17 Jul

ON IP TI SC R SU B

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Indians put more meat on the menu

Horn of Africa drought to worsen: UNICEF

150 FILS NO: 15152 40 PAGES

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony call it quits

28

7

www.kuwaittimes.net

SHAABAN 16, 1432 AH

Peru shock Colombia to reach Copa semis

20

40

Iraqi lawmakers urge dialogue with Kuwait MP accuses US of causing dispute over Mubarak port

By A Saleh

US court rules against Agility in fraud appeal ATLANTA: A US appeals court has ruled against an attempt by Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility to avert prosecution over charges it defrauded the US Army in multibillion-dollar contracts. Agility was the largest supplier to the US Army in the Middle East during the war in Iraq. It is accused of overcharging the Army over 41 months on supply contracts the government says totaled $9.8 billion, and the case that has been politically sensitive in Kuwait and Washington.

US Assistant Attorney General Tony West told a US Senate committee earlier this year Agility was accused of war profiteering. The ruling signed on July 12 by the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta should allow the fraud case to proceed after more than a year of legal argument over whether the company was correctly served with an indictment by U.S. prosecutors in 2009. There was no immediate comment from Agility.

The company had asked the Atlanta appeals court to review a district court’s decision in March to deny its motion to quash “service of process” of the indictment.

Agility had argued the lawsuit was invalid because prosecutors served the indictment only on the company’s US subsidiary and not on the Kuwait-based parent company, Public Warehousing Company KSC aka Agility. The appeals court dismissed this on procedural grounds.

“We lack jurisdiction over this appeal and appellee’s (government’s) motion to dismiss the appeal is granted,” said the court order signed July 12.

In the past, Agility has argued that the case involves a civil contract dispute rather than a criminal matter.

The government filed a civil suit in January. The case is the United States of America versus Agility DGS Logistics Services Company, dba PWC Logistics Services KSC (c). It is numbered 11-11652-C and was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. — Reuters

KUWAIT: Following Iraqi PM Nouri Al-Maliki’s denial of being aware of Kuwait’s intentions to build Mubarak AlKabeer Port, members of his political bloc did not wish to “accelerate tensions” with Kuwait and called for opening a dialogue as their security forces were “not ready”.

Maliki denied that Kuwait had informed Baghdad during bilateral talks of its intention to build the port.

“The Kuwaiti side did not mention the port project during the talks between both countries,” said Maliki. He was responding to statements made by Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah in which he said he had informed Maliki of the project during a state visit he made to Kuwait in February.

A member of the Iraqi parliamentary services’ committee MP Ehsan Al-Awadi accused both Iran and Kuwait of working against the Iraqi Al-Faw Port for economic and political reasons. He also accused the Iraqi transportation ministry of being incompetent in executing mega projects that have the potential to boost Iraq’s economy. “Iran and Kuwait have been preventing the Faw Port project,” he alleged, urging the Iraqi government to be more firm against interference in domestic matters.

Another member of the ruling Iraqi National Alliance, Suzan Al-Saad, said that the weak diplomatic performance of the Iraqi foreign ministry calls for immediate interference from Maliki. Saad also said that Iraq was witnessing several problems and that its security forces were not ready. “This calls for not accelerating tension with Kuwait. Problems have to be solved through dialogue, not through tension that serves neither side,” she said, noting that violations of Iraqi lands and waters have seen no reactions from UN human rights organizations.

MP Hamed Al-Mutlak, a member of the Iraqi List Bloc headed by former PM Iyad Allawi, blamed both the Iraqi government and the US administration for the current crisis between Kuwait and Iraq over the Mubarak Port.

“Relations between Iraq and US are governed by security pacts and treaties that highlight safeguarding Iraqi territories and borders - so where does the US stand on such violations?” he wondered.

NABLUS: Famous Kuwaiti singer and UN goodwill ambassador Abdullah Al-Ruwaished – backdropped by a huge image of HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas shaking hands – performs a concert held at Al-Najah University late Friday. The concert was attended by an audience of over 10,000 music lovers and fans, one of whom is seen waving a Kuwaiti flag (inset). — KUNA (See Page 2)

Woman makes history at weightlifting event COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa: Kulsoom Abdullah wasn’t so concerned about making history. For Abdullah, performing well at her first national weightlifting championship was far more important than the outfit she had fought so hard to wear. The flowing hijab and black top were hard to miss, though, as Abdullah became the first woman to compete in the US championships on Friday while wearing clothing that covers her legs, arms and head.

Abdullah was cleared to compete in accordance with her Muslim faith after the International Weightlifting Federation ruled two weeks ago that athletes could wear a full-body “unitard” under the customary weightlifting uniform. IWF rules previously stated that an athlete’s knees and elbows must be visible so officials can determine if a lift is correctly executed. Abdullah, a 35-year-old from Atlanta who weighed in at 105 pounds, competed before a small crowd of roughly 100 lifters, their family members and friends in Council Bluffs, just across the river from Omaha, Neb. She finished fifth out of six competitors in her weight class.

Continued on Page 13

Max 47º Min 35º Low Tide 07:08 & 20:08 High Tide 01:50 & 12:31

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa: Kulsoom Abdullah of Atlanta competes during the national weightlifting championships on Friday. — AP

Syrians mourn dead as oppn seeks change BEIRUT: Tens of thousands of Syrians shouting “We want freedom!” carried slain protesters through the streets yesterday as opposition figures meeting in Turkey called for a united front to bring down the 40year ruling dynasty of the Assad family. Syrian security forces killed at least 28 people Friday during the largest protests since the uprising began more than four months ago, activists said. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets nationwide, but they were met with gunfire and tear gas.

“The regime has kidnapped the entire state, and we want it back,” said Haitham Al-Maleh, one of Syria’s most prominent dissidents, who led yesterday’s opposition conference in Istanbul. The 80-yearold lawyer spent years in Syrian prisons for his political activism. Syria’s crackdown on the protests has led to international condemnation and sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that President Bashar Assad had dashed hopes of reform.

“What’s happening in Syria is very uncertain and troubling because many of us had hoped that President Assad would make the reforms that were necessary,” she said in Istanbul. “The brutality has to stop, there must be a legitimate sincere effort with Continued on Page 13

LONDON: Newspapers are opened to show the advertisement apology for News International at a news vendor yesterday. — AP

British govt defends links with Murdoch Media mogul says ‘we’re sorry’ LONDON: Britain’s government defended its links with Rupert Murdoch yesterday as the embattled media mogul published apologies in national newspapers over the phone hacking scandal saying: “We Are Sorry.” A day after Murdoch suffered the loss of two of his closest aides, the crisis returned to haunt British Prime

Minister David Cameron as it emerged he had 26 meetings in 15 months with key figures from the Australian-born magnate’s empire. British Foreign Secretary William Hague came to Cameron’s defence, saying he was “not embarrassed” by the extent of the Continued on Page 13

in the

news

Bahraini womon dies during protest

Saudis behead man for attack on woman

Love letter delivered 53 years late in US

MANAMA: A Bahraini rights activist sais a woman has died during clashes between riot police and anti-government protesters in the Gulf kingdom. Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said yesterday that 47-year-old Zainab Hasan Ahmed Al-Jumaa suffocated after inhaling tear gas fired by riot police during a demonstration Friday near her home in Sitra, the hub of Bahrain’s oil industry. Her death brings to 33 the number of those who have died since Februar y when Bahrain’s Shiite majority star ted protests for greater freedoms in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry denied Al-Jumaa’s death was linked to a police operation and said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website late Friday that the woman died of natural causes.

RIYADH: Saudi authorities have beheaded a man convicted of attacking a woman and snapping nude photos of her in order to blackmail her for sex. A Saudi Interior Ministry statement carried in national papers yesterday said the man broke into the woman’s apartment and attacked her husband before turning on the woman. It was not clear when the attack took place.

The statement says the assailant, who was not identified, was beheaded with a single sword stroke Friday.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery can be executed - usually with a sword. According to an AP count, Saudi Arabia has executed 31 people so far this year. The kingdom executed 27 people last year.

PITTSBURGH: A love letter written to a US college student in the state of Pennsylvania and delivered 53 years late will be mailed to its intended recipient who is now an elderly man. A spokeswoman for the California University of Pennsylvania said the letter, addressed to Mr Clark C Moore and postmarked Feb 20, 1958, arrived mysteriously in the mailroom last week. On Thursday, university officials located Moore, now 74. He had changed his name to Muhammad Siddeeq and was living in Indianapolis. A friend saw a news report about the letter and contacted him, said university spokeswoman Christine Kindl. The letter included a return address, but little other information about the sender, who signed the letter, “Love Forever, Vonnie”. Siddeeq, a retired teacher, told the university he and Vonnie had married and had four children together before parting ways.

SHANGHAI: Kuwait’s Hamad Saleh competes in the men’s 1-m springboard preliminary round diving event at the FINA World Championships at the outdoor diving pool of the Oriental Sports Center yesterday. — AFP (See Page 18)

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

local

RAMALLAH: Members of the Kuwaiti media delegation with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas hails relentless Kuwaiti support for Palestinian cause KJA delegation concludes visit RAMALLAH: A Kuwaiti media delegation concluded yesterday their few-days visit to the Palestinian territories of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Before their departure, the delegation performed prayers in Al-Aqsa mosque, visited the Church of Resurrection and toured the city of Jerusalem. During this visit, members of the Kuwaiti delegation became acquainted with the humanitarian, political and economic situation in the Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas thanked the State of Kuwait for its relentless support for the Palestinian issue in all fields.

“Kuwait’s continuing support for the Palestinian people has never stopped even in the event of the difficult conditions experienced by the State of Kuwait,” Abbas said following a meeting with a Kuwaiti journalistic delegation in the presence of Kuwaiti Ambassador to Jordan Hamad Al-Duaij. He said Arab visits to Palestinian

Kuwait to bolster good-neighborly relations with Iraq UNITED NATIONS: Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah believed that Iraq’s abidance by international commitments towards Kuwait would surely lead to more confidence and better relations between Kuwait and Iraq.

In two identical letters sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and President of the UN Security Council Peter Wittig late on Friday, Sheikh Mohammad voiced his country’s willingness to bolster good-neighborly relations with Iraq and to help Iraq meet its commitments expeditiously. “We’d like to reaffirm our serious willingness to improve bilateral relations at the level that could serve the interests of both countries and peoples, and boost good-neighborly relations,” he said. “We are confident that Iraq’s implementation of remaining international obligations under the UN umbrella and its observation and implementation of Resolution 833/1993 on the ground will represent a significant gateway to building confidence between the two nations, and a jumping-off to wider horizons for firm ties based on respect of international legitimacy, international law and the principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,” he said. However, the Kuwaiti foreign minister spoke highly of the Iraqi government’s constructive cooperation for resolving the questions of Kuwaiti POWs, properties and national archives within the framework of a three-party committee and its technical panel.

Thanks to this cooperation, the bodies of 236 out of 605 Kuwaitis have been recovered, he said. But, unfortunately, since 2004, no more bodies have been found, he regretted.

He also voiced Kuwait’s welcome of a recent UN Security Council resolution to extend the mandate of the UN HighLevel Coordinator Gennady Tarasov to follow up on the files of missing Kuwaitis, properties and national archives. On the Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Maintenance Project (IKBMP), Sheikh Mohammad said the UN has made relevant preparations and arrangements, but actual implementation has not yet been launched on the ground due to Iraq’s failure to observe the recommendations of a technical team that visited the border area in February 2006 and asked Iraq to remove border transgressions, as well as Iraq’s non-response to UN calls for contributing its share of the additional funding - $600,000 required to complete the project.

He hoped that the UN would hold a meeting of Kuwaiti and Iraqi technicians to follow up on the border maintenance project, recalling to memory that two earlier meetings were held for the purpose; one in New York in June 2007 and another in Kuwait in October 2008. On compensations, he regretted that Iraq has failed to comply with repeated calls for holding another round of talks after the first one that was held in Amman in 2009 on the future of remaining compensations. — KUNA

occupied territories are a sign of backing to the Palestinian people, rather than a normalization of relations with Israel.

Abbas went on to say that the Palestinian people are looking forward to seeing their Arab brothers visiting them.

He hailed the big audience at the concert of the Kuwaiti singer Abdullah Ruwaished, who was part of a Kuwaiti delegation that has recently visited Palestinian occupied territories.

He wished that there would be more visits by Arab delegations to the occupied territories in order to demonstrate their solidarity with the defenseless Palestinian people.

On the Middle East peace process, he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is to blame for the deadlock in the peace process. The Palestinian leader urged the international community to support his efforts to obtain an international recognition of a Palestinian state. — KUNA

RAMALLAH: KJA delegation near the Al-Aqsa mosque in the city of Jerusalem.

Safar to head new government body

By A Saleh

KUWAIT: The Cabinet recently approved the appointment of Dr Fadhel Safar, Minister of Public Works and the Minister of State for Municipal Affairs as the head of Central Apparatus for Civil Laboratories. He has been authorized to nominate members of the board of directors. They will be appointed for a four-year tenure. The apparatus will be responsible for organizing and taking follow up action.

Kuwait Society for Arab Horses established The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor recently approved the establishment of the Kuwait Society For Arab Horses (KSAH). The KSAH will comprise 50 Kuwaiti

members and will be run by a seven-member board of directors who will be elected by a general assembly every two years.

Tenders for synthetic grass The Central Tenders Committee (CTC) will start receiving tenders from bidders to replace natural grass with synthetic grass at soccer playgrounds in Sulaibikhat, Jahra, Surra, Bayan, Meshrif, Mubarak AlKabeer and Sabahiya. Officials added that the bids will be placed on July 5th but was delayed due to the technical proceedings.

MP slams MEW for power cut MP Askar Al-Enezi criticized the ‘silence’ maintained

by the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) over power outage in Al-Qasr when day time temperatures hit 52 degrees centigrade. ‘The minister must immediately act to supply the area with temporary generators till the problem is solved,” he demanded.

ICM prepares candidates The Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) does not plan to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections in the fourth and fifth constituencies. “It will nominate candidates in all constituencies,” officials said.

Officials explained that the candidates would receive moral support and will be financed by the ICM similar to what MP Falah Al-Sawwagh had received.

Kuwait to host media forum ASEELA: The unanimous agreement of Arab and African media personalities to choose Kuwait as the host of an initial meeting of an Arab-African Media Forum renews trust in the important role played

by Kuwait to enhance relations between the Arab nations and the rest of the world, the head of Arab Media Forum said yesterday.

Secretary General of the Arab Media Forum Madhi Al-Kamis told KUNA, on the sidelines of one of Aseela’s media seminars, that this unanimous decision reflects the Arab and African nations’ appreciation of the efforts made by the Kuwait to support causes that affect countries of this region.

The national and humanitarian stances of Kuwait are part of His

Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s directives to improve Arab ties with the rest of the world to achieve international peace, stability and development, he added. He added that choosing Kuwait to host an Arab-Africa media forum would place the Gulf country in a leading position to bring nations together, and build ‘bridges’ to serve their best interests in the fields of social, economic and development. He concluded by saying that the initial meeting, which will be held in April 2012, aims to implement the outcome of the Aseela forum that defines future cooperation between Arab and African media bodies by holding a number of joint media programs and projects. — KUNA

‘Demographical imbalance reaching alarming levels’ KUWAIT: The demographical imbalance in Kuwait has reached alarming levels, with studies speculating that the percentage of citizens is set to decrease by 23 percent within five months if the government doesn’t act to stop the current dispropor tion. This was stated by Kuwaiti government insiders who opted to speak anonymously as they spoke about ‘notable increases’ in the number of the Arab and Asian communities in Kuwait over the past four months.

They further warned that only two minorities, (Arab and Asian) have lesser number of residents than that of the Kuwaiti community, and not by a large margin. The term ‘Asian resident’ is usually used to refer to citizens of southeast Asian countries who collectively form the largest expatriate community in Kuwait. ‘Arab residents’ is a general term used to described non-Kuwaiti Arab residents in Kuwait.

The government’s studies indicate that 1,300 expatriates were employed in the public sector in the past six

months according to official statistics.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti lawmakers were quick to respond with Abdurrahman Al-Anjari who mentioned a “lack of awareness regarding serious repercussions of demographical imbalance on the economic, political and social fields”. Furthermore, Al-Anjari warned that expatriates form 23 percent of labor forces in the public sector, and 82 percent in the private sector, drawing concern from the standpoint that salaries that these labor forces receive “are mostly spent outside Kuwait”. MP Saad Al-Khanfour used the term “illogical” to describe the fact that Kuwaitis form one third of the country’s total population, demanding solutions to the “snowballing” problem of demographic imbalance. In the meantime, lawmaker Husain Meziyed urged the Cabinet and parliament to adopt strategies to gradually reduce the state’s population of expatriate labor forces by replacing them with qualified national manpower. — Al-Rai

KUWAIT: Coast Guards continued their campaign in all coastal areas of Kuwait to ensure safety of beach lovers and to put an end to those who violate laws of jet-ski and boat users. This was held in the presence of the Assistant Undersecretary Lt Gen Sheikh Mohammad AlYousuf who personally led the campaign which started Friday in southern areas from morning till evening. The campaign resulted in several citations and the detention of nine jet-skies.

MPs open to more ‘Emergency 2007’ probe KUWAIT: Several MPs announced their approval of the idea of forming a second investigation committee in the parliament regarding the infamous ‘Emergency 2007’ case, with the hope of finding ways to return the stolen funds and holding people accountable for violations.

An initial committee formed in the parliament to investigate the suspected violations in contracts signed by the Ministry of Electricity and Water a few years ago, submitted their report last month, convicting at least two former ministers.

The Emergency 2007 scandal pertains to a large deal in which the MEW acquired power generators that were later discovered to be substandard. It gained its name because the project was fulfilled as

an emergency measure to help the ministry cope with the increasing consumption demands back in 2007. The scandal drew much attention due to the supposed profiteering suspicions that it generated.

“All necessary measures should be taken to ensure that companies involved in the case are held accountable”, said MP Ali Al-Deqbasi, supporting a notion raised in a recent news report about a second committee being formed to investigate the alleged connection of certain companies in the scandal. MP Saifi Al-Saifi also said that further investigations can prove vital “to return stolen funds which were lost due to the government’s inability to fight corruption”. — Al-Rai

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

LOCAL

Subsidized foods make a difference to bedoons New law equates bedoons with Kuwaitis

By Hussain Al-Qatari

KUWAIT: The French Ambassador to Kuwait Nada Yafi held a reception on the occasion of her country’s National Day at Salwa Al-Sabah Hall. It was attended by diplomats and other dignitaries. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti government has granted bedoon citizens the right to buy food from co-operative societies at a subsidized rate, equating them with Kuwaiti citizens. It has had its positive impact on hundreds of bedoon families across Kuwait.

Subsidized foods include rice, sugar, salt, milk, chicken, meat, and baby formula that are distributed by the Ministr y of Commerce to all Kuwaiti families.

A bedoon parent of seven children, Ahmad Al-Shemmari, feels he can now buy essentials that last him an entire month for a

reasonable amount of money, “ This is the second month we have been using subsidized ration cards, and it has helped a lot. The essential commodities like rice, chicken, milk, and even baby formula are covered, and we pay a lot less than we used to.

Instead of paying almost KD 90 until March 2012, Al-Shemmari will not have to pay a penny, as per an Amiri grant issued in March. If Al-Shemmari had to pay, the amount would not exceed KD 40 when compared to the subsidized price list.

Another bedoon parent, Abdulrahman Saad says his family benefits a lot from subsidized

foods, “We are a family of 14 people, and until the grant period is over we are saving over KD 100 that used to cover essential groceries.” The father of two children who are less than three years old, said that getting baby formula from the co-operative society for free now is a relief, noting that prices in the supermarket usually fluctuate and the amounts run out fast. He expressed gratitude towards the government for taking such an initiative, and hoped that it would be the beginning of a series of legislations that grant bedoons more rights.

Last month, newly appointed Minister of Commerce Amani

Blackouts emerge as temperatures peak KUWAIT: Residents in three different areas just south of Kuwait City had to spend their Thursday and Friday night without lights or air conditioners following a six-hour blackout caused by a malfunction in the main cable which feeds the areas with power.

Minutes before midnight on Thursday, electricity was disconnected from several blocks in Abdullah Al-Salem, Al-Nuzha and AlMansouriya. Many residents in these blocks were seen outside as they couldn’t stand the suffocating heat inside their homes. This caused much inconvenience to many families until electricity was restored at nearly 6 am the next morning.

Commenting on the subject, a top Ministry of Electricity and Water official explained that a breakdown in the cable which connects the affected blocks with the main power transformer in Al-Nuzha and Abdullah Al-Salem, caused the blackout.

“Emergency teams were able to restore power within three hours following the malfunction”, said Undersecretary Assistant for the distribution networks Abdulwahab Al-Terki.

The Ministry of Electricity and Water has repeatedly assured that daily production capacity of electricity will be sufficient to cover projected consumption rates through this

summer, promising a ‘blackout-free’ summer.

Ministry insiders recently told Al-Jarida Daily that plans call for all problems resulting from secondary transformers to be eliminated by 2013. Kuwait’s summer is characterized by extreme temperatures that reach above 50 C degrees between July and August. On Friday, the official recorded temperature was 51 C degrees and leading veteran meteorologist Dr Saleh Al-Ujairi described this year’s summer as “one of the hottest in Kuwait’s history”.

When contacted to comment on the heat wave currently hitting Kuwait, 90-year-old AlUjairi explained that the weather is affected by the seasonal Indian low pressure, which will likely keep temperatures on the rise until the end of July or during the first week of August. Al-Ujairi also mentioned that the highest recorded temperature in Kuwait history was 53 C degrees, recorded in 1953.

Meanwhile, several MPs slammed the ministry over the long period that took technicians to fix the recent blackout, including Adnan Al-Mutawa’a who demanded emergency teams to provide standby generators to affected areas on a 24-hour basis. Askar AlEnizy also mentioned a 9-hour blackout that hit Al-Qusour district of Al-Jahra during the weekend. —Al-Qabas, Al-Jarida, Al-Watan

Bouresli issued new regulations to distribute subsidized food to bedoon citizens.

The new regulations also includes GCC nationals residing in Kuwait, and require that bedoon citizens be registered in the Central System for Remedying the Status of Illegal Residents.

The new law also equates bedoons with Kuwaiti nationals, granting them food free of charge for one year, which was granted by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah last February in celebration of the country’s 50th independence anniversary.

MPs eyed resignation: Al-Deqbasi KUWAIT: A group of oppositionist lawmakers mulled the option of submitting their mass resignation, but eventually backed down from this idea after realizing that such a step would lead to supplementary elections, which wouldn’t help the current parliamentary performance much.

This was revealed by lawmaker Ali Al-Deqbasi, who indicated in recent Twitter posts that oppositionists agree that ‘going on’ is the best option to pick now, while an early election combined with the formation of an all-new Cabinet is the best option in the long run.

A member of the Popular Action Bloc, the most outspoken among three opposition blocs in Kuwait’s parliament, Al-Deqbasi also said that he agrees with the notion of filing a grilling motion against Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad AlSabah. “This grilling, like any other grilling (filed against Cabinet members), has Kuwait’s best interests at heart”, read one of his tweets.

In other news, more MPs reacted against rumors about a loan being granted by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to the government in Syria, with MP Dr Jamaan Al-Harbash warning against providing any financial contributions to “a regime which continues to shed the blood of their own people”.

“The stance of the Kuwaiti government towards the Syrian revolution has so far been shameful”, the Development and Reform Bloc member said, adding at the same time that the rumored loan “would give legitimacy to the (Syrian) regime’s actions if it turns out to be true”. — Al-Qabas

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

LOCAL

kuwait digest

kuwait digest

The biggest thieves

Reform starts from within

By Saud Al-Samaka

By Thaar Al-Rashidi

T

he Cabinet today includes members as well as a prime minister who are enthusiastic about reform and eager to move Kuwait forward from its current slump back to the right path of development. However, enthusiasm alone isn’t enough to fulfill this goal even if it comes with great and genuine willpower. Unless there are actual practical moves to eliminate corruption in the workplace generally, all the hopes and determination for reform will be fruitless.

This is why I believe that the government must urgently adopt a program to evaluate the performance of senior officials in all state bodies in a very precise and transparent manner. The reason I encourage this approach is the fact that these senior officials are in charge of the executive tasks at their departments, and are thus responsible for any problems that occur under their watch. These officials were entrusted with these responsibilities so that members of the cabinet could focus on directing and managing the state’s public policy.

The problem today is that new ministers arrive with goals to achieve reform at their respective departments, but eventually realize after their term is over that they haven’t been able to change anything while all their hard work and time away from their families have gone in vain. Why does that happen? Simply because senior officials at their departments who are already used to corruption, become a barrier to ministers achieving their ambitions for reform.

In order to be able to focus on its duty to manage the general policy of the state, the Cabinet must come up with a strategy to protect ministers from the mismanagement practiced by their senior employees which in most cases put the ministers at odds with MPs. Kuwait needs a comprehensive plan to cleanse the executive system of all obstacles that stand in the way of development. — Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

Stopping the Internet cowboys

M

kuwait digest

Show proof or shut up

By Meshal Al-Thufairi

M

islem Al-Barrak, a veteran lawmaker known for his outspoken oppositionist approach, has become a subject of condemnation by many columnists in Kuwait’s journalistic field.

Articles slamming Al-Barrak and regarding him as an enemy can be found almost on a daily basis in local newspapers.

Judging by his activity, I believe that it’s safe to say that Mislem AlBarrak’s real enemies are people who sponsor corruption and theft of public funds in Kuwait. Of course, his approach has some flaws, because in the end he is a human being, but Al-Barrak made it clear on numerous occasions that he wouldn’t reject criticism against him as long as it served the public’s interests.

I believe that Kuwaiti citizens

can tell who really are attacking Mislem Al-Barrak regularly for the sole purpose of getting closer to those who are enemies of the law.

Whether we like it or not, AlBarrak will always be known as one of the most notable and outspoken activists in Kuwait’s political history.

The record-breaking number of votes he got in the last elections are a testament to his political and parliamentary success and we all can agree that he has distinguished charisma and unrivaled public support.

I don’t think any of that would have been possible if Al-Barrak didn’t have the country’s best interests at heart. After all, what stops him from accepting ‘benefits’ offered to him just to keep his mouth shut?

kuwait digest

Emirati perspective of Kuwait

By Abdul Mohsen Jum’ah

kuwait digest

By Dr. Ahmad Al-Duaij

Containing tension with Iraq

I

t seems that the youth campaign on the ‘Internet monopoly mafia’ in Kuwait, will produce results faster than many expect, especially now that MP Ahmad Al-Saadoun and several other MPs have become involved. The issue is a very important one due to the major costs incurred by subscribers, not only because of the unjustifiable increase in tariffs, and the communications ministr y ’s failure to act indeed it seems by its silence to be colluding with them - but also due to their manipulation of speeds and other tricks that have angered subscribers, especially given the communications ministry’s aforementioned failure to tackle this problem and stop such gimmicks, despite the ambiguous statements from the ministry undersecretary.

I may have told you that I renewed my DSL last month; what I did not tell you is that when it came to my turn at the service desk, I greeted the employee, who is a Kuwaiti, and asked him about the surprise increase in prices. “Despite your manipulation of the broadband speeds, contravening the contract I signed with you, it seems only Ahmad al-Saadoun can stop you,” I told him.

Needless to say, I had not heard at that stage about the press conference Ahmad Al-Saadoun held on July 13, during which he asked the communications minister to stop the four internet companies from cheating their customers as if there were no government or communications ministry.

In response, the employee took his business card out and said in a superior manner, “I am [name redacted], let’s see what Ahmad AlSaadoun wants to do. Do you think you can scare me with him?”

I thought to myself, ‘What if this is the company owner?’ and refused to take his card, telling him to keep it. The employee protested, saying, “Something might happen to your internet and you need to call,” so I told him I know the company’s helpline and technical support number.

When I returned home, since there were still two days of the old subscription left to run, I was surprised to find the internet service unavailable. I called the company early next morning, and the technical support employee answered.

I informed him that I’d renewed my subscription the day before and there was no need to suspend it, then explained what had happened with the service employee, whose card I refused, and warned him “Don’t mess with me, otherwise I’ll expose you in the papers.”

The technical support worker took my phone number and service was magically restored. He subsequently promised me that I would henceforth receive only the best service from the company and it would not be disrupted again.

To our respected MPs: The monopoly of unlicensed Internet companies and their exploitation of services and prices is a popular issue that interests a large number of citizens and expatriates, so we hope that your efforts will continue in monitoring this issue, so that this chaos can be brought to a stop. — Al-Watan

Some columnists tend to bring up Al-Barrak’s name and accuse him of partaking in illegal activities.

When asked to respond to such articles, Al-Barrak always challenges the accusers to support their claim with evidence. In my personal opinion, I believe that AlBarrak is a better person than those who make unconfirmed allegations against him, simply because he doesn’t allow anyone to control his political approach.

Kuwait needs citizens who are willing to withstand all troubles and stay firm against attacks in order to achieve their ultimate cause of welfare to their country the very nation that is currently sickened by the practices of hypocrites who abandon their values for personal gains. — Al-Rai

ost thieves undertake their larcenous activities being careful not to let anyone see them and taking care to leave no trail that might lead to their arrest before fleeing to a hideout which nobody but themselves and their accomplices know. There they hide and pray that they won’t be arrested and their pictures won’t appear in the papers alongside the stolen material, whose values in most cases don’t exceed a few thousand dinars.

Political thieves, however, as I said previously, are completely different, conducting their larcenous activities under political cover, such as an alliance with the public bodies they steal from or having some high-up influence or closeness to opposition groups which suddenly become progovernment.

The luckier thieves are part of a political bloc.

Here they can get their hands on anything without suffering the usual worries which plague bandits.

The only problem here is that their thefts takes place under political cover and steal from the public. With political cover, they don’t need to go about the usual messy and time-consuming activities associated with thefts; instead they can form unlicensed companies and do whatever they want in any field without any government body uttering a single word of objection. They can, if they wish, build many extra floors on existing buildings, potentially generating additional millions in profit and not one person, even the chief of police, will say a word or consider doing anything to stop them. With the proper political cover, you can be indebted to the tune of millions of dinars and nobody will dare to arrest you. With this magical cover, you can even falsely inflate your companies’ value and nobody, even senior ministry officials, will say a peep - in fact, those senior officials might even become your best clients.

Who would take up regular crime, then, when the real money lies in political crime? — Al-Anba

By Dr Wael Al-Hasawi

I

raq’s response regarding the Mubarak Al-K abeer Por t, a mega project that Kuwait is building at the Boubyan Island, cannot be treated lightly as just another reaction as it clearly contains an obvious and embedded threat. The foreign relations committee at the Iraqi Parliament said that Iraq will use “all means necessar y to protect Iraq’s water pathway from being closed (by the Kuwaiti port)”. Iraq is wary that the new port will make it harder for container ships to access its own ports; the existing ones as well as the Fao Port that Iraq plans to build a kilometer away from the Boubyan Port. By stating that all options are on the table, they have given rise to all kinds of speculations on how

they would act if they felt that their interests are threatened by the Kuwaiti port - not to mention the fact that the Sadrist Movement announced that they would go beyond mere verbal threats if construction begins at the Mubarak Port.

Let’s look at the situation from two different angles: Kuwait has the right to utilize its own property the way it wishes as long as it doesn’t affect other countries.

Kuwait also has the right to build the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port to expand their shipping traffic and commercial activities after current ports were unable to keep up with the increasing demand in the form of exports and imports.

We also can’t ignore the fact that Iraq will always have people who

believe that Kuwait is part of their country, especially with the multitude of conflicting parties that the country has.

On the other hand, Kuwait should handle the relationship with its northern neighbor in a wise manner in order to avoid giving Iraq reasons to harbor more ill feelings towards Kuwait similar to how some parties in Iraq still feel about the UN Chapter 7 sanctions which they blame Kuwait for.

I don’t really understand the reason behind insisting on building the port in a location very close to Iraq. Either way it’s our duty to assure the Iraqi side that the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port in its current place will not hinder their economic interests. — Al-Rai

A

friend of mine recently told me about the viewpoint of an Emirati family who visited Kuwait a few days ago. He said that he had known the family for a very long time and that their last visit was way back in the 1980s. My friend appeared visibly distressed as he recalled how shocked the family felt when they compared it to what they had seen on their previous visit.

According to him, the first shock the family received was when they got out of the plane and stepped into Kuwait International Airport. “It looked like an over-crowded public departmental store where people outnumbered the room and facilities”, said my friend quoting the family who were also stunned by the chaotic and crowded passport lounge with Asian workers everywhere, long queues and passport officers shouting at passengers to stand in line.

“The visit to the private clinic ended in a tranquilizing shot and an earful of advice on how to be careful and where to dine since tons of foul food items had entered Kuwait”.

kuwait digest

Ministers in extra time!

By: Dr. Mohammed Abdul Mohsen Al-Moqate’

T

here is absolutely no logic, let alone any political or technical criteria, to the appointment of ministers in Kuwait. It is done through the usual Wasta utilized in appointing anybody, regardless of competence, exper tise, political background, agenda or coherence with the government’s public policies. It’s no wonder, therefore, that the government and its cabinet’s role is restricted to running things without having any political views or role in directing and forming the government’s policies.

To be appointed minister, you need either parliamentary or family wasta, tribal support or to be hypocritically affiliated to the PM or this or that sheikh. A minister has to be very deferential without an opinion of his own. In other words, ministers have to be mere employees occupying the positions of ministers.

So what can we expect from such ministers, whose main con-

cern is to run their ministries’ errands regardless of how, to win the support of some people by appointing relatives and friends, and to promote or transfer them to more favorable positions? A minister’s tasks are essentially restricted to what an undersecretary’s office manager can do and thus, ministries have not made any significant progress whatsoever.

By examining how ministers run their ministries, we’ll find that their main concern lies in running the daily routine and discussing the ministry’s problems without playing any significant role in forming the Cabinet’s policies.

Ministers focus primarily on having this or that person appointed whenever they attend a cabinet meeting only because they personally like or hate the individuals in question. ‘This man has to be transferred as he used to be a team member with minister...” they’ll sometimes say.

Consequently, our Cabinet is

completely hollow due to this selection strategy. Cabinet members never object to their restricted liabilities as they know for sure that they might remain in office for weeks or months.

The PM is extremely quick to appoint ministers and just as quick to dismiss and replace them for any reason; they could be asked to resign for ‘becoming a burden for the government.’ So, some ministers come to office knowing beforehand that they were dispensable at any moment.

It’s as simple as: Easy come, easy go! This reminds me of how MP Dr. Walid Al-Tabtabaie described the government as “a public transport bus where each minister gets off at a certain bus stop.”

The fact we have so many ‘ex or former’ ministers in Kuwait, which has itself become a goal for some people wishing to invest such a title for their own benefits. That’s why we have so many ministers appointed at extra time! — Al-Qabas

“The surprises didn’t just end there”, said the Emirati family breadwinner noting that on driving his rental car out of the airport, he was astonished to see scores of vehicles wildly parked outside with nobody paying any attention to a single policeman. “After more than half an hour, I managed to leave the airport”, said the man describing his drive to Salmiya as a “street war” during which he only saw one police patrol parked at the roadside with the policeman chatting on his mobile phone while some vehicles passed by like rockets shifting from one lane to another without signaling or even attracting the patrol’s attention to pursue and stop them. “That made us feel so sorry for the good old Kuwait we knew in the eighties”, he said.

To make their visit worse, one of the family members had a stomach upset and had to be taken to Mubarak hospital that looked worse than the airport to them. “It looked like an illegal immigrant camp in Europe with so many nationalities around and the number of patients waiting outside the clinics”, he said, noting that they fled to a private hospital seeking better medical services at astronomical prices. “That ended in a tranquilizing shot and an earful of advice on how to be careful and where to dine since tons of foul food items had entered Kuwait”, added the man.

My friend added that on their departure, the man’s wife expressed regret and asked “Why have you done this to your country?” which was a question I myself wanted to ask a lot of people here. I wonder why the civil aviation department is being so stubborn about shifting some flights to take off and land at Saad Al-Abdullah Airport, particularly during this high season. Have they made a decision to turn the airport into a wasteland? — Al-Jarida

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Years

local

Internet crisis to come to an end Subscription prices to decrease

By Hussain Al-Qatari

KUWAIT: The tragic car accident on Sixth Ring Road.

Two burnt alive in car crash

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: In a tragic accident that took place along Sixth Ring Road opposite South Surra gas station, two cars that collided into each other, burst into flames.

The two passengers seated in the vehicle were charred beyond recognition. Two other individuals sustained mild injuries and were admitted to the nearest hospital. The Mishref and Subhan fire centers responded to an emergency call, reached the scene and doused the flames. The two corpses were removed from the wreckage and sent for an autopsy.

Burn injury A two-year-old Kuwaiti toddler was rushed to Al-Adan Hospital from Ahmadi after suffering burn injuries. Some hot liquid accidentally splashed onto her body.

Her condition is believed to be stable. An investigation has begun into the case.

Abandoned infant A male infant was found abandoned next to a house located at Jleeb AlShuyoukh. The infant is one-year-old and appeared to be in good health. Passersby who found the baby admitted it to Farwaniya Hospital.

Fire incident A home located in Al-Rawdha caught fire due to faulty wiring. A 45-year-old citizen burnt his hands and was admitted to the Amiri Hospital.

Drug overdose A Kuwaiti prisoner was admitted to Farwaniya Hospital in a critical condition.

Police suspect a case of drug or medicine overdose.

Motor accidents A car accident took place in Subhan near the airport. A 57-year-old Egyptian expatriate suffered multiple injuries and fractured his right hand. He was admitted to Al-Adan Hospital. In another incident, a car accident took place at a traffic light junction between Al-Shamiya and Shuwaikh residential area. A 41-year-old Indian expat fractured his neck and was admitted to Al-Amiri Hospital.

Corpse found The body of a 26-year-old Nepali expatriate was found in Wafra. No circumstantial evidence suggests that a crime was committed. The corpse was referred to a medical examiner.

Fire Fire broke out at a store in Al-Ardiya .

Teams from four fire centers doused the flames.

KUWAIT: The Internet crisis seems to be reaching an end after a series of meetings between officials at the Ministry of Communication and the Internet service providers. The two parties reached an agreement to stop the Internet speed-capping policy and decrease subscription prices which witnessed a hike over the past three months. Ministry of Communication Undersecretary Abdulmohsen Al-Mazeedi said to the press that the subscription prices will be decreased by 25 percent, and the capping policy will no longer be effective within the coming week.

“This comes as part of our compliance with the recommendations of the 10th Arab Telecom and Internet Forum which was held in Lebanon last month. We find it vital to provide reliable Internet connection at affordable prices, and we sensed that the Internet service providers are eager to work hand in hand with us on this,” said

Al-Mazeedi.

Minister of Communication and Information Salem Al-Ozianah stressed on the fact that the Internet is a technology that is indispensable today and it plays a major role in the social, political and economical arenas in Kuwait. “The Ministry of Communication is determined to protect the rights of consumers by monitoring the Internet service providers and working closely with them in a manner that is responsible and transparent,” said Al-Ozainah.

Internet service providers have adopted a policy that caps the speed of users if they exceed a daily limit of downloads, a decision that caused an uproar among Internet users.

Internet providers also increased subscription prices, citing high monthly fees paid to the Ministry of Communication as the reason. A knowledgeable source at one of the major internet service providers in Kuwait told the Kuwait Times that approximately 60 percent of what the

Variety of food items on sale at Ramadan exhibition KUWAIT: The Ramadan Food and Kitchenware Exhibition will be held on Sunday under the patronage and in the presence of Mohammad Al-Kandari, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs. The event is being organized by Kuwait International Fair Company between 17 to 29 July 2011 at the Mishref Fair Grounds, with the participation of more than 100 local and international organizations. Several Arab and foreign diplomats, prominent businessmen have been invited to attend the event.

The exhibition is being held amid preparations made ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which provides all consumers’ needs under one roof. More than 100 companies, both local and international will display a variety of food items that are mostly consumed during the holy month. The exhibition is jointly sponsored by Kuwait Agriculture Company, KDD and Gloria Jean. The Kuwait International Fair has combined kitchenware display along with the food exhibition so that the visitor can have easy access to their needs in one visit. The exhibition will showcase basic food items as well as special ones that are used in the month of Ramadan in addition to new products from Yemen, Iran, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Oman, Morocco and Cyprus.

London Mayor hosts reception to celebrate launch of ‘Shubbak’

KFSD holds summer safety open day in Farwaniya KUWAIT: As part of its summer safety campaign, firefighters from the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate’s (KFSD) Ardiya brigade held a public open day featuring various activities and competitions yesterday at a popular cafe in Farwaniya. The event, which focused on raising public awareness of fire risks and educating the public about home safety, also saw various gifts and prizes distributed to participants, including the children. The open day, led

by Captain Ahmad Abdullah and his assistant, Mohammed Ashour, also featured a demonstration of the equipment used by the firefighters.

After the event, senior KFSD officer Colonel Faisal Ashkanani thanked the cafe managers Tamer Al-Saeedi and Abdullah Al-Zaied for their cooperation, as well as expressing gratitude to the firefighters who helped make the open day a great success.

subscribers pay for their subscription goes to the Ministry of Communication as fees. The Ministry of Communication is in the process of renegotiating prices and fees as a step towards overhauling the infrastructure of Internet services in Kuwait. The parties are set to reach an agreement within the week.

Much of this is thanks to a pressure group formed online by dissatisfied users over the past several weeks, meeting with parliament members, Ministry of Communication officials and Internet service provider representatives.

Last month, Kuwait attended the 10th Arab Telecom and Internet Forum in Beirut, which stressed in its recommendations on providing reliable affordable Internet connection to individuals. Specialists at the forum saw that it is especially vital as a factor for social development, knowledge and learning, and an effective tool in the hands of nations that want to partake in deciding their destinies.

LONDON: The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, hosted a reception on Monday 11 July, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to celebrate Shubbak, London’s first festival of contemporary arts, organized by the office of the Mayor of London and sponsored by HSBC. The guest of honor was Zaha Hadid, the celebrated London based Iraqi architect.

Among those speaking at the reception were Beth McKillop, Acting Director of the V&A; Sandy Flockhart, Chairman, HSBC, UK; Khaled Al-Duwaisan, Kuwait’s ambassador to UK, Zaha Hadid and the Mayor of London. They all emphasized the strong links between the UK and the Arab world that have strong roots in history and the role that culture plays in bringing cultures and people together. Flockhart said that HSBC is delighted to sponsor the first ever festival of contemporary Arab culture and emphasized the bank’s long history in the Middle East for almost half a century. ‘Culture is an essential part of our business life too’, he added.

Khaled Al-Duwaisan praised London as one of the most diverse capitals whose links with the Arab world go back as far as the medieval ages. ‘This is why such a festival is important as it helps build respect and understanding of different traditions, languages, beliefs and cultures.’ He described ‘Shubbak’ as a window of light that can help fight the darkness: ‘What the world needs is not more walls it needs more windows’.

London based Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid described London as a city that has ‘accepted diversity and with that it has accepted many different things that happen in the world’.

She considered that what was happening in the Arab world helped in creating tremendous interest in Arabic arts architecture, video, film, photography and London has openly welcomed showcasing them all.

Concluding the speeches, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson called the event a celebration of the achievements of the Arab world and what the modern Arab culture is producing. ‘Shubbak’ is an appreciation of our ties with the Arab world and aimed at deepening those ties even further to ‘promote understanding between London and that fantastic part of the globe’.

Among the guests attending were leaders from the cultural and diplomatic community from London and across the Arab world including: Amar Abba, Algerian Ambassador to the UK; Noreen Abu Oun, Executive Director of the ArabBritish Centre; Jananne Al-Ani, Iraqi Artist; Wassan AlKhudhairi, Director, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Sheikh Abdullah Al-Rashid; Princess Alia Idris AlSenussi; Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Zahir Al-Hinai, Oman’s ambassador to the UK; Stephen Deuchar, Director of The Art Fund; Hatem Seif El Nasr, Egyptian Ambassador to the UK; Delfina Entrecanales, Founder of the Delfina Foundation; Professor Manuel Hassassian, Ambassador/Palestinian General Delegate to the UK; Mazen Homoud, Jordanian Ambassador to the UK; Munira Mirza, Mayoral Advisor on Arts and Culture; Gregor Muir, Executive Director, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; curator and writer Jack Persekian; Dr Venetia Porter, Curator, Department of the Middle East at the British Museum; Maya Rasamny, Patron and Collector of Middle Eastern Art; Vicky Richardson, Director, Architecture, Design, Fashion, British Council; Leading Egyptian Artist, Wael Shawky; Mohamed Taha Mustafa Ambassador of Yemen to the UK; Salma Tuqan, Contemporary Middle Eastern Curator at the V&A; Ed Vaizey MP Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries; Sheena Wagstaff, Tate Modern’s chief curator and British sculptor, Richard Wentworth.

Ali Al-Qabandi

Mahmoud Al-Qassem

Young divers continue trip despite heat KUWAIT: Enthusiastic Kuwaiti divers participating in this year’s traditional pearl diving trip continue their journey that started three days ago towards the diving spot near Al-Khairan shore. They refuse to let the high temperatures recorded these days deter them.

“The young men are showing strong resolve in leading their ships, under supervision of senior consultant Khalifa AlRashid”, said Ali Al-Qabandi, head of the Kuwait Sea Sports Club’s cultural committee which organizes the 23rd annual Pearl Diving trip. Moreover, Al-Qabandi noted that divers are instructed to focus on ‘quality over quantity’ in the process of picking pearls from the seafloor. He also assured that all divers are in good health and have been able to adjust to the extreme conditions created by the heat.

In the meantime, a delegation carrying representatives of local press and media outlets are set to embark in a twoday trip this afternoon, in order to cover the diving process in action tomorrow morning. The media personnel will be taken from the KSSC headquarters in Salmiya, via buses to Al-Khairan where they will stay overnight at two chalets allocated for this purpose. The media team will be welcomed with a traditional ceremony held by the divers. They will be taken in boats to the diving location the next morning for close coverage of the process. Mahmoud Abu Al-Qassem, head of the KSSC’s public relations and media department, sent an open invitation to all media outlets to take part in the coverage trip which lasts until tomorrow afternoon.

Wataniya Telecom sponsors Al-Rujaib High School’s graduation KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom continues its support to the education sector in Kuwait and to the development of the education sector. This has been an integral part of its social responsibility towards the community. Wataniya will constantly support youth and students, and will consider this a top priority and a significance part of its CSR initiative.

Believing in the importance of the role played by young people in the process of development and evolution, and considering them the hope and future of this nation, Wataniya Telecom sponsored Abdullah Abdullatif Rejaib high school’s graduation ceremony, which was held at the Regency Hotel early this month under the patronage of member of the parliament Dr Masouma Mubarak.

This comes under a series of sponsorship and ceremonies conducted this year, and in furtherance of its efforts in supporting the students of Kuwait. Wataniya is aiming at further encouraging and appreciating youth to always look for maximum success, for this will result in the advancement of Kuwait and ensure a prosperous and

bright future.

Director of Public Relations at Wataniya Telecom Abdulaziz Al-Balool proudly praised the students’ success and said “We are pleased to share the joy with those ambitious graduates, and it is a real pleasure for us to part of this. We are proud of them and of their accomplishments which will definitely brighten the future of Kuwait”.

The school administration expressed its gratitude and appreciation to Wataniya Telecom for its generous approach and distinguished initiative honored to Al-Rujaib high school students, especially at this important occasion in their lives, describing those moments of wonderful as fruitful results and a joint effort of all and wished all graduates continuous success in the future. The school administration praised Wataniya’s notable footprint for its effective presence in these events, inviting all other companies in Kuwait to follow suit in support of the Kuwaiti youth. The graduation ceremony was attended by PR Assistant Manager Hamad Al-Matar from Wataniya Telecom.

y

A

6

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

LOCAL

Juvenile home supervisor assaults three inmates Official killed in jet ski accident KUWAIT: A supervisor at a local juvenile detention center could face charges that families of three teenagers plan to press against him for brutal physical assault. According to a security sources, three youngsters (Saudi, Omani and Syrian) held at a correctional facility for theft and fighting cases, confronted a supervisor who used to verbally assault them and make derogatory remarks. The supervisor reportedly locked the kids in a room afterwards, and instructed a group of workers to beat them up. Furthermore, the sources indicated that the teenagers had to receive medical attention for bruises they sustained. Meanwhile, families of the three kids gathered recently outside the Ministry of Interior’s Monitoring and Inspection Department and demanded justice for their children.

Sea accident A warrant officer in the Ministry of Interior was killed in an off- duty accident that occurred while he was on a recent beach trip. Rescuers headed to the beachfront of a restaurant on the Gulf Road where the citizen was reported to have lost control over his jet ski and slipped into the waters.

The vic tim’s dead body was referred to the forensic department as soon as it was recovered from the sea by coastguards.

storekeeper revealed the identity of the person who sold him the items. Police used this information to locate the suspect, who was later captured at his apartment where large quantities of food items were also found. The suspect, an Egyptian resident, confessed during interrogation that he along with five relatives stole the shipment and hid it at a Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh house. The remaining gang members were arrested, and the suspects were all referred to the Public Prosecution.

Food theft Police arrested five suspects who robbed a shipment of food items with the hope of selling them to grocery stores ahead of Ramadan. Investigations had been ongoing for a few days after a citizen reported that a shipment of nearly 600 cardboard boxes were stolen from a warehouse he owns in Shuwaikh Industrial Area. Investigators were soon able to locate some of the stolen items being put for sale at a baqala (small grocery store) in Maidan Hawally. The

Drug possession Hawally police arrested a citizen with possession of drugs in the area. The suspect’s awkward behavior when he approached a checkpoint raised officers’ suspicions. They searched his car and found dozens of tablets hidden in secret places. The driver was detained and referred to the Drug Control General Department.

Fatal crash A motorcyclist died after he crashed face first into a hard

object in front of a restaurant in Salmiya. An ambulance accompanied by police rushed to the scene where the accident was reported. The young man died at the Amiri Hospital shor tly after being admitted there in a critical condition. A case was opened for investigations.

Shooting case A citizen was taken into custody following an attempted murder of his own nephew.

Police became aware of the case when the nephew told officers at the Andalus police station that his uncle fired several gunshots in his direc tion which damaged his car. When summoned for interrogation, the man confirmed the altercation, but denied the shooting report.

Investigators found empty bullet shells at the crime scene, which were taken as evidence to support the complainant’s claim.

Stranded baby Police are currently working to identify parents of an infant who was recently found stranded near a bus stop in Al-Na’eem. An Asian

woman who found the baby at the bus station referred him to the Jahra Hospital. The woman explained that she made her way out of a public transportation bus when her attention was caught by a baby’s cry, adding that she found the infant wrapped in a blanket when she tracked the source of the cries.

Investigators believe that the infant is the result of an illegal relationship.

Missing woman A woman reported missing by her family was found during a security campaign in Maidan Hawally, and her arrest led to the capture of a citizen who hosted her in his apartment. The 28-yearold GCC national was forced to pull over when she attempted to evade a checkpoint. Inspection revealed that she was reported missing, after which she admitted that she had been staying with her friend ever since she escaped from home. Police gathered information about the apartment’s owner to apprehend him.

—Al-Qabas, Al-Anba, Al-Watan, Al-Rai

FM in London to attend meetings LONDON: Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah arrived in London on Friday evening to attend meetings of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford.

Sheikh Dr Mohammad, who was received at the airport by Kuwait’s Ambassador to

Britain Khaled Al-Duwaisan, is a member in the Baord of Trustees since 2009.

Established in 1985 to encourage scholarly study of Islam and the Islamic world, the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of scholars and statements from different parts of the world, alongside representatives of the University of Oxford. Prince

Charles of Wales is the Center’s patron.

Kuwait, through Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Science (KFAS), has been a big contributor to the center, upon the directives received from late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

Kuwait has made financial contributions to the Librar y of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies. —KUNA

BERLIN: Kuwaiti Minister of Health Dr Hilal Al-Sayer and Frankfurt Mayor Petra Roth inaugurating the health office.

Kuwait health office opened in Frankfurt BERLIN: In a huge ceremony, Kuwaiti Minister of Health Dr Hilal Al-Sayer and Frankfurt Mayor Petra Roth inaugurated Kuwait’s new health office in Germany.

“Today we open a new office whose location was chosen to meet the requirements of a new phase,” Al-Sayer said in a speech on this occasion. He stressed the importance of cooperation between Kuwait and Germany in the medical field.

Al-Sayer hoped the new office will overcome the problems which occurred in the past with some German medical institutions. “Agreements signed between Kuwait health office and German medical or non-medical institutions should be characterized with highest standards of transparency and clarity,” the minister said.

Al-Sayer thanked those in charge of the new health office for the relentless efforts they exert to promote medical cooperation between Kuwait and Germany.

Director of the Health Office, Dr

Suleiman Al-Herbish highlighted the importance of the event. “This is a confirmation of a new era of cooperation based on mutual trust and work to build bridges between Kuwait’s health office and the medical institutions in Germany.” Al-Herbish thanked the Health Ministry’s officials for their substantial support which enabled the office to overcome the problems of the past and restoring confidence in it.

