01 Jun

ON IP TI SC R SU B

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Syria decrees amnesty, opposition says too little

Serbia sends Mladic to war crimes court in Hague

40 PAGES

NO: 15106

150 FILS

8

`

www.kuwaittimes.net

JAMADI ALTHANI 29, 1432 AH

8

Bolt wins 100 m at Golden Spike in 9.91 secs

NATO risks becoming ‘occupying force’: Karzai

10

20

Drama as pro-govt MPs desert Sheikh Ahmad Assembly agrees to delay grillings for two weeks

Max 47 Min 29 Low Tide 05:12 & 18:29 High Tide 00:22 & 22:40

By B Izzak conspiracy theories

Copy-paste revolutions

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

W

ho is to blame about the political scene in Kuwait? Do you blame the government or the opposition? I blame both of them for the political fiasco in Kuwait today. Now we are like Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia, Syria - thank God so far without the bloodbath. Are we imitating? What I see here is mere imitation and copypaste of slogans. Just read the banners and the slogans chanted when they meet at Irada Square and Safat Square. What we see daily on TV from Arab countries, such as, Erhal! (Leave!) or Down with the Government! the exact same slogans and the same attitude we witness in Kuwait now. Even the dispute about where to demonstrate is also a copypaste from other Arab countries. Are we holding revolutions for the sake of revolutions? Do we have enough reasons to take us to the streets in Kuwait?

I believe in democracy but what I have seen lately is not democracy at all. It is chaos. Chaos will drag Kuwait to nowhere. Usually countries that have democracy have parliaments that are there to protect the nation and to serve as checks-and-balances for the government. Our parliament in Kuwait is an enigma. There are people in this parliament with an agenda. What agenda I have no idea, but surely it is not in the interests of Kuwait; maybe for their own interests. The worst problem is that the government is giving a big chance to help these parliamentarians with their agendas.

The whole row is ongoing on and on. For the last seven parliaments consequently, we are discussing the same issue - the prime minister’s grilling. The parliament is dissolved, elections go on and the prime minister is back and it all repeats again. Why can’t a minister when asked to be questioned, like in any other country, stand up on the dais and be questioned? This is not enough justification for some MPs to pull the country every Friday to demonstrate as if it is a fad. Or has this become the norm?

You might accuse me that I think Kuwait has the perfect system. No. We have our problems but if we compare our problems with countries that are sleeping on the streets on Fridays, I think that our demands are luxurious. Yes, we have demands, but we can solve them all in parliament provided that there are no agendas on both sides - the government and MPs. For the sake of Kuwait, be sensible, guys - government and MPs. Sit and think nicely! Work for Kuwait and not for your own interests, egos and agendas. Don’t think of your PR on TV and that you are becoming heroes. Take care of Kuwait before it is too late!

cell phones can lead to cancer PARIS: The use of cell phones and other wireless communication devices are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, the World Health Organisation’s cancer research agency said yesterday. The radio frequency electromagnetic fields generated by such devices were deemed as potential cancer agents “based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer,” the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said in a statement.

A group of experts meeting in the French city of Lyon over the past eight days “reached this classification based on its review of the human evidence coming from epidemiological studies,” said Jonathan Samet, president of the work group. Two studies in particular, the largest conducted over the last decade, provided evidence that cell phone use was associated with higher rates of glioma, “particularly in those that had the most intensive use of such phones,” Samet said.

A number of individuals tracked in the studies had used their phones for 10 to 15 years. “We simply don’t know what might happen as people use their phones Continued on Page 13

KUWAIT: Deputy PM Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahd Al-Sabah (right) speaks with Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah during a National Assembly session as MPs voted to delay for two weeks the debates for grilling them. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: In one of the most dramatic parliamentary sessions that will be remembered in history books, MPs loyal to the government and particularly to the prime minister yesterday voted against deputy premier Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahd Al-Sabah in what observers said could be a direct result of infighting. But Sheikh Ahmad and Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad AlSabah both managed to delay the debate of their grillings for two weeks.

Sheikh Nasser, who managed to delay a previous grilling for a year, used his constitutional right to delay the grilling for two weeks and was granted the right without voting. It was however not clear if Sheikh Nasser will accept to debate the grilling after two weeks as he may request referring the grilling to the constitutional court for a second time. The grilling is based on accusations that Sheikh Nasser favoured good relations with Iran at the expense of Gulf Arab states and for inviting Iranian foreign minister to visit Kuwait two weeks ago.

The most significant development in yesterday’s session however remains the pattern of debate and voting over Sheikh Ahmad’s request to refer his grilling to the National Assembly’s legal and legislative committee and delay the debate for two weeks. Thirty-five members, including 15 Cabinet ministers, voted in favour of the request while as many as 27 MPs voted against it with one abstention.

If the result of the voting is taken as an indication, Sheikh Ahmad could very well be voted out of office if after debating his grilling, MPs file a no-confidence Continued on Page 13

Germany livid as Iran delays Merkel plane

Bahrain king offers reform talks in July

NEW DELHI: Iran briefly closed its airspace to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plane as she flew to India for a visit yesterday, delaying her arrival and sparking a diplomatic row. Merkel was held up as she flew overnight on Monday-Tuesday for a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi. “Hindering the German chancellor’s passage over Iran is absolutely unacceptable. It shows a lack of respect towards Germany that we will not accept,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement. He summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin to “make it very plain that such a breach of international conventions will in no way be tolerated by Germany”.

Iran’s foreign ministry later said a technical problem caused the delay but it had been “immediately resolved” and Merkel’s flight was able to continue. “The necessary authorisations were given for her plane to transit Iranian airspace, and the German embassy was informed of this,” the official IRNA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

Parliament’s website cited the head of the foreign affairs commission, Allaeddine Borujerdi, as blaming “an error by the German pilot in entering the wrong code to enter Iranian airspace, causing a two-hour delay in getting authorisation”. “Every day, hundreds of foreign aircraft fly over Iranian territory without any problem. If the pilot had entered the correct code, there would have been no problem,” Borujerdi added. A second plane with Continued on Page 13

Manama to lift emergency law MANAMA: Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa called for talks on reform involving all parties in the Gulf Arab state “without preconditions” from July 1, the state news agency said yesterday. The offer comes as the government prepares today to lift a state of emergency imposed in March to break up prodemocracy protests inspired by uprisings that brought down veteran rulers in Egypt and Tunisia. The government is also hoping to get back its Formula One race. The prestigious March event in the racing calendar was cancelled because of the unrest but a meeting of the sport’s governing body on Friday could reinstate it for later this year.

“The king called on everyone to take part...to push forward reform for development in all areas and to firmly anchor the bases of the reform process,” the Bahrain News Agency said. It quoted the king as saying in a speech to Bahraini journalists that the talks would be “comprehensive, serious and without preconditions”. But Bahrain’s Justice Ministry warned yesterday that authorities will not ease pressure on

Egypt exec faces sex charges at NY hotel

MANAMA: Pedestrians pass by a construction site yesterday with barricades decorated with images of Bahraini, Saudi and Emirati leaders. — AP anti-government groups after emer- warned that any further challenges gency laws are removed. The to authorities will face “all resulted sharply worded statement contrast- consequences”.

Bahrain called in Gulf Arab forces ed with the message from King Hamad urging for “unity talks”. The in March, and has said the Saudi ministry called the demonstrations and Emirati forces would remain in “criminal acts and abuses against the country indefinitely to help face Continued on Page 13 the nation’s security and unity” and

Riyadh denies intent to deport foreign workers Qatar rapped on worker rights

NEW YORK: A businessman and former chair- off tissues. “Once inside the room, she was man of a major Egyptian bank faces charges sexually abused,” he said, without providing further details. The encounter of sexually abusing a maid at a was not reported until Monday, luxury Manhattan hotel, just police said. The New York Daily weeks after the arrest of a forNews quoted a police source as mer International Monetar y saying he “grabbed her breasts, Fund chief on similar allegagroped her. He was grinding tions. Mahmoud Abdel Salam against her.”

Omar, 74, was arrested on Paul Browne, a spokesman Monday and is accused of sexufor the New York City Police ally abusing the maid at The Department, said detectives Pierre, a luxurious hotel near found the complainant to be Central Park and Fifth Avenue credible. There was no immedion the Upper East Side, police ate information on whether said.

Mahmoud Omar Omar had an attorney. He was A police spokesman said the maid, “female, black, 44,” was called to Omar’s held Monday night at a police precinct and Continued on Page 13 10th-floor room on Sunday evening to drop

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s labor minister said yesterday that only private sector companies that fail to employ enough Saudi nationals would face restrictions on the renewal of their expatriate employees’ work permits, clarifying earlier comments that jolted the business community in the oil-rich country. Adel Fekyeh was quoted by the pan-Arab daily AlHayat on Monday as saying that foreigners who had been in the kingdom for six years would not have their permits renewed - a move he explained as part of Saudi Arabia’s push to boost job

opportunities for its citizens.

Late Monday night, the ministry sought to clarify his remarks, saying there was no blanket policy barring the renewal of work permits for long-term expatriate employees and that the restrictions were targeting companies not complying with regulations requiring at least five to 10 percent of their laborers be of Saudi nationality.

“Companies that, after requests by the ministry over long years, do not comply with their obligations will not have work permits Continued on Page 13

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

LOCAL

Last day for census registration passes Collection of socioeconomic data

By Nawara Fattahova KUWIAT: Yesterday, May 31 was the last day for registering in the Kuwaiti census, the latest to be held since the previous

one in 2001. The massive advertizing campaign for the national project, including a multimedia campaign covering newspapers, T V, radio and other media. Despite this, however, some

expatriates still failed to notice the major event taking place.

Some complained of not seeing big boards on the highways. “I go to my work every day and drive home and to the shops, but I never noticed any posters in the streets mentioning the census project,” said 31-year-old Lebanese expatriate Maha. “As an expat I don’t really watch Kuwaiti TV channels or listen to the radio.

I know it’s a shame as I’m educated and I should have read the papers. I will register now through the website.”

The census organizers sent SMS text messages to mobile phones yesterday saying: “Please fill the Census Survey by May 31, 2011 to avoid any legal problems. If the Census agent has not visited you, please call 106.”

Legal penalties are already in place to penalize those who refuse to provide the necessary information or intentionally provide false information, allowing the government to sue non-cooperative or obstructive individuals who hinder the work of census staff, with the penalties including fines of up to KD100 or prison sentences of up to six months.

Even after registering all the necessary details online, some individuals were still visited at their homes by census-takers. “I first received an SMS in April telling me to register on the website,” which I did,” said Mohammad, a 50-year-old expatriate. “After that they came to my house in Abu Halifa and just registered their visit as they already had my full information that I gave in full earlier on the website.”

Census staff also visited most areas randomly without giving occupants notice. “They came to our house and asked about the number of people living in the house and whether we’re one family,” said 25-year-old Kuwaiti citizen Abdullah who lives with his family in Sa’ab. “We didn’t register online, but they still came to the house. The whole visit didn’t take more than 10 minutes.”

Another 29-year-old Kuwaiti said that he was a bit annoyed by the intrustive nature of the census-takers’ quesions when they visited his family’s home in Rawda, particularly at what he felt were irrelevant questions about the number of TVs and telephones in the home.

Twenty-eight-year-old Fatima, who lives with her family in Andalus, also said that the census-takers had come to her family’s home without any of them needing to register online or by phone,

adding that their visit was short.

The purpose of this census, as with all censuses of this nature, is to collect and analyze socioeconomic data for all persons residing in a specific country or region at a given time. Analysis of the data provides information on demographic trends and patterns which are crucial to planners and decision-makers.

Under Kuwaiti law, a general census of Kuwait’s population and buildings must be conducted every ten years.

The United Nations Economic and Social Committee had proposed that all nations should undertake a general census in the year 2010. This UN proposal was adopted by the GCC Supreme Council, which resolved to conduct a census of all GCC countries between 2005 and 2014.

Analysts will examine the results of the 2011 Kuwait Census to map demographic trends and patterns of Kuwait’s total population in areas such as: growth; composition by nationality; geographic distribution within Kuwait; technological and professional skills, and employment distribution within the public and private sectors.

The information gathered in the census will serve as a vital resource for planners and decision-makers. Using Census data and analyses, experts in Kuwait will be able to make informed decisions as they plan to meet the needs of the population in such fields as general services and utilities; public transport; road design; employment needs; health services; social welfare programs, and educational requirements.

The census will also serve as a statistical database for academic researchers investigating various aspects of life in Kuwait. Ultimately, the 2011 Kuwait General Census will be utilized to bring about improvements in the infrastructure and quality of life in Kuwait.

The General Census for the State of Kuwait was scheduled from April 21 until May 31, 2011. It was conducted by the Central Administration for Statistics, and addressed all individuals and families residing in Kuwait, both Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti, as well as collecting data on houses, apartments, and other buildings.

Information on official entities and institutions, such as banks, schools and companies, is also included in the census.

‘No cash donations during Ramadan’ KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL) will not allow local charitable trusts to collect cash donations during the holy month of Ramadan. It will instead make efforts to ensure that no organization violates this order throughout the month.

“The Charitable Trusts Department has decided to not adopt a stipulation according to which donators are to be allowed to make charity donations in cash, in an attempt to protect charitable work in the country,” said supervisor Ahmad Al-Sanea. He indicated that the presence of 1,300 mosques in different places around the country makes it hard for inspectors to make sure that all donations made there are monitored, reported Al-Qabas.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

LOCAL

Water supply adequate, power cuts unlikely KUWAIT: Kuwait has sufficient water supplies to cover the expected demand through the summer period, according to a Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) official, who added that despite the searing heat of Kuwait’s summers, processing levels at local desalination facilities remain the same.

In a statement released on Monday, after Sunday’s temperatures hit 48 degrees Celsius (118∞

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Fahrenheit), the official said that the desalination plants’ production levels continue to far exceed consumption rates, despite the summer heat.

“The ministry’s water production reached over 407,000 gallons per day at the beginning of the week, while consumption reached approximately 393,000 gallons,” said the official, adding that the total volume of the state’s strategic water supply as of

Sunday stood at 2,596,597 gallons.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the ministry insider also asserted that the chances of power cuts this summer are “very slim,” following the introduction of new electricity generating equipment at the Subbiya power plant. The official revealed that the highest power consumption level for Sunday reached 9,850 megawatts.

Jordan ‘an added value’ to the Gulf countries FM comments on GCC membership

MoH holds anti-smoking fair KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health yesterday inaugurated an exhibition aimed at encouraging smokers to kick the habit. The event, held under the motto, ‘My decision is to give up smoking now,’ was held to coincide with World No Tobacco Day. Dr. Amal Al-Yahya, a public health specialist and member of the national program to combat smoking, said that the World No Tobacco Day is among the most important occasions which medical clinics are keen to highlight.

She explained that the anti-smoking campaign had been launched initially at the Ministry of Health itself in

News

in brief

Pro-PM rally for tomorrow KUWAIT: An unnamed Kuwaiti citizen has reportedly applied for permission to hold a rally in support of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlMohammed Al-Sabah tomorrow in Irada Square outside parliament. A security insider said that the unnamed citizen wished to hold the event as a response to the ‘Youth for Change’ gathering last Friday, which demanded the ousting of the premier, feeling that the rally, which attracted 2,000 participants, does not reflect the opinion of most Kuwaitis.

‘Kuwait deserves UNHRC membership’ KUWAIT: Domestic workers in Kuwait are subjected inhuman treatment by permissive individuals who disregard the country’s reputation, said Thabit AlHaroun, International Labor Organization’s (ILO) representative in Kuwait. He discussed labor-related problems and their effect on Kuwait’s membership with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

the presence of more than 2,000 employees, a large proportion of whom are smokers, which had prompted the ministry to begin the campaign there before expanding to other venues.

Dr. Al-Yahya said that the anti-smoking event highlights the activities of the program to combat smoking and of the work being done in this field in Kuwait, adding that a variety of medical aids and tests would be available for smokers wishing to quit, to assess their current health, help them give up and measure how greatly their health improves after quitting cigarettes. — KUNA

Three new satellite channels soon KUWAIT: The Ministry of Information has received licensing applications for three new Kuwait-based satellite TV stations, with a ministry insider indicating that the licensing process will be finalized shortly.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the insider confirmed that the applications received from the owners of the new stations, named as Al-Alam, AlBawadi and Fonoun, all followed the necessary legal procedures and meet the conditions of the audiovisual law.

The licensing of these channels will bring the total of licensed Kuwaiti satellite TV channels to fourteen. The ministry has received no applications from overseas channels to open any office in Kuwait recently, said the insider.

“The ministry allow Kuwaiti firms to obtain licenses in order to operate audiovisual broadcasting process, or work in the fields of advertising, production or media in general, as long as the company’s capital is set at a minimum of KD5,000”, the insider explained. — Al-Qabas

Jordan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Naser Joudeh

By Sawsan Kazak AMMAN: In a press conference held for a delegation of reporters from Kuwait on Monday, Naser Joudeh, Jordan’s Foreign Affairs Minister described the recent visit of Jordanian King Abdullah to Kuwait as a successful one, with many productive conversations and debates held over the recent regional situation and common issues between countries. “The Jordanian people love Kuwait and its people and with our long lasting ties and good relations we are ready to move forward,” said the minister.

“We were happy with the GCC’s announcement that welcomed Jordan’s request to join them,” said Minister Joudeh. He reminded the press that this idea is not new but previous circumstances did not allow it. The minister explained the many reasons behind the request to join the GCC. “ We have shared issues, benefits, political stances as well as geographical proximity not to mention foreign threats.”

He added that both sides will benefit from this union. “Jordan is an added value to the Gulf countries.

AMMAN: The press conference in progress.

The idea is already being practiced because for years now, both sides have worked together and have had political and social links; the large number of Jordanian workforce in the GCC countries for instance.”

He also believes that the substantial Kuwaiti investments in Jordan are a great indicator of economic stability. “The fact that there is so much Kuwait investment in our country demonstrates a great level of trust between the two countries,” he explained.

The Jordanian minister was certain of Kuwait’s backing the GCC request, “I am sure Kuwait supports this process and I would just like to reiterate that this is not a new idea, this has been in the works for a long time,” he said.

The Jordanian minister does not believe that joining the GCC would hinder the Arab unity plan. “Arab unity is still there. Entering the GCC does not affect the bigger picture of Arab unity. The purpose is to promote and highlight Arab unity; this will develop and initiate the process.”

The Jordanian foreign minister will visit Kuwait within the next two

weeks to define priorities and the initial steps that need be taken to start the process of joining the GCC. When asked if the conversations were going to be bilateral on foreign ministers level or between the Gulf ministerial council as a whole, the minister gave an indirect answer, “We are still working on the process and waiting to see the arrangements. Maybe the talks will be with those officials directly involved and then I will meet with my foreign counterparts.”

He spoke briefly about Israeli Palestinian conflict and the state of Arab unity. “Arabs have proved to the world that Israel is the absent partner in the peace process and not the Arabs; contrary to what was previously believed. Obama’s May 19 speech was the first time an American president addressed the topic and mentioned the 1967 agreed-upon borders.

This shows that Obama is a partner when it comes to this issue.” the minister said, adding, “ The Palestinian situation should be the main focus until the state borders are clearly demarcated with neighboring countries.”

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

4

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

LOCAL kuwait digest

Representatives of nation’s conscience

By Saud Al-Samaka bdulaziz Al-Saqr, Humood Al-Nisf, Dr Ahmad AlKhateeb, Jassem Al-Qattami, Yaqoub AlHumaidhi, Sulaiman Al-Mutawaa, Mohammad Al-Rasheed, Rashid Al-Tawheed, Rashid Al-Farhan, Yousuf Al-Mikhled, and Khalid Al-Masoud. These are politicians whose names will always be immortalized in Kuwait’s modern history as icons of true productive nationalistic opposition, which reflects the true meaning of Kuwait’s democracy and Constitution.

True representatives of the nation’s conscience, these lawmakers who formed the opposition during the early years of democracy in Kuwait laid the cornerstone for a responsible approach toward honest, nationalistic work. Their charisma shone through personal achievements to reach heights that were never touched before. This is to assist the country’s development.

To those MPs, the opposition was not a means to achieve political success. It was an opportunity to express love to the country by garnering national achievements. During their era, the country’s petroleum wealth was nationalized after being dominated by foreign countries for several years. Giant oil firms including the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company were established.

Furthermore, their contributions resulted in the creation of Public Institution for Social Security(PIFSS), as well as achievements made in the educational fields including the establishment of the Kuwait University, and the enforcement of compulsory education.

During that era, curriculums that were taught in Kuwaiti schools were sophisticated and used by neighboring countries. In the meantime, Kuwait already achieved steady strides in the medical field.

And most importantly in my opinion, it was during MPs’ era that the Kuwaiti society was characterized with a distinguished level of tolerance, not seen in many countries around the world. And that not only at the social level, as sectarian and tribal implications did not even exist. On a humanitarian level, expatriate communities from all faiths and races found Kuwait a safe haven of security, decent living, good education and medicine.

How different is the old opposition to the one we have today in Parliament? Oppositionists today train their efforts to utilize the state’s resources to win voters’ support, in an approach that reinforced the culture of taking without giving back. They abused constitutional articles and thought that their position gives them a license to break the law or carry out practices that contradict with the basic principles of parliamentary work.

As a result of such practices, Kuwait has been experiencing a seemingly endless cycle of tensions because of which it cannot even take a single step forward in the development process. —Al-Qabas

A KUWAIT: Minister of the Amiri Diwan Affairs, Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmed receiving visitors at his diwaniya on Monday.

Expat workers unperturbed at Saudi ‘work permit cap’ Bid to preserve national identity

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Many expatriate workers in Kuwait appear unperturbed at the Saudi Arabian labor minister’s recent announcement of the cancelation of work permits issued to expatriate workers employed in the country for six years or more. The Saudi government’s decision is reportedly linked to rising unemployment in the kingdom, although the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) labor ministers, including Kuwait’s, have been lobbying for the last five years for the adoption of a scheme to limit expatriate workers’ residency to a six-year maximum. Reports say that the proposal was connected to preserving Saudi national identity from what’s felt to be a pernicious onslaught by foreign cultures through reforming the labor market and combating visa trafficking.

“Saudization has become a national necessity rather than a choice,” the Saudi labor minister was quoted in the press as saying. Unemployment in the kingdom currently stands at 10.5 percent.

Speaking to the Kuwait Times on condition of anonymity, an insider with the Kuwaiti labor ministr y was keen to underline the differences between Kuwait and the neighboring state, however. “We cannot compare the situation of Saudi Arabia with that here in Kuwait or even in the UAE and Qatar. These countries in the Gulf, including Kuwait, are mainly reliant on foreign workers whilst Saudi is not, so there is no reason to compare or anything like that.”

There are approximately eight million foreign workers in Saudi Arabia out of an estimated total population of 26 million; in stark contrast, expatriates account for nearly 95 percent of Kuwait’s private sector workforce, totaling more than 2.4 million of the population compared to

just over a million citizens.

Unemployment is one of the main reasons behind the recent and ongoing uprisings in some countries in the Arab world. “I don’t think we are going to be affected by the new Saudi decision. We have to consider the demographic imbalance between the two countries.

For Kuwait’s economy to be driven forward, it needs expat workers; they cannot provide labor workers by themselves so I don’t think a foreign workers cap is possible in Kuwait,” said one expatriate worker who’s been employed in a private sector office in Kuwait for over ten years.

Another expat, who’s worked in Kuwait for 30 years, was also dismissive of the idea of similar regulations being introduced in Kuwait. “No way - I don’t think it will be possible here,” he told the Kuwait Times. “Just imagine the number of people to be laid off and then be replaced with new workers; I don’t think

it will happen.” In 2000, Kuwait adopted its own Kuwaitization legislation, issuing revised Kuwaitization guidelines in year 2010. Kuwait’s private sectors are legally compelled to employ at least a minimum percentage of Kuwaitis 60 percent of the workforce for banks, 56 percent for telecommunications companies, 40 percent for marketing and investment companies, 30 percent for petrochemicals and oil refinery businesses, 30 percent at educational facilities, 65 percent at insurance companies, 15 percent at real estate companies, 13 percent at credit companies, 10 percent at Arabic private schools, five percent at English private schools, two percent at agricultural companies and two percent in manufacturing industries.

“Kuwaitization has been implemented in Kuwait for years, yet there are still a number of Kuwaitis who are unemployed because they want government jobs rather than private sector jobs,” said

the owner of one private sector firm.

“Besides, they are being pampered by their own government so they don’t want to put in any extra effort, unlike expatriates; that is why many private companies will employ expats rather than Kuwaitis because they are more productive.”

It is unclear whether the Saudi government’s new decision will be implemented in the near future and if it will only be applied to certain professions and employment sectors. At present, around 2.5 million Egyptians work in Saudi Arabia, and an estimated 70 percent of this number will be affected if the six-year maximum stay is introduced.

The number of Filipino workers in the Kingdom comes to approximately 1.2 million, meanwhile, with around 350,000 of these facing disruption if the Saudi government decides to strictly implement the work permit cap, according to reports.

American leaps to death from sixth floor

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: An American man in his forties died instantly when he fell from the sixth floor of a Salmiya apartment block, with preliminary reports suggesting that he fell while trying to descend via rope to the flat beneath his own. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene after receiving reports of the incident.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the man was trying to climb from his sixth floor apartment to his girlfriend’s flat located directly beneath it after she refused to let him in by the door following an argument, but lost his balance and fell to his death. The investigation into the case is continuing.

Drunk driving A Capital department traffic policeman has lodged a case against a Kuwaiti man who insulted him verbally whilst the officer was arresting him for driving under the influence of alcohol. According to the security report, the drunk driver was already in the back seat of the officer’s patrol vehicle when he began verbally abusing him, keeping up the string of insults all the way back to the police station. The drunkard is being held pending further legal action.

Road accidents Two Ethiopian women in their twenties were killed when they were hit by a car whilst crossing a road near Al-Shaab Park. Both bodies were removed for autopsy. In a separate incident, a 24-yearold Kuwaiti man was taken to Amiri Hospital after suffering head injuries and

a nosebleed when he was hit by a car near the Central Bank headquarters building. Meanwhile, a 31-year-old Kuwaiti man suffered lacerations to his scalp when his car overturned near the Flour Mills building in Ahmadi after he lost control of the vehicle. He was taken to Adan Hospital. In a fourth accident, a 27-year-old Kuwaiti man was taken to Sabah Hospital after suffering fractures to bones in his left hand and leg in a car crash near Sulaibikhat Cemetery.

Baby saved The parents of a one-year-old Kuwaiti boy rushed him to Hamad Al-Saqer Medical Center in Adailiya after finding him choking on a foreign object which they were unable to dislodge. The tot was later transferred to Amiri Hospital where his condition is understood to be stable.

Asian man drowns The Shuwaikh Fire Center Sea Rescue team rushed to west Doha where an Asian man had drowned. The body was recovered and removed for an autopsy.

Policeman arrested A policeman who works at the Central Prison was arrested in connection with smuggling in drugs and supplying them to prison inmates. An officials said that 50 grams of heroin were seized from his possession.

Hit and run case Two Asians aged 16 and 19 died after being run over by a car last night. The driver at the helm of the vehicle was detained.

NBK supports Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) Vice Chairman Nasser Musaed Al-Sayer and Deputy Group CEO Isam Jassem AlSager recently visited Dar Al-Athar AlIslamiyyah (DAI), where they met with the institute’s general supervisor, Sheikha Hessa Al-Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah. The visit was a further demonstration of NBK’s ongoing efforts to support Kuwait’s social and cultural institutions.

Al-Sayer said that NBK’s support for Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah is a gesture of the recognition of the crucial pivotal role played by this leading cultural institution in promoting Islamic civilization and shedding light on its rich artistic and cul-

KUWAIT: A group photo of the ambassadors’ spouses. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

tural heritage.

“Over the past six decades, NBK has committed itself to supporting social and cultural activities in Kuwait as part of its social responsibility”, Al-Sayer added.

Responding to the dignitaries’ visit, Sheikha Hessa Al-Sabah thanked NBK “for this valuable initiative,” adding, “As a leading and prestigious institution, NBK has a track record of serving and supporting Kuwaiti society. Its contribution to Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah will surely support our mission in promoting and highlighting the richness of Islamic civilization.”

KUWAIT: Fashion show at the gathering

Ambassadors’ spouses enjoy a taste of Indonesia KUWAIT: The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Kuwait, in cooperation with the Indonesian Ladies’ Association, organized a gathering of ambassadors’ spouses, which took place on Monday at the Indonesian ambassador’s residence in Yarmouk.

After inaugurating the event and welcoming the distinguished guests, the host, the Indonesian ambassador ’s spouse, Eva Drita Adamhar, mentioned a session of cultural performances scheduled for the following day too, also at the ambassadorial residence.

The gathering provided spouses with the chance to see

some of the traditional Indonesian cultural artforms, such as the Lenggang Nyai dance, as well as a fashion Show of the famous Indonesian traditional costumes, including Kebaya, Songket and, most famously, Batik. There were also performances by players of the traditional Indonesian bamboo flute, the angklung, and of wellknown Indonesian folk songs, such as Ampar-ampar Pisang and Yamko Rambe Yamko, and last but not least, a performer who played traditional and contemporary Indonesian songs.

The event also aimed to encourage a better understanding of Indonesia’s recent development,

as well as enabling the guests to find out more about the country’s tourism, trade and industrial sector. The gathering was also expected to fur ther enhance cooperation and friendship between the peoples of Indonesia and Kuwait, as well as between Indonesia and other countries.

During the per formances, the guests also had a chance to view a display of traditional Indonesian garments, getting an opportunity to feel the texture and view the intricate patte r ns up c l os e. Ac ros s t he I ndonesian archipelago, the variety of fabrics, patterns and textures used in making the

garments varies widely.

At the end of the gathering, the guests also enjoyed mouthwatering traditional Indonesian cuisine, with a menu including sate ayam (chicken satay), beef rendang, Fried Tempe, Gadogado (Indonesian Vegetable Salad), Chicken Soto, and many more. As they ate, the guests also enjoyed a movie about tourism in Indonesia.

The event offered a comprehensive impression and a variety of perspectives about Indonesia, especially about its multicultural, multiethnic status, and the vast potential resources available in the biggest archipelagic state in the world.

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

local

Premier welcomes grilling as chance to refute allegations Endless sequence of interpellations KUWAIT: In a statement issued yesterday, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlMohammed Al-Sabah stated that he will stand to face the grilling motion filed by three lawmakers and refute their allegations. The embattled premier made his statement in an interview with a local daily on Monday, the same day that the parliament approved a cabinet request to delay the grilling debate until next week. The parliament was yesterday set to debate the grilling motion filed by MPs Walid Al-Tabtabaei, Mohammad Hayef and Mubarak Al-Waalan which concerns allegations that the government adopted a foreign policy favoring Iran at the expense of other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, thus harming national security.

The premier requested that the debate be postponed to the next session, however, with the request being approved. “The redundancy of grilling motions is causing this constitutional tool to lose its goals”, HH Sheikh Nasser told Al-Rai. The premier insisted that he “welcomes” the opportunity to rebut the allegations included in the grilling motion.

“We are confident in Kuwait’s foreign policy

which have been adopted for sixty years ever since His Highness the Amir first placed its principles”, the PM added.

HH Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed did not give any specific date for when he intends to face the grilling debate, saying that this will be decided by “the readiness of the team assigned to prepare the responses.” He also reiterated his right to request a two-weeks delay for the debate.

The delay request for the PM’s grilling came after an episode which saw the parliament vote in favor of submitting a grilling motion filed by the National Action Bloc (NAB) against Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah to the legislative committee, as well as a subsequent request to delay the debate until its constitutionality is verified.

On the policy of presenting an apparently endless sequence of interpellations adopted by some MPs in the parliament, the premier said, “The Kuwaiti people are fully aware of what goes on inside [the parliament building] and have great analytical skills; they understand that the government is willing to com-

New factories to be set up under B.O.T system: Safar KUWAIT: Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Dr Fadhel Safar said yesterday the ministry plans to set up factories under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) system for the recycling of solid waste.

This came in a press statement of the organizing committee for the 4th Kuwait conference and exhibition for waste management and recycling organized by the Promedia Company, which will kick off on Oct 18.

The minister said consultancy studies were being prepared with respect to the rehabilitation of closed landfill sites, in addition to preparing a booklet of the terms of reference for the

establishment of a factory for recycling used tires and implementation of a consultancy study in collaboration with the World Bank to develop a method of waste management in the municipality of Kuwait, according to modern scientific methods.

He pointed to the completion of tenders for household and solid waste, expecting this matter to be completed early next year.

He also noted the introduction of new and advanced environmental element on the collection of waste and cleaning that take into account the wages of workers, monitoring and follow-up mechanisms of sorting out waste. — KUNA

Municipality ends Abu Ftaira issue KUWAIT: The Municipal Council agreed during Monday’s session to suspend a decision issued by the Kuwait Municipality to shut down all the stores located in Abu Ftaira. It also called for renewing shops ownersí licenses.

More than 800 citizens who own businesses at Abu Ftiara were served notices by the Municipality to remove all the illegal structures before June 6. The dispute between the owners and the Municipality dates back to a period when owners obtained licenses from the Municipality to establish commercial centers. They were later informed by the Municipality that the licenses were not accurately registered with the government body. The shop owners blamed a certain municipality official for the error because he was in charge of issuing licenses.

Although the official in question’s contract was terminated, owners were asked by the Municipality to evacuate the shops or change activities to match with those mentioned in licenses. The shop owners do not like this stipulation because they should not be held accountable for a mistake committed by a Municipality officer.

At the same time, changing the trade undertaken by leased shops will result in financial losses. Last year, several shop owners won court cases filed against the Municipality’s eviction order. It was appealed and next September was set as the date for the final court verdict. The Municipality has been trying to find a way out of this crisis, with reports suggesting that the issue will be given priority during upcoming Cabinet meetings.

The subject has garnered wide public attention since it surfaced recently, with members of the Municipal Council and other activists including parliament members perceiving them as a process that contradicts with the state’s policy to encourage citizens to begin their own businesses. On Monday, a number of shop owners in Abu Ftaira staged a gathering in which they demanded that Minister of Public Works (MPW) and State Minister for Municipality Affairs Dr Fadhel Safar, extend the deadline until the final court ruling is released. The gathering was attended by several Municipal Council members including Chairman Zaid Al-Azmo, as well as parliament member Naji Al-Abdulhadi.

pletely cooperate despite facing a grilling minutes after being sworn in.”

This was a pointed dig at the grilling motion filed by the Popular Action Bloc (PAB) in early May during the same session at which the new cabinet was sworn in. The debate for this grilling has been put on hold for up to a year after the parliament approved a request for the motion to be referred to the constitutional court for verification of its constitutionality.

On Monday, Popular Action Bloc (PAB) member MP Musallam Al-Barrak reiterated that the PAB is maintaining its usual stance regarding grilling motions included on the parliamentary agenda, which he said is based on rejecting requests for any motion to be referred to the constitutional court or the parliament’s legislative committee, or postponed or debated in a confidential session.

Al-Barrak also announced that 21 lawmakers have signed a petition which aims to overturn a decision passed by the parliamentary bureau concerning relocating reporters inside the building from the ground floor to the upper level. — Agencies

Envoy meets Kuwaiti students in Germany BERLIN: The Kuwaiti Ambassador to Germany has met with Kuwaiti students in the city of Dusseldorf-the first batch of Kuwaiti students who were sent to Germany for academic studies-inquiring about their condition and helping them overcome some problems.

Musaed Al-Haroun travelled to Dusseldorf, some 600 kilometers from the German capital, where he organized a broad lunch for the students, also attended by Peter Deutsche, Head of DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service the renowned German academic establishment supervising affairs of the Kuwaiti students studying the German language in this European nation.

Briefing the ambassador about their problems, the students complained about hurdles faced I in finding proper housing, lack of support from DAAD, lack of knowledge of the local language and recurring provocative gestures and acts made by some professors.

Addressing Deutsche, the ambassador asked about possibility that the students be registered with more experienced and renowned institutes such as Goethe or granted a long-validity visa, rather than the Schengen visa that expires in three months.

In response, the DAAD chairman expressed regret at the difficulties faced by the students, and proposed some solutions such as enlisting them in pre-university academy as of July 2011, instead of waiting till October.

He explained that the students could study the language and start academic studies without going through certain time-consuming procedures and phases. He also vowed to help them find proper housing and inspect personally on their well-being regularly. —KUNA

GCC traffic citations to be linked KUWAIT: General Directors of Traffic Departments from GCC countries recently held their 28th meeting in Abu Dhabi. Kuwait was represented by a delegation headed

by Brig Saleh Al-Najem.

The UAE’s suggestion to link traffic citations among member states was approved. A work team will visit UAE shortly to get acquainted with system and activate the e-linkage program, reported Al-Anba. The recommendation was made by Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of interior.

In other news, the Council of Ministers has agreed to confer the rank of minister to Undersecretary General Ghazi Al-Omar and the Assistant Undersecretary General Sulaiman Al-Fahad, the rank of Undersecretary.

KUWAIT: The Ambassador of Georgia to Kuwait, Ekaterine Meiering-mikadze hosted a reception at the Crowne Plaza on the occasion of the country’s independence day on Monday. High-ranking officials, diplomats, members from the Georgian community and members from the media attended the event.

—Photos by Joseph Shagra

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

LOCAL

Police probe gruesome ‘suicide’ of young woman Owner of 15 fake companies held

Kuwait Digest

Kuwaiti wisdom

By Waleed Al-Rujaib

European, US doctors to visit Kuwait in June KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health announced yesterday that seven prominent doctors from Europe and the US would visit Kuwait in June to perform a number of surgical operations and examine several critical medical cases in the country.

Th e v i s i t i n g d o c to r s a re s p e c i a l i s t s i n s k i n , tumors, bone, brain and nerve diseases, said the ministry’s public relations chief Faisal Al-Dousari in a statement.

KUWAIT: Detectives are continuing their investigation into the gruesome death of a young woman, whose charred body was discovered on the roof of her family’s home in Jahra. Police who rushed to the scene after family members reported finding the young woman’s body a few hours after reporting her missing. When they arrived, the woman’s brother escorted them to the roof where the body was discovered, with a can of some flammable liquid and a lighter lying nearby. On being questioned, the young woman’s family members insisted that she must have committed suicide, telling officers that they had phoned police immediately after discovering her and had not tampered with the scene. Crime scene investigators found sufficient evidence to cast doubt on this version of events, however, discovering that the young woman had not moved at all whilst on fire, suggesting that she was already dead when her body was set alight.

Body found An investigation has been launched after the body of an Arab man was found near a sports club in Jahra by a passing pedestrian. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, and an autop-

sy is underway to determine the cause of death.

Road death A 17-year-old Kuwaiti boy was killed when he was hit by a car while crossing the road between the Salwa and Al-Rumathiya areas.

The boy’s body was removed for autopsy and the Iranian driver of the vehicle was taken for questioning.

Mugging case Police are hunting five cowardly thugs who brutally assaulted and mugged an Asian man in Saad AlAbdullah before dumping him in a trash dumpster. The victim told police that he was walking to a local grocery store when he was accosted by the five young men, all in Kuwaiti national dress, who grabbed his wallet before brutally beating him, leaving him with multiple injuries, and throwing him into a dumpster.

The victim managed to escape and to get to Jahra Hospital where he received medical treatment before reporting the incident at Taima police station.

Family attack Police are hunting for a young Judo black belt who used his martial arts skills to assault his mother,

sister and father. The boy first attacked his female relatives at a beauty salon in Jahra before returning to the family home in saad AlAbdullah and attacking his father after which he fled the scene.

Conman held The Kuwaiti owner of 15 fake companies who defrauded expatriate workers of KD170,000, misleading them to believe that they had signed genuine work contracts with real firms in Kuwait, has been arrested. Police launched a lengthy investigation into the activities of the crooked ‘businessman’ after receiving a tip-off.

They found that the man had brought at least 170 workers to the country, discovering on questioning some of the duped workers whom he had recruited from their home countries, promising them good jobs in Kuwait in return for payment with what they believed were bona fide companies. When they arrived, however, they discovered that there were no jobs and no work visas. On being questioned after his arrest, the man admitted that he had taken KD1,000 from each of the workers he cruelly deceived. The fraudster has been referred to the Public Prosecution Service for further action.

W

e watched last Friday’s events with concern following warnings that were issued earlier by the Ministry of Interior(MoI) aimed at youth who planned to assemble at the Safat Square.

They protested against the deliberate decision to cancel the interpellation motion.

I am not sure exactly why the Interior Ministry got so worked up over the idea of a gathering organized at the Safat Square. It is like the Iradah square or any other square in the country; part of Kuwaiti territory.

I do not understand the reason behind the heavy security presence for a peaceful demonstration. It is carried out by Kuwaiti young men and women in accordance with the constitutional regulations.

Our faith in the youth is great. We are confident in their ability to demonstrate peacefully and ensure that public and private properties are intact. We are also certain that they will maintain national unity by carrying out demonstrations, refrain from using sectarian or tribal slogans. And, as expected, this is exactly what happened last Friday. Young demonstrators acted with a high sense of professionalism and nationalism. Even when rumors did the rounds about some individuals who provoked police officers, the wise approach prevented such incidents from taking place.

I failed to find a justification for the Ministry of Interior’s approach regarding the Safat Square, which is the main square in downtown Kuwait City and one of the landmark places in Kuwait’s history.

And while there have been attempts to question protestors’ intentions, I urge security officers to ensure that they do not handle protests in Kuwait, the same way protests were handled in other Arab countries. The best way to handle public demonstrations is to protect them from troublemakers and seriously consider their demands for reform. — Al-Rai

The Ministry of Health’s Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health Affairs, Dr Yousuf Al-Nisf, takes part in the campaign.

Dr Al-Nisf poses with campaign supervisors.

EQUATE campaign at 360 Mall KUWAIT: The EQUATE Petrochemical Company held an open day at the 360 mall on Friday as part of the ongoing diabetes awareness campaign. It was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, and includes weekly stops at major shopping malls in the country.

During the event, around 600 people underwent free blood sugar and blood pressure tests, during which 33 diabetic cases were discovered, in addition

to 62 high blood pressure cases were referred to the respective polyclinics.

In addition to medical tests, the ‘Stay Normal’ campaign includes advices about healthy diets and exercise routines that people are required to take. This is in order to avoid diabetes and high blood pressure, or cope with the medical condition, if they are already diagnosed. The next stop is at Souk Sharq from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm next Friday.

Medical tests in progress.

Gulf visitors to top list of ‘special guests’ at Paris shopping festival

Al-Fahd is flanked by Al-Foudari, Al-Naseeb and AlHouli.

The voting in progress.

KSSC general assembly approves fiscal reports KUWAIT: During a recently held meeting, the Kuwait Sea Sports Club(KSSC) discussed administrative and financial reports for the fiscal year that ended on March 31. An agreement was also reached to enforce the proposed budget for the new fiscal year.

The decision was taken following a short voting period that lasted for

approximately five minutes, during which the general assembly members unanimously voted for the two reports. The assembly also agreed to allow the KSSC board to hire an auditor for the firm’s accounts.

KCC Chairman Major General Fahd Al-Fahd acknowledged the ‘precious confidence’ that the general assembly issued to the KSSC board, adding

that the unanimous vote “helps boost [the KSSC’s] efforts to achieve great results and improve the club’s activities and services. Other KSSC officials attending the meeting include Khalid Al-Foudari Secretary General, Abdulwahab Al-Houli, Treasurer, in addition to Public Authority of Youth and Sports (PAYS) representative Ali Al-Naseeb.

IKEA celebrates World Environment Day KUWAIT: IKEA Kuwait is set to celebrate World Environment Day, in an effort to take part in the global celebration that is aimed at supporting positive environmental action. At its store, IKEA will host a range of activities that have been designed to personalize environmental issues and enable everyone to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development. The activities will take place from the 1 to 5th June at its store in the Avenues.

During World Environment Day, IKEA Kuwait store will be holding activities, such as photo shoots for kids, face painting and several educational activities about keeping a healthy and clean environment.

IKEA worldwide follows the four-step approach towards sustainability efforts, and these include

Plan, Do, Check, and Act. Through planning, IKEA establishes routines on how to approach and deal with the different aspects of sustainability both with products and when working with suppliers. IKEA does actively cooperate and communicate with all the suppliers who are involved in their production process.

IKEA then checks by performing audits to suppliers on their compliance with their sustainability requirements, providing feedback in an effort to create a dialogue to help them promote a bet-

ter sustainability profile.

Finally, IKEA acts by regularly improving its routines and methods of implementing sustainability in the value chain.IKEA stores offer a wide range of environment friendly products that include solar lights, recycled bags and much more. Being environmentally conscious should not be an expensive daily process, it can be saving money too. Through this event, IKEA is urging its shoppers to participate, learn more, and give something back to the earth in their own little ways.

PARIS: Tourists from the Gulf countries are to top the list of “special visitors” at a two-month, shopping festival to be held in a major department store in the French capital this June and July, with the aim of attracting regular and new shoppers from the Arab world, organizers said here yesterday.

“Le Printemps” department store in central Paris is organizing a “Middle East” festival, specifically aimed at shoppers from the Arab world, but especially targeting “regular and faithful” shoppers from the Gulf region and new clients from this area, the department store indicated.

In addition to major displays at the “Haussmann” store in the busy shopping district in the eight district of Paris, Printemps will be providing special services for Arab clients, including a fully-fledged Lebanese restaurant and a takeaway food service in the store, itself. There will also be “personal shoppers” for clients and logistical support to ensure a comfortable shopping experience and a reliable after sales delivery and follow-up.

“We have a lot of regular clients from Gulf countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Emirates, among others,” Lauent Schenten of the Printemps Group said. “We also have clients from Egypt, Lebanon and Arab countries in North Africa,” he added. The “Middle East” shopping festival is being inaugurated May 31 and will run until the end of July.

Printemps Department store says it aims to attract both “individuals and families as well as delegations and high-profile visitors.”

Schenten indicated that his store will provide for “scheduled visits” outside of regular store

hours to allow more high-profile shoppers “discreet access” to the festival. “ We want to bring in new clients as well as honoring our regular clients from the Gulf,” Schenten said in the interview, adding that his store was emphasizing the “personal links” built between staff and shoppers from the Gulf region.

The Printemps executive stressed that during these two months there will be many “special offers” aimed at Arab customers and his store would be doing everything to put Gulf and other Arab shoppers at ease.

What he called a number of “premium services” will be made available and these will include multi-lingual staff to accompany and help the shopper with his or her needs and the shopper will chose the language of the accompanying shop guide, either Arabic, English or both, in addition to French. Furthermore, special staff will be available for “shopping logistics” to handle questions like delivery, either in France or abroad and also to administer the “duty free” tax rebate paperwork for purchases. Moreover, the “personal shoppers” will have in-depth knowledge of all products on sale and will be there to advise and propose on availability and bulk purchases.

Schenten also told KUNA that a variety of gifts and special offers will be available for visitors from certain retailers and “many brands will have exclusives on offer.”

Printemps boasts 45,000 square metres of shopping space at the Haussmann store, which includes three separate buildings grouped together in the heart of the city.

The Haussmann outlet gets

about 80,000 visitors per day, the executive said. The group has a total of 17 stores in France. The “Middle East” festival will offer special displays of fashion and beauty goods, on top of the regular products on offer in the store, Schenten pointed out.

In addition to offering a shopping extravaganza for Arab clients over a two-month period, Printemps said that it will be aiming to offer a “plus” to the shopper, by providing special parking for high-end clients, exclusive, private visits and a VIP lounge, where shoppers can relax in a convivial atmosphere.

“We want to endear the Gulf clients to our store,” Schenten said.

“They come regularly and we want to keep their custom,” he added, stressing the importance of the “welcome” to the client.

“We want to create a special link with our Gulf customers, providing VIP services to cater to their needs, such as special parking, and duty free rebate services. We have teams who will deal with all of these questions,” he affirmed.

To help cater to families who shop with children, the store is organizing a special area for children and nannies and will provide services so that families will be able to shop in ideal conditions.

“Clients from the Gulf are extremely important for us and we want to develop this very faithful clientele,” Schenten said.

“We are well aware that Gulf shoppers know (Paris) stores and if they are not finding what they want at Printemps they will go somewhere else,” he remarked, adding that catering to this clientele was a normal priority but would get special attention in June and July. — KUNA

International WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Qatar weapons reaching rebels in Libya mountains

India, Pakistan fail to break ice on glacier

Page 8

Page 10

Egyptians decry ‘virginity tests’ Bloggers hold online protest to voice outrage CAIRO: Activists and bloggers are pressing Egypt’s military rulers to investigate accusations of serious abuses against protesters, including claims that soldiers subjected female detainees to so-called “virginity tests.” Bloggers say they will hold a day of online protest today to voice their outrage, adding to criticism of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country from ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February.

In the face of the criticism, four journalists along with a prominent blogger were summoned for questioning by the military prosecutor, according to a rights group. They were released without charges.

Hossam Al-Hamalawy, the blogger, tweeted: “The visit to the military prosecutor became a chat, where they wanted clarifications for my accusations.” The virginity test allegations first surfaced after a March 9 rally in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that turned violent when men in plainclothes attacked protesters and the army intervened forcefully to clear the square.

One woman who was arrested spoke out about her treatment, and Amnesty International further documented the abuse allegations in a report that found 18 female detainees were threatened with prostitution charges and forced to undergo virginity tests. They were also beaten up and given electric shocks, the report said. Egypt’s military rulers have come under heavy criticism from the youth protest movement, which is upset at the pace of reforms that they hope will lead Egypt to democracy. Since Mubarak’s fall on Feb. 11, the military has led crackdowns on peaceful protests, and critics accuse it of fail-

ing to restore security in the streets or launch serious national dialogue on a clear path forward for Egypt.

