30 April 2011

IO N IPT SC R SU B

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

35 killed on Syria ‘rage day’

Salafi MPs deny sponsoring Syria protesters

No: 15074

JAMADA ALAWWAL 27, 1432 AH

Porto crush Villarreal; Falcao hits 4

150 Fils

48 2 William,7Kate wed as world watches Royal couple seal marriage with kisses

Max 35 Min 23

LONDON: Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge make their way in an open carriage along The Mall, London from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace after their wedding yesterday. — AP LONDON: Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton married at Westminster Abbey yesterday in a sumptuous show of British pageantry that attracted a huge world audience and breathed new life into the monarchy.

One million well-wishers watched military bands in black bearskin hats and household cavalrymen in shining breastplates escorting the beaming couple in a 1902 open-topped state landau carriage after the ceremony. The newly-weds then appeared on the balcony of Queen Elizabeth’s Buckingham Palace in central London where they sealed their union with two kisses before a jubilant, cheering crowd who waved flags and banners.

“The monarchy is like our Hollywood, the movies, for us,” said Californian Diane Weltz, who treated her daughter Samantha to a trip to London for her 21st birthday.

Middleton, who wore a laced ivory colored dress with a train for the ceremony, became the first “commoner” to marry a

prince in close proximity to the throne in more than 350 years.

The 29-year-old, whose mother’s family has coal mining roots, has brought a sense of modernity to the monarchy and helped restore popularity to an institution tarnished by the death of William’s hugely popular mother Princess Diana in 1997.

Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother who famously excoriated the royals at her funeral in the same abbey, told the BBC the wedding was “very moving”, before adding: “The only downside on a perfect day was Diana not being there.”

Fans from Asia to the United States camped overnight outside the abbey to catch a glimpse of the future king and queen, whose marriage has fuelled a feel-good factor that has briefly lifted Britain from its economic gloom. More than 8,000 journalists descended on London and the ceremony was streamed live on YouTube, ensuring what experts expect will be one of the biggest global audiences ever.

The crowd entered into the festive spirit on a day when threatened rain failed to materialize by wearing national flags, masks of the couple and even fake wedding dresses and tiaras.

“It should have been me!” shouted nurse Jo Newman, 27, dressed as a bride and clutching a bouquet of plastic roses.

Hundreds of police officers, some armed, dotted the royal routes in a major security operation. Plain clothes officers mixed with the masses who were packed behind rails to watch the couple seal their marriage with one sheepish kiss, then another.

World War Two and modern warplanes flew over the waving royals before they headed inside for a champagne reception for 650 guests in the palace’s 19 opulent state rooms.

The couple made a surprise appearance in an open-top vintage Aston Martin owned by the prince’s father with the licence plate “JU5T WED” trailing balloons to travel the short journey to St. James’s Palace in another informal and crowd-pleasing gesture. — AP (See pages 21-27)

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local SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

in the news KD100 granted to Interior Ministry staff KUWAIT: The Civil Service Commission passed a KD100 monthly allowance to citizens working in the Ministry of Interior at civilian posts, and who aren’t covered with any previous allowances. The allowance is given as financial privilege. The decision, made by the Undersecretary Lieutenant General Ghazi Al-Omar, enables employees covered with the allowance to have their payments received retroactively as of April, Al-Rai reported.

LONDON: Jaber Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, envoy of the Amir of Kuwait, attends the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Buckingham Palace yesterday. — KUNA

Court resigns head of EPA KUWAIT: The Appeals Court recently reversed the decision by which Dr Saleh Al-Madhahi was appointed to Managing Director of the Environment Public Authority (EPA). The appointment, made two years ago, was discovered to have been in violation of an EPA’s law. The lawsuit filed by head of the EPA’s Sustainable Development Division, Khawlah Al-Ubaidan, argued that the decision to appoint Al-Madhahi was in violation of article five of EPA’s law number 16/1996. The law specifically indicates that a candidate appointed to the position has to have experience in the environmental field. — Al-Qabas

Salafi MPs deny sponsoring Syria anti-govt protesters Website mentions role of Kuwaiti lawmakers

KUWAIT: Several Islamist lawmakers in Kuwait have strongly rejected claims in a Syrian news website hinting that members of the Islamic Salafi movement in the Gulf are involved in funding anti-government protestors with the goal of toppling president Bashar Al-Assad.

The Aks Alser website, a widespread news agency in Syria, republished a report originally posted by the nonofficial Iraqi Nahrain Net news website. The original report alleged that the protests taking place in Syria are a result of “ongoing activity carried

out by international and regional parties,” specifically mentioning Islamist Kuwaiti lawmakers. The report claimed that the lawmakers were playing an “extremely serious role” in Syria’s recent events.

Moreover, the report, which claimed to be quoting an official Kuwaiti source, alleged that members of the Salafi movement in Kuwait sent money to Daraa, a city in Syria near Jordan. It said that Islamists are paying “luxurious salaries” to people that agree to join, “factions of the Salafi movement they created in Syria.”

The report names Islamist Kuwaiti lawmakers Mohammad Hayef, Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, Khalid Al-Sultan and Daifullah Buramia as “sponsoring Salafi movements in Kuwait that attempt to agitate a sectarian struggle against the Syrian regime.” It also mentioned the Islamic Heritage Revival Society, a charitable organization in Kuwait, as the institution responsible for “spending millions of dollars inside Syria to recruit religious youth into militias that engage in confrontations with police.”

Kuwait’s response to such allega-

KUWAIT: A handful of Kuwaitis from Al Umma Party yesterday gathered to protest the murder of innocent people in Syria with a sit-in in front of the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City.

—Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

tions were quick. MP Al-Tabtabaei insisted that the claims were “attempts to depict the popular revolution as a sectarian struggle.” He also asserted that the support given

by Islamist lawmakers in Kuwait was moral, not financial. MP Mohammad Hayef added that if such allegations were true then, “the [ruling] Ba’ath [party] regime wouldn’t have been left to reign in corruption for forty years.” He also drew comparisons between the recent claims and those made by Muammar Al-Gaddafi that the Libyan rebels were being supported by Al-Qaeda.

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Municipal Council to discuss Safar’s veto on renaming KUWAIT: The Municipal Council is scheduled to discuss during their weekly meeting on Monday the decision of Minister of Municipality Affairs Dr Fadhel Safar to reject a proposal made by the council to rename public streets including the press street after prominent writer late Mohammad Musa’ed Al-Saleh. In addition, the council is also expected to look into

Sheikh Nasser mulls raising portfolios Cabinet may be delayed KUWAIT: Recent reports suggest that the new cabinet, which was expected to be announced by next week, may be postponed a few more days as His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Muhammad Al-Sabah was advised to have the Cabinet contain eight portfolios instead of five.

Official sources did not specify who gave His Highness the Prime Minister the advice but indicated that it came from a high level official. In the meantime, the sources said that His Highness the Prime Minister’s consultations are ongoing regarding a portfolio currently being held by a member of the ruling family.

Meanwhile, the same report also indicated that Dr Mohammad Al-Afasi is prepared to retain his position as Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, but may also be assigned to head the Ministry of Justice. The name of senior Municipal Council member Ashwaq Al-Madhaf has been mentioned as a top candidate for the Ministry of Electricity and Water, currently held by caretaking minister Badr Al-Shuraian. AlShuraian’s name was mentioned alongside activists Fahad AlAdwa and Sulaiman Al-Mansour by independent MPs that met with His Highness the Prime Minister as recommendations for the upcoming Cabinet.

A separate report indicated that the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, is scheduled to return to the country from a trip abroad on Tuesday instead of the originally scheduled date of Friday. It is speculated that this may also contribute to postponing the formation of the Cabinet by an additional week. The Popular Action Bloc (PAB), one of the parliament’s leading antigovernment blocs, is expected to file an interpellation motion against His Highness the Prime Minister during the parliament session in which the new Cabinet is sworn in.

However, it is speculated that certain MPs may withdraw from the oath taking session in protest of the new Cabinet.

Official sources close to the PAB confirmed that bloc member Khalid Al-Tahous, along with two other lawmakers, will file the interpellation against His Highness the Prime Minister at the oath taking session. The Development and Reform Bloc is expected to file a grilling against His Highness the Prime Minister at a later date. Constitutional expert Dr Mohammad Al-Feeli commented on the subject of oath taking. “A minister obtains his ministerial status officially after the cabinet’s formation decree is published in the official gazette,” Al-Feeli said. Swearing in before the Amir gives ministers the authority to carry out executive activities while swearing in before the parliament complement the fact that they are part of the National Assembly, he added.

Production firm caught with unlicensed device KUWAIT: A team from the Ministry of Information’s artistic works administration caught a local production company using satellite news gathering (SNG) devices without a license, a violation of the audiovisual law.

The discovery was part of a wide inspection campaign of all production companies and private satellite television networks in Kuwait. The campaign was launched following a recent statement by the ministry in which they warned against the use of satellite transmission devices without first obtaining licenses. The licenses are assigned after the ministry makes sure that the requested device meets the conditions adopted in Kuwait.

the minister’s rejection to their decision of extending the spring camping period.

Meanwhile, a source familiar with the situation indicates that the Municipal Council members are most likely going to activate Article 14 which gives them the right to object a minister’s rejection of a proposal they made, Al-Qabas reported.

Also the council is scheduled to look into the general secretary’s report regarding the computer sets that were stolen from the council hall, as well as replies to queries made previously by members Shaye’a AlShaye’a and Muhalhal Al-Khalid about foodstuff companies that are accused of smuggling spoiled food into the country.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

National guards honor officers KUWAIT: Brigadier Abdulrazzag Al-Rifai, the commander of the National Guards’ military education unit, yesterday decorated a number of officers with the AlSoor Insignia, conferred by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah in his capacity as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

In his speech at the ceremony, Brig. Al-Rifai affirmed the political leadership’s appreciation of the National Guards’ role in defending the homeland and maintaining its stability.

Militants target teens to create sectarian division KUWAIT: The arrest of two teenagers for writing blasphemous graffiti about Ayesha and the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Kattab (May Allah be pleased with them) has led to the discovery of a network of extremists who have been targeting and brainwashing vulnerable adolescents to spread sectarian hatred between Kuwaitis, particularly targeting Sunnis.

According to a senior security official, the investigation into the network has found that 19 groups of youths had been meeting on a weekly basis to work on ways of dividing Kuwait through sectarianism, using graffiti that insulted the prophet’s companions and their spouses. Police are still investigating the case.

Brotherly vengeance A Kuwaiti man whose brother was murdered seven years ago attempted to take revenge for his sibling’s death by attacking the killer’s brother with a knife, stabbing him repeatedly before fleeing the scene. The victim’s brother was apparently driven into a vengeful rage on spotting the killer’s sibling in Sulaibiya, rushing up to the man and stabbing him a few times before running away. The innocent brother of the killer, who is serving a sentence in Central Prison for the murder, was rushed to hospital, and a search is underway for the attacker.

Child abuse allegation A Kuwaiti man has accused his former wife’s sister of deliberately burning his nine-year-old daughter’s arm whilst the girl was at her mother’s home. Police are investigating the allegation.

Flirtatious thief A love-struck man recently paid highly for his romantic nature when the object of his affections disappeared with his wallet containing KD250, along with personal ID card and other items. The man, an Asian expatriate, was shopping at a local mall when a female shopper smiled coquettishly at him. He pursued the young woman around the mall and they kept exchanging flirtatious looks until eventually he managed to get her alone in an elevator where they apparently exchanged some kisses too. Shortly after getting out of the lift after his brief encounter, the smitten man discovered that his wallet, which he had had on entering it, was missing, along with his money and all his personal items. A hunt is underway for the flirtatious thief.

Egyptian worker dies in Shuaiba port accident 6-year-old girl drowns in Sulaibiya pool KUWAIT: An Egyptian worker was killed in a work mishap when a building scheduled for demolition at the Shuaiba Port accidentally fell on him. The accident occurred while the victim was resting in a building near the building scheduled for demolition when the it accidentally collapsed on him. The victim’s body was retrieved from the site and an investigation was launched.

Assault Police launched an investigation in search of three youngsters accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a teenager from Firdous. The victim was apparently kidnapped by his three friends after being lured to a deserted location. The victim’s assailants fled the scene after physically and sexually abusing him.

Suicide attempt A citizen was restrained by police before he could set himself on fire in front of a bank in Sabah Al-Salem. The man doused himself in kerosene after failing to get enough help from the government’s defaulters fund to help him with his debt. The man threatened to commit suicide after being told that he was in more debt then he initially thought. The man was held by police for questioning.

Child drowns A 6-year-old girl died after drowning in a swimming pool in an animal farm in Kabad. The victim’s family brought the girl to Sulaibiya polyclinic after retriev-

ing her from the pool but the victim was pronounced dead upon arriving to the medical facility. A case was opened at the Kabad police station.

Accident A toddler was killed when she accidentally fell out of her father’s vehicle and was struck by another car in Jahra.

The two-year-old girl fell from the backseat window where she was being attended to by her family’s maid. It was reported that the maid jumped from the

moving vehicle in an attempt to save the girl’s life but was too late. An investigation was launched.

Smugglers caught The National Guard confiscated 180 kilograms of hashish in a boat before it could be dropped off at a specific location by the drug dealer. Authorities caught the smugglers after being informed of a possible drug smuggling operation being carried out by boat from Iran. — Al-Qabas, Al-Rai, Al-Watan

Hunt on for rapists

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Police are hunting for two young men accused of abducting and raping a woman. The victim, an Asian expatriate, told police that the two young men had forced her into their car in the Jleeb AlShuyoukh area before driving to an empty area and raping her.

Shuwaikh robbery Three unidentified robbers assaulted the Iranian owner of a grocery store in the Shuwaikh industrial zone at around dawn yesterday before stealing money and a quantity of prepaid phone charge cards from the shop and fleeing the scene. A hunt is underway for the thieves.

Four hurt One 11-year-old Kuwaiti boy suffered a fracture to his left thighbone whilst another sustained a broken left arm when the ATV they were riding overturned. Both children were taken to Adan Hospital. In a separate incident, a 33-year-old Kuwaiti man suffered injuries to his face and hands, whilst a 19-year-old male compatriot sustained cuts to his lower lip when their vehicles collided on the Sixth Ring Road. Both were taken to hospital.

Robbery bid The owner of a mobile phone store in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh told police that he had found signs of an attempted break-in at his shop when he arrived for work yesterday morning.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

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Women’s society hosts 36th Palestinian Cultural Exhibition

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The 36th Palestinian Cultural Exhibition, held from April 25 - 28 at the Women’s Cultural Social Society concluded on Thursday with entertaining cultural activities.

The four-day exhibition included the display of embroidery done by Palestinian refugee women in camps in Jordan and other places. “Through this exhibition we hope to empower these women as well as preserve our culture and fund orphans and university students in Palestine,” Siham Abu Ghazaleh, Head of the Palestinian Cultural Committee of the Palestinian Cultural Center told the Kuwait Times.

Some 550 women made the craftwork that was on display. “All these women are in need,” Abu Ghazaleh said. “It’s their way of preserving their heritage and to keep contact with volunteers living in miserable conditions. This is a bridge of humanity and it gives them pride. The support of the center is not only financial, we also prove that they can produce beauty and keep their heritage alive by passing it from one generation to another.”

The exhibition included books on Palestine that focus on political, social and geographic issues and humanitarian art as well as ceramic items available from Hebron AlKhaleel and Jerusalem AlQuds. “Palestinians made crafts years ago for their daily needs, such as pottery, and over time it changed into decorative and religious designs to symbolize our area,” said Abu Ghazaleh.

“There are also outfits and souvenirs symbolizing Palestinian culture as well as keychains and necklaces with Palestinians flags for kids,” she continued. She explained that there are two sponsorship programs this year that make up their aid program. “There is a KD 360 program to sponsor an orphan in Palestine for one year and a university scholarship of KD 550 to sponsor a university student,” she pointed out. The final day of the event featured a Palestinian national dance ‘Dabkka’ and other outdoor activity for the whole family. There was also a display of food available of various different Palestinian dishes and sweets for people to buy as well as face and hand painting for children.

“With these activities we hope to keep the identity from one generation to another. We are facing an occupation that wants to seize all forms of Palestinian identity as their own heritage,” concluded Abu Ghazaleh. The Palestinian Cultural Center is a non-profit organization based in Amman, Jordan. The Center hosts the exhibition in Kuwait twice a year.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Kuwait envoy meets Mexico’s official MEXICO CITY: Kuwaiti Ambassador to Mexico Samih Jowhar Hayat met yesterday with the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Nutrition Francisco Castaneda to discuss means of food and agricultural cooperation between the two countries. During the meeting, Hayat asked the Mexican official to speed up the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in all agricultural sectors in order to firmly establish commercial and financial exchange in these sectors and promote imports between the two countries’ different institutes.

On his part, Castaneda praised Kuwait’s concern of enhancing bilateral ties with Mexico and expressed his government’s mutual interest in enhancing these ties with the Gulf country. He also welcomed the signing of the MOU and promised to finish up all legal procedures as soon as possible. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Deputy PM for Economic Affairs, Minister of State for Development Affairs and Minister of State for Housing Affairs, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah during the inauguration of the Islamic Book Fair.

Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah inaugurates the Islamic Book Fair.

Islamic Book Fair On inaugurating the 36th Annual Islamic Book Fair organized by the Social Reform Society at Mishref International Fairground, the Deputy PM for Economic Affairs, Minister of State for Development Affairs and Minister of State for Housing Affairs, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, highlighted the role played by the Social Reform Society in serving Kuwait’s civil society.

Fire-fighters boost coordination

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: The periodical meeting of the Fire Fighting Sector was held at the Corniche Club in Shaab under the patronage of the Director General of Fire Fighting and Human Resources Development, Brigadier Yousuf Al-Ansari. Several issues were discussed at the meeting, including coordinating between different areas. They also discussed having the sea fire unit conduct visits to ships in the Shuwaikh and Shuaiba Ports to train fire and rescue squads as well as carry out joint exercises for fire centers in different governorates.

Truck overturns Firefighters responded to an emergency in which a fuel truck flipped over inside a farm in Wafra. Firefighters kept the truck from leaking fuel onto the road as well as

away from other farms in the area. The company that owns the truck sent another to pump the 32,000 liter load from the damaged truck into the other. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Pakistani resident dies KUWAIT: Pakistani resident Mohammed Ayub Sabir Chohan died on Thursday following cerebral hemorrhage.

He was admitted in the intensive care of unit of the Amiri hospital since April 21 after he fell unconscious.

Chohan is the husband of Shabana Parveen, who was an editorial staff (Urdu section) with the Kuwait Times.

Formalities are being completed to take the body to Pakistan for burial. For further information, contact, Tel: 99543775/66373409.

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Attacks in Iraq kill 10, including 8-year-old girl

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Germany detains 3 ‘Al-Qaeda members’

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Major Taleban attacks expected in Afghanistan

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35 dead on Syria ‘rage day’ Four soldiers killed, two captured by ‘armed terrorists’

SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh waves to his supporters, not pictured, during a rally in his support, in Sanaa, Yemen, yesterday. Opponents and supporters of Yemen’s embattled president marched in cities and towns across the nation for rival rallies after Friday prayers. — AP DAMASCUS: At least 35 people were killed as tens of thousands of protesters rallied for a “day of rage” after Friday prayers, defying warnings of a harsh crackdown, Syrian activists and officials said. Protests against President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime were held in most major towns, witnesses said, in a repeat of pro-democracy rallies which have become the norm after weekly Muslim prayers.

Security sources shot dead at least 16 people in the protest epicenter of Daraa, rights activists said. Military officials said four soldiers were killed and two captured by “armed terrorists” in Daraa, though a rights activist said the men had been killed defending protesters. And in Homs, at least 12 people, including three members of the security forces, were killed in the industrial city, according to an activist and the interior ministry. “Three police officers ... were shot dead

today after being targeted by extremist terrorist groups when they performed their duties,” the official SANA news agency quoted a ministry source as saying. A human rights activist said security forces killed nine people in Homs, 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the capital Damascus.

Ahead of yesterday’s bloodshed, dissidents said security forces using live rounds and tear gas have killed more than 450 people since the pro-democracy protests erupted in mid-March. Yesterday’s rallies come as the UN Human Rights Council held a special session on Syria in Geneva and the European Union met in Brussels to consider a wide range of sanctions against Damascus. The call for mass demonstrations was issued on a Facebook page, Syrian Revolution 2011, a motor of the protests in which demonstrators inspired by uprisings across the Arab world are seeking greater freedoms.

Assad’s embattled regime reiterated its running ban on demonstrations, despite having lifted a decades-old law barring them earlier this month, as the Muslim Brotherhood accused the regime of genocide. Information Minister Adnan Mahmud told AFP the crackdown would continue, saying the “authorities are determined to restore security, stability and peace to the citizens. The interior ministry appealed to Syrians not to join the protests and warned that unauthorised rallies would not be tolerated.

It called on “brother citizens to contribute in an effective way to stability and security... by not staging demonstrations or sit-ins for any reason without official permission,” it said, quoted by SANA. “The laws in force in Syria will be applied to preserve the security of citizens and the country’s stability,” it added. Similar protests after Muslim weekly prayers on April 22 ended in chaos, with

more than 100 people killed when security forces fired on demonstrators with tear gas and live rounds. Hundreds of others were detained.

In Banias, about 10,000 people turned out yesterday, shouting “liberty, solidarity with Daraa” and “down with the regime.” In Deir Ez-Zor, northeast of the capital, two demonstrators were beaten with batons and electrical cables after 1,000 people emerged from a mosque and were dispersed by security forces, rights activist Nawwaf al-Bashir said.

In Ar-Raqqa, also northeast of Damascus, between 300 and 400 people in the streets cried “All powerful God, cause the siege of Daraa to be lifted,” activist Abdullah al-Khalil said. Some 15,000 people turned out in the majority Kurdish city of Qamishli and neighboring towns, shouting “national unity” and “with our soul and with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for Daraa,” activists said. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Libyan rebels still hold Dehiba border checkpoint DEHIBA: Libyan rebels still held the border post on the Tunisian border at Dehiba yesterday, a day after a fierce battle to recapture it from troops loyal to Moamer Kadhafi, an AFP journalist reported.

Although witnesses reported some gunfire, the situation there was relatively calm at 3:00 pm (1400 GMT). About 100 rebel fighters had taken up position at the post, in expectation of a fresh assault from loyalist soldiers. Khaled El Azzabi, spokesman for the rebels’ military command at the Libyan town of Nalut, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Dehiba, said the rebel fighters had killed many loyalist soldiers.

“Now the situation is stable,” he added. Yesterday, the bodies of three loyalist soldiers were lying on the Libyan side of the border, where most of Thursday’s fighting took place. But according to one foreign military source, there had been fighting on both sides of the border, which late Thursday brought a formal protest from Tunis. Witnesses said loyalist fighters had fled the scene on the Tunisian side of the border yesterday morning, before crossing back into Libya over the desert.

The Dehiba border has been the focus of fighting between the two sides for more than a week. It lies about 200 kilometres south of the main crossing from Libya into Tunisia, at Ras Jdir. Rebel fighters first captured it on April 21, and as a result thousands of Libyans crossed into Tunisia in anticipation of a counter attack as forces loyal to Kadhafi started amassing in the area.

Fighting between rebels and Kadhafi loyalists intensified in the west of the country in the last week and loyalist troops briefly recaptured the border post on Thursday before the rebels took it back later the same day. Despite efforts by Kadhafi’s soldiers to dislodge them, the rebel forces still hold Nalut, the last main town before the Dehiba border post, and the road leading to the border as far as Zenten, nearly 200 kilometres eastwards.

On Wednesday, thousands of rebel fighters defending the town managed to push back Kadhafi’s fighters several kilometres after a day of fighting and artillery attacks on the town. — AFP

Attacks in Iraq kill 10, including 8-year-old girl BAGHDAD: Attacks killed 10 people around Iraq yesterday, including the 8-year-old daughter of an imam who preached against violence and four police officers ambushed in Baghdad, officials said. The string of bombings and shootings underlined the security concerns Iraq still faces as American troops prepare to leave the country by the end of this year. Iraq’s prime minister maintains the country is able to provide for its own internal security, but US officials say Iraq must decide soon whether to ask any of the remaining American forces to stay past their Dec 31 departure date. In Baghdad, a bomb went off in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad, killing three police commandos and one civilian and wounding 24 policemen and five civilians, said police and medical officials. As police arrived on the scene to investigate, a second bomb exploded.

Insurgents often use such staggered blasts to lure in security and medical personnel who arrive on the scene to help and then fall victim to the subsequent blast. In the mixed Sunni-Shiite province of Diyala, gunmen stormed the home of the imam in a small village 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of the provincial capital of Baqouba yesterday morning, police and medical officials said. The imam, his wife and their 8-year-old daughter were killed.

Police said the imam had preached against sectarian violence. — AP

Yemeni protesters decry Saleh transition deal Violence in Abyan, Hodeida several hurt, one killed ●

SANAA: Vast crowds took to the streets across Yemen yesterday to demand the immediate ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, instead of the phased handover of power envisaged by a Gulf Arab plan to be signed in two days. But tens of thousands in a pro-Saleh rally also gathered in the capital to mark a “Friday of Constitutional Legitimacy”. Waving flags and pictures of the president, they shouted, “The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh.”

On Siteen Street, the largest road in the capital, 100,000 anti-government protesters flooded a 5-km (3-mile) stretch to mark a “Friday of Loyalty to the Martyrs”. Around 142 protesters have been killed in three months of protests across Yemen. “We will continue our revolution forcefully and we will not back down even if we have to offer a million martyrs,” a cleric shouted to crowds, as they released balloons inscribed “Leave!”.

The Gulf deal gives the president 30 days to step down. Analysts worry that gives plenty of time for disgruntled forces from the old guard to stir trouble in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, where half the population owns a gun and al Qaeda has gained a foothold in its mountainous regions. The United States and nearby top oil producer Saudi Arabia want the Yemen standoff resolved to avert chaos that could enable al Qaeda’s Yemen wing to operate more freely.

Suspected al Qaeda gunmen on motorbikes attacked a military checkpoint outside Zinjibar, in the flashpoint southern province of Abyan, a local official said, in the third attack by militants there in as many days. A passing shepherd was killed and a child was wounded, he said, and two soldiers were hurt. But it is protests, not militants, that have posed the gravest challenge to Saleh’s 32-year rule. He addressed his rally of supporters yesterday saying: “These crowds of our people have said their word-yes, yes to the legitimacy of the constitution, no to coups, no to chaos.”

The fate of the deal to ease Saleh out of power could hang on how he handles the latest protests, with tension still high after the killing of 12

SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaks to supporters during a rally in Sanaa yesterday. —AP demonstrators in Sanaa on Wednesday. Yesterday anti-Saleh protests ended in a funeral procession for those killed, as thousands of hands in the crowd passed along the wooden coffins toward their graves, shouting, “The martyr is God’s beloved.”

“The people want the trial of the murderer,” some anti-Saleh demonstrators shouted.

Many protesters, already distrustful of the opposition coalition due its former presence in the government in past years, called for them to back out of the deal. “They wouldn’t lose anything because Saleh isn’t going to stick to the agreement. If he can’t find a reason to overturn it he’ll spark a war,” said Sanaa protester Abdulsalam Mahmoud. The opposition coalition that is party to the compromise warned Saleh on Thursday that any more violence against demonstrators could scupper the transition plan.

Tens of thousands of anti-Saleh protesters turned out in other cities, including Ibb, Baydah and Hudaida, where plainclothes gunmen shot and wounded 10 demonstrators before security forces broke up the protest march, activists said. Some 13 protesters were also arrested for unknown reasons, they said.

Human Rights Watch said Saleh

could not use the immunity from prosecution he has been promised under the transition deal as a carte blanche for attacks on peaceful protesters. “President Saleh and those who implement his orders, take note: no immunity deal will absolve you of responsibility for widespread unlawful killings,” said Joe Stork, the U.S.-based group’s deputy Middle East director.

The deal inked by Gulf Arab mediators grants Saleh, his family and aides immunity. After he signs in Sanaa on Saturday, he will send Abdel-Karim alIryani, vice president of his ruling party, to the official ceremony in Riyadh where the opposition will sign on Sunday. Though he has already accepted the deal in principle, he raised a snag on Thursday when he objected to Qatari officials attending the signing ceremony, saying Doha was involved “in a conspiracy not just against Yemen but all Arab countries”.

Saleh has in the past accused Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite channel of provoking the protests in the Arab world. His remarks provoked derision on the streets of Sanaa. “The president is looking for ways to evade signing the Gulf initiative, so now he’s using the excuse of Qatar. Next time he’ll look for another excuse,” said one woman, Aida Mohammed.— Reuters

Egypt’s plan to open Gaza border reveals shifts JERUSALEM: Egypt’s announcement that it will open a key border crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip within days sparked concern in Israel yesterday and revealed how the upheaval in the Arab world is shifting the Mideast conflict.

Under former President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt restricted the movement of people and goods through the Rafah crossing in keeping with a blockade it imposed on Gaza along with Israel. The restrictions were aimed at weakening the Hamas militants who rule the Gaza Strip, and whom both Egypt and Israel saw, until recently, as a common enemy. After Mubarak’s ouster in February by a popular uprising, Egypt’s new transitional Cabinet and ruling military

council are taking a cooler line toward Israel and the U.S. Egypt has also been warming its ties with Israel’s enemies, chiefly Hamas and its main backer, Iran. Egypt’s new foreign minister, Nabil al-Araby, said Thursday that the closure was about to end, calling the decision to close the crossing “a disgusting matter” in an interview with the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera. Al-Araby said the crossing would be opened “in the coming days.” Israeli officials would not comment publicly yesterday, but Israel is “troubled by recent developments in Egypt,” an Israeli government official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because there had been no official comment. — AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Morocco says Marrakesh blast an act of terrorism MARRAKESH: Morocco said yesterday a bomb that killed 15 people, many of them foreigners, in its busiest tourist destination was a terrorist act. The blast ripped through a cafe overlooking Marrakesh’s Jamaa el-Fnaa square, a spot often packed with foreign tourists, at lunch-time on Thursday.

Moroccan officials have not said who was responsible but western security analysts said it was likely to have been the work of Islamist militants in an attempt to damage the tourism industry, one of the country’s biggest sources of revenue. The Interior Ministry issued a statement saying seven of the 15 dead had so far been identified. They included two French citizens, two Canadians, a Dutch national and two Moroccans.

Israel’s foreign ministry said two of the victims, a man and a woman, were Jews living in Shanghai and that the woman apparently had Israeli citizenship. The attack, in which 23 people were also wounded, is the deadliest Morocco has seen since suicide bombers killed 33 people in coordinated strikes on the business hub Casablanca eight years ago. “Preliminary investigation ... suggests that this was a terrorist act caused by an explosive device,” the official MAP news agency quoted Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui as saying.

Two Marrakesh residents who were near the square told Reuters the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber, but there was no confirmation of this and no immediate claim of responsibility. Quoting an unnamed security official familiar with the investigation, the independent news portal Lakome.com also said it was a suicide attack.

According to the portal’s source, the bomber was freed from prison two months ago after having been sentenced to eight years in jail for rape.