The opening ceremony was attended

by Kuwaiti Ambassador to Germany Dr Masaed Al-Haroun and the Consul General of the State of Kuwait in Frankfur t Asaad Al-Bahr as well as Director of Overseas Treatment Depar tment at Ministr y of Health Mohammed Mashaan and a considerable number of managers and officials of the German hospitals.

The building is located in the heart of the city near the Consulate General of the State of Kuwait and a few steps from the main train station and the Kuwait Airways. —KUNA

NBK Deputy CEO Isam Al Sager and Assistant General Manager HR Group -Kuwait Emad Ahmed Al Ablani honor the students.

NBK honors staff’s children for academic excellence KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) honored the children of staff members who achieved excellence in education, in recognition of their hard work and efforts. The honoring ceremony was held at Sheraton Hotel-Kuwait.

The event was organized under the personal sponsorship and presence of NBK Group Deputy CEO Isam Al-Sager and Assistant General Manager HR Group - Kuwait Emad Ahmed Al- Ablani, along with a

group of NBK officials.

Al- Sager congratulated students and urged them to continue working hard to achieve their goals, “We at NBK are proud of these youth and what they have achieved, and wish them every success in their future studies and careers,” he added.

During the ceremony, more than 100 students were honored and given gifts and certificates of appreciation by NBK management.

“NBK is keen to honor the outstanding children of staff members in recognition of their efforts, also in recognition of parents who provide all the needs of their children and ensure their success,” Al-Sager added.

NBK supports education and excellence for the youth of Kuwait in a variety of ways, including holding such honoring ceremonies to recognize and reward students striving toward excellence.

Kuwait Fatwa body concludes Cairo visit CAIRO: A delegation of Kuwaiti Fatwa and Legislation Department, headed by Deputy President Advisor Faisal Al-Saraawi, concluded their few-days official visit to Cairo, where they met high-ranking Egyptian judicial figures.

Al-Saraawi said yesterday that the visit was “successful and fruitful”. The delegation had a chance to get familiarized with methods and systems followed by the different Egyptian judicial bodies.

The goal of this visit, he pointed out, was to promote legal and judicial cooperation between Kuwait and Egypt and to get a close-up look at Egypt’s experience on those two realms.

The Kuwaiti delegation had conducted a number of

meetings, most importantly, the meeting with Egyptian Minister of Justice Mohammad El-Gendy. They also met with Head of the Higher Judicial Council Hossam Ghariani, President of the Administrative Prosecution Authority advisor Timor Mustafa Kamel and other highly-ranked judicial figures.

Al-Saraawi noted that these meetings had a “positive” outcome, where a number of points of views on legal and judicial issues were discussed and exchanged.

The Kuwaiti official took this occasion to stress the “strong and deep-rooted” judicial and legal ties between the state of Kuwait and Egypt, describing them as a “fine proof of how the two countries’ systems are similar. —KUNA

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Troops, rebels battle in Libya’s mountains

Muslim Brotherhood blossoms in Arab Spring Page 8

Page 11

SANAA: Supporters of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh attend a rally in Sanaa to show support for Saleh, who has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia for more than a month after being wounded in a bomb attack in his palace.— AFP

Saudis seeking arms amid growing fears Kingdom aims to starve off Iran threat RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s hunger for weapons, initially aimed at staving off the threat of Iran, has grown with the upcoming US withdrawal from Iraq and instability in Yemen and Bahrain, analysts say.

“Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries in general realize that they must rely on themselves to defend themselves during this critical period marked by the beginning of a US withdrawal from Iraq,” said Anwar Eshki, director of the Middle East Institute for Strategic Studies.

About 46,000 US troops remain in Iraq and are due to leave by December 31 under an agreement with Baghdad, although US officials have said they may keep some there after the deadline if requested by Iraqi authorities. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has traditionally bought US and British arms, but it showed no hesitation in contacting a new supplier, Berlin, with which it is negotiating the purchase of 200 Leopard tanks, according to reports in Germany.

The order is worth some two billions euros ($2.8 billion), German magazine Der Spiegel said on its website. “The kingdom is looking for weapons in Germany and even in Russia, knowing

that with the vacuum left by the Americans in Iraq, Iran might begin to extend its influence to the Levant reaching out to the Mediterranean sea,” said Eshki. “Gulf countries need to feel capable of facing any threat from Iran or Iraq, as Kuwait and Bahrain are Saudi Arabia’s last lines of defense,” said the Jeddah-based researcher.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, whose country sent about 1,000 troops to Bahrain, freeing up local security forces to crush a month-long uprising, recently reiterated Riyadh’s rejection of “foreign adventures” in Bahrain, in a reference to Iran. “Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have strategy to maintain their security,” Faisal said on July 5. “If Iran wants to play a key role as a regional power, it must take into account the interests of neighboring countries and not just its own,” the minister said.

Relations between the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states and non-Arab, predominantly Shiite Iran were strained following the March crackdown on Shiite-led protests in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia, a key player in Middle East politics, is also facing threats from neighboring Yemen.

Yemen has since January been gripped by protests calling for the ouster of its

long-time president, and also must contend with the threat of Al-Qaeda militants.

“Saudi Arabia is facing new threats in Yemen, (and) Iran’s nuclear program,” said Theodore Karasik, the director for research and development at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. “This program raises fears due to its unclear nature. It represents a threat to Saudis especially within the perspective of American withdrawal from Iraq and the events in Syria and Lebanon,” he said.

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb under the guise of an energy program. Tehran vehemently denies the charges. The United Nations has already slapped a wide range of sanctions on the Islamic republic over its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program. “Iran’s war games also do not reassure the Saudis, who are paying attention to Iran’s behavior in the shadow of its ballistic missiles weapons,” said Karasik. Saudi Arabia’s “foreign policy is more aggressive; it is not like before anymore-it is more assertive,” he added.

The Saudis are diversifying their weapons suppliers, but remain major customers for US weapons. —AFP

Drought in Horn of Africa worsens NAIROBI: The plight of millions of drought-stricken people across the Horn of Africa is set to worsen, with rains expected only later in the year and harvests months away, a top UN official warned yesterday. Scanty or failed rainfall in the region over the past two years has already forced thousands of Somalis to flee the country and ruined the livelihoods of millions in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. “We are possibly seeing a perfect storm in the coming months ... We are going to do everything we can to ameliorate it,” UNICEF director Anthony Lake said as he left for a trip to a drought-hit northern Kenya region.

“We are scaling up in every way we can ... It is very bad now. There will be no major harvests until some time next year. The next six months are going to

be very tough,” added Lake. The UNICEF chief will tour Turkana, one of Kenya’s badly-affected regions where malnutrition rates have increased to 37 percent, compared to 15 percent in 2010, according to the aid organization Oxfam. Kenya is also home to the world’s biggest refugee camp, where hundreds of thousands of Somalis have sought refuge from relentless conflict back home and thousands more are arriving daily due to the current drought.

Relief groups are struggling to cope with the influx and have urged the Kenyan government to ease camp congestion by opening a new camp that has already been constructed. The camps that are currently operational host 380,000 people, more than four times the initial capacity. Western coun-

tries and other donors have pledged millions of dollars in aid for the drought-stricken population and Lake said more still needs to be done to ease the suffering of the affected people.

UNICEF said last week it needed 31.8 million dollars (22 million euro) for the coming three months to assist millions of affected women and children.

The agency estimates that more than two million children are malnourished across the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa region and are in need of urgent help to survive. Around 500,000 of them face imminent, life-threatening conditions.

Experts have called for long-term measures to deal with the effects of recurring drought, arguing that the resultant human suffering can be avoided. — AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Years

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

Muslim Brotherhood blossoms in Arab Spring BAGHDAD: Hailed as the dawn of democracy in the Middle East, the Arab Spring has boosted the Muslim Brotherhood, which has emerged as the major political force in most countries swept by the upheaval. And while they stand a good chance of winning elections due to feeble competition, notably in Egypt and Tunisia, the Brotherhood are expected to seek power-sharing deals, at least initially.

“Though the Muslim Brotherhood was not at centre stage during the protest movements, it is now an important part of the political spectrum in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and elsewhere,” said Francois Burgat, an expert on Islamic politics.

“It is not inconceivable that they wi ll a c t ual l y w in t he majo rit y.

However, both in Tunisia and Egypt, they do not currently intend to present official candidates for the presidency of the republic,” said Burgat, author of “Islam in the era of AlQ a e d a .” Po l it ical l y t he Musl im Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by the Egyptian Hassan AlBanna, has been the most influential Islamic movement in the Arab world.

They stick to their motto of “God is our goal/the Prophet Mohammed is our leader/the Quran is our law,” but n ow a l so esp o u se demo crac y.

Severely repressed until the popular protest movements ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the Brotherhood

have now emerged as key players.

In Egypt, the Brotherhood’s support for a constitutional referendum proposed by th e militar y con tributed to the massive 77% victory by which it passed. The democratic and secular movements, which had called for a rejection of the referen-

CAIRO: Egyptian Ramy Issam shows his back covered with scars at the courtyard of the Egyptian museum while visiting the museum for the first time since his detention in Cairo. — AP dum on constitutional amendments, young, who challenge the conservafound themselves on the losing end. tive ideas of their elders, the moveBetter organized than their competi- ment has a weaker power base. tors, the Brotherhood founded the “Brotherhood has firm ambitions for “Freedom and Justice” party, and for power- In Tunisia, the Islamic Ennahda the Autumn elections plans to field (Renaissance) party has adopted the candidates in only half of the con- same tactics.

Its leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, who stituencies, in an effor t to avoid

Tribunal funding, arrests test Lebanon government BEIRUT: After winning a confidence vote at home, Lebanon’s Hezbollah-dominated government is headed for another test over the country’s financial duties towards the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). But experts say there is little the government will-or can-do in assisting the UN-backed STL, which has ordered the arrest of four Hezbollah operatives indicted in the 2005 assassination of expremier Rafiq Hariri. “Everybody knows that there is little the Lebanese government can do to truly assist the tribunal,” said Beirut-based commentator Hilal Khashan.

“Prime Minister Najib Mikati can get away with not raising the issue of funding as the (pro-Western) opposition is not represented in cabinet.” Mikati-a Forbeslisted billionaire with business interests across the globe-has vowed to cooperate with the court, but Shiite militant group Hezbollah has outright refused to comply with the STL which it says is a US-Israeli conspiracy against the Iran-backed movement. Analysts say Mikati is now left with no choice but to continue his balancing act between the opposition’s demand for “justice” and Hezbollah’s warnings that “stability” must be protected in the volatile country.

“Prime Minister Najib Mikati has the capacity to stall decisions on funding by not raising the matter for discussion at a cabinet meeting,” said Beirut-based political commentator Jean Aziz. “On the other hand, if funding is in fact brought up as part of the government’s overall budget talks, then Hezbollah and its allies can stall the talks either in government or parliament.” Lebanon is responsible for meeting 49 percent of the costs for the Netherlands-based STL, the first international court with jurisdiction to try an act of terrorism.

The court has long been at the centre of an intractable crisis in Lebanon, culminating in the collapse of Lebanon’s previous government led by Hariri’s son, USand Saudi-backed Saad Hariri. Saad Hariri’s government had failed to pass a state budget as he locked horns with

Hezbollah over the STL. In 2010, Hariri’s camp made a contribution to the court without going through the government and, according to a source in the former government, the country did not meet its required contribution to the STL for the year 2011.

Today, the Hezbollah-led majority alliance effectively controls Lebanon’s new government, which last week issued a program including a clause that stipulates Lebanon would “respect” international resolutions on condition they do not threaten peace and stability. “The current government has purposely taken a stance on the tribunal that is ambiguous and vague as it needs flexibility in dealing with an issue as explosive as this,” said Imad Salamey, political science professor at the Lebanese-American University.

“Mikati stands up and supports the tribunal. Part of his cabinet can oppose, and part of his cabinet can support him,” Salamey said. “This way, he is not directly holding himself accountable to the opposition.” In an interview with local television on Tuesday, Hariri said he had been left wondering “who to believe” as Mikati and Hezbollah adopted seemingly opposite stances against the court. “It comes down to funding-that is when we will know what the government’s position is,” he said. Lebanon’s government should finalize its public budget by the autumn, which should in theory include funds for the STL. The tribunal’s defense office will begin to build its case at around the same time, although arrests are unlikely as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said he doubts the four will ever be found.

“Everyone is aware of the existing balance of power in Lebanon,” said Khashan. “It’s not that Mikati will not cooperate with the STL-he will. “Judicial authorities and the police are investigating the whereabouts of the indictees, and when the 30 days they have to find them are over, the government will inform the tribunal that they were nowhere to be found,” he added. “Technically, that is all that is required of the government.”— AFP

UN calls for peace in oil-rich Sudan state UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council said yesterday it was gravely concerned about violence in a volatile and oilrich Sudan border territory, and called for an immediate end to hostilities there.

Southern Kordofan, the area of concern, is in Sudan but includes large populations which sided with the south during a 20year civil war. Armed groups in the state have been fighting Khartoum government troops since early June.

South Sudan became an independent country last Saturday after its people voted in a referendum to break away from Sudan, which lost around three-quarters of its oil reserves in the split. Southern Kordofan is its biggest remaining oil state. Members of the Security Council “expressed their grave concern about the ongoing violence” at a briefing on Friday, said German Ambassador Peter Wittig, Security Council President for the month of July.

They called on the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s (SPLM) northern sector to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities, Wittig said. The SPLM is South Sudan’s dominant political force. “Members of the

looking like a hegemony.

They also have announced they will not front a candidate in presidential polls. Analysts say the movement could dominate the political scene through alliances, and gain the upper hand in introducing their ideas into a revised constitution. But among the

Security Council urged all parties to respect humanitarian principles and to allow humanitarian personnel timely and unfettered access to the affected civilian population,” Wittig told reporters after the meeting.

EGREGIOUS A draft UN report obtained by Reuters on Thursday called for the Security Council to mandate an inquiry into violence in Southern Kordofan, saying the conduct of the north’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) there had been “especially egregious.” The report concentrates on acts committed since June 5, when fighting broke out.

Reported acts include aerial bombardment, abductions, arbitrary arrests and attacks on churches, it said. The acts were allegedly perpetrated by forces including the SAF, the report said. If proven, they may constitute “war crimes,” it added.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Friday she was “increasingly alarmed by the mounting allegations of mass graves in South Kordofan ... and of reported disappearances of civilians, targeting of people on an ethnic basis, and extra-judicial killings.” —Reuters

returned from 20 years in exile said in an interview that a government without Ennahda would be “very weak,” adding that his movement was interested in “power sharing.” He also said that his party, which emerged as the most popular in an opinion poll, was the biggest. Many who intend to vote in the October 23 election favor Ennahda, which also possesses a large network and significant financial resources. “In the short term if other political parties remain weak and poorly organized, Islamists in these first elections may do better than other parties, but that does not mean they will govern,” said Professor John L. Esposito of Washington’s Georgetown University, and author of “The Future of Islam.”

“Note that both the Brotherhood and Ennahda have said that they will not seek the presidency in upcoming elections,” said Esposito, a specialist in religion and international affairs. “If at any time in the future they were able to get enough votes to govern that would be their right,” he added. In Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood actively participated in the protest movements. The Brotherhood’s Islamic Action Front demands a new electoral law and a constitutional monarchy.

Other regimes exposed to popular revolts have accused the Brotherhood as instigators in an effort to paint the Arab Spring as an Islamist manipulation.

In Libya, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim said this week that the opposition National Transitional Council was not a homogenous entity, and that it contained “different factions within it, of which the most actively involved are the branches of the Muslim Brotherhood.” In Syria, the regime has insisted that the opposition is led by religious extremists, and is a resurgence of the Muslim Brotherhood revolt that was crushed in 1982. In Yemen, the Yemeni Reform Group is the main representative of the Muslim Brotherhood. President Ali Abdullah Saleh has portrayed the group, which was the main component inside the parliamentary opposition and once allied to him, as the instigators of the anti-regime revolt.

Authorities accuse it of being close to Al-Qaeda. “The Brotherhood’s program during this phase is to participate in the government, not to govern,” said Lebanese journalist and author Hazem Al-Amin. “ They are smarter than to believe that they can govern. This assumption applies to Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen and likely to Syria,” said Amin, author of “Lonely Salafists.”

“Participation is not a matter of abstinence but rather of realism,” said Amin, who writes for the Al-Hayat newspaper. “But it must be stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood has firm ambitions for power, even if it is deferred.”— AFP

Yemen president to return home ‘soon’ Protesters create shadow ‘presidential council’ SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been treated for blast wounds in Saudi Arabia since early June, will return home “soon,” Deputy Information Minister Abdo AlJanadi said yesterday. Opposition activists, meanwhile, called for the creation of an interim “presidential council” including a former premier to run the country.

“The president is in good health.

He will return to Yemen soon, but is awaiting the decision of his doctors,” Janadi told a news conference, without specifying a date. Saleh, who has been in power since 1978, was wounded in a bomb attack at the presidential palace compound in Sanaa on June 3, and was admitted to hospital in Saudi Arabia the following day. He appeared on television on July 7 for the first time since the attack, heavily bandaged.

Three days later, he was shown on television receiving John Brennan, US President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser. He was in better shape than in his earlier appearance, although burns were still visible on his face.

The White House said Brennan had called on Saleh during the meeting to sign a transition plan sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that would see him cede power within 30 days in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Since January, Saleh has faced protests calling for him to stand down. Bloody crackdowns on demonstrators by his security forces have drawn international condemnation,

SANAA: Yemeni anti-government protesters shout slogans during a rally to demand the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime yesterday. — AFP including from Washington.

Some generals and military units, along with the leader of the country’s most powerful tribal federation, have pledged support for the demonstrators, but elite units such as the Republican Guards have remained loyal, and Saleh has refused to stand down.

Since Saleh left for Saudi Arabia, Yemeni Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has assumed power but has not been designated the de facto head of state.

Yesterday, a group of young anti-Saleh protesters who have camped out in a square in Sanaa

since February announced the creation of a 17-member “presidential council”. The council “is charged with leading the country during a transition period not to exceed nine months and with forming a government of technocrats,” Tawakul Karman, a leader of the anti-Saleh protest movement, told reporters.

The council groups notable personalities from different opposition groups, including Ali Nasser Mohammed, the ex-president of formerly independent South Yemen, former premier Haidar Abu Bakr Al-Attas and

Abdullah Al-Hakimi, an exiled long-time opponent of Saleh.

“We decided to announce the formation of the presidential council in the wake of rumours that Saleh will return on Sunday or Monday,” Hashem al-Ibara, an official in a youth opposition coalition, told AFP. However, the formation of the council does not appear to be supported by some other Saleh opponents, including the parliamentary opposition, which inked the GCC-sponsored transition plan that Saleh has so far refused to sign. —AFP

Israel aircraft raid Gaza for fourth day in a row Two rockets fired from Gaza into Israel GAZA: Israeli aircraft struck Gaza overnight for the fourth time in as many days, wounding a militant who was about to fire a rocket, Palestinian security sources said yesterday. The Palestinian was admitted to hospital but his injuries were not life-threatening, the sources said. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that an air strike had targeted a Palestinian.

The raid was followed by the firing of two rockets from Gaza into Israel, neither of which caused casualties or damage, she added. There has been a sharp increase in rocket fire

by Gaza militants in recent days, ending two months of relative calm in which just two rockets were fired into Israel in two months.

Armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz convened a meeting on Friday with regional commander for Gaza Brigadier General Tal Russo, air

force chief Major General Ido Nehustan and military intelligence chief Major General Aviv Kochavi to discuss a response, Israeli media reported. Israel has launched a series of air strikes in retaliation for the rocket fire. On Thursday night, Israeli jets struck three targets in Gaza, moderately wounding four Palestinians, security and medical officials said. On Wednesday night, Israeli aircraft targeted three tunnels, two used for smuggling in southern Gaza and one “used for terrorist activity” in the north of the Palestinian territory.

On Tuesday, Israeli air raids hit what the military called two “weapons manufacturing sites” in northern Gaza. Palestinian medical sources said one woman was moderately injured. In April, tensions rose after an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an Israeli school bus, killing a teenager. Israel responded

GAZA: Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in the AlTuffah area, eastern Gaza City, after Palestinians fired rockets into southern Israel. — AFP with a series of air strikes that killed another similar offensive, but on at least 19 Palestinians in the dead- April 10 Gaza’s Hamas rulers liest violence since Israel’s devastat- declared a return to the truce that ing 22-day assault on Gaza in 2008- ended Israel’s Operation Cast Lead 2009. The violence raised fears of in January 2009.—AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

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

Immigrant families flee homes in N Ireland riot BELFAST: Immigrant families fled a Catholic area of Northern Ireland when loyalist rioters tried to attack nationalist homes during the night, local Sinn Fein politician John O’Dowd said yesterday. “Around 100 loyalists attacked police who prevented them attacking nationalist homes,” said O’Dowd, who is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The families from East Timor packed their bags and ran from their homes in Portadown, Co Armagh, when the area was engulfed in violence, he said. “They packed their bags, so distressed were they at the violence. Their neighbors tried to reassure them that they would be safe in their homes but they left,” he added.

For several hours police were attacked by people armed with petrol bombs, bricks, bottles, fireworks and other missiles in the latest violence surrounding the high point of the loyalist marching season. The police

fired around 20 plastic bullets and arrested three people. They confirmed that loyalists provoked the violence when a planned peaceful protest was hijacked by a violent minority. The Mayor of the local Craigavon council, Democratic Unionist Alan Carson, condemned the violence. “This does not do anyone any good. People have a right to live peacefully and feel safe in their own homes.

The violence we saw last night is something we assigned to the history books,” he said.

A significant number of families from East Timor have settled in Portadown, where they work in the food packing industry alongside many Poles and Portuguese.

In recent days nearly 50 police have been wounded and dozens have been arrested during violence in both loyalist and republican areas surrounding the annual July 12 parades. More than 500 parades were held on Tuesday across Northern Ireland, the

high point of the Orange Order marching season celebrating the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

The vast majority passed off peacefully, but they raised community tensions and sparked outbreaks of street violence.

Three decades of fighting between mostly Protestant loyalists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom and Irish nationalists, mainly Catholics, who want it to be part of a united Ireland tore the province apart during a three -decade period known as the “Troubles.” A 1998 peace agreement paved the way for a power-sharing government of loyalists and nationalists. Violence has subsided, but police say the threat from dissident groups opposed to the peace deal is higher than it has ever been since it was signed. — Reuters

BELFAST: A car is set alight as Nationalist Youths throw rocks and petrol bombs at Police during rioting in Belfast, Northern Ireland. — AFP

Call to scrap Bastille Day parade provokes outrage Greens’ candidate questions ancient tradition

NEW YORK: News about Rebekah Brooks’ resignation is displayed on the Fox News ticker of a building which houses the News Corp headquarter in New York. — AP

Can school reformer Joel Klein reform News Corp?

NEW YORK: When Joel Klein stepped down from running New York City’s schools last year to head the education division at News Corp, he seemed to be trading the glare of government for private sector comforts. Now he is back in the public eye. News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has turned to him to “provide important oversight and guidance” as the embattled media group grapples with allegations that reporters at British tabloid News of the World hacked into the cell phones of politicians and other targets.

In response to the growing crisis, News Corp has rushed to create a management and standards committee that reports directly to Klein. His power seems likely to grow after Rebekah Brooks stood down from running News Corp’s British newspaper operations and Les Hinton resigned as Dow Jones CEO. Klein, 64, joins a hastily formed “inner circle” of Murdoch, his son James, and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to fight the crisis, a source familiar with the company’s plans said.

He has kept a low profile since the announcement and News Corp is silent on the details of his duties. It will not conduct an internal investigation while the police investigate in order to avoid interference, the source said.

Klein’s extensive legal backgroundmost notably, he ran the US Justice Department’s antitrust division in the late 1990s, overseeing the government ’s case against Microsoftprompted Murdoch to turn to him for guidance, the source said.

Former colleagues say Klein is unflappable, even in times of turmoil.

“He was the guy who engendered a lot of trust in the clients, so when they had crises, he would stay calm and help them work their way through things,” said Paul Smith of Jenner & Block. He worked alongside Klein at the law firm of Onek, Klein & Farr in the 1980s.

‘RESTLESS ENERGY’ A Harvard Law School graduate, Klein earned a reputation as a stellar appellate lawyer in private practice before serving as deputy White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton.

Before becoming chancellor of the New York City school system, Klein headed the US operations of multinational media giant Bertelsmann AG. His wife, Nicole Seligman, is general counsel for Sony Corp and represented Clinton during his impeachment proceedings while a partner at the prominent law firm Williams & Connolly.

Former colleagues say he awakens at 5 a.m., responds to emails with alacrity and plays a mean game of tennis. “Joel doesn’t like to do anything that he’s not going to excel in,” said Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition and a former colleague at Onek, Klein & Farr.

Klein is not known as an expert in crisis

management, but his lack of experience has not been an issue in the past, those who know him said. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg entrusted the nation’s largest public school system to Klein for eight years, although he lacked formal education experience.

“I think the best analogy for it is being head of the antitrust division,” said Phillip Malone, who helped run the Justice Department’s antitrust investigation of Microsoft Corp under Klein. “None of which he had much personal experience with-he had done mostly appellate work-but he is incredibly good at putting together teams and managing them and knowing what has to get done.”

In prosecuting Microsoft, Klein brought in famed attorney David Boies to handle the trial. At News Corp, where his pay package could be worth $4.5 million this year, including bonuses, he built a team of education executives, including some hires from New York: Kristen Kane, the former COO of the city’s education department, and Diana Rhoten, founder of a New York City firm that develops new media and technology products for schools.

RUNNING THE SCHOOLS Klein, a product of New York City public schools, took a leave of absence from law school to take education classes and teach math in a Queens public school. Years later, as schools chief, Klein’s push for greater accountability for teachers and principals and his emphasis on data-driven initiatives made him a national voice in school reform. “He took over a huge, huge bureaucracy having to make major changes,” said New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo.

“I think he did an absolutely miraculous job.”

His eight-year tenure was not immune to criticism. Parent groups attacked him for closing schools, politicians accused him of favoring charter schools over public schools and unions lambasted him for his efforts to end tenure and seniority. “He really doesn’t know how to do any of the glad-handing,” said councilwoman Gale Brewer.

“He lives a little bit in his head, I thinkthat’s what very smart people sometimes do.” Klein’s reputation for independence should lend credibility to News Corp’s response to the crisis, friends said. “If he’s empowered to conduct an investigation without constraints, he’ll get the full picture, Scheer said. Scheer said Klein would not be afraid to stand up to Murdoch and would be keen to show his independence. He said some critics of Murdoch might suggest he is placing Klein in an advisory role to win the benefit of the association without empowering him to “get to the bottom of the mess.” “All I can say is, Joel Klein would not let himself be used that way if that were happening,” Scheer added. — Reuters

PARIS: French Greens party presidential candidate Eva Joly provoked outrage yesterday after suggesting the annual July 14 Bastille Day military parade be ditched in favor of something less warlike.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said the Norwegian-born Joly, who came to France in the 1960s as an au pair and later obtained citizenship, understood nothing of the French people’s affection for the armed forces and was unfit to run for president.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that Joly lacked a long-term understanding of French culture, despite living in the country for 50 years. Joly, who said on Thursday that the show of military prowess “belongs to the past” and would be best replaced by a civilian parade, responded in equally feisty terms: “I’ve been in France for 50 years and am therefore French, so I am not going to get off my Drakkar (Viking ship).”

Others, mostly on the political right, were

furious. “What she said is a profound insult to those who have died over the centuries for their country, for its values and for its freedom,” Henri Guiano, an advisor and speechwriter for conservative President Nicolas Sarkoy, said. Her suggestion was “pathetic”, he told Europe 1 radio, a day after the national holiday that celebrates the fall of the Bastille fortress during the French revolution in 1789. On a trip to Africa, Prime Minister Fillon said: “ The lady’s understanding of France is not so old, I think.”

Bastille Day is accompanied by a huge military parade through central Paris. Warplanes fly in formation over the capital and troops march down the Champs-Elysees avenue.

Elsewhere in France, towns and villages hold parties and put on firework displays. Socialist former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said the parade was a “useful” institution and Segolene Royal, one of several Socialists seeking to run as her party’s presidential can-

Hungary Nazi war crime verdict due tomorrow BUDAPEST: The verdict is expected tomorrow in the trial of suspected Nazi war criminal Sandor Kepiro, with the prosecution calling for a prison sentence, while the defense insists the 97-year-old should be acquitted. Judge Bela Varga said the court would deliver its verdict shortly after the hearing begins at 11:00 am (0900 GMT), after both the prosecution and the defense have been given the opportunity to react to each of their final summations, delivered last month.

The timing of the verdict was chosen because that was when Kepiro, very frail and hard of hearing, was likely to be most mentally alert, judge Varga explained. Once the verdict has been read out, the court would explain the reasons behind it and, given the frailty of Kepiro, that meant the hearing would likely have to run into a second day, he said.

“I will first explain why it is our court, and not a Serbian court, which has heard the trial. And then we will explain our reasons for taking into account certain evidence or testimony, but rejected others,” Varga said.

Both the defense and a number of experts heard during the proceedings, which began on May 5, have repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of some of the evidence against Kepiro, insisting the documentation was incomplete or incorrectly translated.

The court will also explain whether it accepts or not two previous verdicts delivered on the case during the 1940s. The one-time gendarmerie officer is on trial for his alleged participation in a raid by Hungarian forces on the Serbian town of Novi Sad on January 21-23, 1942, in which more than 1,200 Jews and Serbs were murdered.

Specifically, the 97-year-old-one of the last suspected Nazi war criminals to face trial-is accused of ordering the rounding up and execution of 36 Jews and Serbs as head of one of the patrols involved in the raid. — AFP

BUDAPEST: A court assistant places headphones on Hungarian Nazi war crime suspect Sandor Kepiro (in a wheelchair) at Budapest Municipal Court, before the start of the ninth day of his trial. — AFP

didate called Joly’s proposal “a very bad idea”.

Le Pen, who took over as National Front leader from her ex-paratrooper father earlier this year and is also running for president, was scathing.

“I don’t believe it’s legitimate to run for president when you become French late in the day,” she told RTL radio. “This shows Mrs Joly understands strictly nothing about the extremely deep links between the French people and its army.”

Joly, a former Miss Norway beauty queen contestant, came to France in the early 1960s and went on the become a high-profile anticorruption magistrate before entering politics. She won a selection ballot last week to run as presidential candidate for the Greens party coalition. This year’s parade was overshadowed by the deaths of five French soldiers in a suicide attack in Afghanistan on Wednesday and another soldier’s death on Thursday. — Reuters

Arab-Israeli imam granted bail in UK LONDON: A controversial Arab-Israeli Islamist leader, Sheikh Raed Saleh, was granted bail by a British court Friday pending the outcome of his legal challenge against efforts by the government to deport him. Saleh, 52, was detained in London last month on the orders of Home Secretary Theresa May for entering Britain despite a government ban. His lawyers said that Saleh, the head of the radical northern wing of Israel’s Islamic Movement, had no idea he was subject to an exclusion order.

At the High Court on Friday, judge Nicholas Stadlen granted Saleh bail on condition that he wear an electronic tag, observe a night-time curfew, report daily to immigration officials and stay at the home of a friend in London. He said he would not be released until late Monday, to give government officials time to carry out checks on the bail address. The judge also banned Saleh from “public speaking” and any activity which might “ferment” terrorism or criminal activity.

Two of Saleh’s supporters have put up sureties totaling £30,000 (34,000 euros, $48,000), the court heard.

Lawyers for Britain’s Home Office had opposed the bail application, and they said they would seek to appeal against the ruling on Monday. Saleh was arrested in London on June 28, the day before he was due to speak at an event in the

House of Commons organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), one of several planned during his tenday trip.

The court heard that the Home Office had made an order excluding him from Britain on June 23, and an internal investigation is now underway as to how he managed to get through border controls. The judge meanwhile said Saleh had a “good arguable case” to support his claim for a judicial review of the decision to detain him, adding that any hearing would probably take place in September. Saleh has had multiple run-ins with the law in Israel, including most recently being arrested at the border with Jordan after allegedly striking an interrogator.

In 2010, he spent five months behind bars for spitting at an Israeli policeman, and he has been detained several other times, including in connection with an alleged arson incident.

He was also held after taking part in the Gaza Strip-bound aid flotilla which Israeli naval commandos stormed on May 31, 2010 in an operation that killed nine Turkish activists. The Islamic Movement is tolerated in Israel but is under constant surveillance because of its perceived links with the Palestinian militant Hamas movement that controls Gaza, as well as with other Islamist groups worldwide. — AFP

German prize cancelled BERLIN: A prominent German prize for freedom and democratic change will not be awarded this year after the independent award committee’s decision to give it to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was criticized. “There will be no prize this year,” said a spokesman for the board of trustees that awards the Quadriga prize every year. “We will see how it continues next year.” The board of trustees said in a news release it was concerned by the “massive criticism in media and parts of politics”, which prompted it to cancel the award for the first time since it was founded in 2003.

The decision comes just days before German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets Russian President Dmitr y Medvedev to discuss deepening ties.

They are due to meet on Monday and Tuesday. Putin, a former KGB spy who was once stationed in East Germany, had been chosen as one of four 2011 Quadriga prize winners for his contribution to the stability and reliability of German-Russian relations, a spokesman said earlier this week.

Senior members of Germany’s coalition this week criticized the choice, saying it undermined the Quadriga award, which is normally handed out on the Oct. 3 national holiday celebrating German unification in 1990.

Others questioned Putin’s democratic credentials. Putin’s spokesman was not available for comment.

Russian opposition groups say Putin led a clampdown on civil liberties during his presidency from 2000 to 2008.

The United Nations and US State Department have criticized Russia’s human rights record and the European Parliament urged Russia last week to guarantee free elections. The Kremlin has dismissed such criticism. The Quadriga award annually honors people who are “role models for and from Germany” and is “dedicated to all those whose courage tears down walls and whose commitment builds bridges”.

Putin has enjoyed close relations with former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and helped the retired German leader secure a supervisory board position at a Russian-German energy company. The German Foreign Office declined to comment, saying it was a private decision by a private organization. The Russian Embassy also declined to comment. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan are among previous winners. — Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Years

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

Mayhem in Mexico’s 3rd largest city MONTERREY: The northern city of Monterrey, once Mexico’s symbol of development and prosperity, is fast becoming a new Ciudad Juarez. Drugrelated murders this year are on pace to double last year’s and triple those of the year before in the once-tranquil industrial hub. In recent weeks a tortured, screaming teenager was hung alive from a bridge. Two of the governor’s bodyguards were dismembered and dumped with messages threatening the state leader.

Last week, gunmen killed 20 people in a bar where Ziplock bags of drugs were found, the largest mass murder to date in the metro area of 4 million people. The toll continued this week: 14 were killed in separate hits on Wednesday, eight more on Thursday.

Officials say two cartels turned the city upside down practically overnight when they split in early 2010 and are trying to outdo each other with grisly displays.

Security officials acknowledge they don’t know how much worse it will get. “As long as there are consumers and a critical mass of young people for these gangs to recruit, it’s hard to imagine the number (of killings) will go down,” said Jorge Domene, state security spokesman for Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located.

The scale of the killings has rarely been seen in Mexico outside border cities such Juarez, Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo, the main gateways for drugs passing into the United States that have seen dramatic surges of violence since President Felipe Calderon intensified

Mexico’s crackdown on organized crime in 2006. And fear is starting to fray the social order. Concern over violence has caused enrollment to drop at the prestigious home campus of Mexico’s top private university, the Technology Institute of Monterrey, which has had to lay off some employees.

The chamber of industry in a brash, proud city where the annual income per capita is double the national average didn’t want to talk to The Associated Press about the impact of violence on business, though some executives acknowledge they’ve had to spend more on security. Shirt factory owner Gilberto Marcos, a member of a citizens’ council on security, said some businesses have clearly faced extortion from drug gangs, though few cases are reported.

The Gulf Cartel once controlled drug running through Monterry, and Mexico’s third-largest city had a reputation as a quiet, safe place. Where drug traffickers were present, they avoided creating problems, hiding their families amid neighborhoods of corporate executives.

The violence exploded when the Zetas broke away from the Gulf Cartel, creating a struggle for control of the area. The fight has left more than 1,000 people dead so far this year in Nuevo Leon state, compared to 828 in 2010 and 267 in 2009.

In wealthier parts of the area, restaurants are still packed and people still jog and walk their dogs at night. In poorer suburbs, though, entire blocks have been held up by gunmen and young people snatched off the streets.

Monterrey has still not reached the desperation of Ciudad Juarez, which was always a much grittier city and is now considered one of the world’s most dangerous after more 3,000 people were killed last year. There, extortion, killings and torchings of businesses have devastated the local economy and sent people fleeing across the border to El Paso, Texas.

But Monterrey is rapidly growning more violent even as murders in Juarez have begun to drop. Gangs in Monterrey hung the battered body of a topless woman from a freeway overpass last December and more recently two young men were tied to ropes, dangled from an overpass and shot in the midst of rushhour traffic. One sur vived. Sister Consuelo Morales, director of the Citizens in Support of Human Rights, said about 70 families have come to her for help in finding sons and daughters kidnapped off the streets or from their own homes.

One couple, who didn’t want to be named for fear of retaliation, said their son, an 18-year-old university linguistics major, was abducted by a dozen gunmen who broke into their home one night in January. Their best hope is that he is working for a cartel. “We have this hope that they have him packing drugs or money,” said his father, a taxi driver who quit working to search for his son full time. The Gulf Cartel and the Zetas broke apart over the killing of a Zeta in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, in January 2010. Since then, they have made a war zone of

SAN QUINTIN: Mexican soldiers burn marijuana in a 120 hectares plantation, the biggest found so far, in San Quintin, Baja California state, near the border with the US. The marihuana plantation was about 120 hectares. — AFP northeastern Mexico, even as the federal government has mounted a special operation to stop the violence with thousands of military and police reinforcements.

The federal government has made a show of force in Tamaulipas state in Mexico’s northeast corner, where the Zetas are blamed for slaughtering 72 migrants nearly a year ago, then kidnapping bus passengers and burying them in mass graves. Domene said that has only pushed the violence westward into Nuevo Leon. Local and state government can’t fight back because much of their police forces have been corrupted or coerced by the gangs.

Nuevo Leon state Gov Rodrigo Medina has promised to purge bad elements from law enforcement, but critics say his government has moved too slowly. So far only three of the state’s 51 municipalities have fully vetted their police departments, Domene said. In Guadalupe, a suburb of 700,000 badly hit by the violence, only 100 of 800 police officers remain after the new mayor began purging her police department a year and a half ago, he added. Last month, the dismembered bodies of two of Gov. Medina’s bodyguards were dumped in Guadalupe with a message accusing him of favoring one of the cartels. It didn’t say which one. —AP

Argentine heirs 2nd DNA tests negative Heirs may be stolen dictatorship babies: Rights groups BUENOS AIRES: DNA from the adopted children of one of Argentina’s wealthiest women does not match samples from 55 families who suspected the siblings were stolen as babies from murdered political prisoners, a lawyer said yesterday. A 10-year battle by human rights activists to analyze DNA from Felipe and Marcela Noble Herrera, whose mother owns Grupo Clarin, Argentina’s largest media conglomerate, has gained a highly political undertone in recent years.

President Cristina Fernandez, who is running for re-election in October, has been locked in a dispute with Clarin since its news outlets turned against her government in 2008. She has urged the courts to help clarify the identity of the Noble Herrera siblings. “It is ruled out that they are the children of disappeared (political prisoners) because the samples don’t match with any of the families,” Gabriel Cavallo, a lawyer for their mother, Ernestina Herrera de Noble, told Reuters. “For us, this ends today,” Cavallo said,

adding that the Noble Herreras’ DNA did not match samples from 55 families.

The Noble Herrera siblings were adopted by the Clarin owner 35 years ago, when the country was governed by a military dictatorship and many children of political prisoners or those who were killed or disappeared were kidnapped.

Many of them were adopted by families who were unaware of their origin. The blood samples from the siblings were submitted to a genetic database and compared to DNA taken from the relatives of victims of the country’s 1976-83 dictatorship. The siblings’ DNA did not match samples from two other families earlier this week.

Cavallo said they would wait for a judge to finish checking other samples, which include 200 other families. But he said the tests are expected come out negative because the rest of the samples come from children born in 1977 and 1978, after the Noble Herrera siblings were born.

The siblings, both in their mid-thirties, decid-

ed to voluntarily submit DNA last month saying they wanted to end the “harassment and persecution” suffered by themselves and their mother.

They accuse Fernandez of using them in her battle against Grupo Clarin. But Fernandez’s centerleft government denies it.

The government has pushed hard for the samples to be analyzed, backing efforts by rights group the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo to find children stolen from prisoners at torture centers during the so-called Dirty War. The Grandmothers group has identified 102 illegally adopted children so far, although they think there could be several hundred more who are yet to discover their true identities.

Up to 30,000 people were kidnapped and killed during the Dirty War in a state-sponsored crackdown on leftist dissent, according to human rights groups. Many of the babies, kidnapped with their parents or born to captive mothers, were illegally adopted by military families or friends of the military junta. — Reuters

US ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy to continue: Court

CARACAS: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, waves flanked by his daughters Rosa Virginia, (right) and Gabriela, after he announced he will return to Cuba yesterday to begin a new phase of cancer treatment. — AP

Venezuelan leader returns to Cuba for chemotherapy ‘I have faith in God, science, Cuban doctors’ CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday returned to ally Cuba for chemotherapy, raising doubts about his fitness to fight for re-election next year in the OPEC-member nation. The announcement came less than two weeks after he made a triumphant trip back from the Communistled island, where he underwent cancer surgery amid opposition criticism his absence was putting Venezuela’s 29 million people in danger.

The 56-year-old socialist leader has not revealed what type of cancer he has nor its severity. He left yesterday but did not say how long he would be gone. “I have faith in God, science and our Cuban and Venezuelan doctors, all the people who attend to me and finally myself and this will to live,” Chavez said on the steps of the presidential palace. Analysts warn Venezuela could be plunged into political chaos if the cancer leaves Chavez too weak to govern or forces him to step aside. He has no obvious successor and is closely involved in most major government decisions.

For twelve years, the former soldier has polarized politics in the Western Hemisphere, with his frequent lambasting of the United States, aggressive takeovers in Venezuela’s vital oil sector and nationaliza-

tions of large swathes of its economy. His liberal spending of oil revenues and his effusive charisma have led him to sweep repeated elections since 1998, but problems such as high crime and power outages made the 2012 election look like a tight race even before his illness.

Financial markets, which have for years frowned upon Chavez’s economic policies, will likely react positively to the news.

Venezuela’s global bonds jumped on word of his cancer. “We are going to continue the road to recovery, this second stage will start in the coming days with the application of chemotherapy, scientifically planned in detail,” Chavez said, flanked by two of his daughters who appeared distressed. “I am sure the second stage will help me follow the road to recovery of health.”

In contrast to his usually garrulous and improvisational style, Chavez read a letter to Venezuela’s Congress seeking authorization for his trip in a stern tone that was reminiscent of his June 30 announcement that he had cancer. Another prolonged absence following his earlier month-long spell in Cuba could lead to tensions among his allies, who analysts say could be racked by internecine disputes without his omnipresent leadership. —Reuters

LOS ANGELES: A federal appeals court ordered the military to temporarily continue its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for openly gay service members, responding to a request from the Obama administration. In its three-page decision late Friday, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the ruling was based on new information provided by the federal government, including a declaration from Major General Steven A. Hummer, who is leading the effort to repeal the policy. The court said it was upholding an earlier ruling to keep the policy in place “in order to provide this court with an opportunity to consider fully the issues presented in the light of these previously undisclosed facts.”

Despite the delay in dismantling the controversial policy, the ruling bars the federal government from investigating, penalizing or discharging anyone pursuant to “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The order is the latest twist in the legal limbo gay service members have found themselves in as the policy is fought in the courts simultaneous to its slow dismantling by the federal government, which expects to do away with it by later this year. The court of appeals had halted “don’t ask, don’t tell” July 6 but the Department of Justice filed an emergency motion Thursday saying ending the policy now would pre-empt the orderly process for rolling it back, per a law signed by President Barack Obama in December.

Friday’s ruling was supported by Servicemembers United, an organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans, but the group’s executive director Alexander Nicholson voiced frustration over the slow process of dismantling “don’t ask, don’t tell.” “The situation with finally ending this outdated and discriminatory federal policy has become absolutely ridiculous,” said Nicholson. “It is simply not right to put the men and women of our armed forces through this circus any longer.”

The ruling didn’t elaborate on Hummer’s declaration. The Department of Justice said in a statement that it asked the court to reconsider its order “to avoid short-circuiting the repeal process established by Congress during the final stages of the implementation of the repeal.” It said senior military leaders are expected to make their decision on certifying repeal within the next few weeks. In the meantime, the Justice Department said “it remains the policy of the Department of Defense not to ask service members or applicants about their sexual orientation, to treat all members with dignity and respect, and to ensure maintenance of good order and discipline.” The Justice Department noted that the Defense Department has discharged only one service member since Congress voted to repeal the policy, and that was done at the request of the service member. —AP

WASHINGTON: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama speaks to the media outside the White House in Washington in this file photo. — AFP

China fumes as Obama, Dalai Lama hold talks WASHINGTON: China yesterday urged the United States to cancel a scheduled meeting between President Barack Obama and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House, saying such a meeting would harm US-China relations.

The White House announced on Friday that Obama would speak with the Dalai Lama about Tibet in their first meeting in more than a year. The announcement upset China, which was already on edge about the Dalai Lama’s meetings with US congressional leaders and the potential for a US debt default.

“This meeting underscores the president’s strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans,” the White House said in a statement. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement on the ministry’s website: “We firmly oppose any senior foreign government officials meeting with the Dalai Lama in any way.” Hong said China called on the United States to “cancel the decision for Obama to meet the Dalai Lama as soon as possible, and not do anything that could interfere with China’s internal affairs or harm China-US relations.”

China accuses the Dalai Lama of being a separatist who supports the use of violence to set up an independent Tibet. The Nobel Prize laureate denies this, saying he wants a peaceful transition to autonomy for the remote Himalayan region that China has ruled with an iron fist since 1950, when Chinese troops marched in.

There was no immediate comment from the White House on China’s call for the meeting to be canceled. Beijing warned the United States to stay out of its affairs last

week after top lawmakers including House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, and top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi met the Dalai Lama during his 10-day visit to Washington.

‘ENDURING SUPPORT’ The meeting in the White House Map Room was expected to last at least 30 minutes. The Obama administration said the question of Tibet is likely to come up during the meeting. “The president will highlight his enduring support for dialogue between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese government to resolve differences,” the White House said in the statement issued earlier on Friday.

Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet, a human rights group that works closely with Tibetan exiles, said Tibet’s capital Lhasa was “under virtual lockdown” ahead of the anniversary of the 1950 invasion.

“The meeting is a significant acknowledgment by the White House of the importance of direct discussion between President Obama and the Dalai Lama at a time of crisis in Tibet,” Saunders said.

China’s foreign ministry has alleged the Dalai Lama-who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising-is using his US trip “to engage in activities to split the motherland” and has made clear its opposition to US engagement on Tibet.

“The affairs of Tibet are a purely Chinese internal matter, and China resolutely opposes any country or any person interfering in China’s internal affairs on the issue of Tibet,” the Chinese foreign ministry said on July 9. Obama last met the Dalai Lama in February 2010, in a visit that drew a strong denunciation from Beijing. —Reuters

US man detained over Semen-tainted yogurt ALBUQUERQUE: A New Mexico man indicted on charges that he handed out a semen-tainted yogurt sample at a grocery store will remain behind bars pending his trial after a federal judge ruled Friday that he was a danger to the community.

Anthony Garcia, 32, was indicted last week on charges of adulterating food and making false statements to federal investigators. Police say he was linked to the yogurt through DNA samples.

The judge sided with prosecutors during Garcia’s detention hearing, ruling that he should remain in custody without bail.

Garcia has not yet entered a plea. John Van Butcher, his public defender, said he was disappointed with the judge’s decision, but he said he couldn’t comment further on the case. Garcia is accused of handing out the yogurt sample at a Sunflower Market in Albuquerque in January. Officers responded to the store after a woman said she

believed the yogurt she was given was actually a bodily fluid. The woman told police that after tasting the sample, she spit on the floor several times and wiped her mouth on the garment she was wearing to get the taste out of her mouth, according to court documents.

Investigators collected samples of the woman’s spit from the floor and took the garment she was wearing as evidence.

They later served a search warrant and collected blood and DNA samples from Garcia.

Police said they linked sperm cells found in both the victim’s saliva and on the garment to Garcia using DNA. According to the indictment, investigators with the US Food and Drug Administration said Garcia falsely claimed not to know that the spoon he handed the customer contained semen. Garcia was arrested Wednesday by Albuquerque police and FDA officials. —AP

y

A

11

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

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

Poor intelligence keeps India vulnerable NEW DELHI: India will remain a soft target for militant attacks until it enforces a radical shift in counterterror policy that prioritizes effective intelligence-gathering, analysts said. Despite Home Minister P Chidambaram’s insistence that Wednesday’s serial bomb blasts in Mumbai could not be blamed on any intelligence failure, experts said India’s internal security apparatus remained woefully inadequate. The three explosions in the country’s commercial capital left 19 dead and 131 injured, dozens of them seriously.

Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi, said new security measures introduced after the 2008 Mumbai attacks had only addressed “a fraction” of the core weaknesses in policing and grassroots information gathering.

“Obviously, you cannot have a 100 percent guarantee against a terror attack, but that said, we have tremendous infirmities in terms of

security,” Sahni said. “Our system does not respond on a war footing to terrorism, it acts like a confused bureaucracy,” he said, adding that India’s police force was largely “incompetent” with little or no forensic capability or intelligence training.

Citing the absence of an effective national crime and terror database, Sahni said successive governments had visibly failed to learn the lessons of the past. “We have been fighting insurgencies for decades now, and we only introduced a course on counter-terrorism for the police in 2010,” he said. Chidambaram, the minister responsible for India’s internal security, had sought to pre-empt such criticism at a press briefing Thursday after visiting the blast sites.

“There was no intelligence failure,” Chidambaram argued, highlighting the near-impossibility of preventing what might have been a “very small group” using crude, improvised explosives in a busy area.

The minister, appointed in 2008

to drive the modernization of the ministry, also revealed that Mumbai police had foiled “a large number” of planned attacks since the 2008 assault that left 166 dead, although he declined to give any details.

Chidambaram was the driving force behind the creation of a National Investigation Agency, intended as a forum to share intelligence on threats from across the country.

John Wilson, a security expert at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, said the government was ceding too much ground to militant groups. “We can’t rest on the idea that it’s difficult to prevent attacks on soft targets-areas where many people congregate,” Wilson said.

Pointing to counter-terror policies in countries like Britain and the United States, Wilson said other countries had shown that increased surveillance and a properly trained police force could foil such incidents. “As a state... we have become too used to terrorism, too tolerant,”

he said. “ We haven’t invested enough in our men on the ground to gather intelligence. If you don’t have intelligence, then you are going to see more attacks like this.

“Money is certainly an issue, India cannot afford to spend like the US or the UK but we need to under-

stand how to spend our money better,” he said.

The 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 10 Islamist militants laid siege to multiple targets in the city for nearly three days, cruelly exposed the frailties of an under-trained, under-equipped police force.

MUMBAI: People hold an umbrella as they make a human chain to pay homage to victims of serial explosions in Mumbai, India yesterday. —AP

Praveen Swami, associate editor at the Hindu newspaper and author of a book on covert militant activity in India, said many of the post-2008 security efforts had been well-intentioned but either misdirected or not followed through. “After the Mumbai attacks, Maharashtra set up a police training academy, but they have no cadre of trainers, no instructors,” Swami said.

Officers had been sent on counter-terror courses in Britain and the United States, Swami said. “But once they are back, they are not told to teach anyone else. There is no institutionalized effort to disperse the knowledge.” He also criticized a focus on acquiring sophisticated weaponry for new rapid action forces set up in the past two years.

“Obviously you are not going to get a first-world police force on a thirdworld budget,” Swami said. “But India needs to realize that the acquisition of gadgets is not going to compensate for an ill-trained, semieducated police force.” —AFP

Security Council delists 14 ex-Taleban figures Move aims to aid future Afghan peace talk UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council has removed 14 former Taleban from its sanctions list as part of moves to induce the insurgent group into talks with Kabul on a peace deal in Afghanistan. Those delisted by a special sanctions committee included four members of a 70-strong High Peace Council set up by Afghan authorities last September to pave the way for talks, the German UN mission announced in a statement.

PAKTIKA: An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Sgt Jeremy R Summers at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Summers, 27, of Mount Olivet, Ky died in Paktika province, Afghanistan after enemy forces attacked his unit. —AP

‘Rogue’ shooting leaves one NATO soldier dead KANDAHAR: An Afghan army soldier killed at least one foreign soldier in southern Helmand province yesterday, a senior police source said, underlining persistent insecurity as NATO prepares to hand over to Afghan troops. The latest in a series of “rogue” shootings by members of the countr y ’s security forces occurred barely 25 km from the city of Lashkar Gah, where this week security control will be handed to Afghan forces. It is one of seven places chosen for the first phase of a yearslong transfer due to be completed only by the end of 2014. “The shooting happened during a joint security patrol ... he ran away after,” said the senior police detective, who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said it was investigating an incident in southern Afghanistan.

