

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Progress in business seems good through the end of this month. Work, achievement and ambition are things that mean a lot to you.

Your inner security will play a principal role now, although your material security will still be high on your list of priorities. You may find yourself letting go of lots of odd and ends around your work arena today. Cleaning off desk, table and cabinets may keep you busy all afternoon. Perhaps this is inventory time for your company or some other similar process, because you are not the only one cleaning up and clearing away. You may find yourself looking for a little romance this evening or enjoying some emotional release. This is a year of opportunity.

Keep a balance and perspective.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Good practical job-related thoughts and ideas are easy to find.

You have the ability to exchange ideas with superiors in problem-solving situations. You have a natural sense for communicating with others, especially those younger than you. You are energized; giving you a sense of invulnerability in everything you do. It would be a good idea to check all aspects of a project you are working on to find out where your energies can be best applied. This evening you could find yourself put to good use by your friends or the young people in your neighborhood. Your thinking process is good, making communications with friends easy. This is a good time to clear the air of any problems. Expressing affections come easily now.

Yesterday’s Solution

yester

Yesterday’s Solution

to

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

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

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

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

Word Sleuth Solution

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Yesterday and today have been quite stressful but you are learning to identify, change or eliminate the things that cause you stress. This is a good time to concentrate on your body so that the stress does not affect you physically. Detoxify, tone and balance can be the secrets to good health—a massage might be fun. Others, especially those in authority, could place demands and restrictions on your day. Take this one step at a time and know that everything passes on through our experience and prepares us for the next step. There is good news today in the financial sector of your horoscope. If you are looking for a new way to gain income, seek something that will challenge your mind. Loved ones may want to help—have an open mind.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) The way you live and perhaps your career and basic life direction, may be changing. An outgoing and very expressive cycle of experience has begun for you. Now, more than ever, you want to be admired and appreciated by others; to do and create things that stir their hearts. You are able to get at what is beneath and behind problems today. Whether it is an unhappy customer or the testing of new equipment, it is your discoveries that will make the difference. Real insight into your own inner workings could surface as well. A gathering of friends or neighbors may create opportunities to chat about dreams. Someone has a dream diary and everyone enjoys the conversations. You enjoy the evening and not having so many responsibilities for a change.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You like hard work and the chance to solve problems and that is exactly what you do today. Impractical but workable ideas will begin to come to you more and more. Keep a notebook near you—these ideas will be taking a practical form in your mind for use at a later time. You have a heightened desire to succeed professionally as well as in personal matters. Communicating successfully with others is important to you. Your timing should be perfect and those around you should find you most spontaneous and alive. Quick answers, great wit and a surplus of insights and solutions are at hand for you to use. This is a good time to write and speak with real originality. Any love relationship that has been shaky in the past may begin a slow return now.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

17 ACCOMMODATION Fully furnished independent room available for single lady from 1st May 2010, location Salmiya, Balajat street, rent KD 100. Tel: 65895389. (C 2109) An Indian lady (nurse) from Kerala looking for a working lady, (preferably Keralite) in a fully furnished central A/C flat in Amman Street, opp to Apollo hospital Salmiya, flat having tel, internet, cable TV, rent KD 35. Contact: 94914817/7919485.

(C 2110) 10-4-2010 Single room accommodation available for bachelor (1 or 2) in Abbassiya opposite to Choice restaurant from 01.05.2010. Tel: 60630829.

(C 2105) One room available for Indian couple or 2 bachelors located at the back of Wataniya building, Sharq.

Contact: 66526098, 22494826. (C 2101) Sharing accommodation available for Muslim small family or couple in furnished flat with all facilities from May 2010. Interested please call 66212821.

(C 2106) 8-4-2010 Sharing accommodation one room available in Sharq CAC, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms flat beach side need small Indian family or two working ladies or one executive bachelor sharing with Keralite family. Rent KD 100. Call: 99849490.

(C 2097) Accommodation available for a single person with a decent Hindu bachelor in good location in Hawally.

Convenient to all bus routes from 1st May 2010. Contact: 99821445. (C 2098) Sharing accommodation available for one bachelor to share with Goan family in two bedroom flat at Abbassiya near Unique store no. 2, opposite to Uduppi palace hotel from April 2010, kitchen facility is also available. Contact: 66110593 or 24313908.

(C 2100) Sharing accommodation available in mulhaq room close to Khaitan Jamiya and bus stop with a Mangalorean Catholic bachelor (kitchen and bathroom

attached). Rent KD 25. Call 66036893. (C 2089) 7-4-2010

FOR SALE Nissan Pathfinder, 2002, black, lady driven, km 121,000, well maintained.

Mob: 60685236. (C 2107) Home furniture most from Ikea, electrical appliances for sale at Salmiya. Phone: 66799157, 66491539.

(C 2111) 10-4-2010 Toyota Corolla XLi 1.8, model 2004, silver color, excellent condition, done 82,000 kms only, cash price KD 2,100.

Contact: 97213518. (C 2103) Vintage 35mm folding Kodak camera, made in Germany, it was produced between 1950-1957, excellent condition, and price for Vintage collector. Serious buyers call 66554052 (9 am to 9 pm). (C 2102) 8-4-2010 Honda Accord Coupe (single door), full options, sunroof, 130,000 mileage, 1999 model, black color. Price KD 1,200. Call: 55522942.

(C 2096) 7-4-2010

MATRIMONIAL Orthodox parents settled in Cochin invite proposals for their son, 27/180, MBA, working with a financial firm

in Kuwait, from parents of God-fearing professionally qualified girls preferably working in Kuwait. Please respond: pro.vaidyan@gmail.com (C 2094) 8-4-2010 Seeking alliance for Muslim girl, 27/148, MBA (Mar & Fin) CFA level 1 candidate.

Prof qualified (M.Tech/MBA) grooms settled Kuwait or abroad are invited. Contact email: abdulksahib@hotmail.com (C 2095) 7-4-2010

TRANSPORT Transport available from Abbassiya to Salmiya, Hawally, Shaab, Al-Seef hospital (Ras Salmiya), Maidan Hawally, Farwaniya, Mina Abdullah.

Tel: 99262556, 55204127, 99305742, 55568346.

(C 2104) 8-4-2010

SITUATION VACANT

A nursing student requires assistance in microbiology, biochemistry pharmacology, & pathology. Call 66385870 after 4 pm.

10-4-2010 Required English speaking maid. Please contact: 99824597. (C 2099) 7-4-2010 English speaking maid for a family living in Mangaf.

Preferably Indian. If interested, please contact 60055305 or 23741548 5-4-2010

SITUATION WANTED I need suitable job as accountant, I am B.Com + MBA, three years experience in Kuwait, valid driving license. I can handle financial packages and good management reporting skills.

Please call: 55355954. (C 2108) 10-4-2010 Indian female (MBA in HR), 10 years experience in HR/Administration, specializing in recruitments, PMS, MIS reports & overall Admin functions. Proficient in MS Office. Good communication skills. Please contact: 66634322. (C 2084) I am searching a suitable job as sales executive. I have valid Kuwaiti driving license, my qualification is MBA (Marketing). I have good PR skills. I can join within a week. Please call: 55355954. (C 2085) Indian male graduate BSc 30+ years experience mainly in purchasing dept (import) in Kuwait with furniture Mfr/Trd cos. Seeking suitable position in Kuwait.

Contact: 66461406.

(C 2088) 5-4-2010

CHANGE OF NAME Sivakumar Krishnamoorthy, Passport No: F9732440, new name K Abdurrahman.

(C 2090) 6-4-2010

Flight Schedule Arrival Flights on Saturday 10/04/2010 Airlines Flt Route Royal Jordanian 802 Amman Wataniya Airways 188 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 306 Cairo Gulf Air 211 Bahrain Turkish A/L 772 Istanbul Ethiopian 620 Addis Ababa Pakistan 239 Sialkot DHL 370 Bahrain Emirates 853 Dubai Etihad 305 Abu Dhabi Qatari 138 Doha Jazeera 503 Luxor Jazeera 637 Aleppo Jazeera 527 Alexandria Jazefra 529 Assiut Kuwait 412 Manila/Bangkok British 157 London Kuwait 416 Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur Falcon 201 Bahrain Kuwait 204 Lahore Kuwait 302 Mumbai Fly Dubai 053 Dubai Kuwait 676 Dubai Kuwait 284 Dhaka Kuwait 362 Colombo Kuwait 344 Chennai Emirates 855 Dubai Kuwait 332 Trivandrum Arabia 121 Sharjah Qatari 132 Doha Etihad 301 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 425 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 182 Bahrain Gulf Air 213 Bahrain Middle East 404 Beirut Alnaser 711 Baghdad/Najaf Wataniya Airways 102 Dubai Jazeera 165 Dubai Jazeera 447 Doha Jazeera 113 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 171 Dubai Egypt Air 610 Cairo Jazeera 457 Damascus Kuwait 672 Dubai Kuwait 774 Riyadh Wataniya Airways 432 Damascus Royal Jordanian 800 Amman United A/L 982 Washington Dc Dulles Egypt Air 621 Assiut Wataniya Airways 422 Amman Jazeera 257 Beirut Saudi Arabian A/L 500 Jeddah Kuwait 552 Damascus Nas Air 745 Jeddah Saudi Arabian A/L 2350 Jeddah Qatari 134 Doha Mahan Air 5066 Mashad Kuwait 786 Jeddah Jazeera 173 Dubai

Time 00:05 00:30 00:50 01:05 01:15 01:45 02:15 02:15 02:25 02:55 03:25 05:15 05:45 06:05 06:10 06:15 06:30 06:35 07:00 07:10 07:50 07:55 08:00 08:10 08:20 08:20 08:25 08:40 08:40 09:00 09:25 10:25 10:45 10:45 10:50 10:55 11:05 11:05 11:10 11:20 12:50 12:55 13:10 13:15 13:20 13:35 13:35 13:35 13:40 14:10 14:10 14:30 14:35 14:55 15:00 15:05 15:45 15:55 15:55

Iran Aseman Kuwait Nas Air Mihin Lanka Jazeera Global Etihad Emirates Cargolux Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Saudi Arabian A/L Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Arabia Srilankan Syrian Arab A/L Wataniya Airways Kuwait Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Wataniya Airways Jazeera Iran Air Jazeera Kuwait Singapore A/L Bahrain Air Kuwait Kuwait Rovos Fly Dubai Indian Oman Air Middle East Jet A/W Egypt Air KLM Wataniya Airways Jazeera DHL Gulf Air Emirates Qatari Kuwait Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Lufthansa Egypt Air Bangladesh Jazeera India Express Egypt Air Kuwait Wataniya Airways Jazeera

6791 118 703 403 427 061 303 857 792 402 215 510 493 239 433 125 227 341 304 104 106 542 502 548 618 202 177 607 459 674 458 344 562 614 093 061 993 647 402 572 618 0445 404 183 372 217 859 136 178 429 449 117 636 612 043 185 393 606 788 108 263

Mashad New York Medinah Colombo/Dubai Bahrain Baghdad/Najaf Abu Dhabi Dubai Luxembourg Beirut Bahrain Riyadh Jeddah Amman Mashad Sharjah Colombo/Dubai Damascus Cairo London Dubai Cairo Beirut Luxor/Sharm El Sheikh Doha Jeddah Dubai Mashad Damascus Dubai Singapore/Abu Dhabi Bahrain Amman Bahrain Kandahar/Dubai Dubai Chennai/Mumbai Muscat Beirut Mumbai Alexandria Amsterdam Beirut Dubai Bahrain Bahrain Dubai Doha Geneva/Frankfurt Bahrain Doha Abu Dhabi Frankfurt Cairo Dhaka Dubai Kozhikode/Cochin Luxor Jeddah Dubai Beirut

16:00 16:15 16:20 16:40 16:45 16:50 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35 17:35 17:40 18:00 18:30 18:35 18:35 18:45 18:50 18:50 18:55 18:55 18:55 19:05 19:05 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:40 19:55 20:00 20:05 20:15 20:15 20:20 20:30 20:35 20:40 20:50 21:00 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:35 21:40 22:15 22:25 22:25 22:35 22:55 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:15 23:25 23:55 23:55

Departure Flights on Saturday 10/04/2010 Airlines Flt Route Jazeera 528 Assiut Shaheen Air 442 Lahore Egypt Air 607 Luxor KLM 0447 Amsterdam Indian 576 Goa/Chennai Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt Turkish A/L 773 Istanbul Ethiopian 620 Bahrain/Addis Ababa DHL 371 Bahrain Pakistan 240 Sialkot Emirates 854 Dubai Etihad 306 Abu Dhabi Qatari 139 Doha Wataniya Airways 101 Dubai Royal Jordanian 803 Amman Jazeera 164 Dubai Jazeera 112 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 422 Bahrain Jazeera 446 Doha Gulf Air 212 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 181 Bahrain Rovos 094 Dubai/Kandahar Jazeera 456 Damascus Wataniya Airways 431 Damascus British 156 London Jazeera 256 Beirut Fly Dubai 054 Dubai Jazeera 170 Dubai Kuwait 671 Dubai Kuwait 551 Damascus Wataniya Airways 421 Amman Arabia 122 Sharjah Kuwait 101 London/New York Emirates 856 Dubai Kuwait 773 R1yadh Qatari 133 Doha Etihad 302 Abu Dhabi Kuwait 785 Jeddah Kuwait 547 Luxor/Sharm El Sheikh Wataniya Airways 401 Beirut Gulf Air 214 Bahrain Kuwait 165 Rome/Paris Middle East 405 Beirut Wataniya Airways 303 Cairo Jazeera 172 Dubai Kuwait 541 Cairo Global 062 Baghdad Jazeera 432 Mashad Jazeera 492 Jeddah Alnaser 712 Najaf/Baghdad Jazeera 238 Amman Kuwait 501 Beirut Wataniya Airways 201 Jeddah Egypt Air 611 Cairo Jazeera 426 Bahrain Jazeera 458 Damascus Wataniya Airways 105 Dubai Royal Jordanian 801 Amman Kuwait 561 Amman

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

Time 00:05 00:10 00:15 00:30 00:50 00:50 02:15 02:30 03:15 03:30 03:45 04:00 05:00 06:50 07:00 07:00 07:15 07:35 07:40 07:45 07:50 08:00 08:05 08:10 08:25 08:35 08:40 09:00 09:00 09:10 09:10 09:20 09:30 09:40 10:00 10:00 10:10 10:25 10:55 11:35 11:35 11:45 11:50 11:50 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:05 12:15 12:15 12:30 13:00 13:45 13:55 13:55 14:00 14:30 14:30 14:35