The attack adds to the challenges facing Morocco’s ruler, King Mohammed, at a time when he is trying to prevent uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world from reaching the kingdom, which is usually seen as a haven of stability in a volatile region. The monarch has promised to reform the constitution to placate protesters. But more protests are planned for Sunday.

Tourism is Morocco’s biggest source of foreign currency and the second biggest employer after agriculture.

Speaking on a visit to Madrid, Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said the country was determined not to let the attack dent confidence in the tourism industry.

“To go to a country as a tourist and return dead is a terrible thing,” Mezouar told reporters. “We are going to work very hard so that this does not have an impact on tourism in Marrakesh.” Moroccan state television broadcast pictures of tourists milling around the square where the blast happened. “Life goes on,” the television anchor said. The square is in the Marrakesh medina, or old city, which is designated by the United Nation’s cultural arm as a World Heritage Site.

It is usually packed with stalls, story-tellers and snakecharmers seeking to attract tourists. The roof over the cafe’s upstairs terrace was ripped off by the force of the explosion and pieces of plaster and electrical wires hung from the ceiling. A Reuters photographer at the scene of the explosion on Thursday said he saw rescue workers pulling dismembered bodies from the wreckage. A doctor at a Marrakesh hospital said that some of the wounded had lost limbs in the blast.

“I heard a massive blast. The first and second floors of the building were destroyed,” said one local woman, who did not want to be identified. “Some witnesses said they saw a man carrying a bag entering the cafe before the blast.” A Frenchman who owns a restaurant in the city said the explosion would hit a local tourism industry already struggling with the impact of the global slowdown and unrest in the Arab world.

“You can’t find a more emblematic target than Jamaa elFnaa square,” he said. Western security analysts said the bombing carried the hallmarks of Islamist militants, possibly with ties to al Qaeda’s north African wing, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). —Reuters

Two dead as riots erupt in Uganda after brutal arrest 120 wounded in largest anti-govt protest KAMPALA: Army troops and police fired live bullets at rioting demonstrators yesterday, and at least two people were killed and 120 wounded in the largest anti-government protest in subSaharan Africa this year.

Rioters burned tires in downtown streets as security forces fired tear gas and guns, and a Red Cross spokeswoman said 15 of the wounded and been hit by live bullets. Battles between protesters and police were also reported elsewhere around the country.

The protests are the first serious demonstrations in sub-Saharan Africa since a wave of anti-government protests swept leaders in Tunisia and

things to continue. Museveni must go,” said Brown Ndese, one of the protesters.

Red Cross spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde said at least two people were killed and 120 people wounded. Uganda police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said the police were working to contain the demonstrations and did not immediately have a casualty figure.

Some 360 people were arrested, the government said.

Besigye was freed on bail on Thursday but did not make any public appearances or statements yesterday.

Radio reports quoted an aide as saying Besigye was in poor health and that he was to fly him out of the country for

KAMPALA: A Ugandan protestor shouts near a burning barricade in Kampala yesterday during disturbances a day after Uganda’s opposition leader Kizze Besigye was arrested for the fourth time this month. —AFP Egypt out of power. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for a quarter-century, has vowed repeatedly that his government will not be taken down by protests.

The breakout of violence came one day after a brutal takedown of the country’s top opposition politician, Kizza Besigye. Police smashed through the window of Besigye’s vehicle with the butt of a gun and doused him with tear gas at close range before bundling him into the back of a pickup truck and speeding off. “They arrested him like a chicken thief. We cannot allow such

treatment. Besigye withstood long volleys of tear gas sprayed directly on him Thursday, but it wasn’t clear how sick or injured he was. Attempts to reach Besigye aides for comment failed.

Besigye has held five “walk to work” demonstrations to protest rising prices and what he calls a corrupt government.

Yesterday, demonstrators carried posters praising Besigye, and questioned why police needed to use violence to arrest him. Opposition members of parliament have demanded an explanation from the government over his treatment. Ugandan Minister of

Internal Affairs Kirunda Kivejinja said at a news conference yesterday that police had no intention of arresting Besigye in such a harsh manner on Thursday.

“The way he was arrested was due to the way he reacted,” Kivejinja said.

“When police advised him not to use a particular road, he instead got out of his vehicle and called his supporters.”

About comparisons to Arab uprisings, he said: “Uganda cannot be like Tunisia and Egypt. ... Here we simply have Besigye who does not want to cooperate. He is defiant against lawful orders.” Earlier this month Besigye was shot in the right hand by what he says was a rubber bullet fired by police. He now wears a thick white cast that reaches halfway up his right arm.

Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper reported on its website yesterday that military forces and police fired live ammunition and tear gas at demonstrators in the eastern town of Mbale, some 200 miles (300 kilometers) outside Kampala. Demonstrators fought back with rocks. The U.S. Embassy in Uganda condemned the escalation of violence and it called on all protesters to obey the law and cease all destruction of property.

“The US Mission in Uganda also urges the Government of Uganda to respect the right of all citizens to peacefully express their views as enshrined by Uganda’s constitution. Above all, Ugandan authorities must avoid using excessive force against civilians in this situation. Constructive dialogue is needed now,” the US statement said.

Besigye came second in Uganda’s February presidential election to Museveni, threatening to end the opposition leader’s political career after three straight losses to the longtime leader.

Official returns showed Museveni winning 68 percent of the February vote, though Besigye says those returns were falsified and that both he and Museveni got just under 50 percent. Besigye, though, has had a political resurrection in recent months as the country has seen huge price spikes in food and fuel.

In an interview with The Associated Press at his home last week, Besigye said many Ugandans face a “crisis of survival,” that the health care system has broken down and that young people cannot find jobs. —AP

S Sudan official: Abyei belongs with us JUBA: A top official in Southern Sudan insisted yesterday that the contested central region of Abyei should be part of the south when Sudan formally splits in two later this year, even though Sudan’s president says he then would refuse to recognize the south.

Southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly in January to break away from the north and is slated to become its own country in July, but the future of the region containing oil deposits is still being negotiated months later.

Southern Sudan’s Minister for Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development John Luk Jok said the 2005 north-south peace deal that end-

ed more than two decades of war defined Abyei as part of the south. Jok said that is also supported by a 2009 verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir warned this week that he would not accept the south taking control of Abyei, saying it will always remain a part of the north. “Any attempt to include Abyei in the Constitution of the new Southern Sudan state will mean we will not recognize the new state,” al-Bashir said in a warning that could push the sides back toward conflict. Al-Bashir’s warning was dismissed by the top official in Abyei, Deng Arop

Kuol, who said yesterday that adding Abyei to the south’s Constitution “is a good decision.” “The issue of Abyei does not require a statement like that one coming from President Al-Bashir,” Kon Manyiet, a senior leader in the Abyei administration said. The 2005 peace deal called for Abyei to conduct its own self-determination referendum while the south carried out its vote. But Abyei’s referendum was derailed after the north and south couldn’t agree on who was eligible to vote. A US satellite monitoring group has warned that both the southern and northern militaries have been building up forces and equipment near Abyei.—AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Farmers, Dutch government clash over fruit pickers

DUSSELDORF: German criminal officers leaves a building in Dusseldorf, Germany, yesterday, where two of three suspected members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization were arrested. —AP

Germany detains 3 ‘Al-Qaeda members’

Report says they had been plotting attacks BERLIN: German police yesterday detained three alleged members of Al-Qaeda, federal prosecutors said, as a report said they had been plotting attacks in Germany. The prosecutor’s office in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said the trio had been taken into custody early yesterday and would appear before a judge today, when a news conference has been scheduled.

It declined to provide further details. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said the arrests had “averted a concrete, immediate threat... we must remain vigilant,” according to a message by government spokesman Steffen Seibert on micro-blogging site Twitter.

The daily Bild reported that the three were Germans of Moroccan origin from the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and were caught with “large amounts of explosives”.

Citing security sources, the newspaper said they were suspected of plotting attacks in Germany.

They came to the attention of the Federal Crime Office during surveillance of mobile phone and computer communications.

Bild identified them as Abdeladim K., Jamil S. and Ahmed Sh. The daily Rheinische Post based in Duesseldorf, the capital of North RhineWestphalia, reported in an advance copy of its issue that the suspects had tested explosives, citing sources close to the investigation. It said the men had been under surveillance since late 2010 and attracted the attention of the authorities when they attempted to buy large amounts of key chemicals at pharmacies.

The Moroccan government said yesterday that Al-Qaeda was suspected in connection with a bomb attack Thursday that killed 16 in Marrakesh. German authorities hiked security measures in November after US authorities warned of an Al-Qaeda plot to carry out “Mumbai-style” attacks in Britain, France and Germany. US authorities handed over to Germany last week the source of the tip, alleged Islamic militant Ahmed Wali Siddiqui, who had been held for nine months in Afghanistan.

According to German media, Siddiqui met with Al-Qaeda’s third in command, Sheikh Yunis al-Mauretani, who initiated him into a plot to carry out attacks in Europe similar to those in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 in which 10 gunmen killed 166 people and injured more than 300. The interior ministry announced in

February that the state of alert would gradually be scaled back.

The GdP police union said the arrests showed “that the threat remains high and that investigating authorities must be well staffed and well equipped”. Germany, which opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq but has nearly 5,000 troops in Afghanistan under NATO command, has never experienced an attack by Muslim extremists on its own soil.

But authorities say the Islamist scene is large and dangerous. The closest it has come to an attack was in July 2006 when Islamic militants placed suitcases with homemade bombs on two regional trains at Cologne’s main station. They failed to detonate, averting an almost certain bloodbath.

And in 2007, three men including two German converts to Islam were caught plotting attacks on US interests in western Germany in what authorities said was a bid to mount a “second September 11.” They were sentenced last year to lengthy prison terms.— AFP

THE HAGUE: A Cabinet minister has urged farmers to hire some of the half a million unemployed Dutch people as seasonal harvesters instead of Romanians and Bulgarians, causing an uproar from lawmakers.

Parliament members from the governing conservative parties fear the plan by Social Services Minister Henk Kamp could hurt the harvest, which is starting early this year due to unusually warm spring weather.

Kamp argues that there is no need for farmers to hire some 2,000 Romanians and Bulgarians when there are half a million Dutch unemployed and recruitment agencies say they can fill the jobs with workers from Poland or other EU countries.

While Romania and Bulgaria have joined the EU in 2007, their nationals, unlike those of other EU countries, still need permits to work in the Netherlands. Farmers’ organizations also complained and went to a Hague court this week seeking an injunction to prevent the government from enforcing strictly the rules on such permits. The farmers argue that the crackdown is putting

their fruit harvests at risk.

The court yesterday refused to rule in the case, saying the organizations did not have the authority to seek the injunction. After that ruling and a bruising debate in parliament on Thursday night when a majority of lawmakers supported a motion calling on Kamp to temporarily help fruit growers, the minister said he will hold talks with the farmers. “Until July 1, we will do our best to help the employers,” said Social Services Ministry spokesman Friso Fennema. July 1 is the date when the government will make it even harder for Romanian and Bulgarians to get work permits.

But Kamp remains adamant the fruit farmers should be able to find workers elsewhere.

Many asparagus farmers in the southern province of Limburg use seasonal workers from Poland during their harvest. “The discussion has always been, do we have enough people in the European Union for this work,” Fennema said. “At the moment, it looks like there are enough.” A spokesman for the farmer’s organization did not immediately return calls seeking comment.— AP

Nigeria post-poll killings planned: Nobel laureate LAGOS: Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has said killings in the country’s north amid widespread rioting following presidential elections were pre-planned, local media reported yesterday. Several Nigerian newspapers quoted Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel literature laureate, speaking of pre-planned violence and implicitly criticizing opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, who lost to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

According to one version of his comments in ThisDay newspaper, Soyinka told journalists that “anybody who said they were not planned beforehand was a very naive individual.” “These killings were carried out on the basis of lies,” the paper quoted him as saying, apparently referring to allegations of rigging. “In my view, they were planned well beforehand.”

The April 16 election won by Jonathan, a southern Christian, led to an explosion of rioting across the mainly Muslim north, the home region of ex-military ruler Buhari.

A local rights groups says more than 500

people were killed. Soyinka, a longtime critic of Nigeria’s corrupt elite who has also harshly criticized Buhari over allegations of rights abuses during his rule in the 1980s, said the results giving Jonathan victory seemed credible.

He implicitly criticized Buhari, who disassociated himself from the violence in interviews but never appeared publicly to strongly denounce it, as well as others, but did not name names. “I did not detect any vestige of remorse from the expressions of these leaders,” he reportedly said. A spokesman for a political party started by Soyinka contacted by AFP said the writer did not want to comment further. There have been accusations that some of the rioting was instigated by politicians, though election observers say they appear to have started for a variety of reasons. Soyinka, a dramatist and essayist, became Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature when he won the prize in 1986. His book “The Man Died” recounts his time in jail after being imprisoned following his attempt to broker talks during Nigeria’s 1967-1970 civil war.— AFP

70 Belgian sex abuse victims to sue Vatican BRUSSELS: A group of 70 people claiming to be sexual abuse victims of clergy will take Vatican and Belgian church officials to court, claiming they offered them insufficient protection from pedophile priests.

Lawyer Walter Van Steenbrugge said yesterday he will lodge the complaint in about two weeks. He said religious officials, including the pope, had failed to take proper action to prevent such abuse.

The Belgian church got involved in a major abuse scandal last year when Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe was forced to resign after he admitted he abused for 13 years his young nephew.

Later, hundreds of victims came forward with tales of abuse by clergy going back decades.—AP

ROQUEBRUNE: Hundreds of policemen gather in Roquebrune-sur-Argens yesterday to participate in massive search for Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes after French authorities issued an international search alert on April 23 for murder suspect Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes amid evidence that he carefully planned the killing of his wife and four children, discovered on April 21 in their family housein the French western city of Nantes.— AFP

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Canada PM will accept any mandate as NDP gains MONTREAL: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday he will look to form a third minority Conservative government if he’s denied a majority in Monday’s general election, but he signaled little willingness to compromise with the opposition if that happens. Harper has argued throughout the campaign that Canada’s economic stability requires that the Conservatives win a majority of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. But a surprising surge by the left-leaning New Democratic Party has cast that goal in serious doubt.

Yesterday’s remarks continued a sometimes mixed message from Harper as his campaign has seemingly struggled to switch from attacking the Conservatives’ traditional rivals, the Liberals, to fighting the NDP, which usually trails in a distant third. The Conservatives have ruled with two successive minority governments since 2006, requiring the support of at least one of the opposition parties to remain in power-a position Harper says the economy can not longer tolerate.

Harper told a Montreal rally yesterday he was optimistic the Conservatives would attain their goal, but party insiders have whispered privately that the NDP’s newfound popularity has put a majority in serious doubt. Asked how the Conservatives would keep a new minority government alive and ease fears in investment markets about Canada’s political stability, Harper said he would not accept demands by the opposition that could hurt the economy.

“We are not prepared to do that,” Harper told reporters at the start of a campaign bus tour between Montreal and Toronto, Canada’s two largest cities. “We will accept any mandate from the Canadian public, but my fear is that if we have a minority mandate the other parties will not accept it,” he said.

In an interview on Thursday Harper warned that the possibility of a government led by the left-leaning New Democrats would scare away foreign investors, but he gave no such warning in his Montreal appearance. No polls predict the New Democrats will win the most seats in Parliament, but having leapfrogged over the struggling Liberals they seem poised to win enough seats to form the official opposition.

Two polls released yesterday showed the New Democrats closing in on the Conservatives and leaving them with almost no chance of winning a majority. Many investors seem to be taking the political surprises in stride. “Our base-case expectation is that there will be no major ideological shift in the political landscape and that the market will return its attention to second-half hikes by the Bank of Canada and continued economic growth on Tuesday,” David Tulk of TD Securities said in a market note yesterday. NDP leader Jack Layton told Reuters on Thursday his party would clarify laws on foreign takeovers, and said he would like the Bank of Canada to hold off on raising interest rates for now if it hurt job growth. Canadian political leaders rarely comment on where interest rates should be, and the NDP was forced to scramble yesterday, saying they respected the central bank’s independence.

Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the remark was “amateur hour.” The New Democrats have stunned political observers as they benefit from voter disenchantment with the other two main national parties as well as Layton’s strong performance in the leadership debates. Layton was scheduled to campaign in British Columbia on the Pacific Coast yesterday, where the New Democrats expect to pick up seats from the Conservatives. —Reuters

MONTREAL: Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivers his speech during a campaign stop in Montreal yesterday. —AP

ALABAMA: US President Barack Obama speaks in Tuscaloosa, Ala., yesterday, as he, first lady Michelle Obama, and others toured tornado damage. —AP

Obama says devastation unlike any he has ever seen US prez tours tornado-torn Alabama ALABAMA: Expressing amazement at the destruction all around him, President Barack Obama yesterday stepped through the wreckage left by rampaging tornadoes and pledged help to those who survived but lost their homes in a terrifying flash. Said the president: “I’ve never seen devastation like this.”

The storms have killed about 300 people in the US South, mostly in Alabama. The loss of life , at least 297 dead , is the greatest from an outbreak of US tornadoes since April 1974, when the weather service said 315 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and Midwestern states.

“We’re going to make sure you’re not forgotten,” Obama assured survivors as he and first lady Michelle Obama walked the streets of a reeling neighborhood.

As Obama traveled throughout Tuscaloosa, he absorbed the scenes of a community deeply deformed by the twisters, with trees uprooted and houses demolished. One young man told Obama he had witnessed debris lifting up all around him, yet he emerged with only cuts and bruises. “It’s a blessing you are here,” the president said back.

Obama’s predecessor, George W Bush, was harshly criticized as responding too slowly to another natural disaster, deadly Hurricane Katrina, which battered and flooded New Orleans and other parts of the South in 2005.

The high death toll seems surprising in the era of sophisticated radar and precise satellite forecasts. But the storms were just too wide and too powerful to avoid a horrifying body count. One of the tornados that hit Mississippi on Wednesday had winds of 205 mph (330 kph), the National Weather Service said yesterday. That storm was a half-mile (a kilometer) wide, was on the ground for three miles (five kilometers) and killed 14 people. Those who took shelter began returning home Thursday, struggling with no electricity and little help from stretched-thin law enforcement.

And they were frustrated by the nearconstant presence of gawkers who drove by in search of a cellphone camera picture , or worse, a trinket to take home.

As many as a million homes and businesses in Alabama were without power, and Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said 2,000 National Guard troops had been activated to help. The governors of Mississippi and Georgia also issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.

The storms seemed to hone in on populated areas by hugging the interstate highways and obliterating neighborhoods and even entire towns from Tuscaloosa to Bristol, Virginia. Concord, a small town outside Birmingham, was so devastated that authorities closed it down to keep out the curious. Derrick Keef was on a scavenger hunt for his most priceless possessions after a tornado obliterated his Concord house. His guns were in the ruins of a neighbor’s home. A Christmas heirloom shared

space in a ditch with broken glass and jagged nails. And his 7-year-old son’s bike , one of the few toys he could salvage , was pinned under a car a block away.

“I’ve been going from lot to lot finding stuff,” he said as he rifled through debris, in search of a family photo album. “It’s like CSI.” Some of the worst damage was in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama. The storms destroyed the city’s emergency management center, so the school’s stadium was turned into a makeshift one.

Hundreds of people walked in a long, slow procession down Tuscaloosa’s main four-lane drag. Some shot pictures and videos of what had been a bustling community. Others came to search the wreckage of their homes. Seventythree-year-old Frank Frierson sat on a porch and marveled at the damage.“It was God up there letting us now that he is the boss, what he could tear up and what he could destroy,” he said. — AP

Dissident leader, four others detained in Cuba HAVANA: Police arrested a prominent physician and four other members of Cuba’s opposition movement, as they took part in an anti-government protest, a leading dissident group here said Thursday. Darsi Ferrer, his wife and three other demonstrators were taken into custody Thursday while carrying placards protesting the Havana government’s “restrictions on the rights of its citizens to travel overseas and return,” according to a statement issued by the Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission, a banned group known here under its Spanish acronym CCDHRN.

The group’s leader, Elizardo Sanchez, said the five detained dissidents were taking part in a “small but significant protest” at the time of their arrest, and he demanded their immediate release. A Cuban government website described the protest as a “provocative maneuver” meant to “create a destabilized image” of life in Cuba. Ferrer, 41, a physician who has been arrested various times over the years, gave up his medical practice to devote himself to his human rights activity, opposition leaders said. In 1999 he founded the Center for Health and Human Rights, which Cuban officials have outlawed. — AFP

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Argentine union boss plans big show of strength BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s top labor leader is calling a half-million members into the capital’s streets yesterday in a show of support for President Cristina Fernandez , and as a warming that unions must be taken care of to avoid unrest that could make the country ungovernable.

Not content with this year’s pay raises of 24 percent or more for his truckers and other union members, Hugo Moyano wants union loyalists installed in key government posts and even corporate boardrooms. His main goal is to push private companies to open their books and share 10 percent of their profits with workers. Moyano’s many critics see another, darker motive behind the huge rally: He’s sending a message that protecting union leaders from corruption investigations is the price of their loyalty to the president.

Moyano is signaling that union support “will continue as long as the government supports him politically, judicially and economically,” said Mariano Martin, author of “The Trucker,” a biography that describes the rise of the truckers union leader from humble origins to a position where his political power rivals that of Argentina’s president.

As leader of Argentina’s biggest union confederation, known by its initials CGT, Moyano is a target of investigative judges examining allegations of illegal enrichment and money laundering as well as a scandal involving union-run medical plans that provided diluted, expired and stolen drugs to cancer and AIDS patients. Only weeks ago, Moyano threatened to shut down Argentina’s economy with a national strike if the government even responded to a request from Switzerland’s money laundering watchdog for information about his family’s financial activities. The request was prompted by suspicious

BUENOS AIRES: In this April 30, 2009, file photo, Argentina’s union leader Hugo Moyano delivers a speech in front of an image of late Argentina’s President Juan Domingo Peron during a Labor Day rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Moyano has summoned on Thursday. —AP Moyano’s support for Fernandez is built on transactions in a Swiss bank account involving a Buenos Aires garbage company linked an alliance forged by her late husband and in local media reports to Moyano and his predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner. His pact with Moyano freed Argentina from social sons.

Moyano later “suspended” the threat amid protests that brought down a series of presiwidespread criticism, but yesterday’s demon- dents before Kirchner took office in 2003 and stration is intended to show how easily he can ensured that unions would achieve many of act if threatened. The CGT’s 4 million mem- their demands as the government pursues bers can cause paralyzing strikes at a what it calls a more egalitarian society. But moment’s notice, closing down highways, air- Fernandez has tried to establish some dislines, trains, garbage collection and other tance from Moyano recently, including turnessential services in this country of 40 million ing down repeated invitations to speak at yesterday’s rally. people.

Mexico loves pope despite ties to Maciel scandal MEXICO CITY: From nearly the beginning of his 26-year papacy, John Paul II was known as Mexico’s pope, visiting Latin America’s second-largest Roman Catholic country more often than any other nation except his native Poland and France. In an irony on the eve of

one of his final steps to sainthood, it is also the country his critics point to in arguing against canonizing the popular pope who died in 2005.

Vatican watchers have said the greatest failure of Karol Wojtyla’s papacy was the scandal of the Legionaries of Christ, a

MEXICO CITY: A woman selling bread sits next to a stand selling religious items, including a photo showing the late Pope John Paul II, at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Thursday,—AP

conservative order that the pope praised as a model of orthodoxy but whose Mexican founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, was later revealed to have sexually abused seminarians and fathered three children. “It is an enormous disappointment in Mexico, and it is a paradoxical disappointment,” said Bernardo Barranco of Mexico’s Center for Religious Studies. But with the approach of yesterday’s beatification ceremony , the nextto-last step to becoming a saint in the Catholic Church, even Mexicans disillusioned by the Maciel scandal have not let it taint their image of the iconic pope.

Defenders of John Paul say he was duped by Maciel like everyone else.

“Mexico identified with the pope right from the start,” Barranco said.

“Mexico is a country that was devoted to him.” President Felipe Calderon is traveling to the Vatican to attend the ceremony, while Mexicans at home will mark the beatification with a series of events starting today afternoon and stretching late into the night Mexico time, when the ceremony will be shown live on giant TV screens at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. —AP

She said she would be in Patagonia with her children, honoring the six-month anniversary of Kirchner’s death from a heart attack.

Opponents of Moyano within the CGT , and there are a variety of them , dismissed the rally as an expression of Moyano’s personal ambitions rather than the labor movement’s needs.

“It’s a maneuver to pressure the government and show how much power he has in its internal decisions,” said Armando Cavalieri, head of the commercial workers union. Polls suggest Fernandez could easily win re-election Oct. 23 if she commits to running again against a weak and divided opposition.

But union support is essential for avoiding social unrest, and no other labor leader can mobilize as many workers as Moyano. He also is vice president of the governing Peronist party in sprawling Buenos Aires province, where most of Argentina’s voters live, and a dozen members of congress answer to the CGT. During the administrations of Kirchner and Fernandez, Moyano’s truckers union has captured members from weaker rivals, and Argentina’s unions now have direct control over the contributions that every unionized worker must make toward health care. That money, in turn, has built networks of medical clinics and other institutions, among other investments.

Moyano hopes to expand union gains by supporting Fernandez and pressing for direct union representation in executive branch positions , and in corporate boardrooms, so they can study corporate ledgers and share in the profits. “It’s a matter of common sense that the men who really understand the company participate in its decisions,” Moyano told Radio Milenio on Thursday. — AP

Mexico Congress passes tougher monopoly penalties MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s Congress approved tougher penalties Thursday under a new antitrust law, including significant fines for companies and up to 10 years in prison for their executives. The change to the Federal Law of Economic Competition establish fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s annual profit for monopolistic practices. Previously, companies were sanctioned only for engaging in such activities more than once.

The law also establishes prison sentences of between three and 10 years for company officials who approve agreements with competitors to manipulate prices of goods and services. The Senate approved the law Thursday. The lower house already passed the law, and it now goes to President Felipe Calderon for signing. “If there is anything our economy needs its competition,” said Sen. Santiago Creel, a member of Calderon’s National Action Party. The Senate’s approval comes two weeks after Mexico’s antitrust agency imposed an unprecedented $1 billion fine on billionaire Carlos Slim’s Mexican cellphone company, Telcel, for alleged monopolistic practices. The Federal Competition Commission concluded Telcel engages in “relative monopolistic practices” by overcharging competitors to connect calls to Telcel’s customers. Telcel is appealing, arguing it is not a repeat offender and cannot be fined that much under the current law. — AP

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Strong 6.2-magn quake strikes off Taiwan TAIPEI: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Taiwan yesterday, the island’s central weather bureau said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The undersea quake hit at 21:12 local time (1312 GMT) about 195 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Taitung county at a depth of 178 kilometres, the bureau said.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 5.5. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In September 1999, a 7.6-magnitude tremor killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s recent history.—AFP

Myanmar president picks Suu Kyi friend as adviser YANGON: A friend of Aung San Suu Kyi has been appointed as an adviser to Myanmar’s president, he told AFP on Friday, vowing to aid “co-operation” between the democracy icon and the government.

U Myint, one of nine experts in economics, politics and law appointed earlier this month, opposes sanctions on the military-dominated country in line with the views of its rulers. The 73-year-old believes that Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi still has a “beneficial” role to play in the country’s economy, but said she should perform that role outside the political sphere.

He said he would not become a “mediator” in talks between Suu Kyi and the government, but added: “There could be a way for them to work together on the economy.

I will try for their co-operation in this area.”

U Myint appeared at a ceremony held by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in December.

Supporters of trade and financial sanctions say they are the only way to pressure the military rulers of Myanmar, where there are about 2,200 political prisoners.

But a controversial November election — which led a new nominally-civilian government to take power last month — and Suu Kyi’s subsequent release from house arrest have reignited a debate about the measures.

Opposition leader Suu Kyi, whose stance on sanctions had appeared to soften, said last month that measures against the junta should remain until “something has changed here”, in an interview with a German newspaper.

Thai, Cambodia cease-fire breaks; toll rises to 16 Conflict forces nearly 100,000 villagers to flee

PRASAT: Thailand - Thai and Cambodian troops broke a brief ceasefire and clashed for an eighth day yesterday, shattering hopes of a quick end to a long-running border conflict that has forced nearly 100,000 villagers to flee. The death toll rose to 16.

Fighting erupted in the morning and again briefly yesterday night, both countries’ troops said as displaced residents on each side waited to see if the worst skirmishes in years between the Southeast Asian neighbors might finally end. “I wish both sides could talk, so that there is no more fighting,” said Boonteung Somsed, a 58-year-old Thai construction worker who fled to the village of Prasat, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the border.

“Every time a soldier picks up a weapon,” he said, “a village has to run away from home.” Thailand and Cambodia have clashed six times since 2008 over the border, where several crumbling Hindu temples built nearly 1,000 years ago during the Khmer Empire sit atop cliffs and in jungles mined in wars past. The land has been disputed for more than half a century, but analysts say domestic politics on both sides is driving the conflict as much as any real disagreement between the countries.

Field commanders agreed to the brief truce Thursday in a meeting at the disputed border. But Cambodian Col Suos Sothea said the Thai army again fired artillery shells into Cambodia early yesterday and small arms fire crackled anew around the Ta Krabey temple, which is in a disputed area.

“We cannot trust the Thais,” he said.

“Yesterday they said they’d stop fighting and now they are attacking us again.”

Thai army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said there had been light clashes late Thursday as well as early yesterday. He blamed Cambodia for breaking the deal, saying its “local units might not agree to the talks as easily as their commanders did.”

Sansern told reporters in Bangkok that the Thai army sent a 10-member delegation of middle-ranking officers across the border into Cambodia to meet with their counterparts again yesterday on how to avoid further clashes.

“The first step is to sustain the truce, then we can take further steps for talks,” he said.

The director of Phanom Dongrak hospital, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the border, confirmed one Thai soldier was killed late Thursday, bringing the total dead to 15 soldiers and one civilian. Thai authorities say the fighting

On Thursday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said his Thai counterpart had agreed to allow Indonesian observers, but there was no word on when they would arrive.

Cambodia had already agreed to the deployment.

Indonesia, which currently chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, offered to provide the observers after the last round of fighting in February.

Few believe the conflict will lead to fullscale war and neither side appears to be trying to capture territory.

Some believe Thailand’s military fears

SURIN: Thai soldiers ride a pickup during clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Surin province, northeastern Thailand yesterday.—AP has uprooted 51,000 people from their homes. Cambodia’s Red cross says more than 45,000 people there have also fled over the past week.