“An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against International Security

Assistance Force service members in southern Afghanistan today, killing one service member,” ISAF said in a statement. Taleban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said an ANA (Afghan National Army) soldier surrendered to the Taleban after killing five foreign soldiers outside Lashkar Gah this morning.

“He wasn’t one of us, he asked for protection and we agreed,” Yousuf said by phone from an undisclosed location.

The hardline Islamists often exaggerate death tolls and battlefield exploits. US and NATO forces are ramping up efforts to train the Afghan army and police for the gradual transition. Highlighting the difficulty of that task, however, have been a series of incidents over the past 18 months where Afghan police and soldiers, or insurgents who have infiltrated security forces, have turned their weapons on their mentors. There was another such incident in Helmand in May, when two US troops were killed at a police compound. —Reuters

Germany is this month’s Security Council president. The move came in response to a request from Kabul to take off the list a number of former Taleban figures that the government believes have given up militancy, according to the statement.

Afghan officials had said they were seeking the delisting of about 20 people. Some Security Council members, notably Russia, are cautious about removing names. The peace council members are Arsalan Rahmani Daulat, a former Taleban deputy higher education minister, Habibullah Fawzi, a former Taleban diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Sayeedur Rahman Haqani, former Taleban deputy minister for mines and industries and later for public works, and Faqir Mohammad.

President Hamid Karzai’s office has called the creation of the council a significant step toward peace. But the Taleban have so far scoffed at the idea of talks, saying all foreign forces must first leave Afghanistan. The United States is preparing to star t pulling out its 97,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of a process to hand over all combat operations against the Taleban to Afghan security forces by 2014.

engage reconciled Taleban in a political dialogue in order to achieve peace and security.” “The international community recognizes efforts made by members of the High Peace Council to

‘STRONG SIGNAL’ In a statement, Germany’s UN Ambassador Peter Wittig said the committee’s decision “sends a strong signal: the Security Council and the international community support the efforts of the Afghan government to

work toward peace, stability and reconciliation. All Afghans are encouraged to join these efforts.

The message is clear: engaging for peace pays off,” Wittig said.

The move came four weeks after the Security Council decided to split what was previously a joint

MARTYRDOM AND SUICIDE In a speech on Friday evening broadcast as thousands of his loyalists rallied in street demonstrations, Gaddafi rejected international recognition of the rebels. “Trample on those recognitions, trample on them under your feet,” he told his supporters.

“They are worthless.” He said he enjoyed the support of millions of Libyans who yearned for death, martyrdom and suicide. The Istanbul conference attended by more than 30 countries and world bodies also agreed on a road map whereby Gaddafi should relinquish power and plans for Libya’s transition to democracy under the rebel National Transitional Council, or TNC. “Until an interim authority is in place, the United States will recognize the TNC as the legitimate governing authority for Libya, and we will deal with it on that basis,” Clinton said. The decision to recognize the rebels, who have been waging a fivemonth military campaign against Gaddafi, meant the Libyan leader had no option but to stand down, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said. The UN secretary-general’s special envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah Al-Khatib, will be authorized to present terms for Gaddafi to leave power, but Britain said military action against Gaddafi would be stepped up at the same time.

Retaking Brega Libyan rebels were preparing yesterday to try to retake the oil refinery town of Brega after breaching its defenses in a late night reconnaissance raid.

Rebel military spokesman Mohammed Zawi said that a light mobile force had breached loyalist positions around Brega late on Friday, before pulling back for an offensive early yesterday. A group of around 50 reconnaissance troops entered the town from the north, then pulled back four kilometers before midnight, Zawi said.

ing host to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden when he launched the Sept 11 attacks on the United States. Separating the two movements has long been a Western goal. Former US

KABUL: An Afghan man feeds his horse inside a stable on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan yesterday. —AP

Troops, rebels battle in Libya’s mountains BIR AYAD: Heavy clashes between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi broke out yesterday in Libya’s Western Mountains as insurgents sought to push towards Tripoli. Sustained gunfire and volleys of artillery could be heard from the village of Bir Ayad, 15 km south of the front line at the town of Bir Ghanam. Rebels at Bir Ghanam hold the high ground on the outskirts of the town, their closest position to the capital, Tripoli, about 80 km away. Ahmed, a rebel fighter in Bir Ayad, said a convoy of about 15 vehicles from Gaddafi’s forces tried to approach Bir Ghanam, but the rebels fired at it and the convoy retreated after a about an hour of shooting.

Rebels in the Western Mountains have made progress in recent weeks after repelling assaults by Gaddafi’s forces. Their next goal is Garyan, a town controls the highway south from Tripoli. But the rebels have been hampered by divisions, ill-discipline and supply problems. Away from the battlefield, Gaddafi has sought to demonstrate that he enjoys widespread support in the areas he still controls.

Libyan state television has broadcast footage of rallies attended by thousands of people in Tripoli and elsewhere. Rebel leaders received a boost in their campaign to oust Gaddafi on Friday when they won recognition as the legitimate government of Libya from the United States and other powers.

Western nations said they also planned to increase the military pressure on Gaddafi’s forces to press him to give up power after 41 years at the head of the North African state. Recognition of the rebels, announced by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a meeting in Turkey of the international contact group on Libya, is an important diplomatic step that could unlock billions of dollars in frozen Libyan funds. The decision came as reports circulated Gaddafi had sent out emissaries seeking a negotiated end to the conflict, although he remains defiant in public.

list of Taleban and Al-Qaeda figures into two-one for each group.

The split was intended to persuade Taleban waverers they were not being lumped with the global al Qaeda movement. Until

The probing raid on the front line between the rebel-held east and the mainly government-held west came some 32 hours after the rebel command launched a three-pronged attack against Gaddafi’s forces, who were thought to have numbered around 3,000. It also followed a moraleboosting recognition by major powers of the rebel administration as the legitimate governing authority in Libya, during a meeting in Turkey on Friday. Brega’s vast oil refinery and storage facilities-if intact-could provide fuel and a much-needed income stream for the rebels.

A victory would also provide a major boost for rebel morale, which had been sagging amid months of stalemate. While the rebels’ forward position to the north was four kilometers from the town centre, a second unit attacking from due east of Brega faced stiffer resistance and was about 10-20 kilometers from the town. “Most of Gaddafi’s troops seem to be at the centre,” Zawi said. Rebels were trying to dispose of more than 150 landmines already found outside the town, to make way for heavy artillery. But the assault took a bloody toll, with at least 10 dead and 172 wounded, according to medics.

At a hospital in nearby Ajdabiya, Doctor Ahmed Dinari said most of the casualties were now caused by landmines rather than Gaddafi’s heavy artillery, as earlier on in the offensive. “We have had five more injuries this morning, all of them from mine explosions,” he said. Lying prone in “Bed 2,” 19-year-old Ali Saleh said he had been in the central rebel column in the early hours of the morning when his armored personnel carrier hit a mine. “We were very close to Brega at around three in the morning. Then we got instructions from NATO to fall back and as we were falling back the vehicle hit a mine, destroying the chain track.” —Agencies

Friday’s decision, the Taleban list contained 137 names. Those listed are subject to sanctions that include travel bans and asset freezes. The Afghan Taleban, which ruled the country before being driven from power by USbacked forces in 2001, was play-

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month there could be political talks with the Taleban by the end of this year, if the NATO alliance kept making military advances on the ground, putting pressure on the insurgents.—Reuters

Blasts will not derail Pakistan talks: India NEW DELHI: India brushed off speculation tying the Mumbai bombings to Pakistan and said yesterday it remained committed to recently renewed peace talks with its rival neighbor. The moves showed how little appetite New Delhi has for escalating tensions in the region while it focuses on maintaining economic growth in the South Asian nation of 1.2 billion people. While future revelations about the culprits in the blasts that killed 17 people Wednesday could still sabotage relations between the countries, the Indian government so far has rejected opposition demands for a heavy response against Pakistan.

On Friday, India said it was working out dates for the next round of negotiations expected this month between top officials from both countries. “The talks with Pakistan are on schedule,” foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.

Pakistan’s leaders had quickly condemned the blasts and have welcomed India’s measured response. In a statement Friday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani “expressed satisfaction at the resolve of both Pakistan and India to continue with their bilateral dialogue, and not get deterred by terrorists’ designs to derail the dialogue once again.”

The coordinated triple bombings were the worst terror attack in India since 10 Pakistan-based militants rampaged through the city in November 2008,

killing 166 people. Investigators examined forensic evidence and footage from closed circuit cameras Friday for clues about who orchestrated the blasts.

“People are being questioned on the basis of our previous database and known linkages. We also have identified the scooter in which one of the bombs was planted,” India’s Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters in New Delhi. He also said investigators had intercepted an email sent from outside Mumbai but declined to give details. Intelligence analysts say the attack bore the hallmarks of the Indian Mujahideen, a shadowy Islamic militant group.

A former top Indian intelligence official told The Associated Press that Pakistan’s Lashkar-e Taiba militant group has been providing ideological and physical training to the Indian Mujahideen since 2004. Leaders of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party strongly criticized the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not taking a harder line with Pakistan. “Manmohan Singh, sir, what is the nature of your relationship with Pakistan?” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad asked angrily at a news conference Friday. Government officials have refused to take the bait. Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said Thursday that investigators were not ruling out the possibility the attacks were aimed at scuttling the talks. —AP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

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

Glitch shuts reactor Power crunch looms in Japan TOKYO: Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co yesterday shut down one of its reactors due to technical glitches, worsening a tight power supply that is stifling manufacturers. The No 1 reactor at Kansai’s Ohi plant, located 350 km west of Tokyo, was manually closed for checks after pressure in a tank containing boric acid water fell for a time on Friday night for unknown reasons, a company spokesman said.

The pressure has since come back up to the normal range, and no radiation leakage has occurred.

“Power supply (in western Japan) has been quite tight in the first place. This problem at Ohi’s No.1

unit is making it worse,” Nuclear Minister Goshi Hosono told reporters. “We want to keep restrictions on economic activities and people’s daily lives as little as possible. But it is quite clear that the situation has become very severe now.”

The government is already ordering power users in Tokyo and surrounding areas as well as in northern Japan to cut their electricity consumption by 15 percent as safety concerns following a radiation crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant keep some reactors from restarting after routine maintenance. Kansai Electric, which serves the major western Japan city of Osaka and its

vicinity, has so far been asking its clients only for voluntary reduction of power usage. Among Kansai’s customers are the flagship factories of suchelectronic companies as Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp.

The electric utility’s two other reactors are scheduled to go into planned maintenance next week, leaving only four of its 11 units up and running. A 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out the cooling functions at Tokyo Electric Power ’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, triggering the world’s worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said work to put the Fukushima plant under control has been progressing well and that he aimed to have the “step two” of the process, in which engineers plan to bring the reactors to stability by January, completed earlier than scheduled.

“I told (heads of municipalities in Fukushima) we’ll do our utmost so that people can go back to their hometown, and the ‘step two’ phase will be finished ahead of plan,” Kan told reporters. Tokyo Electric plans to hold a news conference on Tuesday to provide an update its Fukushima-related progress. — Reuters

Pope Benedict

Vatican excommunicates China bishop, blasts Beijing VATICAN: A Chinese bishop ordained without papal approval has been excommunicated from the Catholic Church, the Vatican said yesterday, bringing relations between the Vatican and Beijing to a new low. In a statement branding Thursday’s ordination illegitimate, the Vatican said Pope Benedict “deplores” the way communist authorities are treating Chinese Catholics who want to remain faithful to Rome instead of to the state-backed Church.

China’s state -sanctioned Catholic Church ordained Joseph Huang Bingzhang as bishop in Shantou city in southern Guangdong province on Thursday despite warnings he would not be recognized because the city has a Vatican-approved bishop. “Consequently, the Holy See does not recognize him ... and he lacks authority to govern the Catholic community of diocese,” the Vatican said. Chinese Catholics, believed to number between 8 million and 12 million, are divided between those who are members of the Church backed by the Communist Party and those loyal to the pope.

In its statement, the Vatican said Beijing authorities had coerced some bishops loyal to the Holy See to attend the ordination service against their will and praised them for trying to resist. A source in China said last week the bishops were accompanied

to the event by police. The Vatican demanded that Catholics in China be given the right to act freely and remain loyal to the pope. “The Holy Father, having learned of these events, once again deplores the manner in which the Church in China is being treated and hopes that the present difficulties can be overcome as soon as possible,” it said.

SEVERAL RECENT ORDINATIONS Huang was the third bishop to be ordained without Vatican approval in recent months, but the build-up ratcheted up tensions. Priests anywhere in the world who allow themselves to be made bishops without papal approval-and the bishops who perform the ordinations-are subject to automatic excommunication, or a total cutoff from the Church. Relations between Beijing and the Vatican had been seen to be improving last year before the recent string of ordinations.

The Vatican says it is willing to start talks with China aimed at Beijing recognizing the Church’s autonomy in its internal affairs and forge diplomatic relations. But China says Beijing must first sever ties with Taiwan, which China considers a renegade territory. The Vatican is among some 20 states that still have full diplomatic relations with Taiwan.— Reuters

BP wins two legal battles NEW YORK: BP Plc won two legal victories on Friday, as a federal judge threw out racketeering claims made by the lead plaintiffs suing over last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and also set aside a lawsuit by partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp US District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans dismissed claims that BP violated a federal anti-racketeering law by defrauding US regulators in connection with the safety of its drilling operations, its ability to respond to any oil spill and its response to the spill.

Barbier said there was no proof that the plaintiffs, which include businesses and homeowners, were directly harmed in a way to sustain their claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. That law originally was intended to fight organized crime.

The RICO ruling does not affect other claims by hundreds of plaintiffs, who allege they lost earnings, revenue or rental income, or saw the value of their property decline as a result of the spill.

“While it is certainly a relief for BP to get these (RICO) claims off the table, it was the regular damage claims and possible punitive damages risks that have always been the biggest threat on the private litigation side,” said David Logan, dean of Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Separately, Barbier put Anadarko’s claims against BP on hold, citing a provision in the companies’ operating agreement for the Macondo well that disputes be arbitrated. Anadarko owned a 25 percent stake in the blown-out Macondo well. BP had asked Anadarko to help pay for some of the cleanup and recovery costs, but the company has refused. Anadarko then filed a lawsuit in April, claiming it was not at fault for the explosion and spill.

“We respect today’s decision, which does nothing to diminish our claims,” Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen said in an email. “It simply addresses the venue in which they may be resolved.” BP declined to comment on Friday’s rulings, but in an email said Anadarko “blatantly disregarded its responsibilities to the residents of the Gulf Coast by failing to pay its fair share of the costs ... BP remains focused on ensuring that Anadarko lives up to its obligations.” Eleven people died when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010, resulting in the largest oil spill in US history. So far, BP has spent an estimated $42 billion on cleanup and other costs.

In April it sued partners including Transocean Ltd, which owned the drilling rig, and Cameron International Corp, which made a blowout preventer, to force them to share in spill-related costs. Those lawsuits, along with hundreds of others, are part of the multi-district litigation in Barbier’s court. The judge has set a February 2012 start date for a trial that will parse blame among defendants. The case is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, US District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, No. —Reuters

Beijing restricting tourism to Tibet

BANGKOK: Buddhist monks receive flowers from Thai Buddhists during a floral merit-making to mark the Buddhist Lent Day at a temple in Bangkok yesterday. Buddhist Lent is a time devoted to meditation where Buddhist monks retreat into their temple grounds and do not venture out for a period of three months. — AFP

UN’s highest court to rule on Thai troop withdrawal THE HAGUE: The UN’s highest court is to rule tomorrow on a request by Cambodia for an immediate Thai troop withdrawal from a disputed border area around an ancient Khmer temple, where clashes have taken place. International Court of Justice president, Judge Hisashi Owada, is expected to read the court’s order at 10:00 am (0800 GMT ) at the Hague-based Peace Palace, where the ICJ is seated. “The court will deliver an order Monday on Cambodia’s request for Thailand to stop military activity” in the area, an observer close to the ICJ said, adding Owada would be accompanied by a 14-judge bench and two ad hoc judges.

Cambodia in late April launched a bitter legal battle before the ICJ in which it asked for an interpretation of a 1962 ICJ ruling around the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple. At the same time, while the court pondered its decision, Cambodia also asked judges to approve provisional measures including an immediate Thai troop withdrawal and a ban on all Thai military activity there. Although Thailand did not dispute Cambodia’s ownership of the temple, secured by the 1962 ruling, both Phnom Penh and Bangkok claimed the 4.6-squarekilometre area surrounding the Khmer complex.

The two countries orally argued their cases before judges at the end of May with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor

Namhong asking for “an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Thai forces from those parts of Cambodian territory situated in the area of the temple of Preah Vihear.” Phnom Penh also asked that “Thailand refrained from any act or action which could interfere with the rights of Cambodia or aggravate the dispute in the principal proceedings.” Thailand’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Virachai Plasai, responded by saying his country requested the ICJ to scrap Cambodia’s case from the court’s general list. Bangkok however did say in June that it would respect the ICJ’s order. In February the United Nations appealed for a permanent ceasefire after 10 people were killed in fighting near the Preah Vihear temple. However fresh clashes broke out in April further west, leaving 18 dead and prompting 85,000 civilians to flee. Cambodia said although there had been clashes in the past, Thai aggression substantially increased after July 2008, when the UN’s cultural body UNESCO listed the temple as a World Heritage site. But the 11th-century complex has been at the centre of a long legal wrangle between Thailand and Cambodia-which first took its southeastern Asian neighbor to the ICJ in 1959 over the issue. Established in 1945, the ICJ is the UN’s highest judicial organ and it settles disputes between states. It is the only one of six principal UN organs not located in New York.— AFP

BEIJING: China is restricting the number of its citizens allowed to travel to Tibet as Beijing celebrates the 60th anniversary of the region’s “peaceful liberation”, travel agencies said yesterday. The agencies also confirmed that the troubled area had been closed to foreign tourists from June and the ban would last until the end of July.

“Half as many plane and train tickets have been sold” as the usual number, the Tibet General Travel Agency said.

“It’s hard to buy tickets” for Tibet, an employee from another agency, Qinghe Tibet, said. He added that “security was tightened on the roads leading to the ‘Roof of the World’, especially on the highway between Qinghai Province and Tibet” while checkpoints had multiplied inside the Tibet Autonomous Region. “The sale of tickets has been limited,” an official from China Travel Tibet added. The three agencies confirmed information given last month by other tourist industry workers to AFP that Tibet was closed to foreign travelers during the celebrations of 60th anniversary of the entry of Chinese troops into the area.

Gao Yang, Beijing’s top official in the region, said Friday in its capital Lhasa that Tibet had received 2.25 million Chinese and foreign tourists in the first half of the year, up nearly a quarter on the same period last year. He added that “overall” the celebrations “would not affect the development of tourism in Tibet”. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said yesterday that Lhasa was “virtually cut off from the rest of the world” because of the official ceremonies.

Religious activities have also been restricted, the ICT said, adding that the path used by the Buddhists around the Potala, the former residence of the Dalai Lama, was rendered inaccessible by the construction of a large stage. Tensions run deep in Tibet, where many Tibetans accuse the government of trying to dilute their culture, citing concerns over what they view as increasing domination by China’s majority Han ethnic group. Disquiet spilled over into violent anti-government riots in Lhasa in March 2008, which then spread to neighboring provinces with significant Tibetan populations. In the wake of the 2008 unrest, foreign tourists were banned from travelling to the Himalayan region for more than 12 months.

In March this year, Tibet was once again closed to foreigners ahead of the third anniversary of the riots, but travel agencies said overseas visitors had been able to visit from April to June. Even when foreigners are allowed in, authorities require them to obtain special permits-in addition to Chinese visas-and also travel in tour groups.

China, which says living standards in the region have improved markedly since it started ruling the region in 1951, has increased security in Tibetan areas since the 2008 unrest. But reports of unrest still surface. One region in the southwestern province of Sichuan was hit by demonstrations earlier this year after a Tibetan monk selfimmolated and died in an apparent anti-government protest.— AFP

BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces inspect the scene of a bomb attack in Baghdad yesterday. A bomb in a minibus parked outside a restaurant in the Karradah neighborhood killed and wounded several people. — AP

Bombs hit Iraq Shiite holy city BAGHDAD: A bomb attached to a policeman’s car blew up yesterday in the Iraqi city of Kerbala, killing at least three people and wounding 15 others during an annual Shiite pilgrimage, officials said. It was the third attack in the holy city in the last two days as Shiites observe the anniversary of Imam Mohammed Al-Mehdi’s birthday, one of the annual pilgrimages that have evolved into shows of strength for Iraq’s majority Shiites since the fall of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. The latest blast occurred near a security checkpoint in Kerbala, 80 km southwest of Baghdad, and most of the casualties were police officers, police and provincial council officials said. On Friday a car bomb exploded in a garage near a hospital west of Kerbala.

Police said four people were killed and 20 wounded.

In a separate incident, a bomb placed under a parked car killed two people and wounded four others in northern Kerbala on Friday, according to an army commander, while a hospital source said the blast killed three people and wounded 23 others. Shiite religious rites were banned under Saddam. They have been targeted frequently by Sunni Islamist insurgents since the US-led invasion that deposed him. Last year car bombs killed and wounded scores of people during the Imam Mehdi observance in Kerbala. While violence has fallen sharply in Iraq in recent years, militants still launch hundreds of attacks each month. — Reuters

China landslides kill 13, trap hundreds BEIJING: Landslides triggered by torrential rain across China left 13 people dead and hundreds trapped in their cars, state media said yesterday. Five people were killed when a bus and truck were “damaged” by a mudslide in the northern province of Gansu, the official Xinhua news agency reported, while eight more died later en route to or in hospital. The report did not say whether the vehicles crashed or how the victims died. Xinhua also reported that more than 800 people in over 300 vehicles had been stranded on a highway in southwest China’s Yunnan Province after the road was blocked by mud and rocks, citing local police. No casualties have been reported, the agency said, and rescuers were clearing the road.

China is annually hit by big summer rainfalls. Last year, they triggered the nation’s worst flooding in a decade, leaving more than 4,300 people dead or missing in floods, landslides and other rain-related disasters. One devastating mudslide in the northwestern province of Gansu killed 1,500 people last August. A landslide tore through the town of Lueyang in Shaanxi province earlier this month, engulfing 12 houses. Rescuers pulled out 17 bodies and three survivors, one of whom later died in hospital, the government said. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said on July 1 that 279 people had died in China in natural disasters in June alone-a large portion of whom were killed by rain-triggered accidents such as floods and mudslides.— AFP

Iran ‘to cooperate’ over attack on Argentine Jews TEHRAN: Iran is ready to cooperate with Argentina over a 1994 bombing attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, the foreign ministry announced yesterday. Tehran, suspected by Argentina of being behind the attack, is “ready for a constructive dialogue and to cooperate with the Argentine government to shed all possible light within the framework of the law and to help in preventing the investigation from continuing on an erroneous course,” a statement said.

Iran “condemns all terrorist actions, especially the one against the Argentine Jewish centre in 1994, and declares its solidarity with the families of the victims,” the statement added. Israel has pointed the finger at the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah for carrying out the attacks, which the Jewish state believes were masterminded by Tehran.

Argentina has issued warrants for the arrest of Iranian Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi along with five other Iranians and a Lebanese accused of planning and carrying out the AMIA bombing.

Both Iran and Hezbollah have consistently denied any involvement in the attacks. In the 1994 attack, the bomb that leveled the sevenstorey AMIA building also wounded 300 people. Two years earlier, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was hit by a bomb which killed 29 people and wounded 200. In June, Argentina’s Jewish community was outraged after a visit to neighboring Bolivia by Vahidi, noting that there had been an international arrest warrant out on Vahidi since 2007. The La Paz government, in a letter to Argentina, said it

had been unaware of any charges against Vahidi and said Bolivia “had taken steps to ensure that that Mr Ahmad Vahidi left Bolivian territory immediately.”

But a leader of Argentina’s Jewish community, Aldo Donzis, said the Bolivian government’s actions fell far short of what was required under the circumstances. “It’s a huge farce that the Bolivian government asked him to leave the country after he had already completed his mission,” Donzis said. “What was called for was not his expulsion, but his arrest.” Earlier this year, a press report in Argentina claimed Foreign Minister Hector Timerman had offered to shelve a probe into Iran’s involvement, which he strongly denied. The March 26 report quoted a “secret” Iranian memo purportedly sent earlier this year from Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which said: “Argentina is no longer interested in solving those two attacks, but would rather improve its economic relations with Iran.”

According to the memo, allegedly written after a meeting in January between Timerman and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Buenos Aires was said to be “prepared to drop” the investigation in order to better its financial ties with Tehran. Timerman said in April that the report was illogical and that Buenos Aires had nothing to gain economically by shelving the investigations. “Argentina has no embargo against Iran and Iran has no embargo against Argentina, so what am I going to get by forgetting the investigation? What kind of commercial benefit?” he asked. Argentina’s Jewish community numbers some 300,000 people, the largest in Latin America.— AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

ne ws

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

LOS ANGELES: Pneumatic hammers from above and below continue the demolition of two lanes of Mulholland Drive bridge over Interstate 405 yesterday. — AP

Woman makes history at weightlifting event Continued from Page 1 “I guess it still hasn’t really hit me. I know that there is a lot of support out there,” Abdullah said. “I’m happy for the support, because that was a big moment for me.” Abdullah paired her black hijab and matching top - both black to keep it safe, she said - with a tight, tan long-sleeved undershirt handmade by friends back in Atlanta. She also wore long black socks. She cleared a snatch of 41 kg and 57 kg in the clean and jerk.

Though Abdullah said she would have liked to score higher, she had nonetheless accomplished what she set out to do. “I’m really happy that I got this experience and that there’s a lot of support, and I hope that it could encourage other women and people, whether it’s weightlifting or another sport, to try competition because it’s fun to meet people,” Abdullah said. “Just to hope that people have a good attitude about wanting to include people. I think it helps when people get along.”

USA Weightlifting CEO John Duff, whose organization fought for Abdullah’s cause with the IWF, told The Associated Press that Abdullah’s appearance was a key milestone for the sport and a great step forward for inclusion within weightlifting. “Weightlifters are a pretty pure bunch, in that they look at things very objectively. Can she lift, or can’t she lift?” Duff said. “It doesn’t really matter what people look like, what they dress like, where they come from or what they represent. It’s, they are a competitor and an fellow athlete.”

Abdullah’s competition agreed with Duff, though they were quick to acknowledge that Abdullah’s choice of clothing has drawn mixed opinions in the tight-knit community of competitive weightlifting. Lifter Jenny Werba, who competed in the 58 kg class, said that many lifters are still adjusting to the new ruling given how strict the sport has been about its rules and how little things have changed over the years. “Change is hard to adapt to, and a lot of people are a little up in arms. You know, the bobble of the elbow, that that can be covered is very controversial and I think that there’s a lot of mixed emotions going around. But it’s good to see everyone be able to lift,” Werba said. Added fellow 58 kg lifter Jessica Gallagher: “I think they made a bigger deal of it than it should have been. I don’t think it makes a big difference to us at all. As long as it’s tight and they can see the elbows, I don’t think it matters at all.”

Save for Abdullah’s outfit, which stood in stark contrast to the skintight unitards wore by the rest of the field, it was hard to tell she was any different from her peers. Her historic appearance hardly caused a stir among the small crowd, which saved its biggest cheers for lifters in the final throes of getting the bar over their shoulders cleanly. After the battle she went through just to get to the nationals, Abdullah’s main focus was simply about competing. “I think the main goal was just to get a total and just try. I had no idea how nervous I was going to be,” Abdullah said. “When I go out and lift, I think at that moment I just block it off because it’s so fast. And then it was fine after that.” — AP

Syrians mourn dead as oppn seeks change Continued from Page 1 the opposition to try to make changes.” “Yesterday we witnessed the largest demonstrations to date in Syria, an effort to try to convey directly to the government the pent-up desire of the Syrian people for the kind of reforms that they have been promised,” she added.

Activists say the government’s crackdown has killed some 1,600 people since March, most of them unarmed protesters. But the regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists - not true reformseekers - are behind it. Yesterday’s conference was an attempt to form a unified movement that can offer a realistic alternative to Assad, whose supporters argue that he is the only force who can guarantee stability in a region bedeviled by civil wars and religious strife.

Although Assad’s regime is shaken,

he still draws from a significant well of support from the middle classes, business community and religious minorities. Still, the uprising appears to be gaining momentum. Witnesses told AP that tens of thousands from Damascus and the suburbs held funerals for slain protesters yesterday, carrying the bodies overhead on stretchers and shouting “God is Great!” and “We want freedom!” Like most witnesses in Syria, they spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Witnesses also said security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the eastern border town of Al-Boukamal near Iraq’s border, killing at least one protester and wounding others. State-run Syria TV contested that, however, and said gunmen killed two police officers in Al-Boukamal and armed groups stormed a police headquarters and confiscated weapons. The government has

banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it difficult to independently confirm accounts on the ground.

A small group of activists in Damascus also took part in yesterday’s opposition meeting, but they had to join by telephone. The opposition had planned to hold dual meetings in Damascus and Istanbul, but the location in Syria was besieged by security forces on Friday, forcing them to scale back their plans. Activists say 14 protesters were k illed Friday in the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, where the conference was to be held. Opposition figure Mashaal Tammo, addressing the conference by phone from Damascus, said Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule and called on him to step down. “The existence of the regime is no longer justified,” he said. — AP

British govt defends links with Murdoch Continued from Page 1 contacts with those close to Murdoch, 80, who has wielded his influence over British politics for decades.

Those invited to Cameron’s country retreat, Chequers, included Rebekah Brooks, who quit as chief executive of News International, Murdoch’s British newspaper wing, on Friday and was a previous editor of the News of the World, now closed. Another was Murdoch’s son James, the chairman of News International. “Personally, I’m not embarrassed by it in any way. But there is something wrong here in this country and it must be put right. It has been acknowledged by the PM and I think that’s the right attitude to take,” Hague told the BBC. Cameron also invited Andy Coulson, his former media chief and another one-time editor of the News of the World tabloid, to Chequers in March, two months after Coulson quit Downing Street. Coulson was arrested last week in connection with the scandal over alleged hacking and payments to police, one of nine people held since police reopened their investigations in January. He denies the charges. Hague said: “In inviting Andy Coulson back the prime minister has invited someone back to thank him for his work, he’s worked for him for several years, that is a normal, human thing to do, I think it shows a positive side to his character.”

Yesterday, Murdoch abandoned his previously defiant stance and ran full-page adverts in seven national British dailies, apologising for the hacking scandal at the News of the World, which he closed down last week.

“We are sorry,” the headline of the ads read. They were signed “Sincerely, Rupert Murdoch”. It said: “We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected. We regret not acting faster to sort things out.”

In a further show of contrition, Murdoch on Friday met the parents of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, whose phone was allegedly hacked by the News of the

World in 2002, when Brooks was editor of the paper.

Murdoch’s determination to keep his empire afloat was shown, however, when he accepted the resignation of Brooks on Friday and then, hours later that of Les Hinton, head of Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Hinton had worked with Murdoch for 50 years.

British-born Hinton said that although he knew nothing of the phone hacking when he was chairman of News International from 1995 to 2007, he must take responsibility for the “unimaginable” pain it caused.

Brooks denies any wrongdoing, but as editor of News of the World when Dowler’s phone was allegedly hacked, she became a lightning rod for outrage. The 43-yearold, who started out as a secretary at the tabloid and is viewed almost like a daughter by Murdoch, told News International staff she felt a “deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt”.

The departures of Brooks and Hinton capped a disastrous week for Murdoch in which he was also forced to scrap a buy-out of British pay-TV giant BSkyB. They have also now exposed Murdoch’s heir-apparent James, 38, who is the chairman of News International and also runs the Asian and European operations of parent company News Corporation. The British government has announced a full public inquiry into the scandal. Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Brooks have all been summoned to testify before British lawmakers on Tuesday.

But the scandal continued to spiral with the news that British actor Jude Law is suing The Sun over phone hacking in 2005 and 2006, when Brooks was editor, in the first such claim against the Murdoch-owned daily.

News International dismissed the claims as a “deeply cynical”. In the United States, the FBI has began probing allegations that Murdoch’s US employees may have hacked the phones of victims of the September 11 attacks, dealing a potentially huge blow to his US-based News Corp. — AFP

‘Carmageddon’ traffic in LA moving smoothly LOS ANGELES: Traffic in the Los Angeles area was flowing freely yesterday morning following the shutdown of a 16-km stretch of one of the busiest US freeways. But officials warned the real test was likely to begin around midday, after the country’s second-largest city fully awakened. “So far we’re still Saturday morning light,” said Mike Miles, a California Department of Transportation district director. “We don’t know if that’s just because it’s Saturday morning, or if in fact motorists are listening to the message that has been put out about not driving this weekend.”

He said traffic was expected to pick up as the day progressed. Ramps to the normally clogged Interstate 405 were shut down Friday evening before the entire roadway was closed at midnight, setting the stage for a 53-hour bridge demolition project that will test whether this car-dependent city can change its driving habits for a weekend. The bridge work attracted onlookers, many of whom cycled to a parking lot that overlooks the 405 about 400 m from the span. “Everybody’s calling this weekend ‘Carmageddon,’ but seeing the freeway empty it feels more post-apocalyptic,” said Gail Standish, 47, who peddled from Beverly Hills with her bicycling club.

For weeks, authorities have urged residents to avoid getting in their car, lest they trigger what’s been hyped as “Carmageddon”. Such an event could back up vehicles from the 405 - locals like to joke that its name is shorthand for “traffic that moves no faster than 4 or 5 miles an hour” - to surface streets and other freeways, causing a domino effect that could paralyze much of Los Angeles. Yesterday morning, light traffic whizzed across the region’s others highways, and no major delays were reported. “The work is progressing, traffic is cooperating and it’s moving freely this morning,” Miles said.

With warnings having been broadcast through television, radio, social media and flashing freeway signs as far away as San Francisco, many of the city’s nearly 4 million residents appeared ready to stay off the roads.

Crews systematically began closing on- and off-ramps beginning at 7 p.m. Friday then began lane closures at 10 pm, before the entire 16-km section that runs through the Sepulveda Pass was closed at midnight.

Evening rush-hour traffic was light in the hours before the shutdown. Motorists took to Twitter to marvel at the rare sight of traffic maps showing a sea of green, indicating that traffic was flowing.

“Carmaggedon? More like carmaheaven. No traffic in L.A.,” tweeted Chip Dorsh, who said he breezed through a canyon road to get from his job in Culver City to the San Fernando Valley. “When I left work, it was like a no man’s land,” Dorsh later told AP. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he thinks traffic will move smoothly if motorists take the advice and stay close to home throughout the weekend. “We can either say we survived Carmageddon or we survived the Carmageddon hype,” he said. If people listen, there will be no shortage of activities or adventures awaiting them. They can snag free cotton candy at the Santa Monica Pier or drop in on Michael Jackson’s dermatolo-

gist for 25-percent-off Botox injections so that frazzled commuters won’t look quite so frazzled. Those who do want that real road warrior look might consider swinging by T-Man’s Tattoos (located just off the 405) in the San Fernando Valley. “If you come on in and mention you’re in town because you’re stuck from Carmageddon, you can get 15 percent off tattoos and piercings,” proprietor Howard Teman said.

A few planned to take discounted helicopter rides over the empty stretch of the 405, several dozen others have $4 to $5 tickets to board special JetBlue flights between Long Beach Airport and Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. The airline, seizing on the national buzz about Carmageddon, offered the deal this week by calling the short, 20- to 30-minute flights a “planepool” between the San Fernando Valley and the coastal city. Tickets sold out within three hours. The flights inspired a group of cyclists to challenge JetBlue to a race.

Members of the Wolfpack Hustle planned to peddle on a roughly 65-km route starting near the Burbank airport to see whether they or a JetBlue passenger will reach Long Beach first. Cycling advocates said they hope to show that gridlock can be avoided without using a car or plane.

“Everyone’s freaking out about car traffic around the 405, bicycling represents a very viable alternative,” cyclist Gary Kavanagh said.

Meanwhile, construction crews were working feverishly to take down half of the 50-year-old Mulholland Bridge as part of a $1 billion freeway-widening project.

Extra police, fire and medical personnel were on hand to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Or, if it doesn’t, to ensure they are prepared to handle any emergency. The city fire department put two dozen additional engines, fire companies and ambulances into service, placing them in neighborhoods that firefighters might have a hard time getting to from jammed roadways.

Much of the section of freeway that is being shut down winds through a hillside pass near Beverly Hills and other communities that are susceptible to brushfires. Wildfire season, however, hasn’t reached its peak yet, fire officials said. Besides, this weekend’s expected humid weather should further reduce the threat of a fire. The UCLA Health System, which runs the huge Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center located near the 405, was putting its weekend staff in dorm rooms and hotels to ensure they don’t run late to work. Three helicopter companies were on standby to transport patients and human organs in case of emergency procedures.

For those who do have to drive, a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center psychiatrist was offering advice on how to keep calm and stay safe. Among Dr Waguih William Ishak’s advice: avoid road rage at all costs, apologize profusely to anyone you accidentally cut off in traffic, be sure to leave for your destination with a full tank of gas and a cell phone. Or, better yet, authorities say, stay at home. “If everyone heeds our advice, this whole weekend will be in our rear view mirror and everybody will be fine,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. — AP

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: Gymnasts from Italy perform at the 14th World Gymnaestrada during the International Gymnastics Federation Gala yesterday. — AP

14

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 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

In US, time to end the death penalty?

By Bernd Debusmann merica’s system of meting out death sentences is unfair and arbitrary. Race, money and politics play major roles. Since society’s ultimate punishment cannot be applied fairly, it should not be applied at all. So says a report timed to coincide with the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States 35 years ago this July, after a four-year suspension prompted by a Supreme Court ruling that the death penalty was being administered so arbitrarily and capriciously that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, many states rewrote their laws and when the Supreme Court returned to the issue in 1976, it said the new statutes had taken the randomness out of the system. Did they? Not according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based non-profit organization which has been keeping track of capital punishment for more than two decades. Its report concludes that the death penalty, post-1976, “has proven to be a failed experiment. The theory that with proper guidance to juries the death penalty could be administered fairly has not worked in practice. Thirty-five years of experience have taught the futility of trying to fix this system.”

The Death Penalty Information Center is not alone in viewing the system too broken to fix. In March, when Illinois became the 16th US state without a death penalty, Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat and long-time supporter of capital punishment, said: “I have concluded that our system of imposing the death penalty is inherently flawed. The evidence presented to me by former prosecutors and judges ... has convinced me that it is impossible to devise a system that is consistent, that is free of discrimination on the basis of race, geography or economic circumstance, and that always gets it right.”

Similar views prompted New York and New Jersey to abolish the death penalty in 2007 and New Mexico in 2009.

World-wide, capital punishment has been in steady decline and now only five developed nations practice it. The United States, where the number of executions has been shrinking since a 1999 peak of 98, remains one of the world’s top executioners. In 2010, it ranked fifth, after China, Iran, North Korea and Yemen, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Libya. This is not the kind of group that fits the average American’s image of his or her country as a place a class above the dictatorships and human rights violators most active in handing out death sentences.

Capital punishment in America is reserved, at least in theory, for the “worst of the worst” but a series of studies show that the practice is different. For example: In 2003, the worst serial killer in US history, Gary Ridgway, pleaded guilty to murdering 48 people in the state of Washington. He was sentenced to life without parole and spared the death sentence in return for detailed information on the young women he strangled over a 20-year period.

In Virginia, Justin Wolfe was convicted of murder-for-hire in the killing of a drug dealer and sentenced to death in 2002. A federal judge overturned the conviction this week, nine years after Wolfe was sent to death row, ruling that prosecutors had ignored or withheld evidence and “stifled a vigorous truth-seeking process”. How consistently such a process can flourish in the adversarial US justice system is open to debate. Thane Rosenbaum, a law professor at New York’s Fordham University, has described courtroom wrangling as “winner-take-all, scorch the earth contests that make America’s trials similar to its sporting spectacles”.

Except that the stakes are higher in the courtroom.

There, wrongful convictions are not isolated events but stem from systemic defects, according to The Innocence Project, a New York-based organization that has been using DNA testing to win the freedom of people behind bars or on death row. Seventeen of the 272 people exonerated through DNA since 1989 had been sentenced to death.

Scores of others on death row have had their sentences overturned (and in most cases changed to life imprisonment) on appeal. In both state and federal courts, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, appellate reviews find that mistakes were made in two-thirds of the cases.

Which throws question marks over the notion of a fair process of narrowing down tens of thousands of eligible cases to the “worst of the worst” and helps explain why death sentences and executions have dropped nation-wide by about 50 percent since 2000. Less than one in a hundred murders draws a death sentence and far fewer end in an execution. Even in Texas, America’s leading executioner, the number of convicted killers put to death has declined over the past few years. So is it time to drop capital punishment and join most of the rest of the world, where a life behind bars is considered the ultimate punishment? — 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.

Contador at crossroads but all is not lost

By Julien Pretot he odds have been stacking up against Alberto Contador since the start of the Tour de France, but ruling the three-times champion out would be a costly mistake for his rivals although he is at a crossroads. The 28year-old Spaniard, who is waiting on an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over a failed dope test, was booed by the crowd before the start of the race, lost crucial time in the first stage and hit the deck twice before losing ground in the opening mountain stage.

He still lies seventh overall, four minutes behind leader Thomas Voeckler and around two minutes behind his main rivals with the most demanding stages yet to come in the three-week race. “He has not had a great day but I think it’s something that can happen,” Yvon Sanquer, his team manager at Astana last year, told Reuters. Contador, who has been suffering from knee pains after his crashes in the first week, could not follow Frank Schleck when the Luxembourg rider attacked some three kilometres from the finish at Luz Ardiden on Thursday.

The Spaniard was also dropped from the favourites’ group in the last kilometre, losing 13 seconds to Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck and Ivan Basso. “Maybe he’s been paying the price for a tricky start to the Tour. He also has to deal with riding the Tour after the Giro. We’ll have to see how he fares in the next few days,” said Sanquer.

T

Contador, who won the Giro in impressive fashion in May, is attempting to become the first rider to achieve a Giro-Tour double in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998. The 2011 Giro, however, was one of the hardest in the modern era and it could take its toll on Contador on the F r e n c h roads, even for a man who is unbeaten in all the grand tours he has entered since 2007. “ This Giro was really energy-sapping, it was one of the most difficult in history,” Frenchman Charly Mottet, who twice finished fourth in the Tour thanks to his climbing abilities, told Reuters. “The transfers (from the finish to the hotels) were also extremely long. He was also under tremendous pressure because of the CAS appeal.”

Contador was booed by the Italian crowd at times

on the Giro - mainly because he was beating local riders, and he also faced whistles at the team presentation ceremony on the Tour. Tensions have dramatically eased, however, as “the Pistolero” was cheered by the crowd after just a few days on the road. His knee was also much better on Friday before the start of the 13th stage. Will that be enough for a turnaround? “His safety margin has dramatically narrowed. You can have a bad day on the Tour and still win it, but if he loses more time on one or two stages, he might find himself on a downward slope,” said Sanquer. “It is tough to bounce back when you start losing time on such a race as the Tour,” echoed Mottet.

The race scenario, however, could help Contador, who is not the kind to give up without a fight. “Some outsiders such as (Alexandre) Vinokourov

or (Jurgen) van den Broeck are not there anymore because they crashed and they’re the ones who would have caused havoc in the race,” said Mottet.

This makes for a waiting game - a situation any struggling rider would welcome. On Thursday, Contador was clearly not at his best but he was not attacked until very late in the stage. An earlier move by the Schleck brothers could have made much more damage. “ The Schlecks’ strategy is a bit bizarre,” said Mottet, who believes the only way to unsettle Contador is for Frank and Andy to attack him together.

“The one who attacks looks behind to see if his brother did not suffer too much from the attack. While if they go together, it can really make a lot of damage.” Andy Schleck last year made the mistake of not attacking sooner in the first mountain stage, gaining only 10 seconds to Contador in Morzine when the Spaniard was far from his best.

Contador then fared much better and went on to win the race.

“Contador did not look good yesterday, his pedalling was not soft and he was not as light on the bike as usual, but you can’t bury him. He is Contador,” said Mottet, who believes it is now up to the Schlecks to go for it if they want to win the Tour. “It seems like Frank and Andy themselves do not know who’s the one who will win the Tour,” he explained. “(Leopard Trek sports director) Kim Andersen won’t choose either.

It will be a family affair. But they’d better be careful not to be pipped by Evans or Contador in the end.” —Reuters

Cancer may further dim Chavez’s global influence

By Pablo Garibian and Brian Ellsworth enezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s public battle with cancer has added to his global fame but it may also weaken his already waning influence in Latin America and beyond. For years the 56year-old socialist leader was the flag bearer for a wave of leftist leaders in the region.

Now Brazil’s mix of market-friendly policies and social development efforts is steadily eclipsing the state-centric nationalizing model of “Chavismo”.

Chavez’s overseas spending has declined in recent years as a result of a sluggish economy, and his health crisis will likely curtail frequent world tours and appearances at international summits where he delivers fiercely anti-US speeches. His illness forced the cancellation of a meeting of Latin American heads of state set for Venezuela’s July 5 200th independence anniversary.

Some analysts say he will also have to direct more resources to bringing in votes at home as his treatment prevents his traditionally grueling campaigns ahead of a 2012 presidential election.

“Just as Chavez is sick, so is ‘Chavismo’ both inside Venezuela and the region too and it may be on the way to intensive care,” said analyst Maria Teresa Romero. “This situation means that both economically and politically, he is forced to ease up on this Latin American project, which has been basically led by him because he has been the great financier.”

Like his political mentor Fidel Castro of Cuba, Chavez has long had grandiose dreams of spreading “21st century socialism” beyond the South American nation’s borders and helping build a global “antiimperialist” alliance. He was crucial in help-

V

ing the rise of leftist allies including Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, and led a wave of anti-American sentiment that helped sink a Washingtonbacked regional free trade agreement.

And he won over Caribbean and Central American nations with offers of oil and fuel on advantageous terms, and allowed South American allies like Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to buy oil through barter exchanges of grain or cattle. But Chavez will now have to renew focus on the home front, particularly since cancer recovery will force him to cut back on non-stop traveling from urban slums to isolated rural hamlets that underpin his campaign style.

Daniel Kerner of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said Chavez’s illness will weaken regional diplomatic initiatives such as his Alba group of leftist governments and the more ideologically diverse Unasur group he helped create. “Obviously the engine for most of this was Chavez, and as long as Chavez has less energy and less strength to dedicate to it, a lot of this is going to be lost,” said Kerner. Few heads of state can claim the anti-establishment credentials of Chavez, famous for colorful insults of peers ranging from calling US President George W Bush “the devil” to insinuating German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a Nazi.

His effusive backing of Iran’s nuclear program, his pillorying of international prosecution of Sudan’s president on genocide charges, and his relentless and visceral criticism of global financial institutions such as the World Bank have made him a hero to leftists around the world. Under strict orders to cut his workload, Chavez will have to limit globetrotting trips to visit globally ostracized allies such as Iran or small and

overlooked countries such as the Caribbean island of Dominica.

Chavez has given no sign he will drop his re-election bid, but his chances appear slimmer without his usual superhuman stamina.

A vote is expected for the end of 2012. In the past 12 years he has swept numerous elections, but the upcoming ballot is expected to be his toughest yet as he fends off complaints about soaring inflation, shortages of staple goods and power outages. Peru’s former hardline leftist Ollanta Humala won the presidency last month as the latest Latin American candidate to distance himself from Chavez to woo voters.

Humala instead cast himself in the mold of widely admired former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who kept business interests happy while pushing social programs for the poor, and is now a model for the region’s politicians. “Latin Americans have loved watching Chavez stick it to the big bad United States, but try asking them if they want him governing their nation? No way!” said a Western diplomat in Caracas. “ The sight of a physically diminished Chavez, along with the damaged economies he

and his disciples have produced even in oilproducing countries like Venezuela and Ecuador, will just confirm the trend,” the diplomat said. — Reuters

15

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

analysis

Scandal turns up heat on News Corp board

By Dena Aubin and Yinka Adegoke he resignations of two of Rupert Murdoch’s top lieutenants are not expected to solve the corporate governance problems at his beleaguered media empire, which is widely criticized for having an over-cozy board. Les Hinton, head of News Corp’s Dow Jones & Co, resigned on Friday after becoming a target of criticism for the phone-hacking scandal that occurred when he oversaw Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, News International. Earlier on Friday, another top Murdoch confidante, Rebekah Brooks, who worked under Hinton when she was News of the World’s editor, also resigned.

Holding executives accountable may be the first step in stemming the crisis, but News Corp still needs to correct the culture that led to problems, corporate governance experts said.

“For us in the public to be reading about this for so long without any decisive action is mindboggling to me,” said Fred Tannenbaum, managing partner at law firm Gould & Ratner and expert on family-owned businesses. “My sense is they should put in best practices for ethics, for reporting, for fact-checking and for determining how the facts were obtained,” he said.

Stronger corporate governance, including a more independent board of directors, would have pushed News Corp to take much earlier action to hold those responsible to account - and might have limited reputational damage, experts said. News Corp’s board has long been criticized for being packed with family and corporate insiders who lack independence.

News Corp has said in filings that nine of its 16 board members are independent under Nasdaq listing rules. However, News Corp’s dual voting class stock structure

T

gives the Murdoch family control over nearly 40 percent of votes, giving them major say over who is on the board.

“Even if you were to create an independent board, which you should do, they’re still going to be beholden to the family because the family still controls the vote,” said Charles Elson, chair of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. A spokesman for News Corp declined to comment.

On Friday, Murdoch tried to

was that damning allegation, in a rival newspaper 10 days ago, that reignited a five-year-old scandal that has forced Murdoch to close the News of the World and drop a $12 billion plan to take full control of highly profitable pay-TV operator BSkyB. News Corp’s board has been silent since the turmoil erupted, but Joel Klein, an executive and former assistant US attorney general, along with independent director Viet Dinh, a law professor, have been appointed by Murdoch to oversee the issue

some of what’s coming out now that it goes much further than some tittle-tattle about movie stars,” said Nell Minow of GovernanceMetrics International.

Earlier attention might have limited the damage to News Corp’s name, which worsened this week as a ninth suspect in the hacking scandal was arrested. “When you have nine people arrested, it seems so systematic and almost conspiratorial you have to wonder whether there was any real oversight,” said Gould & Ratner’s Tannenbaum.

News Corporation Chief Rupert Murdoch speaks to the media after meeting the family of murdered British school girl Milly Dowler in London on Friday. – AFP gain control of the scandal by apologizing to the parents of a murdered schoolgirl, in what appeared to be an admission that the News of the World had in 2002 hacked into the voicemails of their missing daughter. It

and keep the board informed.

Corporate governance experts said the board should have created an independent committee to investigate when hacking allegations first came to light in 2005. “ They would have uncovered

The threat of legal liability may push News Corp’s board to take action, governance experts said.

In an amended lawsuit filed in Delaware last week, institutional investors alleged that board “has remained silent and passive” on

the hacking issue, showing its “utter capitulation to the control and domination of Murdoch”. “By failing to take action to investigate, control and limit the fallout from the hacking scandal, the board breached its duty and exposed the company to billions in losses that could have otherwise been avoided,” the lawsuit said.

News Corp has said in filings that nine of its board members are independent under Nasdaq listing rules. However, the lawsuit said that three of those, Kenneth Cowley, Rod Eddington and Andrew Knight, were senior executives at News Corp or a subsidiary at the time they were named to the board. The board already includes Murdoch’s sons James and Lachlan, and his daughter Elisabeth is due to join in 2012.

Many newspaper companies have dual-class voting structures to cushion the publications from short-term profit pressures, but it may be time to rethink the structure, said the Weinberg Center’s Elson. “I’ve always objected to it because I think any time you separate economic interest from voting interest, problems happen,” he said.

Lack of oversight and dualclass structures have been a problem at several companies engulfed in past scandals. The board at Hollinger International, for example, was sued in 2003 for standing by while press baron Conrad Black received millions of dollars in authorized payments.

And the board of Adelphia Communications was dominated by the Rigas family during a financial fraud that led to its 2002 bankruptcy. “The core asset of any journalistic enterprise is its integrity; you have to believe what you’re reading,” said Tannenbaum of Gould and Ratner. “So I would think a board in a media business like this would go to great lengths to assure its integrity.” — Reuters

Press barons lose information monopoly

By Peter Apps ritain’s celebrities might no longer have to worry about the News of the World hacking phones or rifling their bins, but the manner of the paper’s demise shows controlling information is getting much more difficult. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp may have hoped that cosy relationships with Britain’s police and political parties would be enough to avoid too close an investigation of persistent allegations that the paper’s journalists had broken the law.

In the past, that might have worked. But once the old-school investigative reporters of Britain’s Guardian newspaper revealed hacking victims included teenage murder victim Milly Dowler, bombing victims and the families of Britain’s war dead, social media and the Internet took over. The initial story might have come from mainstream print media, but the online wave of outrage - which swiftly turned to mass lobbying of advertisers, who deserted the paper in droves to save public face - was something newer, the latest example of social media acting as an accelerant in a political crisis.