The military council denied soldiers attacked protesters at the March 9 rally. But one general used a news conference to make negative remarks about women who mingle with men during the sit-ins and suggested lewd acts were taking place in protest camps. “There were girls with young men in one tent. Is this rational? There were drugs; pay attention!” Gen Ismail Etman, the council spokesman, said at the end of March. He confirmed then that the military police arrested 17 female protesters among 170 others at the March 9 rally. He said the women were among a group of protesters given one-year suspended prison sentences. “We secure the people. We don’t use the violence,” he said.

At the peak of the protests, the now-ousted regime sought to characterize the protesters as a group of rambunctious youth more intent on spreading chaos than genuine reform. Even after Mubarak’s ouster, that notion carries some resonance in Egypt’s conservative society, where the idea that unmarried women would spend the night with strangers - albeit in public - carried the tacit implication that the women were loose. One of the women arrested, Salwa Al-Husseini, gave a detailed account at a news conference in March of her treatment and said she was made to undergo a virginity test.

She said she was slapped in the face and subjec ted to elec tric shocks in her legs before being taken to a military prison. “When we went to the military prison, me and the girls, we were placed in a

room with two doors and a window. The two doors were wide open,” she said. “The girl takes off all her clothes to be searched while there were cameras outside filming to fabricate prostitution charges against us later on,” she added. “The girl who says she is single, she undergoes a test by someone; we don’t know if he is a soldier or some kid on their behalf,” she said.

Amnesty said in its report that one of the women told her jailers she was a virgin but was beaten and given electric shocks when the test supposedly proved other wise.

“Forcing women to have ‘virginity tests’ is utterly unacceptable,” the Amnesty report said. “Its purpose is to degrade women because they are women.” The military council has promised to return the country to civilian rule after elections later this year, but some Egyptians fear the council is adopting the same autocratic ways that characterized Mubarak’s rule. They point to what they say are attempts by the council to make any criticism of the military taboo.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, in a statement yesterday, said that the questioning of journalists or bloggers was an attempt to silence critics and create “an atmosphere of fear.” It warned: “The military council is committing a grave mistake if it continues to shut the mouths of those criticizing it. The council is not made up of angels.” The group also referred to virginity tests, saying that the military council is aware that “those belonging to it have practiced torture against the youth of the revolution and has subjected women to virginity tests.”—AP

CAIRO: Veteran labor activist and journalist Hossam El-Hamalawy receives a phone call while discussing the future of Egypt’s revolution with an Associated Press reporter in a popular cafe in downtown Cairo, Egypt. —AP

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

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

Syrian president issues general amnesty BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued a general amnesty yesterday, state television said, after 10 weeks of protests against his 11-year rule and a military crackdown which has drawn international condemnation. The amnesty covers “all members of political movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood”, the television said.

Membership of the Brotherhood, which led an armed uprising against Assad’s father in 1982, is punishable by death in Syria.

Syrian activists say 10,000 people have been arrested since the protests against Assad broke out in the southern city of Deraa in mid-March, and 1,000 civilians have been killed. One of the main demands of protesters has been the release of political prisoners, as well as curbing the all-powerful security forces. Syria blames the violence on armed groups, Islamists and foreign agitators, saying more than 120 police and soldiers have been killed in the unrest nationwide.

Western nations have been pushing for the UN Security Council to condemn the violent repression in Syria, but veto-wielding council members Russia and China have both expressed reservations over a draft resolution. Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad,

Death toll mounts as troops pound hotspots sent troops to crush an armed uprising by the Brotherhood in Hama nearly 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, the Syrian military used heavy machine guns and artiller y in renewed attacks on a town in the country’s turbulent heartland yesterday. At least one person was killed and many others wounded, activists said. The Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which helps organize and document the country’s protests, said heavy gunfire was heard in Rastan, a few miles north of the central city of Homs and under attack since Sunday.

The committee said Ibrahim Salmoun perished in yesterday attacks. His death raises to 16 the number of people killed in the three-day crackdown in Homs province, scene of some of the largest anti-government demonstrations in recent weeks, activists said. The Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad is determined to crush the ten-week old revolt against his rule. The government claims the uprising is the work of Islamic extremists and armed gangs.

Details coming out of Syria are sketchy

because the government has placed severe restrictions on the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify accounts coming out of the country. The committees said the army was shelling Rastan from four directions using Russian-made T-72 tanks.

Activists said the military also shelled a field hospital, destroyed the entrance to the city and its industrial zone.

State-controlled media quoted a Syrian military official as saying army units and security forces in Rastan arrested members of “armed terrorist groups who terrorized citizens and destroyed public and private property.” The official said the military also confiscated a large number of arms and weapons. Two soldiers, including an officer, were killed and four others wounded yesterday, it said.

Mohammad Said Bkheitan, assistant secretary general of the ruling Baath party, said the protest movement nationwide amounted to no more than 100,000 people. “They are the same people who demonstrate each time,” he told Baath party cadres at

Damascus University. His remarks were broadcast on Syrian television late Monday.

Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed and thousands arrested in the government crackdown, which has drawn condemnation and sanctions from the United States and European Union.

Bkheitan said mechanisms for a national dialogue would be announced within the next 48 hours and said a general amnesty is expected to be issued soon. He did not elaborate. The regime has spoke vaguely of reforming the system but has failed to implement changes. Bkheitan said talking about constitutional changes that would allow challenges to Assad in the 2014 presidential election was “premature.” He further suggested that the regime was not ready to amend the portion of the constitution that declares the Baath Party as the leader of the state and society. That is one of the opposition’s key demands. “Now there are other priorities,” Bkheitan said, without elaboration. Activists said that Homs residents used automatic rifles and rocket-propelled

grenades to repel advancing government troops in Rastan and Talbiseh, also in Homs province. Residents put up a fierce fight for the first time in their two-month-old revolt against Assad’s autocratic regime.

The activists said the fighting involved individual residents protecting themselves, not an organized armed resistance with an overall command structure. Monday ’s accounts were the first credible reports of serious resistance by residents taking up arms. Some reports have also surfaced of civilians fighting back in the town of Talkalakh near the border with Lebanon.

Both the government and human rights group say more than 150 soldiers and policemen have been killed since the unrest began.Opponents of the Syrian regime gathered on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast yesterday for a conference aimed at overcoming their differences and bolstering protesters who have endured a bloody crackdown under President Bashar Assad.

The meeting in the southwestern city of Antalya has drawn Syrian exiles living in the West and the Middle East who do not have a significant following inside the country, as well as some activists from inside Syria. —Agencies

Gaddafi: I will not leave my country Dwindling supplies a ‘time bomb’

BELGRADE: An airplane of the Serbian government allegedly carrying Ratko Mladic takes off from Belgrade airport yesterday. — AFP

Mladic on the way to Hague BELGRADE: War crimes suspect Ratko Mladic is on his way to The Hague, the Serbian justice minister said, just hours after judges rejected his appeal yesterday to stop his extradition to a UN tribunal. Snezana Malovic says the process of extraditing Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal “has started.” Mladic’s defense had sought to stop the hand-over, arguing the 69-year-old is not mentally and physically fit to stand trial. Mladic is charged at the tribunal for atrocities committed by his Serb troops during Bosnia’s 1992-5 war.

They include the notorious Srebrenica massacre that left 8,000 Muslim men and boys dead - the worst atrocity against civilians in Europe since World War II. Mladic attorney Milos Saljic visited him in his jail cell in the early afternoon and said the ex-general was crying and very emotional during what he called a farewell visit by his wife and sister. They brought him a big suitcase with clothing he will need in The Hague, Saljic said. Mladic is charged at the tribunal for atrocities committed by his Serb troops during Bosnia’s 1992-5 war, including the notorious Srebrenica massacre that left 8,000 Muslim men and boys dead - the worst atrocity against civilians in Europe since World War II. Mladic was arrested last Thursday in a

village north of Belgrade after 16 years on the run, looking worn and disheveled.

In addition to the appeal, Saljic had asked for a team of doctors to examine Mladic, who is said to have suffered at least two strokes. Prosecutors accused Mladic of using delaying tactics and said nothing should prevent his extradition to the tribunal, maintaining that doctors who have examined him say Mladic is in good enough health to face trial. Earlier yesterday, the ex-general was briefly released from his jail cell, traveling in a secret high-security armored convoy to a suburban cemetery where he visited the grave of the daughter who killed herself in 1994 during the war, reportedly because she was depressed over his brutal role in the war.

At the black marble grave, he left a lit candle and a small white bouquet of flowers with a red rose in the middle. “We didn’t announce his visit to the grave because it is his private thing and because it represented a security risk,” deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said. “The whole operation lasted for exactly 22 minutes and passed without a glitch. He was at the grave for a few minutes.” Mladic had repeatedly demanded that he be allowed to visit the grave, a memorial he had avoided for years as he tried to avoid capture. — AP

TRIPOLI: Muammar Gaddafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said yesterday after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim. But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a “time bomb.”

Within hours of Zuma’s departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital. Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African “roadmap” for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed. The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gaddafi’s refusal to quit-a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire-still the sticking point.

“Col Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue,” Zuma’s office said in a statement. “He emphasised that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties.” Zuma also said Gaddafi’s personal safety “is a concern”-a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family. Speaking in the main rebel stronghold of Benghazi where he was opening a consulate, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he had pledged an aid package for the rebels worth hundreds of millions of euros.

“I think the Gaddafi regime is over and I firmly believe that it is over for a simple reason: we are talking about a person whose closest friends are defecting. He lost his legitimacy in Libya,” Frattini said. Now in its fourth

TRIPOLI: South Africa President Jacob Zuma (left) meets with Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli. — AP month, Libya’s conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gaddafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance towards Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be firmly entrenched. Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya’s third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km south of Tripoli, towards the border with Tunisia.

TIME BOMB Western powers have said they expect Gaddafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll. Panos Moumtzis, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Libya, told Reuters in Tripoli that some food stocks in areas under Gaddafi’s control were likely to last only weeks. “I don’t think there’s any famine, malnutrition. But the

News

Qatari weapons reaching rebels in Libya mountains

in brief

UK government halts anti-extremism film LONDON: Britain’s government has suspended the distribution of an animated film designed to stop young Muslims from becoming Islamic extremists, the maker said yesterday. The short movie, called “Wish You Waziristan”, is a cautionary tale about two British brothers who travel to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region in order to become jihadi fighters after seeing a racist beating. The six-minute film cost £33,000 (38,000 euros, $54,000) of taxpayers’ money to produce.

“The FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) has decided not to release it,” Martin Orton, managing director of Bold Creative, the production house behind the film said. “We think it’s a brilliant piece of work and we think that if it had a chance it would work brilliantly in what it is supposed to do.

But quite sadly we haven’t had the chance to do that.” A Foreign Office spokesman said the film had been commissioned by the previous Labor government in 2009 but no decision on its fate had been taken by the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

Mubarak ‘unfit’ for prison CAIRO: Ailing former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is not well enough to be moved to prison from his hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm elSheikh, the country’s public prosecutor said yesterday. “After having examined (Mubarak’s) medical file and evaluated (facilities) at the hospital in Tora prison, the committee has decided not to transfer the patient outside Sharm el-Sheikh for the moment,” the prosecutor said. Mubarak has been in custody in hospital since April 13 after reportedly suffering a heart attack during questioning about the killing of anti-regime protesters and fraud.

longer the conflict lasts the more the food stocks supplies are going to be depleted, and it’s a matter of weeks before the country reaches a critical situation,” Moumtzis said in an interview.

“The food and the medical supplies is a little bit like a time bomb. At the moment it’s under control and it’s ok. But if this goes on for quite some time, this will become a major issue,” he said. Gaddafi says his forces are fighting armed criminal gangs and Al-Qaeda militants, and has described the NATO intervention as an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya’s plentiful oil reserves.

Libyan television broadcast footage of Gaddafi welcoming Zuma, his first public appearance since May 11. Speculation had been swirling in the past few weeks that Gaddafi was injured in a NATO strike or had fled Tripoli.— Reuters

Mortars bear ‘Qatar’ stamp

TAIZ: An anti-government protestor reacts during clashes with Yemeni security forces in Taiz yesterday. — AP

Street fighting rages across Yemen, tenuous truce ends SANAA: Street fighting raged across the Yemeni capital yesterday after a tenuous truce broke down between tribal groups and forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, edging the impoverished Arab country closer to civil war. Global powers have been pressing Saleh to sign a Gulfled deal to hand over power to try to stem the growing chaos in Yemen, home to Al-Qaeda militants and neighbor to the world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia. The turmoil has been a factor keeping up oil prices yesterday, traders said.

“The ceasefire agreement has ended,” a government official said yesterday adding that tribal groups had gained control of a government building. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said her office had received as yet not fully confirmed reports that more than 50 people had been killed by Yemeni government forces since

Sunday. Yesterday, there were three main flashpoints in the troubled country with street fighting in the capital; government troops gunning down protesters in Taiz and a battle with AlQaeda and Islamic militants in the coastal city of Zinjibar.

Saleh has defied calls from global leaders, elements in his own military and tens of thousands of protesters to end his 33-year-rule which has brought Yemen close to financial ruin. He has also exasperated his rich Gulf Arab neighbors by three times agreeing to step down, and three times pulling out of the deals at the very last minute and clinging on to power. Battles in the capital overnight brought an end to a truce between Saleh’s forces and tribesmen brokered at the weekend after more than 115 people were killed street battles last week. — Reuters

ZINTAN: Rebel fighters in Libya’s Western Mountains say they are smuggling in arms and ammunition from the rebel coastal stronghold in Benghazi, via Tunisia, and at least some of the weapons appear to originate in Qatar. Officially, rebels fighting on the western front of Libya’s three-month-old war say the only way they replenish ammunition is by taking it from enemy soldiers they capture or kill in battles with forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

Some are poorly-equipped, and heavy weaponry does appear to be in short supply. But there is evidence of new weapons and ammunition reaching the mountains through the only supply route, the rebel-held Wazin-Dehiba border crossing with Tunisia. In the rebelcontrolled town of Zintan, 150 km southwest of the Libyan capital Tripoli, Reuters journalists saw a complete, brand new mortar base plate, mortar tube and 42 mortar shells still vacuum-packed. The set included new scopes and rucksacks to transport the equipment. The packaging had the word “Qatar,” in English, stenciled onto it. The cache included new military fatigues, radios and boxes of Germanmade Steiner binoculars that cost around $1,000 per pair, though some of the equipment did appear to be Libyan army issue. At another location, Reuters saw new Milan anti-tank guided missiles.

ARMS ‘FROM OUTSIDE’ A senior rebel fighter in the region said the rebellion in the mountains was running low on ammunition, but that the insurgents expected more supplies to arrive “from outside”. “It’s coming from Benghazi,” he said. “From Benghazi through Tunisia. They’re saying it’s just milk and food. It’s easy to bring the stuff in. This is the only way.”

He said some of the goods originated in France, but offered no evidence. He said the supplies included ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and other “heavy weapons”.

Qatar has been the Arab country most staunchly supportive of the Libyan rebels and the NATO-led effort to stop Gaddafi’s forces from attacking civilians. Qatar, an OPEC member in the Gulf region, has sold 1 million barrels of crude on behalf of the rebels and said in April it had shipped four tankers full of gasoline, diesel and other refined fuels to Benghazi. Government officials in Qatar were not immediately available to comment on whether they were supplying weapons to the rebels. — Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

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

Haqqani: From White House guest to staunch US enemy ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is gearing up for a military offensive against North Waziristan, a local newspaper reported, an operation that would pit the army against some of the world’s most dangerous militants in the tribal region along the Afghan border.

Washington will push Pakistan to eliminate the Haqqani network-which is based in North Waziristan and is one of its fiercest enemies just across the border in Afghanistan-in any North Waziristan operation. While the Pakistani military has launched major offensives in other regions in its unruly tribal belt, it has been hesitant to attack North Waziristan, which could pose the biggest risk. Here are some questions and answers on the Haqqani network: WHAT IS THE HAQQANI NETWORK? Named after its leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, it is one of three, and perhaps the most feared, of the Talebanallied insurgent factions fighting US-led NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan. Jalaluddin gained notoriety as an anti-Soviet mujahideen commander in Afghanistan in the 1980s. His bravery and ability to organize mujahideen fighters won him funding and weapons from US and Pakistani intelligence services

and Saudi Arabia. Former US Congressman Charlie Wilson, who fund-raised for the Afghan resistance, once called Jalaluddin “goodness personified”. The warrior was held in such high esteem he visited the White House when Ronald Reagan was President.

After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Haqqani turned his ferocity and battle skills on Western forces.

He earned a top spot on the CIA hit list, along with his old friend Osama bin Laden, whom he met during the anti-Soviet resistance. Despite ill health, Jalaluddin, who is in his 70s, still inspires Haqqani foot soldiers believed to number up to 4,000, as well as other militant groups who revere him. His son Siraj, seen as more ruthless, runs the daily affairs of the network.

WHERE DO THE HAQQANIS OPERATE? The Haqqanis are ethnic Pashtuns from the Zadran tribe in southeastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province. The group is active across much of southeastern Afghanistan and seeks to regain full control over its traditional bases in Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces. The Haqqanis are thought to have introduced suicide bombing to Afghanistan. They are believed to have been behind several high-profile

attacks in Afghanistan including a raid on Kabul’s top hotel, an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and a suicide attack on the Indian embassy.

The Haqqanis are based in North Waziristan, although they have been heavily targeted in recent months by missiles fired from pilotless US drone aircraft. The Haqqanis have become one of the biggest sources of tension between allies Washington and Islamabad. Pakistan has denied supporting the Haqqanis but has long resisted US pressure to launch a full-scale offensive in Waziristan to crush the network for both domestic and foreign policy reasons.

As one of the most powerful insurgent groups in Afghanistan, the Haqqanis could act as a spoiler if Pakistan feels its interests are threatened in any settlement to the ten-year war.

It also sees the Haqqanis as the best insurance policy against the growing influence of rival India in Afghanistan. But caving in to Washington and attacking the Haqqanis could further destabilize Pakistan.

The armed forces are already stretched fighting a nexus of dangerous homegrown militants-both Taleban and other groups - who have found shelter in

Haqqani-controlled territory and in return for an unofficial protective shield. “They see him (Jalaluddin) as the Guardian of the Al-Qaeda forces in this region. If Pakistani troops launch an all-out attack on the Haqqani network that would mean upsetting the hornet’s nest,” said Imtiaz Gul, author of “The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan’s Lawless Frontier”.

WOULD HAQQANIS FIT INTO AFGHAN PEACE SETTLEMENT? Pakistan hopes the United States will eventually welcome the participation of the Haqqanis in any Afghan peace talks. Kabul also understands the group can’t be excluded. Although the Haqqanis fall under the command of Taleban leader Mullah Omar, US officials believe they do not always accept Taleban authority and can act independently. Jalaluddin has historically shown a penchant for changing sides, as the Americans know all too well, and he may be more flexible than the hardline Siraj. Washington is scrambling to bring stability to Afghanistan before its gradual withdrawal in July of 2011. Striking a deal with the Haqqanis may be wise while the ailing Jalaluddin might still have a say. — Reuters

US to view major cyber attacks as acts of war Gates to reassure Asian allies

MONTERREY: Forensic personnel and members of the state police look at two bodies of taxicab drivers killed in Monterrey city, northern Mexico. Six civilians were killed, presumably by the organize crime, including five taxicab drivers and a woman. — AFP

Seven killed in Mexican resort ACAPULCO: Shootings and attacks in Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Acapulco left two police officers, three suspected drug cartel gunmen and two other men dead, police said Monday.

The confrontations on Sunday began when gunmen traveling in a convoy of eight vehicles opened fire on an Acapulco municipal police patrol car Sunday, killing two officers. Federal officers responding to the reports of gunfire later located the convoy; in the ensuing gunfight, three suspects were killed. Police in Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, said in statement said that the three dead assailants were found with assault rifles, military-style uniforms and bulletproof vests.

The mutilated body of a man was found inside the trunk of a vehicle along a federal highway, police said on Monday. Officials also reported finding

the bullet-riddled body of a 20-year-old man with his feet and hands tied in a residential neighborhood. Police gave no motives or identities of the men killed. Ramon Almonte, the Guerrero state police chief, said on Monday he will ask the federal congress to make it easier for common citizens to get permits for weapons to defend themselves. Almonte’s brother was killed on Jan. 1 in a rural town in Guerrero by unidentified gunmen. The state has been plagued by such executions.

“When you fight someone and at least you have a ‘piece,’ the person who is attacking you might think twice,” Almonte said. “We cannot go on the way we are.” At present, Mexico’s constitution allows citizens to have one or two low-caliber guns in their homes, but they must get a permit from the Defense Department and the process is

complicated. Almonte did not give specifics on how he would make it easier. “Having a weapon should be a right, because the bad guys are few and we, the good guys, are many, so we can’t allow ourselves to be held hostage by the few,” Almonte said.

Federal police also reported Monday that the bodies of four more attackers had been found near the scene of a gun battle that occurred last week in the western Mexico states of Jalisco.

The discovery of the four bodies brings the total number of assailants killed in the confrontation Friday to 15.

Federal police had earlier reported finding the bodies of 11 victims. Federal police raided the area Friday after one of their helicopters was fired on May 24; two officers aboard the craft were injured. —AP

Honduran ex-first lady eyes presidential seat TEGUCIGALPA: The wife of ex-president Manuel Zelaya has hinted in an interview that she is preparing her own presidential bid, just days after returning to Honduras with her husband after months in exile. Tens of thousands of people cheered and waved banners at a rally near the Tegucigalpa airport to welcome Zelaya and former first lady Xiomara Castro home at the weekend. The deal allowing Zelaya back includes talks towards changing the constitution to allow presidential re-election, but it is unclear if this will affect the ex-president. Barring any changes,

Zelaya supporters want Castro, 51, to run for president.

Zelaya has himself suggested Castro was already a candidate-”The one who is engaged in politics is the first lady, I’m just a simple citizen,” he said Sunday at his first press appearance since his return. Castro was however coy about the possibility in an interview with AFP at her home in Tegucigalpa. “Before the coup, I always thought that once the term finished, I would return to the house and dedicate myself to my family... but I have talked about it with my children and said things have changed,” Castro said. “ We have assumed a responsibility... and there’s no limit to our commitment,” she said. Castro said that Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s president 20062010, and current Argentine President Cristina Kirchner are good role models. “It seems to me that Bachelet’s presidency marked a turning point, and gave strong support to social issues,” Castro said. And Cristina Kirchner, who succeeded her husband, the late Nestor Kirchner, “also has played an important role in her country,” she said.

Soldiers kicked Zelaya out of office at gunpoint on June 28, 2009 in a military coup sanctioned by the Honduran legislature and supreme court.

The couple was allow to end their foreign exile as part of a deal that ends Honduras’ diplomatic isolation and gives the government of President Porfirio Lobo access to foreign investment and aid.

Despite his popularity, barring a constitutional change Zelaya, 58, cannot run in the 2013 presidential elections because Honduran presidents are limited to a single term in office. —AFP

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has adopted a new strategy that will classify major cyber attacks as acts of war, paving the way for possible militar y retaliation, the Wall Street Journal repor ted yesterday. The newspaper said the Pentagon plans to unveil its first- ever strategy regarding cyber warfare next month, in part as a warning to foes that may try to sabotage the country’s electricity grid, subways or pipelines. “If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” it quoted a military official as saying.

The newspaper, citing three officials who had seen the document, said the strategy would maintain that the existing international rules of armed conflict-embodied in treaties and customs-would apply in cyberspace. It said the Pentagon would likely decide whether to respond militarily to cyber attacks based on the notion of “equivalence”-whether the attack was comparable in damage to a conventional military strike. Such a decision would also depend on

whether the precise source of the attack could be determined.

The decision to formalize the rules of cyber war comes after the Stuxnet attack last year ravaged Iran’s nuclear program. That attack was blamed on the United States and Israel, both of which declined to comment on it. It also follows a major cyber attack on the US military in 2008 that served as a wake-up call and prompted major changes in how the Pentagon handles digital threats, including the formation of a new cyber military command. Over the weekend Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense contractors, said it was investigating the source of a “significant and tenacious” cyber attack against its information network one week ago. President Barack Obama was briefed about the attack.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretar y Robert Gates plans to reassure anxious allies in Asia this week that the US military will maintain a strong presence in the region despite budget pressures at home, officials said.

The Pentagon chief will address the

allies’ concerns “head on” at a security conference this week in Singapore, said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. As Washington moves to tackle a ballooning deficit and debt, Asian allies fear a scaling back of the US military’s role just as China’s armed forces take a more assertive stance, defense officials said.

“There’s no doubt that the region has that concern, and I think it’s one that we’re well aware of, and hence it’s one the secretary will want to address,” the official told reporters.

Gates, who departed yesterday on his global tour, will seek “to assure the region that we will maintain our commitments in the region and that we have both the capability in addition to the will to do so,” the official said.

In a speech in Singapore, Gates is “going to talk in greater detail than in the past about what we in DoD (Department of Defense) are doing to make that more tangible, specifically in terms of US presence in the region,” the official said.—Agencies

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

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

Fatal whipping exposes Bangladesh’s fatwa crimes SHARIATPUR: When Bangladeshi teenager Hena Akhter was raped by her cousin, their village council issued a fatwa ordering a public whipping as punishment - 101 lashes for her, 201 for him. Hena collapsed after 70 lashes and died six days later at home in the remote Chamta village in Shariatpur district, triggering a national outcry over the illegal penalty and the police cover-up that allegedly followed.

“The council used a wet piece of cloth with a knot at one end to whip her. There was nothing I could do to stop them,” Hena’s mother Aklema Begum said as she recalled her 14-yearold daughter’s fatal ordeal in January this year. “My brother-in-law saw it.

When Hena first fell over after 30 lashes, they made her stand up again and kept going. She couldn’t speak or eat afterwards, and she was bleeding through her nose, ears and mouth.”

Hena is buried in a simple grave next to her family’s small mud and plank house in a village that has no electricity or running water and is a 30-minute walk through rice paddies from the nearest paved road. Her death has highlighted Bangladesh’s struggle to regulate fatwas, religious decrees normally issued by Islamic scholars. They were banned in 2001, but earlier this month

local doctors and police are now under investigation for the attempted coverup. Khan and the seven-member village council who issued the fatwa have been arrested and are awaiting trial and Hena’s family have been given 24-hour police protection after receiving death threats. Reflecting rural Bangladeshis’ widespread ignorance of their own rights and justice system, Hena’s family said they had no idea that the village council did not have any legal authority to punish their daughter.

Access to justice is so limited outside of the capital Dhaka that up to 80 percent of disputes are resolved by village councils-which are known as shalishsaid Falzul Huq of the Madaripur Legal Aid Association. “Judiciary is very costly, time consuming and ringed with corruption,” he said, adding there were two million cases pending at the country’s courts. “But (whipping) is illegal, and the law of the country should take care of it as they do not have the right to beat anybody or torture anybody in the name of shalish,” Huq said. In Hena’s case, the village council that issued the fatwa included the wife of her rapist and his sister-in-law but no one with even basic training in Islamic law, leading human rights lawyer Sara Hossain said.

the Supreme Court in Dhaka ruled that they could be issued on personal and religious matters if they did not impose physical punishment.

Rights groups have criticized the latest ruling and said that villages far from Bangladesh’s secular courts have always continued using fatwas to sentence people to whippings in defiance of any national law. Hena’s case shows there is a degree of sympathy for such punishments, particularly in rape cases, due to a “mindset that always blames the woman,” said lawyer Salma Ali. Ali, who is representing Hena’s family in court, said that police, doctors and hospital staff colluded to conceal the real cause of Hena’s death, which they knew was illegal.

An initial autopsy by local doctors found “no visible injury marks” on Hena’s body and the first police report did not record the death as murder, instead claiming Hena was having an extra-marital affair with Mahbub Khan, 45. “ This was systematic violence against this girl,” said Ali. “Why didn’t the police record this case properly? Why didn’t the hospital treat her properly?

Who paid money to get this covered up?”

A second post mortem found Hena had died of internal bleeding and the

SHARIATPUR: Aklema Begum, the mother of Hena Akhter, speaks during an interview with AFP at her home in Shariatpur. When Bangladeshi teenager Hena was raped by her cousin, their village council issued a fatwa ordering a public whipping - 101 lashes for her, 201 for him - as punishment. — AFP

Hossain, who is pushing for an outright ban, said the Supreme Court ruling has left a huge legal grey area by allowing fatwa on “religious issues”, but leaving it up to local preachers to decide what this covers. “The fatwa giver will say ‘I’m not making anyone be whipped or caned. People are doing whatever

they’re doing based on what they feel, I just happen to have expressed a view’,” she said. In Chamta village, Hena’s family say they wish they had known enough at the time to prevent her punishment, and that they are determined to fight for justice. “Her memory is always with us, it is driving us,” her mother said. — AFP

NATO risks becoming an ‘occupying force’: Karzai Afghan leader threatens unspecified action KABUL: President Hamid Karzai warned NATOled forces in Afghanistan yesterday they were at risk of being seen as an occupying force rather than an ally after a spate of civilian casualties, and said he would take unspecified “action” if they continue. Raids on Afghan homes in pursuit of insurgents were “not allowed”, and the patience of the Afghan people with the tactic had run out, Karzai said, underlining the challenge of winning popular support for an increasingly violent war.

“We see NATO from the point of view of an ally ... If they don’t stop air strikes on Afghan homes, their presence in Afghanistan will be considered as an occupying force and against the will of the Afghan people,” he told reporters.

The fiery speech also underlined Karzai’s desire to forge an image as champion of Afghanistan and distance himself from the Western troops who have spent nearly a decade fighting the Taleban, as resentment against the foreign presence grows.

Karzai’s rise to power in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taleban was due in no small part to Western support, something which his critics have not forgotten. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said General David Petraeus, the commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, understood that a “liberation force” could be seen over time as an occupation force because of incidents such as civilian casualties. “We are in agreement with President Karzai on the importance of constantly examining our actions in light of that reality,” Rear Admiral Vic Beck, director of ISAF public affairs, said in a statement.

Karzai sharply condemned NATO air strikes which inadvertently killed at least nine peoplemost of them small children-in southern Helmand on Sunday. The strikes were ordered after a patrol had come under fire. Civilian casualties caused by foreign troops have long been a major source of friction between Karzai and his Western backers. Karzai warned the tactics were a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

“They must stop bombarding Afghan homes ...

If they do not, the Afghan government will be forced to take unilateral action,” Karzai said, declining to go into detail about what his government would do if the tactics were not stopped. UN figures show at least three-quarters of civilian casualties are caused by insurgents.

KARZAI’S OPTIONS LIMITED Holding up one finger, Karzai said he had warned NATO commanders “a hundred times”, and hoped to meet them again this week to reinforce that message. But with an army and police still not strong enough to fight the bat-

tle-hardened Taleban on their own, it was unclear how Karzai hoped to persuade NATO to give up a tactic they say has brought crucial gains against the insurgents.

“If more civilian deaths happen, maybe Karzai will actually do something, such as stopping Afghan forces from participating in joint operations,” said Waheed Mujhda, political analyst at the Afghan Analytical and Advisory Centre in Kabul. “But this is dangerous.

Afghanistan is in crisis and the Afghan forces do not have the capacity to run things on their own,” Mujhda told Reuters. NATO is racing against the clock to train Afghanistan’s police and army before handing over all security responsibilities to the Afghans by the end of 2014. That process begins with several areas in July.

CHILDREN KILLED Tension boiled over at the weekend after the strikes on a compound in Helmand’s Nawzad district. Graphic television footage after the strikes showed grieving relatives cradling the bodies of several children, including babies.

The commander of ISAF troops in the region apologized for the deaths, saying the strikes on the compound had been ordered because insurgents were using them as a base. US and NATO commanders have stepped up the use of air strikes and night raids in the past 12 months, arguing they are effective weapons against insurgents who often hide among the Afghan population.

However commanders have significantly tightened the rules for using both tactics over the past two years amid a growing outcry from Afghan leaders. Beck said this had helped reduce the number of civilian casualties caused by ISAF and that Petraeus had issued new guidance to troops two weeks ago. “General Petraeus emphasized the importance of doing everything within our power to reduce the number of civilian casualties,” Beck said. — Reuters

President Hamid Karzai

HAJO: People look at a bus that plunged into a pond in Charabari near Hajo village, about 40 kilometers west of Gauhati, India. (Below) Indian villagers look at the bodies of victims after a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into a large pond. — AP

Wedding bus plunge into a gorge; 28 die NEW DELHI: At least 28 members of a wedding party were killed in India’s northeastern state of Assam when their bus plunged into a gorge after hitting a wooden bridge, officials said yesterday. Among the dead were the groom and his relatives, who were travelling to the bride’s house to attend wedding rituals. Local people rushed to the scene and tried to save passengers trapped inside the vehicle, TV channels reported.

The accident took place on Monday night in Kamrup district, 30 kilometers from Assam’s main city of Guwahati. About 40 people were thought to be on the crowded bus, with several taken to hospital with serious injuries. “Ten people survived with injuries, while 28 bodies were recovered from the gorge by locals and rescue workers,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam’s health minister said after visiting the accident site.

The state government ordered a probe into the accident amid complaints that the bridge was in a dilapidated state.

In another road incident in Assam late on Monday, four people were burnt to death and 12 severely injured when a tanker carrying petrol turned over and exploded on a highway causing a fire in nearby homes. “The tanker skidded off the road. Several homes along the highway were set ablaze and sleeping villagers were killed,” said police officer B Bora.

India has the highest annual road death toll in the world, according to the World Health Organization, with accidents caused by speeding, careless driving and poor roads. About 125,000 people or about 350 a day died on the country’s notoriously dangerous roads in 2009, according to the latest statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau. — AFP

17 die as Pakistan pounds Taleban hideouts KALAYA: Pakistani warplanes attacked Taleban positions in the northwestern Orakzai region yesterday, killing 17 militants, a senior regional government official said. Orakzai is one of seven ethnic Pashtun tribal areas where the Pakistani army has tried to root out militants with offensives against their strongholds. The strike came a day after a local newspaper reported that Pakistan will launch an offensive in North Waziristan, a known sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants also located in Pakistan’s tribal belt.

Pakistan’s performance in fighting militancy has come under close scrutiny again after it was discovered that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin

Laden had been living in the country. Army operations in areas like Orakzai have failed to break the back of militant groups such as the Pakistani Taleban, who have stepped up suicide bombings since US special forces killed bin Laden near Islamabad on May 2. “We had information that militants gathered there and were planning attacks so we launched the attack,” a local senior government official told Reuters. He said 17 militants were killed and six wounded in the Orakzai operation.

US PRESSURE Residents in the town of Mamoozai, where the air strike took place, said several helicopter

gunships were hovering overhead hours after the attack. After the bin Laden raid, the United States told Pakistan it needs to step up the fight against militants, and government officials said Mamoozai has become a hub for militants who fled military operations elsewhere in the tribal belt, a strategy that has enabled them to survive army assaults. The Pakistani Taleban, which has strong ties to Al-Qaeda, has attacked army recruits, a naval base, and trucks carrying fuel to US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan to avenge the death of bin Laden. On Yesterday, gunmen on a motorcycle attacked and torched two NATO trucks in southwestern Baluchistan province, a provincial government official said. — Reuters

India, Pakistan fail to break ice on glacier NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan failed yesterday to break ice on how to demilitarize the world’s highest battlefield in the Himalayan region in a sign of how far apart the nuclear-armed rivals are even on less contentious issues. Defense secretaries from both countries held two days of closed-door talks in New Delhi on how to agree on withdrawing troops from the financially costly, mountainous no-man’s land above the Siachen glacier and defining the official border.

Military experts say the inhospitable climate and avalanche-prone terrain have claimed more lives than gunfire.

Indian media reported that both sides had stuck to their long-standing positions. “Neither can we say this is a success or a failure. But we

cannot say there is forward movement,” an Indian Defense Ministry official, who declined to be identified said. Failure to make progress on one of the less contentious issues between the arch enemies will worry those hoping for progress on broader peace talks, which resumed in April this year following pressure from the United States. India and Pakistan have long accepted the need to demilitarize the Siachen glacier, located as high as 20,000 feet above sea level, which is seen as a stepping stone to larger issues such as the disputed Kashmir territory.

The two sides welcomed the dialogue but made no mention in a joint statement of any progress. Instead, they announced they would meet yet again in Islamabad, which would be

the 13th round of talks on the issue. “Both sides presented their position and suggestions towards the resolution of Siachen,” they said in the statement. The talks in Delhi were the first meeting of the top civil servants from their ministries in more than three years. The Pakistani officials also visited India’s historic Taj Mahal monument, according to Indian media. The odds were always stacked against a major breakthrough but Indian officials said they had hoped to make some progress in the long-running dispute.

FACE-OFF ON MOUNTAIN The two armies have faced off in the Siachen region since India first stationed troops there in

1984. New Delhi broke off a stumbling peace process that came close to agreeing a solution to Siachen after the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistani-based militants that killed 166. India has long maintained that it was unwilling to bring its forces down from Siachen until Pakistan authenticated the positions they held.

Pakistan in turn has said it was willing to do so, but on the condition it was not a final endorsement of India’s claim to the glacier. A ceasefire has held on the remote battlefield since 2003.

The strategic importance of the glacier, in the Karakoram range, is debatable. Until 1984, no troops were permanently stationed there but now there are at least 10,000 Pakistani and Indian soldiers.

India controls the heights and is loath to back off for fear Pakistan might walk in. The neighbors have fought three wars since independence in 1947, and their rivalry complicates Western efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and the South Asia region. The divided, mostly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of their six-decade-old hostility, with New Delhi accusing Islamabad of training and harboring militants to strike targets in the Indian-controlled state. India and Pakistan have long struggled to normalize ties, with both deeply suspicious of each other, but Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was born in what is now Pakistan, has staked his foreign policy legacy on improving ties.— Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

12

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

i n t e r n at i o n a l

Oil spill and blast hit crippled nuke plant Workers battle to get reactors under control TOKYO: An oil spill and a small explosion have caused limited damage - but no further radiation leaks - at the crippled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan, the plant operator said yesterday. Workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant found an oil spill in the sea near reactors five and six, which were in shutdown when the earthquake and tsunami struck March 11, Tokyo Electric Power Co said. The spill was contained by an oil fence, TEPCO spokesman Taichi Okazaki said. The explosion workers heard at reactor four was likely from a gas tank and did not cause any additional radiation leaks, Okazaki said.

KATHMANDU: In this file photo, Nepalese policemen salute the burning pyre of Nepal’s late King Dipendra during his cremation on the banks of the holy river Bagmati in Kathmandu. —AFP

Nepal’s royal massacre still a mystery 10 years on KATHMANDU: A decade after Nepal’s crown prince stunned the world by gunning down nine family members, mystery still surrounds the massacre that plunged the monarchy into a crisis from which it never recovered. Many Nepalese believe they may never know the truth about the night of June 1, 2001, when a drink- and drugs-fuelled prince Dipendra ran amok with an automatic weapon at a family dinner at the palace in the capital Kathmandu.

Dipendra, dressed in military fatigues, killed his revered father, King Birendra, his mother, brother and sister and five other relatives before shooting himself, according to official findings. The 31-year-old Eton-educated heir to the throne was believed to have been crazed with anger after being stopped by the queen from marrying the woman he loved. But conspiracy theories continue to swirl in Nepal about the bloodbath, which caused outpourings of hysterical grief in the impoverished nation where the king was seen as the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

“The high-level (government) commission formed to investigate the massacre only reported what happened and how it happened,” said Vivek Kumar Shah, a former military secretary at the royal palace.

“It didn’t say why it happened,” he added.

Shah said some internal and external forces could have provoked the crown prince but declined to elaborate, saying only: “There were interest groups who wanted to end the monarchy.” The royal massacre, believed to have been the worst since Russia’s Romanovs were shot on the order of Vladimir Lenin in 1918, prompted rumors about the possible role in the slayings of the king’s less popular brother, Gyanendra.

Gyanendra was away from the Nepalese capital on the night of the killings. “The people, who were numb with grief, reached a hasty conclusion it was a conspiracy (involving Gyanendra),” Kishor Shrestha, editor of Nepalese week-

ly Jana Aastha, said. From the start of his reign, Gyanendra was much less beloved than his brother who in 1990 had legalized political parties, ushering in a new era of democracy and constitutional monarchy. Gyanendra’s unpopularity only deepened when he dismissed the government and embarked on a period of autocratic rule in 2005, a move that united Maoist rebels with political parties, paving the way for mass protests that forced the king to step down three years ago.

A Maoist-dominated constitutional assembly declared a republic in May 2008. Many ordinary Nepalese were delighted to see the back of the dour king as well as his playboy would-be heir, Paras. On June 11, 2008, Gyanendra left the palace for a hunting lodge on Kathmandu’s outskirts, marking the final end to a royal lineage founded by his warrior ancestor Prithvi Narayan Shah, who conquered dozens of small kingdoms in the 18th century. “The monarchy lost its traditional respect” with Gyanendra’s decision to dismiss the government, said Nepalese journalist Yubaraj Ghimire. “Looking back, I think the politics of 2006 when the Maoists and other parties were arrayed against the monarchy played a critical role in its demise,” Ghimire said.

Now, Nepal remains in tumult, racked by political crisis as parties struggle to draft a new constitution and oversee the peace process that began when the decade-long Maoist civil war ended in 2006. The widespread hope that followed the end of the conflict and the abolition of the unpopular monarchy has been replaced by a growing sense of anger and frustration in Nepal, one of the world’s poorest countries. And 10 years on from the royal massacre, even though many Nepalese believe they still do not know the full truth, there is a waning desire to reopen old wounds with another investigation. “Nobody is interested in probing it,” Shrestha said.—AFP

Private part hacked off, tendered as ‘evidence’ DHAKA: A Bangladeshi man who had his penis cut off by a woman who then took it to the police as evidence of attempted rape said yesterday he was the victim of a revenge plot by his former lover. Mozzammel Majhi’s penis was severed by the 40-year-old woman, a married mother of three, who said she was attacked while sleeping. She gave the penis to police, who are keeping it at the police station in a jar of formaldehyde.

Majhi said he had had a 15-year relationship with the woman, who is from Jhalakathi district, some 200 kilometers south of Dhaka. “I am a double victim: first, she cut my penis and now police say they are going to arrest me for attempted rape,” Majhi said by telephone from his hospital bed in the city of Barisal. Majhi, a 40-year-old father of five, claimed he had been seeing the woman for years and that she had previously suggested they to elope to Dhaka together.

But local police chief Abul Khaer

said that initial investigations of the incident on Saturday night supported the woman’s version of the story. “We are treating this as an attempted rape case because the incident took place at the woman’s house,” he said. “Why did he go there? We shall arrest him once his condition gets better,” he said, adding that if convicted, Majhi could face life in prison.

The woman has said Majhi had been harassing her for six months prior to the attack. Majhi was hospitalized in a critical condition, but he had since improved, doctor A B Sharfuzzaman said. “We have informed police that he is now in our wards,” he said, adding they had tried to sew the penis back on, but that “it was too late so the severed part was returned to police”. “We have done some operations and he will be able to urinate normally once he gets better,” he said. Conflicting reports said the woman had used a knife or a razor blade in the attack. —AFP

China warns Vietnam BEIJING: China warned Vietnam yesterday against creating “new incidents” in the disputed South China Sea, after Vietnam accused China of increasing tension with the harassment of a Vietnamese oil exploration ship by three Chinese patrol boats. The Vietnamese ship, the Binh Minh 02, detected the Chinese patrol boats approaching on radar early last Thursday, the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

About an hour later, the three Chinese boats intentionally ran through the area where the Vietnamese ship was working, snapping cables it was using, then left the scene after about three hours, it said.

China’s Foreign Ministry defended the action of the Chinese boats. “ The enforcement activities that China’s maritime ships undertook with the illegally

operated Vietnamese ships are completely justified,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. “We urge the Vietnamese side to immediately stop their activities from infringing on our sovereignty and refrain from creating new incidents,” she added.

Jiang said last week China opposed Vietnam’s oil and gas exploration which “undermined China’s interests and jurisdictional rights in the South China Sea”.

The incident happened about 120 km off the south-central coast of Vietnam and some 600 km south of China’s Hainan island. China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim territories in the South China Sea, which cover an important shipping route and are thought to hold untapped oil and gas reserves. —Reuters

The cause was being investigated. The main problems at Fukushima Dai-ichi are involve reactors one, two and three, where the fuel cores have largely melted. Scientists and government officials say the reactors are short of a full meltdown, in which the fuel breaks through the bottom of the outer container.

Workers have been fighting to get the reactors under control after the tsunami destroyed backup power generators, halting crucial cooling systems that managed the fuel temperature.

In the immediate days after the tsunami, several explosions larger than yesterday’s hit the plant and scattered highly radioactive debris and puffs of radioactive particles into the environment. The plant has also leaked tons of radioactive water, which officials are promising to clean up. TEPCO has promised to bring the plant under control by January, but fears are growing that was too optimistic. Concerns about the risks workers face there surged this week as TEPCO said two workers might have exceeded a radiation exposure limit. The government had raised the limit for men soon after the earthquake and tsunami set off the crisis at the plant.

TEPCO has been instructed to check internal exposure levels of all workers who might have worked closely with the two men and to remove all of them from

ISHINOMAKI: Vehicles run through a flooded road at the earthquake and tsunami devastated city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture. —AFP plant duties until the checks are made, Health Minister Ritsuo Hosokawa said. “Workers who had engaged in similar plant work also might have been internally exposed,” Hosokawa said.

Further testing is being done on the two men who were responsible for central control rooms of

two reactors, and the company has said they do not show immediate health problems.

More than 2,000 workers tested so far did not have exposure levels beyond the limit, but hundreds more are waiting to be tested, TEPCO spokesman Takeo Iwamoto said. Also yesterday,

TEPCO said it has finished its promised payment of preliminary compensation of 1 million yen ($12,300) for 50,000 households affected by the nuclear crisis. The company said it has started temporary compensation payment for farmers to cover their crop damages.—AP

S Lanka ‘terror’ seminar under war crimes cloud

BANGKOK: Anudith Nakornthap, a Pheu Thai party candidate, speaks under a giant portrait of party’s leader Yingluck Shinawatra during an election campaign rally in Bangkok. —AP

Thai Fugitive Thaksin denies PM ambitions SYDNEY: Fugitive Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has denied he has ambitions to be leader again, but admitted his youngest sister Yingluck, who is challenging for the post, is his “clone”. In a rare television interview at his luxury gated-community home in Dubai, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Lateline” program he was confident his Puea Thai party would win July 3 elections. But he played down suggestions that his ultimate goal was to once again rule the country.

“My youngest sister is already there, so no need for me to go back as a prime minister,” said Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to escape a jail term for graft. “I still want to be a lecturer, that’s my dream. Playing golf.

Giving guidance for my children-for their business endeavors. That’s what I really want to.” The polls will pit Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra against his arch-foe, current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the elite-backed Democrat Party, in what is expected to be a closely fought battle.

Recent surveys show Puea Thai pulling ahead in the race with the party posting 43 percent approval to the Democrat Party ’s 37 percent in a Suan Dusit Rajabhat University poll released on Sunday. Yingluck, 43, is politically inexperienced and many in Thailand feel her nomination as the opposition candidate for premier confirms Thaksin’s central role in the kingdom’s political landscape despite living in exile. Thaksin, hailed by many rural and working class Thais for his populist policies for the masses but loathed by the Bangkok-based elite which sees him as corrupt and authoritarian, admitted he still has clout.

“Well, I may influence in terms of the

ideas and thinking because I have more experience than others and then I just want to see them have success,” he told the programme which aired late Monday. “And I just share my experience as former prime minister and the experience of running around the whole world.” But he denied his sister, who is 18 years his junior, was his puppet and that he was pulling the strings. “No, no, no,” he said, instead saying she was his “clone” in terms of having “the same culture, the same background, the same ideas, the same attitude, the same thinking.”

“Well, she’s my youngest sister. She worked for me from the beginning. So I teach her, I train her, the working habit style is nearly exactly like me,” he said.

The photogenic Yingluck has a business background but hardly any political experience. Thaksin said that did not matter. “She been passing through a lot of experiences even though she is a lady, but the lady is good without political baggage, is good for leading reconciliation,” he said.

“Even myself, I didn’t have much experience in politics when I jump to prime minister, and she been observing politics through my father as a former MP and through myself as the prime minister.”

Yingluck has made clear that an amnesty for those on political charges is a priority, but Thaksin denied her nomination was all about getting his slate wiped clean so he could return to politics. “No, it’s not,” he said. “Reconciliation is the priority, not the amnesty. Reconciliation: amnesty may be part of it, but not all. “In the process, bring back unity of the country.

I’m part of that. Then, I might benefit as part of it, but I don’t care much because I’m quite settled outside.”—AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka pressed ahead yesterday with an international seminar aimed at sharing its experience of defeating terrorism despite a boycott campaign and new claims that its troops committed war crimes. The seminar entitled “Defeating Terrorism, Sri Lankan Experience” has been co-sponsored by China, but rights groups have called for a boycott and major nations such as the United States and Japan have stayed away.

A massive military offensive crushed the country’s separatists two years ago, bringing peace to the country for the first time in decades but also sparking allegations of war crimes. On Monday, a UN envoy confirmed that a video allegedly depicting Sri Lankan troops executing Tamil Tiger rebels was authentic and that the actions constituted “definitive war crimes” that should be investigated.