“I want both countries to stop fighting, so that I can go home,” said 37-yearold, Saman Yingnaram, a farmer in Prasat. “My cassava field will be sabotaged by (insects) by the time I return.”

the possible outcome of elections expected in June or July and is trying to rally Thais behind it. Thai media have suggested Cambodia’s Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985, was fomenting border tensions to distract his public. Both militaries have said they were merely defending against foreign aggression.—AP

Japan prime minister’s nuclear adviser resigns

MIYAGI: Volunteers help clean a cemetery at Jionin temple in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan yesterday. Many volunteers poured into the disaster-hit region at the beginning of the annual Golden Week holiday which began yesterday in Japan. —AP

TO KYO : A senior nuclear adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan submitted his resignation yesterday, saying the government had ignored his advice and failed to follow the law. Toshiso Kosako, a Tokyo University professor who was named last month as an advisor to Kan, said the government had only taken ad hoc measures to contain the crisis at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

In a tearful press conference, he said the government and its commissions had taken “flexible approaches” to existing laws and regulations, and ignored his advice after he was named an advisor on March 16. “I cannot help but to think (the prime minister’s office and other agencies) are only taking stopgap measures... and delaying the end” of the nuclear crisis, he told reporters.

Tokyo officials had drafted measures to

deal with the accident that were not in strict accordance with the law, and the decisionmaking process had been unclear, he said.

“There is no point for me to be here,” as the Kan administration had failed to listen to him, said Kosako, an expert on radiation safety.

It was not clear whether the government would accept the resignation, but his letter and comments served as a fresh blow to the embattled Kan, who has been badly criticized for his handling of the nuclear crisis.

The Fukushima Daiichi power plant has been releasing radioactive materials since it was battered by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left nearly 26,000 people killed or missing. The nuclear accident and natural disaster have forced the evacuation of more than 150,000 people from their homes.—AP

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Protests mount against Indian nuclear plant SAKHRI NATE: In the busy Indian fishing village of Sakhri Nate, it’s obvious what the locals think of the plan to build the world’s biggest nuclear power plant just across the creek.

“Say No To Nuclear Power. We Don’t Want To Get Sick,” reads one slogan in Hindi on the side of a tarpaulin-covered shack selling sweet tea and sugary snacks.

Chalked on a wall around the corner is a message for the French company that has signed a $9.3-billion deal to supply the plant’s first state-of-the-art pressurized water reactors.

“Areva Go Back,” it says simply in English. Opposition to the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project runs deep in this part of the Konkan region of western India, whose people have earned a living from fishing and farming for generations.

As with many in the hard-to-reach coastal area 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Mumbai, 45-year-old fisherman Abdul Majid Goalkar’s argument is well-rehearsed. At least 5,000 people work on about 600 boats, bringing in 50 tons of fresh fish, prawns and squid every day, he says. If the plant is built, he warns, all those jobs are under threat.

“Once they put the (water) pipeline in, we won’t be able to go out and fish,” he added, gesturing out to sea. “Warm water from the plant will affect the fish stocks, there’ll be pollution... It’s completely out of the question.” Others want to protect the village’s most famous export-the creamy, Alphonso variety of mango known locally as “the king of fruits”-grown on rocky, clifftop land earmarked for the 2,318acre (938-hectare) plant.

“The main business here is fish and mangoes,” said Mahesh Karankar, 32, who runs a shop in Jaitapur village. “If that disappears, what will we sell? How will we earn any money?” Over the last four years, the grassroots campaign against Jaitapur has built up a steady momentum and become increasingly vocal. But resistance has hardened since the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant, forcing a rethink on nuclear safety around the world and calls in India for a halt to atomic expansion. Pravin Gaonkar, a fisherman and mango farmer spearheading the anti-nuclear campaign, said the Japanese nuclear crisis was all the more relevant, as the Konkan coast is prone to regular seismic activity.

“Before the incident in Japan we were told how technologically advanced it was, how it was an earthquake-prone zone and yet they had nuclear plants. What’s happened has completely changed the scenario,” the 57-year-old added.

Another development is that the so-far largely peaceful antinuclear campaign has turned violent.

On Monday, the police opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing one and injuring several others. The victim, Tavrez Sejkar, was buried in the red earth of the steep hillside cemetery in mainly Muslim Sakhri Nate on Wednesday.

At his funeral, attended by thousands of local people still angry at what they say was heavy-handed police tactics, the local imam called him “shahid”-a martyr to the cause.

Politics has been blamed for the change in atmosphere around the protests, with fingers pointed at the local hardline Hindu nationalist party the Shiv Sena, which has a lengthy track record of violence and agitation.

On Tuesday, tyres were burnt on the main Mumbai to Goa highway and stones thrown at buses, as Sena members tried to enforce a shut-down protest in the area. The local Sena lawmaker in the Maharashtra state assembly was arrested on suspicion of rioting. Comparisons have been drawn with Singur in West Bengal state, where Tata Motors abandoned its plans for a new factory to build its Nano car after violent protests from farmers backed by local political parties.

Fast-growing, energy-hungry India, which wants to increase the share of nuclear in its energy mix from three percent to 13 percent by 2030, could pay a high price if Areva followed Tata’s example. At full capacity, the six-reactor Jaitapur plant would provide 9,900 megawatts of electricity more than double the current energy deficit in all of Maharashtra, home to commercial capital Mumbai.

Supporters say it could provide power to a chunk of the 500 million homes across the country that are currently off the grid and is vital to India’s economic progress.—AFP

Major Taleban attacks expected in Afghanistan Spike in violence attempts to counter NATO gains KABUL: The NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan is expecting Taleban-led insurgents to launch a series of major attacks across the country over the next week, senior military officials said yesterday. They said recent intelligence reporting indicated that the attacks planned by the Taleban, supported by the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network and other insurgents, would include suicide bombings.

Two senior coalition commanders said they anticipated the campaign of increased violence would last about a week. “The enemy can generate indiscriminate violence but he can’t succeed,” one of the coalition commanders told Reuters. “We’re expecting a big spike in violence over the next week.”

Washington and commanders of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have trumpeted successes against a growing insurgency since 30,000 extra US troops were sent to Afghanistan last year.

In Washington, the Pentagon said the troop “surge” had dealt a blow to the Taleban-led insurgency but fighting had risen since last fall. Senior commanders have long anticipated a spike in violence with the arrival of the spring and summer “fighting season”, although the usual winter lull was not seen as U.S-led forces pressed their attack against insurgents, particularly in the Taleban’s southern heartland. Violence across Afghanistan hit record levels in 2010, with civilian and military casualties the worst since U.Sbacked Afghan forces toppled the Taleban government in late 2001.

The Pentagon said in a biannual report that an overall increase in violence was due in part to increased targeting of safe insurgent safe havens and unseasonably mild winter weather.

Military commanders interviewed by Reuters were not sure why May 1 had been chosen by the Taleban to launch their renewed offensive. The anticipated Taleban campaign would not change the coalition’s counterinsurgency strategy put in place last year by US General David Petraeus, the commander of the 150,000 US and ISAF troops in Afghanistan, they said.

US officials said this week that Petraeus would return to Washington by September to take over as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In a major security shake-up, diplomatic heavyweight Ryan Crocker will replace Karl Eikenberry as Washington’s ambassador in Afghanistan. Western ambassadors in Kabul have described the military and diplomatic reshuffle as a shift of emphasis away from the military “surge” that began last year towards a political solution as NATO-led forces prepare to withdraw.

Under a programme agreed at a NATO summit last year, ISAF will begin handing security responsibility to Afghan forces in several areas from July. The program will end with the withdrawal of all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. A senior US defence official in Washington said fighting was expected to rise and could peak in the next 12 months. But that would not prevent the United States from going ahead with the scheduled troop drawdown from July.

He said the Taleban were still able to mount major attacks but posed less of a strategic threat than in the past. “Again, that doesn’t mean that day-to-day there

HELMAND: British soldiers in Afghanistan watch the live broadcast of the Royal wedding at Camp Bastion in Helmand province yesterday.—AP aren’t big challenges,” the US defence official said.

NATO-led military commanders briefed Afghan government officials and Western diplomats about the expected spike in violence over the past few days.

“These incidents can’t derail the transition process but, at the same time, it shows the fragility of the situation,” one senior Kabul-based Western diplomat told Reuters.

Another NATO military commander said they expected the Taleban to try and regain ground lost to ISAF and Afghan forces since the extra US troops were sent in. “We’re tracking credible intelligence that senior Taleban leaders, backed by the Haqqani network, plan to conduct attacks throughout Afghanistan from the end of April,” he said. “They’re attempting

to regain momentum after the progress by the coalition over the last year.”

Both senior coalition commanders in Kabul said the Taleban offensive would likely include ambushes, suicide bombings and attacks against high-profile targets in the capital, Kabul, and other major cities including Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in the south, in the north and in Herat in the west. The attacks, they said, would most likely be concentrated in the east, near Afghanistan’s long and often-porous border with Pakistan, where Taleban fighters have long sheltered in safe havens and from where they often launch attacks. “It’s intended to cast doubt on the progress of the coalition over the past year,” one of the commanders said. “Their intent is nationwide.”— Reuters

Pakistan shootout kills four including police QUETTA: Militants ambushed Pakistani police before dawn yesterday, sparking a gunfight that killed two policemen and two militants in the country’s troubled southwest, officials said. One policeman and a militant were also wounded during the shootout in Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, police said.

A group of militants attacked a police vehicle in the town of Mir Hasan, about 360 kilometres (220 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta. “Police also returned the fire and the militants ran away after the encounter. Two policemen

were killed and one was injured,” Saadullah Khetran, Naseerabad district police chief told AFP. Two militants were also killed in the shootout and their bodies taken to a local hospital, Khetran added.

Impoverished Baluchistan is wracked by an insurgency waged by ethnic Baluch tribes seeking greater autonomy from the federal government and a greater share of profits from the region’s wealth of oil and gas resources. The region has also been hit by attacks blamed on Taleban militants, although sabotage of gas pipelines are a trademark of nationalist rebels.— AFP

Spain unemployment soar as retail sales sink

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Luxury cars and trucks boost Daimler’s profit

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US consumer spending rises on higher prices

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

First offshore yuan IPO makes limp HK debut

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JAKARTA: Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao stands among Indonesian Muslim students from the University of Al-Azhar during a visit in Jakarta yesterday. Wen visited Indonesia to sign several bilateral agreements on commerce and industry on a three-day visit. —AFP

China’s PM woos Indonesia with investment, loans Wen strives to build links, trust JAKARTA: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sought yesterday to build trust, cultural ties and investment links with Indonesia and to end a long history of wariness between the world’s emerging power and one of the region’s brightest hopes.

China is vying with the United States for influence in Indonesia and Southeast Asia in general, the site of strategic sea lanes and resources that it needs to power its economy.

Many people in the region see the United States as a bulwark against a dominant China.

Wen held a singsong with Indonesian students and met Indonesian President

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then announced $9 billion of soft and commercial loans for infrastructure development and another $10 billion of export credits.

He said China would also give a billion yuan ($154 million) for maritime cooperation.

Other Southeast Asian countries have clashed with China over rival claims over potentially oil- and gas-rich islands and reefs in the South China Sea, which is seen

by China as its backyard.

Relations with China will be a dominant theme at a string of Southeast Asian regional meetings this year that Indonesia will chair. “China and Indonesia are in key

roles now, both have enormous market potential, so we need to combine the development strategy of the two countries and expand strengths to gain mutual benefits,” said Wen, who described his meeting with Yudhoyono as friendly and honest.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, wants $100 billion of private investment to overhaul its creaking transport network.

Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat described Wen’s trip as a breakthrough that would lead to enough Chinese direct investment to overcome a trade deficit.

Up to now, Chinese firms have struggled to make headway in Indonesia, as domestic

tycoons do not want to cede control, whereas companies from Japan, South Korea and India are pouring billions into infrastructure and manufacturing.

Indonesian businessmen worry about a flood of cheap Chinese imports. A trade gap has widened following a free trade agreement between China and the Association of South East Asian Nations that took effect last year and led to an influx of cheap Chinese products from oranges to toys.

“We can’t rely on trade only because we are facing China’s dominance that could disrupt our domestic businesses,” Hidayat told Reuters. —Reuters

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Oil nears 31-month peak on weak dollar, unrest LONDON: Oil prices hovered near 31month highs as a weak dollar and violence in North Africa outweighed concerns about slowing growth in top consumer the United States. In its last trading day of April, US crude was heading for its eighth consecutive month of gains, the longest run of monthly increases since 1983, Reuters data showed.

US crude was down 18 cents at 1027 GMT at $112.68 after settling at $112.86 a barrel on Thursday, the highest since the close on Sept. 22, 2008.

Brent futures were down 2 cents to

$125 a barrel yesterday, $2 short of its 2011 high of $127.02, reached on April 11.

Both US and Brent crude regained some ground lost earlier on Friday after euro zone data showed the inflation rate rose further above the European Central Bank’s target in April. The data increased the chances of another interest rate rise in June, despite weakening economic sentiment. The news helped push the dollar index down against a basket of major currencies, with the greenback languishing near three-year lows.

“European markets are becalmed by

three consecutive short trading weeks, and market activity has been fairly limited during this time. Geopolitical concerns in North Africa and the Middle East remain, with the conflict in Libya at an impasse and Syrian unrest increasing,” said Lawrence Eagles from JP Morgan.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday attacked the Tunisian town of Dehiba, near the Libyan border,.

Morocco, which borders major oil and gas producer Algeria, said a bomb that killed at least 14 people on Thursday in its busiest tourist destination was a terrorist act. The

weak dollar also helped push silver and gold within sight of historic highs as investors sought alternative assets.

Oil hovered near multi-month peaks despite weak US data, which showed on Thursday that economic growth had braked sharply in the first quarter as higher food and gasoline prices dampened consumer spending and sent inflation rising at its fastest pace in 2-1/2 years.

“At current price levels the main downside risk comes from demand destruction,” said Olivier Jakob from Petromatrix consultancy. —Reuters

China’s leaders turn to currency to cool inflation Rising yuan might hurt exports

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co.’s television is displayed in a showroom at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. Samsung Electronics said profit fell 30 percent in the first quarter on declines in memory chip prices and reduced profitability in liquid crystal displays and flat screen televisions. — AP

Samsung 1Q profit falls 30 percent on chips, TVs SEOUL: Samsung Electronics said profit fell 30 percent in the first quarter on declines in memory chip prices and reduced profitability in liquid crystal displays and flat screen televisions.

Samsung, the manufacturer of the Galaxy S smartphone and Galaxy Tab tablet device, earned 2.78 trillion won ($2.59 billion) in the three months that ended March 31, the company announced Friday.

That compared with net profit of 3.99 trillion won a year earlier.

Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. is the top global manufacturer of flat screen televisions, memory chips and liquid crystal displays and ranks No. 2 in cellphones.

Samsung recorded record annual sales, operating profit and net profit in 2010. The company had warned, however, that the outlook for this year was uncertain given weak pricing for components and consumer electronics products that hurt profitability at the end of 2010. Samsung said sales in the first quarter rose 6.8 percent to 36.99 trillion won.

Robert Yi, a Samsung vice president, described the company’s business environment as “difficult” during the first quarter in a release, citing the “rising costs of raw materials, uncertainties in the financial market in Europe and the devastating earthquake in Japan.”

The company said that the current second quarter would remain “challenging” due to concerns over the global economy and industry competition. Samsung’s mobile phone business was a relative bright spot for the company. Handset sales declined 14 percent to 70 million devices, but strong sales of smartphones and “high-end mobile devices” — an apparent reference to tablets — boosted profitability, the company said. Smartphones took up 18 percent of Samsung’s total handset sales during the first quarter, up sharply from just 4 percent during the same period last year, Samsung said. The global popularity of smartphones and tablets has skyrocketed and industry competition has intensified since Apple Inc. released its iconic iPhone and iPad devices. The stakes are high. Cupertino, Califiornia-based Apple and Samsung are engaged in a legal spat over smartphone and tablet technology.

Apple sued Samsung in a California court earlier this month, alleging Samsung’s Galaxy line of phones and tablets copy the iPad and iPhone.

Samsung quickly responded, said it was suing Apple in South Korea, Japan and Germany, accusing the company of violating its rights to 10 smartphone and computer patents. — Reuters

BEIJING: Surging inflation that helped trigger protests in higher living costs erupted in frustration at a rise in state-set fuel Shanghai is prompting China’s leaders to turn to a tool they long prices and new fees charged by warehouse owners and at China’s resisted: Speeding up the rise of the country’s tightly controlled busiest port.

Hundreds of drivers halted work for three days starting April currency.

Rising prices are a political threat to China’s communist lead- 20, disrupting cargo shipments. Some freight companies susers and they have declared taming inflation their priority. But pended business for fear of being attacked by protesters. Officials they suffered a setback in March, when a double-digit jump in responded by lowering some fees. “Living costs are higher but food costs pushed inflation to a 32-month high of 5.4 percent. freight rates are the same, so truckers or company owners earn That was despite four interest rate hikes since October, curbs on less,” said Xie Qiang, owner of a Shanghai trucking company. bank lending and government orders to producers to hold down Similar pressures last year ignited a wave of strikes across China by factory workers whose price increases. wages were frozen after the How fast to let the yuan gain is a 2008 crisis and faced rising high-stakes balancing act. A living costs.

Japanese stronger yuan could help ease inflaautomakers and some other tion by making oil and other facilities were temporarily imports cheaper. But Beijing also idled. worries that a rising yuan might Beijing usually prohibits hurt exports and lead to job losses strikes but went along with and unrest, so any gains will likely last year’s demands, possibly still be too small for Washington to put more money in workand other critics that say an underers’ pockets as part of sweepvalued yuan is swelling China’s ing efforts to reduce reliance trade surplus. “Policymakers have on exports by promoting sent a clear message that currency consumer spending. The appreciation will be used as a tool government has clamped to counter imported inflation” due down on lending but anato near-record global prices for oil lysts say it will be months and other commodities, said Credit before the effects of that and Agricole CIB economist Dariusz other curbs are felt. They say Kowalczyk. inflation should climb further At a Cabinet meeting this through at least midyear month, Premier Wen Jiabao said the before easing. Beijing also is government would “increase the struggling to control an flexibility of the yuan’s exchange overheated economy that rate” to ease price pressures, the expanded by a rapid 9.7 perofficial Xinhua News Agency reportcent in the first quarter of ed. Wen, China’s top economic offithis year, barely slowing from cial, gave no details or a target for the previous quarter despite the yuan’s value. But such a promBeijing’s efforts to steer ise from a senior leader is rare and growth to a sustainable level reflected rising official urgency, after 2010’s double-digit especially after Beijing has rebuffed demands by Washington and oth- BEIJING: In this April 5, 2011 file photo, a clerk gains. The World Bank is ers to ease currency controls. In holds up a bundle of 100 yuan notes at a bank in forecasting 9.3 percent March, Wen had publicly rejected a Beijing, China. Surging inflation that helped trig- growth this year, well above 8 percent target rapid rise in the yuan, saying at a ger protests in Shanghai is prompting China’s the announced by Wen in March. news conference Beijing had to “That growth is being consider the impact on Chinese leaders to turn to a tool they long resisted: companies and jobs. Yesterday, the Speeding up the rise of the country’s tightly con- generated by the same policies that are fueling inflation. central bank set the yuan’s trolled currency. — AP So what looks like a great exchange rate at 6.49 to the US dollar — its highest official level since a currency revaluation in 2005. number applies to a very stressful economic situation,” said Economists blame China’s inflation on the dual pressures of Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University’s consumer demand that is outstripping food supplies and a bank School of Economics and Management in Beijing. Beijing broke lending boom they say Beijing allowed to run too long after it the yuan’s direct link to the dollar in 2005 and allowed the currency to rise gradually after that. It was frozen again following the helped the country rebound quickly from the 2008 global crisis.

Attempts at price controls, subsidies for the poor and orders to 2008 crisis to help Chinese exporters compete abroad after a local leaders to guarantee adequate vegetable supplies have had plunge in global demand wiped out millions of factory jobs.

Beijing promised more flexibility again last June but the US govmixed results.

In Shanghai, self-employed drivers who are being squeezed by ernment says gains since then have been too small. —AP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

AirAsia to reimpose fuel surcharge on all flights KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asia’s biggest budget carrier AirAsia said yesterday it will reimpose fuel surcharges on almost all its flights, caving in to pressure from escalating jet fuel prices.

The move comes less than three years since AirAsia abolished fuel surcharges in November 2008. AirAsia said it was forced to reintroduce the fee after jet fuel, which is sold at a premium to crude oil,

breached $140 a barrel amid instability in the Middle East.

“We hope that this will only be a temporary measure, and AirAsia will continue to ensure our fares remain low despite the fuel surcharge, which is the lowest in the world,” AirAsia’s regional head of commerce Kathleen Tan said in a statement.

Flights booked before May 3 will not be affected, the statement said. No all

flights will be affected. The surcharges will range between 10 ringgit ($3.37) and 90 ringgit ($30) for a one-way flight, the carrier said. Flights booked before May 3 will not be affected by the new fee, and there will be no surcharges for domestic flights in Thailand and Indonesia. In 2008, it had said eliminating the fuel surcharges would cost the carrier nearly a billion ringgit ($336 million) a year.

Last year, AirAsia posted a record net profit of 1.07 billion ringgit($360 million) but it has warned that high oil prices could hamper its growth. In the first quarter this year, the AirAsia group combing its Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian operations carried 7.23 million passengers in the first quarter this year, up 19 percent from a year ago. — AP

First offshore yuan IPO makes limp HK debut Strengthens position as an offshore yuan trading hub HONG KONG: Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s yuan-denominated IPO, the world’s first outside mainland China, made a limp trading debut yesterday but officials said the market remained full of promise. Shares in Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust tumbled to 4.88 yuan (75 US cents), well below their 5.24 yuan initial public offering price, despite high hopes that the issue will mark a milestone for Beijing’s bid to turn the yuan into a global currency that could rival the US dollar’s dominance.

NEW DELHI: Travelers wait as passenger jets from Air India, India’s national carrier, that were meant to be flying international routes sit idle at gates, at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, yesterday. The strike by one of the carriers pilots’ union entered the third day. — AP

Japan Inc net profit tumbles in after quake TOKYO: The devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 battered Japan Inc. in the first three months of 2011, with companies seeing their profits slashed by a third, a survey said yesterday.

The results of the poll by the Nikkei daily highlight the huge economic impact of the earthquake and tsunami and the resulting nuclear plant crisis, which led to power cuts and the closure of factories, slashing production.

The business daily also said Japan’s gross domestic product for the three months to June is expected to contract an annualised 3.2 percent, according to average estimates of 10 economists.

The news came a day after official data showed Japan’s industrial production slumped 15.3 percent from February to March, the sharpest drop since records began in 1953, because of the disasters.

The survey of 544 listed firms found that their collective net profit fell 32 percent in the January to March period, the first decline in six quarters. However, it also said profits for the year to the end of March were higher year-on-year thanks to strong gains from April to December. The report did not give full-year figures.

A separate survey by the paper covering about 1,000 listed companies showed their aggregate extraor-

dinary losses stemming from the natural disasters came to about 600 billion yen ($7.36 billion).

The newspaper estimated that the total impact of the earthquake and tsunami on all listed companies reached about $12.3 billion.

Many analysts expect corporate activity to pick up after the summer as reconstruction gets under way in the northeast of the country, although many business leaders remain cautious in their outlook.

A sharp fall in exports, depressed production, and chilled consumption after the disaster are seen driving down the economy for now.

The Nikkei said 10 renowned economists believe the Japanese economy shrank in the JanuaryMarch quarter, with their contraction estimates ranging from 0.4 percent to 3.9 percent, averaging a 2.3-percent fall.

For the April-June quarter, the decline is expected to widen to 3.2 percent on average.

The government will release official data for the January-March quarter on May 19, and the data for the April-June quarter on August 15.

However, the economists on average expected the July-September quarter to show 3.2 percent growth, with their outlook ranging from 1.0-percent contraction to 7.0-percent growth, the newspaper said.—AFP

Hui Xian, a real estate investment trust (REIT) controlled by Asia’s richest man, will be closely watched by the market to gauge the future of yuan IPOs in Hong Kong. The debut came with markets across Asia depressed by lacklustre US economic data, and Hui Xian chairman Kam Hing-lam insisted that he was “very happy” with the IPO’s performance.

“This is the first renminbidenominated REIT in Hong Kong.

This is the first time the renminbi has traded on a stock exchange outside of China,” Kam told a news conference, using the Chinese currency’s official name.

Eddy Fong, chairman of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, described the listing as “historic”.

“This strengthens Hong Kong’s position as an offshore yuan trading hub,” Fong told reporters at a listing ceremony ahead of the start of trading.

The IPO has failed to spark huge interest among investors, after it was priced at the lowest end of a range of 5.24-5.58 yuan per share, raising 10.48 billion yuan in total.

China has been using Hong Kong-a semi-autonomous Chinese territory-as a test bed to internationalise the yuan, and analysts agreed that it was too early to write off the new IPO market.

Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong, said the appetite for yuan listings should be judged over a longer period.

“The markets sentiment in Asia today is not very strong, there are some consolidations so the Hong Kong market is just one of them,” he told AFP. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index

HONG KONG: Officials and visitors look at a screen showing the stock prices during the first day of trading of Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Hong Kong yesterday. — AP was 0.33 percent lower at 23,727.53 in late morning trade.

The REIT is tied to the Oriental Plaza, a sprawling 100,000 square metre (1.1 million square foot) complex in Beijing’s prime Wangfujing Street which includes a mall that commands some of the city’s highest rental rates.

The IPO, which opened for sale on April 11, saw the trust sell two billion units, or 40 percent of the property firm.

The institutional tranche of the offering was fully subscribed, according to a source, while a 20 percent share of the offering set aside for retail investors was oversubscribed two and a half times.

Analysts said the IPO may have failed to generate the kind of excitement garnered by previous Hong Kong share offerings because the offering’s low liquidity would be unattractive to many local investors looking to buy the shares and sell them for a quick

return. China is also reportedly in talks with Hong Kong rival Singapore to set the city-state up as another trading hub for the Chinese currency. Singapore is Asia’s second-largest foreign exchange trading centre after Japan.

Hui Xian’s debut comes after Li raised $5.5 billion from a Singapore listing of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, which controls deepwater ports in China and Hong Kong.

In remarks published Tuesday, Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew said he believed his country could become a secondary yuan trading centre after Hong Kong as the Chinese currency gains broader global usage.

“Hong Kong is part of China.

Hong Kong is well connected with the international financial markets.

So China will use Hong Kong; the overflow may come to us,” he told Dow Jones Newswires. — AFP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Euro zone inflation rises, points to higher ECB rates Economists see inflation driving interest rates higher

SINDELFINGEN: Picture taken on February 1, 2011 shows a Mercedes-Benz E-class car hanging on the production line at the Mercedes-Benz production plant in Sindelfingen, southern Germany. German luxury carmaker Daimler said yesterday that its first-quarter net profit nearly doubled. — AFP

Luxury cars and trucks boost Daimler’s profit FRANKFURT: German luxury carmaker Daimler said yesterday that its first-quarter net profit nearly doubled, and maintained a rosy outlook for the year amid strong demand for its MercedesBenz cars and also heavy trucks.

Daimler said net profit jumped to 1.18 billion euros ($1.75 billion) in the three months from January to the end of March, from 612 million euros in the same period of 2010.

Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a slightly higher profit of 1.26 billion euros however, and Daimler shares slumped in midday trades on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Sales by the group gained 16.5 percent to 24.7 billion euros, a statement said, in line with market expectations.

Echoing comments from other German makers of upscale automobiles, Daimler reiterated upbeat guidance for the rest of the year, forecasting core earnings before interest and taxes “to be significantly higher than in 2010.”

The company posted Ebit last year of 7.27 billion euros.

First quarter Ebit soared by 71 percent on the year meanwhile, to two billion euros, Daimler said.

“This puts us well ahead of our planning and confirms our positive outlook for the year 2011,” chairman Dieter Zetsche added. Sales were forecast to exceed the 2010 level of 97.8 billion euros, when Daimler sold nearly 1.9 million vehicles. Passenger car sales should gain more than seven percent this year, finance director Bodo Uebber told a telephone press conference.

Mercedes posted a 12 percent gain in the first quarter to 310,000 units, and all regions and all divisions contributed to Daimler’s results. Mercedes accounted for 1.29 billion euros of the first-quarter Ebit, a gain of 60 percent, and Daimler Trucks added 415 million, up from 130 million in the first quarter of 2010.

The group reported 49 million euros in costs at Daimler Trucks however, the world’s leading heavy truck maker, along with 29 million euros at Daimler Financial Services in connection with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Mitsubishi Fuso, a key Daimler Truck brand, is based in Japan, where output was cut after the March 11 quake until April 20.

Uebber said the group expected further costs of between 50100 million euros stemming from the disaster.

But quarterly global truck sales nonetheless gained 27 percent on the year to 89,300 vehicles. Meanwhile, tornadoes that slammed the southern United States this week, killing more than 300 people, did not do serious damage to a Daimler plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the finance director added. —AFP

BRUSSELS: Euro zone inflation rose further above the European Central Bank’s target in April, increasing the chances of an interest rate rise in June, despite a weakening of economic sentiment and household demand. Inflation in the 17 countries using the euro rose to 2.8 percent year-on-year this month from 2.7 percent a month earlier, the highest level since October 2010, when it was 3.2 percent. Consensus expectations had been for a flat reading compared to March ahead of next Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting on interest rates.

“I can imagine that some market participants will expect the rate increase by the European Central Bank at an earlier date.

We expected June, the market is still expecting July. I guess the consensus will now move to June,” said Piet Lammens, economist at KBC. The ECB raised its main interest rate from record lows of 1.0 percent to 1.25 percent in April, concerned about the impact on consumer prices of rising costs of energy and food.

Other data this month has suggested growth in both Germany and the euro zone is peaking and figures from Spain, the biggest of the economies under threat in Europe’s debt crisis, showed unemployment soaring and retail sales sinking.

A monthly European Commission survey showed economic sentiment in the

euro zone as a whole fell for the second month in a row to 106.2 in April, down from 107.3 in March and below market expectations of a decline to 107.0.

“Survey data from the European Commission clearly indicates that the combination of high oil prices, a strong euro, and fiscal and monetary tightening has started to dent the economic mood in the euro zone,” said Martin van Vliet, economist at ING. The decline in sentiment was in all sectors of the economy except construction, with consumer optimism falling the most to -11.6 from -10.6 in March.

ECB data also showed that the annual growth rate of loans to the private sector in the single currency area slowed in March, bucking expectations for a rise, but M3 money supply growth accelerated.

“Monetary data continue to point to a modest recovery in euro area money and loan growth,” said Christoph Balz, economist at Commerzbank.

“While the data in itself do not indicate upside risks to price stability that require further monetary tightening, they are further proof that the economic situation has changed substantially since 2009 — which is why the ECB thinks that extremely low interest rates are no longer appropriate.

More evidence of weakening household demand could be seen in retail sales data. Sales in Germany fell in March, defy-

ing expectations of a rise as consumers bought fewer groceries and textiles during a month when inflation surpassed the 2 percent threshold.

Adjusted for consumer price rises, sales declined by 2.1 percent month-on-month, and by 3.5 percent year-on-year.

The drop in consumer demand was more pronounced in the “peripheral” euro zone countries seeking to win back market confidence in their public finances with tough austerity measures.

In Spain sales fell 8.6 percent year-onyear in March and in Greece the decline was 10.6 percent in February.