The rise of the Internet and particularly social media are revolutionising the structures of who controls information - and therefore to a certain extent the resulting structures of power. Keeping secrets is getting harder, stealing them in vast quantities and disseminating the information to the world easier - as seen last year with WikiLeaks. It may all be bad news for media moguls such as Murdoch. “What you’re seeing in all these cases is what you might term a democratisation, a decline in

B

the power of the traditional ‘gatekeepers’ such as governments and newspaper editors,” said Jonathan Wood, Control Risks global issues analyst. “Information can be taken in huge quantities and sent immediately around the world - and it’s much harder to stop it.”

That would make the kind of “gentleman’s agreement” between media chiefs and others -for example, to ensure privacy for politicians’ families or the secret deployment of Prince Harry in Afghanistan - much harder in years to come, he said.

Ten years ago, a well-connected politician or company trying to kill a story would have picked up the phone to national newspaper editors and perhaps the heads of key TV channels. Now, they are more likely to be worried about what is on Twitter, Facebook and Google - which can be much more difficult to influence.

“For me, the key lesson of this story is the same one we’ve seen elsewhere, that secrecy is getting much harder,” said Kevin Craig, managing director of British consultancy Political Lobbying and Media Relations (PLMR). “The bottom line is that everyone has to get more used to greater transparency.” Already, companies keen to protect their public image often spend as much on online reputation management as they spend on conventional media relations. Meanwhile, governments are finding that controlling or influencing the mainstream press is no longer enough to shape the news agenda.

Both the “Arab Spring” and Wikileaks saga both showed them struggling to control information through censorship or Internet blocks whilst individuals found it easier to disseminate opinion and coordi-

nate protest or political action. Twitter in particular allows thousands of popular dissenting voices to coalesce and lobby those in authority, organise flash mobs and even cyber attacks and spread otherwise controlled stories - such as those covered by UK privacy “superinjunctions” banning mainstream media from covering them.

The viral way in which campaigns can spread means a firm’s reputation can come under sustained attack in hours - in this case producing the advertising boycott that killed Britain’s largest circulation weekly newspaper. Product boycotts have been organised before, but on the Internet they spread much faster. The online anger also helped force Britain’s political leaders who had wooed Murdoch for decades - to turn on the press baron, forcing him to abandon immediate hopes for a takeover of satellite broadcaster BSkyB. “It’s ironic, because the News of the World was always particularly good at creating the kind of mob frenzy we’ve seen here,” said Tim Hardy, founder of UK-based blog Beyond Clicktivism.

“But in the social media era, things have changed. In some ways, the way in which consumers can band together to - for example - boycott a brand is akin to what you might see with a trade union coordinating to withhold labour. As we’ve seen, it can be very effective.”

The sheer level of potential privacy invasion by tabloid journalists has shocked many. All the resources of the British government, it appears, may have been unable to protect Gordon Brown, a former chancellor and prime minister, from having his personal bank and family medical data stolen. The resulting popular outrage

might lead to tighter legislation on what newspapers can do, but it will do little to reduce the innate vulnerability of that data.

Media outlets might find themselves under greater and perhaps legal control, but that may not prevent less mainstream outfits - such as Wikileaks - from sometimes crossing legal and perceived ethical lines. Keeping secrets is still possible - as the United States showed by keeping quiet for years the details of how it was gradually moving closer to finding Osama bin Laden. But such knowledge must be particularly carefully guarded in the current era. “There are still secrets from my time in government that I know that have never been revealed,” former US Undersecretary of State and Defence Joseph Nye - now a professor at Harvard University - told Reuters earlier this year.

“It is about deciding what is really important and protecting it.” But whilst data theft might become more frequent, some worry a longer term result of the scandal may be that already cash-strapped newspapers and media outlets cut back serious investigative reporting are for fear of breaching privacy laws. That could mean complex scandals that require months of investigation and joining the dots might simply never be either, and the hypocrisy of corporate, political and celebrity elites sometimes simply left unmasked. “Until the News of the World closed it was the most profitable news publication in the UK,” said PLMR’s Craig. “ It is going to require substantial cultural and economic shifts for the online media model to really begin producing the profits needed to fuel investigative journalism.” — Reuters

Republican Pawlenty faces critical month

By Steve Holland he clock is ticking for Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty. He has one month to prove he can break out of the 2012 also-rans and emerge as a viable contender. Republicans in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 13 conduct a straw poll of the party’s presidential candidates. It is a key test of strength for White House hopefuls and sets the stage for the next six months of campaigning in Iowa, which in February holds the first 2012 nominating contest.

The hill is steep for Pawlenty. A Des Moines Register poll of Iowa Republicans last month had him at 6 percent. Pawlenty must do well in the Iowa poll. Analysts know it, rival campaigns know it, and Pawlenty himself knows it. “We need to show real progress in the straw poll,” said Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant. “We need to show improvement, and we’re confident that we will.”

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Pawlenty was the first major contender to jump into the race for the Republican presidential nomination for the right to contest Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012. He would seem to have the right credentials. He has executive experience as a two-term Minnesota governor. He is conservative yet was able to gain crossover support to win election in relatively liberal Minnesota. He is considered the most mild-mannered, polite person in the Republican field in an election season when fiery Tea Party conservatives are demanding a street fighter.

“He could be one of the biggest victims of the straw

T

poll,” said long-time Iowa-watcher David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

“That event has a history of knocking out candidates who on paper look good but can’t seem to generate any electricity.” One of Pawlenty’s biggest perceived stumbles was failing to take the fight face-to-face to front-runner Mitt Romney at a recent debate of Republican candidates. The day before, in a television interview, he had attacked Romney for developing a healthcare plan for Massachusetts when he was governor that Democrats say was a model for Obama’s US healthcare overhaul, which Republicans want to repeal. “He doesn’t excite passion of the likely primar y or caucus voter like he should,” said Dick Bennett, pollster for the American Research Group.

Pawlenty is spending much of the next two weeks in Iowa trying to gain traction. He is talking up his record as governor and drawing a contrast, for example, with rival candidate Michelle Bachmann, who is also from Minnesota and ser ves as a member of the US House of Representatives. Bachmann is surging in the polls in Iowa and could very well win the straw poll. Pawlenty thinks Bachmann talks a good

game but has little to show for her time in Washington, unlike his tenure as Minnesota governor where he says he cut taxes and spending. “ Well, I like Congresswoman Bachmann. I’ve campaigned for her.

I respect her, but her record of accomplishment in Congress is nonexistent. It’s non-existent,” Pawlenty told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. He is also taking shots at Romney. “I don’t think we can have a nominee that was involved in the development and construction of Obamacare and then continues to defend it,” he said.

Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak thinks Pawlenty can turn it around, but that he needs to finish near the top in the Ames straw poll. He thinks Romney, Pawlenty or Texas Governor Rick Perry are the only three Republicans with a chance to actually win the party’s nomination. Perry is still debating whether to jump into the race.

“Is he underperforming a bit right now? Yes. But it’s not a bad thing to have a bad month now rather than later,” Mackowiak said. — Reuters

Focus

Cantor upstaging Boehner in US debt talks?

By Thomas Ferraro

ohn Boehner, the top US Republican, is being upstaged in the battle to raise the debt limit by his younger and more partisan deputy, Eric Cantor, who is widely seen as wanting his job.

In recent days, Cantor has established himself as a lead negotiator in White House talks, willing to tangle with President Barack Obama while Boehner sits relatively mum. Cantor helped nix a potential deal last week between Boehner and Obama that Democrats said was expected to feature $3 trillion in spending cuts and perhaps up to nearly $1 trillion in new tax revenue. “Boehner is hearing Cantor’s footsteps,” said a veteran Republican lawmaker, asking not to be identified by name. “And those footsteps are getting louder.”

Cantor seems more attuned than Boehner to overall wishes of House Republicans, many of whom are aligned with the anti-tax Tea Party movement that considers “compromise” a dirty word. A veteran House Republican said, “It’d be naive not to think that Cantor would like, some day, to become House speaker. A lot depends on how all this works out. It’s defining debate.”

Boehner, 61, and Cantor, 48, the House majority leader deny any friction say they have a strong relationship built largely on mutual opposition to tax hikes.

Obama and Congress are facing an Aug 2 deadline to increase the US debt limit to avert an unprecedented US debt default that would upset markets worldwide. Boehner and Cantor both want to push Obama and the Democrats to agree to trillions of dollars in spending cuts in return for an increase in the fast-approaching $14.3 trillion US debt limit. At a news conference on Thursday, Boehner put his arm around Cantor and rejected talk of a rift between them, as well as Democratic charges that his deputy has undermined efforts to get a deal.

“We have been in this fight together,” Boehner said. “Any suggestion that the role that Eric has played is anything less than helpful is just wrong.”

“The speaker and I are on the same page,” Cantor said earlier this week, dismissing claims to the contrary as unfounded “soap opera”. Cantor, a former attorney from Virginia, is well known in Congress for being ambitious. Democratic aides have sent media what they say is the phrase Cantor wrote in his yearbook when he graduated from a private prep school in Richmond in 1981: “I want what I want when I want it.” A former Republican leadership aide said, “There is always competition at the top. Number two wants to be number one” “But I think it’s a pretty good team, a little bit of ‘good cop, bad cop’. Boehner can tell Obama, ‘Hey, I want a deal. But I have to deal with Cantor.’”

Boehner and Cantor have differences, at least stylistic ones, starting with the speaker’s laid back approach and the much more aggressive style of Cantor. Having served more than two decades in Congress, twice as long as Cantor, Boehner is a political warhorse and a backslapper. The former small businessman from Ohio can stand up and fight but he’s also shown an ability to cross the political aisle to find common ground. Cantor is a leader of conservative “Young Guns” Republicans who he helped recruit. In a 2006 House leadership race, Cantor backed Boehner’s opponent.

“They are two very different guys,” said another Republican lawmaker who has worked closely with both men. “John’s a legislator. He wants to get things done,” the lawmaker said. “Eric is more focused on what the party should stand for and the political implications.”

“Boehner has some Democratic friends,” said a Capitol Hill lobbyist. “You’d be hard pressed to name a Democrat who Cantor is friends with.”

Obama made it clear at a White House news conference on Monday whom he prefers. “I think Speaker Boehner has been very sincere about trying to do something big” that would include spending cuts and an increase in tax revenues, Obama said, adding “His politics within his (Republican House) caucus are very difficult.”

House Republicans applaud the BoehnerCantor team. “Both have jobs to do and they are doing them,” said Representative Lynn Westmoreland. “They are effective.” “I don’t see a problem,” said Representative Shelley Moore Capito. As for reports of tension between the two, she smiled and said, “It makes matters more theatrical.” Earlier this year, Democrats complain, Cantor pushed Boehner to seek deeper spending cuts than the speaker seemed ready to accept to avert a partial government shutdown.

Cantor also caught Boehner off guard in June when he walked out of deficit talks led by Vice President Joe Biden. Last week, Cantor opposed the outlines of a “grand deal” between Obama and Boehner expected to include tax reform as well as changes in Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs long championed by Democrats. Democrats complain that Cantor has been the only congressional leader refusing to compromise. “This Congress is waiting for Leader Cantor to step up to the plate in similar way so that maybe we can come to a compromise,” said Senator Charles Schumer. — Reuters

J

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

sp orts

City targets Nasri, Aguero LONDON: Roberto Mancini broke the unwritten convention of talking about another club’s player when he said he would like Atletico Madrid’s Sergio Aguero to sign for Manchester City if his Argentina team-mate Carlos Tevez leaves the club.

Most managers usually adopt a coy attitude and tiptoe around naming players they would like to sign but Mancini, showing some refreshing honesty, also said he would like to sign Samir Nasri from Arsenal before the end of July. Aguero, 23, has been the subject of widespread speculation that he will move to England this summer, with Chelsea also reportedly showing an interest, while Tevez has made no secret of wanting to leave City, saying he would like to return to South America to be closer to his children.

In an interview with Sky Sports News, Mancini said: “Aguero is a player who can play for Manchester City because he is young and he is a good player like Carlos. He can score a lot of goals and can play with Mario (Balotelli), with Edin (Dzeko)... it could be that he joins.” —Reuters

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Friday. Chicago Cubs 2, Florida 1; Cleveland 6, Baltimore 5; Chicago White Sox 8, Detroit 2; Toronto 7, NY Yankees 1; Tampa Bay 9, Boston 6; Philadelphia 7, NY Mets 2; Cincinnati 6, St Louis 5; Atlanta 11, Washington 1; Pittsburgh 4, Houston 0; Kansas City 2, Minnesota 1; Colorado 4, Milwaukee 0; La Dodgers 6, Arizona 4; Oakland 5, LA Angels 3; San Francisco 6, San Diego 1; Texas 4, Seattle 0.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT GB Boston 55 36 .604 NY Yankees 53 37 .589 1.5 Tampa Bay 50 41 .549 5 Toronto 47 47 .500 9.5 Baltimore 36 54 .400 18.5 Central Division Cleveland 49 42 .538 Detroit 49 44 .527 1 C’ White Sox 45 48 .484 5 Minnesota 42 49 .462 7 Kansas City 38 55 .409 12 Western Division Texas 53 41 .564 LA Angels 50 43 .538 2.5 Seattle 43 50 .462 9.5 Oakland 40 53 .430 12.5 National League Eastern Division Philadelphia 58 34 .630 Atlanta 55 38 .591 3.5 NY Mets 46 46 .500 12 Washington 46 47 .495 12.5 Florida 44 49 .473 14.5 Central Division Pittsburgh 48 43 .527 St. Louis 49 44 .527 Milwaukee 49 45 .521 .5 Cincinnati 46 47 .495 3 Chicago Cubs 38 56 .404 11.5 Houston 30 63 .323 19 Western Division San Francisco 54 40 .574 Arizona 49 44 .527 4.5 Colorado 45 48 .484 8.5 LA Dodgers 42 51 .452 11.5 San Diego 40 54 .426 14

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Springboks flight aborted SYDNEY: A plane carrying the Springboks rugby team to Sydney was forced to return to South Africa af ter one of its engines failed, airline and rugby officials said. The Qantas Airways 747 left Johannesburg for Sydney late on Friday but after takeoff, one of the four engines experienced an increase in vibration and temperature.

The pilots shut down the engine as a safety precaution and returned to Johannesburg, where it had a safe landing. “The pilots manually shut down the engine and returned to South Africa,” an airline spokesman told Reuters yesterday.

Qantas have since sent another plane, which departed from Sydney, to pick up the South African rugby team, the Australian

Associated Press reported.

“We are going to send a new plane to get the special cargo on board,” a Qantas spokesman told AAP prior to the aircraft’s departure. The Springboks were flying to Sydney to take part in the TriNations tournament between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

“The Qantas flight on which the team was travelling was forced to return to OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg less than two hours after takeoff following the overheating and failure of engine No 3 on their Boeing 747,” the South African Rugby Union said in a statement.

“The aircraft returned safely to Johannesburg. The Springboks will remain in Johannesburg for the night.” —Reuters

Bin Hammam tight-lipped over fresh allegations DOHA: Suspended Asian soccer chief Mohammed bin Hammam was tight-lipped yesterday over reports alleging he was not fully co-operating in investigations over a cash-for-votes bribery scandal concerning his aborted bid for the FIFA presidency.

On Friday, British media cited a FIFA ethics committee report that claimed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president had refused to speak to investigators or provide his bank records during the probe. The report, created by a private investigative agency, concluded there was “no direct evidence” linking Bin Hammam to the offer or payment of cash but there was “compelling circumstantial evidence” that he was the source of the money, the Press Association reported. Bin Hammam is facing an investigation into allegations that he attempted to bribe members of the Caribbean Football Union to secure their votes at a meeting held in Trinidad in May as part of the Qatari’s bid to oust FIFA president Sepp Blatter. — Reuters

Blue Jays out-muscle Yankees TORONTO: Brandon Morrow won his four th straight decision and Yunel Escobar had three hits as Toronto Blue Jays roughed up New York Yankees again for its fifth straight win, 7-1 on Friday night.

Morrow (6-4) has not lost since June 11 against Boston, and is 4-0 with a 2.68 ERA in his past six starts. He allowed one run and four hits in 6 2-3 innings, walked two and struck out six.

Jason Frasor, Toronto’s third reliever, pitched around three singles in the ninth as the Blue Jays evened their record at 47-47. Frasor made his 452nd appearance for Toronto, tying Duane Ward for first on the franchise’s career list.

Escobar had three hits, a walk and two RBIs. He singled home a run in the first, doubled in the third, walked and scored in the fifth and hit an RBI single in the eighth.

Toronto, which beat the Yankees 16-7 on Thursday, opened the scoring in the bottom of the first against Freddy Garcia (7-7) when Eric Thames doubled and scored on Escobar’s single to left.

At St. Petersburg, Florida, All-Star David Price pitched six solid innings and Ben Zobrist hit his fifth career grand slam as Tampa Bay ended first-place Boston’s six-game winning streak.

Price (9-7) allowed five hits - three solo homers - while striking out seven and walking one in his first outing since giving up Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit at Yankee Stadium last week.

The switch-hitting Zobrist homered from the right side off Andrew Miller (31) in the second, breaking the franchise record for grand slams he shared with Carlos Pena. Zobrist drove in a fifth run when he drew a bases-loaded walk against reliever Alfredo Aceves, making it 7-2 in the third.

Casey Kotchman hit a two-run homer and B.J. Upton and Sam Fuld had RBI singles for the third-place Rays, who continued a stretch in which they are playing 10 consecutive games against the Red Sox and second-place New York Yankees, the teams they are chasing in the AL East. Kyle Farnsworth retired all four batters he faced, earning his 18th

TORONTO: Blue Jays pitcher Jason Frasor appeals for a called third strike on the final out in the Jays win over the New York Yankees. —AP save in 20 opportunities.

At Baltimore, Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore homered and Lonnie Chisenhall singled in the tiebreaking run in the sixth inning, as Cleveland extended Baltimore’s losing streak to nine games - matching Buck Showalter ’s longest slide as a major league manager.

Michael Brantley had three hits for the Indians, who improved to 5-0 against Baltimore this season.

Matt Wieters, Nolan Reimold and Adam Jones homered for the Orioles, who have dropped to a season low of 114 in their last 15 games. The only other time Showalter lost nine straight during his 13-year career as a manager was in 2003, with Texas.

Josh Tomlin (11-4) gave up a careerhigh three homers in five innings but improved to 4-0 in his last six starts. Chris Perez, the fifth Cleveland reliever, worked the ninth for his 22nd save in 23 chances.

At Detroit, Chicago’s Gavin Floyd

allowed six hits into the eighth inning to outpitch Justin Verlander.

Carlos Quentin had three hits and three RBIs for the White Sox, who scored four runs off Verlander in the third inning - more than the Detroit ace had allowed in any start since May 24. Floyd (7-9) allowed two runs — one earned — and struck out five in 7 2-3 innings. He walked one.

Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run homer for Detroit in the fourth, and later added a single for his 1,500th career hit.

Verlander (12-5) threw six innings, allowed five runs - four earned - and seven hits. He walked two and struck out six.

At Minneapolis, Eric Hosmer hit a tworun homer in the top of the ninth inning to give Kansas City the win. Reliever Matt Capps (2-5) blew his seventh save of the season to match the major league lead with Carlos Marmol of the Chicago Cubs.

Tim Collins (4-4) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win, the first by the Royals

in their last six games against the Twins, and Joakim Soria escaped a jam in the ninth for his 16th save.

Twins starter Nick Blackburn gave up four hits and two walks in seven shutout innings. Royals starter Luke Hochevar went seven innings and allowed three hits.

At Oakland, California, Josh Willingham homered and drove in two runs to lead Oakland over L.A. Angels. Brandon McCarthy (2-5) pitched into the sixth inning and matched his season-high of seven strikeouts for his first win since April 10. The right-hander missed nearly seven weeks with a stress reaction in his right scapula.

Kurt Suzuki added two hits for Oakland, which has won six of the last eight games against the Angels. Dan Haren allowed four runs and 10 hits as Los Angeles had their four game winning streak ended.

Willingham’s homer, his 12th of the season, highlighted his 3-for-4 day. He is batting .450 since returning from the disabled list on July 7. Andrew Bailey worked the ninth for his ninth save in 11 tries.

At Seattle, Colby Lewis missed pitching a four-hitter by an out and Texas had three sacrifice flies in winning its ninth straight.

Lewis followed Derek Holland’s stellar per formance a night earlier when Holland took a perfect game into the sixth inning before settling for a shutout.

Lewis (9-7), who gave up a third-inning single to Brendan Ryan, won his fourth straight decision.

Seattle starter Doug Fister (3-11) retired 15 straight at one point, but again got no help from his offense. Seattle hasn’t scored in 26 straight innings.

Lewis, who struck out eight and walked two, fell one out short of his second shutout of the season. He gave up a one-out single to Dustin Ackley and then a two-out hit to Adam Kennedy.

Neftali Feliz got a groundout to finish the shutout and get his 19th save. Texas has 12 shutouts this season, secondbest in baseball and tops the American League. —AP

Pirate shoots down Astros

NEWARK: Connecticut Sun’s Renee Montgomery (21) takes a shot past New York Liberty’s Alex Montgomery (22) in the second half of an WNBA basketball game. —AP

Lynx end Fever streak INDIANAPOLIS: Rebekkah Brunson scored 20 points, Maya Moore added 18 and the Minnesota Lynx beat the Fever 80-70 on Friday night, ending Indiana’s sevengame winning streak. Tamika Catchings scored 22 points and Jessica Davenport had 13 for the Fever, who remain two games ahead of New York atop the Eastern Conference. Minnesota led by as much as five in the third quarter before falling behind by three points late in the third. Indiana hadn’t lost since a June 19 overtime defeat to the Phoenix Mercury.

At Phoenix, Candice Dupree had 20 points, five rebounds and three assists to lead Phoenix to its sixth straight win and 10th in the last 11 games.

Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s second-leading scorer, was limited to 13 points and five assists for the Mercury. Crystal Langhorne had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Mystics, who have lost five straight and nine of 10. Phoenix outscored Washington 15-4 over a 4-minute span in the second half to pull away.

At Newark, New Jersey, Tina Charles scored 15 points and Asjha Jones 14 to help Connecticut coach Mike Thibault get his 167th career victory, tied for second in WNBA history. Renee Montgomery scored 10 of her 12 points in the fourth quarter as the Sun (7-5) closed with a 10-0 run to end a two-game slide.

Kia Vaughn had 15 points and nine rebounds to lead New York (8-6), which saw its four-game winning streak end. Thibault tied Anne Donovan and Michael Cooper on the WNBA wins list. At Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kristi Toliver scored 25 points, including a clutch 3-pointer with 19.7 seconds left, to help lift Los Angeles over Tulsa. The Shock (1-13) built a 55-37 lead in the second period but suffered through a 41/2-minute scoring drought in the final quarter to drop their eighth straight. DeLisha Milton-Jones scored 18 points for the Sparks (6-6), Tina Thompson added 11 and Jenna O’Hea had 10. Andrea Riley led the Shock with 15 points, Tiffany Jackson had 14 and Kalyla Pederson 13. —AP

HOUSTON: Jeff Karstens pitched a five-hitter and Andrew McCutchen tripled and drove in two runs as surging Pittsburgh opened the second half of the season with a 4-0 victory over Houston on Friday night.

Karstens (8-4) needed just 83 pitches to become the first Pirate to win five straight decisions in a season since Matt Capps in 2006. He has an ERA of 2.34 this year, and had gone 3-0 with an 0.41 ERA against the Astros.

It was the second career complete game and shutout for Karstens, who last did it in 2008, at Arizona.

Houston starter Brett Myers (3-10) allowed five hits and three runs while striking out a season-high 11 in six innings in his fourth consecutive loss.

McCutchen’s two-run triple to center field came in the third inning and made it 3-0.

McCutchen has 10 RBIs in his last five games.

The Astros, who have the worst record in the majors, dropped their fifth straight and were shut out for the fifth time this season.

At New York, John Mayberry Jr. drove in five runs to set another career best in the Phillies win on the road. Mayberry singled and doubled with the bases loaded. It marked the second straight game where he established a personal high in RBIs - on the Phillies’ final day of the first half, he hit three doubles and drove in four runs against Atlanta.

Raul Ibanez contributed a home run for the NL East leaders. Promoted from Triple-A before the game for his fourth stint of the year with Philadelphia, Vance Worley (5-1) pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning. The rookie right-hander has a 2.15 ERA and he picked up his first career RBI with a groundout. Carlos Beltran hit his 14th homer as the Mets lost their third straight and dropped back to .500. At Cincinnati, Brandon Phillips hit a two-run homer off Fernando Salas with two outs in the ninth inning to rally Cincinnati in the NL Central rivalry.

Phillips connected on the second pitch from Salas (5-3) for his second career gameending homer. St. Louis went up 5-4 in the eighth on Albert Pujols’ two-run homer off

HOUSTON: Pittsburgh Pirates’ Josh Harrison (right) gets his hand on second base for the steal as Houston Astros second baseman Jeff Keppinger tries to tag in the sixth inning. —AP Aroldis Chapman. Chris Heisey hit two solo homers for the Reds and robbed Pujols of one in the first inning, snatching his flyball from the top of the wall in center field.

Tony Cruz’s pinch-hit RBI single put the Cardinals up 3-2. Rookie shortstop Zack Cozart drove in the tying run with an infield single, and Joey Votto’s double put the Reds up 4-3. Logan Ondrusek (4-3) got the win.

At Atlanta, Martin Prado had two hits, including a homer, in his return from five weeks on the disabled list as Atlanta earned the 10,000th win in franchise history.

Tim Hudson (9-6) gave up one run and seven hits in seven innings and had two hits.

He has now won four straight. Freddie Freeman drove in three runs with two hits, including a two-run double in the seventh.

First baseman Michael Morse, who had only one error this season, had three of the Nationals’ five errors. Livan Hernandez (5-9) gave up six runs, three earned, eight hits and a walk in four innings.

At Chicago, the Cubs overcame another shaky performance by closer Carlos Marmol to beat Florida 2-1 on Friday, ending the Marlins’ season-high, six-game winning

streak. Ryan Dempster (7-6) allowed four hits over eight scoreless innings and struck out nine without a walk, as the Cubs won for only the third time in nine games.

Marmol followed Thursday’s meltdown in a ninth-inning loss to Florida by walking Omar Infante on four pitches to start the inning. With one out center fielder Marlon Byrd threw out Hanley Ramirez trying to stretch a single into a double. But Logan Morrison lined an RBI single to cut Florida’s deficit to 2-1.

Sean Marshall relieved and struck out Mike Stanton to end the game, giving him two saves in four chances. Ricky Nolasco (6-6) allowed two unearned runs and seven hits, struck out seven and walked one in seven innings. At Denver, Rookie Juan Nicasio pitched seven strong innings and Dexter Fowler scored twice in his return from a demotion to the minor leagues to lead Colorado. Mark Ellis doubled twice and Todd Helton added two RBI singles to help the Rockies win for the fourth time in five games.

Nicasio (4-2) allowed four hits and struck out four. Matt Lindstrom and Huston Street pitched an inning each. — AP

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

S P ORT S

Amateur Lewis holds his own against golf Goliaths SANDWICH: Even if only partly believable, the Tom Lewis story is a dreamy one: Valiant amateur who still lives at home with his parents (mum says he always keeps his room impeccably tidy) upstaging the gnarly, mega-rich Goliaths of golf at the sport’s oldest major.

All the 20-year-old Englishman needed to complete what seemed like a sepia-tinted throwback to golf’s pre-commercial days was a thick tweed suit and a tobacco pipe. Spiffing fun, old chap, wot?

From the outside, Lewis’ unexpected flirtation with the top of the British Open leaderboard seemed like a victory for golf’s little guys, one of those what-if-he actually-wins-it? scenarios that sets the imagination racing with crazy ideas that, with a dose of luck and a few days off work from a friendly boss, perhaps other talented amateurs could set an Open alight, too, if given the chance.

But where the picture starts to break down is that Lewis is an amateur in name only. To abide by golf’s detailed rules on amateur status, Lewis is careful to stress that he isn’t paid (not yet, at least) to wear his shirt and cap emblazoned with the names of two well-known golf and men’s apparel companies.

He says that, contrary to media reports, he hasn’t (not yet, at least) signed with sports management giant IMG. Because he is not allowed to

profit financially from his golf (not yet, at least), Lewis won’t get the winner’s check of 900,000 pounds ($1.45 million; euro1 million) if his name is engraved Sunday on the claret jug.

But he travels the world to compete (Australian Open in December, Dubai Desert Classic in February) and spends much of his time improving his golf. His dad, Bryan, an ex-European Tour player now working as a golf pro at a driving range north of London, introduced him to the game when he was just a few years old (2 or 3, says his mother, Lynda, she cannot remember exactly).

Echoes there of Rory McIlroy, whose dad is a scratch golfer and took the future U.S. Open champion with him to the course before he could even walk. Lewis’ father named him after Tom Watson and Jack, his younger brother, after Nicklaus. Their daughter, Stacey, didn’t get a golf name; “that was after a model that my husband fancied,” says Lynda. Curiously, Lewis’ girlfriend, Lara, is named after someone, too - Julie Christie’s character in the David Lean classic “Doctor Zhivago.”

Lewis left school at 16. Now, he looks forward to the day when he is able to repay the money his parents pour into his game (Lynda says they’re “mortgaged massive”). Lewis suggests that he could turn pro after the Walker Cup in September.

In short, the bag-load of skills and cool head

Lewis has sprung on Royal St. George’s shouldn’t be seen as a sporting shock as big, say, as it would be if the tiny Faeroe Islands beat 5-time world champions Brazil in football (it will never happen).

Instead, his story is best understood as another illuminating example of how increasingly younger players arriving with ever-more impressive levels of play beyond their tender years are challenging golf’s established order.

“The state of amateur golf now, the really good ones, they’re not amateurs in the sense of when I was an amateur,” said second-ranked Lee Westwood. “They’ve played professional tournaments and they’ve traveled the world and experienced difficult golf courses. They’re just not amateurs anymore; they’re semiprofessional.”

Unlike tennis, jolted by the burnouts of Jennifer Capriati and others, golf hasn’t felt a need, not yet, at least, for soul-searching about whether youngsters are being pushed too hard to succeed.

Instead, the rise of young pros like the 22-year-old McIlroy and Matteo Manassero, who tied for 13th at the 2009 Open as a 16-year-old amateur, is celebrated, especially with No. 1 attraction Tiger Woods increasingly out of the picture. Coming into this week, all four majors were held by players under 30, the first time that’s happened.

The golfing life certainly hasn’t hurt McIlroy,

who has stayed grounded, sensible and likable despite his early rush of fame and fortune.

And Lewis hasn’t given any hint that there is anywhere he would rather be than on a golf course or that this isn’t the career path he’d chosen. He charmed a news conference with his frankness, honesty and humor Thursday after tying for the lead at 5 under with Thomas Bjorn. (Good example: he said he hopes his parents’ investments in his golf will pay off, “and, if not, then they’re still poor.”)

Lewis qualified for the Open further down the southeast English coast at Rye in June, shooting 63 and another round of 65 interrupted by a 4-hour storm break.

From his first tee that day, “we all thought, ‘Christ, who’s this lad?’” said Tony Lloyd, a trustee there. “He hit the best drive I’ve ever seen at Rye Golf Club.” Shining in qualifying or over two days at the Open is a very different thing from surviving season-in, season-out on the demanding pro tours.

Lewis has many of the shots but not yet the consistency of major-winning pros: with five bogeys to just one birdie, he retreated to 1 under on Friday, still good enough to make the weekend cut. Luck on No. 18 saved him from a worse score. His approach shot fizzed across the green but bounced off a wooden fence post to stay in bounds.

Amateur, yes, but far from amateurish.— AP

Wet, windy weather turns Open into test of survival

SANDWICH: Spectators watch play on the 3rd green in heavy rain on the third day of the British Open Golf Championship at Royal St George’s golf course. —AP

Why the best fans are in Britain SANDWICH: Gary Woodland was in the right rough on the 13th hole as he stared at the green, trying to figure out how to play his next shot. Then he broke into a big smile, and it had nothing to do with anything at Royal St. George’s yesterday.

Beyond the green is a fence, and on the other side is Prince’s Golf Club. It was pouring rain. The gusts topped 30 mph. And the club next door was filled with players in every fairway. Woodland smiled at the idea that while those competing at the British Open were suffering, these people were finding pleasure.

“I was shocked,” the American said.

“There’s no way back home people would be playing today. And it was packed over there.” Even more impressive were the number of fans on such a miserable day.

Matt Millar was the first to play, in the worst of the weather, yet he was followed around by fans who took their hands off the umbrella long enough to applaud whatever good shots they saw.

“I just can’t believe how many volunteers, spectators, people who were just so encouraging. Would you spend your free weekend out there on this weather?

There’s nowhere like it in the world, that I’ve seen,” Millar said. “That made it a lot easier to keep your head up and keep battling on.”

Most telling was Woodland’s adventure on the 14th hole. After hitting his first tee shot out-of-bounds, Woodland’s next one went 50 yards to the left in grass so high that not even spectators walked there. A search party of nearly 40 people scoured through the rough until they found the ball. That begged this question: For an American who is not well known in these parts, who barely made the cut and was in the fourth group out, on the farthest end of Royal St. George’s, why were there that many people following him in the first place?

“These fans are unbelievable,” Woodland said. “For them to be out there watching, it

was good to see.” KEEPING DRY: Ryan Moore started out with six small towels and one big towel. After 18 holes, all of them were wet. Defending champion Louis Oosthuizen didn’t wear any extra layers except for his rain suit, and he kept his towels to four for the round.

That was the trick for the players who faced the worst of the weather in the morning - staying warm and staying dry.

“That’s why I just laughed, because I’ve never played in it like this,” Oosthuizen said.

“Whenever you have social rounds and it just starts raining a little bit, you say, ‘I’m out of here, boys.’ But I could do that today.”

Oosthuizen shot 74.

Matthew Millar of Australia didn’t mind playing alone as the first to tee of in the third round. He chose not to take a marker, not wanting anyone else to have to suffer through the conditions. As for the weather?

He was among the few looking forward to it. Millar has spent the last few months playing alone in freezing, wet and windy conditions in his home city of Canberra to get ready for the British Open. What he found was 30 mph wind and a steady rain.

“It’s been quite cool back home. We’ve had quite a lot of rain and a lot of wind, so I’ve been practicing in that,” Millar said. “But you don’t spend five hours in it like we are doing here. This place is something else. It’s hard enough when it’s dry.” He wound up with an 80. Bo Van Pelt called yesterday the second- worst conditions he has ever faced.

The first was in Kansas. His senior year in college, Van Pelt went to Prairie Dunes, a classic design by Perry Maxwell. It was blowing about as hard as it was Saturday, except that it was 40 degrees. And he had to play 36 holes.

“I was having a flashback to that,” Van Pelt said. “This is the second-worst day. But at least you’re playing in a major. This is what it’s all about. You come here and know this is part of the deal, and if you’re not going to embrace it, you might as well go home.” —AP

Thaworn closes in on Indonesia Open win JAKARTA: Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant showed flashes of brilliance including an eagle and five birdies to take the thirdround lead yesterday in the $1 million Indonesia Open.

The veteran, who won the event in 2005, has a three-shot lead after firing a six-under-par 66 over compatriot Chawalit Plaphol and defending champion Michael Hendry, who have it all to do to stop him on the final day. Chawalit shot 65, while Hendry came in with 69 at Damai Indah Golf-Pantai Indah Kapuk Course. It was an excellent day for golfers from Thailand as Wisut Artjanwat also moved into contention with a 67 to lie a stroke further back. He is tied with Indonesia’s Rory Hie, Kim Felton from Australia and Korean Han Chang-won. Thaworn, who has an incredible haul of 14 tournament victories in the region, has a three-round total of 14under-par 202 in the seventh event of the

OneAsia season.

“It was a great result but it was hard work at times because I had some trouble with my driver. I was hitting it fine on the driving range but on the front nine I started hooking it,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do so I corrected it by working on a slight cut for the rest of the round. I am mentally exhausted.” Despite some shaky tee shots he completed the front nine in a five-under-par 31, before taking a firm grip of the tournament with birdies on 11 and 13, dropping just one shot along the way.

“I was quite lucky today but that’s golf. I have a great chance to win. It would mean a lot to me to win on OneAsia. My goal is to win on as many Tours as possible,” added the 44-year-old Thaworn.

Thaworn won this event in 2005 at Cengkareng Golf Club, during a season when he tasted victory four times en route to becoming Asia’s number one. —AFP

SANDWICH: The weather was turning the British Open into a test of survival yesterday, with no one carding a below-par score among those who had teed off by early afternoon at Royal St. George’s.

Pounding rains and winds gusting over 30 miles per hour (48 kilometers per hour) prompted players to don bulky, oven-style mitts between shots, huddle under umbrellas and try to find a way to get around the course without giving up too many shots to par.

“It was playing stupidly difficult,” said Edoardo Molinari, who shot 76. “Some holes were just a joke.” Umbrellas snapped. Bo Van Pelt went through eight gloves trying to keep his hands dry. Some golfers turned around their caps when putting so they wouldn’t have to deal with rain dripping off the bill.

“Whenever you have social rounds and it starts raining a little bit, you say, ‘I’m outta here boys,’” said defending champion Louis Oosthuizen, who wasn’t too upset about a 74. “I couldn’t do that today.”

By mid-afternoon, as co-leaders Darren Clarke and Lucas Glover teed off, no one was shooting a round in the red. In fact, a par 70 was likely to be a very good score, though the forecast called for stormy conditions to ease up by late in the day, which would be a huge break for those at the top. Gary Woodland was 2 under through seven holes, but the weather got him on the back side: four bogeys and a triple-bogey 8 at the 14th left him with a 74. Five-time Open champion Tom Watson was also below par until he missed a short putt at the 11th. He still managed a solid 72 - not bad for a 61-year-old.

Rory McIlroy, coming off a runaway win at the U.S. Open, teed off when the rain was really slashing across the seaside course. He paused to put on another vest, one that offered even more protection against the downpour.

Maybe he was just looking for something that would float. McIlroy got off to a tough start but scored better as the showers eased up. He was 2 over for the day and the tournament through 11 holes. His playing partner, fellow 22year-old Rickie Fowler, was at 1 over.

Clarke and Glover set the 36-hole pace at 4under 136. But no one could possibly predict how it will all shake out by the time the final shot is hit Sunday evening, a striking contrast to McIlroy ’s eight-stoke romp last month at Congressional. Only seven shots separated the 71 players making the cut. “I think you’ll see a lot of chopping and changing at the top of the leaderboard,” McIlroy said. “It’s the most open Open I’ve seen in a long time. It’ll be exciting to be a part of and it’ll be exciting to watch over the next two days.”

The 495-yard fourth hole, playing into the teeth of the wind, was an absolute beast. The first 63 players to come through were a combined 59 over par, the average score nearly a

SANDWICH: Steve Stricker of the US plays a shot off the 9th tee during the third day of the British Open Golf Championship. —AP stroke above the par of 4.

McIlroy was right in the thick of things after grinding out a 1-under 69 on Friday, leaving him just four strokes back. But there were intriguing storylines all around. (Except for the home country. England lost three of its top players to the cut.) Experience? Forty-somethings Clarke, Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Davis Love III were in contention. So was 52-year-old Tom Lehman.

Big names? Phil Mickelson was three shots back heading to the weekend of his least successful major (one top-10 finish in 17 appearances). A rejuvenated Sergio Garcia picked up the chase for his first major title.

Major champions? The four who reign currently all made it through: Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen and, of course, McIlroy, eager to add the claret jug to his U.S. Open crown.This championship is just getting started. “There’s still two days of tough golf and tough weather ahead of us,” Clarke said.

With more rain and strong winds in today’s forecast, everyone spoke confidently about being the one who could best handle the harsh conditions. “One of the things I’m looking forward to is actually the bad weather,” Mickelson said bravely. Then he went out and bogeyed three of the first six holes.

Clarke, a forgotten figure as McIlroy and Graeme McDowell captured the US Open the last two years, bounced back from a double bogey to make a 90-foot eagle putt and overcame a few more hiccups on his way to a second straight 68. Glover, playing the kind of golf that won him a US Open two years ago, made only

three bogeys in the opening two rounds to join Clarke at the top of the board. But everyone who made the cut had a chance.

“Unlike often when you’re in contention in a championship where it may be between six, seven, eight of you, now it’s between the whole field,” said first-round co-leader Bjorn, one shot back at the midway point. “You’ve just got to go out there and knuckle down and see where it gets you to on Sunday afternoon.”

Bjorn was joined at 137 by PGA champion Kaymer, Jimenez and Chad Campbell. The 29 players within four shots of the lead included McIlroy and Fowler, who played together for the third straight day.

“It’s basically a new tournament,” Fowler said.

Not so for England’s Luke Donald, who became the second No. 1 player this year to miss the cut in a major. Another Englishman, second-ranked Lee Westwood, also missed the cut. Yet another home-country favorite, Ian Poulter, headed home after a 78, tweeting along the way that he was trying to stretch enough mileage out of his car so he didn’t have to stop for fuel. At least he was dry. Given the weather, it could be a repeat of 10 years ago at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, when David Duval started the third round seven shots out of the lead and wound up with a share of the lead by the end of the day.

“There’s an awful long way to go yet, and I believe the forecast for the weekend is very, very poor, which I quite look forward to,” Clarke said.

“But the course is going to play very, very tough.

“If that’s the case,” he added, “then the tournament is still wide open for an awful lot of players.” — AP

Breeders’ Cup to ban race-day use of drugs NEW YORK: Organizers of the Breeders Cup have agreed to start banning the use of race day drugs on horses to bring their races closer to global standards.

North American racing officials have been heavily criticized in international horse racing circles for allowing their horses to run on various medications, including anti-bleeding diuretics such as Lasix and Salix.

All of the world’s major racing regions, apart from North America, ban the use of these drugs in the belief they unfairly enhance performance and pose health risks to horses.

Foreign racing boards have been putting pressure on North America to comply with international standards and the Breeders Cup, who relies heavily on high-profile international entrants to promote itself as the world championships, have agreed to make changes.

Under the deal, reached this week, all twoyear-old horses at this year’s Breeders Cup meeting would be banned from using race day drugs while all horses will be subjected to the same rules from 2013.

“Given the high level of international participation in our championships and the increasing support for our nominations programs throughout the global thoroughbred breeding and rac-

SAN FRANCISCO: An Oracle Racing AC45 skippered by Russell Coutts sails on San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. The AC45 is the forerunner to the AC72 which teams will race in the Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup finals. —AP ing community, Breeders’ Cup feels strongly that the time has come to modify our medication policies to be consistent with international practices,” said Tom Ludt, Breeders’ Cup Chairman.

“Breeders’ Cup has a long-standing reputation for setting high standards of safety, security and integrity for the participants in our Championships and this measure continues that tradition.”

In 2007, Breeders’ Cup began out-ofcompetition testing for blood doping agents for the Championships, and in 2008, Breeders’ Cup banned the use of steroids from competition.

At this stage, the ban will only apply to the Breeders Cup, which will be run at Churchill Downs in Kentucky from Nov. 4-5 this year, but US media said the bans could be introduced in all races in the new few years. —Reuters

y

A

18

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

SPORTS

Test cricket takes fresh guard at 2,000 not out LONDON: A five-day contest where often neither side wins, Test cricket may seem out of touch with 21st Century life yet next week’s series opener between England and India at Lord’s will mark its 2,000th match.

And with a sell-out crowd expected at the ‘home of cricket’, where India great Sachin Tendulkar could become the first player to score a hundred international hundreds it seems there is life in the old dog yet.

Certainly no-one designing a sporting format today would come up with anything like Test cricket. Yet its sheer length, and associated unrivalled capacity for changes of fortune-this month marks the 30th anniversary of England’s remarkable win, following on, against Australia at Headingley — means it can create more truly memorable moments than

one-day and Twenty20 formats.

Starting with a match between Australia and England at Melbourne in 1877, it took a while for Test cricket to be regarded as more important than the old rivals’ own first-class matches and, South Africa apart, its global appeal in those early years was strictly limited. Tests were also, for much of their history, comparatively rare events with 803 matches played in the first hundred years compared to 1,197 in the last 34 years.

There has rarely been an age since its inception when Test cricket was not facing a crisis many thought threatened its existence, with last year’s spot-fixing scandal involving Pakistan players in England the latest example.

If that had diplomatic, as well as sporting, ramifications so too did the Bodyline series of 1929/30, when

England quicks Harold Larwood and Bill Voce bowled to a packed legside field in a bid to curb the phenomenal run-scoring of Australia great Don Bradman. But by then, the key decision that would broaden Test cricket’s horizons had already been taken with two Imperial Cricket Conferences at Lord’s in 1926 agreeing to England’s exchange of visits with the West Indies, New Zealand and India, opening up cricket to Afro-Caribbean and Asian influences.

A series of increasingly sterile Anglo-Australian contests in the 1950s and 1960s left many fearing for Test cricket’s future until a vibrant West Indies side during its ‘Tied Test’ tour of 1960/61 showed there was another way to play the game.

Even so one-day cricket migrated to the international arena and soon

proved itself a commercial success.

Recently the advent of the brash Twenty20, again migrating from the county to the world stage, opened up new audiences.

And, with the creation of the Twenty20 Indian Premier League, vast new riches were available to players without the need to have first established their status in the Test arena.

Yet as International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat put it on Thursday: “Test cricket is the pinnacle form of the game.

“It is our link to the game’s origins; it is what defines greatness and it is recognised by the players as being the benchmark by which they wish to be graded and remembered.

“History has proven that no other form of the game can create memorable and meaningful moments like

Test cricket can.”

Which is not to say it doesn’t face huge challenges. Crowds, outside of England and Australia, are often meagre and the sheer frequency of fixtures can leave even the most ardent fan feeling overwhelmed.

Day/night Tests, often heralded as a way of bringing back spectators, remain on the drawing board and whether the ICC’s proposed Test Championship, billed as a way of giving greater context to individual series, captures the public imagination, remains to be seen.

But so long as a critical mass within the sport believe Test cricket to be living up to its name as the ultimate challenge-and can convince enough people beyond the boundary to provide the necessary financial support-it will be around for some time to come.—AFP

China start worlds with diving gold

FRANCE: Thomas Voeckler of France, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, clenches his fist as he retains the yellow jersey crossing the finish line during the 14th stage of the Tour de France cycling race.—AP

Voeckler stays in yellow FRANCE: Frenchman Thomas Voeckler stubbornly held on to the Tour de France yellow jersey yesterday as reigning champion Alberto Contador survived another onslaught in the mountains.

Contador, who has complained of a sore knee, came under constant attack on the gruelling 15.8 km climb to Plateau de Beille but soaked up the pressure to lose only two seconds to key rival Andy Schleck. “I didn’t feel great,” admitted Contador, who is still seventh overall at 4min 00sec behind Voeckler and 2:11 behind Frank Schleck. “But as each day passes I’m feeling better.”

Belgian Jelle Vanendert, of the Omega Pharma team, meanwhile took a deserved victory on the 14th stage after jumping out of the group of overall favorites 6.8 km from the finish.

He caught early breakaway rider Sandy Casar of France and despite a late counter-attack by stage 12 winner Samuel Sanchez the Belgian held on to claim his maiden win on the race.

Vanendert finished 21sec ahead of Euskaltel rider Sanchez, with former two-time runner-up Andy Schleck coming over the line at 46, two seconds ahead of a group containing all the other yellow jersey contenders.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d win a stage like this,” said

Vanendert, who has been given freedom to race for himself after team leader Jurgen van den Broeck crashed out injured last week.

“I came to the race with great form and ready to help Jurgen. This stage is also for him.” After their dominant Leopard-Trek team had set a demanding pace on the long flat stretch leading to the fifth and last climb of the day, Frank and Andy Schleck launched a series of small attacks in a bid to drop their rivals. Each time, Contador and Australian Cadel Evans-as well as Italian Ivan Basso and Voeckler-were able to counter and latch back on to the group. Only in the final 2km of the 15.8 km ascent did Andy Schleck pull away, the Luxemburger grappling just two seconds from Contador in the process. It meant Voeckler maintained his 1min 49sec lead on Frank Schleck, with former two-time runner-up Evans still third at 2:06.

Andy Schleck, the runner-up the past two years, is fourth at 2:15 with Basso in fifth at 3:16. Contador is another 44secs off the pace in seventh. Andy Schleck said: “We gave it a good try but we didn’t drop anybody, except for the two seconds I gained at the end. “The climb wasn’t selective enough. Once we get to the Alps that’s when we will make a difference.” Older brother Frank appeared

to launch a veiled attack at Contador and Evans, criticising the pair for not attacking themselves. “We tried several times. The only one who was a little bit interested was Ivan Basso,” said Frank. “All the others just looked at each other. Me and my brother and Basso, we tried to actually race.” Evans, whose yellow jersey bid seems to be getting stronger by the day, immediately hit back. “Everyone says no one attacks, but you have to consider also the wind, and the closeness of the racing,” said the Australian.

“The Schleck brother are there, they ride all day, they’ve got the yellow jersey to gain and they look at me to pull for them? “I feel like saying, ‘hang on a second, I’m not here to tow you to Paris’.” Voeckler meanwhile upset his own prediction that he would lose the jersey on the toughest day in the Pyrenees. “I don’t really know what to say. I’m really surprised,” said Voeckler, who came over the finish line shaking his fist in celebration.

Having famously worn the yellow jersey for 10 days in 2004, Voeckler can now realistically keep it until the first of three consecutive stages in the Alps starting Tuesday.

“I think he’s going to go a few more days at least,” added Evans. “As long as they (Europcar) don’t have it on the Champs Elysees.”—AFP

SHANGHAI: China claimed the first gold medal of the world aquatics championships yesterday as the sport’s chiefs tightened their doping crackdown in the wake of a major scandal.

Divers Wu Minxia and He Zi got the hosts off to a roaring start as they bagged the women’s 3m springboard synchro in a sunset final at Shanghai’s open-air Crescent Lagoon venue. Wu and He totalled 356.40 points, more than 40 points ahead of Canada’s Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel, with Australians Anabelle Smith and Sharleen Stratton third. A delighted Wu, winning her fifth gold medal in the event, praised injured team-mate He for battling injury. “We encouraged each other a lot, and it’s very important for winning the title,” said Wu. “He Zi competed with injury, it’s very difficult for her. Finally we beat all the rivals for the title, it’s a test for us and we made it. We are the best. Our rivals are very good but we did better.” It was China’s sixth successive victory in the event, equalling diving’s longest ever winning streak set by the United States between 1973 and 1991, and underlining their years of dominance in the sport.

China missed only one gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and won seven out of 10 at the 2009 world championships in Rome, raising hopes they can take the lot even without “diving queen” Guo Jingjing, who retired in January. Meanwhile governing body FINA said blood testing, along with urine testing, would be used for the first time since 2005 at the biennial world championships, which open just days before Brazilian star Cesar Cielo learns his fate over a positive test. Executive director Cornel Marculescu said the decision to reintroduce blood tests, which were not considered necessary in Melbourne in 2007 and Rome in 2009, had been taken on the advice of experts. “It’s nothing new in our life. We have done the blood tests before,” he said. “It’s a matter for the scientific world. We have to follow what the sci-

SHANGHAI: China’s Wu Minxia (right) and He Zi hold up their gold medals after winning the women’s 3m Synchro Springboard final at the FINA 2011 Swimming Championships.—AP entific world is telling us.... I don’t see anything unusual,” Marculescu added.

The decision comes before Wednesday’s hearing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport into Cielo and three other Brazilians who tested positive for a banned diuretic but were let off with warnings by the national federation. FINA took the case to the international body, calling for bans and for the swimmers to be stripped of all their results since they failed the tests in May. A ban would rule Cielo, who blamed a contaminated vitamin supplement for the failed test, out of the ongoing world championships and would threaten his defence of his Olympic 50m title next year in London.

The risk of failed tests appears especially high in Shanghai after Chinese officials acknowledged the risk of athletes eating meat contaminated with banned fat-burner clenbuterol, which farmers sometimes feed to pigs and cattle. Officials drew up a list of designated restaurants which were safe to visit after

team officials raised concerns. Reports said one study found 22 out of 28 travellers leaving China tested positive for clenbuterol.

In yesterday’s other action, Li Shixin came out on top in his battle with Chinese team-mate He Min in the men’s individual 1m springboard preliminaries, raising expectations of another home win in Monday’s final.

The world championships, featuring 2,200 swimmers, divers and water polo players from a record 181 countries, will formally begin later yesterday with an opening ceremony.

The swimming competition starts on July 24 with all eyes on whether 14-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps can dominate as he did at the 2008 Beijing Games, where he won eight golds. But the swimming events are likely to see few if any world records after the banning of high-tech polyurethane swimsuits which helped set a whopping 43 new marks at the last edition in Rome.—AP

Stoner on pole in Germany GERMANY: Australian world championship leader Casey Stoner, of Honda, claimed pole position for today’s German Grand Prix here after registering the quickest time in qualifying yesterday.