Egypt Air Jazeera Kuwait Wataniya Airways Kuwait Nas Air Saudi Arabian A/L Qatari Saudi Arabian A/L Jazeera Kuwait Iran Aseman Mahan Air Nas Air Etihad Mihin Lanka Kuwait Wataniya Airways Emirates Gulf Air Kuwait Jazeera Arabia Wataniya Airways Jazeera Kuwait Cargolux Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Srilankan Wataniya Airways Syrian Arab A/L Wataniya Airways Wataniya Airways Kuwait Iran Air Bahrain Air Jazeera Singapore A/L Fly Dubai Kuwait Oman Air Middle East Jet A/W Egypt Air Wataniya Airways KLM Jazeera Gulf Air DHL Kuwait Emirates Falcon Kuwait Qatari Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera United Arab A/L Kuwait Egypt Air

622 176 673 403 617 746 505 135 9350 182 613 6792 5065 704 304 404 787 305 858 216 543 262 126 511 116 285 792 448 184 428 228 407 342 107 321 283 604 345 512 457 062 331 648 403 571 619 187 0445 240 218 373 675 860 102 381 137 301 205 480 526 502 981 411 613

Assiut Dubai Dubai Beirut Doha Jeddah Jeddah Doha Jeddah Dubai Bahrain Mashad Mashad Riyadh Abu Dhabi Dubai/Colombo Jeddah Cairo Dubai Bahrain Cairo Beirut Sharjah Riyadh Abu Dhabi Chittagong Hong Kong Doha Dubai Bahrain Dubai/Colombo Beirut Damascus Dubai Sharm El Sheikh Dhaka Isfahan Bahrain Sharm El Sheikh Abu Dhabi/Singapore Dubai Trivandrum Muscat Beirut Mumbai Alexandria Bahrain Bahrain/Amsterdam Amman Bahrain Bahrain Dubai Dubai Bahrain Delhi Doha Mumbai Islamabad Sabiha Alexandria Luxor Washington Dc Dulles Bangkok/Manila Cairo

14:40 14:55 15:10 15:10 15:35 15:45 16:00 16:20 16:30 16:50 16:55 17:00 17:05 17:10 17:35 17:40 17:55 18:05 18:05 18:05 18:10 18:15 18:20 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:45 18:55 19:00 19:10 19:10 19:25 19:30 19:40 19:45 20:00 20:05 20:10 20:15 20:45 20:50 21:00 21:15 21:20 21:30 21:35 21:35 21:40 21:50 21:55 22:00 22:10 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:20 23:30 23:40 23:40 23:55

TV PROGRAMS

18

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Orbit / Showtime Listings

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Big Love Dawson’s Creek Inside the Actors Studio One Tree Hill Dawson’s Creek The Closer Inside the Actors Studio Big Love The Pacific Survivor inside the actors Studio One Tree Hill Inside the Actors Studio The Closer Bones Dawson’s Creek The Pacific Survivor House CSI Glee Drop Dead Diva The Closer Nip/Tuck

00:45 01:40 02:35 03:00 03:30 04:25 05:20 05:45 06:10 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:45 09:40 10:05 10:55 11:50 12:15 12:45 13:40 14:35 15:30 16:25 17:20 18:15 18:40 19:10 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50

Animal Cops Phoenix Untamed & Uncut Animal Witness Animal Witness Animal Cops Houston Miami Animal Police Going Ape Animal Battlegrounds E-Vets: The Interns RSPCA: On the Frontline Meerkat Manor Pet Rescue The Planet’s Funniest Animals The Planet’s Funniest Animals Animal Cops Houston E-Vets: The Interns The Planet’s Funniest Animals Animal Planet’s Most Outrageous Britain’s Worst Pet Animal Crackers Dogs 101 Life in the Undergrowth Life in the Undergrowth Life in the Undergrowth Life in the Undergrowth Life in the Undergrowth Predator’s Prey Predator’s Prey Galapagos Cell Dogs Untamed & Uncut Untamed & Uncut Animal Cops Miami Galapagos

00:25 01:15 01:45 02:15 03:00 03:55 04:40 05:30 06:20 06:45 07:05 07:25 07:50 08:10 08:30 08:55 09:15 09:35 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:45 14:30 15:15 16:00 16:45 17:30 18:15 19:15 20:15 21:00 21:20 22:10 Vyle 22:45 23:15 23:45

Days That Shook The World Red Dwarf Red Dwarf Robin Hood Holby Blue The Weakest Link Days That Shook The World Bargain Hunt Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Garden Rivals Garden Rivals Eastenders Eastenders Eastenders Eastenders Bargain Hunt Bargain Hunt Bargain Hunt Bargain Hunt The Weakest Link The Weakest Link The Weakest Link Holby City Holby City Doctor Who Doctor Who Confidential Robin Hood The Life And Times Of Vivienne Suburban Shootout The Smoking Room Jack Dee: Live At The Apollo

00:25 Come Dine With Me 00:50 Come Dine With Me 01:15 Glamour Puds 01:35 Glamour Puds 02:00 Living In The Sun 02:50 What Not To Wear 03:40 Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes 04:30 Daily Cooks Challenge 05:00 Cash In The Attic USA 05:20 Hidden Potential 05:45 What Not To Wear 06:35 Cash In The Attic USA 06:55 Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes 07:45 Cash In The Attic USA 08:10 Antiques Roadshow 09:00 Antiques Roadshow 09:50 Antiques Roadshow 10:40 Antiques Roadshow 11:30 Antiques Roadshow

Wanted on SperMovies 12:20 13:10 13:40 14:30 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:45 18:10 18:35 19:00 19:25 19:50 20:40 21:30 22:20 23:10 23:35

Antiques Roadshow Saturday Kitchen Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Bargain Hunt Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Big Chef Takes On Little Chef Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me

01:15 02:45 05:00 07:15 09:00 10:45 13:00 15:15 17:00 19:00 21:00 22:45

Shallow Grave-18 Wall Street-18 We Are Marshall-PG15 Gone For A Dance-PG15 Teknolust-PG15 Nicholas Nickleby-PG15 As Good As It Gets-PG15 Chasing The Horizon-PG15 What Rats Won’t Do-PG15 Amalia-PG15 Heights-PG15 Topsy Turvy-PG15

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 02:55 03:20 03:50 04:20 04:45 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:55 08:50 09:45 10:10 11:05 12:00 12:30 12:55 13:50 14:45 15:40 16:35 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Border Security Destroyed in Seconds Miami Ink Street Customs 2008 Fifth Gear Fifth Gear Mean Machines Mean Machines Mythbusters How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Nextworld Brainiac Mythbusters How Stuff’s Made Twist the Throttle Street Customs Berlin Fifth Gear Fifth Gear American Chopper Heartland Thunder Built from Disaster Mega Engineering Extreme Explosions How Stuff’s Made Destroyed in Seconds Destroyed in Seconds Rampage!

Ultimate Survival Extreme Fishing River Monsters Rampage!

00:30 01:20 01:45 02:10 02:35 03:00 03:50 04:45 05:10 05:40 06:10 07:00 08:00 09:00 09:55 10:50 11:45 12:40 13:35 14:30 15:25 15:55

The Colony Sci-Fi Science Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Weird Connections Beyond Tomorrow Race to Mars How Stuff’s Made Green Wheels One Step Beyond The Colony Junkyard Mega-Wars Robotica Science of the Movies Science of Star Wars Science of Star Wars Science of Star Wars Ten Ways Ten Ways Ten Ways How Stuff’s Made Weird Connections

16:20 16:50 17:45 18:40 19:05 19:30 20:20 20:45 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Weird Connections NYC: Inside Out Mighty Ships Patent Bending Patent Bending Nextworld Sci-Fi Science Sci-Fi Science Science of the Movies Mythbusters Mythbusters Nextworld

00:00 00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:45 03:10 03:35 04:00 04:25 04:45 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:00 10:30 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:00 14:25 14:50 15:15 15:35 16:00 16:25 16:45 17:00 17:25 17:50 18:10 18:35 19:00 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:45 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:15 23:40

Hannah Montana Handy Manny Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Imagination Movers Special Agent Oso Suite Life On Deck Replacements American Dragon Kim Possible Famous Five Fairly Odd Parents Phineas & Ferb Fairly Odd Parents Suite Life On Deck Handy Manny Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Imagination Movers Special Agent Oso Fairly Odd Parents Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Hatching Pete Hannah Montana Jonas Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas & Ferb Fairly Odd Parents Replacements Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Fairly Odd Parents Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Minute Men Hannah Montana The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Replacements Hannah Montana Jonas Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Sonny With A Chance

06:00 06:25 06:50 07:15 07:40 08:05 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:05 12:30 12:50 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30

Jimmy Two-Shoes American Dragon Pokemon DP: Battle Dimension Phineas & Ferb The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Suite Life On Deck I’M IN THE BAND K9 ADVENTURES Zeke & Luther The Suite Life of Zack & Cody I’M IN THE BAND Suite Life On Deck SHREDUCATION NEXT X EUROPE Zeke & Luther Phil Of The Future Iron Man: Armoured Adventures Aaron Stone Kid vs Kat Phineas & Ferb The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Suite Life On Deck

16:00 16:30 17:00 18:30 19:00 19:10 19:40 20:05 20:30 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:15

I’M IN THE BAND Zeke & Luther Minute Men SHREDUCATION NEXT X EUROPE Phineas & Ferb The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Zeke & Luther American Dragon Suite Life On Deck Iron Man: Armoured Adventures Power Rangers Jungle Fury Aaron Stone

00:15 00:40 01:30 02:20 03:15 05:05 06:00 07:45 08:35 09:00 09:25 11:05 11:30 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 15:25 17:10 18:00 18:25 18:50 19:40 20:30 21:20 22:10 22:35 23:00 23:50

Streets Of Hollywood E!es Extreme Hollywood Sexiest Ths Dr 90210 Beauty Queens Gone Wrong 25 Most Stylish E! News The Daily 10 Ths Kendra Kendra Ths Ths Ths Ths Ths Ths E! News The Daily 10 Ths E!es E!es Keeping Up With The Kardashians E! News The Daily 10 Dr 90210 Bank Of Hollywood

00:00 00:00 01:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 05:00 06:00 06:00 07:00 07:00 08:00 08:00 09:00 09:00 10:00 10:00 11:00 11:00 12:00 12:40 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:20 15:00 15:10 16:00 16:00 17:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 23:00

Food Network Challenge Great British Menu Grill It! with Bobby Flay Iron Chef America Grill It! with Bobby Flay Barefoot Contessa Giada At Home Barefoot Contessa Great British Menu Nigella Express Great British Menu Nigella Express Great British Menu Iron Chef America Great British Menu Iron Chef America Chopped Great British Menu Barefoot Contessa Kitchen Criminals Barefoot Contessa Best Thing I Ever Ate Food Network Challenge Everyday Italian Iron Chef America Everyday Italian Teleshopping Nigella Express Teleshopping Nigella Express Nigella Express Teleshopping Nigella Express Teleshopping Barefoot Contessa Great British Menu Teleshopping Great British Menu Great British Menu Teleshopping Great British Menu Great British Menu Return of the Chef

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:05 04:00 04:55 05:20 06:10 06:35 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

A Haunting FBI Files Undercover Fugitive Strike Force Forensic Detectives Real Emergency Calls Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghosthunters Forensic Detectives FBI Files Undercover The Prosecutors Forensic Detectives FBI Files Code of Silence Disappeared Royal Inquest Forensic Detectives FBI Files Undercover The Prosecutors Forensic Detectives FBI Files Code of Silence Disappeared Ghost Lab A Haunting A Haunting Psychic Witness

01:30 03:30 05:15 07:20 08:55 10:30 12:10

Belly Of An Architect Stigmata The Moderns Prime Target Ski Patrol Rich Kids The Hawaiians

14:25 16:05 17:45 20:10 22:00 23:35

Heart Of Dixie Crossplot F.I.S.T The Playboys UHF Evidence Of Blood

00:00 00:30 01:30 02:30 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:30 08:30 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:30 15:30 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:30 21:30 22:30 23:00 23:30

Chasing Time Lonely Planet Don’t Tell My Mother...

By Any Means Bondi Rescue Cycling Home With Rob Lilwall Surfer’s Journal Treks In A Wild World Madventures Chasing Time Lonely Planet Don’t Tell My Mother...

