21 April

ON SC RI PT I SU B

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

Kuwait new cabinet to take more time

Yemen opposition calls for protests as talks stall

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JAMADI ALAWWAL 18, 1432 AH

Real defeat Barcelona to clinch King’s Cup

Putin touts strong Russia ahead of 2012 vote

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Respect our unity, GCC tells Tehran Iranian diplomats ‘kicked out’ of Kuwait

Max 32 Min 21 Low Tide 07:52 & 20:46 High Tide 02:22 & 13:14

conspiracy theories

Who’s responsible?

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

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very now and then prices of oil go up. As a Kuwaiti citizen I do not care what the price of a barrel is and how much the government cashes in. I do not say this out of arrogance because oil is cheap. What I mean is whether the government sells it for over $100 or less than $50 dollars a barrel my income is the same. In fact, it is true we pay the same to fill gas in our cars but we are paying higher prices everywhere else. Even in the two years after the money crunch, prices of everything from A to Z have skyrocketed, especially the price of food.

Just visit the cooperatives and you will get my drift. The price of oil is like mercury. Now everybody is pinning the price hike of oil on the war in Libya.

Libya has the sweet crude oil and since the start of the unrest in the country, some 1 million barrels a day of exports have stopped. Honestly, I do not think that the loss of these 1 million barrels which happened in the past month have affected the world’s consumption of oil to such an extent.

The statements by different oil ministers from a round table held in Kuwait this week were contradictory and stated that there was sufficient supply of oil in the world. There were no shortages. Here is what Kuwait’s oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah AlSabah was quoted by Dow Jones as saying: “The market is well balanced and there is no shortage of supply. The shortfall from Libya has been largely compensated as OPEC moved quickly to ensure adequate supplies to the market”. He also said that “the hike in oil prices is due to the loss of large volumes of sweet crude from the market, expansionary monetary policy, a weak dollar, fear of spread of political unrest.”

On the other hand, the Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Energy Resources Ali Al-Naimi, who represents the world’s largest oil producer gave a sharp assessment of the situation. He reportedly was quoted as saying, “Based on the supply-and-demand fundamentals, crude oil prices should not be this high.” He attributed the high oil prices to “speculation” and called them “unjustified.”

Unjustified? Thank you for the statement. Then, my question is: If two big producers are saying that soaring prices are not justified then who is responsible for the price increase of oil? Or is it all politics?

Who suffers in the end? It is the people across the globe. It is all of us.

In other countries governments impose more tax on the oil and the burden falls over the people. In our part of the world, it is cheaper and we don’t have taxes but the prices of everything else soar, especially the basic necessities, such as food. I am not talking about gold here. I can live without wearing a gold bracelet or a necklace chaining my neck but I cannot survive without food or other important commodities. I think that 99 percent of the people in the globe agree with me that they can cope living without jewelry but not food or other basic necessities.

ABU DHABI: High Representative of the European Commission Catherine Ashton Group (center) poses for a group photo along with ministers and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council during the annual GCC-EU joint council and ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi yesterday. — AFP ABU DHABI: Iran should reconsider its policies in the region and respect the unity of Gulf countries, the UAE foreign minister said yesterday in Abu Dhabi, amid heightened regional tension.

“Iran should reconsider its policies in the region,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Gulf Cooperation Council, told a news conference after an annual GCC and European Union ministerial meeting.

And it “should respect the unity and sovereignty of Gulf countries,” Sheikh Abdullah said.

His remarks come amid heightened regional tensions between Iran and its Arab neighbors across the Gulf, with the two sides locked in a war of words that began during Shiite-led protests against Bahrain’s Sunni dynasty. A Saudi-led Gulf force entered Bahrain on March 14, freeing up Bahraini security forces to crush the protest movement in the only Shiite-majority Gulf Arab state-a move criticized by Iran.

On Monday, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh

Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa said the Gulf troops had entered the country “to deter an external threat,” a reference to Iran. “We have never seen a sustained campaign from Iran on Bahrain and the Gulf like we’ve seen in the past two months. Usually it’s a short-lived one and then back off; this time is something different,” he said. “We wrote a letter to the secretary general of the United Nations, and in that letter we have a full attachment of the threats and of all the evidence we have against Iran and Hezbollah,” the Lebanese Shiite group backed by Tehran.

In another development, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah confirmed yesterday in Abu Dhabi that Iranian diplomats accused of spying have been expelled amid heightened Gulf tensions. “We kicked them out,” Sheikh Mohammed told reporters on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council-EU ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi Continued on Page 14

Arab League postpones may summit; Iraqis boil BAGHDAD: The Arab League yesterday postponed the group’s summit scheduled for next month in Baghdad, angering many Iraqis who see it as retaliation over Iraq’s support for Shiites in the island kingdom of Bahrain. The announcement by Ahmed bin Heli, the 22-member group’s deputy chief, follows a request by Gulf nations to cancel the May 10-11 event because of political unrest across the region.

But tensions over the fate of the island kingdom of Bahrain, where protests by the mostly Shiite population were put down with the aid of neighboring Saudi Arabia, have added a sectarian dimension to the debate. Many Gulf countries have sided with the Sunni rulers in Bahrain while Iraq, which is majority Shiite, has been adamant in its support of the protesters. “The postponement is a negative and illegal step and it contradicts the Arab League principles.

Some Gulf states were upset by some statements and stances by Iraqi people and politicians on the Bahrain uprising and used these stances as a pretext to prevent the holding of the summit in Iraq,” said Continued on Page 14

‘We will help you.’

West tells rebels New Libya constitution ready: Gaddafi son PARIS: France promised Libyan rebels yesterday it would intensify air strikes on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces and send military liaison officers to help them as fighting raged in the besieged city of Misrata. Rebels said they fought progovernment troops for control of a main thoroughfare in the port city that is the insurgents’ last stronghold in the west of the country. Eight people had been killed the previous day, mostly civilians.

In Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged stronger military action at his first meeting with the leader of the opposition Libyan National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the Elysee presidential office said in a statement. “We are indeed going to intensify the attacks and respond to this request from the national transition council,” it said, quoting Sarkozy as telling Abdel Jalil: “We will help you.”

Continued on Page 14

TRIPOLI: A Libyan female member of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces guards a checkpoint at a street in Tripoli yesterday. — AFP

‘Sports for Peace’

ROME: (From left) Israeli Olympic Committee Secretary General Efraim Zinger, Italian Olympic Committee President Giovanni Petrucci, Israeli Olympic Committee President Zvi Varshaviak, Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno, Palestinian Olympic Committee President Jibril Rajoub, IOC Vice President Mario Pescante, and head of the international relations of the Palestinian Olympic Committee Khaled El-Yazji join their hands at the end of a ‘Sports for Peace’ press conference yesterday. — AP

ROME: Israeli and Palestinian Olympic officials reaffirmed their desire to build stronger ties yesterday, but came away without any tangible breakthroughs during a “Sports for Peace” meeting in Italy. The meeting was arranged by International Olympic Committee vice president Mario Pescante as a followup to initial talks led by IOC President Jacques Rogge in January.

Palestinian Olympic Committee president Jibril Rajoub pushed for Israel to allow Palestinian athletes and coaches more freedom to travel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and to make it easier for visiting teams to play football friendlies. “This is very important for the Palestinian people and I think it should also be important for the Israeli people,” Rajoub said. “The Palestinian players

and athletes are not able to move inside the Palestinian territories and from the Palestinian territories to outside.”

Israeli Olympic Committee secretary general Efraim Zinger responded by calling for an end to instances of some athletes refusing to compete against Israelis, and invited the Palestinians to train together for next year’s London Games. Zinger said he has invited the Palestinian Olympic team to one if its high-tech training centers. “ We are ready to host the Palestinian Olympic team and help them prepare for the 2012 London Games,” the Israeli said.

“We already offered it and I hope that Rajoub will accept it.” Zinger disputed Rajoub’s claims over travel restrictions.

Continued on Page 14

protesters brush off Assad reforms BEIRUT: Thousands of students held demonstrations yesterday against Syria’s authoritarian regime, brushing off President Bashar Assad’s sweeping declarations of reform as the country’s growing protest movement vowed to stage the biggest rallies to date tomorrow. The monthlong uprising in Syria has posed the biggest challenge to the 40year ruling dynasty of President Bashar Assad and his father before him.

On Tuesday, Syria did away with 50 years of emergency rule - but emboldened and defiant crowds accused Assad of simply trying to buy time while he clings to power. “We are preparing for a huge demonstration tomorrow,” said an activist in the southern city of Daraa, where anti-government protests first erupted last month and later spread nationwide.

Continued on Page 14

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Years

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

local

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and other dignitaries at the Quran Memorization and Recitation competition yesterday.

Amir attends closing ceremony of Kuwait Quran prize competition KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah attended the closing ceremony of Kuwait International Prize for the Memorization and Recitation of the Holy Quran yesterday at Bayan Palace.

The Amir was greeted upon arrival at the venue by Deputy Prime Minister for Legal Affairs and Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Justice Rashed Abdelmihsin Al-Hammad, accompanied by members of the organizing committee. The ceremony was attended by His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Deputy National Guards Chief Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, Deputy National Assembly Speaker Abdullah Al-Roumi, and Deputy Minister for Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah AlSabah.

Justice Al-Hammad inaugurated the ceremony and expressed appreciation for the organizing committee for all their effort and diligence which bring pride and respect to the homeland as it hosts such dignified event. He added the event was hosted close to the country’s national days in February and thus serves to remind us again of the Almighty’s boons and prompts us to say thanks in all means possible.

Judging panel member Dr. Ahmad bin Ali Al-Sdais meanwhile extended warm thanks and gratitude to His Highness the Amir for sponsoring this competition. He also expressed appreciation for the warm reception with which both officials and the public received the scholars, judges, and participants in the competition.

After screening of a documentary about the award, His Highness Sheikh Sabah presented the winners of the prize with their awards and received a commemorative token. — KUNA

State schools install phone-jamming gear KUWAIT: Several of Kuwait’s state schools have introduced phone jamming equipment to prevent pupils from using their cell phones to cheat during examinations.

A Ministry of Education insider explained that the practice is not official ministry policy, but was introduced by administrative staff at the schools themselves to crack down on cheating in exams.

The education ministry is seeking to fur-

ther tighten its monitoring of exams during the upcoming annual finals, the official added, with records showing that numerous incidents of cheating were discovered last year.

Any pupil caught cheating in exams is penalized by being prevented from sitting any exam throughout the examinations period, effectively forcing them to resit a year or leave school without qualifications. — Al-Rai

Govt keen to see new communications bill passed: Sheikh Ahmad KUWAIT: Kuwait ’s government is absolutely serious about the need to pass a new communications bill, said a senior government member yesterday.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, Kuwait ’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of State for Development Affairs, said that the government wishes to see the new bill passed and a new communications authority established as soon as possible. Speaking at a ceremony held by Zajil International Telecom Company to mark the firm’s twentieth year of operations, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad, who also doubles as the Minister of State for Housing Affairs, said that the communications bill would be enacted in cooperation with the National Assembly (parliament) in order to renew and restructure the country’s communications and information technology sector.

Kuwait’s leadership has been striving to create an effective e-government structure incorporating all the country’s ministries and other state bodies and to overhaul the existing online government por-

tals so that they can provide further permanent support for sustainable development, thus providing a positive atmosphere for a cohesive Kuwaiti society which can benefit from these sectors.

Talking about Zajil, he hailed the firm’s technological activities, as well as its work with other companies, lauding its venture into the public-private partnership (PPP) field as a great success, and mentioning other such successful PPP ventures by Gulf firms in both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad fur ther revealed that Kuwait plans to take major steps in the communications and technology fields in the near future. Zajil International Telecom Company is one of the region¥s leading data telecommunications and IT solutions providers, with its core services including networked IT services, local & international datacom. services, and high-speed broadband and internet services, as well as value-added services and specially tailored solutions for critical environments. — KUNA

News

in brief

MoH warns staff KUWAIT: A senior Ministry of Health (MoH) official has warned all ministry employees that from next month if they do not commit themselves to properly using the recently introduced fingerprint attendance and monitoring system for staff they will face legal penalties. An unnamed MoH undersecretary issued an official directive on Tuesday warning staff that as of the beginning of May all MoH personnel will be expected to use the system, with the sole exception of those covered by a ministry decision issued last year, with any who refuse to do so to face legal action by the ministry.

Amiri grant violation KUWAIT: Official sources said that the public prosecutor contacted the citizenship department regarding a suspect with citizenship to both Kuwait and another Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) country. The sources added that the citizenship department was taking legal action against him and that if he is found guilty he may have his citizenship revoked. Notably, the citizen’s own brother reported the violation, which resulted in depriving him and his 24 children from getting the Amiri grant that would have awarded him KD 24,000.

Kuwait Internet unaffected KUWAIT: Internet service in Kuwait have not been affected by the accidental severance of the main undersea cable connecting the country’s Internet services to Bahrain after alternative cables were used to maintain the level of services available, according to a senior Ministry of Communication (MoC) official.

Ministry to shut down elementary school ‘canteens’ KUWAIT: The Ministr y of Education (MoE) has plans to shut down all the snack providing ‘canteens’ in public elementary schools by as early as next year. The decision was made less than one year after the ministry adopted a project to provide elementary school students with nutritious food during their lunch breaks.

According to official sources,

the decision was made after several schools noticed that the canteens were selling food that was originally intended to be free of charge to students.

Before the ministr y implemented the school food project, elementary students used to buy snacks from school canteens during the break. The current belief amongst the MOE is that the canteens are now unnecessary as

students are now receiving healthy food during the breaks.

The decision is not expected to be welcomed by school administrators who used the school’s canteens as a way to provide additional income for the school’s needs. The same sources indicated that the ministry may increase the amount of money allocated annually to each school.

Health exper ts repeatedly warned against the kind of food being sold to students at the schools’ cafeterias, which tend to be high in calories and sugar.

Meanwhile, the ministr y is prepared to form a joint committee with the Ministry of Health in order to assess how well the project has gone so far and how to come up with ways to prevent future violations. —Al-Qabas

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

Years

LOCAL

Indian Ambassador hosts farewell party

KUWAIT: Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra and wife Ira Malhotra receive Kuwait Times Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Alyan during the reception (left). — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

By Sajeev K Peter KUWAIT: The outgoing Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra hosted a dinner reception at the Indian embassy on Tuesday evening to bid farewell to his Kuwaiti and Indian

friends and diplomatic colleagues as he completes his tenure in Kuwait.

Ambassador Malhotra is leaving Kuwait in May to take up a position as India’s new ambassador to Russia based in Moscow.

“In Kuwait, I’ve made friendships

with people in many parts of society.

Today, I’m hosting some of my Kuwaiti and Indian friends. I’ve also invited today my diplomat friends from different foreign missions here. I will also be meeting with others soon,” the ambassador told the Kuwait Times.

US Embassy accused of withholding passport Verification of a forged document

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: The United States Embassy in Kuwait has been accused of withholding the passport of a US citizen for over two months now. The American national, who requested anonymity, told Kuwait Times that all he wants to do is to return home with his family to the US. “My contract ended in February and since my passport had to be renewed, I gave it in for renewal at our embassy here in Kuwait. But they told me that I need to wait until they verify a forged document issue which they have discovered,” he said.

When pressed on the issue of the forged document in question, the man told the Kuwait Times, “I don’t really want to talk about it but it’s about a document to secure a job,” which he asserts is over 20 years old.

He asked, “Why only after over

two decades did they have to bring up this issue? The authorities [back in the US] had no charges against me. I’ve moved on with my life and the subject was never brought up again, so why now?”

The disgruntled expatriate feels that he’s been effectively abandoned by his countr y ’s embassy. “ The consular sec tion here seem not to care about my situation, knowing that without a job and with a family here in Kuwait it is impossible to survive. Not to mention the need of health coverage for the family and schooling for my kids,” he said.

In most cases, wherever one is in the world, he said, embassies will work hard to bring their citizens home, whatever the circumstances, before dealing with their situation. A naturalized American of Moroccan origin, the man asked, “What is a real

Food traders to protect consumers KUWAIT: The chairman of the manage ment board of the Kuwait Union of Food D i s t r i b u t o r s a n d I m p o r t e r s ye s t e rd a y stressed the union’s dedication to protecting consumers from exploitation by greedy merchants and traders, particularly given recent sharp rises in food prices.

Union head Abdullah Al-Beijan insisted that Kuwaiti traders do take consumers and t h ei r con cer n s into co nsiderat io n when setting food prices, but added that fo o d p r i c e s h a ve b e e n s t e a d i l y r i s i n g around the world.

Al-Beijan listed a number of fac tors which he said were behind these price increases, including severe weather events in cereal-producing nations affecting crop yields, bans imposed by some governments on food exports, and the increasing use of cereals to produce bio-fuels.

Falling world food stocks levels had also negatively affected food prices, he added.

S ome believe that increasing levels of speculation on the commodities market h a s a l s o p l a y e d a ro l e i n r a i s i n g fo o d prices.

Al-Beijan also suggested that intervention by the global superpowers in allocating farming subsidies for agricultural producers globally would be a positive step, saying, “As the recent World Bank report forecast new food price rises, major world nations should agree on a charter to subsidize agricultural sectors worldwide to help increase production and curb price rises.”

In its recent ‘Food Price Watch’ report, the World Bank forecast a 36 percent price rise for foodstuffs this year, meaning that they would remain close to the 2008 peak. —KUNA

citizen of the United States? Is it by birth or by naturalization? I think it is absolutely clear that they are dealing with me as a non- citizen, even af ter I was sworn in as a citizen of the United state by a judge many years ago,” he said.

The disillusioned US citizen continued, “For a country that pride itself as a leader of human rights, dignity and equality of all citizens, this is definitely out of character and just demonstrates how they don’t practice what they preach. Whatever the circumstances are no one deserve to be held hostage.”

When contac ted for comments, a US Embassy official told the Kuwait Times, that when it comes to overseas American citizens’ affairs, “we solve the problem among ourselves and we do not comment on the issue to the media. We have to find out first what’s really the matter.”

Imams suspended for political, sectarian sermons KUWAIT: The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs (MAIA) has suspended four imams and issued warnings to five others for mentioning the uprisings currently taking place in Arab countries and condemning followers of other religious doctrines in their sermons.

The suspensions, which will be effective for between two and six months, were imposed over the clerics’ violations of MAIA regulations proscribing the contents of ‘khutba’ sermons, with the offending utterances found in tapes viewed by a special committee consisting of an elite team of imams. The ministry’s monitoring of sermons and lectures delivered at local mosques is part of its attempts to crack down on sectarianism and prevent places of worship from being used to spread ideology that encourages intolerance of different beliefs. — Al-Rai

New Kuwaiti hotel opened in Cairo CAIRO: Kuwaiti Ambassador to Egypt Rashid Al-Hamad inaugurated yesterday a new hotel owned by Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) in downtown Cairo.

Following the opening ceremony, Hamad said that the “Hilton Zamalek Residence Cairo Hotel”, overlooks a breathtaking view on the River Nile and is located a tranquil and luxurious spot between downtown Cairo and Giza. He expressed hopes that the hotel which joined the reputable Hilton worldwide portfolio of brands, would enhance the Hilton’s presence in Egypt and introduce a new successful Kuwaiti investment in Egypt. Kuwait is keen on diversifying and increasing its investments in the Arab world’s most populous state, Hamad pointed out.

Kuwait has multi-billion-dollar investments in Egypt, mainly in the real estate sector. KIA is an autonomous government body responsible for the management and administration of the General Reserve Fund (GRF), and the assets of the Future Generations Fund (FGF), as well as any other funds entrusted to it by the Minister of Finance for and on behalf of the State of Kuwait.

It invests in the Local and Arab and International Markets. —KUNA

A large number of Kuwaiti dignitaries, diplomats, Indian community representatives and media figures attended the event on Tuesday evening. The ambassador and his wife Ira Malhotra greeted the guests on their arrival at the India House and

mingled with them, as well as posing for photos with many, with much good-natured competition amongst guests to have their photos taken with one of the most popular and dynamic Indian ambassadors Kuwait has yet seen. “I really feel that this has

been the most enjoyable posting I ever had and I will miss Kuwait in every sense,” the ambassador said, adding wistfully, “I will certainly miss many good friends when I leave this beautiful country.”

Airport’s new system catches 120 fake passport-users KUWAIT: A total of 120 people of various nationalities have been caught attempting to use fake passports to enter Kuwait since the introduction of the fingerprint security system at Kuwait International Airport (KIA) at the beginning of April.

One airport security official said that the 120 individuals had been identified as attempting to use forged passports or passports belonging to

other people, with the new system allowing security staff to quickly and easily check the passport-holders’ identity against the details in the travel documents themselves. The official said that the system has been extremely effective in preventing previously deported individuals who are banned from reentering Kuwait from attempting to return to the country using forged or otherwise fraudulent

passports. The fingerprint security system includes a database containing information on all Kuwait’s expatriate residents, as well as for those deported for security offences or other crimes. The official added that the system will soon be expanded to include a database for Kuwaiti citizens, as well as being introduced at the country’s seaports and land border crossing points in the near future. — Al-Qabas

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

LOCAL

Families reject politicization of disability issues at NA

Kuwait Digest

Salary increases for everybody!

Political groups firm on grilling KUWAIT: The Popular Action Bloc (PAB) is expected to complete work shortly on its intended grilling motion against His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, which will be presented at the same parliamentary session during which the new cabinet is sworn in. A PAB insider said that bloc member Khalid Al-Tahous is still expected to represent the bloc in presenting the grilling motion, along with two other MPs from other parliamentary blocs who wish to coordinate with the PAB. The insider noted that the PAB insists on the grilling motion being presented by three lawmakers representing three different blocs, although the bloc members wouldn’t object to having the grilling debated in a closed session.

The bloc hinted on Tuesday that the grilling would also address what its members see as the government’s failure to implement a law granting privileges to disabled citizens. Meanwhile, some relatives of disabled Kuwaitis who were present at a gathering held at the parliament building to discuss the matter rejected the politicization of this issue, with a number of the family members

accusing MPs of attempting to exploit the issue for political gain.

Meanwhile, independent MP Husain Al-Qallaf referred to the upcoming cabinet as “the last one to be headed by His Highness Sheikh Nasser,” saying that its failure would mean “the end of Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed’s political career”.

Al-Qallaf urged the premier to take his time in forming a cabinet “capable of meeting the public’s ambitions,” noting that the return of health minister Dr. Helal Al-Sayer would be a signal that the cabinet would not have witnessed much improvement.

On another issue, National Action Bloc (NAB) member MP Adel Al-Sarawi criticized the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah over statements to the press in which the minister demanded that his critics provide supporting evidence for accusations they made against him.

“Such statements are disrespectful to the public’s intellect and intended to mislead public opinion,” Al-Sarawi asserted, further accusing the deputy premier of “repeatedly avoiding answering [MPs’] questions.” The MP also repeated earlier

accusations of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad’s alleged involvement in the cabinet’s resignation, which the MP claimed was a ploy by the minister to avoid facing the grilling motion against him filed earlier by the NAB. MP Nadji Al-Abdulhadi, meanwhile, demanded that Kuwait tighten security measures at all border crossings, in order to face any potential security breach. The lawmaker also urged the Ministry of Interior to reconsider the means by which expatriates are granted residency permits, in order to introduce more measures to discourage the presence of “anyone who could be spying in favor of another country,” in particular those from nations “known for their espionage activities and running sleeper cells,” a clear reference to Iran.

On a separate issue, MP Mikhled AlAzmi criticized the “almost total lack of any traffic police presence” on the Fahaheel and Maghreb Highways, which he said suffer from “extreme traffic congestion levels that result in accidents happening on a daily basis.”

On another subject, MP Dr. Aseel AlAwadhi accused the Ministry of

Education of adopting a “random approach” to inviting foreign academics to deliver lectures at state schools. In a press release issued on Tuesday, AlAwadhi revealed that she had submitted a number of questions to the education ministry asking for details of the criteria used to select those asked to deliver these lectures.

The lawmaker raised the issue over concerns about incidents in which she claimed “lecturers known for their fundamentalist and intolerant ideology” were invited to deliver lectures to school pupils. In another development, during its latest meeting the parliamentary budgets committee discussed a number of points raised in the State Audit Bureau’s report on the Environment Public Authority for the 2009-10 fiscal year, which included a reduction in spending rates on researches and consultations. The panel also called on the EPA to provide a report explaining the reasons behind the discrepancies noted between the goals mentioned in the 2009/2010 government program, and the actions listed in the EPA’s balance sheet for the same period. — Agencies

Firefighters honored at KFSD ceremony By: Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Firefighters and non-commissioned officers from the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD) were recently honored at a ceremony held to mark the conclusion of a course on ‘Developing and Enhancing Firefighters’ Efficiency, and Accident Management Skills.’

The ceremony was patronized by the Deputy Director General of the KFSD’s Firefighting and Human Resources division, Brigadier Yousef Al-Ansari and the Deputy Director General of the Fire Prevention division, Brig. Amin Abdeen.

During the course, which was held in cooperation with the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), the firefighters were trained in testing and using specialist breathing equipment, overcoming claustrophobia, and how best to deploy some members of a team attending a fire callout to evacuate any people in the building and others to tackle the blaze.

Kuwaiti surgeons perform rare op KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Army Chief of Staff, General Ahmad Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, yesterday received two senior doctors from the Jaber Al-Ahmed Hospital.

During the meeting, held at General Ahmed AlKhalid’s office, the two senior medics, Colonel Dr. Mohammed Al-Azmi, the head of the hospital’s surgical department, and Major Dr. Abdullah Al-Malifi, a specialist surgeon there, told the army head about a recent

operation performed at the hospital, the first of its kind to be performed in Kuwait and only the third such operation worldwide.

In the operation, the surgeons successfully removed a massive 23-kilogram ovarian tumor, measuring 60 x 50 centimeters from a Kuwaiti girl in her teens, without the patient suffering any ill effects from the operation.

By Ahmed Essa

O

n March 27, 2011, just before the government’s resignation, the Civil Service Commission held a meeting in which several increments for government employees salaries were approved including new salary structures for those who had none at all.

Our government is obsessed with squandering money amongst its employees and subjects, a task that has been made easy by the soaring oil prices that have provided the government with unprecedented surpluses.

Scores of people demand the highest salaries for the least amount of effort and are represented by MPs, members of NGOs and unions that are demanding pay increases for everyone.

Unfortunately, our MPs and the government seem to have missed the fact that those funds and resources belong to everybody. The government has been entrusted with the funds and it is the parliament’s job to watch its performance very closely. It’s not money to be given away to certain sects or employees merely because they are Kuwaitis, with all due respect.

It’s a double standard for MPs to shout slogans about defending and protecting public funds while they themselves squander public funds to whomever they wish on the grounds that it is their constitutional right. Up until three years ago, the government used to consult the World Bank whenever MPs cornered it with requests for pay raises. Nevertheless, it has so often kept the World Bank’s reports in hidden drawers to give MPs their demands.

The World Bank’s reports recommended subsidizing private sector employees, new graduates and government employees in a bid to disburden the public sector.

Nevertheless, the government has been increasing the salaries of its employees in a way that has made so many citizens refrain from working for the private sector so that they can enjoy better wages and less working hours. However, the bottom line is that 80 percent of public sector employees are citizens over the age of 21 that form the largest share of voters. Therefore, they are the most favored by MPs.

information center KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health’s new information systems building is expected to be ready for operation by the end of next month, said official sources.

The new facility will observe the information and electronics systems and equipment of all of the ministry’s departments in order to achieve an electronic connection between them. The sources added that the four-story building has been equipped with cutting edge technology to maintain the quality of its work.

Two Arabs in police net for forging documents Wife beater held in Salmiya KUWAIT: Farwaniya authorities arrested two Arab men accused of forging official documents in exchange for money.

Authorities reported to the suspects’ residence with a warrant after being informed of their illegal activities, which included forging salary certificates for KD 300. The suspects were found in possession of several forged documents and government stamps. When questioned, the suspects admitted that they had been carrying out their illegal activities for two years.

Unpleasant surprise Police are looking for the person responsible for lowering the national flag and replacing it with a pair of underwear at an all girls school in Shamia. Police from the area responded to the school after receiving a report about the incident and gathered evidence to help them find those responsible for breaking onto the school’s premises the previous night. It was discovered that a similar incident happened at the school four months ago and police suspect that the same person may be responsible for both incidents.

Brutal assault Police arrested a man for abducting his wife, brutally assaulting her and attempting to convince a stranger to have sex with her against her will. The victim, who is of Arab nationality, informed police in Hawally that her husband forced her out of her family’s apartment in Salmiya where she had been staying for a week after the two of them had an argument. She explained that he first brought her to a farm in Wafra where he physically assaulted her and threatened to kill her before taking her to a house in Jaber Al-Ali. Once there, she said he locked her in a basement and that a Pakistani man showed up after he made a few phone calls. She reported that her husband asked the Pakistani man to rape her so that she could be humiliated but that the man left the scene and seemed shocked by the bizarre request. The victim’s ordeal ended when police were called while her husband tried to force his wife back into her family’s apartment in Salmiya. Police learned that the suspect works as a serviceman and that he was previously married to a Kuwaiti woman but divorced her after she accused him of physically assaulting her.

Harassment Police are searching for an Arab man responsible for sexually assaulting a female citizen inside the elevator of a

shopping mall. The 34-year-old victim found herself locked in the elevator with the suspect, who immediately harassed her with the intention of raping her. His plan failed however when the woman resisted his assault and he was forced to escape. Police responded to the scene of the incident after the victim placed an emergency call. She was assisted to the Salhiya police station where she filed a case against her assailant. During her testimony, she informed police that she could recognize the suspect but was unable to provide them with any further information. Meanwhile, a harasser was arrested inside the Bayan Co-op Society after he offered money to a female shopper to go out with him on a date. The victim, a Kuwaiti woman, ignored the harasser until he took out some money and asked her to accompany him to a private place. She called for help and fellow shoppers prevented him from fleeing the scene. He was apprehended by police and referred to the local police station.

Failed kidnapping Police arrested two school students for attempting to kidnap a female pedestrian in Farwaniya. The Filipina woman was stopped by two youngsters dressed in school uniforms and was forced to defend herself against their attempt to kidnap her. When the youths let her go she followed them until they entered a private school and called the police. She was escorted into the school by authorities in an attempt to locate her assaulters. The suspects were removed from their classes when the woman identified them and they were referred to the area’s police station.

Public shooting Police responded to block 10 of the Saad Al-Abdullah area after being informed that gunshots had been heard there. Police swept the area in an attempt to locate the unidentified shooter but no suspects were found. An investigation was launched.

Drug smuggler A drug smuggler was arrested at the Kuwait International Airport with the help of the General Department for Drug Control. Customs officers put the suspect under arrest immediately after he entered the country based on information they received informing them that he was attempting to smuggle drugs into the countr y. An x-ray at the Farwaniya Hospital revealed that the suspect was carrying drugs inside his body.

Authorities removed nearly half a kilogram of heroin from his body.

MoI celebrates research center’s anniversary KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior recently hosted a celebration marking the 28th anniversar y of the establishment of its research and studies center.

The event was supervised by the center’s managing director, Major General Yahiya Jaber Al-Sabah, who said in his introductory speech that “the ministry, led by Deputy

Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, strongly supports the research and studies center as being a principal contributor to the development of security work.”

Maj. Gen. Yahiya Jaber also cited some of the vital work carried out by the center, including the preparation of studies and sta-

tistical reports concerning crime and policerelated issues, as well as the forums which it regularly organizes to increase public security awareness.

The celebratory event also featured a display of six posters listing some of the center’s landmark achievement’s in its 28year history.

municipality increases monitoring of imported meat

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Only a week has passed since municipality inspectors stopped a shipment of meat coming from an Asian country because it was found to be unsuitable for human consumption. The shipment was con-

fiscated and destroyed in the presence of the Minister of Municipal Affairs Dr Fadhel Safar.

Meanwhile, just this week, a shipment of 400 kilograms of meat was found unsuitable and destroyed at a trash site on the 7th Ring Road. Director of the Capital Governorate Municipality, Falah Al-Shimmary emphasized

that the supervision of all imported meat has been increased, especially since several shipments have been found to be using improper shipping methods to ensure safe arrival and do not meet required health conditions. He added that inspection campaigns are being carried out around the clock.

KUWAIT: Some of the confiscated meat and Kuwait municipality officials.

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local kuwait digest

Merciful fishing

Formation of new govt to take some time: FM Fresh era of challenges in Gulf

By Ali Al-Baghli

L

ocal dailies in Kuwait often carry weekly features on fishing trips by keen Kuwaiti and expatriate anglers, who enjoy the pursuit as a form of entertainment or even as a sport. In these features, you’ll often find pictures of these fishermen showing off their catch with beaming smiles on their faces, which grow larger the bigger the fish they catch.

In locations like the lakes and rivers of Switzerland or Austria, as well as rivers of Colorado and other American states, people usually take special devices with them during fishing trips which let them measure the size of a fish so that they can return the fish back to the water if it exceeds the size limit. There are even some locations were any fish must be returned to the water after it is caught.

In Al-Fuaira in the UAE, an academy was established to teach a type of fishing that can be described as ‘merciful fishing’. Using this method, fishermen use special bait that doesn’t penetrate into the fish’s body, so that it can be returned back to the water after it is caught, which will help maintain the biodiversity of marine environments.

I personally encourage our keen fishermen here in Kuwait to adopt this type of fishing, especially with activists issuing alarming warnings of the dreadful effects that overfishing is having on our country’s marine biodiversity, which is already hit severely by the ongoing marine pollution that our government still remains helpless against. — Al-Qabas

ABU DHABI: Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah said yesterday that it would take some time to form a new Kuwaiti government. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a GCC-EU meeting which concluded yesterday, he said the more important issue to consider now is what the next Kuwaiti cabinet should do to tackle and address issues and questions of fundamental concern to the country. “ The formation of a new Kuwaiti government would take some time,” said Sheikh Dr Mohammad, adding, “The region has ushered in a fresh era of challenges, so we have to be realis-

tic about our cooperation towards such challenges.”

During his visit to Abu Dhabi, the Kuwaiti minister attended a Gulf meeting on Yemen and a GCC-EU meeting, where several regional and international issues were discussed.

Sheikh Dr. Mohammad also held a round of meetings with some of his European counterparts on how to bolster and cement bilateral cooperative relations in diverse areas, and on key issues of mutual interest.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Mohammad said here yesterday that regional security was amongst the topics of discussion at the GCC-EU ministerial meeting.

Speaking following the conclusion

Bolstering military cooperation with Britain important KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah said yesterday that enhancing the country’s military and security cooperation with Britain is extremely important amidst the current regional unrest and international developments. Sheikh Ahmad was speaking during his reception of the visiting Chief of Staff of the British Army, General Sir David Richards, along with an accompanying delegation. The meeting between Sheikh Ahmad and the British delegation focused on upgrading bilateral military cooperation as well as increasing the exchange of important information and experience. —KUNA

Masala Bhangra workout classes hit Kuwait

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Women’s Cultural Social Society (KWCSS) recently hosted a four-day course in Masala Bhangra dancing. The first two days of the course offered master classes open to anybody who

Rana Al-Omani, who owns a fitness studio in Khaldiya Co-op. “Although it’s a dance for both genders, we only received women to attend as there was no interest from men. I met Sarina in the States where she gives the classes and I liked the activity very much so I thought of

KUWAIT: Rana Al-Omani and Sarina Jain on the first day of the course held at the Kuwait Woman Cultural Society.

—Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat wished to register, while the other two days featured training workshops for the instructors to certify them to teach these classes at local fitness centers and gyms.

Around 1,500 women registered on the first day alone to attend the classes. “This is the first time this activity’s been brought to Kuwait and the region through its founder Sarina Jain,” said KWCSS member

inviting her to come here and present her classes,” The Masala Bhangra Workout is derived from two Indian words: masala, which means ‘spicy’ in Hindi, and bhangra, which is a traditional folk dance from the north Indian state of Punjab.

“The Masala Bhangra Workout is an exercise dance routine that modernizes the high-energy folk dance

of Bhangra by blending traditional Bhangra dance steps and the exhilaration of Bollywood (Hindi film) moves,” explained its creator, Sarina Jain. “This unique dance mixes cardiovascular with fun, and is suitable for participants of all ages and fitness levels.”

Masala Bhangra aims to offer a fun and successful way for participants to become more physically active and stay fit, while introducing them to aspects of Indian culture music and dance. “With the dance choreography directly influenced by the music and dance of modern Bhangra and Bollywood styles, the Masala Bhangra Workout is a fresh and exciting addition to the world of fitness and dance,” she added.

Sarina Jain has been in the fitness industry for the past 20 years, and is recognized as a leading figure in the field. She is an energetic fitness innovator, music-video choreographer and international TV and radio personality. Although India’s glitzy Bollywood films have featured Bhangra and other folk-dances and music for some years, it took this vivacious young Indian-American fitness instructor to devise the concept of choreographing Bhangra along with modern, funky dance moves to appeal to the American exercise industry. In the process, Jain has had a great impact on the entire fitness industry, and has been heralded in the press throughout the US and the world.

Jain introduced her Bhangra/Bollywood-style fitness routine to the US with her first workout tape in 1999, and has since directed and produced a total of eight high-intensity workouts in her Masala Bhangra Workout(r) video/DVD series.

of the meeting, Sheikh Mohammad said that the delegates had also reiterated the GCC’s previous call on Iran to stop all inter ference in the internal affairs of all six GCC member states.

The delegates also emphasized that the GCC members had the right to use all different means to protect their citizens and ensure their security and stability, the Kuwaiti official said.

Hailing the gathering as “very fruitful,” the Kuwaiti foreign minister said that the attendees had analyzed several key political issues concerning the latest regional and international develop m e nt s, i nc l ud i ng t he p ol i t i c a l process in Iraq and the Middle East peace process.

In their final communique, the delegates also referred to the ongoing international effor ts to protect the Libyan people, emphasizing that the Libyan regime had lost its legitimacy and asserting that the Libyan opposit i on N a t i ona l Tra ns i t i ona l Counc i l (NTC) is the legitimate representative of t he Li bya n p e op l e, t he s e ni or Kuwaiti diplomat pointed out.

A not he r i s s ue on t he m e e t i ng’s agenda was the possible establishment of a GCC-EU free trade zone by the end of this year, he revealed.

Sheikh Dr. Mohammad has now left Abu Dhabi following his participation in the Gulf meeting on Yemen and the GCC-EU meeting. — KUNA

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

LOCAL

Municipality won’t hesitate to bust spoiled food dealers Top priority to health of residents KUWAIT: Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Dr. Fadhel Safar stressed yesterday that Kuwait municipality will not hesitate in following, monitoring and busting spoiled food businessmen. Safar said that all the municipality bodies are closely monitoring food in order to provide a safe and healthy food for consumers by applying strict legal procedures to stop violators from bringing in unfit food for human consumption into the country.

Hawalli Governorate Municipality Director

Faleh Al-Shameri said that minister Safar has made field visits to a number of locations to get familiarized with the latest food raids and the process of their destructions.

He also met with Hawalli municipality officials and work staff. He lauded their efforts in discovering and putting a stop to those food violators.

“There was only one week between two rotten meat busts,” Al-Shameri noted, pointing out that “one was at Al-Shwaikh Central Slaughterhouse when the inspectors team

discovered imported spoiled meat and the other one was a 400kg of bad meat. Both busts were destroyed.”

However, he stressed on the continuity of strict and serious monitoring on imported meat into the country and applying safety food conditions and regulations.

Campaign inspections are on going on grocery shops, central food markets and storage houses in order to put a stop to violators of municipal regulations, Al-Shameri said. — KUNA

FM expresses condolences over diplomat’s death in Moscow ABU DHABI: Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Sabah Al-Sabah yesterday extended his condolences to the family of Saleh Al-Iqab, the Third Secretary at the Kuwaiti Embassy in Moscow, who died whilst serving there.

“This is a great loss to the Foreign Ministry and to us all, as the deceased was from a welltrained and qualified generation that could best represent our homeland at international venues,” said Sheikh Dr. Mohammad, adding, “We are conducting the usual procedures in such a scenario in cooperation with the

Russian authorities, and the official notification we’ve received so far is that the diplomat suffered severe heart trauma.”

The minister continued, “Though the usual procedure is for the host country to return the body of the deceased diplomat, His Highness the Amir saw fit to order an Amiri plane to bring the body back to Kuwait.”

This gesture on the part of the Amir is testimony to his keenness on ensuring the welfare of and respect for all rights of Kuwaitis abroad, even in the event of their passing, the FM noted.

An official at the ministry on Tuesday reported that he had received notification from the Russian authorities that Al-Iqab’s body had been found in a Moscow hospital, after he disappeared for two days.

According to the Russian medical investigation, Al-Iqab passed away due to suffering a severe heart trauma. The authorities also notified their Kuwaiti counterparts that an official report, including the detailed medical investigation and report, would be provided upon completion of all procedures related to this matter. — KUNA

Kuwaiti ambassador discusses boosting ties with Philippines

KUALA LUMPUR: Kuwaiti Ambassador Waleed Ahmad Al-Kanderi with Philippines Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras.

KUALA LUMPUR: Kuwaiti Ambassador Waleed Ahmad Al-Kanderi held talks in Manila yesterday with Philippines Energy Secretar y Jose Rene Almendras on boosting bilateral relations.

The two parties discussed prospects of enhancing cooperation and how to take advantage of cooperation in oil and gas fields between the two countries, as well as means of benefiting from an accord signed in this respect in August 2009, Al-Kanderi said.

He added that the Filipino minister stressed his country’s desire to develop bilateral relations in the energy field and to take advantage of Kuwait’s capabilities.

The Philippines participated in the Fourth Round Table of the ministries of

petroleum and energy in Asian countries, hosted by Kuwait on April 18.

Al-Kanderi said the most prominent cooperation is in the marine region of Baluan, involving Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec), Shell and the Philippines international company (SCR).

The 2006 agreement includes an area of more than one million hectares, where the share of KUFPEC is 30 percent of the concession, Shell 55 percent and the SCR 15 percent, he explained.

HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah visited the Philippines in 2008. The two sides, during the visit, signed cooperation accords in the fields of oil, gas, tourism and health. — KUNA

Kuwait issues book on Sharia as embedded in Amir’s speeches KUWAIT: A new book titled “Islamic Sharia as embedded in the speeches of H.H. the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah,” has been recently issued.

This is the second book in a series titled “feats of Sabah, the bringer of well-being,” which highlights HH the Amir’s interest in the upright religion of Islam, and the Islamic Sharia.

The book, which was prepared

by Dr. Essam Abdullatif Al-Fulaij, Assistant Secretary General at the Supreme Advisory Committee on the completion of the application of the rules of the Islamic Sharia at the Amiri Diwan, starts off with a synopsis of the resume of HH the Amir, then a sum-up including 11 quotations taken from the speeches which HH the Amir gave on various occasions.

The book highlighted the quotations in which HH the Amir

was keen to follow the upright principles of Islam to achieve glor y for the precious State of Kuwait guided by the EverHonorable Qu’ran, and the Prophets’s traditions.

Further, the book contains a number of photos of HH the Amir while delivering addresses or taking part in the Islamic activities or charitable deeds of various Islamic advocacy institutions, foremost among them is

Supreme Advisory Committee on the completion of the application of the rules of the Islamic Sharia, and the International Islamic Charitable Organization.

The book, which is made up of 48 pages of medium size, was prefaced by Sheikh Dr. Khaled AlMadhkour, Chairman of the Supreme Advisory Committee on the completion of the application of the rules of the Islamic Sharia at the Amiri Diwan. — KUNA

Diving Team meets with CMAS in Rome KUWAIT: The World Underwater Federation’s (CMAS) scientific committee has approved a proposal to establish an international office in Kuwait. The new office, which was agreed upon during a recent meeting of senior CMAS officials and representatives from the Kuwait Diving Team, would be responsible for spreading awareness of diving activities and sponsoring environmentally friendly events to help restore and maintain marine environments worldwide.

The meeting in the Italian capital, Rome, was attended by Hassan Bacouche, the committee president, along with the committee’s secretary, and Walid Al-Fadhil the president of the Kuwait Dive Team, which is part of the Environmental Voluntary Foundation. Also attending the high-level meeting was the KDT’s Vice President Walid Al-Shatti and a

number of other senior members.

CMAS President Achille Ferrero approved the idea of the body opening a coordinating office in Kuwait, which was put forward by the KDT representatives during the meeting, after they gave a presentation about the Kuwaiti group’s activities and voluntary work in the field of marine environmental protection and in spreading environmental awareness both regionally and internationally.

During their visit, the KDT members also met with representatives from several other bodies, including the Italian Coral Reef Monitoring Foundation, as well as visiting a factory which produces buoys to inspect some of the equipment manufactured there, which could be used in a project the KDT is currently carrying out in Kuwait.

Wataniya Telecom sponsors Earth Day activities KUWAIT: As part of its extensive portfolio of Corporate Social Responsibility programs, Wataniya Telecom announced its latest sponsorship of environmental activities organized by Kuwait University’s Faculty of Sciences, marking the occasion of Earth Day. The activities took place on the 19th and 20th of this month. This initiative has stemmed from Wataniya’s belief to support diverse fields that protect Kuwait’s environment and the health of the people living in it.

Celebrated in more than 175 countries, Earth Day focuses on various interactive environmental activities while educating people and the youth on how to actively participate in improving the environment.

The event witnessed a special honoring ceremony whereby Wataniya Telecom was honored for it generous sponsorship by the Faculty Dean Prof Nadia Shuaib. Wataniya representative Hamad Al-Matar attended the ceremony in addition to number of the faculty professors and teachers.

Commenting on Wataniya’s sponsorship, Abdolaziz Al Balool, Public Relations

Director at Wataniya Telecom said, “Caring for our environment is one of the key pillars of Wataniya’s social program.

Our sponsorship of Earth Day is yet another addition to our CSR profile demonstrating our strong commitment to the environment and our customers.

We hope to build awareness and increase public education on issues such as this. We will also continue to inspire future generations to do the same.”

Wataniya has also recently launched one of its largest environmental friendly campaigns in which the company partnered with Enviroserve, the only licensed electronics recycling operator in the Gulf to introduce the E-Waste Recycling Program in Kuwait. Through this program Wataniya encouraged its customers to recycle their unwanted mobile devices, batteries and other accessories to avoid environmental hazards caused by these e-waste components.

Wataniya will continue taking part in community activities that will engage the members of the society as well as its customers to enhance the quality of life and public awareness.

Sudanese officials praise Kuwait philanthropic aid KHARTOUM: The Sudanese Businessmen and Employers’ Federation held a broad ceremony, late on Tuesday, honoring the State of Kuwait represented by its ambassador in Khar toum Suleiman Abdullah Al-Harbi, in appreciation for its solidarity with the Sudanese people.

The gathering grouped top officials and figures, notably the Presidential Advisor Mustafa Othman Ismail, the former president, Abdul Rahman Suwar AlDhahab, ministers, executives, ambassadors, businessmen and media personnel.

In an address at the ceremony, Ismail expressed appreciation for Kuwait’s Amir, His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Government and people, for their backing for Sudan at various regional and international quarters, as well as their contributions to the country’s development and reconstruction.

He praised role of the Kuwaiti ambassador for ensuring success of the donors conference for East Sudan, hosted by Kuwait last December, and boosting joint investments in addition to his sponsorship of Kuwaiti charities in Sudan.

Al-Harbi has played a crucial role in clarifying to the Kuwaiti officials and quar ters conditions of the domestic investments and businesses in Sudan and promoting the commercial cooperation between the two brotherly countries, he added.

The honoring ceremony depicts the high level of the historic relations between the two countries and the cordial sentiments of the people of Sudan for HH the Amir, the Government and the people of Kuwait, Ismail said. He also praised HH the Amir and the Sudanese President Omar AlBashir for personally “patronizing these close ties.”

The relations have been further boosted since the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Sabah AlSalem Al-Ahmad, paid a visit to Sudan last December to follow up on results of the donation convention, and for chairing meetings of the joint supreme commission.

The presidential advisor shed light on the Kuwaiti aid for development projects in Sudan. And paid homage to the soul of the late Kuwaiti businessman, Nasser AlKharafi, noting his philanthropic activities in the country. — KUNA

Juvenile prisoner numbers fall KUWAIT: The number of young people incarcerated in local juvenile detention and rehabilitation facilities has fallen slightly in recent months, according to the director of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s juvenile care department. The senior MSAL official revealed on Tuesday that his department had dealt with 235 inmates in March of this

year and 230 the previous month, which he said was lower than the usual number of juvenile offenders which it deals with per month.

He also revealed that most of the Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti juvenile offenders incarcerated in the country are charged with thef t-related offences. — Al-Qabas

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

Doctor warns Japan nuke workers are at their limit

Putin: Russia must be strong to resist threats Page 10

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Yemen opposition urges protests as talks stall UN Security Council fails to come up with a joint statement

Emirati official says activist arrests legal ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates’ recent detentions of activists in the Gulf federation were carried out according to the law, said the country’s foreign minister yesterday, without specifying any charges. The comments

by Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan are the first from a senior federal official in the oil-rich country, a key regional ally of the United States, about reports that four prominent activists had been arrested. Although the country has been spared the prodemocracy uprisings that have swept

SANAA: A Yemeni boy lifted up by anti-government protestors, shouts slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen yesterday.—AP SANAA: Yemen’s opposition called yesterday for mass protests after deadly clashes with police, as talks appeared to have stalled between Gulf mediators and envoys of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Members of the UN Security Council also failed to come up with a joint statement on Yemen after adding the crisis in the Arabian peninsula country to their agenda for the first time.