Euro zone consumer inflation expectations, which have been rising quickly since November 2010, edged marginally lower to 30.7 from 30.8. Selling price expectations among manufacturers, on the rise since August 2010, fell more markedly to 21.5 from 24.4. The European Commission’s business climate indicator, which points to the phase of the business cycle, also fell for the second month in a row, to 1.28 points from 1.43 in March.

“Despite this, the current level of the indicator remains close to historic peaks, suggesting that the recovery in industry will continue in the coming months,” the Commission said. Eurostat data also showed that unemployment in the euro zone held stable at 9.9 percent of the workforce in March.— Reuters

Chrysler set to repay US, Canada bailouts

ATHENS: The logo of the Greek public electricity company DEI hangs on its building in Athens yesterday. The powerful union of Greece’s public electricity company announced yesterday it would stage strikes in early May to protest partial privatisation of the company. — AFP

Greek power utility union calls strikes ATHENS: The powerful union of Greece’s public electricity company DEI announced yesterday it would stage strikes in early May to protest partial privatisation of the company.

The Greek state plans to reduce its stake in DEI from 51 to 34 percent. “We will launch the movement a week before the expected filing of the proposed law with parliament” on the privatisation, “either on the 7th or 8th of May,” Costas Koutsomidas, vice-president of the GENOP-DEI union, told AFP. “DEI belongs to the Greek people, no government has the right to sell it off to benefit some speculators,” said Koutsomidas whose words are generally followed by his union members, some 24,500 workers. Greece’s Socialist government had announced its intention to sell 17 percent of the state shares in DEI in 2012, as part of its privatisation plan. It aims to make some 50 billion euros ($74 billion) between now and 2015 to help reduce the country’s oppressive debt of more than 150 percent of gross domestic product. — AFP

DETROIT: Chrysler vowed yesterday to repay bailout loans worth more than $7 billion given by the US and Canadian governments, moving to close a troubled chapter in the company’s history.

The number three US auto group said it would pay back the bailout by June with loans from investors.

“There isn’t any doubt there is interest in the capital markets,” said Chrysler and Fiat chairman Sergio Marchionne, expressing confidence the firm could get the cash.

The new debt securities will be offered privately to institutional investors next Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. Chrysler, which is now under operational control of Italy’s Fiat, needed government help to stay afloat as sales slumped in the “Great Recession”.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, after touring a company plant in Detroit on Thursday, said the government’s unpopular decision to bailout Chrysler and its rival General Motors had been vindicated.

“The president made the right choice to help stabilize the auto industry,” he said.

“Today, the American automakers are growing stronger, creating new jobs, and manufacturing the fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will carry us toward an energy independent future.”

As Chrysler tries to end its government ties, the firm is bidding to become more lean and competitive in the toughly fought car market.

“Chrysler has certainly made progress from the first quarter of last year: sales are up 22.5 percent, brand awareness is up, many redesigned vehicles are in Chrysler showrooms and incentives are down,” said Edmunds.com Analyst Ivan Drury.

“However, Chrysler still depends on the sale of very large cars and trucks, and this is going to hinder their progress in the upcoming months as fuel costs escalate,” he added.

Part of Chrysler’s makeover appeared to be a transfer to majority European ownership.

Fiat earlier this month took a step toward becoming one of the biggest automakers in the world with a $1.3-billion (889-million-euro) deal to raise its stake in Chrysler to 46 percent. —AFP

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World stocks cautious on slowing US growth PARIS: A slowdown in growth in the US and mixed corporate earnings dampened stock market sentiment around the world yesterday.

Data released the previous day showed the world’s biggest economy lost steam in the first three months of the year. That helped push oil prices to near $112 a barrel and pushed the dollar down against the yen and the euro.

In early European trading, France’s CAC40 slipped 0.1 percent to 4,103 while Germany’s DAX was up 0.1 percent to 7,482. Britain’s FTSE 100 was closed as the country celebrated the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Wall Street was set for a lower opening, as Dow Jones industrial futures sagged by 14 points to 12,694 and S&P futures dropped marginally to 1,353.10.

Outside of the US, economic indicators were also downbeat. Inflation in the 17 euro countries crept up to 2.8 percent in April, official data showed, keeping the pressure on the European Central Bank to raise interest rates again later this year.

That has aroused concerns that higher borrowing costs may make it harder for financially troubled countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal to return to growth and manage their debt.

Other signs for the eurozone remained mixed. Unemployment was steady at 9.9 percent in March, although Spain’s rate rose sharply to a new eurozone record of 21.3 percent in the first quarter.

Nearly 5 million people are out of

work now in Spain, the government said, adding pressure on the country as it tries to recover from nearly two years of recession and convince investors that it can handle its own debt load. Two of Europe’s industrial bellwethers reported hefty growth in first quarter earnings.

German car maker Daimler AG said net profit nearly doubled to §1.2 billion in the period as its luxury Mercedes brand kept up its strong sales performance in China.

Total, Europe’s third largest oil producer, said its profit grew 50 percent in the first quarter thanks to sharply higher oil prices.

Meanwhile in Asia, equity markets also reacted nervously to the weak US data overnight. Demand from the US for Asia exports may actually slow,” said

Dariusz Kowalczuk of Credit Agricole in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 0.4 percent to 23,805.63, with yuan units of Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust falling 9.4 percent in their trading debut. They are the first equity securities denominated in China’s currency to trade outside of mainland China. South Korea’s Kospi index slipped 0.7 percent to 2,192.36, with technology shares dragging the index down. Samsung Electronics lost 0.8 percent after the company announced its first quarter profit fell 30 percent on declines in memory chip prices and reduced profitability in liquid crystal displays and flat screen televisions. Rival Hynix Semiconductor Inc. slid 1.6 percent. LG Electronics lost 3.7 percent. —AP

EU targets 16 major banks in swaps market probes CDS play a useful role for financial markets

SYDNEY: The circular logo of Macquarie Bank adorns the foyer as Australia’s biggest investment bank announces a full-year net profit of 1.04 billion USD in Sydney yesterday. — AFP

Airliner makers bound to tie up MADRID: The six big global airliner manufacturers are condemned to make alliances because there will not be enough business to go round, the head of European giant EADS which owns Airbus said yesterday.

“In future there will be six big companies in the market for commercial aircraft,” EADS executive chairman Louis Gallois told the Spanish newspaper Expansion.

He named the big six as the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), US firm Boeing, Comac of China, Embraer of Brazil, Canadian company Bombardier and UAC of Russia.

“Demand will not be enough for all of them. This will oblige them to make alliances,” he said.

“The competition to tie up strategic agreements between these giants will be even tougher and more aggressive than the competition between them to sell their products.”

In March, Bombardier and Comac signed a draft agreement which could lead them to work together on their respective programmes for medium-range aircraft.

Such alliances could lead their suppliers to do likewise.

“That could be a good step. There are too many of them and an alliance would strengthen them in an increasingly competitive world, but it’s up to them,” Gallois said.

Gallois, whose time in the job runs out in a year’s time, did not rule out the possibility that his successor might be neither French nor German, in contrast to the practice so far.

“Why not? The right people must be put in the right jobs and in many cases its a Spaniard,” he said.

Spain controls 5.5 percent of EADS. France and Germany each control 22.2 percent.

“The group must forget its nationalistic instincts when the management team is formed,” he said. — AFP

BRUSSELS: The EU’s competition watchdog is investigating the practices of some the world’s biggest banks, as well as a market data firm and a clearing house, for potential abuse of the market for credit default swaps.

The two probes home in on a market that has come under fire for lacking transparency and allegedly worsening debt market turmoil during the financial crisis. While the investigations focus on competition issues, they accompany a broader regulatory crackdown in Europe on credit default swaps and other derivatives.

The European Commission said it has “indications” that the 16 banks acting as dealers in the CDS market — practically all the big players in global investment banking — give essential information on pricing and other daily activities only to Markit, the leading financial data provider for that market.

Such preferential treatment “could be the consequence of collusion between them or an abuse of a possible collective dominance” and could lock other data providers out of the CDS business, the Commission said.

The 16 firms targeted are JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, Wells Fargo, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale. Credit default swaps were invented to help investors insure themselves against the default of a company or a state whose bonds they hold. However, they have also been used for speculation and the profits some banks and hedge funds make from such transactions have come under scrutiny during the financial crisis.

“CDS play a useful role for financial markets and for the economy,” said Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said in a statement. “Recent developments have shown, however, that the trading of this asset class suffers a number of inefficiencies that cannot be solved through regulation alone.” In a second case, the Commission is also investigating whether nine of those banks received preferential treatment — such as lower fees and profitsharing deals — from ICE Clear Europe, the biggest CDS clearing house in the EU. —AP

MADRID: In this Dec. 2, 2010 file photo, people queue outside an unemployment registry office in Madrid. Spain’s unemployment rate rose sharply to a new eurozone high of 21.3 percent in the first quarter of the year, with an unprecedented nearly 5 million people out of work, the government said yesterday. — AP

Spain unemployment soar as retail sales sink MADRID: Weak jobs data, sliding retail sales and rising inflation confirmed Spain’s economic recovery is faltering as the government presses ahead with spending cuts to rein in the euro zone’s third largest deficit.

Spain expects its public deficit to reach 2.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, the government said in a document shown to reporters yesterday, down from 9.2 percent in 2010.

But unemployment, running at more than double the European Union average, rose to a 14-year high of 21.3 percent, or 4.9 million people, in the first quarter, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Friday.

Retail sales, meanwhile, posted their sharpest decline for more

than two years in March, and in April consumer prices rose faster than at any time since October 2008, pointing to a further loss of momentum for a stagnant economy already beset by inflationary pressures and depressed consumer sentiment. Persistently weak growth will in turn undermine government efforts to close the fiscal gap and try to persuade investors Spain will not follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal into a bailout.

“These data show that Spain is going to take time to recover,” economist at Banco Sabadell, Juan Rodriguez Rey, said.

“Domestic consumption is a big part of gross domestic product in Spain. With the unemployment rate we have, low consumption affects output and GDP.” —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

US Senate to vote on dueling budget plans WASHINGTON: As Congress gears up for a fight on America’s rising debt load, Republicans and Democrats are trying to embarrass each other-by forcing votes on opposing deficit-cutting plans that would highlight politically unpopular elements.

A day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would bring the Republicans’ 2012 budget blueprint to a vote, the chamber’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said on Thursday he would demand a vote on President Barack Obama’s plan.

Both sides hope the votes can serve as ammunition in the 2012 elections, in which rising government spending and the ballooning US debt will be key concerns for voters.

Democrats in the Senate are challenging their opponents to back Republican Representative Paul Ryan’s proposal to partially privatize the Medicare health program for the elderly, an idea that has drawn criticism from some voters at town halls in recent days.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has already endorsed Ryan’s plan, which also proposes cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy.

McConnell, in turn, wants to force Democrats to vote on Obama’s initial budget proposal, which would worsen the country’s fiscal situation over the coming decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. “We’ll give

our colleagues an opportunity to stand with the president in failing to address the problems facing our nation while calling for trillions in new spending, massive new debt and higher taxes,” McConnell said in a statement.

Several Senate Democrats have already said that Obama’s proposal does not do enough to close stubborn budget deficits that have hovered around 10 percent of GDP in recent years.

Obama has since come out with a more ambitious deficit-reduction plan.

Both measures could fail in the Senate, where Democrats control 53 of 100 seats.

No date has been set for the votes, which are likely to ratchet up the pressure

on lawmakers as Congress prepares for a fiercely partisan debate on raising the cap on US borrowing.

The United States will reach its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by mid-May, according to the Treasury Department. It has said it can stave off a default, which would rattle markets and economies across the globe, until July 8.

Republicans have said they will not support a debt-ceiling hike unless it is paired with measures to reduce spending over the long term.

Finding a package that could win approval in both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate could be difficult. — Reuters

US consumer spending rises on higher prices Real spending edges up 0.2 pct

SEOUL: A salesman waits for customers behind a Kia K5 sedan displayed in its showroom in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. Kia Motors says yesterday first-quarter profit rose 91 percent. — AP

Merck Q1 net income triples on lower costs TRENTON: Merck & Co. says its first-quarter profit more than tripled despite only slightly higher sales because of much lower restructuring and merger costs.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. Merck’s stock rose 61 cents in premarket trading to $36.38. The maker of Singulair for asthma and allergies and Januvia for diabetes says net income was $1.04 billion, or 34 cents per share, up from $299 million, or 9 cents a share, in 2010’s first quarter.

Revenue edged up 1 percent to $11.58 billion. That includes several billion dollars from products acquired when Merck bought Schering-Plough Corp. in November 2009 for $49 billion.

Excluding numerous one-time items, net income was $2.86 billion, or 92 cents per share. Analysts forecast earnings per share of 84 cents and revenue of $11.38 billion.

Analysts typically exclude one-time items in their estimates. The $1.82 billion in net charges included $1.58 billion in merger-related writedowns on the value of assets and research, $126 million in restructuring costs and a $500 million payment to settle arbitration with Johnson & Johnson over rights to two drugs. A year ago, Merck had charges totaling $2.31 billion.

Merck raised the bottom end of its 2011 adjusted profit forecast by 2 cents, predicting $3.66 to $3.76 per share.

Including charges, it expects $2.04 to $2.39 per share this year. “It is clear that Merck’s business momentum is building, and we continue to demonstrate the ongoing value of the merger,” Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier said in a statement. — AP

WASHINGTON: US consumer spending rose as households stretched to cover the higher cost for food and gasoline as inflation posted its biggest year-on-year rise in 10 months.

The Commerce Department said yesterday consumer spending, adjusted for inflation, edged up 0.2 percent last month after rising 0.5 percent in February.

Nominal spending increased 0.6 percent for a ninth straight month of gains, after advancing 0.9 percent in February.

Economists had expected spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of US economic activity, to rise 0.5 percent.

“The story in the first quarter was higher gas prices are forcing people to spend more at the expense of other items,” said Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York. “The inflation burden increased in the quarter, things were progressively worse as you moved from January to March.”

US stock index futures maintained earlier gains after the report, while bond prices held their slight gains.

The dollar was weaker versus the euro and yen.

The government reported on Thursday that consumer spending grew at a 2.7 percent annualized rate in the first quarter after a 4 percent increase in the final three months of 2010.

That contributed to economic growth slowing to a 1.8 percent rate in the first quarter after a 3.1 percent expansion in the last quarter of 2010.

The moderation in spending was not as sharp as economists had feared, suggesting that consumers were somewhat adapting to the high commodity prices, but could face a litmus test should gasoline prices shoot above $4 a gallon.

The national price for regular

NEW YORK: In this March 18, 2011 photo, trader Frederick Reimer, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A slowdown in growth in the US and mixed corporate earnings dampened stock market sentiment around the world yesterday. — AP unleaded gasoline rose 3.5 cents to $3.88 in the week through Monday.

The Fed this week expressed confidence high energy prices would not spark broader inflation, with Chairman Ben Bernanke saying he did not believe gasoline prices would continue to rise at their recent pace.

High food and energy prices kept inflation elevated in March, with the personal consumption expenditures price (PCE) index up 0.4 percent after rising by the same margin in February. Compared to March last year, the index was up 1.8 percent the largest increase since May - after rising 1.6 percent in February.

The core PCE index-excluding food and energy - slowed to a 0.1 percent increase after rising 0.2 percent in February. The core index, which is

closely watched by Federal Reserve officials, increased 0.9 percent in the 12 months through March.

The index rose 0.9 percent in February and the Fed would like to see it around 2 percent.

Spending was supported by incomes, which increased 0.5 percent last month after a 0.4 percent gain in February. The rise in incomes was a touch above economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent gain.

Savings edged up to $651.2 billion from $647.5 billion in February. The saving rate was unchanged at 5.5 percent.

Separately, wages rose at a 0.4 percent rate in the first quarter, a Labor Department report showed, after increasing by the same pace in the fourth quarter. — Reuters

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W

ith a smile that lit up TV screens around the world, Kate Middleton swept down the aisle to marry Prince William in a union expected to revitalize the British monarchy. Hundreds of thousands then cheered as the royal couple rode an open carriage to Buckingham Palace. Even with millions of people tuning in to watch, the couple managed to appear at times in their own private world yesterday, both at Westminster Abbey and on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. William whispered to Kate, who radiated contentment and joy, as they pledged their lives to one another at the church with the simple words “I will.” They then delivered two - not one - sweet, self-conscious kisses on the balcony, with William blushing deeply at the highly anticipated event. Within moments, a flyby of vintage and modern Royal Air Force planes roared overhead. The biggest secret of the day Middleton’s wedding gown - prompted swoons of admiration as she stepped out of a Rolls-Royce with her father at the abbey. Against all odds, the sun broke through steely gray skies at that exact moment.

Her ivory-and-white satin dress - with its plunging neckline, long lacy shoulders and sleeves and a train over 2-meters (yards) long - was designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen. Middleton’s hair was half-up, half-down, decorated with dramatic veil and a tiara on loan from Queen Elizabeth II. “It’s a dream,” said Jennie Bond, a leading British monarchy expert and royal wedding consultant for The Associated Press. “It is a beautiful laced soft look, which is extremely elegant. She looked stunning.” William, second-in-line to the throne after his father, Prince Charles, wore the scarlet tunic of an Irish Guards officer, reinforcing his new image as a dedicated military man. The couple’s first royal wedding present came from the queen: the titles of duke and duchess of Cambridge. Floods of well-wishers - as well as some protesters - packed central London, around Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and other landmarks beginning at dawn, despite cool temperatures and the threat of rain. Cheers erupted as huge television screens began broadcasting at Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park.

“Will, it’s not too late!” read one sign held aloft by an admirer dressed as a bride. Maid of honor Pippa Middleton wore a simple column dress and naturally styled hair, while best man Prince Harry was dressed in formal military attire. The flower girls, in cream dresses with full skirts and flowers in their hair, walked down handin-hand with Pippa. The iconic abbey was airy and calm, the long aisle leading to

the altar lined with maple and hornbeam trees as light streamed in through the high arched windows. The soft green trees framed the couple against the red carpet as they walked down the aisle, having recited their vows without stumbling before Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The royal couple smiled broadly as they were driven to Buckingham Palace in the open-topped State Landau, a carriage built in 1902, escorted by four white horses and followed by scarlet-clad troops on horseback. The palace was holding two parties, one hosted by the queen for 650 guests, and an evening dinner dance for 300 close friends. The queen and her husband have promised to go away for the evening, leaving the younger royals free to party the night away - and Harry to make his best man’s speech away from his octogenarian grandparents’ ears. British singer Ellie Goulding, 24, is reportedly going to perform, and rumors have it that Harry has even planned a breakfast for those with the stamina to dance all night. Plumage of Amazonian variety filled the cavernous abbey as some 1,900 guests filed in, the vast majority of women in hats, some a full two feet (half a meter) across or high. Some looked like dinner plates, and one woman wore a bright red fascinator that resembled a flame licking her cheek. A BBC commentator noted there were some “very odd (fashion) choices” walking through the abbey door. Most men, however, looked elegant and suave in long tails, some highlighted by formal plaid pants and vests. Others wore military uniforms.

The queen, of course, wore a soft yellow hat and coat dress, just like the bookies had predicted. All the details - the wedding dress, her hair, their titles, the romantic kiss on the balcony, the honeymoon - were finally being answered. But the biggest question won’t be e t a resolved for years: Will this royal couple live happily d o f K ing n a h e d ever after? Will their union endure like that of o n t h t h e i r w e d ay. g n i r d g r s t h e b e y d u r i n don, yeste William’s grandparents - Queen Elizabeth II and e c a l p n Ab i l l i a m e s t m i n s t e r , central Lo W e c y n e Pri a t W ster Abb eton, Middl at Westmin e servic hotos p — AP

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge travel to Buckingham Palace in a 1902 State Landau carriage after their wedding at Westminster Abbey, London, yesterday.

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Prince Philip, now in its 64th year - or crumble in a spectacular and mortifying fashion like that of his own parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana?

Recent history augurs badly: The first marriages of three of the queen’s four children ended in divorce. But William and Kate seem to glow with happiness in each other’s company, and unlike Charles and Diana they’ve had eight years to figure out that they want to be together. Still, the fate of their marriage depends on private matters impossible for the public to gauge, since any wedding is fundamentally about two people. Will their lives together, starting with such high hopes, be blessed by good fortune, children, good health, productive work? Much will depend on whether 28-year-old William and 29-year-old Kate can summon the things every couple needs: patience, love, wit and wisdom.

But they face the twin burdens of fame and scrutiny. Money, power, beauty - it can all go wrong if not carefully nurtured. These are the thorny issues upon which the fate of the monarchy rests, as the remarkable queen, now 85, inevitably ages and declines.

Hundreds of street parties were under way as Britons celebrated the heritage that makes them unique - and overseas visitors come to witness traditions they’ve admired from afar. Brenda Hunt-Stevenson, a 56year-old retired teacher from Newfoundland, Canada, said there was only one thing on her mind. “I want to see that kiss on that balcony. That’s going to clinch it for me. I don’t care what Kate wears. She is beautiful anyway.” The celebration was British to the core, from the freshly polished horsedrawn carriages to the sausages and lager

served at street parties.

Some pubs opened early, offering English breakfasts. The festivities reflected Britons’ continuing fascinaBritai tion with the royal n Camb ’ s P r i n c e W family, which ridge illiam wa a fter th despite its foibles e Roya ve from th a n d h i s w i fe eb l Wedd remains a powerful ing ye alcony at B K a t e , D u c h sterda e ucking symbol of unity y. ham P s s o f alace and pride. “It’s very exciting,” Prime Minister David Cameron said. “I went on to the mall last night and met some people sleeping on the streets. There’s a sense of excitement that you can’t really put a word to ... It’s a chance to celebrate.”

A number of famous people were left off the guest list, including President Barack Obama and Britain’s last two prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of the Labor Party, which is not as strong a backer of the monarchy as the governing Conservatives. Some critics call that a snub which could resonate for years among Labor voters. The royals fervently hope that a joyous union for William and Kate will erase the squalid memories of his parents’ embarrassing each other and the nation with confessions of adultery as their marriage tumbled toward divorce. And there is no small irony in the sight of Americans waking up before dawn (on the East Coast) or staying up all night (West Coast) after their fellow countrymen fought so fiercely centuries ago to throw off the yoke of the British monarchy and proclaim a country in which all men are created equal. Brenda Mordic, 61, from Columbus, Georgia, clutched a Union Jack with her friend Annette Adams, 66. “We came for the excitement of everything,” Mordic said. “We watched William grow up. I came for Prince Charles’ wedding to Diana and I came for Princess Diana’s funeral. We love royalty England and London.”

— AP

In this image taken from video (from left) Carole Middleton, Kate Middleton’s mother, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall stand outside Westminster Abbey for the Royal Wedding in London yesterday.

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge stand outside of Westminster Abbey after their Royal Wedding.

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Dubai Brits

party for William and Kate

Britons watch a live broadcast of the royal wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton in the Gulf emirate of Dubai yesterday. — AFP

T

ens of thousands of Britons joined street parties in the United Arab Emirates yesterday to mark the royal wedding in London, despite a decided lack of enthusiasm among other expatriate communities. Hotels in the oil-rich UAE offered an Arabian fantasy to guests willing to fork out $450 to $1,500 (300-1,010 euros) for an overnight stay with a royal high tea thrown in and the wedding broadcast on giant screens. At the Meridien Mina Seyahi in Dubai, entrance to the ‘street party’ was free. By noon, more than 1,000 Britons had made their way there carrying red, white and blue flags and pictures of royal couple Prince William and his bride Kate.

Among the guests were three Kate-wannabes in bridal white veilsóbut wearing short skirts and low-cut blouses more suited to the hot Dubai weather. Traditional British fare of fish and chips and beer were on the menu. ‘This (wedding) is a part of history and we wanted to dress the part,’ said Gemma Petch as her friend Kat Twaites, also in a white top, joined the long queue for drinks. ‘I think it is better to be in Dubai than in London right now,’ Twaites said, soaking up the party atmosphere by the beach while occasionally turning to a giant screen to watch the wedding.

Bikini-clad women and other scantily dressed royal lovers cheered loudly when Kate first

appeared on screen, with some even hugging total strangers. Craig Butt wore a Prince Charles mask and posed for pictures with a Queenmasked Amy Foster who tried to mimic the Queenís trademark hand waving. Two more British expatriates, Mark Baker and Julie Anne, dressed as William and Kate and had many requests from fellow party-goers to have their photographs taken with them.

The British embassy staged its own ‘Street Party’ on the lawns of the consulate in Dubai, with guests asked to pay 100 dirhams ($27) to enter and also to bring their own picnic baskets.

We have lots in store... including a traditional street party and VIP marquee and hope all our guests will enjoy the celebrations with us,’ British Consul Guy Warrington told the Gulf News. Sarah Johnson, a British woman among those partying yesterday, said some Australians and New Zealanders had also joined in the celebrations.

Another party organizer said the political unrest in the Middle East had not affected the party mood in the UAE which remained insulated from regional troubles. Bahrainís crown prince turned down an invitation to the royal wedding because of unrest in his Gulf kingdom. And Britain on Thursday abruptly withdrew the Syrian ambassadorís invitation, saying the Damascus regimeís

crackdown on protesters made it unacceptable for him to attend.’That question of how appropriate it is to celebrate here (in Dubai) has not even come up,’ the party organizer said, asking not to be identified. ‘This is a party place.’ A local FM Radio had dozens of Britons phoning in to discuss party plans, with the anchor repeatedly advising: ‘Donít drink too much.’ There was noticeably less royal wedding enthusiasm among other expatriate communities in Dubai, with very few Asians or Emiratis attending parties.

Dubai taxi driver Irfan from Pakistan was among the few people working in the UAE which takes its Friday weekend very seriously. Asked if he had driven any fares to royal wedding street parties yesterday, Irfan asked: ‘What wedding?

Where?’ He admitted ignorance about Britainís royals, but added that he knew England cricket skipper Andrew Strauss very well. Gulf newspapers have also been lukewarm in their wedding coverage. Not a single Arabic language newspaper published in Dubai front-paged the royal marriage, opting for smaller write-ups and photos of the couple inside. The biggest picture in the Dubai-based Al-Bayan, a government-owned daily, yesterday was of French President Nicholas Sarkozy walking with Bernadette, the wife of former president Jacques Chirac. — AFP

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Celebs, sports figures, royalty flock to wedding

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British soccer player David Beckham (left) and his wife, British fashion designer Victoria Beckham arrive at Westminster Abbey. — AP photos

t’s a Who’s Who of royalty, power and fame: David and Victoria Beckham, Elton John, Prime Minister David Cameron, the king of Norway and the cream of British nobility were among the hundreds of guests inside Westminster Abbey for yesterday’s royal wedding. Olympic swimming legend Ian Thorpe was among the first to arrive. Soccer star Beckham, hair slicked back, looked solemn in the great medieval building, with wife Victoria, a dark dress hiding her baby bump, at his side.

Chelsy Davy, Prince Harry’s on-againoff-again girlfriend, was watching as the prince stood with his brother at the altar. Tabloids have speculated endlessly about the state of her relationship with the younger royal - and her invitation to the abbey was seen as a sign the pair were still close.

Other guests: Actor Rowan Atkinson, a friend of Prince Charles best known for his “Mr Bean” act, and Guy Ritchie, director of “Lock, Stock

British film director Guy Ritchie (center) and his girlfriend Jacqui Ainsley (right) arrive for the wedding service inside Westminster Abbey.

Elton John (right) and his partner David Furnish in Westminster Abbey, London attend the wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton yesterday.

and Two Smoking Barrels” and ex-husband of Madonna. Elton John, who sang a version of “Candle at Princess Diana’s funeral, was not in his usual flamboyant style: He wore a morning coat and (relatively) discreet lavender tie. Socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson arrived decked out in royal blue: dress, hat, and heels, the color offset by the brilliant crimson of the Catholic cardinals invited to the wedding. Cardinal Sean Brady’s attendance was a first for an Irish churchman in his position.

The guests came in silver minibuses, Bentleys, and an antique Rolls Royce. They walked down a huge red carpet thrown out in front of Westminster abbey. Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie - daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson -

Australian Olympian swimmer Ian Thorpe (second left) arrives at Westminster Abbey. wore vertical hats that looked liked sculptures perched on their heads.

Pippa Middleton, Kate’s sister, was the maid of honor. She was decked out in a light-colored, form-fitting gown, leading the pageboys and flowergirls into the abbey. Diplomats and their partners from more than 180 countries trooped in about an hour and a half before the start of the ceremony.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was among the foreign dignitaries filing into the abbey. Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Labor leader Ed Milliband, London

Mayor Boris Johnson, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and former Prime Minister John Major were among the leading UK politicians in the crowd.

A number of famous people were left off the guest list, including President Barack Obama and most other world leaders. Also not invited were Britain’s last two prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, in what is seen by some as a snub to their Labor Party, which traditionally is not as strong a backer of the monarchy as the ruling Conservatives. — AP

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ate Middleton wore a stunning but simple ivory dress created by Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton to marry Prince William yesterday, topped off with a tiara on loan from new grandmother-in-law Queen Elizabeth. Fashionistas across the world had been engulfed in months of fevered speculation over who would get the career-defining job of designing one of the most talked-about outfits of the decade. The dress featured a long train and handmade lace applique over an ivory-colored bodice and skirt, made of silk and satin. Inspired by the Middleton’s new coat of arms, Kate’s earrings included diamond oak leaves and pear-shaped diamond acorns.

“It has been the experience of a lifetime to work with Catherine Middleton to create her wedding dress, and I have enjoyed every moment of it,” Burton said in a statement. “It was such an incredible honor to be asked, and I am so proud of what we and the Alexander McQueen team have created.” Burton said Alexander McQueen’s designs were about marrying contrasts and hoped the combination of traditional fabrics and lacework with a modern structure and design had created a beautiful dress for the future queen.

Designers agreed likening it to bridal gowns worn

by Queen Elizabeth’s mother and Grace Kelly when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco. “The dress is absolutely magical-it looks like it’s been put together by bluebirds,” said Angela Buttolph, editor of fashion magazine Grazia’s website. “It is the perfect Disney princess dress for what has been the ultimate Walt Disney fairytale, from the red-jacketed prince charming to the enchanted forest in the abbey and her looking this radiant maiden.”

Designer Karl Lagerfeld told France 2 Television: “The dress is classic and goes very well in the Westminster decor. “It almost reminds me of (Queen) Elizabeth’s wedding, the royal weddings in the (19)50s.

The proportion of the train is good. The lace is very pretty. I like the veil a lot.” Antonio Marras of Kenzo said McQueen was a brilliant choice. “The choice of the label and the style of the dress was avery clever mix between edgy fashion and tradition-all in a very British

The wedding and engagement rings of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge can be seen.

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by her maid of honor Pippa Middleton leave after wedding service in Westminster Abbey. — AP photos way,” he said.

“You could see references to Grace Kelly or Queen Elizabeth’s dresses, but in a simpler, more modern way.” The identity of the designer and details of the dress were kept a closely guarded secret by St. James’s Palace throughout the build-up to Middleton’s wedding to Britain’s Prince William. A special marquee was erected outside the entrance to Middleton’s London hotel to prevent anyone getting an early glimpse of the dress before she stepped out of her car outside the abbey.