By Any Means Bondi Rescue Cycling Home With Rob Lilwall Surfer’s Journal Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Food School Word Of Mouth Word Travels:The Truth Behind Word Travels:The Truth Behind Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Treks In A Wild World Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Food School Word Of Mouth Word Travels:The Truth Behind Word Travels:The Truth Behind Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Treks In A Wild World Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Food School

00:00 How I met your mother 00:30 Two and a half men 01:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 01:30 The Colbert Report 02:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 03:00 Cougar Town 03:30 American Dad 04:00 Sauturday Night Live 05:00 How I met your mother 05:30 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 06:30 Everybody Loves Raymond 07:00 Dharma & Greg 07:30 Three sisters 08:00 Frasier 08:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 09:00 The Nanny 09:30 Family Biz 10:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 10:30 Dharma & Greg 11:00 Frasier 11:30 The Bernie Mac show 12:00 The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson 13:00 Two and a half men 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 14:00 The Nanny 14:30 Three sisters 15:00 How I met your mother 15:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Family Biz 17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 17:30 Frasier 18:00 The Bernie Mac Show 18:30 Dharma & Greg 19:00 How I met your mother 19:30 Gary Unmarried 20:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 21:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Curb your Enthusiasm 22:30 Flight of the Conchords 23:00 Sauturday Night Live

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

What’s Good For You 10 Years younger Look A Like The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Monique Show The Tonight Show with Jay Leno GMA (repeat) GMA Health What’s the Buzz What’s Good For You Look A Like 10 Years younger Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The View The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Martha Stewart Show Parenting Job Club GMA Weekend Live GMA Health What’s the Buzz The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Downsize Me The View The Ellen DeGeneres Show Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno The Monique Show

00:00 The Wackness-18 02:00 Charlie Bartlett-PG15 04:00 Wall-E-FAM 05:45 Honeydripper-PG15 08:00 No Reservations-PG15 10:00 Before The Rains-PG15 11:45 Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix-PG 14:00 Shine A Light-PG15 16:15 No Reservations-PG15 18:00 Evan Almighty-PG15 20:00 Defiance-PG15 22:30 Taken-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Severed-R Mutant Chronicles-PG15 The Last Drop-PG15 Street Fighter-PG Underground-PG15 Solo-PG15 Kung Fu Hustle-PG15 Underground-PG15 Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead-18 Wushu Warrior-PG15 Hide-PG15 The Last Resort-PG15

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Lucky Break-PG15 The Deal-PG15 Another Cinderella Story-PG I.Q.-PG The Salon-PG15 Slap Shots 3-PG15 High Heels And Low Lifes-PG15 Lock And Roll Forever-PG Lucky Break-PG15 All Night Long-18 My Name Is Bruce-PG15 Hot Fuzz-18

00:00 Simba The King Lion-FAM 02:00 Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles 04:00 Atom Nine Adventures-PG 06:00 House Arrest-FAM 08:00 Dinotopia Quest For The Ruby Sunstone-FAM 10:00 Atom Nine Adventures-PG 12:00 The Missing Lynx-PG 14:00 Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles16:00 The Pagemaster-PG 18:00 Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything-PG 20:00 How To Eat Fried Worms-FAM 22:00 The Missing Lynx-PG

00:00 01:00 02:00 02:30 03:00 04:00 04:30 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00 23:30

Demons Demons Sex and the City Sex and the City Beauty and the Geek Every Body Loves Raymond Coach Life on Mars Better off Ted Billable Hours Flash Forwards Every Body Loves Raymond Coach Beauty and the Geek Life on Mars Flash Forwards Better off Ted Billable Hours Every Body Loves Raymond Coach Demons Demons Life on Mars Survivor : Samoa Emmerdale Coronation Street Psych Psych In Treatment In Treatment 24 Sex and the City Sex and the City

01:00 02:00 02:30 04:30 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:45 16:45 17:00 19:00 19:30 23:00 23:30

Premier League Preview Show Premier League World Premier League Premier League Preview Show Scottish Premier League Highlights Premier League Classics Premier League Classics Premier League Preview Show Premier League World Scottish Premier League Highlights Premier League Premier League Preview Show Goals Goals Goals Premier League Classics Scottish Premier League Highlights Premier League World Live Toshiba Super Saturday Live Premier League Live Toshiba Super Saturday Live Premier League Live Toshiba Super Saturday LIVE UFC Premier League Classics Premier League

00:00 00:30 04:30 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:45 16:45 17:00 19:00 19:30 21:30 23:30

Premier League Preview Show Premier League Darts European Tour Weekly European PGA Tour Highlights Mobil 1 The Grid ICC Cricket World AFL Toyota Premiership Premier League Preview Show ICC Cricket World Super League Premier League Preview Show Futbol Mundial Live Toshiba Super Saturday Live Premier League Live Toshiba Super Saturday Live Premier League Live Toshiba Super Saturday Premier League Premier League Scottish Cup

00:00 02:00 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 07:30 08:00 08:30 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:00 17:30 18:00 20:00 22:00

Super League European Challenge Cup Premier League Preview European Tour Weekly V8 Supercars Live Super 14 Premier League Preview Premier League World Live Super 14 Live Super 14 Live Super 14 ICC Cricket World AFL Toyota Premiership Futbol Mundial Live Scottish Cup Live Super 14 Super 14

00:00 01:00 02:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:30 09:30 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:00 16:00 17:00 19:00 19:30 20:00 23:00

UFC Unleashed UFC Wired UFC 111 UFC Unleashed UFC Wired UFC All Access UFC Wired UFC Ultimate Knockouts UFC 112 Countdown Live NRL Premiership Live NRL Premiership UFC All Access UFC Ultimate Knockouts UFC 112 Countdown Live Premier League UFC All Access Live UFC 112 Countdown Live UFC 112 UFC - The Ultimate Fighter

01:00 December Boys-PG15 03:00 Fool’s Gold-PG15 05:00 Madagascar 2-PG 07:00 Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who!FAM 09:00 Made Of Honor-PG15 10:45 W-PG15 13:00 Lost Holiday: The Jim And Suzanne Shemwell Story-PG 15:00 Diamonds Pt 1-PG15 17:00 Made Of Honor-PG15 19:00 High Noon-PG15 21:00 Wanted-18 23:00 The Lodger-R

01:50 04:00 06:30 07:00 08:55 10:40 12:55 14:40 16:20 18:20 20:20 22:00

Victor/Victoria The Dirty Dozen The Screening Room The Big Sleep It Happened At The World’s Fair North By Northwest The Wings Of Eagles Hearts Of The West Lust For Life Silk Stockings Lies My Father Told Me The Champ

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:55 04:50 05:40 06:30

Dinosaur Secrets Mega Movers Cities Of The Underworld Ax Men 2 Tunnellers The Universe Mega Disasters Dinosaur Secrets

07:20 08:10 09:00 09:55 10:50 11:40 12:30 13:20 14:10 15:00 15:55 16:50 17:40 18:30 19:20 20:10 21:00 22:50 23:40

Mega Movers Cities Of The Underworld Ax Men 2 Tunnellers The Universe Mega Disasters Dinosaur Secrets Mega Movers Cities Of The Underworld Ax Men 2 Tunnellers The Universe Mega Disasters Dinosaur Secrets Mega Movers Cities Of The Underworld First Invasion: War of 1812 Ancient Discoveries 3 Battles B.C.

00:00 Dr 90210 01:00 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 01:30 The Dish 02:00 How Do I Look?

03:00 Split Ends 04:00 Dr 90210 05:00 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 06:00 How Do I Look?

07:00 Style Star 07:30 Style Her Famous 08:00 Clean House 09:00 What I Hate About Me 09:30 What I Hate About Me 10:00 Ruby 11:00 How Do I Look?

12:00 Clean House 13:00 Dude, Where’s Your Style?

14:00 Style Special 15:00 Stylemaker: Andre Leon Talley 15:30 Growing Up Fabulous 16:00 Glamour’s 50 Fashion Do’s and Don’ts 17:00 25 Most Stylish 18:00 Glamour’s 20 Wedding Do’s and Don’ts 19:00 40 (More) Crimes of Fashion 21:00 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 22:00 Dallas Divas & Daughters 22:30 Dallas Divas & Daughters 23:00 Dr 90210

00:00 Globe Trekker 01:00 Angry Planet 01:30 The Thirsty Traveler 02:00 Essential 02:30 Globe Trekker 03:00 Intrepid Journeys 04:00 Angry Planet 04:30 Portugal’s Wild West 05:00 Globe Trekker 06:00 Planet Food 07:00 The Thirsty Traveler 07:30 Angry Planet 08:00 Globe Trekker 09:00 Essential 09:30 Essential 10:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 11:00 Distant Shores 11:30 Distant Shores 12:00 Distant Shores 12:30 Distant Shores 13:00 Globe Trekker 14:00 Planet Food 15:00 Chef Abroad 15:30 Chef Abroad 16:00 Floyd On Africa 16:30 Travel Today 17:00 Globe Trekker 18:00 Globe Trekker 19:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 20:00 Floyd Uncorked 20:30 Chef Abroad 21:00 Chef Abroad 21:30 Sophie Grigson in the Souk

The Wackness on Show Movies

Star Listings (UAE Timings) STAR 20:50 22:40 00:00 01:30 03:05 04:55 06:45 07:15 08:45 10:15 12:05 13:30 15:20 17:30 19:55

Movies One Fine Day Scary Movie 54 A Teacher’s Crime French Kiss One Fine Day VIP Access 54 Babylon A.D. French Kiss Nuclear Hurricane Tin Men What Lies Beneath Independence Day Fight Night

STAR 20:00 22:00 23:00 00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30

World American Idol [V] Tunes [V] Tunes Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

[V] Tunes [V] Tunes [V] Tunes American Idol Stone Undercover Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Scrubs The Bold And The Beautiful

08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00

The Bold And The Beautiful The Bold And The Beautiful The Bold And The Beautiful The Bold And The Beautiful October Road American Idol [V] Tunes Stone Undercover Scrubs According To Jim According To Jim According To Jim Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

American Idol Samantha Who? Rules Of Engagement Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Granada TV 20:00 The Friday Night Project - Mischa Barton 20:30 Astounding Celebrities 21:00 I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

(Series 7) 22:00 City Lights 23:00 I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

(Series 7) 00:00 At Home With The Braithwaites (Series 2) 01:00 SuperAgents 01:30 Poor Little Rich Girls (Series 2) 02:00 Big Bad World (Series 1)

03:00 Blue Murder (Series 2) (Double Bill) 05:00 I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

(Series 7) 06:00 Emmerdale (WEEKEND OMNIBUS) 07:30 Help I’m A Teen Mum 08:00 City Lights 09:00 Young, Posh and Loaded 09:30 The Sunshine Girls 10:00 60 Minute Makeover (Series 3) 11:00 Come Dine With Me (Primetime Series 2) 12:00 Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (Series 3) 13:00 Stars In Their Eyes (Series 12) 14:00 Prime Drama: Cheers & Tears (Series 3) The Scattering 16:00 Come Dine With Me (Primetime Series 2) 17:00 Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (Series 3) 18:00 Stars In Their Eyes (Series 12) 19:00 Prime Drama: Cheers & Tears (Series 3) The Scattering Channel [V] 21:00 [V] Special 22:00 [V] Tunes 22:30 [V] Tunes 23:00 Backtracks 23:30 Double Shot 00:00 Loop 00:30 [V] Tunes

01:00 01:30 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 17:30 18:00 19:00

[V] Plug Loop Backtracks XO [V] Tunes [V] Plug The Playlist [V] Special [V] Tunes [V] Tunes Backtracks Double Shot [V] Tunes XO Loop Backtracks [V] Countdown [V] Tunes [V] Tunes Loop [V] Tunes [V] Tunes [V] Tunes XO Loop Backtracks [V] Countdown

Fox New 00:00 Happening Now

01:00 The Live Desk 03:00 Studio B with Shepard Smith Live 04:00 Your World with Neil Cavuto 05:00 Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck 06:00 Special Report with Bret Baier 07:00 The FOX Report with Shepard Smith 08:00 The O’Reilly Factor 09:00 Hannity 10:00 On the Record with Greta Van Susteren 11:00 The O’Reilly Factor 12:00 Hannity 13:00 On the Record with Greta Van Susteren 14:00 Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck 15:00 Fox Report 16:00 Special Report with Bret Baier 17:00 Hannity (repeat) 18:00 The O’Reilly Factor (repeat) 19:00 FOX and Friends Saturday hosts David Briggs, Alisyn Camerota & Clayton Morris 20:00 FOX and Friends Saturday hosts David Briggs, Alisyn Camerota & Clayton Morris 21:00 FOX and Friends Saturday hosts David Briggs, Alisyn Camerota & Clayton Morris 22:00 Bulls and Bears 22:30 Cavuto On Business 23:00 FORBES on FOX 23:30 Cashin’ In National Geographic Channel 20:00 Don’t Tell My Mother... -Don’t Tell My

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NEWS

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Agility to pay US $600 million in fraud case KUWAIT: Kuwait’s logistics firm Agility is to pay the US government $600 million to settle fraud charges, an Arabic-language daily reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources. Agility and the US government reached a preliminary agreement and the sum would be paid over three years, the report said. The Kuwaiti firm, formerly Public Warehousing Co KSC, is in talks to

resolve an indictment accusing it of overcharging the US Army on supply contracts in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan.

The company has delayed the release of its financial results until tomorrow and requested a trading halt on its shares, pending clarity on talks. The settlement will mean the return of US government business to Agility, but it was not clear yet

if that would be in full or in part. It said the settlement could be announced “in a day or two.” “It (the settlement)... could include some slight changes, especially regarding the return of all contracts or the majority of them,” the paper said. Kuwait has become a major logistics base for US forces since the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. — Reuters

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Models defy Taleban Continued from Page 1 garrison-controlled central area of Peshawar where Indian Bollywood tracks and western pop blasted out of loudspeakers. The show took place j u s t 1 5 m i n u t e s ’ d r i v e f ro m t h e American consulate-targeted Monday

by Islamist militants armed with guns, grenades and suicide car bombs who killed five security officials. “I am real-

ly happy that the fashion show was successfully held in this stressful environment of Peshawar,” Maheen Raza, a dress designer said. While some models and designers came from the relatively moderate capital Islamabad, others live in Peshawar, one of the most conservative big cities in the country where fashion shows are rare.

The city lies on the edge of Pa k i s t a n ’ s t r i b a l b e l t - b r a n d e d b y

Washington a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth, where a secretive US drone war is targeting top Islamist militant commanders. The US consulate attack was the most audacious this year in Pakistan, where insecurity, particularly in the northwest, has raised concerns in the United States as Washington steps up the fight in Afghanistan and against Al-Qaeda. —AFP

Kuwait thwarts, bans pro-ElBaradei demo Continued from Page 1 page of its evening edition yesterday, under a bold red headline: “Egypt tells America in an urgent message: Stay where you are.” Al Ahram also published yesterday interviews with several opposition lawmakers and two university professors, all denouncing what is described as US

interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.

Tuesday’s protest was organized by the April 6 youth movement that backs the unofficial candidacy of former UN nuclear watchdog chief and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammed ElBaradei. Officials had said Tuesday’s protest was banned and illegal.

New York-based Human Rights Watch

also voiced its concern over the crackdown and condemned the “lawless brutality” with which police dispersed the demonstrators. Egypt has been under emergency law, which severely restricts civil rights, for 29 years during the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who will stand for re-election in 2011. (Materials from the wires were used in this report)

Israel PM shuns nuclear summit Continued from Page 1

NEW YORK: A New York City Police Department officer stands watch in New York’s Times Square. Murders jumped 22.8 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period in 2009, with 97 people killed. —AFP

Spike in shootings, murders shakes NY NEW YORK: A rampage by gun-slinging youths through New York’s Times Square this week underscored a surge in murders and shootings that has some New Yorkers fearing a return to the city’s dark past. The European-style pedestrian zones, bicycle lanes and flower pots of Times Square epitomize Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s clean and tourist-friendly Big Apple.

But it was here during the night from Easter to Monday that four people were shot and wounded during a melee involving scores of surging youngsters. The mayhem-which Bloomberg described using the dreaded 1980s-era term “wilding”-highlighted growing fears that crime is coming back to a city that proudly claims to be the safest in America. With murders up and police numbers down, New Yorkers’ feel-good factor is teetering.