“I believe that the prima facie case of serious international crimes has been made by the video that I’ve examined,” Christof Heyns, UN special rapporteur on executions, told the UN Human Rights Council. His precedessor had also authenticated the video, but Heyns presented his own findings from a probe that examined a longer version of the video and included input from a pathologist, video analysts and a firearms expert. A panel of UN experts advising the world body’s secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, concluded last month there were “credible allegations” of government forces shelling civilians, bombing hospitals and killing surrendering rebels.

Sri Lanka has denied that any civilians were killed and believes it is being unfairly targeted after successfully ending a war that claimed an estimated 100,000 lives amid regular suicide bombings of government targets. Sri Lanka’s defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, told the seminar’s opening session yesterday that mass army recruitment was key to ending the decades-long civil war. “We had a large but essential expansion of the army. It grew from 120,000 to 220,000 (from 2005 to 2009),” Rajapakse said.

He added that he and the president had displayed a strong will to crush the Tigers. Sri Lanka called the three-day conference saying that other countries could benefit from studying its success in defeating the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a major offensive in May 2009. But New York-based Human Rights Watch has urged a boycott of the seminar due to claims that thousands of civilians died in military bombing of so-called no-fire zones. “Sri Lanka’s self-proclaimed ‘model’ of counter-insurgency included repeatedly shelling civilians, targeting hospitals, and trying to prevent the world from finding out about it,” Human Rights Watch said.

HRW’s Asia Director Brad Adams said no rightsrespecting nation should take part in the conference and described the three-day gathering as an attempt to whitewash abuses. “I can confirm that Australia was invited but we politely declined,” a spokeswoman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said from Canberra. Among the nations not sending delegations are the United States, Britain, Australia, France, Japan and Switzerland, who have all pressed Sri Lanka to investigate the alleged war crimes. China, the island’s key arms supplier, is co-sponsoring the conference, which will also be attended by about 40 other countries including Russia, India and other South Asian nations. —AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

ne ws

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

cell phones can lead to cancer Continued from Page 1 over longer time periods, possible over a lifetime,” he said. There are about five billion mobile phones registered in the world. Both the number of phones in circulation, and the average time spent using them, have climbed steadily in recent years, the working group found.

The IARC cautioned that their review of scientific evidence showed only a possible link, not a proven one, between wireless devices and cancers. “There is some evidence of increased risk of glioma” and another form of brain cancer called acoustic neuroma, said Kurt Straif, the scientist in charge of editing the IARC reports on potentially carcinogenic agents. “But it is not at the moment clearly established that the use of mobile phones does in fact cause cancer in humans,” he said in a telephone press conference.

The IARC does not issue formal recommendations, but pointed to a number of ways consumers can reduce risk. “What probably entails some of the high-

est exposure is using your mobile for voice calls,” Straif said. “If you use it for texting, or as a hands-free set for voice calls, this is clearly lowering the exposure by at least an order of magnitude,” or by tenfold, he said. A year ago the IARC concluded in a major report that there was no link between cell phones and brain cancer, but the review was widely criticised as based on out-of-date data that did not correspond to current usage levels.

The new review, conducted by a panel of 31 scientists from 14 countries, was based on a “full consensus,” said Robert Baan, in charge of the written report, yet to be released. Exposure data, studies of cancer in humans, experiments on animals and other data were all evaluated in establishing the new classification. The IARC ranks potentially cancer-causing elements as either carcinogenic, probably carcinogenic, possibly carcinogenic or “probably not carcinogenic.” It can also determine that a material is “not classifiable”.

Cigarettes and sunbeds, for examples, are rated as “group 1”, the top threat category. — AFP

Germany livid as Iran delays Merkel plane Continued from Page 1 four of Merkel’s ministers and other delegation members was not held up. Merkel, speaking at a news conference with Singh, declined to go into detail about the inconvenience, which saw her plane circle for two hours over Turkey before receiving permission to cross Iran. “I am very glad I arrived safely here,” she said. “Everything has turned out excellently. We got to hold the IndoGerman consultation. That is the most important thing.”

German government sources in Berlin said Merkel’s plane was only able to enter Iranian airspace after “intensive diplomatic intervention in Berlin and Tehran”.

They said permission to fly over Iran had been granted

by Tehran initially and it was “still unclear” why it was later withdrawn. The foreign ministry said after the meeting that German state secretary Wolf-Ruthart Born had told Iranian ambassador Ali Reza Sheikh Attar that the incident was “unprecedented” and violated international conventions.

Born said Berlin expected Tehran to avoid such problems in future. It added that Attar had cited “technicalorganisational reasons” for the decision and would convey Berlin’s concerns to his government “without delay”.

Germany is one of six world powers attempting to convince Iran to abandon sensitive nuclear work, which they fear is a cover for a drive to develop atomic arms.

Tehran denies such intentions. Berlin has repeatedly backed UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The incident occurred while Iranian officials met their Indian counterparts for a second day in New Delhi to try

to resolve an impasse over payments for oil sales worth about $12 billion a year. Earlier this year, Germany allowed India to pay for the oil via the Hamburg-based German bank EIH which handles international trade for Iranian companies. But India halted that conduit in April after discussions with Merkel, and EIH has since been put under EU sanctions.

Merkel’s troubled arrival overshadowed the meeting with Singh, during which the two leaders agreed to strengthen economic ties between Europe’s biggest economy and one of the world’s fastest-growing markets. They also discussed regional security and Afghanistan, where Germany has been reported to be helping mediate secret, direct talks between the United States and the Taliban. She declined to be drawn when questioned about the reports. Merkel said Germany would host a major Afghanistan conference at the end of the year and was seeking reconciliation between all groups in the country “if those forces fulfil all conditions such as renouncing the use of force”.

The German leader also pressed the case for the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet, made jointly by a European consortium including Germany, which is competing for a $12 billion deal up for grabs in India. “We are convinced that we have the best product on offer compared with others,” she told reporters. The Eurofighter is up against the French-made Rafale produced by defence contractor Dassault. Germany is India’s biggest trading partner in Europe, with bilateral trade at Ä15.4 billion ($21 billion) in 2010. Indian officials forecast that this figure will grow to Ä20 billion by 2012. — Reuters

Egypt exec faces sex charges at NY hotel Continued from Page 1 transferred yesterday morning to a booking facility near a Manhattan courthouse. Police said further details will be released at Omar’s arraignment, expected to take place yesterday. Omar is currently the board chairman of the El-Mex Salines Co., a state-run salt production company, according to the company’s website. It is the largest salt producer in Egypt and the Middle East, the website said. Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Omar is the former chairman of Egypt’s Bank of Alexandria. He also served as board chairman of the Egyptian American Bank and

chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Banks, according to his biography on the company’s website.

The Pierre said it will “fully comply with the investigation”, according to a statement read over the phone by a hotel manager. “The Pierre’s priority is the safety of our guests and staff,” the statement also said. The Pierre is owned by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces of India. The hotel attack comes about two weeks after Dominique Strauss-Kahn quit as the leader of the IMF, on May 18, after he was charged with sexually assaulting a maid at a different city hotel, Sofitel, near Times Square. He has denied the allegations, but is under house arrest as he awaits trial. — Agencies

Riyadh denies intent to deport...

Continued from Page 1 renewed,” Fekyeh said in an interview with Arabic satellite channel Al-Arabiya. Saudi labor officials are looking to begin implementing a new incentive program for the private sector. Under the program, companies would be divided into four categories: “excellent” and “green” for those that comply with the nationality quotas, and “yellow” and “red” for those that do not.

The initial remarks sent a ripple of unease through the Saudi business community, which relies heavily on foreign labor in a range of sectors.

“Quotas in general have a mixed impact,” said John Sfakianakis, chief economist with the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia based Banque Saudi-Fransi. “Even if limiting foreigners to six years of employment becomes the rule for all private entities the dependence on expatriates will not change. “Labor reform will happen when wage incentives switch from low wages to higher wages and not from limiting foreigners,” he said.

Other said the restrictions could undercut the country’s economic growth prospects. “Over the past two decades, Saudi Arabia saw an increase in the proportion of locals in the labor force as a whole and also in the private sector. However, this was accompanied by a fall in worker productivity for most of the 1990s,” London-based Capital Economics wrote in a note yesterday. “If the country is to reach its potential growth rate, then labor productivity needs to improve.”

Under the new program, companies in the yellow category would be given a chance to adjust their labor force demographics and secure the work permits they need, while those in the red category would not have permits renewed for their foreign workers, irrespective of how long those employees have been in the country. Fekyeh said that the government would give companies in violation of the rules three months to correct the labor balance and would face penalties after that period. He added that the new program was “not intended to hurt anyone”.

The program comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is working to keep at bay the kind of mass protests that have ravaged other Arab nations, leading to the ouster of the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt while the leaders of Syria, Libya and Yemen are fighting to stay in power. Economic disparity and soaring unemployment have been major catalysts in the uprisings and Saudi Arabia, which sits atop the world’s largest proven reserves of crude but where unemployment is at 10.5 percent, has pledged over $90 billion in programs aimed at boosting services and jobs for its citizens. In his earlier remarks, Fekyeh said that 90 percent of the private sector’s work force was made up of foreigners and that those workers were sending home $26.7 billion per year in remittances.

Separately, an international labor group said yes-

terday Qatar must do more to improve workers’ rights as it embarks on a massive building boom before hosting football’s 2022 World Cup. But a repor t by the International Trade Union Confederation said there “is little sign” so far that Qatar’s leaders are willing to change rules to allow trade unions to address other issues that activists claim can leave workers open to exploitation.

“Conditions for migrant workers in the Middle East are unacceptable,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the Vienna-based union confederation.

“The World Cup is a time when the eyes of the world will be on Qatar and the other nations in the region.”

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers - mostly from South Asia - work in construction and other projects across the Gulf, but enjoy few rights and are often burdened by debts to labor recruitment agencies back home. Some governments, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have boosted efforts to improve work conditions in recent years.

The union group’s report, however, cited other long-standing complaints such as bans on trade unions, substandard “barrack-like housing” for laborers and sponsorship rules under which workers cannot easily change jobs or resign. The repor t expressed concern that Asian workers and others could “fall victim to agencies seeking to make quick money from the World Cup recruitment boom.” The group said it would press FIFA, the sport’s governing body, to ensure that companies and World Cup suppliers are “actually respectful of workers’ rights.”

Qatar - with super wealth from oil and gas - plans tens of billions of dollars in transportation improvements and stadium construction for the tournament.

The construction bonanza will add to a growth rate that is already among the fastest in the world. The country’s ruling family, however, also is not accustomed to outside pressure for reforms and will likely face increased scrutiny linked to the World Cup. Other places around the Gulf have come under similar calls to enhance labor rights. In March, more than 130 international artists and writers vowed to boycott a branch of the Guggenheim Museum under construction in Abu Dhabi unless authorities do more to protect the rights of workers on the site.

The petition cited an unsafe working environment, movement restrictions and withholding workers’ travel documents among the violations.

The Abu Dhabi-based authority in charge of the Guggenheim construction and other projects said yesterday that it appointed the international auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to monitor “worker welfare”. The statement said the oversight will include living conditions and whether any violations occur such as withholding workers’ personal documents or illegal recruitment fees. About 10,000 workers are assigned to Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat island project, which includes the Guggenheim and planned branches of the Louvre museum and New York University. The work force is expected to rise to 20,000 by the end of next year. — AP

KUWAIT: Spectators react as an “egal” is thrown by an MP at them as a form of greeting during a National Assembly session yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Drama as pro-govt MPs desert Sheikh...

Continued from Page 1 motion which requires only 25 votes from elected MPs to pass. The situation is not at all encouraging for Sheikh Ahmad since at least three MPs who voted for him are well-known opposition lawmakers who are likely to support the no-confidence vote and that another opposition figure, MP Jamaan Al-Harbash, was absent.

The 27 MPs who voted against Sheikh Ahmad include 10 MPs who are ardently pro-government and who are classified as supporters of the prime minister, an indication of a rift between the prime minister and Sheikh Ahmad. These MPs include Khaled Al-Adwah, Hussein Mizyed, ex-minister Roudhan Al-Roudhan, Saad Znaifer, Saad Al-Khanfour, Askar Al-Enezi, Ali Al-Omair, Ghanem Al-Azemi, Mohammad Al-Huwailah and Mikhled Al-Azemi.

Sheikh Ahmad’s grilling will now be handled by the legal and legislative panel which will decide whether parts or all of the grilling is in line with the constitution and can be debated. What complicates Sheikh Ahmad’s situation is that four of the seven members of the committee voted against Sheikh Ahmad’s request and a fifth member, head of the committee MP Hussein Al-Huraiti, abstained. Only two committee members voted in favour of the request.

The committee is expected to recommend that Sheikh Ahmad should face at least part of the grilling which accuses him of corruption amounting to KD 250 million, besides committing alleged financial and administrative irregularities. The accusations fall within the ministries of housing and development and also within the Olympic Council of Asia which he chairs and the sports field where Sheikh Ahmad heads a number of organizations, including the Olympic Committee.

The consequences of yesterday’s dramatic vote are expected to be crucial on the future of the government and perhaps the National Assembly and it may lead to dissolving both if no amicable solution is reached.

Ahead of the vote, the discussion was very tense in which Sheikh Ahmad and the two MPs who filed the grilling - Adel Al-Saraawi and Marzouk Al-Ghanem exchanged harsh words and accusations.

Saraawi accused Sheikh Ahmad of trying to escape from facing the grilling although he previously said he was prepared for the debate, accusing him of corruption and of making money through illegal means.

Sheikh Ahmad denied that he was trying to escape, saying that “I am not from the type of people who escape from confrontation”, adding that he was prepared for the debate of issues that are within the constitution.

Sheikh Ahmad also said that legally he is not responsible for the sports field and the Olympic Council of Asia, while he said that other corruption allegations have been committed during the previous government and accordingly cannot be debated.

The minister lashed out at the corruption allegations, saying that he was ready to go to the independent Audit Bureau and provide them with all the details about the sources of his wealth. MP Ghanem however insisted that Sheikh Ahmad is responsible for the sports field, citing some statements and documents to prove that.

During the debate, Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi adjourned the session twice in a bid to restore law and order. The first was at the start of the session when a section of the spectators applauded when Sheikh Ahmad spoke and the second time at the end of the voting when it was difficult to calm the crowd. At this point, Khorafi expelled the crowd.

Bahrain king offers reform talks in July Continued from Page 1 a perceived threat from Shiite power Iran, across a short stretch of water from Bahrain. Bahrain says Iran was behind the protest movement, which was dominated by the country’s majority Shiites. The authorities unleashed a campaign of detention and dismissals during martial law that has affected thousands of people who took part in the protests, most of them Shiites.

Dozens of Shiite places of worship have also been demolished and four people have died in custody.

Twenty-one opposition figures - seven of whom are abroad - are on military trial on charges of seeking to overthrow the system. Rights activists say they were tortured. US President Barack Obama criticised the crackdown in a speech this month, saying the government should begin dialogue with peaceful opposition leaders. The government had at one stage threatened to close down Shiite group Wefaq, the largest opposition party.

The king praised the National Unity Rally, a government-backed Sunni group that emerged during the unrest as a counterweight to Shiite opposition groups.

The rally has said Wefaq would have to change its leadership before political reconcilation would be possible and Sunni Islamist groups have campaigned for Wefaq to be ostracised and harsh sentences in the ongoing military trials.

Former Wefaq MP Jasim Husain welcomed the announcement. “I’m quite upbeat and pleased that the king made the offer on the eve of a return to normal conditions,” he said. “Given that the future of the country is at stake, I think we can overcome the problems.”

But an opposition activist who declined to be named said the speech lacked substance. The king did not specify parameters, talking in general terms of the need to improve government and parliament. “Reform is the project that we have not and will not flinch from,” he said. “Who does not want more efficient government performance? Who does not want more effective legislative representation? Or political associations and civil society groups that work in the framework of national unity and the rule of law?”

But with the apparent gradual return to normality, stories are told behind closed doors of continued persecution of Shiites and mass dismissals from public-sector jobs for people accused of participating in the protests.

Sunnis, on the other hand, have been radicalised, with

many of them welcoming the government’s heavyhanded approach as a measure that saved the tiny kingdom from an Iranian-backed Shiite plot to overthrow the regime.

Many do not trust the Shiites. Abdullah Hashim, a leading figure in the Sunni National Unity Assembly group spoke of “high tension” and accused the country’s majority community of raising fears among Sunnis, who enjoy protection under the current rulers. “The call to topple the regime has opened a deep rift in Bahraini society that will take tens of years to heal,” he told AFP, referring to a slogan chanted by Shiite demonstrators during a month of protests. Nabil Rajab, a Shiite rights and opposition activist, lamented what he described as the government’s success in driving a wedge between the two communities. “Authorities have been successful in separating Sunnis from Shiites, and they have played the Iran card very well,” he said.

But although Shiites and the Al-Khalifa ruling family have had a history of conflict, especially in the 1990s before some partial reforms, this year’s crackdown on peaceful mass protests is regarded by many as a step too far. “They have gone too far. People are still in a state of shock,” said Rajab, pointing out that Shiite families that have traditionally been known to be apolitical or pro-regime, have also been targeted.

An opposition figure who requested anonymity described the backlash by the authorities against Shiites as “bedouin revenge”, adding that the collective punishment inflicted on the majority community, including the detention of women, reflects a nomadic mentality. He added, however, that those who had decided to resort to brutal force had not thought of an exit policy. “As this was tribal revenge, they did not think of tomorrow,” he said, adding that the government is already “in trouble” over finding a partner for dialogue in the future. “If no political solution is presented, I think we are heading towards a big crisis,” said Rajab.

The opposition had also called earlier for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman, an uncle of King Hamad who has been in office since independence from Britain in 1971 and is widely despised by Shiites. “Everybody wants reform, but not stupidly,” said Hashim, adding that his Sunni group considers itself an opposition movement although it does not believe Bahrain is ready for a real constitutional monarchy. “We are for a gradual reform process,” he said. — Agencies

y

A

14

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

OPINION

THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961

Founder and Publisher

YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief

ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait.

E MAIL :info@kuwaittimes.net Website: www.kuwaittimes.net

issues

German nuke exit plan won’t draw many imitators

By Alister Doyle German plan to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022 is unlikely to inspire many imitators abroad even though safety worries after Japan’s Fukushima accident have dimmed nuclear industry hopes of a renaissance, experts say. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phase-out plan risks boosting greenhouse gas emissions by aiding fossil fuel producers despite her assurances of a renewed drive to promote greener energies such as wind and solar power, they said.

“Most other countries are saying, ‘Let’s take a pause and learn lessons after Fukushima’, not ‘Let’s close down nuclear power’,” said Malcolm Grimston, a nuclear expert at the Chatham House think-tank in Britain. “Germany is a special case, Merkel is in a special position,” he said. Merkel’s abrupt shift follows disastous election results for her Christian Democrats and their Free Democrat allies, partly blamed on her former pro-nuclear views. He predicted her plan could face legal challenges, perhaps from German utilities such as E.ON and RWE, damaged by closures. Beneficiaries might include French or Polish electricity generators that could export to Germany.

Hans Blix, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he stuck to a view after Merkel’s plan that the Fukushima disaster would prove to be a “bump in the road, but not the end of the road” for atomic power around the world. “I think it is an unwise decision but, perhaps in the circumstances of the German public opinion, almost inevitable,” he told Reuters. Switzerland also plans to phase out nuclear power and Italy, the only non-nuclear Group of Eight nation, has shelved plans to build reactors. But many others, such as the United States, China, Britain and France, have remained broadly in support.

“Germany is most sensitive” to public opinion against nuclear power, said Seppo Vuori, a nuclear expert at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and an author on the panel of UN climate scientists.

The Fukushima nuclear accident in March, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, was the most serious since the Chernobyl reactor exploded in the former Soviet Union in 1986 and has prompted widespread calls for tigher safety rules. On its website, the industrybacked World Nuclear Association speaks of a “nuclear renaissance” despite Fukushima. It says atomic power can help meet increasing global energy demand, fight climate change and reduce reliance on imported energy. Nuclear power reactors account for far less greenhouse gases than fossil fuel plants over their lifetimes.

According to the IAEA, there are 64 nuclear reactors under construction worldwide, 27 of them in China and 11 in Russia. That is up from about 33 in 2007, Grimston said. Sven Teske, a renewable energy expert at Greenpeace, said that “27 in China sounds a lot but it’s not much compared to the 350 coal-fired plants” built over a decade in China. “I don’t think we have a nuclear renaissance, maybe a renaissance of nuclear PR (public relations),” he said.

The IAEA says that 440 reactors are in operation worldwide, led by 104 in the United States and 58 in France. Teske said that Germany now had the opportunity to push hard for more renewable energies to help combat global warming. Merkel’s coalition said it would cut power use by 10 percent by 2020 and further expand renewables. Blix said that Germany’s nuclear exit could bring higher greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for warming the planet in a trend the United Nations says will cause more floods, droughts and rising sea levels. “It’s likely to mean higher carbon dioxide emissions,” Vuori agreed.

Governments agreed last December at UN talks in Mexico to limit a rise in world temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times to slow global warming. But the United Nations says that promises so far for cutting greenhouse gas emissions are far too small to meet that goal despite aggressive cuts by countries including Germany. That makes nuclear power attractive to some. Last week, Merkel and other leaders at a G8 summit called for “comprehensive risk and safety assessments” of existing nuclear plants and tough standards for construction in areas prone to hazards such as earthquakes or tsunamis. In a line delicately balancing the views of all G8 members, it said that “countries have different approaches...including the phasing-in or the phasingout” of nuclear power. —Reuters

A

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

The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

Lockheed hack highlights cyber-blame snags

By Jim Wolf and Jim Finkle ast patterns may point to China, but top investigators say they will never know for sure who mounted a “significant” cyberattack against Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon’s No. 1 arms supplier. Lockheed, which is also the US government’s top information technology provider, said on Sunday it was a “frequent target of adversaries around the world”. The company has not disclosed which of its business units was targeted, but people with experience plugging holes after such strikes said that cyberspies likely sought trade secrets or weapons-related data.

The Bethesda, Maryland-based company did not respond to a request to clarify whom it deemed adversaries, and whether it suspected a foreign state in the digital assault it said it had detected “almost immediately ” on May 21.

Lockheed said it had countered with stepped-up security measures and that no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised in the “significant and tenacious attack” on its information systems network.

China has generally emerged as a prime suspect when it comes to key-

P

board-launched espionage against US interests, although the Pentagon says more than 100 foreign intelligence groups have been trying to pierce US networks. “China’s government, the Chinese Communist Party, and Chinese individuals and organizations continue to hack into American computer systems and networks as well as those of foreign entities and governments,” the bipartisan USChina Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2010 annual report to the US Congress. The body was created by the Congress in 2000 to advise it on implications of trade with China. It said in its report the methods used in suspected Chinese-launched attacks were growing more sophisticated and increasingly piggy-backing on social networking tools.

Beijing, at odds with the United States over Taiwan and other issues, has “laced U.S. infrastructure with logic bombs,” a cyberweapon, former US National Security Council official Richard Clarke wrote in his 2010 book “Cyber War”.

Beijing steadfastly dismisses such charges. “I’d say it’s just irresponsible to arbitrarily link China to such cyber hacking activities in each and every turn,” Wang Baodong, the Chinese Embassy

spokesman in Washington, said in an email to Reuters. “As a victim itself, China is firmly against hacking activities and strongly for international cooperation on this front”.

Pinning down responsibility for an attack like that reported by Lockheed is “incredibly difficult” given the sophisticated ways that an attacker may misdirect, said Anup Ghosh, a former senior scientist at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. Encoded clues in the Stuxnet virus that may have slowed progress on Iran’s nuclear program, for instance, seemed designed to point to Israel. But “it is impossible to know if these are red herrings or genuine,” said Ghosh, who worked on securing military networks for DARPA from 2002 to 2006 and who now runs Invincea, a software security company.

Eugene Spafford, who heads the CERIAS cybersecurity research facility at Purdue University in Indiana, said the digital residue of an attack would not suffice to lead to a person or place. “Records may show a network address where those bits came from, and that network address may tie to a machine in a country, but that is only the address of the most

recent ‘hop’,” he said in an email interview.

“It is always possible that it is a system that itself was compromised, by another system that was compromised,” and so on and so on, Spafford said. In addition, one could never rule out the possibility that a given cyberstrike might be launched by someone in the pay of yet a third party, no matter where it originated. Spafford, whose CERIAS lab has partnered with a dozen major companies and national laboratories, including defense contractors and Fortune 500 companies, said the bottom line is that “we likely never really will know who did it.”

Investigators first look for hard evidence - searching for stolen data that may be traveling across the Internet or seeking out people looking to sell information culled in a cyber attack. They typically rely heavily on circumstantial evidence, including whether the attack details match known methods from a suspect and if the targets are consistent with a group’s perceived interest. It is also possible that the US intelligence community, using its vast electronic eavesdropping and other spying capabilities, may make a judgment about the origin independent of forensic analysis, but that too would be subject to doubt. —Reuters

Mladic arrest warning bell for Gaddafi, Bashir

By Peter Apps and Aaron Gray-Block atko Mladic’s arrest more than a decade and a half after the bloodshed of Sarajevo and Srebrenica sends a strong message that while international justice might be painfully slow it can have a long memor y.

Sceptics, however, may see the sword of justice as double edged. Fear of a reckoning could encourage figures such as Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Sudan’s Omar Al-Bashir, indicted on similar charges, to cling to power with even greater tenacity.

Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, would have hoped support from elements of the Serb state and fears of a nationalist backlash if he were arrested would keep him at liberty for the rest of his life. The political dynamics, however, turned against him, with aspirations to greater international integration banishing any residual loyalty the Serb establishment might have had for him. “There probably will still be at least some protest and some kind of backlash, but less than there would have been a few years ago,” said Zachary Rothstein, regional analyst for consultancy Control Risks. “ The majority of people will almost certainly be much keener on EU membership than wanting to protect Mladic and others for nationalist reasons.”

Richard Dicker, at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said that more than 15 years after the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Mladic’s arrest sends a warning to leaders such as Bashir and Gaddafi that “justice never forgets”.

Daniel Keohane, a Paris-based senior research fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies, said however the threat of arrest, even years down the track, could intensify the Libyan conflict and Gaddafi’s resolve to stay in power. “Either he (Gaddafi) tries

R

to hold out to the last man or he tries to leave to somewhere where he can avoid prosecution. He really only has two options because of the ICC procedures against him,” Keohane said.

The age before international tribunals saw many dictators, the tide having turned against them, disappear into peaceful exile; among them, late Ugandan leader Idi Amin, Ethiopia’s Mengistu Haile Mariam, now in Zimbabwe, and JeanClaude Duvalier who

recently returned to Haiti from 25 years French exile.

Despite Mladic’s arrest, pursuing war crimes suspects has been difficult, with two of the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal’s three main suspects, Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, arrested only in the past three years. Sudan’s Bashir, indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court in 2010, is still in power, while Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, has eluded arrest for more than six years after being indicted by the ICC. “Tracking down fugitives is hard work, especially if the fugitive in question has a support network and has informants within government structures ... or goes so completely to ground as to leave no real traces,” said Nikolas Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the US Naval War College.

Some arrests also rely on regime change, an issue observers say raises concerns about notions of ‘victor’s justice.’ Rights groups say international courts must probe acts by both sides of a conflict, such as in the Ivory Coast, to avoid claims of bias. And although some hope Mladic’s apprehension will work to

deter future crimes, Dutch-based international law specialist Geert-Jan Knoops said there is “no clear evidence” that international war crimes trials will deter political leaders.

NATO powers are now stepping up militar y pressure on Libya leader Gaddafi, hanging onto power despite a rebel uprising against his four-decade rule. ICC prosecutors meanwhile investigate allegations of persecution. “Major war criminals are not easily deterred; that’s one of the reasons they were, tragically, successful at committing their crimes,” said Eli Richardson, a former resident legal advisor to Serbia with the US Department of Justice.

Still, Richardson adds the Mladic case could serve as a deterrent, at least for some. The UN Security Council referral of Libya to the ICC marked an important turning point in support for the court as it was the first unanimous referral and the first time the United States and China had voted to send a case to the court. Trials of war crimes suspects can prove frustratingly slow, however, and potentially undermine support for courts like the ICC, which is yet to complete its first trial.

Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006, four years into a trial at Yugoslavia war crimes court that called hundreds of witnesses.

Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor at the Yugoslavia tribunal, defended the length of the trials, stressing they focus on massive crimes, such as ethnic cleansing and genocide. Despite being broadly welcomed, the operation to kill Osama bin Laden later raised concerns the United States may have gone too far in acting as policeman, judge and executioner.

Gvosdev, at the US Naval War College, also points to the importance of arrests and trials to help establish truth. “The evil of the Holocaust sank in and was digested not in 1945-46 in the aftermath of the war but after the Adolf Eichmann trial in 1961 ... and the meticulously-prepared case which detailed the ‘final solution’,” he said. —Reuters

y

A

15

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

ANALYSIS

Colt aiming to keep rifle business

By Richard Lardner or nearly a decade, Colt Defense went without a lobbyist. The legendary gun maker based in West Hartford, Connecticut, had an exclusive deal to provide combat rifles to the U.S. military and didn’t need a hired gun looking out for the company’s interests in Washington. Times have changed. After buying more than 700,000 Colt M4 carbines, the Defense Department has started a search for the rifle’s successor, giving Colt’s competitors the long-awaited chance to break the company’s grip on the market. So Colt turned to Roger Smith, a former deputy assistant Navy secretary-turned-lobbyist, to be the company’s voice in DC. His fee is $120,000 a year.

The move highlights the importance of a contest that is the Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one for the small arms industry. The Pentagon may buy hundreds of thousands of the new carbine, which should be more accurate, lethal and reliable than the M4 used by troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. At stake is millions of dollars in business for the winner at a time when budgets are tightening and opportunities for long-term weapons contracts are dwindling.

There are major side benefits to being the primary rifle supplier. The American military’s seal of approval paves the way for gun sales to US allies. Colt has sold 100,000 M4s overseas, and millions of its M16s - a rifle first fielded during the Vietnam War - are used by armies and law enforcement agencies around the world. Remington Arms and other gun makers already had lobbyists in place long before the Army announced it wanted a better combat rifle. Remington has spent nearly $500,000 on lobbyists over the last two years alone in a push to get more of its weapons into the hands of US troops, according to lobbying records filed with Congress. Remington, with its headquarters in Madison, North Carolina, and a manufacturing plant in upstate New York, is represented by the firms Winborn Solutions and Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough.

Remington will offer its multicaliber Adaptive Combat Rifle.

“The biggest thing that Remington wants is the ability to compete for contracts,” said Jason Schauble, vice president of Remington’s military products division. While the Pentagon makes decisions on what equipment to buy, Congress provides the money. And lawmakers can influence the decision-making process by inserting language into legislation that authorizes the military’s annual budget. Sen Chuck Schumer of New York, a member of the Democratic leadership, has been a strong supporter of Remington.

Smith, who runs RMax Technologies, a Washington consulting firm, registered as Colt’s representative in April 2010, according

Early polls unlikely as Najib tackles subsidy cuts

F

By Razak Ahmad

t Image City Photography Gallery, Gary Thompson delights in pointing out qualities of light, contrast and clarity in one of his best-selling prints a winter-sunset view of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan peak shot with a hefty Pentax film camera he bought in 1999 for $1,700.

His wife, Phyllis, a latecomer to fine-art photography after they retired from teaching in the 1990s, favors a Hasselblad X-Pan for panoramic landscapes, such as a time-lapse shot of a harbor in Nova Scotia. Of 11 partners and resident artists at the private gallery in Rochester - the western New York city where George Eastman transformed photography from an arcane hobby into a mass commodity with his $1 Brownie in 1900 - the Thompsons are the only ones left who haven’t switched to filmless digital cameras.

But that time may be near. “I like the color we get in film, the natural light,” says Phyllis Thompson, 70, who married her high-school sweetheart 50 years ago. “But digital cameras are getting much better all the time, and there will come a time when we probably won’t be able to get film anymore. And then we’ll have to change.” At the turn of the 21st century, American shutterbugs were buying close to a billion rolls of film per year. This year, they might buy a mere 20 million, plus 31 million single-use cameras - the beach-resort staple vacationers turn to in a pinch, according to the Photo Marketing Association.

Eastman Kodak Co. marketed the world’s first flexible roll film in 1888. By 1999, more than 800 million rolls were sold in the United States alone. The next year marked the apex for combined US sales of rolls of film (upward of 786 million) and single-use cameras (162 million). Equally startling has been the plunge in film camera sales over the last decade. Domestic purchases have tumbled from 19.7 million cameras in 2000 to 280,000 in 2009 and might dip below

A

alaysia’s increase in power tariffs and the possibility of a similar move on fuel as global oil prices surge make any chance of an early general elec tion extremely slim as Prime Minister Najib Razak will have to first tackle a public backlash. The government on Monday announced a rise in electricity prices by an average of 7.1 percent as the country’s subsidy bill doubled to nearly $6.9 billion this year, but, as yet, there is no move to tinker with fuel subsidies which are m uc h m ore s e ns i t i ve b ut have a b i gge r impact on the fiscal deficit.

A na l ys t s, howe ve r, s a i d a f ue l p r i ce increase was on the cards. “The electricity tariff hike is a political trial balloon for Najib to gauge public unhappiness before he decides on a fuel price hike,” said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia specialist at Singapore Management University. Najib in a recent speech likened Malaysia’s fuel subsidies to opium but he has been wary of upsetting voters with steep fuel price increases as he tries to rebuild support for his ruling coalition which was hit by record losses in the last general election in 2008.

The next general election is not due until mid-2013 but many observers were expecting Najib to call for one as early as late this year on the back of strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth which hit a decadehigh of 7.2 percent in 2010. But HwangDBS and J P Morgan said in research notes that t i m e t a b l e i s now unl i ke l y. “ M ond ay ’s announcement shows that the government is willing to make some politically unpopular but economically positive moves in the near term, which probably means elections will be postponed until 2012,” HwangDBS said.

A delay in the elections gives more space to the opposition to gather strength. The opposition is not likely to win the next election but it could chip away at the ruling party’s margin of victory, making reform more difficult. Najib is seeking a strong election win to consolidate his own position within the ruling coalition, and a delay puts that off.

But delaying rationalising subsidies could imperil government finances and further disillusion investors already impatient with the slow pace of reform.

Since tak ing office in 2009, Najib has pledged to cut subsidies and widen the tax base to trim a fiscal deficit which hit a 20year high of 7 percent of GDP in 2009. The deficit was at 5.6 percent in 2010 and is officially targeted to be 5.4 percent this year, which analysts say will be easily met target if prices for fuel and electricity are raised, even incrementally. The government estimates that the electricity tariff increase will raise inflation by 0.27 percentage point. That signals average inflation through 2011 will be within the government’s 2.5-3.5 percent target, with annual inflation in April coming in at 3.2 percent.

A US 6 cents increase in the price of the popularly used RON95 gasoline blend which is now priced at US 63 cents a litre, on the other hand, will increase inflation by an additional 0.5 percentage point, said Kit Wei Zheng, an economist with Citigroup. “From a fiscal perspective, if the government chooses to do nothing other than raise electricity tariffs, then it would just be a hedge and a poor substitute to a fuel price hike,” said K it.

Analysts say that while cutting subsidies further ahead of the general election is risky for the government, it could try to offset anger by increasing spending next year on social safety net programs for the poor.

Analysts say it will be a choice that the government will have to make soon. A deputy minister was quoted on Thursday last week saying Malaysia would review fuel prices if the price of oil hit $110-$120 per barrel. Crude oil was trading 0.5 percent higher at $101.05 per barrel as of 0414 GMT. The opposition, led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has promised to lower fuel prices if it is voted into power. The opposition scored historic wins in the last general election, in 2008, winning five of the country’s 13 states and denying the ruling coalition a two-thirds control of parliament. But the opposition coalition has since been marred by infighting, with Anwar tied up in court on a charge of sodomising a male aide in a case which he says is a political conspiracy.

While Najib has seen support from the country’s majority ethnic Malays rise since he took power, his coalition suffered a setback in elections in April in the state of Sarawak, where it won a majority but got the fewest number of seats in 24 years. That would make a decision to raise the fuel price more difficult. “With elections at least six months away or longer, the effect of inflation could yet shift the political terrain away from him,” said Welsh. —Reuters

M

In this June 25, 2010, file photo Britain’s Prince Harry fires a Colt M4 assault rifle on a United States Military Academy range in West Point, New York. —AP to disclosure records. He knows how the process works. Before his six years as a senior Navy official, Smith was a staffer on the House Armed Services Committee and responsible for oversight of Army weapons programs. “There’s nothing nefarious about it,” said James Battaglini, Colt’s executive vice president. “We believe it is important to have a person in the Washington area that is available to speak on our behalf because we are in Connecticut.”

Colt is losing a powerful proponent on Capitol Hill. Connecticut Sen Joe Lieberman, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, will not seek a fifth term. But members of the state’s congressional delegation still hold influential positions. Rep Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, sits on the House Appropriations Committee. Rep John Larson is the fourthranking Democrat in the House, and Colt is in his district.

Colt won’t say what weapon it plans to enter in the competition to replace its M4.

But the betting is on the CM901, Colt’s newly designed multicaliber rifle, which can switch barrels depending on the size of the round being fired. Colt received a no-bid contract

in 1994 for the M4, a shorter and lighter version of the M16. Colt has been the military’s only source of M4s ever since. In the late 1990s, FNMI, the South Carolina-based subsidiary of Belgian armorer FN Herstal, challenged the exclusive arrangement in federal court but lost.

The Army, which serves as the military’s principal buyer of firearms, took control of the M4 design rights from Colt nearly two years ago. In January, a draft solicitation was issued, formally kicking off the contest. At the same time, the Army is seeking bids for improvements to the M4s in its inventory.

FNMI sells a combat rifle called the SCAR to the U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida. The command has its own acquisition budget and the latitude to buy gear the conventional military branches can’t. FNMI also sells machine guns to the Army.

Fighting FNMI’s battles inside Washington’s Beltway is the American Business Development Group, a firm that boasts a roster of retired military officers who “provide strategic guidance and access” to the leadership at the Defense Department and other federal agencies. FN Herstal pays the firm $120,000 a year, according to disclosure records. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South

Carolina is a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Republican congressman Joe Wilson sits on the House Armed Services Committee. FMNI, based in Columbia, South Carolina, is in Wilson’s district.

Smith & Wesson, known more for handguns than military rifles, will also bid for the carbine work. The company, based in Springfield, Massachusetts, pays the firm Greenberg Traurig $360,000 a year to be its Washington representative, disclosure records show. Sen Scott Brown of Massachusetts is the top Republican on the Armed Services subcommittee that oversees Army programs.

But not all prospective competitors think a lobbying firm is necessary - at least, not any longer. Heckler & Koch, a German firearms maker with affiliates in the US, parted ways with Greenberg Traurig in 2009 and another Washington firm, Mark Barnes and Associates, in early 2010. The company had no comment on the reason for sidelining its lobbyists. Wayne Weber, president of Heckler & Koch USA, said the company will submit its HK416 combat rifle as the replacement for the M4. The HK416 is used by US special operations troops, including the Army’s elite Delta Force. —AP

How much longer can photo film hold on?

By Ben Dobbin

focus

100,000 this year, says Yukihiko Matsumoto, the Jackson, Michigan-based association’s chief researcher.

For InfoTrends imaging analyst Ed Lee, film’s fadeout is moving sharply into focus: “If I extrapolate the trend for film sales and retirements of film cameras, it looks like film will be mostly gone in the US by the end of the decade.” Just who are the die-hards, holdouts and hangers-on? Among those who still rely on film - at least part

ents who haven’t made the switch tend be poorer or older - 55 and up. But there’s also a swelling band of new devotees who grew up in the digital age and may have gotten hooked from spending a magical hour in the darkroom during a high school or college class.

Others are simply drawn to its strengths over digital and are even venturing into retro-photo careers.

“In everything from wedding to portrait to commercial photography, young professionals are find-

of the time - are advanced amateurs and a smattering of professionals who specialize in nature, travel, scientific, documentary, museum, fine art and forensic photography, market surveys show.

Regular point-and-shoot adher-

ing digital so prevalent that they’re looking for a sense of differentiation,” says Kayce Baker, a marketing director at Fujifilm North America.

“That artistic look is something their high-end clients want to see.”

Kodak remains the world’s biggest film manufacturer, with

Japan’s Fuji right on its tail. But the consumer and professional films they make have dwindled to a precious few dozen film stocks in a handful of formats, becoming one more factor in the mammoth drop-off in film processing. Scott’s Photo in Rochester finally switched this year stopped daily processing of color print film because fewer than one in 20 customers are dropping off film. A decade ago, “we could process 300 rolls on a good day, and now we see maybe 8 or 10 rolls on the few days we actually process,” owner Scott Sims says.

For the hustling masses, there’s no turning back the clock. “There’s so many digital images taken every day, especially with mobile media, that never will hit a piece of paper,” says Therese Mulligan, administrative chair of the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Even at major photography schools, film is an elective specialty. “Our entire first two years’ curriculum is digital in orientation,” Mulligan says. “Those that follow a fine-art option are the first to gravitate toward film. Other genres we teach - photojournalism or advertising or biomedical - have a stronger digital emphasis because of the industry itself.”

In a rich irony, film’s newest fans - not unlike music aficionados who swear by vinyl records are being drawn together via the rise of the Internet. “The technology that enabled the demise of film is actually helping to keep it relevant with specific types of users,” says IDC analyst Chris Chute. But with the film market shrinking by more than 20 percent annually, most other signs point downhill. Analysts foresee Kodak offloading its still-profitable film division sometime in the next half-dozen years as it battles to complete a long and painful digital transformation.

Kodak will churn out a variety of films as long as there’s sufficient demand for each of them, says Scott DiSabato, its marketing manager for professional film. It has even launched four new

types since 2007. While digital has largely closed the imagequality gap, DiSabato says a topline film camera using large-format film “is still unsurpassed” in recording high-resolution images. “The beauty with film is a lot of wonderful properties are inherent and don’t require work afterward” whereas digital can involve heavy computer manipulation to get the same effect, DiSabato says. “In the extreme, they call it ‘stomped on’,” he said.

“But a lot of photographers want to be photographers, not computer technicians. And some prized film capabilities - grain, color hues, skin-tone reproduction - can’t quite be duplicated no matter how much stomping goes on.”

Gary Thompson, who’s been exhibiting his best photos for 32 years, captured his Yosemite picture on medium-format slide film - which is 4 1/2 times bigger than 35 mm film - during one of many weeks-long photo jaunts with his wife. In the digitally scanned, 61by-76-cm print, the shadow from a dipping sun has climbed halfway up El Capitan. The wooded, black-and-white foreground with its lacy snow patterns stands in stark contrast to the golden glow on the granite cliff face under a blue sky.

“I don’t know if I could have gotten this print that large with that kind of detail” using a digital camera without “shooting several images and blending them together in Photoshop,” he says.

“What attracts me to shoot in almost all instances is the quality of light and there’s something about film and working with it and the way it records that I just like.” Thompson feels acutely that he’s reaching the end of an era.

“As people’s film cameras break down, rather than purchasing another one, they move to digital,” he says. “Eventually, we’ll probably be doing that. There’s a certain nostalgia involved, particularly when I’m working with one of my big husky cameras. That will be sad. But hey, when it happens, I’ll adjust.” —AP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

sp orts

Tendulkar, player of year MUMBAI: Record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkar yesterday received India’s cricketer of the year award for his outstanding performances in 2009-2010. Tendulkar, the world’s leading scorer in both Test and one-day cricket, won the Polly Umrigar award, named after a former India captain, at a function held by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai.

The master batsman scored 1,064 runs, including one double-century and five hundreds, in 10 Tests during the year in question, October 2009 to September 2010, at an average of 82. Tendulkar also scored 695 runs in 12 one-day internationals, including the first double-century in one-dayers, against South Africa in Gwalior in February 2010.

Former Test all-rounder Salim Durani received the C. K. Nayudu award, named after another former India skipper, for his lifetime contribution to the game. Durani, an exciting stroke-player and effective left-arm spinner, played 29 Tests from 1960 to 1973, scoring 1,202 runs and taking 75 wickets, including a major role in India’s maiden Test series victory in the West Indies in 1971. — Reuters

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Monday. Detroit 6, Minnesota 5; San Diego 3, Atlanta 2 (10 innings); Philadelphia 5, Washington 4; Houston 12, Chicago Cubs 7; NY Yankees 5, Oakland 0; Seattle 4, Baltimore 3; LA Angels 10, Kansas City 8; San Francisco 7, St. Louis 3; Texas 11, Tampa Bay 5; Toronto 11, Cleveland 1; Chicago White Sox 7, Boston 3; NY Mets 7, Pittsburgh 3; Cincinnati 7, Milwaukee 3; Arizona 15, Florida 4; LA Dodgers 7, Colorado 1.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT NY Yankees 29 23 .558 Boston 30 24 .556 Tampa Bay 28 25 .528 Toronto 28 26 .519 Baltimore 24 28 .462 Central Division Cleveland 31 20 .608 Detroit 27 26 .509 Chicago White Sox 25 31 8.5 Kansas City 23 30 .434 Minnesota 17 35 .327 Western Division Texas 29 25 .537 LA Angels 29 27 .518 Seattle 27 26 .509 Oakland 27 28 .491 National League Eastern Division Philadelphia 34 20 .630 Florida 30 22 .577 Atlanta 30 25 .545 NY Mets 25 28 .472 Washington 22 31 .415 Central Division St. Louis 32 23 .582 Milwaukee 29 25 .537 Cincinnati 28 27 .509 Pittsburgh 24 28 .462 Chicago Cubs 23 29 .442 Houston 20 34 .370 Western Division Arizona 30 24 .556 San Francisco 29 24 .547 Colorado 25 28 .472 LA Dodgers 25 30 .455 San Diego 23 31 .426

GB 1.5 2 5 5 .446 9 14.5 1 1.5 2.5 3 4.5 8.5 11.5 2.5 4 6.5 7.5 11.5 .5 4.5 5.5 7

Winnipeg to buy Thrashers WINNIPEG: True North Sports and Entertainment, a Canadian group trying to return a National Hockey League team to Winnipeg, is expected to announce yesterday a conditional purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers.

True North, led by partners Mark Chipman and billionaire David Thomson, has been negotiating with Atlanta Spirit Group to buy the money-losing Thrashers.

The group will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. CDT (1600 GMT) in Winnipeg.

Thomson is Canada’s richest man and chairman of news and information company Thomson Reuters, while Chipman’s family owns auto dealerships and real estate in the Western Canadian

province of Manitoba. A sale agreement would still need approval by the NHL’s Board of Governors. It’s also believed True North will make the sale conditional on a successful seasonticket drive. Winnipeg was home to the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association before joining the NHL in 1979. The team played for 17 years in the NHL before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1996 due to financial losses related to an outdated arena, spiraling NHL salaries and a weak Canadian dollar. The NHL now has a salary cap and a rich new U.S. television deal, the Canadian currency is worth more than the U.S. dollar, and the city has a seven-year-old, 15,000-seat downtown arena. —Reuters

PSG seals deal with Qatar PARIS: Qatar Sports Investments acquired a 70 percent ownership stake in Paris Saint-Germain yesterday. Paris city hall made the announcement in a statement. PSG said its American owner, Colony Capital, will keep 30 percent of the shares. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. QSI was set up in 2005 by Qatari prince Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani. The fund’s previous investments include a golf club and health spa in Doha. PSG, which will play in next season’s Europa League, added “this new partnership is aimed at guaranteeing the development and the growth of the PSG on a long-term basis.” PSG has struggled in recent years because of poor results and hooliganism but managed to win the French Cup last year and placed fourth in the French league this season. The deal marks the latest in a series of investments by oil-rich Gulf investors into European football clubs.

A Dubai business group last month said it agreed to pay at least $100 million for Spanish club Getafe. The investors, who were not backed by the emirate’s government, plan to add the words “Team Dubai” to the club’s shirts, stadium and other merchandise. — AP

Blue Jays snap winless skid career-high nine in his 49th start. He is 32 with a 3.02 ERA over his past eight starts.

Brandon League worked the ninth for his 14th save. Ichiro Suzuki, steeped in his worst career slump _ 1 of 22 over his previous five games — had two singles and scored twice.

TORONTO: Jo-Jo Reyes won for the first time in 29 starts by throwing his first career complete game and Jayson Nix hit a two-run home run to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to an 11-1 rout of the Cleveland Indians on Monday.

Reyes (1-4) allowed one run and eight hits, earning a win for the first time in nearly three years. His previous victory came with Atlanta against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 13, 2008. The left-hander went 0-13 with a 6.59 ERA in his 28 starts between wins.

Reyes avoided becoming the first pitcher to go winless in 29 starts.

Oakland’s Matt Keough went 28 starts between wins in 1978 and 1979, matching the dubious mark first set by Boston’s Cliff Curtis in 1910 and 1911. Shelley Duncan’s solo homer was the only offense for the Indians, who have lost five of six.

Yankees 5, Athletics 0 At Oakland, California, Bartolo Colon allowed just four hits for his first shutout in nearly five years and Mark Teixeira homered in the first inning as New York beat Oakland for the eighth straight time.