Youth groups called for nationwide marches by millions of people in protest at the killing of protesters on Tuesday, stressing their rejection of any deal that excludes Saleh’s immediate departure. Confrontations raged on between security forces and antiSaleh protesters, with medics and witnesses reporting that eight people were shot dead since Tuesday, including a passer-by and a policeman.

One protester was killed when a gunman on a motorbike opened fire at demonstrators staging a sit-in at AlNasr Square in the western Red Sea city of Hudaydah. The assailant managed to escape after also wounding about eight other protesters, most of whom had been asleep. Also yesterday, a policeman was shot dead during clashes between police and protesters in the main southern port city of Aden, while five demonstrators were shot dead in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday.

Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) held talks on Tuesday with representatives of Saleh’s regime as part of efforts to hammer out a deal under which the veteran president would step down.

But the meeting in Abu Dhabi

appeared to have made no significant progress. A brief, vague statement issued afterwards referred to the talks as “constructive,” vowing to “exert more effort to preserve security, stability and the unity of the Yemeni state.”

“During the meeting both sides exchanged opinions over the Gulf initiative,” it said. The spokesman of the Yemeni delegation, Ahmed bin Dagher, told reporters any solution should not violate the constitution.

“We adhere to the constitution which we cannot breach,” he said, signaling that Saleh could serve out his term until 2013 — a position stated previously by the ruling party, the General People’s Congress. Official Saba news quoted him as saying that the Abu Dhabi talks “focused on ways to preserve the stability of Yemen while at the same time assuring a peaceful transfer of power.”

But he told Al-Arabiya television that “no immediate solution has come out of the meeting.” The meeting came after talks in Riyadh on Sunday between foreign ministers of Yemen’s oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) neighbours and representatives of the parliamentary opposition, who are adamant Saleh should step down immediately. Saleh, who came to power in 1978, has faced protests since January calling for his departure that have cost more than 130 lives. On April 10, the GCC-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates-appealed to Saleh to “announce the transfer of his powers” to his deputy, Yemen’s vice president.

It also called for the formation in Yemen of “a government of national unity led by the opposition” which would be responsible for “establishing a constitution and organising elections.” The opposition objected to the wording of the proposal, insisting on Saleh stepping down completely and not just handing over authority to his deputy.

Last week, Saleh’s office said in response to the GCC mediation bid that the president has “no reservation about transferring power peacefully and smoothly within the framework of the constitution”. Saleh has so far insisted on overseeing any transition, fearful of being hounded out of office and faced with prosecution like his ally, Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, who resigned on February 11 following mass protests.

Meanwhile, a press statement on Yemen drawn up by Germany and Lebanon, both temporary members of the 15-nation UN Security Council, was blocked by a minority of states at a meeting in New York on Tuesday, diplomats said. German envoy Peter Wittig said, however, that discussing Yemen in the council “sends an important signal by the international community: the negotiations should not stall and further bloodshed has to be avoided.” Saleh has been a key US ally in its fight against Al-Qaeda. But Washington has condemned violence against demonstrators and called on him to resolve the political impasse with the opposition so that “meaningful” political change could take place in an orderly and peaceful manner.—AFP

the rest of the region, activists have complained of increased harassment and monitoring of blogs and social media in the past year. Sheik Abdullah, a member of the ruling family, told reporters in the capital Abu Dhabi that prosecutors issued subpoenas “to a number of persons” in the seven-state federation. He didn’t say how many. “This procedure is fully in line with the rules and the laws of the United Arab Emirates,” he said. “We made sure that these laws and rules of the UAE are fully implemented.

These are transparent rules.” He discussed the arrests in response to a question at a rare press conference following talks between the Gulf states and the European Union. Rights advocates say at least four people have been arrested in the Emirates in recent weeks. None have been charged publicly. The foreign minister didn’t say how many subpoenas had been issued or disclose the charges, referring questions to state prosecutors, who themselves have yet to comment on the arrests. —AP

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I N T E R N AT I O N A L

47 Israeli intellectuals back Palestinian state Palestinian leader: There will be no new uprising JERUSALEM: Prominent Israeli intellectuals and artists have come out in favor of creating a Palestinian state based on the 1967 line marking the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The 47 signatories include 16 recipients of the Israel Prize, the country’s highest civilian honor. Among them are civil rights pioneer Shulamit Aloni, actress Hannah Marom and Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer. Their statement backs the Palestinian drive for recognition by the United Nations, in the absence of progress in peace talks with Israel. The Israeli government opposes the unilateral initiative. The statement, released yesterday, calls for an Israeli pullout from the West Bank. It says, “The complete end of occupation is a fundamental condition for the freedom of both peoples.”

AJDABIYA: Libyan rebel fighters drive by a previously destroyed proGaddafi forces tank as they make their way to the frontline, on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, Libya yesterday. —AP

Misery in Misrata as siege worsens MISRATA: A plea from rebel leaders in the besieged city of Misrata for Western ground troops comes as the population here slides deeper into desperation, with energy, food, fuel and medicine stocks all becoming depleted. Lines are seen in several places in the city-in front of bakeries, where a few loaves of bread feed extended families, to service stations, where hundreds of cars line up for hours in the few neighborhoods free from snipers.

Residents from southern outlying areas of the city that have been taken by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have to sneak through back streets to the rebel-controlled areas to seek food and fuel. Women and children lie in hospital beds, many of them wounded in their own homes by rocket or cluster bomb attacks. Near the port-the city’s only access point-workers from African countries such as Niger and Chad shelter in makeshift tents with little food and less security, waiting for places on evacuation ships that are arriving almost daily.

Misrata has survived more than six weeks of Gaddafi attacks because of its status before the conflict as a commercial and wholesale hub for much of Libya. It has big warehouses meant to store goods imported by sea. But those stores are now running low. And all the municipal services needed to keep a city running-sewerage, electricity, communications-have been hit by loyalist fire, greatly reducing their operation.

“We are producing less than 20 percent of the electricity we had before the fighting,” Saleh Siwy, the head of Misrata’s engineers guild, told reporters. What energy was being generated was being directed to the three hospitals still functioning as a priority. Even those facilities were having to rely on generators to keep surgery lights burning at all hours. Siwy declined to detail from where the city’s power was sourced, explaining: “If Gaddafi knows where this electricity is coming from, he will strike it immediately.”

He added that Misrata was in immediate need of diesel fuel to run generators

and water pumps, medicine, a communications set-up to replace the mobile phone network taken off-line by Tripoli, and food for young children. Siwy also claimed Gaddafi forces were attacking or kidnapping farmers outside Misrata to prevent fresh produce from reaching markets. Children were especially vulnerable in the fighting. AFP saw several young children in hospitals in Misrata. One was a 10-year-old boy on life-support after being shot through the head by a sniper.

Another was a three-year-old girl whose stomach was ruptured by a cluster bomb that fell on her home.

In a school now serving as the city’s orphanage, 101 children were being looked after by volunteers. They had survived a month in a basement in their original orphanage in the centre of Misrata after the conflict erupted, in an area that was now a war zone blasted apart by tank rounds and automatic gunfire. One of their custodians, Salima al-Tear, told reporters how she tried to explain the reasons for the violence to her young charges by ripping posters of Gaddafi off the walls.

“I took an axe and, while bullets were being fired, I ran across the other side of the road to break open a food storage place to get food for the children,” she said.

Eventually, she said, she made her way to a rebel post and came back with two buses and cars to evacuate the children to their current locale.

Mustafah Abdulhamed, a volunteer worker at the orphanage, said: “The port is targeted by Gaddafi missiles, I think they call them GRAD missiles, these are (usually) used for tanks, and they are (now) using them for houses and people. “When you queue for bread, (you) are bombarded by missiles. Somebody told me, the flashes (explosions) on the wall-imagine that!”

At one of the half dozen bakeries still functioning-out of around 300 which existed before the conflict forced many in the city centre to close-a line of dozens of people waited patiently several hours in the sun for the only sustenance for them and for families as large as 50 people. —AFP

Meanwhile, the Palestinian president said yesterday he is opposed to another armed uprising against Israel, even if faltering peace efforts fail later this year.

Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Tunisia that he remains committed to the US-backed target of reaching a negotiated peace agreement with Israel by September. But with talks stalled for months, he repeated his plan to unilaterally seek United Nations endorsement of Palestinian independence in the absence of a deal. Abbas said he would turn to the UN General Assembly, where he said he expects some 140 countries to vote in favor of an independent Palestine.

Since the assembly’s decisions are not legally binding, the vote would be largely symbolic, and it remains unclear what the Palestinians will do after that.

Abbas said whatever happens, he did not consider violence an option. “I will not accept a third military uprising,” he said, noting that the last armed uprising against Israel, last decade, “was disastrous for us.” Some 6,000 Palestinians, along with more than 1,000 Israelis, were killed in years of fighting that erupted in September 2000. The fighting also heavily damaged the Palestinian economy.

Abbas said he still supported “popular resistance” or demonstrations - against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Israel says these demonstrations often turn violent, and activists are sporadically wounded, or even killed, in clashes with Israeli forces. “We have the popular resistance,” he said. “But to say that you want to hold a gun or pistol to fight, then

GAZA CITY: Palestinian and international activists sail on the “Oliva”, bottom left, a human rights monitoring boat, in Gaza waters to observe routines of Palestinian fishermen within Palestinian waters on the Mediterranean sea, off the shore of Gaza City yesterday. —AP excuse me, I will not allow that as long as I’m the president.” Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks last September at the White House, where President Barack Obama pledged to forge a peace deal within a year. The talks broke down just three weeks later after an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction expired.

The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build homes for Jews in the West Bank and east Jerusalem - captured territories the Palestinians claim for their future state. Abbas has said he will return to the negotiating table if Israel halts settlement construction and commits to a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank

and east Jerusalem. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says peace talks should start without any preconditions.

September is shaping up to be a key month for peace efforts. The Palestinians say that in the absence of a peace deal, they will take their case to the United Nations.

While they can expect strong support in the General Assembly, it appears doubtful that they can win recognition from the more powerful Security Council. The US, which wields veto power in the council, has been cool to the idea of a unilateral declaration of independence, saying Israel and the Palestinians must resolve their differences through negotiations. Still, widespread interna-

Tourists abducted in Lebanon shown on tape

Kurdish candidates bid to reverse election vetoes ANKARA: Kurdish-backed election candidates lodged appeals yesterday against a ruling that barred them from running in Turkey ’s upcoming polls as Kurdish anger simmered in the streets for a second day. The Higher Elec toral Board (YSK) was expected to reverse its decision for at least some of the seven candidates after unnamed officials of the body, quoted widely in the media, signaled that the presentation of additional documents would help overcome the problem.

Lawyers for four of them submitted the requested papers to the YSK, with others expected to follow later in the day, the NTV news channel reported. Among the first four was iconic Kurdish activist Leyla Zana, winner of the European Parliament’s human rights award who spent 10 years in jail before being released in 2004. Zana obtained a court document certifying that there were no legal restrictions on her political rights, Anatolia news agency said.

In a move threatening to fan Turkey’s long-standing ethnic conflict, the YSK Monday disqualified 12 candidates from the June 12 parliamentary elections, among them seven people backed by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Turkey’s main Kurdish political movement.

The board based the decision on past convictions of the bidders and legal technicalities, but came under fire in yesterday’s press for disregarding recent legal amendments that favor the applicants.

The barred candidates include other prominent Kurdish figures, among them two members of the outgoing parliament. President Abdullah Gul stepped in to ease the tensions, inviting BDP leader Selahattin Demirtas for talks at his

residence late yesterday. “The president appeals to everybody to be constructive and make all legal and political efforts to overcome the problem,” his spokesman said.

The BDP has urged an extraordinary parliamentary session to tackle the controversy and threatened to boycott the polls. Thousands of Kurds took to the streets across Turkey Tuesday to protest the decision, clashing with riot police and throwing petrol bombs at public buildings and banks.

Yesterday again there were brief clashes in Diyarbakir, the largest city of the Kurdish-majority southeast, that landed at least 16 protestors in police custody and left four others slightly injured, an AFP reporter said. The unrest broke after militant Kurdish youths, part of a march that attrac ted about 3,000 people, hurled petrol bombs and firecrackers at the police, prompting a response with tear gas and water cannons. “Revenge, revenge!” the youths shouted, and chanted slogans praising the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Par ty (PKK ), which has waged a bloody 26-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast.

The barring of their candidates deep ened a sen se of in j ustice among Kurds, whose political parties already face a series of legal hurdles. The BDP fielded its candidates as independents in order to circumvent an electoral threshold under which parties have to get at least 10 percent of votes to enter parliament. The ruling Islamistrooted Justice and Development Party, aiming for a third straight term in power, has rejected widesp read appeals to reduce th e threshold.—AFP

tional support for Palestinian independence.

The Palestinians won an important endorsement last week when donor states, which send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, said institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now “above the threshold for a functioning state.” The international support for the Palestinians has put heavy pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer his own diplomatic plan to end the impasse.

Netanyahu is expected to deliver a major policy speech to the US Congress next month. But officials close to the prime minister say he has not yet decided what he plans to say. —Agencies

AJDABIYA: Libyan rebel fighters wait inside their cars before going to the front line, on the outskirts of Ajdabiya yesterday. —AP

Border post a playground for Libya’s child refugees SALUM: The classic chaos of a nursery school has taken over the Salum border post on the Egypt-Libya frontier, where around 60 children are stuck as their parents refuse to return to their countries of origin. African-print sarongs and mattresses soften the concrete edges of the empty custom officer booths at the post, rendering them ‘child-proof.’

Outside, a cheer of “one, two, three” is followed by sky high laughter and the thud of toddlers falling like dominos face first onto the floor after a victorious round of tug-rope organised by a team of volunteers from UNICEF and the Giza-based Egyptian Sea Scouts. “We come to play with the children every day,” said Osama Gubail, a volunteer of the Egyptian Sea Scouts, gesturing to three chests of toys coated with a thin film of sand.

The activities start at 9:00 am and end at 3:00 pm after a colour and paint session for the smaller children while older youths play handball over a rickety net or football with improvised goal posts marked out by buckets. “We’ve been doing this for two months,” said the 20-year-old volunteer, adding that rotating teams of five volunteers from Giza City, about 600 kilometers (375 miles) away, head for week-long missions to the border outpost, one of the main exit points for people fleeing violence in Libya.

“When we arrived we had nothing but now we have everything,” said Ahmed Abdelhamed, another volunteer. “We set up a buffet, a first aid station and a clean-

up committee.” He said there are about 60 children of sub-Saharan African originmostly Chad, Niger and Sudan-still stuck at the border because their parents refuse to return to their countries of origin.

Many of them are squatting in and around the customs control complex, living in makeshift tents while they wait for a country to offer them asylum since Egypt has rejected them as refugees. “Some have been here for more than 20 days,” Abdelhamed said. “They are waiting for refugee status in a third country.”

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the special representative for children and armed conflict at the UN Secretary General’s office said children are among the victims of the Libyan conflict. She said her office continued to receive “credible information” that children were being used by armed forces and groups, especially in the besieged city of Misrata. “The killing and maiming of girls and boys must end. And I remind all parties that attacks on hospitals and denial of humanitarian aid are also grave violations against children,” she said in a statement Tuesday.

A trio of Chadian young women, meanwhile, weave their way through the crowd at Salum towards a family caravan of two cars, casting a forlorn glance over their shoulder at the conflict-racked Libya they are leaving behind. “I’m really nervous,” said Sahra, age 20, apprehension kicking in ahead of an evacuation flight later out of Cairo-her first plane ride. “I’m from Chad but I’ve never been there.” —AFP

BEIRUT: An online video posted yesterday shows seven Estonian tourists who were kidnapped in Lebanon more than three weeks ago pleading for help, authorities said.

The video, which was posted by local news website lebanonfiles.com and uploaded on YouTube, shows the tourists asking Lebanese, Saudi, Jordanian and French leaders to help secure their release. “This is a really difficult situation,” one of the tourists says. “Please do everything that it takes to get us home.” Wearing sports clothes and appearing before a white background, the tourists take turns saying “Please help us.” The Estonians were cycling in the eastern Bekaa Valley when armed men wearing masks kidnapped them on March 23. It was note clear whether the kidnappings were politically motivated, like the wave of abductions during Lebanon’s civil war. But yesterday’s video was reminiscent of darker days during the conflict when extremists kidnapped foreign hostages and sent out videos of them making demands to media.

In Tallinn, the Estonian foreign ministry said it received the video clip by email late yesterday. The ministry said “it appears that all seven abducted Estonian citizens are alive and well” but stressed that the video message did not include any demands or information who is behind the kidnapping. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said he was aware of the YouTube video and was following events closely. “No demands of any sort have been presented to Estonia and, as far as we know, to any other countries,” Ilves said.

A Lebanese security official said authorities in Beirut also were investigating and that there were unconfirmed reports that the Estonians were moved across the border to Syria. —AP

Israel indicts Australian for alleged Hamas links JERUSALEM: Israel has arrested an Australian who tried to enter the country as a tourist, charging him with working for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

The April 17 indictment of Eyad Abu Arga, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters yesterday, appeared to be part of a wide-ranging and sometimes covert campaign by Israel to curb Hamas, with which it has regularly clashed in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli prosecutors said Abu Arga, 47, is a computer expert who also holds Jordanian citizenship and allege he was recruited by Hamas in Saudi Arabia and Syria to improve the group’s capabilities in counter-surveillance and rocketry. Using his Australian passport, Abu Arga flew to Tel Aviv on March 23, tasked by Hamas with testing security standards at Ben-Gurion International Airport and gathering information about hi-tech conferences in Israel, the indictment said. A lawyer for Abu Arga denied the allegations, saying he had been on a Mediterranean tour with his wife and, after being detained at the airport, made a false confession under interrogation by Israel’s secret service Shin Bet. “He’s not a Hamas operative. He didn’t try to infiltrate into Israel,” the lawyer, Lea Tsemel, told Israel’s Army Radio. Tsemel described Abu Arga as being of Palestinian Muslim descent and said his wife had been allowed to leave Israel. Conviction for the listed chargesmembership in, and service of, an outlawed organisation-can carry lengthy prison terms in Israel. —Reuters

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

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22 Zeta suspects held in Mexico mass graves probe MEXICO CITY: Twenty-two suspected Zetas drug gang members were held in the latest arrests over the killings of 145 people found in mass graves this month in northeast Mexico, the justice ministry said Tuesday.

The arrests brought the total to 55 detained, including 16 police officers and a suspected ringleader, for alleged involvement with the mass graves found in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state, near the US border.

Marines detained the 22 latest suspects, including five women, in an operation Friday. They were accused of involvement in organized crime, murder, kidnapping and violating firearms laws, a statement said.

A total of 145 bodies have now been unearthed from mass graves in San Fernando, which lies on a path regularly used by migrants heading for the United States.

Tamaulipas state has suffered an explosion of violence for more than a year blamed on battles between the Zetas-a gang formed in the 1990s by ex-elite soldiers-and their former bosses, the powerful Gulf cartel.

Authorities also blame the Zetas for the massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas last August.

More than 34,600 people have died in Mexican drug violence since 2006, according to official figures, amid a widespread military crackdown on organized crime. Ten outlaws died in a shootout with soldiers Tuesday in the eastern port city of Veracruz, where the Zetas and Gulf gangs are also fighting for turf, local authorities said in a statement.— AFP

Obama melds politics with policy on California trip Republicans, Democrats seek advantage on economic themes WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will tout his plan to trim the deficit and try to excite younger voters yesterday in a campaign-style trip to California that features a stop at Facebook headquarters.

Obama embarks on a deficit-cutting roadshow as policy-makers and financial markets recover from ratings agency Standard & Poor’s threat to downgrade America’s triple -A credit rating on worries Washington won’t address its fiscal woes.The president has proposed cutting $4 trillion from the US budget deficit over 12 years through spending cuts and tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans-a plan that Republicans vehemently reject. The question of how to rein in the deficit, which is projected to hit $1.4 trillion this fiscal year, has risen to the top of the political agenda for the 2012 presidential and congressional campaigns, and Democrats and Republicans are eager to gain traction for their respective proposals.

Obama laid out his plan last week and has been testing out talking points since formally declaring himself a candidate for re-election earlier this month. His three-day trip to California and Nevada will give him a chance to engage with voters on deficit reduction and other economic issues while raising funds for his campaign war chest.

Polling data released yesterday suggest he may find receptive audiences. An ABC

News/Washington Post survey of 1,001 adults shows 72 percent in favor of higher taxes for wealthy Americans and 78 percent opposed to cutting health benefits for the elderly. The results have a 3.5 percentage point error margin. The president’s first stop yesterday will be at Facebook, the social

VIRGINIA: President Barack Obama gestures during town hall meeting at North Virginia Community College in Annandale , Va., Tuesday.—AP

US governor’s vetoes of bills lift eyebrows PHOENIX : Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s vetoes of a half-dozen bills sponsored by fellow Republicans are raising eyebrows, with some conservatives questioning whether she is still one of them. Never mind that she has signed more than 200 other bills from the Republican-led Legislature. They wanted her to OK bills on school choice and religious rights, among others, as well as one that would have

try illegally.

The so-called birther bill was a “huge distraction” that would have tarnished the state’s reputation and hindered efforts to turn around the state’s ailing economy, she told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “From my perspective, knowing what I believe the Constitution says and the information that I had, that it would be something that wouldn’t reflect well on our

Washington: In this Feb 28, 2011 file photo, Arizona Gov Jan Brewer speaks at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington. —AP made the state the first to require presidential candidates to prove their natural born citizenship to get on the ballot. That last one has become a pet cause to some conservatives who believe that President Barack Obama was not born in the US and therefore ineligible to hold the nation’s highest office. It was too much even for Brewer, a Republican who last year became the public face of the state’s controversial immigration law and used it to help her win election. Parts of the immigration law have been blocked from taking effect while the case works its way through the country’s courts, including the provision requiring police to question people’s immigration status while enforcing other laws if there is a reasonable suspicion they’re in the coun-

state,” she said. Brewer said she based her sign-or-veto decisions on a standard of what’s right for the state. One example was her veto of a bill that would have allowed guns on university campuses.

Brewer, who in the past two years signed major bills championed by gunrights advocates, said in her veto letter that the bill was poorly written and might have been interpreted to also apply to primary and high schools. A school-choice bill and two tax-cut measures were vetoed because the price tags would have undermined the cash-short state’s just-approved budget, she said. Republican Senator Ron Gould, a Republican who sponsored the guns bill, said Brewer tacked to the right in the run-up to the 2010 election

by signing the immigration law last spring. But now she’s showing her true colors with her vetoes, he said.

“It’s kind of disappointing because we’re going to see this year that Brewer is not a conservative,” he said. By the numbers, Brewer’s seven vetoes through Tuesday are far short of the total bills she signed. “We’ve had a lot more signed than we’ve had lost,” said Republican Representative Andy Tobin, the House majority leader. Brewer has signed bills creating a new voucher program for special education students, easing requirements to get a concealed-weapon permit, giving a tiebreaker adoption preference to married couples and restricting union activities.

Brewer also has yet to get an antiabortion bill she won’t sign. Last month, she worked with Republican fiscal hawks on a budget-balancing plan that included deeper spending cuts and less gimmickry than she originally proposed. “I don’t think her overall politics have changed that much,” said Representative Daniel Patterson, a Democrat. “We’ve seen her sign far more bad legislation this year than we’ve seen her veto.” Brewer was Arizona’s elected secretary of state when was elevated to the governor’s office in January 2009 when Democrat Janet Napolitano resigned to serve in the Obama administration.

Some lawmakers and others said they don’t see Brewer changing her ideology and that more likely her vetoes partly reflect that she’s emboldened by winning a full term last November. Add in that term limits bar Brewer from running for re-election as governor and that she’s said she won’t run for Arizona’s open US senate seat in 2014. “You can be somewhat less compromising or alternatively more focused on your own plans, your own vision when there’s no subsequent election to worr y about,“ said lobbyist Lee Miller, a state Republican Party activist. Brewer said it is simpler: Her vetoes show her willingness to make unpopular but correct decisions. “I’m a straight-shooter, I’m a truth-teller,” she said. “I made some tough decisions.”— AP

US unveils terrorism alerts, scraps colors WASHINGTON: The Obama administration yesterday unveiled a new warning system to alert Americans about specific terrorism threats, formally pushing the much-ridiculed color-coded warnings into the trash bin. The new alerts will warn of either an “imminent threat” or an “elevated threat” with a summary of the potential threat as well as an expiration date. They could be extended, but unlike the old system there will not be an over-arching warning.

“The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly over the past ten years,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement. In February she warned the terrorism threat was at its greatest since 2001. Several attacks have been either disrupted or uncovered in the past few years, including an attempt by Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen last year to detonate toner cartridges packed with explosives aboard US-bound cargo planes.

The color-coded system adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ridiculed because it failed to provide specific information about potential threats and the levels have not changed since August 2006 despite numerous attempted attacks. It has been set at orange, or “high” for the US aviation system-a popular target for Al-Qaeda-and at yellow, or “elevated” for the rest of the country.

Napolitano announced plans to scrap that warning system in January.

Under the new system, an “elevated” threat will include a credible threat of terrorism while an “imminent” threat would warn of a credible, specific and impending threat.

The new aler ts will include the potential geographic area and the mode of transportation or critical infrastructure potentially targeted in the threat, the Homeland Security Department said. Some alerts may only go to law enforcement or those

networking giant, where he will hold an online question and answer session.

The event is designed to help Obama reach tech-savvy, younger voters as his campaign ramps up use of new media to raise money and generate hype about his re-election bid. Obama, who says he will

directly affected by the threat, rather than the public.

The alerts that are published will be done through the media as well as social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The Obama administration has been slowly increasing the amount of information it has made public about threats, including warnings last year that anti-American militants may try to stuff explosives in insulated drink containers.

But other plots have gone much further. A Pakistani-born man tried to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square a year ago, but the crude bomb failed to explode and a street vendor alerted authorities. Further, a Saudi man studying in Texas was discovered earlier this year allegedly trying to build bombs that he could detonate in New York City as well as at former President George W. Bush’s Dallas home. The plot was foiled after tips from a chemical supplier and a freight company. — Reuters

put off formal campaigning while concentrating on his White House duties, is getting a jump on his potential Republican rivals, most of whom have yet to formally declare their candidacies.

By focusing on the economy at events in two politically important states, the president hopes to engage on an issue that his future opponents are likely to exploit as a political weakness. ABC News/Washington Post polling data released on Tuesday showed Obama’s approval ratings near record lows because of deepening economic pessimism among Americans.

Republicans have lambasted Obama for not giving more details about his deficit-cutting plan and say tax hikes would hurt the fragile US economic recovery.

Focusing so much political energy on the deficit is a major shift in itself, analysts said. “Now that is all everybody is talking about ... reducing the deficit,” said Nigel Gault, an economist at Global Insight. “The terms of the debate have changed. That is progress.” But both Obama and Republicans continue to see their credibility questioned by outside critics. Two days after the S&P warning, the French daily Le Monde published an ar ticle yesterday in which International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard said the United States lacks a credible medium-term deficit reduction plan.— Reuters

Statement by the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Cuba In the afternoon of April 8, 2011, the farce that had begun thirteen weeks ago in El Paso, Texas, came to an end when terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was acquitted of all the charges pressed against him during a migration trial.

To all those who have been following the sinister history behind this terrorist and his links with the successive US governments, the FBI and the CIA in his dirty war against Cuba, this is an additional proof of the support and protection that the US authorities have traditionally granted to him.

Since the moment of his landing in Florida after traveling from Isla Mujeres in Mexico on board of the “Santrina” boat, as was timely denounced by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, Posada Carriles has been, as he always was, under the tutelage and protection of the US government.

His being tried for committing perjury during an immigration process and not for being a terrorist is an outrage against the people of Cuba and the families that were plunged into mourning by the actions committed by Posada.

The shameless verdict at El Paso is in full contradiction with the antiterrorist policy that the US government is said to profess, which has even led to military interventions against other nations, taking a toll of thousands of human lives.

The US government is absolutely aware of Posada

Carriles’ involvement in the blowing-up in mid-air of a Cubana de Aviacion airliner off Barbados in 1976, the bombing spree against Cuban tourist facilities in 1997 and his plans to attempt against the life of our Commander in Chief in Panama in 2000, for which he was even convicted in that country.

The US government has all the evidence of the crimes committed by Posada, many of which were presented in court at El Paso.

We are still to see if the US government is capable of either filing a new claim against Posada Carriles on a charge of terrorism or accepting his extradition to Venezuela, as was requested more than five years ago by that country, taking into account its legal obligation derived from the international covenants it is party to and the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 of 2001, which was promoted by the US government itself.

As paradoxical as it may seem, while Posada Carriles is being acquitted, five Cuban anti-terrorists remain unjustly imprisoned An the United States for collecting information about the actions perpetrated by terrorists of Cuban origin who, like Posada Carriles, are walking free and with impunity down the streets of Miami.

Cuba reaffirms that the US government is the chief responsible for this outcome and challenges it to take on its obligations in the struggle against terrorism, without hypocrisy or double standards.

Canada’s Conservatives keep steady lead over Liberals TORONTO: Canada’s ruling Conservative Party stayed close to winning a majority government, widening its lead over its Liberal rivals, while both parties lost some support to third-place New Democrats, according to a poll released yesterday.

The Nanos Research tracking poll of results for three days of surveys showed support at 39.1 percent, slightly down from 39.8 percent on Tuesday. The poll showed the Liberals have 28.4 percent of the vote, down from 30.2 percent on Tuesday. Support for the New Democrats rose to 19.8 percent, from 17.3 percent on Tuesday. Under Canada’s electoral system, a party needs about 40 percent of the vote to win a majority of the 308 seats in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives had a minority in the last Parliament and needed support from at least one other party to stay in power.

The federal election is scheduled for May 2.

The daily Nanos tracking figures are based on a three-day rolling telephone sample of 1,012 decided voters and are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20. —Reuters

TORONTO: Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and his wife, Zsuzsanna Zsohar, wave as they board their campaign plane yesterday in Toronto. —AP

Comprehensive immigration reform probably doomed WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama revisited a key campaign promise when he hosted a White House meeting of elected officials and experts on immigration. But if a major overhaul of the US immigration policy is his goal, Republicans in Congress say he shouldn’t hold his breath. They say any bill that even hints at amnesty or legalization for millions of illegal immigrants already living and working in the United States is dead before it ever makes an appearance in a congressional committee. A path to citizenship is “what has doomed all immigration legislation in the last two administrations,” Republican Rep. Dan Lungren said during a recent House of Representatives hearing on immigrant agricultural workers. The agricultural workers’ bill discussed during that hearing, which first was proposed in the last Congress, isn’t likely to be revived.

“It’s not going to pass,” Lungren said

matter-of-factly while taking testimony on the visa program that helps supply temporary workers to agricultural businesses. “And it’s not going to pass because it has, frankly ... a path to citizenship.” Rep. Lamar Smith, a Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said immigration reform proposals that offer a path to legal status are tantamount to amnesty. “I think most members of Congress and most Americans don’t want to reward lawbreakers and don’t want to give them amnesty,” said Smith, who represents the border state of Texas, as Obama held his White House meeting Tuesday. The Democrats’ failure in the last Congress to pass the DREAM Act is a key example.

The bill would have provided a path to legal status for law-abiding young people brought to the United States as children who either plan to attend college or join the military.

Obama also promised to continue working to build a bipartisan consensus around immigration and said he would lead a “civil debate” on the issue in the months ahead, the White House said. But he also said he will not succeed if he alone is leading the debate.

According to a statement from the White House, in his bipartisan summit Obama “urged meeting participants to take a public and active role to lead a constructive and civil debate on the need to fix the broken immigration system. He stressed that in order to tackle the issue successfully they must bring the debate to communities around the country and involve many sectors of American society in insisting that Congress act to create a system that meets our nation’s needs for the 21st century and that upholds America’s history as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.” —AP

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

ANC youth leader defends ‘shoot the farmer’ song JOHANNESBURG: The firebrand youth leader of South Africa’s ruling party took the witness stand yesterday to defend himself against hate speech charges over a song with the lyrics “shoot the farmer”.

The anti-apartheid struggle song has been at the centre of a politically charged controversy in South Africa, where Julius Malema, the president of the r u l i n g African National Congress (ANC) youth league, is locked in a legal battle with a white lobby group that wants it banned as hate speech. Hundreds of Malema suppor ters who were bussed in from around the country packed the street in front of the Johannesburg court house where he appeared yesterday, cheering, singing and dancing as his testimony was broadcast live on a giant TV screen

outside.

Malema told the court that the songwhose Zulu chorus, “Dubula ibhulu”, means “shoot the boer”, or farmer-was not his personal anthem but part of ANC heritage and a legacy of the struggle against white-minority rule. “This is an old song that was sang by leaders before us and we are just continuing with it. This is not my song,” he said. He denied that the lyrics, which he has made his trademark at rallies, targeted white people or were meant to incite violence, saying the word “ibhulu” meant only “oppressor”.

“Our struggle has never been directed at white people,” he said. But Afriforum, the lobby group that brought the case, argues the word- which is itself derived from the word “boer” in Afrikaans, the lan-

Putin: Russia must be strong to resist threats MOSCOW: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted yesterday that Russia must be strong to fend off foreign threats and lauded a long list of his own achievements, a show of muscle seen as a signal that the powerful leader intends to reclaim the countr y ’s presidency next year.

Putin laid out an ambitious program of weapons modernization in an annual address to parliament that sounded much like a campaign speech, promising to spend the equivalent of $700 billion by 2020.

The speech’s broad scope , ranging from long-term economic goals to national security and defense , underlined Putin’s role as the nation’s No 1 leader, though his successor as president, Dmitr y Medvedev, technically has far broader powers. “The nation needs decades of stable and calm development without any sharp movements and ill-conceived experiments” based on liberal policy, the 58-year-old leader said during an appearance that lasted more than four hours. Putin, who was Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008, groomed his longtime aide and protege, Medvedev, to succeed him.

Both men have said they would decide later who would run for president in March 2012, but Putin is widely expected to take the top job back.

His speech to the State Duma included a litany of self-praise and ambitious goals for the future. He claimed credit for quickly taking Russia out of the global financial crisis and promised that it would become one of the world’s top five economies by 2020. Russia is currently ranked as the world’s sixth biggest economy. Putin said that a key lesson from the financial crisis was that the nation must be “selfreliant independent and strong” to resist outside pressure.

“The weakness of economy and the state, a lack of immunity to outside shocks inevitably become a threat for national sovereignty,” Putin said.

“In the modern world, those who are weak will get unambiguous advice from foreign visitors which way to go and what policy course to pursue.” Putin said that the national economy rose by 4 percent last year and said that the growth rate will accelerate this year allowing to fully compensate for losses from the crisis by 2012.

“Our economy has made a successful post-crisis leap forward,” Putin said. Putin vowed to modern-

Africans”, defended the song’s place in history and the youth leader’s right to sing it.

“No one can stop us to sing our songs, which are remembering our history, so we know where we are from and we can teach our children, we can teach our youth, we can teach everybody our history,” Baatseba Leshaba, an ANC member from the northern province of Limpopo, told AFP. Malema’s singing of the song generated heated debate last year in the wake of the murder of Eugene Terre’Blanche, a white separatist leader who was allegedly hacked to death by two black workers on his farm. Violence on farms is a sensitive issue in South Africa, where a series of racially charged rural murders, with both black and white victims, have made headlines since the end of white-minority rule

in 1994. Malema, a divisive figure in the post-apartheid political arena, has made regular headlines with a series of raciallytinged controversies. He was found guilty of hate speech last year for saying that President Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser had “a nice time”. He has refused to pay the 50,000 rand (7,000 dollars, 5,000 euros) fine, which would go to a centre for abused women.

Earlier this month he took a veiled stab at the white leader of the country’s main opposition par ty, the Democratic Alliance’s Helen Zille, asking supporters, “Have you ever seen an ugly woman in a blue dress dancing like a monkey because she is looking for votes?” Malema’s hate speech hearing began April 11 and is set to run for 10 days. — Reuters

Heavy gunfire erupts in pro-Gbagbo district in Abidjan Residents forced to flee to safer neighborhoods

MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gestures as answering questions to lawmakers after he addresses to the State Duma, the parliament’s lower chamber, in Moscow yesterday. —AP ize national industries and develop new technologies to reduce Russia’s dependence on oil, gas and other raw materials, venturing into Medvedev’s favorite turf. He also made pledges to combat corruption similar to those Medvedev has made since taking the country’s helm , though he hasn’t made much progress.

Winning frequent applause from a parliament dominated by his United Russia party, Putin boasted of hikes in pensions and other social payments as well as increases of government spending on education and science. He promised to stem Russia’s population decline by suppor ting young families and improving health care, and pledged support to industries and agriculture.

Putin put a particular emphasis on boosting defense and laid out ambitious plans to procure new weapons for the military. He said that production of missiles will double starting from 2013 compared to the current level and that a massive navy modernization program will be launched.

He dismissed fears that Russia could face popular uprisings similar to those that have spread across the Arab world, saying that his Cabinet’s social policy should keep people happy and supportive of the government. “If our immunity weakens, we can get some sort of influenza,” Putin said. “But if we preserve a robust social-economic immunity of the nation, no quasi-political influenza could challenge us.” — AP

French feel integration of immigrants failing: Poll PARIS: Two-thirds of French people see the integration of immigrants into France as a failure and most believe the fault lies with the immigrants, an opinion poll showed yesterday. In the poll

by Harris Interactive, published in the daily Le Parisien, 66 percent of respondents said immigrants had adapted badly to life in France and just over half felt the situation had worsened in the past ten years.

More than three quarters of the sample group said immigrants had not made enough of an effort to adapt to French society, according to the poll, carried out between April 8-10 among 1,631 people from all political backgrounds.

The results mirror those from an IFOP poll in January. They reveal deepening unease over the French integration model and reflect similar trends across Europe, where fears that foreigners are taking advantage of welfare systems is boosting support for far-right parties.

“Look at what ’s happening in Finland. Look at what happened in Sweden. We are in a situation where views on immigrants are changing at a European level and people are asking to be reassured,” said Jean-Daniel Levy,

guage descended from South Africa’s Dutch colonisers-is used to single out whites. “The word ‘boer’, in this context, is a derogatory word referring to farmers, whites and to Afrikaners in particular,” it said in an affidavit.

The proceedings have captivated South Africa as top ANC leaders and ministers have taken the stand to defend the song as a piece of national histor y, while lawyers for Afriforum have argued it constitutes hate speech and incites anti-white violence. With proceedings broadcast on television, the debate has galvanized the country in the run-up to local elections on May 18. Malema supporters, who crowded outside the court carrying signs with slogans like “Our history will never be erased” and “Dubula song belongs to South

head of research at the Harris Interactive polling agency. Swedish voters elected a far-right party into parliament last year and the populist True Finns party scored strongly in Finland’s parliamentary election on Sunday.

France’s anti-immigrant National Front is eating into suppor t for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right party, opinion polls show. Anxiety about immigrants in general and Muslims in particular has featured prominently in early campaigning for the 2012 presidential election in France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, estimated at 5-6 million according to the Interior Ministry.

France has seen intense media coverage of issues such as its ban on full-face veils, concern over Muslims praying in the street and a public debate on the role of Islam in France.

“Public displays of faith are troubling to many French people ... but to suggest that this trend is artificial or fabricated by politicians is an exaggeration,” Levy said. “ These views (on immigrants) are common to voters on the right and the left, as well as high- and low-earners.” — Reuters

ABIDJAN: Heavy gunfire erupted in a district of Abidjan yesterday as Ivory Coast’s new government forces tried to dislodge militia loyal to deposed president Laurent Gbagbo, residents said. Die-hard pro-Gbagbo militia are still operating in sectors of Abidjan’s northwestern Yopougon district, where residents said insecurity is high and were forced to flee to safer neighborhoods.

“Since 4:00 am we have been hearing heavy firing and loud explosions. We were forced to flee the neighborhood very early,” a Yopougon resident told AFP. “An FRCI soldier told us that they had come to dislodge proGbagbo’s Liberian militia who are still hiding in Yopougon,” said another resident, using the acronym for new President Alassane Ouattara’s forces.

The sound of heavy fire reverberated over the vast metropolis, where the new administration is trying to re-establish security following heavy fighting earlier this month to oust Gbagbo. “I am waiting for a boat with my four children to sail across” the lagoon, said an elderly woman frm Yopougon.

Another resident said: “The walls were shaking, we all fled.” The former strongman was arrested on April 11 with the help United Nations and French forces who bombarded his Abidjan residence. Ouattara’s government begun exerting its authority in the strife-torn west African state and on Tuesday Prime Minister Guillaume Soro held the first ministerial meeting at the official government office where security topped the agenda.

“I think that security has hugely improved since the first difficult days,” Soro told reporters. “The interior minister informed us that the police have gone back to their base ... and they are ready for work.” The FRCI troops have set up positions in Abidjan where they stop and inspect vehicles at several intersec-

ABIDJAN: Pro-Outtara militia patrolling in Abobo, a suburb of Abidjan yesterday. Heavy gunfire erupted in a district of Abidjan as Ivory Coast’s new government forces tried to dislodge militia loyal to deposed president Laurent Gbagbo, residents said. —AFP tions. Negotiations that began between the new government and militia willing to disarm to get protection have so far been unsuccessful, a defense ministry source told AFP. Late on Tuesday, the government said in a statement that there was “continuing action by pockets of resistant militia and mercenaries, especially in some areas of Yopougon, and this is despite calls for disarmament.” “Once again, the government appeals to the remaining mercenaries and militia to take this chance given to them to put down their weapons without fear of reprisals,” it added.

Nigerian unrest kills more than 200: Rights group KANO: Post-poll unrest in Nigeria has killed more than 200 people, a rights group said yesterday, as the Muslim opposition candidate who lost the election rejected the results but urged calm.

Aid workers rushed to help nearly 40,000 displaced, many of whom had taken refuge in military and police barracks, while victims being treated in hospitals spoke of being hacked with machetes and beaten with clubs. Authorities say many were killed in the violence, which saw corpses burnt beyond recognition and bodies reportedly thrown into wells, but have refused to give a toll, saying it could spark reprisals and would be inaccurate.

A well-known Nigerian civil rights group based in the northern city of Kaduna put the toll at more than 200 across the north. “In the whole region, from reports reaching Civil Rights Congress, the death toll is over 200,” Shehu Sani, head of the organization, told AFP. The numbers were compiled through his organization’s staff and associates. He added that more than 1,000 people had been arrested in the city of Kaduna alone, where a 24-hour curfew had earlier gone into effect. There were reports of fresh clashes in an area of the state of Kaduna overnight, with a community leader telling local radio “the

killing was unbelievable and the destruction is colossal.” One government official, explaining authorities’ reluctance to release an overall death toll since the vote on Saturday, said, “I wouldn’t like to use the term massacre... some places it was terrible.” Curfews and military patrols appeared to have brought an uneasy calm to some areas yesterday as many who fled slept in the open under trees at military and police barracks. The Red Cross said it had counted around 410 people wounded in the violence that began sporadically in the country’s mainly Muslim north before spreading to some 14 states on Monday.

It has also said there were many dead but has declined to give a number.

Victims being treated at the main hospital in the northern city of Kano spoke of being attacked with machetes or clubs.

One man said he was pulled out of his corner shop by dozens of youths, who looted and burnt his business.

“Somebody used his machete to hit me on the forehead the first time, and the second time I tried to use my hand to protect my head and I sustained a big cut,” 42-year-old Rotimi Ajayi said, bandages on his head and arm. The number of displaced had increased to 39,700, Red Cross disaster management coordinator Umar Abdul Mairiga told AFP. — AFP

KADUNA: A victim of postelection violence lies in a corridor as he waits for treatment at St. Gerard’s Hospital in Kaduna, Nigeria yesterday. —AP

Ivory Coast is emerging from a tense postelection deadlock sparked by Gbagbo’s refusal to give up power to Ouattara whom the international community recognised as having won their disputed November polls.

Ouattara has urged reconciliation and pledged that Gbagbo will face trial for the crimes by his regime that collapsed after a 10year reign. In a move to restore normalcy, the government on Monday urged civil servants to return to work, but few heeded the call as disruptions to public transport and continued insecurity hindered movement. —AFP

Scandal trips up South Africa’s ANC ahead of poll JOHANNESBURG: An unfolding corruption scandal involving a South African minister’s expensive trips to see his jailed mistress in Switzerland is expected to undermine the ruling party ahead of local elections next month. The African National Congress, which has had a stranglehold on politics since it took over when apartheid ended 17 years ago, is expected to roll to victory in the May 18 vote, but the scandal could costs it control of urban areas and undermine President Jacob Zuma as ANC rivals look to unseat him.

Zuma, who pledged to stamp out corruption in Africa’s largest economy when he took office two years ago, this week said he has noted media reports that Cooperative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka was suspected of spending 335,000 rand (nearly $50,000) in state funds to visit his imprisoned girlfriend. Shiceka, who is also being investigated for spending nearly $100,000 in state funds on stays for him and his staff at a posh Cape Town hotel, has not commented on the reports.

His office said he has been on sick leave for several weeks.

Corruption is nothing new in South Africa, with analysts saying it has become worse under Zuma.

This has angered the ANC’s base of poor blacks whose fortunes have improved little since the party took over as well as a growing multi-racial middle class who feel their taxes being wasted.

Analysts see the May election as the first where non-racial differences in class come into play in the country that suffered massive racial repression of non-whites for most of the 20th century and expect them to grow larger in the years to come.

“We are going to see an increasing alienation of the urban middle classes and labour aristocracy, who are deeply opposed to those who are looting the state,” said independent political analyst Nic Borain.

The ANC is expected to stay in power for years to come with voters supporting it for helping bring down white-minority apartheid rule and with no serious opposition party that can challenge it nationally. But cracks are showing in its grip on power, with the ANC facing violent protests in recent years from poor blacks who are still waiting for the party to deliver electricity, running water and basic health care to their communities.

The ANC’s governing partner, powerful labour federation COSATU, has taken shots at the ANC for doing little to end corruption or curtailing what it calls a “predator elite” while ignoring the plight of the masses of poor. — Reuters

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I N T E R N AT I O N A L Taleban release Iranian hostages KABUL: A group of Iranian and Afghan road construction workers kidnapped earlier this week in western Afghanistan has been released, police said yesterday.

The crew of at least 12 Iranians and two Afghans was driving toward its job site in a remote part of Farah province Monday when the men were ambushed and taken hostage. The Taleban claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and threatened to kill the men off one by one unless their company stopped work on the road. Insurgents regularly target government projects such as roads as symbols of the central government they reject and have said those who work on such projects are collaborators, not civilians.

But the police were able to secure the release of all the captives with the help of local tribal elders, who acted as mediators with the insurgents, said provincial police chief Gen. Sayed Mohammad. Three of the men were released late Tuesday and the rest yesterday, Mohammad said. He said that 13 Iranians had been held, while the Iranian government reported only 12 of its citizens taken hostage. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers was not clear.

No conditions were put on the release of the captives and no ransom was paid, Mohammad said. The Iranian company, called Jahidi Nasri Tehran, has been contracted to produce 75 miles (121 kilometers) of road in Farah and has completed about half, according to provincial Public Works Ministry officials. — AP

Taleban kill 2 for supplying livestock to Afghanistan PESHAWAR: Taleban militants in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern tribal belt yesterday killed a truck driver and his helper for supplying livestock to Afghanistan, a senior official told AFP. The attack took place in Baizai town of Mohmand tribal district, where Pakistan’s military is engaged in anti-militant border operations, as the truck was returning from selling livestock in the east Afghan province of Nangarhar.

The militants signaled for the truck to stop before opening fire, said senior administration official Maqsood Hasan. “First they fired on the truck and killed both the driver and his helper. Then they destroyed the truck by setting it on fire,” he said. “Taleban militants carried out the attack.” The driver had violated a ban on supplies travelling by truck across the border to Afghanistan, imposed by militants in the area, an intelligence official in Peshawar said. He said the Pakistani Taleban had previously imposed a tax on such trucks, but clashes over the penalty led to an outright ban. Militants in the region have previously launched regular attacks on NATO supply trucks and oil tankers to disrupt supplies for international troops fighting in Afghanistan.— AFP

India court rejects bail pleas in telecoms trial Graft case hits govt, business sentiment NEW DELHI: A court yesterday rejected bail applications of five business executives in one of India’s biggest corruption scandals, pushing forward a case that has undermined the government and business sentiment in Asia’s third-largest economy. Executives from Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group and the Indian joint ventures of Norway’s Telenor and the UAE’s Etisalat will go to jail over the sale of telecoms licences at below-market prices.

Shares in the companies fell by as much as 11.5 percent after the ruling in a case that is one of several corruption scandals to batter the Congress party-led government, which is in the midst of a round of state elections. The fallout from the telecoms scandal, which may have drained up to $39 billion from the public purse, has seen some of country’s richest men, seen as symbols of India’s growing self-confidence on the world stage, called in for questioning. “ The CBI (federal police) has also expressed its apprehension that accused persons may tamper with the evidence by trying to win over witnesses and that they may also flee from justice in view of the magnitude of the offence,” Judge O P Saini said in a court order yesterday.