“I’m very worried about it,” said Cydelle Berlin, a psychologist who works with potentially troubled youths, as she walked through Times Square on Thursday. “It shocks me. These wildings and guns-it’s terrible.” Police statistics show murders jumping 22.5 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period in 2009, with 109 people killed. Brooklyn led the table with 37 murders in the first 11 weeks, while murders in glitzy Manhattan, home to Wall Street and some of the most expensive real estate on the planet, nearly doubled to 16.

Overall shootings-like the Times Square incident or an apparently random hail of gunfire wounding three people in Brooklyn on Wednesday-rose 16 percent in the first 11 weeks of the year, compared to 2009. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, a local official, warns of sliding back to “the bad old days.” In fact, things are not nearly as dire as they used to be. The city’s nadir, in 1990, saw 2,262 people murdered, according to official statistics, and entire neighborhoods deemed no-go areas.

By contrast, there were just 466 homicides last year, when Bloomberg won election to a third term, a record low. That extremely low base can make any percentage increase artificially dramatic, says Police Department spokesman Paul Browne. “We’re fighting our own reputation here,” he said.

“There’s an expectation that every year the number (of murders) will go down, because it has, with the exception of one year, since 2002.”

He pointed out that 55 crimes were committed daily in the subway in 1990, whereas today there are only five, he said. “This is still the safest big city in the United States.” Browne dismisses what he considers tabloid newspaper “hype.” However, fear of crime is growing and there is general acceptance that a reduction in the police force-brought on by the recession-could be dangerous.

The force has been cut to about 34,000, which is more than 5,000 officers

less than when Commissioner Raymond Kelly took over in 2002. As the city fights to balance the books, another 1,000 to 3,000 of “New York’s finest” could go by next year, reducing staffing to pre-1990 levels. “It’s a cause for concern,” Kelly told a news conference. Not only is the blue line getting ever thinner, but officers are being stretched further, doubling up between traditional crime fighting and anti-terrorism duty.

“We think it will be hard to preserve public safety at the level we’ve come to expect for a long time now,” said Joseph Mancini, a spokesman for the NYCPBA police union. He called the crime spike “disturbing.” “Our members have done a lot more with less as numbers go down, but there’s a tipping point and we’re afraid we might be reaching it,” he said.

Along bustling Times Square that perception is widely shared.

“It seems to be the way of things lately, whether police or business. The state has severe problems with its budget,” said insurance worker Phillip Bray, 56, taking a cigarette break in the sun.

“Things are changing.” A street cleaner, working near where one woman was shot in the elbow and another in the thigh early Monday, said New York’s violence was “coming up to the surface.”

“It’s going through the roof,” said his friend, a security guard, who also did not want to give his name. “I’ve always lived in Brooklyn and the Bronx. I gotta move.” — AFP

Hip hop artists hit back at Islamists NAIROBI: For centuries, Somalis used poetry and songs to pass protest messages to powerful rulers they were too afraid to confront directly. Now, some young Somalis are using rap to speak out against Islamists who they say are using religion to wage war in their country. The 11-member Waayaha Cusub band, currently in exile in neighboring Kenya, wants its rap lyrics to encourage fellow Somalis to stand up to Islamist rebels known as Al Shabaab.

They have handed out at least 7,000 free copies of their newly-released album titled “No To Al Shabaab” to residents in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighborhood, home to many Somali migrants. “We will wipe out the fear of our people that no one can speak out against Al Shabaab. We will show our people that we can challenge them,” said Shine Abdullahi, the group’s founder.

Al Shabaab have besieged Mogadishu’s Western-backed administration and control much of the countryside. The United States says it is Al-Qaeda’s proxy in eastern Africa. The rebels have been joined by foreign militants who Western security agencies say are using the country as a haven to plot attacks in the region and beyond.

“They are talking about Holy war, they are training and misleading youth, and we want to stop the spread of those ideas and warn our people there is no Jihad,” Abdullahi, 27, said.

The new album attracted more than 100,000 viewers onto the group’s website in the first three weeks. Abdullahi says it

‘Stand up to rebels’ has since been corrupted, possibly by Al Shabaab. “They are unkind, teach terrorism, and worthless lessons, they blindfold, and cause pain, inject drugs, that lead to actions, force them to kill their fathers and relatives,” one of the group’s raps goes.

The group’s only female member, Falis Abdi Mohamud, is a rebel in her own right.

In one video, the 23-year-old is not covering her head as most Somali women do, and is wearing tight jeans. “They criticize me and say ‘she is not Muslim because of wearing a trouser’. I am Muslim,” she said. “I want to reach my people. I will not stop my mission because of fear or other people’s desires. History will tell who is right and wrong.” Mohamud was born in the southern town of Kismayu that is now an Al Shabaab stronghold. The insurgents have banned music in areas that they control and allow only Arabic Quranic chanting.

Waayaha Cusub toured the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland in July but Mohamud hopes to perform in her hometown one day. “The trip to Somalia was great. That is when I realized people like our music, and it really gave us confidence not to stop our campaign because a few people who dislike us.” The group’s youngest member is 15-year-old Suleqa Mohamed, who is a student at an Eastleigh school.

Most of them want to return to Somalia

and live off their music when peace returns but currently survive on sponsorships by businessmen and Somalis in the diaspora.

Their songs have angered some people.

Even in the relative stability and security of Kenya they have been attacked. Gunmen shot and wounded Abdullahi in 2007. He believes the attack was because the group released a series of songs criticizing Ethiopia’s incursion into Somalia and suicide bombings by the insurgents.

Even mobile phone text message threats from Al Shabaab sympathizers in Kenya and Somalia have failed to intimidate Abdullahi.

He says he will never be cowered by what he calls “religious warlords” who present an awful image of Islam to the world. “The attack was aimed at silencing the group, but that did not work,” he said, showing scars on his stomach from a bullet and the surgery that followed. “We will not allow anyone to silence us. They misread our religion and kill people. They are cursed,” he said.

It is a difficult time to win the hearts of teenagers who easily confuse their religion with the ideology dispensed by groups like Al Shabaab and Al-Qaeda, Abdullahi says.

However, he is more optimistic that he can win his part of the war, ridding Somalia of Al Shabaab. “This is real war. Those who refuse to honor their prophet cannot win,” he said. “We will have the upper hand at the end of the day.” — Reuters

Aides said Netanyahu originally agreed to go after being reassured by the United States that the summit communique would focus on efforts to secure fissile materials and shun language challenging Israel’s nuclear “ambiguity” policy. Such coordination between the allies has been clouded, however, by rifts over stalled IsraeliPalestinian peace talks. US President Barack Obama, who held tense talks at the White House with Netanyahu last month, scheduled no meetings with him on the summit’s sidelines.

A senior Egyptian diplomat said he had no knowledge of a plan to shift attention onto Israel at the summit and accused Netanyahu of trying to evade questions on the Palestinian issue. “We believe that Netanyahu withdrew from the summit because he did not want to face President Obama and is using Egypt and Turkey as an excuse,” the diplomat said. But the Foreign Ministry in Ankara confirmed that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has sharply escalated criticism of Israel since last year’s Gaza war, would demand at the summit that it disarm as part of a nuclearfree Middle East.

“Israel is the principal threat to peace in the region today,” the French newspaper Le Monde quoted Erdogan as saying in Paris this week. “Israel has nuclear weapons but doesn’t belong to the NPT. Does that mean that those who don’t sign the NPT are in a privileged position?” Yet Egyptian and Turkish diplomats played down the prospect of the NPT coming up at the summit, saying the appropriate place would be next month’s UN review conference on the treaty.

The White House welcomed Netanyahu’s stand-in, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, to the summit.

Meridor will be accompanied by Israeli National Security Adviser Uzi Arad and Shaul Horev, head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, aides said. “We obviously would like to have the prime minister but the deputy prime minister will be leading the delegation and it will be a robust Israeli delegation,” US National Security Adviser Jim Jones told reporters. US-Israeli contacts are “ongoing and fine and continuous,” he said.

Netanyahu had planned to drum up support at the summit for sanctions against foe Iran, which the West suspects of seeking nuclear weapons despite denials from Tehran. Neither Iran nor North Korea will be attending. “This conference is about nuclear terrorism,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday. “And I’m not concerned that anyone will think that Israel is a terrorist regime. Everybody knows a terrorist and rogue regime when they see one, and believe me they see quite a few-around Israel.”

Israel says its nuclear secrecy helps ward off enemies while avoiding the kind of provocations that can trigger arms races.

The official reticence, and the tacit US acceptance of Israel’s nuclear monopoly, aggrieves Arab and Muslim powers. India and Pakistan-both scheduled to attend the nuclear security summit-are outside the NPT, like Israel. Unlike them, Israel has not openly tested or deployed atomic weapons.

Israel, is viewed as the sixth country to have acquired nuclear weapons-a title it has never denied or confirmed. Analysts at British defense specialists Jane’s believe the

Jewish state has between 100 and 300 nuclear warheads, putting it among the more advanced nuclear weapons states and roughly on a par with Britain. The Londonbased International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) estimates Israel has “up to 200” warheads deliverable on land-based short-range Jericho 1 and medium-range Jericho 2 missiles.

The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US advocacy group co-created by Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and a former senator, puts the figure at 100 to 200. Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East with a program dating back to the 1950s under Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion. It was developed with the help of France and is centered on the Dimona reactor in the southern Negev desert. According to Jane’s, the Israeli strategic force could be deployed by the Jericho 2 missile, which has a range of up to 4,500 kilometers, or the five-year-old Jericho 3, which reaches up to 7,800 kilometers. It is also believed to be able to deploy by air, using F-16 fighter jets, and even by sea through its submarine fleet, providing an opportunity for a second strike if its land systems are attacked. Israel acquired three diesel-powered Dolphin-class submarines in 1999-2000 which are capable of launching adapted Harpoon cruise missiles fitted with nuclear warheads. In addition, Jane’s says some observers believe Jerusalem has developed tactical nuclear weapons such as landmines and artillery shells. “Some analysts believe that Israel probably keeps most, if not all, of its nuclear arsenal in an unassembled mode,” the latest Jane’s briefing says, adding that “fully functional weapons could be completed in a matter of days”. —Agencies

‘Smoking’ diplomat to leave US Continued from Page 1 to hurt anyone during Wednesday’s scare. He enjoys diplomatic immunity from US prosecution and will not be criminally charged, authorities said.

The State Department official said Qatar had not yet informed the administration how it will handle the case but has assured the US that Al-Madadi will leave the country.

“We fully expect this will be resolved very quickly,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters. Crowley said the US government is satisfied that the Qatari government is taking the matter seriously.

Wednesday’s scare came three months after the attempted terror attack on Christmas when a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab went to the bathroom just before he allegedly tried to ignite a bomb in his seat. Since then, law enforcement, flight crews and passengers have been on high alert for suspicious activity on airplanes. That scare exposed major holes in the country’s national security and prompted immediate changes in terror-screening policies.

Some air travelers at Denver International Airport Thursday were amazed that Al-Madadi would not be charged with anything. “I think it’s wrong. I’d get busted. I don’t think that (immunity) should be a factor,” said one of them, Hank DePetro, a retired psychologist.

Under international protocol - the 1961 Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations - diplomats in foreign countries enjoy broad immunity from prosecution. That immunity can only be waived by a diplomat’s home government, something that is rarely requested and even more rarely granted.

But even without charges being pressed against him and without such a waiver, the US could have moved to declare Al-Madadi “persona non grata” and expel him from the country. However, officials said they would not pursue this, given the close nature of US-Qatari ties and the importance the country plays in the Middle East.

Qatar, about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined and with a population of about 1.4 million people, is an oil-rich Middle East nation and key US ally. It is situated on the Arabian Peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the Arabian Gulf and to the

south by Saudi Arabia. The country hosts the forward headquarters of the US Central Command, which runs the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and is a major supporter of operations deemed critical to both campaigns. Qatar’s ambassador to the United States, Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri, cautioned against a rush to judgment. “This diplomat was traveling to Denver on official embassy business on my instructions, and he was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity,” he said in a statement.

“The facts will reveal that this was a mistake.” Al-Madadi is the embassy’s third secretary, a relatively junior position, although diplomatic assignments in Washington are considered plum posts in most countries’ diplomatic corps. An online biography on the business networking site LinkedIn shows that a Mohammed Al-Madadi has been in Washington since at least 2007, when he began studying at George Washington University’s business school. The job title listed on the site is database administrator at Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Boeing 757 was carrying 157 passengers and six crew members, United Airlines spokesman Michael Trevino said. — Agencies

US Supreme Court judge Stevens quits Continued from Page 1 the Supreme Court’s current term ends, which is expected in late June. Stevens said it would be in the court’s best interest to have his successor confirmed well in advance of the start of the next term, which begins in October. Obama is expected to nominate a liberal to replace Stevens and then push hard to win the required Senate confirmation for the lifetime appointment. It would not change the overall ideological balance of the court, which is divided with five conservatives and four liberals.

Obama administration officials and legal experts said the leading candidates to replace Stevens were expected to be current Solicitor General Elena Kagan and US appeals court judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland. The confirmation battle

could dominate Congress for some time and make it tougher for Obama’s fellow Democrats to focus on reducing the US unemployment rate, expected to be a key issue in congressional elections.

It also could complicate last-ditch efforts by some Democrats and Republicans to win Senate passage of compromise legislation to combat global climate change. Potential nominees Kagan, Wood and Garland, all considered moderate liberals, could face varying degrees of Republican opposition.

But even conservative activists said each probably would win a simple majority confirmation vote in the Senate, where Democrats control 59 of 100 seats.

US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who will chair the confirmation hearing for Obama’s nominee, said he expected the president to consult

with members of both political parties before making his pick. “I hope that senators on both sides of the aisle will make this process a thoughtful and civil discourse,” Leahy said. Supreme Court appointments have become major political battles in Congress, with televised hearings. The high court decides contentious social issues such as abortion and the death penalty and high-stakes business disputes.

There was no immediate indication on when the confirmation hearings would be held but it likely will be before Congress departs for its August recess in advance of the November congressional elections. It was not known how long it would take Obama to choose a successor but White House aides had said they would be ready for any vacancy. Stevens’ retirement had long been expected. — Reuters

Iran unveils new centrifuge Continued from Page 1 has in the past exaggerated progress to bolster domestic pride about its nuclear program and to enhance its bargaining position with major powers.

Western countries are seeking the support of Russia and China for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran.

Obama, who hosts a nuclear security summit next week, wants them to back further measures to deter Iran from pursuing what the West believes is a covert drive to develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran says its program has only peaceful purposes.