Robinson Cano added an RBI double in the three-run first inning against Trevor Cahill (6-3) and Derek Jeter recorded his 2,981st career hit and drove in a run for the Yankees, who have won 22 of 26 against Oakland since the start of the 2008 season. The A’s were shut out for the sixth time this year, getting only four baserunners against Colon (3-3).

Tigers 6, Twins 5 At Detroit, Alex Avila’s double in the eighth inning, that appeared to hit a fan in the stands down the left-field, line scored Jhonny Peralta from first base as Detroit edged Minnesota.

With Peralta on first and two outs, Avila hit a ball down the line that rattled along the short fence as fans reached

Argentina focus on England in World Cup preparations BUENOS AIRES: Argentina have rugby World Cup foes England in their sights as they seek to emulate the heroics of the 2007 Pumas, who shocked the world by finishing third at the last tournament in France.

The South Americans have lost key players to retirement, including 2007 captain Agustin Pichot, and have few international tune-ups to prepare for the Sept. 9-Oct. 23 World Cup in New Zealand where they face England, Scotland, Georgia and Romania in pool B. But coach Santiago ‘Tati’ Phelan has little time for excuses as he seeks to galvanise the Pumas in time for their first pool match against 2003 champions England in their first pool match on Sept. 10.

“I don’t think there’s an equation between playing many or few matches before a World Cup,” Phelan told Reuters in an interview after the squad’s first practice on Monday, at the grounds of Belgrano Athletic Club outside Buenos Aires.

“I’d have liked one more test match but the bottom line is this is the reality of our rugby and the important thing is to optimise every one of the matches we have.”

While other top-10 sides enjoy the exposure of the major international tournaments-the southern hemisphere’s Tri-Nations and the north’s Six Nations-Argentina have had to make do with the June and November test windows to play top-level opponents.

In World Cup years, they have even fewer opportunities. The Pumas’ last match was a defeat by Ireland in Dublin at the end of a three-test tour of Europe in the November window six months ago.

By contrast, their top pool rivals England and Scotland already have the Six Nations matches under their belt ahead of their World Cup warmups.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

To try to bridge the gap, the Pumas will clash with the French Barbarians in two matches over the next two weekends and have scheduled an August test against Wales in Cardiff.

The Pumas’ lack of match practice has not dented the enthusiasm of the players, who rate themselves a chance to upset England.

“Argentina must not start thinking about the last (group) match against Georgia, the quarter-finals or any further than the first match,” prop Rodrigo Roncero told Reuters.

“Our thoughts must be solely on England which is the 10th of September and to build towards that match ... If we start the World Cup playing a good match against England I think many things can change.”

Captain Felipe Contepomi added: “I’m convinced that if we prepare in an excellent way we could even beat England, which is not to say we will beat England nor that we’re better than Scotland or England.

“Both countries are above Argentina in the rankings but that does not mean the Pumas won’t qualify for the quarter-finals.”

Results for Pelan, who was reunited with his players this week after most of them finished their season with their clubs in Europe, have been disappointing in his three years in charge.

But he has overseen a growing depth in the ranks, with players coming through from Argentina’s secondstring Jaguars and the third-string Pampas XV who won this year ’s Vodacom Cup, South Africa’s third tier provincial competition, in their second appearance as a guest side.

“There are very good quality players, what’s lacking is time to work (together)... so the team can acquire an identity of their own, which is what we’ve been striving for these three years,” Phelan said. — Reuters

TORONTO: Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar breaks his bat as he hits a single against the Cleveland Indians in the fifth inning of a baseball game. —AP over for it. Umpires stopped the play after the ball appeared to strike a fan, but they let the run stand instead of sending Peralta back to third.

Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire came out to argue and was ejected.

Crew chief Gary Darling, who was umpiring third base, said after the game he called fan interference and ruled Peralta would have scored without it. He said the inter ference came from a fan in an orange shirt.

Replays showed a fan in an orange shirt standing in a small area of seats that juts out toward the field. The ball appeared to bounce up and hit the fan while he was simply standing there.

Angels 10, Royals 8 At Kansas City, Missouri, Torii Hunter’s second home run, a two-run shot off Joakim Soria in the ninth inning, powered Los Angeles to a win over Kansas

City. Hunter, who had a solo home run off Everett Teaford in the seventh, drove in the 1,000th run of his career with the long drive that put the Angels on top 98.

For Soria (3-3), a two-time All-Star, it was his fifth blown save in 12 opportunities and second in two days. Trumbo and Peter Bourjos hit solo home runs in the eighth off Louis Coleman to bring the Angels within a run. Rookie Eric Hosmer homered, doubled and drove in four runs as the Royals took a 6-1 lead over Ervin Santana after two innings.

Mariners 4, Orioles 3 At Seattle, Jack Cust hit the second triple of his career, driving in a firstinning run for Seattle’s win over Baltimore. Doug Fister (3-5) went 7 1-3 innings to pick up his first victory since April 30. He allowed three runs and seven hits, walked one and struck out a

Rangers 11, Rays 5 At St. Petersburg, Florida, Mike Napoli homered twice and drove in five runs to lead Texas past Tampa Bay. Napoli homered for the third consecutive day, giving him four in three games. No. 9 hitter Endy Chavez went deep for his second straight game, helping the defending AL champions amass a season-high 20 hits. Mitch Moreland homered in support of Derek Holland (4-1), who allowed five runs and five hits over 5 2-3 innings.

The left-hander gave up home runs to Ben Zobrist and Justin Ruggiano in the sixth, when the Rays scored four times to trim an eight-run deficit to 9-5.

Napoli had a three-run homer off Wade Davis (4-5) in the third and a solo shot off Andy Sonnanstine in the sixth before adding an RBI double off Juan Cruz in the eighth.

White Sox 7, Red Sox 3 At Boston, Alexei Ramirez and Carlos Quentin both had two RBIs in a four-run sixth inning as Chicago snapped Jon Lester’s seven-game winning streak.

Paul Konerko added a solo homer for the White Sox, who halted a three-game losing skid and won for the 11th time in their last 13 games against the Red Sox. Adrian Gonzalez hit a solo homer for Boston, which lost its second straight but only its fourth in its last 17 games.

Jake Peavy (2-0), making just his fourth start after working back from season-ending right shoulder surgery last July, held Boston to three runs, six hits, striking out two and not walking anyone over seven innings. —AP

Phillies get past Nationals WASHINGTON: Roy Halladay beat Washington for the 10th straight time as Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez hit homers to power the Philadelphia Phillies past the Nationals 5-4.

Halladay allowed 10 hits and four runs over seven innings, striking out five without a walk.

Howard and Ibanez hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning and each drove in a run in Philadelphia’s seventh-inning rally.

Halladay (7-3) gave up solo home runs to Michael Morse, Danny Espinosa and Laynce Nix, the first time this season he’s given up multiple homers in a game. Halladay had allowed a total of two home runs in his first 11 starts.

Padres 3, Braves 2 At Atlanta, pinch-hitter Kyle Phillips broke a 2-2 tie in the 10th inning with his first career home run as San Diego beat Atlanta for its third straight win. Phillips, a rookie with a .167 average in 30 at-bats, led off the inning and hit the second pitch from George Sherrill (1-1).

Heath Bell pitched the 10th for his 13th save in 14 opportunities. Chad Qualls (3-2) earned the victory with a scoreless ninth, giving up one walk and facing four batters.

For a fourth straight start, San Diego’s Aaron Harang didn’t earn a decision, but he was sharp, allowing six hits, two runs and two walks with five strikeouts.

Astros 12, Cubs 7 At Chicago, Jeff Keppinger and J.R. Towles homered as Houston to beat Chicago. Clint Barmes and Hunter Pence had back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning to help the Astros ended a three-game losing streak.

After blowing two leads against the Diamondbacks on Friday and Sunday, the Astros’ bullpen only allowed one run over five innings. Sergio Escalona (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning.

Carlos Pena homered run for the Cubs, who committed three errors. Towles gave the Astros the lead with a leadoff home run in the sixth inning off Cubs reliever Jeff Samardzija (3-1).

Giants 7, Cardinals 3 At St. Louis, Madison Bumgarner won his second straight game after losing his first six decisions as Andres Torres gave the National League’s worst offense a big boost with his

WASHINGTON: Nationals’ Alex Cora (center) gets caught in a rundown between Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz (left) and third baseman Placido Polanco, right, during the seventh inning of a baseball game. —AP first career grand slam San Francisco’s victory over St. Louis.

Kyle McClellan (6-2) was knocked out after four innings in the worst outing of his first season in the Cardinals’ rotation. Albert Pujols hit his ninth homer and Allen Craig doubled twice with an RBI. Cody Ross also homered for the Giants, who are last in the National League in runs even after this outburst and had been shut out twice the previous four games.

Bumgarner (2-6) scattered six hits in seven innings and struggled only in the third when he gave up three straight hits and both runs.

Reds 7, Brewers 3 At Cincinnati, Jay Bruce hit a three-run home run and Travis Wood turned in six mostly solid innings as Cincinnati successfully opened a 10-day, nine-game homestand after a 2-8 trip.

Bruce tripled for the first time this season and finished a double short of the cycle.

The Brewers, who went 8-1 on their last homestand, saw their road record fall to a National League-worst 8-18 (.308). Wood (4-3) allowed three runs and seven hits.

Mets 7, Pirates 3 At New York, Josh Thole hit a tiebreaking

double in the seventh inning as New York, playing with a makeshift lineup minus Jose Reyes, beat Pittsburgh.

Dillon Gee (5-0) pitched seven solid innings, striking out a career-high eight in the rookie’s latest impressive outing, and New York had another productive day at the plate.

Reyes was placed on the bereavement list earlier in the day and left fielder Jason Bay was given a planned day off. Chris Snyder hit a two-run homer in the second inning for the Pirates, who dropped to 0-8 at Citi Field. He helped give back those runs, however, with a pair of passed balls in the bottom half.

Dodgers 7, Rockies 1 At Los Angeles, James Loney had three hits with a homer and three RBIs, and Andre Ethier also drove in three runs as Los Angeles Dodgers defeated Colorado. Chad Billingsley (4-4) allowed one run and a season-high 11 hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked two.

Ty Wigginton’s homer accounted for Colorado’s run as the Rockies dropped to 2-10 on the road in May. Jason Hammel (3-5) gave up seven runs and 10 hits in 4 2-3 innings, struck out two and walked one in his shortest outing of the season. — AP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

S P ORT S

James gets a better finals shot as Heat face Mavs

Alex Burrows seen in action in this file photo

Canucks bring unique flair to Canada’s Cup chase VANCOUVER: Canada is winning big in just about every arena of ice hockey lately. A year after the Canada men and women won double Olympic gold medals, the NHLleading Vancouver Canucks are preparing to face the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals on the same Vancouver rink.

The Canucks are favored to return the Cup to Canada after an 18-year absence, starting in Game 1 today. With a strong Canadian dollar and eager investors, Canada is even on the verge of regaining a seventh NHL franchise: An announcement of the Atlanta Thrashers’ move to Winnipeg is imminently expected. Yet the national pride over Canada’s hockey surge doesn’t cover the Canucks.

Although Canadian fans have a history of rallying behind the last Canadian franchise standing in the NHL playoffs, the Canucks don’t think they ’ll ever be Canada’s Team. They’re too isolated, too slick, too Vancouver — and the Canucks don’t mind if their bandwagon stays empty.

“Not at all,” Canucks forward Alex Burrows said. “We get a lot of support from people here in Vancouver, and I’m sure in the province of (British Columbia), but for Canada, I don’t feel it.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly got behind Vancouver after the Bruins knocked out Montreal last month, leaving the Canucks as the last Canadian team standing.

But it’s tough to get regular Canadians behind the Canucks — or anything from Vancouver, with its less-than-frigid climate, remote beauty, high-tech economy and multicultural society setting it apart from the rest of the Great White North. “I think we’re Vancouver’s team and B.C.’s team,” said Ryan Kesler, the Canucks’ high-scoring forward from Michigan. “It’s obviously a culture (in Canada), but I think we’re playing for the 23 guys in here.

We know how much each and every one of us wants it in here, and we can’t look at all the other stuff outside.” The Edmonton Sun newspaper decided this month that the Canucks aren’t Canada’s Team, with a

majority of its readers saying they’ll cheer against Vancouver. A Vancouver Sun writer jumped into the fray with a column headlined: “Dear rest of Canada: please get your own hockey team.” The Canucks are a remarkable reflection of their distinctively un-Canadian hometown.

The Canucks’ three best skaters are two identical Swedes and Kesler, the American who once said he hated Team Canada.

Their fan base draws from Vancouver’s sizable Asian population as much as the rural province. And when the Canucks are on their game, they inspire envy with every stride.

Vancouver led the NHL in scoring during the regular season with 262 goals, many originating on the preternaturally talented sticks of Daniel and Henrik Sedin, yet the Canucks also allowed a league-low 185 goals with a cadre of eight solid defensemen in front of goalie Roberto Luongo, playing tough defense that belies their high-scoring reputation.

“We’ve got a lot of talent, a lot of guys who can do different things for us,” said Christian Ehrhoff, the Canucks’ German defenseman. “It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t use it, but we’re definitely eager to get started.” Vancouver partied in the streets after the Canucks held off the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in first round, and an estimated 20,000 people congregated downtown when they ran the San Jose Sharks out of the Western Conference finals last week. The police have budgeted an extra $500,000 for the Cup finals, hoping to avoid the ugly riot that followed the 1994 finals loss to the New York Rangers.

Canucks fans usually don’t wave as many Canadian flags as their counterparts in Calgary or Ottawa, but anybody who attended the gold-medal win over the US. at Rogers Arena knows Vancouver supports Canada _ even if Canada doesn’t always support Vancouver. “We’re playing for each other and our fans,” Raffi Torres said. “That’s all you need to do.”—AP

BERLIN: Britta Steffen prepares for her Women’s 50m Freestyle heat during the German Swimming Championships. —AP

MIAMI: The last time LeBron James was in the NBA finals, hardly anyone bothered to watch him. James was a one-man team swatted away by three great players, his Cleveland Cavaliers held to the worst offensive performance in finals histor y and swept aside by the San Antonio Spurs in 2007.

Those finals drew the worst US TV ratings ever and ended with James admitting his team was simply overmatched, that nothing could have been done to change the outcome.

That led him last summer to sign with the Miami Heat for a partnership with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and the promise of multiple championships. Less than a year after coming together, they have a shot at their first when they face Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in a series that started late Tuesday.

“I know what this league is all about, about having multiple guys on the court that can dominate a game,” James said. “With teaming up with these guys, I feel like we can compete for a lot of years to come. We’ve proven a lot of people wrong so far. We have a lot of work to do still.” And this time, people will be watching James — even if only in hope of seeing the Heat humbled after their theatrics of last summer.

“It’s probably going to get the highest-rated finals, maybe ever. Just because of what they were assembled to do, and then the team that we have, I think it makes for great TV,” Dallas guard Jason Terry said.

James announced his free agency decision in a summer televised special which was blasted throughout the league, and his popularity tumbled further when the Heat celebrated with what seemed to be part rally, part rock concert.

It cast him in the villain role, but James only cares about the result.

“You know, we’ve got a lot of flak this year, mostly because of myself. And we’ve tried to use that as motivation every day we get on the basketball court,” James said. “All we can do is play the game of basketball at a high level. Play Miami Heat basketball.”

Five years after Wade largely overwhelmed the Mavericks by himself to win the Heat’s first championship, the teams arrive at Game 1 of the rematch through decidedly different constructions.

The Heat essentially sacrificed seasons for salary-cap space, making the playoffs through Wade’s greatness but with no realistic chance of winning. The gamble paid off in July, when James and Bosh agreed to come and Wade

MIAMI: Dallas Mavericks’ Jason Terry listens to a question before an NBA Finals basketball practice in Miami. The Mavericks will play the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals late yesterday. — AP committed to stay, giving Miami the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 players on perhaps the greatest freeagency list in NBA history.

Nowitzki’s name was on it, too, and he even said he would have listened if James and Wade had tried to recruit him. His preference was to remain in Dallas, as long as owner Mark Cuban would do what it takes to give the big German another shot at a championship.

“Ultimately, that’s where my heart was at. I almost felt like we had unfinished business after ‘06,” Nowitzki said. “Had a great meeting with Mark there, free agency. All I needed was reassurance that he was going to keep going and keep building around this team, and keep putting all his resources for us to hopefully be up there one day. We’re here again at the big stage. Hopefully we can turn it around this year and finish strong.”

With reliable role players such as Jason Kidd, Terry and Shawn Marion but no defined second scorer, the Mavericks arrived in the playoffs as an afterthought, maybe even a first-round upset loser to Portland.

Instead, a stunning sweep of the Lakers in the second round was followed by Nowitzki’s spectacular play against Oklahoma City in the

Western Conference finals, mak ing the Mavericks the last hope for the Heat haters.

“We are facing a very tough team, a very good team with a bunch of closers and leaders. And so we’ve got to just go from there and bring our best game,” Nowitzki said.

“But we as players, we’re not really worried about who are the good guys or the bad guys, what the fans want. That’s not going to matter to us.” Nowitzki believed the Heat were the favorites “on paper” last summer, but things changed by the time they met twice in the first two months of the season. Dallas beat Miami both times — the Mavericks have won the last 14 regular-season meetings — as the Heat stumbled to a 9-8 start amid speculation coach Erik Spoelstra could be fired, and criticism that James’ and Wade’s styles couldn’t work together.

The Heat have sorted out themselves now: James and Wade alternating big shots, Bosh grasping his role as the third scorer, key reserves Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller getting healthy at just the right time after nearly season-long injuries. So the Heat could win, like it or not. And they’re aware the more likely answer is not. — AP

Colsaerts leads 11 US Open qualifiers LONDON: Belgian golfer Nicolas Colsaerts led 11 players who earned spots in the US Open in a qualifier for European Tour players that ended at dark — much to the surprise of Richie Ramsay of Scotland.

Ramsay didn’t think his score of 4-under 140 at Walton Heath would be enough to qualify. Because of a three-hour fog delay on Monday, he wasn’t even sure the 36-hole qualifier would finish. Ramsay said some players were still teeing off at 5:30 p.m.

He tried to catch a flight to Belfast to attend a wedding reception of fellow player Gareth Maybin. Ramsay, a former US Amateur champion, missed his flight, and then was told to rush back to the course for a playoff among three players. Stuck in traffic, he didn’t arrive until the playoff was over.

Turns out there was just enough light left to play at least one hole, so a par 3 was used.

Johan Edfors of Sweden, in what was supposed to be a three-for-one playoff, made par to earn the last spot over Andreas Harto of Denmark.

“I actually feel physically sick,” Ramsay said.

“I can’t believe they played when it was pitch dark. It’s not up to me to say it’s right or wrong, but it’s just been an horrific day — just an awful, awful day.” Ramsay will be an alternate, with little hope of getting into the US Open, to be played from June 16-19 at Congressional.

Colsaerts easily qualified along with Edfors, Shane Lowry, Maarten Lafeber, Thomas Levet, Robert Rock, David Howell, Stephen Gallacher, Alexander Noren, Marcel Siem and Robert Dinwiddie.

Colin Montgomerie, a runner-up to Ernie Els when the US Open was last held at Congressional in 1997, failed to qualify. Also missing out was Ross Fisher, the only member of the last Ryder Cup team who still has not qualified for the US Open.

Fisher is No. 52 in the world and can get in if he cracks the top 50 in the final ranking published before the championship. —AP

Nicolas Colsaerts plays a shot in this file ohoto

Young Manassero maturing fast LONDON: Hot Italian prospect Matteo Manassero wears a hat with the German word for children emblazoned on it but the 18-year-old is showing a growing maturity that could one day lift him to the top of world golf.

Described as “irritatingly young” by world number two Lee Westwood when the teenager tied for the lead after 54 holes of the PGA Championship at Wentworth on Saturday, Manassero slipped down the field to end up tied seventh with a closing 75.

“It wasn’t the finish I wanted but it ended up being a great experience which will help me in the future,” the world number 30 told Reuters in an interview. “I have less experience (than others)

but it’s something that goes in my favour. I have so many years in front of me,” said Manassero before flashing a warm smile at his mother.

Manassero possesses boyish good looks and a charming demeanor but he is also remarkably mature for his tender age and already has a rocksolid game.

He became the youngest winner on the tour when he lifted the Castello Masters title in Spain in October at the age of 17 and proved his maiden victory was no fluke by landing the Malaysian Open crown in Kuala Lumpur last month. For Manassero, however, age is irrelevant.

“I’m young but I’ve been playing well. Winning tournaments takes you higher in the world rank-

ings so these are two things that go together,” he explained.

“I just want to play good golf so if I find myself in contention I’ll try to do my best. Sometimes it doesn’t count, sometimes it does.”

Now would be an ideal time for Manassero to move through the gears, with three majors coming up in the US Open next month, the British Open in July and the US PGA Championship in August.

Manassero plays in the style of new world number one and PGA winner Luke Donald, relying on straight rather than explosive hitting to post low scores, but he was quick to play down his chances for the year’s second major at the

June 16-19 US Open. “I think it’s going to be a long course so I don’t know if it will suit me well but I’ll do my best as I do all the time,” he said of the Blue Course at Congressional where South African Ernie Els won in 1997.

“Majors I think are still a big hope but if I keep playing like this then I’ll do well.” With record crowds in attendance at Wentworth for the European Tour’s flagship event, Manassero is learning to play in front of huge galleries.

“It was nearly like a major out there. There were so many people. It was a great experience and I’m happy to have been able to play in the leading pair in the final round and fight for the win until the end,” he said. —Reuters

y

A

18

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

sp orts

Bahrain hopes to hold F1 race later this year DUBAI: Bahrain has asked Formula One’s governing body to reschedule its grand prix when it meets on Friday, insisting the country is returning to normal despite ongoing political tensions for months. Zayed Rashid Alzayani, chairman of the Bahrain International Circuit which holds the Bahrain Grand Prix, told The Associated Press that the Gulf country was ready to “hold the race today.”

Alzayani said he was hopeful it will be held in October or November to coincide with the Abu Dhabi GP on Nov. 13. It was the first time Bahrain has formally said its Bahrain Motor Federation has proposed rescheduling the March race, which was canceled by Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa over anti-government protest that have left 30 dead.

“We feel we are in position to have that event back,” Alzayani said. “Things have calmed down tremendously in Bahrain. Life

is back to normal. We are happy to have the race anytime really.” The decision on whether the race goes ahead, and when, will be made during Friday’s World Motor Sport Council meeting in Barcelona.

Alzayani argued that rescheduling the race would bolster spirits of Bahrainis and give its battered economy a boost. He estimated the race alone could infuse $500 million into the country and “could be a nice catalyst to re-ignite the economy.” “We went through a rough patch and we need nice moments in our history now for the nation,” Alzayani said.

“Formula One has always been a time where Bahrain showcases itself to the world not only as a sports arena but as society, a community that Bahrain as a nation has to offer. Formula One can bring back joy to the country.”

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has led the campaign to reschedule the race but doing

so has angered some local and international rights groups. The New York-based Human Rights Watch sent a letter last week to the FIA and the Formula One Teams Association asking for them to take into account the abuses of anti-government protesters when making their decision.

“Sadly, serious violations like arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, and alleged torture by Bahraini authorities predate the imposition of martial law in midMarch,” said Tom Porteous, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch. “There is little reason to think that ending martial law on June 1 will make much difference in Bahrain’s menacing human rights climate.”

Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said on Tuesday his group opposes rescheduling the race because of what he said the government’s ongoing crackdown which has included arbitrary detentions and torture of Shiite

protesters. All segments of society have been targeted, he said, including at least 29 employees of the race circuit, who were detained for taking part in the protest that kicked off in February.

“Bahrain has had a bloody crackdown where we lost a lot of lives and we see Formula One coming without taking into consideration this misery and sadness,” Rajab said. “It’s not a good message to the human rights defenders and reformists in Bahrain.” Alzayani acknowledged that 24 of his 108 employees were detained. But he insisted the circuit is above politics and does not discriminate based on religion or sect. “ There were some employees detained but they were not all Shiites. Some where Sunnis,” he said.

“We still have employees working who are Shiite, Sunnis and Christians. We never looked at race or sect thing. We look at productivity and loyalty to the job. They

Zayed Rashid Alzayani weren’t detained because they were Shiite but because they had cases against them.

Some have been released. Some are still under dentition.”—AP

Raina believes India can still triumph in Caribbean

CARDIFF: England’s Andrew Strauss (left) celebrates with Matt Prior in this file photo. —AP

Strauss excited by England’s ruthless winning mentality CARDIFF: Andrew Strauss praised his England team’s ruthless winning mentality after they turned what seemed like a certain draw in the first Test against Sri Lanka on Monday into a remarkable victory.

England overcame the loss of about 130 overs in the match to still thrash Sri Lanka by an innings and 14 runs - their fourth innings victory in five tests.

The Sri Lankans, with three batsmen in their line-up averaging more than 50, capitulated to 82 all out in a fraction over two hours on the final evening of the match.

“We were keen to press for a victory but we thought it would be a long shot,” Strauss told reporters. “I was really impressed by the guys’ intensity because in that situation it is easy to just go through the motions.

“These are the things that test you as a side: how desperately do you want to win? I think we showed that we really wanted it and we got what we deserved.

“I was very impressed. We showed quite a lot of ruthlessness in Australia this winter,” he added in reference to their 3-1 Ashes victory.

“And this was another good example of that.”

England’s win was more impressive as their leading pace bowler James Anderson, who sustained a side strain on Friday, was unable to bowl.

The injury will keep him out of the second test at Lord’s starting on Friday, Strauss said, but he is hopeful he can return for the final game in Southampton on June 16.

Man of the match Jonathan Trott, whose test average soared to 66.77 after compiling a painstaking 203, said he had observed a sense of ambition around the team as early as 2009, when he came into the side.

“I had a taste of it when I played for Warwickshire in a warm-up game against England before the 2009 Ashes - you could see there was a unity about them then,” Trott

Fletcher looking to develop new talent MUMBAI: New India coach Duncan Fletcher, who guided England to their 2005 Ashes triumph, said yesterday he was looking forward to developing the young talent in an untried side who will tour West Indies next month.

Suresh Raina will lead the World Cup champions in five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 match in the absence of regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior players Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan.

“While I was in England, I started the rotation policy resting senior guys. I was heavily criticised by the English authorities,” the 62year-old Zimbabwean told a pre-departure news conference yesterday.

“It’s important to do that considering the heavy schedule. We need to look into the matter as we go into the future. “There is a lot of talent in India and my job is to prepare these youngsters. It’s a pleasure to blood them in ODIs.” Raina said he expected Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary and Subramaniam Badrinath to give a good account of themselves in the limited over series before most of the senior players returned for the subsequent three tests.

“It’s a great opportunity for the youngsters who have done well in domestic cricket. I hope they will do well,” Raina said.

“I am really honored to be leading the side. I am happy with the side as we have some very good batsmen...all of them have done well in first-class cricket.

“We have done well over the last three years and have won the World Cup. It’s for us as players to execute the plans of the coach. We have to play our natural game.” — Reuters

said. “Then when I played the fifth test I got a buzz from the atmosphere in the dressing room, you could tell there was an opportunity to create something quite special.

We have our own targets as a team and we want to achieve them.

“We are very determined individuals that come together as a team and that can be quite powerful. We are on the right track but there is a lot of hard work to get where we want to.”

While Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan slated his batsmen for the defeat, he was reluctant to bestow the title of the world’s best team upon England just yet.

“They have been playing very good cricket the last few years, they have beaten Australia in Australia and they have beaten Australia here in England,” Dilshan said.

“But you can’t say from this performance here that they are the best team. “We will see what happens in the nex t couple of matches.” —Reuters

MUMBAI: Third-choice captain Suresh Raina believes India can beat West Indies in the Caribbean even without seven top players, including Sachin Tendulkar and fast bowler Zaheer Khan.

The World Cup champion will open its nine -match tour on Saturday in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, with a one-off Twenty20. Even without a host of great players, Raina said he liked the look of his squad for the Twenty20 and five one-day internationals.

“It is a great honor to lead a young side,” he said on the eve of the team’s departure on Tuesday. “I am happy that most members have done well in first-class cricket and the IPL. We hope to live up to expectations and to execute our plans. It is very important that we stay focused and disciplined.

“We have always excelled under pressure and it is a very good opportunity for youngsters. Players like Rohit (Sharma) and Virat (Kohli) are capable of doing well.” Tendulkar was granted a rest from the entire trip to recharge for the following tour of England.

Khan will miss the limited-overs matches to rest for the three tests.

Raina, who led a second-string India during limited-overs matches in Zimbabwe last year, was handed the captaincy again when regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was rested and his deputy, Gautam Gambhir, the original choice for captain, was ruled out due to an injury.

Gambhir and other top-order batsman Virender Sehwag have suffered shoulder injuries, pace bowler Ashish Nehra was nursing a finger injury sustained during the World Cup, while allrounder Yuvraj Singh was out with a lung infection.

Tendulkar, Khan, Dhoni, Gambhir,

MUMBAI: Indian cricket team captain for the one-day international series in West Indies Suresh Raina (left) and newly appointed coach Duncan Fletcher look on after a press conference in Mumbai. —AP Sehwag, Nehra and Yuvraj will miss the limited-overs games. Dhoni will return to lead the side for the test series, but India will remain without Tendulkar, Gambhir and Yuvraj.

The fluent left-handed Raina, who was in the thick of action during the recent IPL playing for the eventual champion Chennai Super Kings, was hoping his experience of the Caribbean will help achieve the desired results. “I have been to the West Indies in 2006 and during the 2007 World Cup,” Raina said.

“I have learnt a lot from previous captains Dhoni, (Anil) Kumble and (Rahul) Dravid and hope to put all my experience to good use.” Raina said he respected West Indies even though India has won their last two one-day series.

“They have plenty of good allrounders like (Kieron) Pollard and (Dwayne) Bravo but we have a balanced side and a good bunch of youngsters. It is all about gelling

well and moving forward,” he said.

Raina added it was important to strike a rapport with new coach Duncan Fletcher, who helped pick the one-day and test squads last week.

“I am well aware of responsibilities that we (team staff ) have been given,” Fletcher said. “I am amazed at the amount of talent in India and there is a very good chance of maintaining our success.” Fletcher said winning in England and Australia would be the biggest challenges, but their focus for now was on West Indies.

“We would like to beat England in England and Australia in Australia. But the first job is the tour of West Indies,” Fletcher said.

“It’s very important not to look too far down the road. India have a plan to stay at the top. The young players have the potential and this tour will show the depth of talent.”—AP

Cruz, Lanus close in on Velez BUENOS AIRES: Lucas Castro scored a last-minute goal to earn Gimnasia a 2-2 draw and deny Godoy Cruz a chance to share the lead in the Argentine Clausura tournament Monday. Ruben Martinez and Mariano Donda gave Godoy Cruz a 2-1 lead after Alejandro Capurro scored early for Gimnasia. Godoy Cruz now has 28

points in 16 matches, two behind leader Velez Sarsfield in the same number of matches. In Monday’s other match, Lanus defeated Huracan 3-0 to improve to 29 points. Diego Valeri, Silvio Romero and Guido Pizarro scored first half goals. Lanus has also played 16 games with three rounds remaining. —AP

Juventus hire Conte to replace Delneri

Antonio Conte

ROME: Juventus yesterday signed former club captain Antonio Conte as the replacement for departed coach Luigi Delneri. The 41-year-old has signed a two-year contract taking him up to the end of June 2013. Earlier in the day Juve officially announced Delneri’s departure, although the 60-year-old had already revealed his imminent exit before the end of the season.

Conte has just guided Siena to promotion back to Serie A, a feat he had already achieved with Bari in 2009. He takes over a Juve team in turmoil having finished seventh for the second year in a row and missed out on European qualification altogether.

But Conte believes the Old Lady of Turin is not in need of a major facelift. “There’s a good foundation which comes from a season that wasn’t easy,” said Conte.

“I’m banking on the desire for redemption from those in the squad. “There’s an excellent foundation with some investments made last year, I’m very calm, there’s absolutely no need to start all over.

“All we need to do is adjust certain things and provide great motivation and desire to a group with a great base. “For me it’s a return home after seven years, something I’ve always dreamed about and that I set my heart on from the moment I began this career.

“I can’t wait to get started.” However, veteran Juve and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon warned against placing too high expectations on his shoulders.

“The following months will determine if it was the right decision or not but his CV speaks volumes,” he said. “As a coach he’s always attained the results asked of him, he adds a winning attitude.

“As a player he was extremely charismatic and he knows the club. But there’s a long way between that

and winning. “The players need to make themselves available and he needs the club’s support.

“Without a strong club, a coach won’t win.” Conte was an integral part of the successful Juventus team in 1990s and beginning of the new millenium.

He played 296 games for the Turin giants, winning five league titles and the Champions League in 1996.

He was also capped 20 times by Italy and was part of the squads that reached the 1994 World Cup final and 2000 European Championships final.

He started his coaching career at Arezzo in 2007 where he was fired and then reinstated during the season and ultimately suffered relegation from Serie B thanks to Juve-who had been demoted for their part in the calciopoli match-fixing scandal-who having already gained promotion lost at home to Spezia, sending Arezzo down.

He then went to Bari, again in Serie B, where he was initially unpopular amongst the club’s hardcore fans since he is from their Puglia rivals Lecce, where he started his playing career.

However, in his first season he kept them up and in his second they won the Serie B title. He fell out with the club’s bosses over their transfer policy and moved to Atalanta, but after only 13 points from 13 games, he quit. This season he joined Siena, who like Atalanta had been relegated to Serie B, where again he led them to the title. And that was enough to earn him the move to Juventus, which had always been his stated dream.

In fact, in 2008 he said if he didn’t reach the top in the next three to four years, he would walk away from coaching. He’s there now but how long he lasts remains to be seen. Since Fabio Capello left in 2006, no coach has managed to last even as much as two years in the job. —AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

S P ORT S

England, sponsors add to Blatter’s problems

LONDON: This is a Monday, Aug. 16, 2010 file photo of Manchester United’s Paul Scholes in action against Newcastle United during their English Premier League soccer match. — AP

United’s midfielder Scholes retires MANCHESTER: Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes retired yesterday, with the 36-year-old opting to stay at the Premier League champions in a coaching role rather than extend his playing days. “This was not a decision that I have taken lightly but I feel now is the right time for me to stop playing,” Scholes said on the club website (www.manutd.com).

“To have been part of the team that helped the club reach that 19th (league) title is a great privilege.” Scholes will take up a coaching role at the club he spent his entire career and he will make one final appearance in a United shirt for a testimonial in August. The combative midfielder made 676 appearances for United, picking up 10 Premier League winners’ medals as well as helping his club to three FA Cups and two Champions League titles.

“I am not a man of many words but I can honestly say that playing football is all I have ever wanted to do and to have had such a long and successful career at Manchester United has been a real honour,” Scholes added.

Manager Alex Ferguson had spoken previously about hoping to persuade Scholes to follow in the footsteps of 37-year-old midfielder Ryan Giggs in signing on for another year.

Instead, Scholes follows goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar into retirement and presents Ferguson with another big hole to fill. “We are going to miss a truly unbelievable player,” Ferguson said. “Paul has always been fully committed to this club and I am delighted he will be joining the coaching staff from next season. “Paul has always been inspirational to players of all ages and we know that will continue in his new role.” —Reuters

ZURICH: The turmoil surrounding FIFA escalated yesterday with calls for the presidential election to be postponed and leading global sponsors expressing concern that the corruption scandal is damaging the image of the game.

With incumbent Sepp Blatter the only candidate for president after Qatari challenger Mohamed bin Hammam withdrew from the race Sunday amid bribery allegations, the English and Scottish Football Associations said today’s election lacks the credibility FIFA needs to counter the flood of allegations rocking the sport’s global body.

Although the call for a postponement was unlikely to impact Blatter’s coronation to a fourth term at the helm of FIFA, he did acknowledge the scandals had hurt FIFA. “I thought we were in a world of fair play, respect and discipline and unfortunately I have to see it no longer is the case,” Blatter said at the ceremonial opening of FIFA’s congress. “There is danger.”

The English FA called for more time to allow “any alternative reforming candidate” to come forward to challenge Blatter, who has been president for 13 years and is seeking a final fourth-year term.

But Blatter’s election itself appeared in no danger. A threatened walkout of Asian members seemed unlikely to develop, as some suppor ters of Asian Football Confederation President bin Hammams said they won’t walk out in protest.

Maldives voter Ali Azim said “we have to be more civilized than that” and Australian Chief Executive Ben Buckley said that “my sense is that everyone will be there.” And despite being suspended along with bin Hammam, FIFA vice president Jack Warner called on Caribbean football officials to continue backing Blatter.

On the eve of the election, Blatter also had to deal with two more leading sponsors criticizing FIFA’s inability to deal with pervasive corruption claims, and with his second-in-command under fire for saying Qatar had “bought” the 2022 World Cup. England’s intervention took European football body UEFA by surprise, with its president Michel Platini saying the FA did not bring it up at a meeting on Monday.

“They did not ask” for support to postpone the election, Platini said. UEFA is expected to largely back Blatter in today’s election.

Any postponement of today’s election would need the backing of three-quarters of the 208 federations attending the Congress, which was scheduled to be opened by Blatter late yesterday.

The English FA had already said it was abstaining before the allegations emerged that led to bin Hammam and fellow FIFA executive committee member Jack Warner being suspended.

The two were suspended by an ethics committee pending a full probe into alle-

ZURICH: Journalists wait for the arrival of FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner, who is supposed to inform the media about his bribery allegations, in front of the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich. — AP

gations that Caribbean football leaders were paid $40,000 each to back bin Hammam’s presidential bid. Bin Hammam, the head of Asia’s regional body, withdrew his presidential candidacy before the ethics hearing. “The events of the last two days, in particular, have made any election unworkable,” Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan said in a statement. “The integrity and reputation of the game across the world is paramount and the Scottish FA urges FIFA to reconsider its intentions, and calls on other member associations to consider the long-term implications for the game’s image.”

Transparency International, a Germanbased anti-corruption watchdog, also called for the election to be postponed.

“Free and fair elections cannot take place when there is a suspicion that voters may have been swayed,” spokeswoman Sylvia Schenk said in a statement. “FIFA should be setting a better example to its billions of supporters and especially to young fans that look to the sport for inspiration and role models.”

The interventions are unlikely to have an impact on Blatter, who is convinced the scandal remains manageable. Emirates, the Dubai-based airline, and Visa became the latest FIFA sponsors to express concern about the scandal, joining fellow World Cup sponsors Coca-Cola and Adidas. “The current situation is clearly not good for the game and we ask that FIFA take all necessary steps to resolve the concerns that have been raised,” Visa said

Spanish players forget Clasicos MADRID: Rival players from Barcelona and Real Madrid gathered with the Spain squad yesterday and vowed to put the bad blood from a series of ill-tempered matches behind them.

The World Cup winner plays the United States in a friendly on Saturday before traveling to Venezuela three days later for its first internationals since the four meetings in 18 days between bitter rivals Barcelona and Madrid over April and May. The teams accused each other of poor sportsmanship following the

bruising, emotional series of games, as Madrid won the Copa del Rey and Barcelona won their Champions League semifinal.

“We have to forget about this matter. There is no real conflict, it’s all just rivalry from what happened in play,” Madrid defender Sergio Ramos told reporters. “It’s in the past and we have to focus on the national team now. It’s not about remembering what was said or what happened in those games.

The group gets along well so we have to forget all about that for the good of the team.”

The two Spanish clubs have a combined 11 players in the squad, even though Barcelona regulars Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez will both miss this trip. “This will be resolved in one minute, I don’t think there will be any problems,” defender Joan Capdevila said.

Ramos said the return had so far been smooth for the European champions.

“I’m happy to be back with the rest of my international teammates,” Ramos said. “ The reunion, like always, is very natural, without any type of problem.”—AP

COLOGNE: Captain Laszlo Nagy of FC Barcelona Borges kisses the trophy after winning the EHF Champions League handball final against Renovalia Ciudad Real in Cologne. Barca defeated Real with 27-24. — AP

in a statement.

Emirates is “disappointed with the issues that are currently surrounding the administration of this sport,” Boutros Boutros, Emirates’ senior Vice President for Corporate Communications, said in a statement. “We hope that these issues will be resolved as soon as possible and the

FRANCE: In this picture taken March 22, 2011, UEFA president Michel Platini of France listens to speeches during the 35th Ordinary UEFA Congress at the Grand Palais in Paris. — AP

outcome will be in the interest of the game and sport in general.” The sponsor dissatisfaction piled more pressure on Blatter, who has downplayed the chaos in FIFA’s ranks.

“Crisis? What is a crisis,” Blatter said at a news conference late Monday. “Football is not in a crisis.” “We are only in some difficulties and these difficulties will be solved — and they will be solved inside this family.” FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke admitted he wrote an email to Warner saying bin Hammam might have been thinking in his now-abandoned campaign that “you can buy FIFA as they bought the WC.” Blatter turned down an opportunity to defend Valcke. When asked for a reaction, the president said: “I don’t answer this question,” before adding, “we will come back inside the FIFA on that.” Qatar’s World Cup organizers “categorically” denied Valcke’s claim. Qatar 2022 said it was “urgently seeking clarification from FIFA about the statement from their general secretary.

In the meantime, we are taking legal advice to consider our options.” Valcke tried to clarify his remarks on Monday, saying he used the word “bought” in reference to Qatar’s “financial strength” which allows large sums to be spent on legitimate lobbying, and did not mean to suggest any bribery. “ I h a ve a t n o t i m e m a d e, o r w a s intending to make, any reference to any p u rc h a s e o f vo te s,” Va l c k e s a i d i n a statement. — AP

Bin Hammam apart, Euro season ends well for Asia SEOUL: A season that should have been celebrated across Asia for the accelerated development of its players in the big European leagues has ended instead with the continent’s top football administrator provisionally suspended amid bribery allegations and with the sport’s world governing body in turmoil.

The most famous Asian football figures on and off the field both had weekends to forget in Europe but unlike Mohamed Bin Hammam, the suspended president of the Asian Football Confederation, Park Ji-sung can at least a successful season to look back on for Manchester United.

In Zurich, Bin Hammam withdrew from the race for the top job in FIFA, hours before he was provisionally suspended by the governing body’s ethics committee for alleged corruption. That came a day after South Korea’s Park missed the chance to become the first Asian player to lift the top prize in European club football as his English club was defeated 3-1 by Barcelona at Wembley Stadium in London.

The defeat ended a largely impressive season for a number of Asian players working in Europe’s biggest competitions. Park may have failed to collect the continental silverware but he played a key role in helping Manchester United to a record 19th English title — his fourth since moving to Old Trafford in 2005.

Perhaps of even more significance in an Asian player development sense has been the success of Ali Al Habsi in the English Premier League. Not only is he a goalkeeper, he comes from Oman and is a rare representative in Western Europe from the western side of Asia. Al Habsi spent the season on loan from Bolton Wanderers to fellow Premier League club Wigan Athletic.

His deeds in goal helped Wigan avoid relegation to the second tier and earned him the club’s Player of the Year award. According to reports in England, he is being chased by former European champion Aston Villa.

Al Habsi is uncertain of his future but is sure that he doesn’t want to return to Bolton and play understudy to established goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

“I’m not going back to being second choice ‘keeper after the season I’ve just had at Wigan,” Al Habsi said. “I won’t go back to sitting on the bench, it’s not fair. I fought hard to get here; it’s time to play week after week.”

An established figure at Bolton is Lee Chung-yong, though the South Korean had a mixed season in England. The winger impressed while the club was riding high in the first half of the season, but looked tired after returning from the Asian Cup in January and Bolton slipped down the standings.

The Asian Cup cost South Korea’s Cha Du-ri a starting place with Glasgow giant Celtic, although national and club teammate Ki Sung-yong returned from Doha to help the club win the Scottish FA Cup. The Qatar tournament also deprived Shinji Kagawa of a fairy-tale first season in Germany. The midfielder was little known outside Japan when he made the move from Cerezo Osaka to Borussia Dortmund in July 2010 but then proceeded to become one of the hottest newcomers in the league.

Just 21 when he made his debut in the Bundesliga, Kagawa starred as his new club stormed to the top of the Bundesliga with eight goals from midfield in the first half of the season.

Kagawa wasn’t selected for the 2010 World Cup but soon became a regular feature in the Japan national team. A broken bone in his foot during the Asian Cup ruled him out for the rest of the season. Despite the absence of its new star, Dortmund kept its place at the top of the standings to win the title.

Kagawa, who is expected to be offered an improved and extended contract by the club, is looking forward to playing in next season’s Champions League. “It will be interesting to see how well I can do and I

am really looking forward to the challenge,” Kagawa said.

“It is going to be a tough season but I want to play a full year.” With Kagawa on the sidelines, much of Japan’s football focus switched to the wing-backs from the national team — Atsuto Uchida of FC Schalke 04 in Germany and Yuto Nagatomo, who joined Italian giant Inter in January on loan.

The two even met in the quarterfinal of the UEFA Champions League in April clashes that enthralled Japan, at the time devoid of domestic football in the wake of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Surprisingly, Uchida and his German club defeated the defending champion 8-3 on aggregate to book a semifinal against Park Ji-sung and Manchester United. No Japanese player had ever appeared at that stage of the competition, but his run ended there with Schalke soundly beaten in the semis.

Nagatomo, 24, is expected to join Inter on a permanent deal this summer and is looking forward to progressing in his career.

“I want to continue going forward to improve,” he said. “ These six months at Inter have helped me a lot; one year in this team is like 10 in another club. My personal goal for next season is to become the best fullback in the world.”

Iran captain Javad Nekounam once again impressed in Spain at Osasuna along with compatriot Masoud Shojaei, despite the club flirting with relegation until late in the season. In France, South Korean striker Park Chuyoung scored 12 goals but could not prevent AS Monaco from being relegated from Ligue One. Park is set to leave for a top French team or the English Premier League and there is sure to be much more transfer activity involving Asian players over the summer including the possible departure of Japanese star Keisuke Honda from CSKA Moscow to a club in England, Germany, Italy or Spain. — AP

Blue Jays snap winless skid

16

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Bahrain hopes to hold F1 race later this year

18

Raina believes India can win in Caribbean

Page 18

PARIS: Roger Federer, of Switzerland returns the ball to Gael Monfils, of France,, during their quarterfinal match of the French Open tennis tournament. (Inset above) Marion Bartoli of France celebrates her victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. (Inset right) Italy’s Francesca Schiavone reacts after winning a point shortly before defeating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.— AP

Federer reaches French Open semis PARIS: Roger Federer made his way back into the French Open semifinals yesterday, and he’ll now get a chance to end Novak Djokovic’s perfect season.

The 16-time Grand Slam champion advanced by beating Gael Monfils of France 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (3), making it five straight-set wins in a row at Roland Garros. Against Djokovic, Federer will be up against the player who eliminated him from the semifinals at the last two major tournaments.

“Playing a semifinal here at Roland Garros is something great, and to play it against a great player ... that’s why we train so hard,” Federer said. “I’m in really great shape and I’m looking forward to playing this big match.” Earlier, Andy Murray completed his darkness-suspended fourth-round match, reaching the quarterfinals with a 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 win over Viktor Troicki.

On the women’s side, defending champion Francesca Schiavone reached the semifinals by beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 1-6, 7-5, 7-5, and No. 11 Marion Bartoli defeated 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Federer won the French Open in 2009 to complete a career Grand Slam, but he lost in the quarterfinals to Robin Soderling last year. That defeat ended a streak of 23 straight major semifinal appearances for the Swiss.

He had no such worries this year. Despite losing to Monfils in their previous match — in the semifinals of last year’s Paris Masters — Federer is now 6-1 against the Frenchman, including two previous wins at the French Open. But things are expected to be a bit trickier in the next round against Djokovic.

The second-seeded Serb, who advanced to the semifinals when quarterfinal opponent Fabio Fognini withdrew Monday because of a left leg injury, is 41-0 in 2011 and has won 43 straight matches dating back to last year’s Davis Cup final.

With a victory over Federer, Djokovic can equal John McEnroe’s Open era record of 42 straight wins to start a season. And with three more, he would match Guilermo Vilas’ record 46match winning streak.

Murray, lethargic at times and brooding at

others, worked his way into the quarterfinals by coming back to beat Troicki in a match that started a day earlier. The three-time Grand Slam runner-up won the final five games of the fifth set despite injuring his right ankle in the previous round. The first four sets were played Monday before darkness suspended the match.

“The sort of day, day and a half before the match was pretty tough. So it was pretty stressful and tiring before I went on the court,” Murray said.

“And then, obviously, today more so than yesterday maybe was tougher. I was really nervous.”

Murray, who said he had a tear in the tendon in his right ankle, looked out of it in the opening two sets on Court Suzanne Lenglen, often pacing around the clay with his head low and sometimes screaming to no one in particular. But he soon started placing his shots and quickly worked his way back into the match before play was suspended. When the match resumed Tuesday, the pair held serve until Troicki broke for a 4-2 lead shortly after a ball boy interfered with play on a point won by the 15th-seeded Serb. Troicki complained, but the point was

replayed and Murray eventually took a 15-0 lead.

“I won that game, but still, I never saw — haven’t seen it on TV or ever,” Troicki said. “I mean, since I watched tennis and I played tennis, I have never seen such a situation. Kid just jumped in and messed up my point.”

Two games later, Troicki was serving for the match. He took a 30-0 lead, meaning he was two points from victory, when Murray rallied again and broke back. “I was a bit nervous and didn’t go for my shots at those points, and he took advantage of it,” Troicki said. “Definitely one of the toughest losses in my career. “Not a good moment.”