It will be the sixth time this season that Stoner has started from the front of the grid, as he chases his fifth win. Stoner’s time of 1min 21.681sec was 0.252sec quicker than Spain’s Dani Pedrosa, also of Honda.

It was quite a turnaround in fortunes for Stoner, who had lagged behind in Friday practice after suffering a

GERMANY: Honda rider Casey Stoner from Australia waves after winning the MotoGP qualifying at the Sachsenring circuit.—AP

crash in a treacherous morning run. He said: “I’m very happy with the outcome. I wasn’t too confident on the quick part of the track where I crashed but we have recovered a lot of time since Friday”. Meanwhile, as Pedrosa continues his comeback from a broken collarbone suffered at the French Grand Prix in May, he admitted that the set-up at Sachsenring was ideal. “I am surprised,” he said. “I like this circuit, because it runs anti-clockwise, and because we are therefore going in the oppposite direction to what we normally do, it means there is less of a strain on my shoulder.”

Jorge Lorenzo, the defending world champion and the winner at Mugello two weeks ago, was third fastest, just edging Marco Simoncelli, the fastest in Friday’s free practice sessions, into fourth.

“In the end I couldn’t make pole position but I think third position on the front row is a good place to start tomorrow (Sunday) for the race; I got it by just 0.010.

“Casey is very strong but I hope to be ready to fight for the victory with him. “I think the fans will see a great race as there are a lot of riders who can fight for the win.” The biggest shock of the day was the disappointing showing by seven-time champion Valentino Rossi on his Ducati. The Italian, who was another to crash on Friday, registered only the 16th-fastest time, meaning that he will start last but one on the grid. The only man slower than Rossi was the Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli, also of Ducati, but he at least had the excuse that this is his first involvement in MotoGP since switching to Superbikes in 2008. In the Moto2 category, last year’s 125cc world champion Marc Marquez (Suter) claimed his third pole of the season and second in succession ahead of home favourite Stefan Bradl (Kalex). The Spanish dominated in the 125cc as well, taking seven of the top eight positions with Maverick Vinales, 16, starting from pole position for the fourth time this season.—AFP

SHANGHAI: Artists and paramilitary police officers perform during the opening ceremony at the FINA Swimming World Championships.—AP

Young guns cause big upsets at Kenyan trials NAIROBI: Unheralded Hellen Obiri pulled off her second upset of the year over Olympic 1500 metres champion Nancy Jebet Langat in one of the major upsets at the Kenyan national championships yesterday.

The 22-year-old Obiri dashed away from Langat in the home stretch to win the race on the final day of the three-day meeting, which also counted as the trials of next month’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

It was Obiri’s second win over the Commonwealth and African cham-

pion, having defeated Langat during during the Kenyan Armed Forces championships in June. Langat finished third in race, but still managed to earn a spot on the world championship team. In the men’s race, Commonwealth Games champion Silas Kiplagat stunned the strong field that included the Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop, winning in the season’s fastest time of 3:31.39.

“I am very proud to make the Kenya team for the world championships for the first time. To beat the top athletes in Kenya is not an easy task,” said Kiplagat, who ran

the 10th fastest 1500m in history last July in Monaco.

Kiprop finished a distant second in 3:32.26, and said he was not disappointed with his position. “Silas has run the fastest time on the home soil - better even than my previous time. I am happy to make the team which is important,” said Kiprop.

World 5000 metres silver medallist Sylvia Kibet ended her bridesmaid tag when she defeated Linet Masai, the world 10,000m defending champion Linet Masai to win her first national title. —AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

19

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

S P ORT S

Wenger blasts Mancini after China friendly

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Shafiq Rahim (right) takes a free hit against Liverpool’s defence line during the first half of a friendly football match. —AFP

Liverpool thrash Malaysia 6-3 KUALA LUMPUR: Charlie Adam scored his first goal for Liverpool as the Premier League team beat the Malaysian national side 6-3 in the second match of its preseason Asian tour yesterday.

Adam, who joined from Blackpool earlier this month, made his starting debut for Liverpool and was at the heart of the team’s first-half attacking moments. He scored with a twice-taken penalty in the 24th minute at Bukit Jalil Stadium.

It was the Reds’ first visit to Kuala Lumpur. The team defeated China’s Guanghong Sunray Cave 4-3 on Wednesday. Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish made 11 substitutions at the break, and David Ngog and Maxi Rodriguez both scored twice with Dirk Kuyt adding the other goal for the visitors. “We still have a lot of work to do. It’s early in the preseason and the players are not quite sharp yet,” Liverpool assistant coach Steve Clarke said. “It was a great game and the Malaysian boys were very aggressive but fair.”

“We let in another three goals today but it’s not just the defense we have to work on. I’m sure the boys will be up to the mark in four weeks’ time when we kick off the season.”

Adam showed off an array of passing skills and created chances for his team, showing why Dalglish had been chasing his signature since January.

The breakthrough came after striker Andy Carroll was bundled over in the box. Adam stepped up to convert the penalty, but referee Nagor Amir Noor Mohamed ordered him to retake the spot kick. The Scot kept his cool to again send goalkeeper Mohamad Nasril Mat the wrong way.

The goal woke Malaysia up and the

hosts finally began to show some aggression. They were duly rewarded when captain Shafiq Rahim equalized near halftime with a superb free kick, and almost took the lead through Baddrol Bakhtiar’s header two minutes later.

At halftime, Ngog came on for Carroll.

He put Liverpool ahead in the 67th minute, taking advantage of a defensive lapse to knock the ball home from close range.

If his first goal had an element of luck, the second was a beauty - blasting the ball into the net while on the run two minutes later. Maxi Rodriguez made it four for the Reds in the 74th, coming in from the right to convert a cross from Emiliano Insua.

Malaysia’s top striker, Mohamad Safee Mohamad Sali, was a reserve as he was carrying an injury. But he came on to make it 4-2 in the 79th minute after added another goal two minutes later.

Rodriguez, however, nodded the ball into the net in the 90th minute from close range off a cross by Kuyt, who burst through the defense in injury time to score the last goal for the five-time European champions.

Malaysia was thrashed 4-0 by Arsenal earlier this week, and its coach K.Rajagopal said his team had learned a lot from both games in preparation for a two-legged World Cup qualifier against Singapore on July 23 and July 28.

“I told the players we had to be aggressive and we worked real hard,” he said. “There will be some players who will be elated that we scored three times against a top club, but others will be sad we conceded six times. There were sloppy goals and I’m not too happy about that.” —Reuters

YIWU: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger lashed out at rival clubs yesterday for breaking “basic rules” by openly chasing his star players in incidents that have overshadowed the Gunners’ preseason tour of Asia.

Wenger showed his anger when he was questioned about Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini’s comments after Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Hangzhou Greentown in China yesterday.

As Arsenal were taking to the pitch in China, at home, Mancini broke the unwritten code of talking about another club’s player, saying he aimed to sign Arsenal’s Samir Nasri before the end of July. “ These comments are not allowed,” Wenger said. “They are against the basic rules of football and Roberto Mancini should be informed.”

“What we want is respect — we will not comment on footballers at other clubs. It’s time football in England came back within basic rules.” Asked if he felt he had been disrespected, Wenger answered: “I cannot say other wise. This comment is absolutely out of order.”

In a similar incident earlier this week Barcelona published comments about Gunners captain Cesc Fabregas wanting to leave for the Camp Nou. Barcelona midfielder Xavi took to the Spanish giants’ website to say Fabregas was unhappy and wanted to return to the club he supported as a boy.

Despite the transfer controversies, Wenger said the Asian tour had been positive and had been a good bonding exercise, as they received a rock stars’ reception from supporters everywhere they went.

YIWU: Hangzhou Greentown’s Shen Longyuan (left) vies with Arsenal player during their preseason friendly match at Yiwu. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. —AP The Frenchman said he was impressed by “how much Arsenal is loved here in Asia, how much the Premier League has penetrated Asia and how much in China and in Malasyia-especially in China-football is starting to become really popular.”

In Saturday’s match, Hangzhou Greentown’s Sebastian Vasquez put the home side ahead in the seventh minute after some sustained early pressure on the Arsenal goal.

Carlos Vela equalised in firsthalf injury time to spare the

Gunners’ blushes and despite changing gears in the second half they were unable to come away with a win. Arsenal were in China for the first time since a pre-season friendly match in Beijing in 1995.

On the second stop of their Asian tour, they played in Yiwu, 285 kilometres (180 miles) south of Shanghai, a market city best known for supplying Britain’s high street budget stores-known as ‘pound shops’. Wenger admitted his side found the Chinese Super League team tougher than

5 North Koreans positive at WCup

Chileans wary of Venezuelans The Venezuelans only ceded top spot in Group B to Brazil on goal difference.

Chilean injury doubts centre upon Gonzalo Jara and Luis Jimenez, as well as Matias Fernandez, still labouring with the leg injury which forced him to limp out of the group game with Mexico and not expected to feature.

Midfielder Jimenez has a slight inflammation of the groin but hopes to make the match while defender Jara is also intending to be fit despite a throat infection.

With Jean Beausejour suspended after his red card against Peru, Carlos Carmona will cover in midfield. The Venezuelans may be forgiven for thinking they have done all that can be expected of them after reaching the quarters for the second successive time and first on foreign soil.

But striker Grenddy Perozo, whose header rescued a 3-3 draw with Paraguay after a late fightback, says that there is no reason to stop the adventure here.

“Now for Chile. They are a pretty good side but we have managed to get results against them before now so why not this time,” Perozo said. For coach Cesar Farias, the secret is their staying power.

“We may not be great, but this SAN JUAN: Chile’s goalkeeper Claudio team fights - we are Venezuelans,” said Bravo plays the ball during a training ses- Farias after his men rescued a point to push Paraguay into third place and sion in Mendoza, Argentina. —AP preserve their unbeaten record.

A decade ago the Venezuelans were cast with something to spare.

But before they can even start dream- in the cannon fodder role after losing 7-0 to ing about the trophy match there is the Brazil. But those days are gone, says Farias. small matter of Sunday’s quarter-final “ We can win, lose or draw - but with against their surprise opponents to deal respect. We want more,” he says. —AFP with.

Chile coach Claudio Borghi is not alone in having been impressed by the skill, as well as the tenacity, of the Vinotinto, whom Matches on TV they face at San Juan in what is almost a (Local Timings) home match for his side.

“Everyone’s changed the way they look COPA AMERICA (TODAY) at the Venezuelans... they have progressed Brazil v Paraguay 22:00 a lot,” said Borghi, in looking back at the Al Jazeera Sport +2 not-so-distant past where Venezuela Al Jazeera Sport 1 HD would be a team to bolster one’s goal difference against with three points a virtual COPA AMERICA (MONDAY) formality.

The Chileans have not forgotten that in Chile v Venezuela 1:15 the last World Cup qualifying round in Al Jazeera Sport +2 which they placed second only to Brazil Al Jazeera Sport 1 HD the Venezuelans held them to a 2-2 draw in Santiago.

WOMEN’S WORLD CUP Striker Esteban Paredes says that “we Japan v United States 21:45 shan’t be underestimating them. For me Al Jazeera Sport 2 they played better than Brazil in the three Al Jazeera Sport 1 HD group games. I think we are in for a tough Al Jazeera Sport +4 but attractive game.”

expected.

“I was surprised by the level of the Chinese team tonight,” Wenger told reporters after the game. Arsenal turned up the pressure after half-time but despite several efforts led by Theo Walcott were unable to pull ahead.

The Gunners have trained in Austria every summer since 2001, but travelled to Asia this year to expand the club’s brand and fan base in the lucrative market.

Arsenal were due to return to Europe on Saturday night. —AFP

SAN JUAN: Chile are straining every sinew to land a first Copa America crown after the frustration of four losing finals while today’s rivals Venezuela are happy to have emerged from group play.

The Chileans, led by the stylish Alexis Sanchez, have been playing some fine football at the event and won Group C

CAMPANA: Brazil’s Elano (right) and Robinho fight for the ball during a training session near Campana. Brazil will face Paraguay in a quarter-final Copa America soccer match. —AP

Brazil ready to take second chance against Paraguay CAMPANA: Brazil were a minute away from losing their Copa America group stage meeting with Paraguay before managing a draw to settle early nerves.

But striker Pato says Mano Menezes’ side must pull their socks up and make no mistake Sunday at La Plata with the pair having been drawn to meet again in the quarter-finals.

Menezes spent part of Friday getting his reserve squad to mimic as near as possible Paraguay’s style of play in training.

However, after the Brazilians finally “woke up” as their media put it in beating Ecuador to win Group B, they must start favourites with strikers Neymar and Alexandre Pato in their ranks.

Both netted twice against Ecuador although Menezes will be aware that the Paraguayans are unlikely to allow them as much space coming forward.

Robinho and Ganso will be tasked with keeping the supply lines open to Neymar and Pato with Ramires and Lucas Leiva keeping things ticking over in the midfield engine room.

Pato says that Brazil must be ready from the first whistle - unlike last week, when Fred’s last-gasp effort saved a 2-2 draw.

“It will be a tough game and different from the last one in that this time there is no margin for error. “But we’re confident we can win it,” said the AC Milan forward.

Given the form of Neymar and Pato, the firepower issue is set to tip the balance away from the Paraguayans, particularly if the latters’ Roque Santa Cruz, who netted in the group match, is doubtful through injury after going off in the 3-3

thriller with Venezuela.

“We are hopeful,” said coach Gerardo Martino on Friday. “We will give it another day and wait on the results of tests.

Blackburn’s Santa Cruz, who after scoring in last week’s encounter against the auriverde is his country’s joint all-time top marksman with 25 goals, had to go off shortly before half-time against Venezuela after straining a leg muscle and was replaced by Nelson Haedo.

But Martino, who is due to step down after the tournament, is confident that his side has a good chance of reaching the last four as they look to secure a first Copa win since 1979.

“We traditionally do well against the stronger teams,” he noted, adding that he believes Ganso, not Neymar, is the dangerman to keep a close watch on.

“It is very important that we don’t give him any space,” Martino warned. While Paraguay fret over Santa Cruz, Brazil’s injury worry is defender Thiago Silva, who has a similar problem and had a session with the physio rather than take part in the main training session Friday. If the AC Milan star does not make it his place will go to Luizao or the less experienced David Luiz.

Brazil right-back Maicon has warned his teammates they have to keep on improving, having only shown flashes of their true talents in the final group game when the chips were down after two earlier draws.

“We know that we cannot just turn up and expect to win games because we are Brazil. We will only get the results we want if we are at our very best,” he said. —AFP

FRANKFURT: A total of five North Korea players have tested positive for steroids at the women’s World Cup in football’s biggest doping scandal for almost two decades.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said Saturday that after two players were caught during the tournament earlier this month, FIFA tested the rest of the North Korean squad and found three more positive results. “This is a shock,” Blatter told a news conference. “We are confronted with a very, very bad case of doping and it hurts.”

The last doping case at a major event came at the men’s 1994 World Cup in the United States, when Diego Maradona was kicked out after testing positive for stimulants.

Colombia’s reserve goalkeeper Yineth Varon has meanwhile been suspended for failing an out-of-competition test just before the World Cup in the wake of undergoing hormonal treatment.

FIFA has already met with a North Korean delegation and heard arguments that the steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on musk deer glands to treat players who had been struck by lightning on June 8 during a training camp.

The case will now be taken up by FIFA’s disciplinary committee. Blatter said the North Korean federation “wrote to us and they presented their excuses. They said that a lightning strike was responsible for this.”

Defenders Song Jong Sun and Jong Pok Sim tested positive for steroids after North Korea’s first two group games and were suspended for the last match. The team was eliminated in the first round after losses to the United States and Sweden and a draw with Colombia.

The names of the three other players would only be made public at a later stage, FIFA said. The gland in question comes from musk deer living in a large swathe of Asia from Siberia to North Korea. The hairy 4-centimeter gland is usually cut open to extract a liquid which is then used for medical purposes. —AP

Nigerian rookies chase African club glory JOHANNESBURG: Kaduna United and Sunshine Stars both fancy their chances of becoming the first Nigerian club to lift the African Confederation Cup despite being international rookies.

The duo kick off their group schedules at home this weekend-Kaduna against InterClube of Angola in Group A and Sunshine against Daring Club Motema Pembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Group B. ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast host Club Africain of Tunisia in a Group A duel of former African Champions League winners and Moghreb Fes of Morocco welcome twice African champions JS Kabylie of Algeria in the other Group B fixture.

Mini-league winners and runners-up advance to the semifinals of the second-tier Pan-African championship, which has been dominated by Tunisian (three titles) and Moroccan (two) clubs since its introduction seven years ago.

Nigeria came closest in 2005 when Dolphin reached the final only to come up short against FAR Rabat of Morocco, who overturned a lone-goal first-leg loss with a 3-0 home triumph.

Kaduna and Sunshine are competing in Africa for the first time this year and luck has played a part in the teams making the final eight in a competition won by outsiders FUS Rabat last year.

Powerful Tunisian outfit Etoile Sahel withdrew from a qualifier with Kaduna because of safety fears amid post-presidential election violence despite the Nigerians moving the fixture from their northern base to a south-west venue.

The armed rebellion against Libyan leader Muamar Kadhafi meant Tripoli club Al-Ittihad could not play at home against Sunshine and the play-off was reduced to one match in Nigeria. —AFP

Wenger blasts Mancini after China friendly

Stoner on pole in Germany

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

19

18

Wet, windy weather turns Open into test of survival Page 17

CORDOBA: Colombia’s Radamel Falcao (right) kicks the ball against the defense of Peru’s Alberto Rodriguez (center) and Christian Ramos during a Copa America quarterfinal soccer match.—AP

Peru shock Colombia to reach semis CORDOBA: Midfielders Carlos Lobaton and Juan Vargas scored in extra time to give unfancied Peru a 2-0 upset victory over Colombia in the Copa America quarter-finals yesterday.

Colombia keeper Luis Martinez spilt the ball when he came out to a free kick from the left by Vargas and substitute Lobaton fired into the roof of the net from the edge of the box to put Peru ahead in the 12th minute of extra time.

Ten minutes later, with Colombia pressing for an equaliser, striker Paolo Guerrero took possession in a counterattack and passed to Vargas who rifled home the ball. The Colombians should have taken the lead with a penalty in the 66th minute but striker Radamel Falcao

put the ball wide. Peru, who qualified from the group phase as the best thirdplaced team, will meet hosts Argentina or Uruguay in the semi-finals.

A burst of action in the opening minute with a yellow card for Luis Advincula followed by a Colombia attack that ended with midfielder Abel Aguilar shooting wide quickly developed into dull midfield jockeying. Falcao shot just over the bar from winger Dayro Moreno’s pass after a rare error from central defender Alberto Rodriguez just before half an hour came up. Then Peru remembered they had a right winger and the previously starved William Chiroque caused big problems for the left side of the Colombia defence. In the 34th minute, Chiroque

crossed low from the right to Vargas in the middle where the Peru captain shot from 20 metres and Martinez dived to his left to push the ball wide.

Peru keeper Raul Fernandez then dived at Falcao’s feet to save after Moreno had passed into the middle and at the other end Colombia captain Mario Yepes’s diving header cleared a dangerous left cross from Guerrero. Chiroque shot dangerously close and Colombia scrambled away a couple more Peruvian halfchances early in the second half before looking set to take the lead three times, notably with the penalty missed by Falcao. Yepes found Moreno with a good ball out of defence beating the offside trap but the winger shot wide, then

Rodriguez fouled Moreno in the box but Falcao shot the 66th-minute penalty outside Fernandez’s right-hand post. Two minutes later, another break by Colombia ended with Moreno hitting the bar with a fierce right-footed shot.

Going into the final 10 minutes, Peru midfielder Adan Balbin had a dipping shot from 25 metres tipped over by Martinez. Midfielder Fredy Guarin almost scored two minutes into added time when he jinked past two defenders on the left, cut in and shot with Fernandez tipping the ball over the bar for a corner.

Meanwhile, the Copa America, the South American championship which Argentina is currently hosting, could in future be extended to include Central

American and Caribbean States, the head of the South American grouping, CONMEBOL, told AFP yesterday. CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz said: “The doors are open. CONMEBOL has always had the doors open to all the CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean) countries. It is an interesting idea” to bring the two groupings together, said Leoz. There already exists a certain amount of crosspollination between the two groupings given that Mexico have regularly been invited to the Copa while the United States have also enjoyed occasional guest status. The guest idea has even been extended more recently to Japan, who had to withdraw from the current edition in the wake of the disruption caused by

Sweden beat France to finish in third place SINSHEIM: Sweden finished third at the women’s World Cup after beating France 2-1 in yesterday’s play-off despite the Scandinavians finishing the game with 10 players.

Sweden striker Lotta Schelin put her side ahead in the first half only for French replacement Elodie Thomis to equalise on 56 minutes before Swedish striker Josefine Oqvist was sent off on 68 minutes. But in the dramatic closing stages, substitute midfielder Marie Hammarstrom won the game-and the bronze medal-for Sweden with a superb strike in the 82nd minute. Both teams had already secured the two available European places at the 2012

GERMANY: Sweden’s players celebrate winning 2-1 the third place match between Sweden and France at the Women’s Soccer World Cup.—AP

Olympic Games in London by reaching the semi-finals. Sweden’s 3-1 defeat to Japan in Frankfurt on Wednesday and France’s 3-1 loss to the USA in Moenchengladbach the same day brought the teams to the play-off.

The Swedes took the lead when a pass by defender Sara Larsson from inside her own half found Schelin and the Lyon striker chipped her shot past French goalkeeper Berangere Sapowicz on 29 minutes.

To add injury to insult, Sapowicz was stretchered off in obvious pain as the replay showed her jumping to block Schelin, only to land on her right ankle, which buckled underneath her. France fought back straight after the double blow and Paris Saint Germain midfielder Elise Bussaglia hit the post straight after with Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl well beaten.

The French got back on level terms when left winger Gaetane Thiney won a tussle for the ball on the edge of the penalty area and strung a pass through the defence for substitute Elodie Thomis to roll her shot past Lindahl on 56 minutes.

Sweden were reduced to 10 players when Oqvist was shown a red card for lashing out, but the Scandinavians dug deep for the winning goal.

From a corner, the ball was headed away to Hammarstrom-who had only come off the bench an hour into the game-and the 29year-old produced a stunning goal.

Having controlled the ball with her chest, she unleashed a fierce drive from the edge of the area which gave French substitute goalkeeper Celine Deville no chance.—AFP

the March tsunami. They were replaced by CONCACAF member Costa Rica.

Mexico came to the event with, in essence, an under-22 side after their seniors were engaged in June in winning the Concacaf Gold Cup. But the generally poor showing of guests nations from the region at the Copa, a prestigious event given the World Cup records of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, has given the Concacaf food for thought. “Everything is possible, it is a question of sitting down and talking,” said Leoz. Fans of Mexico were disappointed to see their weakened side exit after three straight defeats while Mexican television receipts are a financial factor in the organisation of the Copa.—Agencies

Japan aim to end fairytale with World Cup final win

AMMAN: Kuwait players lift the Fochs International Football Tournament trophy.

Kuwait wins int’l friendly championship in Jordan AMMAN: Kuwait football team defeated Saudi Arabia 1-0 to win an international four-team friendly championship, part of preparations for the qualifiers of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

Striker Bader Al-Mutawa scored Kuwait’s lone goal in the 75 minute.

He won the tournament’s best play-

er. Jordan came third after beating I raq by penalty shoot- out 5-4.

Kuwait’s Ambassador to Jordan Dr. Hamad Al-Duaij commended the team while assistant coach Abdulaziz Hamada said his players executed very well on the pitch, and were smooth in transition in offense and defense. —KUNA

FRANKFURT: Japan take on the US in the women’s World Cup final today bidding to finish the fairytale by lifting the trophy just four months after the earthquake which devastated their country. The team’s march to the final has been welcome news in a country struggling to recover from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which ravaged the north-east coast and triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Despite their flower-inspired nickname Nadeshiko, the Japanese have been the giant-killers at Germany 2011: they shocked the hosts 1-0 in the quarter-finals and then dominated Sweden 3-1 in the semi-final. Even Prime Minister Naoto Kan has admitted he will be cheering the team come today.

But they face a formidable challenge in the USA-traditionally the super-power of women’s football-who are bidding for a third World Cup title after their victories in 1991 and 1999.

History is not on Japan’s side: the Stars and Stripes having never lost to the Japanese in 25 meetings since 1986 with 22 wins to three draws, but coach Norio Sasaki says his team can beat the USA. “It’s definitely not impossible and it helped to win against Germany, it proved things like that are possible,” he said. “It gave additional power to the team. This is a once in a life-time chance to win this and beat the number one team in the world.” The Americans have already beaten Japan three times this year: a win at the Algarve Cup in March was followed up by two pre-World Cup warm-up victories on German soil.

After the March disaster, Japan has won over many impartial observers here with their slick play and Sasaki says the goodwill has boosted his team. “All the support from Japanese people world-wide is empowering, it means a lot to us,” he said.

Both sides have already lost in the tournament-Japan were beaten 2-0 by England, while the USA went down 2-1 to Sweden in the group stages. The USA showed their fighting spirit when striker Abby Wambach equalised against Brazil in the 122nd minute of their quarter-final, then held their nerve to beat the south Americans 5-3 in the penalty shoot-out.—AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Business Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Boubyan Bank posts KD4.4m net profit in H12011 Page 22 Oil demand growth may slow in 2H11 Page 23

KSE drops as investors await H1 results

Page 24

Samsung launches GALAXY S II smartphone in Kuwait Page 25

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama talks about the ongoing budget negotiations during a news conference yesterday, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. — AP

US grapples with ‘worst’ debt crisis Obama, lawmakers push plans to avoid default WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and US lawmakers pushed separate plans to avert an unprecedented default on America’s national debt, with no signs of an immediate breakthrough.

Obama called on lawmakers to approve a giant package that would not only prevent a default by raising the government’s borrowing limit, but also slash trillions of dollars from the country’s enormous deficit. He challenged lawmakers “to do something big.” Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to make an appeal to the public in hopes of influencing a deal that talks have failed to produce so far. “We have to ask everyone to play their part because we are all part of the same country,” Obama said yesterday, pushing a combination of spending cuts and tax increases that has met stiff resistance from Republicans. “We are all in this together.”

Obama said the wealthiest must “pay their fair share.” He invoked budget deals negotiated by Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill, and

Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“You sent us to Washington to do the tough things, the right things,” he said. “Not just for some of us, but for all of us.” As a critical Aug 2 deadline approached, the chances that Obama would get $4 trillion or even $2 trillion in deficit reduction on terms he preferred were quickly fading as Congress moved to take control of the debate.

Opposition Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, prepared to vote this coming week on allowing an increase in the government’s borrowing limit through 2012 as long as Congress approved a balanced-budget constitutional amendment, which is highly unlikely.

In the Senate, the Republican and Democratic leaders worked on a bipartisan fallback plan that would allow Obama to raise the debt limit without a prior vote by lawmakers, discussions that now have expanded to include House officials and White House aides. The talks focused on how to address long-term deficit reduction in the propos-

al in hopes of satisfying House Republicans.

That plan was likely to include limits on spending across thousands of government programs, and possibly a down payment on cuts, as well.

In the Republicans’ address yesterday, Sen Orrin Hatch of Utah argued for passage of a balancedbudget amendment. He blamed Democrats for failing to embrace adequate budget cuts and said “the solution to a spending crisis is not tax increases.” An amendment that requires a balanced budget, he said, “would put us on a path to fiscal health and would prevent this White House or any future White House from forcing more debt on the American people.”

Even as he pushed for a more sweeping measure, Obama didn’t rule out the Senate’s more modest plan. “We are obviously running out of time,” he told a White House news conference on Friday. It was his second news conference of the week, a testament to the overriding political and economic significance of the issue that has convulsed Washington this summer.

The government said Friday it was using its last stopgap measure to avoid exceeding the current $14.3 trillion debt limit. Administration officials, economists and the financial markets have warned that missing the Aug. 2 deadline and precipitating a government default would send convulsions through an already weakened economy. At his news conference Friday, the president argued that he had the public on his side in calling for a large deficit reduction package that included spending cuts and increased tax revenues.

But Republicans have flatly rejected any proposal from Obama that contains additional revenue from closing tax loopholes, restricting the value of deductions for the rich, increasing tax rates for hedge fund managers or ending oil and gas subsidies. “This is not a matter of the American people knowing what the right thing to do is,” Obama said.

“It’s a matter of Congress doing the right thing and reflecting the will of the American people.”

Republican House Speaker John Boehner had earlier shown some flexibility on closing tax loop-

Saudi SABIC Q2 earnings up 61%

Iran and China ink $4bn agreements TEHRAN: Iran and China yesterday signed a series of agreements worth $4 billion (2.8 billion euros) for infrastructure projects as part of a broader bid to boost trade volume between the two nations, Iranian state media reported. The bilateral agreements span cooperation in water, mining, energy and industrial sectors. As part of a $500 million (354 million euros) deal, China agreed to provide Iran with 60 energy recovery incinerators, which are to be installed within a year in major cities and in Iran’s northern tourism hub along the Caspian sea. China also pledged to boosts its imports of Iranian mineral products, state TV reported. Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Javad Mohammadi-Zadeh told the television that China was Iran’s leading economic partner, with last year’s trade volume reaching $30 billion (21 billion euros).

The agreements were signed during a visit by He Guoqiang, a senior executive of the Chinese Communist Party, who heads a delegation visiting Iran. He was received by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “The main objective is to quickly bring our economic and trade exchanges to $100 billion,” Ahmadinejad said during yesterday’s meeting, according to his website. “China, with a strategic vision, wants to strengthen its cooperation with Iran, because it is in the interest of both nations as well as regional countries,” He Guoqiang was quoted as saying by the website.

China’s ambassador to Tehran told IRNA recently that bilateral trade would reach $40 billion (28 billion euros) this year. China and Iran have become major economic partners in recent years, partly thanks to the withdrawal of Western companies in line with sanctions against the Islamic republic over its contentious nuclear drive. Beijing, which now buys about 20 percent of Iranian crude, opposes the policy of the United States and its European allies seeking to strengthen UN sanctions against Iran, which they believe is seeking nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies this, saying its nuclear program is purely for peaceful objectives. — AFP

holes as part of an unprecedented deal with Obama, but many Republican lawmakers are adamant that deficit reductions be limited to spending cuts. “There are going to be no tax hikes because tax hikes destroy jobs,” Boehner said.

Both parties want to resolve the debt crisis ahead of next year’s congressional and presidential elections. Obama is seen as a candidate that is tough to beat, but voters’ fears over the economy have been dragging down his numbers.

Obama had held five straight days of meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, but none of the three options he proposed - deficit cuts of $4 trillion, $2 trillion or $1.5 trillion over 10 years - were unlocking enough support to increase the debt ceiling by the $2.4 trillion Obama wants to make it last beyond the 2012 elections. Essentially declaring those discussions over, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Friday: “Now the debate will move from a room in the White House to the House and Senate floors.” — AP

JEDDAH: Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the world’s biggest petrochemical firm by market value, posted a 61 percent rise in second-quarter net profit due to increases in output and prices.

SABIC beat analysts’ forecasts with net profit of 8.1 billion riyals ($2.16 billion) in the three months to endJune, compared with 5 billion riyals a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average had expected a net profit of 7.1 billion riyals for the quarter. In a statement on the bourse

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s Central Bank deputy governor Badreddine Mahmud (left) and an unidentified man hold a document showing specimen of Sudan’s new currency during a press conference yesterday. – AFP

Sudan to circulate new currency this month KHARTOUM: Sudan’s central bank said yesterday it would begin circulating a new currency this month after South Sudan said it planned to create a currency of its own.

South Sudan, which declared independence on July 9 under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war, said on Monday it would begin circulating its previously announced South Sudan pound in the coming week, pegging it one-to-one with Sudan’s existing pound .

Sudanese Central Bank Governor Mohamed Kheir Al-Zubeir, asked when the north’s new currency would go into circulation, told reporters in

Khartoum, “Before the end of this month.”

He added that the replacement of currency would take “maybe two to three months. We have good experience in that.” The new currency is a “precautionary measure” following the South Sudan plans for a separate currency, he said.The Sudanese pound has been falling on the black market in Khartoum for weeks as economists say foreign currency inflows needed for imports will decline alongside falling oil revenues.

The south took about 75 percent of Sudan’s 500,000 barrel-a-day oil reserves with it when it left. — Reuters

website yesterday, the company attributed the rise in profit to increases in production and sales and higher prices for most of its products.

“The main reason for the secondquarter profit increase compared to the same period a year earlier is increased sales and improved prices of some products,” the statement said. The company proposed a dividend of 2 riyals per share for the first half of 2011. Operational profit for the second-quarter rose by 45 percent to 13.3 billion riyals. — Reuters

Saudi Electricity Q2 net up 25% on higher rates JEDDAH: Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) reported a 25 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on higher tariffs and increased sales, slightly beating forecasts. SEC made a net profit of 1.335 billion riyals ($356 million) in the three months to end-June, compared with 1.068 billion riyals in the same period last year, it said in a statement posted on the bourse website. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected on average a net profit of 1.321 billion riyals for the quarter.

“The rise in net profit for the (first) six months is due to a tariff adjustment for the government, commercial and industrial sectors as well as an increase in energy sales,” the statement said.

Operational profit increased 27 percent to 1.2 billion riyals in the quarter. The company, which has a current installed capacity of 50,000 megawatts, plans to boost capacity to at least 80,000 MW by 2020. SEC is 81 percent owned by the government and has projects to add 1,826 MW in 2011 and another 12,752 MW from 2012 to 2016. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest oil exporter, is struggling to keep up with rising power demand, which is rising 7-8 percent annually amid a growing population that exceeds 27 million. — Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Years

business

Boubyan Bank posts KD4.4m net profit in first half of 2011 A profit growth rate of 46% as compared to H1 2010

Radisson Royal Hotel, Dubai

ACICO signs deal with Radisson DUBAI: Due to its relentless efforts to reach the highest standards of quality, ACICO has signed an agreement with the prestigious hotels brand “Radisson”, commissioning it the operations of its hotel and resort in the United Arab Emirates. Radisson will be operating ACICO’s hotel as “Radisson Royal Hotel” which stands on Sheikh Zayed Road in the heart of Dubai. The Radisson Royal Hotel, previously known as “Hotel JAL Tower, Dubai”, has been designed and constructed according to the highest international standards on the regional level. The 60 floors hotel consists of 471 rooms and suites with an array of international restaurants and other facilities that privilege customers seeking 5 star hotel services.

The agreement also included ACICO’s resort stretching on half a kilometer of the Indian Ocean in Fujairah, previously known as “Hotel JAL Fujairah Resort & Spa”, to become now known as “Radisson Blu Resort, Fujairah”. The geographic location of the resort between the Hajjar Mountains and the Indian Ocean has made it a distinctive recreational and relaxing destination. The Radisson Blu Resort, Fujairah, consists of 257 rooms and suites and other facilities that earned it its 5 stars classification.

ACICO Hotels COO, Eng. Nabil Al-Khaled, has stated that the agreement signing with the prominent Radisson brand reflects one of the group’s objectives of quality performance and presence in the region.

His comments on the investment nature in the sector were assuring on the vitality of the tourism sector in the United Arab Emirates and specifically Dubai. “The group is optimistic about achieving its objectives due to the unique services we offer, as we always rely on quality performance. This applies to all sectors we operate in and not only in the hospitality sector”, he added. Moreover, he stated that the company is always pursuing investment opportunities locally and regionally as a commitment to increase shareholder returns. We are proud of our partnership with an international brand such as Radisson that has over 420 hotels worldwide in 73 countries.

Radisson Blu Resort, Fujairah

KUWAIT: Boubyan Bank announced its results for the first half of 2011 which show a net profit of KD 4.4 million compared to a net profit of KD 3 million for the first half of last year at a growth rate of 46% with KD 2.3 million recorded in the second quarter.

Chairman of Boubyan Bank Ibrahim Al-Qadhi said in a press release yesterday that the results represent the Bank’s operating profits net of general and precautionary provisions totaling KD 8.6 million made to reinforce the Bank’s financial position.

Al-Qadhi added that realization of such profits is a continuation of the Bank’s successful strategy and regaining profitability which started last year indicating that among the noticeable positive indicators are the increase in net finance income to KD 18.7 million for the first half of 2011 compared to KD 13.6 million for the first half of 2010; recording a growth rate of 38%, in addition to the increase in clients’ deposits to KD 1,091 million compared to KD 820 million at the end of June 2010; recording a growth rate of 33%.

The Bank has won many awards with-

Chairman of Boubyan Bank Ibrahim Al-Qadhi

Vice -Chairman and Managing Director Adel Abdul-Wahhab Al-Majed

in the last year marking its achievements. Among these awards are the Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait Award for 2010 and 2011 from Arabian Business Magazine and the Fastest Growing Bank in Kuwait Award from The Banker Middle East Magazine. A key factor in

the Bank’s growth and development was the entr y of National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) as a major stakeholder.

Vice -Chairman and Managing Director Adel Abdul-Wahhab Al-Majed said that the Bank’s total assets as of the first half of 2011 amounted to KD 1,445

million compared to KD 1,166 million for the same period last year, a growth rate of 24%.

In addition, he stated that the Bank’s total equity increased to KD 238 million compared to KD 235 million at the end June 2010, and hence, the Bank ’s Capital Adequacy Ratio grew to 26% against 12%, being the minimum required ratio stipulated by the Central Bank of Kuwait.

Al-Majed stressed that the growth in all the Bank’s main indicators during the first half of the present year proves once again its sound direction and the success of its strategic plans for expansion in the Kuwaiti market. This was also reflected by its increased market share of deposits, which rose from 2.7% at the end of May 2010 to 3.6% at the end of May 2011.

He further added that among the positive indicators as well is the growth in the finance portfolio to KD 920 million at the end of June 2011 compared to KD 711 million at the end of June of last year; recording a growth rate of 29%, in addition to the continuous rise in the Bank’s client base.

GE invests $1.8bn investment in clean technology research Sustainable growth goals of Middle East KUWAIT: GE is underlining its commitment to the sustainable development goals of the Middle East region through its ecomagination initiative, having invested $1.8 billion globally in the research & development of clean technologies in 2010, putting the company on course to meet its goal of $10 billion cumulative investment between 2010 and 2015. ecomagination is GE’s commitment to conceive and construct pioneering technologies that help customers address their environmental and financial needs.

GE’s ecomagination products and services are finding increasing application in the Middle East’s aviation, energy, oil & gas, water and transportation sector, promoting energy and water use efficiency, both scarce resources challenged by an exponential growth in demand.

Announcing the release of the ecomagination report, GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said: “Ecomagination is a competitive force for growth across GE’s businesses. With $85 billion in sales and services since 2005, ecomagination is a business strategy that represents an area of continued strength for the company.

We’ll continue to make bold investments to help solve customer problems and deliver strong returns for our investors and shareholders.”

Nabil Habayeb, GE’s President & Chief Executive Officer for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said: “The Middle East is witnessing significant investments

in infrastructure development as well as a growth in population. One of the central pillars of the sustainable development strategy of the regional governments is to drive energy and water use efficiencies. To support this, GE is focusing its resources on clean technology R&D. Our ecomagination center is a critical hub in driving localised R&D to identify solutions and develop products that will support the region achieve its goals of clean technology usage, meet the growing demand for water and efficiencies, promote environmental sustainability and mitigate the effects of climate change.”

GE’s ecomagination investment has helped lead to the development in 2010 of 22 new ecomagination-qualified products and solutions such as

WattStation(tm), a user-friendly charging station designed to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles and Nucleus(tm), a smart meter technology that helps homeowners manage energy use. In 2010, GE generated $18 billion in revenues from ecomagination products and has surpassed $85 billion in sales since the program began in 2005 - making ecomagination one of the most successful commercial initiatives in the history of GE. The company also reduced its energy intensity in 2010 by nearly 33% and GHG emissions 24% as compared with a 2004 baseline. Mark Vachon, vice president of ecomagination, said, “By providing the most advanced technologies across the energy-water spectrum, we are turning

global challenges into business opportunities that contribute to a more prosperous world and demonstrate that economic success and environmental performance go hand-in-hand.” Among the key applications of GE’s ecomagination products in the Middle East are the use of GE Aviation’s advanced GE90-115B and GEnx jet engines by the region’s leaders including Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, Saudi Arabian, Jazeera Airways, Oman Air, RAK Airways and ALAFCO, among others.

GE Energy products like leading-edge wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, and Jenbacher engines are used by industrial customers and municipalities in Jordan, Egypt and the UAE. These are being used in the capturing of methane gas, which is emitted from municipality solid waste landfills. The captured methane gas is used as a fuel injected in GE Jenbacher engines to producer power.

GE’s unique product, DLN 2.6 combustion system, allows the lowering NOx emission levels to 9ppm, and is used in the Mesaieed IPP plant in Qatar. Also in application in the oil & gas sector are DLN (Dry Low NOx) installations in GASCO, Abu Dhabi, to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, as well as GE’s Hot Gas Expanders which help refineries recover waste process gas to generate power and avoid CO2 emissions associated with power generation, and consequently contributes to increasing revenues or downsizing energy costs.

The new GE 9FB Gas Turbine (ecomagination product)

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

.2700000 .4390000 .3860000 .3330000 .2820000 .2910000 .0040000 .0020000 .0741850 .7227610 .3810000 .0700000 .7085350 .0040000 .0430000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2732500 .4410260 .3883980 .3366390 .2848730 .0520840 .0423450 .2935250 .0350760 .2243620 .0034740 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0744250 .7250900 .0000000 .0728860 .7100170 .0000000

US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.519 6.171 3.197 2.502 3.870 226.610 35.284

.2770000 .4520000 .3960000 .3450000 .2930000 .3030000 .0072500 .0035000 .0749300 .7300250 .4010000 .0770000 .7156550 .0072000 .0530000 .2753500 .4444150 .3913820 .3392260 .2870620 .0524840 .0426710 .2957810 .0353450 .2260860 .0035010 .0062300 .0025220 .0032200 .0037110 .0749970 .7306620 .3894630 .0734460 .7154740 .0064640

Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

3.668 6.391 9.109 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 73.269 75.495 713.650 729.770 74.816

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 48.600 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.116 Yemen Riyal 1.258 Tunisian Dinar 200.180 Jordanian Dinar 388.010 Lebanese Lira 183.100 Syrian Lier 5.932 Morocco Dirham 35.212 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 274.650 Euro 394.840 Sterling Pound 447.270 Canadian dollar 291.410 Turkish lire 167.470 Swiss Franc 342.240 Australian dollar 295.360 US Dollar Buying 0.272 GOLD 291.000 147.000 76.000

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL CASH 296.600 730.060 3.920 291.300 539.200 36.500 53.300 167.800 48.140 393.100 35.960 6.450

SELL DRAFT 295.100 730.060 3.677 289.800

226.600 46.120 391.500 35.810 6.165

0.033 0.239 0.240 3.560 389.730 0.186 93.990 47.300 4.310 236.400 1.861 52.600 713.020 3.300 6.600 75.940 73.290 226.600 42.670 2.640 447.500 45.000 341.700 5.600 9.460 198.263 74.840 274.900 1.200

0.033

387.980 0.185 93.990 3.870 234.900

340.200 5.600 9.320 74.740 274.500

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 445.500 274.500

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees

Selling Rate 274.400 288.820 443.850 392.625 335.925 726.625 74.685 75.320 73.1358 386.250 46.054 2.501 6.174

Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

3.203 3.672 6.389 673.075 3.585 9.190 5.770 3.945 91.145

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. 712.840 3.200 6.400 75.510 73.290 226.600 42.670 2.503 445.500

GOLD 1,636.280

10 Tola

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees

Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

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) 274.400 3.210 6.185 2.530 3.680 6.430 74.810 73.375 729.500 46.055 449.200 0.00003280 3.910 1.550 389.900 5.750 395.600 292.900

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) US Dollar 274.300 Euro 392.800 Pound Sterling 445.300 Canadian Dollar 287.900 Japanese Yen 3.490 Indian Rupee 6.166 Egyptian Pound 46.110 Sri Lankan Rupee 2.503 Bangladesh Taka 3.665 Philippines Peso 6.400 Pakistan Rupee 3.200 Bahraini Dinar 730.000 UAE Dirham 74.700 Saudi Riyal 73.200 *Rates are subject to change

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

23

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

BUSINESS

Oil demand growth may slow in 2H11 Crude prices fell last month after IEA’s decision Majdah Almutawa wins KD 125,000 NBK’s top Al-Jawhara prize KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently announced the names of the Al-Jawhara Draw prize winners for the month of July 2011 which was conducted at NBK’s Head Office.

The first prize of KD 125,000 went to Majdah Abdulaziz Taher Almutawa, while the second place winner Nawaf Ahmad Majed Al Shahin received KD 7,500. The third winner Hussain Abdulla Humoud Alharby was awarded KD 3,000 and the remaining 97 winners were awarded KD 400 each.

About Al-Jawhara Al-Jawhara account offers numerous benefits to NBK customers. It is not only an interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal Sr.# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90

Cert. No. 102156476 43044646 8899967 69019 13256343 38205637 36271640 61002119 13340875 100208495 12197777 16489314 71020500 57059888 13406124 51113864 5284333 39121011 62022520 27073815 36253170 40273776 452610 314943 12011827 18333974 54133106 18139922 1439359 39415937 47439882 582360 9365761 62002422 12367761 455733 54160073 46068716 61023116 12022063 48132640 27320111 40207803 60121440 57011192 37154648 47371935 9344527 28130359 18326811 40069303 2130041 18347703 16388623 7385315 27371352 18191649 39481735 8231869 4019032 39176797 102613907 51085194 65071859 39687333 39484807 28071875 18049354 506303 1929976 39230368 18025684 28142748 45048487 47404302 39520773 45038228 47362340 13308092 14097702 9966005 2278278 11151706 59140860 57045259 48131571 102082693 28035151 48054445 23352671

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

36149446 39654923 468142 7468318 28209605 35209690 5285887 51027593 671509 55049567

privileges, but also automatically entitles account holders to enter the monthly Al-Jawhara draw. Each KD 50 in an Al-Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance at winning any one of the 100 prizes allocated for each draw. All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw.

The more money held in your AlJawhara account, the greater your chances of winning. Al-Jawhara accounts are available for both Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis and can be opened at any one of NBK’s branches around Kuwait. For further information kindly visit www.nbk.com, or call Hala Watani at 1801801.

AL JAWHARA WINNERS July 2011 Name of Customer Prize MAJDAH ABDULAZIZ TAHER ALMUTAWA 125000 NAWAF AHMAD MAJED AL SHAHIN 7500 HUSSAIN ABDULLA HUMOUD ALHARBY 3000 AHMAD MOHAMMED ALQASEER 400 FATHIA AHMED ABDULLA ALMOSALEM 400 MOHAMED OMER EISSA 400 ABDALLA HAMEID ABAAS ABED 400 MOHAMMED ALI MOHAMMAD SHAMSAH 400 SH FAISAL NASER MOHAMMAD ALSABAH 400 JAFAR MOHD HELAL MOHD FARHAN 400 AMNAH MANSOR HASAN MOHD 400 SAOUD HUSSAIN ABDULAZIZ ALOTAIBI 400 EILAF ABDULLAH ESSA ALHADAD 400 AHMED HAMAD ABDULLAH ALSEBEEH 400 DANA YOUSEF DHOWAYAN ALOTAIBI 400 HAWRA JAMAL HABIB ASERI 400 FAHAD ABBAS ALI NAQI 400 NASHAA MOHD HADY ALQAHTANI 400 JASEM MOHAMMED HASSAN MOHAMMED 400 MUBARAK MAJED DHAHER ALRESHIDI 400 NOHA AYED SHLEWEH ALTHEFERE 400 ALSAYED MOHAMMAD ALSAYED ZEYADAH 400 ANWAR ALI ABDULLA AL MUDHAF 400 YOUSEF ABDULWAHAB HASAN ALQATTAN 400 SABAH MOHSEN AIDIAN 400 HATEM ATIYAH AWAAD NAZAAL 400 SAMIRA JAWHAR AHMED JAWHAR 400 ALI MOHAMAD ALI ALSALEH 400 OMAR ISMAIL ABDULQADER SAMARA 400 GHADA ABDULAZIZ MAKKI AL JUMAA 400 SOLAFAH ALI SHABAN SALMIN 400 AHMED ABDULWAHAB AL NAQEEB 400 NALLI BABY NALLI BABURAO 400 IBRAHEM KHALED IBRAHEM ALKHUBAIZI 400 MARIAM HABEEB JAWAD ISMAEIL 400 HANI JABER SHAHATA JNAIDI 400 QOTAH ABDUL AZIZ ALQENAWI 400 SANDRA AHRENDT 400 JIHAN ISMAIL JAWHAR ALBANAY 400 MOHAMED EID MESAAD ALHASHAN 400 YAHYA AHMED GHLOUM HASAN 400 ABDULLAH TURKI HAZZA ALMUTAIRI 400 BADER ABDULLAH SOUD ALARADAH 400 ALI KHALIL EBRAHIM ALDREIEE 400 KHALID MOHD EBRAHIM ALHASSON 400 OBAIDA ABDULRAHMAN ALASEEL 400 MEDHAT MAGDI ATTIA IBRAHIM 400 KHALED AHMED HUSSAIN HATAB 400 HANADI HUSAIN MOHAMED JAWAD MARAFIE 400 MIN MOHAMMAD JAMAL MOHAMMAD BOUJBARA 400 FAISAL SAOUD ABDULAZIZ ALBADER 400 YAHYA KAMAL ALDEEN MSALAM HASANEEN 400 IYAD SHAREEF ALATTAR 400 SAMEER ASHOUR MOHAMMAD ALSHAEER 400 SULTAN KHALAF MOHD ALMUTAIRI 400 MOSTAFA SAIF ALDEIN KABDAWALA 400 ABDULLATIF ABDULAZIZ MERZA SHABAN 400 HAYFA RASHED ABDULLA ALMETHEN 400 BADER MEJBEL SHAREDAH ALBATHALI 400 NABIL ELIA MAJDALANI 400 LAILA FADHIL ABBAS MAQAMIS 400 MIN YASEEN HUSSIN ABDULREDAHA ABBAS 400 SOUAD HUSSAIN KHAZAL HMOUD 400 SULIMAN HAJIYA MOHAMMAD HASAN 400 SAWSAN ABDULATEF MAHMOUD ABDULHADI 400 SUSAN OUSAMA OMRAN ABDEEN 400 HAMED HUSAIN A RASOUL QASEM 400 MAHDI SALEH MOHAMMAD TAQI 400 ABDULRASOUL ABUL HASAN SADEQ 400 MEDHAT WILLIAM ABDELSHAHID AWAD 400 FAHMI FAWZI ABDHUSSAIN ALKHADRAA 400 TAWFIQ HASAN MOHD BOALYAN 400 REHAM SAQER GHANIM ALGHANIM 400 NASER AHMED ALHARERI 400 KARIMA BEN SETITI 400 NADER YOUSEF YAGOUB MANSOUR 400 JASEM HUSSIN ALI REDA 400 MOHAMMAD BEN HABEEB BEN TALAA ALANEZI 400 AIYSHA YOUSEF MOHD ALSAED 400 SAKINA ABDULLA MARZOUQ ALQALLAF 400 HIND SOUD SULAIMAN ALABDULLAH 400 TAREQ MOHAMMED ALSOROR 400 MONA ALI MOHAMMAD ALI 400 MIN YOSEF AHMAD HELAL ALI 400 ABDULWAHAB MOUSA ABDULLA ALABULRAZAQ 400 REEM ABBAS SAAD ALENIZI 400 NADIAH JAWAD NASER ALARBASH 400 NAHABA KHALAF NAHABA HAMADA 400 HAMDEIAH SAAD ABDULRAHIM ALSHAFI 400 SETHI RAM KAUR SINGH AND OR SETHI AURDAMAN KAUR 400 SALEM ABDULLAH EID ALRASHEEDI 400 MIN LUGAIN MOHAMMAD ABDULJABAR NAQI 400 JACQUES SIMON HRATCH HAKIMIAN 400 EMAN ESMAEEL HAMOUDA SEWAIDAN 400 MOHAMMAD ABDULHADI SAYED HASAN BEHBEHANI 400 NADER MUTLAQ MUBARAK ALAZMI 400 ABDUL AZIZ SAOUD ABDUL AZIZ AL OBAIDAN 400 TALAL KHALED BADER HEJAB 400 RADHWAN AYUB SIDAT 400 HAIFA SULIMAN AHMED ALALI 400

NBK OIL MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Sentiment towards crude oil prices weakened in June, though the mid-month price decline had been partially reversed by early July. The price of Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) fell from a peak of nearly $111 per barrel (pb) in mid-June to $99 pb by June 27th, before recovering to $105 a few days later. The price of Brent crude Europe’s main benchmark oil dipped from $121 to $105, before pushing back to $112 by the end of the month. The price of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude continued to trade at a $15-20 discount to Brent, ending the month at $95.

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) decision on June 23rd to release 60 million barrels of oil from its emergency stocks was the main catalyst for the drop in oil prices in the second half of the month. Some 2 million barrels per day were set to be released over 30 days in what the IEA said was an attempt to offset lost Libyan output. Yet the move also reflects discontent with OPEC’s refusal to increase production quotas at its meeting two weeks earlier, particularly in light of a seasonal increase in oil demand. The partial bounce in crude prices towards the end of the month may have been linked to weakness in the US dollar, as well as a belief that the impact of the IEA measure might not prove long-lasting.