Obama said there was no guarantee the sanctions that could be instituted now would automatically alter Iranian behavior. “The history of the Iranian regime,

like the North Korean regime is that you know, you apply international pressure on these countries, sometimes they choose to change behavior, sometimes they don’t,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America”.

Obama spoke to ABC on Thursday af ter signing a nuclear treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The two men also pledged greater cooperation to persuade Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program. Russia, along with China, long resisted calls for tougher sanctions on Iran, but now chides Tehran for ignoring offers made by world powers aimed at defusing the nuclear issue.

Obama hailed what he called an “enormous shift” by Russia in efforts to get all countries, notably Iran and North Korea,

to “start abiding by certain rules of the road”. “If we are consistent and steady in applying international pressure ... over time, Iran, which is not a stupid regime, which is very attentive and watching what’s happening in the international community, will start making a different set of cost-benefit analyses about whether or not pursuing nuclear weapons makes sense for them,” the US president said.

Britain voiced concern about Iran’s latest show of enrichment devices.

“The use of this kind of technology is o f c o u r s e p ro h i b i t e d b y f i v e U N Security Council Resolutions which require Iran to suspend its enrichment p ro g r a m a n d c o m e c l e a n a b o u t i t s nuclear intentions,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. — Reuters

SPORTS

20

Saturday, April 10, 2010

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Thursday. Cincinnati 2, St. Louis 1; La Dodgers 10, Pittsburgh 2; Toronto 3, Texas 1; Detroit 7, Kansas City 3; Oakland 6, Seattle 2; Washington 6, Philadelphia 5; Baltimore 5, Tampa Bay 4; Chicago Cubs 2, Atlanta 0; Florida 3, NY Mets 1; Cleveland 5, Chicago White Sox 3 (11 innings); American League Eastern Division W L PCT NY Yankees 2 1 .667 Tampa Bay 2 1 .667 Toronto 2 1 .667 Boston 1 2 .333 Baltimore 1 2 .333

GB 1 1

Central Division Minnesota 3 1 Detroit 2 1 Cleveland 2 1 Chicago White Sox 1 2 Kansas City 1 2

.750 .667 .667 .333 .333

0.5 0.5 1.5 1.5

Western Division 3 1 .750 1 2 .333 1 3 .250 1 3 .250

1.5 2 2

National League Eastern Division Philadelphia 2 1 .667 Florida 2 1 .667 Atlanta 2 1 .667 NY Mets 1 2 .333 Washington 1 2 .333

1 1

Oakland Texas LA Angels Seattle

St. Louis Milwaukee Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Houston

Central Division 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 0 3

.667 .667 .667 .333 .333 0

1 1 2

Western Division San Francisco 3 0 1.000 Arizona 2 1 .667 LA Dodgers 1 2 .333 Colorado 1 2 .333 San Diego 1 2 .333

1 2 2 2

NEW YORK: Mets’ Ruben Tejada (11) avoids Florida Marlins’ Chris Coghlan, who was forced at second base, while Tejada watches his throw to first during the ninth inning of a baseball game.—AP

Reds roll over Cardinals CINCINNATI: Jonny Gomes’ solo homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Cincinnati Reds to their first win of the season, 2-1 over the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League on Thursday. Gomes connected on a 2-2 pitch from Jason Motte (0-1), brought into the game to face him.

Francisco Cordero (1-0) pitched a perfect ninth in relief of Bronson Arroyo, who went the first eight innings and singled home a run. After scoring 17 runs in the first two games, the Cardinals managed only four hits

in the series finale, including Matt Holliday’s first homer.

Dodgers 10, Pirates 2 At Pittsburgh, Ronnie Belliard homered among three extra base hits and drove in four runs to help Los Angeles avoided being swept in a three-game series by Pittsburgh for the first time in 10 years.

The Dodgers played without middle-ofthe-lineup hitters Andre Ethier (left ankle) and Manny Ramirez (day off), but still got 16 hits off four Pirates pitchers. Reed Johnson

doubled among three hits and scored twice, and Matt Kemp, James Loney and Garret Anderson drove in two runs each.

Belliard finished 3 for 5 and a single short of the cycle. Chad Billingsley (1-0) limited the Pirates to a run over 5 1-3 innings.

Nationals 6, Phillies 5

three-game sweep. Willie Harris hit a tworun homer for the Nationals, and Tyler Clippard (1-0) earned the victory with 1 2-3 innings of relief. Matt Capps worked around Chase Utley’s leadoff double in the ninth for his first save with Washington. Figueroa (01) was added to the roster Thursday after being waived by the Mets.

At Washington, Ryan Zimmerman drove in the tiebreaking run off new Philadelphia reliever Nelson Figueroa with a shot to shallow right field that landed inches fair, as the Washington avoided a season-opening,

At Atlanta, Randy Wells pitched six scoreless innings and Carlos Marmol stranded two baserunners in the ninth

Cubs 2, Braves 0

inning as Chicago blanked Atlanta.

Rookie Tyler Colvin and Marlon Byrd homered for Chicago, which had only four hits. Wells (1-0), who combined with four relievers on the eight-hit shutout, outpitched Tommy Hanson (0-1) in a matchup of top 2009 rookies. The Cubs avoided a three-game sweep. Atlanta’s Chipper Jones left the game after the third inning with a sore right side and is listed as day to day.

Cancellara tipped for rare Flanders-Roubaix double

Anderson steers A’s past Mariners OAKLAND: Oakland’s Brett Anderson held Seattle scoreless into the seventh inning to set up the Athletics’ 6-2 win over the Mariners in Thursday’s American League West clash.

Anderson struck out four and walked one to take the win.

Daric Barton drove in a career-high four runs for the A’s.

Twins 10, Angels 1 In Anaheim, California, Brendan Harris hit a tiebreaking two-run homer as Minnesota thumped Los Angeles. Jim Thome drove in three more runs with his 565th career home run.

The Angels’ 1-3 start is their worst for 18 years. The Twins already have nine homers, and have gone over the fence in each of their first four games for the first time since 1997.

Tigers 7, Royals 3 In Kansas City, Missouri, Miguel Cabrera homered and drove in four runs to lift Detroit over Kansas City. Tigers starter Dontrelle Willis turned in six solid innings in his first regular-season start in almost 10 months.

Willis, plagued with chronic wildness during his shortened 2009 season, walked the first batter he faced on four pitches. But the former two-time National League All-Star issued only one more base on balls and had four strikeouts, giving up two runs. The Royals bullpen blew three saves in the season-opening three-game series against the Tigers.

Blue Jays 3, Rangers 1 In Arlington, Texas, Toronto rallied with three runs in the ninth to beat Texas. Rangers closer Frank Francisco failed in his first save attempt of the season. He gave up a leadoff homer to Vernon Wells — his fourth homer in three games — then a triple, the go-ahead sacrifice fly and an RBI single.

Orioles 5, Rays 4 In St. Petersburg, Florida, Baltimore starter Brian Matusz allowed only two runs over five innings to steer the Orioles past Tampa Bay. Matusz overcame control problems to win his fifth straight decision, dating back to last season. The left-hander walked a career-high five but also struck out seven. Garrett Atkins drove in a pair of runs with a single during a four-run sixth that gave the Orioles a 5-2 advantage. Baltimore had loaded the bases with no outs on a single, hit by pitch and walk.

Indians 5, White Sox 3 In Chicago, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a tiebreaking, two-out single in the 11th inning to boost Cleveland over Chicago.

Grady Sizemore drove in three runs for the Indians, who moved over .500 for the first time since 2008. Cabrera’s single in the 11th scored Luis Valbuena from second.

Sizemore followed with his second RBI double of the night. —AP

Marlins 3, Mets 1 At New York, Nate Robertson pitched

five solid innings in his first start for Florida in eight seasons.

Jorge Cantu hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the fifth and Gaby Sanchez added a runscoring double in the sixth for Florida, which took the last two of the three-game set after losing 7-1 on opening day.

The Mets wasted an effective outing by Jonathon Niese (0-1), who allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings. Jeff Francoeur hit an RBI double in the fourth but that was all New York could manage against Robertson (1-0).—AP

OAKLAND: Athletics shortstop Cliff Pennington (left) tags out Seattle Mariners’ Chone Figgins in an attempted steal of second base during the first inning of a baseball game.—AP

PARIS: Cycling enthusiasts who fancy a wager at decent odds on this weekend’s Paris-Roubaix one-day classic would do well to steer clear of betting on Swiss strongman and bookmakers’ favorite Fabian Cancellara. Cancellara, the Saxo Bank team’s Olympic time trial champion, crossed another lifelong objective off his dwindling list last week when he soloed to victory in the second of the season’s ‘monuments’ at the Tour of Flanders.

The reverberations of that stylish win, complete with a humbling of two-time Flanders champion Tom Boonen of Belgium 15km from the finish, are still being felt ahead of the third monument of the season.

And, judging by his cramped price, few are now betting on Cancellara not pulling off a rare Flanders-Roubaix double-a delicacy that Belgian star Boonen has already tasted.

“Fabian achieved a huge dream of his in winning at Flanders last week, but now the celebrations are over. He believes he can do the double, and so do I,” said Saxo Bank’s team manager Bjarne Riis As Boonen and many others will testify, however, Paris-Roubaix is one of the toughest, hazardous and unforgiving endurance tests in bike racing.

And, the 53km of cobblstones-spread across 27 sections of varying difficultymake the cobbles of Flanders look like newly-laid Macadam. The ‘Hell of the North’ is full of career-defining moments, heart-breaking crashes and stomach-churning drama which does not dispel until the race comes to an end in Roubaix’s outdoor velodrome.

It is there, after one and a half laps in front of thousands of cheering fans, that the winner gets to hold aloft the famous Roubaix cobblestone trophy.

Although Cancellara has already won in Roubaix, in 2006, it is Boonen who currently holds the bragging rights to the ‘Queen of the Classics’. A three-time winner, including the past two years, the 29-year-old from just outside Antwerp is now just one win away from equalling the four wins of Belgian great Roger De Vlaeminck.

A crash midweek during the Grand Prix de l’Escaut was not the best preparation for Boonen’s weekend, but after dusting himself off he was happy with his day of training at race pace. “That was perfect preparation for Roubaix,” said Boonen. Come Sunday, his years of experience and success on the race will however face the extra test of Cancellara.

The Swiss’s time trial skills proved decisive during both his win in 2006 when he

escaped late in the race to solo home, and last week in Flanders.

Among the challengers are Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Cervelo), American veteran George Hincapie (BMC), Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha and Belgian Leif Hoste.

Although Hincapie has suffered more than his fair share of hardship in Roubaix, it is Hoste who has the unenvious reputation for suffering the most calamity on the cobbles. A three-time runner-up in the Tour of Flanders, Hoste missed out on victory in Roubaix in 2004 when a Belgian fan’s flag got stuck in his wheel as he surged to what was near certain victory.

The following year he suffered a heavy crash, finished the race but was rushed off to hospital and in 2006 he finished second to Cancellara - only to be relegated with two other riders (Peter Van Petegem and Vladimir Gusev) after they broke race rules by riding through a level crossing when the barrier was down.

“I don’t even dare to dream of victory these days,” Hoste said after his midweek reconnaissance of the course.—AFP

Read to lead PUMA in Volvo Ocean Race BOSTON: PUMA Ocean Racing team will be back in the Volvo Ocean Race after finishing second in the 2008-09 edition.

The team will again be led by U.S. skipper Ken Read, a veteran of two America’s Cup campaigns. Team selection is under way and training will begin aboard PUMA’s il mostro in spring 2010 at the team’s home base in Newport, Rhode Island. The Volvo Ocean Race is the world’s premier around-the-world race, covering 31,250 nautical miles. It will start in Alicante, Spain, in autumn 2011 and finish in Galway, Ireland, during the summer of 2012.

There will be eight stopovers along the way, with in-port racing that will count in the overall standings. “This last race was an amazing journey for me personally and for our startup company PUMA Ocean Racing,” Read said. “To have the opportunity to continue where we left off is a dream come true.

“For PUMA to want to come back to this adventure is a testament to the event itself and to the entire PUMA Ocean Racing team past and present.”—AP

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

21

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings on Thursday.

Boston 3, Buffalo 1; Carolina 5, Montreal 2; Pittsburgh 7, NY Islanders 3; Tampa Bay 4, Ottawa 3 (SO); Florida 3, New Jersey 2; Dallas 3, Anaheim 2 (SO); Minnesota 2, Calgary 1 (SO); Phoenix 3, Los Angeles 2 (So); San Jose 4, Vancouver 2. (SO denotes shootout) Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA PTS New Jersey 46 27 7 213 189 99 Pittsburgh 46 27 7 251 231 99 Philadelphia 40 34 6 231 220 86 NY Rangers 37 33 10 217 213 84 NY Islanders 34 36 10 216 251 78 Buffalo Ottawa Boston Montreal Toronto

Northeast Division 44 26 10 229 44 31 6 223 37 30 13 198 39 33 9 214 29 38 14 210

203 233 195 219 264

98 94 87 87 72

Washington Atlanta Carolina Florida Tampa Bay

Southeast Division 53 15 12 310 34 33 13 231 35 36 10 228 32 36 12 204 32 36 12 210

227 251 252 237 256

118 81 80 76 76

Western Conference Central Division Chicago 51 22 7 264 204 Detroit 42 24 14 225 214 Nashville 46 29 6 223 224 St. Louis 39 32 9 218 218 Columbus 32 35 14 216 258

109 98 98 87 78

Vancouver Colorado Calgary Minnesota Edmonton

Northwest Division 48 28 5 265 43 29 8 241 40 31 10 201 38 36 7 216 26 46 8 208

219 226 203 242 274

101 94 90 83 60

Pacific Division San Jose 50 20 11 261 213 111 Phoenix 50 25 6 223 199 106 Los Angeles 45 27 8 236 214 98 Anaheim 38 31 11 228 243 87 Dallas 36 31 14 233 251 86 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L).

SAN JOSE: Scott Nichol No. 21 of the San Jose Sharks and Jannik Hansen No. 36 of the Vancouver Canucks go for the puck at HP Pavilion.—AFP

Sharks close in on Western Conference crown SAN JOSE: The San Jose Sharks moved a step closer to clinching top spot in the NHL’s Western Conference by beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Thursday.

Joe Thornton scored his first goal since returning from a lower-body injury, while Joe Pavelski, Manny Malhotra and Logan Couture also netted for the Sharks. San Jose leads Chicago by two points heading into the final weekend of the regular season, but the Blackhawks have a game in hand and the tiebreaker edge.