It is the fifth time in the 24-year-old Murray’s career that he has come back from two sets down to win. The fourth-seeded Briton is now 11-5 in five-set matches. Murray will next face Juan Ignacio Chela. The Argentine advanced Monday and will have a day of rest before playing the injured Murray.

“There’s a lot sort of liquid and sort of stiffness — causing stiffness — and quite a lot of sort of crunching in the joint,” said Murray, adding he’s

Bolt wins 100 at Golden Spike OSTRAVA: World record-holder Usain Bolt clocked 9.91 yesterday to win the 100 meters at the Golden Spike meet. In only his second race of the season, Bolt pulled away from fellow Jamaican Steve Mullings to finish with the exact same time he set in Rome last week.

Mullings timed 9.97 for the second place and Daniel Bailey of Antigua was third in 10.08. Bolt’s next stop will be the Bislett Games, a Diamond League meeting in Oslo on June 9 as he warms up for the Aug. 27-Sept. 4 world championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Meanwhile, double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius was no closer to qualifying for this year’s world championships and next year’s Olympics when he clocked 46.19 seconds in the 400 meters at the Golden Spike yesterday. The South African finished sixth.

Pistorius, known as the “Blade Runner,” needs to run a personalbest 45.25 seconds to qualify for the worlds in Daegu, South Korea, this summer and the London Games.

He said “I’m a bit disappointed with the time, I thought I could have done better.”

He ran his best of 45.61 in South Africa’s Pretoria in March and will have more chances at U.S. meets in Portland and New York City. He runs on carbon-fiber prosthetic limbs.

In Kuala Lumpur, doping results for three Malaysian national team athletes will be out by late yesterday while three other runners who failed to take the test are still missing, a sports official said Sunday.

The six athletes-five female run-

ners from the 4 x 100 relay team and one male 100m sprinter-faced with doping claims failed to turn up for a random drug test last Tuesday.

While three have since taken the test, the man and two of the women are still missing. Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary Sieh Kok Chi said the three missing athletes may still be abroad.

“Now I think the situation is very interesting,” he told AFP. “If the test

Usain Bolt sprints to victory in this file photo

results are negative, the pressure on the other three will be off. But if they are positive, that is a different story.”

He said he expected results to be out yesterday at the latest. The six sprinters were supposed to head to Bulgaria on Saturday for training and competition in Europe, but their trip was called off pending the test results.

Sieh said Friday that some sports officials thought the three missing runners might have left for Bulgaria on an earlier flight than scheduled.

Sieh said there was no news from Bulgarian authorities. The whereabouts of their coach, Harun Rasheed, is also a mystery.

The Malay Mail newspaper reported on Friday-citing anonymous sources-that a team coach gave the athletes “pink pills” to help with “recovery and relaxation”.

The paper reported that the Anti-Doping Agency of Malaysia was expected to contact their counterparts in Bulgaria about testing the trio. Sieh has also called on the National Sports CouncilMalaysia’s sports watchdog-to investigate. — Agencies

been icing his ankle and taking pills. “But the physios and a lot of the guys I work with have really helped. I’ve got all the best equipment here, all the right advice, and made it as best as possible.”

According to the International Tennis Federation, it’s the first time since 1984 that the top five seeded men all reached the quarterfinals at the French Open, and the first time since Wimbledon in 1989 that it happened at any of the Grand Slam tournaments.

Like Murray, Schiavone was also two points from losing in her match. The 14th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova, at 19 the youngest quarterfinalist at this year’s tournament, won 10 of the first 12 games to lead 4-1 in the second set before Schiavone turned things around.

“I never stopped believing in what I could do,” said Schiavone, who will play Bartoli in the semifinals. “I started too slow, absolutely too slow. But in the end I felt better ... I could play better.” Last year at Roland Garros, Schiavone became the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title. — AP

Gangster sport goes mainstream in South Africa JOHANNESBURG: The white BMW appears to float across the asphalt as it does a 360degree turn, its steel ballet incongruous with the acrid smell of smoking tyres and the lunatic snarl of the engine.

The car skids perilously close to the crowd of spectators clustered behind the wall of old tyres encircling the arena.

But these fans of “spinning”-an illicit urban motor sport practised on the streets of South Africa’s townships-greet what looks like a near-death experience with wild applause.

“Check out the distance! Brother, that was inch-perfect!” says an enraptured spectator after the driver, 25-year-old Sunesh Pursad, leaves the circle of pavement known as the “dance floor”.

Pursad is part of a group of spinners who are trying to clean up the sport’s image, taking a pastime associated with violent young men to a larger audience.

There is a stigma in South Africa attached to spinning, which was born on the streets of Soweto, the township where Johannesburg’s white citizens warehoused their black labour force during apartheid.

An element of danger pervades the sport, which is essentially a collection of car tricks that the owner’s manual tells you never to

try, with names like “the burnout”, “the snake” and “the drift”.

The most revered is the “get-out stunt”, where the driver sets the car spinning in circles, then gets out, walks around, busts a few dance moves-all while the empty vehicle keeps whirling-before jumping back inside.

Spinners say these performances started at the funerals of “tsotsis”, or gangsters, whose fellow gang members would spin cars as a kind of memorial service.

There were a lot of funerals for young men in Soweto in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The township was a violent place, racked by bloody fighting as the death throes of white-minority rule in South Africa played themselves out on the streets of black neighbourhoods.

Car ownership was extremely rare in Soweto under apartheid. Spinners say when a gangster died, fellow gang members would steal cars and spin them at the funeral, then set them alight.

“If a gangster used to steal cars, that’s how he was going to be celebrated. All your friends would come and spin. That was the culture,” says Pule Motloung, a spinner and filmmaker from Soweto who has made a documentary on spinning, “Love 4 the Box Shape”, and is finishing a feature film.—AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Business

BOB in strategic alliance with Citibank

Years

Page 22

Tourism Malaysia, SIA introduce exclusive offer Page 23

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Prestige Mall at The Avenues to house top world brands

KSE ends on bullish note

Page 25

Page 24

Americans losing faith in economy Consumer confidence index dropped in May

LOS ANGELES: Sonia Romero shops for tomatoes at a Superior Grocers store in Los Angeles. A monthly survey shows consumers are losing faith that the economy will keep improving. — AP NEW YORK: Americans are losing faith that the economy will keep improving, according to a monthly survey. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to 60.8 from a revised 66 in April, a sign of the toll that high gas prices, a choppy job outlook and a moribund housing market are taking on people’s psyches. Economists had expected an increase to 67. It was the lowest reading since November.

“Consumers are considerably more apprehensive about future business and labor market conditions as well as their income

prospects,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

She said fears over inflation, which eased in April, picked up again in May. The index, released yesterday, is still far from the reading of 90 that indicates a healthy economy. It hasn’t approached that level since the recession began in December 2007.

Economists monitor confidence because consumer spending, including big-ticket items such as housing and health care, accounts for about 70 percent of US economic activity and is critical for a strong rebound. A more trou-

bled economic outlook raises the risk that people will pull back on spending.

And consumers have a lot on their minds.

Retail gasoline prices peaked at a national average of about $3.98 a gallon ($1.05 a liter) on May 5, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. The consumer confidence survey ran from May 118. The real estate market also remains depressed. Home prices fell nationwide for the eighth straight month, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index released yesterday. Home prices in major areas

Europe locked in ‘chaotic’ debate over Greece BRUSSELS: European officials are locked in a heated debate over whether — and how — to give more aid to debt-ridden Greece just as a much-delayed examination of the country’s finances draws to a close. Experts from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund will likely conclude their review of Greece’s accounts and austerity program over the next 24 to 48 hours, a European official said yesterday.

Their report is set to show huge funding gaps in Greece’s budget over the next two years, despite 110 billion euros ($157 billion) in rescue loans granted only a year ago. It will also spell out new austerity measures and detail plans to privatize public real estate and corporate assets as the Greek government struggles to hit deficit targets set out in the bailout program.

In parallel to the review carried out in Athens, European governments and financial institutions are wrangling over different proposals that would make potential new loans to the struggling country more secure.

So far there is no consensus among euro-zone countries on whether to give Greece new aid and how, the official said, despite increased pressure in recent days from the European Commission, the ECB and other financial leaders. “It’s really very chaotic,” a second European official said of the talks between representatives from euro-zone finance ministries, the ECB and the EU. “There are loads of proposals but all proposals are opposed by some.” Both officials were speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions were still ongoing. Many of the richer countries in the 17-nation euro-zone are frustrated with Greece’s slow implementation of the economic reforms and some 50 billion euros in privatizations that were supposed to help its economy grow again and cut down a national debt of some 150 percent of economic output. They want assurances that they will get their money back as their own taxpayers are unhappy with what they see as undeserved help for less disciplined countries. The ministry representatives, who will meet again today in Vienna, are discussing potential “technical assistance” for Greece in tax collection and the privatization program, the two officials said. Such international involvement in the internal financial affairs of a euro-zone country would constitute an unprecedented intervention likely to face strong opposition within

have reached their lowest level since the US housing bubble burst in 2006, stymied by foreclosures, a surplus of unsold homes and continued reluctance of Americans to buy homes.

And the job market remains sluggish. A Labor Department report last week said more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first increase in three weeks.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 424,000. That’s above the 375,000 level consistent with sustainable job growth.

They peaked at 659,000 during the recession.

Results from the Consumer Confidence survey have been choppy in recent months, rising in April but falling in March. But before that the measure had risen for five consecutive months and hit a three -year high in Februar y.

Consumers’ opinion about current conditions declined only slightly. Their expectations for the next six months fell more. The number of people expecting jobs to grow in the next six months declined, and the number of people expecting fewer jobs during the same period increased. — AP

UAE to tighten banks’ liquidity guidelines ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates’ central bank will tighten regulations on how banks in the Gulf Arab state manage liquidity so they can better cope with future crises, a central bank circular seen by Reuters showed yesterday.

Lenders in the world’s No 3 crude exporter will be required to comply with qualitative, quantitative and reporting requirements on liquidity risk management, effective from

September, according to the circular sent to banks. “The aim of this liquidity regulation is to reduce the frequency and severity of banks’ liquidity problems,” the circular said.

“This is achieved by ensuring banks have a robust risk liquidity management and governance process and they are holding sufficient liquid assets to withstand a liquidity stress,” it said.

UAE banks remain hesitant to lend

following Dubai’s debt woes and weakness in the property sector, although deposits stand at their highest level in more than two years at least as the country enjoys safe-haven status amid unrest in other parts of the region.

In its circular, the central bank urged banks to be responsible for managing their liquidity risks, pinning the overall responsibility on the board of directors. —Reuters

Oil lifts Gulf markets, Egypt snaps rally MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS

ROME: Italy’s central bank chief and favorite to head up the European Central Bank this year, Mario Draghi (center) takes place to deliver a speech during a central bank conference yesterday at Italy’s central bank headquarters in Rome. Europe’s sovereign debt crisis could have “significant systemic effects,” Draghi said. — AFP Greece. On top of that, some countries have pushed for Greece to provide collateral for any further loans which could be cashed in if the government fails to repay the aid. Earlier this month, European policymakers also raised the possibility of asking private creditors like banks and investment funds to give Greece more time to repay its bonds, but such a move has been strictly opposed by the ECB. ECB officials have warned that even such a “soft restructuring” or “reprofiling” could be seen by investors as a default, triggering panic on financial markets similar that seen after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. —AP

DUBAI: Most Gulf markets gained yesterday, buoyed by rising oil prices, while Egypt’s main index halted a four-session rally, dragged by stocks to be dropped from the MSCI index. Rising oil prices helped UAE stocks advance, with Dubai’s index making its largest gain in a month.

Bellwether Emaar Properties rose 2.6 percent, Dubai Islamic Bank climbed 1 percent and Emirates NBD added 0.3 percent.

Dubai’s benchmark climbed 1.6 percent to an eight-day high. Oil jumped by more than $2 yesterday then pared gains with Brent crude above $116 a barrel, as the dollar weakened on improved prospects for a bailout for heavily indebted Greece and US confidence data disappointed.

“I think regional markets, specifically Dubai and Abu Dhabi, are

experiencing a reflex move on the back of a rise in oil prices over the past couple of days,” said Sleiman Aboulhosn, assistant fund manager at Al Masah Capital.

Abu Dhabi’s index gained 0.7 percent. Aldar Properties rose 0.7 percent and Dana Gas climbed 1.6 percent. These two stocks accounted for more than a third of total index volumes. Egypt’s benchmark index fell 1.2 percent, breaking a four-session rally spurred by foreign offers of financial aid to help the country weather its economic crisis.

Ezz Steel, the third most traded stock on the index, shed 5.8 percent and El Sewedy Electric dropped 1.2 percent before both stocks are dropped from MSCI’s Egypt index. “It’s a system removal but funds were selling their exposure,” said Mohamed Seddiek of

Prime Securities. Sewedy, the Arab world’s biggest listed cable maker, marked its biggest one-day loss since May 18. Oman’s index rose for a second day since Sunday’s 22month low as valuations drew in institutional buyers. The benchmark ended 0.8 percent higher, while volumes hit a six-week high.

“The market has over-reacted to the negativism, so a bounce-back is on cards, mainly driven by the blue-chip counters,” said Kanaga Sundar, Gulf Baader Capital Markets head of research.

“Fundamentals remain intact and prices look attractive for those investing on a medium-term horizon. Institutionals (will) remain as net buyers on Oman’s bourse,” Sundar added.

Bluechips Renaissance Services and Bank Muscat rose 1.6 and 1.8 percent respectively. —Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

business

Bank of Baghdad in strategic partnership with Citibank Alliance another milestone in Burgan Bank’s expansion

KUWAIT: Kuwait National Assembly Speaker Jassem Mohammad Al-Khorafi shakes hands with T. A Remesh, Gulfmart country manager, the Garshom Award winner.

Gulfmart country manager wins Garshom Special Award KUWAIT: It was once again time for celebrations at Gulfmart, the country’s fastest growing retail chain. However, this time around, it was not for opening yet another outlet to their growing chain of branches in the country, rather it was to celebrate their country manager, T A Remesh winning the 2010 Garshom Special Award. The award was in recognition of Remesh’s innovative leadership and exceptional contributions to society and reflected the numerous corporate social responsibility ventures undertaken by Gulfmart over the years.

Speaking on winning the Garshom Special Award for 2010, Remesh said, “I feel honored in receiving this award and would like to thank Garshom Infomedia, the selection committee and everyone out there for this prestigious award.

However, I am just a figurehead, and more than recognition of my individual contributions, this award is an acknowledgement of the people who dedicatedly work behind the scenes to ensure the success of various community ventures we undertake.” He added, “Whether we are aware of it, or not, every one of us has a core set of personal values that guide and motivate us in life. When we become totally committed and implement our personal values in every detail of our lives, great things can be achieved - as my fellow award winners have shown through their life and work. I feel privileged to share my award with such a distinguished group of people as the winners of the 2010 Garshom Awards.”

A colorful Garshom Award Nite, held at the Indian Community School Kuwait, Salmiya campus, on Friday, 27 May, 2011,

honored the recipients of the 8th Garshom Awards. The annual Garshom Awards, instituted in 2003 by Garshom Infomedia, honor successful and eminent non-resident Indians for their dedication, innovation, leadership and outstanding contribution to social causes and welfare of the community. Dr Sunitha Krishnan (Hyderabad), V C Praveen (Chennai), S Ahmed (Trivandrum), Sageer Trikaripur (Kuwait), Remesh T A (Kuwait) and the All Malaysia Malayalee Association (AMMA) were selected as recipients for the Garshom Awards 2010.

The former Chairperson of Indian Rajya Sabha, Dr Najma Heptullah, inaugurated the 8th Garshom Award Nite program, while Union Minister for Agriculture K.V. Thomas gave away the awards in the presence of Home Minister of Karnataka R. Ashokan and Member of the Legislative Assembly in Kerala K. Muraleedharan, who felicitated the awardees. Jacob Channapetta, Chairman of the 8th Garshom Award Nite organizing committee and Jins Paul, Managing Editor Garshom Infomedia Ltd, welcomed the distinguished guests and honorable awardees. The Garshom Awards recognize the valuable contributions of NRIs in enriching lives of their compatriots as well as strengthening relations between India and their country of Residence. The input

by Indians in Kuwait in strengthening bilateral relations between Kuwait and India was highlighted by During a meeting, Kuwait National Assembly Speaker Jassem Mohammad Al-Khorafi welcomed the distinguished Indian guests to Kuwait and congratulated the awardees of the Garshom Awards.

Gulf Air lays off 200; bookings slump DUBAI: Bahrain’s government-run carrier Gulf Air says it has laid off 200 employees, and bookings have fallen amid months of unrest in the kingdom.

The airline said in a statement emailed yesterday that it can’t comment on specific dismissals, but it insists they were carried out according to company policies and Bahraini labor law. It says 100 of the employees have appealed the

dismissals, and 11 have won their jobs back so far. Gulf Air says separately that its bookings have dropped 25 percent in the first five months of the year. It says it is optimistic about the summer after an upturn in reser vations since May 1.

Bahrain was gripped by widespread protests and labor unrest led by the country’s Shiite majority until a government crackdown in March. — AP

KUWAIT: Bank of Baghdad (BOB) announced yesterday that it has signed a strategic partnership with Citibank (Citi) to manage the bank’s global client cash management requirements in Iraq.

The new partnership allows Citi’s global clients’ with business interest in Iraq to directly leverage from Bank of Baghdad’s world class cash management platform and extensive branch network. BOB will offer Citi’s clients a number of comprehensive products and service portfolios that include account services, domestic and international payments and collection, liquidity management and electronic banking solutions. The partnership in turn allows BOB in leveraging Citi’s global network across 100 countries for cash management solutions and other banking services.

This strategic alliance marks another major milestone in Burgan Bank Group’s expansion plans. The partnership comes at a very important time for the Burgan Bank Group, as we are committed to offering our clients world class services.

Burgan Bank Chief Executive Officer Eduardo Eguren said, “This winning partnership will bring together our regional expertise and Citi’s global experience under one platform. The strategic alliance will indeed add value to both Bank of Baghdad and Citi

KUWAIT: Steve Donovan (center), Eduardo Eguren (right) and Dr Younes Brouche (left) during the signing ceremony. clients’ as well as to Burgan Bank group clients.” “Bank of Baghdad is a fast growing member of Burgan Bank group and has successfully placed itself as one of the major players in Iraq,” added Eguren Bank of Baghdad was the first licensed bank in Iraq established in 1992. The bank

offers retail and corporate banking services through a 40 branch and over 30 ATMs network. Bank of Baghdad is listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange. Burgan Bank Group includes key subsidiaries that are Jordan Kuwait Bank, Gulf Bank Algeria, Bank of Baghdad and Tunis International Bank.

APICORP General Assembly increases subscribed capital by 173% to $1.5bn KUWAIT/DAMMAM: In a strong endorsement of its performance from member states, the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation’s (APICORP) Extraordinary General Assembly meeting held in Cairo on Sunday unanimously decided to increase the Multilateral Bank’s subscribed capital by 173% from $550 million to $1,500 million. APICORP is owned by the ten member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).

The government of Kuwait owns a 17 % stake in APICORP. An extraordinary meeting of the Bank’s General Assembly also resolved to double its authorized capital from $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion. In addition, APICORP’s paid-up capital was increased 36% from $550 Million to $750 Million by capitalizing retained earnings of $200 million into 200,000 shares distributed pro rata to member shareholders. This is the highest such distribution since the founding of APICORP, 35 years ago.

Ahmad Bin Hamad Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive and General Manager of APICORP said: “The capital increase reflects the confidence of member states in APICORP’s ability to catalyse growth and value creation in the region’s oil and gas industry. While the increased capital will contribute to our target of doubling our direct investment portfolio by the end of our current five year plan, from a more long-term strategic perspective, it gives us the ability to significantly expand our investment and financing horizons and our role in the sector. We would like to express our appreciation to APICORP’s shareholder states for their steadfast commitment to APICORP’s core mission of transforming the Arab world’s energy industry. Their support has consider-

Ahmad Bin Hamad Al-Nuaimi ably helped APICORP in proactively exploring opportunities for supporting oil and gas projects that can add value to both the energy sector and the region’s economy.”

Shareholder states have previously supported APICORP with three capital increases in 1981, 1996 and 2003. In 2008, shareholders pledged $1 billion in deposit facilities.

“Furthermore, APICORP’s shareholders have waived receiving dividends consecutively for the last three years including 2010, which is akin to injection of capital, and that demonstrates the shareholders unwavering support to further bolster the Corporation’s capital base,” Al-Nuaimi added.

The latest capital increase follows the announcement of APICORP’s 2010 annual results, which saw the Multilateral Bank’s annual net profits surging 62% from 2009 to reach $95 million. Total assets for the period rose to $4.3 billion, a 5% increase over their 2009 levels of $4.1 billion while total shareholders’ equity rose by 13% to reach $1.1 billion. Meanwhile, at the end of the first quarter of 2011, APICORP recorded a net income of $39.3 million, while total assets and total shareholders’ equity reached $4.42 billion and $1.16 billion respectively.

In 2010, APICORP set into motion a diversification strategy aimed at mobilizing funds for a new phase of investments. In line with this strategy, APICORP completed its landmark SAR 2 billion ($533 million) debut bond issuance in October last year which was met with exceptional demand from a varied investor audience. To further its expansion and diversification plans, APICORP is exploring opportunities in shipping, petroleum tank farms, refining and related infrastructure investments. In addition to investing, APICORP is also looking at financing, advising and structuring vital energy projects.

Since its founding in 1975, APICORP has played a vital role in fostering the development of the Arab energy industry. Over the last 35 years, APICORP has invested as an equity owner in a total of 22 oil and gas joint venture projects worth in excess of $13 billion. At the same time, APICORP has participated in direct and syndicated energy finance transactions worth in excess of $126 billion.

APICORP’s aggregate commitments in these transactions, including both in equity and debt, are valued in excess of $11 billion.

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

.2725240 .4498280 .3925840 .3196010 .2803020 .2905240 .0060900 .0024910 .0742270 .7230660 .3854650 .0726930 .7080370 .0063380 .0461900 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2732000 .4509440 .3935580 .3203940 .2809980 .0527840 .0442170 .2912450 .0351260 .2214300 .0033500 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0744110 .7248610 .0000000 .0728730 .7097950 .0000000

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

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.407 6.112 3.200 2.505 3.836 223.970 35.409 3.717

.2777780 .4585000 .4001520 .3257630 .2857060 .2961250 .0062070 .0025390 .0756580 .7370060 .3928960 .0740940 .7216870 .0064600 .0470810 .2768000 .4568860 .3987440 .3246160 .2847000 .0534800 .0448000 .2950830 .0355880 .2243480 .0033940 .0061850 .0025300 .0032340 .0037920 .0753920 .7344120 .3915130 .0738330 .7191480 .0064370

Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

6.355 9.090 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 73.456 75.687 715.470 731.440 74.991

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 49.000 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.277 Yemen Riyal 1.260 Tunisian Dinar 200.400 Jordanian Dinar 388.990 Lebanese Lira 182.700 Syrian Lier 5.947 Morocco Dirham 35.575 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 275.350 Euro 397.330 Sterling Pound 456.700 Canadian dollar 284.310 Turkish lire 172.290 Swiss Franc 325.050 Australian dollar 295.010 US Dollar Buying 274.150

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

GOLD 282.000 142.000 73.000

Sterling Pound US Dollar

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

SELL CASH 298.200 731.920 3.980 286.100 540.600 14.100 53.800 167.800 48.680 400.000 36.100 6.310

SELL DRAFT 296.700 731.920 3.720 284.600

224.200 46.335 398.500 36.950 6.115

0.033

388.970 0.185 93.860 3.840 228.900

325.900 5.800 9.280 74.940 275.200

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 457.500 275.200

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees

Selling Rate 276.700 286.245 446.875 391.755 312.706 732.342 75.312 75.980 73.756 390.866 46.518 2.514 6.124

Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

3.236 3.758 6.368 678.726 3.479 9.216 6.036 3.920 91.000

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. 714.850 3.230 6.365 75.710 73.480 224.250 42.540 2.505 457.500

GOLD 1,583.870

10 Tola 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

0.033 0.239 0.241 3.500 390.310 0.186 93.860 47.400 4.320 230.400 1.866 51.300 714.830 3.310 6.500 76.140 73.480 224.250 42.540 2.647 459.500 45.100 327.400 5.800 9.460 198.263 75.040 275.600 1.230

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

Rate per 1000 (Tran) 275.100 3.215 6.125 2.515 3.735 6.395 74.995 73.560 731.400 46.275 460.600 0.00003280 3.910 1.550 390.900 5.750 401.300 288.650

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) US Dollar 274.750 Euro 398.300 Pound Sterling 457.300 Canadian Dollar 284.400 Japanese Yen 3.390 Indian Rupee 6.110 Egyptian Pound 46.275 Sri Lankan Rupee 2.505 Bangladesh Taka 3.715 Philippines Peso 6.350 Pakistan Rupee 3.200 Bahraini Dinar 731.900 UAE Dirham 74.910 Saudi Riyal 73.400 *Rates are subject to change

y

A

23

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

BUSINESS

GCC real GDP seen growing at 4.7%, inflation modest NBK GCC Economic Brief

Tourism Malaysia & Singapore Airlines introduce exclusive summer offer to Langkawi KUWAIT: Tourism Malaysia and Singapore Airlines have partnered to launch a fly-and-stay offer for this summer together with a five-star resort in Langkawi, The Datai Langkawi. A campaign ‘Reality Can Be Better Than Imagination’ is aimed to delight our consumers with a collaboration of two luxury brand names and exemplary hospitality ser vices - a warm hospitality of Singapore Airlines and unforgettable stay at The Datai Langkawi among the tropical lush greenery.

This summer’s ‘fly-and-stay’ offer starts from KD438 per person (based on twinsharing room), which includes airfare with Singapore Airlines and three nights’ accommodation at The Datai, and is valid for stays until 31 October 2011. This exclusive offer also includes one extra night with our compliments when guests stay three nights. Reality, indeed, can be better than imagination.

Consumers can avail of this summer offer through the following travel agencies in Kuwait: Alghanim Travel, AlSalhiah World, Boodai Aviation, Jumbo Travel, Kapico Travel and Qiblah Travel.

Tuan Razali, Director of Tourism Malaysia Dubai, stated that “we received a total of 320,373 arrivals to Malaysia

from the Middle East in 2010. Our main objective for this joint promotion with Singapore Airlines is to increase the number of arrivals from the Middle East especially from Kuwait to Langkawi. Also, we want to enhance the ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’ brand in the market and make Malaysia one of the top of mind destinations among the Kuwaiti people in the summer season and also throughout the year”.

“Singapore Airlines is proud to support Tourism Malaysia with this luxurious package for our consumers in Kuwait. Fly Singapore Airlines to Langkawi and stay at The Datai Langkawi, where you can turn your dreams into reality. Where your dream holiday on an idyllic white sandy beach in total relaxation, becomes a reality,” said Chew Yun Meng, Singapore Airlines, General Manager Kuwait.

Singapore Airlines flies three times weekly between Kuwait and Singapore, via Abu Dhabi. Airbus 333-300 aircraft are being operated on the route, with all classes equipped with the latest Krisworld inflight entertainment system, offers an extensive selection of more than 1,000 entertainment options including movies, TV programs, interactive games and videos.

KUWAIT: Real GDP should advance 4.7% this year, with CPI inflation near 4.7%. Higher oil prices and production, in light of recently lost Libyan output, should shore up that sector.

The consumer sector remains well anchored by stable employment, and was further helped by the recent Amiri grant. The grant allotted an average KD 5,000 ($18,000) per Kuwaiti family in February. The rest of the economy (construction, business services...) remains more dependent on the now familiar 5- year plan and its projects. Those are feeding slowly through the pipeline.

The real estate sector recovered nicely in 2010 and is still improving. The total value of real estate sales was up 53% in 2010 over 2009, at KD 1.9 billion. In 1Q2011, the leading segment, apartments/buildings, was up 90% year-on-year (y/y). That sector is finding favor with income/yield hungry investors.

The 5-year KD 31 billion plan (ends in early 2014) called for spending KD 5 billion on infrastructure in FY 2010/11 (that just ended in March). The government expects actual spending (or execution, if you will) to be KD 2.5 billion or 50% when the closing accounts of the year are in. We expect a slightly stronger 57%. On a preliminary basis, the government estimates that infrastructure spending related to the plan will be KD 5.4 billion in the current FY 2011/12. That pace of execution/spending can only improve with time.

More spending will also materialize when the new public-private companies (PPPs) are formed and start business in earnest.

Two of the largest PPPs will be established this year, if things stay on schedule. The Kuwait Health Assurance Company (KHAC) will be taking over, from the state, the mandatory insurance and health care of expatriates. The choice of the Kuwaiti partner to manage/part-own this venture is slated for the next few months. The other imminent large PPP company will be formed later this year to build and operate an independent water and power plant (IWPP) in North AlZour.

If the 5-year plan is executed faithfully, the growth of the non-hydrocarbon sector should overtake growth in the oil sector. The plan is indeed structured to diversify the economy away from hydrocarbons. As per the first 5-year plan, only 20% of the new projects are in the oil sector, and 80% in non-

Burgan Bank announces daily winners of Yawmi Account

ALGIERS: The CEO of the Exterior Bank of Algeria (BEA) Mohamed Loukal shakes hand with French Insurance company AXA’s CEO Jean-Laurent Granier (left), as General Director of the FNI-BEA Hassen Haddad looks on, after French Insurance company AXA signed a partnership to operate in Algeria with two public enterprises, the Exterior Bank of Algeria (BEA) and the National Funds Investment (FNI), during a forum for Franco-Algerian commercial partnership yesterday. —AFP

Jet Airways, first Indian carrier to join AACO as partner airline MUMBAI: Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, has joined AACO as the first Par tner Airline of this regional airline association. The partnership which was simultaneously announced in Beirut and Mumbai will provide the Jet Airways and the Arab airline members of AACO, with opportunities of creating synergies through the various joint projects under AACO, in areas such as fuel management, ground services, safety initiatives, and training to name some of the areas.

Nikos K ardassis, Chief Executive Officer of Jet Airways, said, “With our growing presence in the middle east, an opportunity to partner with Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) is an impor tant one. This association is strategic to our continued success in this region. We are indeed looking forward to working with AACO on their various joint projects and initiatives.”

Abdul Wahab Teffaha, S ecretar y General of AACO said on this momentous event, “AACO was able to develop during the past years a strong presence amongst associations through the establishment of joint projects, which help member airlines to achieve better

economies of scale and scope. Jet Airways is a formidable airline with ver y high qualit y of ser vice and expanding global network based in one of the most vibrant and promising markets of the world. The synergies of the cooperation between Arab airlines and Jet Airways will open new horizons for the par ties concerned. AACO is proud that Jet Airways has chosen to be the 1st of its Partner Airlines.”

Jet Air ways currently operates a fleet of 97 aircraft, which includes 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 12 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 55 next generation Boeing 737-700/800/900 aircraft and 20 modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 5.15 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world.

Flights to 71 destinations span the length and breadth of I ndia and beyond, including New York (both JFK and Newark), Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), M ilan, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok , K athmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Sharjah, Riyadh and Dammam.

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank amongst the leading and the most dynamic bank in the state of Kuwait announced the names of last week’s Yawmi account winners at the bank’s head office. Yawmi is the 1st account in the country to give away cash prize every day.

The lucky winners for the five daily draws took home a handsome cash-prize of KD 5000 each. The lucky winners are: 1- KHALED HABIB MAYAHI 2- MAJED HILAL ABDULHUSSAIN AL TAMIMI 3- FUTOOH ALI YACOUP ALASFOOR 4- FRANKLIN C. KATALBAS 5- MOHAMMAD ABDULLAH ALI AL WAZZAN Congratulating the winners, Burgan Bank Chief Retail Banking Officer- GM Muneera Al-Mukhaizeem said: “I extend my warm wishes to the winners of last week’s Yawmi draw. Yawmi today is a well understood product, the popularity of which can be seen from the number of increasing account holders. Burgan Bank has always been at the forefront of introducing innovative and differentiated products. Now, every single day represents yet another chance of winning KD 5000.”

In 2009, Burgan Bank introduced a firstof-its kind draw account - Yawmi Account - which entitles customers who deposit KD 500 to win KD 5000 every single day (except weekends and public holidays).

For every KD 50 deposited in your Yawmi Account you receive an additional entry into the draw, which means the more you deposit, the more chances you will have of winning. For example, if you deposit the minimum of KD 500, you will receive 10 entries into the draw.

Opening a Yawmi account is simple, just visit your nearest Burgan Bank branch and get all the details. Or simply call our Call Center 1804080 and our executive will be more than happy to assist you. For further information visit www.burgan.com

Emirates eyes $750m from bond DUBAI: Emirates airline, which is expected to price a dollar-denominated bond today, is aiming to raise about $750 million from the sale, two banking sources said yesterday.

Lead managers on the issue had said that the Dubai airline was planning a benchmark-sized bond, which is typically at least $500 million. “They’re looking at a

minimum of $500 million and a maximum of $750 million,” said one of the sources. A second source confirmed the company was eyeing $750 million from the issue.

Emirates concluded roadshows in Switzerland on Monday, with early price indications at 350 basis points over midswaps, sources told Reuters earlier

this week.

The bond is expected to price close to the whisper. “The deal is well-supported, there is great interest,” said one of the sources. Asked about whether the deal could be increased, the source said: “It all depends on demand”.

Emirates posted a record profit of $1.5 billion for 2010, up 52 percent. —Reuters

oil. While this mix could change going forward, the Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) has announced close to $95 billion in hydrocarbon projects in the next few years (current plan and beyond). However, the overarching goal remains to favor the non-hydrocarbon sector in the future.

Consumer price inflation stood at 4.0% in

2009 and 2010. We expect a rise to 4.7% in 2011, on higher food prices. Meanwhile, Kuwait remains exceptional worldwide with an extremely strong fiscal position. It should post its 12th consecutive surplus in FY 2010/11, at KD 4.5 billion. Another and larger surplus is expected this current FY 2011/12, at KD 9.0 billion.

Supertech — Building architectural landmarks on the landscape upertech, one of the leading real estate tion by word of mouth. This is the greatest developers in India, is embarking on accolade that we can receive for our constructheir latest venture - Nor th Eye, the tions. We are committed to taking customer tallest residential tower in North India. At the ser vice to whole new heights and offer recent India Homes Exhibition, which was among others, project updates online, a 24held at the Ramada Hotel in Riggae, S J Singh, hour on-call service and a doorstep assisVice President - Residential Sales at Supertech tance, where we act as intermediaries helping spoke about his company, their flagship con- property buyers with every aspect of owning struction and the Indian real estate sector in their real estate; from bank loans to municipal sanctions we remove many of the hassles general.

SJ Singh, whose unassuming nature belies associated with owning a home in India.

Elaborating on the primary drivers behind his resolve to be totally customer-centric when it comes to property sales, has created the huge demand for Indian real estate, Singh a reputation for Supertech as a company pro- said, “I would say the main driver is the posividing quality construction, timely delivery tive economic climate in India. In 2010, Indian and dependable service on all their projects. economy grew at a rate of over nine percent This emphasis on customer satisfaction has and it is envisaged that double digit rates will seen the company sell over 24,000 dwelling continue well into the next decade. With this units during the two years that Singh has high growth in the economy comes a subsebeen with Super tech. Asked, to what he quent rise in per capita income. Secondly, a owed his success. Singh modestly replied young and dynamic new generation with growing incomes and rising that the success was not his aspirations to match global individual achievement but standards, points to a huge that of his team of dedicated middle class that holds great personnel. potential for the real estate secAt Super tech we follow a tor in the coming years.” work ethics that emphasizes “And finally, there is the three main differentiators, said speed with which urbanization Singh, “First, we deliver on our is taking place in India. It is estipromise in all our PQRST (Price, mated that in the next decade Quality, Reliability, Speed and more than 300 million people Transparency) aspects. In the are going to migrate to the twenty-two odd years of our urban area, leading to huge operation, no one can claim gap bet ween supply and that Supertech made a promise demand. And this invariably is to deliver and failed to match that promise. Second, we listen S J Singh, Vice President - good news for the real estate sector. Together with this rapid to our customers, and to the Residential Sales at urbanization comes the need market. Two years ago, when Supertech for better infrastructure as well our market research indicated that there was a demand for affordable hous- as for commercial and institutional real estate es, we delivered - in less than 14 months we space. Government expenditure in infrastrucsold upwards of 16,000 units. When today’s ture development will also open up more young generation with their nuclear families areas for real estate development. So looking and busy lifestyles demanded ready-to-live- at the broader picture, real estate in India is in apartments, we complied and came up on an upward trajectory for the foreseeable with our carpet to ceiling fully-furnished stu- future,” said Singh.

“Encouraged by our phenomenal success dio apartments that are practically being sold in the local Indian market we are now broadoff the plan.

Today, when there is a demand for up- ening our client base by bringing Supertech market residences, we have come up with to the global audience. However, our primary this massive project called Cape Town, which aim in coming to Kuwait is to not only launch is spread across 50 acres in Sector 74 of our high-tech, high-end luxury North Eye Noida. And the flagship project within the among non-resident Indians here, but also to Cape Town enclave is our prestigious North introduce Supertech as a reliable partner for Eye tower complex. Once again, we were vin- all your property and real estate management dicated for listening to the market - we needs in India. To this end we are ably supopened bookings for this project on the 5th ported in Kuwait by our exclusive channel of March this year and within 72 hours we par tners, Prudent Aashianna, a premier sold out over 60 percent of our inventory. provider of real estate support and investNorth Eye, a landmark defining architecture, ment advisory services,” added Singh. He conoffers unparalleled levels of luxury and con- cluded by saying that, leveraging the dynamveniences fully integrated within the 255 ics of technology to meet the challenges posed by topologies, time and changing aspimeter tall tower.

Our third, and arguably our greatest differ- rations, Supertech will continue to mold the entiator, is customer satisfaction. We rely on synergies of design and material to create rescustomers, satisfied with our quality construc- idential and commercial complexes that tion and timely delivery, to spread our reputa- become landmarks on the Indian landscape.

S

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

business

KSE ends on bullish note GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) managed to end yesterday’s session on a positive note backed by the banking sector. While major indices manage to continue the north journey for the second session in row . This gain capped one of a most losing months of the market. Global General Index shed 5.12 percent in May, its highest monthly loss since February 2011.

Reflecting the trend, Global General Index (GGI), market weighted, ended the day up by 0.53 percent, at 196.56 point. Market Capitalization was up for the day at KD32.23bn. On the other hand, KSE Price Index closed at 6,378.2 point, adding 3.70 points (0.06 percent) to its previous close.

During the session, 105 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards advancers as 34 equities advanced versus 26 that retreated.

Trading activity was up this session. The trades conducted in the real estate, investment and services sectors. Total volume traded was up by 12.60 percent with 129.51mn shares changing hands at a total value of KD28.54mn (10.78 percent higher compared to the day before). The real estate sector was the volume leader yesterday, accounting for 28.54 percent of total shares.

The banking sector was the value leader, with 38.38 percent of total traded value.

Yiaco Medical Co. was the most active in terms of values of shares traded during Tuesday session, with 8.03mn shares exchanged at an aggregate value of KD4.07mn.

Sector-wise The market’s heavy-weights ended higher with the market’s blue-chips rich index, Global Large Cap Index, rising by 1.04 percent, at 208.67 points. Burgan Bank extended its winning streak to two sessions, adding 3.85 percent to its share value during this session. At the same time, Global Small Cap Index eked out 1.29 percent in gains.

International Resorts Company reported a 6.02 percent improvement. Three out of the eight sectors moved north. Banking stocks paced advancers with a 1.31 percent climb.

The surge came on the back of a smart rally staged by 5 banks. National Bank of Kuwait and Ahli United Bank saw their share values

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

grow by 1.69 percent and 1.30 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, Kuwait International Bank was the only loser in the sector, shedding 1.49 percent. Services Index too was a notable advancer, up 0.24 percent on Tuesday. Agility reported a 1.35 percent climb while National Mobile Telecommunications Company (Wataniya) boosted the service index by closing up by 1.03 percent at KD1.960.

Bahrain-based, Gulf Finance House has announced during the day its financial results for 1Q2011 ending March 31, 2011 reporting a net profit of $11.9mn as compared to $7.5mn loss for the same period last year. The scrip still suspended in Kuwait Stock Exchange due to not sending profit announcement to the KSE till the end of yesterday’s session. The Non-Kuwaiti sector as a whole, represented through the Global NonKuwaiti Index, produced 0.10 percent in loss.

Inovest Company was the biggest loser in the market, down 5.63 percent.

Ekttitab Holding Company took the top spot for the day, adding 7.55 percent to its share price and closed at KD0.0285. The company is seeking to exit some investments

that would have achieved returns which will accordingly provide liquidity. This liquidity will be used carefully to go in line with the model which is consistent with the investment flexibility in dealing with changes in the markets in which they operate, especially after the financial crisis that has affected all markets. That’s was not enough to give boost to investment sector. Global Investment Index closed down by 0.70 percent.

Corporate news Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) announces that National Petroleum Services Co (NAPESCO) will hold its ordinary shareholder meeting on Monday, June 27, 2011, 11:00 am at Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) to elect a new board member.

Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan shrank by 50.7 percent in April from a year earlier to 6.05mn barrels, or 202,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the fourth consecutive monthly drop, the government said. Kuwaiti share of Japan’s crude oil imports stood at 5.7 percent last month, compared with 10.7 percent in the same month of last year and 6.2 percent in March, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.

Oil up $2 at $116 on weaker dollar LONDON: Oil jumped by more than $2 yesterday with Brent crude above $116 a barrel as the dollar weakened on improved prospects for a bailout for heavily indebted Greece and disappointing US home sales data.

The euro rose to a three-week high against the dollar as the European Union stepped up efforts to draft a second bailout package for Greece.

Brent crude futures were up $1.98 to $116.66 at barrel at 1350 GMT, after pushing to an intraday high of $117 a barrel in choppy trading after US home sales data for March entered doubledip territory and the dollar weakened.

US crude was up $2.41 a barrel to $103.00, after reaching a high of $103.39. London and New York were closed on Monday for public holidays.

‘The weaker dollar is the main reason why oil prices are up,’ said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank.

The dollar was down 0.54 percent against a basket of currencies at 1313 GMT. A weaker dollar makes oil cheaper for those holding other currencies.

Roy Jordan, research associate at Facts Global Energy, said the dollar was being weighed down by the relatively weak economic data that has come out over the last few days.

‘There has been an inverse correlation between oil and the dollar over the past month,’ added Thorbjorn Bak Jensen, oil analyst at Global Risk Management.

US crude has also gained support from the temporary closure of the 591,000-barrel-a-day Keystone pipeline, which carries oil from Alberta to US oil hub Cushing. ‘While the shutdown was implemented around midnight following a leak, it is still unclear when operations will be resumed,’ said analysts at JBC Energy in a note. ‘In case of a longer disruption, we might see a noticeable crude stockdraw in Cushing in next week’s US inventory reports.’

Brent is similarly being supported by production problems in the North Sea which are disrupting the Forties program. Bak Jensen also pointed to

Germany’s decision to cease producing electricity from nuclear power plants by 2023. ‘Over 20 percent of their electricity comes from nuclear power at the moment so this will give support to coal and oil as well as alternative energy,’ he said.

Despite the rally as traders returned to their desks, both oil contracts are still down for the month of May. Brent is down about 8 percent and U.S. crude is down about 10 percent following a broad commodities sell-off at the start of the month.

OPEC FOCUS The market’s focus is now turning to the upcoming OPEC meeting in Vienna in June. Analysts JBC Energy believe an increase in output allocations of 2-2.5 million barrels per day would be justified given the current fundamental situation.

‘Nevertheless, the outcome of the meeting will once again depend strongly on OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia’s stance on the issue, with the Middle Eastern country holding some three quarters of the group’s idle capacity,’ they said in a note.

Oil was supported by the end of a truce between tribal groups and forces loyal to Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh, which brings the country closer to civil war.

‘It’s providing continued support to oil prices and protection to the downside,’ Fritsch said. Yemen’s Saleh has refused to step down despite efforts by regional nations to broker a departure amid widespread protests, causing concern that unrest may spill into neighboring states. ‘Yemen is regarded as a centre of the al Qaeda terror network and directly borders with Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer,’ said Commerzbank analysts. ‘Consequently, there is a high risk of unrest destabilizing the entire region.’

South African President Jacob Zuma made little headway towards brokering a Libya peace deal in talks on Monday with Gaddafi, who is adamant he will not leave Libya. — Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

BUSINESS

The luxury mall Prestige at the new expansion of The Avenues (Phase iii).

Habchi and Chalhoub, Mabanee sign MoU Prestige Mall at The Avenues to house top world brands KUWAIT: A memorandum of understanding was recently signed between Habchi and Chalhoub Co WLL and Mabanee Co to open several new branches for the most renowned and leading world brands that the former represents at the Prestige Mall. The Prestige Mall is considered home to the largest collection of high-end world brands in the region, and is part of the new expansion of The Avenues which will be inaugurated in mid2012. The signing of the memorandum was attended by Patrick Chalhoub, a partner in Habchi and Chalhoub Co WLL; Ingie Chalhoub, the CEO of the company; as well as Mohammad Abdulaziz Alshaya, Chairman and Managing Director of Mabanee Co. The agreement between the two companies reflects the depth of their strategic cooperation, and their keenness to present the most renowned brands in a shopping atmosphere that is both luxurious and elegant. Of the most prominent brands represented by Habchi and Chalhoub Co WLL and which will be opening in the mall are Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Tods, Celine, Lanvin and other fashion, perfume, beauty products and gifts brands.

The new expansion of The Avenues will present a unique shopping experience for people with elegant taste, who will be able to select from a large collection of prestigious brands. It will also provide a relaxed and luxurious atmosphere that includes

Mohammad Alshaya, Chairman and Managing Director of Mabanee Co. and Patrick Chalhoub, a partner in Habchi and Chalhoub Co.

restaurants and cafes located on two floors that have been carefully designed and constructed using the best materials in order to present costumers with a world-class culinary experience.

Commenting on this occasion, Mohammad Abdulaziz Alshaya, Chairman

and Managing Director of Mabanee Co, said, “Signing this agreement with Habchi and Chalhoub Co WLL reflects Mabanee’s keenness for the presence of leading and sophisticated world brands at Prestige Mall, which will present to its visitors a modern shopping experience

Ingie Chalhoub, the CEO, Mohammad Alshaya, Chairman and Managing Director of Mabanee Co. Patrick Chalhoub, a partner in Habchi and Chalhoub Co; Fadi Jabbour, Group Chief Operating Officer - Retail, Chalhoub Group; and Saud Al Zabin, Leasing Director at Mabanee Co.

where the highest standards of quality and elegance come together with the pleasure of shopping.”

On his part, Patrick Chalhoub, a partner in Habchi and Chalhoub Co WLL, said, “Kuwait has always been and continues to be one of the best markets for the collection of world

brands that we market in the Middle East. By signing this agreement with Mabanee Co we are entering a new phase that will see the opening of the largest brand branches at Prestige Mall. Bringing our commercial activities at this distinguished mall will provide our clients with a distinct shopping experience.”

Hunger crisis worsens; food prices could double by 2030 Oxfam says food system broken

Othman Tawfiqi

New cash deposit services at ABK KUWAIT: Following its continuous efforts to find new and dependable ways to make clients lives easier, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait introduces the new Cash Deposit Service so customers can make cash deposits without having to lose time queuing inside the Bank.

Othman Tawfiqi, Head of Communication Channels, announced that, “Our prime initiative is to provide the best services to our clients and this new service will save the clients’ valuable time that is often spent waiting within the branches. The cash deposit services were planned based on customer feedback, as a time saving device, as it is important for us to deliver to our clients who place their trust in us. Now customers can quickly make a deposit at the ATM machines and receive a receipt stating that their transaction has been completed successfully.

What’s more, the ATM deposit machines now have the added capability to take 50 notes in one transaction, making it far easier for the depositor.”

The Cash Deposit Machines are now available 24/7 at the following branches Head Office, Shuwaikh, Salmiyah, Farwaniyah, Jabriyah, Zahraa ( South Surra) and the Bahar Complex in Hawally for your convenience.

LONDON: Food prices could double in the next 20 years and demand will soar as the world struggles to raise output via a failing system, international charity Oxfam said yesterday, warning of worsening global hunger.

“The food system is pretty well bust in the world,” Oxfam Chief Executive Barbara Stocking told reporters, announcing the launch of the Grow campaign as 925 million people go hungry every day.

“All the signs are that the number of people going hungry is going up,” Stocking said. Hunger was increasing due to rising food price inflation and oil price hikes fuelled by speculators, scrambles for land and water, and creeping climate change, Oxfam said.

Food prices are forecast to increase by something in the range of 70 to 90 percent in real terms by 2030 before taking into account the effects of climate change, which would roughly double price rises again, Oxfam said.

Wheat prices have been largely flat so far in 2011 although they remain more than 70 percent above levels traded a year ago after rising sharply last summer as the worst drought in decades devastated crops in the Black Sea region.

Prices for corn have more than doubled in the last 12 months with global production unable to keep pace with record demand driven partly by the growth of the US ethanol industry.

Oxfam warned that by 2050 demand for food will rise by 70 percent yet the world’s capacity to increase production is declining. The average growth rate in agricultural yields has almost halved since 1990 and is set to decline to a fraction of one per-

Bearish investors cut stocks, boost bonds LONDON: Investors are the most bearish they have been since last year’s third quarter, cutting their exposure to stocks in May for the fourth month in a row, Reuters polls showed yesterday.