“Hence, in my considered opinion, it is not a fit case for bail.” After chaotic proceedings marred the trial last week, the courtroom was once again packed yesterday, prompting one man to shout out from the crowd that the throng of reporters covering the trial be removed from the room.

Former Indian telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja and the executives have been charged with manipulating the grant of telecoms licences and radio airwaves. The bail pleas involved three officials of billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance ADA Group, including a group managing director Gautam Doshi. Sanjay Chandra, managing director of Unitech , and Vinod Goenka, a director of Etisalat’s India partner, were also pleading bail.

The five executives also applied for interim bail for seven days to avoid being jailed immediately after their first plea was rejected. However, the court also rejected that request. “Now they are in judicial custody. They will be produced from the jail on each and every date of hearing,” AK Singh, a lawyer for the Central Bureau of Investigation, told

reporters. Shares in Unitech and DB Realty fell as much as 8 percent and 11.5 percent respectively after the bail was rejected. Reliance Communications shares fell 5.8 percent in a firm Mumbai market.

All of the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat have said the events described in the police charges predate their investments in India. The fate of dozens of telecoms licencesincluding those held by the Telenor and Etisalat arms-hang in balance after the state auditor said they had wrongly won those concessions. The new telecoms minister, Kapil Sibal, could cancel several of the contentious licenses issued under Raja, although that would likely feed investor uncertainty about the stability of government contracts and regulations in India. The scandals have laid bare a pervasive culture of corruption in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration, forcing a man once seen as India’s most honest politician to defend his leadership and scramble to keep the coalition intact.

Norway’s prime minister has written to Singh seeking “fair treatment” for Telenor, saying the firm should not be penalized for “errors others have committed in India.” Two parliamentary panels are also investigating the scandal and one of them summoned Ambani, as well as Ratan Tata, the head of the $70 billion Tata conglomerate, for questioning.

Under fire from a resurgent opposition, the case has sapped the government’s strength to push an agenda of economic reforms such as simplifying the tax code or opening the supermarket sector to foreign players. Wall-to-wall media coverage of what has been dubbed the “season of scams” intensified this month when a social activist went on a fast to press the government to tackle corruption.— Reuters

MAHARASHTRA: People attend the funeral of Tabrez Tehekar, a protester who was killed Monday during a protest against a proposed nuclear plant in Nate Village, near Jaitapur in the western state of Maharashtra, India yesterday. Residents of Jaitapur have been protesting the proposed plant since the government’s plans became public four years ago. — AP

Afghan army reviewing recruitment after attack KABUL: The Afghan army is reviewing recruitment after several high profile attacks by assailants in Afghan security force uniforms, including one inside the Defence Ministry this week, a ministr y spokesman said yesterday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimy said the man who penetrated the army’s nerve centre was actually an insurgent disguised in an army uniform, but suggested collaborators within the army could have helped him get access to the building.

The attack came months before the start of a transfer of security responsibilities from foreign to Afghan forces, and after NATO-led troops claimed solid progress in efforts to bolster the numbers and quality of the Afghan police and army. Under the transition program, Afghan forces will begin by

taking over from foreign troops in a few areas, but should have control of the whole country by the end of 2014.

“A new scrutiny into the mechanism of enrollment in the Afghan army has recently started, in order to prevent enemies taking advantage,” Azimy told reporters at a news conference. The attacker at the ministry opened fire but was killed before he had time to detonate a suicide-bomb vest he was wearing, Azimy said. He killed an officer and two soldiers. Investigators were looking into the possibility that someone within the army helped him with a building pass or he had access to a car with permission to drive into the compound, Azimy said. Suspicion has also fallen on workers at a construction site inside the ministry compound.— Reuters

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Vatican honoring Chinese Catholic layman VATICAN CITY: The Vatican has put a Chinese Catholic scholar who lived nearly five centuries ago on track for beatification, a move intended to raise the profile of the church in a country that keeps a tight grip on all religious expression. Paul Xu Guangqi, who lived from 1562 to 1633, was a scientist, astronomer and mathematician and collaborator of Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, himself a candidate for beatification.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the go-ahead for the beatifi-

cation cause from the Vatican’s sainthood congregation was a “beautiful light of hope for China today and tomorrow.”

He said Xu’s “exemplary life” shows there is no contradiction in being both Chinese and Catholic. On the contrary, he told Vatican Radio, people can be both “great Chinese and upstanding Catholics.” The announcement of the start of the beatification process came in a message to Chinese Catholics last week from a special Vatican commission set up to study problems that Catholics loyal to the pope face in China. It

expressed its “sorrow for the trials you are undergoing” but said it “learned with joy” that the diocese of Shanghai can start the beatification cause.

There is no time limit on the beatification process, the last formal step before possible sainthood. It can take years, with the Vatican requiring what it considers a miracle based on the candidate’s intercession. Ricci’s cause officially began in 1984.

Pope Benedict XVI has made improving relations with China a priority of his foreign policy, but a key stumbling block has been

the Vatican’s insistence on the pope’s right to appoint bishops as he does elsewhere in the world. Beijing’s communist rulers see it as inter ference by a foreign entity in Chinese affairs.

China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951. Only statebacked churches are recognized, although millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome. Liu Bainian, honorary chairman of the state affiliated Chinese Catholic Patriotic Asociation and the Bishops Conference of the Catholic

Church of China said: “Beatification is a complicated religious matter. I’m not familiar with the case in detail, so it is not convenient to make comments.” It was quite different in 2000, when Pope John Paul II declared sainthood for 120 Chinese and foreign missionaries killed in the church’s fivecentury struggle in China.

Beijing called them “evildoing sinners” and their canonization “an open insult.”

Naming of the church’s first Chinese saints was another setback to attempts to normalize relations. — AP

Doctor warns Japan nuke workers are at their limit Signs of dehydration, high blood pressure

ISHINOMAKI: In this March 14, 2011 file photo, a Japan Self-Defense Force member reacts after rescuing a four-month-old baby girl Iroha Ishikawa in Ishinomaki, northern Japan, three days after a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami hit the country’s east coast. —AP

Baby in iconic tsunami photo safe with parents ISHINOMAKI: A Japanese soldier grins as he cradles a tiny baby in a fuzzy pink blanket, plucked from a wreckage blocked house three days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami flattened much of the country ’s northeastern coastline.

The moment , captured by a photographer from leading Japanese daily Yomiuri and published by newspapers and websites worldwide , evoked a rare glimmer of hope amid so much destruction and death from the March 11 disasters that killed an estimated 26,000 people. Weeks later, 5-month-old Iroha Ishikawa is now healthy and safe, living at a shelter inside an elementary school with her parents in Ishinomaki, 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.

“I’m happy that we were rescued, but there is a lot of sadness behind it , many families didn’t make it,” the infant’s mother, Yuki Ishikawa, tells The Associated Press. Ishikawa, 41, says she was home with her baby daughter on the Friday afternoon when the magnitude-9 earthquake hit, rattling her home and toppling furniture. She began packing her car to flee when her husband, Takatoshi, returned from work and said he heard strange noises , the sounds of a powerful tsunami blasting its way through their neighborhood near the shore.

The mother grabbed only Iroha and a baby bag as she ran for safety. It had a thermos with some hot water, two cans of milk, three baby bottles and some diapers in it. They fled to the second story

of a neighbor’s house along with the couple that lived there.

A minute later the tsunami crashed through the first floor. “We saw all kinds of things get washed by in the waters , debris, cars, and to be honest, bodies,” she says. “We stayed there for two days with nothing to eat or drink, except for what the baby had.” Two days after the tsunami, the waters receded, and the two men were able to scrounge some food. The group of five was located by soldiers, who asked them to move to a crowded shelter closer to the shore. They declined, and then a powerful aftershock sent everyone scrambling for safety.

The troops returned the next day.

“The doors of the house were blocked by cars and other debris, so we had to go out through a window. The soldiers helped us out through the window, and that was when the picture was taken,” Yuki Ishikawa says. Since then, the Ishikawas have been living in the elementary school, with father Takatoshi so busy fixing pipes at damaged buildings that he has had little time to clean up their own home. The mother says she can’t really think very far into the future, but she hopes they can move to temporary housing or somewhere with more privacy. As for the widely viewed photo, she says it is such a positive image that it masks some of the tragedy of the tsunami. “I don’t really have any feelings about the picture itself,” Iroha’s mother says. “I just want people to know the reality of what happened here.”— AP

FUKUSHIMA: Workers battling the crisis at Japan’s stricken nuclear plant suffer from insomnia, show signs of dehydration and high blood pressure and are at risk of developing depression or heart trouble, a doctor who met with them said yesterday. The crews have been fighting to get the radiation-spewing Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.

“The conditions at the plant remain harsh,” epidemiologist Takeshi Tanigawa told The Associated Press. “I am afraid that if this continues we will see a growing risk of health problems.” Tanigawa, the Public Health Department chairman at Ehime University’s medical school, said he met and spoke with 80 of the workers over four days when he was allowed into another nearby nuclear plant where many of them take their breaks.

He said he was not able to carry out full physical exams on the workers before leaving Tuesday because of time constraints.

Tokyo Electric Power Co, the plant operator, said 245 workers from the company and affiliated companies were stationed at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant yesterday. Soldiers, firefighters and police officers also were at the site.

The nuclear workers have been toiling around the clock to stabilize the plant.

Tanigawa said they get little rest, no baths or fresh food and are under the constant threat of exposure to radiation, which remains so high in many places that robots are being used to take measurements. In a telephone interview, Tanigawa said the work conditions don’t meet the basic rights guaranteed workers by Japan’s constitution. During their breaks at the Fukushima Daini plant, they often sleep on the floor of a gymnasium, “wrapped only in blankets and with no privacy,” he said.

Photographs of the gymnasium show workers in white radiation protection suits sitting on gold metallic mats laid in tight rows on the floor. Boxes of supplies are stacked nearby. “Because they sleep so close to each other, snoring is a big problem,” he

IWATE: Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members pause for a break in the area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the port town of Kesennuma, Iwate Prefecture, Japan yesterday. —AP said. “Normally, that might sound funny, but in this case it is denying people sleep and that can lead to bad performance on the job.”

The workers, most of them middle-aged men, suffer insomnia and show signs of dehydration and high blood pressure, he said. One had gout. Tanigawa said he is concerned they may develop depression or heart problems. “Making sure they have a shower or a bath or a proper place to sleep is not just to make them comfortable, but to ensure good performance,” he said.

Tanigawa said the mental stress of the job is deepened by the fear of radiation exposure, the concerns of their loved ones , many don’t want the men to stay on at the plant , and the fact that many of the workers themselves lost homes or family in the tsunami.

TEPCO said the situation has become difficult as the crisis has become protracted. “We think that we have worked to improve food, sleep hours and off days so that working

Two Japanese held in N Korea on drugs charges

North Korea owes South almost $1bn SEOUL: North Korea owes South Korea almost one billion dollars but chances of repayment are slim given its crumbling economy and crossborder tensions, officials said yesterday. South Korea over the past decade shipped food, fuel oil, fertilizer and raw materials to its impoverished communist neighbor in the form of loans worth a total 1.02 trillion won ($942 million). The overall debt is bigger because of overdue interest payments, the South’s unification ministry said without giving further figures.

Pyongyang received 2.4 million tons of rice and 200,000 tons of corn valued at 787 billion won between 2000 to 2007. Repayment was scheduled over 20 years with a 10-year grace period, at one percent annual interest. In 2007 the South provided its neighbor with raw materials worth 87.5 billion won to help it produce clothing, footwear and soap.

The North paid back just three percent of the total in the form of zinc shipments.

North Korea also received 149.4 billion won worth of materials and equipment when the two Koreas opened cross-border railways and

roads from 2002 to 2008. The first repayment of 6.4 billion won on food loans is due in June next year. But South Korean officials cast doubt on repayment given the North’s dire economic situation. “It’s not easy for North Korea to repay its debt at an early date. But we will never give up,” a unification ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The regime is struggling to ease persistent food shortages and revive its ailing state-directed economy in the face of cross-border and international sanctions. The aid was provided by previous left-leaning governments under a “Sunshine” aid and engagement polic y, which was scrapped by Seoul’s current conservative government.

The South’s annual food aid halted in 2008 as relations worsened.

Under a 1994 deal aimed at freezing the North’s nuclear weapons program, Seoul from 1998 to 2006 also lent Pyongyang 1.37 trillion won through an international consortium to build civilian nuclear power plants. That denuclearization deal fell par t in 2002 and the power plants projec t was scrapped in 2006. —AFP

conditions are improving,” it said in a statement. “We would like to work on further improvements, taking Dr Tanigawa’s views into account.” Tanigawa said that although emergency conditions may have justified harsh working hours in the early days of the crisis, the situation has now “become chronic.” “They have struggled for a month. But they haven’t gotten any rest,” he said.

“TEPCO and the government don’t think about them. The workers must do a good job, but they do not have any support,” he said. With the heat of summer approaching, the health risks could multiply. The workers now have three meals a day, but no fresh meat or vegetables. “They get microwave food,” he said. They put in four days, then have two off, but many feel they can’t leave, he said. “They feel a deep sense of responsibility to be there,” he said. “I asked many if they wanted to stop, but they responded, ‘Who would do this if I didn’t?”‘ —AP

SEOUL: A cyclist passes by prostitutes wearing caps and masks to cover their identities as they stage a rally to protest against the enacted anti-prostitution law in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. About 200 prostitutes converged in a redlight district in the capital to oppose the law they say threaten their livelihoods.

The banners read “Job Security.” —AP

TOKYO: North Korea has detained two Japanese men in a special economic zone near the communist state’s Russian border, apparently on suspicion of drug smuggling, media reports said yesterday. Three Japanese men were initially taken into detention in mid-March, but one has since been freed and returned to Japan, the Asahi Shimbun and major news agencies reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the case.

The Kyodo News agency said that “Japanese officials have knowledge about the matter and are prudently examining the situation”. The top government spokesman Yuk io Edano was quoted as saying Wednesday that “due to the nature of the case, I want to refrain from commenting.”

The Asahi said the three Japanese men were employees of a machine maintenance firm in Tokyo who had visited Rason city near North Korea’s border with Russia in March to check machines at a food manufacturing factory. They were detained on charges of hiding drugs in canned goods to be exported to China, the newspaper said.

The Asahi said that the released man had apparently spoken with Japanese police, and the two men still in detention were a Tokyo man aged in his 40s and a resident of nearby Chiba prefecture in his 30s. The daily said there was unconfirmed information that the North had demanded a large amount of bail for the two detainees. —AFP

Thai army chief issues royal debate warning BANGKOK: Thailand’s army chief General Prayut Chan-O-Cha warned political figures yesterday to keep the revered monarchy out of debate ahead of what is expected to be a closely fought general election. On the instructions of its commander-in-chief, the military last week filed a complaint against three leaders of the opposition “Red Shirts” for allegedly insulting the royals during speeches at a recent Bangkok rally.

“I’m not doing it for political reasons, but whenever this kind of thing happens we will take action,” Prayut, a staunch royalist

who became commander-in-chief at the start of October, told reporters. “Especially with politics, do not drag the monarchy into it.

This institution is above all conflicts,” he said, adding that the military “will do its duty to protect the monarchy”.

The remarks appeared to be aimed mainly at the Red Shirt leaders. Thailand’s royal family, which has no official political role, is an extremely sensitive subject in the kingdom, which is gearing up for an election by early July.

Prayut has pledged to abide by the results of the poll and has

brushed aside rumors of a military coup.

But that has not dampened speculation about possible military intervention in a country that has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since 1932. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said he hopes the election will help to end the political unrest seen since the Reds’ hero Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as premier in a 2006 coup.

Thai society was left more divided than ever after mass street rallies by the opposition in April and May last year turned bloody, leaving more than 90 people dead, mostly

civilians, in clashes between protesters and armed troops.

Thai authorities on Tuesday summoned 18 Red leaders to face charges of sedition and insulting the monarchy. The Reds view Abhisit’s government as an unelected elite because it came to power in a 2008 parliamentary vote with military backing, after a court ruling threw out the previous administration. With political rallies continuing, the Thai cabinet agreed yesterday to extend a special security law in seven districts of Bangkok for another month. — AFP

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

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Issues

Egypt’s leaders ‘too busy’ with the past

By Hamza Hendawi gypt’s ruling generals and leaders of the protesters who toppled Hosni Mubarak have been busy dismantling the former regime. But not enough is being done to deal with issues that, if left unresolved, could pose a serious threat to the country’s future. In the two months since Mubarak’s ouster, Muslim militants have been on the rise, a persistent security vacuum is unleashing a wave of crime and a badly hit economy is affecting people’s lives.

Since the ouster of Mubarak on Feb. 11, the generals have dissolved the infamous State Security Agency and ordered criminal investigations against Cabinet ministers and regime-linked businessmen. A high court dissolved Mubarak’s one-time party, the National Democratic Party, last week, and Mubarak and his two sons face accusations of corruption and murder linked to the shooting of hundreds of protesters.

But a host of problems stand in the way of a transition to democracy. Several senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest political group, caused a stir when they recently spoke about installing an Islamic state and the implementation of Islamic punishments, like hand amputations for repeated theft or flogging for drinking alcohol. Shadi Al-Ghazaly Harb, one of the youth leaders who organized the uprising, said the hardline comments would hurt the group. “It is the Brotherhood’s loss, not anyone else’s,” he said.

The Brotherhood said the comments did not reflect the group’s thinking, but the country’s secularists and minority Christians are alarmed that the Brotherhood, with the help of other Islamist groups, might one day win a majority in legislative elections. Another attempt at power by Muslim militants has been unfolding in southern Egypt.

Thousands of Muslim militants in the city of Qena have been taking to the streets daily since Friday to protest the appointment of a Christian governor. The protesters blocked rail traffic on vital lines, occupied local government offices, stopped employees from reporting for work and forced most schools to close. On Wednesday, they lifted their siege of the government building, but continued to block the rail lines.

The protesters, mostly from the radical Salafi movement, said they would appoint their own governor if the government did not back down and threatened to disrupt work in a water pumping station. Two Cabinet ministers visited Qena to try to defuse the crisis, but the protesters remained adamant. The new governor’s predecessor was a Christian and a former police general. He was reviled for his incompetence, security background, and close ties to the Mubarak regime, enabling the Salafis to draw on local dissatisfaction in their ongoing campaign.

The Salafis, who seek to emulate the lifestyle of Islam’s early days in the seventh century, have for the past year played a key role in fueling sectarian tensions, spearheading protests against the Orthodox Christian church.

Security officials say they have played a role in the deadly clashes between Christians and Muslims in Cairo last month following the burning of a church in a village south of the city. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.

The Salafis, just like the relatively moderate Brotherhood, are setting up political parties to contest September’s legislative elections, and the Brotherhood wants to launch a satellite TV channel and a daily newspaper. “There are reasons for us to be worried,” columnist Gamal Fahmy said about the heavy presence of Islamic groups in post-Mubarak Egypt. “But they will be cut down to their actual size when we have a well-organized and stable democratic system.” Fahmy and other analysts believe it would be counterproductive for the ruling generals to crack down on the Islamists, although they have already stated that they will not allow radical groups to dominate the mainly Muslim nation of more than 80 million people. A crackdown on the militants, they warn, could be a prelude to similar action by the military against other groups.

Already, they note, the generals are accused of torturing detainees and ignoring due process in military tribunals for Egyptians charged with crimes that range from violating the late-night curfew to thuggery and theft. The tribunals, rights activists say, have sentenced around 10,000 people by the end of last month. Defendants have no recourse to appeal. Abdullah Sinawy of the Nasserite party believes that new regulations governing the creation of new parties are too tough, and that all lawmakers who served during Mubarak’s 29 years in power should be barred from running for public office for five years. —AP

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All articles appearing on these pages are the personal opinion of the writers. Kuwait Times takes no responsibility for views expressed therein. Kuwait Times invites readers to voice their opinions. Please send submissions via email to: opinion@kuwaittimes.net or via snail mail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait. The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

Slap that was heard across Arab world ‘didn’t happen’

By Tarek Amara hey called it the “slap heard around the Arab world”.

And it never happened. Or so said on Tuesday the Tunisian policewoman who was accused of hitting a young man in the face four months ago, prompting him to set himself alight and triggering a chain reaction of popular anger against Arab police states that has since unseated two dictators and caused others to tremble. “I’m innocent. I did not slap him,” Fadia Hamdi, the 36-year-old policewoman, told a court in the provincial city of Sidi Bouzid before the judge dismissed the case and freed her.

The mother of Mohamed Bouazizi, the young vegetable seller who felt so aggrieved by Hamdi’s treatment of him that he set himself on fire, forgave the policewoman in a spirit of “reconciliation” and dropped the complaint against her. Hamdi’s lawyer said she had been made a scapegoat by deposed president Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, who had her jailed as he fought to appease the protests triggered by Bouazizi’s death. Three months after Ben Ali’s flight from Tunis, Hamdi’s acquittal provoked jubilation among her friends and Tunisia’s state news agency TAP declared the ruling a proof of judicial independence and a “break with the old regime”.

Manoubia, the mother of Bouazizi whose name has been on the lips of millions who marched to overthrow Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, told the court according to TAP: “I leave things in God’s hands. For me, it is enough that Mohamed’s martyrdom has resulted in freedom and the fall of tyrants.” Since Mubarak’s departure from Cairo in February, marking the high point of the “Arab Spring” movement in the most populous Arab state, authoritarian rulers have held their own.

In Syria on Tuesday, President Bashar al-Assad’s government agreed to end half a century of “emergency law” in a bid to appease demonstrators whose actions over the past month the Syrian ruler has met with a combination of concessions and force - more than 200 have been killed.

Protests continued after the announcement, with demonstrators taking to the streets in the city of Banias and opposition leaders said they would not stop until their other demands, including the release of political prisoners, freedom of speech, and a multi-party system, were also met.

“This is all just talk. The protests won’t stop until all the demands are met or the regime is gone,” leading opposition figure Haitham Maleh, an 80-year-old former judge said. The cabinet decision came hours after activists said Syrian forces opened fire to disperse protesters in the central city of Homs, where 17 people were killed on Sunday night. And hours after the bill to lift law was passed, Syrian police arrested opposition figure Mahmoud Issa, rights campaigners said. Rights activists also said at least three more protesters were shot dead in the latest shooting early on Tuesday. State news agency SANA said that four people, two policemen and two gunmen, were killed in clashes in the city.

In Yemen, police opened fire on protesters in Sanaa and Taiz, killing at least three people, as protesters tried to escalate their campaign to end President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year rule. The clashes came as Gulf mediators tried to bring government and opposition leaders together for talks on a presidential transfer of power in the poor, strategically located Arab state, a key battleground in the US-led fight against Al-Qaeda. Two people died and nearly 100 were hit by bullets when riot police stopped protesters marching towards Sanaa’s main Zubeiri street, near the home of vice president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, medic Mohammed Qobati said.

Protesters stoned the riot police and set fire to a security vehicle, witnesses said. Al Jazeera television showed medics tending to dozens of wounded covered in blood.

The UN Security Council was due to meet late in the day to discuss the situation in Yemen, where Western and Gulf Arab allies fear a prolonged standoff could lead to clashes between rival military units in Sanaa and elsewhere.

Fighting continued in Libya, where an uprising against Muammar Gaddafi began two months ago. Despite the intervention of NATO air forces on the side of the rebels, the country now appears in stalemate, with Gaddafi’s forces penning the rebels in the east and besieging the western port of Misrata.

The United Nations appealed for a ceasefire in the city, saying at least 20 children had been killed in attacks by besieging government forces on rebel-held parts of the city. At the same time Western powers are looking for ways to support the rebels’ efforts to topple Gaddafi, though NATO said there were limits to what air power could do to end the siege. Britain said it would send military officers to advise the rebels on organization and communications, but not to train or arm fighters. France said the West had underestimated Gaddafi’s ability to adapt his tactics in response to the NATO operation. — Reuters

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TUNIS: File photo shows Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (left) visits Mohamed Bouazizi, a young man who set himself on fire acting out of desperation after police confiscated the fruits and vegetables he sold without a permit. — AP

Nigeria risks further bloodshed as divide grows

By Matthew Tostevin igeria’s post-election riots have highlighted the likelihood of further bloodshed and growing radicalism in a Muslim north that feels ever more marginalized from a richer and more dynamic south. Although it is too early to see the troubles in the north as a sign of Africa’s most populous nation coming apart, President Goodluck Jonathan and northern leaders face a serious challenge to avoid a drift towards greater polarization.

Churches, homes and shops have been burned and an unknown number of people stabbed, hacked and shot to death since Jonathan, a Christian southerner, defeated Muslim northerner Muhammadu Buhari in a presidential election the opposition says was rigged. Regardless of whether there was foul play or not, the map of results showed the reality of Nigeria’s divide. Buhari won heavily in the north and Jonathan in the south-not that the president did not pick up votes in parts of the north. “Sometimes there is a pretence we have gone beyond religion and ethnicity, but it is the same all over the country,” said Mannir Dan-Ali, editor of the Abuja-based Daily Trust.

In a sign of how concerned the presidency was, it put out a statement urging foreign media to stop referring to a “Muslim north” and “largely Christian south” and stressing that Jonathan had a mandate across Nigeria. As always, the first to suffer in the violence were those from other parts of Nigeria-many of them small business owners-who have traded in the north for generations. Known supporters of Jonathan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party were predictably in the firing line.

But rioters also vented their anger on a local elite seen as complicit in the north’s decline while living high on its personal cut of oil wealth handed down from Abuja. “It is a revolution. Emirs are being attacked, the big men are being attacked,” said Yinka Odumakin, spokesman for Buhari, a disciplinarian during nearly two years in power in the 1980s. “The poverty in north Nigeria is only increasing and there is an army of unemployed youths who are looking at the benefits of the elite. They look to General Buhari. He was the only one who showed he would lock these ogas (big men) up.”

The north has long been the poorest, unhealthiest, least educated part of Nigeria, lacking the south’s oil resources, banks and businesses. But under a succession of military rulers until 1999, it had the compensation of holding power. Jonathan’s rise underscored the humiliating loss of influence ever since. He came to office when his northern predecessor Umaru Yar’Adua died in office last year and many northerners argued it was still their turn to rule.

But Jonathan, the first president from the oil-producing Niger Delta, secured the ruling party’s nomination.

Although the vote was regarded by observers as the fairest

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for decades, very high turnout figures in parts of the south raised fears in the north that they had been inflated. “When results started coming in I had text messages saying things like ‘we have been conquered’,” said Dan-Ali. Meanwhile, the decline of the few industries-such as textile mills unable to compete with Chinese importsdeepened northern poverty just as oil and services-led growth in the south has driven overall expansion to around 7 percent a year. “All that the violence does is make people in the south say let’s have done with the north,” said business consultant John Adeleke, based in the giant southern commercial hub of Lagos. “It’s not within the interests of the northern elite to allow any form of split but it is to allow them to have enough dissent to extract concessions from Jonathan.”

Whether Jonathan can deliver concessions is another question given the various pledges he had to make to interest groups from elsewhere to assure his victory. To restore order he has the army, pledged to loyalty and with its top ranks no longer dominated by northerners, but a heavy handed response could fan the flames and cause even more casualties. Past bouts of killings have left thousands dead in the north and were followed by reprisals in the south. One such episode led to civil war in which one million were killed in the 1960s. Militants from the Niger Delta, who gave up weapons under an amnesty two years ago, said they would not retaliate for now over the latest killings but made clear it was a possibility.

DISTANT Just as uncomfortable for many in the north is that what happens there is irrelevant to much of the country.

Businesses and homes in the north are being destroyed and its cities are paralyzed. Not in the south, hundreds of miles away. Nigerian shares rose their most in a month on the worst day of the violence. The north’s despair is fertile ground for Islamic radicalism. A localized Islamist sect is accused of killings in the far northeast. Unexplained bombings in the campaign run-up showed the capacity for major attacks very much exists. Nigeria’s next potential flashpoint is next week at elections for powerful governors of 36 states. Because of the violence in the north, there are doubts over whether these can even take place there.

Election offices have been destroyed and national youth corps workers, widely praised across Nigeria for running such a smooth ballot, have been among those murdered. If the elections do not happen in the north, it could cause trouble because Buhari’s supporters will have lost another chance to take at least some power. If they do go ahead, then the results could again mean friction. Jonathan’s party wants to secure the states so he can pursue his agenda, but if it does too well it will again be accused of rigging and there could be more killings. —Reuters

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KHARKIV: The first 26 Ukrainian-made armored personnel carriers at a military plant prior to heading to Iraq, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. In 2009, Ukraine and Iraq concluded a deal to buy 420 armored personnel carriers by 2012. — AP

How long can Saudi leaders hold off reforms?

RIYADH: Surrounded by unrest in the Arab world, Saudi King Abdullah’s focus on lavish social handouts instead of political reform is a stop-gap solution that can only hold off change in the short term, reformers say. Although unlikely to see uprisings on the same scale as in neighboring Bahrain and Yemen, the number one oil exporter and US ally cannot stay insulated from the rest of the region or the world forever, they say.

“There are some people in the government whose interests are to maintain the status quo and they use tricks to do this such as forbidding demonstrations and saying that signing petitions is unlawful in Islamic law,” said Mohammed Al-Qahtani, head of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association. “But how long can this continue? Things are happening now and society is no longer passive. It might spiral out of control in the next few years either in terms of the power struggle among the elite or from the people themselves.”

The elderly king has announced $130 billion so far this year in handouts to boost wages, raise benefits for the unemployed and build houses, while creating 60,000 security positions and giving more money to the religious police. The government let it be known after the handouts were announced that it is organizing elections this year to half the seats on municipal councils, after the vote was delayed in 2009.

Those elections were first held in 2005 as a response to US pressure on reform, but activists do not see revisiting the councils now as a much of a concession on political rights- women cannot vote or run as candidates. So the ruling family appears so far determined to continue its domination of political life. Succession to the throne is restricted by law to sons and grandsons of founder Abdel-Aziz bin Saud. Senior princes hold the main posts in the

cabinet and most of them have been in their jobs for decades.

Saudi intellectuals were likely to lead the demands for political change but they can expect a strong reaction, said a prominent Saudi journalist who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject. “These people will come under attack by the government and conservatives will call them ‘corrupt liberals’ or ‘agents of the West’. That could be a spark in the political national movement of Saudi Arabia.”

A group of Saudi web activists launched an online campaign in January calling for political reform. The Facebook campaign called for a constitutional monarchy, an end to corruption and even distribution of wealth. In the face of consistent warnings from the government and its leading clerics, as well as a massive security presence, most Saudis have not answered calls to protest for more rights. Demonstrations so far have been confined to the oil-producing east, where minority Shiites have staged a series of protests in support of Shiites in Bahrain and political freedoms at home. But the government can easily pass off Shiite protests as not reflecting the views of most Saudis. Earlier in February dozens of unemployed graduates and teachers staged protests in the capital Riyadh and Jeddah to demand jobs and better wages in the biggest Arab economy. “They have lulled people in the short term but in the long term Saudi Arabia’s young population want their voices to be heard. They want to be active in society,” said a Saudi media analyst in Riyadh. “There needs to be structural reform rather than just the same old oil in new bottles.” Under-30s account for some 60 percent of the population and most have grown up during the internet revolution. Many have a different mindset to veteran rulers and do not understand their arguments on why they do not deserve political rights. — Reuters

protesters brush off Assad reforms Continued from Page 1 Prolonged instability in Syria could have serious repercussions well beyond its borders. The closed-off nation punches above its weight in terms of regional influence because of its alliances with militant groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and with Shiite powerhouse Iran. That has given Damascus a pivotal role in most of the flashpoint issues of the Middle East, from the Arab-Israeli peace process to Iran’s widening influence.

Protesters have vowed to keep up their demonstrations. In recent days, the movement has crossed a significant threshold, with increasing numbers now seeking nothing less than the downfall of the regime. At least 200 people have been killed as the government cracked down on the protesters. Yesterday, 4,000 university students from Daraa and surrounding areas protested near the city’s Al-Omari Mosque.

Activists also said dozens of students protested yesterday at Aleppo University in the country’s north, adding there were confrontations on campus between pro and anti-government students. The witnesses spoke by telephone on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The regime has coupled its crackdown with a series of concessions, including an end to the state of emergency, which gives authorities almost boundless powers of surveillance and arrest.

Abolishing the reviled laws was once the key demand of the uprising against Assad, a British-trained eye doctor who took power 11 years ago but has failed to fulfill early promises of reform. A resident of the city of Homs in central Syria also said preparations for tomorrow protests were under way, but declined to go into details over the phone. Homs has been tense since clashes between protesters and security forces killed at least 12 people Sunday. On Tuesday, security forces there

opened fire with live ammunition and tear gas on hundreds of anti-government demonstrators during a pre-dawn raid that killed several people.

The resident said there was heavy security presence in Homs yesterday, with many opting to stay at home. Britain’s Foreign Office yesterday said UK nationals should consider leaving Syria on commercial flights, after it upgraded warnings about unrest there. In a statement, the ministry said it had changed its advice “in light of the deterioration in the security situation in Syria.”

British diplomats had warned that violent clashes are anticipated between local security forces and demonstrators. Also yesterday, human rights activists said Syrian authorities arrested an opposition figure at his home during an overnight raid, hours after the government announced an end to emergency rule.

Syrian Human Rights League chief, Abdul-Karim Rihawi, said security agents picked up Mahmoud Issa from his home in the central city of Homs after an interview he gave to Al-Jazeera satellite TV late Tuesday. He said his “arbitrary arrest is in line with the state of emergency rule” and said he expected him to be released after President Assad signs the decree formally abolishing the emergency rule. Rights activist Mazen Darwish said the interview Issa gave to Al-Jazeera angered relatives of a Syrian brigadier general who was killed along with his two sons and a nephew Sunday in Homs.

The government says they were gunned down by “armed gangs” that authorities blame for the violence during anti-government protests of the past month. Darwish said Issa, in the interview, said he didn’t know who was behind the killing and called for an investigation, enraging bereaved relatives who reportedly threatened Issa before alerting the police. Issa, who spent years in prison for his pro-democracy views, was picked up from his home shortly afterward. — AP

Respect our unity, GCC tells Tehran Continued from Page 1 when asked about Iranian diplomats Kuwait had said it would expel.

He did not provide their names, nor the number of diplomats who were kicked out.

Iranian state television had previously said three of Tehran’s diplomats and an embassy employee were expelled from Kuwait, but Sheikh Mohammed’s remark yesterday was the first official confirmation from the Kuwaiti side. Sheikh Mohammed had said on March 31 that Iranian diplomats were to be expelled for alleged links to a spy ring working for Tehran, reportedly ever since the invasion of Iraq. The foreign minister charged that the diplomats had proven links

to a suspected spy ring, three members of which a Kuwaiti court condemned to death on March 29.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti newspapers reported yesterday that three Kuwaiti diplomats who were expelled from Iran in a tit-for-tat move had arrived in Kuwait the day before. The expulsions come during heightened tensions between Gulf Arab states and their Iranian neighbor across the water. In addition to Kuwaiti allegations of Iranian spying, Bahrain has also accused Iran of meddling in its affairs. The March 14 intervention of a Saudi-led Gulf force in Bahrain, which freed up the tiny Sunni-ruled kingdom’s security forces to crush a Shiite-led pro-democracy protest movement, sparked a war of words

between Iran and its Arab neighbors.

Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa told reporters in Dubai on Monday that the Gulf force had entered Bahrain “to deter an external threat.” “We have never seen a sustained campaign from Iran on Bahrain and the Gulf like we’ve seen in the past two months. Usually it’s a short-lived one and then back off; this time is something different,” he said. “We wrote a letter to the secretary general of the United Nations, and in that letter we have a full attachment of the threats and of all the evidence we have against Iran and Hezbollah,” the Lebanese Shiite group backed by Tehran. — Agencies

Arab League postpones may summit...

Continued from Page 1 Abdul-Hadi Al-Hassani, a Shiite lawmaker aligned with Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. Iraq’s deputy foreign minister, Labid Abawi, struck a softer tone, saying Baghdad had hoped the summit would be held on time but that the majority of league members wanted it postponed over tensions in the region. He said another meeting will be held May 15 to decide on a new date.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has said he is prepared to postpone but not cancel the summit. Another league official says the summit will probably be held in September. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. The summit, first scheduled for March, was initially delayed amid security concerns in Iraq and because it was unclear which Arab leaders could come while the region

was in turmoil. Though disappointed, many Iraqis took that delay in stride.

The new postponement threatens to worsen already tense relations between Sunnis and Shiites in the region. Gulf countries have been angry at Iraq’s support for mostly Shiite demonstrators in Bahrain, who had been lobbying for a greater say in their country’s government.

The protest movement was quashed when neighboring Saudi Arabia sent hundreds of armored vehicles and personnel into the island kingdom of Bahrain in support of its Sunni leadership.

Saudi Arabia has its own Shiite population in the eastern part of the country where the main oil resources are and also worries about the rising influence of Iran in the region.

Both Iran and Iraq have Shiite dominated governments, and many Sunni Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and others in the Gulf, worry that Iran is

spreading its influence through Iraq. “For sure, calling off the summit or the attempts to call off the summit will negatively affect Iraq’s relations with Arab countries,” said Khalid Al-Asadi, a Shiite lawmaker with Al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition. He said sectarian issues played a role in the summit’s delay.

But Sunni lawmaker Hamid AlMutlaq said Iraqi politicians were also to blame for the postponement. “They should have looked at Iraq’s internal problems instead of thinking of what is going on in Bahrain. The last thing Iraq needs is disputes and problems with other countries,” he said. The Arab League summit was considered by many Iraqi officials as an opportunity to show off the strides the country has made since the height of the US-led war, and they have spent millions of dollars refurbishing buildings and hotels in anticipation of the meeting. — AP

‘We will help you,’ West tells rebels Continued from Page 1 He did not say how NATO-led forces planned to break a stalemate on the ground after the United States and some European allies declined last week to join ground strikes. US Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview with the Financial Times that American strike aircraft were not needed to achieve the alliance’s mission in Libya. “If the Lord Almighty extricated the US out of NATO and dropped it on the planet of Mars so we were no longer participating, it is bizarre to suggest that NATO and the rest of the world lacks the capacity to deal with Libya - it does not,” he was quoted as saying.

“Occasionally other countries lack the will, but this is not about capacity,” Biden said. Abdel Jalil told reporters he had invited Sarkozy to pay a visit to the rebel-held eastern city of Benghazi to demonstrate France’s support for ending Gaddafi’s 41-year rule. “I think that would be extremely important for the morale of the revolution,” he said. France did not say if the president had accepted.

Abdel Jalil also said the opposition, little known to the world until an uprising against Gaddafi began in mid-February, was committed to building a democracy in Libya where the head of state would come to power “by the ballot box, not atop a tank”. Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in Misrata, where aid groups say the humanitarian situation is worsening with a lack of food and medical supplies.

The rebels say forces loyal to Gaddafi have been bombarding the city heavily over the last week, although the situation appeared calmer on Wednesday morning. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said the Libyan government’s reported use of cluster munitions and heavy weapons in Misrata may amount to a war crime under international law.

The government denies it is attacking civilians in Misrata. “The number of martyrs for yesterday is eight, mostly civilians. More than 20 people were also wounded. Snipers remain the main threat to civilians and revolutionaries (rebels),” Abdelsalam, an insurgent

spokesman, told Reuters by phone. Another rebel representative, Reda, who like Abdelsalam only gave his first name, said: “Fighting is still going on in Tripoli Street,” a main street that leads to the centre from Misrata’s southern outskirts.

Libyan state television said yesterday that NATO warplanes had hit telecommunication and broadcasting infrastructure in several cities. It did not say when the attacks took place of what damage was caused. Western officials say NATO is attacking only military targets consistent with the alliance’s UN mandate to impose a nofly zone and protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces.

France’s decision to send up to 10 military advisers to work with the rebels came a day after Britain, the other main leader of the coalition, announced a similar move.

Government spokesman Francois Baroin stressed France had no intention of sending troops into Libya, where Western powers are struggling to break a deadlock in a two-month-old conflict. “A small number of liaison officers (will be placed) with the National Transition Council in order to organize the protection of the civilian population,” he told a news briefing.

The French officers are expected to advise rebel leaders on how to organize their ragtag forces, struggling against Gaddafi’s better-armed and better-trained army.

They will also liaise with NATO on the location of rebels and Gaddafi’s troops. Asked whether the dispatch of liaison officers amounted to mission creep, French military analyst Jean-Dominique Merchet said it was only a small team and they would not be training fighters but advising their senior officers.

“It’s about putting a bit of organization into the rebel forces. It’s the French and the British doing this, it’s clear that NATO is not very keen, nor the Americans,” Merchet said. Independent defense analyst Paul Beaver said the decision to send military advisers was stretching the UN resolution. “But I think without it the rebels are going to be so disorganized that we will have a stalemate in what is almost a civil war now.” “I don’t believe it’s mission creep. People are quoting the Vietnam war but that’s quite different. These guys are not there to go and fight.” — Agencies

‘Sports for Peace’ Continued from Page 1 “No, they can travel. It’s not a problem,” he said. “I’m talking on the sport level. We are ready to offer it, we are ready to execute it, we are ready to do it.” Zinger said he hopes the day will come that both Palestinian and Israeli athletes will “share the same right as all the other athletes from around the world.”

“That Palestinian athletes will share free movement to practice, to compete, and Israeli athletes will be able to compete all around the world and be invited to all sport events.

And that we will not see this nonsporting picture of an Israeli athlete waiting in the arena while his opponent from an Arab country, etc refuses to compete with him.” An Israeli basketball was pelted with bottles by Turkish fans and forced to flee the court in 2009 and an Iranian swimmer refused to compete against an Israeli at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the 2004 Athens Games, an Iranian judo competitor refused to face an Israeli. The Palestinians gained IOC recognition in 1993 and a Palestinian team competed in the Olympics for the first

time in Atlanta in 1996.

Still, only four Palestinian athletes competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, even though the team is entitled to additional help through the IOC’s solidarity program. Rajoub cited two examples of how Israeli restrictions have curtailed sports development. He said the captain of the Palestinian football team, Gaza native Ahmed Kashkash, was not allowed to return home for 14 months, then was allowed in and has now been unable to leave again and resume his club career since March 10. — AP

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‘Formula One not for sale’

Champions League tickets costly LONDON: UEFA president Michel Platini has apologised for the high cost of Champions League tickets for next month’s final at Wembley and said UEFA would now consider introducing a cheaper category for families for future finals. There was widespread condemnation when the prices were announced with the cheapest tickets on general sale for the May 28 final costing 150 pounds ($246) plus a 26 pounds booking fee.

Platini, who was in London for the handover of the Champions League trophy to Mayor Boris Johnson, told reporters. “It was a mistake, it was not good. But it is not easy to decide the price of the tickets in the Champions League final. “We have received 200,000 requests for 10,000 tickets and now if you want to buy the tickets on the black market these tickets are 10 times the price that we decided.

“Perhaps in the future we have to have a new category for families that is less expensive. But if you put those on the black market how much will they cost? “It was not a good communication and I apologise about that.”

The final, returning to London for the sixth time and the first since Wembley was rebuilt, will see either Manchester United or Schalke 04 play Barcelona or Real Madrid.—Reuters

LONDON: Bernie Ecclestone insisted yesterday that Formula One is not for sale, brushing off reports that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is interested in taking over the sport. Sky News reported that News Corp., which owns a 39 percent stake in the broadcaster’s parent group, has begun talks with Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim about forming a consortium to buy control of F1 from private equity firm CVC Capital.

But the 80-year-old Ecclestone, who runs F1 on behalf of CVC, reiterated his intention to stay in control for some time yet. “It is all rubbish,” Ecclestone told British newspaper The Times yesterday. “Formula One is not for sale. And anyway, we would not sell to a media company because it would restrict the

ability to negotiate with other broadcasters.” The BBC has an agreement to broadcast the F1 world championship in Britain until 2013. Satellite broadcaster BSkyB, which runs Sky News and is subject to a full takeover bid by News Corp., could choose to bid for the broadcast rights rather than full control of the sport. Unlike events like the Wimbledon tennis tournament and football’s World Cup, Formula One is not reserved for free-to-air broadcast in Britain by government legislation. Funds should not be a problem if News Corp. does pursue the sport. BSkyB paid 1.623 billion pounds ($2.661 billion) for Premier League broadcast rights from 2010-13, while Slim topped this year’s Forbes’ rich list with an estimated fortune of $74 billion ($121 billion).—AP

Neuer heading for Bayern GERMANY: Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer won’t extend his contract with Schalke beyond next season and confirmed that Bayern Munich is interested in signing him. The 25-year-old Neuer informed Schalke of his decision yesterday and said the firing of coach Felix Magath played no role. “I made this decision without any influence from outside,” Neuer told the club’s website. “The decision has nothing to with the coaching change, or with anyone at another club.” Ralf Rangnick was hired to replace Magath during a mediocre Bundesliga season, however the club has reached the semifinals of the Champions League and the German Cup final. Board member Horst Heldt said Neuer’s decision had been accepted “with a heavy heart,” and the goalkeeper later said at an emotional news conference that he is grateful to the club. “After 20 years of loyalty, I want to keep my options open for a change,” Neuer said.

“I have a contract until 2012 and I was aware of what I was doing when I signed it. Horst Heldt has now informed me of the interest of Bayern, so it’s possible that I could leave earlier, but that is a question for the club and I will not decide that alone.“(I want to) make the next big step. I want to play regularly at the highest level. That’s the Champions League.” —AP

Royals edge Indians

CHICAGO: Niklas Hjalmarsson No. 4 of the Chicago Blackhawks is pushed over teammate Corey Crawford No. 50 by Christian Ehrhoff No. 5 of the Vancouver Canucks in Game Four of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. —AFP

Blackhawks beat Canucks CHICAGO: The Chicago Blackhawks avoided elimination from the NHL playoffs with a 7-2 win over Vancouver on Tuesday which made the best-of-seven first-round series 3-1 in the Canucks’ favor.

Dave Bolland returned to the Chicago lineup after missing 17 games with a concussion and had a goal and three assists to keep the defending Stanley Cup champions alive. Chicago’s Patrick Sharp scored two power-play goals in a chippy final period that featured pushing, shoving, jawing and a fight between Vancouver’s Kevin Bieska and Chicago’s Victor Stalberg.

The Blackhawks got an offensive lift from their defensemen as Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith scored 17

seconds apart in a four-goal second period. Vancouver will host Game 5 today.

Sharks 6, Kings 5 In Los Angeles, Devin Setoguchi scored 3:09 into overtime to give San Jose victory over Los Angeles, which blew a four-goal lead. The Sharks lead the series 2-1, with Game 4 at Staples Center today.

Setoguchi’s wrist shot beat Jonathan Quick to cap the Sharks’ rally from a 4-0 deficit in the second period, when the teams combined for seven goals. After the offensive barrage in the second period, both teams failed to convert scoring chances in the third, when there were no penalties. It was the Sharks’ second overtime win of the series. They won the opener 3-2. —AP

Westwood eyes Indonesian Masters JAKARTA: World number two Lee Westwood will have to overcome jetlag and putting problems if he is to mark his 38th birthday on Sunday with the Indonesian Masters title.

The Englishman is the standout name at the $750,000 Asian Tour event and is favourite to win his first title since he claimed the US PGA Tour St Jude Classic in June. “It will be nice to win because my birthday is on Sunday but it will be difficult as there are a lot of strong players out here in Asia and you have to play well to win,” Westwood told reporters at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club yesterday.

Westwood, who held the number one ranking for 17 weeks until he was displaced

by Germany’s Martin Kaymer in February, is aware that he needs to improve his game on the greens if he is to win in Indonesia.

“I’ve been playing okay but I didn’t have

many great results. I played well in the Masters but didn’t putt ver y well,” Westwood said of his tied 11th place finish at the year’s first major at Augusta earlier this month.

“I had other few decent results but nothing too spectacular. I’m looking to have that one week where everything comes together.”

The Englishman will head to South Korea next week for the co-sanctioned European and Asian Tour’s Ballentine’s Championship.

“I like to play all over the world and consider myself a global player. I’m playing in Korea next week so it is good to start my Asian campaign this week,” he said.

“I only got back from Orlando on Friday afternoon and I’ve been struggling with the 11-hour time change but I seem to have recovered from it.”—Reuters

Lee Westwood celebrates in this file photo.

KANSAS CITY: Alex Gordon had two hits, stretching his hitting streak to 13 games, to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 5-4 win over the Cleveland Indians in Tuesday’s clash between the unlikely pacesetters in the American League Central division.

Kansas City starter Bruce Chen (30) went seven strong innings, and beat the Indians for the fourth straight time while extending his personal winning streak, dating to last season, to seven games over 11 starts.Cleveland pitcher Jeanmar Gomez (0-1), making his first major league start after being called up from the minors earlier in the day, took the loss on a cold and blustery night. Royals closer Joakim Soria pitched a shaky ninth for his fifth save in six opportunities.

Angels 15, Rangers 4 In Arlington, Texas, rookie first baseman Mark Trumbo homered and drove in four runs to help power Los Angeles to a big win over Texas.

Trumbo, playing his 24th career game, had three hits. Maicer Izturis and Peter Bourjos also homered among his four hits for the Angels.

Los Angeles’ fill-in starter Matt Palmer (1-0) limited Texas to one run over six innings, walking only one batter.