The Northwest Division champion Canucks are locked in as the third seed for the playoffs. The only question for Vancouver is whether Henrik Sedin will be the first Canucks player to win the NHL scoring title. Sedin had an assist, giving him 108 points on the season _ two more than Washington’s Alex Ovechkin. Pavel Demitra and Andrew Alberts scored for Vancouver.

Coyotes 3, Kings 2 In Los Angeles, Phoenix overcame a two-goal deficit in the closing stages to beat Los Angeles. Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson scored in regulation for the Kings before Matthew Lombardi and Taylor Pyatt scored 1:24 apart in the third period to tie it for the Coyotes. Phoenix’s Adrian Aucoin scored the winner in the fourth round of the shootout.

Bruins 3, Sabres 1 In Boston, the hosts beat Buffalo to solidify their position in the Eastern Conference playoff race. With the win, Boston moved out of eighth place in the East and passed Philadelphia to tie for sixth with Montreal.

Dennis Wideman got the go-ahead goal while Miroslav Satan and Mark Recchi also tallied for the Bruins, who scored more than twice for the first time in almost a fortnight.

Derek Roy scored for Buffalo, which had

clinched the Northeast Division title.

Okposo, Matt Moulson and Jose Bailey scored for New York.

Penguins 7, Islanders 3 In Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby took the NHL lead with his 49th goal and became the third-youngest player in NHL history to reach the 500-point mark, leading Pittsburgh to a rout of New York.

Crosby finished with four points, assisting on goals by Alex Goligoski and Bill Guerin, giving him 104 points for the season and 501 in his five-season career.

The only players younger than Crosby to hit the 500-point mark faster were Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

Crosby was originally credited with his 50th goal — it would have been the first time in his career he reached that mark — but the goal was reviewed after the game and given instead to Guerin, giving him two.

Brooks Orpik, Evgeni Malkin and Tyler Kennedy also scored for Pittsburgh. Kyle

Panthers 3, Devils 2 In Sunrise, Florida, Radek Dvorak and Nathan Horton scored in the third period to lift Florida over New Jersey.

Scott Clemmensen mase 42 saves against his former New Jersey teammates and Michael Frolik added a goal for the Panthers. Patrik Elias and David Clarkson scored for the Devils in their final road game of the regular season.

Ducks a 2-1 edge late in the third period.

But Modano deflected Trevor Daley’s shot out of the air and past goalie Jonas Hiller with 1:47 left in regulation to tie it at 2.

Rookie Jamie Benn also scored for Dallas.

Wild 2, Flames 1 In Calgary, Brent Burns and Antti Miettinen scored in a shootout to lift Minnesota past Calgary. Chuck Kobasew opened the scoring for Minnesota on a power play in the first period, and Nigel Dawes tied it in the second.

Stars 3, Ducks, 2

Lightning 4, Senators 3

In Dallas, Mike Modano had a goal and an assist in regulation in possibly his final home game with the Stars, then scored in the second round of the shootout to help Dallas beat Anaheim.

Bobby Ryan scored twice for Anaheim, including a power-play goal that gave the

In Tampa, Florida, Tampa Bay gave up a three-goal lead before edging Ottawa in a shootout. Teddy Purcell scored in the third round of a shootout to rescue the win for the Senators.

Purcell and Martin St. Louis scored firstperiod goals, and Steven Stamkos added his

48th goal of the season early in the second on a power play to make it 3-0.

Ottawa’s Nick Foligno made it 3-1 midway through the second. Jason Speeza added a power-play goal late in the second, and Mike Fisher tied it with another power-play goal early in the third.

Hurricanes 5, Canadiens 2 In Raleigh, North Carolina, Carolina beat Montreal to prevent the Canadiens from clinching a playoff berth. Carolina’s Eric Staal had three goals and two assists to complete a club record tenth hat trick, and Chad LaRose had two goals and two assists for the Hurricanes in his first career four-point game.

Brian Gionta and Marc-Andre Bergeron scored for Montreal, which could have wrapped up a postseason berth with one point.—AP

Hard men shed blood and sweat to triumph on Flanders cobbles

Casey Stoner in action in this file photo

Stoner leads the charge of young guns pursuing Rossi DOHA: Australian Casey Stoner will lead the charge of the young guns pursuing world champion Valentino Rossi as the MotoGP season kicks off under floodlights at the Grand Prix of Qatar this weekend.

Stoner, 24, the 2007 world champion, had a strong finish last season after missing three races because of illness, finishing second in Portugal and winning in Australia and Malaysia.

His confidence is high at the Losail circuit where he has won for the past three seasons, and was the fastest rider in the final winter testing session in March.

“If Casey is physically in form, if the Ducati works as we’re expecting it to, both are going to give us serious problems,” Yahama managing director Lin Jarvis told AFP. Yamaha have a hard act to follow last season when Rossi led a 1-2 ahead of teammate Jorge Lorenzo, and they also won the

constructors title. Rossi, who has seven MotoGP titles, can expect a serious challenge from the young generation including Stoner (Ducati), American Ben Spies (Yamaha Tech 3), Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) and Daniel Pedrosa (Honda). Rossi, 31, admitted: “I think there will be a big battle. There are a lot of new riders with a lot of ambition. Particularly Ben Spies but also (Italians) Marco Simoncelli (Honda) and Andrea Dovizioso (Honda).”

The Italian added: “Qatar is a track which didn’t really suit our bike in previous years but the test went very well and we hope to continue like that.”

Stoner said he was feeling confident ahead of Qatar. “We have always enjoyed great results in Qatar although the track isn’t one of my favourites as a rider,” Stoner told MotoGP.com. “I will give my maximum as always but it’s only the first race in a very long season that will only start to take shape from

the third or fourth round.”

He added: “It was good that they changed the race from daytime to night because they’ve made it different to anything else - it’s interesting for the fans and it’s good fun for us.

The new rules which allows stables to use just six engines for the entire season of 18 Grand Prix could see new riders emerging.

Spies, 25, the reigning world Superbike champion, will be competing with French outfit Tech 3, along with US veteran Colin Edwards, fifth last season. “An indepedent team like ours is always a little bit behind in relation to development compared to a factory team but I think the differences will be extremely reduced with this new rule,” Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal told AFP. Japan’s Hiroshi Aoyama, the 250cc world champion in 2009, will step up to MotoGP this season with Honda. —AFP

GHENT: Never mind the Tour de France, if you want to see cycling at its best, brutal and bloody travel to Flanders and northern France every Spring.

Here the most prestigious and competitive, not to mention downright lethal, one-day races of the cycling season finishing this Sunday at the cobblestone classic Paris-Roubaix are held before a roadside audience as used to spills as thrills.

American cyclist Tyler Farrar first moved to the Flanders region of western Belgium in 2002 because he said the best way to win a bike race here is to live and train on the local roads.

“There’s only about 20 climbs in Flanders, and you use some combo of 8 or 12 of them in every race,” Farrar told Reuters on Sunday after the 15-climb, 262km (162-mile) Tour of Flanders, peeling off gloves to show a bloodied hand shaking with fatigue.

Farrar crashed twice on Sunday, the first time just a few kilometres from his home after four hours of racing, the second just minutes later when he slammed into the back of another team’s support vehicle while trying to rejoin the peloton.

“After that, I thought ‘Okay, this is ridiculous, I’m just going to quit.’ My director told on the radio me not to, because this wasn’t the hard part yet.” The 26-year-old from Wenatchee, Washington who rides for the Garmin Transitions team went on to finish fifth behind Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara.

Farrar also won a stage in the 3 Days of De Panne last week and sprinted to victory in Antwerp at the 202-km Grote Scheldeprijs on Wednesday. “I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t quit,” he said.

Race organisers at the Tour of Flanders said more than one million cycling fans stood on the side of the road on Sunday, a fifth of the local population, to cheer on the race. After a long, cold winter, most still wore heavy coats under grey skies. The race winds through dozens of brick-lined villages in the first 150km. Fans turn out with small red bottles of Jupiler beer in one hand and yellow Flemish flags in the other.

From the Garmin Transitions team car riders moved in and out of the peloton at 45km/h to drop jackets, take bottles, and consult Australian director Matt White about the course ahead.

“I did this race seven times as a professional. Four times it was dry and I finished. The three times it rained I never saw the end,” White said, all the while monitoring a television broadcast, a race radio, a team radio and a flow of bottles. “On some of these cobbled climbs if somebody has a problem, has to unclip, then that’s the end of the bike race for everybody else behind him.”

The sun came out and Dutch rider Martijn Maaskant came to fetch a bottle and hand off his jacket. He swerved slightly, touched his handlebars to the car and slammed to the ground.

White swerved to a halt and Spanish mechanic Inaki Goiburu leapt out to help a bleeding, unsmiling Maaskant to his feet.

The rider’s fixed expression barely changed. His only interest was to rejoin the race. A flood of profanity poured out of White once Maaskant was back up and moving. “You better get the doctor to spray something on those wounds, Martijn, so you don’t get infected for next week,” White said.—Reuters

FRANCE: Swiss Fabian Cancellara, from the Saxo Bank team, in action during a training session on the track of the Paris-Roubaix cycling race.—AFP

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Slots, sun and flash draw World Cup tourists SUN CITY: As the recorded monkey screeches grow more frenetic, cameraarmed tourists wait for the faux jungle bridge to tremble into a mock volcanic erruption.

The shaking walkway-leading to a manmade sandy beach-is classic Sun City: South Africa’s flashiest resort which is readying for World Cup fans wanting to combine slots, football and a touch of suspended reality.

Fabio Capello’s England camp base in nearby host city Rustenburg and a luxury bed shortage in the region has sparked rumours of the team’s infamous WAGswives and girlfriends-as possible guests.

With two months to kick-off to Africa’s

first World Cup, the sprawling, four-hotel and casino complex in South Africa’s pristine rural north-western bush is fully booked. “Sun City Resort is at 100 percent room occupancy,” said spokesman Brett Hoppe.

The presence of the WAGs-whom Capello is keen to keep as far away as possible after their disruptive antics at Germany 2006 — is still unconfirmed but likely, he said.

“Obviously because of the proximity to the English team base camp there is a strong possibility that WAGs would make use of the facilities at Sun City,” he told AFP. The 2006 WAGs drew headlines for

boozing and shopping in German spa town Baden-Baden when England crashed out of the quarter-finals.

Six of the group were said to have dropped 80,000 euros at boutiques in one hour. More than 4,395 euros was reportedly spent in 10 minutes on shoes and Tshirts.

“While David Beckham and his team have struggled for form on the pitch, their Wags have displayed a world-beating talent for shopping, partying and champagne quaffing,” said The Times at the time.

Sun City, a far cry from an ancient bathing spa town, is no stranger to pop culture dazzle. It has hosted celebrities from Michael Jackson to Oprah Winfrey,

uses South African starlet Charlize Theron in its advertising campaigns, and styles itself as “Africa’s Kingdom of Pleasure”.

Ranging from plushly over the top to the mundane, well-worn mass-market, Sun City has drawn visitors since deepest apartheid when it was built on the back of South Africa’s segregationist policies.

In the 1970s, hotelier Sol Kerzner, who has gone on to build luxury developments in the Bahamas, Dubai and Mauritius, controversially inked a deal with a former black homeland set up by the white minority regime.

The result was a gambling oasis that was illegal in white South Africa but drew

throngs of visitors from Johannesburg, a two-hour drive away.

Today it sports two golf courses-where the likes of Tiger Woods have teed off-and a themed Lost City water park where families bob in machine-generated waves which pound the sandy strip below the Indiana Jones style luxury Palace hotel.

There are 600 slot machines, a tables casino, fast-food outlets, restaurants and handful of bars that guests reach by hopping onto 24-hour school-style buses.

To get to the resort, visitors pass through near-untouched countryside, and are warned not to feed the on-site baboons which prowl the breathtaking landscape that abutts a big game reserve.

The resort drew 350,000 day trippers in its last fiscal year between July 2008 and 2009, with occupancy about an average 75 percent.

While England’s players will be training a few kilometres away from Sun City’s Temple of Courage, Capello has already warned that no special arrangements will be made to accommodate wives and girlfriends.

“For the whole period we are in South Africa, and I hope it will be long, the players will stay together,” he insisted. “They will be able to meet their wives, girlfriends and families one day after each game. “We have to play. We are in South Africa to play, not for a holiday.”—AFP

CENIRE: Chile’s Universidad de Chile’s goalkeeper Esteban Conde makes a save during a Copa Libertadores soccer match against Brazil’s Flamengo at the Maracana stadium.—AP

Chile snatch draw in Rio MONTEVIDEO: Universidad de Chile right back Matias Rodriguez scored a stoppagetime equaliser for a 2-2 draw away to Flamengo that keeps the Chileans top of Group Eight in the Libertadores Cup. “The U” have eight points from four matches, one more point than Brazilian champions Flamengo, playing without strik-

er Adriano who is nursing a back injury.

Chile’s Universidad Catolica have three points and Caracas FC of Venezuela two.

The match, played some of the time in torrential rain, was postponed from Wednesday due to flooding at the Maracana as storms that have caused mudslides and killed about 100 people wrought havoc in

Rio de Janeiro this week.

Argentines scored Universidad de Chile’s goals with midfielder Walter Montillo heading them into a 1-0 halftime lead from Jose Contreras’s right cross and compatriot Rodriguez securing a surprise draw with a powerful shot as the Flamengo fans were celebrating a victory.

Midfielder Michael equalised in the 67th minute from Vagner Love’s pass and right back Leo Moura appeared to have settled the match in Flamengo’s favour when he put them 2-1 from the edge of the box up with eight minutes remaining.

Colombian champions Independiente Medellin hauled themselves back into the

Group One reckoning with a 1-0 home win over Cerro Porteno of Paraguay.

Corinthians of Brazil lead the group with 10 points from four matches followed by Racing of Uruguay with seven. Medellin now have six from five games and Cerro Porteno one.

Striker Luis Arias, whose penalty a

minute earlier was saved by Ezequiel Medran, put Medellin ahead in the 55th when he took a through ball from Cesar Valoyes to finish off a quick counter-attack started by substitute playmaker Nelson Barahona. The Paraguayans’ midfielder Rodrigo Burgos was sent off in the 68th minute.—Reuters

For teams camping on coast, worries of altitude at World Cup

INDIA: An Italian Kabaddi player (left) attempts to tag his US opponent while holding his breath during the 1st Pearls World Cup Kabaddi Punjab-2010 tournament at Guru Nanak Stadium. Kabaddi, a team sport which originated in the Indian sub-continent, involves team members making ‘raids’ into the opposing team’s territory on a playing field in an attempt to ‘tag’ opponents.—AFP

Boca coach in row with keeper before third loss MONTEVIDEO: Boca Juniors’ dirty linen was hung out on Thursday when goalkeeper Javier Garcia had a row with coach Abel Alves after being told he was dropped for the match against Colon, media reported.