These recent developments have come as enthusiasm for commodities more generally has waned over the past two months, causing prices to pull back from their April highs. The all-commodities CRB index has fallen 5% since mid-April - it’s largest correction in a year - as concerns over the fragility of the global economy have mounted. Note, however, that neither futures markets nor other forecasters are predicting meaningful price falls; speculative money seems merely to have stopped betting on further price increases.

Futures markets, for example, still predict that Brent crude will remain very close to its current level through all of next year.

Oil demand outlook Seasonal changes aside, oil demand growth is seen as likely to decelerate in the second half of 2011, as global economic growth momentum slows and various policy tightening measures take effect.

The Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), has revised down its forecasts for incremental demand in 2011 as a whole from 1 million barrels per day (mbpd) last month to an even more pessimistic 0.8 mbpd, or 0.9%. Part of this revision is linked to what it sees as mounting evidence that high oil prices are slowing demand, particularly in the OECD. The International Energy Agency (IEA), meanwhile, is more bullish, having left its growth forecast at 1.3 mbpd,

or 1.5%. Within this overall forecast, demand from non-OECD countries is expected to grow by 1.5 mbpd, of which 0.9 mbpd is accounted for

by China, India and Saudi Arabia.

Note that other institutions are more positive still, seeing global growth of as much as 1.7 mbpd this year and another healthy increase in 2012.

Oil supply outlook Crude output of the OPEC 11 (i.e. excluding Iraq) surged by

147,000 bpd in May, thanks to big increases in Angola, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Production is still 1 mbpd below its January peak, however, thanks to the loss of 1.4 mbpd of Libyan output since then. The three main producers from the GCC - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE - have accounted for all of the increase in non-Libya OPEC output over this period. These three countries were reportedly the ones that had pushed (unsuccessfully) for an increase in quota levels at OPEC’s acrimonious meeting in June. After significant gains last year, Iraqi output has also been stable since January.

Although Gulf countries may well ‘go it alone’ and raise production by themselves over coming months, the prospects for any meaningful year-on-year increase in OPEC-11 oil supplies this year look slim. Lost Libyan output is

expected to remain off the market for the rest of the year - far longer than the temporary boost to supplies from the initial one-month release of emergency IEA stocks.

Rising production in Iraq, however, could push production for OPEC as a whole somewhat above that in 2010.

Meanwhile, non-OPEC oil supplies are expected to rise by between 0.8 and 1.2 mbpd, or just under 2%, on average this year.

Around half of this will come from

OPEC natural gas liquids, or NGLs. Of the rest, most will come from Latin America and the Former Soviet Union.

Price projections In aggregate, the changes in supply might be enough to offset what could be a modest increase in global oil demand this year. But although this could reduce the drawdown in global stock levels, it might not be enough to eliminate it completely, given the scale of the drawdown in 2010.

Our base case scenario puts oil demand growth at 0.8 mbpd this year - the weaker end of the forecast range - while non-OPEC supply rises by 1 mbpd. Although Gulf OPEC countries are assumed to increase production during the second half of the year, they do so cautiously, and by less than needed to eliminate a stock draw. The price of KEC rises from $109 in 2Q11 to

$114 by the end of the year.

Weaker demand pushes prices back down below $110 at the start of 2012, however.

If economic conditions turn out much weaker than expected - perhaps the result of a sovereign debt meltdown in peripheral Europe or a sharper than expected slowdown in Chinese growth - global oil demand could be just 0.5 mbpd this year. OPEC would begin to reverse any earlier production increases by 4Q11, though might remain ‘behind the curve’. In this case, the price of KEC could be back below $90 pb by 1Q12.

On the other hand, non-OPEC supply could turn out weaker than anticipated, rising by 0.2 mbpd less than assumed above. This could be because of a bad hurricane season, or larger than expected production declines in existing fields, such as the North Sea. Under this scenario, the price of KEC accelerates throughout 2H11, reaching nearly $130 by the start of next year.

Budget projections The government’s closing accounts for FY 2010/11 have not yet been released. But based upon

an oil price of $83, we expect the budget to have seen a surplus of around KD 5 billion before allocations to the Reserve Fund for Future Generations (RFFG). We estimate total government spending to have jumped to around KD 16.1 billion - a 43% increase on the previous year - thanks partly to the inclusion of an un-budgeted KD 1.1 billion in spending linked to February’s Amiri grant and a large intergovernmental social security transfer.

The three oil price scenarios described above would generate average oil prices of between $97 and $120 per barrel for FY2011/12, an 18% to 46% increase on a year earlier. If, as we expect, spending comes in at 5-10% below the government’s forecast, the budget could see a surplus of between KD 5.2 billion and KD 13.6 billion before allocations to the RFFG. This would be Kuwait’s 13th successive budget surplus.

HSBC Amanah wins six key industry awards KUWAIT: HSBC Amanah has recently won six awards, in recognition of its leading Islamic capabilities, from arranging Sukuk, to structuring Islamic investments, providing custody services and trade financing. The awards are: The Asset’s Triple A Islamic Finance awards 2011 Sukuk House of the Year Best Islamic Investment Bank, Asia Best Islamic Investment Bank, Middle East Islamic Custodian of the Year for the second consecutive year Euromoney’s Trade Finance magazine Awards for Excellence 2011 Best Islamic Trade Finance Bank for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Credit Awards 2011 Best Bank for Islamic finance for third consecutive year Razi Fakih, Deputy CEO of HSBC Amanah, said, “We are grateful to be recognised time and again as the leading international Islamic bank across customer segments, be it corporates, institutions or individuals. HSBC Amanah is at the forefront of the industry, helping structure innovative Islamic finance deals for customers. So far in 2011, HSBC Amanah is the No 1 underwriter of international Sukuk, with a 37.4% market share. We are also pleased to

retain the ‘Islamic Custodian of the Year’ award for the second consecutive year. The launch of HSBC Amanah Securities Services in March 2011 allows managers of Islamic funds to have for the first time, a globally consistent Shariacompliant securities service in 17 markets across the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas. This is crucial for asset managers who are looking to distribute products beyond their home markets.”

HSBC Amanah is also ‘Best Islamic Trade Finance Bank (EMEA)’, according to Trade Finance magazine’s Awards for Excellence 2011. With a wide range of Islamic commercial banking and treasury products and presence in six markets across Asia and the Middle East, HSBC Amanah is uniquely positioned to connect customers between Asia and the Middle East. Cross-border trade flows have indeed been increasing in recent years, especially between Asia and the Middle East, according to WTO data. HSBC’s Islamic products for corporate customers include account services, working capital & trade finance, long-term and project finance, payments and cash management solutions, treasury hedging solutions, Sukuk (Islamic bonds), syndications and takaful (Islamic insurance).

HSBC Amanah has also been named ‘Best

Islamic Investment Bank, Asia and the Middle East’ for its broad array of Islamic funds, spanning from equities (global, emerging markets, Europe, Asia, GCC and Saudi Arabia), money markets, real estate, balanced funds, incomefocused funds and capital-protected funds.

Besides the six awards, 10 of the deals that HSBC Amanah arranged between July 2010 to June 2011 were also selected as winners in The Asset’s Best Islamic deals. The deals are; l Republic of Indonesia’s 8.03 trillion rupiah retail Sukuk lQatar Islamic Bank’s $750 million Sukuk l Saudi Electric Company Saudi Riyal 7 billion Sukuk l Sabana Shariah-compliant industrial REIT’s $636 million IPO l Trans Thai-Malaysia (Thailand) 600 million ringgit Sukuk l National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s 500 million ringgit Sukuk l Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank’s $750 million Sukuk l Government of Malaysia’s $1.25 billion Sukuk Ijara lSaudi Bin Ladin Group’s Saudi riyal 700 million Murabaha Sukuk l Cagamas’ 230 million ringgit variable rate Sukuk.

y

A

24

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

BUSINESS

KSE falters as investors await H1 results BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the red zone, as both its main indices recorded losses. The price index ended last week with a decrease amounted to 0.71%, while the weighted index declined by 0.54% compared to the closings of the week before. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 6.29%, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 12.57 million, whereas trading volume average was 64.43 million shares, recording decrease of 29.42%.

KSE general performance marked with hesitation, as a result of the prevailed speculation behavior by

the traders. The speculation included wide variety of stocks; in addition, profit-taking operations were notable in the market.

On the Other hand, the trading activities were limited, as the market was affected by the cautious state of the traders whilst waiting for the first half 2011 results. Moreover, as nearly two weeks ended from the announcement period, only three companies announced their semiannual financial results.

By the end of the week, the price index closed at 6,168.8 points, down by 0.71% from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 0.54% weekly loss after closing at 431.44 points.

Sectors’ Indices Six of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, while the other two recorded increases. The Food sector headed the losers’ list as its index declined by 2.73% to end the week’s activity at 4,195.8 points. The Non-Kuwaiti companies sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 2.20%, closing at 6,029.9 points, followed by the Industry sector, as its index closed at 4,425.9 points at a loss of 1.21%. The Real Estate sector was the least declining as its index closed at 2,140.3 points with a 0.19% decrease. On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the Banks sector, achieving 0.48% growth rate

as its index closed at 12,072.3 points.

Whereas, in the second place, the Insurance sector’s index closed at 2,607.9 points recording 0.42% increase.

Sectors’ Activity

value; with a turnover of KD 20.33 million or 32.35% of last week’s total market trading value. The Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 14.72 million represented 23.43% of the total market trading value.

The Real Estate sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 113.66 million shares changing hands, representing 35.28% of the total market trading volume. The Services sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 20.63% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 66.45 million shares. On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of

KSE total market capitalization declined by 0.57% during last week to reach KD 30.41 billion, as all of KSE’s sectors recorded a decrease in their respective market capitalization except for one sector. The Food sector headed the decliners list as its total market capitalization reached KD 721.92 million, decreasing by 2.79%. The Industry sector was the

Market Capitalization

second in terms of recorded decline with 1.64% decrease after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 2.37 billion. The third place was for the Investment sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 2.36 billion by the end of the week, recording a decline of 1.22%.

The Services sector was the least declining with 0.07% recorded decrease after its market capitalization amounted to KD 7.60 billion. On the other hand, the Insurance sector was last week’s only gainer as its total market capitalization increased by 0.58% to reach, by the end of the week KD 304.67 million.

For further details, please visit our web site: www.bayaninvest.com

y

A

25

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

business

Samsung launches GALAXY S II smartphone in Kuwait Electronics giant pushes innovation boundaries KUWAIT: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, a global leader in mobile devices, yesterday announced the launch of its revolutionary Smartphone, the GALAXY S II in Kuwait at Salwa Al-Sabah hall. The widely anticipated smartphone has the speed and power to provide an unrivalled mobile performance.

Building on the phenomenal success of the original Samsung GALAXY S, the GALAXY S II is a natural and powerful evolution of its predecessor and allows users to design their own smart lives. It uses Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest version of the world’s fastest-growing mobile operating system.

“The new Galaxy S II smartphone is a revolutionary device that reinforces Samsung’s dedication to innovation and technological excellence,” said Ashraf Fawakherji, General Manager of Samsung Gulf Electronics Telecommunication Group. “Combined with sleek design, powerful performance and advanced applications, the new device provides immersive, intelligent and integrated experiences that enrich people’s lives. The launch of this new super phone aims to grow Samsung’s leadership position within the smartphone category.”

Powerful performance Incorporating a dual-core application processor and advanced wireless network (HSPA+ 21) connectivity, the Samsung GALAXY S II has the power and speed to provide an unrivalled mobile performance.

The processor delivers fast web browsing, multi-tasking comparable to a PC-like environment, supreme graphics quality and a receptive 3D user interface. It also offers rapid mobile download speeds while the BlueTooth 3.0+HS feature considerably reduces data transfer times. The WiFi Direct allows consumers to connect to wirelessenabled PCs and printers without the need for wireless access points.

The Samsung GALAXY S II has been equipped with an 8MP, camera and camcorder with 1080p full HD recording and playback. With Samsung’s patented AllShare technology, customers can capture, and

quality, color gamut, contrast ratio and edge sharpness. Using RealStripe screen technology and increased sub-pixel count, Super AMOLED Plus complements the mechanics of the human eye to recognize images that look clearer and more detailed than ever before. In addition, the new display is more energy-efficient than other comparably sized devices.

share their experiences online. According to market requirement, the GALAXY S II is also able to incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to support emerging mobile payment and other services with mobile operators.

Samsung GALAXY S II Goes to Work Samsung has introduced a range of enterprise mobility solutions, expanding the business capabilities of the Samsung GALAXY S. It gives customers an opportunity to have a flexible and connected mobile workforce. Samsung has collaborated with industry leaders to offer the most relevant enterprise solutions to the Samsung GALAXY S II that pays special attention to data and network security. These solutions include enhanced conferencing and connectivity services from Cisco, the most comprehensive mobile implementation of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and secure remote device management from Sybase.

A New World of Entertainment and Smart Interaction Samsung has selected the Samsung GALAXY S II as its premium mobile product with which to launch Samsung Hubs - integrated mobile applications are designed to fit every element of your life. These include the Social Hub Premium; the Readers Hub; the Game Hub and the Music Hub. The Samsung Hubs deliver a rich and wide variety of information, entertainment, access to social networks, games and more.

A New Level of Viewing Experience The Samsung GALAXY S II is equipped with Samsung’s new crystal-clear Super AMOLED Plus screen, the most advanced mobile visual display ever created. The Super AMOLED Plus introduces the best in

Efficient Device Management Samsung has also introduced Kies Air; an application that allows consumers to manage their smartphone content from their PC via local WiFi connections, download photos taken on the built-in camera, listen to music, check missed calls and send messages in the web browser on their PC. The event also witnessed the launch of

Is Europe’s debt crisis, the beginning of slow decline?

INSEAD Business School Report

By Amine Ouazad fter Greece and Spain, Italy is now the latest European casualty of the euro area debt crisis. With Greek banks nearly forced to fund their government, the Greek banking system is on the verge of collapse and a sudden bank run with foreign and domestic capital leaving overnight is a possibility. British and French treasur y officials are silently preparing for the possibility of a sovereign debt crisis in their country.

Europe struggles with such high levels of public debt that given the weak level of future growth, the considerable future social security and retirement benefits payments, most southern European countries, including France, will not be able to pay their debt service without borrowing heavily. A number of European countries will have to default selectively on their debt before the end of decade.

Default will imply lower public spending, lower public employment and wages, and higher taxes. Governments will be tempted to protect their companies by resorting to protectionism and distortions of free and fair competition.

So, is this the decline of European economic power?

Europe can survive the debt crisis in the long run if it sustains sufficiently high growth that can, in turn, generate government revenue through taxation. In Europe two key long-term assets drive growth: the skill of its workforce and the quality of its legal and institutional environment.

Europe has one of the most educated workforces in the world - and this translates into real economic gains: economists estimate that increasing the number of years of education of the overall active population by one year increases productivity per worker by 6%. The high level of education of the European workforce is also key to innovation and the production of high quality differentiated goods bought by the upper end of the market - cars and luxury products, high-quality machinery for manufacturing, planes, and high-speed rail, among others.

Europe also has a very high quality legal and institutional environment, with a relatively fairer and more transparent judiciary than in many emerging markets. There, fear of expropriation and substantial institutional uncertainty is hindering prospects for foreign direct investment and economic growth. One of the most cited examples is the rocky Anglo Russian partnership between Rosneft and British Petroleum.

But there are still significant worries for Europe’s long term growth.

In both dimensions - education and the quality of the legal environment - Europe’s governments are under pressure to favor shortterm remedies over long-term investments.

Europe’s basic education system desperately needs more investment per student and a larger role for private funding. In the UK and in France, about 100,000 students leave school every year without any qualification, thus relying on welfare benefits - publicly funded - or working in low-paying jobs that are most likely to be exposed to international competition and

A

trade. Nevertheless, both countries are cutting expenditures in basic education.

In higher education too, Europe needs more investment per student and a larger role for private funding. Italian and French universities’ international ranking in Science is falling year on year. David Cameron’s government, in the UK, lifted the cap on university students’ tuition fees.

Also, governments in France and Italy are tempted to disrupt free and fair competition in public tenders. President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened in the purchase of new carriages for its French high-speed lines - disgruntled that the French national railways chose to buy carriages from a foreign competitor rather than from the local French supplier. Italian President Silvio Berlusconi’s party erupted in anger when the French group Lactalis attempted a takeover of the Italian group Parmalat.

If European governments do not invest in their educational system, do not preserve their legal and institutional environment, and are forced into default by the debt crisis, Europe’s gradual decline will pave the way for the emergence of a new world economic order.

A recent study of educational systems by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) put many Asian countries at the top of the ranking: Korea is first in the OECD digital literacy study, Shanghai - a population like a mid-sized European country - is first in general academic achievement for 15 year olds, and Singapore ranks at very top of the list.

More worryingly for Europe, in some sectors, emerging markets do not rely on European technology any more: the latest high-speed train carriages connecting Beijing and Shanghai do not come from European design offices. Airbus and Boeing are not the aircraft industry’s sole players anymore on the segment of mid-sized jets.

The most pressing issue for many emerging markets is the quality of their legal and institutional environment. A highly predictable legal system, with low levels of corruption, and the legal enforcement of property rights, where companies can reasonably count on the rules of the market rather than on government interference and cronyism, is the key to economic development.

Timothy Besley, professor at the London School of Economics and member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, highlighted the role of property rights as the key to long-term economic development in his recent address to the European Economic Association.

Ilian Mihov and Antonio Fatas, my colleagues at INSEAD, show the strong link between growth and economic and political institutions.

Without significant improvement in the skill of their workforce, and improvements in their legal and institutional environment, emerging markets will not be able to seize the opportunity of the European debt crisis to leverage their growth and capture new markets. The sovereign debt crisis could just be a transitory episode in Europe’s economic histor y. — Amine Ouazad, Assistant Professor of Economics and Political Science, INSEAD Business School

Photos from Samsung Electronic’s Galaxy S II smartphone launch event. — Photos by Joseph Shagra the new generation of Samsung Galaxy Tabs, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, that are the thinnest tablets available in the market today. Featuring Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface implemented on the Android 3.1(Honeycomb) platform, both Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 offer superior multi-tasking, navigation and user interaction.

The new GALAXY Tabs support HSPA+ network speeds of up to 21Mbps, Bluetooth

and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity to deliver rapid mobile download speeds and reduce data transfer times. In addition, the GALAXY Tabs include a 1GHz dual core application processor for a powerful multimedia and web browsing experience.

The Samsung GALAXY S II is available at stores across Kuwait atKD 199. For more product information and multimedia content, please see [www.samsung.com/ae].

Burgan Bank offers 15% discount at Altissimo to its Premier Clientele KUWAIT: Burgan Bank yesterday announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Altissimo, which is located in Kuwait City’s AlNassar Tower, to offer both Burgan Bank’s Platinum credit card as well as its Premier debit card holders an enticing discount of 15% while dining at the restaurant.

The bank’s Premier clients can now avail a discount of 15% while enjoying an exquisite fine dining experience in Altissimo. Burgan Bank is committed to providing a wide variety of discounts to its customers allowing them to take advantage of valuable offers from various outlets. The bank’s latest promotion is valid until the 10th of September 2011. The Bank’s Premier Banking Service was introduced in 2007 as part of its retail banking strategy; targeted and tailored to suit the needs of Burgan

Banks elite clientele. All Premier Banking clients are exclusively serviced by highly-skilled Personal Banking Executives who regularly and personally update customers about offers and products that are of value to their financial needs. Burgan Bank aims to continuously offer its Premier banking customers with innovative and different

banking solutions and products.

To find out more about Burgan Bank’s Premier Banking Service or any of its promotions, Clients are recommended to visit any of Burgan Bank’s conveniently located branches, or call the 24/7 Telebanking service on 1804080 or log on to Burgan Bank’s website at www.burgan.com.

NBK Lebanon offers housing loan to own dream house in Lebanon Attractive interest rate of 4.75%

Abdulla Al-Tuwaijri

BEIRUT: National Bank of Kuwait Lebanon announced it will provide housing loans at a very attractive rate to nonresident Lebanese citizens working and residing in Kuwait, as well as Kuwaitis who wish to purchase their dream home in Lebanon.

“The rate we are offering is very attractive at 4.75% only. The rate is linked to LIBOR and reviewed annually. “We have a very simple application process in place, where a client can apply for a Housing Loan and get a pre-approval for the loan in Kuwait itself” stated NBK Deputy General Manager- Consumer Bank ing Group Abdulla Al-Najran Al-Tuwaijri adding, “our branch network is equipped to take loan applications and process them swiftly, hence allowing anyone travelling back to

Lebanon to utilize their holiday as a the perfect time to look for that dream home”.

NBK now offers complete banking solutions for Lebanese expatriate in Lebanon and Kuwait. These include flexible loans without the requirement of end of service indemnity and free credit cards for the first year. Our lending facilities are extensive, easily accessible and are coupled with investment and life-style related benefits that appeal to expatriate professionals.

NBK’s expatriate banking solutions ultimately reflect the individual needs of the customer, providing them with the freedom and control to manage their finances efficiently from the comfort of home or office, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the website www.nbk.com or call center Hala Watani on 1801801.

MARKAZ Weekly update

KSE index edges down KUWAIT: This week, the KSE market price index dropped to 6,147 level with low volume before closing at 6,168 level, a loss of 44 points or 0.7%, while the KSE Weight index lost 2 points or 0.6% at 431 level. The banking sector ended positively with 0.5% gained. Whereas the Food and the NonKuwaiti sectors were the top losers which declined 2.7% and 2.2% respectively. The Investment and the Industrial sectors lost 1% each.

The Services and the Real-Estate sectors was marginally lower compared to previous week. The market sentiment was negative as 78 stocks declined against 22 stocks gained and 32 stocks closed at same level as the previous week.

Among the large caps stocks, the major losers were NIG 3.4%, CBK -3.3%, FOOD -2.6%, GBK -1.9%, NIC -1.7%, KPROJ -1.4%, MABANEE -1.1%, KFH -1% and the gainer was NMTC which rose 1.1%, while the stock of NBK, BPCC, AGILITY, ZAIN remained unchanged on weekly basis.

The KSE weighted index has downside support at 428 levels and upside it faces resistance at 435 to 440 levels.

While the KSE price index has upside resistance at 6,200 to 6,250 levels and downside support remains at 6,150 to 6,000 levels.

y

A

26

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

business

Stocks stymied without a US debt deal NEW YORK: US stocks will be hard pressed to turn the tide of recent selling this week as political jousting over raising the United States’ debt ceiling intensifies. The benchmark S&P 500 index this week recorded its worst weekly loss in five weeks.

Investors, frustrated by the lack of progress in the debate between the Democrat-controlled White House and Senate and the Republican-majority House, could move into what are perceived as safer assets, such as cash.

While the wrangling over the debt ceiling takes center stage, earnings season will continue to heat up after a solid first week.

According to Thomson Reuters data, 39 companies in the benchmark S&P 500 index have posted results, with 74 percent reporting earnings that topped Wall Street estimates.

Companies in the index are forecast to show a 6.5 percent rise in profits over the

WALL STREET WEEKLY OUTLOOK second quarter of 2010 when all the reports are in. For last week, the S&P 500 ended down 2.1 percent; the Dow fell 1.4 percent and the Nasdaq declined 2.5 percent.

The overhang from the debt ceiling issue could diminish the focus on earnings.

House Speaker John Boehner, the top US Republican in Congress, said President Barack Obama and Democrats had still not put a serious deficit plan on the table, underscoring the acrimony in negotiations to avert a government default.

“The news flow next week dealing with the deficit issues and the political posturing that is taking place is going to intensify and is really going to drive these markets,” said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Ser vices in Charlotte, Vermont.

“People are starting to get nervous about

what they are seeing out there. For a portfolio manager-let alone an average investorthis is a treacherous market to be trying to position yourself in.”

Economic data on tap for next week includes several reports on the housing market-June housing starts on Tuesday and existing-home sales on Wednesday. In addition, data is due on leading economic indicators for June and the Philadelphia Fed survey of manufacturing activity in the MidAtlantic region. Economic reports over the last month have raised questions about the health of the US recovery.

“The bigger picture is the economy is still a disaster,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. Saluzzi said people still are watching earnings for signs growth may be stagnating. “Eventually, companies are not going to

keep cutting costs.” Quarterly results are expected from a slew of companies next week, with more than 10 Dow components scheduled to report.

Major financial companies due to report include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp and American Express. Also on the calendar are earnings news from technology companies Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp.

“Let’s see what all the rest of these guys have. Let’s see if it’s still being driven by cost cuts or are they actually getting revenue gains. That is going to tell me a lot more than if they cut the debt deal,” said Saluzzi.

After the S&P 500 weekly loss, the index was just below its 50-day moving average, a technical level which could indicate more selling. Some analysts believe the market

could still come back if the US debt issue is resolved soon. “This area, as far as it pulling back, is balancing the threat of a default, but it would take an actual default to take us much lower than here,” said Marc Pado, US market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.

But the longer the debt ceiling question continues without a conclusion, the bigger the risk for further declines in stocks and for volatility to spike. The CBOE Volatility index rose nearly 30 percent for the week . “The more it drags out into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or whatever, then we’ve got some serious issues.

That will be an overhang no matter how good the financials come in terms of earnings reports next week,” said Tommy Huie, chief investment officer of BMO Asset Management US in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“It could be a pretty volatile week, no doubt about it.” — Reuters

Greece in spotlight after evoking selective default EU summit this week to be thorny ATHENS: Greece heads to another EU summit this week on fresh aid for its debtwracked economy after evoking-before pulling back the thorny notion of a selective default that could unleash a euro-zone storm.

The term is understood to mean a pickand-choose approach to a country’s maturing debt, with a government arranging to delay repayment on certain obligations while continuing to fully honor others. But to many investors, and more importantly to credit rating agencies that have already demoted Greece’s bonds to junk status, these are just semantics.

A French plan for private banks to rollover Greek government bonds as they came due was effectively shot down this month when ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said that such an arrangement would be tantamount to default. Fellow evaluator Fitch this week also warned that “private sector involvement would likely be viewed as a sign of sovereign credit impairment and could trigger a rating default event.”

European officials have sought to square the circle and lighten Greece’s crushing repayments timetable on its 350-billion-euro debt without triggering a horror scenario that could have unforeseen consequences for the troubled euro-zone.

The Dutch finance minister broke the ice

this week by revealing that the 17 euro-zone ministers “did not exclude” the notion during talks in Brussels. He was swiftly overruled by colleagues but later statements by the Belgian finance minister showed that the EU is still trying to tiptoe around the issue.

“There needs to be an absolutely voluntary (private sector) participation so that it is not seen as a default,” he told AFP yesterday.

Greece itself seems torn on the issue, with its finance minister appearing to downplay the dangers before Prime Minister George Papandreou stepped in to condemn “wordplay” on the matter.

“The word selective default scares without reason,” Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after Tuesday’s Eurogroup ministerial summit. “It is not a real event, it is not default. It is an evaluation by the three familiar rating agencies,” he said, meaning Fitch, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s.

“It does not on its own create a reality, nor does it activate the notorious CDS mechanism,” Venizelos said, referring to credit default swaps that have gained in value in expectation of Greek insolvency.

“If we are calm and wise, if we have a plan and apply it, we can manage anything to our benefit, because all this ultimately leads to a more viable debt...all this is done to provide a solution,” the minister said.

Main opposition leader Antonis Samaras

swiftly chastised Venizelos for even bringing up the issue of selective default. “Just uttering the term could have disastrous results...and this is true for all its variants,” Samaras said.

And Prime Minister Papandreou said “wordplay should not be allowed, in particular the deliberate confusion of terminology used by rating agencies in their reports with painful situations for the real economy.”

Regardless of the outcome, Greece officially entered “uncharted territory” this week, a senior banker told AFP. Greek officials last week held two days of talks with private creditors in Rome for a third time in less than a month.

Euro-zone nations will hold an extraordinary summit on July 21 in Brussels on ways to tackle the debt crisis. The problem, however, has spread: Ireland and Portugal have also had to be bailed out, while Italy and Spain are seen to be at risk given the strained state of their public finances.

The EU and International Monetary Fund bailed out Greece in May 2010 with a package worth 110 billion euros ($160 billion) in exchange for a series of drastic austerity measures to stabilize its public finances. The package has had some success but Greece is still in serious difficulty and needs another bailout estimated to be around the same amount. — AFP

Bank profits up as US card customers boost payments NEW YORK: The top US credit card companies are seeing a boost to their bottom lines as consumers are getting better about paying their bills on time.

Five of the top six card issuers on Friday said the rates at which their customers defaulted on their accounts fell in June. Bank of America Corp reported the biggest drop in defaults, with JPMorgan Chase & Co and Discover Financial Services also showing significant improvement.

Late payments were also down. Only Capital One Financial Corp saw an uptick in payments late by 30 days or more, and that increase was tiny. Among the top six, only Citibank had not yet submitted its monthly regulatory filing detailing card performance for the month. Its parent, Citigroup Inc., reported second-quarter results earlier in the day, however, giving some insight into its card performance.

The latest data followed reports that show credit card users have far better payment habits than a year ago, when the industrywide charge-off rate peaked at 10.9 percent, according to Federal Reserve data. For the first three months of this year, that rate was down to 6.96 percent - a significant improvement, but still well below the industry average of 3.82 percent before the recession, which indicates banks will benefit further as default and delinquency rates further improve.

And they should continue to do so. Banks have already written off the balances of most customers expected to default, and those individuals have a hard time getting new credit.

The impact of the improved payment habits was reflected in banks’ second-quarter financial results this week. Citigroup said that it pulled $757 million out of the pool set aside to cover uncollectable credit card bills, adding to its $3.3 billion profit for the quarter. That followed a report from JPMorgan Chase on Thursday, which posted a $5.4 billion profit for the period, boosted by a $1 billion reduction in loss reserves.

And much of Capital One’s 50 percent profit leap reported Tuesday was due to the $579 million it released from reserves. Analyst Henry Coffey of Sterne Agee estimated 81 cents of the $1.97 per share profit, or about 41 percent, came from that reserve release.

Last month, Discover Financial Services said it released $401 million from its reserves, helping to more than triple the company’s second-quarter profit.

Also goosing bank bottom lines: Card holders are using their credit cards more. That trend is now clear, after 51 percent of the US card market has reported its second-quarter results, said Morgan Stanley analyst Glenn Fodor.

Citigroup said purchase volume rose 1.5 percent.

JPMorgan Chase’s customers spent 10 percent more using their cards. Discover said sales volume on its namesake cards rose 9 percent.

Bank of America and American Express Co are slated to report this week, and both are expected to show similar gains in spending. The Federal Reserve said total balances on revolving credit, which is mostly cards, rose slightly in May to $793.13 billion. — AP

CHINA: Scientists take samples of water near the Penglai 19-3 oilfield platform C in north China’s Bohai Bay Friday. Two oilfield platforms in China’s Bohai Bay are estimated to have leaked 1,500 barrels of oil, or 240 cubic meters, following two oil spills last month, the operator ConocoPhillips said on Thursday according to Xinhua. —AP

Banks well capitalized despite test fail: Spain MADRID: Spain downplayed the fact that five Spanish lenders failed the European stress tests, saying the result was due to EU criteria that ignored provisions which the country’s banks use as a cushion for hard times. Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said the results showed no Spanish bank needs to raise additional capital as a result of the tests.

“I refuse to accept that the five failed the test,” the governor said. The four savings banks and one traditional commercial bank that did not make the cut failed because the European Banking Authority applied a one-sizefits-all criterion that ignores certain Spanish capital buffers.

Finance Minister Elena Salgado made a similar assessment and said Spanish banking had shown “excellent results.” “The real question is do Spanish entities need more capital, and the answer is no,” said Salgado.

Fernandez Ordonez said he had pressed the EBA to take those special capital provisions into account but it had decided not to and instead establish a single criterion for the tests. He told a news conference that

Spanish banks were ordered in recent years to set aside funds precisely so they could cope with hypothetical crises of the type represented in the stress tests, and the fact that they had these funds meant they could manage in such situations.

The governor said that if the socalled general provisions had been included, the five banks would have passed the EBA’s test, adding that this is what analysts will be looking at.

Fernandez Ordonez also said Spain had been much more up front about its banking system than other countries, noting that 25 Spanish lenders - which represent 95 percent of the sector - took part in these tests, compared to four or even fewer in other countries. “The Bank of Spain has opted for transparency,” he said.

“If we had presented just four banks, like most countries did, we would have had no failures.”

He praised new regulations introduced in March of this year in Spain that were already prompting many Spanish lenders to raise their capital levels and thus bolster their solvency, under the threat of partial nationalization. — AP

WASHINGTON: (From left) Assistant Democratic Leader Rep James Clyburn, DSC, Rep Steny Hoyer, D-Md, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Rep Chris Van Hollen, D-Md, speak to reporters after a Democratic Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on Friday. — AP

Wall Street frets about debt ceiling standoff Deal collapse could hurt businesses NEW YORK: Wall Street financiers have became increasingly worried about the debt-ceiling stalemate in Washington, voicing concern that failure to reach a deal will damage business.

“What will the fallout be in the business climate, what will it do to the confidence level in the business community and in the finance community?”

Citigroup’s chief financial officer John Gerspach said.

“If it were to happen we would definitely be in uncharted waters,” he said, referring to the possibility that a deal might not be reached, in a conference call devoted to discussing Citigroup’s second-quarter results.

The general expectation on Wall Street is that Democrats and Republicans will reach a deal and avert a default by August 2, but Citigroup has been examining other scenarios and making contingency plans, Gerspach said.

His comments came a day after JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, one of Wall Street’s most respected figures, said it would be “irresponsible” for politicians to fail to raise the debt ceiling.

A sovereign default by the US government could be a “catastrophe” with grim consequences “not just for the health of the United States, but the financial health of the world,” Dimon scolded.

“It’s not possible that someone can say with a straight face that the default of the United States wouldn’t damage the United States and the global economy. Why take that chance? I would never take that chance,” he said. Bill Gross-perhaps the United States’ leading bond fund manager-penned a comment piece

in the Washington Post on Wednesday warning that a default would deeply erode confidence in the US government and the dollar.

“The debt ceiling must be raised and not be held hostage by budget negotiations,” said Gross, founder and co-chief investment officer of Pimco, which has over a trillion dollars in assets under management.

“Don’t mess with the debt ceiling, Washington. Bond and currency vigilantes will make you pay,” he said.

The stock market is being dragged down by debt-ceiling jitters instead of focusing on companies reporting their second-quarter results, said Marc Pado, US market strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald.

“This distraction is at a very bad time for the market, because we going through earning season, we should have something else on our plate,” Pado said.

“The political rhetoric is getting ugly and the markets respond by showing their displeasure with how the market is working.”

The administration of US President Barack Obama has said that Congress must vote to allow an increase in the federal government’s $14.29 trillion debt limit or else the United States will default on some of its obligations August 2.

But opposition Republicans, who control the US House of Representatives, have refused to raise the debt ceiling unless the move is accompanied by deep cuts in government spending.

Democrats insist that any deal must also include tax increases, a position that Republicans oppose, and the two sides remain far apart. — AFP

ACCRA: Dov Zerah (left), Director of the French Development Agency, shakes hands with Edward Effah (right), Managing Director of Ghana’s Fidelity Bank, as Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Gnanaian President John Atta Mills look on, in Accra yesterday. Fillon stated that France wishes to participate in the economic development of the democratic country which enjoys high rates of growth. — AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Years

TECHNOLOGY

INC Technologies completes server virtualization with advanced training KUWAIT: INC Technologies, a leading Kuwait based system integrator announced that it had completed the Server Virtualization with Advanced Management training as part of Microsoft’s initiatives to provide Microsoft Gold Certified Partners with access to pre-tested solutions and best practices developed by Microsoft Services. INC Technologies has participated in this training as part of Microsoft Services Ready Program for Partners. This has been developed to enable partners to implement higher quality and more predictable solutions for customers.

The program will thus help partners like INC Technologies with technical and operational guid-

ance through field-tested engagement tools, templates, guidelines and best practices to accelerate time to market, increase operational efficiencies and improve the quality of service delivery to customers. These resources scale to the size of engagement and provide a consistent framework to use throughout the sales, delivery and support stages. The net result is a collection of hands-on training tools that also helps partners reduce the financial investment associated with launching a new service offering.

“Every time we add a new service offering to our portfolio, it’s like starting a new business. This has enormous revenue potential, but it requires

investment of time and resources to develop the processes, materials and resources to get it right,” said Mohammed Zaim, Deputy Chairman & Managing Director, INC Technologies. “Services Ready eliminates a great deal of that risk because Microsoft has essentially blazed the trail and provided resources to guide our implementation and help us provide greater satisfaction for the customer.”

“In good economic times and bad, customers count on services partners to help them adopt, deploy and maximize the value of their Microsoft investments,” said Alaeddine Karim, Small Medium Solutions & Partners Manager Microsoft Kuwait.

“The Microsoft Services Ready Program for partners goes a long way toward ensuring our customers have a consistent, high-value experience with partners who are armed with Microsoft’s own tested and proven tools.”

The Microsoft Services Ready program provides an avenue for partners to ramp up a Microsoft practice by allowing partners to further develop their skills in a variety of areas to support their business development activities. They can do this through planning, architecture and implementation guidance from Microsoft Services and training on delivery best practices provided by highly experienced Microsoft consulting practitioners.

Oracle targets Larry Page in Google patent lawsuit Google denies patent infringement claims

BARCELONA: Sony Ericsson’s new mobile phone “Xperia Play” is displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The Xperia Play introduces a new gimmick into the crowded Android smartphone market: PlayStation Portablestyle controls. — AP

US House votes to block light bulb efficiency rules WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a measure that would block the enforcement of light bulb efficiency standards set in 2007. The fate of the measure remains uncertain, with passage unlikely in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Many US conservatives oppose the 2007 efficiency standards as an unwarranted government interference in the lives of Americans, even though they were signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush. The new Republican-backed measure, passed as an amendment to a broader energy bill, would block the US government from spending funds to implement the phasing out of light bulbs that are not up to the energy efficiency standards set by the 2007 law.

That law is not a blanket ban on incandescent light bulbs, but mandates higher energy-efficiency standards. Under the law, old-fashioned 100-watt incandescent bulbs would be banned in January 2012, followed in consecutive years by 75-watt, 60-

watt and 40-watt incandescent bulbs.

US Representative Michael Burgess, a Republican who sponsored the amendment, said it was about protecting Americans’ freedom of choice. “This is about the consumer driving the market, not the federal government deciding the market,” Burgess said in a statement following House passage of the measure.

New incandescent bulbs manufactured by companies in line with the 2007 standards have been criticized by House Republicans for being more expensive and a health hazard. The Obama administration has maintained that the new energy-efficient bulbs are safe and will help cut electricity bills even though they cost a little more.

“It’s up to the Senate to see the light and remove this anti-consumer, pro-pollution amendment that would block enforcement of modern efficiency standards,” said Daniel Weiss, an energy policy expert at the Center for American Progress Action Fund think tank. — Reuters

TAIPEI: Models show off products during a press conference held in Taipei during the Computex, Asia’s largest IT trade fair held last month. — AFP

Taiwan’s HTC to appeal Apple patent ruling TAIPEI: Taiwan’s leading smartphone maker HTC said yesterday it would appeal a ruling by a United States trade body which found that it had infringed two patents held by US giant Apple.

Apple filed a complaint against HTC in March 2010 with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) accusing the Taiwanese firm of violating ten patents related to the iPhone.

A preliminar y finding on Friday reportedly said that HTC had violated two of the patents. HTC maintains none of the ten were infringed. “We are highly confident we have a strong case for the ITC appeals process and are fully prepared to defend ourselves using all means possible,” said HTC general counsel Grace Lei in a statement.

“We strongly believe we have alternate solutions in place for the issues raised by Apple. We look forward to resolving this case,” she said, without elaborating. The ITC has already ruled in

a separate case that Apple infringed on patents held by HTC subsidiar y S3 Graphics, according to the Taiwanese company.

As the legal battle between the rivals escalated, Apple filed a new compliant against HTC with the ITC on Monday involving patents related to iPads and iPhones. It has also lodged a suit against HTC in a US District Court in Delaware.

HTC touts its own brand of smartphones and also makes handsets for a number of leading US companies, including the Nexus One unveiled by Apple rival Google.

Patent lawsuits are a regular occurrence among technology giants. Apple is currently being sued by Nokia for patent infringement, and has fired back a countersuit against the Finnish mobile phone giant. Last week Apple also hit back at an infringement claim by Samsung, calling for the South Korean company to be investigated. — AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Oracle is asking a US judge to order Google co-founder Larry Page to undergo questioning in a patent suit pitting the business software titan against the Internet giant. “(Page) reportedly made the decision to acquire Android Inc., and thereby develop and launch the platform that Oracle now contends infringes its patents and copyrights,” Oracle lawyers said in a letter to the court.

“Oracle believes that Mr. Page’s testimony will likely be relevant with respect to a number of other key issues in this case as well, including the value of the infringement to Google,” the letter continued.

Oracle pointed out to US Judge Donna Ryu that Google has asked to depose its chief executive, Larry Ellison, in the case. Oracle is accusing Google’s Android software of infringing on Java computer programming language patents held by Oracle stemming from its recent purchase of Java inventor Sun

Microsystems.

Google has denied the patent infringement claims and said it believes mobile phone makers and other users of its opensource Android operating system are entitled to use the Java technology in dispute.

Oracle already deposed Google senior vice president of mobile Andy Rubin, a co-founder of the Android startup that Google bought in 2005. Google opposes the bid to question Page and three other current or former executives in the final weeks of the discovery process, arguing that Oracle was “gnashing its teeth with an eleventh-hour attempt to cram” in more depositions.

Page could wind up testifying, given a notice by District Court Judge William Alsup that he intends to dig into whether Google opted to infringe on Sun patents to avoid the cost of licensing the technology. “It appears possible that early on Google recognized that it would infringe patents protecting at least

part of Java, entered into negotiations with Sun to obtain a license for use in Android, then abandoned the negotiations as too expensive, and pushed home with Android without any license at all,” Alsup said Tuesday in court documents.

Alsup advised Oracle and Google to be prepared to address the issue at a hearing in US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. Google has maintained that Sun, before it was acquired by Oracle, had declared that Java would be open-source, allowing any software developer to use it, and released some of its source code in 2006 and 2007.

Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star, in January of 2010 and subsequently filed suit against Google.

Google-backed Android software is used in an array of devices that have been gaining ground in the hotly competitive global smartphone and tablet markets. — AFP

Opera Mini software slims smartphone data streams SAN FRANCISCO: Opera Mini web-browsing software for smartphones has become an antidote for congested telecom networks and carrier bills that rise along with the amount of data streamed to handsets. As the popularity of smartphones and tablets continues to surge and telecom carriers shy away from all-you-can-eat wireless data plans, Opera is wooing users with technology that minimizes bytes of data streamed over the air.

Opera Mini was the world’s most popular mobile phone browser program in June with just shy of 23 percent of the market, according to figures from industry tracker StatCounter. Nokia and Android browsers were nearly tied for second place, with 17.66 percent and 17.25 percent respectively, StatCounter reported.

Opera Mini, made by Norway-based Opera Software, boasted more than 120 million users with devices ranging from simple feature phones to sophisticated table computers. “We actually minimize the amount of over the air network usage,” Opera executive vice president of consumer mobile Mahi de Silva told AFP. “We definitely think we can get more mileage for the user,” he added. Opera Mini technology shrinks the amount of data necessary to stream to wireless gadgets and then compresses the information it does send to economize on time and bandwidth, explained de Silva.

Opera Mini claimed to cut the amount of data streamed by as much as 90 percent while delivering the information being sought by wireless gadget users. “You have the economical equation,” de Silva said. “And the fact that your browser works; you can get to and browse data in places where networks are congested.”

Virgin Mobile plans to begin throttling streaming speeds for data on plans that let people pay fixed prices to stream unlimited amounts of digital data to mobile phones. The move by Virgin raised expectations that parent company Sprint would follow suit with was to curb rampant data streaming to mobile devices.

Last week, the leading provider of service for smartphones in the United States became the latest carrier to drop all-you-can-eat plans completely.

Verizon Wireless joined AT&T and T-Mobile USA in a shift away from unlimited data plans. As modern lifestyles increasing involved using wireless gadgets to access videos, pictures, maps, and other data on the internet, companies handling that traffic are asking people to pay monthly based on quantity.

The trend toward metering wireless data use also comes as US carriers invest in new-generation networks that promise huge advances in data speeds. “ Their bandwidth is being consumed, saturated, and that is why they are moving away from all-you-can-eat plans,” de Silva said of telecom carriers.

Opera Mini software is available free to gadget users. Opera technology is also licensed to device makers and carriers. Operators in Russia and Indonesia market discounted Opera data plans based on the premise that the browser takes pressure off networks. “We are minimizing the amonts of bits and bytes on the wire,” de Silva — AFP

Checking in online.

Tell your friends where you are by checking in online BERLIN: Everyone is familiar with the use of online check-in facilities for flights and hotel rooms but big-name companies such as Foursquare and Facebook have come up a novel new use for the concept. It is now popular for social network users to check-in and allow friends to know their exact location in case they happen to be in the immediate area and wish to meet up.

American Damien Patton believes the new location-based service (LBS) will prove a hit. He cites the example of sitting for hours bored in an airport without realising that a close friend was in the same predicament nearby. This frustrating experience spurred former racing mechanic Patton to create the “Banjo” app, which allows users of services such as Foursquare and Twitter to display their current location on a map.

The New York company Foursquare has became one of the pioneers of LBS technology since its creation in 2009. Cofounder Dennis Crowley created a social media game to allow users compete against their friends to check in at various locations.

Earning badges allows users to claim they are more social than their friends while elite badges permits what Foursquare considers “the best of the best” to stand out. Regular visitors to a location are crowned with the title “mayor,” which a user gets by checking into a venue the most times compared to others in the city.

The service can only be used on a smartphone to prevent users from checking in from their desktop. “It sounds crazy but people are prepared to do quite a lot to earn these badges,” says Crowley. Localities in New York and Los Angeles are now using Foursquare mayorships as a way to give out special deals

like free beer or meal deals and the idea continues to expand. In return, the companies learn valuable marketing data about their customers, as long as they consent to providing the information.

“Some businesses want to be notified when a regular customer checks in at their premises so that they can provide them with better ser vice,” explains Crowley. The LBS concept appears to be a hit with consumers. The number of Foursquare users has jumped from 4 million in Februar y to 10 million now.

However, this figure is dwarfed by the 700 million users of Facebook, which introduced its rival “Faces” LBS last year.

Facebook Deals also allows users to learn about bargains and offers in their area.

Social network companies have moved to allay privacy concerns about LBS, pointing out that many of the features on their products required active consumer consent in order to function.

But some still have their doubts that enough is being done. “In principle, it’s a risky technology when it comes to privacy,” says Johannes Caspar, Hamburg’s data protection supervisor. He is particularly concerned by the fact that Facebook Places users can check in their friends to a location: “The moment I tell the world where I am via Facebook, for example that I am in my apartment with someone else, there is a danger that the privacy rights of a third party will be infringed.”

Despite privacy concerns, the idea of LBS looks certain to grow rapidly with Foursquare thinking of ways to expand the service. “It’s pretty cumbersome to have to check in manually everywhere,” says Crowley. The future appears to lie in near field communication (NFC), which allows for simplified connections with a touch. — dpa

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Years

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

US states cut home health services for seniors LOS ANGELES: Families across the United States are getting worried as states with gaping budget deficits cut home health services that help keep the elderly and the disabled out of nursing homes.

States are reducing how much time a nurse can spend making house calls and ending meal deliveries for the homebound. Many also are gutting adult day care programs that give seniors a safe place while their relatives are at work.

Born with cerebral palsy, Jennifer McPhail relies on a home health aide to help her get dressed for work and ready for bed at night. Her motorized wheelchair keeps her active, working as an organizer with a disability rights group in Austin, Texas. She now fears deep cuts in the state’s Medicaid spending will prevent her from living independently.

“What it says to me is that the state doesn’t value the lives of people with disabilities,” said McPhail, 39.

“A lot of people are going to be hurt in a very intimate way.” Ageing and disability services in three out of four states have been reduced over the last two years or face cuts, even though demand is increasing.

California eliminated funding for about 330 adult day centers, a move that will affect some 35,000 seniors. Lawmakers are hoping to restore about $85 million to transition seniors into an as-yet undetermined alternate program - about half the amount cut from the budget. Texas lawmakers underfunded Medicaid by nearly $5 billion in the state budget, a move that home health advocates say leaves the elderly and adults with disabilities unsure how their care at home will be provided.

Minnesota is considering cuts to home health aides and a program that allows disabled people to live on their own. With each cut, the ability to live at home becomes more difficult. “You end up losing control over your decisions,” said Neil Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota HomeCare Association.

About 12 million people receive home health services nationwide, according to the National Association for Home Care and Hospice. Home health services are an easy target for budget-cutters because they are not required by federal law, have been subject to fraud and don’t have deep-pocketed special interests advocating for them. But steep cuts in these services eventually could cost states more money if they end up pushing more people out of their own houses and into nursing homes that would require taxpayer subsidies.

“Just because you cut the budget doesn’t mean their needs go away,” said Anita Bradberry, executive director of the Texas Association for Home Care & Hospice Inc. Medicaid, the state-federal program that pays for medical and long-term care for the poor and disabled, is generally required to help fund nursing homes but not home care and community services.

The price of an adult day health center is $67 a day on average, compared with $229 a day for a private room at a nursing home, according to a 2010 survey released by insurance company MetLife Inc. Overall, Medicaid spending on nursing homes came to $46.5 billion in 2007, the latest figures available, while home health services cost $6.3 billion, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. Before the recession, US states actually expanded home health programs because they are less costly. But now, with so many states facing billion-dollar deficits, lawmakers say they have no choice but to cut Medicaid spending, the second-biggest spending item for states behind education.

South Carolina is ending payments for adult dental and vision care. In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed cutting $55 million from the state’s adult day care program, two-thirds of its funding. That would affect some 5,200 participants.

Among them is the 81-year-old mother of Irva Almonor. She agonized for months over what to do with her mother, who was forgetting to take her diabetes medicine and turn off the stove inside the Massachusetts home they share, before enrolling her in an adult day center.

The family feared she would hurt herself - or worse - while she was alone, and she resisted any thought of going into a nursing home. Without the adult day health care centers, Almonor’s only choice would be to leave her mother, who suffers from diabetes and mild dementia, alone again at their Holliston, Mass., home. Quitting work wasn’t an option, and hiring a home health aide would cost her $21 an hour.

“Financially, I can’t afford to have anyone to come take care of her,” she said. One problem for home health care programs is image. Some lawmakers say lax regulation makes the programs susceptible to fraud. In April, a home health care provider in Virginia pleaded guilty to fraud charges.

Investigators in Florida a year ago found that when they tried to visit 16 home health agencies, there were no such businesses at the addresses.

“Home health care appears to be experiencing fraud and abuse issues that are significantly increasing spending on home health care,” said a report released last year by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent arm of Congress. The report went on to say the number of home health care agencies has risen dramatically in states where fraud concerns have emerged, including California, Texas and Florida.

Home health advocates say that kind of bad behavior is rare and that cutting funding only hurts people who need the most help. In most cases, it’s the family members who provide much of the care for the elderly and disabled at home - and usually for free.

Among Alzheimer’s patients, nearly 15 million caregivers are family members and friends who provide unpaid care. Home health services often bridge the gap when family members are unable to provide around-the-clock care. Adult day care centers provide another avenue for the frail and their caregivers, but those programs also are on the wane.

Several states have been chipping away at adult day care programs over the last year and some have eliminated them, even though the number of facilities has grown by a third since 2002. Mary Nonnette, who lives in Hawthorne, Calif., isn’t sure how she will take care of her mother if she is no longer eligible to stay at one of the centers in Los Angeles. Nonnette, 67, said she does everything for her 87-year-old mother “except breathe, really,” and that she has provided the care alone since her husband suffered a paralyzing stroke in December. The only time she’s free to visit her husband is when her mother is at the center.

“For four hours, three days a week, I don’t have to worry,” Nonnette said. It’s not just home-health services for seniors that are under attack. Washington state slashed how many hours it will reimburse professional caregivers who work with the disabled.

Those changes mean home health worker Deborah Osborn, of Tacoma, Wash., had to cut 19 hours from the time she can spend with a 27-yearold developmentally disabled woman. The state now limits her to 40 hours per week. As a result, Osborn can help the woman shower just twice a week instead of three times. Laundry is limited to twice a week and grocery shopping is down to once a month. Any more state cuts will force the woman out of the home she shares with a family member, Osborn said.

“She’s going to suffer the consequences,” she said. Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio, and Tayefe Mohajer reported from Los Angeles. — AP

Astronauts fix, haul gear on last shuttle flight Celebrity wake-up calls continue CAPE CANAVERAL: Astronauts kept busy fixing and hauling gear aboard the linked Atlantis and International Space Station yesterday, as the last shuttle flight drew closer to an end. Atlantis’ pilots got a jammed storage locker open and retrieved air purifiers for the space station.