The crowd outside Westminster Abbey were also bowled over by the dress-and the bride. “It was exactly what I was expecting from her-simple and beautiful,” said pensioner Sarah Jones. “She is a beautiful bride.”

Newspapers and websites around the world have run several “scoops” identifying the designer, but none was ever confirmed. Names put forward in articles and blog postings have included Burton, Bruce Oldfield and Sophie Cranston of the Libelula label.

The fashion world has taken a close interest in 29year-old Middleton’s clothes choices in recent months, with industry insiders predicting that she could have a huge influence on high street sales. “The fashion industry is now officially besotted with Kate Middleton and everyone in the office is in tears,” Grazia’s Buttolph said. Alexander McQueen, one of the British fashion

world’s best-loved and flamboyant characters, committed suicide in February last year. Burton became creative director for his London-based designers in May. “It’s a lovely thought, a nice tribute,” Hubert de Givenchy said of the choice of McQueen. Endless comparisons have been made between Middleton and William’s late mother Princess Diana, a style icon by the time of her death in 1997 aged 36. Middleton’s dress differed radically from that of Diana at her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981, a frilly, flouncy cream number designed by Elizabeth Emanuel which reflected the times in which it appeared.

Before yesterday’s wedding, Emanuel told Reuters that Middleton was older and more assured in terms of fashion than the shy 20-year-old Diana, and so was likely to know better what she wanted for the big day.

“With Diana she was very young, when we were introduced to her and fashion was not one of her big interests so she didn’t really have her own sense of style,” Emanuel said. “But Kate Middleton does. She’s worked in fashion. She knows what suits her.” — Reuters

Bosnian woman Selma Kuloglija looks at a replica of Kate Middleton’s engagement dress made of candy wrap paper, set up for auction where the money will go to charity, during a live TV broadcast of the royal wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Cinema City Multiplex in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Kate, Duchess of Cambridge displays her wedding bouquet and her wedding and engagement ring.

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d j l o r in o s W in

royal

wedding party

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he fairytale wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton captured the imagination of the world Friday, with millions sharing in the celebration of the royal nuptials at parties across the globe. An estimated two billion people watched on TV when William and Kate exchanged vows at Westminster Abbey, and even in the home to the Hollywood stars royal glamour shined strong. “We have movie stars, but they’re not as good,” said Paula Haifley, 30, as she arrived at the Cat and Fiddle British pub on Sunset Boulevard.

Decked out with Union Jack flags and cutout Kate and Wills models at the entrance, some 300 royal party-goers packed into the bar for the all-night bash to watch the wedding service that started at 3:00 am in LA. “We came to celebrate. It gave us the opportunity to dress like girls, and celebrate the pomp and circumstance that we don’t necessarily get over here,” said Katie Christiansen, 24. “It’s a Cinderella story to make Hollywood drool,” Andrew Rule from London commented in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph tabloid. “Today the world will see the wedding that proves that fairytales can, and do, happen,” he wrote in the newspaper which reserved its first five pages for the wedding. Hundreds of devoted monarchists gathered for celebratory lunches across the country, joining for a toast, wedding cake and slideshows of the royal family and newlyweds.

And British troops took a rare break from frontline duties in one of Afghanistan’s most hostile provinces to watch the pomp and ceremony from London on a big screen while toasting the marriage with alcohol-free beer and hunks of barbecued steak and chicken. For some at Camp Tombstone in the southern province of Helmand it was a chance to honor the future

Dressed as bride and groom, Linzi Aland (right) and Arwen Whiting dress the part during a royal wedding party at the Ancient Britain (the AB) hotel in Sydney, Australia yesterday. — AP photos

Sandy Weimer (wearing tiara) of Santa Rosa, California, and Cathy Dettman (second from bottom left) of Napa, attend a royal wedding “hat and pajamas” party at the Cameo Cinema in St Helena, Calif yesterday. Over 150 people filled the theater in the middle of the night to watch a live broadcast of the royal wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton.

king and their country, for others it was a great excuse to relax and have some fun. “If you were going to say the politically correct thing, it would be it’s a great thing but if you were to say (the) real thing, it’s a cracking day off,” said Able Seaman Kieran Glynn, a 22-yearold from Edinburgh, Scotland.

The British embassy in Brussels threw an austerity-based royal wedding reception with food and drink laid on by sponsors. Ambassador Jonathan Brenton told some 400 guests the

Jasmine Stone, 7, plays with members of her family, including her brother Ben, 2, in St James’s Park, during the wedding.

British expatriates in Hong Kong watch the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on TV during a party in the former British colony yesterday.

British tradition was to bring something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue to a marriage. Meanwhile in Paris, some well wishers visited the statue by the Pont d’Alma that has become an unofficial memorial to William’s mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales. A solitary pink rose lies at the foot of the “Flame of Freedom”, above the tunnel where Diana’s car crashed in 1997. With it is a handwritten message: “Dear Diana, thinking of you on this special day.” Despite France’s revolutionary past, the wedding was followed avidly here, where three channels screened it live.—AFP

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Pushing cultural boundaries with

designer hijabs

Friends Nora Diab (left) and Marwa Atik (right) adjust a new hijab on friend Marwa Biltagi in the backyard of Atik’s home in Fountain Valley, California.

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n one of the holiest nights of Ramadan, Marwa Atik chose a crowded Southern California mosque to debut her latest creation. It was just after midnight when the 20-year-old walked into the Islamic Center of Irvine, Calif., dressed in a long, flowing burgundy robe, her head wrapped in a charcoal chiffon hijab, trimmed decoratively with gold zippers. After the group prayers, sermon and Quran recitation, a woman approached Atik, gesturing to the scarf. “OK, I want one,” she said excitedly. “How can I get it?”

Atik has taken the scarf worn by Muslim women and turned it into a canvas for her fashion sensibilities, the ideas inspired by designs from Forever 21 and H&M as well as haute couture runways and the pages of Vogue and Elle. Showing it at a mosque was her way of gauging sentiment to

scarves that go beyond the limited fashion realm they have thus far inhabited - floral and geometric prints or lace and beaded embellishment.

“I knew that I wanted to do a zipper scarf, because I knew that zippers were in style,” Atik said later, her head wrapped this day in a sea-foam hijab, echoing the color of her light green eyes. The hijab has long been a palette of sorts for changing styles and designs and shops across the Middle East are replete with colors and shapes that can vary from region to region. Some women from the Persian Gulf wear their hair in a bouffant with the scarf wrapped around it like a crown. Syrians are known for cotton pull-on scarves, the hijab equivalent of a cotton T-shirt. And in Egypt veiled brides visit hijab stylists who create intricate designs and bouquets of color atop

the bride’s head.

But Atik’s experiments with the hijab meant as a symbol of modesty - are created with an eye toward being even more adventuresome and risky. To some, the trend heralds the emergence of Westernized Muslim women, who embrace both their religion and a bit of rebellion.

But to others in the Muslim community, what Atik is doing flies in the face of the headscarf’s purpose. When the scarf is as on-trend as a couture gown, some wonder whether it has lost its sense of the demure.

Eiman Sidky, who teaches religious classes at King Fahd mosque in Culver City, California, is among those who say attempts to beautify the scarf have gone too far. In countries like Egypt, where Sidky spends part of the year, sheikhs complain that women walk down the street adorned

as if they were peacocks. The conflict is part of a greater, ongoing debate among Muslims of what practices are too conservative and what is too liberal.

At a time when Muslims hear stories like that of two women who have sued Abercrombie & Fitch for refusing to hire them because of the hijab and the Orange County, California, woman who filed a federal complaint against Disneyland for not being allowed to wear her headscarf on the job, the message is re-enforced that the hijab is still regarded with suspicion.

For women like Atik, an Orange Coast College student who works part time at Urban Outfitters, fashion-forward hijabs are not only an attempt to fill a void, but to make the scarves less foreign and more friendly to non-Muslims. The religious parameters for how to wear the hijab - that

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Set against a backdrop of palm trees and blue sky, Candita Potts of Torrance, California, models a white poplin balloon sleeve top with a denim “bonanza” skirt with white ruffle insets —- and a hijab. —MCT

the entire body must be covered except for the hands and face - are broad enough to include those who wear black, flowing abayas to those who pair a head scarf with skinny jeans.

“We’ve gotten maybe just a few people saying, ‘Oh, this is defeating the purpose,’” said Tasneem Sabri, Atik’s older sister and business partner. “It really comes down to interpretation.” The criticism means little to Atik, a petite young woman who favors skinny jeans, embellished cardigans and knee-high boots. Atik sees the fashion industry’s experimentation with the hijab as staid and lackluster. She wants to make the scarves even edgier - with fringe, pleats, peacock feathers, animal prints.

“We want to treat the hijab like it’s a piece of clothing, because that’s what it is, it’s not just an accessory,” said Nora Diab, a friend of Atik’s who began the venture with her but bowed out to focus on college. “We can still dress according to what’s ‘in’ while dressing modest.” Scarves from Atik’s recent collections are sold under the label Vela - Latin for veil. In addition to the exaggerated, visible zippers, there are Victorian pleats, military buttons and even a black and white scarf with gold clasps named simply Michael (as in Michael Jackson). A recent design features a plain scarf with a large sewn-on bow, called “”Blair,”“ after the “Gossip Girl” character who inspired it.

There is also a growing bridal scarf collection.

The scarves have a certain unfinished look to them - with frayed edges and visible stitching. Atik, whose parents are from Syria, sews many of them herself though she recently hired a seamstress to help fill orders placed through the Vela web site.

The hijabs, which are not available in stores, range in price from $15 for basic designs to $60 for high fashion ones, pricier than many scarves on the market. When not in class or at work, Atik spends most of her time researching trends, designing new

ht) Atik (rig Marwa s a hijab on adjust Biltagi at Marwa Fountain d frien e in . her homey, California t a d Vall e r s gathe Friend me to model o s Atik’s h line of scarve o t w o e the n n online ph T C M for a — shoot.

scarves or filling orders. She makes frequent trips to Los Angeles for fabric.

Atik said she is inspired by risk-takers such as Alexander McQueen, the late avantgarde designer with an eye for shock value.

“I feel he says it’s really OK to be different,” Atik said while taking a coffee break in LA’s fashion district. Atik, who began wearing the headscarf in eighth grade, was the editor of her high school yearbook but found herself spending more time browsing fashion web sites than looking at photos of student clubs and activities. After school she would spend hours sitting in the aisle of Wal-Mart reading fashion magazines. Last summer when she and Diab decided to design hijabs, she took sewing classes, the youngest among a group of elderly women making patterned quilts.

In her makeshift work space before a photo shoot for her site earlier this year, Atik did last minute hemming and sewing in the kitchen of her Huntington Beach home. The kitchen table was covered with half completed designs. Bags of satin and

chiffon fabric sat on chairs and lacy and beaded scarves spilled out onto the fruit bowls. Atik fingered a beige and pink chiffon scarf.

“I think we’re going to try a couple on you,” she told her friend Marwa Biltagi, who had arrived wearing a loosely wrapped black and gold scarf. “Because either way you can work it.” In the backyard, Biltagi and others posed beside palm trees - heads cocked to the side, backs arched. Someone commented that it looked very French Vogue. “One, two, move, yeah exactly like that... Ok, I’m going to be taking like a lot so just keep switching it up... Yeah, I like how you had your hand up on the wall,” Atik said as she clicked the camera. “I feel like we need music.”

Her mother watched from the kitchen.

“There are people who say that it’s not a hijab. As long as it covers the hair, I noticed these young people, they like these things,” Safa Atik said. “Why I encouraged her is because ... she’s making something that looks nice.” Alaa Ellaboudy, who runs the

blog hijabulous (“A hijabi’s guide to staying fabulous”), is familiar with the scolding that can come from wearing hijab in a non-traditional way. The Rancho Cucamonga resident wears her scarf tied behind her neck and has a penchant for dramatic eye makeup and bright clothes. “Everyone has their opinion, ‘Oh no that’s haram (forbidden) you can’t do that,’” said Ellaboudy. “But for me, it’s always about finding that balance and still looking good.” On her blog, she defines hijabulous as being “exceptionally stylish yet conforming to the Islamic dress code.” When the over-sized September issue of Vogue arrived last month, Atik flipped through the pages for inspiration. A few weeks later, stocking up on fabrics and an ostrich feather in the fashion district, she went from store to store with the same request: “Do you have a leopard print chiffon?” At her third store she saw a leopard print but thought the look and feel of the silk fabric was not quite right. “I wouldn’t want this on my head, if only it was chiffon, I’d be all over it.” — MCT

technology SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

BlackBerry maker slashes short-term sales forecast NEW YORK: Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, on Thursday cut its sales and earnings forecasts for the current quarter, saying it’s shipping fewer and cheaper phones than it had expected. The stock was down $5.09, or 9 percent, to $51.50 in extended trading. It’s the second hit for the stock in just over a month. When reporting earnings for the previous quarter on March 24, the Waterloo, Ontario, company disappointed investors by saying it expects earnings of $1.47 to $1.55 per share for the current quarter, below analyst expectations at the time.

On Thursday, it lowered that range to $1.30 to $1.37 per share. It also said the number of BlackBerrys shipped will be toward the lower end of the previously forecast range of 13.5 million to 14.5 million. It reports its fiscal firstquarter results in June.

It expects revenue to come in below the $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion range it had given on March 24. RIM still expects a comeback in the second half of its fiscal year, thanks to new phones and “cost management.” It’s sticking to its full-year earnings forecast of $7.50 per share. RIM said shipments of the PlayBook, its first tablet, are in line with expectations. The tablet went on sale recently, to mixed reviews.

RIM slashed its outlook a week after rival Apple Inc. reported a blowout quarter, with a record 18.65 million iPhones shipped. —AP

Sony Hints at Compensation for PlayStation Network Hack Sony may offer users some form of compensation for the outage, now in its 8th day, of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity online services, its US unit said late Thursday. The two networks were taken offline by the company after it discovered they had been hacked. Sony subsequently said personal information on some of its 77 million registered account holders had been stolen. It also said credit card numbers could have been stolen, but an ongoing investigation had uncovered no evidence of that so far.

On Thursday, in the latest of a series of postings to its PlayStation Blog, the company said compensation is being considered. “We are currently evaluating ways to show appreciation for your extraordinary patience as we work to get these services back online,” it said. The PlayStation Network is offered at no charge to users, so the compensation, if it comes, is not likely to be monetary. A subset of users do subscribe to the PlayStation Plus service, which offers access to beta versions of games and other perks for an annual fee. The blog posting also said subscribers to Sony Online Entertainment’s MMO (massively multi-player online) games “DC Universe Online” and “Free Realms” would also see something from the company.

“To thank players for their patience, we will be hosting special events across our game portfolio,” the blog said. “We are also working on a ‘make good’ plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms.” The latest blog posting didn’t provide any updates as to the status of the PlayStation Network, the Qriocity service for consumer electronics devices, or an ongoing investigation into the hack. It did say gamer trophies and game data files storied on Sony’s servers will be available once the service is back online. —PCworld

Wireless carriers get consent to use location data WASHINGTON: The nation’s four largest wireless carriers say they obtain customer permission before using a subscriber’s physical location to provide driving directions, family-finder applications and other location-based services, and before sharing a subscriber’s location with any outside mobile apps that provide such services.

But in letters to Congress released Thursday, the wireless companies also say they have no power to require device makers like Apple or independent developers of location-based apps to get similar user consent if these apps don’t rely on the carriers themselves to track a user’s whereabouts.

“While new third-party applications bring many consumer benefits, there are risks too,” Kent Nakamura, vice president for policy and privacy for Sprint, wrote in a letter to Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Ed Markey, D-Mass. “And because mobile devices are now an open platform, consumers can no longer look to their trusted carrier ... to answer all of their questions.”

The letters from the four carriers AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA - were released one day after Apple admitted that its popular iPhone stores data used to help the device locate itself for up to a year.

Faced with an uproar among privacy watchdogs and lawmakers after two researchers revealed iPhone location tracking practices last week, Apple said Wednesday that it will no longer store the data on phones for more than seven days, will encrypt the data and will stop backing up the files to user computers.

Google, too, acknowledged last week that phones running its Android software store some GPS location data for a short time.

Privacy watchdogs warn that location data that gets stored over time can pro-

vide a window into very private details about a person’s life. Databases filled with such information, they fear, could become inviting targets for hackers, stalkers, divorce attorneys and, of course, law enforcement agents.

Representatives from both Apple and Google are expected to testify at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the matter next month. The Senate Commerce Committee is also planning a hearing.

Despite this week’s intense focus on location privacy, the letters from the four big wireless carriers are actually in response to requests for information issued by Barton and Markey in late March.

The lawmakers asked the wireless companies to explain their policies for handling location data after The New York Times reported that a Deutsche Telekom customer had discovered that the German phone company had kept detailed information about his phone’s location over a period of months.

Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile USA, but is seeking to sell the company to AT&T. One theme running through the letters released Thursday was that the wireless carriers all comply with federal rules that prohibit phone companies from using customer data - including location information - for purposes other than providing service, or from sharing it with outside parties, without first obtaining subscriber consent.

But those rules do not encompass device makers such as Apple, software providers like Google or mobile apps.

Although many apps rely on cell tower triangulation provided by wireless carriers to determine a user’s location - and may therefore be indirectly bound by federal rules - many others depend on GPS technology, Wi-Fi hot spot databas-

es and even Internet Protocol addresses to pinpoint a user’s location. Right now, few government privacy rules apply when those technologies are used.

Companies are experimenting with various approaches to help users understand that locations are being tracked.

Popular apps such as the social networking service FourSquare asks users to actively “check in” to the places they visit. Many also notify users that they collect location data - and require users to agree_ before an app can be downloaded. Apple requires iPhone apps to obtain user permission to gather location information Meanwhile, CTIA -The Wireless Association, the wireless industry’s top trade group, has developed a voluntary set of industry guidelines to ensure that location-based services adequately notify consumers about location tracking and obtain consent.

Still, government officials may get involved. The Federal Communications Commission is looking at what rules could - and should - apply. The issue is also on the radar screen at the Federal Trade Commission, which wants to ensure that apps and other mobile services that gather location data do so with the full understanding and permission of users. And Barton hinted Thursday that Congress may weigh in too.

“After thoroughly reviewing the responses from the wireless carriers, I am left with a feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty,” Barton said in a statement. “The companies informed us that customer consent before access of location data is a common practice, but the disconnect is when third-party applications come in to play ... It is time we hold third-party developers accountable, and I am determined to work with other members of Congress to get this done.” —AP

ICANN names computer hacker as security chief

NEW YORK: John Weinstock, Vice President of Marketing, LG Electronics USA, speaks during an intimate screening of Tribeca Flashpoint Academy’s student short films using LG’s next generation 3D technology on Thursday in New York City. —AP

SAN FRANCISCO: Jeff Moss, a prominent computer hacker who founded the annual Black Hat and DefCon security conferences in Las Vegas, has been hired as the chief security officer for the organization that coordinates names of the world’s Web sites.

The organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, plays a vital role in making sure that when you type a site name into a Web browser, your computer knows where to go to find the site you’re trying to reach. ICANN manages the domain name system that underlies that chain of communication.

“I can think of no one with a greater understanding of the security threats facing Internet users and how best to defend against them than Jeff Moss,” Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO and formerly the director of the US National Cybersecurity Center, said in a statement. “He has the in-depth insider’s knowledge that can only come from fighting in the trenches of the ongoing war against cyber threats.”

Moss, who also serves on the US Department of Homeland Security’s advisory council, takes on the new post yesterday at ICANN’s offices in Washington, DC. —AP

technology SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Lawsuit: Trial Version of CAD Software Includes Spyware A trial version of a 3D CAD software package includes “phone-home” functionality that allows the vendor to contact downloaders months later and demand thousands of dollars in licensing fees, according to a classaction lawsuit filed recently in Massachusetts.

Plaintiff Miguel Pimentel, downloaded a trial version of TransMagic’s CAD conversion software in 2010, then deleted it the same day, according to the lawsuit.

About three months later, ITCA, a Curacao firm specializing in intellectual property enforcement, contacted Pimentel and demanded he pay US$10,000 in licensing fees plus recurring maintenance fees or face a $150,000 lawsuit.

ITCA, which lists Microsoft, Siemens and McAfee among its clients, used “various coercive techniques” to attempt to get Pimentel to pay for the software, according to the complaint in the lawsuit, filed March 30 in US District Court in Massachusetts. “ITCA made it clear it knew where [Pimentel] worked and, as long as payment was made, ITCA would not disclose the ‘piracy’ to his employer,” the complaint said.

The tracking software alleged in the case goes beyond reasonable efforts of software vendors to protect themselves, said Scott Kamber, a lawyer representing Pimentel. ITCA efforts were “pretty aggressive,” said Kamber of KamberLaw in New York. “This is certainly a version of DRM [digital rights management] gone too far.”

The alleged phone-home functionality is not unique to TransMagic, said lawyer Robert Scott, with the Scott & Scott law firm of Southlake, Texas.

Software vendors are increasingly turning to similar technology to track unauthorized use of their products, said Scott, who defends people accused of software piracy but is not involved in this case.

This case could set a precedent for the use of these tracking techniques by software vendors, Scott said.

“It really is the first case that I’m aware of where there’s a direct assault on the industry use of phonehome technologies without end-user consent,” he said. “If if turns out it’s illegal to do it ... that’s going to present a very significant problem for the industry and their trade groups.”

Software vendors could avoid potential lawsuits by warning customers in EULAs they will track the users of the software, he said. “The real issue with this case is, does the publisher have to say to the customer, ‘we’re going to do this’?”

TransMagic CEO Todd Reade disputed the allegations that his products have spyware on them.

“TransMagic does not and never has employed any phone home technology or spying software in any products distributed by our company,” he said.

The Colorado software vendor does collect contact information, including an e-mail address and phone number, when a customer downloads a trial version from its website, Reade said. “Our standard practice is to attempt to follow-up with these people within a week or two,” he said. “If we connect with them, we offer to answer any questions about our products, schedule webinars or training, provide technical support and generally determine if there is a match between their needs and our products.”

If the potential customer does not buy the software, they get an e-mail from TransMagic a few months later, and they can then opt out of future communications, Reade said.

“TransMagic is like most software companies,” he added. “We want to earn our business by delivering a high-quality product that solves problems. I don’t think we are very different than other software companies.”

A representative of ITCA declined to be interviewed unless he could see part of the news story before it was published. “There are all these wild speculations and conspiracy theories on the Internet,” he said. — PCworld

Thousands queue for iPad 2 across Asia HONG KONG: The iPad 2 went on sale in countries across Asia and beyond yesterday as Apple’s updated gadget entered an ever more crowded market. Apple’s original iPad defined the tablet computer market and was swiftly followed by offerings from the tech industry’s main players, from Samsung and Dell to BlackBerry maker RIM and Toshiba.

A late arrival to the tablet party was Sony, which only this week announced its own tablets a full year after the original iPad went on sale.

Now Apple is moving into round two of the battle of the tablets with a lighter, thinner, camera-equipped version of their original machine.

First in line in a queue of around 400 rain-soaked people outside an Apple store in Hong Kong was 16-year-old mainland Chinese student Dandy Weng, who travelled to the city from neighboring Guangdong province for a device.

“I have waited for over 12 hours and haven’t slept in 48 hours-I’m very tired but excited,” he told AFP. “I will be the first in China to have the iPad 2! I’m speechless, it’s so exciting.” A queue snaked around the Apple shop in a major shopping centre, with some shoppers loading trolleys with as many as a dozen iPads, priced from HK$3,888 ($500) for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model to HK$6,488 for the 64 GB Wi-Fi and 3G model.

Those trying to buy an iPad 2 online via Apple’s Hong Kong site, however, will have to wait a little longer-all versions of the gadget were already out of stock before midday. At an Apple authorized retail shop in Singapore, only 100 devices were available for sale and most official Apple retailers in Malaysia quickly sold out of the iPad 2.

“Each of our flagship stores had 600 devices each on sale and they ran out just like that,” an official with a major Apple retail chain in Kuala Lumpur said. Trade in “grey market” second generation iPads remained brisk in computer malls in the city such as Low Yat Plaza.

“We can charge more because

HONG KONG: Customers try on the Apple Inc.’s iPad 2 tablet computers at a shop in Hong Kong yesterday. The iPad 2 went on sale in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and eight more countries yesterday. —AP there is a lot of demand and there is still not so much supply in Malaysia,” seller Ang Chee Wei, 34, told AFP, adding that he had sold more than 20 of the devices so far. “I bring in my iPad 2 from the US so I can still make some money until there are more iPads on the market.”

Queues also formed outside retailers in the Philippine capital Manila.

John Quindo, 39, was first in line after standing patiently outside an Apple reseller for three hours. “I’m excited because the Philippines is usually late (with Apple product releases),” he told AFP. In India, over 150 outlets across the country opened their doors to Apple lovers seeking a new gadget, with the firm reporting a “phenomenal” initial response from customers.

Nishant Shah, director of research at the Centre for Internet and Society in the southern city of Bangalore, said he expected demand for the iPad 2 to be “huge”, with Indian consumers increasingly brand-conscious.

Shilpa Malhotra was on the hunt for an iPad in Mumbai, but at an Apple outlet in the upmarket area of Breach Candy she was told that she could

not buy one off the shelf immediately.

“I’m going to check to see if any other stores have got it in stock,” she said, getting into a taxi. The shop had taken orders and pre-payment for nearly 50 of the new iPads since Thursday, meaning dozens more customers wanting to buy the gadget yesterday were placed on a waiting list. Anyone booking yesterday would get their device in 15 days’ time, a store worker said.

In South Korea, 100 invited customers lined up from midnight at the central Seoul branch of KT, a local partner for iPhones and iPads. The iPad 2 was also launched in Japan on Thursday after a month’s delay caused by the devastating quake and tsunami. A Wi-Fi only version of the gadget will be available in China on May 6. It also hit stores yesterday in Israel, Macau, South Africa, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, after being first released in the United States on March 11. The California tech firm sold 15 million iPads last year following the original device’s launch in April, generating $10 billion in revenue. — AFP

Amazon apologizes for server outage, offers credit NEW YORK: Amazon.com Inc. apologized yesterday for a data-center outage that brought down major websites including Foursquare and Reddit and offered Web services customers a 10-day credit.

The company isn’t disclosing how much the credit will cost it. Amazon Web Services accounts for only a few percent of Amazon’s total revenue, but the company has high hopes for the business.

The service rents out computer time by the hour. The outage at the data center near Dulles Airport, outside Washington, was a major stumble for the service. Amazon is still restoring some of the computers brought down in the incident, which began eight days ago.

In a post-mortem report yesterday, Seattle-based

Amazon said human error set off the outage. An automated error-recovery mechanism then went out of control, and many computers became “stuck” in recovery mode.

The service is set up in a way that’s supposed to provide redundancy, by letting computers in a different “availability zone” take over when one fails. Amazon said that customers that were properly set up to run their computing tasks over multiple zones were largely unaffected, but that the error made it difficult to switch zones on the fly. It’s making changes to prevent the error from recurring.

The credit applies to all customers using the zone that went down, whether they were directly affected or not.

Amazon has not revealed how many customers were affected. —AP

TV listings SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

00:45 01:40 02:35 03:30 04:25 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:25 08:15 08:40 09:10 11:00 11:55 12:20 12:50 13:45 14:40 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50

Untamed And Uncut Dogs 101 Austin Stevens Adventures Sharkman Seven Deadly Strikes The Most Extreme Dogs 101 Meerkat Manor Monkey Business The Really Wild Show Natural Born Hunters Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Animal Precinct Wildlife SOS E-Vets: The Interns Last Chance Highway Planet Earth Austin Stevens Adventures Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Shark Attack File 2 Pit Bulls And Parolees Crime Scene Wild The Most Extreme

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 21:30 22:00 22:45 23:15

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 Green Green Grass Live At The Apollo Beautiful People A Thing Called Love

00:35 01:25 02:15 03:00 03:25 03:50 05:05 05:40 06:00 06:25 07:15 07:40 08:10 12:25 12:50 14:20 15:05 15:50 16:20 16:50 19:45 20:30 21:15 23:30

Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Eating With The Enemy Cooked Chuck’s Day Off How Not To Decorate Antiques Roadshow Daily Cooks Challenge Daily Cooks Challenge Eating With The Enemy Glamour Puds Daily Cooks Challenge Antiques Roadshow Glamour Puds Daily Cooks Challenge Holmes On Homes Holmes On Homes Daily Cooks Challenge Daily Cooks Challenge Fantasy Homes In The City Holmes On Homes Holmes On Homes Fantasy Homes In The City Holmes On Homes

00:40 01:35 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:50 08:45 09:40 10:30 10:55 11:25 12:20 13:15 Junior 14:10 15:05 16:00 16:55 17:50

Dirty Jobs Weaponizers Ultimate Survival Man Made Marvels Asia Mythbusters How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs American Chopper Street Customs 2008 Motor City Motors Mythbusters Deconstruction Deconstruction James May’s Man Lab Mythbusters American Chopper: Senior vs Ultimate Weapons Mega Builders Powering The Future X-Machines How It’s Made

20:05 20:55 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:25 23:50

Fashion Police The Soup Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane E! News The Soup Chelsea Lately Kendra

00:40 Winter X Games 14 2010 01:30 World Combat League 02:20 Kick Ass Miracles 02:45 Kick Ass Miracles 03:10 M1 Selection 2010 04:00 LG Action Sports World...

05:40 World Combat League 06:30 iEX 2009 08:00 Saab Salomon Mountain XRace 08:50 Railmasters 09:15 BMX Masters 2010 09:40 Continuum 10:30 Prophecy 11:20 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 12:10 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 13:00 Winter X Games 14 2010 13:50 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 14:40 Dr Danger 16:20 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 17:10 BMX Megatour 18:00 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 18:50 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 19:40 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 20:30 Winter X Games 14 2010 21:20 BMX Megatour 22:10 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 22:35 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 23:00 IFMXF 2010 23:50 Glutton For Punishment

DEATH WARRANT ON OSN ACTION HD 18:15 19:10 20:05 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:45

River Monsters American Loggers Ultimate Survival Ultimate Survival Gold Rush: Alaska River Monsters Get Out Alive

00:30 The Gadget Show 00:55 Nyc: Inside Out 01:45 Ultimate Power Builders 02:35 Bad Universe 03:25 How Stuff’s Made 03:50 Junkyard Wars 04:45 Robotica 05:40 One Step Beyond 06:10 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 07:00 Ten Ways 07:55 Brainiac 08:45 Head Rush 08:48 Sci-Fi Science 09:15 Weird Connections 09:45 Scrapheap Challenge 14:45 The Gadget Show 15:10 The Gadget Show 15:35 Patent Bending 16:00 Head Rush 16:03 Cool Stuff And How It Works 16:30 How Does That Work?

17:00 Powering The Future 17:50 How Stuff Works 18:40 Sci-Fi Science 19:05 Sci-Fi Science 19:30 The Future Of...

20:20 The Gadget Show 20:45 The Gadget Show 21:10 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 22:00 Da Vinci’s Machines 22:50 Catch It Keep It

23:40 Weird Or What?