The ailing giants, Argentina’s most popular team, then lost 3-0 to the side from Santa Fe to remain in the bottom three with the worst defence in the Argentine Clausura championship conceding 27 goals in 13 games.

Boca, four-times South American champions between 2000 and 2007, thought they had turned a corner when they emphatically beat arch enemies River Plate 2-0 at home in their big derby, the “Superclasico”, two weeks ago.

Since then Boca have crashed to three

defeats, shipping nine goals and scoring two, with Alves’s job on the line and negotiations in progress for a successor, sports daily Ole (www.ole.comar) said.

Veteran striker and captain Esteban Fuertes put Colon ahead in the 15th minute and midfielder Lucas Bertoglio added two more. Boca’s Colombian defender Breyner Bonilla was sent off in the 89th for a bad lunge at Bertoglio.

Godoy Cruz fluffed their chance to catch Independiente at the top when they drew 00 at Racing Club. They are joint second two points behind the leaders with Argentinos Juniors, who won 1-0 at one-from-bottom Rosario Central.

Estudiantes captain Juan Sebastian Veron was sent off after half an hour at

Velez Sarsfield but his team hung on for a 10 win that puts them three points behind the leaders.

Striker Gaston Fernandez appeared to use his hand to help himself to the early goal from Veron’s free kick in the fourth minute.

Velez midfielder Victor Zapata was sent off midway through the second half.

Independiente lost for the first time in eight matches on Wednesday when Gimnasia-La Plata’s Colombian teenager Marco Perez scored twice for a 2-1 upset win. Tigre striker Carlos Luna scored twice in their 3-1 win over bottom team Atletico Tucuman on Tuesday to join Mauro Boselli of Estudiantes at the top of the scoring chart with nine. Gimnasia’s Perez is next with seven.—Reuters

KNYSNA: Pristine beaches, lush mountains and a mild climate have lured Japan and six other World Cup teams to base at posh resorts along South Africa’s famed Garden Route.

But their idyllic surroundings could prove a handicap as players stay at sea level between matches, but then compete on South Africa’s “highveld” in cities like Johannesburg with a milehigh altitude.

Japan has booked 50 of the 150 rooms at the Fancourt, a resort on a golf estate five minutes from the airport in the town of George.

Standard rooms start at about 500 dollars a night, and the players will have a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, three golf course, a gym-and a sushi bar.

“They’ll have their private catering,” a Fancourt official said. “We’ve created a Japanese website, and we’re doing cultural and language classes to learn the basic words.

“They were looking for a sea-level hotel, that was their first requirement. They wanted someting secure, they like the quietness of the resort and it is spacious,” she added.

France is splashing out on the Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa, an hour farther down the coast at Knysna, booking all its 78 suites boasting bigscreen TVs, king-size beds, and terraces overlooking the Indian Ocean or the Knysna lagoon.

Denmark is based at the nearby Simola Golf and Country Estate, a similarly lavish resort with views of the lagoon and the surrounding hills.

Nigeria, Greece, Algeria,

SOWETO: FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke (left) and organizing committee chief Danny Jordaan hold a giant representation of a 2010 World Cup ticket during the official 2010 FIFA World Cup ticket unveiling at the Maponya Mall. The tickets will be made available to the general public in a week’s time, on April 15, 2010, when the fifth and final ticketing sales phase kicks off. —AP Cameroon and Ivory Coast will also be scattered along the coast up to the port city of Durban, where they’ll all face the same challenge playing their matches at much higher altitudes. Johannesburg sits at 1,750 metres (5,740 feet), and Pretoria at 1,200 metres (3,900 feet), but FIFA medical officials say the jump from sea level shouldn’t be a problem.

“This is not really an issue.

We have discussed it, and the highest spot is Joburg and it is a region which doesn’t cause any health issues,” FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak told a press conference.

“Many of the teams, they have their preparation time also in Europe... where they are going to train approximately the same level as

Joburg,” he added.

But other doctors say the altitude can cause players to fatigue faster, especially in the second half, even if they stay only briefly at high elevations.

“It does have an effect.

They’re not going to be at the same level of other teams,” said Jon Patricios, a Johannesburg sports physician who consults for overseas teams.

The 22 teams based around Johannesburg will have adapted better to the altitude than those staying on the coast, he said. “They’ll have trained, have more red blood cells, they’ll be able to carry more oxygen,” he said.

“The teams that live in altitude will have a slight advantage but it does not mean

they’re going to win all the games,” he added.

On the other hand, teams on the coast will benefit from the milder temperatures, as Johannesburg dips toward freezing during winter, while lows in Knysna tend to stay around 10 degrees (50 degrees Fahrenheit).

“The climate conditions are more balanced and better than the freezing cold of the highveld,” said Pezula director Claus Martin.

“Many experts say that at an altitude of 1,600 metres, the difference of the altitude does not really matter, particularly if you’re not staying more than 48 hours,” he said.

“That will be the case, they’ll leave the day before and come back after the game.”—AFP

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

23

Tiger lurks, Couples leads as Masters tension builds DENVER: Los Angeles Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic (center) of Slovenia, struggles to hold on to the ball as Denver Nuggets guard Anthony Carter (left) and forward Nene,of Brazil, cover in the fourth quarter of the Nuggets’ 98-96 victory.—AP

Nuggets get past Lakers DENVER: Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points and made a game-saving block at the buzzer to help the Denver Nuggets hold on for a 98-96 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Thursday’s NBA action.

With time winding down, Anthony blocked Derek Fisher’s shot as Denver won its fourth straight. The slumping Lakers gave Kobe Bryant the night off to rest a swollen right knee and an aching right index finger.

Despite a late-season form wobble, Los Angeles remains in control for the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs. The Lakers needs just one more win in their last four or just one more loss by Denver to wrap it up.

Bulls 109, Cavaliers 108 In Chicago, the hosts survived some shaky free-throw shooting down the stretch to beat a Cleveland team minus LeBron James.

Derrick Rose scored 24 points and Kirk Hinrich had 23 as the Bulls moved into a tie with

eighth-place Toronto in the Eastern Conference.

The Raptors hold the tiebreaker, but with Chris Bosh injured, Chicago’s chances are looking good.

The Bulls prevailed even though Rose and Luol Deng each missed two free throws in the final 15 seconds. Cleveland’s Mo Williams scored a season-high 35 points on a night when James was rested.

Kings 116, Clippers 94 In Sacramento, California, Sacramento snapped an eight-game losing streak while extending Los Angeles skid to seven.

Tyreke Evans had 28 points, six rebounds and seven assists for the Kings, who saw their 16point halftime trimmed to eight after three quarters.

Sacramento had a 16-2 to run to start the fourth in pushing their lead to 100-78. It was the first time in nine games that the Kings topped 100 points. Chris Kaman scored 23 points for the Clippers.—AP

NBA results/standings NBA results and standings on Thursday.

Chicago 109, Cleveland 108; Sacramento 116, LA Clippers 94; Denver 98, LA Lakers 96.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT Boston 49 29 .628 Toronto 38 40 .487 NY Knicks 28 50 .359 Philadelphia 26 52 .333 New Jersey 11 67 .141 Cleveland Milwaukee Chicago Indiana Detroit Orlando Atlanta Miami Charlotte Washington

Central Division 61 18 44 34 38 40 30 48 25 53

GB 11 21 23 38

.772 .564 .487 .385 .321

16.5 22.5 30.5 35.5

Southeast Division 55 23 .705 49 29 .628 44 34 .564 42 36 .538 24 54 .308

6 11 13 31

Western Conference Northwest Division Denver 52 27 .658 Utah 51 28 .646 1 Portland 48 30 .615 3.5 Oklahoma City 48 30 .615 3.5 Minnesota 15 63 .192 36.5

LA Lakers Phoenix LA Clippers Sacramento Golden State

Pacific Division 55 23 51 27 27 52 25 54 24 54

.705 .654 4 .342 28.5 .316 30.5 .308 31

Southwest Division Dallas 51 27 .654 San Antonio 48 30 .615 3 Houston 40 38 .513 11 Memphis 39 39 .500 12 New Orleans 35 44 .443 16.5

Mohammed Al Sarraf prepares for Red Bull Street Style World Finals After 225 qualifying tournaments featuring 5260 would-be champions, the countdown is now well and truly on to the World Final of Red Bull Street Style 2010. Following the high-level competition in 2008, the best 60 footballers from 59 countries are set to face off on April 28, 2010 in Cape Town/South Africa to crown the best freestyle footballer on the planet. The rules are simple: 3 minutes, 2 players, 1 ball.

As the last few national qualifying tournaments are held across the globe, no fewer than 56 countries have already chosen their representative to fly the flag in South Africa just months before the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off.

Indeed, when it comes to the number of countries involved there is no comparison with Red Bull Street Style - at the World Final almost twice as many nations as at “other football tournaments” will send their finest to battle it out head-to-head for the title.

“After I won the title of Red Bull Street Style in Kuwait, I met with “Sean” the 2008 Winner of the worldwide Red Bull Street Style soccer contest. He advised me to focus on improving my style and the way I interact with the music while performing as my ball control is excellent.

Therefore I focused heavily on the acrobatic moves and how to respond to my opponents. My goal is to represent Kuwait in the best possible way and to qualify to the best 16.” said Mohammed Al Sarraf.

The World Final will see the best freestyle footballers divided into groups for a two-day qualification phase, where they will compete against the other ballers in their group in head-to-head battles for a ticket to the final round.

Each battle follows the same format: 3 minutes, 2 players, 1 ball, with each freestyler having 20 seconds

to impress the judges before passing the ball back to his competitor. The top two from each group will progress to the Last 16 stage, where they will battle it out on the final day for the title Red Bull Street Style World Champion 2010.

The Event will take place in front of the seventeenth-century Castle of Good Hope, South Africa’s oldest surviving building, in the shadow of the iconic Table Mountain and just a stone’s throw from the Cape Town Stadium that will host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Cape Town is the largest and second-most populous city in South Africa, with an estimated 3.5 million people living in the city, famous for its harbour and sandy beaches. The Middle East will also take part in the event, where many qualification rounds were already held in different countries: Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, KSA and UAE. The winner at each national qualifier will represent his country in Cape Town, making his best to win. With so many nations competing, world-class experts are needed to judge the athletes’ performance according to the strict criteria of ball and body control, creativity and style in combination with the music.

Former Juventus Turin, AC Milan and Barcelona midfielder Edgar Davids (NED will be joined as Head Judge by two more icons of the Beautiful Game to elect the world’s best freestyle footballer. Back in 2008, Red Bull Street Style set the standard for international freestyle football competitions as no fewer than 45 countries battled it out at the World Final in Sao Paulo (BRA), with France’s Arnaud “Sean” Garnier flipping and tricking his way through to the final, where he defeated Yosuke Yokota from Japan in a close battle to become the first ever Red Bull Street Style Champion.

Two years later, Sean is back to defend the title that changed his life - but it won’t be easy.

AUGUSTA: Tiger Woods doesn’t appear to be feeling such massive shame, guilt or remorse over cheating on his wife with multiple mistresses that it’s hurting his golf game.

In fact, as Woods teed off Yesterady morning to start his second round at the 74th Masters, rivals seem to be correct who predicted a sex scandal that forced the 14-time major winner into a five-month layoff would also make him tougher.

“It’s actually scary to think that if he gets his mind a little bit free and uncluttered that it could be better,” world number two Steve Stricker said.

“The guy is so talented and mentally strong that if he can maybe get rid of the outside factors, he could actually perform at a higher level.”

Off to his lowest start in 16 Masters appearances, world number one Woods fired a fourunder par 68 Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club and lurked only three strokes off the lead when he started in cool and breezy conditions.

First-round pace-setter Fred Couples, trying to become the oldest major champion at age 50, opened with a 66 and reached seven-under for the tournament with a lead-stretching birdie on the par-5 second hole yesterday.

Set for afternoon starts on a course washed by overnight rain were several players at five-under-US legend Tom Watson, England’s Lee Westwood, US star Phil Mickelson and South Korean 2009 PGA Championship winner Yang Yong-Eun. Tougher pin placements were taking a toll on Friday’s early starters after relatively kind conditions for scoring in round one, Scotland’s Sandy Lyle going 10-over on the first eight holes after opening with a 69 on Thursday.

On Thursday, Woods fired two eagles in the same round for the first time at Augusta National, joking, “Guess I need a longer layoff.”

But he lammented lip-outs for birdie at 18 and eagle at 13 among several near-misses in his long-awaited return round.

“Unfortunately I didn’t putt very good or it could have been a very special round,” Woods said.

It was a special round anyway for reasons far beyond the score as Woods answered doubts about his ability to set aside the humiliation of more than a dozen women claiming sex affairs and return to intimidating golf form.

It remains to be seen whether that will be enough for Woods to move nearer his goal of the record 18 major titles won by Jack Nicklaus.

“We’ll see what happens,” Woods said. “I feel like I’m in the right spot. Anybody can win this event so we’ve got some work to do.”

After round two, the field will be trimmed to the low 44 and ties plus anyone within 10 strokes of the lead, an exception that often allows for a hefty weekend field as leaders are often brought back to the pack on day two.

Elin Woods was not among the thousands who gathered to watch her husband make his much-anticipated comeback to competitive golf after his tawdry secret sex affairs exploded into global gossip headlines last November.

But Kultida Woods, his Thai-born mother, was among those who walked along the famed course watching her son receive what he dubbed the best reception he has ever enjoyed at any Masters.

And Woods has been greeted greatly many times, having won the green jacket symbolic of Masters supremacy four times, most recently in 2005.

It was at Augusta where Woods won the first major triumph by a black golfer in 1997 in record-shattering fashion, his success helping prod numerous layout changes in the decade that followed.

Woods also drew rave ovations in 2001 when he completed the “Tiger Slam” by winning the Masters, giving him four consecutive major triumphs, albeit not in the one-year chronological order of the tradi-

AUGUSTA: Tiger Woods watches his chip shot to the seventh green during the first round of the Masters golf tournament.—AP

Gonzalez rolls, Isner falters HOUSTON: Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez needed three sets to see off South African qualifier Kevin Anderson on Thursday, progressing to the quarterfinals of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships.