In more good news, they brought back online a computer that abruptly stopped working two days earlier, the second computer failure in five days aboard Atlantis. NASA wants to run more diagnostic testing, but so far the computer seems to be working fine, officials said.

Engineers have yet to figure out why the computer shut down Thursday; cosmic radiation is suspected. The first computer failure was traced to a

bad switch throw and quickly fixed.

Atlantis has five of these main computers, each one critical for the trip back to Earth. Over on the space station, astronauts fixed a treadmill and carried more supplies back and forth. Atlantis delivered several tons of food, clothes and other household items - enough to keep the space station operating for a full year. The giant cargo canister is being filled back up with station trash that Atlantis will return to Earth on Thursday - the very last landing by a space shuttle.

Meanwhile, celebrity wake-up calls continued.

The latest Earth-to-space greeter: singer Beyonce.

Mission Control beamed up a half-minute of her song “Run the World (Girls)” as well as a prerecord-

ed message in which Beyonce saluted astronaut Sandra Magnus, the lone woman among the 10 space travelers.

“This song is especially for my girl, Sandy,” Beyonce said, “and all the women who have taken us to space with them, and the girls who are our future explorers.”Magnus replied: “Hopefully, we as a team at NASA can keep our inspirational work up for the young people of America.” NASA is aiming to send astronauts to an asteroid and Mars in the coming decades. Private companies will take over space station supply runs as early as this fall, and ferry flights for astronauts in three to five years. As for NASA’s three space shuttles, they will live out their days as museum displays. — Reuters

Indians put more meat on the menu

MUMBAI: An Indian butcher chops meat at a mutton market early July 12, 2011. — AFP

Navies to float science robots in pirate waters SYDNEY: Driven away by Somali pirates, international scientists are asking the Australian and US navies for a favor: deploy 19 robotic instruments in the Indian Ocean to record critical data on climate and monsoon.

The Australian and British robots will be deployed by the two navies over the next six months, said Ann Threhser, a lead scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia’s national science agency.

“Everyone is concerned about climate change and this is the first big program that can monitor climate change in the ocean,” Thresher told The Associated Press. The robots collect key data used for forecasting monsoon and rainfall in Australia and South Asia. A “hole in our observations means our errors are much larger, our uncertainties are much larger and we can’t tell farmers what to do because we don’t know ourselves,” she said.

The nearly 2-meter (6.5-foot) -long robots are programmed to drift 1,000 yards (meters) for 10 days, then fall 1.5 miles (2-kilometers) into the ocean to collect data before ascending to the surface and transmitting information to satellites.

They provide near real-time observations of conditions such as heat and salinity patterns, which drive the climate and monsoonal systems that bring rain to Australia. The multinational program, which deploys 3,000 instruments globally, relies heavy on commercial shipping and research and chartered vessels to deploy the instruments.

“With the region north of Mauritius being a no-go area for most vessels due to pirate activity,” scientists have been unable to seed about one-quarter of the Indian Ocean since the increase in the piracy, Thresher said.

The International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center said in a report Thursday that 61 percent, or 163 of the attacks globally in the first half of this year, were carried out

by Somali pirates largely in the Indian Ocean.

This was up from 100 attacks by Somali pirates in the same period last year.

The pirates also hijacked 21 ships, down from 27 in the first half last year, thanks to increased ship vigilance and action by international navies including the US, Malaysian, South Korean and Indian. “This level of international and military cooperation is tremendously important to us in building a sustainable operating ocean-borne system,” said Thresher. She said no scientist has been threatened by pirates. Australia has more than 300 robots actively working in the multinational program, the second highest after the US, reporting to international data centers from the Indian, Pacific and Southern oceans and the Tasman Sea. Besides the naval vessels, Australia has also chartered a South African yacht, which deployed seven instruments near Mauritius in the relatively safer Western Indian Ocean. It will deploy another 15 instruments between Mauritius and Fremantle in Australia, where it will pick up another 39 floats for deployment northwest of the Australian North West Shelf, an area free of piracy. — AP

MUMBAI: Indians are consuming more meat than ever before despite a strong culture of vegetarianism and a religious taboo about consuming beef, as diets change and hygiene improves in the processing industry. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says Indians’ per capita consumption of meat is running at 5.0 to 5.5 kilograms (11 to 12 pounds) a year, the highest since it began compiling records, reflecting a wider taste for protein-rich diets in developing countries.

Experts say strong economic growth, which has led to increasingly affluent, better-travelled consumers, is partly the reason for the rise, leading to new opportunities for supermarkets and restaurants to cater to more varied palates. “Indians are losing their inhibitions and getting adventurous,” said Jaydeep Mukherjee, executive chef at Indigo Delicatessen, one of Mumbai’s most popular foreign cuisine restaurants. “Beef (buffalo) steaks are regular favourites,” he told AFP. The fine-dining restaurant, which prides itself on its Reuben sandwich with pastrami, is now scouting for suppliers to source pheasant, quail and duck meat for its restaurants at the Phoenix Mills shopping mall and in south Mumbai.

“Meat consumption, which was once dependent on parental sanction, is going up rapidly with more liberal attitudes and greater Western influences,” added Mohit Khattar, managing director of gourmet food chain Nature’s Basket. For Khattar, eating non-vegetarian food is no longer a luxury while the standard of domestic meat production has become more hygienic, improving consumer confidence. Non-vegetarian items accounted for a sixth of Nature’s Basket’s total sales of nearly $13.3 million in the last financial year-marking 64 percent growth year-on-year.

India produces 10.6 million tonnes of meat and fish a year, according to the FAO but the country still remains a stronghold of vegetarianism.

‘There’s more body in beef’-There are no official government figures on the number of vegetarians but in 2006, the newspaper, The Hindu, conducted a nationwide survey which concluded that up to 40 percent of the country consume dairy products and eggs but no meat-the highest number in the world. Meat-eating, particularly beef, is still unacceptable for the majority Hindu population, who consider the cow a sacred animal and their slaughter for consumption is banned in most Indian states under a law with tough sanctions. Fast-food retailer McDonald’s does not sell beef burgers in India and some co-operative housing societies ban meat-eaters from buying or renting property.

India’s second-largest religious group, the sizeable Muslim community, shuns pork products. Seafood and chicken, though, remain popular among all religious groups. India’s per capita consumption of broiler chicken has doubled to 2.26 kilograms per year in 2010 from 1.08 kilograms a decade ago, according to the US-based Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. The increasing availability of meat is a boon for people such as Ajoy Mukhopadhayay, a 39-year-old Hindu who likes beef curry when dining out.

“Unlike the kebab, there’s more body in beef. I enjoy my beef bhuna (a spicy curried roast beef ), it’s fibrous and juicy,” said the animator for a software firm from the eastern city of Kolkata. “(Eating beef) was a different experience in younger days. It was never listed on most menus but we knew where to find it.” India’s per capita meat consumption rates, however, are well below the average in Asia — 27 kilograms or 59.5 pounds-and the rest of the world, which eats 38 kilograms or 83.7 pounds, according to FAO figures from 2007, the most recent figures available.—AFP

LIMA: A woman shows fake medicines before their destruction in Pucusana, near Lima, Peru. About 22 tons of fake and expired medicine, seized since 2008 in different operations by Peru’s Medicine, Supplies and Drugs General Direction, DIGEMID, were smashed and buried on Friday. — AP

EU cushions biodiesel from damning carbon research BRUSSELS: The EU will protect existing investment in its $13 billion biodiesel sector even as it acts on new evidence that suggests making the fuel from food crops can do more harm than good in fighting climate change. The environmental arguments in favour of using biodiesel were thrown into doubt last week by a series of leaked European Union reports, revealed by Reuters.

The reports said using Asian palm oil, South American soybeans and EU rapeseed to make biodiesel has a bigger overall impact than conventional diesel on climate change, partly due to forests or wetlands being destroyed to grow replacement food. European Union policymakers are preparing a political compromise that will safeguard existing biodiesel investments, having baulked at penalising individual biofuel crops. While biodiesel producers will be given time to realise a return on the massive investment of recent years, the latest scientific findings are likely to lose them market share in coming years to bioethanol and advanced biofuels, which the reports found to be generally preferable. Senior European Commission officials met in Brussels this week to debate policy options for addressing the indirect impacts of the bloc’s biofuel target, which aims to raise the share of biofuel in road transport to around 10 percent by 2020.

With biodiesel representing about 80 percent of Europe’s estimated $17 billion market for biofuels and the bloc dependent on diesel imports to meet rising demand, the officials agreed to delay any action that could kill off the biodiesel sector. “I think they are going to arrive at a political compromise,” Philippe Tillous-Borde, chairman of the EU’s largest biodiesel producer, Diester Industrie, told Reuters. Tillous-Borde and other biodiesel producers insist the science on the indirect impacts of biofuels is uncertain and still evolving and that it would be premature and unfair to regulate them out of existence now. This argument has won support within the Commission, with the EU’s top farm official among those who argued against redrawing the investment map for biofuels overnight.

The Commission is due to adopt its proposals for approval by EU governments and lawmakers after the European summer break. The dilemma facing EU policymakers concerns a relatively new concept known as indirect landuse change (ILUC), which challenges the notion that biofuels only emit as much carbon when burned as they absorbed during growth.

ILUC means that if you take a field of grain and switch the crop to biofuel, somebody, somewhere, will go hungry unless those missing tonnes of grain are grown elsewhere.If the crops making up the shortfall are grown on farmland created by cutting down forests or draining peat land, this can pump out enough climate-warming emissions to cancel out any benefits from biofuels.The Commission considered several options proposed by experts to address ILUC, including a direct one that penalises individual biofuel crops according to their role in driving land use changes, which

would have hit biodiesel hardest.

But EU sources said the Commission dismissed this option in favour of a second, indirect, approach, which involves raising the current carbon-saving threshold-compared with fossil fuel-that all biofuels must meet to count towards the EU’s target. This option penalises all types of biofuels equally and will therefore minimise short-term damage to the biodiesel sector. Commission officials say this is justified because the huge private investment in biodiesel production in recent years is largely the result of the EU’s biofuel mandate and any shift in the policy must be gradual to avoid widespread bankruptcies. Critics say this approach ignores a growing expert consensus that various biofuel crops have vastly different ILUC impacts.

“I fear a political compromise,” said Bas Eickhout, a Dutch Green member of the European Parliament who led research into the land-use change impact of biofuels. “I’m negative about this solution of raising the threshold for all biofuels, (because) you’re not distinguishing between crop types. There are good crops and less good crops, and the policies need to take account of that,” Eickhout told Reuters. EU bioethanol producers, who would benefit more from a direct approach to ILUC than under the compromise option, are undecided about whether to argue for a crop-specific approach. While the impact of the EU proposals will not be as negative for biodiesel as the sector had feared, some types of production may yet be excluded-depending on how high the Commission raises the carbon saving thresholds.

The current limits require all biofuels to deliver carbon savings of at least 35 percent versus fossil fuel by 2013, rising to 50 percent in 2017.“If we go from 35 percent to 45 percent in the short-term, that would be acceptable. If we go above that, It would be difficult,” TillousBorde said. “If for the 2017 horizon, which was for 50 percent, we go from 50 to 60 percent, we will find a way to achieve it.” With current production processes, even at 60 percent biodiesel made from imported soybeans and palm oil or European rapeseed would be excluded, according to one of the leaked reports-a Commission impact assessment of the policy options. “Note, however, that rapeseed is not very far from meeting the threshold, which implies that low-emitting producers of rapeseed might still be able to comply (after 2017) if their direct preformance is improved,” the report said. The prospect of excluding imported vegetable oils from counting towards the EU biofuel target may appeal to domestic producers, but major exporters such as Malaysia and Brazil could be expected to challenge such a move. While Europe’s biodiesel sector is likely to be granted a temporary reprieve by Brussels, its longer term prospects have been seriously undermined in the ILUC debate. This could have a major impact on the direction of investments in low-carbon energy sources by major oil companies such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell. —Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Years

he a lt h & s c ie n c e

US pediatrician feels heat over child obesity idea Foster care a ‘last resort’ option for obese children BOSTON: Boston pediatrician David Ludwig, the center of a media ďŹ restorm last week, wants to set the record straight on his view that a state should intervene in the most extreme cases of child obesity.

Ludwig and co-author Lindsey Murtagh at the Harvard School of Public Health triggered a backlash with an opinion piece in a leading US medical journal about what could be done about highly overweight youngsters.

They argued that when all other eorts failed, a state should consider putting high-risk obese kids in foster care, and said doing so may be the more ethical choice that could avert drastic measures like weight-loss surgery.

Ludwig, of Boston’s Children’s Hospital, has since responded to dozens of e-mails last week from angry and terriďŹ ed parents. Other medical experts have questioned the rationale of removing a child from an otherwise functional and supportive family if they are obese. In his ďŹ rst interview since the backlash began, Ludwig said the article was meant to promote a dialogue on childhood obesity, which has become a lifethreatening problem for many youngsters.

“It’s absolutely understandable that if someone with an obese child heard the government could swoop in and take that child away, (they would) be frightened and outraged,� Ludwig told Reuters. “I want to emphasize that foster care should only be the last resort when all other options have failed.�

In his replies to parents, Ludwig has provided copies of his opinion piece, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that says there is a role for the state when it comes

to helping obese children, but removing them from a home is very rarely the solution. “It’s just been heartbreaking to see how the story has been wildly exaggerated by some of the media, causing a great deal of pain and suering for people,â€?

Ludwig said.

With at least 20 million overweight and obese children in the United States and some 2 million of those kids at the very highest risk, childhood obesity may be the “most important threat that exists

‘It’s absolutely understandable that if someone with an obese child heard the government could swoop in and take that child away, (they would) be frightened and outraged. ‘I want to emphasize that foster care should only be the last resort when all other options have failed.’

A Word of Solutions

to this generation of children,� he said. But placing a youngster in foster care “should absolutely not be an option� for most of the highest risk cases.

And that is what Ludwig and Murtagh wrote in the piece, he said. To prove his point and calm the fury that has erupted. Ludwig explained that state intervention could include ďŹ nancial support to families, social services, access to safe recreation areas and even parenting courses to help manage a child’s uncontrolled eating habits.

In 99 percent of the most serious cases, removing a child from a home is not an option. Ludwig said that in over 15 years of treating some 10,000 patients battling obesity he only knows of one case where the child was taken from parents. “The ultimate answer to the obesity epidemic is not to blame parents, it’s to create a more healthful and supportive society,� Ludwig said. “But until we get there, what do we do about that 14-year-old, 400-pound (182 kg) child who’s not facing increased risk of illness 20 years from now, but who’s facing life-threatening complications today?� he said. — Reuters

A Al-Seef Hospital Hospital Neurology Ne eurology Dept.

Dept Al Seef Hospital is proud to aannounce Neurology supervision pervision of nnounce the opening of Ne urology Dept. under the sup Dr.r. Raed Alroughani / Consult Consultant Dr tant in Neurolog & Multiple Sclerosis Canadian American Multiple Ca nadian Board Certified in Neurology N / Canadian & Ame erican Fellowship in Multip le Sclerosis Â&#x2DC; 7Yfh]Z]YX GdYW]U`]gh ]b Ai`h]d`Y GWW`Yfcg]g Â&#x2DC; 7Yfh]Z]YX GdYW]U`]gh ]b Ai`h]d`Y GW`Yfcg]g Â&#x2DC; 7 cadfY\Ybg]jY bYifc`c[]WU` aUbU[YaYbh h\fci[\ dUh]Ybh!WYbhhYfYX cihWcaY Â&#x2DC; 7cadfY\Ybg]jY bYifc`c[]WU` aUbU[YaYbh h\fci[\ dUh]Ybh!WYbhYfYX cihWcaY Â&#x2DC; 5 Ai`h]!X]gW]d`]bUfm 5ddfcUW\ h\fci[\ Ub YZZYWh]jY dUh]Ybh!d\mg]W]Ub Wcaaib]WUh]cb UbX fY`Uh]cbg\]d Â&#x2DC; 5 Ai`h]!X]gW]d`]bUfm 5ddfcUW\ h\\fci[\ Ub YZZYWh]jY dUh]Ybh!d\mgg]W]Ub Wcaaib]WUh]cb UbX fY`Uh]cbg\]d Offfering the following Diagnosis and treatment of major neurological Offering neuroological disorders: Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2DC; <YUXUW\Yg Â&#x2DC; 8]nn]bYgg Â&#x2DC; BYW_ UbX VUW_ dU]b Â&#x2DC; GY]nifYg 9d]`Ydgm Â&#x2DC; Ai`h]d`Y GW`Yfcg]g < <YUXUW\Yg YUXUW\Yg Â&#x2DC; 8]nn]bYgg 8]nn]bYgg Â&#x2DC; BYW_ BYW_ UbX VUW_ dU]b UbX VUW_ dU]b Â&#x2DC; GY]nifYg GY]nifYg 9 99d]`Ydgm 9d]`Ydgm Â&#x2DC; Ai`h]d`Y GW`Yfcg]g Ai`h]d`Y GW`Yfcg]g Â&#x2DC; A AcjYaYbh X]gcfXYfg Y"[ hfYacff DUf_]bgcb g X]gYUgY Â&#x2DC; AigW W`Y X]gYUgYg Â&#x2DC; 8YaYbh]U X]gYUUgY Â&#x2DC; AcjYaYbh X]gcfXYfg Y"[ hfYacf DUf_]bgcb g X]gYUgY Â&#x2DC; AigW`Y X]gYUgYg Â&#x2DC; 8YaYbh]U X]gYUgY - Procedures: P Â&#x2DC; 99 9; Â&#x2DC; BYfjY 7cbXiWh]cb GhiXm UbX 9A; Â&#x2DC; 99; Â&#x2DC; BYfjY 7cbXiWh]cb GhiXm UbX 9A; Â&#x2DC; J Â&#x2DC; J]giU` 9jc_YX DchYbh]U`g ]giU` 9jc_YX DchYbh]U`g

Reservation inquires: For Reser vation and Further F

25764145 - 60 60012078 0012078

To advertise a on this t page l t t us: please contact

Dermatology & Cosmetology Cosmetology t Dermatology t General Medicine t Internal Internal Medicine t Ent t Ophthalmology Ophthalmology t PPeadiatric eadiatric t Ob & Gynecology Gynecology

t Orthopedic Orthopedic t XX-ray -ray & Ultrasonograph Ultrasonography g y t General Physician Physician t Dental t Laboratory Laboratory t Pharmac Pharmacyy

Cosmetology C osmetology C Clinic. linic.

248 33 199 ads@kuwaittimes.net

Non N on SSurgical urggical FFacelift, acelifft, Antii AAgeing ggeingg W Wrinkle rinkle Frown Li / Pigmenta Pigmentation D b Chin Frown Lines g tion Double Chin Correction Botox Correction i Sk SSkin kiin RRejuvenation ejuv j enation Bot ox / FFillers illers Painless Laser Laser Hair emoval Dermar ollerr, Painless Removal Dermaroller, H i R Skin Skin Whitening Whitening & Brighting Brightinng Vail Vail a Treatment Treatment

Wee Accept W Accept All All M Major ajor IInsuramce aj nsuramce C Cards ards FARWANIYA FA ARWANIYYA - OPP OPP. P. POLICE POL LICE ST STATION TATION T Behind B ehind Magadheer Magadheer Commercial Comm mercial Complex Complex

s - 65561619 TEL: 24734000 6 shifakuwait@gmail.com shifak uwait@g gmail.com w www.shifakuwait.com ww.shifakuwait.com Workiing Hours: 8.00 am m to to 12:00am Working

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

30

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

W H AT ’ S O N

Announcements Art salon Bouhshari Art Gallery Exhibition runs through 15 September. Daily working hours: 10am - 1pm and 5 9pm, except on Friday and on Thursday evening.

Indian bowling league Indian Bowling League Season 2 would like to invite you and your families to participate in an Indian bowling event where all nationalities, the young and the old can have fun playing an enjoyable game while meeting new people in a healthy competition from July 12th - August 15th For more details contact: Uly 99503348, Amaldo 66052062, and Nasha 99516960. If anyone is looking to assist them in this event with sponsors, they will be really obliged to have your help to make this event a success. Registrations are open.

Bodybuilding competition The Philippine Body Building & Fitness Association in Kuwait will be holding its first Bodybuilding competition for all Filipino Instructors and enthusiasts on July 22nd at Al-Zumareida Hall, Salwa along the Gulf Road from 5pm - 9pm. The competition will be one of a kind in Kuwait. It will highlight the participation of highly skilled Filipino fitness and aerobics trainers and showcase remarkable presentations during the competition.

Three categories for the Bodybuilding competition: Small, Medium, Tall, all of which are based on required height measurements. There will be three winners from each height category and one overall winner. The competition will be covered by Al Watan Daily News, TFC (The Filipino Channel) and GMA 7 from the Philippines.

KuwaitBodyBuilding.com will be one of the sponsors for this event and PBBFAK are actively looking for other organizations that may also be interested in becoming a sponsor.

Family conference Home land family conference of KTMCC (Kuwait Town Malalyali Christian Congregation) will be conducted on July 23 at Kumbanadu, Kerala including its ex-members and the present members who are on vacation at that time. Meantime it decided to honor those who completed age of 70 and above. For the registration of conference to visit www.ktmcc.com or to contact HFC (Home land family conference) Kerala Chapter Convener T. John Mathew Mob: - (+91) 94463-68878 or Secretary Roy. K.Yohannan 66570486.

Rink soccer Don Bosco Oratory is pleased to announce its Major 4A-Side “Rink Soccer Fiesta” in Kuwait! This event is for the soccer lovers in Kuwait and will be played on a League (round robin) cum knock out basis from August 2nd at the IEAS Quadrangle in Salmiya. Last date to register for participation is on July 28th. Draws will be announced on the July 30th. For details contact Chris: 6651-9627, Alex: 66069282 from 6-9pm.

Kuwait Ahliya Modern School graduation ceremony The Kuwait Ahliya Modern School celebrated the graduation of its high school students, class of 2010/2011, in a ceremony attended by the school’s staff and the graduates’ families. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

AWARE Centre Diwaniya The AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation entitled, “Developing Global and Ethical leaders through Quality learning,” by Khalid Al-Dowsary on Tuesday July 19, 2011 at 7:00pm. Are you interested in improving your inter/cross-cultural communication skills, develop dialogue with and respect other cultures, improve your presentation skills, improve leadership skills, improve your teamwork spirit, improve your solving problems skills and critical thinking, build your confidence, improve your discussions skills and improve your creativity? Khalid Al-Dowsary will share with you the keys to that. Khalid Al-Dowsary is a Saudi Aramco employee working as Superintendent of Professional Learning Division of the Professional Development Department. He is currently working on his phd in Business Administration with a concentration on Human Resource Development, Malaysia University. He obtained his M.ed Human Resource Development from University of Minnesota, USA. 2007. He also holds Master of Science Degree (M.S.) — For more information, call 25335260/80 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw

S Africa Embassy to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s birthday

T

Memac Ogilvy appoints Eymard Saldanha as regional head of advertising in MENA

M

emac Ogilvy & Mather announced the promotion of Eymard Saldanha to the position of Regional Head of Advertising in the Middle East and North Africa.

Eymard will continue to head up the BAT Eastern Europe Middle East & Africa (EEMEA) account and part of the Global Leadership Team at Ogilvy on BAT. BAT is the single largest client within Ogilvy Africa and Middle East.

Eymard joined Memac Ogilvy in Dubai in early 1997 as Associate Account Director and was regularly promoted throughout the years. During his career at Memac Ogilvy, Eymard has managed multiple blue-chip accounts, including

British American Tobacco (Pall Mall, Viceroy, Vogue, Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant); Glaxo Smithkline (Panadol, Eno and Lucozade); Unilever (Dove, Comfort, Vaseline and Ponds), Kraft (Tang); and IBM (cross brand) among others.

In addition to his account handling and team leader responsibilities, Eymard has been involved in the general management of the UAE operations as well as new business development.

Making the announcement, Eddie Moutran, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Memac Ogilvy, said: “Eymard has proven time and again to be a key player in our organization. His 14-year

stint with us is evidence of his commitment to his work and to his clients.”

Fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi, and Konkani, Eymard graduated from Xavier Institute of Communications at Bombay University with a Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising and Marketing in 1990. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics & Sociology, also from Bombay University. When he has a few hours away from managing his clients’ advertising campaigns, Eymard is an avid motoring enthusiast (both 4 and 2 wheels) as well as being passionate about athletics, particularly basketball and tennis.

he South African Embassy in the State of Kuwait, takes pleasure in reminding the people of Kuwait that tomorrow Nelson Mandela will celebrate his 93rd birthday, and many South African’s will celebrate this by participating in an act of community service. Nelson Mandela Day is an annual international day adopted by the United Nations in 2009 and is much more than an act of celebrating his life and legacy; it is a global movement to take his life’s work into a new century.

In order to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela and celebrate his immense contribution to South Africa’s liberation, the President of the Republic of South Africa encourages all South Africans and people all over the world to embrace his values of democracy and be of selfless service to the community and those less fortunate.

Nelson Mandela, fondly knows as “Madiba” asks us all to embrace his values and honour his legacy through an act of kindness with the hope of inspiring people around the globe to embrace their individual power to make an imprint and help change the world around them for the better. He wholeheartedly committed himself to the liberation struggle and lives a life of honour, courage and integrity in his effort to improve the lives of the people of South Africa. All are encouraged to dedicate at least 67 minutes of their time to do community work in celebration of the values and principles that South Africa’s first democratic president stood for. The 67 minutes symbolise Mandela’s 67 years of “selfless service to the people of SA and the world in the course of his extraordinary life. It’s an opportunity for all South Africans and people all over the world to set aside time to be of service to fellow human beings and collectively strive to become agents for building a better and caring society.

The South African Embassy identified a shelter for Women where they will spend 67 minutes of selfless service.

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

y

A

31

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 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.

■■■■■■■

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 ■■■■■■■

Jordanian Embassy honours outstanding students

T

he Jordanian Embassy in Kuwait held a celebration to award the top ten outstanding high school graduates among Kuwait’s Jordanian community. The event was attended by Ambassador Jum’ah Al-Abbadi, as well as other dignitaries and families of the commemorated graduates. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Marco Saxer (at the center) and Richard Sabella (beside Saxer, ITHC VP for Operations).

Marco Saxer with the awardees.

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah.

Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form. All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants.

Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed.

To ensure that the most recent version of the Temporary Resident Visa application form is being utilized, applicants should refer to the CIC website. As of January 15, 2011, forms are to be filled in electronically. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday.

Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday.

The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5 257E.PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/525 6E.PDF. ■■■■■■■

Movenpick Hotel Kuwait Free Trade Zone honors their 5 years loyalty awardees

O

n what was dubbed as ‘the 2nd 5 Years Loyalty Awards Ceremony’ Movenpick Hotel Kuwait honored their 24 employees in celebration of their completion of 5 years of working with the company. The hotel’s first loyalty awarding ceremony was held in 2008 to its 37 employees. This year’s Awarding Ceremony, organized by Ms Maricar Canasa, Learning and Development Manager was celebrated on 09th July 2011 at the historical Kuwait Towers - 187 meters high above sea level.

The event was made memorable with the awarding of

the 5 Years Loyalty Certificates to the 24 employees and each received the company’s traditional gold seagull pins in commemoration of their 5 years service with Movenpick Hotels and Resorts. Marco Saxer, General Manager of Movenpick Hotel Kuwait who expressed his great appreciation to the awardees for their hard work and loyalty to the company also wished them more success in their careers. Ahmad El - Enjibar, Vice President for Hospitality and Richard Sabella, Vice President for Operations - International Trade Holding Company

(Owning Company of Movenpick Hotel Kuwait) represented Dr Hamad Al Tuwaijri, President and Owner of MHK in awarding the certificates and seagull pins to the service awardees together with Marco Saxer.

The awarding ceremony was followed by a lavish breakfast buffet at Kuwait Towers’ Le CafÈ Restaurant and a tour at the historical towers’ viewing sphere where everyone experienced to be 120 meters above sea level and a full sphere’s rotation of the city view every 30minutes.

Gulf Express Co awards technician of the month

G

ulf Express Co (a subsidiary of Al Babtain Group) is the distributor of Dunlop tyres in Kuwait.

Gulf express co. is known to provide excellent services to their customer with prompt care, timely, fast & quality services to the customers. They have special customer service for ladies in terms of care, fast & quality service.

In order to increase the customer service level & improve customer satisfaction Gulf express co. has started a competition amongst their technicians. The evaluations were done on the basis of accuracy in the job, faster

service time, Team work, Equipment maintenance, personal Hygiene, attendance, customer delight etc.

Byju Lukose - Tyre technician / Wheel alignment has won the “Technician of the month” award for the month of June’11 & has been honoured by the company by giving appreciation & a branded wrist watch.

This activity has resulted in improving our service quality, improved productivity, create competition amongst our branches & ultimately to achieve customer satisfaction targets.

Dunlop tyres are no.1 market

leader in Kuwait with highest market share. Dunlop is known for its Quality & Safety, it comes as original fitment in all the Japanese, American & European cars such as BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Audi, etc. It also has one year warranty.

It is known as a fit & forget tyre because of top quality. Its market share is growing & it is supported by a very strong sales & service team. Maxiss is at no.10th position in the list of international tyre companies worldwide. It also has one year warranty.

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 INDIA Embassy of India, 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.

■■■■■■■

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

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

21:05 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 21:30 Masterchef: The Professionals 23:45 Masterchef: The Professionals 00:45 Cats 101 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Ultimate Air Jaws 03:30 Shark Bait Beach 04:25 I’m Alive 05:20 Animal Cops Miami 06:10 Cats 101 07:00 Lemur Street 07:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 08:15 The Really Wild Show 08:40 Jeff Corwin Unleashed 09:10 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 09:35 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 10:05 My Cat from Hell 11:00 Cats 101 11:55 Crocodile Hunter 12:50 Great Ocean Adventures 13:45 Great Ocean Adventures 14:40 Cats 101 15:35 Austin Stevens Adventures 16:30 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 16:55 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 17:25 Escape to Chimp Eden 17:50 Escape to Chimp Eden 18:20 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 19:15 Venom Hunter with Donald Schultz 20:10 Cats 101 21:05 Into the Pride 22:00 Planet Earth 22:55 Whale Wars 23:50 Wildest Africa

00:05 00:50 01:50 02:35 03:30 04:30 04:50 05:10 05:40 05:50 06:10 06:30 07:00 07:10 07:30 07:50 08:20 08:30 08:50 09:10 09:40 10:10 11:00 11:45 12:30 13:20 14:15 15:00 15:45 16:15 16:45 17:15 17:45 18:20 19:05 20:00 20:50 21:40 22:30 23:20 23:50

Robin Hood Strictly Come Dancing Strictly Come Dancing Red Cap BBC Electric Proms 2007 Fimbles Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola Fimbles Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola Fimbles Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola Fimbles Balamory Tikkabilla One Foot In The Grave BBC Electric Proms 2007 Robin Hood The Weakest Link Casualty Casualty The Weakest Link The Weakest Link Doctors Doctors Doctors Doctors Doctors Robin Hood BBC Electric Proms 2007 Ray Mears Goes Walkabout Monarch Of The Glen The Fixer Spooks Bleak House Bleak House

00:05 Antiques Roadshow 01:50 Antiques Roadshow 02:40 Antiques Roadshow 03:35 Cash In The Attic USA 04:20 Cash In The Attic USA 04:40 Come Dine With Me 12:20 Come Dine With Me 13:10 New Scandinavian Cooking 14:00 New Scandinavian Cooking 14:25 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 18:35 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 19:00 Come Dine With Me 19:50 Come Dine With Me 20:40 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad

00:00 00:10 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:10 02:30 03:00 03:10 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:10 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:00 11:10 11:30 12:00 12:10 13:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:10 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:10 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:10 23:30

BBC World News The World Debate BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News World Features Newsnight BBC World News World Features Spirit Of Yachting BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News The World Debate BBC World News Click BBC World News Newsnight BBC World News India Business Report BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News World Features Spirit Of Yachting BBC World News World Features Dateline London BBC World News My Country BBC World News World Features BBC World News BBC World News Newsnight BBC World News World Features The Bottom Line BBC World News Sport Today Click BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News The World Debate BBC World News India Business Report BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News Sport Today Click BBC World News Spirit Of Yachting BBC World News World Features BBC World News

00:05 Cow And Chicken 00:30 Cramp Twins 00:55 The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy 01:20 Courage The Cowardly Dog 01:45 Eliot Kid 02:10 Ed, Edd n Eddy 02:35 Ben 10: Alien Force 03:00 The Powerpuff Girls 03:15 Chowder 03:40 The Secret Saturdays 04:05 Samurai Jack 04:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 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 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 07:50 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 08:15 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 08:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 09:05 Best Ed 10:00 Ben 10: Alien Force 10:30 Ben 10: Alien Force 10:55 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 11:20 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 11:45 Skunk Fu!

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

TV PROGRAMS 12:35 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 13:00 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 13:25 Ben 10 13:50 Ben 10 14:15 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 14:40 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 15:05 Samurai Jack 15:25 Samurai Jack 15:50 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 16:10 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 16:35 Robotboy 16:55 Robotboy 17:15 Ed, Edd n Eddy 17:40 Chowder 18:05 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 18:30 Eliot Kid 18:55 Chop Socky Chooks 19:20 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 19:45 Camp Lazlo 20:10 Squirrel Boy 20:35 Cow And Chicken 21:00 Courage The Cowardly Dog 21:25 The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy 21:50 Robotboy 22:00 Adventure Time 22:25 Hero 108 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 23:40 Chowder

00:00 The Best Of Backstory 00:30 World Sport 01:00 World Report 01:30 Open Court 02:00 World Report 02:30 Inside Africa 03:00 Going Green 04:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 05:00 The Best Of The Situation Room 06:00 World Sport 06:30 Open Court 07:00 World Report 07:30 The Best Of Backstory 08:00 World Report 08:15 CNN Marketplace Middle East 08:30 Cnngo 09:00 World Report 09:15 CNN Marketplace Africa 09:30 Edit Room 09:45 Future Cities 10:00 World Sport 10:30 Open Court 11:00 African Voices 11:30 Talk Asia 12:00 Going Green 13:00 World Report 13:30 World Sport 14:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 15:00 Fareed Zakaria Gps 16:00 State Of The Union With Candy Crowley 17:00 International Desk 17:30 Inside Africa 18:00 Edit Room 18:15 Future Cities 18:30 World Sport 19:00 Prism 19:45 CNN Marketplace Middle East 20:00 International Desk 20:30 Cnngo 21:00 World Report 21:30 Open Court 22:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 23:00 Fareed Zakaria Gps

00:40 01:35 03:25 03:55 04:20 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:05 06:35 07:00 07:50 08:45

Human Prey Fbi’s 10 Most Wanted How Stuff Works How It’s Made How Stuff Works How It’s Made How Stuff Works How It’s Made How Stuff Works How It’s Made Extreme Engineering Mighty Ships Huge Moves

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON ON OSN CINEMA

09:40 10:30 11:25 12:20 13:15 14:10 15:05 16:55 17:20 18:15 19:10 20:05 21:00 21:55 23:45

River Monsters River Monsters Flying Wild Alaska Pit Bulls And Parolees LA Ink Taking On Tyson Cake Boss Cake Boss Mythbusters Flying Wild Alaska Swamp Brothers Swords: Life On The Line Mythbusters Ultimate Weapons Ultimate Weapons

00:05 00:30 00:55 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:50 04:45 05:40 06:10 07:00 07:55 07:58 08:25 08:55 09:45 10:35 11:25 12:15 13:05 13:55 14:45 14:48 15:15 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:50 18:15 18:40 19:05 19:30 19:55 20:20 20:45 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 23:40

The Gadget Show Things That Move Things That Move The Colony Ultimate Power Builders Engineered Da Vinci’s Machines Catch It Keep It How Stuff’s Made Superships How The Universe Works Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Brainiac Prototype This Punkin Chunkin 2010 Punkin Chunkin 2010 Punkin Chunkin 2010 Brainiac Brainiac Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Bang Goes The Theory The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Science Of The Movies Sci-Fi Science Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Weird Connections Things That Move Things That Move The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Sci-Fi Science The Tech Show Bad Universe Perfect Disaster Bang Goes The Theory

00:20 Replacements 00:45 Replacements 01:10 Fairly Odd Parents 01:35 Fairly Odd Parents 02:00 A Kind Of Magic 02:20 A Kind Of Magic 02:45 Stitch 03:10 Stitch 03:35 Kim Possible 04:00 Kim Possible 04:25 Emperors New School 04:50 Emperors New School 05:15 Stitch 05:35 Stitch 06:00 Jungle Junction 06:25 Handy Manny 06:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 07:10 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 07:30 Fish Hooks 08:00 Suite Life On Deck 08:25 Suite Life On Deck 08:50 Shake It Up 09:15 Shake It Up 09:40 Wizards Of Waverly Place 10:05 Wizards Of Waverly Place 10:30 Minute Men 12:00 Good Luck Charlie 12:25 Good Luck Charlie 12:50 Suite Life On Deck 13:15 Suite Life On Deck 13:40 Wizards Of Waverly Place 14:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 14:25 Hannah Montana 14:50 Hannah Montana 15:15 Fish Hooks 15:25 Good Luck Charlie 15:45 Good Luck Charlie 16:10 Wizards Of Waverly Place 16:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place 17:00 Hannah Montana 17:25 Shake It Up 17:50 Fish Hooks 18:20 Good Luck Charlie 18:45 Good Luck Charlie 19:10 Lemonade Mouth (Extended) (Cema) 20:55 Wizards Of Waverly Place 21:25 Fish Hooks 21:50 Phineas & Ferb 22:15 Suite Life On Deck 22:40 Sonny With A Chance 23:05 Jonas La 23:30 Hannah Montana 23:55 Kim Possible

06:00 Kid Vs Kat 06:20 Kick Buttowski 06:40 Iron Man: Armoured Adventures 07:05 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 07:30 Phineas & Ferb 07:55 Phineas & Ferb 08:20 Suite Life On Deck S3 08:45 Pair Of Kings 09:10 Kid Vs Kat 09:30 Rekkit Rabbit 09:50 Zeke & Luther 10:15 Zeke & Luther 10:40 I’m In The Band 11:05 The Super Hero Squad Show 11:30 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 11:55 Kick Buttowski 12:15 Kid Vs Kat 12:35 American Dragon 13:00 Thirteenth Year 14:30 Kick Buttowski 14:55 Pair Of Kings 15:20 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 15:50 I’m In The Band 16:15 Rekkit Rabbit 16:40 Zeke & Luther 17:05 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 17:30 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 17:55 Suite Life On Deck S3 18:20 Suite Life On Deck S3 18:45 Phineas & Ferb 19:10 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes 19:35 New Spiderman 20:00 New Spiderman 20:25 Zeke & Luther 20:50 I’m In The Band 21:15 Aaron Stone 21:36 American Dragon 22:00 Kick Buttowski 22:21 I’m In The Band

00:55 Chelsea Lately 01:25 E!es 02:20 E! Investigates 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Reality Hell 05:30 Wildest TV Show Moments 06:00 50 Cutest Child Stars: All Grown Up 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kendra 09:45 Kendra 10:15 Married To Rock 11:10 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 12:05 E! News 13:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 13:35 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:05 E!es 15:00 Khloe And Lamar 15:30 Khloe And Lamar 15:55 The Dance Scene 16:55 Behind The Scenes 17:55 E! News 18:55 Holly’s World 19:55 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 20:55 Kourtney And Kim Take New York 21:25 Khloe And Lamar 22:25 E! News 23:25 THS

00:15 Aiya TV 01:05 Aiya TV 01:30 M1 Selection 2010 02:20 Sports Jobs 03:35 Sports Jobs 04:00 Carpocalypse 04:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

05:40 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

06:30 FIA European Drag Racing 2008 08:00 Cape Epic 09:15 Cape Epic 09:40 FIM World Motocross MX1/MX2...

10:30 FIM World Motocross MX1/MX2...

11:20 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

12:10 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross...

13:00 BMX Megatour 13:50 Glutton For Punishment 14:15 BMX Masters 2010 14:40 Fantasy Factory 16:45 Untracked 17:10 I’ll Do Anything 18:00 Glutton For Punishment 18:25 BMX Masters 2010 18:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

19:40 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross...

20:30 BMX Megatour 21:20 Eds Up 21:45 Eds Up 22:10 Glutton For Punishment 22:35 BMX Masters 2010 23:00 I’ll Do Anything 23:50 Aiya TV

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:50 04:45 05:15 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40 Jones

A Haunting Ghost Lab The Haunted A Haunting A Haunting Ghosthunters Murder Shift Mystery ER Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol Fugitive Strike Force FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn Royal Inquest Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol Fugitive Strike Force Forensic Detectives Murder Shift FBI Files Mystery ER Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Most Evil Unsolved Crimes: USA True Crime With Aphrodite

PEARL HARBOR ON OSN MOVIES ACTION

00:30 02:15 04:15 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:15

Lake Placid 3-18 The Italian Job (2003)-PG15 What Lies Beneath-PG15 Hollywood Homicide-PG15 Signs-PG15 The Italian Job (2003)-PG15 Courage Under Fire-PG15 Signs-PG15 Obsessed-PG15 Courage Under Fire-PG15 XXX-PG15 Blindness-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 06:45 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

The Waiting City-PG15 Cairo Time-PG15 MacHEADS-PG15 The Sunset Limited-PG15 Cairo Time-PG15 Primo-PG15 On Broadway-PG15 How To Train Your Dragon-PG Heaven’s Fall-PG15 Hurricane Season-PG15 Date Night-PG15 Vinyan-18

00:04 02:25 04:35 06:05 07:50 09:25 11:30 13:05 14:40 16:20 16:35 18:25 20:05 22:00 23:55

Irma LA Douce-PG Eureka The Ranch Joshua Tree-PG Chains Of Gold-PG Khartoum-PG A Green Journey-PG Breakheart Pass-PG Across 110th Street-PG Mgm’s Big Screen-FAM Brannigan-PG Conan The Destroyer-PG The Program-PG The Last Waltz-FAM Last Tango In Paris

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:00 Saturday Night Live 03:00 10 Things I Hate About You 03:30 How I Met Your Mother 04:00 Yes Dear 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 06:00 According To Jim 06:30 Coach 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Yes Dear 08:30 10 Things I Hate About You 09:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 09:30 Hot In Cleveland 10:00 Hot In Cleveland 10:30 According To Jim 11:00 Coach 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Yes Dear 13:00 How I Met Your Mother 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 14:00 According To Jim 14:30 Hot In Cleveland 15:00 Hot In Cleveland 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Coach 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Malcolm In The Middle 18:30 Hope And Faith 19:00 30 Rock 19:30 30 Rock 20:00 My Boys 20:30 Curb Your Enthusiasm 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Neighbors From Hell 22:30 Bored To Death 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 23:30 My Boys

00:00 01:00 01:55 02:50 03:45 04:40 05:35 06:30 07:25 08:20 09:15 10:10 11:05 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Project Manta Fish Warrior I, Predator How Big Can It Get Shark Nicole Triumph of Life Monster Fish Catching Giants Crocodile King The Pack Shark Eden Shane Untamed Cameramen Who Dare Killer Shots World’s Deadliest Animals Fish Warrior I, Predator Croc Ganglands Shark Eden Hammerhead Highway Fish Warrior I, Predator Croc Ganglands Shark Eden Hammerhead Highway

00:00 C.S.I. New York 01:00 Justified 02:00 Private Practice 03:00 C.S.I. 04:00 Strong Medicine 05:00 Century City 06:00 Good Morning America 07:00 Psych 08:00 Emmerdale 08:30 Coronation Street 09:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 10:00 My Generation 11:00 The View 12:00 C.S.I. New York 13:00 C.S.I. 14:00 My Generation 15:00 Live Good Morning America 16:00 Strong Medicine 17:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 18:00 Emmerdale 18:30 Coronation Street 19:00 Law And Order: Los Angeles 20:00 Law And Order 21:00 Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 22:00 Private Practice 23:00 Glee

00:00 Alias 01:00 Breaking Bad 02:00 Justified 03:00 C.S.I. New York 04:00 C.S.I. 05:00 The Glades 06:00 Alias 07:00 8 Simple Rules ...

07:30 Coronation Street 08:00 Covert Affairs 09:00 The Glades 10:00 C.S.I. New York 11:00 C.S.I. 12:00 8 Simple Rules ...

14:00 Covert Affairs 15:00 Alias 16:00 8 Simple Rules ...

18:00 No Ordinary Family 19:00 Law And Order: Los Angeles 20:00 Law And Order 21:00 Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 22:00 Breaking Bad 23:00 The Glades

01:00 Universal Soldier: Regeneration-PG15 03:00 What Lies Beneath-PG15 05:00 Clive Barker’s Book Of Blood18 07:00 12 Rounds-PG15 09:00 Enemy Of The State-PG15 11:15 Pearl Harbor-PG15 14:30 The Betrayed-PG15 16:30 Enemy Of The State-PG15 19:00 Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels-18 21:00 Midnight Meat Train-18 23:00 The Grudge 3-18

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Tom And Huck-PG15 Fools Rush In-PG15 500 Days Of Summer-PG15 The Hudsucker Proxy-PG15 Saved!-PG15 The Longshots-PG15 Malibu’s Most Wanted-PG15 Born Yesterday-PG15 Tom And Huck-PG15 Patch Adams-PG15 Dance Flick-18 Unmade Beds-18

01:15 03:15 05:30 07:30 09:00 PG 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00

I Dreamed Of Africa-18 King Arthur-PG15 Mr. Jones-PG15 Run-PG15 The Madness Of King GeorgeThe Babe-PG15 End Of The Spear-PG15 Lost In Yonkers-PG Glitter-PG Against The Ropes-PG15 Spartacus-PG15

01:00 All Good Things-18 03:00 Drumline-PG15 05:00 The Invention Of Lying-PG15 07:00 A Lot Like Love-PG15 09:00 Sweet Home Alabama-PG15 11:00 My Sister’s Keeper-PG15 13:00 At Risk-PG15 15:00 I Spy-PG 17:00 Sweet Home Alabama-PG15 19:00 Land Of The Lost-PG15 21:00 The Nail: The Story Of Joey Nardone-PG15 23:00 District 9-PG15

00:00 Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Friends Forever-PG 02:00 Daddy Day Care-PG 04:00 The Three Musketeers-FAM 06:00 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs-PG 08:00 Dennis The Menace: Cruise Control-FAM 10:00 Monsters vs. Aliens-PG 12:00 Ace Ventura : Pet Detective Jr.PG15 14:00 Pollyworld-FAM 16:00 A Simple Wish-FAM 18:00 Ace Ventura : Pet Detective Jr.PG15 20:00 Shorts-PG 22:00 Pollyworld-FAM

00:00 Diary Of The Dead-18 02:00 Arthur And The Revenge Of Maltazard-PG 04:00 Not The Messiah: He’s A Very Naughty Boy-PG15 06:00 Moon-PG15 08:00 The Boys Are Back-PG 10:00 Winning Time-PG15 11:30 The Blind Side-PG15 14:00 My Dog Tulip-PG15 16:00 The Boys Are Back-PG 18:00 Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief-PG15 20:00 Tyson-PG15 22:00 Saint John Of Las Vegas-18

01:00 10:30 12:30 13:00 21:00

The Open Championship Rugby Union International Euro Tour Weekly Live The Open Championship Live Darts World Matchplay

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 09:00 13:00 21:15

Rugby Union International NRL Premiership NRL Premiership Trans World Sport Live NRL Premiership Darts World Matchplay Live The Open Championship Live Darts World matchplay

01:00 04:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 10:00 12:00 12:30 14:30 15:00 17:00 17:30 21:00 23:00

Masters Football Rugby Union Futbol Mundial Total Rugby Live NRL Premiership NRL Premiership Total Rugby Rugby Union ICC Criket World NRL Premiership Futbol Mundial Live Snooker NRL Premiership Northen Rail Cup

00:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 12:30 13:00 15:30 16:00 18:00 20:00 21:00 23:30

Powerboats WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed WWE Bottom Line Powerboats Live Snooker V8 Supercars Extra Live Super Formula V8 Supercars Extra WWE SmackDown Live Northern Rail Cup Powerboats Super Formula V8 Supercars Extra

00:00 01:00 01:55 02:25 03:20 04:15 05:10 05:35 06:05 07:00 08:00 09:00 09:55 10:20 10:50 11:50 12:50 13:45 14:45 15:10 15:40 16:05 16:35 17:30 18:25 19:25 20:20 20:45 21:15 22:10 23:05

Homes With Style Fashion Avenue Big Boutique How Do I Look?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Married Away Homes With Style Area Clean House Big Boutique Clean House Top 10 Homes With Style Homes With Style Bridalplasty Bridalplasty How Do I Look?

Dude, Where’s Your Style?

Clean House Comes Clean Clean House Comes Clean Top 10 Top 10 Giuliana And Bill Giuliana And Bill Clean House How Do I Look?

Homes With Style Clean House Comes Clean Giuliana And Bill Jerseylicious Ruby

Classifieds SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available for families/working ladies from August 1st onwards, in a new building flat with two rooms and two toilets, behind United Indian School, Abbassiya.

Contact: 66772421/66552412/ 65857668. (C 3523) Room available for decent couple or small Muslim family to share in two bedroom flat in Abbassiya behind Tel Exchange building. Contact: 66895049.

(C 3525) 16-7-2011 Sharing accommodation available for family or decent Indian Hindu or Catholic bachelors with Mangalorean Catholic family in a window A/C, two bedroom off Rashid Hospital, Shara Amman, Salmiya. Contact: 55995437/ 99200186.

(C 3520) Sharing accommodation, C-A/C, available in Jabriya area 10, near Jabriya Indian School for decent couple or working ladies. Please contact: 99300513. (C 3521) 13-7-2011 Sharing available for family in a double bed room flat + 2 toilet + hall, Abbasiya near opposite Asianet building, opposite Garden, Variety Store. Contact: 50202206/ 97213877.

(C 3513) 12-7-2011 Sharing accommodation available in Hawally, Fourth Ring Road, for Pilipino couple, opposite Royal Hayath Hospital, Jabriya. Contact: 66189873. (C 3511)

SITUATION VACANT

FOR SALE 1992 Ford Thunderbird for sale, price KD 250. Contact: 67058961. (c 3527) 17-7-2011 Pilate Power Gym’ for all over body strength and aerobic training + ‘ABS KING’for abdomen. Please do Google search for detail info. Both are KD 60.

Owner’s manual and CD are available. Contact: 99430379. (C 3526) 16-7-2011 I need Japanese car less than KD 700/-. Contact: 67607334. (C 3518) 13-7-2011

Required house maid for an Indian family in Farwaniya (live in or part time) (Indian, Sri Lankan preferred) salary KD 100/-.

Contact: 97220933.

(C 3510) 10-7-2011 Required a foreign Maths lady teacher to teach grade 4 Maths. Please Contact: 99011855. (C 3504) A family is seeking to hire a houseboy who is fluent in English and is Christian.

Contact: 99199020.

(C 3506) 9-7-2011

Corolla XLi 2002, silver color, KD 1,350/-. Contact: 55323839. (C 3514) 12-7-2011

MATRIMONIAL Marthomite parents invite marriage proposals, for their daughter, fair 28/164 B.Com, MBA, working in MNC, from parents of professionally qualified boys (Engineers, CA, Doctor etc) preferably from Marthoma, CSI, Evangelical, with good family background.

Contact: Email: advnaithu@yahoo.com (C 3516) Proposal invited for Orthodox boy 29/188cm, BSc (N) working in M.O.H. Prefer nurses working in Kuwait. Contact: 66704615.

(C 3517)

CHANGE OF NAME

I, Abdul Quyoom, holder of Indian Passport No. E0372009, hereby change my name to Abdul Quyoom Shaikh. (C 3515) 12-7-2011

SITUATION WANTED Wanted live-in maid, for an Indian family living in Riggae. Indian or Sri Lankan preferred. Contact: 50108324. (C 3528) 17-7-2011 Instrumentation and control Engineer with 1 year experience, Indian on commercial visiting visa, transferable, can join immediately. Contact: 96679478, Email: sanju_3n3@yahoo.com (C 3522)

Iranian educated man, 7 years experience as Import and Export Manager, residency transferable.

Contact: 66346118.

(C 3524) 16-7-2011 Accountant - B.Com Graduate passed in First Class knowing Peachtree and Tally accounting having 2 year experience in India and currently working in Kuwait. Seeking suitable job as ACCOUNTANT. Contact: 65179245.

(C 3509) 12-7-2011 A well qualified Nigerian lady, office administrator inter personal skills with several years of experience in Kuwait, visa transferable, seeks suitable placement.

Please contact: 94979702.