Texas starter Colby Lewis (1-2) took the loss as the defending American League champions lost their a home game for the first time this season.

Blue Jays 6, Yankees 5 In Toronto, Travis Snider doubled home the winning run in the 10th inning to lift Toronto over New York.

The Blue Jays scored twice off Yankees closer Mariano Rivera in the ninth to tie the game, before winning it against Ivan Nova (1-2).

Edwin Encarnacion opened the 10th with a single. After two fly outs, Snider drove a double to right-center, scoring Encarnacion. Snider tossed his helmet away in celebration as the winning run scored. Jon Rauch (1-1) pitched one inning for the win as Toronto snapped a three-game losing streak.

KANSAS: Royals second baseman Chris Getz (17) leaps past Cleveland Indians’ Michael Brantley as he throws to first to complete a double play in the third inning. —AP Rays 2, White Sox 1 In St. Petersburg, Florida, James Shields struck out nine batters to lead Tampa Bay over Chicago, and to its seventh win in eight games. Shields (1-1) walked just one in his sixth career complete game, and first since 2008. Starter Jon Danks (0-2) gave up seven hits in seven innings for the White Sox, who have lost six in a row.

He hit two batters.

Athletics 5, Red Sox 0 In Oakland, Brett Anderson struck out eight and outdueled usual Oakland nemesis John Lackey for his first victory of the season as the Athletics beat Boston. David DeJesus got Oakland on the board with a firstinning RBI groundout, then Hideki Matsui added a two-run double and Daric Barton and Kurt Suzuki each hit RBI singles in a four-run eighth.

Anderson (1-1) didn’t even need

all that support in an efficient 109pitch outing in which he helped the A’s move over .500 for first time this year. Boston remains winless away from Fenway Park, was blanked for the second time this season, and had its three-game winning run ended.

Mariners 13, Tigers 3 In Seattle, light-hitting Seattle capitalized on 11 walks allowed by Detroit, routing the Tigers. The Mariners entered as the worst hitting team in the American League with runners in scoring position.

That quickly changed thanks to a first-inning outburst kept alive by an error from Detroit starter Phil Coke (13), and a two-out, two-strike single from Chris Gimenez that made it 4-0.

The clutch hitting continued in the fourth when Chone Figgins got his first hit all season with a runner in scoring position, driving in Ichiro

Suzuki. Seattle added five runs in the seventh off Detroit’s bullpen and the 13 runs were a season high. Mariners starter Doug Fister struck out a career-high seven in 6 1-3 innings, giving up two runs.

Orioles 11, Twins 0 In Baltimore, the hosts emphatically ended an eight-game losing streak, routing Minnesota. Matt Wieters drove in four runs and Vladimir Guerrero hit a three-run homer for the Orioles, who led 8-0 in the fifth inning. The 11 runs were a season high, and all came with two outs. Jake Arrieta (2-1) pitched six scoreless innings. Twins starter Carl Pavano (12) gave up seven earned runs in 4 2-3 innings. He had allowed only one run in his previous 16 innings. Wieters hit an RBI single in the third inning, a three-run double in the fifth and scored a career-high three runs.—AP

Giants close in on Rockies DENVER: Jonathan Sanchez gave up only two hits over 6 1-3 innings to guide the San Francisco Giants to a 6-3 win over the Colorado Rockies as the National League West’s two top teams clashed Tuesday.

San Francisco’s offense gave Sanchez (2-1) a four-run lead to work with thanks to Pablo Sandoval’s three-run homer before the lefty even stepped foot on the mound. Aubrey Huff also went deep for the Giants, who will go for the three-game sweep Wednesday and attempt to cut further into Colorado’s two-game divisional lead.

Brewers 9, Phillies 0 In Philadelphia, Randy Wolf pitched six crisp innings to steer Milwaukee over Philadelphia. Ryan Braun and Casey McGehee homered for Milwaukee, which became the first team to win a series against the NL East-leading Phillies this season. They’ll try to complete a threegame sweep on Wednesday when Cliff Lee takes the mound for Philadelphia.

Wolf (2-2) struck out five against his former team. The left-hander was Philadelphia’s ace in the early 2000s. A bunt single in the first and a double in the third were the Phillies’ only hits of the game.

Marlins 6, Pirates 0 In Miami, Josh Johnson pitched seven scoreless innings and drove in the first two runs to help Florida beat Pittsburgh.

Johnson (3-0) lowered his ERA to 1.00. In four starts, batters are hitting just .112 against him. He has never thrown a shutout in 108 career starts, and he was pulled by manager Edwin Rodriguez after throwing 98 pitches, 64 for strikes.

Mike Dunn and Brian Sanches each worked one perfect inning to complete the two-hitter against a team that came into the game with the

DENVER: Colorado Rockies Ty Wigginton (left) scores from third on a fly ball to left field by Seth Smith. Reaching to tag him is San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey during the fifth inning. —AP

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Tuesday.

Tampa Bay 2, Chicago White Sox 1; Baltimore 11, Minnesota 0; Milwaukee 9, Philadelphia 0; Toronto 6, NY Yankees 5 (10 innings); Florida 6, Pittsburgh 0; Houston 6, NY Mets 1; Arizona 5, Cincinnati 4; LA Angels 15, Texas 4; Chicago Cubs, San Diego (postponed); Kansas City 5, Cleveland 4; St. Louis, Washington (postponed); San Francisco 6, Colorado 3; Oakland 5, Boston 0; Seattle 13, Detroit 3; Atlanta 10, LA Dodgers 1.

American League National League Eastern Division Eastern Division Philadelphia 10 6 .625 W L PCT GB Florida 9 6 .600 .5 NY Yankees 9 6 .600 Washington 8 7 .533 1.5 Toronto 8 9 .471 2 Atlanta 8 10 .444 3 Tampa Bay 8 9 .471 2 NY Mets 5 12 .294 5.5 Baltimore 7 9 .438 2.5 Central Division Boston 5 11 .313 4.5 Milwaukee 9 8 .529 Central Division Cincinnati 9 8 .529 Cleveland 12 5 .706 St. Louis 8 8 .500 .5 Kansas City 11 6 .647 1 Chicago Cubs 8 8 .500 .5 Detroit 8 10 .444 4.5 Pittsburgh 8 9 .471 1 Chicago 7 10 .412 5 Houston 6 11 .353 3 Minnesota 6 11 .353 6 Western Division Western Division Colorado 12 5 .706 Texas 11 6 .647 San Francisco10 7 .588 2 LA Angels 11 6 .647 Arizona 7 8 .467 4 LA Dodgers 8 10 .444 4.5 Oakland 9 8 .529 2 San Diego 7 9 .438 4.5 Seattle 6 12 .333 5.5

highest road batting average in the NL. Pirates starter Paul Maholm (0-3) allowed six runs and lasted only 3 2-3 innings, his shortest outing in four starts.

D’backs 5, Reds 4 In Cincinnati, Ryan Roberts — who only made the starting lineup because of an injury — hit two of Arizona’s four homers to lead Arizona over slumping Cincinnati.

Roberts had the second multihomer game of his career, a solo homer and two-run shot off Sam LeCure (0-1). Kelly Johnson and Chris Young also connected.

Diamondbacks starter Armando Galarraga (3-0) went six innings and matched the best start of his career. J.J. Putz pitched the ninth for his fourth save in four chances.

The Reds have dropped five of six.

Braves 10, Dodgers 1 In Los Angeles, Atlanta pitcher Brandon Beachy got his first major league victor y by throwing six scoreless innings against Los Angeles. Beachy (1-1) struck out seven in his seventh big league start. He came in with a 5.19 ERA over his three previous outings this season. The Braves got home runs from Martin Prado, Freddie Freeman, Dan Uggla and pinch-hitter Eric Hinske to rout the Dodgers.

Los Angeles starter Hiroki Kuroda (2-2) allowed two runs in 6 1-3 innings, and it got worse for the Dodgers from there.

Astros 6, Mets 1 In New York, Wandy Rodriguez found his form against punchless New York, pitching seven sharp innings to lead Houston to victory.

Carlos Beltran homered for the Mets, who have dropped 11 of 13.

New York starter Jonathon Niese (0-3) walked five and threw 113 pitches in six innings as New York fell to 1-7 at Citi Field, losing its past six at home.—AP

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Giants play Redskins, Jets to host Cowboys NEW YORK: The New York Giants will visit the Washington Redskins and the New York Jets will host the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 11, marking the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

With the NFL and its locked-out players mired in negotiations over a new labor agreement, the league on Tuesday announced its 2011-12 schedule — assuming the season starts on time. The regular season kicks off Thursday, Sept. 8, when the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers host the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field.

The first Sunday features several high-profile games, including Indianapolis at Houston and Atlanta at Chicago. But much of the national focus will be on Washington and New York, the two cities most affected by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“That stadium is going to be full of emotion, not only the people from the area but in the entire country,” said Jets coach Rex Ryan, who will be matching wits with his brother, Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

“The fact that it’s the 10th anniversary of 9/11, that’s where the focus should be, not me playing against my brother.” The Redskins and Giants kick off at 4:15 p.m. local time, with the Jets and Cowboys at 8:20 p.m.

“For nearly 10 years, we have felt an obligation to use our platform to make sure none of us ever forget the tragedy and heartbreak and courage and heroism of Sept. 11,” Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said. “That responsibility

becomes even greater.” Pittsburgh was the third NFL city most closely affected by the terrorist attacks after Flight 93 crashed 80 miles away near Shanksville, Pa. The Steelers will visit the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 11. New England travels to Miami and Oakland visits Denver for the opening Monday night.

The final Sunday of the regular season falls on New Year’s Day, when all 16 scheduled games are between division rivals, enhancing the potential for playoff ramifications. The regular season covers 17 weeks, with the opening round of the playoffs scheduled for Jan. 7-8 and the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.

The NFL has expressed a desire to stretch the season to 18 games, one of the sticking points in the contentious fight between owners and players over a new labor agreement. The two sides resumed court-ordered mediation on Tuesday in Minneapolis, with a federal judge’s decision expected soon on a request to immediately halt the lockout.

The two sides spent 16 days immersed in mediated talks in Washington without coming to an agreement, resulting in a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed by the players against the NFL and the league’s first work stoppage since 1987. They’ve recently spent about 20 hours over three days meeting in Minneapolis, with more discussions planned for Wednesday. In a statement announcing next season’s schedule, the NFL did not provide any contingencies should negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement stretch into the fall.

“I’m confident we will have season,” Rex Ryan said Tuesday night.

“We’re going to be ready to play.

Whenever they say, ‘OK, we’re going back to work,’ we’ll be ready to play.”

Among the other highlights of the schedule, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the Chicago Bears at Wembley Stadium on Oct. 23, one of two games outside the United States and the fifth consecutive year the NFL has played a regular-season game in London.

The Bucs lost to the New England Patriots at Wembley Stadium in 2009, while the Bears will be marking the 25th anniversary of their preseason game against the Cowboys in London.

The Buffalo Bills will play a game in Canada for the fourth consecutive season when they host the Redskins at the Rogers Centre on Oct. 30 in Toronto. The Bills have a deal with Rogers Communications through 2012 to play five regular-season games in Canada’s largest city.

The Thanksgiving Day games include the Packers at Detroit, Miami at Dallas and San Francisco at Baltimore, when new 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh faces the Ravens and coach John Harbaugh in the first meeting between sibling head coaches in NFL history.

The Packers play the Bears in the only game on Christmas Day. There are 13 games scheduled for Dec. 24, including the Giants against the Jets.

The NFL will again use “flexible scheduling” for Weeks 10-15 and the final week of the regular season, allowing the league to move the start times for select games. —AP

Knicks fall to Celtics BOSTON: Boston’s Kevin Garnett sank the go-ahead basket with 14 seconds left, then stole the ball to secure the Celtics’ 96-93 win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday, taking a 2-0 lead in their NBA playoff series.

Garnett hit the decisive jump hook after backing Jared Jeffries into the lane. The Knicks then got the ball to Carmelo Anthony in the left corner, where he was double-teamed by Paul Pierce and Glen Davis. Anthony passed inside to Jeffries, but Garnett stole the ball and called timeout with 4 seconds remaining. The Knicks then fouled Delonte West, who made two free throws with 0.6 seconds to go.

Anthony scored 42 points for New York, which played the entire second half without Amare Stoudemire, who had back spasms. Chauncey Billups missed the game with a sore left knee.

Rajon Rondo led the Celtics with a career playoff-high 30 points. Game 3 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series is scheduled for Friday in New York.

Mavericks 101, T Blazers 89 In Dallas, Peja Stojakovic tied his career playoff best with five 3-pointers and had 21 points, helping Dallas down Portland and take a 2-0 series lead.

Jason Kidd continued showing off a surprising scoring touch with 18 points, while Dirk Nowitzki scored 14 of his 33 points in the final quarter for Dallas, which hadn’t won the first two games of a playoff series since the 2006 NBA finals.

Portland led most of the first half, but the Mavericks went ahead on a 3-pointer by Kidd seconds into the second half and never trailed again.

Dallas spread out its scoring, tightened up its defense and protected the ball — zero turnovers the final 28:42.

Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge scored 24 and Gerald Wallace and Wesley Matthews regained their scoring touch after struggling in the opener, but the Trail Blazers got only 11 points from their bench, none in the second half.

Magic 88, Hawks 82 In Orlando, Dwight Howard had

DALLAS: Portland Trail Blazers’ LaMarcus Aldridge (left) blocks a shot attempt by Dallas Mavericks’ DeShawn Stevenson (92) as Marcus Camby (23) and the Mavericks Tyson Chandler (right) look on in the first half of an NBA basketball game. —AP

MINNEAPOLIS: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (left) is accompanied by NFL owners (from left) Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, Carolina Panthers’ Jerry Richardson, Denver Broncos Pat Bowlen and Green Bay Packers’ team president and chief executive officer Mark Murphy as they prepare to cross a street to the federal courthouse. —AP

NFL, locked-out players set for day four of talks MINNEAPOLIS: Three days and 20 total hours of court-ordered mediation between the NFL and its locked-out players have shown little signs that the two sides are making progress toward a settlement.

So owners and players are headed back for a fourth day of negotiations. The league and attorneys representing current, former and future players are scheduled to resume mediation on Wednesday, with the federal judge who ordered them back to the table expected to decide soon on the players’ request to half the NFL’s first work stoppage since 1987.

The two sides resumed their meetings on Tuesday after a threeday break, with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones seated at the table for the first time.

Some have questioned whether the two sides were committed to negotiating while awaiting US District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s ruling on the players’ request to lift the lockout. Michael Hausfeld, the lead attorney for a group of retired players, said both sides are working hard to reach a settlement, as was Nelson’s hope when she ordered the mediation on April 6.

“This is no charade. This is no illusion. This is going to come to a resolution either by the parties compromising or agreeing or by a judgment,” Hausfeld said before the talks began. “And even with a judgment, many times there is then a discussion as to how to compro-

mise the judgment so there is not a winner-take-all situation. “ This takes time. The court is doing everything within its power to get the parties to realize that.”

Players including MVP quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning filed the request for the injunction along with the antitrust claim. The lawsuit has been combined with two other similar claims from retirees, former players and rookiesto-be, with Hall of Famer Carl Eller the lead plaintiff in that group.

Nelson said at the initial court hearing that she would take “a couple of weeks” to rule on the injunction request. Yesterday marked exactly two weeks from that statement, and the decision could significantly sway the leverage.

Jones joined Commissioner Roger Goodell, Packers CEO Mark Murphy, Falcons President Rich McKay and owners Pat Bowlen of Denver and Jerry Richardson of Carolina on the NFL side of the table on Tuesday.

Named plaintiffs Ben Leber, Mike Vrabel and Eller were there for the players on the same day the NFL released its regular season schedule for a 2011 year that is in jeopardy if the labor fight continues to drag on in the court system.

All declined comment at the end of the long day of negotiation. The two sides will meet again on Wednesday morning in front of US Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan.

Any decision Nelson makes, Hausfeld said, would certainly be

appealed to the federal appellate court.

That takes time — and there isn’t a ton of that left. “There’s no question that any ruling Judge Nelson makes will be a first step,” he said. “It will be taken on appeal.”

Hausfeld said both sides seemed to understand the gravity of the situation.

“This is not talking about the fringes of what football should look like,” he said. “It’s at the core of what the sport needs to become.”

Both sides sat in mediation for nearly seven hours on Tuesday, another sign they aren’t taking this lightly. As the day came to a close, Eller emerged from U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan’s chambers and let out a big sigh. “Tough day,” he said.

And more tough ones to come, it appears. Hausfeld said that even if Nelson does issue a ruling on the injunction, the two sides could continue mediation. With the draft just around the corner, they would almost have to, he said.

“I hope everyone in the room, owners, active players, rookie representatives and retiree representatives, understand that this is a situation that not only involves their interests but the interests of many fans and other people who depend upon the game being played,” Hausfeld said. “And if everyone seriously approaches the issues with the manner in which the court has, then hopefully progress can be made.”--AP

Gilbert wins 1-day classic

BOSTON: Celtics forward Kevin Garnett (5) steals the ball from New York Knicks forward Jared Jeffries (right) in the final minute of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series. —AP 33 points and 19 rebounds to help Orlando defeat Atlanta and square their best-of-seven series 1-1.

Jameer Nelson added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Magic, who will travel to Atlanta for Game 3 on Friday. Orlando used a 10-1 run to close the third quarter to take an 11-point lead into the fourth and fought off a late Atlanta charge.

After allowing the Hawks to become the first opponent in 16 straight playoff games to score 100 points against it in Game 1, Orlando’s defense tightened around Atlanta’s shooters in Game 2. The Hawks shot 39 percent.

Jamal Crawford led Atlanta with 25 points and Josh Smith added 17. —AP

India, Pakistan seek to renew hockey ties MUMBAI: The hockey heads of tense neighbours India and Pakistan are attempting to renew ties later this year in the wake of last month’s successful “cricket diplomacy.”

Efforts are underway between the federations of the two countries, who have not played in a bilateral series since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, to play matches in both countries, Hockey India secretary Narinder Batra told Reuters yesterday.

“We are looking to play three matches in India and three in Pakistan if we receive government clearances,” Batra said. “Dialogues are ongoing but everything depends on permission from the governments.

“We are eyeing a period around the middle of August or the first week of September. It suits both

our calendars.” Relations between the nucleararmed neighbours, who have fought three wars since their 1947 independence, deteriorated since attacks in Mumbai, which India blames on Pakistanbased militants, killed at least 166 people.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited India last month to watch the cricket World Cup semi-final featuring the neighbors in what was dubbed as “cricket diplomacy”.

Since then, both Indian and Pakistani media have also speculated the resumption of cricket ties between the two countries.

Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik told local media that he would invite India’s home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to watch one of the proposed hockey matches in Pakistan. —Reuters

BELGIUM: Belgium’s Philippe Gilber t won his third classic in eight days yesterday, pulling away from all challengers on the closing climb to win the Walloon Arrow.

With 300 meters to go on the steep Wall of Huy, Gilbert swept to the front and no one could match him. Joaquin Rodriguez finished runner-up for the second year in a row, and fellow Spaniard Samuel Sanchez took third place. Gilbert also won Brabant Arrow last week and the Amstel Gold race Sunday.

With his three-for-three, Gilbert made himself the overwhelming favorite for the Liege-BastogneLiege classic on Sunday, one of the biggest races in the season. In the uphill sprint, Alexander Vinokourov took fourth place.

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, who came into the race with a cold, finished 11th. Gilbert finished the 198-kilometer (123mile) trek through the pastures and hills of southern Belgium in 4 hours, 54 minutes, 57 seconds.

After winning two tough classics over the past week, Gilbert said he was aiming for an easy training ride to get ready for Sunday’s top race.

But when he felt increasingly good and saw other riders falter or let themselves be boxed in on the final climb, he grabbed the opportunity to pull away.

“What a surprise. I didn’t expect this at all,” Gilbert said. “Even with 10 kilometers to go, I didn’t believe in myself. Then with 300 meters to go, I made the break and it was pure happiness afterward.”

Spain’s Contador was struggling with a cold in the days leading up to the race and it showed in the final climb where he never was a factor. It was his only Belgian classic

BELGIUM: Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert of the Omega Pharma team, smiles on the podium after winning the Belgian cycling classic La Fleche Wallonne/Walloon Arrow in Huy. —AP this year since he wants to center on the Giro d’Italia, which starts May 7. The Wall of Huy, which has an average rise of 9.3 degrees, is always seen as a good arbiter on who will do well in Liege the following Sunday. Gilbert said he hopes to prove the theory right.

“I don’t know where my limits are now,” Gilbert said. “There won’t be any problem to recover for Sunday.” Liege-Bastogne-Liege cov-

ers similar terrain through the woods and hills of the Ardennes but is longer and has even more climbs.

Raced under brilliant skies and in temperatures hovering around 200C (700F), the pack caught up with an early breakaway with some 15 kilometers to go and brought all the favorites together to the closing climb. Last year’s winner Cadel Evans was out injured. —AP

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

S P ORT S

Nadal makes winning return to Barcelona BARCELONA: Five-time champion Rafael Nadal was barely troubled in a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Spanish compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver as the top-seeded king of clay returned victorious to the Barcelona Open yesterday.

Nadal polished his record for the season to 25-4 just 72 hours after defeating compatriot David Ferrer for an historic seventh straight trophy in Monte Carlo.

The world number one owns 30 titles on clay and is aiming to pick up where he left off in 2009 here when he won his fifth on the trot at the Real Club de Tenis. The run of home form was interrupted a year ago when he missed the tournament due to knee injury treatment.

Nadal needed 55 minutes to stroll into a third-round match against Colombian Santiago Giraldo, a winner against Albert Ramos 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. The top seed has only ever lost once in the tennis-mad Catalan capital, earning 25 wins along the way.

Weekend finalist Ferrer also began

with a victory, easing past 6-2, 6-2 over Argentine Carlos Berlocq. Ferrer has reached the semi-finals or better in Barcelona in each of the last four years.

He has a solid 22-5 win-loss record for the season and will now face Victor Hanescu of Romania, who put out South African 14th seed Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4.

A Spanish name from the past continued his injury comeback, with 2001 tournament champion Juan Carlos Ferrero belying the weight of his 31 years by advancing into the third round with a 6-4, 7-5 defeat of Mischa Zverev.

The defeated German replaced Andy Murray in the draw after the British world number four had to pull out due to the elbow injury he sustained in Monte Carlo last week.

Ferrero is playing for the first time since the US Open after undergoing wrist and knee surgery in October and expressed satisfaction with his fledgling form. “I played better than yesterday,

when I was starting to cramp at the end,” said the former number one and 2003 US Open champion.

“Today I tried to be more aggressive but the body is still feeling it.” Ferrero earned another test with a Thursday match against Italian world number 186 Simone Vagnozzi, an upset winner over 16th seed Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Spanish 11th seed Albert Montanes beat Frenchman Benoit Paire 67 (3/7), 6-1, 6-4, while Japan’s Kei Nishikori advanced past Rui Machado 6-1, 6-4.

Meanwhile, third seed Andy Murray withdrew from the ATP Barcelona Open on Tuesday to let his right elbow injury from last week properly heal in the run-up to Roland Garros.

“Under doctor’s advice I have had to withdraw from the Godo tournament due to my elbow injury. I’m going to take four or five days of rest,” said the Scot, who had tested his problem without much

Caroline blasts into Stuttgart last eight STUTTGART: World number one Caroline Wozniacki needed just over an hour to blast her way past Zuzana Kucova and into the quarter-finals at Stuttgart’s WTA tournament yesterday.

The 20-year-old Dane crushed her Slovakian opponent, ranked 133 places below her, for a 6-1, 6-2 victory in which she barely broke sweat.

Wozniacki, who won the Charleston tournament on clay earlier this month, is making her third appearance here, but has yet to win the title. “I felt good out there,” she told AFP having had a bye into the second round.

“It’s always good to get the first match

out of the way. I am definitely looking to win, but it won’t be easy, there are a lot of good girls here. “I am comfortable on the surface, having won at Charleston, so I am feeling good.”

The Dane will now play either 2008 winner Jelena Jankovic or Germany’s rising star Andrea Petkovic in Thursday’s quarter-final.

Wild-card entries Sabine Lisicki and Kristina Barrois justified their places when they became the first Germans in a decade to reach the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart tournament.

Lisicki inflicted more misery on China’s Li Na, the Australian Open runner-up,

STUTTGART: China’s Na Li returns the ball to Germany’s Sabine Lisicki during their second round match at the WTA Porsche Tennis Grand Prix tournament. — AFP

Stosur seeks another French Open boost STUTTGART: Australia’s Samantha Stosur is hoping a good run at Stuttgart’s WTA tournament will give her a second successive French Open boost as she booked her place in the quarter-finals yesterday.

The 27-year-old, ranked seventh in the world, needed just over two hours for a hard-fought 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win over Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova, currently ranked 36 in the world. “It was a good quality match, so I am very happy to get through that one,” Stosur told AFP. “It’s nice to win two games back to back, it’s a good feeling especially at this time of year.

“It’s an important time and I would like to get back the form and the kind of results I had last year.” Having reached last year’s final here, Stosur will now face second seed and world number three Vera Zvonareva of Russia on Thursday for a place in the semi-finals.

“We have played each other lots of times and we know each others’ games pretty well,” said Stosur, who has beaten the Russian five times and lost to her twice.

“I have had good success against her in the past and I need to just remember what I did and do it again.” Having made an early exit from January’s Australian Open, Stosur is hoping to recapture the form in Stuttgart which helped her reach the French Open final at Roland Garros last year.

“It’s too early to think about Roland Garros, I am trying to take it one match at a time,” she said with the French Open

set to start on May 23.

“Especially with how I have been playing recently, the main focus is just to play well and play each point. “Getting through matches helps the confidence, I’d have taken a win in two (sets) today, if it goes to three at least I know I can tough it out.

“Physically, it’s no problem, but mentally to tough out the match after losing the second set, and not get down, was good. As soon as I got a chance, I broke back and that is really pleasing for me.”

Stosur lost last year’s final here to former world number one Justine Henin, but went on to claim revenge against the Belgian, as well as beating Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic, on the way to the final in Paris. “(Stuttgart) is a fantastic tournament, there is not much not to like about it,” said Stosur, who lost to Italy’s Francesca Schiavone in Paris last year.

“Any tournament where you come back after a successful run is always a good feeling.

“I think it helped (in 2010), it gave me some momentum, I wasn’t even meant to play this tournament last year, so everything seems to happen for a reason.

“I am sure that helped me going into Roland Garros to have had five good matches and to play a tight match against Henin, the first time I had played her was here.

“It helped build some momentum and the confidence for the French Open, so hopefully that will all help.” — AFP

when she rallied from 5-3 down in the second set to a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over the sixth seed.

“I just decided to play my own game and it worked. I am very happy, the home support always helps, of course,” she said. Barrois pulled off the biggest upset when she beat French eighth seed Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-2.

The German belied her ranking of 79th in the world to blast four aces down at her French opponent, ranked 12th in the world, who committed four double faults.

Barrois will face Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in today’s quarter-finals after she put out French Open champion, and third seed, Francesca Schiavone with an impressive 6-1, 6-3 victory.

“This is a huge success, because I was the complete outsider,” said Barrois. “I have nothing to lose again now (against Radwanska).”

Second seed Vera Zvonareva came from behind to beat Russian Fed Cup team-mate Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and book her place in the last eight.

The 26-year-old Zvonareva, ranked third in the world, recovered from losing the first set to seal a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Pavlyuchenkova, 19, who was also part of the Russian team that white-washed champions Italy 5-0 in Moscow last weekend.

Zvonareva admitted she was not surprised to have lost the opening set as she struggled to cope with her first appearance of the year on clay.

Zvonareva now faces fifth-seed Samantha Stosur in Thursday’s quarterfinals after the Australian beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in just over two hours. — AFP

success on a side court at the Real Club de Tenis hours earlier.

The player’s fitness looked questionable as he tried to serve, 72 hours after he had to take a painkilling cortisone injection in order to play a Monte Carlo Masters semifinal against Rafael Nadal.

Murray will hope to be fit for the Madrid and Rome Masters events, which precede the May 22 start of the French Open. Taking his place in the Spanish field is German Mischa Zverev. — AFP

SPAIN: Rafael Nadal of Spain returns the ball to fellow countryman Gimeno Traver during the Barcelona Open. — AP

L’Estrange backs inconsistent Bradford LONDON: Former Manly hooker Heath L’Estrange insists Bradford haven’t pressed the panic button on their slow start to the season — and has backed the Bulls to show their play-off credentials against fierce rivals Leeds.

The 25-year-old was part of the Bradford team hammered 56-16 at Salford last weekend as they continue to be a model of inconsistency under new coach and former St George full-back Mick Potter.

The Bulls, who have undergone huge changes in their squad since last term with scrum-half Matt Orford returning to the NRL with Canberra, have beaten high-flying Castleford but also suffered heavy losses to Wigan, Huddersfield and now Salford.

The Rhinos have had a less than impressive start themselves and L’Estrange, who also enjoyed a spell with the Sydney Roosters, admits the Bulls have got to start producing the goods.

“We are not worrying about our season yet but we can’t afford to keep making the same mistakes we have been,” said L’Estrange.

“When we went through the damage analysis from the Salford game on video there were a lot of things to work on and unfor tunately there were no new mistakes there.

“The responsibility lies with us as players. It has nothing to do with the coaches - they did not miss 34 tackles against Salford or drop ball in our own half. That sort of thing is just unprofessional and it has to stop now.

“Every two to three weeks we get it right but then we let ourselves down like we did

against Salford. “I’ve no doubt that we are a finals team - that should be our level and we’ve proved that in wins against Castleford and Harlequins but not often enough.”

Leaders Huddersfield Giants will have influential second-row Luke O’Donnell available for their trip to the Crusaders after the former North Queensland Cowboy escaped a ban for his sending off in the win at Leeds.

And ex-St George coach Nathan Brown has received a further boost with the news that ex-Souths star David Fa’alogo is fit to return.

Fa’alogo has been out for a month but Brown said: “It’s great news to have Dave back with us.

“He’s not been far away now for a few weeks but we always wanted him back for Good Friday and he’ll definitely play. “Things are looking pretty good on the injury front for us and we’ve got a lot to build on.”

And Michael Maguire admits it has been business as usual at the Warriors ahead of the derby visit of St Helens. The former Melbourne Storm assistant confirmed after last weekend’s win at Hull KR that he would be returning to the NRL next season to take the top job with South Sydney.

But the champions coach said: “Everything here is about making sure we perform on the park and nothing else and we want to do that against our biggest rivals.

“The speculation is all over after going on for a while but it’s only last week that I made the decision to go back to Australia.

“It’s all sorted itself out now and we’ve moved on and the focus is on taking on St Helens.”— AFP

Top-seeded Aravane knocked out FEZ: Moroccan wild card Nadia Lalami upset top-seeded Aravane Rezai of France 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix SAR yesterday.

The 497th-ranked Lalami broke twice in the deciding set and served out the match at her first opportunity to ensure Rezai still hasn’t won consecutive matches since July. Rezai, who had 11 double faults, hit back from 5-1 down in the second set only to lose the tiebreaker at the clay-court tournament.

The Frenchwoman has won four WTA titles but has been hampered by personal problems recently. She hired coach Alexia Dechaume this week in a bid to revive her career and get ready for the French Open next month. Lalami will face either Eleni Daniilidou of Greece or Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.

Greta Arn of Hungary overcame problems on her serve to beat Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4.

The fourth-seeded Arn, who won her second career title in Auckland in January, had eight double faults but managed to save all four break points she faced.

Arn will face seventh-seeded Simona Halep of Romania who beat Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-2, 6-4. Halep went from qualifying all the way to the final last year, still the best result of her career.

There were first-round wins for Slovenia’s Polona Hercog and American player Melanie Oudin, who upset thirdseeded Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Hercog needed almost three hours to beat South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 6-7 (6), 7-6 (1), 6-2. — AP

David Haye seen in this file photo

Klitschko-Haye fight set for July 2 in Hamburg BERLIN: Britain’s WBA heavyweight champion David Haye and Ukraine’s WBO, IBO and IBF champion Vladimir Klitschko have set their title fight for July 2 in Hamburg’s football arena, Klitschko said yesterday.

“I am happy that Haye is finally coming into the ring. He has twice avoided a Klitschko fight in the past,” Vladimir, whose brother Vitaly holds the WBC crown, said in a statement.

A Haye-Vladimir Klitschko clash has been on the cards for two years but twice the two sides failed to finalise a deal after disagreeing on how to split revenues. Since the Klitschko brothers won’t fight each other, the Haye bout has long

been considered the one that could establish them as undisputed champions with the pair having dominated the sport in recent years.

“We are all delighted that this mega-fight will go ahead. We estimate some 150 countries will show the fight live or taped. This duel is an absolute global sports highlight,” said Klitschko management group CEO Bernd Boente.

Haye pulled out of a scheduled fight with Vladimir in 2009, citing an injury, although it was more likely a case of the two sides and their promoters failing to reach a deal. A Haye-Vitaly Klitschko match also failed to materialise some months later. — Reuters

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Miami Beach brings rock’n’roll to polo MIAMI: Think of polo and the words elitist, snobby and even royal might spring to mind, but when the old sport takes place on Miami’s South Beach it is a very different event.

The South Beach setting for the Miami Beach Polo World Cup marks an inevitable break with convention and the result is an event that, at first, had traditionalists shaking their head. Founder Bruce Orosz got some puzzled reactions, but eventually support, when, seven years ago, he first brought some of the game’s top players and their horses on to the South Florida sands.

“The first year, people were somewhat surprised. They said: ‘Polo on the beach, what? Huh?’ But the traditionalists thought, well Arena Polo has been played at places around the world, this could be really interesting-so they all turned out,” Orosz told Reuters.

While polo tournaments have always been very social occasions, there is a gentile tone to events at traditional clubs, with the gentle sipping of cocktails, elegant but restrained fashion and a generally conservative atmosphere.

When the regulars from the International Polo Club at Wellington, near Palm Beach, made the two-hour drive down the coast to Miami Beach, they found something very different.

“I think they were amazed and surprised.

They came down from Palm Beach wearing their scarves and jackets and Ascots (cravats) and then all of a sudden they realised that it was South Beach and there were girls standing on the perimeter in bikinis and other people in shorts and it was a very different kind of experience,” said Orosz.

“To their amazement again, what we did was add another dimension, we turned it

into a bit more rock’n’roll, having DJs and musical elements and other surprises that were not typically polo. We tried to rev it up a bit, it was a little rebellious but I’d like to say we modernised it a bit,” he added.

Rather than recoil in horror though, most of the traditionalists accepted that popularising the sport could only help the game in its normal environment.

John Walsh, presenter of the ‘America’s Most Wanted’ television show and a keen polo player who will compete in the tournament at Miami Beach which starts today, says the event has been part of a wider growth of the game in the United States.

Walsh, who has played polo across the world, including at the first event in Beijing, acknowledges that the level of interest in the sport cannot match that of the heartland in Argentina, but believes more Americans are educating themselves about

the game. “In the years that I have been playing I’ve seen crowds get bigger, people get more interested, more people figure out the game. In the clubs in the north-east where I tend to play in the summer, the crowds are getting bigger, people have started to know the players and figure out the rules. It’s not complicated, it’s like ice hockey on horseback.”

The appeal of beach polo, for those who love the sport and not only the party scene, is a chance to see the action at close-range on a smaller field with three against three rather than regular four-a-side. “You get to see polo up close, the sand is flying off the hooves, five feet from the frontline spectators, there is an intimacy, a chance for people to feel the sport and see that it is not only a dynamic sport but incredible athleticism is required, dribbling a ball while they are on a horse going 20 miles per hour,” says

Orosz. Among the top players at the event will be Argentine Nacho Figueras, also known as a model for Ralph Lauren, and Costa Rican Luis Escobar.

The argument in favour of such breaks with tradition are similar to those that have raged around Twenty20 cricket- popularise the fun version of the game and you will bring in new fans to the traditional format, goes the theory.

Orosz says he has seen that process happen over the last few years, as well as beach polo events being put on in new locations, such as Poole in Dorset in England and Chicago, fans of the Miami event have started to make the trip up the coast to Wellington.

“We are seeing more and more of that follow-through. At Wellington I am starting to see people coming up from Miami Beach polo,” he said.—Reuters

Mumbai, Kochi score close wins

GROS ISLET: West Indies’ captain Darren Sammy (left) poses with the one-day international trophy with Pakistan’s captain Shahid Afridi.

The West Indies play Pakistan in five one-day international matches starting April 23.—AP

Gayle chooses IPL over country NEW DELHI: West Indies opener Chris Gayle has chosen the lucrative Indian Premier League over his country, officials said yesterday, prompting a damning reaction from his cricket board back home.

The attacking batsman will turn out for Royal Challengers Bangalore, owned by Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, as a replacement for the injured Dirk Nannes.

Gayle, 31, had been under a treatment programme run by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) after a strain suffered during the World Cup, but he signed up for the Bangalore outfit on Tuesday for the remainder of the IPL event.

The former West Indies captain had earlier refused a West Indies’ central contract but was still in contention for later games during Pakistan’s tour of the Caribbean, which starts today.

He was not bought at the IPL player auction in January because franchises feared he would be unavailable because the IPL clashed with Pakistan’s visit.

“It’s official now. The explosive Chris Gayle is now a part of the RCB squad,” Mallya wrote on his Twitter page.

Pakistan will play one Twenty20, five ODIs and two Tests against West Indies during their tour. The WICB said it had reluctantly cleared Gayle to play in the IPL. “The WICB does not accept Gayle’s rea-

son for making himself unavailable but as he has already clearly made his choice and has travelled to India, the WICB does not wish to stand in his way,” it said in a press release. Gayle played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three editions of the IPL. “The WICB is most disappointed in the manner in which Gayle has handled the entire situation, especially given the mature and cooperative manner in which two other players who refused contracts Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard - made themselves available for selection and agreed to an understanding in the best interest of West Indies cricket.”

The statement added: “The WICB was surprised to learn that Gayle had been making arrangements to play cricket in India, when the WICB was under the clear impression that he was recovering from injury and was undergoing rehabilitation work and about to resume training.

“It is therefore not accurate, as has been insinuated in some quarters, that Gayle was not selected for the entire Pakistan series.”

Both Pollard and Bravo are currently playing in the IPL and along with Gayle and fellow veterans Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan were not considered for the Thursday ’s Twenty20 International against Pakistan or the first two ODIs on Saturday and Monday.—AFP

No fancy haircut in Uthappa’s comeback script NEW DELHI: Out-of-favor Indian batsman Robin Uthappa has given up the funky haircuts to get back on the national team and said he would gladly give up his $2 million Indian Premier League (IPL) cheque if it were to help the cause.

The 25-year-old batsman played the last of his 38 one-day internationals in July 2008 but remains hot property among the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises for his fearless power-hitting and wicket-keeping. Uthappa hopes to shine for IPL newcomers Pune Warriors, who paid $2.1 million for him in the player auctions, but his main goal is to use the Twenty20 tournament as a springboard to force an India recall. “I would do anything to play for the country,” Uthappa told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“Swapping the cheque would be a very easy thing to do, with my eyes closed. Coming back to the Indian team is the most important thing for me.”

Uthappa, a key member of India’s 2007 Twenty20 World Cup-winning team, was at one point India’s answer to Kevin Pietersen, thanks to his hard-hitting and array of conspicuous haircuts.

At home batting anywhere from one to seven in the game’s shorter formats, Uthappa also appeared comfortable switching from buzz cut to mohawk and another infamous style resembling a sideways zebra-crossing.

Born in a Coorg, a hill station in southern India, Uthappa now wears his wavy hair short and business-like, and insists he has matured as a player in the nearly three years on the sidelines after being dropped for poor form.

“Unfortunately because of a shoulder injury, I missed an India comeback last year. God willing, if I can better my IPL performance this year, I can certainly come back in the side. “I missed playing for the country in the last couple of

years but I think I have improved a lot as a cricketer. “I have grown up and matured over the time and realised cricket is lot more than just fancy haircuts. Call it a sign of maturity,” he quipped.

While the showy hairstyles are gone, his flamboyant batting remains a delight to watch.

No mindless slogger, Uthappa is a smart cricketer who blends aggression with improvisation in his knocks.

“You have to improvise, playing against top class bowlers and against certain field settings.

But you should be mindful of your improvisation as well.

“I used to play the scoop shot a lot but it’s not my go-to shot anymore. Probably reversesweep and switch-hit are.”

While Pietersen has been credited for pioneering the switch-hit, Uthappa insisted the maverick English batsman was not his inspiration.

“I did not look at KP’s video. I practise it in the nets very often. I’m a very instinctive player and if I feel the need to play it, I play it. “Last year in the Bangalore nets, I was batting and suddenly felt the need to play the shot. Anil Kumble was bowling and I thought ‘well, if I can play it against Kumble, I can definitely play it against anybody’. “I was lucky enough to pull it off against him and hit the ball a long way. That instilled lot of confidence in me.

“Of course everyone advises me not to play the shot.” Uthappa said he had learnt to stay away from unwanted advice, however, fearing it might clutter his otherwise simple approach to the game. Batting advice is sought from India opener Virender Sehwag, who has a similar ‘take-no-prisoners’ attitude at the crease.

“One person I look up to is Sehwag, I guess we have a similar game. If I have to discuss my game with anyone, it would be him. He would understand me best as a cricketer.”—Reuters

MUMBAI: Mumbai Indians scored a last-ball seven-wicket victory over Pune Warriors while Kochi Tuskers defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by six runs in the IPL yesterday.

Mumbai’s star middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma struck a six when one was needed to seal the win after Munaf Patel took three important wickets to help restrict Pune.

Patel finished with 3-8 as Mumbai dismissed Pune for 118 in 17.2 overs at Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai overhauled the score after useful contributions from Ambati Rayudu (37) and Sachin Tendulkar (35).

At Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Kochi could manage only 132-7 with Ravindra Jadeja top-scoring with 29, but restricted the home side to 126-9 to notch a third consecutive win. The match in Mumbai turned out to be closer than expected.

Pune stretched Mumbai’s reply to the last delivery with some tight bowling and fielding, before Sharma cleared the cover boundary for his team’s third win in four matches.

Sharma (20 not out) and Andrew Symonds (16 not out) steered the team home after Rayudu and Tendulkar put on a 74-run stand in 12 overs for the second wicket.

“The wicket wasn’t as easy as we thought as it was holding up a bit,” Rayudu said. “Maybe we could have finished it an over or two before.”

Mumbai had looked in control, but the flow of runs slowed after Rayudu and Tendulkar fell in quick succession by the 15th over.

Murali Kartik bowled a fine last over when only five runs were needed for the win. The left-arm spinner restricted Sharma and Symonds to four singles off the first five deliveries, which included two close run out chances. Earlier, Pune was reduced to 17-4 in the fifth over as pace bowlers Abu Nechim and Patel picked up two wickets each.

Pune was 60-5 after 10 overs

before a 37-ball knock of 45 from Robin Uthappa gave the total some respectability. Sri Lanka paceman Lasith Malinga also claimed two wickets as Pune folded with 16 deliveries left to lose its second game in four outings. In Kolkata, Kochi Tuskers managed a fighting 132-7 with lefthander Jadeja top-scoring with 29 off 18 balls after openers Brendon McCullum of New Zealand (23) and captain Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka (25) launched Kochi with 49 off 42 balls.

Bangladesh allrounder Shakib al-

Hassan and Yusuf Pathan bagged three wickets each for the host. For Kolkata, homegrown Manoj Tiwary struck 46 but lacked support in the face of some disciplined bowling on a pitch not conducive to strokeplay.

“It was disappointing because we were not up to the mark,” Kolkata skipper Gautam Gambhir said. “This is the kind of tournament in which you can’t take any team lightly.” Kochi, which had beaten Mumbai and Chennai Super Kings in its last two matches, caught up with Kolkata on the points table as both teams have

three wins from five games each.

Scores: Mumbai Indians 124-3 in 20 overs (Ambati Rayudu 37, Sachin Tendulkar 35), def. Pune Warriors 118 all out in 17.2 overs (Robin Uthappa 45; Munaf Patel 3-8, Abu Nechim 2-13, Ali Murtaza 2-18, Lasith Malinga 2-28).

Kochi Tuskers 132-7 in 20 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 29; Yusuf Pathan 3-20, Shakib al-Hassan 3-28), def. Kolkata Knight Riders 126-9 in 20 overs (Manoj Tiwary 46; Rudra Pratap Singh 2-25, Ravindra Jadeja 2-25).—AP

KOLKATA: Kochi Tuskers Kerala player R P Singh lifts team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan as Parthiv Patel (left) joins the celebration after the dismissal of Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Yusuf Pathan during the Indian Premier League cricket match. —AP

New faces in Sri Lanka Test squad, Malinga out COLOMBO: Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga will miss the threetest series in England which starts next month. Chairman of selectors Duleep Mendis said yesterday that the Mumbai Indians paceman was nursing a knee injury and had asked to return home for rehabilitation at the conclusion of the Indian Premier League.

He could, however, play in the limited-overs internationals at the end of the England tour. “Malinga has informed us he would like to

skip the test matches to get his knee in shape,” said Mendis.

“Depending on his progress we can consider him for the one-day series.”

Sri Lanka named four uncapped players in their 16-man Test squad yesterday-batsmen Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne, all-rounder Thisara Perera and fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep.

Mendis said new skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan’s predecessor,

Kumar Sangakarra, would act as unofficial vice-captain.

“In the event Dilshan is unable to captain the side during the tour we have asked Kumar Sangakkara to take over,” said Mendis.

Dilshan will lead the team in the test series and the five onedayers and one Twenty20 international which follow.

All-rounder Angelo Mathews had been tipped for the role of vice-captain but he is out of the

three tests because of a thigh strain.

In the absence of retired spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, the spinners will be Suraj Randiv, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath. But, without Malinga, it is the fast bowling department that looks especially thin.

Prasanna Jayawardene has been named wicketkeeper and will have Chandimal as his deputy.

The first Test in Cardiff starts on May 26.—Reuters

Al Tijari sponsors the State Audit Bureau’s football championship KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait sponsored the State Audit Bureau’s annual football championship, with the participation of many members of the Bureau’s staff who were fans of football.

This sponsorship is part of the bank’s policy to support the various activities of the institutions and organizations in Kuwait to benefit

members of the community The Commercial Bank of Kuwait always ensures to sponsor the sports activities related to the State Audit Bureau which emphasizes its belief in the need to support sports activities in different categories and highlight the excellence and success it achieves. On this occasion, CBK honored all the winners of the

football tournament. The bank’s sponsorship of the football tournament and other sporting activities enforces the important role played by the bank in the support of various educational, health, sports, social and cultural activities in Kuwait and the great responsibility entrusted to the private sector in promoting such sports and community events.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

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Malouda double revives Chelsea’s EPL title hopes Chelsea 3

Birmingham 1

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur’s Vedran Corluka (left) competes for the ball with Arsenal’s Gael Clichy during the English Premier League soccer match. —AP

Spurs hold Arsenal Tottenham 3

Arsenal 3 LONDON: Arsenal failed to hang onto a lead for the second successive game as Spurs star Rafael van der Vaart dented their title hopes by rescuing a 3-3 draw in the north London derby yesterday.

Arsene Wenger’s side needed a win to keep in touch with Premier League leaders Manchester United, but instead this frantic, enthralling game at White Hart Lane left their challenge hanging by a slender thread. Theo Walcott opened the scoring for Arsenal before Van der Vaart replied within two minutes.

Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie had Arsenal cruising until three minutes before the break, but Tom Huddlestone struck to start the Spurs fightback.

Van der Vaart’s 70th minute penalty left Arsenal, with five draws from their last six league matches, languishing six points behind United who had been held 0-0 at Newcastle on Monday.

Apart from local bragging rights, both Tottenham and Arsenal had massive incentives to win the game. The Gunners had gone into the match with the words of Cesc Fabregas, who claimed they lacked a winning mentality, ringing in their ears.

However bad the timing of the Arsenal captain’s criticisms of Wenger’s methods, he did have a point as they are closing in on their sixth straight season without a trophy.

Add Fabregas’s accusations to the way they dropped two points in the last minute of injury time against Liverpool on Sunday, and it would be safe to say Arsenal were hurting.

Spurs looked to set out to kick their local rivals when they were down as Luka

Modric fired wide on two minutes, immediately after an unmarked Peter Crouch just failed to get onto Vedran Corluka’s cross.

But just as Spurs were beginning to stamp their mark, Walcott broke for Arsenal and calmly slotted home the opening goal in the fifth minute.

The visitors’ lead lasted all of two minutes before Van der Vaart got on the end of Corluka’s cross to slot home his 11th league goal of the season and his first since the beginning of January.

The frantic pace did not let up and Arsenal were again in front after 12 minutes as Nasri shot from outside the area and his strike took a deflection off Michael Dawson as it flashed past Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

Walcott should have added a third for Arsenal on 29 minutes after Van Persie had put him through and he burst past Dawson and William Gallas, only to fire inches wide of the far post.

But Van Persie made no mistake five minutes before the break, volleying home the rebound off Gomes’ superb one -handed save to keep the Dutchman’s initial header out.

However, Tottenham had the last word in the first half, just after Gareth Bale had gone off following a collision with visiting keeper Wojciech Szczeszny.