00:00 00:25 00:50 01:15 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:35 04:25 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:00 10:30 10:55 11:15 11:40 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:12 13:15 13:40 14:00 14:25 14:47 14:50 15:15 15:35

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Replacements Emperors New School Emperors New School Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Fish Hooks Sonny With A Chance Phineas And Ferb Have A Laugh The Princess Diaries Hannah Montana Forever Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Sonny With A Chance Have A Laugh Hannah Montana Forever Fairly Odd Parents Jonas La Replacements Have A Laugh Phineas And Ferb Jonas La Fairly Odd Parents

16:00 Suite Life On Deck 16:25 Hannah Montana Forever 16:45 Wizards Of Waverly Place 17:10 Shake It Up 17:30 Fish Hooks 17:55 Have A Laugh 18:00 Hannah Montana Forever 18:20 Good Luck Charlie 18:45 Sonny With A Chance 19:10 Princess Protection Programme 20:40 Hannah Montana Forever 20:57 Have A Laugh 21:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 21:25 Jonas La 21:50 Good Luck Charlie 22:15 Sonny With A Chance 22:40 Wizards Of Waverly Place 23:05 Jonas 23:30 Hannah Montana 23:55 Kim Possible

00:15 Kendra 00:40 Behind the Scenes 01:30 E!ES 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 50 Cutest Child Stars: All Grown Up 07:45 Behind the Scenes 08:35 E! News 09:25 Extreme Close-Up 10:15 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 11:05 Kourtney and Kim Take New York 17:10 Fashion Police 18:00 E! News 18:50 THS

00:30 Food Network Challenge 01:20 Barefoot Contessa 01:45 Food Network Challenge 02:35 Food Network Caters Your Wedding 03:25 Food Network Caters Your Wedding 04:15 Food Network Challenge 05:05 Barefoot Contessa 05:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 05:50 Paula’s Party 06:35 Barefoot Contessa 07:00 Chopped 07:50 Guy’s Big Bite 08:15 Boy Meets Grill 08:40 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 09:05 Ten Dollar Dinners 09:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 09:55 Barefoot Contessa 10:20 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives 10:45 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 11:10 Unwrapped 11:35 Paula’s Party 12:25 Good Eats - Special 12:50 Paula’s Best Dishes 13:15 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 13:40 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives 14:55 Unwrapped 15:20 Boy Meets Grill 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Paula’s Best Dishes 17:00 Barefoot Contessa 17:25 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 17:50 Ten Dollar Dinners 18:15 Paula’s Party 19:05 Good Eats - Special 19:30 Food Network Challenge 20:20 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives 20:45 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives 21:10 Food Network Challenge 22:00 Chopped 22:50 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 23:40 Good Eats - Special

NAT GEO ADVENTURE 00:00 Bondi Rescue 1 00:30 Bondi Rescue 2 01:00 Lonely Planet- Roads Less Travelled 02:00 Food School 02:30 Food Lovers Guide To The

Planet 03:00 Exploring The Vine 03:30 Pressure Cook 04:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 05:00 Earth Tripping 05:30 Earth Tripping 06:00 Bondi Rescue 1 06:30 Bondi Rescue 2 07:00 Lonely Planet- Roads Less Travelled 08:00 Food School 08:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet 09:00 Exploring The Vine 09:30 Pressure Cook 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 11:30 Exploring The Vine 12:00 Pressure Cook 12:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet 13:00 By Any Means 14:00 Market Values 14:30 Departures 15:30 Market Values 16:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 17:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 17:30 Exploring The Vine 18:00 Pressure Cook 18:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet 19:00 By Any Means 20:00 Market Values 20:30 Departures 21:30 Market Values 22:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 23:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 23:30 Exploring The Vine

00:00 My Life Is A Zoo 01:00 Prehistoric Predators 01:55 Monkey Thieves 02:20 Monkey Thieves 02:50 Cheetah Blood Brothers 03:45 Shark Night 05:35 The Lion Ranger 06:30 Monster Fish 07:25 Monster Jellyfish 08:20 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 09:15 Deep Jungle 10:10 Sumatra’s Last Tiger 11:05 Croc Ganglands 12:00 Monster Fish 13:00 Squid Vs. Whale 14:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 15:00 Triumph Of Life 16:00 Monkey Thieves 16:30 Monkey Thieves 17:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 18:00 Strike Force 19:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 20:00 Triumph Of Life 21:00 Monkey Thieves 21:30 Monkey Thieves 22:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 23:00 Strike Force

01:05 02:45 04:25 06:05 07:35 09:20 11:05 12:40 14:15 15:45 17:10 18:40 20:40 22:00 23:30

Bad Influence Cold Heaven River’s Edge-PG Dark Angel They Call Me Mister Tibbs!-PG Wuthering Heights-PG Back To School The Aviator-PG Nashville Beat-PG Johnny Be Good-PG Sheba, Baby-PG The 70’s-PG A.K.A. Cassius Clay-PG Absolute Strangers-PG Save Me

00:00 Borderland-18 02:00 Death Warrant-PG15 04:00 Lake Placid 3-PG15 06:00 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-PG15 08:00 Inkheart-PG 10:00 The Fan-PG15 12:00 Hardwired-PG15 14:00 Inkheart-PG 16:00 Darkness Falls-PG15 18:00 Hardwired-PG15 20:00 Deadly Impact-18 22:00 The Three Musketeers-PG15

TV listings SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

01:00 03:00 PG15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 PG15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00

Say It In Russian-18 The Sorcerer’s ApprenticeWhip It-PG15 Phoebe In Wonderland-PG The Informant!-PG15 Astro Boy-PG15 The Sorcerer’s ApprenticePreacher’s Kid-PG Car Babes-PG15 It’s Complicated-PG15 Nine-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Family Guy 02:00 Funny Or Die Presents 02:30 Bored To Death 03:00 Friends 03:30 Community 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 8 Simple Rules ...

08:30 Dharma And Greg 09:00 Friends 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 10:00 Yes Dear 10:30 Outsourced 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 8 Simple Rules ...

13:30 How I Met Your Mother 14:00 Yes Dear 14:30 Parks And Recreation 15:00 Outsourced 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 Friends 18:30 8 Simple Rules ...

19:00 My Boys 19:30 Parks And Recreation 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 23:00 Family Guy 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

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 21:00 22:00

Survivor: Redemption Island The Unit Downton Abbey The Office Coronation Street The Ellen Degeneres Show The Unit Persons Unknown The Event Sons Of Anarchy Nip/Tuck

01:00 House Call-R 03:00 The Cottage-18 05:00 Lake Placid 3-PG15 07:00Beyond A Reasonable DoubtPG15 09:00 The Rock-PG15 11:15 Predator-PG15 13:00Robin Hood: Prince Of ThievesPG15 15:15 The Rock-PG15 17:30 X-Men Origins: WolverinePG15 19:15 Courage Under Fire-PG15 21:15 The Three Musketeers-PG15 23:15 Into The Blue 2: The Reef-18

00:00 PG15 02:00 PG15 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 PG15 18:00

A Low Down Dirty Shame-

01:00 Clueless-PG15 03:00 Shorts-PG 04:30 Avatar-PG 07:15 Head Of State-PG15 09:00Everybody Wants To Be ItalianPG15 11:00 Frost/Nixon-PG15 13:00 The Fog Of War-PG15 15:00 The Brothers Bloom-PG15 17:00 Everybody Wants To Be ItalianPG15 19:00 Girl, Positive-PG15 21:00 All Good Things-PG15 23:00 Fragments-18

00:00 Pollyworld-FAM 02:00 Gold Diggers: The Secret Of Bear Mountain-PG15 04:00 Scooby-Doo And The Reluctant Werewolf-FAM 06:00 Casper Haunted ChristmasFAM 08:00 Pollyworld-FAM 10:00 Monsters Inc-FAM 12:00 Scooby-Doo And The Reluctant Werewolf-FAM 14:00 Gold Diggers: The Secret Of Bear Mountain-PG15 16:00 Up-FAM 18:00 G-Force-PG 20:00 Hotel For Dogs-FAM

Everybody Wants To Be ItalianLegally Blondes-PG The Tale Of Despereaux-PG Evolution-PG15 Man Of The House-PG15 Four Christmases-PG15 Who’s Your Caddy?-PG15 A Low Down Dirty ShameThe Elder Son-PG15

00:00 01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 10:00 10:30

The All Sports Show Super 15 European Challenge Cup Super League Live AFL Premiership Total Rugby Live Super 15

12:30 14:30 15:00 17:00 18:00 22:00 22:30

Live Super 15 Total Rugby Live Super 15 Trans World Sport Live Super 15 Futbol Mundial AFL Premiership

01:00 The All Sports Show 02:00 PGA European Tour 05:30 European Tour Weekly 06:00 Live PGA European Tour 10:00 The All Sports Show 11:00 ICC Cricket World 11:30 Futbol Mundial 12:00 Live Snooker World Championship 16:00 ICC Cricket World 16:30 Live Snooker World Championship 20:30 Futbol Mundial 21:00 Live Snooker World Championship

00:00 WWE Bottom Line 01:00 UFC 129 Countdown 02:00 WWE Smackdown 04:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 05:00 UFC Unleashed 06:00 UFC Unleashed 07:00 Live V8 Supercars Championship 09:00 NFL Full Time 09:30 Live NRL Premiership 11:30 Live NRL Premiership 13:30 Futbol Mundial 14:00 Live Scottish Premier League 16:00 Live Super 15 18:00 Live European Challenge Cup 20:15 Live Super League 22:30 UFC All Access 23:00 UFC 129 Countdown

Jerseylicious Fashion Avenue Big Boutique How Do I Look?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Homes With Style Area Clean House Big Boutique Clean House Giuliana And Bill Bridalplasty Bridalplasty Giuliana And Bill Giuliana And Bill Giuliana And Bill Clean House The Dish Presents Fashion Police Clean House Comes Clean Jerseylicious Mel B: It’s A Scary World Top 10

00:30 Play Dirty-PG15 02:30 Live A Little, Love A Little-PG 04:00 Rio Rita-FAM 05:30 These Wilder Years-PG 07:00 The Rack-PG 08:40 The Prize-PG 11:00 It Happened At The World’s Fair-FAM 12:45 They Died With Their Boots On-FAM 15:00 The Golden Voyage Of SinbadFAM 16:45 The Two Mrs. Carrolls-PG 18:20 Knights Of The Round TableFAM 20:20 Welcome To Hard Times-PG 22:00 Tempest-PG15

00:30 Life After People 01:20 UFO Files 02:10 Man Moment Machine 03:00 The Universe 03:55 Beyond The Moon: Failure Not An Option 05:40 Ship Ablaze: The General Slocum Disaster 06:30 Life After People 07:20 UFO Files 08:10 Man Moment Machine 09:00 The Universe 09:55 Beyond The Moon: Failure Not An Option 11:40 Ship Ablaze: The General Slocum Disaster 12:30 Life After People 13:20 UFO Files 14:10 Man Moment Machine 15:00 The Universe 15:55 Beyond The Moon: Failure Not An Option 17:40 Ship Ablaze: The General Slocum Disaster 18:30 Life After People 19:20 UFO Files 20:10 Man Moment Machine 21:00 Deep Sea Detectives 21:55 Deep Wreck Mysteries 22:50 Ancient Discoveries 23:40 Meteors: Fire in the Sky

The Ellen Degeneres Show American Idol Survivor: Redemption Island No Ordinary Family Lie To Me Good Morning America Commander In Chief Downsize Me Karen Sisco The View Lie To Me American Idol Survivor: Redemption Island Karen Sisco Live Good Morning America Commander In Chief The Ellen Degeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Persons Unknown The Event Sons Of Anarchy Rescue Me

Downton Abbey American Idol Royal Pains Survivor: Redemption Island No Ordinary Family Downton Abbey The Ellen Degeneres Show 8 Simple Rules ...

My Boys The Unit Downton Abbey The Ellen Degeneres Show 8 Simple Rules ...

My Boys American Idol

00:00 01:00 01:55 02:25 03:20 04:15 05:10 05:35 06:05 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:50 11:50 12:50 18:25 18:55 19:25 20:20 21:15 21:40 22:10 23:05 23:30

COURAGE UNDER FIRE ON OSN MOVIES ACTION

00:05 Cow And Chicken 00:30 Cramp Twins 00:55 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Adventure Time 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 Ed, Edd N Eddy 07:25 Chop Socky Chooks 07:50 Chowder 08:05 Cartoon Network Dance Club 08:15 Ben 10: Alien Force 08:40 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 09:05 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 09:30 The Secret Saturdays 09:55 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 10:20 George Of The Jungle 10:30 Angelo Rules 10:55 Best Ed 11:20 Eliot Kid 11:45 Skunk Fu! 12:10 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 12:35 Bakugan: New Vestroia 13:00 Ben 10 13:25 Codename: Kids Next Door 13:50 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 14:15 The Life And Times Of Juniper Lee 14:40 George Of The Jungle 15:05 Ed, Edd N Eddy 15:20 Cartoon Network Dance Club 15:35 Chop Socky Chooks 16:00 Robotboy 16:25 Squirrel Boy 16:50 Chowder 17:15 The Secret Saturdays 17:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 18:05 Bakugan: New Vestroia 18:30 Angelo Rules

00:30 Ghost Lab 01:20 A Haunting 02:10 FBI Case Files 03:00 Undercover 03:50 Dr G: Medical Examiner 04:45 Crime Scene Psychics 05:15 Ghost Lab 06:10 Life Or Death: Medical Mysteries 07:00 Forensic Detectives 07:50 On The Run 08:40 Mystery ER 09:30 Real Emergency Calls 09:55 Real Emergency Calls 10:20 Who On Earth Did I Marry?

10:45 I Was Murdered 11:10 FBI Files 12:00 Murder Shift 12:50 The Will 13:40 Mystery ER 14:30 Real Emergency Calls 14:55 Real Emergency Calls 15:20 Who On Earth Did I Marry?

15:45 I Was Murdered 16:10 Forensic Detectives 17:00 On The Run 17:50 FBI Files 18:40 Mystery ER 19:30 Real Emergency Calls 19:55 Real Emergency Calls 20:20 Murder Shift 21:10 The Will 22:00 The Haunted 22:50 Ghost Lab

00:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 01:00 Globe Trekker 02:00 Essential 02:30 Distant Shores 03:00 Four Men and a Lady 03:30 Essential 04:00 Globe Trekker 05:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 06:00 Top Travel 06:30 Rudy Maxa’s World 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Spring 08:30 Rudy Maxa’s World 09:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 10:00 Globe Trekker 11:00 Planet Food 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Spring 13:30 Feast India 15:00 Indian Times 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Journey Into Wine...

19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 21:00 Globe Trekker 22:00 Temples In The Clouds 23:00 Globe Trekker Special

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Announcements 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.

Rhythm Dance Group leaves crowd enchanted

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hythm Dance Group presented a mesmerizing dance performance on a cultural evening on April 21, 2011 at the Auditorium of Higher Institute of Musical Art, Salmiya. The entire audience was enchanted by the beautiful and dreamy performances presented by young Indian children of Rhythm Dance Group. The director of the group Rina Deb paid tribute to the legendary poet Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary by presenting some orthodox and some contemporary forms of dance with her troupe. Deb also presented some beautiful and rhythmic folk dances like Santhal and other from Eastern part of India. Rhythm Dance Group continued to cast its dream spell by unforgettable dances like Kathak and Bihu with a touch of fusion which was presented

by Piyali Gupta and her troupe. The program was undoubtedly unique of its kind. The dance group is really thankful to the Higher Institute of Musical arts for their great support and hospitality.

Aware announcements

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he AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation entitled, “Distinctions between culture and religion,” by By Iman Martin on Tuesday May 3, 2011. Scenario: You have just arrived at the Kuwait Int’l Airport and notice the wide array of costumes all around. A local gentleman wearing his traditional long white thobe and red and white checkered headgear and a group of women wearing the traditional long, black abaya, hijab and some with niqab or face veils. If one were to ask the man why he chose to dress as he did, he’d likely respond “It is my culture and traditional dress that dictates my clothing choice”. Yet, if the same question were addressed to the women, they might respond, “It is our religion which dictates the way we dress.” To better understand local practices of both culture and religion, please join us at AWARE. We welcome your questions on the topic at 7 pm. For more information, call 25335260/80 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw or e-mail: Htaware.hassan@gmail.com

Guided tour WARE Center announces Guided Tour and afternoon tea and sunset photo opportunity on the Balcony of the Dickson House, Friday, May 6, 4:30pm-6:30pm. The Dickson House Cultural Center, as it is now known, once served as the official residence for a series of British Political Agents to Kuwait, with the most famous, Colonel Harold Dickson, who came to Kuwait in 1929 with his wife, Violet and two young children. The house was the scene of momentous occasions in Kuwait’s history and provided accommodation to a multitude of fascinating characters including royalty, statesmen, writers, oil prospectors, rebel leaders and explorers. Reservations required. Contact us on Tel: 2-5335280 - Fax:2-5335230; E-mail : info@aware.com.kw Working Hours: Sunday to Thursday 9am-1 pm and 5 pm - 9 pm.

NAFO to present Soorya’s ‘Sangamam’ National Forum Kuwait (NAFO Kuwait) is all set to bringing a spectacular, well conceptualized, a jewel in crown super cultural show ‘Sangamam’ for the art lovers of Kuwait, according to a press release . Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra will inaugurate the first of its kind super show, scheduled for the evening of Friday, May 13, 2011 (6.00 PM) at the American International School Auditorium, MaidanHawalli.

Voice Kuwait 6th Anniversary Voice Kuwait is celebrating its 6th anniversary “VISWAKALA 2011” on May 20th Friday from 4 pm to 9 pm at Carmel School Khaitan. Voice Kuwait is giving award to its member’s children who got highest mark in last S.S.L.C. either from Kuwait or from Kerala. The students those are eligible should give attested copy of their mark list to Area conveners or sent copy to voicekuwait2004@gmail.com For more information please contact 66950482,94419371.

Thanima to present legendary play

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hanima (The Human and Nostalgic Interaction of Malayalees Abroad) is presenting yet another unique cultural event to the Kuwait cultural spectrum by enacting ballads of the epic Vadakkan Pattukal (Ballads of North Malabar) of medieval Kerala on stage. ‘Oru Vadakkan Veerakatha’, drama scope mega budget full length visual entertainer becomes a reality in the collective effort of Malayalee expatriate community in Kuwait spearheaded by Thanima. The play will be staged at 4:30 pm and 8:30 pm on May 20, at Al-Jeel Al-Jadeed School Auditorium at Hawally.

The drama combines both the legendary spirit of Vadakkan Pattu and the bravery of Kalaripayattu (martial art form of Kerala) and harmonizes with the technical excellence of silver screen. In 18 sets it will be on stage designed by acclaimed Artist Sujathan.

Entry will be restricted through passes.

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

Catholicate College new members Catholicate College Alumni Association, Kuwait Chapter, is enrolling new members. Ex-students of Catholicate College who have not yet become members of the Alumni Association are requested to complete the Membership Forms and submit the completed Forms to the Treasurer, Thomas Mathew (Mobile no. 66025610) to become eligible for participation in Catholicate College Alumni Association’s activities and programmes. Membership Form is available at the Association’s website : www.ccaakwt.com. For more details contact General Secretary (Mobile no. 66232408) or President ( Mobile no.

66864057.

Aware arabic course The AWARE management is glad to inform those interested in learning Arabic that Summer 1 Arabic language courses will begin on April 24 and go on till June 2, 2011. AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed and courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community. We cater to teachers, travelers and those working in the private business sector.

Balakalamela The yearly event “Balakalamela” conducted by Kerala Art Lovers Association (Kala-Kuwait) for the students of all Indian Schools in Kuwait for attaining the Benji Benson EverRolling Trophy has been scheduled for May13th, Friday at Carmel School, Khaithan as informed by the Central Committee of Kala. The items that are included for the competition are Bharthnatyam, Mohiniyattam, Oppana, MargamKali, Folk Dance, Group Dance, Fancy Dress, Mappilapaattu, Monoact, Light Music (Malayalam, Hindi), Group Song (Malayalam, Hindi), Classical Song, Poetry Recitation (English, Hindi, Malayalam), Elocution (Malayalam, English), Essay Writing (English, Malayalam), Story Writing (English, Malayalam), Poetry Writing (English, Malayalam) and Drawing.

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WHAT’S ON

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription 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. nnnnnnn

KNES celebrates Queen’s birthday

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he Early Years Department, the little ones and staff at Kuwait National English School in Hawally, celebrated with songs, a big cake, enthusiasm and joy for the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Embassy encourages all Australians to register their presence in Kuwait through Smartraveller Online (see link below). Australians who are registered are asked to update their details. The information provided will assist us in contacting you in an emergency. www.smartraveller.gov.au Kuwait citizens can apply for and receive visit visas to Australia online at www.immi.gov.au.

This usually takes two working days. All others visa applications are handled by the Australian Visa Application Centre Tel. 22971110.

Witnessing and certifying documents are by appointment only, please contact the Embassy on 2232 2422. The Australian Embassy is open from 8.00am to 4.00pm, Sunday to Thursday. nnnnnnn

Football tournament

‘Kathakali 2011’ today

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he stage is set for the spectacular ‘Kathakali 2011,’ a unique cultural show to be presented by Arpan Kuwait today at 6:00 pm at the Indian Community School (Senior Girls), Salmiya. All the performers of the show ‘Kalyanasougandhikam’, have arrived in Kuwait and the organizers are engaged in last-minute preparations to make the show a memorable one.

Arpan will honor Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra on the occasion who will be chief guest of the event.

‘Kalyanasougandhikam’, an exotic dance drama, will be presented by renowned Kathakali performers from India Kalamandalam E Vasudevan Nair, Kalamandalam Sreekantan, Kalamandalam Sreekumar and Sasikala S Vellodi. A 30-minute demo will also be held by the performers prior to the show for the guests who are not familiar with the art form Kathakali. Arpan is presenting Kathakali, Kerala’s classical theatre, as part of its crosscultural initiative before an august gathering comprising diplomats, Kuwaiti guests, dancers and theatre lovers. For details, contact: 99716105, 97277151, 66872372 or 94063428.

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nder the patronage of the Ambassador of Senegal to Kuwait Abdoul Mbacke, the Kuwait University stadium is set to host the final match of the Scholarship Students Football Tournament between Senegal and Nigeria, which takes place today.

ICAI celebrates 5th anniversary

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he Kuwait Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is celebrating its 5th anniversary at 7 pm today at the Hotel Holiday Inn Downtown. The 5th anniversary celebrations will be felicitated by Ajai Malhotra, Ambassador of India and inaugurated by G Ramaswamy, President of the Institute, in the presence of J N Shah, Vice-President of ICAI and other distinguished guests. Marking the occasion, the Chapter will be honoring members who have completed 25 years in the profession.

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, AlMutawakel 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/IMM5257 E.PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http:// www.cic.gc.ca/ english/pdf/kits/ guides/5256E.PDF.

health & science SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

US proposes advertisers ditch junk food for kids WASHINGTON: The US government pressured food companies to cut back on aggressive advertising of junk food to kids, saying it contributes to a serious health crisis facing young Americans.

The administration issued proposed voluntary principles which would turn children’s food advertising on its head by calling for advertisements to be for foods that “make a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet” and minimize ingredients that could have a negative impact on weight and health.

The Obama administration, with its goal of containing healthcare costs, has emphasized children’s health. First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign has pushed children to exercise and eat better.

The interagency working group that released the principles is made up of the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department

of Agriculture. It put together the proposal at the prompting of Congress.

If implemented, the guidelines would mean a revolution in food advertising to children, which is now dominated by ads for salty chips and sugary cereals, drinks and yogurt.

“The (FTC) commission is aware of the significant impact the proposal would have on the current marketplace. A significant percentage of the products currently marketed to children would not meet the proposed nutrition principles. Some foods would likely require substantial reformulation,” the five FTC commissioners said in a statement.

While obesity rates have largely stopped rising, 10.4 percent of US children aged 2 to 5 are obese, 19.6 percent of 6-11 year olds are obese and 18.1 percent of 12-19 year olds are obese, according to 2007-2008 data from the CDC. Nearly one in three US children are overweight.

Vertex hepatitis C drug gets endorsement SILVER SPRING: Vertex Pharmaceuticals won a US advisory panel’s overwhelming support for a potential blockbuster drug seen transforming hepatitis C treatment by nearly doubling the chances of curing the serious liver disease.

The Food and Drug Administration committee voted 18-0 to recommend approval of telaprevir, one of two new proposed medicines offering higher cure rates and often shorter treatment for a virus that can destroy the liver. The panel vote moves Vertex closer to bringing its first drug to the market and turning its first profit. Some industry analysts project telaprevir sales topping $5 billion a year.

Panelists said the drug’s ability to wipe out the virus in 79 percent of newly treated patients clearly trumped concerns about serious rashes seen in a fraction of patients. The cure rate for the current standard of care is about 40 percent.

“I really think this is a stunning success, so I wholeheartedly endorse approval,” said Dr. Lawrence Friedman, medicine department chair at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. Others also gushed about the drug’s effectiveness and said they were eager to provide the medicine to their patients.

“I’m pinching myself and saying ‘am I looking at numbers like this?’ Because it’s unbelievable,” said Dr. Victoria Cargill, director of minority research at the National Institutes of Health’s Office of AIDS Research. On Wednesday, the advisory committee recommended a similar Merck & Co drug, boceprevir. The FDA usually approves medicines that win advisory panel backing and is due to rule on both drugs in May. Analysts forecast blockbuster sales of more than $1 billion a year for each of the new medicines but expect telaprevir to dominate with its higher cure rate. About 170 million people around the world and 3.2 million in the United States are infected with hepatitis C, a blood-borne disease that can lead to chronic liver problems, liver cancer, cirrhosis and death. Sanford Bernstein analyst Geoffrey Porges said he had never heard such positive comments from an FDA panel about a company’s data.

He predicted telaprevir’s global sales could exceed $5 billion within three years, with at least $2.5 billion to $3 billion in the United States.

“It was virtually a love fest between this panel and the company’s application,” Porges said. Analysts expect telaprevir to propel Vertex to its first quarterly profit in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. —Reuters

Children were defined as being up to age 17, and the principles were to be implemented by 2016.

“On a daily basis, kids across the country are barraged with ads for junk foods and it is long past time that we put some limits on the advertising of these unhealthy foods.

Armed with these guidelines, it is now my hope that companies will voluntarily abide by them,” said Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chair of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, in a statement.

The Association of National Advertisers and Grocery Manufacturers Association put out a study on Thursday showing television advertisements aimed at kids under 12 for junk foods like cookies and soft drinks had already been virtually eliminated.

Meanwhile ads for fruit and vegetable juices had doubled, the groups found.

“The advertising community has actively responded to the obesity challenge in the

United States and this study once again confirms that food and beverage advertising directed to children under 12 has trended significantly downwards, said Bob Liodice, ANA president.

Margo Wootan, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, agreed that there had been improved food marketing to childrenin particular the reduction in ads for sodas.

She also lauded candy company Mars for stopping television advertising aimed at children and some cereal companies for cutting their sugar content.

“They should get credit for making some progress in the past five or six years.

But the problem is it’s not nearly enough,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing with the high concern of childhood obesity that the overwhelming majority of ads to kids are for fast food.” Wootan said her hope was companies would either reformulate foods to make them healthier or end ads to children. — Reuters

China bans smoking in public venues Tobacco kills more than a million people each year in China BEIJING: China launches a ban on smoking in indoor public spaces tomorrow but the effort is widely viewed as vague and half-hearted and few expect it to have much of an impact in the tobacco-addicted country.

The nationwide prohibition is designed to bring China-which has more than 300 million smokers, roughly equal to the entire population of the United States-more in line with health regulations in developed countries.

But it faces a tough test.

Tobacco use is deeply ingrained in China, where offering a cigarette is a common greeting ritual. Lighting up in elevators or even hospital waiting rooms is routine and second-hand smoke is considered a serious health threat.

“I don’t think this ban on smoking will have a big effect,” Yang Lei, a 32year-old Beijinger who has been smoking for four years, told AFP. “In China, when you are in a restaurant, people smoke even if there is a ‘No Smoking’ sign. When you eat with friends, few people ask others if it’s OK to smoke and restaurant managers rarely stop clients who smoke.”

Many health experts have warned that China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco, faces a ticking health timebomb unless it curbs smoking, and the ban marks a significant move for the Chinese government. “The Chinese ministry of health has taken an important step forward in their tobacco control efforts,” said Kelly Henning, head of public health initiatives, including tobacco control, at the US-based Bloomberg Foundation, which finances anti-smoking efforts world-

BEIJING: In a picture taken yesterday, a man smokes a cigarette on a street in Beijing. China launches a ban on smoking in indoor public spaces tomorrow but the effort is widely viewed as vague and half-hearted and few expect it to have much of an impact in the tobacco-addicted country. — AFP wide. But the nation’s commitment to the ban remains unclear.

Similar temporary bans were introduced during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and last year’s World Expo in Shanghai, but were rarely respected or enforced.

The specifics of the new nationwide ban are sketchy and vague.

The ministry of health guidelines say smoking will be banned in “indoor public spaces” and that cigarette vending machines cannot be located in public places. However, state press reports have said offices and factories will not be covered by the ban, and it remains unclear whether it will be adequately enforced in bars, restaurants, and public transport.

Tobacco kills more than a million people each year in China, where some brands can be purchased for as little as three yuan (46 US cents).

Chinese and foreign experts say the number of smoking deaths could triple by 2030. Experts point to the state monopoly on the tobacco industry, which accounts for nearly a tenth of national tax revenue, as one of the biggest obstacles to anti-smoking efforts.

Beijing dragged its feet in adopting the ban-its takes effect four months after the expiration of a deadline set by the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which China signed five years ago. So far, there has been no major nationwide public awareness campaign to promote the ban.