Email: hettycharls@yahoo.com (C 3511) A well qualified female executive secretary with several years of experience in Kuwait with US company, Visa transferable, seeks suitable placement. Please Contact: 99907403. Email: david_angel2003@yahoo.c om (C 3512) 11-7-2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines RJA MLR JZR THY ETH UAE DHX ETD MSR FDB GFA QTR KAC FCX JZR KAC BAW JZR KAC KAC IRA KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA IRC FCX MEA JZR JZR JZR RBG KAC MSR UAL RJA KAC FDB QTR KAC

Flt 642 1405 267 772 620 853 370 305 614 67 211 138 544 201 555 412 157 1541 206 382 615 284 302 332 53 678 352 855 132 125 603 301 213 6801 203 404 165 121 561 3553 672 610 982 640 774 57 140 562

Arrival Flights on Sunday 17/7/2011 Route AMMAN COLOMBO / DUBAI BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA CAIRO DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MANILA / BANGKOK LONDON CAIRO ISLAMABAD DELHI SHAHRE KORD DHAKA MUMBAI TRIVANDRUM DUBAI MUSCAT / DUBAI COCHIN DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH SHIRAZ ABU DHABI BAHRAIN AHWAZ DUBAI BEIRUT DUBAI BAHRAIN SOHAG ALEXANDRIA / SOHAG DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN RIYADH DUBAI DOHA AMMAN

Time 0:05 0:15 0:35 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 4:40 5:25 6:10 6:15 6:30 7:10 7:15 7:20 7:35 7:40 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:00 8:05 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:25 9:30 9:35 10:15 10:30 10:55 11:10 11:15 12:30 12:55 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:15 14:20

SVA KAC KAC JZR QTR JZR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY JZR FDB ALK JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI SYR FDB OMA VOS MEA KAC KAC DHX UAE KAC GFA QTR AFG UAL AIC JZR JZR JZR MSR DLH AXB JZR KLM JZR PIA

500 788 746 257 134 535 303 857 215 510 777 239 127 213 63 227 177 166 542 618 786 614 674 102 572 341 61 647 81 402 552 512 372 859 172 217 136 405 981 981 135 787 185 612 636 389 539 447 481 205

JEDDAH JEDDAH ABU DHABI / DAMMAM BEIRUT DOHA CAIRO ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH AMMAN SHARJAH DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO DUBAI COLOMBO / DUBAI DUBAI PARIS / ROME CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI NEW YORK / LONDON MUMBAI DAMASCUS / ALEPPO DUBAI MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT DAMASCUS TEHRAN BAHRAIN DUBAI FRANKFURT BAHRAIN DOHA KABUL / DUBAI BAHRAIN CHENNAI / AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE / MANGALORE CAIRO AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN SABIHA LAHORE

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

Airlines AXB JZR DLH AIC BBC MLR THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR JZR JZR RJA GFA JZR BAW IRA FDB JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA KAC IRA JZR IRC FCX MEA KAC JZR JZR KAC KAC RBG JZR

Departure Flights on Sunday 17/7/2011 Flt Route 394 COCHIN / KOZHIKODE 1540 CAIRO 637 FRANKFURT 976 GOA / CHENNAI 46 DHAKA 1405 COLOMBO 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 615 CAIRO 139 DOHA 560 SOHAG 164 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 120 BAHRAIN 156 LONDON 614 SHAHRE KORD 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 171 FRANKFURT 671 DUBAI 117 NEW YORK 745 DAMMAM / ABU DHABI 256 BEIRUT 561 AMMAN 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 773 RIYADH 602 SHIRAZ 212 DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO 6802 AHWAZ 204 DUBAI 405 BEIRUT 541 CAIRO 776 JEDDAH 238 AMMAN 103 LONDON 785 JEDDAH 3554 ALEXANDRIA 176 DUBAI

Time 0:15 0:20 0:40 0:50 1:00 1:15 2:15 2:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 5:00 5:55 6:55 7:00 7:10 8:20 8:25 8:35 8:40 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:25 9:40 9:50 10:00 10:15 10:20 10:20 10:25 10:50 11:15 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:10 12:30 13:30 13:35 13:40

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

MSR RJA FDB UAL KAC KAC KAC SVA JZR QTR KAC KAC JZR ETD QTR UAE GFA ABY JZR SVA FDB JZR JZR JZR ALK KAC KAC KAC JAI FDB SYR KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC DHX UAE GFA FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR KAC UAL MSR KAC

611 641 58 982 551 673 617 503 480 141 613 511 538 304 135 858 216 128 184 511 64 786 204 134 228 1501 283 361 571 62 342 343 351 648 403 543 373 860 218 102 137 301 205 502 554 530 411 981 613 415

CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN DAMASCUS DUBAI DOHA MEDINAH / JEDDAH SABIHA DOHA BAHRAIN TEHRAN CAIRO ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH DUBAI RIYADH DAMASCUS BAHRAIN DUBAI / COLOMBO BEIRUT DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI ALEPPO / DAMASCUS CHENNAI COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA ASSIUT BANGKOK / MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA

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

34

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 381

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) You may find yourself looking for a little romance today or at least enjoying some emotional release. Being more in touch with your roots is a keynote of the cycle that now takes hold in your life. This has to do with feelings, but it’s more than that: it’s about making the things you feel and care about a reality. You are likely to find that houses and other real property take on greater significance for you now. It might be fun to go house hunting this afternoon. Someone in your family has lots of experience and enjoys helping out with all sorts of quandaries. Any answers you need to your questions can be approached with this person. You may only need confirmation that you are actually on the right path or have the right answers.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) An elderly person, perhaps in the family, needs your help today. You are very serious when it comes to self-sacrifice and doing all you can to make things easier for other people. You pursue psychology, the human psyche and things mystical. You are quite painstaking when it comes to giving and helping others. There will be time this afternoon to enjoy your loved ones. You are unconventional when it comes to self-expression and enjoyment. You find new and different ways to get out and enjoy others—possibly sports. Always independent when it comes to emotions, you do not mind feeling a little different. Breakthrough flashes of insight with tremendous originality and independence are typical. A romantic evening is a possibility.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. Fallow deer.

5. Plant with an elongated head of broad stalked leaves resembling celery.

9. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

13. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

14. Advanced in years.

15. A mythical Greek hero.

16. Denuded of leaves.

17. An informal term for a father.

18. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

19. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

21. Fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used.

23. The most common computer memory which can be used by programs to perform necessary tasks while the computer is on.

24. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.

26. (computer science) A kind of computer architecture that has a large number of instructions hard coded into the cpu chip.

28. A ridge that forms a seam between two parts.

30. Regarded with admiration.

34. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

35. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

36. The organ that bears the ovules of a flower.

37. Widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions for its fragrant flowers and colorful fruits.

40. A state in the Rocky Mountains.

42. The Fate who determines the length of the thread of life.

44. Cooked in hot water.

45. United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters.

47. Sluggish tailless Australian arboreal marsupial with gray furry ears and coat.

51. A island in the Netherlands Antilles that is the top of an extinct volcano.

55. A machine or person that adds.

56. A quantity of no importance.

58. The act of slowing down or falling behind.

59. Dignified manner or conduct.

61. 4-wheeled motor vehicle.

62. A former copper coin of Pakistan.

63. Comb-plate or locomotor organ consisting of a row of strong cilia whose bases are fused.

64. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

DOWN 1. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

2. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

3. A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance.

4. A primeval personification of air and breath.

5. A coenzyme derived from the B vitamin nicotinic acid.

6. Any culture medium that uses agar as the gelling agent.

7. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

8. Extinct small mostly diurnal lower primates that fed on leaves and fruit.

9. A flexible container with a single opening.

10. Slightly open.

11. A small cake leavened with yeast.

12. A set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or knowledge.

20. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

22. Intravenous beta blocker (trade name Brevibloc) that acts for only a short time.

25. Of or belonging to an aecium.

27. Civilian garb as opposed to a military uniform.

29. The lean flesh of a fish similar to cod.

31. A barrier consisting of a horizontal bar and supports.

32. Bulky grayish-brown eagle with a short wedge-shaped white tail.

33. Colored or impregnated with dye.

38. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

39. Minute single-celled green freshwater organism having a single flagella.

41. The trait of lacking restraint or control.

43. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.

46. The state prevailing during the absence of war.

48. (Norse mythology) Ruler of the Aesir.

49. Chief port of Yemen.

50. Any of various small biting flies.

52. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

53. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

54. A city in northern India.

57. Used of a single unit or thing.

60. Date used in reckoning dates before the supposed year Christ was born.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You may have trouble controlling your emotions today. There may a tendency to spend money, drive fast or enjoy a crazy food binge. Thinking through goals with close friends or loved ones may help you to create a new focus. At times, your sense of responsibility and the way you go about organizing your life may seem like a prison sentence. You rule out any possibility of change— all spontaneity. Give yourself more leeway. If you become set in your ways, you may not be able to escape that desire to break away. If this happens, a whole new package of feelings may have to be understood. Look for ways to create opportunities to be expressive and free-flowing. Think on these things for a short while and then enjoy some time with your beloved.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

You can demonstrate compassion and charity to the needs of others just now and are in a good position to communicate and render aid. Before you begin and considering the need is not an emergency, find ways to help the needy help themselves. It seems the best sort of help you can render today is to teach how to experience the thrill of being able to win their own personal race. New insights or breakthroughs come while you are with your friends this afternoon. A fun question and answer time is fun and can lead to some enlightening situations. Traveling with the group is fun and perhaps there is an out-of-town fruit stand with fresh watermelon, peaches, strawberries, etc. Sharing stories and experiences today can be bonding.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Today could bring the unexpected or find you in a very unusual mood. It may be that you feel like getting away from the routine and just doing something different. A break from the usual routine can bring new insights or breakthroughs today. You could take a vacation from your responsibilities and explore some more imaginative regions. Speculative interests are strongly emphasized now. Details, however, are the important factor in making profitable decisions. Your mind is exceptional in its clarity, especially today. All that is mental work comes to you without struggle—ideas, thoughts and mental things of all kinds. The light in your eyes reveals the brightness of your mind to everyone who meets you. A fun contest may find you a winner.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You have a lot of energy and may come across as a bit assertive this Saturday. Much, however, can be accomplished alone as well as with housemates; guests, family or otherwise. Staying in touch and on top of the latest developments are the things that satisfy a need for mental stimulation. There is talk of change, which would encompass building storage shelves and rotating perishables. Preparation is always a good thing, as long as one does not get too carried away with any one idea. A good conversation with those you love is possible today. You can really communicate and convey yourself well. You may find yourself visiting out-of-town friends or them visiting you this evening. There are lots of fun conversations to be enjoyed.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) This could be a frustrating time, no matter where you are today. There is a tendency to make poor choices as well as disappointing decisions. Perhaps by taking a deep breath and a little pause, you will be able to see with clarity. If you have a list of personal things you want to do, now would be a good time to begin working through the list. You will be glad to know that the energies available at this time do not lend themselves to negativity, but to study, reading, writing, talking on the phone or keeping in touch with a neighbor that moved or a neighbor that is elderly. This is a good weekend to putter around the house and enjoy family. This has to do with feelings, and about making the things you feel and care about a reality.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Making money is second nature and you are able to field ideas and bring forth growth and success. You may find yourself guiding others in ways to invest their money. You find it easy to solve any problems that are presented to you today. Others benefit from this ability of yours. You can handle emotional and personal issues—vulnerable areas, where angels fear to tread. People sense this and trust you with sensitive matters, inner worries and questions of personal identity. Others may find you especially witty and eccentric just now. You may have new information and ideas regarding your living situation or life circumstances. Others value you for your independence and unique qualities. Siblings and close friends gain your attention tonight.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

This is a time when you can expect some sort of extra support or recognition from those around you. You may feel that you are in touch and in harmony with others today because a connection between you and your friends is obvious. Everyone wants to go in the same direction. You have a very analytical way of thinking and your mind excels at making practical decisions. Your ideas run deeper than superficial issues and that could mean an interest in psychology. Your brilliant imagination and enchanting manner transport all who meet you beyond the mundane and into the extraordinary regions where you spend a lot of your time. This is a great time to reflect and understand your own situation, just how you feel about yourself.

You could find yourself mentally acute and in a problem-solving mood. There is also a great focus on family life—parents, children, relatives and the whole domestic scene. Today you jump into an activity that demands close attention. This may mean a car or some other equipment needs to be overhauled or refurbished. Perhaps your garden needs weeding and planting. Such activity brings a focus on control and achievement with goal setting, especially when you can step back and see the progress. There is much talk about camping trips, sports and performance events. Finally, a draw of straws seems to be the best effort in deciding. Now is the time for building memories—a few pictures couldn’t hurt either. A busy day is ahead tomorrow—be rested.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You are a great doer—accomplished. Opportunities come up today that will allow you to express your outgoing nature, coupled with extremely skillful ways of handling other people. You are a natural for working with or for the public. You would make an excellent public-relations manager or customer-relations worker with a large company. Your career is never a problem—for you have the kind of drive that most people can only wish they had. Everything is working out well for you. You love to work with young people and may consider working with children as a teacher, coach or in some volunteer position. You appreciate a heart-felt approach and are an enthusiast if there ever was one. You encourage emotions, feelings and creativity from others.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

This is a good day to relax and become involved in some creative project. You may have a sense of that creative quietness that comes over a person just before a brainstorm hits. The lack of support from loved ones was once a thorn in your side, but this lack has been replaced with an easy acceptance. In some ways it was easier to work when people ignored your creative vents. You have some time by yourself to be creative and to dream. Consider moving to a place that has enough room for you to have a workshop; perhaps it could open out on the street for people to come in and see your work. Perhaps you could begin now to make a few plans to add on to the place where you now live. You might surprise yourself with architecture as another good talent.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

24812000

Al-Jahra

25610011

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

Clinics Rabiya

4732263

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

PHARMACIES

AIRLINES

ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Kuwait Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways FlyDubai Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines Aeroflot

22433377 177 22924455 22414400 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 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

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

lifestyle

Knowles

G O S S I P

blows ‘snot bubbles’ on stage he 29-year-old singer - who is known for her sexy dance routines - finds her sets often don’t go quite as planned due to her runny nose, leading to bubbles forming when she can’t blow it. She said: “My nose runs a lot and when I’m singing I can’t blow it, so there have been occasions when I’ve ended up with a bubble coming out my nose.” Beyonce’s nose is not the only problem on stage - the ‘Girls (Who Run the World)’ hitmaker confesses she needs to have wind machines blowing air around her constantly because she is a profuse sweater. She added: “Everyone thinks I have fans because I’m being fashionable, but I work so hard on stage if I didn’t have them I’d be dripping.” In addition to sweating and excess mucus, Beyonce - who is married to hip hop star Jay-Z - also finds she no longer likes her feet due to the stress she has put on them from dancing in heels.

Speaking on a TV show set to air on ITV in the UK in December, she said: “If I could change one part it would be my feet. After all the years dancing they’re a little beat up. And I wear big earrings because I don’t like my ears.” However, her foot problems did not stop Beyonce spending £9,000 when she took a trip to London’s Oxford Street earlier this week. A source who saw her shopping said: “It was like that shopping scene out of the film ‘Pretty Woman’. ‘Everyone was gob smacked by the speed she was choosing clothes. When she hit the shoe section she picked up even more speed. The woman clearly loves footwear.”

T

Lachey

has married

he couple - who have been dating since 2006 - tied the knot in front of just 35 friends and family in a romantic tropical island ceremony .TV host Vanessa - who wore a two-piece Monique Lhuillier ensemble - told People magazine: “For us, this is just a stepping stone to do what we ultimately want and that’s to start a family together.” Speaking about the nuptials, singer Nick added: “Our wedding invitations were in the form of a plane ticket. We told them they were going away and the attire was ‘island chic.’ It was all very vague.” Following the announcement of their engagement last year, Nick - who was formerly married to Jessica Simpson - said they were taking their time at planning the wedding. He said: “We’re still basking in the glow of our very recent engagement and enjoying that. I’m sure we’ll get on with the planning and what-not shortly, but we’re just enjoying this experience. “We’re very excited.

We’re obviously extremely happy and looking forward to everything that the future brings for us, so we are very excited and just enjoying the moment.”

T

Williams shares bed

Swift selling home

aylor Swift is selling her Nashville mansion for $1.45 million. The 21-year-old singer bought the four-bedroom property in native Tennessee for $1.4 million last September and has now put it back on the market for $50,000 more than she paid. The house - which also comes with five bathrooms - is on a sprawling estate and features several gardens, a water fountain and an outdoor fireplace. Inside, the property - which was built in 1929 - boasts original hardwood floors, custom woodwork and several magnificently ornate

T

with dogs

obbie Williams shares his bed with his eight dogs. The Take That singer - who is married to US actress Ayda Field - has even splashed out on a set of “doggy steps” so his pooches Maggie, Wall-E, Rudy, Samantha, Sid, Duke, Poupette and Baby can reach the bed. A source said: “The couple like sleeping with their pooches. Rob couldn’t stand having them sleep in another room - or, worse, outside. “But some of the dogs are quite small the bichon frise pup, particularly - and Robbie’s king-size bed is huge. “It was too high up for them all to clamber up. So Rob bought a special, bespoke set of fake fur-lined doggy steps so they can make it up there safely. Now the whole family sleeps together.”

Although Robbie and Ayda live in Los Angeles, the singer brought his dogs over to the UK for his band’s recent tour because he couldn’t bear to be parted from them for too long. However, the dogs may soon have to share Robbie and Ayda as the ‘Angels’ hitmaker recently revealed the couple hope to have kids in the near future. Explaining why he returned to touring and became more sociable, he said: “I’m going to be a dad... maybe next year or the year after and I don’t want their dad to be emotionally inept, for my own well-being as well as theirs. “At the start of the year, I got a feeling that ‘things’ can be different. It started as an ember and now because

R

Minnillo

Ronan

hand-crafted plaster ceilings, while the huge kitchen looks out of the pasture at the back of the house. The country star also owns her parents’ three-bedroom home in the same area, has a huge penthouse in central Nashville as well as a stunning $3.35 million home in Beverly Hills. Sources say Taylor splashed out on the Los Angeles property to save on accommodation costs whenever she visits the city. One said: “Taylor just bought a beautiful home for herself in LA. She is in LA so much - and she was paying a fortune in hotel charges!”

wants Tarantino film

aoirse Ronan would “love” to work with Quentin Tarantino. The 17-year-old actress - famed for her roles in ‘Hanna’ and ‘The Lovely Bones’ - thinks the ‘Kill Bill’ filmmaker will be a great person to collaborate with on a movie because he seems like “fantastic fun”. She said: “I haven’t worked with him, but I’d love to. I’ve talked to people who have, and they all say he’s made and that it’s fantastic fun.” The Irish star particularly likes how Quentin works with an ensemble cast of actors on a regular basis, allowing them to know exactly how to bounce off each other.

She said: “Because he tends to work with the same actors every now and again, they can read each other. “There’s always such an ensemble feeling in his films, too. In ‘Kill Bill’, for example, of course Uma Thurman is the star but it really feels like a group effort. “He’s often in his own films, which I think is great; he’s so different looking with that amazing face.”

S

Dame Helen Mirren believes in fairies

T

he 65-year-old actress describes herself as a “spiritual” person but admits she is not religios. She said: “I am quite spiritual. I believed in the fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don’t believe in God.” The ‘Queen’ star also admitted she always carries her own tea bags whenever she has to travel anywhere in order to brew her favorite beverage. She told America’s Esquire magazine: “I drink just as much tea when I’m in Los Angeles as I do when I’m in London. I take my tea bags with me wherever I go. PG Tips.” Tea is not the only drink Helen enjoys - the actress thinks a good party required “lots and lots” of alcohol, though she doesn’t like throwing bashes herself. She said: “I don’t throw a lot of parties. I find throwing parties a bit intimidating. What makes a good one? Loads and loads of drink, I suppose. But that can be a disaster as well.” The actress - who is married to director Taylor Hackford - also admitted she was an “idiot” when she was younger, but thinks that is normal, and lamented the fact people are always filled with “self-doubt” in their twenties as it is the best time of life. She added: “We’re all idiots when we’re young. We don’t think we are, but we are. So we should be. “The hardest period in life is one’s twenties. It’s a shame because you’re your most gorgeous and you’re physically in peak condition. But it’s actually when you’re most insecure and full of self-doubt.

When you don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s frightening.” —Bang Showbiz

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

lifestyle Features

The curious gather around Seward Johnson’s 26-foot-tall sculpture of Marilyn Monroe, in her most famous wind-blown pose, on Michigan Ave Friday.—AP

Twenty six foot sculpture of Marilyn unveiled in Chicago M

arilyn Monroe’s billowing skirt shows it’s possible to catch a nice breeze in the Windy City. As dozens of people watched Friday, a 26-foot-(8-meter-)tall sculpture of Monroe in her famous pose from the film “The Seven Year Itch” was unveiled on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. In the movie, a draft catches Monroe’s dress as she stands over a subway grate to cool off. Many in the crowd that descended on the plaza throughout the day including a tuxedo-clad wedding party - wasted little time positioning themselves under the movie star’s dress to catch a subway-level view and take pictures with their cell phone cameras. Not that Monroe, her eyes closed and a sublime smile on her face, seemed to notice.

Some of those who took pictures of the sculpture called “Forever Marilyn” were surprised when they came around the side and back of the sculpture and saw honest-to-goodness lace panties on the movie icon. The film scene and photographs taken from it left much more to the imagination than artist Seward Johnson’s sculpture.”I would have expected to see something flat there, and we wouldn’t see her undergarments,” said Trisha Feely, 41, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. “It’s a little intru-

sive.” “It reveals what everybody was always thinking,” said her husband, Terry Feely, 42. Chicago has a history of public art displays, including a herd of fiberglass cows that lined Michigan Avenue some years back. The plaza where Monroe will be stationed until next spring was the home a few years ago to another Johnson sculpture: the equally iconic,

Male members of the Hugh and Anya Nguyen wedding party pose under Seward Johnson’s 26foot-tall sculpture of Marilyn Monroe.

though far less glamorous, grim-faced farmer and his spinster daughter from Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.” The Monroe sculpture isn’t even the first piece of public art that people can stand under and look up at - though nobody who visits the Picasso a few blocks away quite knows what they’re seeing.

Marilyn, though, is a different story.

“Thank God, she has panties,” said Wanda Taylor, voicing the relief of a mother who wouldn’t have to spend the next several hours answering questions from her 9-year-old son, Kendall Sculfield. “They’re clean and white, so I’m happy.” In fact, just about the only ones who weren’t happy with the view were Kendall and his 11-year old buddy Raymond Qualls who made sure everybody understood that when he took his picture, it was from the front of the sculpture and not behind or under it.

“I think her dress should be down,” said Kendall, as Raymond nodded in agreement. Trisha Feely suggested someone else would agree with the boys: Monroe’s ex-husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio. “I wonder what he would think,” she said.

DiMaggio was reported to have been upset during the filming of the scene in 1954, and the couple divorced a few months later. But 52-year-old Pam

Chaos threatens Philippines’ cultural treasures

T

hieves and art dealers are the usual suspects, but mildew and flashbulbs are just as dangerous for some of the Philippines’ beleaguered cultural treasures.

From a 30,000-year-old skull fragment of one of its first human inhabitants to imposing churches built during Spanish colonial rule, the Southeast Asian archipelago has a stunning display of artefacts showcasing its diverse history. But they are under threat on every front. Even at the National Museum where half a million archaeological items are supposed to be protected, a lack of funds means they could be as vulnerable as treasures outside its walls, said its chief conservator Orlando Abinion.

“They are in danger, yes, they are prone to deterioration, robbery, vandalism,” Abinion told AFP inside the rundown hallways of one of the museum’s twin 85-year-old neoclassical buildings in the historic old quarter of Manila.

Abinion has devoted the past 10 years to preserving and restoring the museum collections, which include 100,000-plus ethnographs, 1,500 pieces of art and hundreds of thousands of preserved plant and animal species. He said he was severely limited by an annual conservation budget of less than a million pesos (less than $23,000), but there had been some inspiring victories.

One of his biggest achievements was sav-

ing the “Spoliarium”, a four-by-seven-meter (301-square-foot) oil-on-poplar painted in 1884 by revered Filipino artist Juan Luna that had been badly damaged by heat and humidity. Depicting dead gladiators set to be stripped of their worldly possessions, the masterpiece symbolizes the crystallization of Filipino yearning for independence from the Spanish that, in 1897, would escalate into an uprising.” The ‘Spoliarium’ is now stable, it’s in good condition,” Abinion said proudly. Similar issues hound the National Library, which moved to its present building near the museum at the other end of the Manila park in 1961 with the remnants of a collection decimated during World War II. Operating on a budget so small that airconditioning has to be shut down on the weekends, the collection is under threat from fungus, said German conservationist Monika Schneider-Gast. “It will cost a lot of money to change conditions because they have to rewire the library and have to change the airconditioning,” the consultant told AFP as she worked on two frayed and mouldy late 19thcentury books. Written by national hero Jose Rizal, the books-”Noli Me Tangere” (Touch Me Not) and “El Filibusterismo” (Reign of Greed) — were trenchant criticisms of the Spanish colonial government. The Spanish executed Rizal, then 35, by firing squad in 1896 for writ-

A tourist takes a photograph of the restored painting “Spoliarium”, at the National Museum in Manila last month.—AFP

ing the books, sparking an armed revolution.

Anne Rosette Crelencia, the library’s rare books and manuscripts section chief, said it had taken a special meeting with the budget minister to get the government to fork out a little money for the Rizal project that was mainly funded by Germany.

Bounty hunters beat us Crelencia said she understood that the library may not be the top priority for the Philippines’ economic managers as they battle chronic poverty that sees a quarter of the population living on a dollar a day or less.”Although we need the funds, the country is facing many problems too,” she said.

Nevertheless, she said the library urgently needed more funds to complete the archiving of its most precious collection, 400,000 pages recording the Philippine revolution against the Spanish. The documents give an intimate window into the revolt-from the major decisions down to the meal allowances of specific guerrilla units-that ultimately failed when Spain ceded the colony to the United States in 1898. Crelencia said sections of the collection were stolen many years ago-allegedly by scholars given special access to the papers at the library for their research-and sold to private collectors by unscrupulous dealers.

Outside of the supposedly protected zones of the library and museum, it is almost impossible for authorities to save many cultural treasures from thieves. The museum’s Abinion listed 55 archaeological sites, including Roman Catholic churches and undersea wrecks, that were under threat. “Bounty hunters at times beat us to the wrecks,” he said. They include the San Diego, a Spanish galleon sunk by the Dutch in a 1600 battle and discovered in deep waters near Manila in 1991.

Abinion said it was looted as the museum waited for government approval for its preservation. Some sites, such as about 200 manmade burial caves in the town of Kabayan with human remains mummified before the colonial era, have been declared by the United Nations as World Heritage Sites. But neither the sanctity of the dead nor the threat of eternal damnation has foiled robbers, who carried off several Kabayan mummies in 2001-2002, as well as religious icons on public display on Catholic churches, Abinion said. —AFP

Jennelle, of Orlando, Florida, couldn’t understand how anyone could be offended or uncomfortable with the sculpture. “They’re perfectly proper white lace panties,” she said. Besides, she said, the sculpture, particularly the look on Monroe’s face, captured the magic that people still feel a half century after the movie star’s death.

“She’s beautiful,” she said. “How can you not love Marilyn Monroe?” The actual white dress worn by Monroe in the scene from director Billy Wilder’s 1955 film that helped make her a screen legend sold for $4.6 million at an auction last month of Hollywood costumes and props collected by film star Debbie Reynolds.—AP

Warp speed to San Jose ‘Star Trek’ exhibit T

rue “Star Trek” fanatics who visit “Star Trek: The Exhibition” at San Jose’s Tech Museum may find some flaws in the life-size replica of the Enterprise’s bridge. Sure, Capt James T Kirk’s chair sits in the middle of the bridge, encircled by panels, instrument consoles and blinking lights. But the seats for Kirk’s multiethnic crew are missing, and the funnel-like device that Science Officer Spock used to anaThe Tech Museum in San Jose, California, features props and coslyze space anomalies tumes from the Star Trek television series and movies.—MCT is on the wrong side of the bridge. five television series that spun off from the Still, few visitors have complained about original would have a hard time telling the such discrepancies, says Janice Thompson, a replicas from the genuine props. The authentic museum volunteer at what is billed as the stuff includes several costumes worn on televiworld’s largest collection of “Star Trek” memorasion and in the movies, plus scale models of bilia. “They take it all in good fun,” she tells me various spaceships used in filming the shows. as she cradles a replica tribble, the toupee-like Among the real props are the cube-like Borg creature featured on the TV series. “They are starship used in the television series “Star Trek: having a blast.” I don’t consider myself a Trekkie, the Next Generation” and the Klingon captain’s but I watched enough of the television chair from “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.” episodes as a kid to understand why the exhibThe replicas include a display of “Star Trek” it has drawn nearly 60,000 visitors since it tricorders (used to scan and analyze unfamiliar opened in October. The show runs until April surroundings), a phaser rifle, a communicator 11. At the exhibit, I got to sit in Capt. Kirk’s chair and a universal translator. The “Star Trek” exhibit and pretend to order Chekov to fire photon torarrived in San Jose after a stint in Detroit, where pedoes at Klingon ships. Elsewhere in the it was housed in a 9,000-square-foot space, exhibit, I stood in a replica transporter room Montez says. But at the Tech Museum, the while a museum employee zapped me off the exhibit is spread throughout a 15,000-squareship to the surface of a planet. The exhibit foot space, large enough to hold additional boasts more than 200 pieces of “Star Trek” items, including several costumes from the memorabilia, but only about a quarter of items most recent “Star Trek” movies, plus an interacare authentic props from the television series tive table where you can play the three-dimenand the subsequent movies, says Roqua sional chess game that Spock played in several Montez, a spokesman for the Tech Museum. television episodes, Montez says.—MCT But even a hardcore Trekkie who speaks Klingon and can name all 11 feature films and

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

lifestyle T R A V E L

Mexico City’s rich heritage welcomes lovers of

culture

Visitors on Mexico City’s main Zocalo, or town square, crowd into the National Palace; in the background is the Metropolitan Cathedral, built by the Spanish in the 1700s.

—MCT photos

G

o ahead and use Diego Rivera as excuse. Mention murals as the reason you’re coming. But get down here right away, art lovers, and soak in the atmosphere of one of the most interesting cities in the world. Mexico’s capital city is buzzing with 22 million people. Known for its restaurants, nightlife and traffic, it is surprisingly clean, dignified and gracious, its intentions serious, its attitude worlds away from tourist spots like Cancun or Los Cabos.

It also is 500 to 2,000 miles south of Mexico’s dangerous US border towns.

“Mexico City is the real Mexico,” says Fernando Ledesma, arts expert and guide in the city. “It has four cultural World Heritage sites-more than any other city in the world.

It has 160 museums. It has the richest cultural heritage in all Latin America.” In the 1920s to 1950s, muralists flourished here, their astonishing paintings covering buildings and walls all over the city. They told stories of dictators and emperors, Indians and gods, elites and rebels-all depicted in muralists’ art as swept along by history as this nation spun from ancient cultures to the Aztecs, Spanish and revolution.

The most famous muralist, of course, is Diego Rivera. He is known in the United States as the creator of “Detroit Industry,” the towering four-wall masterpiece painted in 1932-33 at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

But here in Mexico City, you can see so

much more. The Dolores Olmedo Museum has 150 Rivera works, including masterful paintings he did in Europe and Russia. The National Anthropology Museum has stunning ancient art of the Americas. Here in the city, you can see Rivera’s studio, his paintbrushes, his first mural, and his wife Frida Kahlo’s house. You also can see the work of other muralists who put Mexico on the art map.

The city also has a fine artists’ bazaar, modern art museum, colonial architecture and scenic churches (many tilting due to the alarmingly soft ground). Let other people go to Mexico’s beaches. For those who love art, this is the place.

In Mexico, arts tours usually focus on places such as Oaxaca and Chiapas (textiles and folk art), Jalisco (pottery, blown glass and artists’ markets) and Mexico City (murals and archaeology). Stephanie Schneiderman of Ann Arbor, Mich, who grew up in Mexico City, runs art and textile tours of Mexico through TiaStephanie Tours.

Her clients want to be educated, not just entertained, she says. She runs tours for museum, art and textile groups-but also for art lovers.

“They are artists or collectors or just appreciators,” says Schneiderman. But not necessarily experts. Mexican muralism was supported by a fragile government that had just overthrown its dictator. The art was big,

The skyline of Mexico City spreads out below the balcony of Chapultepec Castle.

Dolores Olmedo” at the Dolores Olmedo Museum. She was a wealthy arts benefactor who took a shine to Rivera and collected his work in the 1950s-after she had him paint her as a whimsical Mexican maid holding a bowl of fruit. (Note to academia: Somebody should investigate why women had a huge soft spot for Rivera, even though he was approximately as handsome as a frog.)

With 150 fantastic Rivera works and 26 from Frida Kahlo, the Dolores Olmedo Museum is an imperative. The most famous mural s in Mexico City are at the National Palace and at Palacio de Bellas Artes. As politics, the murals’ unwavering theme is the glory of ancient man, brutality of empire and mistrust of capitalism. The murals contain lots of blood, swords, a cast of thousands and naive socialist symbols. But as art, they are amazing; my favorite is the Rivera mural “The Great City of Tenochtitlan”

and so was its message. “The murals were public, political and monumental,” says Schneiderman. “It was a move to recapture Mexico’s national identity, with the idea that the real people of the country were the rural, indigenous population. It glorified and even romanticized these elements.”

Rivera may have been an art prodigy, but his forte was the broad canvas of the mural.

He learned fresco painting in Italy and applied it to subjects back home that spoke

A detailed view of Diego Rivera mural “The Grand Tenochtitlan” is seen at the National Palace in Mexico City.

Visitors walk toward the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan, the ancient city that thrived from 100 to 750 AD near what is now Mexico City. In ancient times, the pyramid was colorful and covered with white stucco.

to him as a Mexican outraged by injustice.

Yet he also was a commercial painter. He hired himself out for everything from murals in Detroit and San Francisco to portraits of rich Mexican women. When Rivera was alive, female tourists came to Mexico to meet him and hope for more intimate contact. Today, his celebrity hasn’t dimmed.

One popular starting point is “The Creation” at the Colegio de San Ildefonso school auditorium in Mexico City’s historic center. It was Rivera’s first mural, in 1922.

“Every day, people come to see that mural,” says curator Eri Camara, who describes the semi-religious mural as lacking Rivera’s later blatant political tone and with “a freshness; the ideology is not over.”

In addition, tourists who have seen the movie “Frida” visit because it’s the spot where Rivera and future wife, painter Frida Kahlo, met when she was just 14. Another painting with a story behind it is “Portrait of

and the Jorge Gonzalez Camarena mural “Liberation of Humanity.”

Drive by the UNAM, Mexico’s national university campus, and see the library designed by architect Juan O’Gorman. Its entire exterior is a mural, a pattern that looks a little like a textile weaving. Over at the National Museum of Anthropology, you can see the major piece of art of ancient Mexico, the Sun Stone. And, oh, I forgot. Did I mention that Mexico City has an ancient city just north of town? Teotihuacan, with the Sun Pyramid and Moon Pyramid, thrived from 100 to 750 AD. It was already a huge ruin when the Aztecs got there in 1300 AD. Unearthed in the 1960s, its art and architecture show a rigorously planned city where as many as 200,000 people lived.

That is pretty humbling to the modern man who thinks our own civilization will last forever. Civilizations don’t, of course. But art does. —MCT

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

lifestyle T R A V E L

Up, up and over the

English

Architecture and art fans love the Palace de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Built in a French style on the exterior, it has an art deco interior, plus some of the most famous murals in Mexico.

If you go

M

exico City is nothing like you imagine-it’s better. Its downtown is clean, culturally rich and hip, with elegant shopping, museums, churches, gracious tree-lined boulevards, colonial architecture, busy streets and Aztec ruins beside modern buildings. Its Zona Rosa district is popular for nightlife. Its Zocalo, or town square, is the largest in the Americas.

Tours: Tia Stephanie Tours in Ann Arbor, Mich., offers cultural tours. Mexico City Mexican Muralism is Aug 6-14; Mexico City Textiles and Folk Art is Aug 13-22.

The massive Diego Rivera Mural detailing the entire history of Mexico is featured at Mexico City’s National Palace.

Lodging Hotel Maria Cristina: Moderate hotel popular with business and leisure travelers in good location. (www.hotelmariacristina.com.mx ) Casa Gonzalez: Famous budget bed and breakfast in good location in the Colonia Cuauhtemoc neighborhood. (www.hotelcasagonzalez.com) El Emporio: Small luxury hotel on Paseo de la Reforma. (www.hotelesemporio.com/cdmexico) The Four Seasons: Expensive but high quality lodging. (www.fourseasons.com/mexico) Restaurants: Stephanie Schneiderman of TiaStephanie Tours grew up in Mexico City. Her favorite restaurants: Fonda el Refugio: Traditional Mexican food, best margaritas in the city. (Liverpool 166, Zona Rosa)

A detailed view of a massive Diego Rivera mural, “The Struggle of the Classes” is featured at Mexico City’s National Palace. He painted his wife, Frieda Kahlo into the piece.

El Cardenal: Elegant old-fashioned service; two branches, one in historic center (Juarez 70, Col. Centro) and another at the Hilton Alameda Park.

El Bajio: Traditional Mexican food; now a chain with several branches around town. (www.carnitaselbajio.com.mx) Restaurante Pujol: Very high-end contemporary dining in the Polanco district; chef is Enrique Olvera.

(Francisco Petrarca 254, Col. Polanco) Los Panchos: Best carnitas (pork tacos) in the city.

(Tolstoi No. 9 Entre Leibintz y Dante, Col. Anzures) Sanborn’s: For breakfast. Old department store in the historic House of Tiles downtown has elegant, high-ceiling restaurant. (Calle Madero 4, Col. Centro) SHOPPING: El Bazar del Sabado: Open only on Saturdays, fantastic for high quality art, crafts, jewelry and textiles.

A worshipper prays at St. James Franciscan Catholic Church in Mexico City. The church was built atop an old Aztec site.

Diego Rivera and wife Frieda Kahlo’s studio in Mexico City is shown. His was the white and red building on the left; hers was the blue building.

Money: About 11-12 pesos to the dollar. Plenty of ATMs available.

Safety: Take the usual precautions you would against pickpockets. Don’t take gypsy taxis; have your hotel or restaurant call one for you. Like in any large city, stay in well-trod tourist areas, and don’t wander around alone at night.

Mexico City is not part of a travel warning issued by the US State Department, which covers border towns.

Health: Mexico City has a mild climate because it is 7,300 feet above sea level. Some people take time to get acclimated to the elevation. Don’t drink tap water; most hotels provide bottled water. Pollution levels have improved; as long as a breeze is blowing, it’s pretty clear and you can see the gorgeous mountains that encircle the city. — MCT

Murals are built right into the architecture at the national university of Mexico. This is the library, designed by architect Juan O’Gorman.

Teotihuacan, the ancient city that thrived from 100 to 750 AD near what is now Mexico City, is constantly being worked on by archaeologists, who cleared the site in the 1970s.

These cracks are from earthquake damage at the St James Franciscan Catholic Church in Mexico City. The 1985 earthquake, plus sinking subsoil, has tilted the floors and walls of the church.

Jonathan Trappe, center in white, gathers with his crew before taking off on a cluster balloon flight, June 7, 2008 in Franklinton, North Carolina. —MCT

J

ust before he reached the English Channel, Jonathan Trappe of Raleigh saw that he was about to fly over the White Cliffs of Dover, so he stabbed a couple of balloons and cut loose others. It was OK. There were a few dozen more in a pleasing mix of colors to keep him aloft. Out hissed helium.

Down he drifted, to within a few hundred feet of the chalk cliffs where he could enjoy the view from a few hundred feet, nothing between him and the scenery except sky.

Then Trappe dumped some water ballast and began climbing again as he headed for France and the odd place in history that he claimed in May: first person to cross the English Channel dangling under a cluster of small balloons.

“It was so beautiful,” he said by phone.

“Sure, there’s a sense of accomplishment, a sense of adventure, but it was also just beautiful, a beautiful sunny day of flying over these green fields, that really deep English green, and these little villages and old stone churches, the cliffs and the Channel, and just this silence.”

Trappe, a 37-year-old technical projects manager at Accenture, the global consulting firm, is legitimizing the idea of floating around under a bunch of balloons. He is a licensed pilot who creates meticulous designs for his aircraft. He makes careful flight plans, files paperwork with aviation authorities and carries not only radios to keep in touch with his ground crew but also a parachute and a transponder so he will show up on radar.

Cluster ballooning started with a guy dubbed “Lawn Chair Larry” after an impromptu flight that ended with a crash into power lines and a blackout for parts of Long Beach, Calif. Its notoriety increased with the deaths of other balloonists, including a Brazilian priest and a Japanese adventurer whose poorly planned flights ended in the sea.

Trappe’s attention to safety and detail, though, has led to success after success.

In 2008, his first flight, an almost 50-mile jaunt over North Carolina with his office chair as gondola, went off with few hitches. In April, he set a cluster-balloon flight world record of 14 hours in a 109mile journey over the state.

His professional approach led to a contract that let him spend a few months touring the nation last year to promote the animated Pixar movie “Up,” in which an elderly man turns his house into an aircraft by attaching it to thousands of balloons.

Now, he and his team have been invited to fly this summer at the nation’s largest air show at Oshkosh, Wis, which routinely draws several hundred thousand aviation enthusiasts. “These are people who are serious about being pilots, serious about flying, and serious about safety, so this is a big kick for us,” Trappe said.

It’s not so much his goal to make cluster ballooning more professional, he said, as it is just to be able to fly more.

The only way he’ll be able to do that, he says, is by doing everything properly so that no one stops him, and so new opportunities come his way.

Like the flight over the Channel.

About three dozen British flying enthusiasts were so keen on the adventure that they showed up at the small airfield he had picked, Kent Gliding Club, about 2 am to help build up the array of balloons and straps that was fastened to the padded harness Trappe would wear.

He lifted off at 4:23 am. The wind began to take him almost due east, and he dipped down for his look at the cliffs about 5:30 am. Then, mid-Channel, things were going so well that he felt comfortable killing off a few more balloons so he could drop down close

enough to hear the soft churn of the waves. “Tell me any other aircraft in which you can hear the waves at 500 feet,” he said. Then Trappe dropped more water to ease back into the sky. At points in the journey, he reached nearly 30 mph and a maximum altitude of about 7,500 feet. He crossed over the beach at Dunkirk, France, after about an hour and a half over water, but knew better than to end the flight there, because winds near the ground could take him out over the Channel again. So he continued inland for nearly half an hour before setting down beside a cabbage patch in almost no wind.

Trappe’s ground crew chief and girlfriend, Nidia Ramirez, arrived in minutes with a documentary filmmaker, having crossed so quickly via the Channel Tunnel that they beat him to Dunkirk. A good thing, he said, because the wind began gusting, and the journalists who had started to arrive shot photos and video as the team wrestled with the balloons among the cabbages.

Then six or eight French police appeared and a cross-cultural misunderstanding-fueled, no doubt, by his means of travel-ensued. It got so heated that some news outlets mistakenly reported that Trappe had been arrested. Trappe gave them copies of the fat stack of paperwork he had filed with US, British and French aviation authorities. Still, it took them a while to decide that he was a legitimate visitor to France.

In a telephone interview about 12 hours after his record-setting flight, Trappe said he had been spending so much time fielding interview requests from the likes of the Guardian newspaper, the BBC and American morning shows that he and Ramirez hadn’t had time to celebrate. The bottle of champagne they had brought along was in their car, unopened.

“Really all we’ve been able to do is maybe look at each other and say, ‘Man, we did it, we did what we set out to do,”“ he said. “But that’s OK, I don’t mind, because I love to fly, and when people write stories, we get the opportunity to fly again.”

Other firsts across the English channel Jan 7, 1785: The first crossing by hot air balloon from Dover to Calais, by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard and American John Jeffries.

Aug 25, 1875: Matthew Webb of the United Kingdom swims Dover to Calais in 21 hours and 45 minutes.

April 16, 1912: American Harriet Quimby is the first woman to fly across.

Unfortunately for Quimby, she does this the day after the Titanic sinks, so she doesn’t get much attention.

Aug 6, 1926: American Gertrude Ederle is the first woman to swim the channel, taking the Cap Gris Nez to Kingsdown route. She completes the swim in 14 hours, 39 minutes, breaking the men’s record by two hours.

July 25, 1959: Sir Christopher Cockerell is on board for the first hovercraft crossing.

June 12, 1979: American Bryan Allen guides the first human-powered aircraft across. He pedaled his Gossamer Albatross for three hours.

July 31, 2003: Austrian Felix Baumgartner crosses in a 20-mile long freefall using a windsuit and a carbon fiber wing.

July 26, 2006: Swiss pilot Frank Rinderknecht sets a record for crossing in a hydrofoil car, a two-seater open-top sports car. He completes the crossing in 194 minutes.

Sept 26, 2008: Yves Rossy goes via jetpack, in less than 10 minutes.

March 12, 2010: Christine Bleakley of the United Kingdom does it on water skis. —MCT

26-foot sculpture of Marilyn unveiled in Chicago

37

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

(Right) Photo dated May 23, 2011 shows singer Mark Anthony and his wife singer/actress Jennifer Lopez watching producer Simon Fuller unveil his star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood. (Above) Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony attend a signing ceremony for filmmaking incentive legislation for the US island territory in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. —AP photos

Lopez and Anthony say they will divorce

S

uperstar singer and actress Jennifer Lopez will split with her musician and actor husband, Marc Anthony, after seven years of marriage, the couple revealed to People magazine in a joint statement Friday. “This was a very difficult decision. We have come to an amicable conclusion on all matters,” they said in the statement. The couple had dated briefly in the 1990s and then rekindled their romance in 2004. They were married in a June 2004 secret ceremony at Lopez’s Beverly Hills home. They are parents to 3-year-old twins Max and Emme, who were born in February 2008. “It is a painful time for all involved, and we appreciate the respect of our privacy at this time,” the statement added. Also known as J.Lo, Lopez made her leading lady movie debut in “Selena,” in 1997, and went on to become a Grammy-nominated singer.

Her first studio album, “On the 6,” was released in 1999 and spawned the number one hit single, “If You Had My Love.” Anthony has sold more than 11 million records, kicking off his career as a salsa musician and Spanish-language performer. His 1999 hit single “I Need to Know” was his first English-language crossover success. This year the 41-yearold Lopez topped People’s magazine’s annual list of the most beautiful people. After taking time off to become a mother in 2008, the Bronx, New York-born, Puerto Rican actress returned to the public eye earlier this year with a star turn as one of three talent judges on “American Idol.”

She also released her seventh studio album, “Love?” in April.

She is scheduled to star in next year’s film adaptation of the best-selling book, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” which will begin shooting in this summer, according to Lopez’s website. The New York-born Anthony currently plays Detective Nick Renata on the TNT drama TV show, “Hawthorne.” According to his website, he will begin a US concert tour in September of this year. In 2006, the couple co-starred in “El Cantante,” a biopic about salsa legend Hector Lavoe. Anthony played Lavoe and Lopez played Lavoe’s wife, Nilda “Puchi” Roman. As recently as May, Lopez and Anthony had been scheduled to film a new show together where they would travel to 21 Latin American countries in search of talent, according to People magazine’s website. It was the third marriage for Lopez and the second for Anthony, 42. — AFP

Kunis says will attend Marine ball M

ila Kunis is definitely going to the Marine Corps Ball with Sgt Scott Moore in November. Chances are, she won’t be setting up any appointments with “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush anytime soon, though. The “Friends With Benefits” beauty lashed out at Bush during a stop on the press tour for her new film Thursday, revealing that Bush had made up reports that she was canceling her date with Moore, who propositioned her on YouTube, due to professional obligations.

“Do not believe what Billy Bush says,” Kunis said during a press conference with co-star Justin Timberlake at her side.

“Please, I beg of you. Never did I say that I was not going. He made it up and people believed it, unfortunately.” And just to make sure that the air was completely clear on the matter, Kunis stated emphatically, “I am attending [the ball] ... I accept-

In this publicity image released by Sony Screen Gems, Justin Timberlake portrays Dylan and Mila Kunis portrays Jamie in a scene from ‘Friends with Benefits.’ —AP

Alain Gomis films one man’s dying day in Senegal

Lady Gaga

W

for Facebook Queen title

S

orry, Lady Gaga, but Rihanna has just passed you by. At least on the Facebook charts. The “Rude Boy” singer has overtaken the “Judas” chanteuse to become the most popular female star on the social media site, according to Famecount.com. As of this writing, Barbados-born singer Rihanna has amassed 40,622,133 “likes” for her Facebook page, edging out Gaga, who lags with 40,580,102 “likes.”

The good news for Lady Gaga? She still easily beats Rihanna on the Twitter front, with 11,653,916 followers versus Rihanna’s 6,116,687.

And according to Famecount’s aggregated rankings, Gaga is still tops among celebrities when her combined Facebook likes, Twitter followers and YouTube views are taken into account.

Rihanna ranks third, behind Gaga and Justin Bieber.

— Reuters

ed an invitation and I’m staying true to my word.” Bush sparked outrage across the Internet earlier this week when he reported that, contrary to Kunis’ vow, she wouldn’t be able to attend the ball, Nov 18 in Greenville, North Carolina. According to Bush, Kunis will be filming two movies in November, and thus wouldn’t be able to make the date. But as Kunis told reporters Thursday, “I got permission to be released from work for the day, so I’m flying in and flying out.”

The whole saga began earlier this month, when Timberlake told Kunis of Moore’s date request, which the Marinewho’s currently stationed in Afghanistanposted on YouTube. At Timberlake’s urging, the “Black Swan” star declared that she would accept the date. Timberlake has also received an invitation to the same ball, from a female Marine stationed in Virginia, but he has yet to respond. —Reuters

‘South Park’s’ Cheesy Poofs snack coming to Walmart

C

omedy Central is celebrating the 15th season of “South Park” in typically outrageous fashion by unleashing 1.5 million bags of Cheesy Poofs on our great nation’s retailers. Yes, bags of Cartman’s favorite snack will be yours to purchase exclusively at Walmart in coming months, something that should tie over insatiable fans of the show until it returns with the second half of the milestone season on October 15.

Cheesy Poofs are being manufactured

by Frito-Lay and will carry a hefty price tag of $2.99 for 2-and-3/8-ounce bag, something that would surely make Cartman unleash a torrent of curses. But that’s not all that Comedy Central is up to. Leading up to Comic-Con, the net-

work has launched Year of the Fan, a promotional onslaught that asks viewers to send in “South Park”-inspired artwork for possible inclusion on the official website and involves a 15,000-square-foot exhibit at the San Diego event called “The Ultimate ‘South Park’ Fan Experience.”

The network is also producing a behind-the-scenes “South Park” documentary that will air in the fall. More details on that when they become available.

In the meantime, Comedy Central has commissioned artists to interpret various “South Park” characters for an exhibit that’s been running in New York since March. These will also be traveling to Comic-Con. —Reuters

hat goes on inside the head of a man who knows he has only 24 hours to live? Franco-Senegalese director Alain Gomis takes viewers through this final day in his new movie “Aujourd’hui” (Today). American actor, singer and poet Saul Williams plays the lead role in the movie, which wrapped up filming at the end of last month in the bustling suburb of Yembeul in Senegal’s capital Dakar.

“It’s the kind of tale that takes place in an imaginary society in which death comes looking for someone. The film starts when he opens his eyes and ends when they close,” said Gomis, director of the highly acclaimed “L’Afrance” (2001) and “Andalucia” (2008). “The film is not set in Dakar, we never say where it is taking place,” says Williams who plays the role of Satche, the main character. The actor is best known for his role in the independent film “Slam” by Marc Levin in 1998.

According to Williams, Satche is a “man of great intelligence, with little ambition” who is not interested in the American dream and returns to his country after 15 years in the United States, to the unpleasant surprise of his family. Though known as a master of words, Williams has little dialogue in his role as Satche.”That was important because my French and my Wolof are bad,” he says in heavily-accented French.

“Much of the story is told through the eyes of Satche. And I thought it was a beautiful story,” he says, saying he was taken from the first reading of the script, which he pored over with the aid of a dictionary.

Thanks to this film, Williams has been able to live what he calls the African-American dream in Senegal. “The American dream is

success, money. The African-American dream is to make a connection between that which was lost and that which exists now,” he explains.

‘The future of Senegalese and African cinema’ In one scene being filmed, Satche arrives home and passes through the door of his modest house into a sandy courtyard where dirty laundry lies waiting alongside bowls of soapy water. He leans against a tree as the heat bears down, barely acknowledging his wife Rama, played by Anisia Uzeyman, a French actress of Rwandan descent. His face lights up as his daughter runs towards him, into his arms, and rests her head on his shoulder.

“Cut,” shouts the director Gomis. “‘Aujourd’hui’ is not a sad movie,” he tells AFP of his third feature film which moves from the populous district to residential areas, bustling markets and a stylish office with views of the city. “To me it is a joyful movie,” which tries to make the theoretical concept of someone’s last hours a tactile, perceptible experience, says Gomis, who hopes to present the film in January.

Oumar Sall from the Senegalese company Cinekap which co-produced the film, financed mostly by French funds, strongly believes that “Aujourd’hui” will mark his country’s winning return to prestigious film festivals. With a “super screenplay”, top names such as Saul Williams, Aissa Maiga (France Senegal), Djolof Mbengue (FranceSenegal), Doss Thierno Ndiaye (Senegal) and Gomis’ record of achievements, Sall expects exceptional results. Gomis, he says, “is really the future of Senegalese and African cinema.” —AFP