Huddlestone slammed a long-range effort into the net through Van der Vaart’s legs as the Dutchman leaped to avoid the thunderous shot.

Van der Vaart was kept out by an excellent one -handed save from Szczeszny on 54 minutes following a sweeping Spurs move. And Spurs were level on 70 minutes through a van der Vaart penalty after Szczeszny rushed off his line and brought down Aaron Lennon.

It could have been worse for Arsenal as Roman Pavlyuchenko, Peter Crouch and van der Vaart missed late chances to steal the win for Spurs. —AFP

Palermo stifle Milan in Italian Cup semi first leg ROME: Palermo produced a spirited display to hold Serie A leaders AC Milan to a 22 draw at the San Siro in the Italian Cup semi-final, first leg yesterday.

The result gives the Sicilians an excellent chance of progressing when they play the second leg in Palermo in three weeks.

The winners will face either holders Inter Milan or Roma in the final, with the nerazzurri holding a 1-0 advantage following their win in Rome on Tuesday.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Milan the lead but Urby Emanuelson had to come to their rescue after Javier Pastore and Abel Hernandez had turned the tie on its head.

Having been banned for three of Milan’s last four matches and with two more games left on his latest league suspension, Ibrahimovic wasted no time in reminding the club’s fans of his abilities.

The hosts went in front after just four minutes as Palermo allowed Massimo Oddo’s deep cross to arrive all the way to the back post where Ibrahimovic had the simple task of volleying home from close range. Palermo came roaring back.

Pastore teed up Maurizio Pinilla whose volley from 15 yards in a central position was unfortunately straight at goalkeeper Marco Amelia.

But on 14 minutes it was all square as Pastore played a one-two with Pinilla and burst past the hesitating Sokratis Papastathopoulos before finishing crisply left-footed across Amelia.

In an even game the recalled Antonio Cassano played Ibrahimovic clean through but instead of shooting he tried to tee up Kevin-Prince Boateng and his pass was cut out by Dorin Goian. The visitors were close

ITALY: AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, of Sweden, celebrates after scoring. —AP to going in front on 35 minutes after a brilliant move between Pastore and Antonio Nocerino, who set up Pinilla but the Chilean slipped as he went to shoot and fired over. Pastore then flashed a shot from wide right across goal that Amelia just finger-tipped around the post.

Milan had a pair of chances just before the break as Boateng thrashed wide from distance and Ibrahimovic met Oddo’s cross at the near post only for Salvatore Sirigu to scrambled it around the post.

Milan were proving brittle at the back, though, and Pastore slipped Hernandez in behind the defence to crash an unstoppable shot in off the underside of the bar eight minutes after the restart.

Milan expectedly started to push forward and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and territory but Palermo had a great chance on the break as substitute Josip Ilicic sent over a cross to the far post where incredibly it was centre -back Cesare Bovo who arrived to slice a volley off target. — AFP

LONDON: Florent Malouda struck twice either side of a Salomon Kalou strike as Chelsea moved into second place in the Premier League with a 3-1 victory over Birmingham at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Carlo Ancelotti’s side took advantage of Arsenal’s failure to beat Tottenham to leapfrog Arsene Wenger’s team and revive their hopes of retaining the title in the process.

The champions are six points adrift of leaders Manchester United with five games remaining and Chelsea must travel to Old Trafford on May 8 when they will have the opportunity to strike a further blow against Sir Alex Ferguson’s side. This was a routine victory for Ancelotti’s men, with Birmingham’s solitary goal coming from the penalty spot when Sebastian Larsson converted after the home side had already established a three-goal lead.

Fernando Torres was again left on the bench by Ancelotti and failed to score his first Chelsea goal after being introduced as a 67th minute substitute.

Ancelotti had voiced his support of Torres before this game, expressing his confidence that the striker would soon be celebrating his first Chelsea goal.

But the Italian’s team selection made it clear his priority lay not with nurturing a misfiring £50 million forward back to form, but building on Saturday’s win at West Bromwich Albion.

Torres was joined among the substitutes by Nicolas Anelka while Didier Drogba led the line, flanked by Malouda and Kalou.

And it was impossible to fault Ancelotti’s judgement as his side established control of this game long before the half time whistle to maintain the pressure on the top two. Even so, there was no

excuse for the weak Birmingham defending that allowed Malouda to put the home side ahead in the third minute.

Paulo Ferreira collected a crossfield ball and had time and space to deliver a cross to the near post where Drogba headed on and Malouda scrambled the ball home from close range.

To their credit, the visitors responded positively, enjoying long periods of possession and working the ball around the pitch comfortably. Alexander Hleb had criticised his team’s play this week when he announced he had no desire to stay at St Andrew’s after spending the season on loan from Barcelona.

He had no one to blame, however, for his failure to make more of a good chance, allowing John Terry to snuff out his clear run on goal. An even better opening for the visitors came in the 20th minute when Barry Ferguson’s long ball released Cameron Jerome, whose shot was tipped wide by Petr Cech. Chelsea, though, were giving the impression they were playing within themselves and when Kalou injected a moment of individual skill into the clash, it was effec-

LONDON: Chelsea’s David Luiz (left) goes for the ball with Birmingham City’s Barry Ferguson during their English Premier League soccer match. —AP tively game over. The Ivorian has been a fringe player this season, but he demonstrated his quality when he collected the ball with his back to goal, evaded two tackles and curled an excellent drive inside the post in the 26th minute.

Needing two goals to get back into the game, Birmingham had to respond quickly but Chelsea grew in confidence and rarely

looked in danger of letting the lead slip. Malouda headed substitute Ryan Bertrand’s left wing cross beyond City keeper Ben Foster to make it three in the 62nd minute and put the result beyond doubt. Larsson was handed the chance to reduce the deficit when David Luiz fouled Matt Derbyshire in the 77th minute but by then the game was over. —AFP

EPL results/standings Chelsea 3 (Malouda 3, 62, Kalou 26) Birmingham 1 (Larsson 76-pen); Tottenham 3 (Van der Vaart 7, 70-pen, Huddlestone 44) Arsenal 3 (Walcott 5,

Nasri 12, Van Persie 40) Played Tuesday Newcastle 0 Manchester United 0

English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Man Utd

33 20 10

3

70 32

70

West Brom

33 10

Chelsea

33 19

7

7

61 27

64

Fulham

32

9 14

47 62

39

8 14 10

36 35

38

Arsenal

33 18 10

5

66 34

64

Stoke

32 11

5 16

39 42

38

Man City

32 16

8

8

50 30

56

Sunderland

33

9 11 13

35 47

38

Tottenham

32 14 12

6

47 39

54

Birmingham

33

8 14 11

34 46

38

Liverpool

33 14

7 12

46 39

49

Blackburn

33

9

8 16

40 54

35

Everton

33 11 14

8

47 41

47

Wigan

33

7 13 13

32 53

34

Bolton

32 11 10 11

46 43

43

Blackpool

33

9

6 18

47 69

33

Newcastle

33 10 10 13

48 47

40

West Ham

33

7 11 15

39 58

32

Aston Villa

33 10 10 13

42 54

40

W’hampton

32

9

36 56

32

5 18

Parcel bomb sent to Celtic manager GLASGOW: The parcel bombs sent to Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two prominent supporters of the Glasgow club were live devices that could have caused “significant harm,” police said yesterday.

The devices were sent in the weeks after an ill-tempered match between Celtic and fierce Glasgow rival Rangers, two clubs with a history of sectarian conflict. The packages were all intercepted before reaching their targets and did not explode.

Detective chief superintendent John Mitchell of Strathclyde police said, after initial suspicion that the packages may have been a hoax, forensic tests showed they were “viable devices.” “They were definitely capable of causing significant harm and injury to individuals if they had opened them,” he said.

While police didn’t discuss the motive behind the mail bombs, sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland and Glasgow are regularly played out between Celtic fans, who are mostly Catholic, and Rangers fans, who are mostly Protestant.

The first parcel bomb targeting Lennon, a Catholic from Northern Ireland, was found on March 4 and a second was intercepted at a sorting office outside Glasgow on March 26.

Another package destined for Celtic-supporting Scottish lawmaker Trish Godman was intercepted at her constituency office two days later. A third package destined for Paul McBride, a lawyer who has represented Lennon, was intercepted earlier this week.

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell condemned the “repeated threats and intimidation.” “It is an intolerable state of affairs which must end,” he said. “Celtic, from our inception, has been a club open to all. We enjoy friendship and respect throughout the world yet, here in Scotland, we are caught up in these vile events. “The most recent targeting of Neil Lennon, Paul McBride and Trish Godman — three people who are linked only by an affinity with Celtic — deserves condemnation from all right-minded people.” Stewart Regan, the English chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, said the sport “must not be used as a platform for religious intolerance or hatred.”

“As a relative newcomer to this country, I find this recent situation both depressing and deplorable,” Regan said. “With the support of the police, the Scottish Government and our other league bodies, it is our intention to help rid Scottish football of this unwanted poison which seems to be prevalent in society.”

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond called for a “renewed determination that our beautiful game should not be besmirched” by the latest incidents. “What is required here is that all people — particularly those that love the game of football — unite to condemn such actions and unite to condemn those who abuse football for their pathetic and dan-

gerous prejudices ... that belong in a long and distant past,” Salmond told the BBC. UEFA last week hit Rangers with a second charge of “discriminatory behavior” over its fans’ sectarian chants during Europa League matches against PSV Eindhoven last month.

UEFA President Michel Platini said Wednesday that football has to work together to solve the problem. “We will fight against all violence, sectarianism, everything we will fight,” Platini said during a visit to London.

“Football is very nice, it’s a beautiful game and you have many beautiful things. But you have some bad things. As UEFA president you have take responsibility to look what are the bad things and change the system. “When people send a bomb to other people I think it is very complicated for UEFA to manage that ... it’s very bad what’s happened to the manager of Celtic.”

The news comes just days before Rangers hosts Celtic on Sunday in another league game between the two sides. Rangers are trying to close a four-point gap on the defending champions at the top of the Scottish Premier League. Rangers has played two games more than Celtic but would be in firm control if it wins the teams’ seventh meeting this season. The parcel bombs are the latest in a series of incidents targeting Lennon and others connected with Celtic.

Packages containing bullets were sent earlier this year to Lennon and to players Paddy

McCourt and Niall McGinn, who are also from Northern Ireland. The 39-year-old Lennon has endured threats and abuse during his football career - both as a player and a manager.

Lennon quit international football in 2002 having made 39 appearances after claiming he had received death threats from a paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. —AP

Celtic’s manager Neil Lennon

Dubai company to buy Spanish team Getafe DUBAI: Royal Emirates Group will buy La Liga club Getafe for about 90 million euros ($129.6 million), the Dubai firm said yesterday following earlier reports it was eyeing a Spanish soccer team.

“It is Getafe... we will announce it in a big way tomorrow,” Suleiman al Butti, project manager of Royal Emirates Group, told Reuters.

Royal Emirates, an investment firm chaired by Sheikh Butti Bin Suhail Al Maktoum, said in statement on Tuesday the club would be named “ Team Dubai”, although it was not clear whether that would become the team’s official name.

The deal would be the third for a La Liga club involving a non-Spanish buyer in the past year following the sale of Malaga to a member of the Qatari royal family and the purchase of Racing Santander by an Indian businessman.

Getafe president Angel Torres was quot-

ed in Spanish media yesterday as saying a deal had not been finalised. He said he planned to travel to Dubai on Thursday to seek sponsorship.

“I have not sold the club to anyone,” Torres told sports daily Marca. He added that he was heading to Dubai “only to look for solutions for next season”.

“They have invited me to a presentation which this company (Royal Emirates Group) sponsors and I am going with the idea of holding meetings to find sponsors, who will improve Getafe’s image, as well as a new name for the stadium.” Royal Emirates Group said on Tuesday Dubai’s minister of culture, the Spanish ambassador and “many other corporate icons and members of the ruling family of Dubai” would attend an event scheduled today to announce the deal. Getafe are 14th in La Liga with 37 points from 32 games and hovering just above the relegation zone. —Reuters

Nadal makes winning return to Barcelona

17

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

Malouda double revives Chelsea’s EPL title hopes

19

Mumbai, Kochi score close wins in IPL Page 18

King of Real’s first trophy under Mourinho, first cup since 1993 VALENCIA: Real Madrid claimed their first trophy under Jose Mourinho when Cristiano Ronaldo’s dramatic extra-time winner secured a 1-0 King’s Cup final victory over arch-rivals Barcelona yesterday.

With penalties looming in a tense and occasionally brutal clash at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium, the Portuguese forward leaped to crash home a 103rdminute header from Angel Di Maria’s superb centre.

Di Maria was sent off after receiving his second yellow card just before the end of extra time. Real’s first domestic cup since 1993 came in Mourinho’s debut season since joining from Inter Milan, denying Pep Guardiola’s Barca, who lead La Liga by eight points, the chance of a second treble in three seasons.

The Spanish giants are also due to meet in the two-legged Champions League semi-final on April 27 and May 3. “It’s a very important title we’re going to enjoy it,” Ronaldo said in a television interview.

“Mourinho has done a good job,” he added of his compatriot. “He’s helped us a lot. Barca played very well but as you know the team who scores wins.”

In a festive atmosphere in the Mediterranean port city, one half of the 55,000-capacity stadium was decked out in the claret and blue of Barca and draped in Catalan flags, while the other was a sea of white flecked with the yellow and gold of Spain.

Barca had six players from Spain’s World Cupwinning squad in their starting 11 and Real four but any memories of shared glory in South Africa seemed far from their minds in an attritional first half hour.

Real successfully closed down Barca’s creative midfielders and pacy forwards and had much the better of the first half before Pepe crashed a header off the post in the 44th minute with goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto well beaten.

Barca had failed to muster a shot on target but the second period was a different story and they utterly dominated possession, Andres Iniesta and Pedro forcing fine saves from keeper Iker Casillas.

However, even World Player of the Year Lionel Messi was unable to break the deadlock and Ronaldo almost put Real ahead when he sped on to Xabi Alonso’s pass in the eighth minute of extra time but his arrowed drive whistled narrowly wide.

He made no mistake five minutes later and his powerful header sent the white half of the stadium into raptures and had them singing Mourinho’s name long after the Barca fans had trooped deject-

edly into the night.

Meanwhile, Spanish soccer giants Barcelona and Real Madrid have overtaken baseball’s New York Yankees as the highest paid teams in global sport, according to the Global Sports Salaries Survey 2011.

The survey, to be published tomorrow, said the average annual first-team wage at Barcelona was 4.94 million pounds ($8.10 million), or 95,081 pounds ($155,900) a week. All salaries are calculated in pounds sterling.

Real Madrid were second with their players earning an average 4.6 million pounds a year while the average first-team salary at the Yankees was 4.2 million. NBA teams the LA Lakers and Orlando Magic were fourth and fifth respectively followed by Premier League Chelsea.

The report compares average firstteam pay in 14 of the world’s sports leagues, including the NBA, IPL, MLB, Premier League, NFL, NHL, Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga.

The Premier League remains the richest soccer league in the world with Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal among the top 30 best paid teams in world sport.

“We’ve known for years that the biggest bucks have been in American basketball and baseball but the rise and rise in wages among the elite of European football continues, closing that gap,” Nick Harris, the editor of sportingintelligence.com and author of the report, said in a statement yesterday.

“UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations may act as a brake on this inflation in football pay in a few years’ time but for now the big guns in Europe are still splashing out.”—AFP

y

A

CFC closes $45,000,000 loan facility with SCB

e niv rsar n

Years

Page 22

Kuwait may see budget surplus of KD 5.6bn-14.2bn Page 25 THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

Gulf Bank reports net profit of KD 9.8m

KSE closes on bullish note Page 24

Page 23

NEW YORK: The 2011 Scion xB “The Squid” by The Salty Dogs during the 2011 New York International Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York yesterday. (Inset) The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe.—AFP

Gold powers above $1,500 Inflation worries mount, debt support NEW YORK/LONDON: Gold rallied above $1,500 an ounce for the first time yesterday, extending this week’s run of record highs as investors sought to hedge growing inflation risks and bought into a broad commodities rally.

Mounting evidence of quickening inflation in major Asian economies such as China and India were echoed in Latin America on Wednesday, with Brazilian prices nearing a government ceiling and Mexico’s yearly rate exceeding a key target. The break-even rates on US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) rose for a second day. A second day of deep losses for the dollar and near 2 percent gains in oil and grain markets that fueled further inflation concerns also buoyed bullion, which once again rose in tandem with riskier assets like equities as investors shifted their focus from gold’s role as a safe-haven play to its potential as a store of value.

“People are buying any kind of risk assets almost without discretion across the commodity complex, and gold and silver are part of them,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist of broker-dealer Janney Montgomery Scott, which manages $53 billion in client assets.

Spot gold rose to an all-time high of $1,505.70 an ounce. It was later up 0.6 percent at $1,503.30 by 11:50 a.m. EDT (1550 GMT), hav-

ing risen almost 4 percent over the past eight days. Silver also rose to above $45 for the first time since 1980.

Gold has notched new records for four consecutive days, aided in large part by Monday’s threat of a downgrade to the United States’ triple-A credit rating and lingering euro zone debt worries that have depressed the dollar.

Signs of simmering inflation across the world underpin gold. The break-even rates on the expected new five-year US Treasury InflationProtected Securities, which measures investors’ inflation expectations over five years, rose for a second day to 2.37 percent, roughly 1 basis point higher than late Tuesday. In Brazil, annual inflation sped dangerously near a government ceiling in the month to mid-April, while Mexico yearly inflation rate climbed above policymakers’ target rate of 3.0 percent as investors prepare for higher borrowing costs early next year.

Buying in the Asian countries is being fueled by rising consumer incomes and higher inflation, against which gold is traditionally seen as a hedge. Both China and India reported higher than expected inflation last week. While gold investors in Western markets have been motivated chiefly by risk aversion in recent years, the precious metal is a much more deeply established asset in Asia. India and China are by far

Dubai’s Tamweel applies to resume share trading DUBAI: Islamic mortgage lender Tamweel said yesterday it had applied to the Securities & Commodities Authority, the national markets regulator, for the resumption of trading of its shares.

Tamweel, which stopped trading its shares in November 2008, said in a statement on Dubai’s bourse website that it is awaiting further developments. On Tuesday, Arabic daily Al-Ittihad reported that Tamweel shares will resume trading on the Dubai bourse in the next ten days.

Tamweel began new mortgage lending earlier this year after Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) took a majority stake of 57.33 percent in September 2010. The move effectively rendered Tamweel a subsidiary of DIB. The United Arab Emirates government said in November 2008 it intended to merge Tamweel with rival Islamic mortgage lender Amlak. Shares in the two have not traded since.— Reuters

the world’s biggest bullion consumers.

While buying of largely Western-based bullion-backed exchange-traded funds has tailed off this year, the slack in demand has been picked up by investors in bullion bars and coins, particularly in the Indian and Chinese markets.

With the US currency in particular seen as a key driver of gold prices, uncertainty over how the United States will adjust monetary policyafter its second round of quantitative easing comes to an end in June-is set to keep the metal underpinned.

Standard & Poor’s said on Monday it might cut its long-term rating on the United States within two years, unless Washington can rein in its budget deficit.

If it were to do so, the dollar may come under pressure, impacting currency market and economic stability throughout the world - a perfect recipe for higher gold prices.

“Gold has been acting as a currency in its own right, and that is why we are up at $1,500,” said Simon Weeks, head of precious metals at the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Gold has long been seen as the ultimate haven from risk. During the financial crisis that rattled markets in 2009 and 2010 it was heavily bought on that basis, but its rally has since taken on a momentum of its own. — Reuters

HONG KONG: A man walks past a gold shop in Hong Kong yesterday. The price of gold topped $1,500 an ounce for the first time on April 20, 2011 as a weakened dollar plus fears over high inflation and countries’ debt attracted investors to the safe haven precious metal.—AFP

CIB weighs on Egypt; SABIC lifts Saudi CAIRO/DUBAI: Egypt’s heavyweight Commercial International Bank dragged the index lower after ratings agency Moody’s revised its outlook on Egypt’s banking sector to “negative” from “stable”, while most Gulf Arab markets rose.

CIB tumbled 4.7 percent, with Ezz Steel down 3.4 percent. “Moody’s downgraded the banking sector from stable to negative so that’s having an effect, and mainly specifically CIB,” says Mohamed Radwan, head of equities at Pharos Securities. Moody’s said Egypt’s banks had growing exposure to lower rated sovereign debt and the effect of political turmoil. The main index fell 1.9 percent. UAE bourses rose with Dubai’s index hitting a 19-week high in a sign that investors were optimistic about the country’s fundamentals. Dubai’s index climbed 1.6 percent, also a ninth consecutive session gain. The UAE’s upbeat sentiment is due to a mix of “earnings, MSCI speculation and safe-haven status

MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS for the region,” said Matthew Wakeman, EFG-Hermes managing director for cash and equity-linked trading.

Investors are awaiting a decision in June from index compiler MSCI on whether the UAE and Qatar markets will obtain emerging market status.

Heavyweight real estate developer Emaar Properties and telecoms operator Du rose 1.5 and 1.3 percent respectively. “UAE is a brighter place in the region (to invest) in next two months. Cash is returning on that basis,” Wakeman said.

Abu Dhabi’s index reversed Tuesday’s losses and ended 0.2 percent higher, lifted by banking stocks. First Gulf Bank rose 2.3 percent and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank added 0.4 percent. Dana Gas said yesterday it plans to list its shares in London to gain a wider

investor base and boost its stock value. The stock was suspended for its annual general meeting. Elsewhere, Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) hit a three-month closing high, extending gains since posting aboveforecast earnings, to help Saudi Arabia’s index rise for a second session in three.

SABIC, the world’s biggest petrochemical firm by market value climbed 2.5 percent to its highest finish since Jan. 17, a day after saying it expects second-quarter results to be better than the first quarter due to strong demand for its products.

SABIC posted a 42 percent jump in net profit earlier this week, widely beating estimates.

Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Maaden) climbed 6.6 percent in heavy trade after posting a 112 percent rise in first-quarter net profit. The benchmark ended 0.8 percent higher. “Resistance is at 6,669 points,” said Youssef Kassantini, a Saudi-based financial analyst.— Reuters

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

business

CFC closes $45,000,000 term loan facility with StanChart

Deloitte unveils 250 top consumer products firms KUWAIT: Deloitte recently unveiled its fourth annual global powers of the consumer products industry 2011 report which lists the top 250 consumer companies by global sales in 2009 which encompasses year ends through 30 June 2010, including companies from the Middle East and Africa.

The report stated that 60 percent of the companies suffered from falling sales in the most recent financial year. As a group, the top 250 consumer products companies saw a composite sales decline of 1.2 percent in fiscal year 2009. While the rate of decline slowed or even reversed for some companies in the fourth quarter, 149 companies in the Top 250 experienced negative sales growth for the year as a whole.

According to the report, companies headquartered in North America had the highest profit margin at 9.4 percent, followed by those in the Middle East and Africa (7.9 percent) and Europe (7.2 percent). However, North American companies also suffered the sharpest drop in sales, reporting negative growth of -3.2 percent. Latin America was the only

region in which companies reported positive sales growth. In this region, sales surged by 16.3 percent and the eight companies headquartered there had a net profit margin of 5 percent.

Firas Eid, consulting Partner at Deloitte in the Middle East said: “While the operating environment for consumer products companies remained harsh throughout the last financial year and had a dramatic impact on top line sales, the Middle East region was resilient and companies tended to perform better than their counterparts in the developed world.”

With 70 million new consumers projected to enter the global middle class each year, a majority being from emerging markets including the Middle East, countries within the developing world represent the largest opportunity for growth but meeting the lifestyle needs of these new consumers will require radical innovation in delivering the right products at price points that are typically well below the equivalent products in the developed world.

Growth of consumer business in focus KUWAIT: Commercial Facilities Company (CFC) is pleased to announce that it has successfully closed a term loan facility with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) The purpose of the facility is funding working capital requirements of CFC and facilitate growth of consumer business.

SCB has supported the business of CFC and has a long standing relationship with CFC. This is the third direct loan to CFC by SCB

with a total value of funding at $45,000,000. CFC Chairman Abdullah Al-Humaidhi, expressed his appreciation at the signing, for the continuing confidence shown

by SCB in the business of CFC. CFC was established in 1977 as the first Kuwaiti shareholding company specialized in offering consumer finance facilities in Kuwait. It has developed its business to become the leading specialist provider of consumer credit

in its domestic market and is also the largest consumer finance company in terms of total assets and shareholder equity. As at 31st Dec 10 CFCís consolidated total assets and shareholder equity was KD 297 million and KD 161 million respectively. It is also listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange and had a market capitalization of KD 197 million as at 31st Dec Abdullah Saud Al-Humaidhi, chairman and managing direc2010. tor, CFC.

Gulf Bank announces winners of 15th Al Danah Account draw Gulf Bank held its fifteenth Al Danah weekly draw in 2011 on April 17, 2011, announcing a total number of ten Al Danah weekly prize draw winners, each awarded with prizes of KD 1,000.

The 15th Weekly draw winners are: Anwar Mohammad Manea Al-Mutairi Nabela Sabti Jaber Sughra Abdullah Reda Abdulrasool Abdulredha Mohammad Behbehani Maryam Nahaba Khalaf Hamada Samir Shawqi Nous Yousif Mohammad Ibraheem Yousef Al-Tanak Waleed Mohammed Fahad Al-Ajmi Ibtisam Mohammed Motar Bassima Mallallah Ismael Abbas Gulf Bank encourages everyone in Kuwait to open an Al Danah account and/or increase their deposits to maximize their chances of becoming a winner in the upcoming weekly (KD1000 for 10 winners), quarterly (KD250,000 and KD500,000) and the annual draw (KD1 million). Gulf Bank’s Al Danah

allows customers to win cash prizes and encourages them to save money.

Chances increase the more money is deposited and the longer it is kept in the account.

Al Danah also offers a number of unique services including the Al Danah Deposit Only ATM card which helps account holders deposit their money at their convenience; as well as the Al Danah calculator to help customers calculate their chances of becoming an Al Danah winner.

To be part of the Al Danah draws, customers can visit one of Gulf Bank’s 53 branches, transfer on line, or call the Customer Contact Center on 1805805 for assistance and guidance.

Customers can also log on to www.egulfbank.com, Gulf Bank’s bilingual website, to find all the information regarding Al Danah or any of the Bank’s products and services or log on www.e gulfbank.com/aldanahwinners, to find out more about Al Danah and who the winners are.

Dana Gas plans London listing ABU DHABI: Dana Gas plans to list its shares in London to gain a wider investor base and boost its stock value, a senior company official said yesterday.

Dana, the Gulf’s only listed natural gas company, has seen its stock decline 14.8 percent in the last six months due to weak investor sentiment in the United Arab Emirates.

“It is part of the company’s plan. We are evaluating it,” said investor relations manager Nasir Akram. He gave no timeline. Dana’s chief executive Ahmed al Arbeed earlier told regional daily The

National that the board has been considering a London listing to lift the company’s share price which has been hurt by political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

“Our share price is not representing the quality of assets this company has.

But many others are in the same boat,” he was quoted as saying in the newspaper interview. “Then there’s the nature of our business. It is not understood by the investors in the region because the governments here control the oil and gas.” — Reuters

flydubai’s new routes signal strength of Saudi market KUWAIT: Flydubai, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, yesterday announced the addition of Riyadh and Jeddah to its network, expanding its presence in Saudi Arabia from three to five key destinations.

Flights to Riyadh and Jeddah will commence on May 1, with daily flights to the capital and a four times per week service to Jeddah. As the twin-centres of Saudi Arabia’s administrative, financial and commercial activities, the new routes are of strategic importance to flydubai and will supplement its existing routes to Abha, Gassim and Yanbu. flydubai CEO, Ghaith Al-Ghaith, said: “I am delighted to be able to announce the start of flydubai’s service to Jeddah and Riyadh on May 1. These cities are of prime importance in this region and we are honored to have the opportunity to serve the Saudi people in Riyadh and Jeddah.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Saudi authorities for their support and assistance in making these flights possible. We look forward to playing our part in strengthening an already strong relationship between the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with these new flights and we hope to continue to offer travellers between our two nations a quality, affordable travel option for many years to come.”

Home to the headquarters of several global organizations, Jeddah is considered one of the top commercial centres of the Middle East. With a population of over 3.4 million, and the largest sea port on the Red Sea, the ‘boom town’ has experienced a 21st century transformation, as discussed at the recently held Jeddah Economic forum. flydubai will operate a four flights per week service to the city.

Meanwhile, as the largest city in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh is home to seven million residents and a flourishing industrial economy, with some of the world’s largest crude oil factories. The dynamic metropolis is also known for its 4,300 mosques, cultural museums and contemporary architecture.

Saudi Arabia is the top export destination for Dubai, especially for products such as electrical equipment and mineral fuels. Trade relationships between the two nations are expected to increase, with improvements in non-oil foreign trade across the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia trades with over 155 countries and its 2010 exports amounted to $235.3 billion.

Flights to Jeddah will depart Dubai Terminal 2 on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 0520hrs, arriving in Jeddah at 0715hrs local time. The return flight will

depart Jeddah at 0815hrs, landing back in Dubai at 1205hrs. Flights to Riyadh, meanwhile, will operate as follows; • Mondays and Fridays: Depart Dubai Terminal 2 at 1945hrs, landing in Riyadh at 2035hrs local time. The return flight will take off at 2120hrs, arriving in Dubai at 0015hrs.

• Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays: Depart Dubai Terminal 2 at 0755hrs, landing in Riyadh at 0845hrs local time. The return flight will take off at 0930hrs, arriving in Dubai at 1220hrs.

• Wednesdays: Depart Dubai Terminal 2 at 1555hrs, landing in Riyadh at 1645hrs local time. The return flight will take off at 1730hrs, arriving in Dubai at 2020hrs.

A one-way fare to Riyadh from Dubai starts at AED 450, with flights to Jeddah from AED 570. Both fares include one piece of hand luggage weighing up to 7kg and one small laptop bag or hand bag. Fares from Riyadh to Dubai, meanwhile, are priced from AED 410, with flights from Jeddah to Dubai starting at AED 530. Checked baggage starts at AED 50 for 20kgs. A seat with extra legroom costs AED100.

Flights between Dubai and Jeddah/Riyadh can be purchased from flydubai’s website (www.flydubai.com), its call centre (+9714 301 0800) and through travel partners.

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

.2710000 .4475000 .3965000 .3060000 .2875000 .2910000 .0062330 .0020000 .0748350 .7290950 .3840000 .0710000 .7147450 .0045000 .0440000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2756500 .4498190 .3986310 .3083330 .2896400 .0534550 .0447920 .2934160 .0354410 .2222980 .0033280 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0750780 .7313610 .0000000 .0735260 .7161600 .0000000

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

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.364 6.237 3.278 2.505 3.917 223.430 35.630

.2810000 .4570000 .40440000 .3150000 .2960000 .2970000 .0063530 .0035000 .0755870 .7364220 .4040000 .0780000 .7219290 .0072000 .0550000 .2777500 .4532460 .4016680 .3106820 .2918460 .0538620 .0451330 .2956510 .0357110 .2239920 .0033530 .0062770 .0025250 .0033100 .0038850 .0756500 .7369330 .3928570 .0740860 .7216160 .0064590

Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

3.906 6.404 9.228 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 74.904 76.154 719.890 735.950 75.454

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 48.750 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.508 Yemen Riyal 1.268 Tunisian Dinar 202.970 Jordanian Dinar 391.400 Lebanese Lira 183.800 Syrian Lier 5.983 Morocco Dirham 35.748 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 277.050 Euro 401.170 Sterling Pound 454.780 Canadian dollar 292.250 Turkish lire 180.820 Swiss Franc 311.200 Australian dollar 291.010 US Dollar Buying 275.850 GOLD 278.000 140.000 72.000

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL CASH 296.300 736.430 4.010 293.300 543.900 14.100 54.700 167.800 47.450 403.000 36.320 6.500

0.033 0.247 0.244 3.430 392.840 0.187 93.810 47.900 4.340 223.100 1.877 52.400 719.250 3.350 6.620 76.600 73.930 224.180 43.260 2.687 456.500 45.700 311.600 5.900 9.560 198.263 75.560 277.300 1.230

10 Tola

GOLD 1,557.410

Sterling Pound US Dollar

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

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

SELL DRAFT 294.800 736.430 3.803 291.800

224.200 46.583 401.500 36.170 6.240

0.032

391.360 0.186 93.810 3.920 221.600

310.100 5.900 9.410 75.460 276.900

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 454.500 276.900

Selling Rate 276.800 292.345 453.255 400.600 308.720 732.607 75.339 76.008 73.783 391.007 46.496 2.506 6.239

3.283 3.806 6.397 678.972 3.437 9.341 6.038 3.943 91.033

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. 719.070 3.295 6.400 76.170 73.930 224.180 43.260 2.507 454.500

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees

Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

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

Rate per 1000 (Tran) 276.800 3.290 6.250 2.530 3.810 6.440 75.465 74.020 735.900 46.520 458.900 0.00003280 3.910 1.550 393.300 5.750 404.000 296.000

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) US Dollar 276.550 Euro 400.800 Pound Sterling 453.800 Canadian Dollar 289.700 Japanese Yen 3.375 Indian Rupee 6.245 Egyptian Pound 46.530 Sri Lankan Rupee 2.504 Bangladesh Taka 3.793 Philippines Peso 6.390 Pakistan Rupee 3.285 Bahraini Dinar 736.500 UAE Dirham 75.400 Saudi Riyal 73.900 *Rates are subject to change

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BUSINESS

Gulf Bank reports net profit of KD 9.8 million in Q1 2011 Ford Fusion grabs mid-size segment title from JD Powers KUWAIT: The Ford Fusion added yet another major accolade to its growing line of recognitions from industry experts, as it grabbed the mid-size segment title in the recent J.D. Powers and Associates 2011 Vehicle Dependability Study.

The news comes as the new 2011 Fusion model sees tremendous feedback from the region with sales recording an impressive 64 per cent increase in the first two months of 2011, thanks to its improved quality, technologies, fuel efficiency and driving performance.

“With its impressive driving dynamics, safety and enhanced technology features, the Ford Fusion continues to be a serious contender in the mid-size segment thanks to its rich package and great value for money,” said Hussein Murad, Ford Middle East’s director of Sales. “This latest recognition from the JD Power and Associates Vehicle Dependability Study lends further proof to this strong product. And growing preference towards the Fusion from both retail and fleet businesses alike is outstanding.”

Fusion’s exterior design gives the car a sporty, upscale appearance along with aerodynamics that help reduce wind noise and improve fuel economy. The car’s front end sports a powerfully domed hood and aggressive grille, while underbody treatments further boost Fusion’s fuel economy. The mid-size sedan is even better for 2011 with more safety, technology and convenience offerings, including standard MyKey and integrated blind-spot mirrors, together with optional Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) that join the award-winning Ford SYNC communications and infotainment system. Customers also have the option of two engines, the standard 2.5L I-4 with 6-speed manual or automatic transmissions as well as the 3.0L V6 with the 6speed SelectShift Automatic Transmission for a sportier ride.

Ford Fusion is no stranger to accolades from the automotive industry thanks to its undeniable overall quality and capability. Some of its key awards include: ● 2010 Motor Trend Car of The Year ● 2010 Most Appealing Mid-size Car, JD Power & Associates ● 2010 Best Redesigned Vehicle by kbb.com ● Highest Rating in Overall Initial Quality, JD Power & Associates ● Best long-term durability, Midsize Car segment, JD Power & Associates 2011 VDS The 2011 Vehicle Dependability Study is based on responses from more than 43,700 original owners of 2008 model-year vehicles after three years of ownership. The study was fielded between October and December 2010.

The Vehicle Dependability Study is used extensively by vehicle manufacturers worldwide to help design and build better vehicles - which typically translates to higher resale values and higher customer loyalty. It also helps consumers make more-informed choices for both new- and used-vehicle purchases. Among new-vehicle shoppers, perception of quality and dependability is the most influential factor in their decision to purchase a specific vehicle model, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

KUWAIT: Gulf Bank yesterday announced a net profit of KD 9.8 million for the first quarter of 2011, against KD 0.5 million for the first quarter of the previous year.

The bank ’s operating profit amounted to KD 23.4 million for the first quarter of the year. This compares to KD 44.3 million for the corresponding period of 2010 (including one-off profit of KD 25.3 million).

Commenting on these results, Ali Al-Rashaid Al-Bader, Gulf Bank ’s Chairman, said: “The Bank continued to improve its quarterly profits with good rates, reflecting the gen-

eral improvement in the Bank’s core banking and credit activities, and the general improvement in the national economic conditions. The Bank capitalized on the positive impact of the commencement of the State of Kuwait’s five-year development plan projects.”

“By the end of the first quarter of this year, the Bank successfully covered, in full, its residual losses from 2008, and its irregular loan coverage exceeded 100%, while its capital adequacy ratio rose to 18.1%,” AlBader continued.

“On the other hand, the Bank continued to implement its strate-

gic plan by increasing the additional precautionary provisions by KD 20.1 million to reach KD 51.6 million, in line with its hedging plans, and in support of its financial position and abilit y to grow and expand.” Al-Bader elaborated, expressing his aspirations for continuing improvement with growing rates in the forthcoming period. “ The Bank increased its local branch network by opening a new branch in Al-Zahra, bringing the network up to 54 branches, thus enhancing its competitive edge, and providing better customer service,” Al-Bader concluded.

Ali Al-Rashaid Al-Bader, Gulf Bank’s Chairman

Jordan banks issue sukuk for Rajhi Cement

McDonald’s Kuwait honors top performers Annual Awards Night KUWAIT: McDonald’s Kuwait recently held its Annual Awards Night for year 2010’s Top Performers at the Holiday Inn Salmiya. The ceremonies celebrated the contribution of their employees to the success of their business through delivering consistently excellent Quality, Service and Cleanliness in the pursuit of total customer satisfaction.

The top performing crew members f ro m e a c h o f t h e 6 2 M c D o n a l d ’s re s t a u ra n t s we re h o n o re d a t t h e event, together with nine of the best Crew Trainers, as well as the year’s top restaurant managers from all over Kuwait.

“Our people are our main assets,” said Elie Ghosn, McDonald’s Kuwait’s D i re c to r o f H u m a n R e s o u rce s a n d Administration. We invest a lot in our employees, because we k now that they determine the success of our business.”

“These awardees have all demon-

strated their commitment and dedication to the business goal of delivering fast, friendly, accurate service while maintaining McDonald’s standards for excellence and quality,” concluded Ghosn.

McDonald’s Kuwait also recognized its Outstanding Restaurants of the Year based on growth target achievements.

A special award was presented to the team of McDonald’s Fintas Garden branch for completing the year with the best Customer Satisfaction Index among all other branches.

Finally, the evening was concluded with the recognition of the outstanding employees from the McDonald’s head office staff. Five awards were p re s e n te d to t h e to p p e r fo r m i n g employee from each of the five core departments: M a r k e t i n g, Construction, Operations, Finance and H u m a n R e s o u rce s. A to t a l o f 8 4 awards were handed out during the ceremonies.

AMMAN: Jordan’s Capital Bank has completed the sale of a $120 million Islamic bond, or sukuk, to Saudi Arabia’s Rajhi Cement to finance the firm’s capital expansion projects in the kingdom, bankers said on yesterday.

The sukuk transaction, the first of its kind in the kingdom, was made possible despite the absence of local laws for issuance of sukuk that allow a borrower to forgo title to assets or property when they borrow as required under Islamic compliant Sharia-terms.

Several Jordanian banks, including Capital Bank, the sole arranger of the deal, were involved in the deal including Cairo-Amman Bank, Union Bank, JordanKuwait Bank, Bank of Jordan and Islamic International Arab Bank.

Bassem Khalil Al-Salem, the chairman of Capital Bank, told Reuters the deal would expand borrowing options in the local banking sector and tap the growing Islamic finance market.

“This will set a precedent for future transactions in Islamic sukuk,” said Al-

Salem. Bankers say they went around the local legal loophole by setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV ) abroad in which the assets of the seven-year ijarah (sale-and-leaseback) deal were transferred to the banks.

Islamic law requires sukuk to be backed by the transfer of tangible assets where investors become the legal owners in case of default. Rajhi Cement will use the funds to finance an expansion project in Jordan, where its factory in the northern city of Mafraq began production last year.

Jordan’s Islamic lenders have seen growth in the range of Sharia-compliant products from ijarah, mortgage financing, and murabaha, or cost plus financing used to for asset purchases, to equitytype products such as profit-sharing mudaraba.

The government has said it was working on ironing out legal impediments that stand in the way of issuance of sovereign sukuk through changes in existing laws. —Reuters

Saudi’s KADCO agrees to hand back Egypt land CAIRO: A company owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal agreed to give back most of the land it was allocated for a farming project in southern Egypt, an Egyptian government spokesman said. Egypt’s public prosecutor has been investigating business transactions, land deals and the finances of leading figures under former president Hosni Mubarak since mass protests forced him out of office on Feb 11.

The prosecutor said earlier this month the 1998 sale of land to Alwaleed’s Kingdom Agricultural Development Co (KADCO) violated the law.

“Both parties agreed to the return to the Egyptian government of 75,000 feddans out of a total of 100,000 feddans,”

the Agriculture Ministry spokesman said yesterday. “ The company will own 10,000 feddans while cultivating another 15,000 feddans that it doesn’t manage but will own in the future.”

KADCO, part of Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Co, bought 100,000 feddans (420 million square metres) at Toshka soon after the project was begun.

The project would use water pumped from Egypt’s Aswan High Dam reservoir along a 50 km (30 mile) canal to irrigate reclaimed agricultural land 60 km from the Sudanese border.

The ministry spokesman said the firm will not receive any monetary compensation for the returned land, adding that the agreement needed to be approved

by Egypt’s cabinet. —Reuters

Doha Bank reports over 15% net profit growth Results industry best operating ratios DOHA: Sheikh Fahad Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Doha Bank, announced Doha Bank’s financial results for the first quarter of 2011.

Net profit for the first quarter of 2011 recorded an impressive QAR 363 million as compared to QAR 315 million for the same period in 2010 showing an increase of 15.2%. Net interest income rose by 33.4% to QAR 393 million. Loans and advances reached QAR 26.1 billion and total assets increased by QAR 2 billion, a growth of more than 4.5%, from QAR 44.4 billion as at 31 March 2010 to QAR 46.4 billion as at 31 March 2011. Customer deposits and unrestricted investment depositor accounts increased to QAR 28 billion from QAR 27.2 billion for the same period last year, registering a growth of 3.1% as at 31 March 2011 evidencing the strong liquidity position of the bank.

Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Managing Director of Doha Bank said “The Bank has become extremely strong over the years with shareholders’ funds, as at 31 March 2011, at QAR 6.2 billion, registering an increase of 17% during the last twelve months.

The paid-up share capital of our bank has organically increased over the years and, as at 31 March 2011 it is QAR 2.07 billion reflecting the strong confidence we enjoy from our shareholders and this region. Through the strategic utilization of the shareholder’s funds by way of increasing our

performance levels the return on average equity is 25.6% as at 31 March 2011 one of the best in the industry.

The Bank, given the scale of operations, has achieved a very high return on the average assets of 3.1% as at 31 March 2011 which is a clear demonstration of the effective utilization of shareholder’s funds and optimum asset allocation strategies”. Further, Sheikh Abdul Rehman said “ The Bank’s core revenue streams, like interest income, foreign exchange

Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Managing Director of Doha Bank earnings etc, have shown remarkable growth reflecting on the Bank’s intrinsic strength towards recurring earning capacity and also on the Bank’s productive operational performance”.

R Seetharaman, Group Chief Executive Officer, while highlighting the performance of Doha bank in the first quarter of 2011 said, “Continuing with our significant achievements in

2010, the first quarter of 2011 was successful in meeting and exceeding customer expectations, and maintaining our leadership in terms of performance, innovation, security and quality.”

Talking about Doha Bank’s highest level of Service delivery “We have been recertified the coveted ISO20000 certification for its continuous compliance to global standard.

Doha Bank was the First organization in the GCC to have achieved the ISO/IEC 20000. ISO20000 is the first worldwide standard specifically aimed at IT Service Management (ITSM) and Doha Bank has defined its policy for IT Service Management as to adopt and adapt state of the art IT technology integrating people and IT to support and improve all business processes.”

R Seetharaman added, “Doha Bank had officially inaugurated its new Corporate Cash Service Center in the Doha Bank Head office building in Grand Hamad street. This initiative is the first of many in the area of cash management which will ensure we deliver value added cash servicing solutions to our customers.”

On the launch of Doha Bank’s Innovative products, R Seetharaman said, “Doha Bank has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Qatar Development Bank to augment the Bank’s drive to strengthen the small and medium enterprises sector in Qatar. These agreements will further assist us to foster, not only the growth of the sector, but also to cre-

atively expand its impact and galvanize the development of this key segment.” He added, “Doha Bank, the leader in innovative customer centric solutions has launched a state-of-theart Mobile Banking application. The launch of Mobile banking service marks Doha Bank’s ongoing commitment to meet the customer’s lifestyle needs of instant and straightforward access to their finances. This mobile banking service allows customers to access their bank accounts details, make instant transfer of funds between own accounts or to any registered third party beneficiaries and pay registered utility bills and credit card bills.”

On the International front, He mentioned, “Doha Bank has entered into an agreement with National Bank Limited, the largest private sector bank in Bangladesh, for remittance of funds from Qatar to Bangladesh.”

Talking about Doha Bank’s accustomed specialty award programs, R Seetharaman said, “Doha Bank had launched Al Dana 2011 with prizes unlike any in Qatar. Al-Dana has taken the year 2022 as its distinctive attribute and pronounced the first 10 winners of a series of 11 draws to be conducted all the way through the year giving away a total of QR 2,224,200 to 110 Doha Bank customers. Al Dana scheme has become a household name in Qatar, and for this reason we invite each single one of you to take part. “ On the Corporate Social

Responsibility front, he added, “The Beach Clean-up Campaign 2011 was organized by Doha Bank in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and Al-Wakra Municipality on 19th February 2011 at Al-Wakra Beach. The theme “Saving the Beaches Today, for the Children of Tomorrow” is in line with the Green Banking initiatives of Doha Bank to promote eco-consciousness to further instill the value of social responsibility and green culture within the organization by hav-

Doha Bank Chairman Sheikh Fahad Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani ing full-participation from staff to act as environmental advocates for the green cause. On 2nd March 2011, Doha Bank and UNESCO jointly launched the nationwide ECOSchools Program in Qatar. Doha Bank is committed to this long-term partnership with UNESCO whereby creating a platform for schools to contribute to the socio-environmental

improvement and intellectual development of the human society in Qatar and the world.

“In a jubilant moment of pride and excitement, the bank won three awards at the EMEA-GTR Awards ceremony recently held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai. Doha Bank was adjudged “Best Bank in Qatar 2010” and “Most Innovative Bank in Middle East 2010”, by EMEA Finance Magazine, and “Best Trade Finance Bank in Qatar ’ by Global Trade Review Magazine. These awards highlight the Bank’s progressive outlook, and commitment to being a one-stop-financial services hub to its ever expanding global customer base.” He added, “We also won the prestigious Citi Per formance Excellence Award for leadership and excellence in global electronic payments and Deutsche Bank’s Euro Straight through Processing Excellence Award for the second time. This award is presented to leading financial institutions worldwide which have state-of-the-art international ‘straight-through-processing’ (STP) electronic payment services and processing accuracy criteria.”

R Seetharaman co-featured in the “Spanish Financial System Situation breakfast lecture” hosted by Spanish Business Council. He gave his economic outlook on Qatar economy and Qatar’s National Vision 2030 which builds on a society that promotes justice, benevolence and equality.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

BUSINESS

KSE closes on bullish note GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange took a giant step forward with seven out of nine banks closing on a bullish note. Gulf Bank was the fourth bank to release its 1Q2011 results. The bank reported net earnings of KD9.78mn for the 1Q2011 ended March 31, 2011 compared to KD0.52mn posted during the comparable period in 2010. The scrip closed flat at KD0.540. From technical overview, the bullish tone is still alive but to confirm a sharp rise, the price needs to cross over Januar y ’s high at KD0.590 to trigger further gains towards KD0.620 and KD0.680. Only a close below KD0.490 will change the tone, which in turn would bring back to focus KD0.430.

Global General Index (GGI), market weighted, ended the day up by 1.35 percent, at 203.49 point. Market Capitalization was up for the day at KD33.38bn. On the other hand, KSE Price Index closed at 6,435.3 point, adding 38.8 points (0.61 percent) to its previous close.

Market breadth During the session, 115 compa ni es we re t ra d e d. M arket breadth was skewed towards adv ance r s a s 59 equ it ies advanced ve rsus 22 that retreated. Yesterday’s performance wa s a ccom p anied by growing trading activity with most of the trades conducted in the Investment, Real Estate and Services sectors. Total volume traded was up by 24.46 percent with 188.01mn shares changing hands at a total value of K D 4 0 .93m n ( 5 6 . 79 p ercent higher compared to the day before). The Investment Sector was the volume leader yesterday, accounting for 25.50 per-

cent o f to t al sh ares. Th e Banking sector was the value leader, with 46.80 percent of to t al traded value. N ation al Bank of Kuwait (NBK) was the most active in terms of values of shares traded during Tuesday session, with 4.03mn shares exchanged at an aggregate value of KD4.83mn. The scrip ended the day up by 3.39 percent at KD1.220.