Concerns about a slowing global economy and nagging worries about Greek and other peripheral euro zone debt also prompted investors to move into bonds and cash. Surveys of 58 leading investment houses in the United States, Europe ex-UK, Japan and Britain showed global equity holdings at their lowest since August last year. Bonds and cash were at their highest since September.

“Greece’s debt problem and a slowdown in the US economy are increasing uncertainty in financial markets globally,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist at Daiwa Asset Management.

Specifically, equity holdings in an average mixed portfolio dropped to 50.7 percent, the lowest since August, from 51.3 percent in April. There has been a steady drop every month since January.

Bond holdings rose to 35.5 percent from 34.6 percent, and cash, where investors tend to go when becoming cautious, rose to 5.2 percent from 5.1 percent. Investors have been made wary by signs of sluggishness in the US economy with high petrol prices crimping consumer spending and bad weather helping to push pending home sales to a seven-month low in April among other factors.

There is also some positioning ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s ending of its asset-buying quantitative easing program. What remains to be seen is whether the economic and debt concerns, and the accompanying sell-off of risk, presage a major reversal or simply are natural caution during a dip in the cycle.

“There’s rollover in leading indicators in the global economy so we’re starting to see some downgrades for growth expectations and people are getting a little bit defensive,” said Johannes Maier, head of asset allocation at Postbank in Frankfurt.—Reuters

BERLIN: Performers tuck in to a symbolic banquet (left) as others (right) grab for food during a stunt by NGO Oxfam in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate yesterday. The stunt coincides with the release of Oxfam’s report: “Growing a Better Future”, in which the charity warns of plummeting food prices and rising inequalities in food consumption. — AFP

cent in the next decade while increasing regional and local crises could see the need for food aid double in the next 10 years.

“Now we have entered an age of growing crisis, of shock piled upon shock: vertiginous food price spikes and oil price hikes, devastating weather events, financial meltdowns and global contagion,” Oxfam said in a report. “ The world’s poorest people, who spend up to 80 percent of their income on food, will be hit hardest.”

Entitled “Growing a Better Future: Food Justice in a Resource-Constrained World,” the report said: “The scale of the challenge is unprecedented, but so is the prize: a sustainable future in which everyone has enough to eat.”

Oxfam believes one way to tame food price inflation is to limit speculation in agricultural commodity futures markets. It also opposed support for using food as a feedstock for biofuels.

“Financial speculation must be regulated, and support dismantled for biofuels

that displace food,” it said. Stocking said she favored the introduction by regulators of position limits in agricultural commodities futures trading, noting that financial speculation aggravated price volatility.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has campaigned for tough measures to limit speculation and is due to use his platform as president of the world’s 20 top economies (G20) to push for more regulation this month. France’s top market regulator told Reuters he expects top global economies to agree a framework this year to dampen speculation in commodities.

The Oxfam report said: “The vast imbalance in public investment in agriculture must be righted, redirecting the billions now being ploughed into unsustainable industrial farming in rich countries towards meeting the needs of small-scale food producers in developing countries.”

The report said the failure of the food system flowed from failures of government to regulate and to invest, which meant that companies, interest groups and elites had been able to plunder resources. “Now the major powers, the old and the new, must cooperate, not compete, to share resources, build resilience, and tackle climate change,” it said.

“The economic crisis means that we have moved decisively beyond the era of the G8, when a few rich country governments tried to craft global solutions by and for themselves.

“The governments of poorer nations must also have a seat at the table, for they are on the front lines of climate change, where many of the battlesover land, water, and food-are being fought.” — Reuters

India growth slows as higher interests bite NEW DELHI: India’s economy expanded at its weakest pace in five quarters, slowing to 7.8 percent in the three months to March, data showed yesterday, as aggressive interest rate hikes hit output and investment.

Growth for the final quarter of the fiscal year 2010-11 was down nearly a percentage point from 8.6 percent growth in the same period last year and was also below the 8.3 percent expansion posted in the third quarter. The sharp deceleration indicated Asia’s third-largest economy was feeling the pinch from nine interest rate hikes in 15 months aimed at curbing stubbornly high inflation that has caused huge hardship to India’s poor masses. “We believe the omens for Indian growth are not particularly good,” said Credit Suisse economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde.

The “lagged effect of the sizeable tightening of monetary policy together with the 20-percent rise in crude oil prices this calendar year is likely to take a sizeable toll on economic activity,” he said.

The quarterly growth, well below rival

NEW DELHI: An Indian worker drinks water as he works on a construction site in New Delhi yesterday. Indiaís economic growth slowed to 7.8 percent in its fiscal final quarter as an aggressive series of interest rate hikes hit activity, according to official data. — AFP emerging market giant China’s 9.7 percent expansion, surprised markets which expected an 8.2-percent rise. Manufacturing growth slowed to 5.5 percent from 15.2 percent in the same period the previous year. Mining

and utilities output was also down.

Investment growth decelerated to 0.37 percent in the quarter from 7.8 percent in the previous three months as borrowing costs climbed. —AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

business

Tesco cuts CEO’s base salary in executive pay rejig LONDON: Tesco, the world’s third-biggest retailer, is simplifying its executive pay scheme and cutting the base salary of its chief executive as it seeks to end rows with shareholders over how it pays its leaders.

The British group, which saw 47 percent of shareholders either vote against or abstain in a vote over executive pay last July, said yesterday it expected the new pay scheme would deliver broadly the same level of rewards as before.

However, it said the scheme was simpler and, particularly in the case of the chief executive’s package, more focused on performance-related elements than fixed payments.

New boss Phil Clarke will receive a base salary of

1.1 million pounds ($1.8 million), down from the 1.4 million received by his predecessor Terry Leahy, who retired in March. “We have designed a new structure which is simpler and more collegiate, with clear strategic financial targets, delivering broadly the same levels of remuneration as before but in a better way and more aligned with the interests of our shareholders,” chairman David Reid said.

Under the new scheme, four long-term incentive plans with five separate measures will be replaced by a single plan with two performance measuresreturn on capital employed and earnings per share.

The number of performance measures for the annual bonus will also be cut from over 20 to seven, while all executives- including the CEO-will par-

ticipate in the same plan. Executive share options will be replaced by performance share awards, expected to be of a comparable value.

Tesco published the new plan alongside its annual report which showed Leahy left the business with a total of 12 million pounds from pay, awards and cashing in share options. His pay package fell to 4.2 million in the year to February from 5.2 million the year before, due in part to fewer share awards.

But he cashed in 5.2 million pounds of share options, some of which he had held for around 10 years, and received a further 2.6 million from longterm and executive incentive schemes.

Clarke, who was head of Tesco’s Asian and

European businesses during the group’s last financial year, saw his pay package fall to 2.3 million pounds from 2.7 million, also due to fewer share awards.

He could make a maximum equivalent of about 7 million pounds this financial year if he meets all the performance objectives set for him, though much of that would be paid in shares which he would not be able to cash in for several years.

Opposition to last year’s executive pay plan was focused on a big bonus paid to Tim Mason, the head of Tesco’s loss-making US business. Corporate governance advisory firm Pirc also described the bonus and long-term incentive plans for all executives as excessive. — Reuters

Toyota’s Japan production to near normal this month Other automakers still struggling TOKYO: Toyota production in Japan will recover to 90 percent of pre-disaster levels this month, faster than the world’s biggest automaker had projected and highlighting its power to bounce back from the supply disruptions caused by the March earthquake and tsunami. The disasters in northeastern Japan had damaged the plants of key parts suppliers, disrupting production at all Japanese automakers. Even with production increasing, some vehicle models could be in short supply for months. Toyota Motor Corp gave its good news to suppliers in a meeting yesterday, company spokesman Keisuke

Kirimoto said. It previously said global production would be at about 70 percent in coming months and was not expected to return to normal until late this year.

By the end of May, the crisis had cost the company production of 550,000 vehicles in Japan, and another 350,000 overseas.

Production had been back recently at about 50 percent.

Toyota was initially missing 150 kinds of parts because of the supplier problems, and that was reduced to 30 parts earlier this month.

Other automakers are also suffering. Nissan

YOKOHAMA: Cars for export park at a Yokohama port, south of Tokyo yesterday. The government said yesterday Japan’s industrial production — a key barometer of economic health-inched up 1 percent in April from the previous month after plunging a record 15.5 percent in March amid supply disruptions in the wake of the disasters. — AP

China Southern Airlines to buy six Boeing B777Fs HONG KONG: China Southern Airlines, one of China’s major air carriers, said yesterday it has agreed to buy six Boeing 777 freighters, as the company continues to grow its cargo business. The carrier said the six aircraft, to be delivered between 2013 and 2015, have a list price of $1.58 billion with the purchase being funded by bank loans and China Southern’s operating fund.

It described the deal as being “consistent with the (airline’s) development strategy.”

“The acquisition will facilitate the optimization of the structure of the group’s cargo business, freighter fleet and cargo traffic capacity,” the carrier said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.

China Southern said the new aircraft will boost its cargo capacity, measured in available ton kilometres, by 8.4 percent and enhance its operational efficiency, as well as the competitiveness of its cargo business.

The airline said it was granted “certain price concessions” by Boeing and was paying an amount “significantly lower” than the list price, without disclosing the actual cost.

Launched in 2005, the B777F is the world’s longest-range twin-engine freighter, according to Boeing. It has a revenue payload capability of more than 226,000 pounds (102.8 metric tons) and it can fly 4,880 nautical miles (9,038 kilometres) with a full payload. The deal is the second major purchase

this month by China Southern from the US aircraft giant. Three weeks ago, the Chinese firm announced that its Xiamen Airlines unit would buy six 787 Dreamliners from Boeing, worth around $1.1 billion at list prices, as Chinese airlines boost their fleets to meet fast-growing travel demand.

The aircraft are due to be delivered between 2014 and 2015, and will boost Xiamen Airlines’ fleet, which already stands at 71 Boeing jets serving 150 domestic and regional routes.

China Southern Airlines owns 60 percent of Xiamen Airlines. China Southern has been aggressively ramping up its fleet, saying in November that it had agreed to buy 36 planes from Airbus for $3.78 billion, while rival Air China said in March it would buy five of Boeing’s new 747-8 passenger planes with a combined list price of $1.54 billion.

The Chinese carrier’s 2010 profit has rocketed as demand for air travel booms in China with the firm’s passenger numbers rising 15.4 percent to 76.46 million. A total of 267 million air passenger trips were recorded in the country in 2010, up 15.8 percent from the previous year, official figures showed, reflecting growing prosperity among the country’s booming middle class.

Hong Kong-listed shares in China Southern closed down 1.23 percent at HK$4.03 (52 US cents) yesterday. — AFP

PUERTA DEL SOL: A demonstrator cleans the protest camp after spending the night at Puerta del Sol square during a protest in Madrid yesterday. Thousands of Spaniards have mounted a protest camp in the heart of the Spanish capital to express anger at political parties and the countryís handling of the economic crisis. — AP

Motor Co expects worldwide production to be back at pre-disaster levels by October, and Honda has said normal production levels weren’t expected until late this year. Auto production in Japan plunged 60.1 percent in April from the previous year, according to Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association data released yesterday. The 292,001 vehicles was a dramatic drop from 731,829 vehicles the same month a year earlier and marked the seventh straight month of on-year declines.

Toyota already said it will return to a fasterthan-expected 70 percent of normal production in June in North America. It had cut North American production to about 30 percent of normal in May by idling factories for days or reducing workers’ hours. Some buyers of the new spacious “Prius a,” or “Prius alpha,” a revamp of the hit gasoline-electric hybrid, will have to wait until next year for deliveries. That’s because a key part, the lithium-ion battery, whose production was expected to be limited even before the disaster, will be even harder to keep making because of shortages, according to Toyota.

Japanese automakers are also facing another possible production problem in Japan — power shortages. The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was heavily damaged by the disasters and is being decommissioned. A second nuclear power plant, Hamaoka in central Japan, is being shut down while its tsunami defenses are strengthened. Many of Toyota’s plants are in the region Hamaoka powers. It is still unclear how serious the power shortage might be for Toyota because electricity will be transferred from other areas.

Japanese automakers are planning to make Thursday and Friday off-days and have employees work over the weekend, when power demands are lower, to avoid a power crunch and blackout rollouts during the peak use months of July, August and September. — AP

SINGAPORE: Shoppers walk through a shopping mall during the Great Singapore sale season, a main annual consumer and tourist attraction in the city-state yesterday in Singapore. Singapore’s economy which relies on manufacturing, finance and tourism soared 14.5 percent last year as growing Asian consumer demand fueled a boom in exports and visitor arrivals. — AP

S Africa okays Wal-Mart deal with conditions JOHANNESBURG: South Africa approved Wal-Mart’s $2.4 billion bid for local retailer Massmart without conditions that could have jeopardized the deal, opening the door for the US giant to expand into fastgrowing Africa. South Africa’s Competition Tribunal said in a statement yesterday it had approved the deal, with the stipulation that Wal-Mart must not cut jobs for two years and work to develop local suppliers.

The decision is likely to be seen as a major advance for the world’s largest retailer, which had said it could walk away from the deal if targets were put on local procurement.

The decision could trigger industrial action after South African unions threatened the “mother of all boycotts” if the deal were approved. The deal has been seen as

a test case for major foreign investment in South Africa. Home to the continent’s deepest capital markets, South Africa is also a country where unions hold enormous political influence. Massmart must also “give preference” to reemploying 500 workers fired in 2010, the tribunal said.

Three government departments and the unions had lined up against the deal, asking the tribunal to impose targets on local procurement and a freeze on job cuts.

The government and unions are concerned about Wal-Mart’s global supply network which, they have said, could lead to a flood of cheap imports, sparking job losses and squeeze local suppliers.

Shares of Massmart jumped after the announcement but were down 0.64 percent at 1219 GMT. — Reuters

Fitch cuts Cyprus credit rating on Greek exposure NICOSIA: Fitch ratings agency yesterday cut Cyprus’ sovereign credit rating by three notches and warned of another possible downgrade because of its banking sector’s large exposure to debt-laden Greece. “The downgrade reflects the severity of the crisis in neighboring Greece and the risk this poses for the Cypriot banking system and consequently the public finances of Cyprus,” said Chris Pryce, director in Fitch’s Sovereign Group. The rating was lowered to rating from AA- to A-. Fitch said around one-third of the banking system’s assets — which in total are about nine times the euro countr y ’s gross domestic product — is booked as exposure to Greece’s financial system.

That exposure includes almost 14 billion euros ($20 billion) of Greek sovereign bonds and some €5 billion ($7 billion) in Greek bank bonds.

The agency noted the island’s three largest banks — Bank of Cyprus, Marfin Popular Bank and Hellenic Bank — hold most of that Greek exposure but that they could absorb a severe reduction, or haircut, in Greek bond value of 50 percent.

Under that scenario, Cypriot banks would need around €2 billion, or 11 percent of GDP, to be recapitalized. Many investors don’t believe Greece will be able to avoid reneging on its debts despite last year’s 110 billion euros ($157 billion) rescue package from the EU and IMF. The European Central Bank, however, has ruled out any such move.

Fitch said the Cypriot government “would be willing and able” to offer a financial backstop to Cypriot banks since government debt now standing at 61 percent of GDP is not high by euro-zone stands.

Although the cost of providing such support would negatively impact the island’s sovereign debt ratings, the European Central Bank would step in with additional liquidity to preserve the island’s financial stability, Fitch said. The agency’s downgrade of Cyprus follows similar moves by rival ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s in recent months based on similar concerns. The successive downgrades have prompted the Cypriot government to take some precautionary measures.

Last week , Finance M inister Charilaos Stavrakis said the island will raise its borrowing capacity from 6 billion euros to 9 billion euros ($12.8 billion) this year so that it can quickly tap foreign lenders for large amounts of money to support organizations that may run into trouble.

Legislators last month approved a tax on bank deposits aimed at shoring up public finances and creating a stability fund to buttress the financial system’s credibility. — AP

PHILADELPHIA: A customer fuels up his car in view of gas prices, in Philadelphia. A monthly survey shows consumers are losing faith that the economy will keep improving. —AP

Nokia lowers Q2 outlook, withdraws annual forecast HELSINKI: The world’s top mobile phone maker Nokia yesterday downgraded its second quarter outlook, saying sales would be far lower than expected and that it could no longer provide a full-year forecast.

“Nokia now expects Devices and Services net sales to be substantially below its previously expected range of 6.1 billion to 6.6 billion euros ($8.6-9.5 billion dollars) for the second quarter 2011,” the company said in a statement, citing lower than expected selling prices and volumes.

After issuing the warning, Nokia saw its share price plummet 13.1 percent at 1230 GMT to 5.00 euros a share on a Helsinki stock exchange down just 0.14 percent.

Shares in mobile phone giant thus reached a new lowest level since 1998. Nokia said that the sudden change in second-quarter expectations also negated its predictions for full-year sales.

The company had previously said it

expected handset sales to remain at the same level in the third quarter as the second quarter, with a seasonal upswing in the fourth quarter. “ These targets are no longer valid,” Nokia said, adding that it would no longer provide annual targets for 2011, and would only give short-term quarterly guidance in its interim reports “when circumstances allow it to do so.”

In February, the company announced a strategic shake-up, including phasing out use of its smartphone platform Symbian in favor of a tie-in with the Microsoft Phone platform, and warning that the transition would cause turbulence for Nokia.

“Strategy transitions are difficult. We recognize the need to deliver great mobile products, and therefore we must accelerate the pace of our transition,” Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop said in yesterday’s statement. — AFP

y

A

27

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

TECHNOLOGY

Companies look for power way, way up in the sky WindPower, which is developing a “flying electric generator.” “It’s kind of like the adjustment folks had to make when the Wright brothers started flying airplanes,” she said. The lure of high-altitude wind is simple: Wind speed generally increases with its height above the ground as surface friction diminishes. Each time wind speed doubles, the amount of energy it theoretically holds multiplies by eight times.

The world’s most powerful winds circulate in the jet streams, which are found four to 10 miles (16 kilometers) off the ground and carry winds that regularly break 100 miles per hour (160 kph).

The dream is to eventually tap the jet streams, but high-altitude wind companies are focusing for now below a 2,000-foot (600-meter) ceiling, above which complex federal air-space restrictions kick in. Adam Rein, co-founder of the Boston company Altaeros Energies, said his company calculates winds at the 2,000 foot (600-meter) level are up to 21/2 times stronger than winds that can be reached by a typical 350foot (105-meter) land turbine. High-altitude wind advocates say their smaller, lightweight turbines will be far cheaper to build and deploy than windmills with huge blades and towers that must be drilled into land or the sea floor.

BOSTON: The world’s strongest winds race high in the sky, but that doesn’t mean they’re out of reach as a potentially potent energy source.

Flying, swooping and floating turbines are being developed to turn high-altitude winds into electricity. The challenges are huge, but the potential is immense.

Scientists estimate the energy in the jet streams is 100 times the amount of power used worldwide annually. Cristina Archer, an atmospheric scientist at the California State University in Chico, said there’s “not a doubt anymore” that high-altitude winds will be tapped for power.

“This can be done, it can work,” she said.

The question is, when? Some companies project their technology will hit the market by the middle of the decade, but Fort Felker at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says the industry is 10 years away from making a meaningful contribution to the nation’s electricity demands. No company, for instance, has met the basic requirement of demonstrating its turbine can safely fly unsupervised for prolonged periods of time.

High-altitude wind power is similar to ground wind in the 1970s — facing questions but soon to prove its viability, said PJ Shepard of Oroville, California-based Sky

Those savings would mean inexpensive energy. With wide-scale use, advocates see a range of prices, from something comparable to land wind’s current 9 or 10 cents per kilowatt hour down to an astonishingly low 2 cents per kilowatt hour.

“They are projecting crazy numbers,” Archer said. “I’m not saying that it’s true. ...

But it’s really the lowest, the cheapest energy source, possibly.” As the turbines eventually aim higher, advocates say there are plenty of remote and offshore no-fly areas where they won’t interfere with aircraft and have minimal interaction with people.

Still, any nearby residents must be convinced there’s no danger from falling turbines while accepting a view that includes flying objects attached to long tethers that carry the energy to the ground. High-altitude turbines also won’t escape the various environmental concerns that face conventional turbines, such as their effect on bird flight. And each turbine concept awaits extensive testing on its reliability, durability and effectiveness, said Felker, director of NREL’s National Wind Technology Center.

Keeping the turbines operating autonomously over long periods in changing weather may be the biggest obstacle, Felker said.

“You have powerful reasons to stay aloft

as much as possible,” he said. “What do you do when a thunderstorm comes by? Do you recover (the device)? Do you land? ... How do you operate in the real world?” Different companies have proposed answering that question in different ways.

A “kite” being developed by Makani Power of Alameda, California, looks like a glider with four high-speed rotors that launch it into flight, then switch modes to generate electricity that’s carried down the tether. An onboard computer steers the kite in a wide circle, mimicking the path of the tip of a giant wind turbine blade. That allows the device to interact with a larger wind area, increasing the amount of energy it can capture in the same way increasing the size of a sail increases the potential speed of a sailboat, said Damon Vander Lind, Makani’s chief engineer.

The kite can also stay up in high winds, and power itself to land in low winds, Vanderlind said. “It lets us make a very reliable system, something operators can just plug in and use,” he said. Sky WindPower’s generator has four rotors, each 35 feet (10.6 meters) in diameter, that transmit power down the tether. It’s built to hover, rather than swoop or circle, Shepard said. While moving turbines can actually fly faster than the wind by flying crosswind, they can’t fly

as high, she said.

“We can get up a little higher than they can. We can get to higher velocity winds and make up for it,” Shepard said.

Altaeros is developing a stationary turbine that sits inside a 60-foot (18.3-meter) tall, helium-filled shroud that acts like a wind funnel. Similar blimp-like devices, called aerostats, have long been used to keep heavy equipment aloft, such as government surveillance radar tethered up to 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) above U.S. borders.

“Our view is that our approach is less risky, because we’re using a technology that’s been out there for decades,” Rein said.

Altaeros has big aims — no less than “making an impact on the global energy crisis,” Rein said — but it’s starting small. Its 10 full and part-time employees share a building with seven other start-up companies in a former wool manufacturing factory in South Boston.

Rein notes that before it tries to bring the untapped power of high-altitude wind to thousands, his company is first developing a system that could bring power to about 40 homes in remote areas.

“You start smaller... and then you scale up over time,” Rein said. “ We think that approach makes a lot of sense.” — AP

Intel taps into computing at Taipei’s Computex show ‘Computing is taking many forms’

TAIPEI: Models explain functions of tablet accessories during the opening day of Computex computer expo in Taipei, Taiwan, yesterday. Computex, the world’s second largest computer show, began its annual five-day run in Taipei yesterday. — AP

LinkedIn opens Asia office in Singapore SINGAPORE: Professional networking platform LinkedIn yesterday opened its regional headquarters in Singapore and plans to use the city-state as a base to expand its Asia-Pacific presence.

“We chose Singapore’s location for a few reasons, one because its the regional hub for so many multinational companies, many of whom are already our customers on a global basis,” regional managing director Arvind Rajan said at a media briefing.

“Part of the reason that we’re moving out here is to also use Singapore as a hub through which we’ll look at opportunities to expand physically throughout the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region,” he added.

Singapore, with its business-friendly environment and choice geographical location, is popular as a regional base for multinational companies that want to expand into Asia’s booming economies.

“From March of last year to March of

this year, we grew 130 percent in APAC so we’re seeing a really rapid growth already and we think that by having a presence here, by expanding our footprint in Asia, we think we’ll see continued sustained growth,” said Rajan.

The Singapore office will oversee sales, finance, marketing and human resource functions for the region and plans to expand into Japan later this year, he said.

The US-listed firm has more than 100 million members from 200 countries as of March 2011, with over 18 million of them from the region, a company factsheet showed. LinkedIn is the second online networking site to set up shop in Singapore after Facebook inaugurated its Asian sales office last year.

It listed early last month on the New York Stock Exchange and is the first major US social-network firm to go public. — AFP

TAIPEI: Intel Corp. is touting a hybrid laptop 0.8 inches (20 mm) thick with sleek tablet computing features and ultra-sharp visual images that it hopes will create a market bridging traditional PCs and new devices. The laptop also represents what the US technology giant promises its latest generation of processors will be able to deliver by 2012, when they power new computers produced by companies like Taiwan’s AsusTek Computer Inc. “Computing is taking many forms,” Intel executive vice president Sean Maloney said yesterday at the opening of Taipei’s Computex, the world’s second-largest computing show.

He said that by the end of 2012, Intel aims to shift 40 percent of consumer laptops to its “Ultrabook” model, a new category of thin and light mobile computers. Like many other tech companies, Intel is under immense pressure from Apple Inc., whose iPhones and iPads have swept through global markets with the force of a hurricane and show no signs of slowing.

Maloney described the Ultrabook as a laptop-tablet hybrid, featuring touch screens and instant log on, all with a price of less than $1,000.

The projected thickness of the new Intelpowered device would make it the sleekest laptop in the marketplace after Apple’s MacBook Air 15” model, which ranges from .11 to .68 inches.

The devices will be based on Intel’s “Ivy Bridge,” a new generation of chips made with 22 nanometer manufacturing technology and the 3-D transistor the company unveiled early in May. It is slated to be on the market by 2012, Intel said.

The new transistor, with increased density, will make more powerful computing devices, it said.

Also by 2012, a new Intel chip designed for tablets and smartphones, named “Medfield,” will be launched. It will give the mobile devices longer use-time, advanced imaging and more power efficiency, the company said.

Intel general manager for the Asia-Pacific

Apple’s Jobs to unveil ‘Lion’ operating system SAN FRANCISCO: Ailing chief executive Steve Jobs will return from sick leave to unveil Apple’s latest generation of software next week, the firm announced yesterday.

The 56-year-old cancer survivor will present Apple’s new operating system, dubbed “Lion,” at a developers conference in San Francisco on June 6.

Jobs went on leave in January, his third medical absence since 2004, but has retained his title of chief executive at Apple.

He underwent an operation for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and received a liver transplant in 2009, but Apple has not released any details about his latest health issues.”Lion” will be the eighth major iteration of Apple’s operating system, “Mac OS.” Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave, will deliver the keynote speech at next week’s Apple conference.

The annual Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off Monday in San Francisco.

The keynote speech will feature Apple’s new Mac software, Lion, and the next version of Apple’s iPhone and iPad software.

Apple says the keynote will also feature its iCloud service, but isn’t explaining what the service will do. Bloomberg BusinessWeek says it is a service that stores a consumer’s music on remote servers rather than a PC. Jobs went on medical leave in January, handing over day-to-day control to chief operating officer Tim Cook.

He has remained involved in larger decisions at the company, and demonstrated the new iPad model at a news conference in March. — Agencies

TAIPEI: Executive Vice President of Intel Corporation Sean Maloney, left, and Chairman of AsusTek Computer Inc. Jonney Shih hold an ASUS Ultrabook as they prepare for a keynote speech on the opening day of Computex computer expo in Taipei, Taiwan, yesterday. — AP region Navin Shenoy acknowledged the market is experiencing significant changes with “the explosion of smartphones and tablets.”

“The industry is in constant change,” he said.

“We’re more and more like the fashion industry. Nothing sticks forever.” “We win when we go after and create new markets,” he said.

AsusTek is among the Taiwanese computer makers which have pledged to collaborate with Intel.

With the advent of tablets, “the whole industry is reshuffling, including the microprocessors and including operating systems,” said AsusTek Chairman Jonney Shih. “The boundaries between notebooks, tablets and smartphones are blurring,” he told a news conference Monday. Laptops “have to evolve quickly to respond” and become “ultra-thin, ultra-light and ultra-responsive.” Also at

Computex, Google Inc. pushed its Chromebook notebook, which is based on its web-browsing-oriented Chrome operating system — an up-and-coming rival in a field long dominated by Microsoft Corp.

Google is partnering with Intel and has engaged South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan’s Acer Inc. to produce the Chromebooks, set to go on sale in June.

Google’s Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai said the company has set up a center in Taipei to try to bring more manufacturing partners onboard, but declined to give specifics on his expectations for Chromebook’s market share.

“Today my only goal is to make sure we deliver Chromebooks and make customers happy,” he said. “That’s the only criteria. Focus on quality of experience for consumers rather than quantity.” — AP

Activision bets on online play for ‘Call of Duty’

TOKYO: Japanese actress Shinobu Otake displays a notebook computer for senior citizens “Raku-Raku PC” (easy PC), produced by Japanese computer giant Fujitsu in Tokyo yesterday. The new Raku-Raku PC with touch-screen display is specifically designed for easy use by seniors with little prior computing experience. — AFP

NEW YORK: Activision knows it’s more fun to blast on-screen enemies into oblivion with friends, so this fall it’s launching an online service for its “Call of Duty” games that’s part Facebook, part player matchmaker and part organized sports.

It’s the logical next step for Activision Blizzard Inc., whose “Call of Duty” franchise has enjoyed unprecedented success. The latest title, “Black Ops,” has sold 22 million copies worldwide since its November launch. More than 7 million people play every day online. The service officially launches on Nov. 8 with the next “Call of Duty” installment, Activision said yesterday.

A test version will be available before that, but Activision isn’t saying when.

Two years in the making by a speciallycreated game studio called Beachhead, the service, “Call of Duty: Elite,” lets players form groups, compete by skill level or interest, share statistics like baseball fans, and create video clips of their best “Call of Duty” moments, among other things.

“Elite” will be accessible from game consoles, computers and smartphones. It’s as if “social networks and organized sports had a baby and they gave that baby a flamethrower,” as Activision puts it. Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, calls it a response to the rise of social networking. “A way to think about this — the NFL used to be something you could only interact with on Sunday.

Then, things like fantasy football and ESPN started surrounding it,” Hirshberg said.

Online services are also the next step for

the broader video game industry, which must figure out how to offer players experiences that go beyond the $60 video game discs that, “Call of Duty” aside, have seen bumpy sales as people flock to cheaper games from “Angry Birds” to “FarmVille.”

Activision is not saying what it plans to charge for access to “Elite,” though it’s likely to be in the form of monthly or yearly subscriptions possibly combined with the sale of virtual items and extra content for the games. Hirshberg stressed that the company won’t start charging for anything currently available to “Call of Duty” players for free, such as the ability to play multiplayer games.

Activision, whose Blizzard arm publishes the “World of Warcraft” online game series, is betting that the future of video games lies beyond discs in so-called “digital content.”

That includes everything from downloadable chapters (called “map packs”) in “Call of Duty” to monthly “World of Warcraft” subscriptions, along with games on Facebook and mobile devices. While sales of physical video games are on the decline save the biggest blockbusters, more people than ever are playing games in some form, especially online and on mobile devices.

“Call of Duty” has a single-player component, but that pales in comparison with the enjoyment gamers like Dave Strand, 28, get out of playing the game’s multiplayer feature, which can extend the playtime of “Call of Duty” by days, weeks or even months. — AP

28

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

health & science

No evidence that mouse virus causes chronic fatigue WASHINGTON: A major study in 2009 that claimed a mouse virus was the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome was wrong, and its findings were likely based on contaminated lab samples, US researchers said yesterday.

“There is no evidence of this mouse virus in human blood,” said Jay Levy of the University of California, San Francisco, senior author of the study to be published this week in the journal Science.

Instead, the mouse virus XMRV that was picked up in samples from chronic fatigue patients probably got there because “chemical reagents and cell lines used in the laboratory where it was identified were contaminated with

the virus,” the university said in a statement.

The 2009 study was hailed as a breakthrough for the estimated one to four million Americans who suffer from the elusive but debilitating illness, and led to many being treated with antiretroviral drugs used against HIV/AIDS. The study authors said experts need to keep searching for the cause of the disease, which can last for years and cause memory loss, muscle pain, extreme tiredness and possibly insomnia.

“Individuals with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome need to know that taking antiretroviral therapies will not benefit them, and may do them serious harm,” said co-author Konstance Knox of the Wisconsin Virus Research Group in Milwaukee,

Wisconsin. “Physicians should not be prescribing antiviral compounds used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS to patients on the basis of a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome diagnosis or a XMRV test result.” The 2009 study was conducted by researchers in Nevada and Maryland who found xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) in about two-thirds of blood samples taken from 101 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Levy, a prominent HIV/AIDS researcher, said he was contacted by the original team to try to replicate its findings by examining blood samples from other chronic fatigue patients. Using similar procedures to examine the blood of 61 patients, “Levy and colleagues

found no evidence of XMRV or any other mouserelated virus,” UCSF said.

They also determined that it was highly unlikely that humans could become infected with the mouse virus in the first place, because “human serum quickly kills it.”

Other scientists involved in the follow up research came from the Wisconsin Viral Research Group in Milwaukee, the Blood Systems Research Institute in San Francisco, the Open Medicine Institute in Mountain View, CA and Abbott in Abbott Park, IL. “With this extensive study, we could not confirm any of the results of the earlier papers,” Levy said. — AFP

Killer bacteria claims victims in Germany and Sweden Woman infected dies of E.coli in Sweden

HANSHAN: File photo taken on November 30, 2009 shows Chinese students using handmade red ribbons to form ‘AIDS’ one day ahead of World AIDS Day, at a school in Hanshan, east China’s Anhui province. — AFP

Discrimination in China hinders AIDS fight Experts warn discrimination is still rife in workplace and hospitals BEIJING: When Meng Lin found out he was HIV-positive, he was forced to leave home, quit his job and change his namethe victim of intense discrimination experts say hinders China’s fight against the disease.

Fifteen years later, Meng has finally landed on his feet. He works at an HIV/AIDS NGO and has a partner, but still keeps his disease a secret from his friends amid continuing prejudice in China, despite recent improvements.

“When I was diagnosed, there was no information (about HIV/AIDS), it was terrifying. Hospitals wouldn’t accept me, they told me there was no room for me, doctors told me they didn’t have any medicine,” he said.

“I told my family and they asked me to leave home, as they wanted to protect themselves,” Meng, who refused to reveal his exact age but said he was in his 40s, told AFP. Frightened that he might be a threat to others and that he might not live much longer, he also decided to quit his job.

Only by changing his name, starting his own business and buying the life-saving antiretroviral drugs he needed from the United States was he able to survive and start leading a normal life.

Thirty years after the first AIDS cases were detected in the United States, China says that at least 740,000 people are living with HIV-the virus that causes AIDS-out of a total population of 1.3 billion, although some campaigners say the actual figure could be higher.

The government has repeatedly warned of a “grim” situation in China. In February, it said HIV/AIDS had become highly prevalent in some areas and in population groups, with rates of infection among homosexual men rising.

Nevertheless, experts and people living with HIV agree there has been progress over the years as the government has started talking more openly about the disease.

According to Meng, one area of significant improvement is the nationwide availability of free antiretroviral drugs.

A study published in The Lancet med-

ical journal in May said China’s efforts to scale up access to the drugs over the past years had resulted in national treatment coverage increasing from almost zero to 63.4 percent.

The report also found that HIV-related deaths had decreased by 60 percent.

But experts warn discrimination is still rife in the workplace and in hospitals, hindering these efforts.

“If people know they’re going to lose their jobs and face discrimination in hospitals... they might not come forward and take an HIV test,” said Richard Howard, an HIV/AIDS specialist at the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“Yet people who begin their treatment early are less likely to infect others.

So now, more than ever, it’s important that people feel comfortable to come forward and take an HIV test and know their rights will be protected.”

A report released in May by the ILO found that people living with HIV/AIDS were still routinely denied treatment in hospitals.

Meng, whose NGO is called the Chinese Alliance for People Living with HIV/AIDS, said he had endured such discrimination.

Several years ago, after suffering chest pains, he was diagnosed with angina and told he would need to have surgery. But when doctors found out he was HIV-positive, they refused to perform the operation.

“I considered getting surgery abroad, but it was too costly. Eventually, the problem got better and I survived without the operation,” he said.

Discrimination in the workplace is also rife-and was brought to the fore by a landmark lawsuit last year by a young man from eastern China who said he was denied a job as a teacher because of his disease.

The plaintiff sued the local education department but ultimately lost the case.

Meng has also experienced this firsthand. In 2005, he was organising an AIDS awareness event when journalists turned up with their cameras. He asked them not to film him, but they did and broadcast a report on television. —AP

BERLIN: A killer bacteria linked to contaminated cucumbers claimed a 15th victim in Germany yesterday and its first fatality abroad when a Swedish woman who had been travelling in Germany died, authorities said.

One of the largest E.coli outbreaks of its kind, it has also made more than 1,000 people ill in Germany as well as people from Spain, Sweden, Britain, Denmark, France and the Netherlands who had recently been in Germany.

It has also caused diplomatic tension between Germany and countries such as Spain, France and Russia. The source of the virulent strain of the bacteria is unknown, authorities said. Most of the deaths have been in northern Germany.

The E. coli pathogen has been identified on cucumbers imported from Spain, but it is not clear if they were contaminated there, during transport, or possibly in Germany.

“The situation is tense but it can be dealt with,” said Health Minister Daniel Bahr at a news conference late on Monday. He said he expected the number of cases to continue rising.

The German government has identified the disease as hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication of a type of E. coli known as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).

Russia has banned vegetable imports from Germany and Spain and said it may expand the ban to all European Union member states, head of Russia’s Federal Consumer Protection Agency Gennady Onishchenko was quoted by corporate-owned Interfax news agency as saying.

“If the situation does not change, we will ban all the European vegetable products,” he said.

Spanish farmers are losing around 200 million euros ($286 million) per week in lost sales because of it, a farmers association said on Tuesday.

German authorities have warned consumers to avoid eating cucumbers, lettuces and tomatoes.

Spain said on Monday there was no proof that cucumbers from its growers had caused the outbreak of E.coli in Germany and that it would be demanding to know why its farmers had been blamed.

Spanish media reported Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Hungary, Sweden, Belgium and Russia are blocking entry of Spanish cucumbers.

In a further sign of growing tension in

MUENSTER: An employee of the Hygiene Institute at Muenster’s University Clinic tests a sample yesterday in Muenster, western Germany. The institute announced it had put together a test to quickly identify people infected with the so-called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. German authorities battled to stop the spread of a killer bacteria traced to imported cucumbers that has killed at least 16 people, including one outside Germany. — AFP Europe, French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand demanded in a TV interview yesterday greater transparency from Spain and Germany over the mysterious outbreak after three people in France became ill.

“At first the German authorities were categorical,” he said. “Today there are more and more questions arising. I want to know the origin (of the contamination),” Bertrand told France 2 television. “We need completely transparent information from the German authorities, and from the Spanish authorities as well.

Hungary’s news agency MTI cited Spain’s Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs Rosa Aguilar as saying on Tuesday ahead of an informal meeting of EU farm ministers in eastern Hungary that the bacteria which had killed several people had not been identified in Spain before.

“From the Spanish side there will be two important topics at today’s discussion: on the one hand we wish to make it clear that Spanish products are safe and of good quality-on the other hand we advocate a common

skin-whitener could kill

SEOUL: South Korean activists march with a cigarette-shaped outfit during a campaign marking the World No Tobacco Day in Seoul yesterday. Observed around the world every year on May 31, World No Tobacco Day created by the World Health Organisation (WHO) this year has the theme “The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control”. — AFP

Weather forecast could predict cholera outbreaks WASHINGTON: Scientists are closing in on a forecast model that may soon be able to predict future cholera outbreaks based on increases in temperature and rainfall, according to a study published yesterday.

An analysis of several years of past data in cholera-prone parts of Zanzibar, Tanzania, showed that when temperatures rose one degree Celsius, cholera cases were likely to double within four months, said scientists at the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea.

A small increase in rainfall (200-milliliter or 6.7 ounces per month) also forecast that a “substantial increase could be expected within two months,” said the research in the June issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine

and Hygiene.

Cholera, a diarrhea-causing bacteria that can be lethal in vulnerable populations, often strikes without warning, and by the time symptoms arise it is often too late for vaccines to be effective.

The disease is primarily spread through fecal contamination of food and water. The bacteria can live in the environment, so rising water levels may also make it easier for the illness to spread, particularly in impoverished areas with poor sanitation.

The researchers applied the same statistical model “used to study seasonal trends for other infectious diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, to retrospectively predict the cholera caseload in the region for 2003 to 2008,” said the study.

solution,” the minister said.

In Brussels, the European Commission said: “The Commission notes that the outbreak is limited geographically to an area surrounding the city of Hamburg.

“Also, efforts to pinpoint all possible sources of contamination are well under way and have already yielded preliminary results.

It would, therefore, consider any ban on any product as disproportionate.”

In the Netherlands, a Dutch horticulture group said exports of cucumbers to Germany, the most important market, had all but halted and it Dutch farmers were losing millions of euros.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a risk assessment that the HUS/STEC outbreak is one the largest in the world of its kind.

HUS affects the blood, kidneys and, in severe cases, the nervous system and can be particularly serious for children and the elderly. In an average year, around 60 cases of HUS are reported in Germany, the government said. — Reuters

“The predicted levels based on climate conditions closely matched actual cholera cases and outbreaks recorded in surveillance reports over the same time period.”

The ability to predict cholera outbreaks could save lives and cut back on cases, said lead author Rita Reyburn, a research associate at IVI. “We are getting very close to developing a reliable forecasting system that would monitor temperatures and rainfall patterns to trigger pre-emptive measures-like mobilizing public health teams or emergency vaccination effortsto prepare for an outbreak before it arrives.”

Cholera typically strikes in sub Saharan Africa and parts of southeast Asia. An epidemic in Haiti has killed

nearly 5,000 people and experts say 800,000 will be sickened by it this year.

The study called it “particularly troubling” that the doubling of cases coincided with such a small boost in average minimum temperature-from 23 Celsius (73 Fahrenheit) to 24 Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s third assessment report, average temperatures could rise globally from between 1.4 degrees Celsius and 5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

“Based on the results of this analysis we would expect a very high cholera caseload in Asia and Africa if the temperatures hit the higher end of that range,” said Mohammad Ali, a senior scientist at IVI. — AFP

MANILA: Illegal injections of a cancer-treating chemical pose a risk of death to legions of Filipinos who use them to try to whiten their skin, health authorities warned yesterday.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspects the drug glutathione is being injected in high doses as a skin-whitener, but said it can cause serious conditions including kidney failure and blood poisoning.

It has issued advice against taking regular injections of the chemical-approved only for treating cancer-because the government suspects licensed skin doctors are among its purveyors, said spokeswoman Jesusa Joyce Cirunay.

“We have been getting reports that they are being administered by people who have experience in injecting medicines,” Cirunay told AFP. She said the agency had monitored many cases of glutathione use resulting in ailments, but gave no figures.

The agency said that claims had been made that glutathione whitened the skin by deactivating the enzyme tyrosinase, which helps produce melanin, the pigment that gives human skin its colour. But these claims have been widely disputed, the agency said. It warned that repeated injections of the drug could lead to kidney failure, blood poisoning and toxic epidermal necrolysis, in which a large portion of the skin peels off, exposing the human body to many infections.

“The alarming increase in the unapproved use of glutathione administered intravenously as a skin-whitening agent at very high doses is unsafe and may result in serious consequences to the health of users,” its advisory said.

The government is gathering evidence that could lead to prosecutions, Cirunay said without giving details. Skin-whitening treatments and products including soaps, lotions and deodorants are popular in the Philippines and other Asian countries. — AFP

y

A

29

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

health & science

Young athletes use fewer drugs, but more alcohol NEW YORK: Teens who exercise and play team sports are less likely to be smokers or use marijuana and other drugs than their peers, but they do drink more alcohol, a study said.

While the findings, published in “Addiction,” don’t prove cause and effect, they could have important implications for preventing drug and alcohol abuse in young adults, the study’s authors said.

“If we can encourage an enjoyment in general exercise, we may be able to see a lowering of participation in drug use,” said Yvonne Terry-McElrath, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and one of the authors.

“It’s at least a starting point.”

She warned, though, that the links found in the study “were not staggeringly huge” and added that encouraging exercise was certainly “not a cure for anything.”

Terr y-McElrath and her colleagues used data from a study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that followed high school seniors through young

adulthood with regular surveys that asked about recent use of alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, as well as participation in athletics and exercise.

The report included data on close to 12,000 students, about half of whom filled out follow-up surveys until they were 25 or 26 years old.

At the first survey, students had drunk alcohol between one and five times, on average, in the previous month, and smoked marijuana between zero and two times. The average senior smoked cigarettes not at all or less than one per day.

About 9 percent of students had used other illicit drugs in the previous month.

Students who participated in team sports or general exercise were less likely to use cigarettes, marijuana and other illicit drugs as final year students. And those who increased their physical activity over the next few years also reported smoking and using drugs less often as time went on.

About 38 percent of teens who

didn’t exercise reported smoking cigarettes at some point in the past month, and 23 percent had smoked marijuana. That compared to 25 percent to 29 percent of frequent exercisers and athletes who had smoked cigarettes and 15 to 17 percent who smoked marijuana.

Being involved in team sports meant teens were more likely to drink frequently-but that didn’t extend to people who exercised without being part of a team.

About 45 percent of non-exercisers said they had drunk alcohol in the previous month, which rose to 57 percent in those who regularly played a team sport.

The authors also noted that the high school final year students who reported drinking more at the first survey were also heavier drinkers throughout young adulthood.

It’s not the first time a study has linked participation in team sports to drinking, although it’s not necessarily the case that playing sports causes a teen to drink more. TerryMcElrath said there are still many theories as to why these athletes

Say bye to obesity

tend to drink more than others.

Drinking may be an important social activity on some teams, and there may be more peer pressure to drink in post-game environments. In addition, Terry-McElrath noted that sports are closely tied to the alcohol industry-just consider all the beer advertisements on during the Super Bowl, she added.

She, and others, said that athletes might avoid other drugs since they could have a negative impact on competition, whether by impairing performance or turning up on a drug test.

Nadra Lisha, a graduate student at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said that people who exercise a lot and those who use alcohol might be sensation-seekers who get a thrill from both activities.

“Drinking might not be as detrimental to their life, whereas smoking something-it would be m u c h h a r d e r t o e xe r c i s e t h e nex t day,” Lisha, who was not i n v o l v e d i n t h e s t u d y, t o l d Reuters Health. — Reuters

India doctors protest colleague’s murder PATNA: Medical services were paralyzed across an eastern Indian state yesterday by a one-day strike by thousands of doctors demanding better security after one of their colleagues was killed by a group of prisoners. Bhudeo Singh, a prison doctor in Gopalganj district, was fatally beaten after he refused to issue fake certificates to seven prisoners stating they were too ill to be moved to another jail.

Local police Superintendent K.S. Anupam said the prisoners were resisting the transfer.

More than 10,000 doctors in state-run hospitals and health clinics stayed away from work yesterday to demand more security for doctors working in dangerous conditions. The Bihar chapter of the Indian Medical Association supported their demands but did not join the strike. Health clinics were closed and hospital outpatient departments were deserted.

Operations in state-run hospitals were postponed, while nurses and other staff looked after patients who were already admitted.

Bihar is considered India’s most lawless state, with criminal gangs kidnapping children, shooting police and extorting protection money from businesses. The situation has been improving since a new state government took power five years ago. — AP

5`!GYYZ <cgd]hU` 5` !GYYZ <cgd]hU` DYX]Uhf]W KY][\h 7cbhfc` GiaaYf Dfc[fUa D DYX XX]Uhf]W K X]Uh ] KY][\h 7cb ] \h 7 bhfc` GiaaYf Dfc[ h `G D fUa 8f" AU\U :UfU\Uh 7cbgi`hUbh cZ DYX]Uhf]Wg 8f " A AU\U :UfU\Uh 7cbgi`hUbh cZ DYX]Uhf]Wg 5 7cadYh]h]jY GiaaYf dfc[fUa ]b Ub Ybj]fcbaYbh Zi`` cZ ^cm UbX YbhYfhU]baYbh 5 5 7cadYh]h]jY GiaaYf dfc[fUa a ]b Ub Ybj]fcbaYbh Zi`` cZ ^cm UbX YbhYfhU]baYbh AYX]WU` UbX bihf]h]cbU` UggYgga aYbh VYZcfY UbX UZhYf h\Y dfc[fUa AYX]WU` UbX bihf]h]cbU` UggYggaYbh VYZcfY UbX UZhYf h\Y dfc[fUa <YU`h\m bihf]h]cbU` dfc[fUa Zcff YjYfm W\]`X UWWcfX]b[ hc \]g U[Y <YU`h\m bihf]h]cbU` dfc[fUa Zcf YjYfm W\]`X UWWcfX]b[ hc \]g U[Y 8U]`m d\mg]WU` hfU]b]b[ dfc[fUa ibXYf gidYfj]g]cb cZ dfcZYgg]cbbU` d\mg]WU` hfU]bYf 8U]`m d\mg]WU` hfU]b]b[ dfc[fUa ibXYf gidYfj]g]cb cZ dfcZYgg]cbU` d\mg]WU` hfU]bYf 9XiWUh]cbU` `YWhifYg Zcf dUfYbhg g UbX W\]`XfYb 9XiWUh]cbU` `YWhifYg Zcf dUfYbhg UbX W\]`XfYb

5ZhYf

6YZcfY

@Ugh h]aY Zcf fYgYfjUh]cb & # + #&$%%% @Ugh h]aY Zcf fYgYfjUh]cb & # + #&$%% :cf FYgYfjUh]cb UbX ::ifh\Yf ]bei]fYg. :cf FYgYfjUh]cb UbX :ifh\Yf ]bei]fYg.