Enforcement issues and penalties also are not clearly spelled out. The guidelines say “operators of businesses in public places” must put up “no smoking” notices and take the initiative to stop smokers from lighting up. — AFP

Caring your beauty

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information SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines

Arrival Flights on Saturday 30/4/2011 Flt Route

Time

PIA THY ETH PIA UAE ETD DHX FDB GFA QTR JZR JZR JZR KAC BAW KAC FCX KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY ETD GFA IRC JZR JZR MHK JZR IRM KAC MSR KNE UAL RJA MSR FDB KAC JZR SVA KAC KNE JZR QTR IRC KAC SYR ETD UAE GFA CLX KAC SVA JZR JZR ABY KAC JZR ALK

215 772 620 239 853 305 370 67 211 138 529 503 555 412 157 416 201 206 382 53 302 352 284 362 344 855 132 125 301 213 6964 165 121 711 213 5066 672 610 703 982 640 621 57 786 357 500 552 745 257 134 6791 118 341 303 857 215 792 178 510 777 239 127 550 177 227

0:25 1:15 1:45 2:15 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:35 5:15 6:10 6:15 6:30 6:35 7:00 7:15 7:20 7:55 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:30 9:35 11:05 11:10 11:15 11:15 12:40 12:50 13:15 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:00 14:10 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:10 15:15 16:00 16:15 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35 17:40 17:50 18:00 18:00

KARACHI ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA SIALKOT DUBAI ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA ASSIUT LUXOR ALEXANDRIA MANILA / BANGKOK LONDON JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR BAHRAIN ISLAMABAD DELHI DUBAI MUMBAI COCHIN DHAKA COLOMBO CHENNAI DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH ABU DHABI BAHRAIN TEHRAN DUBAI BAHRAIN BAGHDAD / NAJAF DEIREZZOR MASHAD DUBAI CAIRO MEDINAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN ASSIUT DUBAI JEDDAH MASHAD JEDDAH DAMASCUS JEDDAH BEIRUT DOHA MASHAD NEW YORK DAMASCUS ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN LUXEMBOURG GENEVA / FRANKFURT RIYADH JEDDAH AMMAN SHARJAH SOHAG / SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI COLOMBO / DUBAI

KAC KAC KAC IRA KAC KAC SIA JAI KAC AIC VOS FDB OMA JZR MEA KNE KAC MLR MSR DHX KLM UAE GFA JZR QTR KAC SVA UAL JZR MSR JZR MSR DLH AXB BBC

104 502 542 607 774 674 458 572 562 975 93 61 647 179 402 789 788 1405 618 372 445 859 217 203 136 614 2634 981 135 606 185 612 636 393 45

LONDON BEIRUT CAIRO MASHAD RIYADH DUBAI SINGAPORE / ABU DHABI MUMBAI AMMAN CHENNAI / GOA KANDAHAR / DUBAI DUBAI MUSCAT DUBAI BEIRUT JEDDAH JEDDAH COLOMBO / DUBAI ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN DAMASCUS DOHA BAHRAIN / DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN BAHRAIN LUXOR DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE / COCHIN DHAKA / BAHRAIN

Airlines DLH AIC KLM PIA THY ETH PIA UAE FDB DHX ETD QTR JZR GFA KAC JZR JZR BAW FDB KAC KAC JZR KAC UAE ABY KAC QTR ETD GFA KAC

Departure Flights on Saturday 30/4/2011 Flt Route 637 FRANKFURT 976 GOA / CHENNAI 447 AMSTERDAM 216 KARACHI 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 240 SIALKOT / ISLAMABAD 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 785 JEDDAH 356 MASHAD 120 BAHRAIN 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 671 DUBAI 551 DAMASCUS 256 BEIRUT 101 LONDON / NEW YORK 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 549 SOHAG / SHARM EL SHEIKH 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 165 ROME / PARIS

18:35 18:45 18:50 19:05 19:25 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:50 19:55 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:10 20:15 20:20 20:25 20:50 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:30 21:35 21:40 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:15 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:15 23:45

Time 0:40 0:50 0:55 1:25 2:15 2:30 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 5:00 6:55 7:10 8:15 8:20 8:20 8:25 8:40 9:00 9:10 9:10 9:30 9:40 9:50 9:55 10:00 10:15 10:20 11:45

KAC JZR IRC JZR MHK KAC JZR KNE IRM MSR RJA FDB MSR UAL KAC KAC KAC KNE SVA JZR JZR KAC QTR KAC IRC VOS ETD SYR KAC UAE GFA ABY JZR JZR SVA CLX ALK JZR KAC IRA JAI FDB KAC KAC OMA KNE MEA SIA MLR MSR DHX KLM KAC JZR UAE GFA KAC FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR MSR SVA JZR KAC UAL MSR

541 776 6808 238 712 501 176 702 5065 611 641 58 622 982 561 787 673 746 505 178 202 773 135 613 6792 82 304 342 543 858 216 128 184 266 511 792 228 134 283 604 571 62 331 351 648 790 403 457 1405 619 373 445 677 206 860 218 381 102 137 301 205 554 607 9534 222 411 981 613

CAIRO JEDDAH SHIRAZ AMMAN NAJAF / BAGHDAD BEIRUT DUBAI RIYADH MASHAD CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI ASSIUT BAHRAIN AMMAN JEDDAH DUBAI JEDDAH JEDDAH DUBAI DAMASCUS RIYADH DOHA DOHA MASHAD BAGHDAD ABU DHABI DAMASCUS CAIRO DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI BEIRUT RIYADH HONG KONG DUBAI / COLOMBO BAHRAIN DHAKA ISFAHAN MUMBAI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM COCHIN MUSCAT JEDDAH BEIRUT ABU DHABI / SINGAPORE COLOMBO ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN / AMSTERDAM DUBAI / MUSCAT DAMASCUS DUBAI BAHRAIN DELHI BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD ALEXANDRIA LUXOR JEDDAH ALEPPO BANGKOK / MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

12:00 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:30 13:00 13:40 14:10 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 14:45 15:05 15:10 15:30 16:00 16:00 16:05 16:05 16:15 16:55 17:00 17:00 17:35 17:40 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:45 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:05 20:35 20:40 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:50 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:10 23:15 23:15 23:25 23:40 23:40 23:50

CLASSIFIEDS

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Science Matters

ACCOMMODATION

Sea + fresh water = power In places where a freshwater river enters the sea, it may be possible to generate electric power in a simple, nonpolluting way.

Battery’s power cycle

1

Battery is slightly charged, pulls ions from electrodes into water

Chlorine ions

+– Positive electrode

Salt water

2

Fresh water is replaced with sea water and its ion

Salt water Sodium ions

–+ +– –+

Negative electrode

Fresh water

Fresh water

+– Salt water

3

– – –

Source: Yi Cui of Stanford University

100 megawatts of power (enough for 100,000 households) Graphic: Helen Lee McComas

Toyota Corolla white color, 2008 model, excellent condition, very low mileage, well maintained wanted price KD 3050. Contact: 60099305.

(C 3293) 26-4-2011

SITUATION VACANT Indian male B.Com, 25 years Gulf experience (Kuwait & UAE) in management, procurement, sales, seeks senior position, experience in oil field materials, hard wares, power and hand tools, timber, steel, building materials etc. Contact: 66889375.

(C 3302) 28-4-2011 Housemaid urgently needed. Please call 65881297, 66088398.

27-4-2011

Its potential for generating power Flow of 50 cubic meters (13,000 gal.) of fresh water per second

2005 model Mitsubishi Nativa white color, running 96,000 km excellent condition, CD, remote, alloy wheel, single owner, accident free new 4 tires, price KD 2400.

Contact: 60797291. (C 3303) 30-4-2011 Toyota Corolla, model 2009, color sky blue, good condition. Tel: 60951195.

(C 3298) 28-4-2011

Stored energy flows from battery for use as electric power; ions return to electrodes

++ +

Sharing accommodation in Salmiya C-A/C flat, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, for family or bachelor with Indian couple. Contact: 99467432. (C 3300) 28-4-2011

I, Najmuddin Mohammed Husain, holder of Indian Passport No: H1115666 issued in Kuwait wish to change my name to Mohammed Hussain, surname - Pakawala. (C 3294) 26-4-2011

MISCELLANEOUS

Fresh water

4

Sharing accommodation available with Indian decent bachelor single bedroom flat. 1+1 basic, very good location in Salmiya, Amman street, Indian Community school-3, adjacent building.

Contact: 99813483. (C 3299)

I, Mario Angelo De Souza, holder of Indian Passport F9269433 issued in Kuwait wish to change my name to Mario Agnelo De Souza.

(C 3301) 28-4-2011

FOR SALE

Satellite image of mouth of the Amazon River

Sea water is replaced with river water

A Hindu bachelor wants one bachelor/couple to share a complete 2 bedroom furnished flat near Holy sweet, Abbassiya, minimum rent KD 100. Tel: 66913938. (C 3302) 30-4-2011

holder of Indian Passport No. E-6703568 issued Hyderabad, A.P., intending to change my name as Shaik Younus instead of my old name Mohammed Younus.

(C 3300)

CHANGE OF NAME

© 2011 MCT

I, Shaik Younus, S/o Shaik Ahmed, resident of H.No. 171-34/2, Darga Barhanashah, Santoshna-gar, Hyderabad,

Required 2003 - 2004 model Honda Accord, full option or regular, 4 cylinder, in excellent condition.

Tel: 60005317, 99976051.

30-4-2011

MATRIMONIAL Tamil CSI Nadar parents invite marriage proposals for daughter (27 years, 162cm, working in MOH Kuwait), well settled in Kuwait, preferably from same caste.

Contact: veneetha2008@gmail / nesamvinitha@yahoo.com 28-4-2011 Syrian Orthodox Keralite parents invite marriage proposals for their daughter (27 years, 164cms, currently working in Kuwait) from well educated & professionally qualified boys. More details: avcheriankwt@gmail.com (C 3296) Sunni Muslim parents from Hederabad (India) seeks alliance for their daughter very fair 20 years, B.A. Boy should be well settled in Kuwait and well educated.

Only Hederabadi boy contact by email: shaikh_750@yahoo.com & shehnaaz_780@yahoo.com (C 3295) Hindu Siva Vellala parents, invite marriage proposals for their daughter (23 years, 164cms, currently completed MCA) from well educated & professionally qualified boys.

More details john.miller@nbtckuwait.com

(C 3297) 27-4-2011

To Yester

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

C R O S S W O R D

3 0 3

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

ACROSS 1. A bachelor's degree in naval science.

4. Any of various plants of the genus Salvia.

10. The seventh and last day of the week.

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

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

15. Electronic equipment that provides visual images of varying electrical quantities.

16. An ancient Hebrew unit of dry measure equal to about a bushel.

18. (Scottish) Bluish-black or gray-blue.

19. The month following July and preceding September.

20. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

22. (folklore) A corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living.

24. Any of various strong liquors distilled from the fermented sap of toddy palms or from fermented molasses.

26. The site of an archeological exploration.

27. A short introductory essay preceding the text of a book.

30. Any plant of the genus Erica.

34. A written agreement between two states or sovereigns.

35. An enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals are kept.

37. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

38. Provided with artificial light.

40. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice.

41. An informal word (abstracted from words with this ending) for some unidentified branch of knowledge.

43. (of spatial position) In or brought into line with or into proper relative position.

47. A metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables.

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

49. Praise, glorify, or honor.

56. Muslim name for God. 58. Electrical conduction through a gas in an applied electric field.

59. Intentionally so written (used after a printed word or phrase).

60. Someone who leaves one country to settle in another.

62. The month following February and preceding April.

63. Brief episode in which the brain gets insufficient blood supply.

64. A song of praise (to God or to a saint or to a nation).

65. A Kwa language spoken by the Yoruba people in southwestern Nigeria.

DOWN 1. (pathology) An elevation of the skin filled with serous fluid.

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

3. A district in southwestern Manhattan noted for its shops and restaurants and galleries and artist's lofts.

4. The world's largest desert (3,500,000 square miles) in North Africa.

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

6. An easy return of a tennis ball in a high arc.

7. (Norse mythology) One of the Aesir and avenger of Balder.

8. A self-funded retirement plan that allows you to contribute a limited yearly sum toward your retirement.

9. Medium-sized penguins occurring in large colonies on the Adelie coast of Antarctica.

10. A fraudulent business scheme.

11. Wild sheep of northern Africa.

12. A one-piece cloak worn by men in ancient Rome.

17. At or near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane.

21. An indehiscent fruit derived from a single ovary having one or many seeds within a fleshy wall or pericarp.

23. A city in northern India.

25. Large brownish-green New Zealand parrot.

28. A barrier consisting of a horizontal bar and supports.

29. (prefix) Outside or outer.

31. A theocratic republic in the Middle East in western Asia.

32. (of a young animal) Abandoned by its mother and raised by hand.

33. In bed.

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

39. Type genus of the Cyatheaceae.

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

42. A river that rises in western New Mexico and flows westward through southern Arizona to become a tributary of the Colorado River.

44. City in northeast Pakistan.

45. In the same place (used when citing a reference).

46. United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters.

50. Being two more than forty.

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

52. Dutch postimpressionist painter noted for his use of color (18531890).

53. A Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism.

54. A republic in the Middle East in western Asia.

55. A very light brown.

57. Meeting adequate standards for a purpose.

61. A hard brittle gray polyvalent metallic element that resembles iron but is not magnetic.

Yesterday始s Solution

SPORTS

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Westwood shrugs off rankings battle ICHEON: England’s Lee Westwood yesterday shrugged off a three-way battle for golf’s top ranking that could end his second stint as world number one after just one week. Westwood needs to finish at least fifth at the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea to hold off current number two Martin Kaymer of Germany, but his fellow Englishman Luke Donald could also leapfrog them both from third.

Westwood, 38, carded a four-under-par 68 to lie tied 11th after round two, while Donald is two shots off the openinground lead at the US PGA Zurich Classic in New Orleans. But Westwood, who deposed Tiger Woods as number one last year and returned to the top spot by winning last week’s Indonesian Masters, was unfazed. “Got to finish top five and Luke might overtake me? Oh my God, I might not eat my tea,” he said. According to the Official World Golf Rankings, if Donald finishes in the top two at the US PGA Zurich Classic in New Orleans, his ranking points will take him past his countryman Westwood and Kaymer.

For Westwood, a top-three finish would be enough to hold off Donald if he comes second in New Orleans. But if Donald wins, only victory at the Ballantine’s would keep Westwood on top. A poor finish from Westwood could see Kaymer overtake him even though the German is not playing, as Westwood’s average ranking points score-which determines his position in the table-would fall. Since Tiger Woods’ epic 281-week reign as number one came to an end last year as his form slumped in the wake of a lurid sex scandal, the golf world has been gripped by the fierce battle for the rankings crown.

Westwood held the title for 17 weeks but was overtaken in February by Kaymer, the reigning US PGA Champion, before reclaiming top spot with his three-shot win in Indonesia.

Victory at the US PGA Heritage tournament last week would still have taken Donald past Westwood but he missed his chance when American Brandt Snedeker beat him on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff. Donald would be the third Englishman to be ranked world number one after Westwood and Nick Faldo, and the second after Westwood to reach the top without winning a Major.— AFP

NEW ORLEANS: Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (center) is fouled by New Orleans Hornets forward Carl Landry (left) while driving to the basket during the second half of Game 6 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in New Orleans. — AP

Lakers squash Hornets Mavericks, Lakers, Hawks move into next round NEW ORLEANS: Kobe Bryant scored 22 of his 24 points in the first three quarters, then let his Los Angeles teammates take over in a 98-80 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday that wrapped up the NBA first-round series for the Lakers in six games.

Andrew Bynum added 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Pau Gasol chipped in 16 points for the two-time defending champions, who led by as many as 21 in the fourth quarter. Chris Paul, who helped the Hornets split the first four games with two sensational performances, had just seven points before hitting a 3pointer with 4:02 to go and finished with 10 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Lamar Odom had 14 points for the Lakers, who outrebounded New Orleans 43-30, including 14 offensive rebounds. Bynum had eight offensive rebounds, helping the Lakers finish with a 21-4 advantage in second-chance points. The Lakers will face Dallas in the second round. Game 1 is Monday at Staples Center.

Mavericks 103, Trail Blazers 96 In Portland, Dirk Nowitzki had 33 points and 11 rebounds to help Dallas resist a furious Portland comeback to take the firstround playoff series in six games. Jason Terry finished with 22 points as the Mavericks snapped the home-court advantage that each team had held during the playoffs and the regular season.

The Blazers led by as many as 12 points early after Gerald Wallace went on a tear with 13 first-quarter points. But Wallace left the game for much of the second quarter with a sore back and

Portland surrendered the lead. Wallace finished with 32 points and 12 rebounds, while LaMarcus Aldridge added 24 points and 10 rebounds. Wallace’s fast-break dunk narrowed it to 86-85 with 5:24 to go, but Jason Kidd answered with a 3-pointer and Terry added a step-back jumper to put the Mavericks up 91-85 with 4:04 left. The Mavericks had been eliminated in the first round in three of the last four seasons.

Hawks 84, Magic 81 In Atlanta, Joe Johnson scored 23 points and came up with a huge offensive rebound to lead Atlanta over Orlando in the series-clinching Game 6. The Hawks advanced to the second round for the third straight year, this time against top-seeded Chicago. Orlando, which routed Atlanta a year ago in the most lopsided four-game sweep in NBA history, had its earliest playoff ouster since 2007. With Atlanta clinging to a one-point lead and the clock running down, Marvin Williams missed a potential clinching 3-pointer. But Johnson swatted the rebound to Jamal Crawford, who was fouled and made both free throws with 8.2 seconds left. He finished with 19 points. The Magic had two chances to force overtime. JJ Redick missed an open 3, then Jason Richardson had a desperation shot from the corner blocked.

Dwight Howard led the Magic with 25 points and 15 rebounds.

Crawford hit consecutive 3s that gave Atlanta its biggest lead, 7159, with just over 9 minutes left. The Magic answered with an 8-0 spurt. — AP

Rumford hits 63 to lead Ballantine’s at halfway

SEOUL: Lee Westwood of England putts on the first hole during Ballantine’s Championship at Blackstone Golf Club in Icheon, east of Seoul yesterday. — AP

SEOUL: Australian Brett Rumford, looking to go one better than his second place last year, shot a flawless nine-under-par 63 to take a three-shot lead midway through the $2.8 million Ballantine’s Championship yesterday.

The 33-year-old bagged four birdies on his outward nine and added five on the way home for a 10-under total of 134 after two rounds to top the leaderboard from Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and Dane Soren Kjeldsen, who shared second on sevenunder.

World number one Lee Westwood just

missed an eight-foot putt for an eagle at his final hole and had to be satisfied with a 68 and a share of 11th, six shots off the pace. “I struck a little bit of magic out there today and it’s great to have these shots up your sleeve going into the weekend,” Rumford, who is seeking his fourth European Tour title at the co-sanctioned event, told reporters.

“I’m in a position now to be thinking (about a win), for sure,” he added. “At the beginning of the week, maybe not so. I haven’t come into this week with great form but this is a fickle game and it changes from

week to week.” Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez finished his round with two successive birdies for a 67, while Dane Soren Kjeldsen picked up five shots on his back nine to card a 66. Ireland’s overnight leader Damien McGrane bogeyed two of his last four holes to slump to a par 72 and a tie for fourth on six-under with Britons Rhys Davies and James Morrison. World number 12 Dustin Johnson was a shot further back tied for seventh with three others after struggling with his putting on the firm greens at the Blackstone Golf Course. —Reuters

SPORTS SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Hunt is on for Afghanistan cricket stars PESHAWAR: Afghanistan coach Rashid Latif hopes to unearth new cricket stars among poor refugee communities during matches being played in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, he said yesterday.

Although Pakistan no longer hosts international cricket because of poor security, wartorn Afghanistan’s cricketers are crossing the border to play in volatile Peshawar because their main grounds are being renovated. The area is home to thousands of Afghans who have fled decades of war and conflict in their poverty-stricken homeland, with many living in mud-brick refugee camps.

“Because of renovation work... we are playing a tournament of three-day matches in Peshawar followed by a Twenty20 and then a one-day tournament, and I hope

Barrois faces Garrigues in Estoril final ESTORIL: Kristina Barrois flew the flag for Germany as the 29year-old reached the second final of her career, defeating Swede Johanna Larsson 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 at the ATP-WTA Estoril Open yesterday. Barrois will aim to win her first title today against Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues, who beat Monica Niculescu of Romania, 6-1, 6-3. Barrois, a quarter-finalist last week in Stuttgart, said that her recent experiences in playing big matches and Top players is boosting her confidence.

“I played some good matches last week in Stuttgart, they gave me the belief that I can face Top 5 players. I’ve been close against them but have not yet won. But I’m still working on it.” The German ranked 71st broke her Swedish opponent six times in a contest lasting one hour, 49 minutes.

Barrois beat Medina Garrigues in their only previous meeting, on clay at Strasbourg in 2009 when the Spaniard retired after losing the first set.

“I didn’t have any special tactics in this win,” said Barrois, losing finalist a year ago in Strasbourg to Maria Sharapova.

“I just stayed concentrated on all the points and tried to play steady. “She’s a good clay player and I had to fight for every point.”

Men’s quarter-finals got underway at the Estadio Nacionale, with Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay booking the first of the semi-final spots as he defeated Brazilian sixth seed Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-2. Top seed Robin Soderling was facing Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in a later match. — AFP

these events will help us find more players,” Latif told AFP. The former Pakistan wicketkeeper took over as Afghan coach last year and instantly helped them win the four-day Inter-Continental Cup, before guiding them to a shock win over Pakistan in the Asian Games Twenty20 semi-finals. Afghanistan lost to Bangladesh in the final in Guangzhou, China.

Under Latif, Afghanistan shot up to International Cricket Council division one in 2009, enabling them to get one-day status, and then they qualified for the World Twenty20 held in the West Indies last year.

Most of the Afghan team learnt the game as refugees in Pakistani camps after Soviet troops invaded their country in 1979. Latif, 42, said the three-day tournament is named after Ahmed Shah Abdali, a Muslim ruler

regarded as the father of modern Afghanistan.

“We have included three national players in each of the six teams named after provinces of Afghanistan and have also included the Afghan under-19 team so that they can prepare for the qualifying round of the Junior World Cup,” said Latif, who played 37 Tests and 166 one-day matches for Pakistan. Afghanistan’s under-19 team won an Asian qualifying event in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year and stands a good chance of qualifying for the Junior World Cup in Australia next year.

Latif said three-day matches will help the senior team, which is to defend its InterContinental title in July. “The facilities provided in Peshawar are world-class so playing here will give our players a chance to

improve and this is a great help from Pakistan,” said Ahmed Shah Taqseem, umpires’ manager.

Taqseem, who is also on the Afghanistan Cricket Board’s technical committee, said the country is determined to continue its improvement.”We realize that in order to improve at an international level we need to strengthen our domestic set-up and we are endeavoring to do that,” said Taqseem, who also aims to represent his country as an international umpire. “We have cricket in 28 of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan and out of these... we have brought five teams and an under-19 team here,” said Taqseem. “We have a will to succeed in cricket and with help from Pakistan, the Asian cricket body and the ICC we feel the future is bright,” he added. — AFP

Pakistan secure ODI series win Misbah guides Pakistan to series-clinching victory BRIDGETOWN: Pakistan took an unassailable 3-0 lead in their five match one-day international against West Indies after winning y three wickets at the Kensington Oval on Thursday. A rain delay reduced the match to 45 overs per team and West Indies, batting first, once again failed to build on a decent start, ending up with just 171 all out from 43.4 overs. Pakistan were in trouble early in their reply when they slumped to 123 as Ravi Rampaul produced a superb opening spell, but a calming 62 not out from Misbah-ul-Haq saw the tourists home with almost five overs to spare.

It was a familar story with the bat for West Indies with Lendl Simmons picking up his second half-century of the series but getting out to a return catch by Saeed Ajmal right after reaching the landmark. Left-hander Darren Bravo also showed promise with a patient 47 from 77 balls but yet again the Carribbean team’s middle order folded.

Brother Dwayne Bravo got out to a poor shot, failing to deal with a rising ball, and skipper Darren Sammy’s disappointing form continued as he was caught by Shehzad attempting a poor slog off Riaz. Riaz and Ajmal finished with three wickets apiece after another good Pakistani performance with the ball.

West Indies needed early wickets to have any realistic chance and they got exactly that from Rampaul who picked up Mohammad Hafeez (5) and Ahmed Shehzad and Asad Shafiq for ducks with a spell of lively pace and bounce. But Umar Akmal (30) steadied the ship before a fifth wicket partnership of 78 from Hammas Azam (36) and Misbah pushed Pakistan towards their target. There was time though for a twist in the tale as West Indies’ promising leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo picked up three wickets to apply some late pressure with Pakistan at 148 for seven. Misbah, widely criticized for his slow batting display in the World Cup defeat to India, showed his value as a calm and intelli-

gent middle order presence as, together with Riaz, he saw them safely reach their target.

Riaz finished off the proceedings with two big sixes but it was his senior partner who rightly won the plaudits.

“There was a bit more bounce and pace in there than we were used to. I knew I had to bat through to the end,” said Misbah, while skipper Shahid Afridi hinted that there could be some squad rotation for the final two games of the series. Sammy acknowledged that once more West Indies simply didn’t set a strong enough target. “As a batting unit, myself included we have to take responsibility in the way that Rampaul and Bishoo did for us with the ball.

“We just didn’t get enough runs. We’ve had good starts but we just haven’t capitalized on them, we need to be able to rotate the strike in those middle twenty overs,” he said. — Reuters

BRIDGETOWN: Pakistan’s Umar Akmal bats during the third one-day international cricket match against the West Indies in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Pakistan defeated the West Indies by three wickets. — AP

Scoreboard Scoreboard in the third one-day international between West Indies and Pakistan in Barbados yesterday.

West Indies innings L. Simmons c & b Saeed Ajmal 51 D. Smith lbw b Mohammad Hafeez 0 D.M.Bravo lbw b Mohammad Hafeez 47 M. Samuels b Junaid Khan 18 K. Edwards run out 18 D.J.Bravo c Ahmed Shehzad b Wahab Riaz 11 D. Sammy c Ahmed Shehzad b Wahab Riaz 3 A. Russell st M’ Salman b Saeed Ajmal 3 K. Roach c Misbah-ul-Haq b Wahab Riaz 0 R. Rampaul not out 9 D. Bishoo c Wahab Riaz b Saeed Ajmal 0 Extras (b 1 lb 6 w 3 nb 1) 11 Total (all out; 43.4 overs) 171 Fall of wickets: 1-6 2-92 3-118 4-131 5-150 6-158 7158 8-161 9-162 10-171 Bowling: Junaid Khan 7-0-31-1, Mohammad Hafeez 9-0-31-2, Shahid Afridi 9-2-25-0 (1w), Wahab Riaz 81-38-3 (1nb, 2w), Saeed Ajmal 8.4-0-29-3, Hammad Azam 2-0-10-0

Pakistan innings Mohammad Hafeez c Bishoo b Rampaul 5 Ahmed Shehzad c Simmons b Rampaul 0 Asad Shafiq c Sammy b Rampaul 0 Misbah-ul-Haq not out 62 Umar Akmal c Simmons b Rampaul 30 Hammad Azam lbw b Bishoo 36 Shahid Afridi c Smith b Bishoo 11 Mohammad Salman b Bishoo 3 Wahab Riaz not out 17 Extras (b 2, w 10, nb 1) 13 Total (for seven wickets; 40.1 overs) 177 Did not bat: Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal Fall of wickets: 1-9 2-9 3-12 4-49 5-127 6-143 7-148 Bowling: K. Roach 9-0-36-0 (2w), R. Rampaul 9-0-324, A. Russell 4-0-23-0 (1nb, 1w), D. Bishoo 9-0-42-3, D.J. Bravo 7.1-0-31-0 (3w), D. Sammy 2-0-11-0 Pakistan won by three wickets Pakistan lead the five-match series 3-0.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Kuwait ready to host HH the Amir’s Tournament

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: Kuwait’s local shooting sport season will come to its climax with the holding of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah’s Annual Shooting Tournament. The event, which is held under the patronage of His Highness the Amir, will be held from Thursday May 5 - May 7, 2011. His Highness the Amir’s patronage comes as part of his support to the shooting community and his pride in caring for the sport’s heritage as it was practiced by Kuwait’s forefathers.

President of Kuwait and Asian Shooting Sport Federations and ISSF Vice President, Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Sabah lauded the patronage and support from His Highness the Amir ever since the club started at the Equestrian and Hunting Club.

He said that without His Highness the Amir’s support it would not be possible for the Kuwait shooting sport to excel and Kuwaiti shooters would not have been able to make their international accomplishments. He said His Highness the Amir’s sup-

port has contributed to Kuwait being recognized as the highest ranking administrative post on the international, Asian and Arab levels, as Kuwait is

Vice President of the ISSF, member of its administrative assembly, president of the Asian Federation and the Arab Federation Secretariat.

Sheikh Salman said he was happy for His Highness the Amir’s keenness to have the club organize a major tournament named after him and thanked the political leadership for supporting the sport of shooting in Kuwait.

He said that His Highness the Amir always urges shooters to represent their country in the most honorable way at various international events. Kuwait’s shooters were able to win three gold and three silver medals during the 16th Asian games. He noted that Kuwait also won three gold, three silver and five bronze medals in Jordan during the Arab Pistol and Rifle Tournament.

Sheikh Salman said Kuwait’s shooters will always work hard and do their best to fulfill the wishes of His Highness the Amir, the Government of Kuwait and its people.

Registration for His Highness the Amir Tournament will conclude Thursday May 5.

Kuwait hosts Hunting and Shooting Expo

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad (right) pictured with some other dignitaries during the event. (Right) Sheikh Salman (second right) welcoming the guests at the shooting complex.

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: Caretaking Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and State Minister for Development and Housing Affairs, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah visited the Hunting and Shooting Exhibition being held for the first time in the state of Kuwait. Participating in the event was 40 local and foreign establishments.

Sheikh Ahmad was received by the President of Kuwait and Asian Shooting Sport Federations and ISSF Vice President, Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Sabah and the President of the Arab Shooting Federation and Member of the ISSF Administrative Council, Duaij AlOtaibi as well as KSSF board members. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad visited the booths of Kuwait Shooting Sport Club (KSSC) and the National Guard, which contributes to the development of the club through the instructions of the Vice Chairman of the National Guard Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad. Sheikh Ahmad AlFahad expressed his satisfaction with the organization of the event and how well it was attended.

Sheikh Salman, who patronized the event, hosted a group of guests and exhibitors at the KSSC yesterday, including the President of the Slovenian shooting Federation, Vice President

of the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation as well as Advisor at the Bahraini Royal Courts Sheikh Ali bin Abdallah Al Khalifa. The guests toured the Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic

Duaij Al-otaibi seen during the sporting event.

Shooting Complex before participating in the Sporting Shooting Round, which was enjoyed by all. During his first visit to Kuwait, Vice President of the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation Rasim Rzayew said that Kuwait is a wonderful country with outstanding hospitality. He added that he has known Sheikh Salman for two years and has been eager to see Kuwait’s shooting facilities first hand. He complimented the facilities and equipment available in Kuwait and said that it is of a very high standard, especially the clay targets, which are supported by state of the art machinery and electronics.

While speaking on the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation’s recent activities, he said that the country will be hosting a grand prix for European and Asian federations. He added that Azerbaijan has placed a bid to host the European Championships in 2014 and are working hard on winning the bid. He said the Azerbaijan federation is working closely with the Asian Confederation because it is right in the middle of the Silk Road between Europe and Asia and that Azerbaijan was the exit to Europe.

SPORTS SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Kenya look to coach for another ‘miracle’ JOHANNESBURG: Kenya hope young coach Ezekiel Akwana can create a second football ‘miracle’ within a month when they confront Eritrea in an All-Africa Games qualifier this weekend. Eritrea pulled off a shock 4-1 first leg victory at home in a second round qualifier, leaving their opponents needing to score at least three goals at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi to survive. The result led to coach Bob Oguyi being fired for taking 16-year-old academy footballers to Asmara when he could have fielded players six years older in the under-23 competition.

Akwana was in charge of Sofapaka when they trounced Ismailia 4-0 to become the first Kenyan club to defeat Egyptian opponents in the 47-year history of Pan-African championships. The dreadlocked coach

All-Africa Games qualifier believes he can defy the odds again after insisting the Eritrea fixture goes ahead when officials of the cash-strapped national football federation wanted to withdraw.