Sector-wise Seven out of the eight sectors managed to eke out gains.

The excep tio n was the I nsu rance sec tor wh ich witnessed poor trading activities with only 0.26mn share traded in the sec tor. The I nsurance Index ended the day down by

0.60 percent. On the positive side, Banks stocks spearheaded advan cer s, with th eir in dex clocking 1.91 percent gains. As measured by th e Global Banking Index, this sector has grown by 5.39 percent so far in April 2011. The per formance was bolstered by a 3.39 percent gain in th e equit y pr ice of National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) by the end of the session.

Global Non Kuwaiti index followed, up by 1.42 percent on the back of Al-Ahli United Bank ’s share price which showed an increase of 1.98 percent. The scrip ended the day at KD0.206. The bank put the 1Q2011 earnings’ repor ts in motion yesterday and reported

a net profit of KD21.54mn for the quar ter, a 17.65 percent climb over the KD18.31mn posted during the comparable period in 2010. A rare actively traded stock was United Gulf Bank.

The bank traded 0.26mn shares and climbed by 3.33 percent.

Corporate news Kuwait Livestock Trading and Transport Company announced yesterday that a shipment of 39,000 Australian-born sheep would arr i ve i n t he count r y today.

The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at $116.00 a barrel on Tuesday, compared with $117.37 the previous day, according to OPEC secretariat calculations.

Brent crude rises above $122 on weak dollar LONDON: Brent crude rose above $122 a barrel yesterday, helped by a weaker dollar and a rebound in equities. ICE Brent crude was 87 cents firmer at $122.20 a barrel by 1348 GMT, albeit lower after briefly climbing to intra-day highs of $123.15.

US crude was up $1.08 at $109.36 a barrel, but off highs of $109.92 a barrel earlier in the session.

“The big driver at the moment is the weakness of the dollar,” GFT market strategist David Morrison said.

“We are talking a dollar weakness story lifting everything, and crude in particular.”

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was down 0.89 percent by 1228 GMT. A weaker greenback can support dollar-denominated commodities by rendering them less expensive for other currency holders.

“The dollar index has broken significantly below a long-term multi-year trendline, so we could see the selling accelerate. It’s a shorthand for commodity traders to look at the dollar index, which gives some support to commodities going forward,” Morrison added.

Spot gold prices breached $1,500 for the first time ever, and silver hit a 31-year high yesterday.

European shares rallied on upbeat earnings from companies including Intel and on the back of well covered euro bond auctions from Portugal, Spain and Germany boosting and lending support to commodities. “ There are external factors-the strong equities and weaker dollarwhich are not oil-related but answer for today’s gains,” Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said.

The International Energy Agency’s executive director, Nobuo Tanaka, issued the latest in a series of warnings on the effect of strong oil prices on

demand in top consumers the United States and China.

Producer group OPEC needs to boost output in June or July to douse further price rises, Tanaka said, adding that if crude prices stayed at $100 a barrel or more for the rest of 2011, the market could see demand destruction similar to that of 2008.

OPEC has to date declined to make a coordinated increase in supply, despite growing concerns about demand destruction as world oil prices rocketed up to 2-1/2-year highs of $127 a barrel earlier this month amid unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

“We don’t have much fundamental news, but Saudi Arabia recently cut output in the last few weeks, which was not expected, and all in all prices could go up a bit,” LBBW analyst Frank Schallenberger said.

Ahead of the Easter holiday, oil prices are likely to remain in a range in reduced trading, according to Commerzbank’s Fritsch.

“I think prices will remain in a narrow range between $120-$123 a barrel and no breakout is expected ahead of the Easter weekend,” Fritsch said.

Data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed US gasoline stocks fell 1.8 million barrels and distillate stocks dropped 3.4 million barrels last week in an unexpected decline, which helped ease fears over eroding demand. “The API numbers were rather bullish and set a good platform for the oil data out of the US tonight to boost prices,” said Serene Lim, analyst at ANZ Bank in Singapore.

Ahead of the US Energy Information Administration’s weekly data due at 1430 GMT, a Reuters poll shows crude oil inventories are expected to have increased for the seventh straight time last week as crude impor ts rose faster than refiner y

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

BUSINESS

Kuwait likely to see budget surplus of KD 5.6bn-14.2bn KEC price climbed to $117 in April on Libyan concerns NBK ECONOMIC REPORT

NEW YORK: Members of the press gather around the 2011 Mini Cooper Countryman during the 2011 New York International Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York yesterday. —AFP

Saudi tenders to buy 330,000T wheat HAMBURG: Saudi Arabia’s state grains buyer has issued a tender to purchase 330,000 tons of milling wheat, European traders said yesterday.

Origin was optional and bidding deadline was April 22. The wheat was sought by the Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organisation (GFSMO) in three consignments for arrival between July 10-20, Aug. 1-10 and Aug. 20-30. Wheat of 12.5 percent protein content was sought to the Saudi ports of Jeddah and Dammam.

In recent purchases, Saudi Arabia has stepped back from its past requirements for 14 percent protein. In its last reported

tender on Feb. 27, the GFSMO bought 275,000 tons of wheat from the United States and Brazil.

Saudi officials said in February they planned to import around 2 million tons of wheat in 2011 like last year and will boost imports in coming years as the country ends local wheat production to save precious water. Saudi Arabia wants to build up reserves of basic commodities such as wheat, rice and sugar to counter a global spike in food prices. The arid desert kingdom hopes to double its wheat reserves to a year’s worth within three years. —Reuters

EU Commission seeks budget increase BRUSSELS: The European Union Commission said yesterday it is seeking a 4.9 percent increase in next year’s EU budget at a time it is pushing national governments across the continent to make painful spending cuts of their own.

The EU executive said it is forced to demand an increase because of previous commitments made to programs like scientific research and economic development. Last year, the approval of the 2011 budget turned into a battle of wills between Britain and several other member states fighting to force through extra austerity in times of crisis.

The EU parliament eventually approved an increase of 2.91 percent for 2011 after initially seeking a 6 percent rise. EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski insisted his hands were tied this year by previous promises in setting up his proposals.

If, for example the EU agreed to a seven-year funding program in 2007, it is legally bound to come up with part of the funds this year. “We must pay the bills coming from projects from across Europe,” Lewandowski said. “To stop funding them is unthinkable.” If they did, the EU could be sued for breach

of contract or member states would have to foot the same bill.

Under the proposal, the EU would spend 132.7 billion euros ($192.2 billion) in payments. Much of the budget is spent on agriculture and developing the poorer regions of the 27nation bloc.

Lewandowski pointed out such programs benefited some of the harshest critics of a stronger EU budget, notably Britain. He said that an electric interconnection between Britain and Ireland had a 100 million euros ($145 million) EU contribution, of which annual payment will double to 24 million euros ($34.8 million) next year.

“Stopping such projects halfway would be detrimental to whole communities,” he said. EU institutions like the Commission and parliament often have the reputation of bureaucratic centers of waste, but Lewandowski said only 6 percent of the budget went into the functioning of the institutions.

He said spending on administration was effectively frozen in his budget proposals, which included administrative cuts in staff training, travel and office expenditures. —AP

UK banks lose insurance mis-selling court appeal LONDON: Britain’s banks potentially faced billions of pounds’ worth of compensation claims after the High Court upheld new rules on how they should treat customers who accuse them of misselling insurance policies.

The banks said they had lost an appeal at the High Court which was aimed at thwarting new rules on how they should sell payment protection insurance (PPI).

Britain’s competition watchdog has been probing the possible mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI), which typically covers purchases paid for by instalments in the event of the buyer

becoming sick or unemployed. Last year, the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) brought a judicial review of whether the new standards on how to handle PPI complaints and redress customers, in force since December, can apply to old sales, but the High Court dismissed the challenge.

The BBA said it was “disappointed” and added it was considering whether to appeal against the ruling. “Any complaints that are directly affected by the judicial review and therefore cannot be decided will continue to be placed on hold until the next steps have been decided,” it said in a statement. —Reuters

KUWAIT: Oil prices took yet another leg up in early April. The price of Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) jumped to $117 per barrel (pb) on April 8, up from $108 at the end of last month and a similar average for March as a whole.

Other major benchmark crude prices also rose. The price of Brent crude - the main European blend breached the $120 mark for the first time since August 2008. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose $8 from late March to $112, but continues to trade at a discount to other crudes because of oversupply issues at its US delivery point.

Two key factors are responsible for the latest price rise. Firstly, fierce fighting between government and opposition forces has strengthened perceptions that Libyan oil will be shut-in for an extended period. Although a rebel-controlled oil company was set to make its first oil export shipment of some 1 million barrels in early April, the military superiority of the government forces has led some analysts to speculate about the possible targeting of the country’s oil infrastructure to choke-off rebel funding. African output was also disrupted by a strike by oil workers in Gabon, which normally produces some 240,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The second key factor has been the growing expectation subsequently realized on April 7th - of a rise in official interest rates in the Euro area. Widening the spread between Euro and US rates tends to weaken the US dollar, which typically boosts the price of dollar-denominated commodities. Something like this occurred in mid-2008, when a surprise hike in Euroland interest rates generated a $16 pb jump in crude prices in the space of just two days.

Oil demand outlook After last year’s huge rise of 2.9 million bpd (3.4%) - the second largest increase in 25 years - glob-

al oil demand growth is set to moderate in 2011. This is largely the result of reduced economic growth prospects as both monetary and fiscal policy are tightened. But in addition, high oil prices are themselves expected to provide a drag on demand, particularly in the slow-growth OECD region. The disaster in Japan is expected to reduce oil demand there in the very short-term. But this may be partially offset for 2011 as a whole by stronger oil demand as lost nuclear power generation capacity is replaced with conventional facilities. Japan accounts for around 5% of global oil demand.

The Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) both expect oil demand growth of 1.4 mbpd (1.6%) in 2011, bsed on flat-to-falling demand in the OECD region and growth of 3.3 to 3.7%% in non-OECD countries.

Within this overall figure, however, growth is expected to slow considerably in the second half of the year as the impact of policy tightening begins to feed through.

Oil supply outlook Output of the OPEC-11 countries (excluding Iraq) rose by 132,000 bpd (0.5%) in February.

This was its third big consecutive month-on-month increase and leaves output 0.7 mbpd above its November level. These figures do not include the full impact of the crisis in Libya on production levels, which should materialize in March’s data. Libyan output dropped 0.23 mbpd to 1.4 mbpd in February, but is said to have dropped to 0.2-0.3 mbpd since.

February’s drop in Libyan output was more than offset by a strong 280,000 bpd rise in Saudi Arabian output to 8.9 mbpd. It is likely to have risen further in March. Other countries, such as Venezuela, the UAE and Kuwait have also seen significant increases in output in recent months.

Analysts’ expectations of the rise in non-OPEC oil supply likely this year range between 0.5 and 1.3 mbpd, which includes around 0.5 mbpd of OPEC natural gas liquids (NGLs). This arithmetic suggests that OPEC may have to raise production significantly over and above that needed to compensate for Libya if the world oil market is to avoid another inventory drawdown this year. And if OPEC does increase production, markets could become increasingly edgy over the continued erosion of the organization’s spare production capacity (which some analysts put at below 3 mbpd), and therefore its ability to react to future shocks.

Price projections Our latest central projection for oil prices assumes that oil demand increases by a consensus-looking 1.4 mbpd this year.

Meanwhile, non-OPEC oil production (including OPEC NGLs) is projected to rise by an above-consensus 1.2 mbpd, with increases from Brazil, Canada and the Former Soviet Union. If stocks are to be rebuilt to more comfortable levels, OPEC may still need to increase its own production by some 1.6 mbpd.

Given the problems in Libya, the sluggish supply response from OPEC so far and the potential for new supply disruptions in Nigeria, for example - OPEC output seems unlikely to climb that far; a 0.9 mbpd increase might be more realistic. Under those conditions, stock levels remain more or less unchanged this year. The price of KEC would remain in the $105 to $110 pb range into early 2012.

It is possible, however, that OPEC output will fail to rise by even this much, either due to unexpected supply disruptions or because MENA policymakers become distracted by local political unrest. An OPEC production increase by 0.7 mbpd this year would generate a drop in stock

levels this year, sending crude prices higher for the rest of this year. The price of KEC would finish the year close to $130 pb.

On the other hand, the growth in global oil demand could turn out to be weaker than expected, either because of the impact on economic growth of policy tightening, or perhaps because of the disruption to Japanese exports and its knock-on effect on the global supply chain. If global oil demand rises by just 1.2 mbpd this year, the price of KEC could drop back to USD 90 by end-year.

This may not be a big enough drop to cause OPEC to cut back on its production levels.

Budget projections The price of KEC averaged $82.1 pb in FY 2010/11, up 20% on FY 2009/10. Although official figures have not yet been released, we expect this to have generated budget oil revenues which account for around 95% of all budget revenues - of some KD 19.7 billion, or 19% higher than in the closing accounts of the year before. If, as we expect, actual government spending comes in 5-10% below budget, last year’s budget surplus should end-up near KD4.7 billion before allocations to the Reserve Fund for Future Generations (RFFG). This incorporates unplanned spending of KD 1.1 billion arising from the Amiri cash grant paid to citizens in February.

The three price scenarios described above generate oil prices of between $94 and $121 pb in FY 2011/12 and would be very likely to yield another big budget surplus. Based upon preliminary government statements, total budget spending may be set at KD 17.9 billion this year. Based upon our assumptions, this would yield a surplus of between KD 5.6 billion and KD 14.2 billion, before allocations to the RFFG. This compares with the government’s projection of a KD 4.5 billion deficit.

IEA: High oil price slows China and US demand OPEC should be prepared to boost output in June or July SHANGHAI: High oil prices have hurt demand in top consumers China and the United States, and OPEC needs to raise output around June to stem further price rises, the International Energy Agency’s executive director said yesterday.

The IEA has already warned that high oil prices are threatening to slow global economic expansion, which would in turn erode the pace of growth in fuel demand.

A sustained price of $100 or more for the rest of 2011 would cause demand destruction similar to 2008, Tanaka told Reuters in an interview. Then, fuel demand fell as the world economy reeled from the impact of the global financial crisis. “There is a six-month lag for the world economy to fully show the impact of high oil prices. But if they stay at current levels, the consequences will be bad,” he said.

Earlier this week, Tanaka described signs of the slowdown in demand as “alarming”. Oil prices have risen to their highest levels since 2008 this year. Brent touched $127 a barrel earlier in April, and US crude rose above $113, on worries of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Investors and speculators would need to heed the growing chorus of warnings and “not repeat the same mistake made in 2008”, when the price of crude was driven to over $147 a barrel, Tanaka said.

Global demand fell by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2008 and 1.3 million bpd in 2009, according to the IEA. Oil markets were well supplied for now, but producer group OPEC would need to boost output in June or July as European refineries come back online after seasonal maintenance and as Japan begins reconstruction in the wake of its devastating earthquake and tsunami last month, Tanaka said.

“As Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi has always said: Saudi will fill the gap,” Tanaka said. “So please, OPEC countries need to make sure this happens when demand comes back.”

OPEC next meets in June to discuss supply policy, but has to date taken no coordinated action to boost supply to cool prices. Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said this week it cut supply in March from February as the market was oversupplied. The kingdom had ramped up output in February to plug the gap in supplies left by Libya, where civil war disrupted exports.

OPEC ministers have joined the growing

WASHINGTON: An Exxon gas station near the Watergate complex in Washington, DC shows gas prices at $5 per gallon. Instability in the Middle East and oil speculation have kept gas prices rising steadily across the US. —AFP chorus this week of those warning that costly oil could place a major strain on consumer countries with fragile economies.

China’s measures to cool growth and slow inflation had contributed to a slowdown in demand there, Tanaka said, but high prices had played their part. Year-on-year, Chinese oil demand growth slowed to 9.6 percent in February from 16 percent in December, Tanaka said.

“We have already observed slower oil demand growth rates in China. Clearly, the speed of growth is declining,” Tanaka told Reuters.

“Part of it would be monetary tightening but high oil prices also play a big role. The government has been deregulating the gasoline prices each month and certainly, that has eaten up some demand growth.”

The question for oil markets is whether Chinese demand growth, which has driven global oil consumption growth for a decade, is slowing faster than expected.

The rate of Chinese annual oil demand growth was expected to slow to between 5-7 percent in 2011, according to a Reuters poll, down from a 12 percent increase in 2010.

That would still have meant annual growth of 450,000 to 550,000 barrels per day, or around a third of the IEA’s global demand growth forecast of 1.44 million bpd for 2011.

Implied oil demand in March was up 11 percent on the year, according to Reuters’ calculations, ahead of forecast growth.

Global gas demand would likely see a big boost in the coming years after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami damaged nuclear plants there, Tanaka said. Some governments would shy away from building new reactors and old nuclear plants could get retired earlier than expected.

That would erode the glut in gas supplies in global markets earlier than previously expected, Tanaka said.

“Governments will increase the use of gas for power generation. The current glut in gas supplies will evaporate very quickly,” he said.

“Gas demand could be much, much tighter in the future,” he said, adding that the agency was in the process of revising its gas demand outlook.

Tanaka has previously said the supply glut in global gas markets could take until the end of the decade to clear. —Reuters

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

business

Kenya, Uganda protest as maize prices skyrocket NAIROBI, Kenya: Stephen Omandi scratched out the number “55” on the sign advertising buckets of maize and wrote in the new price: 60 Kenya shillings. The price hike amounted to only $0.06. But for the residents of Nairobi’s largest slum, where most people live on $1 a day, that 10 percent increase is enough to make the essential food stuff unaffordable.

“We haven’t gotten many customers because they complain, ‘Why have you increased the price?”‘ said Omandi. “Five shillings. It’s a lot of money, because many people could not afford it at 55, and now it’s 60.” Food prices are rising across the globe, driven in part by the higher transport costs that accompany rising oil prices. The World Bank said last week that food prices are 36 percent higher today than a year ago, and are pushing people “deeper into poverty.”

But no region has been hit harder by rising food costs than Africa over the last three months. Wheat costs 87 percent more in Sudan. Rice is up 30 percent in Chad. Maize has risen at least 25 percent in Uganda, Somalia, Mozambique and Kenya.

Omandi used to sell 40 small buckets of maize a day, but on one recent day — the first of his most recent price hike — he sold only two. Omandi was forced to increase his price because the government had just raised the price ceiling it sets for gasoline.

The whole cycle made customers grumble.

“They said, ‘Have you increased it again?’ It used to be 35 Kenya shillings late last year.

Now it has increased almost 100 percent,” Omandi said.

About 100 people blocked traffic near parliament in downtown Nairobi on Tuesday to protest the price increases. A day earlier the government cut taxes on kerosene and diesel, but protesters said the cuts were too small. Yash Pal Ghai, a constitutional law expert who took part in the demonstration, said the issue was both prices and corruption.

“The revenue authority said recently that one-third of the (tax) revenue is stolen by politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen,” he said. “Some people have a single meal a day while others live in obscene luxury and comfort. It is amazing there has not been a rebellion by now.” Some parliamentarians were heckled as they were driven in luxury vehicles into parliament, where a debate on food costs was held. One demonstrator held a sign that read: “Parliamentarians are just filling their potbellies while the common citizen is getting thinner.” In Uganda, Kenya’s western neighbor, the country’s top opposition politician has led three marches over the last 10 days to protest higher food and fuel prices. Police have unleashed tear gas and bullets on the protests, and even shot the opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, in the hand. Protests have been held countrywide. Thomas Mugisha, a worker in a mattress factory in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, said he now walks to work because the price of public transport rose from $0.30 to $0.60. The protest walks have been a reflection of that reality. “We decided to walk to places of work as a sign of solidarity with

other many Ugandans who are suffering from high prices,” said Alice Alaso, an opposition parliamentarian who invoked the example of the French Revolution during an interview. She complained of high military spending at a time when people can’t even afford food.

“Our government has become insensitive toward its people’s suffering,” she said.

The price of maize in Uganda has risen 114 percent over the last year, according to the World Bank. That’s the highest yearover-year increase in the world. Gasoline and meat prices are also soaring.

“We used to eat meat three times a week, but now we eat beans due to the high price of meat,” said Zaida Namuli, 35, a Kampala resident. An elementary school teacher, Silvia Acha, said she pays twice as much for rice as she used to, but that her $85 monthly salary has remained unchanged. “The government should come to our aid,” she said. The World Bank said much of the recent increase of food prices was due to a 21 percent rise in oil prices in the first quarter, which increased because of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. Higher crude oil prices mean products like corn and vegetable oil are more frequently used as biofuels. Transportation costs rise. “More poor people are suffering and more people could become poor because of high and volatile food prices,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. “We have to put food first and protect the poor and vulnerable, who spend most of their money on food.” In Nairobi’s largest slum, Kibera, many

NAIROBI: Kenyan protesters hold placards during a demonstration against food and fuel prices hikes in Nairobi. Food prices are rising across the globe, driven in part by the higher transport costs that accompany rising oil prices. But no region has been hit harder by rising food costs than Africa over the last three months. — AP people eat what more affluent Kenyans simply don’t want: Dried mini sardines, cow lungs, and fish heads discarded from higher-end shops and restaurants.

Many of the slum’s youngest are fed by the World Food Program or aid groups. First Love, a US group, feeds 1,150 students a day in Kibera. Breakfast is a cup of porridge.

“Kids will sneak an extra cup and take it home. We’re OK with that because we know that will be his dinner,” said the group’s Philip Muthui, who was fed by the program

Japan trade surplus dives after quake and tsunami Rising oil and raw material prices worrisome TOKYO: Japan’s exports fell for the first time in 16 months and its trade surplus plunged after a record earthquake and tsunami hit production, the finance ministry said yesterday.

The country may fall into a trade deficit in the near term amid rising oil and raw material prices, which inflated the value of March imports and ate into the trade balance, analysts said.

The latest data further illustrate the emerging impact of the March 11 disasters, in which a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it unleashed devastated swathes of the northeast coast and triggered an atomic emergency.

Economists see Japan sliding into a temporary recession after the devastation to infrastructure and manufacturing facilities in the northeast, amid the nation’s worst crisis since World War II. “If Japan posts a trade deficit in April and May, GDP is also likely to contract in the April-June period,” said Akiyoshi Takumori, chief economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.

Japan’s trade surplus in March stood at 196.5 billion yen ($2.37 billion), down 78.9 percent but still managing to stay in the black for the second successive month, the finance ministry said. Exports in March dropped 2.2 percent to 5.87 trillion yen, falling for the first time in 16 months due to reduced shipments of automobiles, it said.

Expectations in a joint poll by Dow Jones and the Nikkei financial daily had been of a 2.0 percent decline. The fall was led by vehicle exports, which contracted 27.8 percent, the ministry said, after Japan’s leading automakers were forced to halt production amid broken

supply chains and power shortages.

The export fall is likely to continue, said Japan Foreign Trade Council chairman Shoei Utsuda.

“I cannot help but think the fall in April might be even sharper,” he told Japanese reporters, calling the rate of the drop in March “unprecedented”.

The yen came under pressure in Asia on Wednesday after the trade data, weakening to 82.90 against the dollar from 82.57 yen in New York late Tuesday.

“As the data showed a clear picture of sluggish exports, the market moved to dollar buying against the yen,” said Sumino Kamei, senior analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. “The data revealed a steep decline in automobile exports. As the supply chain damaged by the quake has not been restored yet, it is seen to take time until automobile exports will recover.”

Many key component manufacturers are based in the worst-hit regions of Japan, their facilities damaged by the earthquake or inundated by the giant wave that followed. Shortages are expected to last for months.

The parts shortage has hit companies and production worldwide. After stopping domestic production on March 11, Toyota Motor gradually reopened factories and is now operating at 50 percent capacity as it struggles to secure necessary parts.

Toyota also suffered production disruptions in the United States, European Union and Australia, and said yesterday it will reduce auto production at its Chinese plants by 50-70 percent until June 3.

Toyota president and chief executive

TOKYO: Pedestrians walk in front of an electronic share prices board in Tokyo yesterday. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average rose 165.79 points, or 1.76 percent, from April 19 to 9,606.82. — AFP officer Akio Toyoda said at the Shanghai auto show that “due to the situation in Japan, I hesitated to come to China right up until the last minute”.

March Japanese imports rose for the 15th straight month, increasing 11.9 percent to 5.67 trillion yen, on surging prices of oil and iron ore, the ministry said. The value of oil imports rose 14.8 percent, while the value of iron ore imports soared 74.9 percent and coal imports also rose 39.4 percent.

Procurement of manufacturing par ts from overseas also boosted

Nasdaq EPS hits record amid NYSE takeover row NEW YORK: Nasdaq OMX Group, the exchange operator battling to buy out crosstown rival NYSE, showed few signs it was distracted from its core business as it logged record profit on the back of robust derivatives trading.

Excluding one-time items, the company’s per-share profit was a record 61 cents per share, matching the average analyst estimate as compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Nasdaq this month joined with IntercontinentalExchange to bid for Big Board parent NYSE Euronext, which earlier this year agreed to be acquired by Germany’s Deutsche Boerse AG. Though NYSE’s board rejected the higher offer from Nasdaq and ICE, the pair sweetened the bid on Tuesday with a promise to pay NYSE Euronext $350 million if regulators block their takeover plan-a move meant to ease the board’s antitrust worries, and to draw them to the negotiating table.

“The takeover battle didn’t appear to impact them whatsoever, they had a record quarter,” said Richard Repetto, analyst at Sandler O’Neil. “Almost all revenue lines increased, and they continue to see pretty big jumps in their data centers.” Revenue rose 15 percent to $415 million, better than the $409 million expected by analysts. Costs rose 12 percent from last year, offset by a 26 percent

rise in trading-based revenue at the USbased, trans-Atlantic company.

While the parent of the Nasdaq Stock Market hit a market share nadir of 19 percent in all US stock-trading, it logged a 31 percent rise in derivatives trading, helped by the market reaction to unrest in North Africa and Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.

When Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld unveiled the takeover plan on

April 1, he said record earnings in the first quarter in part made the move possible. It was the second straight record in terms of earnings per share, helped by recent share repurchases. “The discipline we have shown in managing our business is allowing us to pursue gamechanging opportunities in our industry,” the CEO said in a statement after quarterly results were released on Wednesday. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: This photo provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (right) meeting with Haitian President-elect Michel Martelly at IMF headquarters in Washington on Tuesday. —AFP

imports, analysts said. The disaster has depressed Japan’s business and consumer confidence, as Tokyo Electric Power Co, which operates the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, makes slow progress to stop the world’s worst atomic disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion.

The ministry said Japanese exports for the year to March rose 14.9 percent to 67.8 trillion yen, while imports were up 15.9 percent to 62.4 trillion, putting the annual trade surplus at 5.4 trillion yen, a 3.9 percent rise. — AFP

himself when he was a student. In Kibera’s skinny dirt lanes, where goods are transported by wheelbarrow, Benjamin Mwalepe sells buckets of charcoal for $0.30. Mwalepe, who cares for six children, some his nieces and nephews, noted that the price of a jerry can of potable water has risen from $0.03 two months ago to $0.05 today. When asked what costs more today, he answered “everything.” But there is no more money, so there’s only one solution. “You have to eat a smaller portion,” he said. —AP

Portugal raises $1.4 billion at debt auction LISBON: Portugal raised 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) at a short-term debt auction at higher interest rates as it negotiates terms of a badly needed bailout to avert bankruptcy. The government debt agency said it sold 680 million euros in 3-month bills at an average interest rate of 4 percent, up from 3.7 percent at the last such auction in January. Demand for the debt was double the amount sold. The agency also sold 320 million euros in 6-month bills at an average rate of 5.5 percent, up from 5.1 percent on April 6. It was 3.7 times oversubscribed.

Portugal requested a bailout this month as it struggles with a mountain of debt and years of sluggish economic growth. Delegations from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF have been in Lisbon since Monday to start negotiations on terms of the rescue — in particular the interest rate. The bailout could amount to 80 billion euros.

The delegations were meeting Wednesday with Portuguese business leaders, after conferring Tuesday with unions, which came out of the talks sounding feisty about austerity-oriented strings that would almost certainly come attached to the bailout package. Joao Proenca, leader of the General Union of Workers, said late Tuesday that the visiting lenders did not give an amount of how much the bailout might total. “We asked questions that are essential for us,” he told reporters.

Proenca said future sacrifices needed to cut Portugal’s deficit “are linked to social justice” and should not pose further hardship for poor people, workers who earn low wages or pensioners.

Portugal has already implemented several series of austerity measures and opposition parties’ rejection of the latest one prompted Prime Minister Jose Socrates to tender his resignation on March 23. He now leads a caretaker government, with elections due in June. The bailout talks are expected to take several weeks. Portugal is eight weeks away from possible bankruptcy. Officials admit they won’t have enough money to settle a 7 billion euros debt falling due mid-June and have asked for financial help amid a cash crunch that is threatening the provision of basic services. —AP

Home Retail hunts for new growth in consumer gloom LONDON: Home Retail, Britain’s biggest household goods retailer, plans to expand into TV shopping, books and childrenswear as it battles a grim consumer outlook and stiff competition from grocers and online retailers.

The group, which runs catalogue-based Argos stores and the Homebase do-it-yourself chain, said yesterday it expected trading conditions to remain difficult for at least this year as shoppers struggle with rising prices, subdued wages growth, austerity measures and worry about higher interest rates.

However, its shares climbed over 5 percent in early trading after it met reduced forecasts with a 13 percent fall in annual profit and reiterated its sales forecasts for the coming year. “They’ve not taken a step back, which in itself is a positive,” said Peel Hunt analyst John Stevenson.

Home Retail boss Terry Duddy said the group also deserved to be reappraised after Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, said on Tuesday its general merchandise sales were under pressure.

“If your best supermarket, who’s supposed to be gaining market share against you, is actually performing slightly worse, you’ve got to get a reappraisal of the Argos performance,” he told reporters on a conference call. Home Retail said it would continue to invest to prepare for an eventual consumer recovery, with capital spending edging up to around 150 million pounds this financial year from 143 million the year before.

Initiatives at Argos include launching a new home shopping television channel in the summer, expanding in children’s clothes and launch-

ing a trial with a third party to sell books, which could also be extended into other product categories.

The firm, Britain’s second-biggest internet retailer, will also continue to invest in revamping stores and expanding its mobile shopping offering with new applications for Android mobile phone devices and the Apple iPad. Some analysts remained skeptical whether the investments would do much to offset the challenge Argos faces from online retailers like Amazon and supermarket groups.

“Incremental business is always good, but it doesn’t address the core threat,” said Peel Hunt’s Stevenson. Profit before tax and one-off items fell to 254 million pounds ($415 million) in the year ended Feb. 26, in line with reduced forecasts following a profit warning last month.

Sales dipped 3 percent to 5.85 billion pounds.

While a string of British retailers have issued profit warnings in recent months, Home Retail has been particularly hard hit as its predominantly low income customers are suffering the most severe squeeze on their budgets.

Analysts expect underlying profit for 2011-12 to fall to around 210 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Home Retail reiterated forecasts made last month that it expects a low-to-mid single digit percentage fall in likefor-like sales at Argos this financial year, along with a broadly flat outcome at Homebase.

It added costs would rise a little at both businesses, driven by higher input prices and its investments. — Reuters

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

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TECHNOLOGY

EMC expands greenplum big data analytics appliance family KUWAIT: EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced three new additions to its EMC Greenplum Data Computing Appliance (DCA) line of products - the High Capacity DCA, the High Per formance DCA and the Data Integration Accelerator - and version 4.1 of Greenplum Database. High Capacity DCA and High Performance DCA join the first and award-winning Data Computing Appliance (announced in October 2010) to expand the EMC Greenplum family of lightning-fast data warehouse systems that leverage massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture to enable Big Data to be processed and analyzed significantly faster at substantially lower cost. The announcement comes on the same day that SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, said that it will expand its high-performance computing offerings with the introduction of SAS High-Per formance Analytics on the EMC Data Computing Appliance platform.

“EMC is truly driving the future of data warehousing and analytics with the release of its Data

Computing Appliance family of products. There’s a growing recognition that there are new valuegeneration opportunities that can arise from assembling unprecedented amounts of information. The Performance and Capacity versions of EMC Data Computing Appliance enable organizations to gain greater insight and value from Big Data to support new business initiatives, new competitive advantages, new sources of revenue and new ways of doing research, while addressing the increasing needs for performance and storage options,” said Wael El Nadi, Technology Solutions Manager, Middle East, North West Africa, EMC. “The requirement to turn all data into actionable information is only accelerating and requires companies to adopt new and more effective strategies to manage Big Data. Together with SAS HighPerformance Analytics, these new Greenplum offerings from EMC demonstrate continued innovation and a world of new opportunities for our mutual customers,” said Keith Collins, SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

The EMC Data Computing Appliance line of purpose-built, highly scalable data warehousing appli-

ances integrate database, computing, storage and network into an enterprise-class, easy-toimplement system. The core base-model EMC DCA is the foundation of this product line. It is the industry’s best price/performance leader and has the ability to scale up to 864TB of uncompressed data. Technology enhancements enable new and advanced applications of EMC DCA: • The High Capacity EMC DCA is designed to host petabyte-levels of data without taking up additional space, surging power consumption or increasing costs. For businesses that require detailed analysis of extremely large amounts of data, this model offers the lowest cost-per-unit data warehouse.

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•

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At the heart of the EMC DCA family of products is version 4.1 of Greenplum Database. This new version introduces new functionality that simplifies Hadoop integration, extends the range of analytics functions, improves client and application connectivity and expands on the platform’s workload management and system health monitoring capabilities.

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Apple to ship new iPhone in September Suppliers include Wintek, Foxconn Tech and Largan HONG KONG: Apple Inc’s next-generation iPhone will have a faster processor and will begin shipping in September, three people with direct knowledge of the company’s supply chain said. The production of the new iPhone will start in July/August and the smartphone will look largely similar to the iPhone 4, one of the people said yesterday.

MADRID: In this Jan. 19, 2011 photo a lawyer representing Google, Javier Aparicio, left, speaks during a court hearing in Madrid. Their ranks include a plastic surgeon, a prison guard and a high school principal. All are Spanish, but have little else in common except this: They want old Internet references about them that pop up in Google searches wiped away. — AP

‘Right to be Forgotten’ debate hits Spain MADRID: Their ranks include a plastic surgeon, a prison guard and a high school principal. All are Spanish, but have little else in common except this: They want old Internet references about them that pop up in Google searches wiped away.

In a case that Google Inc. and privacy experts call a first of its kind, Spain’s Data Protection Agency has ordered the search engine giant to remove links to material on about 90 people. The information was published years or even decades ago but is available to anyone via simple searches.

Scores of Spaniards lay claim to a “Right to be Forgotten” because public information once hard to get is now so easy to find on the Internet. Google has decided to challenge the orders and has appealed five cases so far this year to the National Court.

Some of the information is embarrassing, some seems downright banal. A few cases involve lawsuits that found life online through news reports, but whose dismissals were ignored by media and never appeared on the Internet. Others concern administrative decisions published in official regional gazettes. In all cases, the plaintiffs petitioned the agency individually to get information about them taken down. And while Spain is backing the individuals suing to get links taken down, experts say a victory for the plaintiffs could create a troubling precedent by restricting access to public information.

The issue isn’t a new one for Google, whose search engine has become a widely used tool for learning about the backgrounds about potential mates, neighbors and coworkers. What it shows can affect romantic relationships, friendships and careers. For that reason, Google regularly receives pleas asking that it remove links to embarrassing information from its search index or least ensure the material is buried in the back pages of its results. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., almost always refuses in order to preserve the integrity of its index.

A final decision on Spain’s case could take months or even years because appeals can be made to higher courts. Still, the ongoing fight in Spain is likely to gain more prominence because the European Commission this year is expected to craft controversial legislation to give people more power to delete personal information they previously posted online.

“This is just the beginning, this right to be forgotten, but it’s going to be much more important in the future,” said Artemi Rallo, director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency. “Google is just 15 years old, the Internet is barely a generation old and they are beginning to detect problems that affect privacy. More and more people are going to see things on the Internet that they don’t want to be there.” Many details about the Spaniards taking on Google via the government are shrouded in secrecy to protect the privacy of the plaintiffs. But the case of plastic surgeon Hugo Guidotti vividly illustrates the debate. In Google searches, the first link that pops up is his clinic, complete with pictures of a bare-breasted women and a muscular man as evidence of what plastic surgery can do for clients. But the second link takes readers to a 1991 story in Spain’s leading El Pais newspaper about a woman who sued him for the equivalent of §5 million for a breast job that she said went bad.

Guidotti, whose case is one of the first five appealed by Google, declined requests for an

interview. His lawyer says the original lawsuit was dropped after Guidotti was cleared.

No media ever published stories about the end of the lawsuit so the news never made it to the Internet, said the lawyer, Gabriel Gomez. As a result, the surgeon “has no way of measuring it, but naturally it did him harm,” said Gomez said. “I’m sure that people consulted his name and said, ‘I’m not going to that doctor.”‘ The names of other people defended by the data agency haven’t been made public, but Rallo has provided some details about the cases.

The high school principal, he said, was angry that his citation for urinating in public can be seen by students and parents. It was originally published in an official regional government gazette. And the prison guard is worried that a link to a job-related sanction that pops up in Google listing his name might put family at risk for retribution by criminals because they might be able to find out where he works. Spanish police and prison guards are often granted widespread anonymity because of fears they could be identified, located and targeted by the armed Basque separatist group ETA. Spain has no Freedom of Information law guaranteeing access to documents, and Rallo said that “a person who has been notified about a sanction or absolved of an offense doesn’t want it known by others forever.” As an example, he cited the case of a person accused of homicide four decades ago who was not convicted because a court ruled the suspect suffered from a temporary mental illness. The man has since recovered. “Anyone who keys his name into Google 40 years later can fish out the original news of the accusation but not what happened after the information and this is causing him serious harm in his daily life,” Rallo said, declining to identify the man.

Spain has no a specific law guaranteeing a right to be forgotten, but it does have legislation covering data protection and privacy that Rallo’s agency has deemed to apply to the Google case. Google and privacy experts fear that a ruling against Google would turn it into a publisher responsible for what its searches turn up. And that, they say, could severely limit access to information that exploded with the introduction of searches.

“Google becoming the God of not only publishing but also the God of deletion is a phenomenally scary notion,” said Jules Polonetsky, director of the U.S. Future of Privacy Forum in Washington.

While Spain’s data agency says it will only carefully select cases of people who want searches deleted, Polonetsky said new government restrictions could easily mushroom.

“I don’t think I want China to tell Google what it can publish about its citizens,” he said.

Google says Spain should force the publications that made the material available via Internet to embed coding that would tell search engines not to index the information, and that it can’t be held responsible for what others publish. Doing so “would have a profound chilling effect on free expression,” said Peter Barron, Google’s director of external relations for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Spain’s National Court has now asked European Union justice officials for advice on the case. The legislation being researched by the EU will focus on data, photos and videos people post of themselves on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and others that they later want taken down.—AP

The iPhone-introduced in 2007 with the touchscreen, on-demand application template now adopted by its rivals- remains the gold standard in the booming smartphone market.

Reports on the timeline of the new iPhone launch vary, though it is largely expected that Apple will likely refresh its iPhone 4 later this year.

The sources declined to be identified because the plans for the new iPhone were not yet public. An Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong was not available for comment.

The iPhone is one of Apple’s most successful products, with more than 16 million sold in the last quarter of 2010 and the product accounted for more than a third of the company’s sales in the quarter.The current iPhone 4 was launched by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs in June last year and began shipping the same month in 2010.

Apple sources many of its components from Taiwan-based suppliers, many of whom are expected to benefit from an uptick in sales as some of them rely on the US company for about 20-40 percent of their business, said Vincent Chen, an analyst at Yuanta Securities.

“For some suppliers, Apple is their cash cow, or their bread and butter,” Chen said.

“With all these versions being

launched so frequently, it will be the so-called low-margin suppliers, such as those that assemble the phones, who will benefit the most.”

Suppliers to the new iPhone include camera module maker Largan Precision Co Ltd , touchscreen panel maker Wintek Corp and case maker Foxconn Technology Co Ltd , two of the people said.

The companies would begin production either in July or August before shipping components to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd , flagship of Foxconn Technology Group, for assembly, they said.

Officials at Largan, Wintek and Foxconn declined to comment.

Yesterday, Largan’s Taipei-listed shares ended up 3.7 percent, Hon Hai rose 4.3 percent and Foxconn rose 6.6 percent, outpacing the benchmark TAIEX share index’s 2 percent advance.

Apple, a big purchaser of touchscreen displays and flash memory, is also dependent on Japan for some of its key components, sparking concern that the disruption due to the crisis there may hurt its gross margins.

Apple is expected to report another spectacular quarter on Wednesday, tempered by growing caution over how supply constraints will squeeze margins and restrain iPhone and iPad sales. — Reuters

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S, left, and Apple’s iPhone 4 are displayed at a mobile phone shop in Seoul, South Korea. — AP

S Korean firm unveils robot playmate for kids SEOUL: South Korean telecoms operator KT yesterday rolled out a robot playmate for children in a move aimed at cashing in on the potentially lucrative industry. Kibot, which has a monkey face and a display panel on its body, can read books, sing songs, play online games and wheel around with its cheeks blinking and head tilting.

The robot, about 20 centimetres (eight inches) tall, also allows children to make video phonecalls to their parents when an electronic card is placed on its face.

Kibot, targeting those aged three to seven, can also tell children “Let’s play” along with a few other expressions-such as “It feels good” in response to a pat.

Parents can remotely control it by mobile phone and monitor children via a camera embedded in Kibot, said KT, the nation’s second-largest wireless operator.

The robot made by local firm iriver, in which KT invested 4 billion won ($3.68 million), costs 485,000 won ($447) in addition to the monthly wireless bill.

“Kibot will be like a friend for kids, who constantly need something by their side to touch, see and play with,” Seo Yu-Yeol, head of KT ’s home business group, told reporters. The former state-run firm in 2005 developed several robots as part of a national campaign to promote the industry but met with a lukewarm response. Seo said things have changed with wireless networks so common and smartphones ubiquitous.South Korea last year deployed about 30 robots to teach English to schoolchildren in a pilot project designed to nurture the nascent industry, in which it pledged to invest 100 billion won over three years. — AFP

SEOUL: A child plays with a robot playmate entitled “Kibot” which has a monkey face and a display panel on its body during its launching event in Seoul yesterday. Parents can remotely control the robot by mobile phone and monitor children via a camera embedded in Kibot. — AFP

$16m Malaysia email plan sparks big online protest KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of Malaysians mocked a 50 million ringgit ($16 million) plan to offer governmentlinked email accounts to all adults, saying yesterday that most Internet users already have free email service. The project has swiftly turned into an embarrassment for Malaysia’s government, which is often accused of spending lavish sums on unnecessary initiatives spearheaded by companies that have friendly ties with government officials.

Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the “1 Malaysia Email Project” Tuesday as part of efforts to boost administrative efficiency. It aims to provide an estimated 16 million Malaysians with free email accounts to facilitate direct online communication between them and government agencies.

Within 24 hours of Najib’s announcement, more than 22,000 people had joined a Facebook group opposing the project. Many ridiculed it on online forums, describing it as a publicity stunt that was pointless because Internet users already have free email accounts on Google, Yahoo and Hotmail. “Please use this money to help poor people, they need food more than email,” wrote one of the Facebook group’s members, Yap Fook Sin. Najib has since assured taxpayers that their cash would not be used for the project, which Malaysian technology firm Tricubes hopes to have ready for public use in July. “Before I sleep, let me clarify that the 1 Malaysia E Mail is a private sector project. No public money is involved,” Najib wrote on Twitter after midnight Wednesday. Nevertheless, many fear the project is an attempt to bolster a financially troubled but well-connected company, and that the government will eventually need to spend some money for its use.The Prime Minister’s Department says the project would require an investment of 50 million ringgit through 2020, which would include setting up a website for social networking and bill payments.

Some people claim the project could also be an effort to spread government propaganda. The email addresses are expected to contain the word “1Malaysia,” a slogan widely used by Najib’s administration to promote national unity. It is the second time in recent months that a high-profile venture announced by Najib attracted widespread scorn. —AP

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Years

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

Attractive men have long... ring fingers: Study PARIS: The longer a man’s fourth or ring finger is compared to his index finger, the more likely he is to be judged attractive by women, according to a study released yesterday.

The results, published in the British Royal Society ’s journal Biological Sciences, unveil intricate links between foetal exposure of males to hormones, the development of certain physical traits, and what turns on the opposite sex. It also adds to a growing body of research-conducted under the banner of evolutionary psychology-suggesting that the drivers of human behaviour are found, more than previously suspected, in “nature” rather than “nurture.”

Earlier studies had already shown that the size ratio between the fourth and second fingers, especially of the right hand, is a reliable indicator of the extent a man was exposed to testosterone while still in the womb.

The bigger the gap between a longer ring finger and a shorter index, the greater the likely impact of the hormone.

For the new study, scientists led by Camille Ferdenzi of the University of Geneva designed an experiment to find out if women are drawn to the telltale signs of high testosterone levels in mena symmetrical face, a deeper voice, a particular body odour-who have this

more “masculine” finger configuration.

More than 80 women university students between 18 and 34 looked at pictures of 49 similarly aged men, and were asked to evaluate them for masculinity and attractiveness.

Smaller groups of women listened to recordings of the male voices, and smelled samples of their body odour, taken from cotton pads worn under the arm for 24 hours.

“The aim was to understand what makes a man attractive,” and whether at least some of those qualities “were in part conditioned by the foetal environment,” Ferdenzi said in an interview.

For the visual test, the results were

unambiguous. “The longer the ring finger compared to the index-that is, the greater the exposure to testosteronethe more attractive the face was rated,” she said by phone.

“We also found that attractiveness and symmetry in the face are highly correlated.” Surprisingly, however, women did not consistently tag the same men as “masculine”.

Nor did their preferences for voice or odours correspond to the longer ringfinger males. “There wasn’t any relation between the 2D-4D” — 2nd digit, 4th digit-”ratio and the reactions of the women to odour,” Ferdenzi said.

One reason, she speculated, may be

that voice and body odour are more dependent on fluctuating levels of adult testosterone than on pre-natal testosterone. The ring-index finger ratio has also proven to be a useful indicator for gauging the risk of prostate cancer, likewise tied to high levels of testosterone.

Research published in December showed that the chances of developing the disease drop by a third in men whose index finger is longer than their ring finger.

Other studies have also found a link between exposure to hormones before birth and the development of other diseases, including breast cancer and osteoarthritis. — AFP

Faster and cheaper genome advances propel cancer care ‘It is a complex genetic disease’

VANCOUVER: Jesse James Matlock, 4, gets a kiss from his mother, Tasha Gaul outside their home in Vancouver, Wash., April 19. Jesse’s right eye was operated on by mistake and will possibly have to go through more surgery to correct the mistake. — AP

Deadly ovarian cancer starts elsewhere: Study WASHINGTON: US researchers have recreated the process by which ovarian cancer forms in the lab, providing solid evidence that the tumors start in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries, a study said.

The finding could provide clues on how to attack ovarian cancer, which often causes no early symptoms and by the time it is found has spread so much that the tumors are impossible to stop.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth deadliest cancer among women, affecting 200,000 women worldwide annually and killing 115,000 women on average each year.

Several studies have theorized that the cancer may originate elsewhere, but the latest research by scientists at the DanaFarber Cancer Institute in Boston shows how the cancer takes root first in fallopian tissue. The fallopian tubes are the pathways by which a woman’s egg travels from the ovary to the uterus as part of her reproductive cycle.

Ronny Drapkin, senior author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said previous examinations of fallopian tissue taken from women genetically predisposed to ovarian

cancer have shown “patches of cells that were predecessors of serious cancers.”

So they decided to try and replicate the process of cancer formation in the lab.

Researchers took fallopian cells and altered their genetic programming so they would divide much like cancer cells.

“Like true tumor cells, these ‘artificial’ cancer cells proliferated rapidly and were able to leave their home tissue and grow elsewhere,” said the study.

“When implanted in laboratory animals, they also gave rise to tumors that were structurally, behaviorally, and genomically similar to human HGSOC (high-grade serious ovarian cancer).”

Drapkin said the findings demonstrate that fallopian cells are the source of ovarian cancer, and offer clues for future treatment.

“Such studies will help us identify different types of high-grade serous ovarian cancer, as well as possibly discover biomarkersproteins in the blood-that signal the presence of the disease,” said Drapkin, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

“Ultimately, the model will enable us to test potential therapies to determine which work best in each type of the disease.” — AFP

Oral pill trial to halt HIV in women is stopped WASHINGTON: A trial of an oral pill aimed at preventing HIV infection in African women has been halted due to poor results, the trial operator Family Health International announced this week.

The US Centers for Disease Control described the results as “disappointing,” and in a Monday statement said the trial’s monitoring committee had decided it “could not demonstrate efficacy even if it continued to its originally planned conclusion.”

The same oral treatment, known as preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention, has been shown to reduce risk of HIV transmission among men who have sex with men by between 73 and 90 percent.

The trial included 2,000 African women in Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. Trial subjects were taking oral tenofovir and emtricitabine, marketed as Truvada by the California-based Gilead Sciences Inc., or a placebo.