&)+*(&'& ! *$$%$&%( &)+*(&'& ! *$ $$%$&%(

To advertise advertise on this this page l t t us: please contact

248 33 199 ads@kuwaittimes.net

y

A

30

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

W H AT ’ S O N

Box Hill College opens admission

B

Group photo of all the recipients of the Student Employee Award.

Finance Club members with Coordinator of Student Organizations and Leadership Development Rama Sabano.

AUK President Dr. Winfred Thompson with the Founder’s Award Recipient Rana Abdelhamid.

ox Hill College Kuwait announced the start of their application period for the coming Fall 2011 semester.

Applications can be made at the Office of the Registrar from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm at BHCK’s campus in Abu Halifa.

Box Hill College Kuwait is the first private college for women offering locally and internationally recognized Diploma qualifications.

BHCK offers several majors through its two different departments of studies. The Department of Business Studies offers three diplomas: Management, Marketing, and Financial Services (Banking).

The Department of Applied Arts & Design (DAAD) also offers three different diplomas: Graphic Arts, Interior Design & Decoration and a dual diploma of Information Technology (Website Development & System Networking).

DAAD students have participated in many competitions in their field of study. A group of students recently won Synpase 2011, a design competition in Doha, Qatar.

They have also participated in projects in coordination with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), such as proposing a design for the UNDP’s premises in Kuwait, ideas for a women’s rights campaign and ways of recycling for the Saving Our Planet campaign.

These types of projects are a great source of inspiration for stu-

dents, especially in the field of arts, as they bring out their creative side and provide a way of implementation in a professional environment whilst also introducing students to the market demand in Kuwait.

For more information visit BHCK’s website www.bhck.edu.kw, call the Office of the Registrar on 1 842425 or visit in person at their campus in Abu Halifa.

Members of the Entrepreneurship and Business Club with Coordinator of Student Organizations and Leadership Development Rama Sabano.

AUK President Dr. Winfred Thompson with the President’s Award Recipient Rania H. Shaker.

Assistant to the President for Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Theodore Kruse with the Student Affairs Award Recipient Amal Behbehani.

AUK holds 7th Annual Awards Night

T

he American University of Kuwait held its 7th Annual Awards Night on Wednesday, May 18th, at 7 pm in the AUK Auditorium. The Ceremony commenced with a welcome note from AUK President Dr. Winfred Thompson followed by a night of awards for AUK staff, faculty and students. Each division/department awarded their most worthy student employee in an effort to recognize their hard work and the Student Government Association in return awarded faculty and staff for their support.

The highlights of the evening were the Founders’ Award, the President’s Award and the Student Affair’s Award. The Founder’s Award recognizes a graduating senior for exceptional achievement both in and outside the classroom over the course of his/her entire time at the University. The President’s Award is the University’s most prestigious student award, recognizing a student who has exhibited academic excellence and who embodies the ideals of a liberal arts education. The Student Affairs Award goes to the student who has demonstrated commitment to promoting a positive image of the University, embodied in the goals and mission of AUK and has contributed positively to life on campus. The recipients of these awards are students who have shown exceptional academic achievement and involvement in activities outside of the classroom among other criteria.

Founders’ Award: Rana Abdelhamid President’s Award: Rania H. Shaker Student Affairs Award: Amal Behbehani Categories and Recipients: Student Employee Awards

Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences: Katy Hauranieh, Walaa Shaheen.

Division of Sciences & Engineering: Kholod Al-Shamry, Talal Abduljader.

Division of Social Sciences: Ali Atesh.

Division of Humanities and Arts: Eman J. El-Taki.

Division of Business and Economics: Ahmed Abdullatif.

Writing Center: Sahar Tanweer, Fatima Ibraheem.

Gulf Studies Center: Mennatallah AbdulHamid.

Information Technology: Ahmad Awada.

PR & Marketing: Sarah S. Khalaf.

Intensive English Program: Mariam ElTemtamy, Halimah El-Husari, Rand Dannan, Nour Jaber, Samantha Combs.

Arabian Heritage Project: Awab AlHossary.

Library: Hamad Al-Abdullah, Hassan Najaa.

Office of the Vice President of Administrative and Student Affairs: Fakheema Badri Admissions: Khaled Sawan, Kholoud AlRoumi.

Registrar: Ahmed Mohamed.

Student Success Center: Mahmoud Mohamed, Shahad Bin-Salamah, Amineh Eida, Ali Taqi, Hiba Bazzi, Rasha Abdelhadi, Syed Abrar Husain, Rana Abdelhamid Student Life: Ghaneema Al-Qudmani, Moneba Iqbal, Dana Jaber Outstanding Athletes: Female: Njoud Aweis Male: Uros Lukic IEP Academic Achievement Award Level 1: Jaber Al-Shamry Level 2: Ahmed Mandy

Level 3 (Fall 2010): Noora Al-Sebaie Level 3 (Spring 2011): Haneen Al-Ashqar University Service Award AbdorRahman Chowdhury, Abdulrahman Al-Bastaki, Abdulsamad Marafie, Ahmed Abdullatif, Ahmed Butaiban, Ahmed Mandy, Bashar Essa, Fatima Ibraheem, Fatma M Ebrahimi, Frohan Foroutan, Ghaneema M Al-Qudmani, Hala Ahmed, Kevork Awakimian, Khadija Al-Qassar, Mohammad Al-tanani Nada Ibrahim, Nigel D’Souza, Rasha Abdelhadi, Sarah S. Khalaf, Yousef Nayef, Zainab Al-Sammak.

SGA Student Body Awards Innovative Lecturer Award: Dr. Charles Mitchell Most Supportive Faculty Award: Dr. James McDougal Most Supportive Staff Award: Shaimaa Mohamed Faculty Mentorship Award: Dr. Mary Queen, Dr. Kathryn Kleypas Staff Mentorship Award: Hanouf Al-Juhail Most Humorous Faculty Award: Dr. Ayman Haddad Most Humorous Staff Award: Abdulwahab Al-Khaldi Student Life Awards Advisor of the Year: Ayman Shouman Rising Star of the Year: Sarah Raji Exceptional Organization Member of the Year: Ghaneema Al-Qudmani Student Leader of the Year: Fatima Thunayan, Mohammad Abu Mazen Most Improved Organization: Entrepreneurship & Business Club Program of the Year: Inspirational Flair (E&B Club) Organization of the Year: Finance Club.

FAIPS (DPS) senior secondary results

F

AIPS (DPS) has proved again that it can maintain its lead not only in the co-scholastic arena, but also when it comes to academic mettle FAIPS proudly acknowledges its TOPPERS: ● FAIPS covets six positions among the top ten in Kuwait. ● 2 Subject Toppers (Math and Computer Science) at Kuwait Level Immanuel Amrita Rhema - 100% in Mathematics David Joshy - 100% in Computer Science ● Highest Average in (Subjects at Kuwait Level) English (92%); Physics (82.5%); Biology (91.5%); Computer Science (90.4%); Economics (73.6%); Accountancy (74.9%); Business Studies (80.8%) ● FAIPS has the distinction of wearing the crown of the Highest Aggregate Average of 84.4% Our bright stars in the constellation ● Immanuel Amrita Rhema: Aggregate 98% Topper in Kuwait and Gulf. ● Ritwik Sudesh Kumar: Aggregate 97.4% has ranked fifth in Kuwait. ● Mahdir Ishman: Aggregate 97.2%, has ranked sixth in Kuwait. ● Lakshmi Ramabhadran: Aggregate 97.0%, has ranked seventh in Kuwait. ● Aswin Suresh Krishnan: Aggregate 96.8% has ranked tenth in Kuwait. ● Priyamvada Jain: Aggregate 96.8%, shares the tenth position in Kuwait with her classmate. ● David Joshy Manjaly: Aggregate

96.2% has topped in Kuwait with 100% in Computer Science. ● Chebrolu Gowthami: Aggregate 96.2%. ● Archana Chillala: Aggregate 95.6%. ● Rohit Khandelwal: Aggregate 95.2%. ● Kanishk Kathuria: Aggregate 95%. ● Hiba Nausheen: Aggregate 95%. ● Syed Akbar Nawaz: Aggregate 94.8%. ● Sufiayan Khan: Aggregate 94.6%. ● Namrata Kalia: Aggregate 94.4%. ● Praful Bhatt: Aggregate 94.4%. ● Ezhilarasu Goutham: Aggregate 94.2%. ● Arjun Jayakumar: Aggregate 93.8%. ● Denis Kevin Xavier: Aggregate 93.68%. ● Shivam Sharma: Aggregate 93.6%. ● Jayendra Shyam Dewani: Aggregate 93.6%. ● Gaurav Srivastava: Aggregate 93.4%. ● Yadu Ramachandran: Aggregate 92.6%. ● Teena Paul Manapathil: Aggregate 92.6%. ● Debayan Bose: Aggregate 92.4%.

● Sarosh Ahmad: Aggregate 92.2%. ● Dipayan Mukherji: Aggregate 92%. ● Sarthak Anand: Aggregate 92%. ● Soham Ray: Aggregate 92%. ● Saurabh Lalu Nair: Aggregate 91.6%. ● Chris Alice Abraham: Aggregate 91.4%. ● Amanjeet Singh Bhatia: Aggregate 90.8%. ● Richa Milind Rajgolikar: Aggregate 90.6%. ● Amrutha Sivaraman: Aggregate 90.4%. ● Shruti Tripathi: Aggregate 90.4%. ● Syeda Sana: Aggregate 90%.

Business Studies: Jemima Fernandes Talha Sajid and Kevin Philip with 95%.

Congratulations to all !!

ICSK’s academic excellence!

I

t is celebration time for the ICSK fraternity. The AISSC Exam results of May 2011 have brought a sense of jubilation and ecstasy with majority of the students securing superior marks in all the subjects.

The topper of the ICSK Roll of Honour this year is Vichitha Kekanaje Chinmaya from the Senior Branch with an outstanding aggregate percentage of 97.6% followed closely by Sandeep Govindan Prasad of Amman Branch with 96.8% and Jayachidambaram Ambalavanan of Amman Branch with 95.6%. The three are also the toppers of the Science Stream.

The Amman branch students have made a clean sweep of the top three positions in the commerce stream.

Asgarali Yusufali Suterwalla has topped with 93.2%; Mustafa Salim Partapurwala achieved the second place with 91.6% and Lubhavini Jolly got 91% to get the third position.

The list of branch wise toppers starting with Senior Branch - Science Stream: Vichitha Kekanaje Chinmaya - 97.6%;

Reethu Louis Neriyamparampil- 94.8%; Akshaya Singaravel - 94.6%; Commerce Stream : Karthika Viswakumar Menon 90.8% Pooja Prakash Melwani - 89.8% ; Sharanya Varma Salim Kumar- 89%.

Khaitan Branch - Science Stream : Merrin Meriam Mathew- 95%; Ashli Angilivilayil Cherian - 94.6%; Carmen Angeline Goveas - 94.2%. Commerce Stream Lasella Maria George- 89%; Sachin Sajeev-88.8%; Sukanya Shreeram Telang 88%. Amman Branch - Science Stream : Sandeep Govindan Prasad- 96.8%; Jayachidambaram Ambalavanan- 95.6% ; Jasper Ratos- 95.2%; Commerce Stream Asgarali Yusufali Suterwalla- 93.2%; Mustafa Salim Partapurwala- 91.6%; Lubhavini Jolly-91%.

Subject-wise toppers starting with English : Sukanya Shreeram Telang -98%, Khaitan Branch; Economics : Pooja Prakash Melwani -95%, Senior Branch; Sukanya Shreeram Telang and Lasella Maria George-95%, Khaitan Branch; Mustafa Salim Partapurwala and Asgarali Yusufali Suterwalla - 95% , Amman

Branch; Mathematics: Vichitha Kekanaje Chinmaya - 99%, Senior Branch; Carmen Angeline Goveas - 99%, Khaitan branch; Jasper Ratos and Kunal Kriplani -99%, Amman Branch. Physics : Sandeep Govindan Prasad - 98%, Amman Branch; Chemistry : Sandeep Govindan Prasad 100%, Amman Branch; Vineetha Surendran - 100%, Senior Branch; Biology: Sandeep Govindan Prasad 99%, Amman Branch; Business Studies : Lubhavini Jolly - 96%, Amman Branch; Accountancy : Asgarali Yusufali Suterwalla - 95% , Amman Branch; Karthika Viswakumar Menon - 95%, Senior Branch; Informatics Practices : Husaina and Kalangi Mispa Peter - 97%, Senior Branch; Computer Science : Vichitha Kekanaje Chinmaya - 99%, Senior Branch.

The Management and the staff of this academic institute of par excellence take immense pride in congratulating all the toppers. They have expressed profound happiness on the success of the young achievers and pledge to continue in their pursuit of academic excellence.

y

A

31

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

W H AT ’ S O N

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 ended 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.

■■■■■■■

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.

Group Photo

■■■■■■■

Amal Kablaoui, Mouna Kablaoui, Rima El Ghussain, Huda Bargho

Ms. Dana Al Shuhaiber and Family

EMBASSY OF BRITAIN The Visa Application Centre (VAC) will be closed on the same dates above. The opening hours of the Visa Application Centre are 0930 - 1630 Application forms remain available online from the UKBAs’ website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk or from the Visa Application Centre’s website: www.vfs-ukkw.com. And also, from the UK Visa Application Centre located at: 4B, First Floor, Al Banwan Building (Burgan Bank Branch Office Building), Al Qibla area, opposite Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City. For any further inquiries, please contact the Visa Application Centre: Website: www.vfs-uk-kw.com E-mail:info@vfs-uk-kw.com Telephone:22971170. The Consular Section will also be closed on the same dates.

For information on the British Embassy services, visit the British Embassy website: www.ukinkuwait.fco.gov.uk ■■■■■■■

Ms. Sofia and Diana Lazar with Mr. Henry and Ms. Susan

Ms. Kaitlyn Shaver

Ms. Huda Barghouti

Graduation ceremony of Buffalo graduates

A

group of teachers from Al Bayan Bilingual School and Fawzia Sultan International School and several other local schools, graduated with a Master’s of Science in Multidisciplinary Studies and a certificate in Educational Leadership or Special Needs, from Buffalo State University of New York (SUNY) through its International Graduate Programs for Educators. The ceremony was held at Al Bayan Bilingual School in the presence of two visiting professors from the SUNY University - United States of America; Henry Nicols and Dr. Susan Baum and Lynda Abdul Raheem, the Buffalo graduate program coordinator.

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.

■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF GERMANY The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuwait wishes to announce that as of 1 May 2011, the external service provider Al Qabas Assurex is operating a Visa Application Centre in support of the German Embassy. Short-term visa applications for travels to Germany (e.g. for tourism, visits, business) are to be submitted to the service provider Al Qabas who for your convenience will ensure that all relevant documents are included in your application. Your personal appearance at the Application Centre is not required. Address of the Visa Application Centre: Al Qabas Assurex Sanabel Tower (Al-Babtain) Mezzanine (M3) opposite Sharq Mall Kuwait 22924444 Fax: 22924442 Further information are available on the following websites: www.kuwait.diplo.de www.qavisa.com ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF ITALY The Embassy of Italy will be closed tomorrow, 2nd June 2011, on the occasion of the National Day of the Italian Republic.

■■■■■■■

SEN achievement awards at Kuwait National English School

K

uwait National English School (Hawally) held its Annual Achievement Awards for its Special Educational Needs Department on Sunday, May 29th. Besides receiving certificates for their achievements in academics as well as social development and other skills, the students also performed on stage with songs and dance with great talent and confidence.

EMBASSY OF INDIA Embassy of India, Kuwait, would like to inform that application forms for passport/visa services and labour contracts that are on its website, www.indembkwt.org, have been upgraded to include the facility for online data entry. Affidavit forms on the Embassy website have had this facility since May 6, 2009.

■■■■■■■

Ziad joins Marina Hotel as Director of Sales

M

Missoni press conference

T

he new Missoni Hotel in Salmiya recently held a press conference to mark the opening of this Boutique hotel in Salmiya in Kuwait. KTV2/FM99.7 Radio Kuwait news presenter Adeeb Shuhaiber moderated the press conference a the hotel. Picute shows Madame Missoni the creator and designer of Missoni, her daughter, CEO and President of Rezidor Hotel group Kurt Ritter and Adeeb Shuhaiber.

arina Hotel Kuwait has recently announced the appointment of Ziad Bou Jaber as the new Director of Sales for this hotel which is acknowledged as one of the most luxurious hotels in Kuwait.

An accomplished leader with over 13 years of valuable experience in the hospitality industry, Ziad brings a wealth of sales experience and local market expertise. Prior to his appointment at the Marina Hotel, Ziad joined the pre-opening team in sister-property Safir Hotel & Residences where he was leading the efforts of the sales team and managing the marketing initiatives.

Commenting on Ziad’s appointment, Nabil Hammoud, General Manager of Marina Hotel said “we are thrilled to have someone with Ziad’s calibre joining our team. He has an extensive understanding of the luxury market and a track record in delivering substantial and

measurable results. His skills and talents will be of great asset and I am confident that the addition of Ziad to our team will prove to be a tremendous support to our hotel moving forward.”

Speaking of his new role, Ziad said “Taking the role of Director of Sales at Marina Hotel presents me with a very exciting opportunity. The hotel has always been one of the leading five star hotel

properties in Kuwait. I sincerely look forward to working closely with Mr. Hammoud and the team, utilizing the team’s skills and experience to build on the hotel’s success.”

In his new role, Ziad will use his extensive operational and sales experience to contribute towards the growth of Marina Hotel and its client portfolio.

A native of Lebanon, Ziad is fluent in English and Arabic and holds a degree in Hotel & Restaurant Management from C&E American University in Lebanon. He has worked his way up the ladder over the years and his roles have included: Complex Assistant Director of Sales in charge at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Le Meridien Kuwait Hotels. He has also worked in KSA with Al Fahd Crown Hotel and Beirut, Lebanon with the Sheraton Coral Beach Hotel, Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotels and Le Vendome Intercontinental Hotel.

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to request all Kenyans resident in or training through Kuwait to register with the Embassy. We are updating our database. This information is necessary in order to facilitate quick assistance and advise in times of emergency. Kindly visit in person or register through our website www.kenyaembkuwait.com. The Embassy is located in: Surra Area - Block 6 - Street 9 Villa 3 Tel: 25353362 - 25353314; Fax: 25353316.

■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has moved its office to Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF PERU With the growing interest shown by Kuwaiti citizens and/or foreign residents in Kuwait for going for vacation and tourism to Peru and/or with the purpose of doing business over there, The Embassy of Peru in Kuwait did the effort and obtained as a temporary and immediate solution - till the opening of the consular section of Diplomatic Mission of Peru in Kuwait City - that the consular section of the Embassy of Peru in Qatar will attend those requests of granting such visas. Working hours: 9 am till 2 pm or call +974-4491-5944, Fax: +974-4491-5940 E-mail: info@peruembassy.com.qa

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

03:30 Last Chance Highway 04:25 Tigers Attack 05:20 Animal Cops South Africa 06:10 Animal Crackers 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 The Really Wild Show 07:50 Natural Born Hunters 08:15 All New Planet’s Funniest Animals 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Must Love Cats 10:05 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 11:00 Animal Precinct 11:55 Wildlife SOS International 12:50 Last Chance Highway 13:45 RSPCA: On The Frontline 14:10 Vet On The Loose 14:40 Earthquake: Panda Rescue 15:30 Animal Battlegrounds 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Baby Planet 17:25 Extraordinary Dogs 17:50 Project Puppy 18:20 Life Of Mammals 19:15 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Austin Stevens Adventures 22:00 Queens Of The Savannah 22:55 Buggin’ With Ruud 23:50 Natural World

03:25 03:55 04:35 04:55 05:15 05:40 05:55 06:15 06:35 07:00 07:20 07:40 08:05 08:20 08:40 09:00 09:25 09:40 10:40 11:25 12:15 12:45 13:15 14:10 15:40 16:30 17:15 17:45 18:15 19:10 20:00 20:45 21:15 21:45 22:40 23:30

Doctors Last Of The Summer Wine Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Bobinogs Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Bobinogs Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Bobinogs Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Michael Palin’s New Europe Doctors Eastenders Holby City Last Of The Summer Wine Michael Palin’s New Europe The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Holby City Michael Palin’s New Europe The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Desperate Romantics Beautiful People

03:00 03:25 03:45 04:10 06:05 06:35 07:00 10:10 11:00 12:50 13:40 14:25 15:10 16:00 17:45 18:10 19:00 19:50 20:35 21:20 22:10 22:35 23:00 23:45

Cash In The Attic USA James Martin’s Brittany James Martin’s Brittany Daily Cooks Challenge Cooked Cooked Daily Cooks Challenge Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic USA Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic Bargain Hunt Come Dine With Me Cash In The Attic USA Sweet Baby James New Scandinavian Cooking Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic Bargain Hunt Come Dine With Me Design Rules Design Rules Holmes On Homes Holmes On Homes

03:00 BBC World News 03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Asia Today 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Asia Today 05:00 BBC World News 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Asia Today 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 BBC World News America 23:30 Hardtalk

03:00 The Powerpuff Girls 03:15 Chowder 03:40 The Secret Saturdays 04:05 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 04:30 Ben 10: Alien Force 04:55 Best Ed 05:20 Skunk Fu! 05:45 Cramp Twins 06:10 Eliot Kid 06:35 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 07:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 07:25 Cow And Chicken 07:50 Angelo Rules 08:05 Cartoon Network Dance Club 08:15 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 08:40 Ben 10: Alien Force 09:05 The Secret Saturdays 09:30 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 09:55 The Powerpuff Girls 10:20 Robotboy 10:30 Hero 108 10:55 Ben 10 11:20 Chowder 11:45 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 12:10 Camp Lazlo 12:35 George Of The Jungle 13:00 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 13:25 Codename: Kids Next Door 13:50 Ben 10 14:15 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 14:40 Squirrel Boy 15:05 Eliot Kid 15:35 Ed, Edd N Eddy 16:00 Cow And Chicken 16:25 Chop Socky Chooks 16:50 Skunk Fu! 17:15 Chowder 17:40 Best Ed 18:05 Hero 108 18:30 The Marvelous Misadventures

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

TV PROGRAMS Of Flapjack 18:55 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 19:20 Ben 10: Alien Force 19:45 The Secret Saturdays 20:10 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 20:35 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 21:00 The Powerpuff Girls 21:25 Ed, Edd N Eddy 21:50 Robotboy 22:00 Camp Lazlo 22:25 Hero 108 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 23:40 Chowder

03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 22:00 23:00

World Business Today Piers Morgan Tonight Anderson Cooper 360 World Sport Inside Africa World Report Backstory World Report World Sport Inside The Middle East World Business Today World One World Sport Talk Asia Piers Morgan Tonight News Stream World Business Today International Desk The Brief World Sport Prism International Desk Inside The Middle East Quest Means Business Piers Morgan Tonight Connect The World

03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:50 08:45 09:10 09:40 10:30 10:55 11:25 12:20 13:15 14:10 15:05 16:00 16:55 17:50 18:45 19:10 19:40 20:05 20:35 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:45

Mega Builders Mythbusters How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Mega Builders Street Customs How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security The Next Great Baker LA Ink Ultimate Survival LA Ink Dirty Jobs Motor City Motors Mythbusters Man vs Fish With Matt Watson Cake Boss Border Security Time Warp How Machines Work How Do They Do It? Science Of The Movies Mythbusters The Future Of...

Man vs Fish With Matt Watson

03:25 03:50 04:45 05:40 06:10 07:00 07:55 07:58 08:25 08:55 09:45 10:10 10:35 11:25 11:50 12:40 13:05 13:30 13:55 14:45 15:35

How Does That Work?

Thunder Races What’s That About?

One Step Beyond Superships Scrapheap Challenge Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Mars: The Quest For Life The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Engineered Green Wheels Scrapheap Challenge One Step Beyond Sci-Fi Science Sci-Fi Science Space Pioneer Nyc: Inside Out The Gadget Show

16:00 16:03 16:30 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 20:45 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Brainiac Space Pioneer How It’s Made How Stuff Works Weird Connections How Stuff’s Made The Gadget Show How It’s Made How Stuff Works Colony

08:00 08:20 08:45 09:10 09:20 09:30 09:55 10:05 10:25 11:15 11:35 12:00 12:10 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:40 14:05 14:10 14:15 15:45 16:05 16:30 16:40 16:55 17:20 17:45 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:35 19:00 19:20 19:45 19:55 20:00 21:30 21:55 22:20 22:35 22:45 23:00 23:20 23:30 23:55

Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Timmy Time Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Hive Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse The Little Mermaid Little Einsteins Jungle Junction Lazytown Imagination Movers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Little Mermaid The Hive A Poem Is...

Toy Story 2 Jake & The Neverland Pirates Handy Manny The Hive Jake & The Neverland Pirates Imagination Movers Lazytown Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso The Hive Little Einsteins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Little Mermaid Handy Manny A Poem Is...

Toy Story 2 The Little Mermaid Little Einsteins Handy Manny The Hive Jungle Junction The Little Mermaid Timmy Time Jo Jo’s Circus Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

06:00 06:20 06:40 07:05 08:05 08:30 08:50 09:00 09:50 10:15 10:40 11:30 11:55 12:45 13:50 Cody 14:15 Cody 14:40 15:05 15:25 15:35 16:00 16:25 16:50 17:40 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:45 20:05 20:15 20:40 21:05 21:30 21:50 22:00 Cody 22:20 23:00 KSA

Kid vs Kat Kick Buttowski Pokemon Phineas And Ferb American Dragon Kick Buttowski Cars Toons Zeke And Luther I’m In The Band The Super Hero Squad Show Suite Life On Deck Pair Of Kings Phineas And Ferb Kid vs Kat The Suite Life Of Zack And The Suite Life Of Zack And Zeke And Luther Kick Buttowski Cars Toons Pokemon I’m In The Band Suite Life On Deck Zeke And Luther Phineas And Ferb Escape From Scorpion Island Kick Buttowski American Dragon Aaron Stone Cars Toons Kid vs Kat Phineas And Ferb I’m In The Band Zeke And Luther Phineas And Ferb The Suite Life Of Zack And The Super Hero Squad Show Programmes Start At 6:00am

04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 E!es 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kourtney And Kim Take New York 09:45 Kourtney And Kim Take New York 10:15 THS 12:05 E! News 13:05 Holly’s World 13:35 Holly’s World 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 THS 15:30 THS 16:25 Behind The Scenes 16:55 THS 17:55 E! News 18:55 Kourtney And Kim Take New York 19:25 Kourtney And Kim Take New York 19:55 THS 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:25 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Kourtney And Khloe Take Miami

THE SORCERERʼS APPRENTICE ON OSN CINEMA

03:10 04:00 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:30 2008 07:00 2008 07:30 2008 08:00 08:25 09:15 10:55

Man’s Work Cape Epic Mantracker Mantracker World Combat League Ride Guide Mountainbike

11:20 11:45 12:35 13:25 14:15 15:05 15:55 16:45 17:10 18:00 19:40 20:30 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:50

X Games Heroes Glutton For Punishment Untracked Mantracker World Combat League X Games Heroes Glutton For Punishment Quattro Events 2009 Summer Dew Tour 2010 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross...

Mantracker Untracked Fight Girls World Combat League Man’s Work Untracked

03:00 03:50 04:45 05:15 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 23:40

The Prosecutors Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghost Lab Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives Guilty Or Innocent?

Diagnosis: Unknown Real Emergency Calls Fugitive Strike Force FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn Solved Diagnosis: Unknown Real Emergency Calls Fugitive Strike Force Forensic Detectives Guilty Or Innocent?

FBI Files Diagnosis: Unknown Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn Solved I Almost Got Away With It Dr G: Medical Examiner

03:00 By Any Means 04:00 Pressure Cook 04:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 05:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 05:30 Exploring The Vine 06:00 Market Values 07:00 Departures 08:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 09:00 By Any Means 10:00 Bondi Rescue 10:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 11:00 Exploring The Vine 11:30 Meet The Natives: USA 12:30 62 Days At Sea 13:30 Departures 14:30 Banged Up Abroad 15:30 Destination Extreme 16:00 Bondi Rescue 16:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 17:00 Exploring The Vine 17:30 Meet The Natives: USA 18:30 62 Days At Sea 19:30 Departures 20:30 Banged Up Abroad 21:30 Destination Extreme 22:00 Bondi Rescue 22:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 23:00 Exploring The Vine 23:30 Meet The Natives: USA

04:00 The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations-18 06:00 Changing Lanes-PG15 08:00 Virtuality-PG15 10:00 Mortal Kombat-PG 12:00 Collateral-18 14:00 Virtuality-PG15 16:00 The One-PG15 18:00 Collateral-18 20:00 Battlestar Galactica: The Plan18 22:00 From Paris With Love-18

03:15 05:00 07:00 PG15 09:00 10:30 12:30 14:45 16:45 19:00 PG15 21:00 23:00

MacHEADS-PG15 Home Run-PG15 It’s A Wonderful AfterlifeMacHEADS-PG15 A Christmas Carol-PG On Broadway-PG15 Harold-PG15 Hurricane Season-PG15 The Sorcerer’s ApprenticeFrom Paris With Love-18 Saw VI-R

03:00 Just Shoot Me 03:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 04:00 South Park 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Will And Grace 06:00 Yes Dear 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 Dharma And Greg 09:00 Just Shoot Me 09:30 Will And Grace 10:00 Yes Dear 10:30 Seinfeld 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 13:30 Will And Grace 14:00 Yes Dear 14:30 Raising Hope 15:00 Seinfeld 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 The Drew Carey Show 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Just Shoot Me 18:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 19:00 Parks And Recreation 19:30 The Simpsons 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 The Big C 22:30 Weeds 23:00 South Park 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

Ride Guide Mountainbike

ALATRISTE ON OSN MOVIES ACTION 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Martha Stewart Show The View Body Of Proof Hawthorne Live Good Morning America The Bachelor The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Glee Supernatural Game Of Thrones Scoundrels The Bachelor

03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Body Of Proof Hawthorne Psych Friday Night Lights Look-A-Like Coronation Street Huge Psych Body Of Proof The Glades Look-A-Like Coronation Street Huge Friday Night Lights 30 Rock Coronation Street Huge Glee Supernatural Game Of Thrones C.S.I. Psych

03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 PG15 13:00 15:30 17:30 19:30 21:30 23:30

Neowolf-18 Outpost-18 The Snow Walker-PG15 No Escape-PG15 G.I. Joe: The Rise Of CobraAlatriste-PG15 No Escape-PG15 S.W.A.T.-PG15 Courage Under Fire-PG15 Set It Off-18 The Forsaken-18

04:00 School Of Rock-PG15 06:00 G-Force-PG 08:00 The Ramen Girl-PG15 10:00 Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star-PG15 12:00 That Thing You Do!-PG 14:00 Leave It To Beaver-PG 16:00 All’s Faire In Love-PG 18:00 Three And Out-PG15 20:00 Dead Men Don’t Wear PlaidPG 22:00 Aim Low: The Very Best Of Dylan Moran-18

03:00 Moulin Rouge!-PG15 05:00 Carnera: The Walking Mountain-PG 07:00 2012: Startling New Secret-PG 09:00 2012: Startling New Secret-PG 11:00 The Soloist-PG15 13:00 Three Investigators-PG15 15:00 Born Free-PG 17:00 Motherhood-PG15 19:00 Awakenings-PG 21:00 Stuart: A Life Backwards-18 23:00 Titanic-PG15

03:30 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 12:45 14:30 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

From Justin To Kelly-PG Rugrats Go Wild-FAM 500 Days Of Summer-PG15 My Sister’s Keeper-PG15 Easy Virtue-PG15 Moon-PG15 2012-PG15 My Sister’s Keeper-PG15 Black Death-PG15 I Love You, Man-18 Agora-18

Space Bears-FAM 08:00 Barbie In A Fashion FairytaleFAM 10:00 Babe: Pig In The City-FAM 12:00 Casper Haunted ChristmasFAM 14:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel-FAM 16:00 The Trumpet Of The SwanFAM 18:00 Hotel For Dogs-FAM 20:00 Last Of The Mohicans-PG 22:00 Casper Haunted ChristmasFAM

04:00 Arthur And The Revenge Of Maltazard-PG 06:00 How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days-PG 08:00 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG 10:00 My Dog Tulip-PG 12:00 Paper Man-PG15 14:00 Glorious 39-PG15 16:15 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG 18:15 The Boys Are Back-PG 20:00 Up In The Air-PG15 22:00 The Spirit-PG15

03:00 Super 15 05:00 Trans World Sport 06:00 Weber Cup Bowling 07:00 NRL Premiership 09:00 Super Rugby Highlights 10:00 ICC Cricket World 10:30 Mobil 1 The Grid 11:00 Trans World Sport 12:00 NRL Full Time 12:30 IRB Sevens 15:30 Super League 17:30 Golfing World 19:00 Super 15 21:00 AFL Highlights 22:00 Futbol Mundial 22:30 European Tour Weekly 23:00 European PGA Tour Highlights

07:00 Golfing World 08:00 AFL Premiership 10:30 FEI Equestrain World 11:00 World Hockey 11:30 Futbol Mundial 12:00 FEI Equestrain World 12:30 Mobil 1 The Grid 13:00 European PGA Tour Highlights 14:00 ICC Cricket World 14:30 Weber Cup Bowling 15:30 FEI Equestrain World 16:00 Spirit of Yachting 16:30 AFL Highlights 17:30 Super Rugby Highlights 18:30 Trans World Sport 19:30 Futbol Mundial 20:00 European Tour Weekly 20:30 Ladies European Tour Highlights 21:30 Mobil 1 The Grid 22:00 World Hockey 22:30 NRL Full Time 23:00 NRL Premiership

04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 09:30 11:30 12:00 13:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 18:00 19:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed WWE Vintage Collection UAE National Race Day Series Full Throttle V8 Supercars Championship Sports Adventure WWE NXT UAE National Race Day Series City Centre Races Full Throttle Le Mans Series V8 Supercars Championship WWE NXT WWE SmackDown UFC Wired UFC Unleashed UFC The Ultimate Fighter

07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30

Globe Trekker Travel 360 Working Holiday Four Men and a Lady Tall Ship Explorers

Ride Guide Mountainbike Quattro Events 2009 Summer Dew Tour 2010 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross...

X Games Heroes

03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00

Hawthorne The View Good Morning America The Bachelor Emmerdale

04:00 Pocahontas III: The Journey In Time-PG 06:00 Yogi And The Invasion Of The

11:30 Riding Eastern Europe 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Distant Shores 13:30 Sophie Grigson In The Home Counties 14:00 Destination Art 14:30 Travel 360 15:30 48 Hours In 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Riding Route 66 17:30 Four Men and a Lady 18:00 Distant Shores 18:30 Sophie Grigson In The Home Counties 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 Hollywood and Vines 20:30 Distant Shores 21:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 22:00 Essential Specials 23:00 Globe Trekker

03:00 03:55 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:30 07:20 09:00 09:55 10:25 10:50 11:15 11:40 12:30 13:20 15:00 15:55 16:25 16:50 17:15 17:40 18:30 19:20 21:00 22:00 23:00

American Pickers Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Sliced Sliced Tales Of The Gun Investigating History Dogfights Of The Future American Pickers Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Sliced Sliced Tales Of The Gun Investigating History Dogfights Of The Future American Pickers Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Sliced Sliced Tales Of The Gun Investigating History Dogfights Of The Future Patton 360 Hell’s Battlefield Battle Stations

03:20 04:15 05:10 05:35 06:05 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:25 09:55 10:50 11:50 12:50 13:45 14:15 14:45 15:40 16:35 17:00 17:30 18:25 19:25 19:50 20:20 21:15 22:10 23:05

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Homes With Style Area Clean House Big Boutique Big Boutique Homes With Style Homes With Style Fashion Avenue Fashion Avenue How Do I Look?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Clean House Clean House Clean House Comes Clean Mel B: It’s A Scary World Jerseylicious Ruby Giuliana & Bill Giuliana & Bill Giuliana & Bill Clean House Top 10 Top 10 Clean House Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

How Do I Look?

Ruby

03:45 05:30 07:00 08:50 10:20 11:50 13:50 16:00 17:45 19:40 22:00

Shaft Elvis On Tour 36 Hours Invitation To The Dance Lassie Come Home Love Me Or Leave Me Bite The Bullet The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad The Twenty-Fifth Hour Ice Station Zebra Lust For Life

Classifieds WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Personal Trainer Trrainerr

BBasics asics ooff basketball basketball dribbling dribbli It’s one of the It’s he basic bbas baasic sicc skills ssk ski killlss of kills of basketball, bbas baasske keetb ettba bal all, ll, and aanndd knowing kknnow winngg when w whheenn too dribble dribble an and ndd when w wh whe hen enn not nnoott too is as as important iim imp mppo por tan taanntt as as knowing kknnowing w ngg how win how too do d it.

HHead ead up, up, ffingers ingers sspread pread Use yyour our fingers – not yyour our much palm – to touch as m uch of the ball as possible possible

Keep K eep your your eeyes yes on your your teammates and yyour our opponents; opponents; control the ball balll by by feel, feel, not by by looking at it

Keep elbow K eep elb ow close to your your body

Unless you’re you’re changing changinng direction, directionn, touch the thhe ball exactly exaactly on its top toop each time tim me you you bounce it

Protect the ball bbyy dribbling dribbling it close to yyour our bod y, on the body, side aaway way from yyour our opponent

Dribble, pass or shoot?

You don’t need to dribble the ball every time you get it; doing so slows up your team and wastes your momentum Good reasons to dribble t Moving up the court, going onto the offensive

t Moving into position to shoot

t Escaping an opponent and getting in position to pass Source: ““DK Superguides: Basketball””

© 2010 MCT

Graphic: Paul Trap

ACCOMMODATION Accommodation available in Abbassiya, for family or bachelors with A/C, water, gas etc., KD 70. Please contact: 24336581/ 66790798/ 99307591. (C 3401) 31-5-2011 To-let, one semi furnished spacious room with attached mini room consisting of toilet, for decent couple or executive bachelors in a flat in Bneid AlGhar. Please call: 60046720 for detail and viewing.

(C 3398) Sharing accommodation available for decent Indian bachelors or small family with Mangalorean family two bedroom window A/C,

Bldg opposite Rashid Hospital, Shara Amman, Salmiya.

Contact: 55995437. (C 3399) 30-5-2011 Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya near United Indian School in a central A/C new building with double bedroom double bathroom, hall, kitchen flat with Keralite Christian family, preference for couples or working ladies.

Contact: 66273165.

(C 3397) 29-5-2011 A fully furnished two bedroom two bathroom central A/C flat available for two months (July-Aug) for families on visit, rent KD 205.

Contact: 67797042 or 66674242. (C 3389)

FOR SALE Wanted to buy a used BMW M5 2008 - 2010. Price depends on condition.

Contact: 60769681.

(C 3392) 1-6-2011 Volkswagon Passat, 2004 model 2L, 70,000 km running, olive green color, well maintained. Price KD 1,300/-. Contact: 66049186.

(C 3402) 31-5-2011 Expat family leaving: Household items for sale.

For items pics and price: http://www.tiny.cc/lpa36 or call: 66042205. (C 3400) 30-5-2011 Nissan Pathfinder 2003 model, black color, km 153,000, 4WD, CD, alloy

wheels, very good condition, interested please call 60435876, price KD 2,550.

(C 3391) Nissan Pathfiner 2004 model, 3.5 cc, white color, 6 cylinder, 4WD, excellent condition, km 125,000, price KD 2650, registration up to June 2012. Contact: 55602671.

(C 3390)

SITUATION VACANT Live -in housemaid required for an Indian family in Salwa, sponsorship can be arranged, call after 5pm 97205370/ 99786848.

(C 3396) A small Kuwaiti family is looking to hire a cook.

Requirements: Must be Christian and fluent in

English.

Call 99199020. (C 3395) 29-5-2011

MATRIMONIAL Marriage proposal invited for R.C boy working as heavy truck driver in Kuwait, age 32, height 5.3” planning to vacation on November, from qualified girls. Contact email: tobobinogeorge@gmail.com (C 3403) 31-5-2011

CHANGE OF NAME I, Mohammed Atik Ansari, holder Indian Passport No. G3927680 hereby change my name to Mohammed Salim Ansari. (C 3404) 1-6-2011

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 Wednesday 1/6/2011 Flt Route

Time

JZR THY ETH UAE DHX FDB GFA QTR JZR JZR FCX JZR KAC BAW BBC IRC KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA FCX MEA JZR IRM JZR RBG KAC MSR IRC UAL RJA FDB KAC SVA

267 772 620 853 370 67 211 138 529 503 201 555 412 157 45 6807 206 382 302 53 352 284 344 362 855 132 125 603 301 213 203 404 165 5066 561 3557 672 610 6791 982 640 57 802 500

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

BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA ASSIUT LUXOR DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MANILA / BANGKOK LONDON DHAKA SHIRAZ ISLAMABAD DELHI MUMBAI DUBAI COCHIN DHAKA CHENNAI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH SHIRAZ ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT DUBAI MASHAD SOHAG ALEXANDRIA DUBAI CAIRO MASHAD WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN DUBAI CAIRO JEDDAH

KNE CLX QTR KAC JZR KNE SYR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY KAC JZR JZR ALK KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC AIC JAI FDB JZR OMA VOS MEA DHX UAE GFA QTR UAL JZR JZR MSR DLH SAI AXB JZR KLM PIA

745 792 134 545 201 701 341 303 857 215 510 777 239 127 550 481 177 227 166 502 542 618 786 674 102 774 575 572 61 787 647 81 402 372 859 217 136 981 135 185 612 636 441 393 539 447 215

JEDDAH LUXEMBOURG DOHA ALEXANDRIA DAMASCUS RIYADH DAMASCUS ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH AMMAN SHARJAH SHARM EL SHEIKH / SOHAG SABIHA DUBAI COLOMBO / DUBAI PARIS / ROME BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH DUBAI NEW YORK / LONDON RIYADH CHENNAI / GOA MUMBAI DUBAI RIYADH MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT LAHORE / KARACHI KOZHIKODE / COCHIN CAIRO AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN KARACHI

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

Departur AXB DLH AIC PIA THY ETH UAE FDB DHX QTR JZR JZR GFA KAC VOS BBC IRC BAW KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY KAC QTR JZR ETD GFA JZR IRA FCX MEA JZR KAC JZR KAC KAC IRM KAC RBG JZR MSR

Depurture Flights on Wednesday 1/6/2011 Flt Route 390 KOZHIKODE 637 FRANKFURT 982 AHMEDABAD / CHENNAI 206 LAHORE 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 139 DOHA 560 SOHAG 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 801 CAIRO 94 DUBAI / KANDAHAR 46 DHAKA 6963 TEHRAN 156 LONDON 545 ALEXANDRIA 54 DUBAI 177 FRANKFURT / GENEVA 671 DUBAI 117 NEW YORK 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 549 SHARM EL SHEIKH / SOHAG 133 DOHA 480 SABIHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 602 SHIRAZ 204 DUBAI 405 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 541 CAIRO 238 AMMAN 103 LONDON 501 BEIRUT 5065 MASHAD 785 JEDDAH 3558 SOHAG / ALEXANDRIA 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO

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

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

IRC RJA FDB UAL KAC KNE KAC SVA KAC QTR CLX JZR JZR KNE SYR ETD UAE GFA ABY JZR JZR SVA JZR JZR ALK KAC KAC JAI FDB KAC KAC OMA MEA DHX UAE GFA KAC FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR UAL MSR KAC SAI

6792 641 58 982 673 746 617 503 773 135 792 786 538 704 342 304 858 216 128 184 266 511 204 134 228 283 361 571 62 331 351 648 403 373 860 218 381 102 137 301 205 502 554 981 613 415 442

MASHAD AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI JEDDAH DOHA MEDINAH / JEDDAH RIYADH DOHA HONG KONG RIYADH CAIRO MEDINAH DAMASCUS ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI BEIRUT RIYADH DAMASCUS BAHRAIN DUBAI / COLOMBO DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DELHI BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA LAHORE

14:25 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:10 15:30 15:35 15:45 16:05 16:15 16:20 16:35 16:40 16:45 17:30 17:35 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:55 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 22:00 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:10 23:40 23:50 23:50 23:59

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 335

CALVIN & HOBBES

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) There could be difficulties to work through today. It is important during this time to effectively communicate your ideas to others, especially those who are ultra sensitive. Be aware and avoid impulsive decisions. A rash decision may prove unfortunate. Also, you may have trouble concentrating. By this afternoon those confusing energies will be gone. There is a massive social change going on in your community and much of it is very positive. You may find a whole new set of friends coming across your path and you may also gain a new interest in a different sort of entertainment than you are used to now. Money causes change and some of your new friends may encourage you in those changes. A new friend will lead you in a positive direction tonight.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. A Loloish language.

5. United States newspaper publisher (1858-1935).

9. A Loloish language.

13. A theocratic republic in the Middle East in western Asia.

14. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

15. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria.

16. Made from residue of grapes or apples after pressing.

17. Divulge information or secrets.

18. Failing to detonate.

19. Of people.

22. 16 ounces.

24. United States parapsychologist (1895-1980).

26. Russian Soviet leader.

30. A tight-fitting headdress.

31. A state in north central United States.

36. Small space in a tissue or part such as the area between veins on a leaf or an insect's wing.

38. Before noon.

39. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

40. The amount that many barrels might hold.

43. A representation of common ground between theories or phenomena.

49. The act of scanning.

52. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

53. One-thousandth of an equivalent.

54. A city in east central Texas.

57. American prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942).

60. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

61. An authoritative direction or instruction to do something.

62. A genus of Platalea.

63. A small cake leavened with yeast.

DOWN 1. Capital and largest city and economic center of Peru.

2. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

3. Not easy.

4. Move out of a curled position.

5. A Russian river.

6. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

7. A city in the Saxony region of Germany on the Saale River.

8. Block consisting of a thick piece of something.

9. The azimuth of a celestial body is the angle between the vertical plane containing it and the plane of the meridian.

10. A family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia.

11. A frequently visited place.

12. Type genus of the Ardeidae.

20. The third month of the civil year.

21. English translator and Protestant martyr.

23. Panel forming the lower part of an interior wall when it is finished differently from the rest.

25. British dominion over India (1757-1947).

27. A village in eastern Ireland (northwest of Dublin).

28. Someone who copies the words or behavior of another.

29. A rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion.

32. Informal terms for a mother.

33. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali metal group.

34. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

35. A public promotion of some product or service.

37. A university town in east central Maine on the Penobscot River north of Bangor.

41. A historical region in central and northern Yugoslavia.

42. Any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all.

44. An island of central Hawaii.

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

46. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

47. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

48. Jordan's port.

50. City in southwestern Colombia in a rich agricultural area.

51. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

52. The address of a web page on the world wide web.

55. A pilgrimage to Mecca.

56. A light touch or stroke.

58. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

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

Yesterday’s Solution

You are riding a high now in terms of taking advantage of the cycles in your life. Good things are happening all around. This is the beginning of a series of years during which you should begin to consolidate and tie down the advances you have made in recent years. It may be best to begin to dig in and strengthen your current position rather than expand outward too much. Social and community endeavors may hold your attention this afternoon—there is more to come. You are interested, as many of us, in making the world a better place. Pick one subject and make it your job to create a public awareness campaign. Work on this the rest of the year and little by little you will see great progress. You will enjoy relaxing to music this evening.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You and everyone you know seem to be in a good mood today and a sense of humor is not far behind. Some technical method or style of working may come to your attention that keeps you thinking about continued education. You may decide to check out the agenda at one of the community colleges in your area. You may be pleased at who is teaching these days. You may be called upon to teach or help others take a more independent approach to their life at this time. Your confidence is high and you can accomplish anything that is before you. This time in your life can have a profound effect on your psyche and may mark a time when your faith in a higher power, as well as other people, will be most meaningful. Deep powers are being awakened.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

This is a time for serious thinking. A practical mind takes on a special importance at this time. Taking care of the necessary underpinnings of life—health, work and such, becomes a greater preoccupation. School and studies of all kinds could be in order. This is a time for perspiration in the idea department. Perhaps a little more education will get you the job that will allow you more freedom, travel or power. This may be a time during which you can get ahead by finding your limits and establishing some criteria that will enable you to move forward with your goals. Everything conspires to reveal you at your most elegant, particularly in social situations this afternoon. Romance is very possible this evening. A candlelight dinner is in order.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

ZITS

There is new energy available for professional endeavors today. This is a time of good fortune when things open up in a very natural way. New people in your life and new circumstances make it very easy to see which path is the path for you. Opportunities flourish and you may find yourself wanting and able to do almost everything. You may be teaching young people today. You are not so egotistical as to believe that we should get away from the natural way of living our lives. You encourage young people to learn the old ways of navigation and communication so that they will never be without the ability to contact others or to find safety when they are lost at sea or land. You teach proper health practices and etiquette.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Things may seem magical in the way they work out today. This is a great time to organize and get things accomplished. You have a greater appreciation for things of value. This could be a period of great material gain; it is certainly a time when material things have a great deal of importance. Your thoughts and goals are very clear at this time. Upcoming events need planning so that the cost is kept down. Unforeseen expenses could be hard to find. You may have to be firm with a family member who seems to think that money grows on trees! This evening there is some energy present that will help you to heal, or to just feel better.