“I am 100 percent sure we will overturn the deficit and progress to the next round because I have a very good side. Eritrea are in for a rough time,” vowed the Kenya coach to local media. Malawi are in a similar situation to Kenya after Bongani ‘Drogba’ Ndulula poached four second-half goals for South Africa, but caretaker coach Kinnah Phiri refuses to surrender ahead of the Blantyre second leg. ‘Anything is possible in football. It is just a matter of determination and putting up a gallant fight,’ the stand-in

for unavailable Alex Masanjala told the Daily Times.

Uganda bring a 2-1 advantage over Tanzania to Dar es Salaam and are likely to retain goalkeeper Benjamin Ochan despite his poor positioning gifting the visitors a potentially crucial away goal. Tanzania stunned former gold medalists Cameroon last month in a qualifier for the 2012 Olympic Games-another under-23 competitionóand are slight favorites to secure a final round showdown with Kenya or Eritrea. Nigeria are even better placed having held Liberia 1-1 in a Monrovia game overshadowed by complaints from visiting coach Austin Eguavoen about their treat-

ment. He claimed his squad was left at the airport for three hours before being taken in transport lacking ventilation to a hotel that did not have power and served meals at irregular times. Leicester City midfielder Danny Uchechi, who had his smartphone stolen from the dressingroom, fumed: ‘I cannot believe that after all the hardship we were put through, they rob us.

Zimbabwe and Botswana are level at 2-2 ahead of a Harare clash, Senegal try in Dakar to overturn a 2-1 loss in Guinea Bissau and DR Congo should advance given they have a 2-1 lead over Gabon and a game in Kinshasa to come. The final round of qualifiers is scheduled for June and July after which seven countries qualify to join hosts Mozambique at the September 3-18 tournament. — AFP

German League Preview

Dortmund should fear Nothing: Weidenfeller

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s Fluminense’s goalkeeper Berna fights for the ball with Paraguay’s Libertad’s Nicolas Pavlovich (right) during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, April 28, 2011. — AP

Fluminense beat Libertad Holders Internacional held 1-1 away by Penarol BUENOS AIRES: Brazilian champions Fluminense scored two late goals to beat Libertad 3-1 while holders Internacional were held 1-1 by Penarol in the first leg of their Libertadores Cup last 16 ties on Thursday. After kickoff at the Engenhao in Rio de Janeiro had been delayed for an hour due to a floodlighting failure, Fluminense took a fourth-minute lead through striker Rafael Moura. A corner from the left was flicked on at the near post by midfielder Edinho and Moura headed home at the far post with goalkeeper Tobias Vargas clawing the ball out in vain.

Paraguayans Libertad equalised just past the hour when Ricardo Berna came out poorly to a long, high ball into the box and midfielder Rodolfo Gamarra headed over the stranded goalkeeper into the net.

Fluminense hit back with two brilliant goals in less than three minutes, midfielder Marquinhos with a low shot from outside the box in the 72nd and Argentine play-

maker Dario Conca curling a free kick into the bottom corner. Internacional’s away goal at the Centenario in Montevideo gives the Brazilian team the upper hand against Penarol, who won the last of their five South American titles in 1987. Winger Matias Corujo put the Uruguayan side ahead eight minutes before halftime when he curled a left-footed shot inside goalkeeper Renan’s right-hand post from Argentine forward Alejandro Martinuccio’s cross.

Midway through the second half, Brazil striker Leandro Damiao ran onto substitute Oscar’s forward pass and edged between two defenders to hit a rising shot from 20 meters that dipped over goalkeeper Sebastian Sosa and in under the bar.

Penarol were lucky not to have Carlos Valdez sent off early in the match for bringing down Leandro Damiao in an Inter breakaway in which the defender looked like the last man. — Reuters

BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller insists his side have nothing to fear at home to Nuremberg today with the Bundesliga title race set to go down to the wire.

Despite last Sunday’s shock 1-0 defeat at bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach, Dortmund still enjoy a five-point lead at the top of the German league. If they beat Nuremberg at home and secondplaced Leverkusen lose at relegationthreatened Cologne today, Dortmund will win the title and Weidenfeller insists his side hold their destiny in their hands. “Why should we be afraid? We have two home games, nobody can deprive us of the title,” insisted Dortmund’s Weidenfeller with three games left before the season finishes on May 14.

Despite having a 12-point lead at the start of March, Borussia have seen their lead cut right back to just five points and the title race could now go to the final day. After the Nuremberg game, Borussia face Bremen away and then Eintracht Frankfurt in Dortmund on the final day, while, after this weekend, Leverkusen host Hamburg on May 7 and then are at Freiburg on May 14. His side suffered only their fourth defeat of the season at ‘Gladbach and Weidenfeller says Dortmund were punished for their lack of patience in front of goal.

“We may have been too impatient or wanted to score goals too much,” he said, with Dortmund expected to be without injured striker Lucas Barrios and Germany midfielder Kevin Grosskreutz this weekend. But Leverkusen know they will have to take their chances should Dortmund falter. “We are ready to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves,” says Leverkusen’s Rudi

Voeller. Cologne are having a tough time as Volker Finke took over as as interim coach on Wednesday after Frank Schaefer was sacked as coach, the third change this season for the struggling Bundesliga club.

Schaefer is the 12th Bundesliga manager fired this season, an all-time record for the German top flight. In 2006-07 a total of 10 managers either left or were dismissed. Bayern Munich face Champions League semi-finalists Schalke 04 today’s night with the pressure mounting to finish in the top three and secure a place in European football’s top competition. The Bavarian giants are currently fourth, a point behind third which would put Bayern into the qualifiers for next season’s Champions League. Fourth would leave them contesting the Europa League and a host of their stars have already said that is not something which appeals to them.

Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has already told the Royal Blues he will leave at the end of the season and is in world-class form as he showed in his side’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United on Tuesday.

Bayern are strongly rumored to be ready to offer 20 million euros for Neuer at the end of the season, while the 25-year-old has a contract in Gelsenkirchen until 2012, so Schalke risk losing him on a free transfer unless they sell him.

At the other end of the table, relegation-threatened VfL Wolfsburg are at Werder Bremen on Friday night and need a win to escape the bottom three. Likewise, St Pauli and Borussia Moenchengladbach are five points from safety and need wins at Kaiserslautern and Hanover respectively to have any chance of survival with only three games left. — AFP

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

FFF investigates racial claims amid controversy PARIS: The French football federation (FFF) will hold an investigation into claims the ruling body planned racial quotas in youth academies to limit the number of players of black or Arab origin, its president said yesterday. Fernand Duchaussoy told a news conference that the internal investigation would check claims from French website Mediapart (www.mediapart.fr) that some FFF officials wanted the quotas.

Duchaussoy denied that “instructions, orders” were given by the ruling body. “But then, in an informal discussion... I cannot be everywhere.

There will be an investigation”, he added. “What

happened in a meeting, behind a door or in the corridors... I cannot vouch for everyone working at the federation. But I am confident (that there was no wrongdoing),” he added. National Technical Director Francois Blaquart said that the FFF’s concern was on young players with dual nationality eventually dropping France for their country of origin.

“Do we accept this situation? Is it our role to groom players for other countries?” Blaquart, who was targeted by Mediapart’s allegations, told the same news conference. France coach Laurent Blanc denied the Mediapart allegations yesterday.

Blanc, who won the 1998 World Cup with a team dubbed ‘Black-Blanc-Beur’ (Blacks, Whites and Arabs) by French media, has often raised the problem of dual nationality players mentioned by Blaquart. He denied, however, being in favor of quotas in youth academies. “No such project has been revealed to me. It’s a lie,” Blanc told a separate news conference in Bordeaux yesterday.

“You cannot have quotas in football. It does not exist. Football is made of diversity.”

Opposition environmentalist party Les Verts said racism has been trivialized in France.

“These events show that racism has been trivi-

French League Preview

alised on all levels of our society, from the Elysee (home to the French president’s office) to the FFF,” Les Verts said in a statement. France has been facing a re-emergence of far-right ideas, with Front National possible presidential candidate Marine Le Pen soaring in recent opinion polls. The French presidential election will be held next year amid heated debates on immigration and Islam recently fuelled by Interior Minister Claude Gueant. “To me, it’s a collapse, a crumbling of the post-Holocaust moral barrier,” French leading sociologist Philippe Bataille said yesterday. — Reuters

SPL Preview

Celtic ‘hitting top form’

MARSEILLE: Olympique Marseille’s forwards Andre Ayew (center) and Jordan Ayew (left) celebrate with teammate Nigerian defender Taye Taiwo (right) in this file photo after scoring a goal during the French L1 football match Marseille versus Nice. — AP

Marseille sight another title PARIS: Rudi Garcia was in defiant mood as Marseille went top of the table for the first time in five months Wednesday, but the Lille handler knows there is little room for error if they are to stun the French champions to take the title. “It was always going to be likely they went top, but what counts now is how we react,” Garcia said after Marseille claimed a 4-2 win against Nice to push Lille into second by one point. “Ultimately, we have to win all our matches. But there are six games left and we will have the chance to be leaders again.”

Marseille’s timely win moved them top of the table for the first time since November 27, but coach Didier Deschamps has his feet firmly planted on the ground. He says they are taking it one match at a time, starting with their hosting of Auxerre tomorrow. “It was a hard-fought win, but I’ll savour it all the same,” said Deschamps. “It’s good to be on top again, better that than being behind. But our advantage might be shaken up on Sunday by Auxerre. “The important thing is to be there after the final match of the season.” Lille’s seemingly vice-like grip on the lead has loosened in recent weeks as the run-in to the title gathers momentum. They have failed to win

their last three games and had they not escaped with a point from their 11 draw against Lorient on Sunday, Garcia’s side might be in even bigger trouble.

Marseille’s victory only underlines a pressing need: for Garcia’s unlikely champions-in-waiting to get back to winning ways when they host alreadyrelegated Arles-Avignon today. “The important thing for us is to get a win under our belts, starting with ArlesAvignon today,” added Garcia, who could have to do without Moussa Sow after the league’s top scorer was diagnosed with tendinitis. “After that we have to make sure we keep on winning if we are to have a chance of finishing on the podium.” With six matches remaining and 10 points separating Marseille from fifth-placed Rennes, it seems it’s all to play for. In reality, it’s now more of a three-horse race for the league title.

Any slip-ups on Lille’s part, and Garcia’s side could find themselves battling Lyon for the runner-up spotthe second and last direct qualification spot for next season’s Champions League. Lyon boosted their chances of snatching back the title they won seven years in succession (2002-2008) with a 3-2 win over Montpellier on

Wednesday, with out-of-favour France midfielder Yoann Gourcuff coming off the bench to score a late winner.

Claude Puel’s men head to 13th placed Toulouse on Sunday five points behind Marseille, four behind Lille and with a three-point cushion over Paris Saint Germain. Some eyebrows were raised when Puel named his starting line-up for Wednesday’s match, with late substitute Gourcuff taking the field to jeers and whistles.

Gourcuff has struggled for form as he has not played regularly this season, but despite his setbacks he has faith in Lyon’s title-winning credentials. Talking to L’Equipe daily, the midfielder said: “Marseille are top of the table while the quality of their game is regularly under fire, Lille have had a great season, whatever happens, but haven’t won any of their last three games. “We have an important match tomorrow against Toulouse, and I hope we’ll keep the momentum going.” Along with Arles-Avignon, who have won only one of their 32 league games so far, Caen and Lens are the other relegation-threatened teams. Caen travel to 14th placed Nice while Lens enjoy home advantage against Lorient, who sit in seventh place. — AFP

GLASGOW: Kris Commons says Celtic have the firepower to shoot their way to this season’s Scottish Premier League title. After scoring eight in their previous two matches the Hoops were held to a stalemate by rivals Rangers in last weekend’s Old Firm derby. However they forced Gers keeper Allan McGregor to make a series of saves as they earned the point that leaves them odds on favorites to win the championship. Celtic, who trail Rangers by one point but with a game in hand, know the destiny of the title is in their own hands. And Commons says his teammates are hitting top form as they target the five wins, starting with tomorrow’s match against Dundee United, that will see them bring the league trophy back to Parkhead for the first time in three years.

“With a handful of games left, for us to be hitting peak form at this stage of the season is ideal,” the Scotland international, who has netted nine times in 16 games since his arrival from Derby in January, said. “I think every opponent will be fearing us because we are in such good form. “This is the business end of the season. We have a cup and SPL title to win. “We know what we have to do to have some silverware at the end of the season - and that’s why I came to this club. “It’s in our hands, and that’s the most important thing.” While the attackers are taking their chances at one end of the field the case for the defense makes good reading as well with five clean sheets in a row.

This has helped the Hoops to create an eight-goal advantage over Rangers in terms of goal difference, which could prove vital in such a tight title race. The Hoops will be without Joe Ledley, who was ruled out for the rest of the season after limping out of the Old Firm match with a thigh injury. They will face an in-form Dundee United side who has won seven out of their past nine SPL matches that has seen them close to within seven points of Hearts in third. Rangers could help heap the pressure on their rivals by moving four points clear with a victory away to Motherwell 24 hours before Celtic take to the pitch tomorrow. Manager Walter Smith, who will hand over to assistant Ally McCoist in the summer, has targeted wins in their final four matches to make life as difficult as possible for their title rivals.

“What I would say is that if we manage to do that it would be a terrific finish to the season, regardless of how the championship finishes up,” the Gers gaffer said. “Of course we obviously hope that if we can win each match then that pressure will result in Celtic doing something that would be of benefit to us,” Smith said. Rangers hope to have midfielders Lee McCulloch and Jamie Ness back for the run-in, but neither is likely to start against Scottish Cup finalists Motherwell as they bid to build up their match fitness. The Gers are without Vladimir Weiss, Kyle Bartley and Kirk Broadfoot for the season through injury. Elsewhere, on Monday Hamilton need to win away at St Mirren if they are to have any chance of catching their rivals, who are nine points above them, in the bid to avoid relegation. — AFP

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Drogba and Torres to spur Chelsea’s charge LONDON: Carlo Ancelotti is ready to revive his plans to pair Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres in a bid to maintain Chelsea’s bid to push the title race into the final day. The Blues manager had abandoned his efforts to link £50 million record signing Torres with Drogba after Chelsea were eliminated from the Champions league

by Manchester United. But after Torres finally broke his 732-minute goal-drought for his new club after appearing as a substitute against West Ham United last weekend, he is contemplating restoring the Spaniard to his starting line-up for today’s battle with Tottenham.

“My philosophy and opinion is when you have very good players you have to try to put them together,” said the manager. “If players have skill and ability they are able to play together. “Maybe they have to sacrifice something of their ability and skills but they can play together and if they can do that better for the team to reach better result.

“We tried this week to play them together ... will not be a surprise if they start together today.” Chelsea must beat Spurs if they are to increase the pressure on leaders Manchester United who sit six points clear with four games remaining.

Ancelotti’s side travel to Old Trafford on May 8th and the manager knows that if Chelsea win the next three games, they will go into the final day at most three points off the pace. “We want to keep the Premier League open until the last minute and have the possibility to do this,” he said.

“Obviously we have to beat Manchester United and Tottenham but this is our aim.

Maybe Manchester United will win the title but we want to fight to the last minute.”

Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, knows Manchester City’s four-point advantage will be hard to erase between now and the end of the season in the battle for fourth place and the Champions League slot that goes with it.

Tottenham still have to go to Eastlands, where they were victorious this time last season when the two sides were locked in a similar tussle. But Redknapp knows that his side’s 2-2 draw at home to West Bromwich Albion last weekend, coupled with City’s 1-0 win at Blackburn Rovers on Monday has swung the pendulum in favor of Roberto Mancini’s side. “It’s going to be difficult but we’re still in there and it’s still all to play for,” Redknapp said. “We just have to keep going and finish as high as we can. If we finish in the top four again it would be fantastic. If not, we try again next season.

“Saturday was a blow, but everyone has them. There are no easy games. I knew West Brom would be difficult and so it proved.

They are a good team in good form and we couldn’t quite get over the finishing line.

“But we pick ourselves up, we’ve a big game at Chelsea next and we’ll get ready for that.

It has been a great season, we’ve had an unbelievable run in the Champions League, and the football we’ve played has been right out of the top drawer. And it’s not over yet.”

Sandro, Tottenham’s Brazilian midfielder, was hoping to get the better of compatriots David Luiz and Ramires. “Chelsea are a good team with lots of quality players,” he said. “I have friends there but when the match is on, we’ll forget about that and give everything to win. I hope it’s a great match and we win.” — AFP

LONDON: West Ham’s Welsh defender Daniel Gabbidon (left) vies with Chelsea’s Ivorian striker Didier Drogba during the English Premier League football match in this file photo. — AFP

Matches on TV (Local Timings)

English Premier League Blackburn v Bolton Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5

17:00

Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5

Italian League

Sunderland v Fulham Abu Dhabi Sports HD 6

17:00

AC Cesena v Inter Aljazeera Sport +1

19:00

West Brom v Aston Villa Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3

17:00

Napoli v Genoa Aljazeera Sport +1

21:45

Wigan v Everton Abu Dhabi Sports HD 4

17:00

Real Madrid v Real Zaragoza Aljazeera Sport +2

19:00

Blackpool v Stoke City Abu Dhabi Sports HD 7

17:00

Real Sociedad v Barcelona Aljazeera Sport +2

21:00

Chelsea v Tottenham Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3

19:30

Deportivo v Atletico de Madrid 23:00 Aljazeera Sport +2

Spanish League

Rovers aim to halt slide in the Lancashire derby BLACKBURN: Blackburn Rovers’ under pressure manager Steve Kean is looking to capitalize on a jaded Bolton Wanderers side ahead of the ‘must-win’ Lancashire derby. Rovers are in freefall and have been sucked into a relegation battle after a miserable ten-game winless run. In January they were even eyeing a European place, but after dropping like a stone they are looking nervously over their shoulders in the Premier League run-in. Kean, who has come under fire since replacing Sam Allardyce in the Ewood Park hot-seat in December, insists his side can lay all fears to rest by winning today.

And he believes Bolton’s heavy workload can work in their favor as they prepare to play their fourth game, which included an FA Cup semi-final defeat, in less than a fortnight. “I saw Bolton against Fulham (a 3-0 defeat on Wednesday) and this will be hard for them as it will be their third game in six days,” Kean said. “That is something that we will focus on and we will try and dominate possession and get the ball and get the tempo high. “Then hopefully we can finish strong because this is their third game in quick succession.

“You just don’t know how many points you will need because there are so many twists and turns. “But we need to take full advantage that Bolton are coming off the back off a three game turnaround. “We want to be mathematically safe before the last two games and that is what we will be striving to do. “It is a serious situation because when you look at the table that tells us we are in a position where we need to start getting points.” Blackburn are boosted by the return of Junior Hoilett from injury, and also welcome back Roque Santa Cruz and Steven N’Zonzi from the side that lost to Manchester City last time out. But it was the latest game where Rovers have fired blanks and they have now scored just once from their last four games. Captain Chris Samba admits it’s a situation that needs to be rectified. “If we don’t score goals, we won’t win. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

Bolton, who are still eyeing a European place despite the midweek defeat at Craven Cottage, have more than one incentive for a strong end to the season. As a mark of Bolton’s progress, the Lancashire club could be set for a £9.75million windfall in prize money if they can remain in their lofty eighth spot in the Premier League by next month. Clubs will earn around £750,000 for each place they finish higher up the table, with the prize money ensuring an increase of more than £4million after ending the previous campaign down in 14th.

Owen Coyle will be asking his board if he can use the money to strengthen his squad as he looks to continue the progress the club has made since he took over 16 months ago. “The chairman (Phil Gartside) knows I’ll be asking the question,” Coyle said. “If it’s available then great and we will spend it as wisely as we can. If not then I’ve shown before that we can go and be creative.” —AFP

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sports SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011

Football comes home in disaster-hit Japan SENDAI: Football returned yesterday to the Japanese prefecture hardest-hit by last month’s earthquake and tsunami, with Vegalta Sendai playing their first home J-League match since the disaster.

Their long-awaited re-appearance at the Yurtec Stadium came 50 days after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated Miyagi prefecture and other areas along Japan’s northeast coast.

Standing on the pitch before the game against Urawa Red Diamonds-which finished in a 1-0 win for Sendai-prefecture governor Yoshihiro Murai declared the contest “the kickoff towards reconstruction”. Fervent orange-clad home supporters held up banners reading: “We’ll not give up until reviving our hometown”, while both teams wore black armbands.

A crowd of more than 18,000 saw

Sendai midfielder Yoshiaki Ota score the only goal of the match 40 minutes into the first half. “I’m glad we won this game, because this was a match we must not lose,” said Ota. The catastrophe on March 11 claimed the lives of nearly 15,000 people, with more than 11,000 still missing. “We are still far from the point where we can start reconstruction,” said Tsutomu Sato, 47, from Minamisanriku, one of the coastal communities wiped out by the tsunami.

“Many sports events have been cancelled, including those for kids. But I think we can get the power to get back on our feet through events like this,” said Sato, who wore the orange Sendai strip.

“I really needed this to stand up again.” It was Sendai’s second match after the J-League resumed last weekend, when they claimed a narrow victory

Barca eye league title as Mourinho loses rag MADRID: Barcelona look to build on their morale-boosting 2-0 Champions League semi-final win over rivals Real Madrid by moving a step closer to their third consecutive league title with victory at promoted Real Sociedad today. Two goals from Lionel Messi helped Barcelona put one foot in the Champions League final with the triumph over Madrid on Wednesday and now the focus returns to the league where the champions need just seven points from the remaining five games to retain their crown.

Barcelona lie eight points ahead of Real at the summit on 88 points and are on course to break the 100 points barrier and better the best ever league tally of 99 points, which they recorded last season. “We are two wins and a draw away from being crowned league champions. After that we will think about the second semi-final (against Real Madrid) and getting to Wembley (for the final).” said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola. Real have it all to do in the semi final second leg at Camp Nou next Tuesday, but need to put the European disappointment behind them and focus on collecting three points at home to Real Zaragoza today.

Real coach Jose Mourinho cut an angry figure after watching Pepe sent off on the hour mark in the painful defeat to foes Barcelona and the rivalry between the two sides cranked up a notch, with the Portuguese coach accusing Barcelona of receiving favoritism from referees and bemoaning the fact that his sides always ended up with ten men. It was a long tirade from Mourinho in the post match press conference and he now faces disciplinary action for his controversial comments towards Barcelona and several high profile referees.”We are playing a man’s game and every time you play against Barcelona and you touch them, they go to the ground and cry like babies,” said Real striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

In the wake of a third ‘El Clasico’ in 12 days little has been said about today’s match against Zaragoza who are fighting for their lives, one point above the relegation zone, and will hope Madrid have a European hangover. Mourinho may choose to ring the changes with Gonzalo Higuain, Kaka and Karim Benzema all unused substitutes against Barcelona, while Ricardo Carvalho is back after missing Wednesday’s match through suspension.

Barcelona may also rest stars with the return leg of the Champions League in mind with Messi, who has an incredible 52 goals this season with 31 in the league, likely to be given a break after picking up a knock in the Madrid game.

Valencia are a distant third, lying 17 points behind Real Madrid, and hope to put last weekend’s 6-3 home drubbing by Real behind them with a win at strugglers Osasuna on Sunday.

Valencia are favourites to seal third, and the automatic Champions League qualification it brings, with Villarreal six points behind in fourth. Osasuna will be pumped for the Valencia visit, however, as they occupy the final relegation place with games running out. On Sunday Villarreal host a Getafe side that have been in the news with the Royal Emirates Group clinching a takeover of the club and talking of the Champions League, but for now the Madrid-based club are battling to stay in the division, lying two points above the bottom three. — AFP

over Kawasaki Frontale. Professional baseball also returned to Sendai, with the local Rakuten Eagles lifting northeastern spirits when beat the Orix Buffaloes 3-1 in an eagerly-awaited game. The teams and more than 20,000 spectators stood in a moment of silence before the singing of the national anthem ahead of the match, while the national flag was flown half mast at the packed Kleenex stadium.

Meanwhile, seven-time champions Kashima Antlers posted their long-awaited first win of the season when they defeated Avispa Fukuoka 2-1 in the JLeague football yesterday. Kashima kept the initiative for most of the time, with a forward duo of Shinzo Koroki and Yuya Osako repeatedly creating scoring chances. But Fukuoka took a rare chance to lead 1-0 with skipper Kosuke

Nakamachi’s header on a right cross from Yusuke Tanaka in the 40th minute.

Kashima dominated the second half.

Koroki’s shot was stopped by Fukuoka goalkeeper Ryuichi Kamiyama and Osako quickly snatched the rebound to make it even 1-1 in the 59th minute. Japan international defender Daiki Iwamasa, who scored an own goal a week ago, nodded home the decider off a corner in the 71st minute. “It was really a tough game.

Fukuoka were desperate to win after losing the previous two games. We needed some time to cope with their two forwards,” said Kashima’s Brazilian coach Oswaldo Oliveira. “I’m very glad to win, because I had expected a tough game today. I think my players rushed a little bit. We must regain our normal style that we break through by connecting passes,” he added. — Agencies

Barca, Real row escalates Barcelona denounce Mourinho’s post-match rant MADRID: A row between Barcelona and Real Madrid which erupted after Wednesday’s Champions League semifinal first leg escalated on Thursday when the pair filed complaints with UEFA. Barcelona, who won 2-0 in an illtempered match at the Bernabeu, struck first when they announced they would formally denounce comments Real coach Jose Mourinho made belittling Pep Guardiola’s past achievements.

Real responded by saying they would file their own complaint with European soccer governing body about what they called repeated diving by some of the Barca players. For their part, UEFA announced disciplinary probes into the Mourinho sending-off and subsequent outburst at his post-match news conference. Real midfielder Pepe and Barca reserve goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto will also face hearings after being shown red cards, while ninetimes European champions Real will have to explain incidents of missilethrowing and a pitch invasion.

“We want to stand firm when the war of words passes certain limits and we believe Mr Mourinho crossed this line yesterday,” Barca spokesman Toni Freixa told reporters after an extraordinary club board meeting. “We are going to present a case to UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary committee against Mourinho for breaking UEFA’s disciplinary code. “It’s unacceptable that anyone can question our titles or our link with UNICEF. “It isn’t our intention to fans the flames but to put them out, because we believe coaches should only talk about footballing matters and not things which could incite violence.”

MADRID: Real Madrid’s Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho gestures during a training session in Madrid yesterday. — AFP

MESSI DOUBLE In a statement on their website (www.realmadrid.com) later on Thursday, Real said they had no choice but to respond with a representation of their own to UEFA and expressed their backing for Mourinho. Barca had shown “non-sporting conduct” and their players had “persistently simulated aggression against them with the sole aim of provoking errors from the referee”, the statement said, adding that Pepe’s dis-

missal had been unfair.

The club said they were surprised disciplinary proceedings had been opened against Mourinho, who had only expressed his opposition to winning at all costs and his support for the principles of “loyalty, integrity and sporting spirit”. Barca’s World Player of the Year Lionel Messi scored two superb goals after Pepe was sent off for a studsup lunge at Barcelona’s Daniel Alves in the 62nd minute. Mourinho was ordered from the bench for his protests over the incident. After the match, Mourinho told reporters: “Josep Guardiola is a fantastic football coach, but he has won one Champions League which would embarrass me after the scandalous goings on at Stamford Bridge.” The Portugese was referring to the 2009 semi-final second leg in London when Barca snatched a 1-1 draw to qualify for the final. He said Chelsea should have had four penalties that were not given. “This year if he wins it again it will be after the scandalous goings on at the Bernabeu,” he added. “I don’t know if it’s the UNICEF publicity or the friendship of Villar at UEFA, where he is vice-president, I don’t know if it’s because they are so nice, but they have got great power. The rest of us have no chance.” Barca backed the re-election of Angel Maria Villar to the presidency of the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF), while Real supported a rival candidate.

BARCA WARNING Barcelona vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu warned on Tuesday that the club were not going to stand for any more attempts to smear their record by Real or local media, backing Guardiola’s surprising outburst from earlier in the day. “All year there have been insinuations, lies, information which wasn’t true about referees, the calendar and recently doping. It’s enough,” he told Spanish radio. “When our footballers were linked to doping a few weeks ago we took out a lawsuit against the radio station. Today Guardiola also said ‘enough’. We have to get away from these extra-sporting issues and back to the competition and playing.” — Reuters

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EINDHOVEN: Benfica’s Javi Garcia (right) and PSV’s Marcus Berg in action during their Europa League quarter-final second leg, soccer match at the Philips stadium in Eindhoven. — AP

Porto crush Villarreal; Falcao hits 4 Benfica edge Braga 2-1 PARIS: A stunning four goal show

by Colombian striker Falcao saw Portuguese champions Porto come from a goal down to overwhelm Spanish side Villarreal 5-1 on Thursday in their Europa League semi-final first leg clash in Oporto. Falcao’s goals took him to a record 16 in the competition, beating Jurgen Klinsmann’s total of 15 for Bayern Munich in the 1995/95 competition when it was the UEFA Cup. With Porto set fair for the final in Dublin in May, they will be joined there by another Portuguese club, with Benfica holding a slight edge over Sporting Braga after beating them 2-1 at home also on Thursday.

Villarreal - who were only in this season’s competition because Real Mallorca were disqualified from competing because they didn’t meet financial regulations set by UEFA - had looked to be in control at the break after Cani had put them ahead. However, whatever Andre Villas-Boas, the hottest managerial property around, said at half-time it transformed his side and within minutes they were level as 25-year-old Falcao went down in the area and got up to convert the resulting penalty.

Falcao’s fellow Colombian Freddy Guarin then gave them the lead in the 61st minute as he cut in superbly from the left, saw

his shot come back off the post but he reacted brilliantly to head home the rebound. From them on it was all Falcao as he tucked home the third in the 67th minute after great work by strike partner Hulk, who had a quiet night himself in front of goal just going close with one rasping shot from outside the area in the first-half.

Falcao - named after the great Brazilian midfielder of the 1980’s who was part of the thrilling 1982 World Cup side - rounded off the scoring with two headers the first a superb diving effort and the final one saw him rise above the stunned Villarreal defense in the dying seconds.

With almost both feet firmly in the May 18 final, 33-year-old Villas-Boas, who learnt a lot from former Porto handler Jose Mourinho though they have since fallen out, is on course for delivering a treble as Porto are also in the domestic cup final. His overall record with Porto since he took over is 45 victories and just three defeats in 52 matches. Benfica who are second in the league a massive 19 points behind Porto and Braga’s clash only really came alive for 10 minutes in the secondhalf.

The hosts took the lead in the 50th minute as Jardel reacted quickest when Paraguayan striker

Oscar Cardozo’s header from Maxi’s brilliant cross came back off the bar. However, Braga - who enjoyed a decent maiden campaign in the Champions League which included a home win over Arsenal in the group stage - leveled shortly afterwards as Vandinho came up with a towering header that gave the ‘keeper no chance. Benfica, though, restored their one goal advantage just before the hour mark as the giant Cardozo showed he has more finesse to his game than just heading power when he stroked home a brilliant left footed freekick which curled into the top corner.— AFP