Researchers said that the rate of new HIV infections in both the drug and placebo groups was the same, with 56 new HIV cases

equally distributed across both sections of the study. They also noted that the overall pregnancy rate among women in the study was nine percent, with the highest rates seen in women taking birth control pills. More study is needed to determine if the anti-HIV treatment had a disabling effect on the oral contraceptives.

“While this development was not what we would have hoped for, Gilead believes that antiretroviral therapies remain a promising potential HIV prevention strategy,” Gilead Sciences said in a statement.

“We continue to support ongoing studies evaluating the company’s antiretroviral therapies as potential preventatives.”

The CDC sent out an email announcement about the FHI trial’s end on Monday.

“Given today’s results, CDC cautions against women using PrEP for HIV prevention at this time,” it said.

“We will not know if PrEP is effective for women, couples, or injection drug users until the conclusive results of this and other trials are reported.” —AFP

SEATTLE: This Thursday, April 14, 2011 photo shows Jameson Florence, left, and Mark Jablonski as they smoke La Traviata cigars outside the Rain City Cigar shop in Seattle. Washington used to have cigar bars and lounges. But a ban on all indoor smoking in 2005 put them out of business. — AP

WASHINGTON: Genome-sequencing is getting cheaper and faster, and can eliminate the guesswork in treating cancer by offering personalized clues on how to best attack tumors, US doctors said yesterday.

The human genome was first sequenced in 2003, followed by the first cancer tumor in 2008, intriguing doctors with a new and unparalleled potential for targeting care.

However, controversy lingers over the ethical questions that arise as people begin to learn more about their genetic maps, from concerns over medical privacy to decisions about childbearing and scanning offspring for genetic flaws. Two studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association detail how one patient’s genome led doctors to a different, lifesaving leukemia treatment, while a second patient died but left her three children with potentially valuable information about their genetic future.

The study authors said these cases offer hope that as technology gets cheaper and researchers build up more data about cancer and its various mutations, the oncology field will be transformed in the next five to 10 years.

What used to cost tens of millions of dollars and took months, now costs about $40,000 and can offer detailed results in about six weeks, said senior author Richard Wilson, director of Washington University’s Genome Institute.

“It has been very eye opening for me in the 10 years that I have been working on cancer genomics,” Wilson told AFP. “We think about leukemia or lung cancer or breast cancer as all sort of being the same dis-

ease across all patients, but that’s really not the way it is,” he said.

“It is a complex genetic disease... for the great majority of the cases you are going to want to know exactly what is going on in the genome to cause the disease in order to effectively treat it.”

One study centered on a 39-year-old woman who appeared to have classic case of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), but lacked the usual genetic signs associated with it.

By sequencing the genome of the patient and her tumor and comparing them, doctors found she had an unusual genetic insertion of one chromosome into another, which mimicked the sort of cancer best tackled with chemotherapy instead of a risky bone marrow or stem cell transplant.

“Sequencing the genome of the patient’s leukemia cells offered the opportunity to resolve this dilemma in ‘real time’ and allowed us to make the correct call in recommending further therapy,” said the patient’s oncologist, Peter Westervelt at Washington University.

The patient came in with survival odds of less than 15 percent, received chemotherapy “and remains in remission 15 months after her diagnosis,” the study said.

The second case involved a mother of three who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 37, then developed ovarian cancer by age 39.

She died at 42, after extensive chemotherapy and a recurrence of the ovarian tumor.

However, she had little family history of cancer, leading doctors to suspect she may have had some sort of genetic mutation.

She tested negative for the common BRCA1 and BRAC2 mutations that are often at the root of breast or ovarian cancer, but a sequencing of her entire genome showed “a novel and unexpected mutation in TP53, a well-known tumor suppressor gene involved in DNA repair,” the study said.

Doctors said she was likely born with the mutation, which leaves a 50 percent chance of being passed on to her children, potentially handing them a 90 percent risk of developing cancer in their lifetimes.

Wilson said he was unaware of what her family decided to do with the information, due to patient confidentiality agreements, but that doctors recommended her children be tested. “ You always have people who say, ‘ We should pass this information along, or we shouldn’t,’” Wilson said, pointing to the central ethical dilemma of such technological advances.

“The bottom line is that a mutation such as this, which is a clear cancer susceptibility marker, is actionable,” he said.

“Your physician, if armed with this information, is going to be much more aggressive in checking for breast cancer early, or ovarian cancer early.”

Hundreds of patients in the United States and Britain have had their genomes sequenced, and a handful of companies are speeding ahead with the technology, said Boris Pasche of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

“The competition is quite fierce, which has benefited the consumers and researchers like us,” Pasche said. — AFP

Millions in malaria drugs stolen LONDON: A global health fund believes millions of dollars worth of its donated malaria drugs have been stolen in recent years — perhaps even hundreds of millions worth — vastly exceeding the levels of theft previously suspected, according to confidential documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The internal investigation by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria comes two months into a new anti-corruption program that the fund launched af ter an AP repor t detailing fraud in their grants attracted intense scrutiny from donors. In internal documents detailing drug thefts, officials identified 13 countries, mostly in Africa, where millions of dollars worth of malaria drugs have gone missing.

According to the repor ts, drug thef t in which donated drugs are sold on the black market “appears to be on the rise and (is) becoming increasingly sophisticated.” The reports were provided to the AP by an official with a different health organization, who did so on condition of anonymit y because he was granted confidential access to the documents by a Global Fund staffer.

Global Fund spokesman Jon Liden confirmed the broad outlines of the information but would not comment on specific numbers. “ We take this ver y seriously and we will do what it takes to protect our investment,” he said.

An AP repor t in Januar y exposed high rates of misappropriated money in some Global Fund grants and bruised the reputation of the multibillion-dollar fund, backed by big names including Bono and Bill Gates and hailed as an alternative to the bureaucrac y of the United Nations.

But the fact that these revelations have come to light at all may be due to stricter self-policing and greater transparency at the Global Fund, compared with other aid organizations.

Malaria infects more than 250 million people every year, killing about 1 million, the vast majority of whom are children in Africa.

Because there is a huge demand for malaria drugs, which are widely available at pharmacies and on private markets, they are easier to sell than drugs for other diseases like AIDS, which are mainly hand-

ed out at health clinics.

After discovering the scope of the malaria drug thefts, the new Global Fund documents indicate the fund took prompt action, suspending grants for medicines to be stored at government warehouses in Swaziland and Malawi.

The report confirmed that $2.5 million worth of malaria drugs were stolen from Togo, Tanzania,

theft of anti-malarial drugs” in African countries, after discovering that drugs were ending up on store shelves in African countries instead of going to the intended recipients for free.

The new documents obtained by the AP — which are the results of that investigation — show that in about 70 percent of cases, the drugs were stolen at government-

“We thoroughly reject the idea that we need to simply clamp down on drugs being sent to poor countries,” he said. “That will cost lives.” In contrast, after the U.S. government discovered evidence that its malaria drugs were disappearing in Angola and Malawi several years ago, it stopped using local government warehouses and set up entirely separate systems to give out US

NAIROBI: Dr Esther Dalizu holds a pack of Coartem Malaria drugs in a pharmacy in Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday. The drugs are manufactured in USA and is sold in Kenya at shilling 60 for 24 tablets. A leading global health fund has concluded millions of dollars worth of its donated malaria drugs have been stolen in recent years. —AP Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Cambodia, dating mainly from 2009 to 2011, but with some cases going further back. Specific dollar figures were not available for the other nine countries, all in Africa and including Nigeria and Kenya, where the Global Fund has large programs. Findings suggest a total value of stolen drugs far exceeding the $2.5 million figure: In Tanzania alone, the fund suspects that $200 million worth of malaria drugs was stolen. The audits that the AP wrote about in January suggested that tens of thousands of dollars wor th of malaria drugs are stolen ever y year. The Global Fund’s inspector general said in a repor t to its board of directors late last year that it was beginning to investigate allegations of “organized

operated warehouses by security personnel, warehouse managers and doctors.

“The cases show that drug misappropriations are well-organized and predominantly planned by insiders using falsified documents,” one of the reports said.

The documents also state that pilfered drugs are being shipped to other countries for resale, often within hours of their arrival.

Officials wrote there is a “parallel market for the sale of Global Fundprocured drugs” and that many other investigations on alleged thefts in other countries are under way.

Liden said cutting African governments from the medicine supply chain isn’t realistic and that setting up independent distribution systems would be too expensive.

medicines. Some experts say the Global Fund’s drug distribution system needs to be overhauled.

“If drugs are sitting in a warehouse just waiting to be pilfered, we need to figure out a different way to make sure the people who really need them actually get them,” said David Sullivan, a malaria expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Many health officials aren’t surprised that malaria drugs are being targeted by criminals, and say no donor agency is immune.

“It’s an unfortunate reality that when staff are poorly paid and systems under-resourced, the temptation of selling drugs for money will always be there,” said Nathan Ford, a medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders. —AP

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

H E A LT H

Day of remembrance: One year after Gulf oil disaster NEW ORLEANS: Relatives of some of the 11 men who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig are flying over the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, back to the epicenter of the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

Meanwhile, on land, vigils were scheduled in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to mark the spill. On the night of April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, a rig owned by Transocean Ltd., burst into flames after drilling a well for BP PLC, killing 11 workers on or near the drilling floor. The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor. The bodies were never recovered. Over the next 85 days, 206 million gallons (780 million liters) of oil — 19 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled in 1989 in what had previously been the worst US oil spill — spewed from the well. In response, the US commandeered a massive offshore fleet of vessels, and BP spent billions of dollars to clean up the mess, saving itself from collapse.

“I can’t believe tomorrow has been one year because it seems like everything just happened,” Courtney Kemp, whose husband Roy Wyatt Kemp was killed on the rig, wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday.

“I have learned a lot of things through all of this but the most important is to live each day as if it were your last ... what matters is if you truly live.” In a statement, President Barack Obama paid tribute to those killed in the blast and thanked the thousands of responders who “worked tirelessly to mitigate the worst impacts” of the oil spill. “But we also keep a watchful eye on the

continuing and important work required to ensure that the Gulf Coast recovers stronger than before,” Obama said in the statement.

The president said significant progress has been made but the work isn’t done.

Transocean invited up to three members of each family to attend the flyover. They were expected to circle the site a few times in a helicopter, though there is no visible marker identifying where their loved ones perished. At the bottom of the sea, 11 stars were imprinted on the well’s final cap.

Several families said they didn’t want to go on the flyover, and Transocean decided to not allow media on the flight or at a private service later in the day in Houston. The solemn ceremonies marking the disaster underscore the delicate healing that is only now taking shape. Oil still occasionally rolls up on beaches in the form of tar balls, and fishermen face an uncertain future. Louis and Audrey Neal of Pass Christian, Mississippi, who make their living from crabbing, said it’s gotten so bad since the spill that they’re contemplating divorce and facing foreclosure as the bills keep piling up. “I don’t see any daylight at the end of this tunnel. I don’t see any hope at all. We thought we’d see hope after a year, but there’s nothing,” Audrey Neal said. “We ain’t making no money. There’s no crabs,” said Louis Neal, a lifelong crabber.

“I’m in the worst shape I’ve ever been in my whole damn life. I’m about to lose my whole family,” he said. “I can’t even pay the loans I have out there. That’s how

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bad it’s gotten.” His wife said the financial hit was only part of the past year’s toll. “Our lives are forever changed,” she said. “Our marriage, our children, it’s all gotten 100 percent worse.” She said the couple received about $53,000 from BP early on, but that was just enough money to cover three months of debt.

They haven’t received a dime from an administrator handing out compensation from a $20 billion fund set up by BP, they said.

Traffic jams on the narrow coastal roads of Alabama, crowded seafood restaurants in Florida and families vacationing along the Louisiana coast attest to the fact that familiar routines are returning, albeit slowly. “We used to fuss about that,” said Ike Williams, referring to the heavy traffic headed for the water in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where he rents chairs and umbrellas to beachgoers. “But it was such a welcome sight.” Many questions still linger: Will the fishing industry recover? Will the environment bounce back completely? Will an oil-hungry public ever accept more deepwater drilling? “It seems like it is all gone,” said Tyler Priest, an oil historian at the University of Houston. “People have turned their attention elsewhere. But it will play out like Exxon Valdez did. There will be 20 years of litigation.” Most scientists agree the effects “were not as severe as many had predicted,” said Christopher D’Elia, dean at the School of the Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University. “People had said this was an ecological Armageddon, and that did not come to pass.” —AP

JONESVILLE: In this Nov. 11, 2010 photo, Courtney Kemp, widow of Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, who died in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, holds her daugthers Kaylee Kemp, 3, and Madisson Kemp, 9 months, in Jonesville, La. An April 20, 2010 explosion at the BP Deepwater Horizon offshore platform killed 11 men, and the subsequent leak released an estimated 172 million gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico. — AP

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W H AT ’ S O N Announcements B Sasikumar Musical program today A musical tribute Samarpana to guru B Sasikumar by the students of Mavellikara Sathees Chandran, at Indian Community School (senior), Salmiya. Arangettam by the students of Mavellikara Sathees Chandran today at 7 pm.

Violin recital by Maestro B. Sasikumar accompanied by Sathees Chandran - violin, Chertala Jayadev - mridangam, Adichanallore Anil Kumar - ghatam, Kottayam Santhosh Kumar ganjira. For more information 99584182, e-mail violinsathees@yahoo.com

KES children perform ‘The Litter Munchers’ for parents

“T

hat was more than perfect. It was very, very, very good “ said KES Director, Rhoda Elizabeth Muhmood. “They want to do things well, so thank you for your great encouragement” Muhmood said, addressing the parents “Mrs Searle always strives to do the very best and bring the best from your children”.

“Well done all of you. I could hear every word you were saying” said Searle, Head Teacher of KES Prep Department.”You need to say to anyone you see putting rubbish on the floor to put it in the bin” she added. The Prep Department now has a special wheely bin for recycling paper.

The scene was beautifully set on and around the stage with paintings by the children of houses, trees, birds and butterflies in the idyllic Lazy Daisy Village. All of the chil-

dren sang and mimed “Lazy Daisy Village”.

Narrators introduced the Litter Munchers, machines which clean up all the litter scattered by the untidy inhabitants of the village. The villagers ignore the brightly coloured rubbish bins and refuse to help the overworked Litter Munchers. The

Greetings

Happy 1st birthday to Mohammad Aayan.

May the almighty Allah bestow on you His choicest blessings throughout your life. With the best compliments from your parents.

tired Litter Munchers have a dream of the villagers tidying their own rubbish. They sleep for days and weeks.

“The rubbish piled up and the village got smelly and dirty”. The children sang:” Fish and chip wrappers smelling grim We wish that we’d put our litter in the bin”.

The king and queen

ordered the villagers to sweep up all the mess. They set about their chore singing a cheery “Sweep in the Morning”. After three days of cleaning, they woke the Litter Munchers and apologised for being lazy. The “Happy Machines” continued with their work and won the Cleanest Village award.

“All the people around help

you keep things clean, And Lazy Daisy Village Is the cleanest ever seen”. In a grand finale, all of the children heartily sang ‘Big Red Dustbin”.

Searle thanked the teachers, assistants and Hamza for all their hard work. A video of the production is available at the school.

Sadhana Sargam to perform tomorrow

K

alanjali Kuwait is organizing Musical Nite of Sadhana Sargam on 22nd Apr 2011, in American International School, Maidan Hawally from 6.30 pm onwards.

Sadhana Sargam is accompanied

by Chetan Rana (K for Kishore Kumar fame) and her troupe from India.

She will sing mostly her Hindi hits as well as few her own South Indian hits.

Entry passes are available in Salmiya - Edee Stores / Bestow Super Market / M & M Confectionery; Abu Halifa - Al Madina Stores.

For more details regarding Entry Passes contact 66457286 / 97214325 / 66179149 / 99815174 / 25612476.

Al Taalib Scholarship 2011 Al Taalib Scholarship is a financial aid scheme for the under privileged school students in Kuwait, sponsored by the Ministry of Awqaf in association with Islam Presentation Committee (IPC), Friday Forum and Pakistan Kuwait Welfare Association. These scholarships were given to the needy students irrespective of their religion or nationality. The process of Al Taalib Scholarship for the current academic year, 2011-12, has begun for all Indian and Pakistani Schools in Kuwait.

In order to avail this scholarship, applicants are requested to collect the Application Form from Al Taalib Office located in CAMS, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Darwaza, Near Warba Insurance Co., Int’l Islamic Charity Organization Building, 2nd Floor, Al Sharq. The duly filled application form shall be submitted to Al Taalib office on or before 10th May 2011 along with all supporting documents specified in the Application Form.

The Holy Family Cathedral Schedule of services for Holy Week 2011 Maundy Thursday: 21st April , 2011 Celebration of The Lord’s Supper 3:30 am: The Lord’s Supper in Malankara 6:00 pm.

The Lord’s Supper in Sinhala (GSH ) 6:30 am: Mass of the Chrism in English 5:00 pm. The Lord’s Supper in Bengali ( VMH) 3:00 pm: The Lord’s Supper in Malayalam 8:00 pm.

Adoration in the PPH in Konkani 3:00 pm: Mass in Korean (GSH) 8:00 pm. The Lord’s Supper and Adoration - Arabic 4:30 pm: The Lord’s Supper in Konkani 8:00 pm. The Lord’s Supper in Syro-Malabar(HFH/Court) 4:30 pm: The Lord’s Supper in Tamil (HFH ) 08:30 p.m.

The Lord’s Supper in Coptic (VMH) 06:30 p.m. Pontifical Mass in English 9:15 pm.

Adoration in the PPH in English.

The program is sponsored by German Press Co, Kuwait Continental Hotel, Jet Airways, Kuwait Swedish

Cleaning Services Co, Powersystems and supported by many other organizations and friends.

Raag ‘N’ Rhythm’s harmony, an evening to cherish

H

armony, a brilliantly designed and choreographed musical evening by Malini Viswanath, at the prestigious Al-Maidan Cultural Centre, The Dar-alAthar Al-Islamiyyah, was an evening to cherish for all connoisseurs of classical music on April 14. Harmony was the coming together of musical forms of the world, as Raag ‘N’ Rhythm completes 10 years of association with performing arts through lec-dems and performances by artists of various genres of classical music. Raag ‘N’ Rhythm’s musical journey over 10 years was filmed earlier in the evening.

As an ode to Kuwait’s completion of 50 years of Independence and 20 years of Liberation, the musical journey began with the soulful rendition of Vande Mataram in Raaga Desh by Malini Vishwanath and the students of the Raag ‘N’ Rhythm, merging into the Kuwait National song and culminating in the western notes, a true harmony. The students of the forum presented a comparison between the Indian Pentatonic scales and musical forms of the world like, Chinese music culminating in We are the world, the world song and getting back to the Indian melody, Hamsadhwani.

For the Chinese score, the students attired themselves in Chinese outfits, and used special sounds like the rainstick, and ‘we are the world’ saw the flags of various countries being

Kool Kidz Club The Kool Kidz Club of the British Academy of International Arts celebrates the British Royal wedding in style with A TOP HAT and TIARA Fun afternoon today 21 April. Games, fun and competitions. Wear your best prince and princess costumes and design a plate of food fit for Royalty. Non BAIA students can attend too!

For details and tickets please check the website www.baia.com.kw and contact the BAIA office at administrator@baia.com.kw

Good Friday: 22nd April 2010- Celebration of The Lord’s Passion.

Day of Fast and Abstinence 6:00 am: The Lord’s Passion in Malayalam (Trans to Halls) 3:30 pm. The Lord’s Passion in Sinhala(VMH) 8:00 am: The Lord’s Passion in English (Trans-to Halls) 4:00 pm. Korean Mass (GSH) 9:30 am: The Lord’s Passion in English (Trans to Halls) 04:30 p.m. The Lord’s Passion in English (Tr. to HFH) 11:00 am: The Lord’s Passion in Tamil (HFH ) 05:30 pm. The Lord’s Passion in Bengali (VMH) 11:00 am: The Lord’s Passion in Maronite 06:00 pm.

The Lord’s Passion in English (Tr. to HFH) 11:00 am: The Lord’s Passion in Coptic (VMH) 06:00 pm. The Lord’s Passion in Italian (PPH) 1:00 noon: The Lord’s Passion in Tagalog 07:30 pm.

The Lord’s Passion in Syro-Mal (HFH/Court) 3:00 pm: The Lord’s Passion in Konkani (Tr. to HFH ) 08:00 p.m. The Lord’s Passion in Arabic Holy Saturday: April 23rd, 2011 6:30 am: Easter Vigil in Syro-Malabar 10:00 pm.: Easter Mass in Coptic - VMH 6:00 pm: Easter Vigil in Malayalam 10:15 pm: Easter Vigil in Konkani (Courtyard/HFH) 6:00 pm: Easter Vigil in French in -GSH 10:45 pm: Easter vigil in Arabic.

12:30 am: Easter vigil in Maronite 6:00 pm: Easter Vigil in Tagalog - (Courtyard/HFH) 6:00 pm: Easter Vigil in Italian (PPH) 8:00 pm: Easter Vigil mass in Korean (GSH) 8:00 pm: Easter Vigil Pontifical Mass in English (Tr. to Halls).

waived by the students suggesting unity in diversity The highlight of the evening was a unique jugalbandhi between Malini Vishwanath on the vocals and Abdul Aziz on the Oud. Smt Malini chose Raga Subhapantuvarali, a melancholic carnatic raga for the Raaga delineation answered competently by the Oud artist.

The composition was Nee Samana, a G.N.B, composition, and Smt Malini ended the krithi in Arabic. Mar Abdul Aziz, ably merged the rhythm of the Arabic Tabla with the Indian Percussion, the mridangam.

Raghavi Viswanath presented a brilliant comparison of the Carnatic system of Indian Classical music with Avanti

Walvekar on the Hindustani system of Indian classical music.

The fitting finale was all the students of Raag ‘N’ Rhythm and the instrumentalists including the guitar coming together for the Kadanakuthuhalam Thillana.

Rhythm, Sripathi, Rajagopal, Pratyusha, Vighnesh, Raghavi,

Shruti, Mallika, Kshamata, Kruthika, Miriam, Raghavesh, Paras stole the show with their disciplined performance.

The Indian Ambassador Ajai Maihotra graced the evening with Smt Ira Maihotra and lauded the effort by Raag ‘N’ Rhythm team in building ties with the host country through their musical endeavors.

Easter Sunday: April 24th, 2011 3:30 am: Easter Mass in Malankara 5:00 pm. Holy Mass in Tamil (HFH) 7:00 am: Holy Mass in English 5:00 pm. Holy Mass in Bengali (VMH) 8:15 am. Holy Mass in English 5:15 pm. Holy Mass in English 9:30 am. Holy Mass in English 6:00 pm. Korean Mass (GSH) 10:30 am: Holy Mass in English (HFH) 6:15 pm. Holy Mass in English 10:30 am: Mass in Syro-Malabar (Cathedral) 6:30 pm.

Holy Mass in Tagalog (VMH) 12:30 pm: Holy Mass in Maronite 6:30 pm. Holy Mass in Sinhala ( VMH) 3:00 pm: Holy Mass in Konkani (Trans-HFH) 7:30 pm.

Holy Mass in Malayalam 4:15 pm: Holy Mass in Konkani 8:30 pm. Holy Mass in Arabic

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy

‘Chaine Des Rotisseurs’ at the Holiday Inn Salmiya

T

he Holiday Inn Salmiya Hotel, hosted the “Chaine des Rotisseurs” for a very creative Organic Gala Dinner on 16th April.

The members and guests of the Chaine des Rotisseurs had a very authentic gala dinner, where a very appetizing and delicious menu was presented, containing purely organic dishes, in a Ballroom that surprised the guests with the environment of a natural garden with a water fountain and orchards of olive and Citrus trees and fresh organic vegetables and grass while birds were singing their songs. The hotel teams succeeded in bringing back the value of savoring authenticity and originality of taste and experience the beauty of nature in this excellent gala dinner.

Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Embassy encourages all Australians to register their presence in Kuwait through Smartraveller Online (see link below). Australians who are registered are asked to update their details. The information provided will assist us in contacting you in an emergency. www.smartraveller.gov.au Kuwait citizens can apply for and receive visit visas to Australia online at www.immi.gov.au. This usually takes two working days.

The Australian Embassy advises that it will be closed today, Sunday 24 and Monday 25 April 2011 on the occasion of Easter Holiday.

The Embassy will resume work on Tuesday 26 April 2011.

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Members and guests of the Chaine des Rotisseurs.

Premier goal academy festival of football Over 500 players participate in Kuwait’s Premier youth football event

EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription is for free and will be end on 25 of April 2011. To register it is necessary that Argentinean citizens should come personally at the Argentinean Embassy (Block 6, street 42, villa 57, Mishref ) and present the DNI and four personal photos (size 4x4, face should be front on white background). For further information, contact us on 25379211.

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T

he 2011 Festival of Football event organized by the Premier GOAL Academy in association with Everton F.C. and sponsored by Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company. was held at Shaab Park on Saturday 16th April under the patronage of the British Ambassador, Frank Baker.

The Festival kicked off early morning with the Junior Tournament and 27 teams played matches in four age groups; 3-5 years, 6-7 years, 8-9 years and 10-11 years. Each team played 6 games resulting in over 100 matches played on the 4 pitches during the course of this all day event - the

biggest and best attended football tournament in Kuwait’s sporting calendar, packed with goals, near misses, fantastic team and individual performances and most importantly, immensely enjoyable for players and spectators alike. The senior tournament took place throughout the afternoon with matches for under 13s, 14s, 15s and 16s teams. Over 500 players from 3 to 16 years of age participated in the event, including teams from the P.G.A./Everton Coaching Courses and Centre of Excellence, the British School of Kuwait, British Academy of Sport, Russian Embassy School, Hawally Pakistan English School, the French School of

Kuwait, American Bilingual School and SKELPS. A huge turnout of enthusiastic parents and spectators cheered and encouraged the players who were superbly organized and guided by their coaches throughout a series of exciting, closely fought and sporting matches.

The P.G.A. freestyle players presented a display of amazing football tricks and skills prior to the Awards ceremony when the British Ambassador and guests from the Russian and French Embassies presented medals to all participants and certificates of appreciation to the event sponsors. Supporters of the event contributed free gifts and

special offers to ensure everyone had a great time and included; Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company, sponsors of the P.G.A. programme 2011-12 etc.

The British Ambassador Frank Baker expressed his appreciation and recognition of their support for such an important community event and congratulated all the players and coaches who took part.

“It’s fantastic to see so many young people participating in this programme and obviously having a great time. Apart from the joy of the game itself, football is a wonderful way to encourage young people to improve fitness and develop

their communication and good teamwork - essential skills as they grow up. Congratulations to all who took part and made this fabulous event possible - to the P.G.A. organizers, the generous sponsors and all the teachers and coaches who have taught and encouraged the players and teams to such an exceptionally high standard” The P.G.A. coaching programme continues from 6th/7th May 2011 with courses held each day of the week catering to all ability levels from 3 to 18 years of age with fully qualified UEFA coaches.

Friday and Saturday coaching will be at the earlier time of 0800-1000.

ESF and Al Shaya working with community

T

he English School Fahaheel has a long tradition of working with the community and arranging events that focus around these beliefs. Al Shaya Starbucks in keeping with their tradition of working with the community very kindly offered to hold an Art related event at ESF recently. The event involved Art students painting important recycling messages in the covered play areas at ESF. They were accompanied by Starbucks staff and ESF Art Department staff. The school has for many years cooperated with local firms to recycle materials used at ESF, and was happy to further reiterate the importance of recycling. Students thoroughly enjoyed the event and saw it as an opportunity to further their art skills.At the end of the day Starbucks staff offered snacks and a cold beverage to all participants.

Starbucks staff along with participating Middle and Upper school ESF students.

Chittagong Samity holds get together

C

hittagong Samity Kuwait (CSK) organized a get-together party for joint organizing sect of CSK Tawhidul Islam CHy on the occasion of their leaving to Bangladesh on 16th April. The event was presided over by President of Chittagong Samity Haji Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury. All directors of Kacico along with many local community leaders like Shafiqur Rahman Jamal

Ahmed, Morshed Alam Badal, Abdul Salam, Omar Faruk naid, Musa, Abdul Salam, Abul Kalam, Masood Karim, Abdul Mannan Sandipi also with local representative from electronic and print media were present for the function. A crest was given to the Tawhidul Islam for their service rendered with CSK. The gathering concluded with participants offering their best wishes, prayers.

Ramesh Narayan, daughters perform Indo-Arabic fusion today

By Sunil Cherian

S

ynonymous with poetic, soulful melodies, Indian musician Ramesh Narayan proves what extend a film song can go. Born to a musician father in South India’s Koothuparamba town, Narayan took sitar lessons and ventured into Hindustani music, an area South Indian musicians in general pause to play because of the high toned influence of Carnatic music of the south. Narayan excelled under the stalwart in gharana music, Pandit Jasraj, living with him in the ancient tradition of master and disciple.

Since then Narayan has opened a world of music on his own, ghazal in form that does not lose the lyrical beauty of poetry, making anyone who has an ear for music identi-

fy as Ramesh Narayanian.

Narayan is in Kuwait with his daughters to perform a ghazal night at Indian Community School, Salmiya today. His teen daughters Madhuvanti and Madhusree, both upcoming promises, will also perform in tonight’s program at 7.30 organized by IASCO. With a handful of Malayalam films like Garshom, Paradeshi, Meghamalhar and Rathrimazha, Narayan has not run after chances. Insisting on quality than quantity he now runs a music school in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, the only institute in India to teach Mewati Gharana traditional music. That perhaps is the better record he holds than the 1994 Guinness record he achieved when he sang nonstop for 30 hours.

EMBASSY OF BRITAIN The British Embassy will be closed on the Sunday 24th and Monday 25th of April 2011 on the occasion of Easter Holidays.

The Embassy will re-open on Tuesday 26 April 2011. Visa and Consular Services. The Visa Application Centre (VAC) will be closed on the same dates above. The opening hours of the Visa Application Centre are 0930- 1630.

Application forms remain available online from the UKBAs’ website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk or from the Visa Application Centre’s website: www.vfs-ukkw.com. And also, from the UK Visa Application Centre located at: 4B, First Floors Al Banwan Building, (Burgan Bank Branch Office Building).

Al Qibla area, opposite Central Bank of Kuwait.

Kuwait.

For any further inquiries, please contact the Visa Application Centre: Website: www.vfs-uk-kw.com E-mail:info@vfsuk-com. Telephone: 22971170 ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home.

The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form. All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants. Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed. To ensure that the most recent version of the Temporary Resident Visa application form is being utilized, applicants should refer to the CIC website. As of January 15, 2011, forms are to be filled in electronically. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday.

The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5 257E.PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/5256 E.PDF. ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF FRANCE The French Embassy in Kuwait will remain closed on Sunday, April 24, 2011 because of Easter holidays.

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SOUTH AFRICAN EMBASSY On the occasion of Easter Sunday, the South African Embassy will be closed on Sunday, 24 April 2011. The Embassy will resume its normal working hours on Monday, 25 April 2011, from Sunday to Thursday. Please note that the working hours will be from 8h00 to 16h00 & the Consular Section operation hours will from 8h30 to 12h30.

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EMBASSY OF SPAIN The Embassy of Spain would like to inform the public that the Embassy will remain closed tomorrow 21st of April 2011.

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Years

TV PROGRAMS

00:45 Untamed And Uncut 01:40 Dogs 101 02:35 Life In The Undergrowth 03:30 Mutant Planet 04:25 Buggin’ With Ruud 05:20 The Most Extreme 06:10 Must Love Cats 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 The Really Wild Show 07:50 Baby Planet 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Extraordinary Dogs 09:35 Cats Of Claw Hill 10:05 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 11:00 Animal Precinct 11:55 Wildlife SOS 12:20 Wildlife SOS 12:50 Animal Cops Miami 13:45 RSPCA: Have You Got What It Takes?

14:10 E-Vets: The Interns 14:40 The Most Extreme 15:30 Animal Battlegrounds 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 17:25 Dogs 101 18:20 Life In The Undergrowth 19:15 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 21:05 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 22:00 Pit Bulls And Parolees 22:55 Crime Scene Wild 23:50 The Most Extreme

00:00 00:30 01:15 02:10 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 04:50 05:10 05:35 05:45 06:05 06:25 06:50 07:05 07:25 07:45 08:10 08:20 08:40 09:00 09:25 09:40 10:40 11:25 12:15 12:45 13:15 14:10 15:40 16:30 17:15 17:45 18:15 19:10 20:00 20:45 21:15 21:45 22:40 23:30

00:35 02:10 02:55 03:25 03:45 04:30 05:00 05:50 06:35 07:00 07:25 09:20 09:45

2 Point 4 Children The Weakest Link Casualty Paradox Eastenders Doctors 2 Point 4 Children Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Charlie And Lola 2 Point 4 Children The Weakest Link Doctor Who Doctors Eastenders Casualty 2 Point 4 Children Doctor Who The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Doctor Who The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Full Circle With Michael Palin My Family

Antiques Roadshow Eating With The Enemy Cooked Chuck’s Day Off How Not To Decorate Daily Cooks Challenge Antiques Roadshow Fantasy Homes By The Sea Chuck’s Day Off Glamour Puds Daily Cooks Challenge Glamour Puds What Not To Wear

10:35 11:15 12:05 13:00 13:45 14:10 15:05 15:50 16:35 17:20 17:45 18:10 19:00 19:45 20:15 20:40 21:30 23:00

Fantasy Homes By The Sea What Not To Wear Antiques Roadshow Fantasy Homes By The Sea Glamour Puds Daily Cooks Challenge Holmes On Homes Holmes On Homes Eating With The Enemy Cooked Chuck’s Day Off How Not To Decorate Eating With The Enemy Cooked Chuck’s Day Off How Not To Decorate Holmes On Homes Great British Menu

00:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 00:30 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 00:45 Sport Today 01:00 BBC World News 01:30 Asia Business Report 01:45 Asia Today 02:00 BBC World News America 03:00 BBC World News 03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Asia Today 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Asia Today 05:00 BBC World News 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Asia Today 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 BBC World News 23:30 Hardtalk

00:15 00:40 01:05 01:30 01:55 02:20 02:45 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:10 04:35 05:00 05:35 06:00 06:25 07:00 07:25

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show Tom And Jerry King Arthur’s Disasters Popeye Classics The Scooby Doo Show Tom And Jerry Kids Looney Tunes The Flintstones Dastardly And Muttley Hong Kong Phooey Droopy: Master Detective A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Tom And Jerry Kids Looney Tunes The Flintstones

07:50 08:15 08:40 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:20 10:45 11:10 11:35 12:00 12:20 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:05 Doo 14:30 14:55 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:25 17:50 Doo 18:15 18:40 19:00 19:25 20:00 20:30 20:55 21:20 21:45 22:10 22:35 23:00 23:25 23:50

Duck Dodgers Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Addams Family Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show Tom And Jerry Dastardly And Muttley The Scooby Doo Show Wacky Races The Jetsons Popeye Classics Looney Tunes Top Cat Droopy: Master Detective Hong Kong Phooey Scooby-Doo And ScrappyKing Arthur’s Disasters Tom And Jerry Dastardly And Muttley The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Scooby Doo Where Are You! Pink Panther And Pals Duck Dodgers Popeye Scooby-Doo And ScrappyLooney Tunes Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show The Addams Family Johnny Bravo The Scooby Doo Show Tom And Jerry Wacky Races Dastardly And Muttley The Scooby Doo Show Top Cat Popeye The Jetsons Duck Dodgers

00:05 Cow And Chicken 00:30 Cramp Twins 00:55 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Adrenalini Brothers 01:45 Eliot Kid 02:10 Ed, Edd N Eddy 02:35 Ben 10: Alien Force 03:00 The Powerpuff Girls 03:15 Chowder 03:40 The Secret Saturdays 04:05 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 04:30 Ben 10: Alien Force 04:55 Best Ed 05:20 Skunk Fu! 05:45 Cramp Twins 06:10 Eliot Kid 06:35 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 07:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 07:25 Cow And Chicken 07:50 Best Ed 08:15 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 08:40 Ben 10: Alien Force 09:05 The Secret Saturdays 09:30 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 09:55 The Powerpuff Girls 10:20 Robotboy 10:30 Hero 108 10:55 Ben 10 11:20 Chowder 11:45 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 12:10 Camp Lazlo 12:35 George Of The Jungle 13:00 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 13:25 Codename: Kids Next Door 13:50 Ben 10 14:15 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 14:40 Squirrel Boy 15:05 Eliot Kid 15:35 Ed, Edd N Eddy 16:00 Cow And Chicken 16:25 Chop Socky Chooks 16:50 Skunk Fu! 17:15 Chowder 17:40 Best Ed 17:50 Cartoon Network Dance Club 18:05 Hero 108 18:30 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 18:55 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 19:20 Ben 10: Alien Force 19:45 The Secret Saturdays

CASUALTIES OF WAR ON OSN MOVIES ACTION

20:10 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 20:35 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 21:00 Cartoon Network Dance Club 21:15 The Powerpuff Girls 21:25 Ed, Edd N Eddy 21:50 Robotboy 22:00 Camp Lazlo 22:25 Hero 108 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 23:40 Chowder

00:00 00:30 01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 22:00 23:00

Backstory World Sport World Report World Business Today Piers Morgan Tonight Anderson Cooper 360 World Sport Talk Asia World Report Backstory World Report World Sport Ireport For CNN World Business Today World One World Sport Mainsail Piers Morgan Tonight News Stream World Business Today International Desk The Brief World Sport Prism International Desk Mainsail Quest Means Business Piers Morgan Tonight Connect The World

00:40 01:35 02:05 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:50 08:45 09:10 09:40 10:30 10:55 11:25 12:20 13:15 14:10 15:05 16:00 16:55 17:50 19:10 19:40 20:05 20:35 21:00 21:30 21:55 22:50 23:45

Dirty Jobs Deconstruction Deconstruction Ultimate Survival Man Made Marvels China Mythbusters How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Man Made Marvels China American Chopper How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Street Customs 2008 Ultimate Survival Mythbusters La Ink Dirty Jobs Street Customs 2008 Mythbusters Extreme Fishing Border Security Industrial Junkie How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made Destroyed In Seconds Destroyed In Seconds Get Out Alive Dual Survival Black Gold

00:30 The Gadget Show 00:55 Kings Of Construction 01:45 How It’s Made 02:10 How It’s Made 02:35 How Stuff Works 03:25 Cool Stuff And How It Works 03:50 Thunder Races 04:45 Brainiac 05:40 One Step Beyond 06:10 Engineered 07:00 Catch It Keep It 07:55 Head Rush 07:58 Sci-Fi Science 08:25 Weird Connections 08:55 Mission Critical: Hubble 09:45 The Gadget Show 10:10 The Gadget Show 10:35 What’s That About?

11:25 Green Wheels 11:50 Catch It Keep It 12:40 One Step Beyond 13:05 How Stuff Works 13:55 Eco-Tech 14:45 Kings Of Construction 15:35 The Gadget Show 16:00 Head Rush 16:03 Sci-Fi Science 16:30 Weird Connections 17:00 Brainiac 17:50 Mars: The Quest For Life 18:40 The Future Of...

19:30 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 20:20 Sci-Fi Science 20:45 How Does That Work?

21:10 The Gadget Show 22:00 The Future Of...

22:50 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 23:40 Colony

00:00 00:25 00:50 01:15 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:35 04:00 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:20 06:45 07:05 Cody 07:30 07:55 08:20 08:35 09:00 09:25 09:50 10:10 10:35 10:50

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Emperors New School Emperors New School Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Kim Possible The Suite Life Of Zack And Shake It Up Wizards Of Waverly Place Fairly Odd Parents Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Imagination Movers Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck

11:15 11:35 12:00 12:25 12:45 13:10 13:30 13:55 14:20 14:45 14:55 15:20 15:40 16:00 16:25 16:45 17:10 17:35 18:00 18:25 18:45

Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Jonas La Fairly Odd Parents Shake It Up Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Have A Laugh A Kind Of Magic Phineas And Ferb Kim Possible Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Forever Hannah Montana Forever Phineas And Ferb

06:00 Kid Vs Kat 06:20 Kick Buttowski 06:40 Pokemon 07:05 Phineas & Ferb 07:30 Phineas And Ferb 07:40 Phineas & Ferb 08:05 American Dragon 08:30 Kick Buttowski 08:50 Kid Vs Kat 09:00 Zeke & Luther 09:25 Zeke & Luther 09:50 I’m In The Band 10:15 The Super Hero Squad Show 10:40 Suite Life On Deck 11:05 Suite Life On Deck 11:30 Escape From Scorpion Island (Cema) 11:55 Phineas & Ferb 12:20 Phineas & Ferb 12:40 Have A Laugh 12:45 Kid Vs Kat 13:10 Kid Vs Kat 13:30 Kid Vs Kat 13:50 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 14:15 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 14:40 Zeke & Luther 15:05 Suite Life On Deck 15:25 Z 15:35 Kick Buttowski 16:00 I’m In The Band 16:25 Suite Life On Deck 16:50 Zeke & Luther

00:15 Kendra 00:40 Then and Now 01:30 E!ES 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 THS 07:45 Behind the Scenes 08:35 E! News 09:25 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 10:15 50 Cutest Child Stars: All Grown Up 12:00 E! News 12:50 Fashion Police 13:15 Extreme Close-Up 13:40 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 14:05 Kendra 14:30 THS 16:15 Behind the Scenes 17:10 Married To Rock 18:00 E! News 18:50 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 19:40 E!ES 20:30 Fashion Police 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:20 Kourtney and Kim Take New York 21:45 Kourtney and Kim Take New York 22:10 E! News 23:00 Chelsea Lately 23:25 Kendra 23:50 Keeping Up with the Kardashians

00:15 Final Fu 00:40 Eddie Jordan’s Bad Boy Racers 01:30 World Combat League 02:20 Final Fu 03:10 Aiya TV 04:00 Fight Girls 04:50 Eddie Jordan’s Bad Boy Racers 05:40 World Combat League 06:30 iEX 2009 08:00 Quattro Events 2009 08:25 Summer Dew Tour 2010 09:15 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

10:05 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

10:55 Glutton For Punishment 11:45 X Games Heroes 12:35 Final Fu 13:25 Eddie Jordan’s Bad Boy Racers 14:15 World Combat League 15:05 Glutton For Punishment 15:55 X Games Heroes 16:45 Quattro Events 2009 17:10 Summer Dew Tour 2010 18:00 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

18:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

19:40 X Games Heroes 20:30 Final Fu 21:20 IFMXF 2010 22:10 World Combat League 23:00 Parcour 23:25 BMX Masters 2010 23:50 Final Fu

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:50 04:45 05:15 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40

The Haunted A Haunting I Almost Got Away With It Dr G: Medical Examiner Amsterdam Vice The Haunted Mystery ER Forensic Detectives Accident Investigator Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Extreme Forensics FBI Files Murder Shift On The Case With Paula Zahn Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Extreme Forensics Forensic Detectives Accident Investigator FBI Files Mystery ER

SMART PEOPLE ON OSN MOVIES HD 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:50 23:40

Real Emergency Calls Murder Shift On The Case With Paula Zahn True Crime Scene Dr G: Medical Examiner

00:30 02:00 03:30 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:15 14:15 16:15 18:00 20:00 22:00

The Evil Dead-R Penny Dreadful-18 Bad Boys II-PG15 Collateral-18 Kiss The Girls-18 The Rock-PG15 Gone In Sixty Seconds-PG15 Kiss The Girls-18 The Taking Of Pelham 123-18 Gone In Sixty Seconds-PG15 Tears Of The Sun-18 State Of Play-PG15

01:30 Kisses-18 03:00 Surrogates-PG15 05:00 Charlotte Gray-PG15 07:00 Astro Boy-PG15 09:00 The Prince And Me 3: A Royal Honeymoon-PG15 11:00 The People Speak-PG15 13:00 Surrogates-PG15 15:00 The Sun Also Rises-PG15 17:00 The People Speak-PG15 19:00 All About Steve-PG15 21:00 Invictus-PG15 23:15 Whiteout-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Family Guy 02:00 The Big C 02:30 Entourage 03:00 Just Shoot Me 03:30 Kath And Kim 04:00 Family Guy 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 How I Met Your Mother 06:00 Yes Dear 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 08:30 Dharma And Greg 09:00 Just Shoot Me 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 10:00 Yes Dear 10:30 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 13:30 How I Met Your Mother 14:00 Yes Dear 14:30 30 Rock 15:00 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 The Drew Carey Show 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Just Shoot Me 18:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 19:00 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 19:30 Community 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 22:30 Entourage 23:00 Family Guy 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

01:00 Unbreakable-PG15 03:00 District 13: Ultimatum-18 05:00 Casualties Of War-18 07:00 Con Air-PG15 09:00 Inkheart-PG 11:00 Harry Potter And The HalfBlood Prince-PG15 13:30 Captain Drake-PG 15:00 Inkheart-PG 17:00 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life-PG15 19:00 Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground-18 21:00 The General’s Daughter-18 23:00 Children Of The Corn-18

00:00 The Frighteners-PG15 02:00 Someone Like You-PG15 04:00 Daddy Day Care-PG 06:00 All’s Faire In Love-PG 08:00 Keeping The Faith-PG15 10:15 Exterminators-PG15 12:00 Before You Say I Do-PG15 14:00 My One And Only-PG15 16:00 The Frighteners-PG15 18:00 The Immaculate Conception Of Little Dizzle-PG15 20:00 Last Of The Living-PG15 22:00 Van Wilder: Party Liaison-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 22:00

Yasmin-18 Dirty Pretty Things-PG15 Chicago-PG15 Eva-PG15 Living Out Loud-PG15 Bottle Shock-PG15 One Week-PG A Far Off Place-PG15 The Soloist-PG15 Almost Famous-PG15 The Wrestler-18

01:00 Ghost-PG 03:30 The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle-FAM 05:00 Easy Virtue-PG15 07:00 Smart People-PG15 09:00 Up-FAM 11:00 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story-PG15 13:00 America’s Sweethearts-PG15 15:00 It’s A Wonderful AfterlifePG15 17:00 Up-FAM 19:00 Role Models-18 21:00 Invictus-PG15 23:30 The Fighting TemptationsPG15

00:00 Scruff In Halloween-FAM 02:00 Blank Check-FAM 04:00 The Prince Of Dinosaurs-PG 06:00 Monsters Inc-FAM 08:00 Kung Fu Magoo-FAM 10:00 The Prince Of Dinosaurs-PG 12:00 Christopher Columbus-PG 14:00 Blank Check-FAM 16:00 Fly Me To The Moon-PG 18:00 Leave It To Beaver-PG 20:00 Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Friends Forever-PG15 22:00 Christopher Columbus-PG

00:00 Greenberg-18 02:00 American Teen-PG15 04:00 Who’s Your Caddy?-PG15 06:00 Prisoner-PG15 08:00 Paper Man-PG15 10:00 End Of The Spear-PG15 12:00 Amelia-PG15 14:00 Ambrose Bierce: Civil War Stories-PG15 16:00 Paper Man-PG15 18:00 Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief-PG15 20:00 Dance Flick-18 22:00 My Best Friend’s Girl-18

00:00 Asian Tour Golf 00:30 PGA European Tour Highlights 01:30 Aviva Premiership 03:30 AFL Highlights 04:30 Super 15 06:30 European Tour Weekly 07:00 Snooker World Championship 11:00 AFL Highlights 12:00 Total Rugby 12:30 Trans World Sport 13:30 European Tour Weekly 14:00 PGA European Tour 18:30 Total Rugby 19:00 Live RFL Championship 21:00 Live Premier League Darts

01:00 02:00 05:30 06:00

AFL Premiership Premier League Darts NRL Full Time Trans World Sport

07:00 Golfing World 08:00 Live PGA European Tour 12:00 Golfing World 13:00 Asian Tour Golf 13:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 14:00 AFL Highlights 15:00 Live Snooker World Championship 19:00 Golfing World 20:00 Trans World Sport 21:00 Live Snooker World Championship

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 16:30 17:30 18:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

UFC Wired UFC Unleashed UFC The Ultimate Fighter Sports Adventure UAE National Race Day Series UFC Unleashed WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line V8 Supercars Championship WWE Vintage Collection WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown Full Throttle UAE National Race Day Series British Triathlon V8 Supercars Championship WWE NXT UFC The Ultimate Fighter Live Super League

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

The Ellen Degeneres Show Game Of Thrones American Idol Highlights Glee The View Good Morning America Commander In Chief Emmerdale Coronation Street The Martha Stewart Show The View The Ellen Degeneres Show Glee American Idol Highlights Live Good Morning America Commander In Chief The Ellen Degeneres Show Emmerdale Look-A-Like The Cape American Idol The Gates Commander In Chief

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 22:00

Parenthood My Generation Game Of Thrones American Idol Highlights Glee Parenthood The Ellen Degeneres Show 8 Simple Rules ...

Coronation Street Smallville Parenthood The Ellen Degeneres Show 8 Simple Rules ...

Coronation Street The Cape Glee Smallville Parenthood 8 Simple Rules ...