This could mean less pollen or not as hot a day, etc. Look backwards over your day— review.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

An emotionally charged drama will be experienced in the realm of law, politics, education, travel or religion. You could be most persuasive with others and may add a great deal of calming energies to an intense debate or disagreement. The situation is a natural for self-expression and lends itself to your particular ideas and thoughts. You will enjoy the company of your loved one(s) this afternoon. Keep your positive attitude. You are feeling reflective and enjoy being with family members. Tonight when the subject of dinner comes around you may decide to cook a special dinner for everyone. If there are young people present, they could be in charge of some special side dish. This is a good opportunity to teach and to listen or to visit.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You can work effectively behind the scenes where distractions are minimal. Circumstances may require the use of your knowledge and persuasive communication skills. This could offer you your best opportunity to exercise your own personal power. Concentrate on ways in which to bring about a balance between your responsibilities and your opportunities for relaxation. With your resourcefulness, today’s obstacles can be converted into opportunities. There will be increased opportunities to reach out to others through a social function this evening. Networking is an excellent way to get your ideas across to others and find avenues of success. This could be a time when anything is possible. Take a hint from a person you admire.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Communication skills are in demand today as you may be requested to speak for the company or deal with the public. Your co-worker friends may become very close to you, almost like family. It is almost like an ongoing soap opera to hear about the next activity or event in your friend’s life. Your emotions and the feelings of those around you may be very clear today. Gossip is easy to find, but you will encourage respect and refuse the gossip—thereby gaining appreciation from all. Many insights can be gleaned this afternoon from conversations regarding hypothetical situations. Don’t be afraid to speak up when you see a situation that could bring about better business. A true maturity can be reached when you leave doubts about your abilities.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Your directional abilities are in high focus today. Others may slow you down from time to time by pulling you into conversations, but your mind is on whatever project you have set up for yourself. This could mean you are working but it could just as easily mean you are working in your garage or your garden. You and your loved one may decide to take up a new hobby or attend a class together—perhaps learning about herbs or drying flowers. Whatever the case, it will be something fun and decidedly different from your normal interests. There is a deepening of your love relationship this evening and you feel like having some special time alone with a special loved one. It is likely that more money will be coming your way soon.

Yesterday’s Solution Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You may find that people are so busy today you won’t be able to finish a sentence. Others may challenge your authority or the direction you are taking. Events could make it difficult for you to act. Your ideas may not find the support you need. This is a good time to back off and get a view of the day from a different perspective. Perhaps a break or an early lunch will provide the perfect opportunity to unwind and gain a focus. This afternoon points to your taking the initiative. Your special qualifications and your creativity are more likely to put you ahead of the pack, at work or home. You will receive the boost from your friends this afternoon. You could be looking forward to some form of sports or exercise with friends.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

An irresistible force meets an immovable object. Be wise with your time and your involvement with a subject of conversation in which you may not know as much as you think. There is a lot of energy available for positive progress, but push too hard and you could break something. Others may challenge you in some way but you will have your own special way to dissipate any problems.

You add your own special qualities to any job you undertake. After the noon meal, you may be more able to relate to others with clearer meaning. By learning to set and stay with your goals you can avoid conflict. Radiate your most positive energies this afternoon. General good feeling and a sense of support make this a good day.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

STATE ST TATE T OF KUW K KUWAIT WA AIT

Tel.: T el.: 161 e

DIRECTORA DIRECTORATE AT TE GENE GENERAL ERAL OF CIVIL A AVIATION V VIA AT TION METEOROLOGICAL DEP D DEPARTMENT PA ARTMENT

112

DA AY: Y T DAY: Tuesday uesday

Ext.: 2627 262 27 - 2630

Fax: 24348714 WWW .MET.GOV V..KW W WWW.MET.GOV.KW

31/05/2011 31/05/201 1

Ministry of Interior

07:00

Time Issue Time

Expected Weather Weather for the Next 24 4 Hours Hot wi with ith light to moderate north westerly w becoming north east easterly terly wind, with speed of 12 - 35 km/h and some high h clouds will appear

BY Y DA DAY: AY:

website: www.moi.gov.kw

Relatively moderate Relativ vely hot with light variable wind w changing to light to mo oderate north westerly later on o wind, with speed of o 06 - 28 km/h

NIGHT:: BY Y NIGHT

For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

No Current Warnings Warnin a gs

WARNING W A ARNING STATION ST TATION T

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

24812000

MAX. EXP EXP. P.

MIN.. REC.

KUW WA AIT CITY KUWAIT

42 °C

34 °C

KUW WA AIT AIRPORT AIRPOR RT KUWAIT

46 °C

27 °C

44 °C C

28 °C C

Amiri Hospital

22450005

NUW WA AISEEB NUWAISEEB

Maternity Hospital

24843100

WAFRA A WAFRA

47 °C

26 °C

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

SALMI

46 °C

30 °C

Chest Hospital

24849400

ABDAL LY ABDALY

48 °C

29 °C

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

ALIY YA AH JAL ALIYAH

47 °C

30 °C

Adan Hospital

23940620

FAILAKA A FAILAKA

42 °C

28 °C

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

POR RT AHMADI PORT

35 °C

33 °C

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

M UMM AL-MARADEM

35 °C

30 °C

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

WARBA A A - BUBYAN BUBY YA AN WARBA

40 °C

28 °C

Clinics

SFC. CHAR CHART T

31/05/201 1 0000 UTC 31/05/2011

4732263

Roudha

22517733

DAY DA AY

DATE DA AT TE

Adhaliya

22517144

Weednesday Wednesday

01/06

Khaldiya

24848075

Thursday

02/06

Keifan

24849807

Friday

03/06

Shamiya

24848913

Saturday

04/06

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

Temperatures Temperratures WEA WEATHER AT THER

Wind Wind Speed

MAX.

MIN.

Wind Wind Direction Direction

hot

47 °C

29 °C

NW-NE NW-NE

15 - 38 km/h

ust hot + raising du dust

46 °C

31 °C

NW

15 - 40 km/h

ust hot + raising du dust

45 °C

28 °C

NW -N NW-N

20 - 40 km/h

ust hot + raising du dust

44 °C

27 °C

NW

22 - 42 km/h

PRAYER PR RA AY YER TIMES

RECORDED D YESTERDAY YESTERDA AY AT AT KUW KUWAIT WA AIT T AIRPORT AIRPORT

Fajr

03:16

MAX. MA AX. Temp.

Temp.

45 °C

22526804

Sunrise S i

04 49 04:49

MIN. Temp.

MI IN T IN. emp.

25 °C

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Zuhr

11:46 11:46

MAX. RH M

30 %

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Asr

15:20

MIN. RH M

05 %

Dasmah

22532265

Sunset

18:42

MAX. Wind MA AX. W ind

Isha

20:13

TOTAL RAINFALL T OT TA AL L RAI INF FA ALL L IN 24 HR.

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Al-Jahra

25610011

Al-Salmiya

25616368

POLICE STATION

4 DA DAYS AY YS FORECAST

Rabiya

Al-Madena

un nless otherwise stated.

All times are local time unless

Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry

SE E 28 km/h

about the Civil ID card is 1889988

00 mm

31/05/11 02:50 UTC 31/05/11

V1.00

T1.06

PHARMACIES

AIRLINES

ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Kuwait Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways FlyDubai Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines Aeroflot

22433377 177 22924455 22414400 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 22958787 22453820/1 22404838/9

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist 25340300

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581 22641071/2

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Salem soso

22618787

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Neurologists

Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Mousa Khadada

22666300

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists

25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291 22666288

Rheumatologists:

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

Dentists

Internists, Chest & Heart

25339330

25655535

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

General Surgeons

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677

Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345

Central African Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia

00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689

y

A

36

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

lifest yle G o s s i p

he 25-year-old singer maintains a toned physique with workouts five days a week and eating “clean” foods such as lean protein fruit and vegetables, but insists she does so to stay in shape, rather than get any slimmer. She said: “I can lose weight easily and I don’t like to do that. “I’m not trying to lose and get small. I just want to keep shape and I just want to focus on abs and

T

py with her body and says she feels most comfortable when she is nude. She said: “I feel the sexiest when I’m by myself, walking around nude. I have this new obsession with nudity, it’s really weird. It may sound weird, but I just really love embracing the body.”

glutes.” The ‘Love Sex Magic’ hitmaker also admits she is happy to indulge in her cravings for her favorite calorific treats as she doesn’t think it is necessary to be too strict with her diet. She told US magazine: “You have to throw in a cheeseburger and French fries or a brownie and ice cream sometimes. I would never advise somebody to be so strict to where you don’t enjoy yourself.” Ciara is hap-

Moss hires Testino for wedding pictures ate Moss has hired Mario Testino to be her official wedding photographer. The 37-year-old supermodel is set to tie the knot with Kills rocker Jamie Hince on July 2 and has asked the acclaimed fashion photographer - who she has worked with for almost 20 years, most recently for a near-naked photoshoot for Brazil’s Vogue magazine - to take pictures at the ceremony and reception. Mario - who took the official engagement portraits of Prince William and his nowwife Princess Catherine - told iPad newspaper The Daily he wants to “capture the happiness that Kate is going through at the moment.” Among the moments the photographer could be capturing at the wedding reception is a spectacular performance from legendary singer Dame Shirley Bassey after Kate asked her friend if she would provide the entertainment for guests at the

K

reception. A source said recently: “Kate wanted highend glamour and good old-fashioned entertainment, and Dame Shirley was the perfect choice. She agreed to play the gig immediately and Kate can’t wait for the big day. It will be a real highlight.” It was recently claimed that Kate - who has an eight-year-old daughter, Lila Grace, with ex-boyfriend Jefferson Hack - is planning to turn her wedding into a “small festival”, with the celebrations set to continue for several days. A source said: “Kate wants it to be a party to remember and like a small festival. “She doesn’t want her guests to leave for days so she’s making sure there is plenty of food and entertainment. It’s a no-expense spared do - thought most of her budget will probably go on alcohol.”

Osbourne’s new workout K elly Osbourne is trying a new workout routine. The 26-year-old beauty - who shed weight after breaking up with British model Luke Worrall last year - is now trying to keep the pounds off by trying out a new way of burning fat. She tweeted: “just did a 1000 calorie workout i don’t think i have ever sweat this much in my life!(sic)” Despite working hard to keep a trim physique, Kelly recently revealed she would hate to look perfect because of the pressure involved. She said: “There’s such a desire for being perfect in Hollywood and I’ll

he 27-year-old singer - who has a history of drug and alcohol abuse - checked in to London’s The Priory clinic last week and has reportedly been warned by doctors that she won’t have long to live if she doesn’t dramatically change her lifestyle. A source said: “It’s the last chance saloon for Amy. Doctors have come down hard on her because of the severity of her situation. It’s a harsh reality but she had to hear it.” Amy’s father Mitch Winehouse and boyfriend Reg Traviss were by her side as she received the daunting news, but insiders insist the singer took the decision to check into rehab herself. The source added to The Sun newspaper: “They are worried about her. Mitch has been down this road before during Amy’s drug addiction. But she is there of her own accord this time and wants to sort herself out.” The ‘Back to Black’ hitmaker is no stranger to rehab, undergoing stints in the same clinic between 2007 and 2009 to help her addictions to Class A drugs. As she made her way to the facility last week, she was reportedly seen purchasing a small bottle of vodka and drinking it before she checked herself in. An onlooker said: “She seemed out of it. She was stumbling about, slurring her words. “I was shocked to see her buy vodka so early in the day, and even more shocked to see her knock it straight back.”

T

imon Cowell feels like he has “lost a lover” after falling out with Cheryl Cole. The 51-year-old music mogul who is thought to be upset at having to let her go from the US version of ‘The X Factor’ and replace her with Nicole Scherzinger - is worried about their relationship and thinks the pair may never talk again. A source said: “He was saying, ‘She’s had it with me. I’ve hurt her and she won’t forgive me for this.’ “He is really worried that she won’t speak to him ever again. Simon feels guilty as hell about

S

Kardashian’s fertility fears hloe Kardashian is “freaking out” because she is still not expecting a baby. The 26-year-old star - who is married to basketball star Lamar Odom - has been trying to conceive since soon after they tied the knot in September 2009 and is now worried she has fertility problems that are preventing her from getting pregnant naturally. In scenes from her reality show ‘Khloe and Lamar’, she told her spouse: “I’m sorry for snapping at you and being on edge lately but I’ve been holding a lot of stuff in and trying not to bother you, but I’ve been freaking out about why I’m not pregnant. “It’s scary [thinking], ‘Oh God, what if I physically can’t have kids.’ “ The brunette beauty expressed her concerns after her latest a round of fertility

K

ris Smith’s mother hopes he can save his relationship with Dannii Minogue. The couple - who have a 10-month-old son Ethan together are reportedly attempting to save their three-year romance for the sake of their baby, and are “desperate” to sort out their problems, with the former model flying out to Melbourne, Australia, for crisis talks with the singer. Kris’ mum Elsie told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “I hope it’s just a trial split. I know they will do everything to save their relationship for the sake of their son.

“Ethan will be foremost in their minds while they’re going through this - he has to be hasn’t he? That baby means the world to them both. This has come as a total surprise. I’m just gobsmacked.” However, Dannii and Kris - who met

K

never understand it. You don’t need to be perfect. I would never, ever want to be the prettiest girl in the room. It’s so much pressure and people never, ever stop to think, ‘Is there more to her than that?’ You’re just a pretty girl and that’s it.” “Coming to terms with the fact that you’re not perfect and it’s OK is comforting. I can’t change who I am. People are always like, ‘No matter how much weight you lose, you’re always going to have a fat face and a big jaw.’ And you’re like, ‘Well, I can’t actually change that, so thanks.’ “

tests, but 31-year-old Lamar - who has kids Destiny, 12, and eight-year-old son Lamar Jr. from a previous relationship - was a lot calmer about the situation. He said: “It’ll work out. If something is wrong, that doesn’t affect anything [we’re] going to do [as a couple].” Despite her comments, Khloe recently insisted she wasn’t worried about not being pregnant yet as she is content to leave her life to fate.

She said: “I’m not desperate to have a baby. Do I want children?

Yes. But I’m very happy being just Lamar and I. “I think a baby would add so much to us, but right now, I’m so content and so happy with the way things are.

People think I would sell my hair to have a child.”

on holiday in Ibiza in August 2008 - have claimed despite rumors circulating that they have called time on their relationship, they are both “committed” to one another. In a statement, the couple said: “Thanks for your concern. We’re happy to be back at home in Melbourne together as a family. We are committed to our relationship and Ethan.” However, 39-year-old Dannii has hinted about the strains in their relationship on twitter. She tweeted: “Never chase love. If it isn’t given freely by another person, it’s not worth having. “Forgiving someone does not mean forgetting what they did. It simply means letting go of the hurt.”— Bang Showbiz

what has happened to Cheryl, he has admitted it was a cock-up but she won’t hear him out. “They used to be so close. She’d text him round the clock for advice. Now she can’t bring herself to speak to him. He feels like he’s lost a lover.” Simon made his first public appearance since her leaving the US show on the semi-final of UK TV show ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ but Cheryl - who has worked closely with the music mogul since joining the UK version of ‘The X Factor’ in 2008 - reportedly did not watch and instead searched for holidays on the internet. Another source told The Sun newspaper: “Cheryl had no intention of watching Simon’s big night. It was the last thing she would be interested in. “She still feels badly let down and seeing his face will make her more upset. Cheryl spent most of the evening checking out possible holiday destinations. She can’t wait to get as far away as possible from all this attention as possible and was eyeing up destinations in the middle of nowhere.”

y

A

37

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

lifestyle Music & Movies

Romanian ‘sound’ takes over dance music scene ike dancing and looking for new club music? Move over London and Ibiza, it’s time to check out ....

Romania. Artists from this eastern European state have inched their way onto the international scene to beat out Lady Gaga for a big US dance song award, score millions of views on YouTube and sell hundreds of thousands of singles. Among the best known are Edward Maya and Inna, now worldwide dance floor stars-and the pride and joy of this former communist country stuck in an economic crisis and still fighting a reputation abroad as corrupt and poor.

“Romanian dance music is very successful around the world at the moment with big hits in Europe and the US,” Eelko van Kooten, director of one of the major dance labels, Dutch-based Spinnin’Records, told AFP. In May, the 24year-old Maya-real name Eduard Marian Ilie-won the American Billboard Award for “top dance song” of the year for “Stereo Love”, no small feat for an artist who only caught the public’s eye in 2009 and was competing in a line-up that included megastar Lady Gaga.

The dark-eyed performer sports his trendy stubble as easily as his accordion, more folk than house music instrument but one he readily uses for a new mix that caught attention. Since the 2009 release of “Stereo Love”, the Bucharestborn composer has won gold and platinum albums from Canada to Spain and toured clubs as far away as India and Pakistan. Maya’s compatriot Inna-real name Alexandra Apostoleanu-made her own quick rise to the top and can boast sales of nearly two million singles worldwide, notably in the United States and Britain. The 24-year-old brunette has had more than 100 million views on YouTube for her hits like “Amazing”, “Sun is Up” or “Hot” and more than two million fans on Facebook from Australia to South America.

“I would never have imagined such a success!” she told AFP after shooting a videoclip in a Bucharest factory. “I now see other Romanian dance artists in concerts around the world.” For Inna, a “special vibration” unites the new generation of dance music artists in Romania. All in their twenties, they grew up after the fall of communism and “really want to make party music, something that gets people

L

Romanian dance music star INNA is pictured during the shooting of a new videoclip.

Bollywood sequels: A recipe for success? glut of Bollywood sequels are due out in the coming months, prompting questions about whether the industry has run out of ideas or is just milking a successful formula in troubled times. More than a dozen follow-ups are in the pipeline, including “Bheja Fry 2” (Brain Fry), a second “Dabangg” (Fearless), a third in the “Dhoom” franchise and another installment of the “Golmaal” series.

Shah Rukh Khan is also getting in on the act, with a sequel due out by the end of the year of his hit “Don”. The action film, in which the actor reportedly does his own stunts, is currently in post-production.

Bollywood studios are increasingly desperate for a money-spinner, with box office takings in the Indian film industry as a whole down for the last two years and the lack of original, quality script-writing a common complaint. But “Bheja Fry 2” director Sagar Ballary rejected the notion that follow-ups are an easy option-and said success was not guaranteed. “I didn’t rush to make the sequel immediately after the first film came out in 2007. We waited for the right script to make this part two,” he said. “Every film stands on its own. Whether it’s a sequel or not, the film has to be good to work.”

“Bheja Fry,”, starring comedian Vinay Pathak, is based on the popular 1998 French comedy “Le Diner de Cons” (The Dinner Game), which was also made into a Hollywood movie, “Dinner for Schmucks”.

Follow-ups are an established part of Hollywood. Some films, like those in the “Godfather” trilogy, are arguably better than the original.

Others, like the Star Wars prequels, fail to find favor with fans or critics.

Bollywood, which is increasingly following Hollywood trends in filmmaking and marketing, has not been averse to sequels in the past. Notable franchises include the crime comedy “Munnabhai” series, starring Sanjay Dutt. The “Golmaal” series, which came out in 2006, 2008 and 2010, were all popular. Director Rohit Shetty will be hoping the fourth, starring Kareena Kapoor and Ajay Devgn, will be just as successful and has no qualms about doing another followup.”If I have created a brand, why should I be apologetic about making money on it? You reap what you sow, right?” Shetty was quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times newspaper recently. The “Dhoom” series has equally been a box office winner throughout the last decade.

Bollywood producer Arbaaz Khan, who will direct “Dabangg 2”, said the film was at the scripting stage and hopes that it will live up to audiences’ expectations.”Dabangg”, a corrupt cop romp starring Salman Khan, was one of the few hits last year, winning a host of awards including Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at last week’s National Film Awards. Arbaaz Khan said a sequel is justified given the film’s following.”It was the biggest mass entertaining film of the last year that did extremely well at the box office. So, the sequel, too, will hopefully work like the first one,” he said.

For all their insistence on artistic integrity, Khan, Ballary and other filmmakers admit that financial factors are important. With the “brand” already known, less has to be spent on marketing and success is more likely, the argument goes. “Producers are demanding because for them it’s good business,” said Ballary. “They know sequels will surely recover the cost of the box office because of the success of part one and there’s not much to lose.” There are many scripts and good story ideas in the market but producers don’t want to risk new ideas and they feel it’s safe to work with a sequel because audiences like it.”Khan added: “The pressure to deliver a hit is bigger because people will surely have greater expectations.” — AFP

A

This December 7, 2009 file photo shows Bollywood film actor Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani, Arshad Warsi, film director Rajkumar Hirani and film actress Vidya Balan pose during the launch of a book based on the characters from the film ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ by Om Books International in collaboration with Vidhu Vinod Chopra Films in Mumbai. — AFP

on the dance floor,” she said.

But what explains their international success? Some say it’s the “glamour”, videoclips that show the leggy Inna, Alexandra Stan and other Romanian artists in breathtaking seaside settings with dancers straight out of glossy fashion magazines. But this is nothing new in pop music. Industry figures, instead, point to a basement studio in a house in a leafy residential district of the capital.

There, a determined 20-something trio called Play & Win mix sound for hours on end in a room with a piano, a large table and some powerful computers.

The three, Radu Bolfea, Marcel Botezan and Sebastian Barac, all born in the mountains of Transylvania, are credited with creating a “Romanian” sound that has turned out some of the country’s biggest dance music hits, by Inna and others. “Club music did not really have melody so we tried to introduce more melodic lines in it,” they said modestly.

For Terry, the artistic director-who goes by one name-at the famous Loft Metropolis club near Paris where Inna and Alexandra Stan have played live,

the Romanians have come up with a sound that’s “very efficient and dedicated to the dance floor”, even if it’s “nothing extraordinary”. Spinnin’Records’ Van Kooten calls it friendly. “Romanian dance music has its own sound: simple melodies, catching course lines,” he said.

“It’s easy to sing along and very radio friendly with a midtempo.” At the moment “it’s the trend,” he added. “But like fashion, trends go fast.”

Play & Win also site Internet’s role in promoting Romanian dance music. “It’s a real test because people truly say what they think about your music, and you can get worldwide,” they said. Neither they nor singers or managers were keen to talk about how much they make from dance music. “We can live well from what we do,” Play & Win said. But they don’t hide their delight at success. “Yes, sometimes we are proud that from here, a country sometimes described as Third World, we are trend setters in Europe and in the US”, Play & Win said. — AFP

Romanian dance music star INNA plays during her very first concert in Bucharest.

— AFP photos

Snooki in Italy car crash N icole “Snooki” Polizzi and a fellow “Jersey Shore” cast member have been involved in a minor traffic accident in Italy. The popular MTV reality show is filming its fourth season in Florence. The network said in a statement late Monday that two cast members were involved in a crash. The statement said no alcohol was involved and no one was arrested. It provided no further details.

Phone messages left for Snooki’s manager, Scott Talarico, were not immediately returned Monday night. SallyAnn Salsano, executive producer at “Jersey Shore” production company 495, tells The Star-Ledger newspaper that the incident was “just a minor fender bender.”

She says the show is still filming.

Photos posted on celebrity gossip website TMZ.com show Polizzi and co-star Deena Nicole Cortese, apparently uninjured, sitting on the sidewalk after the crash. The show’s first and third season were set in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The second season sent the cast to Miami.-AP

forgotten short film featuring footage of comic legend Charlie Chaplin is expected to fetch over 100,000 pounds ($165,000) when it goes under the hammer next month, auctioneers Bonhams said on yesterday. “Charlie Chaplin in ‘Zepped,”“ believed to be a propaganda film made in Britain during World War One, was discovered inside a battered old film reel tin which collector Morace Park bought for 3.20 pounds on the online auction site eBay. According to the auctioneer, the seven-minute film which shows Chaplin taking on a German Zeppelin aircraft, features some of the earliest animation in cinema history. “At first I had no idea what I had,” Park said. “I visited film experts in Europe and the USA and ... one comment was common: none of them had ever seen this type of film before.”

Chaplin probably never knew of the movie’s

A

Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions performs on stage during their ‘Get your Sting and Blackout World Tour 2010 / 2011’ in Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday. — AP

Reality television star Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi participates in a Wrestlemania XXVII news conference at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York (file). — AP

existence, said film critic and Chaplin biographer David Robinson. He said the anonymous maker had put together out-takes from three earlier Chaplin pictures-”His New Profession” (1914), “A Jitney Elopement” (1915) and “The Tramp” (1915) — and included sequences of stop-motion animation and other effects.

Park came across an advertisement for a trade screening of the film in the publication Manchester Film Renter and discovered that it was probably sent to Egypt on a morale-boosting mission to British troops stationed there. German Zeppelin airships attacked Britain during World War One, and Bonhams said “Zepped” was probably designed to defuse the unease caused by the raids.

The film was never widely distributed, however, possibly reflecting the sensitivity of the attacks at the time of its release in 1916. Bonhams said it

was the earliest film known to combine real action sequences with animation, and it is expected to fetch a “significant six-figure sum” when it is offered at an entertainment memorabilia sale in London on June 29.

“The fact that this fragile and flammable nitrate film has survived from 1916, features the most iconic film star of the period and has never previously been seen by the wider public, is incredible,” said Bonhams specialist Stephanie Connell. “It will no doubt become a significant contribution to the history of early film.” Although Chaplin played no part in the production of “Zepped,” he famously satirised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the 1940 movie “The Great Dictator.”— Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

lifestyle

Travel

LEWISBURG, W Va: Peering in the windows of the Old Hardware Gallery, I can tell it is no ordinary screws-andtools hardware store. There’s handmade jewelry, West Virginia’s own Blenko glassware, and Fiesta ceramic dinnerware. But the store is closed around 2:30 on this gray Tuesday afternoon in February. “It’s on West Virginia time,” a voice behind me says with a chuckle.

Clutching a cup of coffee, Tina Owens easily introduces herself as “born and raised” in this six-block town of 3,830.

The 60-year-old hair stylist then rattles off a dozen or so of her must-visit spots, including the Bakery with its jalapeno bagels, the new Bella Casa Italian restaurant past the Visitor Center, the Studio Gallery, and the iconic Carnegie Hall. In just five minutes with Tina, I could see why this place 250 miles southwest of Washington had just been voted America’s Coolest Small Town.

“We love it here,” Tina says proudly. “There’s a lot of fun things to do, a lot of music. “I’m always asked, ‘What do you do here?’ I say: ‘Anything you want.’” I ask how such a small, rural town could win such a contest in Budget Travel magazine, and Tina chuckles again. “We had a campaign,” she says. “You could go online and vote something like once every few hours.” Down Washington Street, the main thoroughfare lined with shops, eateries, galleries and offices, there’s a sign for the contest, with the just-added message: “We did it. Congratulations!”

Not that Lewisburg is unaccustomed to the limelight.

Mrs America 2010 Shelley Carbone was just here a few days ago, and actress Jennifer Garner stops by with her actor husband Ben Affleck when she visits her nearby hometown of Charleston.

Instead of heading to City Hall in the handsome 1897 Greenbrier Valley Bank Building to ask the mayor about Lewisburg’s lofty ranking, I follow one of Tina’s tips and round the corner to the Bakery on Court Street. There are bagels, biscotti, brownies, and breads on one side of the cozy shop, salads and made-to-order sandwiches on the other.

A few locals are chatting among themselves and with the staff. This obviously is a place to gauge the town’s take on the news of the day, but my wife, Valerie, and I don’t want to interrupt-we want to explore. Street namesWashington, Jefferson, Lafayette-hint at the history of this town that traces its roots to a 1750s outpost during the French and Indian War. It is named for the pioneer Lewis family - Col Andrew Lewis’ militia defeated Chief Cornstalk and the Shawnee in 1774. But it’s the Battle of Lewisburg in 1862, when Union troops defeated a Southern force in the predominantly Confederate town, that is reenacted each year.

As we stroll along Washington and its side streets, Valerie blurts out, “Newtown got robbed,” referring to our quaint Bucks County, Pa, borough, which placed seventh in Budget Travel’s poll. But I’m not so sure, as we come across the Greenbrier Valley Baking Co. Any town with two bakeries rates high with me. Lewisburg won the poll with 139,118 votes. This is the magazine’s sixth annual contest, but only the second year for readers to decide the Top 10 towns after editors narrow the field to 20.

How do they define “Coolest Small Town?”

It must have a population less than 10,000, and it’s “got to be on the upswing, a place that’s beginning to draw attention-and new residents-because of the quality of life, arts and restaurant scene, or proximity to nature,” according to the website. “And cool doesn’t mean quaint. We want towns with an edge, so think avant-garde galleries, not country stores.” The Old Hardware Gallery definitely fits the bill, and there are a handful more in the downtown National Register Historic District. At least seven buildings date to the late 1700s, and dozens more were built throughout the 1800s. But this is no staid and stuffy town living off its past.

Artists and craftspeople energize the community with an eclectic mix of performance theaters and music venues, art and fine craft galleries. The Greek-Revival Carnegie Hall, built in 1902, offers plays, comedy acts, dance performances, and concerts from bluegrass to the Vienna

Each of the General Lewis Inn’s 25 guestrooms have hardwood floors and are furnished with antiques, such as this double bed.

Boys Choir, jazz to the state symphony orchestra. It also has three art galleries and pottery, art, dance, and weaving studios. The Greenbrier Valley Theater has evolved from putting on performances in a tent and “The Barn” to its modern Actors Equity house in a refurbished department store.

Even the one-screen movie theater hosts an occasional live show. The creative thread also binds the locally owned storefronts-no sign of chain stores here. Who needs Starbucks when the Wild Bean serves up espresso, coffee, smoothies, and veggie dishes, plus an occasional band

P

The General Lewis Inn dates to 1834, though most of its 25 guestrooms are in the 1929 addition. — MCT photos

performance? There’s Tuckwiller Gallery, with paintings and prints of area landscapes, and Cooper Gallery, mixing traditional and contemporary photography, sculpture, paintings and ceramics.

One of Tina’s picks, Studio 40, has contemporary furniture and crafts to decorate the house, plus fine and fun jewelry and clothes. Fun is the key word. Each gallery, boutique, and shop has a relaxed and unpretentious feel.

Browse the metal wall hangings and wood and glass creations at Harmony Ridge Gallery, then sink into a couch with a cup of coffee or glass of wine and a treat from the “lite nibbles” menu. At the Greenbrier County Visitors Center, the list of events and activities include First Fridays After Five, a Farmers Market on Saturdays from May through October, and annual Chocolate and Taste of Our Towns festivals. We pick through racks of pamphlets for everything the town and surrounding county has to offer, from a walking tour of the historic district to the 78-mile biking trail along the Greenbrier River, from antique shops to restaurants for all tastes and budgets.

Tina recommends the Stardust Cafe, and there are several other eateries that also entice us-enough that it seems the entire town could dine out. Unfortunately, we’re still full from a big breakfast, so we walk it off by heading over to the Old Stone Presbyterian Church, one of the oldest buildings in town, dating to 1796. It was one of several buildings used as temporary hospitals after the Battle of Lewisburg, with the wounded from both sides often housed together.

The church cemetery has graves of the town’s pioneers.

The 95 Confederate soldiers killed in the Battle of Lewisburg were buried here but later moved to the Confederate Cemetery a quarter-mile away. The Union dead were buried outside town and later moved to the National Cemetery in Staunton, Va. On the other side of town, we peek into the General Lewis Inn, as much a museum as a hotel and restaurant.

Out front under a portico stands a brougham carriage used in the late 1800s to shuttle guests from railroad stations to the area’s mineral-spring spa resorts. Inside, the front desk dates to 1760. Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry once stood at this walnut and pine desk when they registered in the Sweet Chalybeate Springs Hotel in Virginia, according to a pamphlet about the inn. And in Memory Hall, pioneers’ tools, guns, utensils, and musical instruments fill the walls. “Feel free to look in any rooms with doors open,” the hospitable clerk says.

Each of the 25 rooms and suites is furnished with antiques, including spool or canopy beds. But they also have a private bath, flat-screen TV, and WiFi. In the living room, part of the 1929 addition to the original home built in 1834, four senior ladies play a genteel game of cards. If we weren’t staying at the Greenbrier, we would check in here. Since it’s almost tea time, though, we head back to the four-star resort nine miles and a world away. A few years ago, the Greenbrier and its sporting club were bought for $20 million by former coal company owner Jim Justice. But he still lives in Lewisburg, where he coaches the girls’ high school basketball team. How cool is that?

America’s coolest small town Based on 437,480 votes on BudgetTravel.com.

1.

Lewisburg WVa 139,118 votes 2.

Astoria Ore 127,837 3.

Clayton NY 25,337 4.

Eureka Springs Ark 19,377 5.

La Pointe Wis 17,431 6.

Phoenicia NY 15,451 7.

Newtown Borough Pa 15,082 8.

Cedar Key Fla 14,304 9.

Ripon Wis 12,316 10. Greensburg Kan 10,690 A small town with lots to do Lewisburg is more than a one-hit wonder. In addition to its title as America’s Coolest Small Town, it has been listed as one of the “Dozen Distinctive Destinations” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “One of the Best Small Arts Towns in America,” and a National Geographic “Best Small Town Escape.”

Things to do Walking Tour of Historic Lewisburg Get a feel for the town by walking its streets and seeing

rince William and his bride will travel thousands of miles (kilometers) from Canada’s north to Southern California on their first official overseas trip, royal officials said Monday. William and the former Kate Middleton will visit several cities in Canada from June 30 to July 8, taking in the country’s north, south, east and west. It will be their first overseas trip as a married couple. Palace officials said the

72 houses, churches, and cemeteries (you may want to drive to a few of them). Get the 20-page booklet with map at the Greenbrier Valley Visitors Center, 200 W Washington St. Farmers Market Saturdays, 9 am -1 pm, May-October. Municipal parking lot, next to the post office.

First Fridays After Five www.DowntownLewisburg.com Live music, art, shopping and food from 5 pm to 9 pm along Washington and Jefferson Streets.

Chocolate Festival 1-800-833-2068 www.lewisburgchocolatefestival.com Annual April event includes chocolate tastings, bakeoff, and chocolate mousse-eating contest. Next year’s date: April 14.

Battle of Lewisburg www.battleoflewisburg.org Reenactment of May 23, 1862, battle, plus Confederate, Union, and civilian camps and expert speakers.

Washington Street.

Taste of Our Towns www.carnegiehallwv.com/toot On the second Saturday of October, downtown streets are lined with food booths staffed by restaurants, chefs, and civic groups.

The Arts Carnegie Hall 105 Church St http://carnegiehallwv.org One of four Carnegie Halls in the world offers live performances, educational programs, and rotating exhibits.

Greenbrier Valley Theater 113 E Washington St www.gvtheatre.org The state’s official year-round professional theater.

Lewis Theatre 113 N Court St www.myspace.com/thelewistheatre http://trilliumperformingarts.org One-screen movie theater also hosts the Trillium Performing Arts Collective.

House dating to 1815 has nine rooms including linens, china and crystal, furniture, toys, and fishing lures.

Plaid Eagle 117 E Washington St Books, children’s items, jewelry, quilts and furniture.

Robert’s 120 E Washington St Antiques, rugs, and three wine bars.

Area attractions Greenbrier River Trail www.greenbrierrivertrail.com Bike, hike, or ride a horse along the 78-mile rail trail, with lodging and trailer and RV camping available along the way. Cellphone service is limited.

Greenbrier State Forest www.greenbriersf.com More than 5,100 acres of heavily forested, mountainous terrain, including 3,280-foot Kate’s Mountaing.

Smallmouth bass fishing, a swimming pool, cabins, and campsites offered.

Lost World Caverns Fairview Road (North Court Street) www.lostworldcaverns.com Take a 45-minute self-guided tour 120 feet underground or a four-hour guided tour deeper into the cave.

Place to stay General Lewis Inn 301 E Washington St http://generallewisinn5-px.rtrk.com Rooms with antique furnishings, private bath and flatscreen TVs for $110 to $155 a night.

Places to eat The Bakery 102 N Court St Bella Casa Ristorante 208 W Washington St — MCT

Galleries Cooper Gallery 122 E. Washington St www.coopergallery.com Sculpture, photography, painting, and ceramics.

Harmony Ridge Gallery and Red Key 3 209 W Washington St www.harmonyridgegallery.com Fine jewelry, whimsical garden art, wall sculpture, pottery, and contemporary furniture, plus a coffee and wine bar.

Studio 40 130 W Washington St Jewelry, wearable art, home accessories, furniture, lighting, and regional fine art.

Tuckwiller Gallery 102 W Washington St www.tuckwillergallery.com Original artwork by Robert Tuckwiller, including landscapes of the Greenbrier Valley.

Washington Street Gallery 123 W Washington St www.washingtonstgallery.com Contemporary fine art in clay, painting, photography, and handmade prints.

Antiques Brick House 123 E Washington St

couple will visit Canada’s capital, Ottawa and the surrounding region; Montreal and Quebec City in the francophone province of Quebec; Charlottetown and Summerside on Prince Edward Island; the Northwest Territories capital of Yellowknife and the oil boom town of Calgary, Alberta. Their Alberta visit coincides with the opening of the city’s world-famous rodeo event, the Calgary Stampede.

The couple, now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, married April 29 at Westminster Abbey. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he hoped the visit would foster bonds between the couple and his country, just like those between William’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II and Canada. The queen is the head of state in Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies, and she has in the past referred to it as her second home.

“I am confident that, in coming to know this country and its people better, the Duke and Duchess will develop their own enduring bonds of affection for Canada and Canadians as has been the case with Her

Carnegie Hall, built in 1902, offers plays, comedy acts, dance performances, and concerts in Lewisburg, West Virginia. It also has three art galleries and pottery, art, dance, and weaving studios.

Majesty The Queen over sixty years, which began with her own very first tour as Princess Elizabeth at the age of 25 in 1951,” Harper said.

The newlywed couple’s first event of the tour will be taking part in Canada Day celebrations on July 1 in Ottawa with Harper, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore said. “We expect tens of thousands of people to come out. It will be in fact, I think, perhaps the largest Canada Day celebration in history on Parliament Hill,” Moore said. The couple will also help open the Calgary Stampede when they are in Alberta, he said.

Canadian taxpayers will pay for the costs associated with the visit.

Moore would not give an estimate of the total, but said it would be significantly less than the $2 million spent for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Canada last year. The couple’s trip to Canada will be followed by a July 8-10 stop in Los Angeles and the surrounding area.—AP

A

y

e niv rsar n

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Years

lifestyle

Features

Opera stars,

fearing radiation, skip Japan tour

T

wo of the biggest stars of New York’s Metropolitan Opera have bowed out of a Japan tour, citing fears of radioactive contamination and sending the company scrambling to find lastminute stand-ins. Soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja announced just days before the opening show that they would not join the tour of Nagoya and Tokyo despite experts’ assurances they would be safe, forcing the Met to “scour the world” for replacements, general manager Peter Gelb said yesterday. “Part of what makes opera such an exciting art form is that it is so unpredictable,” Gelb said. “If there were a rationality clause in opera singers’ contracts, not many opera singers would perform.” Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left about 25,000 people dead or missing and crippled a nuclear power station north of Tokyo, setting off radiation leaks. The plant remains unstable, though the leaks have declined substantially.

The ceiling reflects the press conference held by General Manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Peter Gelb, bottom right, in Tokyo, yesterday. — AP Tokyo briefly registered nominally higher radiation levels in its air and water, but they have subsided to pre-tsunami levels. There was never any scientific concern of a radiation impact on Nagoya, which is much farther away. The disaster and the uncertainty it spawned caused a spate of concert cancellations, and the arts scene is only now returning to normal. Along

with pop music and sports events, classical concerts by the Vienna Boys Chior, the Lyon Orchestra and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra also were nixed, along with performances by violinists Hillary Hahn and Anne Sophie Mutter.

“Of course, Tokyo is safe,” said Momoko Serizawa, a spokeswoman for concert organizer Japan Arts. “But the visit by the Met comes at a very important and delicate time and we hope it will give impetus to others to follow soon.” Not all artists have stayed away — last month, opera great Placido Domingo performed in Japan and later donated $200,000. Even so, Gelb said Netrebko, who is Russian, chose not to go through with the tour because of radiation concerns and because, she said, she had friends who died of cancer after the Chernobyl disaster in 1989.

Gelb said she told him that she would be so distraught that she wouldn’t perform well and would be a disappointment to her fans. Calleja also said he was concerned for his health. Gelb said the Met struggled with whether to go ahead with the performances, planned years in advance. Last month, David Brenner, an expert on low-dose radiation, was brought in from Columbia University to meet with the company. He informed them that radiation levels in Tokyo had returned to their pre-tsunami norm, and that the airplane trip or a simple X-ray would probably lead to greater exposure than the stay in Japan.

“There are cities in Europe with higher levels,” Gelb said Brenner told the performers. That was enough to convince all but three — German tenor Jonas Kauffmann announced last month he was pulling out.

The rest of the 300-plus member company arrived in Nagoya, west of Tokyo, on Monday. “Obviously, if it were not safe we wouldn’t be here,” Gelb said. “I feel very strongly that we have a responsibility to be here. I think we are setting an example by being here for the global artistic community and for the Japanese public.”

Gelb said he hoped the Japanese would not take the withdrawals as an insult. “They are great artists and I hope the Japanese public won’t think less of them,” he said. The tour, the Met’s seventh in Japan, begins Saturday and runs through June 19. Four singers — soprano Marina Poplavskaya, along with tenors Marcelo Alvarez, Rolando Villazon and Alexey Dolgov — will fill the hole left by Netrebko and Calleja. The Met will be performing performing “La Boheme,” “Don Carlo,” and “Lucia di Lammermoor.”—AP

Bathhouse of Sultan’s favorite reopens in Istanbul

F

or decades the 16th century bath house built for the Ottoman Empire’s most infamous woman, Roxelana, languished unnoticed between the Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sophia, relegated to life as a carpet showroom.

Ottoman bath houses, structures once so important they were designed by the finest architects of the realm, fell out of favor as Turkey modernized and its citizens installed running water and bathrooms in their homes.

Yet the architectural pedigree of many of the bath houses, the rising number of foreign tourists, and a resurgent interest among Turks in all things Ottoman, have revived the fortunes of the old stone hamams as developers recognize their huge earning potential. Roxelana’s hamam, a long, domed building completed in 1557 by the prolific architect Sinan, is the latest Istanbul bath to be restored to its former grandeur-emerging after years of neglect as an oasis of gleaming marble and inviting alcoves. “Turkey is learning to place more importance on its past,” said architect Tevfik Ilter, who led the 17 million lira project.

“In the last 15 years we started to restore our buildings.

Before that the focus was on constructing things fast. If a structure was broken we’d just try and fix it with concrete.”

In 2007 Istanbul authorities decided to return the hamam to its original use after a 105-year hiatus and launched a tender for its restoration, won by a tourism development group.

The bath will open in June and charge 86 euros for the customary steam bath, peeling and soap massage. The same service in one of the handful of old local hamams still in operation in Istanbul would cost around 15 euros.

Visitors to the separate men’s and women’s sections of the bath enter a soaring domed chamber the size of a small mosque, with tiers of wooden changing rooms circling the walls.

After donning a cotton wrap known as a pestemal and slippers they enter the steamy, white marble bath. Once the moisture has penetrated their skin, an attendant scrubs the body to remove the dead skin cells, before dousing the visitor in water. “It is not just about bathing. It is a purification process, a ritual process,” Ilter said.

Hamams are a tradition common to most Muslim countries as Islam emphasises cleanliness and washing, particularly before prayer. But besides their original religious function they were also a place for people to relax and mingle.

Scheming Roxelana While Istanbul now offers four or five historic luxury

hamams to chose from, the figure of Roxelana, long a subject of Western orientalist fantasy could prove a particular draw. Born into a Ukrainian family as Aleksandra Lisowska sometime around 1500 she was captured by raiding Crimean Tartars and sold as a slave in Constantinople, where she was selected for the harem.

Through her charm and guile she managed to catch the eye of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, displacing his former favorite and eventually becoming his wife. The bath’s reopening coincides with a the screening of a television drama based on the life of Roxelana, which has captivated Turkish audiences, but also drew complaints for its sexual content and liberty with the truth. Its glamorous costumes, sumptuous interiors, and the endless conniving and plot-

Artists of Nantes’ Royal de Luxe street theatre company perform with giant mechanical marionettes in Nantes, western France, in the new spectacle intitled ‘El Xolo’. For more than 30 years, The French Royal de Luxe company and its founder and artistic director Jean-Luc Coucoult have established an international reputation with works creating theatrical events with gigantic and incredibly agile human and animal figures which have become the company’s trademark. — AFP

India’s pilgrim trail: A godsend for hotel chains

I

ndia’s pilgrimage centers are fast becoming hot-spots for hotel chains, as both domestic and international groups look to plug a gap in the market for quality accommodation.

Devotees flocking to so-called “temple towns” such as Shirdi in western Maharashtra state, the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in Punjab and farflung Haridwar have for years had to make do with basic facilities. But a rise in disposable incomes and more Indians experiencing foreign travel-both the result of India’s buoyant economy-have led to demand for more than just a bunk-bed in a community centre or floor space at a guesthouse.” There was a time when people who were visiting these temple towns didn’t have the money for quality accommodation,” the associate vice-president of Best Western India, Gaurav Sarin, told AFP. “That’s changed very drastically in the past few years. The people who are now visiting are people looking for an international hospitality experience and they have the disposable income to spend on the room and other facilities.” For Best Western, temple towns and “TierII” cities-India’s fastest-growing cities outside Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalorehave become a key market and religious tourists core clients, he added. It’s not hard to see why: religious pilgrimages remain an essential part of life for millions in India, from the lowest-paid manual worker to the high-flying corporate executive, cricketer or Bollywood movie star.

The latest available government figures show there were just over 650 million domestic tourist visits in 2009 — up 15.5 percent on a year earlier. The number of foreign visitors fell 3.3 percent to 5.1 million.” The bulk of (domestic tourists) are religious tourists wanting to visit places like Shirdi near Mumbai, Vaishnodevi in the north, Haridwar and Rishikesh in the Himalayas,” said Ankur Bhatia, executive director of the Bird Group, a travel and hospitality conglomerate. “The sector is growing tremendously. We’re looking at about 10 percent growth every year. It’s from the lowest to the highest economic groups in society.”

Demand for rooms outstrips supply in places like Tirupati, a temple city in southern Andhra Pradesh state which reportedly receives a staggering 50,000 to 70,000 visitors every day.

Chains see high returns, even at lower room rates and without additional revenue from hotel bars and restaurants on the pilgrim trail, where being teetotal and not eating meat are prerequisites. “The international travel market

in India is quite seasonal and fickle,” said Kaushik Vardharajan, managing director of hotel sector analysts HVS Hospitality Services.

“A couple of travel advisories can see numbers drop steeply. We saw it during the downturn and after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (in November 2008). “The demand for these temple cities and heritage sites are pretty recession-proof. They’re not seasonal in nature and if it’s bad times, people are going to go to the temple more.”

Vardharajan said that there are currently plans to build 90,000 to 95,000 new rooms in such places in the next five years. Best Western, which has hotels in Amritsar and Shirdi, is looking to build in Ajmer in the northern state of Rajasthan, Puri in eastern Orissa state and Kapra in Andhra Pradesh. Sarin said they are also looking at “three or four” other religious centers for development, without elaborating.

The Bird Group is developing its existing resort near Rishikesh to cater for the top end of the market, said Bhatia. Ginger Hotels, a budget chain part of the Indian Hotels Company Limited which operates high-end hotels like Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace, is also expanding to cater for the boom in domestic business and leisure travel. The chain’s chief executive and director, Prabhat Pani, said “eight to 10” of the 40 to 50 new hotels they plan to open in the next five years will be in Tier-II cities or temple towns. “The big story is the Indian traveler. The Indian traveler is not only travelling for business and going abroad but with disposable income going up many are travelling within the country,” he said. “All this really means is that demand for rooms is increasing and the category that’s growing the fastest will really be the budget and economy sector.”—AFP

ting among the women of the harem have fed the resurgent local interest in the Ottoman Empire, from which modern Turkey was formed in 1923.

History has not viewed Roxelana kindly, portraying her as a meddlesome schemer. Her son Selim, inherited the empire from his father but proved a disastrous ruler and an alcoholic. Selim is said to have died in 1574 after slipping and banging his head in a hammam while drunk. “We don’t know for sure whether Roxelana ever came to her hamam. She died in 1558 and the bath was finished in 1557,” said Ilter.

“Some people think the Sultan built it for her so bathers would pray for her in her ill health. Either way the location of the hamam, right opposite the Haghia Sophia in a central position shows her power and influence.” Old Istanbul is littered with the ruins of old hamams, most of which are beyond saving. But other restorations are already in the works, particularly of structures built by Sinan. “History used to be about war and about being a hero. Now we are learning about the history of architecture, leisure and social life,” Ilter said. — Reuters

Indian Sikh devotees pay their respects at The Sikh Shrine, the golden temple in Amritsar, in April . — AFP

Romanian ‘sound’ takes over dance music scene

37

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Rio Summer 2012 Fashion

collection

Models wear creations by Alessa during the Fashion Rio Summer 2012 collection in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday.

—AP/AFP photos

Seoul allows Fendi to feature fur in fashion show

S

eoul officials have decided to allow Italian fashion house Fendi to feature fur in an upcoming show in the city, reversing an earlier decision. The city had asked Fendi to leave fur off the catwalk at its fashion show set for Thursday after animal rights activists threatened massive rallies.

Seoul official Seo Jeong-hyup said yesterday the city changed its mind once Fendi said it would feature fewer fur products. Seo said Fendi argued it had spent months preparing. A group of animal rights activists told reporters yesterday they would stage an antifur rally and launch a consumer campaign to boycott Fendi products. Fendi is known as a master of fur craftsmanship. —AP

A partner dog sits near the sign during an anti-fur press conference in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. —AP