Chile’s Gonzalez won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to set up a final eight meeting with Horacio Zeballos. The sixthseeded Argentine swept past Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-2.

American John Isner was the main casualty of Thursday’s play, with the towering second seed eliminated by Belgian veteran Xavier Malisse 7-6 (3), 6-7 (7), 76 (3). Malisse’s quarterfinal opponent will be American Wayne Odesnik, who was a 6-1, 7-5 winner over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.

While Isner departed, another big-serving American, Sam Querrey, blasted his way through with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic. Querrey will take on Chile’s Nicolas Massu next.

Fourth-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt started understandably poorly in his return from injury but fought back to beat India’s Somdev Devvarman 1-6, 6-0, 7-6 (2). Hewitt will face old rival Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Gonzalez finally got the edge when he broke Anderson in fifth game of the final set. After Anderson went up 30-0 in the game, Gonzalez hit a forehand winner and a backhand crosscourt return and Anderson followed with two errors, including a double-fault at break point.

“I can play better in the next round, the conditions were slow tonight,” Gonzalez said. “I’m going to be better for the next match. I have to play better tennis than today. “I don’t have the good feeling of the ball. You have to keep playing and it will come.”

Malisse took his tight win over Isner by prevailing in the final tiebreaker, including winning the fourth point despite breaking a string during play. The Belgian hit a drop shot across the net and Isner dribbled it into the net.

Isner served an ace on the next point but he won only one more point the rest of the tiebreaker. “It could have been 63, 6-2 if he’d kept his serve but I

played well and had a a good tie breaker in the third,” Malisse said. Defending champion Hewitt won his first singles match since undergoing hip surgery on Jan. 29.

The Australian showed rust in a ragged first set filled with unforced errors, but allowed lucky loser Devvarman only two points in the second set and almost faded before finally put his younger opponent away in the tiebreaker.

“It’s going to take a few weeks to get my movement back to where I want it to be,” Hewitt

said. “I felt going into the Australian Open I was moving as well as I ever have. So to get back to that we have a little bit of work ahead of us but we’re on the right track and hopefully things continue improving.”

Devvarman had a 2-1 lead in the final set tiebreaker when Hewitt ran off six straight points and ended it at the first match point with a service winner.

Hewitt was erratic in the opening set but found his range in a 20minute second set when he won

five games to love. “It was hard to know what to expect,” Hewitt said. “He doesn’t hit a lot of winners but he gets a lot of balls back.

In the second set, I served better.

I tried to move him around and pick the right balls to come in on and put pressure on him.

“In the first set, I was a little bit too eager to go out and start hitting winners straight from the start.” Hewitt was leading 5-3 and serving for the match in the third set but the Indian broke Hewitt twice to force the breaker.—AP

PONTE VEDRA: Olga Govortsova, of Belarus, serves during the first set of her match against, Varvara Lepchenko at the MPS Group Championships tennis tournament.—AP

Elena advances at Ponte Vedra PONTE VEDRA: Fourth-seeded Elena Vesnina of Russia defeated Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the MPS Group Championships on Thursday.

Vesnina fell behind 3-2 in the first set but won 24 of the next 26 points to close out the set and take a 2-0 lead in the second.

Play was delayed for nearly 10 minutes when a fan passed out in the stands and was treated. When play resumed, Vesnina won four consecutive points for a 5-2 lead in windy conditions.

“I was hitting against the wind and she was hitting so hard and the ball was heavy,” Vesnina said. “I was trying to hit it, but it was not flying to the baseline.” Goerges began the seventh game of the second with a pair of aces before play was delayed nearly 10 minutes when a fan passed out in the stands and was treated. When play resumed, Vesnina won four consecutive points for a 5-2 lead in windy conditions.

“It’s scary,” Vesnina said. “(The delay) helped me

a little bit, actually. She served me two aces in a row and the lady passed out and I can tell her thank you, actually. I saw the doctor and he told me she was fine now.”

Vesnina will next face American Melanie Oudin, who rebounded from losing the first 10 points to beat China’s Peng Shuai 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a night match. “It took everything,” Oudin said of the 2-hour, 5-minute match. “I started off not exactly like I wanted to, losing the first 10 points of the match, and I was looking forward to winning a point.”

Olga Govortsova of Belarus won 71 percent of her first-serve points, defeating qualifier Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-2, 6-2. In the quarterfinals Govortsova will face Varvara Lepchenko of the United States, who made it into the draw only as a lucky loser when seventh-seeded Virginie Razzano of France withdrew with a foot injury. Taking the opportunity, Lepchenko squashed Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-1, 6-1 in 49 minutes.—AP

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MADRID: Barcelona might be just one step from reaching the Champions League final but today tackle Real Madrid in a mouth-watering ‘El Clasico’ that could decide this season’s La Liga title.

Argentine Lionel Messi won all the plaudits after a spell-binding performance that saw him net all of Barca’s four goals in the Catalan club’s 4-1 thrashing of Arsenal on Tuesday. But Real playmaker Guti claimed Barca were not all about the young Argentinian.

“Messi didn’t need to score four goals for us to know who he is,” Guti said. “We need to have an anti-Barcelona plan because they are not just Messi.

“However, (Real) Madrid are always favourites especially playing at home. Barcelona are a great team with the same points but we don’t need to feel inferior because we aren’t.”

Real have won all 15 of their home matches in the league to edge ahead of Barca on goal difference - both teams are on 77 points - and are targeting a 13th successive win in the league.

Barcelona memorably won 6-2 at the Bernabeu last season on their way to a historic treble with Messi tearing Real apart and the Argentine is on fire with his quadruple against Arsenal making it 39 goals for the season in all competitions — 26 in La Liga and eight in Europe. “If the eleven players work hard, with the talent we have it’s difficult to lose a match,” said Barca midfielder Xavi. “We also have the best player in the world in Messi.”

Barcelona won the first Clasico 1-0 at Camp Nou and have won the last three clashes between the two sides but Real have been plundering the goals of late and their deadly strike force of Gonzalo

Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo are averaging better than a goal a game of late.

Ronaldo has 11 goals in his last 10 league games while Higuain, on 24 goals for the season, has 13 in his last 10 league matches scoring in each of his last five league outings “We don’t feel the need for revenge (for the 6-2 defeat last season),” said Ronaldo. “We are very conscious that this match can decide La Liga. We have great ambition to win it.”

Both Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola have been playing down the significance of the game - possibly to take the pressure off their players - but there is no disguising its importance.

A win would put either side three points clear with seven games remaining and that is a healthy cushion when you consider that both teams have only dropped 13 points all season.

Real welcome back Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso from suspensions in a big boost while Barcelona could be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic - who volleyed the winner in the 1-0 victory at Camp Nou - with the Swede missing the Barcelona victory over Arsenal due to a leg injury.

Defenders Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique missed that game through suspension but while captain Puyol returns for the Real duel doubts surround the fitness of Pique although Andres Iniesta is back from injury after a late outing on Wednesday. Elsewhere rivals Valencia and Real Mallorca lock horns at the Ono stadium in a duel for the Champions League places. Valencia are third a full eight points ahead of Mallorca in fifth but the islanders have won 12 out of their 14 home matches this season and hope to make Valencia their latest scalp. —AFP

Ancelotti warns Chelsea to beware of wounded Villa LONDON: Carlo Ancelotti has warned his Chelsea stars not to underestimate Aston Villa in today’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley as the holders face the team they thrashed 7-1 last month.

Ancelotti is concerned that his side’s demolition of Villa could lead to complacency creeping into their play against a wounded team who will be desperate to make amends for that humiliation.

Villa manager Martin O’Neill described the result as the most embarrassing of his career and he admitted to being shocked at how his players threw in the towel once Chelsea began to pile on the goals.

But Blues boss Ancelotti has no doubts O’Neill will use the painful memories of that defeat as a motivational tool to ensure his team

are fired up for revenge. “I’m sure it will be a different game. We will not think about that match,” Ancelotti said. “Aston Villa will play a different game, they will have a good direction, so we will play attention.

“It is a semi-final of an important championship and they will be doing their best to win.

Saturday will be different.

“They have players with experience and strength and I have a good opinion about this team. “Martin O’Neill is a good psychologist and a very good coach.”

Ancelotti’s hopes of defeating Villa again have been boosted after Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba was declared fit to start.

Drogba started on the bench for last weekend’s win at Manchester United, but came on to score the late goal that effectively sealed

Chelsea’s most important win of the season.

He has an impressive record in Wembley showpiece matches after scoring the winner in the 2007 FA Cup final against United, striking twice in last season’s FA Cup semi-final win over Arsenal and then netting the equaliser in the final victory over Everton.

Preview “Drogba will not stay on the bench on Saturday. He will play from the beginning,” Ancelotti confirmed. “Didier did this very well against Manchester United. He was fresh when he came on the pitch and he did a fantastic job.

He scored.” Ancelotti believes success in the

semi-final will keep Chelsea’s morale high as they bid to hold onto their two-point lead at the top of the Premier League.

“After the defeat against Inter, it became our aim to win the double. But we have to play six or seven games and every game will be difficult because it is the end of the season and every team has an aim,” he added.

But Villa will be keen to produce a better display than they managed on their last Wembley appearance back in February when they squandered an early lead to lose the League Cup final 2-1 to Manchester United.

O’Neill said: “The appetite for this game is even stronger having been to Wembley once this season. It is a great incentive for us.

“We lost the League Cup final and you could see by the second half performance in the FA

Cup quarter-final at Reading that there was a renewed determination to get back there again.

“Of course, we face Chelsea. That won’t be easy, particularly after what happened a fortnight ago, but the players are ready to go.

“There is no question for a few days we were all pretty despondent after the Chelsea defeat, but the great thing is you get a chance quickly to put things right.”

Villa face a nervous wait to see if key defender Richard Dunne, who missed training on Thursday with a sore Achilles, is available to help subdue Drogba and company.

“Dunne has had a bit of a setback and he came out of training,” O’Neill said. “It is an injury we have to be nursing through. It has been troublesome for a while but he definitely will want to play.” —AFP

Hoeness gloats as Fergie fumes

Alex Ferguson

PARIS: What a fabulously rich week of football foolishness this has been.

The sore loser prize, yet again, goes to Alex Ferguson.

“Typical Germans,” the Manchester United manager fumed after one of the most delectable volleyed goals from Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben blew down the house of cards that Ferguson’s once dominant squad risks becoming. It must be dawning on Ferguson by now that having Wayne Rooney alone does not make a winning team. His World War IIera rant was directed at Bayern players he blamed for the 50th-minute sending-off of Rafael da Silva.

“They got him sent off, everyone sprinted towards the referee,” he said, as if his players would never, ever, do exactly the same thing given half a chance. Typical Ferguson.

Decades of success at United have earned him the right to do, if not see, things his own way. But the truth is that only one of the Bayern players, midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who badgered referee Nicola Rizzoli was German. The others-Franck Riber y, Ivica Olic and Mark van Bommel-are French, Croatian and Dutch.

Had Ferguson plugged the weaknesses in his squad as quickly as he finds someone other than himself or his players to blame for their defeats, then United would likely still be defending the battered honor of English clubs in the Champions

League, rather than staring at the prospect of a season with only the League Cup in the trophy cabinet.

Until the fullback’s inexperience betrayed him, Rafael played well, hounding Ribery out of the picture. It was a big gamble for Ferguson to throw the 19-year-old Brazilian into such an important match against such seasoned opponents. Rafael might have better handled the high pressure had Ferguson played him more often, instead of 35-year-old Gary Neville.

Just as Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger has placed too much faith in youth, part of Ferguson’s undoing this season has been his slowness to pension off old-timers. The seeds of United’s Champions League quarter-final exit were planted by the jaded side he fielded for the first leg in Munich, where it tamely lost 2-1. Neville and Paul Scholes, also 35, both showed their age.

Besides, “typical” German, French or whatever means little or nothing now in a sport transformed in the 15 years since the European Court of Justice outlawed quota restrictions on European players. Can Arsenal’s gritty 2-2 first-leg recovery against FC Barcelona be called “typically English” when there wasn’t a single Englishman in Wenger’s starting 11?

A question which leads us to this week’s silliness prize. That goes to all those who huffed and puffed that English clubs are now in decline because none of them reached the

Champions League final four for the first time since 2003.

That conclusion is flawed partly because it is based on a mistaken perception that English clubs were previously very dominant. They weren’t.

They’ve been European club champions just three times in the past two decades (United in 1999 and 2008, and Liverpool in 2005). Real Madrid and Barcelona together won six times over that period, AC Milan won four times,

Uli Hoeness

and was a losing finalist another three times. Bayern president Uli Hoeness, gloating after the defeat of United, was right in his assessment that English clubs have felt the squeeze of the global financial crisis, tax hikes and the weakened British pound. But United, which this week announced the recruitment of Mexican striker Javier Hernandez, as well as Arsenal, Chelsea and newly wealthy Manchester City still have plenty of spending power. And the Premier League will be heavily represented by its players at the World Cup this June and July. A Champions League final four from Italy, France, Germany and Spain is a slight swing of the pendulum away from the Premier League but nothing more.

Hoeness’ prediction, reported in London newspapers, that “English football will not play the same role as before” was wildly optimistic.

One could almost picture Ferguson reaching again for his phrase book of typically German insults. Finally, this week’s prize for self-confidence goes to Real Madrid players for believing that they will beat Barcelona in their Spanish league “clasico” today and for claiming that their superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is at least as good with a football as god, aka Barca’s Lionel Messi. As anyone who saw Messi’s single-handed destruction of Arsenal this week can attest, such comparisons are truly foolish. —AP

Matches on TV (local timings) English Premier League West Ham v Sunderland ....... 17:00 ShowSports 1 ShowSports 2 Hull v Burnley ...................... 17:00 ShowSports 3 FA Cup Aston Villa V Chelsea ........... 19:00 Al Jazeera Sport +5 Italian League Napoli v Parma ...................... 19:00 Al Jazeera Sport +1 Fiorentina v Inter .................. 21:45 Al Jazeera Sport +1 Spanish League Malaga v Sevilla .................... 19:00 Al Jazeera Sport +4 Tenerife v Valladolid .............. 21:00 Al Jazeera Sport +7 Real Madrid v Barcelona ...... 23:00 Al Jazeera Sport +5 Al Jazeera Sport +3