My Boys The Ellen Degeneres Show Smallville The Cape American Idol The Gates

01:45 Shaft In Africa-PG15 03:25 For Me And My Gal-FAM 05:05 Honky Tonk-FAM 07:00 A Night At The Opera-FAM 08:35 The Yearling-FAM 10:45 Some Came Running-PG 13:05 Bonnie Scotland-FAM 14:30 Escape From Fort Bravo-FAM 16:10 Rhapsody-FAM 18:05 Till The Clouds Roll By-FAM 20:20 Light In The Piazza-PG 22:00 The Year Of Living Dangerously-PG 23:55 Brotherly Love-PG15

Classifieds THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

Healthy H ealthy Living Living

ACCOMMODATION

Herb gardens Herbs contain essential oils, antioxidants, vitamins and other nutrients that help fight infection and boost the immune system.

Growing herbs in pots Â&#x2021; $OPRVW DQ\ FRQWDLQHU WKDW ZLLO KROG VRLO DQG ZDWHU ZLOO GR EH VXUH WR KDYH DGHTXDWH GUDLQDJH KROHV LQ WKH ERWWRP RI WKH SRW Â&#x2021; 7HUUD FRWWD SRWV WKDW GUDZ RXW PRLVWXUH DUH JRRG IRU KHUEV WKDW QHHG OLWWOH ZDWHU VXFK DV RUHJDQR VDJH URVHPDU\ PDUMRUDP DQG ODYHQGHU Â&#x2021; 3ODFH SRWV RQ D VXQQ\ ZLQGRZ VLOO RQ D GHFN RU LQ WKH \DUG Â&#x2021; :KHQ KDUYHVWLQJ WDNH WKH ELJ OHDYHV OHDYH WKH VPDOO RQHV 6RXUFH 3HQQV\OYDQLD +RUWLFXOWXUDO 6RFLHW\ 0&7 3KRWR 6HUYLFH *UDSKLF 3DW &DUU

Š 2011 MCT

Healthy Living

History in a colinder

Accommodation available in Abbassiya for 1 Keralite bachelor in C-A/C flat opposite to Jas Intnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;l Shipping, rent KD 50 elec / water included. Please call 66349475 / 1802255 extn 308. (C 3285) Sharing accommodation available for family or working ladies in two bedroom with double bathroom in Abbassiya with Keralite family. If interested call 99509436. (C 3286) 21-4-2011 Sharing accommodation available for Keralite couples/small family in a 2 bed 2 bath flat in Abbassiya.

Contact: 97544059.

(C 3283) Furnished 800m for a single (M/F) to share with a small family in a central A/C flat with separate bathroom. Nice location on main road, parking and close to a garden, bus stop.

Contact: 67060429.

(C 3279) Kwarto. Pinauupahan harap ng sears, likod ng Burger King.

C-A/C Farwaniya 97315783.

(C 3276)

With just 25 calories, no fat, a healthy dose of potassium and fiber and the top antioxidant count among vegetables, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no wonder artichokes have been around for a thousand years.

20-4-2011

The history

Toyota Cressida in excellent running condition.

Transmission, air condition, exterior and interior in superb condition. Worth buying. A reliable car. KD 675, negotiable. Contact: 66559205. (C 3282) Toyota Corolla model 2010, sky color, original paint 24,800 km, done 1.6 engine, cash price KD 3,700 (installment optional).

Contact: 66507741.

(C 3284) 20-4-2011 Sofa set Midas L shaped 6seater, Banta sofa 3-seater and Casio keyboard and more. Call: 66603401 17-4-2011

Preferably working in engineering or medical field. More details: scherian03@yahoo.com / alenna.varghese853@gmail.com (C 3270) 17-4-2011

CHANGE OF NAME

MATRIMONIAL Proposal invited for an RC boy, aged 36 from Changanacherry diocese, currently working in Kuwait without family status.

Please contact jish15th@yahoo.com (C 3273) 20-4-2011 Pentecostal Keralite parent settled in US invite marriage proposal for their daughter 26 years 5â&#x20AC;&#x2122;7â&#x20AC;? tall RN. Currently seeking employment.

I, Mazhar Pukawala, son of Hakimuddin Pakawala, holder of Indian Passport No: E2780082 change my surname from Pukawala to Pakawala. (C 3280) 20-4-2011 S. Saravanan, son of Subramaniyan, holder of Indian Passport No G9950267 converted to Islam do hereby change my name to S. Sameer Mohamed. (C 3277) 19-4-2011

SITUATION WANTED Indian male MBA (finance), B.Com experience - 1-2 years seeking job, finance / accounting.

Contact: 55210681/ 99581696. Email: harryhlf@gmail.com (C 3287) 21-4-2011 Sri Lankan lady looking for part time job, any English house. Contact: 55680045.

(C 3278) 20-4-2011

SITUATION VACANT Needed house driver for a Kuwaiti family, must know all areas and have a transferable visa. Contact: 55220650. (C 3281) 20-4-2011

No: 15065

Room available for single bachelor in Salmiya, rent KD 50. Contact 97274287.

(C 3275) 19-4-2011

s 4HOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN CULTIVATED BY .ORTH !FRICAN -OORS STARTING AROUND ! $ s "ROUGHT TO )TALY

BY THE !RAB 3ARACENS

Sharing accommodation available for couples or executive bachelors in

s .AME COMES FROM THE !RABIC al-qarshuf OR THISTLE WHICH BECAME articiocco IN )TALIAN

artichoke IN %NGLISH

FOR SALE

The family

PC Compaq Pentium 4, Intel original Ram 128 MB, HD 20 GB, Windows XP Pro with LCD monitor, excellent condition, price KD 35 only, call 60477518/ 99337034.

(C 3288) 21-4-2011

s %DIBLE FLOWER BUD OF THE THISTLE PLANT

A MEMBER OF THE SUNFLOWER FAMILY LEFT TO GROW WILD IT WILL PRODUCE A SPIKY

PURPLE FLOWER 3OURCE .02 #ALIFORNIA !RTICHOKE !DVISORY "OARD -#4 0HOTO 3ERVICE 'RAPHIC 0AT #ARR

Š 2009 MCT

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines RJA JZR JZR THY ETH UAE DHX ETD FDB GFA QTR JZR FCX JZR KAC BAW KAC KAC IRA KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY ETD GFA MEA JZR JZR JZR MEA KAC MSR UAL RJA MSR FDB OMA SYR JZR SVA KAC KNE KAC

Flt 642 205 267 772 620 853 370 305 67 211 138 503 201 555 412 157 206 382 605 302 53 332 352 284 362 855 132 125 301 213 404 165 121 561 406 672 610 982 640 621 57 645 341 357 500 552 745 788

Arrival Flights on Thursday 21/4/2011 Route AMMAN DAMASCUS BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA LUXOR DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MANILA / BANGKOK LONDON ISLAMABAD DELHI ISFAHAN MUMBAI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM COCHIN DHAKA COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH ABU DHABI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DUBAI BAHRAIN SOHAG BEIRUT DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN ASSIUT DUBAI MUSCAT DAMASCUS MASHAD JEDDAH DAMASCUS JEDDAH JEDDAH

Time 0:05 0:25 0:35 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:10 3:15 3:20 5:15 5:25 6:10 6:15 6:30 7:15 7:20 7:40 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:30 9:35 10:55 11:10 11:15 12:30 12:30 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:00 14:00 14:10 14:30 14:35 14:45 14:50

JZR QTR KAC KNE KAC MLR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY ALK JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC SIA JAI IRA KAC FDB VOS OMA JZR MEA KAC MSR DHX KLM UAE GFA JZR QTR UAL AIC JZR JZR MSR DLH AXB BBC PIA

257 134 546 789 118 403 303 857 215 510 777 239 127 227 177 104 502 542 618 786 614 774 674 458 572 617 562 61 93 647 179 402 178 618 372 445 859 217 203 136 981 981 135 185 612 636 389 43 205

BEIRUT DOHA ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH NEW YORK COLOMBO / DUBAI ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH AMMAN SHARJAH COLOMBO / DUBAI DUBAI LONDON BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI SINGAPORE / ABU DHABI MUMBAI AHWAZ AMMAN DUBAI KANDAHAR / DUBAI MUSCAT DUBAI BEIRUT GENEVA / FRANKFURT ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN DAMASCUS DOHA BAHRAIN CHENNAI / AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE / MANGALORE DHAKA LAHORE

15:10 15:15 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35 17:40 18:00 18:00 18:35 18:45 18:50 18:55 19:00 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:45 19:50 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:10 20:15 20:45 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:10 23:45 23:55

Airlines AXB DLH AIC KLM PIA THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD QTR JZR JZR RJA GFA JZR JZR BAW KAC IRA FDB KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA KAC MEA VOS KAC JZR JZR KAC MEA JZR MSR RJA FDB MSR UAL KAC OMA

Flt 394 637 976 447 216 773 620 854 68 371 306 139 560 164 643 212 356 120 156 545 606 54 787 671 551 256 101 856 126 133 302 214 165 405 101 541 776 238 501 407 176 611 641 58 622 982 561 646

Arrival Flights on Thursday 21/4/2011 Route COCHIN / KOZHIKODE FRANKFURT GOA / CHENNAI AMSTERDAM KARACHI ISTANBUL BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DOHA SOHAG DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN MASHAD BAHRAIN LONDON ALEXANDRIA MASHAD DUBAI JEDDAH DUBAI DAMASCUS BEIRUT LONDON / NEW YORK DUBAI SHARJAH DOHA ABU DHABI BAHRAIN ROME / PARIS BEIRUT DOMODEDOVO AIRPORT CAIRO JEDDAH AMMAN BEIRUT BEIRUT DUBAI CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI ASSIUT BAHRAIN AMMAN MUSCAT

Time 0:15 0:40 0:50 0:55 1:10 2:15 2:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 5:00 5:55 6:55 7:00 7:10 8:20 8:20 8:25 8:35 8:40 8:40 8:55 9:00 9:10 9:10 9:30 9:40 9:50 10:00 10:15 10:20 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:10 13:00 13:30 13:40 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 14:45 15:00

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

SYR KAC KNE KAC SVA JZR JZR KAC QTR KAC KNE VOS ETD MLR KAC UAE GFA ABY JZR JZR SVA ALK JZR KAC KAC JAI FDB IRA KAC KAC OMA MEA SIA MSR DHX KLM KAC JZR UAE GFA FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR KAC UAL MSR KAC

342 673 746 617 505 178 202 773 135 613 790 82 304 404 543 858 216 128 184 266 511 228 134 283 361 571 62 616 331 351 648 403 457 619 373 445 677 206 860 218 102 137 301 205 502 554 222 411 981 613 415

DAMASCUS DUBAI JEDDAH DOHA JEDDAH DUBAI DAMASCUS RIYADH DOHA BAHRAIN JEDDAH BAGHDAD ABU DHABI DUBAI / COLOMBO CAIRO DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI BEIRUT RIYADH DUBAI / COLOMBO BAHRAIN DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI AHWAZ TRIVANDRUM COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT ABU DHABI / SINGAPORE ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN / AMSTERDAM DUBAI / MUSCAT DAMASCUS DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA ALEPPO BANGKOK / MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA

15:00 15:10 15:30 15:35 16:00 16:00 16:05 16:05 16:15 16:20 16:45 17:00 17:35 17:40 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:45 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:10 23:25 23:40 23:40 23:50 23:50

34

star CROSSWORD 294

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

s

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) An old resentment may surface over money today. Remember, money is not the problem; it is what you do with it that is the problem. Someone may owe you money, or you owe someone. Whatever the circumstances, payments over a period aid of time can be worked out or you will have to make a decision to either let it go, or seek legal aid. 3 In any case, you may find forward movement on your goals has temporarily slowed. Realities demand that you tend to business and forget personal matters for the time being. You could come up with new solutions or inventions this afternoon that will make everyone’s job easier. You are tuned into the thoughts of your friends and family this evening. An attitude of compromise and understanding is the right path.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Rushing about could cause you to be accident-prone so— easy-does-it. Learn to plan ahead as much as possible. If your time is already booked, say no to other activities now. Ideas and interaction with authority figures or older people may be in the forecast today. Working with—rather than against—the flow should be easy. In-depth discussions and probing conversations find you at your mental best. Your analytical abilities are good. You may enjoy a sense of creating your own opportunities. Someone older or in authority may be a motivating force. This is a good day, with lots of energy and ambition. New personal projects, perhaps a hobby, can be enjoyed this afternoon. You concentrate on family and home life this evening.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS

1. A byproduct of inflammation.

4. A deep bow.

10. Any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes.

13. The former capital and 2nd largest city of Brazil.

14. A student in medical school.

15. (Judaism) Sacred chest where the ancient Hebrews kept the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments.

16. A naturally occurring estrogenic hormone.

18. A chain of more than 200 islands about 400 miles long in the western central Pacific Ocean.

20. Stern foremost or backward.

22. Tropical American trees with palmately compound leaves and showy bell-shaped flowers.

23. A small canoe consisting of a light frame made watertight with animal skins.

26. A sudden minor shock or meaningless interruption.

30. Large bamboo having thick-walled culms.

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

35. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

36. One of the five major classes of immunoglobulins.

39. A negative.

40. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

42. A landlocked republic in eastern Africa.

44. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.

46. An enclosed space.

47. A wired or starched collar of intricate lace.

51. (combining form) Very large in scale or scope or capability.

55. The sixth month of the civil year.

56. Committee formed by a special-interest group to raise money for their favorite political candidates.

58. Strong and sharp.

59. Light informal conversation for social occasions.

62. The villain in William Shakespeare's tragedy who tricked Othello into murdering his wife.

63. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

64. Jordan's port.

65. Any culture medium that uses agar as the gelling agent.

DOWN 1. A squeaking sound.

2. A genus of Laridae.

3. (British informal) Trivial.

4. A smile expressing smugness or scorn instead of pleasure.

5. (in Gnosticism) A divine power or nature emanating from the Supreme Being and playing various roles in the operation of the universe.

6. A lipoprotein that transports cholesterol in the blood.

7. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

8. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

9. Large high frilly cap with a full crown.

10. Surrealist Spanish painter (1904-1989).

11. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

12. Gull-like jaeger of northern seas.

17. A long noosed rope used to catch animals.

19. The fatty flesh of eel.

21. A Russian prison camp for political prisoners.

24. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity.

25. One of three artisans of the gods.

27. United States educator who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education (17961859).

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

29. Common Indian weaverbird.

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

32. The habitation of wild animals.

33. Deciduous South African tree having large odd-pinnate leaves and profuse fragrant orange-yellow flowers.

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

38. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

41. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

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

44. American prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942).

45. 100 kopecks equal 1 ruble.

48. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

49. A small cake leavened with yeast.

50. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

52. A steep rugged rock or cliff.

53. Port city that is the capital and largest city of Latvia.

54. Any property detected by the olfactory system.

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

60. Unknown god.

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

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Your work is an important area for you. Not only does your professional involvement define who you are, but work is also the key to your sense of well-being. If you are in a business that can show off your talents you are indeed a happy camper. Unearthing previously unrealized talents can be a positive answer to a flux in income now. You may be somewhat impulsive today and you may find yourself doing things you normally would not do. Avoid important decisions for now, if possible, as you may have difficulty concentrating. You may choose to move into different friendships soon because your hobbies, likes and dislikes may change a bit. Eat healthy food and drink lots of water this week in order to keep your body running smoothly.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

Spontaneity is the mood of the day. Enjoying your work and the people you work with allows you to create long-time friends.

You may find yourself enjoying a long conversation, writing a letter or making a special phone call later today. Your advice and counsel regarding a friend’s very personal and emotional issues helps to some degree but the listening is the most important part. You are able to cut through the red tape and get at what is beneath and behind most puzzles. You communicate by listening. Spread some cheer today—names are not necessary—a thoughtful act of kindness can make someone’s day. Maybe he or she will pass on a favor to someone else. A beautiful sunset or a beautiful new flower may be the target for your camera this afternoon.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Your enthusiasm is contagious and before the day is over Today you may discover that your co-workers value you for your abilities with group issues. You have a natural sense of what the public wants as well and will probably be chosen to help make decisions for others. If you are not in management, you will do well to log in these moments of decision making. Higher-ups in your company will be advised of your capabilities in the area of management. Opportunities for social gatherings are strong this afternoon. As long as you keep focused on the practical side of issues, clear insights can be understood.

There are opportunities to participate in outdoor activities later today. Make sure your participation in these activities is within reason. There are constructive conversations with friends tonight.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Communicating quickly, yet clearly enough so that others understand you, is important just now. Your timing is perfect for whatever you want to accomplish. A quick meeting directs the day’s activity for you and those around you; focus. It is important that the results of your efforts be positive and so you may work extra hard to increase your productivity. You enjoy close communication with family members and they comment on your good works. You could be sifting through some of your old things to sell in a neighborhood garage sale later today. You encourage other family members to go through their closets. You cannot buy anything new when there are old things that do not fit any more and crowd the closet—there is no room for new!

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You can often express an understanding and sensitivity to the needs of others. This quality about you tends to put you in a good position to communicate as a leader, if needed. This is a good day to work at keeping connections between co-workers and leaders strong. Busy times at work may have caused you to become slack in your personal contacts. You may decide to make an effort after work to locate a few of your friends and plan a get-together soon. Perhaps you can partake in a short trip to the country or schedule in some competitive game for fun. Get in touch with your intuitive side and seek out good energies to absorb, perhaps an aquarium, planetarium, park, etc. This can be an expansive, creative and even romantic phase, a time of pride and fondness.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Today you may feel like staying at home. However, this may be the day that was meant for your advancement. Something that seems very dull to you has the possibility of becoming an enticing job for others— remember Tom Sawyer? In order to find a helper or a replacement for a particular job, take on a more creative attitude. Now is a better time to sell than to buy, a period when trimming the excess and the antiquated is the right thing to do. This applies to material things, but extends to social and romantic relationships as well. There is a need to improve channels of understanding and appreciation. Get out and work off some of your frustrations with your wonderful friends or a loved one. A relationship changes for the positive this evening.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

You may reassess some long-term responsibility in the workplace just now. What you once thought was glamorous may not be glamorous at all. With your ability to change one thing into another, you might find a way to see this responsibility through with a little less resentment—you can do it! You will find praise and admiration for any creative expression with which you decide to become involved. There is a lot of pride in what you do and your energies allow you to exhibit much showmanship. Mischievous behavior could outweigh the practical if you have no plans this afternoon. Decide to plan your day early. Friendship is a huge area of gain for you. Your circle of friends continues to grow. Today you talk to your friends and plan the next event.

You may find yourself working overtime today. This is a good day to solve problems and make important decisions. You will find a way around almost any obstacle and are in control and able to guide yourself with ease. Your sense of inner direction is good and should lead to opportunities. Today you will be able to tackle tasks that require real discipline. You find yourself in a very practical mood and working with, instead of against, yourself. This evening it is easy to relax with friends and family. Your charisma shows and your friends will enjoy your company. Your need for attention can be satiated through your sense of humor and entertaining skills. Do not forget to read or help a young person to read a story tonight—communicate.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Work with colors, layouts, designs or ideas is a satisfying job and it brings a good profit. If you are in advertising, today you have some old ideas that can be reworked to make a quick sell. You are feeling good and perhaps a bit feisty. This afternoon you may decide a little rearranging of furniture, cleaning, etc., is necessary. Of course, if you share space with another person it would be advisable to give them a little time to think on how they might like things moved. Feeling good seems to encourage out-of-doors activity with friends later today. Helping a friend move back into the neighborhood will be an easy task. You just hook them up with your real-estate friend and they will soon be inviting you to dinner. You may enjoy a good movie this evening.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

While you may be used to passing on the final decision making to someone else in your company, it may be time to show higher-ups that you have an opinion. Your decision-making abilities are very good and you might want to start gaining attention through a written report or proposal.

You will begin to see some positive difference in the respect that you receive from your supervisors and co-workers. Seek, perhaps through books, the strategies of other businesses and you will gain some additional problem-solving ideas. You and a loved one would enjoy a treat this next weekend and now is a good time to plan.

Perhaps two days in the country or a visit to a water garden display or gardening class would be enjoyable.

A

y

e niv rsar n

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

Years

i n f o r m at i o n FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

24812000

Al-Jahra

25610011

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

Clinics Rabiya

4732263

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

PHARMACIES

AIRLINES

ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Kuwait Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways FlyDubai Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines Aeroflot

22433377 177 22924455 22414400 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 22412284/5 22453820/1 22404838/9

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist 25340300

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581 22641071/2

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Salem soso

22618787

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Neurologists

Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Mousa Khadada

22666300

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists

25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291 22666288

Rheumatologists:

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

Dentists

Internists, Chest & Heart

25339330

25655535

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

General Surgeons

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677

Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345

Central African Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia

00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689

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36

e niv rsar n

Years

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

lifestyle G o s s i p

Crawford feels for today’s models indy Crawford is unhappy that today’s models are so much skinnier than her contemporaries. The 45-year-old star who was one of the original supermodels alongside Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, and Christy Turlington - thinks being a model was much easier in her day and admitted she is happy she is not trying to compete with today’s stars. She said: “I just saw the CoverGirl commercial with Taylor Swift and I thought, ‘Wow, it is so hard for models to get a job these days.’ “You have to sing and act, too. There doesn’t seem to be as much work specifically just for models. “And I also think when I was modeling, size 6 (UK size 10) was a normal size and now it’s like 2 (UK size 6) or 0 (UK size 4).” While Cindy admitted there are times when she wishes she looked the same as she did at the height of her modeling career, she says having kids Presley, 11, and Kaia, nine, with her husband Rande Gerber is

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ugh Jackman is busy working on his muscles for the next Wolverine movie. The 42-yearold actor is reprising his role as the Marvel superhero for a fifth time for new film ‘ The Wolverine’ and he has been busy in the gym sculpting his physique into its best possible shape.

However, Hugh is holding off growing the mutant’s famous facial hair - for now. He told UK TV breakfast show ‘Daybreak’: “Wolverine is coming back, so the claws are out. The chops aren’t grown yet but I’m starting to - the guns are getting there.” The Australian star is also keeping busy supporting new charity Live Below The Line - which wants people to try and spend just £1 on food a day between May 2-6 to get a better understanding of the challenges faced by people living in extreme poverty, and to raise funds for crucial anti-poverty initiatives. Speaking about the campaign, Hugh said: “I first became involved in the Global Poverty Project two or three years ago because it was just the most compelling idea. For five days we’re challenging people to live below the line. Even if you don’t want to do it for the full five days, you can do it for a day. Just sign up and if you don’t want to give up food, give up coffee - give up something, it’s just a symbol.”

much more important. She explained to Parade magazine: “I think what really shows on your face -besides good hair color - is if you’re happy in your life. If you’re doing work that you enjoy and that is rewarding, then as my mom always said, ‘You’d rather have smile lines than frown lines.’ “I don’t look the same as I did 20 years ago, nor should I. Sometimes I get that little pang, like ‘Oh, bummer, I wish I did’. But at the same time, I see my children and I see them growing up and I look at my husband and the marriage that we’ve worked on and have together, and if all that is good and working, it’s a lot easier to be kind to your little fine lines or where gravity’s gotten the better of you.”

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apper Gucci Mane’s lawyer is denying accusations that the musician pushed a woman out of his Hummer as he drove down a suburban Atlanta street in January. Attorney Ashutosh Joshi said Tuesday the artist intends to plead not guilty. DeKalb County prosecutors on Tuesday announced formal charges of battery, reckless conduct and disorderly conduct against the rapper, also known as Radric Delantic Davis, 31. DeKalb

Brand willing to shave head

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Jackman is working out for Wolverine movie

eidi Range says her favorite city is New York. The Sugababes singer loves going on holiday to the ‘Big Apple’ with her fiance Dave Berry because she finds it such an exciting and romantic place. She said: “New York is such an amazing place - me and Dave went there on our first holiday together. It was around Christmas and it was really so romantic. We went on a horse-drawn carriage and my favorite thing to do is to have a glass of champagne at Grand Central Station.” Just as she has fallen in love with New York, she has also fallen for the delights of Spain - in particular Tapas food.

She revealed: “I’m really into tapas at the moment. We’ve got a really cute one right by our house, which does great seafood. It’s just like being on holiday.”

Solicitor-General Sherry Boston said the rapper’s conduct “shows a willful disregard for a woman’s personal safety.”

Joshi said he and his client look forward to having the opportunity to fight the charges in court. A police report said Davis pushed the woman, 36-year-old Diana Graham, out of his Hummer as it traveled down a street on Jan. 28.

ussell Brand would shave his head to play Sir Winston Churchill in a film alongside wife Katy Perry.

The ‘Arthur’ star - who famously sports long, dark locks - would be open to starring in a movie as the bald former war-time British Prime Minister, as long as his ‘Firework’ singer spouse was also included. Speaking at the European premiere of ‘Arthur’, held at Cineworld at London’s O2, Russell admitted he’d shave his head if the right part came along, telling BANG Showbiz: “Depends who I’m playing... Winston Churchill? Alright! Me and Katy as Churchill and Churchill’s bodyguard. I’m up for it!” As well as playing the late Churchill, the comedian, who has written two autobiographies, ‘My Booky Wook’ and sequel ‘Booky Wook 2: This Time It’s Personal’ - covering his battle with drugs and alcohol and notorious womanizing before he met Katy - would like to see a film made of his life, but had some unusual choices as to who should play him. He said: “I’d love for a film to be made of my life. I’d have either Harry Potter [Daniel Radcliffe] or Natalie Portman playing me.” Russell, 35, also said he as “immensely proud” of ‘Arthur’ - about a playboy billionaire who stands to lose his inheritance if he marries a girl his family don’t approve of and feels it is as fun as inhaling “paint fumes” He added: “I’m immensely proud of it, it’s really funny and rather romantic. What a better way to spend 90 minutes, except perhaps in some peculiar stupor induced by paint fumes.

“I’d either watch ‘Arthur’ or inhale paint deeply. Or inhale paint deeply then watch ‘Arthur’. Or don’t inhale paint it’s dangerous.” ‘Arthur’ is in UK cinemas from April 22.

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federal judge has ruled that the new incarnation of Death Row Records does not have the rights to sell Dr Dre’s iconic rap album “The Chronic” digitally. The ruling by US District Judge Christina Snyder states that the rapper and producer has received far less money in royalties from online sales of the album than he should have. The ruling does not call for digital sales of Dre’s music to halt, but provides a mechanism for him to recoup damages later. The ruling also states that WIDEawake Death Row Records doesn’t have the right to use songs from “The Chronic” on compilations without permission. WIDEawake bought rights to the former rap label’s collection after it declared bankruptcy. WIDEawake’s attorney, Michael Holtz, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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Pattinson is ‘in love’ with Stewart obert Pattinson is “in love” with Kristen Stewart.

The heartthrob actor has been dating his ‘Twilight’ co-star for around two years and while the pair have been quite coy about their relationship, Robert’s latest co-star has spoken about how smitten they are with each other. Donna Scott - who appears alongside the 24-year-old hunk in new movie ‘Water for Elephants’ - told America’s OK! magazine: “He obviously loves his lady very much. “He was so lovely from the very beginning, very open about sharing stories of his life and his family. He loves his family very much.” Although Robert is very happy with Kristen, Donna did admit to enjoying kissing the star in ‘Water for Elephants’. She said: “I did kiss him. It was wonderful. It was very sweet. My character’s bawdy, so it was a lot of fun to get to do that and I think his response to me being bawdy was genuine. It was perfect.” It doesn’t come as a big surprise that Robert is smitten with Kristen, as he recently revealed he likes being in love. When asked if he is romantic, he said: “I guess I am when I like someone, I like being in love with people and yes, I guess I am quite sensitive to things. “It’s important to preserve any mystique you have and also I just don’t feel it’s anyone else’s business.”

— Bang Showbiz

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TV show follows evolution of exurbanites’ farm I

t sounds like the breathless plot of a zany sitcom: Manhattan adman who moonlights as a drag queen trades high heels for barn boots to raise goats and purple tomatoes with his life partner, a doctor who moved from geriatric practice to “The Martha Stewart Show” before chucking the city life for a new career on the farm. The story of Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge is chronicled in a cable TV show, “The Fabulous Beekman Boys,” on Planet Green. But it’s a reality show rather than a gay “Green Acres.”

The men also share their exurbanite adventures in a blog and in Kilmer-Purcell’s hilarious book, “The Bucolic Plague,” a follow-up to his memoir about his nightclub career as Aqua, a drag queen who used live goldfish in the glass-globe breasts of her costumes.

The cast of characters includes other residents of tiny Sharon Springs, a former spa in farm country 43 miles (69 kilometers) west of Albany. There’s Doug Plummer, described by Kilmer-Purcell as “Paul Bunyan in a kilt,” proprietor of the restored American Hotel along with his partner Garth. And Farmer John, who raises goats with some help from his partner, Jason, who builds nursery pens for the kids and wooden milking stands for the dairy. And there are the local weaver, soapmaker, blacksmith and woodworker whose wares are sold by the company launched by the fledgling farmers.

It all started in October 2006 when Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell, together since 2000, rented a car in New York City and drove off for their annual apple-picking weekend. They ended up in Sharon Springs, 195 miles (314 kilometers) north of the city, and were charmed. “We thought this was the greatest place, this ghost town that refuses to die,” said Kilmer-Purcell, 41. Outside the village, they happened upon a white GeorgianFederal style mansion with Palladian windows, a wraparound porch and a state historical marker saying it had been built in 1802

by William Beekman, a judge and businessman.

They thought it was a museum, so they pulled in the gravel drive. There were a red barn, overgrown gardens, towering oak trees — and a “for sale” sign. Thus began Beekman 1802, the farm and lifestyle business launched by the partners after they scraped together $950,000 to buy the mansion, which had been restored to its original grandeur in a multimillion-dollar makeover by the last owners in the mid-1990s. The business includes a website designed by KilmerPurcell, where the men blog about life on the 60-acre (24-hectare) farm, communicate with fans and sell soap, cheese and caramel sauce made from the farm’s goat milk and fine handicrafts made by local artisans.

The farm was originally intended to be a weekend getaway, but that changed after Wall Street tanked. “Like a lot of people, we both lost our jobs in 2008,” said the trim, bearded and bespectacled Kilmer-Purcell, leaning on the massive brick hearth in the farm’s kitchen. “We made a pact: Whoever found a new job first would take it, and the other would move to the farm and try to make it into a profitable business.” He was hired by a Manhattan ad agency, Ridge moved north, and the two have spent weekends together at the farm ever since.

Sharon Springs, population about 550, was a fashionable spa in the 19th century where the Vanderbilts and other high-society folks came to “take the waters” at mineral springs and Oscar Wilde gave porch-side readings at the American Hotel.

The village, nestled in gently rolling countryside that inspired James Fenimore Cooper’s novels, faded as a spa but enjoyed a rebirth as a vacation spot for Jewish families during the heyday of the nearby Catskills Borscht Belt. Its latest resurgence is fueled by affluent second-homers and Manhattanites who left the city after the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks. Lauren Michalchyshyn, president of Discovery Channel’s Planet Green network, signed up for emails on the Beekman 1802 website and was moved to suggest a reality show following the farm’s progress. “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” is currently in its second season, airing Tuesdays. Episodes have featured Ridge planning out a raisedbed vegetable garden, goats giving birth, Kilmer-Purcell grumbling because Ridge missed his book-signing in Manhattan and Ridge painting the walls of the tiny shop they opened in town.

“People who watch the show send us emails and say we can’t possibly do everything we’re doing. They think we have a legion of helpers behind the scenes, like Martha Stewart,” Ridge said. “We don’t. The truth is that we’re working 18- to 20-hour days. I’m hand-wrapping the soaps at the shop and trying to get things done around the farm.” Ridge, 37, slender and boyish with a soft North Carolina accent, graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in his home state, did postgraduate training in geriatrics at Columbia, then got an MBA from New York University and went to work for Martha Stewart as vice president for healthy living for four years. He tried medical practice but soon realized the emotional toll was too draining for him.

His eloquent blog on Beekman1802.com suggests that Ridge has found his calling among the goats, chickens, pigs and vegetables. The farm produces 80 percent of what is consumed there, Ridge said. He built the organic garden, which has 110 varieties of heirloom vegetables in 52 raised beds surrounded by a hand-stacked stone wall crafted by a local stonemason. The vegetables include purple carrots, snowball tomatoes and pale yellow cucumbers. New York City, with its restaurants, celebrity chefs and upscale groceries, provides an avid marketplace for the farm’s products. Ridge loads two big picnic coolers with goat cheese and takes it by Amtrak to Manhattan, then rolls it down the city sidewalks to customers that include Fairway, Whole Foods and Zabar’s.—AP

(From left) Dr Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, of Planet Green’s The Fabulous Beekman Boys, pose with goats at their Beekman Farm in Sharon Springs, NY on Saturday.—AP

Cannes jury gets Hong Kong flavor T

here’s a distinct Hong Kong flavor to the nine-member jury that will decide the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival that opens May 11. Hong Kong director Johnny To and film producer Shi Nansun, wife of director Tsui Hark, are both on the panel that is being led this year by Oscar winner Robert De Niro, said organizers in a statement late Tuesday. French director Olivier Assayas, an aficionado of Hong Kong and Chinese cinema who has cast Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung in his films even after their 2004 divorce, is also a juror. To, who turns 56 on Friday, is a Cannes regular, having shown five times at the world’s biggest film festival, most recently in 2009 with the crime film “Vengeance”.

From Hollywood, Uma Thurman and Jude Law will join the jury that will be rounded out by Chadian director Saleh Haroun, Norwegian film critic Linn Ullman and Argentinean actress and producer Martina Gusman. Nineteen films, the lion’s share from European directors, are in the running for the coveted Palme d’Or, including “The Skin I Live In,” the latest feature from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

Serbian director Emir Kusturica is chairing the jury that will judge the parallel Un Certain Regard section of the festival, and South Korean directors Bong Joon-Ho and Lee Chang-Dong are overseeing the panels deciding the Camera d’Or for best film and the Critics’ Week prizes respectively.

Presiding over the short-film jury is French filmmaker Michel Gondry.—AFP

A combo of recent pictures made on April 20, 2011 in Paris shows president of the jury US actor Robert De Niro and the eight jury members that will decide the Palme d’Or of the 2011 Cannes film festival that opens May 11.

From top left: Argentinean actress and producer Martina Gusman, French director Olivier Assayas, Chinese film producer Shi Nansun, US actress Uma Thurman, De Niro, Chadian director Saleh Haroun, US actor Jude Law, Norwegian film critic Linn Ullman, and Hong Kong director Johnny To.—AFP

Jeff Bridges to release album in summer

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he Dude” is becoming a rock star.

Jeff Bridges, who won an Oscar last year for playing a washed-up country legend in “Crazy Heart,” will release his major-label debut album in the summer, Blue Note Records said Tuesday. The actor collaborated on the project with producer T-Bone Burnett, who won an Oscar himself for co-writing the the “Crazy Heart” song “The Weary Kind.” Bridges wrote some of the material and also covered compositions by the likes of Tom Waits and late “Crazy Heart” songwriter Stephen Bruton. Guest vocalists on the album

include Rosanne Cash and Burnett’s ex-wife Sam Phillips. A statement for Blue Note, a jazz specialist owned by EMI Group, did not disclose the album’s title or the names of any songs. A spokesman did not reply to a request for more information. Burnett, friends with Bridges for more than 30 years, also compiled the soundtrack for the 1998 film “The Big Lebowski,” in which Bridges played his iconic slacker role “The Dude.” Bridges previously released an album in 2000, called “Be Here Jeff Bridges per forms with T Bone Soon,” collaborating on the independent proj- Burnett at the Independent Spirit ect with Michael McDonald.—Reuters Awards, in Los Angeles.—AP

Black Eyed Peas to start music academy in NYC

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The Black Eyed Peas members Fergie, second left, and will.i.am, right, sing with students at the launch of a new Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy in New York.—AP

he Black Eyed Peas are opening a school where local teenagers will learn video and music production using professional-quality equipment. The six-time Grammy Award winners announced Tuesday that their Peapod Foundation together with the Adobe Foundation will open a Peapod Adobe Youth Voices music and multimedia academy in lower Manhattan.

The Peapod Foundation is the hip-hop group’s charitable organization; it’s administered by the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The Adobe Foundation is the philanthropic arm of software maker Adobe Systems Inc., whose products include Acrobat, Flash and Photoshop. The two foundations already run three Youth Voices academies in California —in Los Angeles, Oakland and Redwood City. The New York academy will offer classes to students ages 13 to 19 starting this July, the foundations said. “Our passion for music and media was fueled by many generous people on our road to success,” Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am said. “Expanding the network of Peapod Adobe Youth Voices academies enables us to pay it forward, giving more youth the skills and encouragement they need to realize their dreams.” The academy will be housed in a facility operated by Urban Arts Partnership, which runs after-school arts programs for teens who attend highpoverty schools. —AP

Sheen makes cross-country trek for court, stage

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harlie Sheen showed Tuesday why sometimes warlocks need wings. The former “Two and a Half Men” star started his day in a Los Angeles divorce court for a child custody hearing, and will end it in Washington, DC, where he’s scheduled to perform his stage show. And somewhere in the middle was a hearing in Santa Monica for his $100 million lawsuit against his former employers, in which his lawyers argued for a public trial. Sheen is seeking custody of his twin sons with estranged wife Brooke Mueller. Their divorce will be finalized in roughly two weeks.

Sheen, clad in a black suit and orange tie in court, didn’t reveal the hearing’s outcome, which was sealed by the judge. Mueller left the courtroom smiling and hugged her attorney, but was equally tight-lipped.

Across town in Santa Monica, Sheen’s attorneys told a judge that they want his lawsuit against Warner Bros.

Television and “Men” executive producer Chuck Lorre to be heard in a public court and not through private arbitration as his former employers want.

Sheen’s attorneys claim an arbitration clause in the actor’s contract is unconscionable, but the studio’s attorneys contend it is valid. The judge in the civil case has up to a month to render a decision. Sheen’s appearance in the Los Angeles divorce court was relatively subdued, though not without the distinct touches he has displayed in interviews and his stage show.

Sheen, who often describes himself as a warlock (among other superlatives), is on a multi-city tour in which he regales audiences with tales of his exploits as one of Hollywood’s top-paid actors.

As the judge ordered the courtroom cleared for the custody hearing, Sheen fist-bumped a reporter. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hank Goldberg sealed the hearing at the request of Mueller’s attorney, saying it was “in the best interest of the children” because of “questions of abuse and other inflammatory and emotional issues.” The actor and his estranged wife have sparred in court in recent months, with Mueller accusing Sheen of threatening her with a pen knife.

The couple reached an agreement, and Mueller dropped a request for a restraining order. Sheen’s attorney, Mark Gross, said in court it was unfair that Mueller’s attorneys hadn’t sought to seal the restraining order, which detailed alleged threats Sheen had made.

The day encompassed the complicated life Sheen faces after “Two and a Half Men.” Another hearing on custody issues was scheduled for June 9. Despite the busy day, Sheen’s team was encouraged by the legal proceedings from the Warner Bros. and Lorre lawsuit.

Sheen’s lawyers presented their arguments for several hours. Howard Weitzman, Lorre’s attorney, asked Sheen’s attorney how he expected the judge would rule. “You know what I expect to hear,” Marty Singer replied. “We’re winning!”—AP

Brooke Mueller, estranged wife of actor Charles Sheen, is escorted away by her attorney from a Los Angeles courthouse.

—AP

Kuwait Times hosts award ceremony of photo competition KUWAIT: The Kuwait Times’ 6th photography competition awards ceremony was held at the Holiday Inn’s Dana Ballroom in Salmiya yesterday evening.

The sixth successive competition received an overwhelming response from enthusiastic participants who excitedly waited for the results of the competition. More than 100 people attended the awards ceremony.

The competition’s judges, Al-Asfahani, Assenov and Wruck selected 10 big winners and they were awarded accordingly. Appreciation certificates were given to the three judges for their contribution to the competition. Sponsors were also honored at the event. A special raffle was held for all those attending the ceremony as well.

Kuwait Times’ Sales Team, Javid Ahmad, Assaad Marouni, Eiad Al-Ahad and Jinse Jose attended the reception as well. Kuwait Times’ Marketing Director, Adnan Saad thanked all those that participated in the event and helped make the competition a great success.

Marketing Director Adnan Saad

Kuwait Times thanks participants, sponsors for successful photo competition

By Adnan Saad

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Kuwait Times team with Director of sales One minute silence was observed to pay tribute to Nasser Al-Kharafi who passed away on Sunday.

Crowne Plaza Hani Nabil.

Sponsor Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn

wo days ago Nasser Al-Kharafi passed away. He was a father not only to his family but also to the Arab world. We have lost one of the most influential persons in our country. I humbly request that everyone stand up and offer a silent prayer for him.

Regarding our newspaper’s photography competition, I would like to thank all those that participated this year. It is the sixth time that the Kuwait Times has organized this event since 1999. I am very proud to say that more than 3,700 people of various nationalities participated in the competition. Of those that submitted photos 100 will be given the chance to win prizes.

According to the judges, we have increased the number of winners from 6 to 10 winners due the difficulty of choosing the best amongst so many quality photos.

I believed that all those that participated in the competition are winners and to show our appreciation we held

Sponsor Response Media

a raffle and awarded each of the finalists. We appreciate your work. Well done.

I would like to thank all the sponsors that assisted us in making this event possible; Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza Hotel for the lovely dinner and for welcoming our guests; Essa Husain Al-Yousifi and Panasonic for giving us valuable prizes and Response Media for giving out the tickets. I would also like to thank Crowne Plaza Salalah, Abu Dhabi, Holiday Inn Festival City, and Barsha for providing us with vouchers for our big winners and for giving us the opportunity to use their facilities. I would like to thank Gulfnet for providing us with a free subscription for the internet. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to our judges Al-Asfahani, Assenov and Wruck for assisting in making the event go as smoothly as possible by screening each of the 3,700 submissions.

As promised, plenty more opportunities will be available from the Kuwait Times in future competitions.

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First prize winner Abdulaziz Al Asousi

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Third prize winner Arturo Saclolo

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Fourth winner prize Ares Garcia

Fifth prize winner Ahmed Akbar

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Seventh prize winner Agostino Barreto

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Tenth prize winner Sameer Aftab Syal

Eighth prize winner Jacek Wozniak

Ninth prize winner Yuliya Akhmedova

TV show follows evolution of exurbanites’ farm

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011

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Princess Diana-worlds apart

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rom the moment Prince William put his mother’s sapphire and diamond ring on Kate Middleton’s finger, comparisons between his wife-to-be and the late princess Diana became inevitable.

More than a decade after Diana’s death, the “People’s Princess” remains adored and the new royal bride will be measured against the young, shy blonde who captivated the world at her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981. The royals are understandably wary of comparisons between the two women, and William himself insisted soon after the engagement that “no one is trying to fill my mother’s shoes”.

Diana’s marriage was a famously unhappy union which broke down amid infidelity on both sides, ending in a bitter divorce and then tragedy, when the princess died in a Paris car crash in 1997. It is not a tale to comfort a nervous bride, but fortunately, commentators see more differences than similarities between the two women. Despite her lack of aristocratic blood, Kate will be far better prepared than Diana ever was for royal life when she walks down the aisle of Westminster Abbey on April 29.

“Kate’s been very carefully groomed, it’s been a long process over a period of time and she’s got people around her who understand the modern media. “She knows exactly what she’s getting,” said Max Clifford, a top British PR man who has represented many celebrities. Kate and William have been together for eight years, whereas Diana was courted for just six months. In fact, Kate has been waiting so long for her boyfriend to pop the question that the press dubbed her “Waity Katy”.

But Clifford says the length of time puts their relationship on a strong footing, saying “William seems to be totally in love with her and vice versa”. The young couple

have had a very modern courtship. They lived together while at St Andrews University in Scotland, where they met, and in recent months Kate has stayed with William on the island of Anglesey in Wales, where he works as a helicopter search and rescue pilot. At the age of 29, Kate also has considerable life experience compared to Diana, who was only 20 on her wedding day, 12 years younger than Charles. Just five months separate Kate and William, who is 28.

Diana had left school before finishing her studies and her work experience was limited to a stint at a nursery. By contrast, Kate graduated with a degree in art history from a top university, although her jobs as an accessories buyer for a clothing brand and then for her family’s party goods firm have been criticized as lightweight. Kate also had a happier and more stable childhood than Diana, whose parents divorced when she was young. Kate is close to her mother Carole and sister Pippa, her maid of honor, and says her family is a major source of support.

Up to now, William’s bride has also had a better relationship with the press, which hounded the late princess right up to the moment of her death. Despite a rocky start following Kate’s move to London after

graduation, when photographers mobbed her every time she left the house, warning letters from lawyers and the palace have caused the media to back off.

Kate “is an intelligent girl. She has a good head on her shoulders and is so much older than Diana was and she knows William,” said royal historian Hugo Vickers.

The royal family “must be delighted.

She’s cautious. She’s very measured- confidence is not quite the right word, but she is assured,” he added. Diana was beautiful, charismatic and almost universally loved, but she was also unstable and the explosive fallout of her split with Charles cast a pall over the royal family that is only now starting to lift. She also overshadowed the other royals, staying firmly in the limelight even after the divorce through her charitable causes. “Diana became far more popular worldwide than the royal family, and in this country-she was the one everyone wanted to see, wanted to hear, wanted to be around,” said Clifford. The royals “would have learned from that”, he said. Kate has shown no sign of Diana’s love of publicity, although only time will tell how far her careful plans survive the pressure of being a fully paid-up member of the royal family.—AFP

Got prom dibs? Girls use Facebook to claim dress

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eenage girls largely live in a lookalike culture, wearing the same styles that they got in the same stores as their friends. On prom night, though, the idea is to stand out, making sure no one arrives to the big dance in the same outfit. To ensure their uniqueness-after they’ve shopped in faraway malls and tapped into store registries-girls are using social media to claim dibs on their dresses. A photo of Ashley McGowan’s floorlength black gown is on the prom Facebook page for her school in suburban Somers, New

This product image courtesy of Lord & Taylor shows, from left to right, a model wearing a dress by A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz and a model wearing a dress

by Aidan Mattox.

York. She’s relieved that only one other classmate has posted a black frock.

“There’s an unwritten rule: the moment you buy it, you post it so it’s ‘your dress,”‘ explains McGowan. A fashion advice website, Fashism.com, has even launched a Facebookbased registry called “Got Dibs” that allows users to track who’s wearing what to which high school event, and get feedback on their outfit before they wear it. Amy Avitable, senior vice president of marketing for Lord & Taylor, which is partnering with Fashism.com on Got Dibs, says the project is a way to give girls an insurance policy that they’ll have something special, while making sure they won’t be second-guessing their outfit at the last minute. Here’s how Got Dibs works: Girls can snap photos of themselves with the tags still on the dress and get instant advice on what shoes to wear, if the hemline is right or if the silhouette is flattering. The opinions of peers, whether they are best friends or online “friends” from around the country, are key to the tech-savvy, fashion-loving consumer, says Ashley Granata, Fashism.com’s co-founder and chief marketing officer. But for promgoers, it’s the claim on a dress that matters most, she adds.

“When I was a junior, a freshman came to my prom in the same dress. I was mortified,” Granata recalls. “It was a pink satin, princess cut with scalloped neckline. I thought it was interesting and beautiful. I was known to have individual sense of style-and then this trendy girl shows up in the same thing. Now I can say it’s really funny, but I was really upset about it.” Hollywood stars make a strong impression by owning their looks, and teenage girls want to do the same, says Jane Keltner de Valle, fashion news director of Teen

Vogue. They mimic celebrities with elaborate fashion fantasies and hair and makeup plans, but they also play the part of stylist by scouring magazines and websites for months to get ideas, then try to secure exclusivity.

All the preparation fuels anticipation of the prom, which girls start thinking about months in advance. They build it up _ with help from movies, TV, fashion magazines and maybe even mom _ as their big red-carpet moment. “Girls feel tremendous pressure to get it right,” says Keltner de Valle. “They don’t want to feel like a copy of anyone else, and she also doesn’t want to be compared to anyone else. They don’t want to wake up to the Facebook comparison of: ‘Who wore it best?”‘

This product image courtesy of Lord & Taylor shows a dress by Decode 1.8.

Staking an early claim on a dress may help girls breathe easier. And then it’s the girl who doesn’t follow these new etiquette rules who risks rebuke, Keltner de Valle says.

Of course, she adds, it shouldn’t be that way: Girls should be celebrating who they are at the prom and not make it all about “the dress,” but, for better or worse, that is part of the tradition. McGowan, a senior, says she has put a lot of thought into her dress and she’s sure she doesn’t want it to be a “typical prom dress.” “I want to look different than all my friends,” she says, and she thinks she will be in a halter-top, floor-length black dress that she describes as “elegant.” She shopped for the dress on her own, and asked the salesperson at an independent boutique to direct her to the racks intended for other more sophisticated formal occasions.

Katharine Imrie, a high school senior in Wausau, Wisconsin, is still looking for her dress; she’s thinking purple or red to help her stand out from the crowd. The prom wardrobe is “the buzz around school right now,” she says. Some of her friends have traveled about two hours away to Madison so they’d be able to pick from more stores offering a wider variety of dresses. “The stores in town here have a lot of the same things,” Imrie says. The typical girl tries on 30 dresses before making a decision, says Lord & Taylor’s Avitable. It’s not price nor style that ends up driving the purchase, she observes, it’s the confidence that comes with a particular dress. McGowan says a unique look on prom night will help leave a lasting impression on friends and classmates. “The prom is your last big hurrah of high school,” she said. “You want people to remember you at this moment of you looking your best.”—AP

This product image courtesy of Lord & Taylor shows models wearing dresses by Adriana Papell. —AP photos